Silent Crown Chapter 142

Among the piercing chimes of bells, the noise of steel scraping against steel sounded from all over the stronghold.

The column of flames burned vigorously, and light showered down from the top of the fortress, illuminating the dark ocean and the mighty Black Tide that approached along with the ocean current.

“All those are demons?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

“Yes, the third wave in our predictions, but an hour earlier than expected. It is of a much smaller scale than the previous two.” Shi Dong sighed softly. “After all, it is to celebrate the awakening and rebirth of Leviathan, the vile spawn of the sea born to the Dark Gaia. The total amount will far exceed the initial expectations of mankind, I’m afraid…”

On the tall walls of the stronghold, Ye Qingxuan furrowed his brows. The demons in the sea were advancing with the current. At the moment, every current was being used to the demons’ advantage, continuously carrying an endless number of demons forward.

In the end… they gathered at Avalon.

Goddamn Avalon Phenomenon! As humans have observed, almost all ocean currents converge near Avalon, bringing large schools of fish every year and forming natural sea routes.

All the while, the favorable conditions have brought incalculable benefits to Anglo. This is the Avalon Phenomenon that oceanologists and hydraulicians from all over the world ponder over. Yet, no one has ever realized the truth: such favorable geographical advantages are not the blessings of fate, but harbingers of bad luck.

This is the king of destiny, a huge trap laid by Leviathan countless years ago, in order to engulf Anglo completely.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Ye Qingxuan rubbed his forehead to relieve a headache he was getting and asked, “How many men does the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have now?”

“Slightly more than 300.”

Shi Dong’s reply caught Ye Qingxuan off guard.

“Isn’t the establishment of the Witch Hammer still here?”

“Originally it was, but after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was split, it had already been disbanded, and the men were sent to join the Knights Templar, leaving the establishment with nothing but a name.

“Mr. Maxwell later sent 400 young men here. Alas, the time of training is too short for them to be of any use as of now. When we left the Sacred City, we only brought along three hundred men. Out of this number, more than a hundred are either old men like me or too young to be on the battlefield. We only have about 140 combat-ready men.”

“Too few.”

“It will suffice.” Shi Dong said, “At least we still have one fortress for defense at the moment. The purifiers of the Religious Court of Inquiry are born with the mission to fight demons whose numbers are hundreds of times of ours. If we are to embark on an eastward conquest again, we will probably face situations that are even more troublesome.

“I believe that you will soon get used to the disparity between enemy forces and ours in terms of numbers, Grand Inquisitor,” Shi Dong said.

Ye Qingxuan gave him a brief look before shifting his focus back to the Black Tide swarming in the sea. He asked, “Has the number of the enemies been counted?”

“A wave of this scale would be about twenty thousand or so.” Upon glancing at it, Shi Dong provided the answer, “The vile spawn of the sea are mostly demons that have two-meter-long bodies and stand half as tall as an adult when they walk upright. Due to the similarity of the limbs, they are often referred to as ‘nixies’ or ‘murlocs’.

“There are more detailed classifications, and some of them are considered to be elites among demons, such as bone-eating insects, tide summoners, deep divers, whale shark riders, storm priests that are comparable to humans in terms of intelligence, so on and so forth… This is probably a small tribe that has just hatched and formed.

“The competencies of marine species are generally polarized. Some species, such as the Mountain of Nomadism, are terrifying enough even the creature is on its own. However, demons like these which rely on their large numbers to form a threat are much more commonplace. For catastrophes, they are nothing more than worthless consumables. They may only be of some use when their numbers reach hundreds of thousands or even millions. When necessary, they can be used as food. After all, the appetite of a giant sea monster is difficult to satisfy.”

Ye Qingxuan listened in silence, yet he couldn’t help but gasp mentally.

In this world, of all the regions humans had discovered, two-thirds was occupied by ocean. Land occupied the remaining one-third, and less than one-tenth of it was fertile, but it had fed and nurtured nearly three hundred million of humans.

This was only a rough estimation by the Sacred City. Taking into account tax evaders invisible on the household register, slaves considered as private property and the people excluded, accidentally or otherwise, from each nation’s records, there were about four hundred million people in the world, according to the scholars’ approximation.

The land that has been cultivated currently had reached its limit in terms of the human population it is able to support.

As for the ocean…

Murlocs were way less picky as compared to human beings. Seaweed, kelp, fish, shrimp, and even dead bodies of their own kind, all these could be part of their diet. Once the Dark Gaia sowed the seeds, fruits shall be borne all over the deep waters of the sea.

Within the enchantment of the Holy City, Ye Qingxuan once saw the Vesicle Forest that nurtured demons. The appalling efficiency and scale of the transformation were nothing short of suffocating.

As long as aether supply from the leylines was present, it could decompose and reconstruct a living thing even in the short span of a few hours, shaping the embryo of a demon.

This was exactly why each and every awakening of Leviathan is a horrifying event that threatened the security of all countries. For success in sealing Leviathan once more before the vile spawn of the sea hatch to be assured, it was often necessary for Anglo to prepare for the disaster ten years ahead, and even then, they would only be confident when the Sacred City dispatched saints to be stationed at the scene as well.

At the moment, Ye Qingxuan could only thank his lucky stars that the territorial sea of Anglo was the sole region affected, and the threat was limited to this pitch-black sea.

The disaster must be resolved as soon as possible. Mankind could not sustain a war of attrition with the vile spawn of the sea. Once the deformed ecosystem of the Murlocs was truly formed, humans would have to face demons a hundred times stronger than the current number, not to mention the gigantic sea monsters feeding on the Murlocs, as well as Leviathan itself.

But at the moment, Ye Qingxuan wanted to see how over a hundred men of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith could drive off twenty thousand demons.

“They’re merely a flock of little creatures.” Shi Dong let out a few peals of laughter and said, “Even their inherited memory is not awakened, so they have next to zero abilities. Their strength lies only with their numbers, making them no more threatening than a large Beast Tide. Honestly speaking, I’m afraid there is nothing much to look at. ”

Just as the two conversed, the hissing sound gradually crescendoed. In the murky boiling waves, the first nixie climbed onto the coast, stepping on the pebbles and gravel as it crawled toward the stronghold.

Closely behind were the second, the third, and the fourth… To the extent that in the end, one could only make out a thick shadow of dark green extending on the shore, as if moss from the sea was spreading on land.

“Yet to mature completely? What a pity.” Shi Dong narrowed his eyes and explained, “These are newborns lacking in calcium; the exposed bones have yet to hardened.”

Ye Qingxuan followed his gaze, and his eyes fell on the Murloc at the forefront. Staring at the human-like demon, he couldn’t help but feel that it looked like the magnified version of some deformed baby, with bones that were still a faint white color exposed outside, its whole body covered in scales, and plenty of fish-like characteristics on its skull.

Becoming aware of the gaze coming from the top of the wall, the Murlocs raised their heads and hissed vehemently. The sounds they made resembled that of a sharp knife scratching on an iron plate and rang out one after another, giving those who heard it goosebumps. Even though their language differed from human tongues, one would have no trouble understanding the meaning expressed by the hissing sound—hunger.

The hunger that remained unsatisfied, right from birth to the present moment. The innate, vigorous coveting for human blood and flesh. And the greed that would never be fulfilled.

The mere act of detecting the smell of human beings was more than enough to trigger the glands in their bodies to secrete lots of hormones, causing muscles to bulge and bones to proliferate. The sensation of hunger, just like a burning fire, completely occupied their consciousness.

In the blink of an eye, the body of the nixie had swollen up by a lot. The huge eyes on both sides of the skull were bloodshot. In the middle of the sclera which most of the visible parts of the eyes consisted of, strange pupils unique to fish contracted and quivered. The nixie had descended into insanity.

“Murlocs have a very sensitive sense of smell. The skin under the scales on their upper body actually has a large number of olfactory cells. Like all species of demons well-known for their numbers, once they detect the scent of humans, they will undergo a certain stress response, in which their glands secrete abnormally, and the hunger is magnified multifold. They are never satisfied and do not know how it feels like to be full. Thus, cases where they died from stuffing themselves with too much food are commonplace.

“An equally noteworthy fact is that they are rarely able to experience delight or satisfaction. Whether it is due to evolutionary mutation or some other deliberate attempt, I do not know. Only when their digestive organs ingest human hemoglobin can the pituitary gland synthesize hormones similar to dopamine…” Shi Dong paused and said no more.

Ye Qingxuan understood what he meant. In other words, the only instances where they would feel happy was when they consumed humans… No, one could even say that doing so would make them as ecstatic as people taking drugs, entering a certain state of madness.

They had an instinctual thirst for the human body. If they had ever tasted blood, even only once, they would be ten times as crazy the second time they saw humans!

“Predators created to target humans?” Ye Qingxuan mumbled softly. In his mind’s eye, he couldn’t help but picture himself pouring two barrels of the blood of black dogs onto the tombstone[1] of Hyakume.

Look at what you have done! Ye Qingxuan thought.

At the moment, he heard the sound of hinges rubbing against each other. Below him, the gates of the stronghold opened with a loud crash. A hoarse singing rang out, “The Judgement Day is coming!

“The day is coming!

“The day is coming by and by!” In the low singing, several burly clergymen walked out from the door. They wore chain hoods and heavy metal armor and looked like a crossover between Hoplites and priests, yet in their hands held neither the Holy Bible nor the sword. Instead, they held a two-meter-high flame banner. The hefty and massive flag radiated heat and light frighteningly as it burned. The holy emblem on the banner bathed in the flames, as if it was dancing in the song.

Behind the clergymen carrying the flame banner, broken footsteps sounded in great numbers, a cacophony of husky voices followed immediately. It sounded like singing, but also like innate, wild, guttural screams.

“The Judgement Day is coming! The saints and the sinners shall be parted right and left! Are you ready for that day to come? Are you ready for that day to come?!” It was as if a group of lunatics and drunkards were madly echoing each other, their singing sharp and piercing to the ears, lacking any semblance of rhythm or melody.

Ye Qingxuan listened and couldn’t help but frown. “Isn’t it a bit too early to exit the fortress for combat?”

“Well, we are doing this because we don’t really have anything to guard the fortress with.” Shi Dong said, “If the demons advance to the wall, it will become even more troublesome, so we might as well get the job done outside the stronghold.”

In the raspy singing, as the clergymen holding the flame banner marched forward, Ye Qingxuan could finally see the figures in the chaotic formation following them clearly. Then, he couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath. Shone upon by the blaze of the flame banner, the figures following the clergymen with stumbling and staggering footsteps, fanatically singing along… were all demons!

The demons with huge cracks and scars that had yet to heal on them were like dogs, trailing behind the clergymen. The linen thread used to sew the wounds at the back of their heads revealed rough stitches in the glare of the fire. They sang the anthem noisily, stopping now and then, and followed the flame banner fanatically…

“You have been rearing demons?” Ye Qingxuan turned back and stared at Shi Dong with a shocked look.

“It’s not something that I’m proud of, but yes.” Shi Dong chuckled awkwardly and explained, “There are too many demons to finish killing off. We can’t very well slaughter the rest for food, so our only option is to make good use of their remaining value…”

Boom! He had yet to finish his words when a horrifying gust of flame shot upwards from the middle of the nixies. The light from the flames flickered as it shone on Shi Dong’s face, making his smile look strange and grotesque.

[1] In Chinese culture, the act of pouring the blood of black dogs onto the tombstone of another is meant to curse the person’s kin and offspring by ruining their fengshui, usually as retribution, and is considered highly provocative. The blood of black dogs is believed to be able to ward off evil and weaken evil powers.

Among the piercing chimes of bells, the noise of steel scraping against steel sounded from all over the stronghold.

The column of flames burned vigorously, and light showered down from the top of the fortress, illuminating the dark ocean and the mighty Black Tide that approached along with the ocean current.

“All those are demons?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

“Yes, the third wave in our predictions, but an hour earlier than expected. It is of a much smaller scale than the previous two.” Shi Dong sighed softly. “After all, it is to celebrate the awakening and rebirth of Leviathan, the vile spawn of the sea born to the Dark Gaia. The total amount will far exceed the initial expectations of mankind, I’m afraid…”

On the tall walls of the stronghold, Ye Qingxuan furrowed his brows. The demons in the sea were advancing with the current. At the moment, every current was being used to the demons’ advantage, continuously carrying an endless number of demons forward.

In the end… they gathered at Avalon.

Goddamn Avalon Phenomenon! As humans have observed, almost all ocean currents converge near Avalon, bringing large schools of fish every year and forming natural sea routes.

All the while, the favorable conditions have brought incalculable benefits to Anglo. This is the Avalon Phenomenon that oceanologists and hydraulicians from all over the world ponder over. Yet, no one has ever realized the truth: such favorable geographical advantages are not the blessings of fate, but harbingers of bad luck.

This is the king of destiny, a huge trap laid by Leviathan countless years ago, in order to engulf Anglo completely.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Ye Qingxuan rubbed his forehead to relieve a headache he was getting and asked, “How many men does the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have now?”

“Slightly more than 300.”

Shi Dong’s reply caught Ye Qingxuan off guard.

“Isn’t the establishment of the Witch Hammer still here?”

“Originally it was, but after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was split, it had already been disbanded, and the men were sent to join the Knights Templar, leaving the establishment with nothing but a name.

“Mr. Maxwell later sent 400 young men here. Alas, the time of training is too short for them to be of any use as of now. When we left the Sacred City, we only brought along three hundred men. Out of this number, more than a hundred are either old men like me or too young to be on the battlefield. We only have about 140 combat-ready men.”

“Too few.”

“It will suffice.” Shi Dong said, “At least we still have one fortress for defense at the moment. The purifiers of the Religious Court of Inquiry are born with the mission to fight demons whose numbers are hundreds of times of ours. If we are to embark on an eastward conquest again, we will probably face situations that are even more troublesome.

“I believe that you will soon get used to the disparity between enemy forces and ours in terms of numbers, Grand Inquisitor,” Shi Dong said.

Ye Qingxuan gave him a brief look before shifting his focus back to the Black Tide swarming in the sea. He asked, “Has the number of the enemies been counted?”

“A wave of this scale would be about twenty thousand or so.” Upon glancing at it, Shi Dong provided the answer, “The vile spawn of the sea are mostly demons that have two-meter-long bodies and stand half as tall as an adult when they walk upright. Due to the similarity of the limbs, they are often referred to as ‘nixies’ or ‘murlocs’.

“There are more detailed classifications, and some of them are considered to be elites among demons, such as bone-eating insects, tide summoners, deep divers, whale shark riders, storm priests that are comparable to humans in terms of intelligence, so on and so forth… This is probably a small tribe that has just hatched and formed.

