Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Boom! In the loud noise, the curtain of rain was slashed by sharp air currents. Countless clouds of fog flew into the air, droplets of rainwater scattering everywhere.
The huge armor exploded in front of Ye Qingxuan and fell apart. Innumerable pieces of iron flew out, wedging themselves deeply into stone, with a fairly large number of pieces whizzing towards Ye Qingxuan. However, whenever a piece neared Ye Qingxuan’s body, a vague cloud of black mist would rise from his robes. It gently wound itself around the piece, making all the kinetic energy of the piece disappear without a trace. Under the gloomy mist, the pieces of iron dissipated into iron sand, blending into the heavy rain, and landed on the ground. In the end, the iron sand piled up into a straight line at the foot of Ye Qingxuan. In the scouring of the rain, traces of red and the cold gleam of the metal bloomed.
Twisted wrecks of steel were everywhere. Raindrops fell on the wreckage, like grease spilling on scorching red iron, igniting a red flame from within, and the flame spread on the ground along the puddles of water.
Under the power of nature inference, the water took on the appearance of flames, as the rules of the Physical World had been distorted under the pull of music theory.
The torrential rain turned into a weapon. It was similar to the iron sand that was once in the hands of Nigel. Guided by formulas of modifications, even with only one grain, it was capable of producing a terrifying effect. It was just that nature interference was used in place of formulas of modifications.
Everywhere the moonlight shone, all the raindrops became blades controlled by Ye Qingxuan. He didn’t even have to move, and just stood where he was, as the heavy rain that had undergone nature interference seeped into his opponent’s power armor. Then, the Heaven Ladder unfolded, and countless strands of perception lines of moonlight connected themselves to the alchemy array, eroding it with music theory.
Outflowing layer, forming layer, circulating layer, creating layer, the structures in all four of the layers were completely disrupted. The circuits from innumerable arrays were joined together messily, causing the aether cycle to overload and the cooling system to collapse. In the end, the aether furnace beneath the layers of protection exploded. It would only take a few seconds for the power armor in overload to become a steel melting furnace.
With the clothes of original sin on him, when facing opponents below the Level of Master, Ye Qingxuan could simply ignore their number and go all out, focusing on his attacks. Jiu Xiao Huan Pei was a rare weapon of exceptional quality in itself. After Ye Qingxuan advanced as a dreamweaver, its core music theory was once again nurtured, and its timbre became clearer and brighter.
Traces of the notes, which sounded like dragons whistling, lingered in the rain for a long time before slowly dissipating.
The last opponent standing in his way fell apart, but no sign of joy appeared on Ye Qingxuan’s face. Instead, he frowned.
Although the duration of their fight was short, it was at least around five minutes, which should have been enough for reinforcements from other guard posts to be sent, or for the powerful musicians inside to respond. Plus, this place was not just the summer palace, but also where the Queen’s coronation ceremony was being held, the security would definitely not be slack.
But at the moment, the manor was still dead silent. Only the dim lights in the crystals flickered. Through the thick curtain of rain, the dim yellowish light was refracted and faintly glinted a strange green. The whole manor was so solemn and silent that it was chilling.
Ye Qingxuan took a stride and walked into it.
But along the way, he didn’t see anyone alive at all.
The people were all dead.
On the periphery of the manor, be it the attendants of the guests, the waiters of the manor, or the magnificent and solemn guards of honor, all of them were lying on the ground in the rain at the moment. They had no wounds on their bodies, and the exposed skin was a ghastly white. Their skin was dry, just like inferior paper. Saturated with rainwater, the corpses were swollen and unsightly.
It was the result of a typical method of killing by dark musicians.
With the nightmare fog formed with the music theory of the abyss, dark musicians could easily reap mortal lives; it was as simple as drinking from a straw.
The deeper he ventured into the manor, the more dead bodies there were. In the silent palace, only Ye Qingxuan’s footsteps could be heard. Everyone else had fallen to the ground, sweet smiles at the corners of their lips, as if they were engrossed in a sweet dream.
Only the wonderful aroma lingering in the air was getting stronger.
It was the smell of blood.
A faint singing reverberated.
