Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the long street, Ghosthand was silently smoking his pipe. Although the air was filled with cheers and laughter, the atmosphere around the bench was destitute, like the winter. A homeless man was shivering on the ground.
“Excuse me, how do I get to Luther Street?” someone behind Ghosthand asked. It sounded like the person was lost and had been asking everyone nearby for directions, then finally he came to ask Ghosthand.
Irritated, Ghosthand did not show a temper, but was also not interested in turning around to answer the question. He silently continued to smoke his pipe, then pointed to the right.
“Oh, thank you!” The pedestrian got their answer, and happily left.
The smashing sound continued until the group of people had completely searched through the hotel from attic to cellar. But they still did not find where the white-haired boy and his dog were hiding.
Finally, Ghosthand went inside the hotel, looked at the ruins of the front desk, his eyes gloomy, “Did they say anything?”
“I swear he is not here…he is not here anymore!” The wife of the hotel owner, who had been tied up and slapped around a few times choked as she sobbed, “He left half an hour ago! You came too late…I really do not know anything, nothing!”
“So we missed him again?” Ghosthand put down his pipe, and knocked off some ash on the wall. His voice was cold, “So you are saying, that we just missed that d*mn kid again?”
The homeless guy who had wanted to escape had his leg broken. He came into the ruins of the hotel. “Sir, it had nothing to do with me, I did not expect that! I swear!” The homeless guy begged, “Let me go, I was truthful to Mr. Shaman, and I really did not…”
Ghosthand put down his pipe, and sneered at the homeless guy on the floor.
The homeless man’s voice became lower and lower, the finally, his whispers had no sound. His eyes full of despair.
“I do know that this was just a little mistake. You should not be blamed.” Ghosthand bent down, and pressed on the right eye of the homeless guy. His cloudy eyes were full of sorrow, “But unfortunately, I’m not like the Scotland Yard…they’re too understanding.”
There was a sickening snapping sound! Something broke.
…
“Thought of everything, but I still missed two things.” On the streets, dragging an old suitcase, Ye Qingxuan was murmuring despondently, “First, I did not account for the hands-on examination, and second, I did not think…”
Ye put his head down and stared at the crystal ball in his hands, whining, “Why is this aether ball so expensive!”
In the hands of Ye Qingxuan, the fist-sized crystal ball was flashing with the reflections of the street lights. With the hustle and bustle of the people nearby, the crystal ball sometimes flashed erratically.
It was like broken silver dust was constantly reborn, disappearing and converging inside the crystal. It would made you dizzy after a while.
This was one of the most commonly used measurement tools for musicians: the aether ball.
It looked like a solid crystal ball, although it was just a thin layer of crystal solidified by a high-temperature. The refractive index and thickness were of the highest standard. The inside was engraved with runes, filled with pure aether, and was able to respond to the lowest sound.
The one in Ye’s hands was bought from a store for civilian use, or for musician apprentices to play with. It was the most basic type. It would last for about four months, but it had cost almost all of Ye Qingxuan’s money. It was said that in the army, and in the musicians union, there were much better quality aether balls and measuring tools. They were not things money could buy.
As for ‘learning how to communicate with the aether,’ the most suitable material for the introductory lesson was in his hands.
He rubbed the notebook that Wolf Flute had given him, and sighed softly.
Even though he had the aether ball in his hands, the difficulty level was still very high.
So far, musicians were still rare in the human world. Every book said that in order to communicate with the aether, musicians needed to recite the runes.
The runes of the notes were the basis of all music sheets and power. They came from the exploration and research from past years. They were composed of complex basic syllables, hard to understand, and difficult to recite.
More than half of them were the sounds of the world converted by aether.
From runes to a measure, and from a measure to a movement, it finally became a complete music score in the end. From their long exploration, mankind had developed a complete system divided into seven branches and hundreds of specialization.
In Wolf Flute’s notes, only three basic notes had been recorded, which were the basis of three different schools. They were the “extraction” of the School of Modifications, the “peace” of the School of Abstinence, and the “beastly nature” of the School of Summoning.
As long as you could master any of them, you would be able to pass the test.
However, Ye Qingxuan had no confidence in learning how to complete this seemingly simple test within ten days. Especially since this was Avalon. In order to avoid the large-scale chaos of aether caused by loud noises, the city was completely surrounded by the enchantment of aether.
This enchantment was like a griddle, able to completely suppress aether interference caused by ninety-nine percent of the noise, and only the most accurate syllables could work. After all, not many ordinary people dared to have anything to do with aether. Most were rather afraid of it.
Whether it was the notes of Wolf Flute, or of any musician, the covers of their musical sheets would always have a commandment from the first Pope. The commandment, written in black ink, had been engraved in everyone’s heart, from birth until death, never forgotten–awe of aether.