“The competencies of marine species are generally polarized. Some species, such as the Mountain of Nomadism, are terrifying enough even the creature is on its own. However, demons like these which rely on their large numbers to form a threat are much more commonplace. For catastrophes, they are nothing more than worthless consumables. They may only be of some use when their numbers reach hundreds of thousands or even millions. When necessary, they can be used as food. After all, the appetite of a giant sea monster is difficult to satisfy.”

Ye Qingxuan listened in silence, yet he couldn’t help but gasp mentally.

In this world, of all the regions humans had discovered, two-thirds was occupied by ocean. Land occupied the remaining one-third, and less than one-tenth of it was fertile, but it had fed and nurtured nearly three hundred million of humans.

This was only a rough estimation by the Sacred City. Taking into account tax evaders invisible on the household register, slaves considered as private property and the people excluded, accidentally or otherwise, from each nation’s records, there were about four hundred million people in the world, according to the scholars’ approximation.

The land that has been cultivated currently had reached its limit in terms of the human population it is able to support.

As for the ocean…

Murlocs were way less picky as compared to human beings. Seaweed, kelp, fish, shrimp, and even dead bodies of their own kind, all these could be part of their diet. Once the Dark Gaia sowed the seeds, fruits shall be borne all over the deep waters of the sea.

Within the enchantment of the Holy City, Ye Qingxuan once saw the Vesicle Forest that nurtured demons. The appalling efficiency and scale of the transformation were nothing short of suffocating.

As long as aether supply from the leylines was present, it could decompose and reconstruct a living thing even in the short span of a few hours, shaping the embryo of a demon.

This was exactly why each and every awakening of Leviathan is a horrifying event that threatened the security of all countries. For success in sealing Leviathan once more before the vile spawn of the sea hatch to be assured, it was often necessary for Anglo to prepare for the disaster ten years ahead, and even then, they would only be confident when the Sacred City dispatched saints to be stationed at the scene as well.

At the moment, Ye Qingxuan could only thank his lucky stars that the territorial sea of Anglo was the sole region affected, and the threat was limited to this pitch-black sea.

The disaster must be resolved as soon as possible. Mankind could not sustain a war of attrition with the vile spawn of the sea. Once the deformed ecosystem of the Murlocs was truly formed, humans would have to face demons a hundred times stronger than the current number, not to mention the gigantic sea monsters feeding on the Murlocs, as well as Leviathan itself.

But at the moment, Ye Qingxuan wanted to see how over a hundred men of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith could drive off twenty thousand demons.

“They’re merely a flock of little creatures.” Shi Dong let out a few peals of laughter and said, “Even their inherited memory is not awakened, so they have next to zero abilities. Their strength lies only with their numbers, making them no more threatening than a large Beast Tide. Honestly speaking, I’m afraid there is nothing much to look at. ”

Just as the two conversed, the hissing sound gradually crescendoed. In the murky boiling waves, the first nixie climbed onto the coast, stepping on the pebbles and gravel as it crawled toward the stronghold.

Closely behind were the second, the third, and the fourth… To the extent that in the end, one could only make out a thick shadow of dark green extending on the shore, as if moss from the sea was spreading on land.

“Yet to mature completely? What a pity.” Shi Dong narrowed his eyes and explained, “These are newborns lacking in calcium; the exposed bones have yet to hardened.”

Ye Qingxuan followed his gaze, and his eyes fell on the Murloc at the forefront. Staring at the human-like demon, he couldn’t help but feel that it looked like the magnified version of some deformed baby, with bones that were still a faint white color exposed outside, its whole body covered in scales, and plenty of fish-like characteristics on its skull.

Becoming aware of the gaze coming from the top of the wall, the Murlocs raised their heads and hissed vehemently. The sounds they made resembled that of a sharp knife scratching on an iron plate and rang out one after another, giving those who heard it goosebumps. Even though their language differed from human tongues, one would have no trouble understanding the meaning expressed by the hissing sound—hunger.

The hunger that remained unsatisfied, right from birth to the present moment. The innate, vigorous coveting for human blood and flesh. And the greed that would never be fulfilled.

The mere act of detecting the smell of human beings was more than enough to trigger the glands in their bodies to secrete lots of hormones, causing muscles to bulge and bones to proliferate. The sensation of hunger, just like a burning fire, completely occupied their consciousness.

In the blink of an eye, the body of the nixie had swollen up by a lot. The huge eyes on both sides of the skull were bloodshot. In the middle of the sclera which most of the visible parts of the eyes consisted of, strange pupils unique to fish contracted and quivered. The nixie had descended into insanity.

“Murlocs have a very sensitive sense of smell. The skin under the scales on their upper body actually has a large number of olfactory cells. Like all species of demons well-known for their numbers, once they detect the scent of humans, they will undergo a certain stress response, in which their glands secrete abnormally, and the hunger is magnified multifold. They are never satisfied and do not know how it feels like to be full. Thus, cases where they died from stuffing themselves with too much food are commonplace.

“An equally noteworthy fact is that they are rarely able to experience delight or satisfaction. Whether it is due to evolutionary mutation or some other deliberate attempt, I do not know. Only when their digestive organs ingest human hemoglobin can the pituitary gland synthesize hormones similar to dopamine…” Shi Dong paused and said no more.

Ye Qingxuan understood what he meant. In other words, the only instances where they would feel happy was when they consumed humans… No, one could even say that doing so would make them as ecstatic as people taking drugs, entering a certain state of madness.

They had an instinctual thirst for the human body. If they had ever tasted blood, even only once, they would be ten times as crazy the second time they saw humans!

“Predators created to target humans?” Ye Qingxuan mumbled softly. In his mind’s eye, he couldn’t help but picture himself pouring two barrels of the blood of black dogs onto the tombstone[1] of Hyakume.

Look at what you have done! Ye Qingxuan thought.

At the moment, he heard the sound of hinges rubbing against each other. Below him, the gates of the stronghold opened with a loud crash. A hoarse singing rang out, “The Judgement Day is coming!

“The day is coming!

“The day is coming by and by!” In the low singing, several burly clergymen walked out from the door. They wore chain hoods and heavy metal armor and looked like a crossover between Hoplites and priests, yet in their hands held neither the Holy Bible nor the sword. Instead, they held a two-meter-high flame banner. The hefty and massive flag radiated heat and light frighteningly as it burned. The holy emblem on the banner bathed in the flames, as if it was dancing in the song.

Behind the clergymen carrying the flame banner, broken footsteps sounded in great numbers, a cacophony of husky voices followed immediately. It sounded like singing, but also like innate, wild, guttural screams.

“The Judgement Day is coming! The saints and the sinners shall be parted right and left! Are you ready for that day to come? Are you ready for that day to come?!” It was as if a group of lunatics and drunkards were madly echoing each other, their singing sharp and piercing to the ears, lacking any semblance of rhythm or melody.

Ye Qingxuan listened and couldn’t help but frown. “Isn’t it a bit too early to exit the fortress for combat?”

“Well, we are doing this because we don’t really have anything to guard the fortress with.” Shi Dong said, “If the demons advance to the wall, it will become even more troublesome, so we might as well get the job done outside the stronghold.”

In the raspy singing, as the clergymen holding the flame banner marched forward, Ye Qingxuan could finally see the figures in the chaotic formation following them clearly. Then, he couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath. Shone upon by the blaze of the flame banner, the figures following the clergymen with stumbling and staggering footsteps, fanatically singing along… were all demons!

The demons with huge cracks and scars that had yet to heal on them were like dogs, trailing behind the clergymen. The linen thread used to sew the wounds at the back of their heads revealed rough stitches in the glare of the fire. They sang the anthem noisily, stopping now and then, and followed the flame banner fanatically…

“You have been rearing demons?” Ye Qingxuan turned back and stared at Shi Dong with a shocked look.

“It’s not something that I’m proud of, but yes.” Shi Dong chuckled awkwardly and explained, “There are too many demons to finish killing off. We can’t very well slaughter the rest for food, so our only option is to make good use of their remaining value…”

Boom! He had yet to finish his words when a horrifying gust of flame shot upwards from the middle of the nixies. The light from the flames flickered as it shone on Shi Dong’s face, making his smile look strange and grotesque.

[1] In Chinese culture, the act of pouring the blood of black dogs onto the tombstone of another is meant to curse the person’s kin and offspring by ruining their fengshui, usually as retribution, and is considered highly provocative. The blood of black dogs is believed to be able to ward off evil and weaken evil powers.

“The Day of Judgement is coming! The saints and the sinned will be separated! The day is coming. Are you ready for it? The day is coming, are you ready for it?”

In the song, big explosions boomed one after another. Columns of fire roared into the sky with huge waves of hot air and deafening booms. The flags of fire flew up high. In the light of the Sacred Emblem, clergymen in iron armor pointed forward and the demons singing charged forward. They were no longer spiritless. Instead, they charged full speed into the crowds of dark-green ghosts. Then, they held the ghosts nearest to them and their body began to grow larger. Their half-healed wounds cracked open, spurting out light and fire.

The Alchemy Metrics implanted in their bodies were activated, sucking the aether around them, which caused terrible high temperature and a vacuum of death. Then the whole body exploded, sweeping out with super high pressure.

Boom! Fire pressure and impact plowed every inch of the field. Every explosion left a big hole on the beach. The disastrous impact waves reached the wall of the fortress, bringing hot wind to the face of everyone on the wall.

Feeling the hot wind on his face, Ye Qingxuan looked at the sacred yet quirky fire. Shi Dong raised his hand to fend off a piece of flesh falling onto him and tossed it under the wall.

“You make the demons into bombs?” asked Ye Qingxuan.

“Yes. It’s simple,” Shi Dong answered. “Cut out the prefrontal lobe, brainwash them, and cut out their internal organs to implant the self-destruction metric. Then, sew up the wound and inject some antibiotic. They have short lives, but it is okay as long as we can use them within seven days after they are made.

“A well-trained prentice can finish the process within 15 minutes. It’s a sort of recycling; pretty cheap. We have a lot of cruel methods in the Religious Court of Inquisitors. After all, we recruited a hell bunch of dark musicians with our license of the Sacred City.

“Only one problem. Do you approve our way of doing things, my Grand Inquisitor?”

“They are all demons. It doesn’t matter.” Ye Qingxuan smiled at him meaningfully. “Better watch out next time. No need to test me.”

Shi Dong lowered his head in respect. Looking back behind Ye Qingxuan, he said with a smile, “Don’t worry, sir. We have a lot of members of demon descendants in the Religious Court of Inquisitors.”

The sound of a cold hum seemed to be heard. A feeling of coldness swept over and vanished. After the flesh bombing, the line of the sea ghosts was destroyed. Yet the ghost didn’t show any fear, nor did they retreat. Instead, they sped up as they were not so crowded.

“No more close squares. They are now in skirmish line now. Do demons know about tactics now?” Looking at the scattered sea ghosts pushing close, Ye Qingxuan frowned. If the ghosts scattered, the demon-bombs would not be able to kill as many demons as before.

What’s more, the demon-bombs were almost used up. There would be no more demon-bombs in a short time.

“It doesn’t matter.” Shi Dong said calmly, “That was only the prelude. It would not be a war without close battles.”

The rustling of armors was heard from at the root of the wall. That was the sound of power armors and charging of the squares.

The Witch’s Hammers were installed and in formation. The cavaliers, assisted by the power armors, began to charge at the enemies. They soon went out of the gate and into the lines of the ghosts. In the light of the fire columns, the cavaliers who were more than two meters tall stepped forward with their shields and spears.

“Heavy cavaliers?” Clearly seeing those soldiers on the field, Ye Qingxuan frowned. The heavy cavaliers had been replaced by heavily armed machines since the widespread power armors a century ago.

The heavy powered exoskeletons undertook the most important task on the battlefield: to destroy the enemy’s formation so that the swordsmen and infantry can do their parts of the job. Then, the enemy would be eliminated by the combination of three forces. However, they need enough swordsmen and infantry troops to finish what they started.

They had no more than 1,000 men in total, including backups. It was meaningless for the heavy cavaliers to undertake this sort of attack as there would not be enough men to follow them to finish the enemies.

What’s more, those sea ghosts were not normal soldiers. They would not retreat after their formations collapse. They would continue to attack until the very last of them was dead. If the cavaliers charge into their formation without swordsmen following them, they will be consumed by the endless attacks of the ghosts.

It would be suicide.

While he was looking, 60 heavily armed cavaliers were on the field. Yet they did not gather up to formation but scattered up. According to the number and order given to each of them, they gathered separately under the six fire flags and circled up the six armored clergymen. Then, the tower shields lowered down. The shields were then fixed by rivets driven by the pneumatic pumps on the rocks. The tower shields spread out their folded parts, which were joined together with other shields.

Surrounding the six clergymen, the cavaliers formed six temporary “fortresses” with their shields and weapons. Those six “fortresses” were six supporting points of the defense line against the demons.

The question was, would they hold? Among those organists watching the battle on the wall, many were experienced soldiers. And they couldn’t help but feel doubtful.

The problem was not the temporary “fortresses.” It could be said that they were quite wisely built. They could be very powerful by combining their power together to produce huge aether waves. They were like stings on the throat of the enemy. They would bring them pain and death if not destroyed.

However, the problem was that they do not have enough power to attack the enemy. They might be able to defend themselves, but they could not destroy the enemy’s formation. They would be no more than six obstacles on the enemy’s way. If the enemy could not destroy them, they could go around them. The enemy could even wipe them out after they passed them.

Ye Qingxuan soon understood the statics. “I see…” looking behind him at the courtyard of the stronghold, he murmured.

“Grand Inquisitor, you are so smart.” Shi Dong smiled. “You know everything about this sort of statics.”

“Just sensed the movements of the aether.” Ye Qingxuan smiled. “This should be very effective to eliminate these demons. I have learned a lot from this.”

Just then, the ghosts had reached the line of the defense. Endless dark-green poured onto the defense line like waves hitting the rocks on the beach.

Endless dark-green waves.

Blood and flesh flew.

From behind the tower shield, the cavaliers raised their spears which were heated to a burning-red color and easily cut the ghosts into pieces. The dark-green “waves” were separated by the “rocks,” yet after the defense points, they gathered again and rushed to the gate of the stronghold.

This was the disadvantage of this tactic. Without enough attacking forces to eliminate the enemies, the defense line was useless. Yet behind the walls made up of the shields and surrounded by the heavy cavaliers, the purifiers raised their flags of fire again.

They shouted, “Light of the heaven, fall upon here.”

The next moment, horns sounded.

Night on Bald Mountain! No one was more familiar with the melody than Ye Qingxuan. In the courtyard of the stronghold, the purifier musicians, gathering within alchemy metrics, played the magnificent symphony.