“Go tell Aunt Rhody… go tell Aunt Rhody… go tell Aunt Rhody…” The faint singing whispered in his ear, “The old gray goose is dead.”
Ye Qingxuan turned back suddenly. Behind him was nothing.
Only the voice that sounded like a girl giggling lingered in my ear. “She died in the mill pond… she died in the mill pond… she died in the mill pond… right in front of her…”
It was Mary.
Ye Qingxuan was silent, reached out and pushed the last door open.
At that very moment, he almost suffocated. In his trance-like state, he felt as if a scarlet wind was blowing towards him from the cruel execution ground behind the door.
Everyone was dead.
Fragmented. The pieces were everywhere on the walls, on the chandelier, and on the floor. Countless greenish skeletons were still in their seats even, their postures dignified, but their flesh and internal organs had stripped off their bones like clothes, layer by layer, blooming like flowers.
The eerie flowers of flesh and blood bloomed in every corner. It was as if a surgeon had disassembled all the human bodies with anatomical techniques that possessed such delicacy bordering on cruelty, then removed the decaying and rotting internal organs, pruned the deformed organs, and left the most perfect parts behind, actually causing a beauty of otherness to arise from the filthy flesh and blood.
Shades of red permeated everywhere.
Streams of blood dripped from the corpses, falling on the red carpet at their feet, lending a vividness to the redness of the carpet, and resembled red mold parasitic on the floor. Stepping on the floor made one feel as if one was sinking into a swamp, the sticky touch bringing discomfort.
Ye Qingxuan walked forward silently and looked around.
He wore a poker face.
He came late.
In the silence, his footsteps suddenly paused, and he stopped where he was. When he lowered his head, he saw that a hand had grasped his ankle. On the ground, the corpse, whose face had been cut off, raised its head, the muscles on its face stretching and seeming to form a vague smile. But behind the layer of muscles, traces of black mist seeped out.
In a flash, it was as if hundreds of fountains had appeared in the hall.
A lot of black mist spewed out of all the corpses, the mist filling up the entire place in a flash. The black mist swallowed up all the light and brought with it an aura of the abyss so thick that it made one want to vomit.
It was the nightmare fog.
In the nightmare fog, which took God knows how many dark musicians to combine their powers and set up, huge aether waves suddenly emerged one after another. Countless music theories intertwined in the air and gathered together, their powers originated from the same source. The dark movement that had inherited the Dark Sovereign’s tenacity resonated with the music theories, causing the nightmare fog to further evolve into a landscape of hell.
In other words, at the moment, Ye Qingxuan had fallen into a blockaded domain almost reaching the Level of Scepter. Meanwhile, in the nightmare fog, vague shadows emerged, each of them radiating aether waves as strong as stars of darkness.
Great demons… Each of them was a dark musician that had achieved the final form after being transformed by the abyss, a pseudo-scepter that had been bestowed with the element of the abyss, a great demon that shepherded Hyakume’s followers for him!
In the blockade, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help but laugh. “Ah, so many people.” He looked around and sighed softly. “16 great demons? Although the powers of your lot skyrocketed by a lot after the abyss bestowed gifts upon you all, to assemble so many would surely require one to gather all the dark musicians of Anglo up? No small feat indeed…
“Many thanks to the Dark Sovereign for thinking so highly of me, I didn’t expect him to gather up all the dark musicians of Anglo to deal with me and only me, it’s such an honor. ”
Bang! The round of moon above Ye Qingxuan’s head shook under the corrosion of the nightmare fog. In the elemental domain of the scepter of hell, Ye Qingxuan was completely isolated from the realm of aether. His resonance with the quiet moon was cut off.
His expression changed slightly.
The Dark Sovereign did indeed identify his biggest weakness. All along, he had been best at defense and counter-attack, usually making his moves based on the situation at hand, and had relied on the Heaven Ladder for it.