–
Having studied the history of the church, Ye Qingxuan was able to have a more comprehensive understanding of the current world. After all, for mankind, ninety percent of the world was undeveloped dark areas.
Researchers around the world would uniformly use four colors while marking maps.
The most central regions were white, representing the density of aether, and how much land could be occupied by man on a large-scale. Yellow represented where extreme loud noises were banned. And black was the danger zone outside of the border. In the black areas, even the slightest cough would cause a chain reaction as dangerous as avalanche.
In the red bordering towns, shouting was not even allowed. People could only whisper. The red was known as the silence zone. Those who had not been to the border and beyond could not understand that kind of suffering and fear.
Although the dark ages had ended only three hundred years ago, the riots caused by aether destroyed numerous cities and villages. Nowadays, catastrophes had become a nightmare inside the heart of every human.
Thus the areas where humans lived would inevitably have churches; not only for spiritual beliefs, but also because during the constructions of the churches, a special technology was used to dilute the density of aether, to ensure security within the area.
Because the musicians controlled the means to communicate with, and control aether, they were respected and feared. In order to develop and advance their skills, musicians had also paid a large price.
It was said that a hundred years ago, in order to communicate easily with aether, all schools had chosen to establish academies at the border; however, the death and accident rates were too high. Some schools had gradually migrated back to the inland so that at least then students would not have their head busted open due to a wrong syllable read, or half of their body cut off by a vortex of aether.
From ancient times until now, becoming a musician had been a dangerous business, and the difficulty to enter was also second to none. Ye Qingxuan was thinking, “Ten days to learn a rune, isn’t that a little too difficult to do?”
–
It was late at night on Luther Street, on an empty public carriage platform. It had been years, but it was just how Ye Qingxuan had remembered. Once night fell, there would be few pedestrians, but the lights were bright, and there also a bench to lie down on. The summer night temperatures would not freeze anyone, and the wind was still tolerable.
This was midtown, so it was pretty safe. As long as you did not look like a bum, the police would not drive you away. Instead of sharing rotten shacks with the beggars, this was a good place to stay on the streets.
It was easy for Ye to read the notes. Although he had memorized the contents of the notes on the way to London, he still wanted to read through them one more time. The “extraction” of the School of Modifications had been the first that Ye eliminated as a possibility to learn
The level of sensitivity required to handle to aether was too high. With Ye Qingxuan as unaware as a blind man, even if he was successful, he would only be turned into a mummy by the uncontrollable runes.
The “beastly nature” from the School of the Summoning had the clearest notes in the book but sounded like a beast roaring when recited. The six basic syllables simply could not be connected together, and Ye Qingxuan just could not grasp the emphasis.
The ‘peace’ from the School of Abstinence seemed to be the easiest to learn, but there were dozens of basic syllables! Therefore, the difficulty level of entering the School of Abstinence was the highest among all the seven schools. Ye Qingxuan really had no confidence in his own talent.
With no choice, he had to try one by one.
“First, take a deep breath …” Ye Qingxuan sat on the bench, chewing on the last bit of dry food. Under the streetlight, he read the book, “Relax the throat muscles, feel the lung expanding, and then slowly exhale, tongue slightly touch the teeth…”
According to these little tricks in the book, he tried the syllable “ξ” but felt like someone was stabbing him.
Of course, the aether ball did not respond.
He smacked his lips, feeling like something was wrong. The young man tried again with hope. This time he did not feel like he was being stabbed, but like a group of ducks quacking together.
The ball still had no reaction.
Ye Qingxuan took a deep breath and comforted himself, “Must be because I’m not sincere. Sincere, sincere, and concentrate.”
Old Phil was lying on the bench, leering at the idiot, then soon looked away and continued sleeping.
“Oh, oh…no, it is not right.” Ye murmured to himself.
“Yeah, oh? Still no reaction…”
“Oh, oh, oh …”
In this long summer night, Ye Qingxuan had wasted a full three hours only to realize that perhaps this syllable just did not agree with him. Perhaps another syllable would be better.
But the aether ball had proved him wrong with more silence. Another syllable would not make a difference.
“Oh, oh, oh!”
“Oh…”
Despite Ye Qingxuan’s various attempts, the aether ball still had no response. In the end, with a sore throat, Ye Qingxuan could not help throwing the book on the ground. “What’s the matter? What is wrong!”
Ye Qingxuan glared at the aether ball but no matter how hard he stared, the crystal ball remained still, with no response at all.
“Is it broken?”
He shook it, want to be sure, and at that moment, the aether ball lit up.
“Ok?!”
Like the light of fireflies, the aether ball started flashing vaguely then and extinguished, like silver dust was floating in the liquid. Then numerous flashes appeared like stars, flashing in rotation with no specific pattern, illuminating Ye Qingxuan’s stunned face.
“What’s is this?” He looked in surprise at his surroundings, and a strange smell came though the wind.
A faint laughter came from afar.
Something was coming.