There were 40 musicians in total. With 40 Resonance Musicians, the aether waves were neat and strong.

On the top of the stronghold, the fire column began to circle around rapidly. Then, the fire soared up into the sky, tearing up the dark clouds. Endless aether fell from the sky and poured into the metric. A stake at the center of the metric began to burn, shining with hot light. Then it soared into the sky.

In just several seconds, there were 13 stakes up in the air. They gave off glaring light, rising above the wind and rain, shining in the sky like burning stars in the endless night. Then, the stakes rushed toward the ground, guided by the fire flags. The sound of the stakes piercing through the air generated hot airwaves as if they were burning aerolites falling from the sky.

The wave of dark green became still immediately.

The scorching red stakes easily penetrated the earth due to their own hefty weight and acceleration. Like the blade of a sword, the stakes were deeply wedged into the ground, and the horrific force of impact spread outwards in all directions, followed closely by the Purifying Fire that was almost impossible to escape from once one had been licked by its flames!

One after another, circles of a scorching red color spread within the wave of dark green, the fire sweeping across the demons like a flood. Wherever the fire had passed, all the nixies within reach were engulfed in flames.

Nixies in the core area bearing the brunt of the impact from the stakes were instantly vaporized into ashes, whereas those slightly further away were compressed into burnt carbon blocks by the impact and the high temperature of this purgatory. As for the nixies swept up in the aftermath, they struggled madly in the endless fire.

Flames had fallen into the firewood. In the blink of an eye, what they ignited had become a great fire.

In the flames, the clergymen raised the banner high, using it to indicate their coordinates and to continuously summon stakes which fell from the sky, achieving centimeter-precision in striking the nixies.

“It’s a pity that they acted just a bit too early,” commented Shi Dong. His mouth twitched as he sighed softly and said, “These youngsters still lack patience. It’s early by 15 seconds, otherwise, they could have carried out a thorough attack covering the whole region.”

Ye Qingxuan looked at his regretful expression and couldn’t help but sigh. He asked, “Didn’t you claim to be an accountant? Why are you so experienced on the battlefield?”

“Yup, it’s true, my main job is to be an accountant and a treasurer,” the old man replied.

Shi Dong managed to squeeze out an honest-looking smile on his aged face and said, “At the same time, I held a concurrent post as the deputy head of the first generation of the Knights of the Witch Hammer.”

Ye Qingxuan was stunned for a good while and felt a mouthful of blood getting stuck in his throat, as he wanted badly to spray this old asshole’s face with it. [1]

A concurrent job! How can such a position be considered a mere concurrent job! Shouldn’t working as the deputy head be his main job, and the job as an accountant and treasurer be considered concurrent posts instead?! Furthermore…

His gaze became increasingly shocked. The first generation… This old devil here is actually the first generation member of the Witch Hammer, meaning that he witnessed its creation! Moreover, he was the deputy head, and must have held the actual power since he managed both the internal affairs and finances!

Simply put, he is very much a walking and talking version of the historical records of the Religious Court of Inquiry! What’s more, the history we’re talking about here is one that is full of dark secrets and shocking inside stories, heavily classified and inaccessible by most! Ye Qingxuan thought.

Shi Dong chuckled, wearing a cheerful expression on his face which suggested that he knew what Ye Qingxuan was thinking. The snide expression made his rugged, aged face look so bitchy that Ye Qingxuan could hardly resist the temptation to punch him in the face.

After two rounds of attack that involved thirty stakes each, guided by the movements of the flame banner, a forest of flames was successfully erected on the shore outside the stronghold.

The six defensive positions had turned into meat grinders, harvesting the lives of the disorganized demons nonstop. A few of the knights in heavy armor who were initially on standby behind the towers of shields also left their comrades to hunt down demons that posed a threat.

One could basically say that, at the moment, the onslaught of the demons had been completely curbed. The humans had even gotten the upper hand.

After several rounds of counter attacks from the humans and losing countless of their own to the flames, from the midst of the wave of demons came a vague hiss, produced by something hiding in the sea, beneath the water surface. Soon, the demons’ attacks grew sparse as they slowly retreated under the order of the voice. They stared unwillingly at the stronghold and the defensive positions behind them, withdrawing into the sea ploddingly.

“That won’t do,” murmured Shi Dong. He furrowed his brows as his expression changed to one of dissatisfaction, and said to himself, “It shouldn’t be like this, should it?”

“This is no way to fight a war.” He stared at the humongous shadow in the sea and declared, “A war between humans and demons should have no end until one side is completely annihilated.”

“Stay here, don’t you leave us.” When he uttered those words, his tone was sweet and gentle, like he was speaking to his lover by his side. Then, the retreat of the demons came to an abrupt stop.

The nixies furthest away that had previously succumbed to the command to retreat stiffly turned back, their bloodshot eyes staring at a clergyman behind a tower of shields. The clergyman stuck the flame banner on the ground beside him and pulled out a dagger from its strap at his waist. He rotated the blade, pointing it towards himself, and put it on his wrist, slitting it…

Thus, thick and sticky blood of a sickening red color flowed out of the wound. It trickled down his fingers and dripped onto the soil, accumulating and forming tiny lakes with a sweet, tantalizing smell.

One, two, three… All the clergymen cut themselves, and the scent of blood from their wounds spread outwards. Like an irresistible temptation, it ignited the fire in the hearts of the nixies driving them… completely insane!

The creature in the deep sea raged and roared, creating turbulent waves, but to no avail. The screams of the mad nixies rang out again. More and more nixies on the shore turned back and crawled towards the stronghold, enticed by the smell of blood, and madly pounced on everything that could move.

The war had begun once more.

“Right,” Shi Dong remarked. “That’s right. Now that is the right way!” Carefree laughter rang out from Shi Dong’s prosthetic vocal cords made of metal. Satisfied, he embraced the war that had returned once more.

In the metal fortresses, the gears of the war machine started turning again. The armored knights smeared blood on their foreheads, held up their halberds and epees. Armed with weapons of such formidable weight, they exited the defensive positions behind the towers of shields and descended on the battlefield, killing and attacking in an unrestrained manner.

Summoned by the flame banner, the flames created by the Night on Bald Mountain continued to fall from the sky. Each time a blazing stake descended, a large number of nixies would be burned completely into ashes.

The fire raged and the wind swept violently. The last few remaining demons were rapidly reduced to cinders.

In the deep sea in the distance, the massive creature lurking beneath the surface of the sea rose slowly, revealing a blurred shadow, and it cast a look at the stronghold. From its gaze, one could almost feel the damp, cold and ghastly breath of the creature. Wherever the eyes fell upon, everyone in its vision felt a sense of suffocation, as if they were engulfed in seawater and the ocean was swallowing them whole.

In the end, it fixed its eyes on Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan looked up and stared straight at it.

After a good while, the creature in the sea averted its gaze. It restrained its remaining subordinates, and they proceeded towards the depths of the sea, detouring from islands, no longer paying any attention to the demons on the shore.

Other than Shi Dong, who kept his eyes down, no one else noticed that the war had unilaterally come to an end.

“The credit belongs to Your Honor,” Shi Dong praised Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan shook his head. He smiled and said, “Regardless of my presence or absence, there would have been no other ending. The Witch Hammer is the rightful protagonist here.”

Shi Dong stared at the battlefield for a long time, before turning his gaze away, albeit reluctantly. He had a complicated and serious look in his eyes.

“Is there anything wrong, Elder Shi Dong?” Ye Qingxuan inquired.

Shi Dong turned back, a self-mocking smile on what remained of his aged face, and said, “Nothing, it’s just that I haven’t seen such things in a long time, and they brought back certain memories from the past.

“For so many years, we have been wallowing in the past. Without us realizing, the world has become a strange and unfamiliar place. In the times to come, surely it would become increasingly chaotic and cruel, I fear?”

Ye Qingxuan stood in silence for a long time. “Does the Religious Court of Inquiry know fear as well?” he finally asked.

Shi Dong replied, “Your Honor, we are merely skilled at dealing with demons. We stomp on the enemies’ claws, pull out their teeth, and then we behead them, burn their remains to cinders, sprinkle the ashes into barren fields, and look forward to having fertile soil the coming year. That’s all we do.”

Shi Dong slapped the wall of the stronghold with his palm and laughed as he continued, “Your arrival has changed many, many things. This place no longer feels dead, and the youngsters below anticipate the future with excitement. But I cannot shake off my sense of trepidation, Your Honor. The world may not be as simple as they imagine it to be, nor as you see it to be.”

While saying so, Shi Dong reached out, using his cold metallic prosthetic hand to catch a few specks of ash blown over, and studied them. Then he let go and threw them back into the wind. “Your Honor, it has been nearly 200 years since the establishment of the Religious Court of Inquiry,” Shi Dong said.

He continued, “Over the years, we have explored hundreds of tactics targeting different demons, and the pieces of music composed accordingly by musicians numbered more than a hundred training methods, combat methods, alchemy techniques, mechanical drawings…

“We have spent an astronomical amount of money on them. At the peak, millions of people were in our service, directly or indirectly—that was the most glorious era of the Religious Court of Inquiry.

“We are the war machine that the Church created to help it cope in the past era, an instrument to survive desperate times. But once their time has passed, old machines that outlived their purpose will be locked in warehouses to gather dust, as newer things replace them.”

“Newer things?” Ye Qingxuan interjected.

“Yes.” Shi Dong nodded. He suddenly asked, “Your Honor, have you heard of the Water Tank?”

Ye Qingxuan pondered briefly and replied, “Within Anglo, there is a special factory in the Royal Institute of Research that is directly under the jurisdiction of the royal family. The only person who knows its exact location is Maxwell. As far as I know, one of their ongoing projects is related to this term, and its level of confidentiality is even higher than that of the Industrial Revolution’ project.”

“Such cautious treatment is only natural given its nature,” Shi Dong remarked. He gave a steadfast nod and said, “I can tell you in advance that this is the code name for a particular heavy weapon. It is said to involve epochal technology and has yet to be revealed.

“Only when this epoch ends, after the declaration of the beginning of the next epoch by the church, will it be allowed to make its debut—epochs are determined by high-ranking officials within the Church, as a method of partitioning the development stages of the human world. As for the specifics, I have no idea.

“For many years, various countries have been conducting private research in secret, and the progress is probably nearing completion. The prototype should be done by now, I think?

“All along, everyone has scruples about the lack of permission and authorization from the Sacred City, so it has not been employed on the battlefield directly. But with the current state of affairs in the world, after the fall of Hyakume, the abyss has descended, and the Sacred City is preoccupied with its own troubles. The world has broken away from the control of the Church. What will the world become in the years to come is anyone’s guess.”

After hearing his words, Ye Qingxuan was lost in thought for a good while, his brows furrowed. Finally, he asked, “What you are trying to say is that this technology has been developed by the Sacred City a long time ago?”

“I would use the word ‘archived’ instead of ‘developed’.” Shi Dong’s expression was that of a weird-looking smile, with strong mockery. He said, “Your Honor, you may have misunderstood one thing – The role of the Technical Office of the Sacred City has never been about research and development, but rather the stipulation of whether a certain development can be allowed. Otherwise, why would there be so much banned technology?”

Ye Qingxuan remained silent for a long time, before nodding slowly. “I see,” he said.

“I take it that you have grown aware of the abnormalities of the world?” Shi Dong asked. His withered face wore a mocking smile, as he went on, “Although everything seems to be running very smoothly, there is a certain air of abnormality seeping out from them all. Politics, economics, history, linguistics, biology, alchemy, mechanical engineering… Every single part is perfect, yet at the same time, none of it fits in with the rest of the world.

“The Church wants to explain the contradiction between them with theology, painstakingly creating layers and layers of buffering. They mend and they patch, taking pieces from here and there, but in the end, more and more flaws are showing. It is as if more and more lies are being created to cover up a lie.”

[1] Chinese metaphor, expressing extreme exasperation.

“As the backbone of the Church, are you sure it’s appropriate for you to say that?” asked Ye Qingxuan.

“Every high-level officer of the Church should know one thing: the faith is for the worshipers only. We don’t need to fool ourselves with that.” Shi Dong smiled weirdly. “I’m old anyway. Old men tend to have some wild thoughts.”

“You can say whatever you like,” said Ye Qingxuan. Shaking his head, he continued, “You may continue. I’m curious about the secret of the Religious Court. What on earth is it?”

“As we are only used by the senior officers as tools, we shall not get to know too much. If you want to know that, you may need to ask the Pope.”

“I have asked him actually.”

“But he didn’t tell me.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged.

“Then there is nothing we can do. If the popes don’t want to tell you, no one can help you.” Shi Dong shook his head pitifully.

Shi Dong obviously knew about the truth of the King of Red as he said “popes” instead of “pope.” but it was normal as he was once the most powerful leader of the knights.

“The Forbidden Technologies you mentioned just now, are they all from the Church?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

“Part of them, yes,” Shi Dong answered.

Shi Dong explained, “The other part came from Catastrophes. It was like a jigsaw puzzle. We humans have part of it, yet the rest were taken by the catastrophes. We, as tools to fight against the catastrophes, are only allowed to know this much.”

Ye Qingxuan walked behind Shi Dong, thinking along the way. For a very long time, the Sacred City had led the development of the countries with its technology which was tens of years ahead of all countries. The Church controlled the best technology. Even the Chainsaw Fraternity, who got separated from the Church, had technology far better than what anyone could think of.

The beacons for detecting Aether density and transmitting information, churches and the refuge facilities in churches, as well as the Aether balancers, they had such great achievements in all subjects.

The Church’s budget on research was far below that of any research institute. Yet they got so much ahead of those other research institutes. This was puzzling.

Ye Qingxuan realized that there must be something no one had expected in it. Compared to conduct researches to improve technology, it was easier to block existing technologies. In that case, what they needed to do was reveal them gradually, and not much investment was need.

It’s just that…

“How advanced is the technology controlled by the Church?”

“No idea,” said Shi Dong.

Shi Dong shook his head. “Except the water tank, there is more technology that is not known to the world, not to mention the related files or products made available to the world. We were never allowed to know any of that.

“It’s not only about weapons. Some files even have priority levels higher than the Purgatory built by Gaius; they are mostly from the catastrophes.

“Compared with the human world, the secret they held were much to terrible and massive. The world might be wiped out by those powers if someone got careless. Therefore, they were sealed.”

Then he paused and gave a mocking smile. “After all, all this is to maintain the ‘Correct’ history.”

From the Catastrophes?

Frowning, Ye Qingxuan said “What catastrophe would communicate with humans except the Three Wise Men and the Three Pillar Gods?”

“None.” Shaking his head, Shi Dong said, “They cannot speak any language. How can they communicate with humans? What’s more, if you want something, you can rob it instead of trading for it. Just like the snake of crystal.”