From a commercial point of view, he was an absolute speculator. After identifying the enemies’ weaknesses, in a manner similar to the borrowing of money, he would use Jiu Xiao Huan Pei as a pivot to leverage a vast amount of funds dozens of times more than his own capital. He would then defeat the enemy completely in one go, and use the profit obtained to fill up the gaps and repay the high interest. In contrast, the ordinary industrialist-like musician often found it difficult to resist the impact of external funds, but speculators like Ye Qingxuan also had lethal weaknesses.
Other than having difficulties sustaining attacks and the need for cumbersome, exquisite techniques, he had been too dependent on the market, in this case, the realm of aether.
Once he was divested of the external environment for his actual assets and liabilities to be assessed, Ye Qingxuan only had his own assets to present. While this respect of his was still of top quality, its scale was incomparable to that of the original, and might even feel restrictive, making him unable to launch his attacks.
At the moment, if not for Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, he couldn’t even sense the sea of aether anymore. Fighting against 16 companies which possessed assets that, when combined, were worth multiple times of one’s own at the same time, and in a city closed off from the rest of the world? No businessman would do so regardless of how dumb he was. Moreover, the government in the environment wasn’t exactly friendly to him…
Ye Qingxuan sighed, rubbed his temples from a slight headache, and asked, “Can anyone tell me where has Mary gone?”
No one responded.
His famous title of Hand of God, countless lessons drawn from others’ mistakes in the past, and the tragic endgames of innumerable dark musicians had proven that eight or even nine times out of ten, striking up a conversation with this guy would not end in anything good. Furthermore, this guy was the Grand Inquisitor of the Religious Court of Inquiry at the moment. Due to their opposing stances, both parties were destined to fight it out in a life-or-death struggle, just like how water and fire could not coexist together.
Having advanced from inconspicuous dark musicians to infamous great demons, none of the ones present were fools, nor did they dare to underestimate Ye Qingxuan, not to mention the orders the Dark Sovereign had given them beforehand, thus, none of them intended to communicate with Ye Qingxuan at the moment.
They were so wary of him to the extent that after Ye Qingxuan finished his words, all of them started resonating as one. The landscape of hell, which was the result of 16 aether waves intertwining, rumbled and shook, evolving into a dark sun hanging high in the sky. The terrifying pressure resulting from countless music theories intertwining and evolving pressed down along with the dark sun. It was intended to act directly on Ye Qingxuan’s symphony of predestination and suppress all of his abilities to resist. It sought to collapse all his music theories with pure force without giving him any opportunity to leverage their powers to fight back.
Ye Qingxuan stood firmly, not moving.
On the clothes of original sin, countless notes flashed past, and the domain of Holy appeared out of thin air, covering his whole body and securely countering the pressure from the scepter of hell. Under the suppression of the sun of darkness, layers of faint ripples propagated on the invisible barrier. Clearly, it couldn’t last much longer.
Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help but sigh. He reached out and fished out an unopened packet of cigarettes from his pocket. He deftly tore through the packaging with his fingers and put a cigarette into his mouth. Cocking his head, he lighted the cigarette, inhaled deeply, and puffed out a dissipating cloud of smoke. Only did he removed the cigarette and raised his head slowly. “You all know that I am the Grand Inquisitor of the Religious Court of Inquiry, right?”
No one responded, but in the nightmare fog, the aether waves grew more and more violent. The huge sun of darkness suddenly dropped by three inches! Countless music theories of the abyss interwove, turbulently distorting the Physical World, forming a fuzzy black flame. Sharp noises rang out and countless cracks appeared on the barrier of Holy.
The collapse of the domain of Holy was imminent.
“It seems like you all know it?” Ye Qingxuan nodded in understanding. “So what makes you all think that… I won’t put the many thugs in my command to use, and will instead fight with you all on my own?” Before he finished his words, a loud noise rumbled.
It came from the sky.
In the torrential rain, countless thunder suddenly erupted. Flashes of lightning danced wildly like snakes, filling the space between the heavens and the earth. The flood-like hurricane emerged from the clouds, splitting the iron-like black clouds and the sky, and even tore the mist shrouding over the skies of Anglo apart temporarily, revealing a small scrap of the night sky.
There was an ocean of stars.
And in the ocean-like cluster of stars, a behemoth broke out from the clouds and roared wildly at the earth.
The mountain of nomadism!