The Naica Nest of the Crystals. Ye Qingxuan recalled his memory of the ruin he had been to before he went to Romulus—the crystalized earth and the deep hole. That was the evidence of the fight between the humans and the catastrophes. Yet, what have men gotten from the body of the snake of crystal?

The body of the catastrophes were made of pure aether and music theories circulated all over the body. There was no flesh or blood. The death of it is caused by the collapse of the core music theory and then the body couldn’t be kept long. It would collapse into pure aether and disappear for a long time. Then, it would resurface to the world. There, it was not in any way similar to a tiger’s skins and bones, which could be made into leather robes and medical wines.

How did the churches get the forbidden technology from the catastrophes?

In the silence, the two walked down the wall and into the courtyard. Surrounded by walls, the courtyard was empty, without even a single tree or any grass, not to mention flowers.

There was nothing to see in the courtyard.

Shi Dong stopped at the center of the yard. He turned back and looked at Ye Qingxuan. “Sir, please get everyone out of here,” he said in a low voice. “This might be a good place for talking about secrets.”

Ye Qingxuan immediately understood what he said. Compared to a closed room which could be monitored or bugged, this kind of open ground was safer. There was no room to hide. And Ye Qingxuan’s Wyrmrest enchantment could fend off any one who wanted to wiretap them.

Ye Qingxuan thought about it for a while. Then he nodded and looked behind him. Then everyone following him went away. Then, he deployed two layers of sound-isolator and his Wyrmrest enchantment at a diameter of two meters.

“As you wish, Mr. Shi Dong.” Ye Qingxuan said, “You may now say what you want to tell me. And it’s also the best chance now if you want to assassinate me.”

“What I’m telling you now, is what the first leader of the Witch’s Hammer and Grand Inquisitor told me when he died.” Shi Dong lowered his eyes. “It is the secret he kept for his whole life. If it is disclosed, even the Religious Court of Inquisitors would be purged ruthlessly by the Church. It’s about the real body of the catastrophes.”

“The real body?” Ye Qingxuan was surprised.

“Yes. The real body.” Shi Dong said, “Or its ‘source’—the power and essence of it. That is the reason why catastrophes don’t die.

“The catastrophe we called is only a very small fraction of something hidden in the darkness. If we don’t destroy the roots, they will come back into life endlessly.

“We can only kill them by destroying their real body. The whereabouts of the real body and the source is the biggest secret of each and every catastrophe and their only weak point.”

Shi Dong continued, “The technology and secrets held by the Church are also from the real bodies of the catastrophes. Up until now, men have killed six catastrophes. The real bodies of them were kept in secret by the Church, bringing us a lot of technologies and power beyond imagination—weapons, power, music theories, medications, you name it. Every catastrophe is a great treasure, even corrupted ones.

“The ‘Hundred Years’ War’ between Anglo and Burgundy was for the ruin where a catastrophe’s real body was buried.”

Silence.

In the silence, Ye Qingxuan got his pipe with his trembling hand. He was thrilled. He filled the pipe with Tabaco, lit it and smoked to calm himself. He puffed out the smoke and re-found his faith which had been ruined by Shi Dong’s words. But it was not like before.

“Every catastrophe has its real body?” he asked.

Shi Dong nodded. “The Three Pillar Gods are special. They came from the Originator, which cannot be figured out for sure. Except them, as observed and documented by the Church, every other catastrophe has.

“The Three Wise Men, the Four Living Creatures, the Eight Phenomena and everyone else, they all have their own origins.”

“What exactly are their real bodies?

“No one knows.” Shi Dong shook his head. “In the three wars against catastrophes, the last phase of the wars was carried out by a secret force I never knew anything about. I have never seen a real body of any catastrophe but the vague contour of one.

“I had once, on my escort mission, seen them carrying something to the cart. It was a huge container, covered with heavy dust cloth. I might be mistaken. But I think the size of the thing was not fixed.

“At the first time, it took a whole month and six trips by train to transport the real body. Yet, at the second time, only several men and a suitcase were needed. Maybe different catastrophes have different real bodies. They may be of different levels.

“The musicians told me there was nothing peculiar that could be sensed about the real bodies. We may think they are worthless if judging from their appearances.”

Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help ask, “What would happen if the catastrophe abandons its real body?”

Shi Dong thought about for a while and shook his head. “I don’t know. But, I guess they may lose their powers if they are alive and may not be able to reborn if they die. However, the power will not disappear if the origin is not destroyed. There will be new catastrophes born from it.”

“Really?” Ye Qingxuan murmured.

Shi Dong glanced at him and said, “No catastrophe as I know has done this. What kind of creature would be so silly as to give up eternal life?”

Ye Qingxuan smiled as if mocking himself and felt relieved. With no particular reason, he became happier and sadder at the same time.

“That’s right.” Lowering his eyes, he murmured, “No creature except humans commit suicide, right?”

Boss, it seems you really are dead.

They talked until it was six o’clock in the morning. Yet there was no light at all in the darkness. Shi Dong looked tired. It was torture like hell to stay up late into the night as his life was at tis end.

“Thank you for telling me those things, Mr. Shi Dong.” Ye Qingxuan removed the Wyrmrest enchantment and the sound isolating layers. Then, he poured the music theories of the Stone of Sages into Shi Dong’s body, which turned into aether to circulate with his blood around his body, giving him great energy of life.

In great pain, Shi Dong vomited a lot of deep-purple sticky liquid, which smelt like corrupt body. Carroll and several apprentices got so scared that they hurriedly came up. Shi Dong raised his hand and waved them away.

Shi Dong looked even more haggard, yet his eyes brightened up.

“Is this the reward for following you? You are so generous, your holiness.”

“Consider it a reward for telling me those secrets.”

Shi Dong looked at Ye Qingxuan and seemed to understandwhat was on Ye Qingxuan’s mind: you may not die now. You need to live until I allow you to die.

“Yes, your holiness.” Shi Dong smiled bitterly and heaved a sigh. “I’m afraid you have known that the death of Hyakume means a lot more than it appears. The Sacred City will no longer be able to control this world. The descending of the abyss brought about not only darkness and wars, but also untied the bounds of the humans.

“I’m afraid more and more people will yearn for the power of the catastrophes. Even they are in deep trouble, they will want the secrets of the catastrophes. The war to decide the fate of the world will begin.

“Your holiness, it will begin very soon.”

“Do you look forward to wars like that?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

“I’m old, your holiness. I’m abandoned by the time.” Shi Dong shook his head in dismay. “The future belongs to the young and talented like you.”

“The future?”

“Yes.” Shi Dong smiled and looked at the dark sky.

The future…

One day later.

Below the cliffs at the stronghold, massive iron gates sealed the entrance to the covert port. The nonstop banging of steel came from behind the huge iron gates.

The constant roaring of machines could be heard. Noises from the operations of mechanical cutting axes and hydraulic presses filled the air.

Then shrieks rang out.

“Mr. Ye! Help me, Mr. Ye! Help!” Igor cried out as he rushed forward, threw himself at Ye Qingxuan’s feet and clutched his thigh. “Save my child, quick! Those a*holes, those barbarians are trying to take my boat apart!”

Ye Qingxuan, who had just entered, looked up in utter confusion and saw that the secret port had become almost unrecognizable, with metallic tower cranes and scaffolding everywhere.

The port had been transformed into a huge workshop.

At the center of attention, lying on a high platform erected in the water, held by layers of steel cables was Igor’s ship. It was factory-fresh and had just completed its maiden voyage. It hadn’t even been given a name yet…

“So much progress has been made?” Ye Qingxuan coughed awkwardly and looked at the embarrassed Carol beside him. Carol stared upwards at the ceiling, as if he was expecting to see a flower there.

Ye Qingxuan sighed and patted Igor’s shoulder, saying, “Captain, get up from the ground first. We can talk about it slowly.”

Boom! A loud bang interrupted him. Igor screamed in sorrow as if his parents had just passed away. The whites of his eyes showed as he almost fainted. Behind them, the ship that had been mounted on the platform was completely broken into two parts under the operation of an engineer.

Half an hour later…

“Your ship was almost broken by the time it sailed here anyway,” comforted Ye Qingxuan.

He handed a cup of hot tea to Igor, who buried his face in his hands, sobbing all the while. Igor squatted on the stairs with a blanket draped over him, tearfully watching his ship being dismembered. He looked as if he had nothing left to live for.

“After all, it’s a merchant ship. It has already been incredibly lucky to kill the Mountain of Nomadism. Surely you can’t be hoping that it can still be sailed after that? The keel is almost broken, three and a half out of the four engines have exploded, even the front deck has a big hole burnt in it… You see, it’s beyond salvation.”

“And whose fault is it?!” Igor wept, “I’ve been saving up money my whole freaking life, and finally I could afford a ship! Do you think it’s easy for me? My dream of cleaning up my name, gone in smoke! I’ve been counting on its expeditions at sea to earn me a noble title…”

Ye Qingxuan sighed. “Okay, don’t act like a little girl, Mr. Igor. How are there so many grievances between us? Who was the one who rushed to the sea of darkness without another thought upon seeing my check?

“I couldn’t possibly have forced you to sail here, could I? I know that this ship is very important to you, but there really is no other way at the moment… You have two choices.”

“Which two?” came Igor’s reply. His face lit up immediately, wiped away his tears, and glared at Ye Qingxuan with bloodshot eyes. He was almost back to his old self who haggled over every penny. He contemplated taking out his portable calculator to start discussing reparations.

“My apologies, but first of all I have some bad news for you,” said Ye Qingxuan. He raised his brows and continued, “The deposit I paid you is actually the last of my money, so don’t expect to get even one more cent from my impoverished Church account.”

“F*ck!” Igor was furious and he leaped up. “Then what about the balance payment! The balance payment!”

“Why such impatience?” Ye Qingxuan picked his nose, looking like a scoundrel, and said, “When I save Anglo and restore its glory, we will be able to take anything we want from the entire national treasury, won’t we? Even giving you ten times the payment would be a piece of cake… This is venture capital. Venture capital, my dear sir. You have to take the risk before you get the returns.”

Igor’s face turned purple with rage, and he pointed at Ye Qingxuan, totally rendered speechless.

“You have already boarded this pirate ship [1], Mr. Igor, so from now on don’t complain that you want out, nor ask for a refund.” Ye Qingxuan patted his shoulder, a calm look on his face, and said, “Come, sit down, let’s have a proper talk about your two choices.”

Igor glared at him for a long time and finally managed to squeeze out a word, “Speak!”

“The first option…” Ye Qingxuan held up a finger and said, “We have expropriated your ship. You have nothing to do with everything here from now on. In the name of Holmes, I promise you that a smuggling route from the city of the Cloud Tower will be handed over to you after the reclamation of Avalon, and only you alone will be allowed to operate it.

“Next, the only thing you need to do is to find a gentleman like me, who is willing to loan you money. Perhaps at a usury rate, and you can start recruiting men for your fleet.

“Think about it. The trade between the East and the West annually, the silk route that flows with black gold… Even if you only earn one hundred-thousandth of the total amount, it is enough for you to become rich overnight. If you are willing to buy enough government bonds, you’ll definitely be able to find a country that is willing to help you register as an aristocrat of the Holy City, not to mention mere noble titles.

“Between your last name and your first name, you will be able to add the esteemed middle name of ‘Feng’, and you can bid farewell to your lowly life of the past and become a distinguished aristocrat. ”

Dead silence…

Igor swallowed dryly and stared at Ye Qingxuan with wide eyes which were almost turning red as he envisioned what Ye Qingxuan had described. “You… Are you serious?”

“Provided that I can succeed, of course.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged like a rascal, but the look in his eyes was devoid of any jest. “But one can say the returns are a hundred times the risks, don’t you think so?”

Igor almost agreed immediately on impulse, but he couldn’t shake his gut feeling, which was like an earthworm burrowing its way through his mind, sending shivers down his spine. It was as if a flame was burning him.

He started to speak but was shocked by the hoarseness of his own voice. “Then… What about the second option?” he asked.

“The second option?” Ye Qingxuan smiled, and it was an exceptionally pleasant smile, like a predator when food was being delivered to its plate, holding cutlery in both hands.

He reached out and patted Igor on the shoulder. “Mr. Igor, you are an excellent captain. Even among the pirates in the Illusion Islands, you are one of the best. The fighter of the anger waves, it’s a really good name, I like it,” he said.

Igor was stunned for a moment, then felt a pang of fear in his heart. He asked, “How do you know this?”

“Fear not,” came the reply. Ye Qingxuan pointed to his brain and said, “You have to believe me on this, I really didn’t do it on purpose. Although I am a musician of the School of Mind, and one of the best at that. I never intended to spy on other people’s thoughts for fun.

“However, when my perception threads were connected to your mind, your mental defenses with loopholes everywhere were really not of much use. One minor careless mistake on my part was enough for me to see everything…”

Upon hearing that, Igor looked as if he had just f*cked a dog, but Ye Qingxuan remained smiling, full of enthusiasm.

Ye Qingxuan continued, “You have plenty of combat experience and are loyal in terms of character, Mr. Igor, and I find that particularly satisfying. Plus, you have another 80 brave, obedient young men who are tired of working as pirates and want to turn over a new leaf like you. Coincidentally, I can offer a new job for all of you here; a perfect job that you have never even dreamed of. ”

Igor was stunned for a moment, then realized what Ye Qingxuan meant immediately, and shot him a dirty look. “You want us to serve you with our lives?” he asked.

“Weren’t you all risking your lives for money in the past anyway?” Ye Qingxuan replied with a question of his own.

“How can prostitution and marriage be the same!” Igor leaped up, shaking his head vehemently as he refused, “Initially, you hired us! We worked for the pay! Although we are not pirates, we will never give up our freedom and become your lackeys!”

“Mr. Igor, If you’re bad with metaphors, just don’t use them in your descriptions, okay?” Ye Qingxuan’s face twitched as he sighed and said, “In any case, that’s the gist of it. If you render your service to me, you can clean up your name, and get recruited by the navy of Anglo…”

He paused for a moment and turned his gaze towards the ship that was being taken apart into pieces, his voice becoming deep. “I can let you all operate this legendary warship, unique to the world. You’ll have the chance to surpass the legends of the Revenge of the Queen, the Intrepid and the Star of the Sea, and become a true legend together with it.”

“A legendary warship?” Igor was at a loss for words for a good while. His gaze was filled with suspicion, and he said, “Anglo’s only legendary warship is the flagship of the Royal Navy of Anglo, the Royal Pride, built by 600 alchemists a hundred years ago. That is the glory of the navy of Anglo, and even if you are the sword bearer, you can’t possibly have a say regarding the ship reserved for the Queen’s royal progress.”

“Since when did I say anything about it being the Royal Pride?” Ye Qingxuan laughed and pointed to the wreck nearby, saying, “I am talking about it.”

The roaring of machines in the background resumed as he said so. The gears were rotating violently, producing loud bangs of a low frequency, the steel cables were stretched, the ceiling of the covert port opened inch by inch, then the humongous behemoth suspended in the air by tower cranes descended from the sky gradually.

Under the illumination of the pale whitish lighting, the monstrous shadow revealed a grotesque silhouette. The enormous beast that had met its demise quite some time ago still exuded a disturbing and chilling aura. In the huge crack above its right eye, one could vaguely see the brain tissues that got burned into charred carbon by venom.

“The Mountain of Nomadism?” Igor was totally stunned.

Following commands, engineers wearing protective suits covering the whole body slid along cables and landed on the beast. They referred to the design drawings at their waist, and with the paint buckets and brushes in their hands, they began to mark the parts to be cut rapidly.

The transportation of the giant cutter had been completed thanks to the powerful force supplied by armored vehicles. Several workers pushed a giant saw more than five meters in height over from the warehouse.

After it was assembled, there was a test run. The madly rotating saw produced an earsplitting shriek, and the resulting cold wind from its movements bitted one’s face.

Under the instruction of several alchemists, the musicians of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith set up an alchemy array on the spot, beginning to prepare the first conversion process.

It would not take long for the incredibly huge behemoth to be dismembered by the saw and the music and become pieces of raw material.

The scales were peeled off and transformed into the outer armor by alchemy. The blood was drained, rare elements within extracted and incorporated into the new engine. The remaining liquid waste was converted and a high-efficiency condensing agent that could not otherwise be produced with human technology was extracted.

The bones were processed and put in a freshly prepared alchemy array, then immersed in a large amount of culture medium. Musicians from the School of Choir would stimulate its growth once more to form the new hull.

The carrion was transformed by musicians from the School of Summoning, implanting a new nerve net and circulatory system into it, converting it into artificial flesh, reshaping the giant beast’s body.

Igor’s ship would be taken apart as well, and some of the reusable materials would be incorporated into the giant beast after being smelted and strengthened.

The new ship would have the spine of the giant snake as the keel, its flesh as the outer shell, and its scales the armor. The engine could not be produced, but would be replaced by the modified heart of the beast instead. Once activated, it would provide a terrifying amount of horsepower no less than any other ship.

The purifiers of the Religious Court of Inquiry assured Ye Qingxuan that the ship would retain at least seventy percent of the ability of what was once the Mountain of Nomadism, and the movements that could summon tsunamis and storms in their extreme state would become the last nightmare the enemy could remember before sinking into the sea.

Ye Qingxuan said, “The ship is 210 meters in length, 30 meters in width and eight meters in depth. The standard displacement is thirty thousand tons, and it can carry up to forty thousand tons. The standard sailing speed is 40 knots, and in its extreme state, the speed can be doubled. The two 40-meter-long spines will be processed by the Religious Court of Inquiry to become its main battery.

“Unlike the dragon spines of disappointing quality sold by the Chainsaw Fraternity to the public, what we will get this time is the stronghold-level cannon invented by the Religious Court of Inquiry back then—the Petitioner.

“The rest of the information is in here.” Ye Qingxuan threw a thick stack of design drawings towards Igor and looked at the dismembered giant snake above, as well as the workshop that had been stained red with blood.

“Igor, it will be the new Mountain of Nomadism! A living legend of a sea monster, the nightmare of all voyagers!” He paused for a while and looked at Igor, who was sitting dumbfounded on the ground. He spread his hand and asked with a smile, “Now, make a choice. Do you want to take a gamble and become a free, wealthy man? Or do you want to sail it and become a legend, a true son of the ocean?”

He was met with a long, long silence.

Igor flipped through the design drawings in his hand, his mind blank. When he looked up again, he quietly stared at the messy workshop as if he could see the monster being born from the steel uterus.

“It’s so beautiful,” he whispered softly, and for reasons unknown, tears rolled down his cheeks.

At that particular moment, he was no longer thinking about the huge fleet he could own as a tycoon, nor the endless assets and money that would come with it. The only thing that occupied his mind was the huge warship that had yet to be born.

The vague outline was enough to make all the hairs on his body tremble. Blood rushed to his head, almost as if it was going to flow out of his mouth and nose.

What he felt was the greedy impulse and arrogant dream lurking in the depths of every sailor’s soul. They were dancing around in his mind ecstatically and disorderly, crawling in his consciousness, screaming and roaring in his ear, ready to make trouble.

Like an ocean tide.

Giving up his meritless dignity and illusory freedom, he knelt on the ground and crawled forward. As if the devil had seduced him, he only had one thought left.

“Please take away everything of mine, sir,” he implored. Igor kissed the soil under the young man’s feet devoutly and prostrated himself in worship. In all earnest sincerity, and humbly begged, “I’m willing to dedicate everything to you, even my soul. Please bestow upon me the opportunity to sail it, even if it’s only for one second.”

Ye Qingxuan laughed and replied, “Even if you have to abandon your freedom? Igor, I must make it clear that if you agree to the offer, you will be my lackey for the rest of your life.”

Igor was full of joy and felt no dissatisfaction.

He answered, “That is a supreme honor indeed.”

“Then rise, my captain,” commanded Ye Qingxuan. He patted Igor’s shoulder, smiled, and pointed at the ship as he said, “Go and have a talk with the chief engineer. Tell him the ideas you have regarding your future ship.

“You will become a new legend, I promise.”

[1] A Chinese remark which refers to one getting involved in something corrupt or unpleasant as a result of being tricked, and it is too late for the person to withdraw.

“That was excellent preaching just now,” Shi Dong told Ye Qingxuan on the stage. “You are gifted as a bishop. You really don’t want to join the Church? I can guarantee that you will be the one that will probably sit on the throne of the Pope among all cardinal bishops by the time when you are 50. You may be the one to provide the flesh body of the next King Red.”

“Spare me. I’m not interested in digging out my brain and soaking it in a jar.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “Is it really possible to finish with a month?”

“Yes, if we build a simple one. We can upgrade it in the future,” Shi Dong answered. “We lack too many instruments here. That will save us a lot of trouble. And I think there was something you didn’t tell him: without maintenance and upgrading after it’s built, what he’ll have will be the shell of a ship with the main artillery.”

“We’ll have them, all of them.” Ye Qingxuan smiled. “What’s more, we are a family now that you’ve signed the contract, so you may save those fake manners. There should be no one who will question the validity of the contract of the Religious Court of Inquisitors, right?”

“Ehhh… I can picture now in my head what you will turn the Religious Court into.” Heaving a sigh, Shi Dong turned around. “Please follow me. There’s much for you to learn.”

Ten minutes later, in the dungeon.

Sitting behind the huge desk piled with books and files and staring at the mountains of documents and files, Ye Qingxuan was shocked.

“Wait, what’re all those things about?” asked Ye Qingxuan.

“Besides the abilities of a musician, it requires a lot more skill and ability to be a qualified Grand Inquisitor.”

An old man in a wheelchair came forward and said, “We’ll conduct special training for you next. The training covers, besides basic skills to handle official documents and files, the common strategies to handle things and codes, the hidden agents and information channels in other countries.”

A young-looking man who smelt like corpse came up to him and said, “I will teach you the 147 special music movements of the Religious Court of Inquisitors, from the basic level to the Saint level, and special skills and techniques of the purifying musicians.”

A bald man who had more than half of his body turned into iron, and, judging from the fleshy part of his body, was a little more than 40 years old, came forward and said, “I’m the leader of the fourth generation of the Knights of the Witch’s Hammer. I’ll teach you the art of fencing. You will have one class lasting one hour every day. After the training, you may have some fighting skills which you don’t have now.”

“Ehh…”Ye Qingxuan wanted to say something, but more old men came up.

“I’m the third intelligence officer of the Religious Court of Inquisitors. I’ll…”

“I’m…”

“I’m…”

A crowd of old men came to him and introduced themselves. Ye Qingxuan almost fainted. “Wait for a moment! The schedule is filled with more than 20 hours of training classes every day! When do I sleep?”

Bang! A bottle of crystal green alchemy medication was put on the desk.

“The Dream of Emerald, the best reviving medication ever.” Another big-nosed old man with an odd smell gave a weird smile and said, “It’s also the alchemy product I’m most proud of. One bottle of this will save you a week of sleep.”

“What about after one week?”

“Have another bottle of it,” the big-nosed old man said gently. “I’m the private medical officer of the six generation knights. I’ll be responsible for your health in the following period of time.

“Musicians of the Master’s level barely need any sleep. The maximum dose of the Dream of Emerald one can take is six bottles in a row. Considering your aether tolerance, I think you can take ten bottles without a problem.

“So, don’t worry, and enjoy your learning time.”

“…” Almost petrified, Ye Qingxuan said to Shi Dong, who was the last one to step up, “What about you then?”

“Everything related to war.” Shi Dong smiled. “But don’t worry. I won’t take much time as I have only three hours a day when I’m fully energetic.”

“Then I should be thankful.” Ye Qingxuan said coldly, “You leave me one hour to eat my meals, shower, and use the toilet.”

“No. The last hour is also occupied.” Shi Dong took out a full schedule. “That is our discussion time.”

“…” Ye Qingxuan felt like he was being choked and wanted to pass out.

“You sure that I can be the most powerful Grand Inquisitor in just a few days?” Ye Qingxuan asked. “Excluding other things, learning the techniques to command a war alone would take a man’s whole life, right?”

“Actually, it’s our job to study wars, the government’s job to prepare for wars, the general’s job to command wars, and the soldiers’ job to fight wars. You need only to watch.”

“Then why should I learn it?”

“You need to understand it, at least.” Shi Dong answered, “You need to know what can be done, what is forbidden, and what must be done. You don’t want to be the kind of guy who knows nothing at all but always pokes his nose into everything, do you? It’s the virtue of an officer not to make trouble for his subordinates at a critical moment. And it’s the duty of a senior official to eliminate a trouble-making subordinate through suicide squads. I’ll teach you everything about it.”

“Are those the right things to teach me?” Ye Qingxuan was shocked again.

“Don’t worry. You are the most talented young man I’ve seen.” Shi Dong said with a smile, “You will be a Grand Inquisitor. What’s more, besides the compilation of war records, we’ve also prepared many textbooks…” While saying that, he pointed at the corner. Drawing the curtain up, a huge pile of moldy files appeared around Shi Dong’s wheelchair.

These were the summaries and files produced by the old men when they were simulating wars. The old men got delighted when talking about their fruits of “gameplay.”

“We have been playing the game of war simulation for more than 80 years, about 40,000 times in total. From the past until modern times, from the East to the West, all the wars we simulated were carefully documented. Sometimes we play the Immortal Army, sometimes the Asgardian squares, sometimes the Knights Templar, and more often, we play ourselves. Annihilation, fortress besieging, fortress attacking, surprise attack, retreat…

“In the boring days, we fought against all the possible imagined enemies throughout history and all over the world. We racked our brains to fight against them.

“Now, the 40,000 war strategies are all here. No matter who your enemies are, there is always one strategy against him.”

In the dead silence, Ye Qingxuan looked at the old men who were all smiling oddly and the file, piled as high as a grave, feeling the temptation to kill himself.

Shi Dong smiled heartedly and put the first file in front of him, declaring the coming of a hard time. “So, please show us the legendary learning abilities you claimed to have,” he said confidently. “I assure you, you will have a period of time which will be ‘extremely fruitful’.”

Three weeks later, the steel workshop had expanded to twice its original size.

The scaffolding embedded in the cliff were like weeds clumped together. The giant nails wedged into the stone were holding heavy steel cables, arranged into a spider-web-like structure, in place. Heat insulating felt cloths were suspended layer by layer from the cables, forming a huge greenhouse.

Heavy rain poured from the sky, and fell on the felt cloth, causing it to evaporate and rise into the sky again in a thick fog of steam, only to condense and fell as water droplets again upon encountering the cold air above. Cold fog and hot air met in the sky, strangling each other. Finally, they blended together, forming layers of sickly white clouds.

It was as if hundreds of iron furnaces were working at the same time, or as if lava had broken through the crust of the earth and was flowing over the ground. An appalling amount of heat were constantly spreading out from the workshop.

The viscous and scorching air escaped from the valves on the door with a rotten stench.

It was like the breath of living things.

“Is it really alright to build a ship this way?” Igor stood on top of the cliff and looked down, his gaze fixed on the covered workshop. No matter how many times he had heard the explanation, he still felt incredulous, as the production method employed was truly beyond his imagination.

“The current stage of our industrial development is not advanced enough to produce such a massive thing the conventional way, so we could only do it in an alternative manner.” Carol, who had been appointed as the chief engineer, held his umbrella as he looked down and observed his work. He said, “Now the entire port and anywhere less than five hundred meters from it are within the radiation range of the alchemy reactions.

“An alchemical reactor of such a gigantic size would cost as much as half the national treasury and would take more than ten years to manufacture. “Furthermore, it can only be used once, as it would be destroyed in the process, and it has to be recycled as waste after that. The whole process requires more than a hundred alchemists to collaborate, using up countless materials and funds. “We do not have so much capital and time to waste.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be blessed with such favorable conditions, Captain Igor, we must keep everything simple. ”

“This is considered simple?” Igor was shocked.

He squatted on the edge of the cliff, then lay down to look at the huge workshop more closely.

Under the cover of the heat-insulating felt cloths, the workshop was like a monster of a gray-black color lying on the harbor of refuge, crawling and rolling around in gluey motions, convulsing in the rain as if it was alive, but also abhorrently ugly.

So ugly that it looked terrifying.

Five days ago, the musicians of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith removed the entire harbor of refuge, then built a dam at the estuary, turning whole entire port into an enclosed, bowl-like structure.

The ‘bowl’ was covered, and only a warm murky stream of water spewed out steadily from the dam. The turbid water containing alchemical elixirs and toxic metals exuded a pungent stench, staining the black ocean water white.

The hull was being manufactured in it.

As the organization that had inherited the legacy of the Religious Court of Inquiry, developing various methods to utilize demons was almost instinctual to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Plus, many demons themselves were excellent raw materials. With such a precious resource like the Mountain of Nomadism, they couldn’t possibly let it rot and spoil.

The development plan, which seemed budget-conscious to most, was considered imprudent by the old devils of the Court who had gotten used to being thrifty.

If the Congregation had a complete industrial system and enough supporting resources, they definitely wouldn’t agree to such insanity of wasting the huge piece of precious material on a goddamn ship.

“In some sense, it cannot be considered a ship at all.” Carol said, “We are just utilizing the resources at hand to as best we can, leveraging the molecular activeness of the Mountain of Nomadism’s flesh to grow it into a ship.

“If we have enough resources and time, it’s even possible to create a ship that can fly in the sky forever, occupying the sky like the winged people… Damn, those bastards not only monopolize the resources of the star belt, but also deny us access to the deep sky…”

“For me, having a boat in itself is more than enough, Mr. Carol,” Igor interrupted.

He sniffed the pungent smell coming from the workshop, looking intoxicated. “I don’t give a shit about whether it’s alive or dead, or whether it’s the child of catastrophes. I’m happy as long as it is a ship and I can sail it. Of course, it’ll be even better if it can take down a legendary warship in one go.”

He wanted to witness the process in the core of the workshop, but it was a pity as there was no way he could get close to it.

The interior of the workshop had been transformed into a petri dish that was super enormous in size. A dense forest consisting of large quantity of fungi toxic to humans grew in it. Lethal toxic gases and corrosive alchemical materials were everywhere.

Such was the most suitable environment to cultivate artificial flesh.

Beneath the cover of the gray-black felt cloth, the sea water had been transformed into a viscous culture medium of dark yellow. Innumerable muscles and organs of a tender red color floated within like seaweed, growing slowly…

Except for the musicians who were cultivating them and the engineers wearing three layers of protective clothing each, no ordinary creature could survive in that environment.

Even from a long distance, one could still smell the rich scent of blood spreading constantly.

Within the past few weeks, the smell of blood had attracted a large number of the vile spawn of the sea.

The endless demons that swarmed towards the port had all become the practice targets of the organists, their bodies contributing to the building of the ship as raw materials or cultivation media.

The organists, carefully selected by Maxwell, were undisputed elites, each of them fitting the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s requirements for newcomers perfectly — although they had impure faiths and questionable pasts.

But during such a critical period, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith naturally wouldn’t concern themselves with the rules of the past pedantically — In fact, only the young men whose minds were preoccupied with glory and the conquest of the east might have trouble accepting the fact that the rules could be bent. As for the older men, they all had no trouble with seeing which way the wind was blowing. Shi Dong had even told Ye Qingxuan all the secrets of the old Religious Court of Inquiry, and he couldn’t care less about such rules.

They only cared about the fundamental purpose, and apart from that, the end would justify the means.

As long as the Religious Court of Inquiry could be re-established, the glory of the olden days restored and the long-cherished wish to conquer the east realized, they wouldn’t think twice even if the price was that they must assassinate the Pope.

Among the organists brought along by Ye Qingxuan, the majority would be trained to become the new generation of the Witch Hammer in the next few months.

The rest were aged men whose paths had been fixed and were almost irreversible. For them, rather than to spend their lives doing a half-ass job as a member of the Witch Hammer or as a purifier, it would be better to continue along their own path. So, they chose to quit after taking part in certain courses.

The results of the short-term training course of the Congregation were remarkable.

In the short span of a few days, most of the organists who had had combat experience, or had been knights even, had mastered the main techniques and skills that would originally require one to two years to learn. Although they were still lacking in certain aspects, what they needed was just the accumulation of experience over the years.

In the past few days, the outcome of the fights against the vile spawn of the sea had made the old men who took time off their schedules to check on the progress laugh with glee. The new generation of the Witch Hammer was in embryo. Unfortunately, the progress of the musicians was still slow — although they were provided with a lot of purifying movements and esoteric music theory, those of them whose sound of heart movements had formed already had their own style of music. While they could still learn the techniques of the Religious Court of Inquiry, the learning process was much lower in terms of efficiency as compared to the purifiers who were cultivated from a young age.

Regarding this, the old devils were willing to let nature take its own course.

Musicians take a long time to cultivate, as music is not something that can be learned all at once — even express musicians, whom orthodox musicians look down upon, require three months of training.

Presently, in addition to guiding more than ten musicians, who had yet to enter the level of Resonance, to switch to learning purifying music theory, the old devil in charge of the training, who still bore a youthful appearance, had started hatching a plan involving Ye Qingxuan… The relationship between Ye Qingxuan and Maxwell was obviously no secret. When Maxwell dies, as the reserve sword-bearer, Ye Qingxuan will be the first heir to his inheritance. I wonder if Anglo’s Royal Academy of Music would mind having a new department then?

If Maxwell knew that a member of Ye Qingxuan’s relief troops was looking forward to his death before even arriving at Avalon, surely his expression would be very interesting?

Boom!

Another dull bang came from the depths of the stronghold.

Igor and Carol were stunned for a moment. They turned and looked at the stronghold.

The fortress was shrouded in moonlight of an indeterminable source, making it seem ethereal and illusory all the more, almost as if it was dissipating. From the depths of the stronghold came loud bangs and roars one after another, but it seemed a long distance away from them, and they could only heard the dull echoes.

“Something went wrong again?” Igor sighed and said, “What the hell is happening in the advanced training course?”

Carol couldn’t help but gave a wry smile.

He replied, “To tell the truth, I’m curious as well.”

“For the white tower!” Shi Dong woke up from the dream, and upon opening his eyes, saw a war horse raising its front legs to step on him. The knight on the horse, wearing a white-silver visor and waving a saber, howled angrily at him and looked at him from atop the horse. The visor made of white silver was cold and cruel, like the face of a god.

At that moment, his pupils contracted, and his old and skinny aged body suddenly swelled up. The mechanic heart pumped artificial blood to his body at explosive speed and adrenalin burned inside him. He sprung up from his wheelchair and drew his sword from the back of the chair. Then, he wielded his sword to fight the knight.

This was the beauty born from death.

The air was torn up by the sword, which went forward and cleaved the horse. Suddenly, little rocks fell on his face, waking him up from his dream. Then he saw his sword, which had pierced the wall. Yet the horse, which should have been dead, was still galloping on the field, carrying the knight, who was still shouting war cries. They went through the wall and lead the army into the stronghold they were now in.

The sound of war cry was deafening.

He awoke from his dream and stumbled into his chair, pain consuming his body. He heaved a sigh and asked, “Did he fall asleep again?”

“Yes.” The curtain was drawn open. The old men were sitting around the table, not knowing what to do. The place they were in was within the stronghold, yet it had turned into endless grassland.

The land cracked open and fire spurted out from the hell. Giant armored cavaliers roared. The soldiers wore primitive armor from the first generation, on the back of which the aether stoves were burning oil mixed with aether, puffing out irritating black smoke.

On the chest of the armor, the emblem of the red bird was engraved, and on the shoulder part with patches of bear skin, rivets stuck out like thorns.

This was the first-generation powered armor which had been abandoned long ago. With this armor, the solder couldn’t make any precise movements and could only go forward and backward. The critical aether stove was implanted on the back, exposed to the enemy from behind. To wear this armor, one needed six servants who had studied engineering to help him on the hoist platform.

The cavaliers could not bend themselves with the exoskeleton on. The servants brought wrenches and screws with them to fix the armor on the exoskeleton and seal the joints with a welding gun. The armor was like a moving coffin and could bury the rider if the field was muddy.

Notwithstanding all its disadvantages, when the cavaliers wearing them formed a square to fight, the formation could inflict massive damage upon any enemy.

Then, 60 armored cavaliers stood in the front of the field, with heavy chains connecting them and heavy shields in their hands forming a massive iron wall. On the opposite side of the field, numerous war horses galloped toward them, carrying heavily armored riders who held their sabers high to charge forward.

“Masks of the Iron Flow Army and the first-generation powered armors… Is this the Nebuchadnezzar War?” Shi Dong wiped his face with a hot towel and felt much more awake.

The Nebuchadnezzar war was the civil war of Asgard more than 100 years ago. The two sons of the king fought for the throne with the help of the Red Bird clan and the White Tower clan, respectively. This war was recorded in history and became an important historical event known as the “The Last Eulogy of the Heavy Cavaliers of the Old Times.” This was the first time that powered armor had been the field.

They fought against the Iron Flow Army, who were heavy cavaliers called King of the Battlefield. The monster-horses and experienced cavaliers cooperated so perfectly that they were the nightmare of every army.

The Red Bird Clan asked the Chainsaw Fraternity for help, who, settling down in Asgard for not long, needed to prove themselves eagerly. The cooperation of the two sides culminated in a war that left the whole world in shock. The powerful armor was officially introduced to the battlefield.

That was the clash of iron against iron, and the old times against the new times.

The Iron Flow Army was wiped out and the White Tower Clan lost everything, driven from the center stage of the country and exiled to the wilderness a hundred years later.

The numerous disadvantages of the powered armor were exposed during the war, such as its cumbersomeness, instability, and reliance on the environment and back-up service. Yet, the victory proved its potential. After that, heavy cavaliers were replaced by powered armor, then disappeared from history.

“Told you not to dig ancient history.” The old men heaved a sigh. “What good can it do to teach him about those ancient battles?”

“I’ve been teaching him defense these two days!” Shi Dong shrugged. “This was supposed to be a negative example. He must have been reading casually. Dreams are unstable, don’t worry.”

The old men looked at one another, feeling helpless. For most people, things in dreams were unlogical and unstable, full of weird changes. However, Ye Qingxuan’s dream was absolutely an exception.

When sleeping, people would be relaxed. They would put down all guards and common sense, exposing their most vulnerable parts. The musicians of the School of Mind preferred to change their targets’ mind after they fell asleep because people were unguarded in sleep, making the job easy.

But this dream of Ye Qingxuan’s was in no way normal.

No vulnerability and flaw at all, and armored to the teeth. The weather, wind, the cracked land, the crushed grass and succus, the sunlight, the machinery of the numerous powered armor and each and every gear, spring and pulley of them….

Everything was so real, except that they could not be touched. It was like the Replay of Images conducted by dozens of magic musicians, reading records in the aether and replay everything.

“There are always exceptions.” Shaking his head, Shi Dong looked at Ye Qingxuan.

This was not expected by any of them.

Ye Qingxuan’s resistance to the drug was incredibly strong, thanks to the Stone of Sage and the sub-originator, which had improved his body’s resistance against foreign substances. He had a lot of Dream of Emerald, of course. Yet, after a week of crazy training, he just closed his eyes and fell asleep without any warning sign.

Then the problem began.

If he were an ordinary guy, it would be no problem. But he was a dream weaver, representing the realm of dreams. The best musicians were themselves the realization of the dreams in the world.

When a dream weaver became extremely sleepy and exhausted, he could no longer control his dream, and the Symphony of Predestination would run by itself and turn into reality; it pulled the dreams into the real world.

Yet, in the dreams of Ye Qingxuan, there was no longer the silent world and the Ultimate. Instead, he dreamed of the stuff those old men taught him.

What one thinks of in the day would become his dream at night. But the old men found themselves helpless when their room turned into an endless sea where fleets fought against each other, aether stoves puffing smoke onto their faces.

In the chaos, the bell for war rang. After a hasty inspection by a bunch of musicians, they found the source of the problem. With no way to handle it, the old men had to let it be. They could not keep him from falling asleep. It would be okay as long as they could make up for the lost teaching time when he woke up. So, Ye Qingxuan was fast asleep, letting his dreams run wild in the real world. No one knew when he would wake up.

Maybe it was the way it should be for him?

Those old men were men of the world themselves. Sitting in the center of the battlefield in Ye Qingxuan’s dream, they were not afraid at all. They were watching the dream with full interest, guessing how well Ye Qingxuan could replay this legendary war in his dream.

“It was so frighteningly perfect.” One old man in a wheelchair heaved a sigh.

“Every detail is perfect.” The old men pointed at the heavily armored knight and commented, “The conditions of the knights’ saddles are even made different. His dream is so real! He is really the Hand of God to have made such a massive illusion.

“He also has learned the battle tactics well. He’s really good to have learned so much in just a few weeks.”

“That’s not what I mean.” The old man in the wheelchair shook his head and said, “It is trivial how real and detailed the dream is. I’ve noticed something else…”

Shi Dong thought for a moment and said, “You mean him?”

“Yes,” said the old man. “Everyone put themselves in their own dream, right? All dreams are based on this and then can they be expanded upon. Without the dreamer, the dream means nothing, and it does not exist at all. I tried to find his subconsciousness in his dream but my effort has been in vain.” Then the old man paused. Pointing at the army on both sides, he said, “I cannot find him. Where is he?”

All old men looked around but no one found Ye Qingxuan in the dream. Everyone looked at each other and fell into silence. The battlefield was chaotic, but they were sure Ye Qingxuan was not there in the dream. The young man had become an outsider, like the old men. Even the observers outside his dream couldn’t detect his subconsciousness.

“He is always on guard. It’s as if he is always ready to fight his enemies. There are even no flaws in his dream! This is really incredible.”

The old man in the wheelchair said, “I’ve never seen anyone as alert as he is. But why is he under such huge pressure?”

“Don’t worry.” Shi Dong shook his head and said, “Actually, our Grand Inquisitor seems to hide everything about him from us. He is always there, it’s just that you cannot see him.”

Then he raised his hand and pointed above. In the silence, all old men raised their stiff heads. Above the huge battlefield floated the smoke caused by the fierce fight between the Iron Flow Army and the powered armored cavaliers. Blood spills everywhere and evaporated into the air, like the soul of a dead man flying up. Over the empty and quiet sky, behind the smoke and the blue of the sky, there was a pair of eyes looking down from far away.

…

Under the pair of eyes, the battle went on like a machine, where numerous gears engaged with each other in perfect condition according to some pre-set laws, which had determined the end of the battle since the very beginning.

Finally, everything ended.

Ye Qingxuan opened his eyes. After a long nap, he was still tired. He lowered his head. Seeing the blank schedule, he frowned and asked, “All classes were finished?”

Looking at each other, the old men had not yet recovered from the shock inflicted upon them by the dream. In the silence, Shi Dong coughed to hide the embarrassment and said, “You finished all courses in three weeks, which were expected to last two months. We have to say we underestimated your talent. It would take at least two years for an ordinary man.”

In the corner, there was only one old man who was not satisfied. He murmured, “Your fighting skills are still lame.”

“It’s nothing. Everyone has his weakness.” Shi Dong waved his hand to stop him talking. He said with a smile, “We can begin our classes of the next phase now.”

“That’s enough, Shi Dong. Get these boring things away.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head and got up from his chair for the first time in three weeks. “It has cost me three weeks of my time now. I’ve learned enough to handle things. I don’t want to see these things anymore.”

“What if you come across some problem in the future?” Shi Dong asked.

Turning his head to Shi Dong, Ye Qingxuan said, “That is supposed to be your business, not mine. I cannot take care of everything.”

Shi Dong sighed. “As you can see, sir, we are all old.”

Stepping toward the gate, Ye Qingxuan didn’t turn his head at all. He waved his hand casually and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll squeeze out all the juice of yours before you die.”

Shi Dong was a little struck by surprise. He showed an expression full of self-mockery and said, “Our great honor, sir.”

Bang! The gate was closed.

Six days later, on top of the cliff outside the workshop.

The workshop had once again expanded to twice its size. The three-meter-long copper nails were riveted deeply into the rocks, holding up criss-cross cables which was woven into a net, restraining the swelling black felt inside.

If one was to look downwards from the top of the cliff, the workshop would resemble a monster caught in a net. The net of the thick and heavy felt cloths was like a giant’s chest. It swelled and contracted along with the ocean tide in the distance. As it breathed, deep echoes burst forth the depths of the darkness and traveled in all directions. Roars and booms were constantly coming from it.

“Cut off fastener number one!”

Boom!

“Cut off fastener number two!”

Boom!

…

After blowing up the fasteners one by one, the booming noises were followed by the spine-chilling sound of steel scraping against each other, countless steel parts collided with each other as if they were in the hands of a giant, producing maddeningly loud noises.

The gray-black felt cloth under the steel cables seemed to have turned into a monster’s womb, and it was having difficulties in giving birth to the horrific fetus. As the alchemists attempted to ‘deliver’ it, the thing that was about to be born screamed with all its might, summoning tsunami-like waves with its screams.

On the cliff, Igor sat in his unchanged position, paying no heed to the rain falling on his face, his eyes red and bloodshot. It was unclear when did he last showered. He gave off a weird stench, and his hair was unkempt and clumpy. The grease that had accumulated on his hair insulated it from the rain, thus, his hair was not smoothed by the rain, and even started to curl upwards.

He no longer resembled the decent person he once was but seemed to have removed all pretenses and had become a pirate once more. He was drinking liquor from the collection of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and when he looked downwards at the workshop below, his eyes, which were bloodshot from the lack of sleep, had a wolf-like fierceness in them.

Behind him, Ye Qingxuan’s figure emerged silently.

“The finishing touches are complete.” He looked at Igor’s unkempt appearance and said, “It’s the final inspection phase now. In a short while, the ship will be launched. You’re really not coming down to take a look?”

“I…” Igor’s lips moved as he muttered a few syllables, his tongue sticking out from the blistered corner his mouth and licked the cold, salty rain. The anxious breath from his chest spurted out of his nose and mouth and turned into a dissipating mist.

“I’ve been looking forward to it for some time, and I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep…” He scratched his knotted hair with his hand, his voice hoarse as he said, “But now that I’m about to see it, I suddenly felt a bit scared. It’s like my child is about to be born. You handed me this child, but I don’t know… I don’t know if I am qualified to sail it.”

Ye Qingxuan patted his shoulder. “Then you should take a shower and get some sleep. I don’t want my ship to strike a reef and sink just after its launch because of her captain’s lack of sleep.”

Igor shook his head and replied, “Only staying here can calm me down.” He lifted his eyes and stared at the pitch black sea in the distance, which was dead silent.

“Now I’m much better, sir.” He laughed in self-mockery. “You need not worry about me, I won’t let you down.”

Ye Qingxuan nodded but did not leave. Instead, he took out a wooden case from his pocket.

“Want a smoke?” He had bought the cigarettes in the Sacred City.

Normally, Ye Qingxuan rarely smoked, so the case of first-class cigarettes crafted exquisitely was still half full. But a long time had passed since his purchase, and it had probably gotten damp, hence it might not taste very good.

“Thank you.” Igor took it, and he pulled out a thin metallic rod from his boots in an adept manner. He scratched his keychain with it forcefully. Sparks flew from the edges of the keychain, igniting the combustible rod made of unique material. He cupped his hand to protect the faint flame as he put it close to his lips, igniting the cigarette.

Observing his fluid movements, Ye Qingxuan raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s that?”

“This?” Igor swung the short stick to put out the flame and waved it in front of Ye Qingxuan, showing him the overlapping marks that resulted from scratches accumulated over the years. “A combustion stick created by an alchemist, from my former captain.

“It was popular among pirates before the invention of the Clean Fire Source but has long since been eliminated. You probably haven’t seen it before. ”

“Indeed so,” Ye Qingxuan acknowledged.

Igor continued, “It’s actually quite inconvenient to use, as it may easily cause a fire sometimes, especially on pirate ships of a poor condition. There’s aged equipment in disrepair everywhere, so fire may endanger the whole ship.”

He let out a jolly laugh and said, “Back then, the only person qualified to carry a kindling spark on board was the captain. The sailors could only eat their food cold, except for dinner. Whoever dared to light a fire would be condemned to death by hanging.

“At that time, everyone would gather on the front deck before dinner every day. The chef would be waiting with the firewood for the captain to arrive in his shiny boots that had just been rubbed, smoking his crumpled cigarette. The captain would then pull the rod out of his boot and scratch the knife with it… The fire would be ignited, just like a miracle! He would be the cockiest during that time of the day.

“I would stand in the most inconspicuous corner and watch the captain, going crazy with envy. In private, I had quietly imitated his actions countless times, dreaming that I could be the captain of a big ship one day, standing on the deck with my sailors. Wearing brand new clothes and boots, I could enjoy their respectful gazes…”

Ye Qingxuan looked at the metal rod Igor held with his fingers, which was covered in scratches, and asked, “Your captain gave it to you in the end?”

“Nope,” Igor replied. He grinned and said, “I stole it.”

“…” Ye Qingxuan wasn’t sure what to say.

“The captain was angry when he realized that it was missing. He couldn’t find the thief, so he tied everyone up, including me, and gave us 30 lashes each,” Igor continued his story.

He pulled his collar open and showed Ye Qingxuan the scars left on his shoulders. “Later, the captain suspected the first officer, so he cut the first officer’s hand off. That night, the first officer charged into the captain’s cabin with several sailors. And when he came out, we had a new captain. But before his iron hook was even made, another mob killed him…

“Pirates are always like this. No one will bother telling jokes about friendship or brotherhood. When a pirate sees something he likes, he will snatch it. If he can’t snatch it, he will steal it. If he fails, he will be hanged on the mast.

“I have been used to it since I was a child. Even as a teenager, I didn’t understand what’s the use of money. You see, I could get myself everything I wanted without money. ”

Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “The education of pirates is very different indeed.”

“I had no choice.” Igor shrugged as well and said, “To be honest, I also want to live like a young aristocrat, doing nothing every day but dress up and learn music. But unfortunately for me, I was put into a wooden barrel and thrown into the sea when I was just a baby and got fished out by the pirates.

“Growing up at sea, raised by a bunch of criminals and gays, even the milk that I drank was from the captain’s sheep. The first line I spoke was to curse people…

“I was very thin back then, short, with a hunched back, and eyes of different sizes… Before I was 12, I didn’t even have a name. Everyone else called me the deformed child. But it’s perfectly normal, after all, you can’t expect to get any love from a nest of pirates, right? ”

“Right,” affirmed Ye Qingxuan.

So Igor laughed, squishing the cigarette that had been drenched by the rain. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the dead silent sea in the distance.

“It’s the only one that loves me,” he said.

Ye Qingxuan remained silent.

“The sea was the one that allowed me to survive, sir,” Igor continued. He put out the cigarette. “I am nothing if I leave it. It has given me a place to stay, enabling me to create some value out of this life, albeit negligible.

“To be honest, it’s a very annoying feeling, like a child brought up by a whore who prostituted herself to provide for him, with no courage to run away from home even. But as time goes by, you’ll get used to it. No matter if it’s dirty or otherwise, ugly or otherwise, you still have to love it. ”

Ye Qingxuan was quiet for a good while, before sighing in a low voice. “I have to say that I’m becoming a little bit more adapted to your quirky metaphors, Captain.”

“Nothing I can do about that. After all, I’m not a man of culture.” Igor threw the empty bottle down and stared at the dead silent sea. He turned back and asked, “Is it really alive, sir? Everyone told me that it is.”

Ye Qingxuan replied, “It depends on your concept of ‘living’. For the ordinary person, as long as the heart is still beating, and the brain is still working, it can be considered alive.

“If a human is still alive, then his body is considered to be alive. His limbs, his bones, his hair, and his nails all contain vitality, even though the nature of the human body is no different from other material substances. ”

“Other than the ordinary person?” prompted Igor.

Ye Qingxuan said after a moment’s thought, “In some sense, a musician differs from the ordinary person. You can think of it as if musicians have an extra organ called aether. The vitality of the musician manifests itself in this aspect as well.

“For musicians of the level of Distortion, the area within a hundred feet of them, and where their music theory can reach, are all extensions of their bodies. For catastrophes, the extension and even radiation of their perceptions of ‘self’ are even more insane. At the very least, humans have never figured out the limit of the size of catastrophes.

“For Leviathan, the entire ocean is its territory. All sea water is part of its body. It’s the ruler of the ocean, as dictated by the music theory in the Originator. It has yet to fully resurrect, so the ocean you’re looking at now is just its somniloquence.”

“So, it’s really alive?” Igor murmured. He understood and turned back, staring at the dead silent sea in pitch black, far away.

Shaking his head, he said, “But seeing its state of living makes me very sad. It’s too desolate. Even though it’s alive, it felt like death.”

“We’ve spent a long time speaking childish words.” Ye Qingxuan sighed softly, and stuffed the cigarette case into Igor’s pocket. Finally, he patted Igor on the shoulder. “You have passed the age of yearning for love, Igor. If you have an audience, I’m sure they won’t like it as well.

“So don’t trouble yourself with such thoughts anymore. After you finish these cigarettes, take a good shower, then go take a look at your ship like a man. If you really love it,” Ye Qingxuan paused and looked at Igor’s eyes, telling him, “then kill it, and let it be reborn.”

…

On the coast, in the cold rain, a young man in a black poncho ran up. His lips were frozen white due to the cold of the night, the lenses of his glasses covered in water droplets. The board in his hand had a sheet full of statistics clipped onto it. When he was a few steps away from Ye Qingxuan, he wiped the mucus off his nose with his sleeve, before presenting the report.

“Your Honor, we have finished transporting everything. The inspection is complete as well. There’s a minor problem with the keel, but Bishop Carol guarantees that it will be solved within an hour,” said the young man

“Then get ready for the launch,” Ye Qingxuan replied. He waved and threw the report into the sea. “We’ll no time left to rest after this. Comrades, one hour later, we will be leaving for the battlefield, and regardless of whether we succeed or not, there’s no turning back.”

The young man nodded and ran back.

Ye Qingxuan stood on the beach, waiting silently. The banging sounds of steel clashing rang out from afar, as the tower crane loaded the final items into the ship. From then on, the stronghold would be empty, as everything of value would be brought along by the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when they left with Ye Qingxuan.

When the last fire had been extinguished, Ye Qingxuan turned back and looked behind him through a curtain of rain. In the ice-cold drizzle, the clergymen donning red stood in the mud respectfully. The rain dripped from their robes into the mud, the puddles beneath rippling faintly. They made no noise, as if they were phantoms, and held the banner of the burning holy emblem high, like a quiet flame burning in the rain.

Upon noticing the gaze of Ye Qingxuan, they bowed their heads with respect. White soul-like gusts of mist squirted out from their noses and mouths as they breathed, merging into one, and ascended into the sky, like a curling white smoke rising from burning embers.

There were 1,041 men in total.

230 apprentices.

400 knights of the Witch Hammer.

130 purifiers.

190 organists.

And so on…

All the followers of Ye Qingxuan were here, and they were the only ones under his command in this world.

“It’s time, Your Honor.” Shi Dong walked out from the crowd, went down on one knee, and presented his sword reverently with both hands. “Please give the order.”

From the rippling water came deep echoes. All of them followed Shi Dong closely, kneeling on the ground as they waited for Ye Qingxuan’s orders.

Ye Qingxuan lowered his head and looked at the long sword in Shi Dong’s hands, and he couldn’t help but go into a trance-like state. In the midst of it, he saw Hermes staring at him from a distance, the souls of the deceased with him. With his usual mocking smile, the apparition of Hermes whispered in Ye Qingxuan’s ear, “From now on, he will be led astray.”

So, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help but smile.

The world has been advancing on the wrong path for a longer time than it should.

The time for change has come.

From this day onward.

From this moment onward.

He reached out and clenched the hilt, raising the sword high. The blade sliced through the rain, making a drawn-out sound which reverberated through the surrounding darkness.

The illusions dissipated, as if the souls had left the world.

The light from the flames shone in the rain.

“Remember this day, my dear gentlemen!” In the burning glow of the holy banner, he announced, “Today, we re-establish the Religious Court of Inquiry!

“Today, we rise again from the quagmire of pain, embarrassment and difficulty. On this tortuous and rough path, never once have we let go of our dreams and souls,” he continued. “Now, we are on our way to tell everyone—the sinners, the lost and the arrogant nobility—that we have not met our demise, and we are back!”

He raised the seemingly ablaze holy banner in his hand and declared to his subjects, “I promise you in the name of God, that what we shall do is righteous, what we shall follow is the will of God, and what we shall usher in is noble justice!”

In the burning light, countless people replied in unison, “Your Honor, all the glory in the mortal realm shall be yours!”

So, the ocean and the sky shook.

Magnificent booms rang out from afar.

In the midst of countless bangs loud enough to vibrate the ocean water and create waves, earth-shaking and earsplitting hisses could be heard. Countless copper nails wedged into the stone made piercing sounds as they scratched against metals and rocks. Sparks erupted as the nails were pulled out of the rocks by the tightly wound steel cables, the resulting screeches fragmenting the air one after another.

Among the innumerable things falling apart, the behemoth tore the nest that nurtured it apart, breaking through layers and layers of gray-black felt cloths, snapping all the steel cables and crushing all the fasteners into dust. In the shower of ice-cold rain, it emerged from the workshop, splitting the sea and the sky.

It was a warship so huge it made one’s jaws drop.

As the horns blared, the warship charged into the sea, stirring up hurricane-like winds, breaking the silent waves beneath. The scales covering the ship cut across the reefs and dams like blades, smashing the dam at the harbor of refuge, and the ship sailed into the ocean in the midst of its engine’s loud roars.

Above the bow of the ship, the ghastly white skull of the giant snake burned with a scorching flame coming from the aether furnace, emitting a glaring light. A slight movement forward was enough for it to stir up a gale and strong waves.

It was the Mountain of Nomadism, the nightmare and disaster that had returned!

The monster the world created had finally descended upon the world.

“Let’s go, my comrades.” Ye Qingxuan smiled at the sea of darkness, and said, “One day, we will ignite the world with stakes!”

It was dark. In the faint, gloomy, cold mist, one couldn’t hear the splattering of rain. As the icy rain passed through the mist, the raindrops seemed to blend into the squirming mist and disappeared. Droplets of water fell on the dead silent sea, almost invisible to the naked eye, only leaving fine ripples behind.

Shattered ice crystals in the ripples collided with each other and spread outwards, pushing the swollen corpse forward. It was unclear how long the deformed corpse had been soaked in the sea. It had already rotted, and the ghastly white abdominal cavity swelled due to the gases produced in the rotting process. It was like a balloon floating on the sea.

Strange fish that smelled the odor of putrefaction swam up from the deep sea. The fish, which were about the thickness of human fingers and resembled iron wire, greedily ate the carrion. They punctured the balloon, which burst with a muffled sound, and the foul stench grew thicker.

In the appalling rustling sound of sharp teeth munching on bones, a dark shadow slowly emerged from the bottom of the sea. It opened its huge mouth and surfaced suddenly, then shut it again.

Crack, crack, crack. Hundreds of strange fish were crushed as the six rows of teeth munched on. Viscous blood oozed from the huge mouth and stained the surface of the sea, dyeing the pitch black ocean into a ghastly dark green.

As it chewed carefreely, in the fog, two pale white glows lit up silently. They were like the huge eyes of a behemoth, shining through the fog.

The calm surface of the sea was shattered. Before the creature which the huge, gigantic mouth belonged to could dive into the sea once more, overwhelming roars echoed in the deep sea.

The fierce glow of lightning flashing shone from the clouds. It struck down like a blade, opening up a gap in the mist that was so thick it made one feel breathless. When it fell on the sea, it completely shattered the waves that were brewing up on the surface of the sea.

In the turbulent waves, the blaring of horns sounded. The vast, pitch black shadow sailed on the surface of the sea, coming from afar. It brought with it a hurricane, and advanced along the path opened up by the lightning. At the foremost of the shadow hung the pale white skull of a giant snake. A scorching glow was emitted from the eye sockets of the skull. Simply by sweeping across the water surface, it cast down flames and bestowed destruction equally upon all demons.

The huge mouth was instantly burned into ashes in the pervasive invisible fire, leaving no trace behind.

Far away, something roared hoarsely as if it was enraged. Across the long distance, the roars could be heard. Their effects were almost tangible, like that of a hammer knocking in one’s heart, rendering one breathless suddenly, as if one was suffocating.

The roaring creature was joined by the second, third, and fourth… As if they had sensed the arrival of an uninvited guest, the monsters hidden in the fog roared maliciously, in a clearly threatening manner.

The hurricane bringing the roars in it hit an invisible wall and was crushed as the ship sailed forward. Only a weak gust of wind remained and blew at the silver hair of the young man standing on the deck.

Ye Qingxuan put down the binoculars that could not enable him to see anything and sighed. “How much further?”

“One hour.” Carol, who was temporarily serving as the first officer and chief engineer, replied, “Actually, we are quite near Avalon. On a sunny day, one can already see the White Tower of the palace in the uptown. But the fog is getting more and more powerful. This region of the sea is rejecting us.”

“We never intended for it to welcome us anyway.” Ye Qingxuan fished out the lens of the Eye of Silence from his pocket and wiped it with a handkerchief. “Go and tell the purification musicians to speed up once more. At any rate, this is the first battle of the re-established Religious Court of Inquiry. Stop goofing off.

“In ten minutes,” he said, “I want to see where Avalon is.”

Carol’s expression twitched. He touched his bald head, forcibly swallowed to prevent himself from vomiting blood and took out his aether ball to pass the orders of the Grand Inquisitor down.

In the bilge of the warship, amid the vast alchemy array, the dozens of purification musicians who were about to break down from stress received the orders and almost vomited blood in unison.

Have the superiors been thinking that we have been slacking here this whole time?! Doesn’t anyone know how stressed they are right now? The pressure from opening up the fog and guiding the way is already about to blow up their sound of heart movements!

In the array, the musicians of the School of Abstinence located at several core positions glanced at each other and lifted their sleeves to wipe the sweat off their foreheads. Soon, their veins and eyes bulged, as if they were burnt red.

In an instant, they became similar to puppets that had fallen apart, with their heads hung low and their bodies slumped on the core of the array, but their tenacities traveled along the vast alchemy array and blended into the entire Mountain of Nomadism.

In a flash, they flowed through the four layers of outflowing, creating, circulating and forming, and entered the core.

A pool of aether several meters in width was located in the center of the sixteen main circuits and the four Instruments of harmonious melody. Aether that had condensed into liquid form swirled in it. One couldn’t see how deep it was by looking down from directly above the pool. As if it led to another unpredictable world, glints flashed across the pool constantly.

In the silver glow of the pool of aether, the giant heart of the Mountain of Nomadism was soaked inside. Having been transformed into a living aether furnace, the heart was emitting a terrifying amount of heat at the moment.

It spewed out liquid aether as it beat slowly. The glow from the power contained within alone was glaring enough for one to be unable to look at it directly.

When the musicians’ tenacities flowed into it along with musical notes, the rhythm of the beating accelerated ever so slightly.

[Code—Gaze at the abyss]

[Sequence of notes is activated.]

[The valve between sections nine and eight is closed.]

[Activation of the second mode is completed.]

The hull shook slightly. In the silent alchemy array, three more complicated movements were awakened and connected to the main axis.

The engineers beside it were relieved. The aether furnace made of the heart smoothly changed from the first mode designed for pure navigation to the second mode designed for situations where the ship was on alert.

Silently, the silver glow in the pool of aether surged. A fountain-like torrent of aether poured out of the nine-layer sea of aether and was devoured by the greedy hull, leaving no drop behind.

At the moment, musicians could sense that the violent gravitational force emitted by the Mountain of Nomadism had formed a large depression in the sea of aether, plundering non-stop and attracting all loose energies, gathering them together.

The scale was comparable to that of an artifact!

Honestly speaking, the method in which the Religious Court of Inquiry processed the Mountain of Nomadism was really sketchy.

The ship was built based on the corpse of the Mountain of Nomadism. The raw material was processed and manufactured while the cells were still active. Basically, the humongous sea monster was cut up into pieces and reassembled into a ship.

In Carol’s original words to Ye Qingxuan, “First, we have no industrial base. Second, we do not have enough alchemists. Third, we do not have shipbuilders at the forefront. To conjure up a legendary warship that can screw whoever dares to attack it over in such a short span of time is simply impossible. However, if you are willing to settle for the next best alternative… well, it’s not impossible.”

So, Igor only realized something when he took over… To forcibly say that it was a ship was indeed not wrong, one could even go out on a limb and call it a warship.

But in fact, what Ye Qingxuan they all had done was to use the best materials to build a gun emplacement that was fit for war and could float on the sea while carrying three cannons capable of causing insanely high damage. Although it could fly in the sky using the sixth mode, that still couldn’t change the fact that it was just a gun emplacement!

If it wasn’t for Ye Qingxuan who stopped Igor with all his might and promised him “We will have bread, we will have milk [1]. When I finish saving the nation, I’ll make sure Anglo equips your ship with everything you want,” Igor might have jumped into the sea in sorrow and frustration.

Not that Igor could help it. From a harsher perspective, the warship lacked any technical substance. The only things worthy of praise were the insanely strong firepower and extremely extravagant raw materials.

The former came from the three Petitioner-level main batteries made by the Religious Court of Inquiry. By right, the forbidden technology should still be sealed at the moment unless a special order was issued.

The latter was because as raw material, the quality of the Mountain of Nomadism itself was simply too high. During the manufacturing process, the purification musicians had marveled at its nature countless times. They even suspected that it had descended from the direct bloodline of Leviathan and that it was a prince that had been granted its own territory in the seven seas by Leviathan.

Thanks to that, the Mountain of Nomadism was basically a living artifact, and insane results could be achieved simply by using it as raw material alone.

Presently, the disturbance in the sea of aether caused by the Mountain of Nomadism was at most no more than that caused when it was breathing, and they didn’t even have to activate anything deliberately to achieve such a result.

Back when they were drawing the designs for the ship, the old devils already began to thump their chests and stomp their feet in regret—How can such good material be wasted on building warships, it is born to be used as a musical instrument, gods be damned!

With just the slightest bit of nurturing, it can become a new artifact. If a Scepter Musician is put in charge of the process, it’s not entirely impossible for it to become an artifact of the very top quality.

It’s such a pity to have a prodigal for their new Grand Inquisitor.

Artifact? Sorry, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t care less. Let’s not mention the clothes of original sin he robbed from Paganini first…

Ye Qingxuan had Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, the proof of the Ye family’s Bloodline of the Dragon, which enabled him to control aether with a frighteningly high level of precision and came with the Heaven Ladder effect that allowed him to practice music theories across all seven systems. It was the exclusive instrument of Dreamweavers and was even the key to the Ye family’s legacy in the realm of aether.

As long as Ye Qingxuan could break through the Level of Master and advance to the Level of Scepter, he would be able to obtain the scepter in the realm of aether that had integrated the powers of the Dreamweavers of the past generations. Then, he could combine it with the dream he himself wove, and it would basically allow his powers to increase from that of a musician who had just attained the Level of Scepter to that of one who was at the peak of said level. It was equivalent to having his ancestors pass down their powers to him, and he would be no less powerful than even the saints who had been canonized by the Sacred City.

It was one of the reasons why the nine families of Dragon Bloodline was on equal footing with the saints!

The stone sword, which was the artifact guarding the country and the symbol of Anglo’s sovereignty, would almost certainly become his as well.

Other than the scepter named Heavenly Kingdom on Earth which King Arthur created in the form of a sword with all the wealth of Anglo to help him ascend as a god and was so famous that it was fairly pointless to talk about, there were also the Twelve Chapters of the Golden Victory. Each chapter represented a Phantom Beast that was well known back in those days.

And before you forget, there was also the Lance of St. George.

It was made of meteorite metal, and also known as The Lance of the Dragon Slayer, the artifact that had sealed the Hecatoncheir for ten years. After whiling away for ten years in the Ultimate, it was still as sharp as ever. Although the two had yet to officially belong to Ye Qingxuan, anyone with a discerning eye could easily see that he would be their owner sooner or later.

When Shi Dong and the rest of the old men gave the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith away to Ye Qingxuan along with themselves in it, they had already analyzed the situation thoroughly, found themselves more than satisfied with their findings, and settled on a plan.

Who is the current bearer of the stone sword? It is the head of the fifth department, the shadow emperor of Anglo, loyalist to the crown, the one who has already appointed Ye Qingxuan as his heir, Maxwell!

Meanwhile, the meteorite iron belongs to the Knights of the Round Table.

And who is the current head of the Knights of the Round Table?

It is the leader of the Privy Council during the three years the Empress was unfit to rule, the celebrated minister who ruled the entire empire well, the army general who was discreetly known, together with Maxwell, as the Double Pillars of the Empire among the higher-ups, Lancelot!

And who is the heir of the Lancelot family? Is it his daughter Christine, the Grand Knight of the Praetorian Guard, who has inherited the name of Galahad?

No, it is his eldest nephew Ye Qingxuan!

One can say that when Ye Qingxuan’s identity was recognized by the Sacred City and he became a Marquis, he has immediately become one of the most powerful people to be in the world.

With one-eighth of royal blood in his body, as long as he is determined enough to get rid of the demented eldest prince and the second eldest princess, as well as a dozen insignificant aristocrats, he will be the only rightful successor of Anglo, the future King of Anglo!

To even think about it is enough to drive one crazy.

The Lord of the Ye family, one of the nine families of Dragon Bloodline in the East, the King of the Anglo in the West, the Archbishop of the Sacred City, the Grand Inquisitor of the Religious Court of Inquiry, the Hand of God appointed by the Sacred City…

Furthermore, this lad is also the most talented musician in the past century, second to none in both the East and the West other than his own father.

If you indulge yourself and dream a bit more, fifty years later… maybe he will become the King of Blue?

I must stop thinking about it anymore, it’s almost a sin to think about all this!

As long as we hold on to him tightly, when he comes into power, surely the Religious Court of Inquiry can start a crusade to the east whenever we like, and burn whoever we like?

Thinking of this, Shi Dong laughed so hard that his chin almost fell off.

Although it is a venture capital that has a 99% chance of losing terribly, if we manage to win, the profit is a few hundred times, or even thousands of times more than what we have invested!

Upon hearing that Orientals tend to be more reserved, Shi Dong even looked the Oriental term ‘donning the yellow robe’ [2] up in the dictionary. In private, he even drafted out a Quan Jin Biao [3]!

It was the last time he gambled in his life.

He wanted to bet everything he had on it, even if the future was uncertain.

He had confidence in it.

It had been more than two hundred years since he first held a sword…

He had gambled countless times.

Even though he was already very old, very, very old, so old that he had changed his artificial prostate gland three times. But it didn’t matter, neither did anything else. He could still manage to continue living for more than a decade, continue living until he himself reached the end of this road, even if he couldn’t walk anymore and had to crawl, and made Ye Qingxuan a god. Even if it meant living uglily and hideously, even if he had to humble himself and work like a horse.

Beside the pool of aether, the old man who sat down stroked his sword and smiled, gratified. When he looked up, his gaze seemed to penetrate the layers of obstacles between them and landed on the young man.

“Please be assured, Your Honor.” He murmured softly, “You will become the hero who saved the country and then become a legend in the world. You will be fully deserving of your title as the Hand of God. You will be the embodiment of justice and righteousness in the mortal realm!”

…

In a flash, endless aether flowed into the ship, supplied under the second mode.

Several Resonance Musicians of the School of Abstinence disregarded the fact that the pressure might cause their cerebral blood vessels to burst and controlled the purification movements to expand the thunderclouds over the hull by several times. Thunder and lightning flashed, tearing the fog which resembled a living creature apart and pierced into the depths of the darkness.

Shrill, illusion-like screams rang out.

A straight passageway opened up in the fog.

At the end of the passage was a fiery glory that had burned the sky red.

For a moment, everyone held their breath.

It was Avalon.

Avalon was burning!

Once the Pearl of the Sea, the Heavenly Kingdom on the Earth, the City of Pure White… At the moment, it was shrouded in destruction, falling sorrowfully into the flames of war.

“What… is this?” someone asked.

[1] A reference to a famous line spoken in the movie Lenin in 1918 (Ленинв 1918 году), meaning that eventually, they would have everything they wanted.

[2] It means to ascend the throne, usually used in scenarios where the person is not the rightful heir to the throne but ascends the throne after overthrowing the previous ruler.

[3] A type of official document traditionally sent by ministers to a ruler, who holds the actual power but has yet to formally take over the throne from the figurehead ruler with only nominal power for fear of possible criticism regarding the seizing of the throne, to persuade the ruler with the actual power to ascend the throne, so that he could have an excuse to do so.