by Feng Yue
“This is the secret he wanted to tell the others—the criminal mastermind of Avalon, the mysterious man who has been hiding behind the scenes, the fearsome Professor…is the a moon spirit of the fallen clan, a bloodsucking demon! ‘Professor’ Moriarty is the legendary vampire of Avalon!”
He pointed to the Professor and said in cold voice, “That was my study of the blood words. Please correct me if I’m wrong!”
After a long, long time, the Professor laughed hoarsely. “There is nothing to be corrected. Your reasoning is all correct, but you could identify me with just that?”
“Maybe it’s because of my amazing imagination.” Ye Qingxuan raised his finger and pointed to his forehead. “I actually discovered something recently. Whether I want it or not, but for some reason, I always have something to do with the legends of Avalon. Even if I try to avoid it, I always run into something strange.
“If you were me, when you encounter something like this, you’d think…what the h*ll is it this time?!”
“Your deduction is correct and the inference is very clever. To be honest, Avalon has been boring without the Shaman. If I had an enemy like you, my days would not have been so meaningless.” The Professor exuded something murderous. His eyes locked onto Ye Qingxuan. “What a pity…”
“Ha” Ye Qingxuan responded with cold laughter. “Stop acting, Lord Moriarty! No matter what you are, and even if you have sucked the blood out of all those guys and healed your wounds, you’re still weak right now.
“Don’t take me for a fool. Even if moon spirits can suck the life blood from others, it’s still a burden on you. The stronger and more powerful the enemy’s vitality is, the more difficult it is to absorb.
“It’s not about your accomplishments as a musician, but the limitation of the moon spirit’s talent! Now, after being injured for so long, just draining that dark musician was exhausting enough for you.”
Ye Qingxuan kicked the bag away, sprinkling more silver sand everywhere. When he gazed at the Professor, his eyes were emotionless. “To be honest, I don’t care what the h*ll you are. I can keep this secret for you, but you’d better have a chat with me now. Otherwise, I’ll let you have a ‘chat’ with the silver!”
He gripped his cane, looked at the Professor in silence, and asked in a coldly, “Tell me, is the Eastern kid really the key to Avalon’s shadow? Where did you get this information…and why are you so determined?”
The Professor remained silent, seeming to not have heard anything. Even at his most vulnerable, he kept quiet and did not show any intention to negotiate. He seemed to be meditating. A long and deep meditation.
Finally, The Professor looked up. All of his thoughts and resolutions were expressed in a sigh. “What a shame.”
Ye Qingxuan’s expression changed. A sword was thrusted at him!
-
The dome in the hall shattered. A gleam of dim moonlight fell down through the gap, illuminating the glowing silver dust on the floor. Amidst the glow, two piercing cold rays of light suddenly shot out from the Professor’s sleeve. They cut through the air soundlessly.
As if he was made from gravel, the Professor’s figure became faint. It seemed as if he would collapse with the wind, but in the next moment, he stepped onto the silver dust. In his hand, the two swords crisscrossed, aimed at the youth’s throat.
Unlike the Chainsaw monk’s big with his dramatic movements, like lava flowing, one could not tell when the Professor was about to move. There were no indications, not even a slight movement.
The two swords melted into the moonlight and attacked in silence without any ferocity or brutality. They only brought quiet beauty and a dismal air. It was heart-stopping!
But the youth seemed have perceived the Professor’s intention. His complexion changed when the Professor moved his muscles. He picked up the bag under his feet and scattered the silver sand generously. They created a radiant silver sheet that fell on the sword of moonlight.
The blade cut through the silver with a sizzling sound, forcing them to fly to the side. When residual silver fell on the Professor’s body, they changed suddenly, creating red sparks. Flames were born out of thin air. The red flames danced.
In an instant, the Professor was enveloped by the terrifying flames. The fire covered his body, burning him. It was the same thing he had done to the traitor a few days ago. Now it was happening to him.
This was the inborn flaw of the Moon Spirit clan. After abandoning mankind and the Silver Moon, they had been cursed to be poisoned by silver. They could absorb the vitality from others through their blood, but they would lose all control and reason under the Silver Moon’s light. Any type of silver would turn to poison at a touch and burn them to ashes!
But Ye Qingxuan did not expect that the Professor was willing to fight to the death. Did he just attack?!
Ye Qingxuan staggered back with a music note in his hand. Gas rolled over the sand, resisting the Professor’s onslaught. Ye Qingxuan had the obvious advantage and had grasped the key moment when the Professor could not use aether, but he found that he still did not have the upper hand.
The burning Professor revealed a faint and ferocious smile from behind the flames. He said hoarsely, “You wouldn’t think that the Moon Spirit clan is only good at sucking blood, right?”
Ye Qingxuan immediately processed what he meant and cold sweat rolled down. The Moon Spirits, good at swordsmanship, the clan of good swordsmanship…They were the most terrifying assassins of all the fallen races! Was the Professor not only an accomplished musician but also a monster at swordsmanship?
150 A Sudden Call
It was not about the giant gap in musician skills now. There was no way for Ye Qingxuan to defeat an expert swordsman who could fight perfectly despite being on fire and make every move fatal. He had miscalculated…
Ye Qingxuan had thought of many what-if’s, but never expected this trump card. This talent was rare even amongst the Moon Spirits, right? Otherwise they would have dominated the world and mankind would have died out long ago…
Thankfully, he still had Bolero’s perception threads. Ye Qingxuan dodged the onslaught of the Professor’s double swords as if he could predict the future. The two blades followed his throat, heart, and groin closely. Each move was meant to be fatal. Ye Qingxuan felt a chill whenever he came close to the blades. If not for the threads, he would have certainly died.
Doing two things at once, he did not forget to keep fighting and throwing the silver dust at the Professor. They landed on the Professor, popping and sizzling as they set fire to his body. It made the Professor seem as if he had fallen into lava. As he continued to burn, even the bones of his arms could be seen under the charred mess.
If an ordinary man was in such pain, he would have gone mad, but the Professor did not even make a sound. His attacks were still fierce. In fact, they were even more furious than before, as if he was oblivious to the Ye Qingxuan’s counterattacks and the silver dust’s natural effect against him. The Professor was determined to kill Ye Qingxuan here, even if it meant using all of the vitality he had received from Blue Teeth!
“Why are you trying so hard?!” Ye Qingxuan thought. His expression was dark as he gazed at the Professor’s charred face and furious eyes behind the flames.
“What a pity, Professor. You could have been a good opponent!” The fluctuations of the aether on his body suddenly grew frantic. He was no longer going to hold back. He was out for the kill.
At the top of the cane, Indra’s eye suddenly glimmered! As if sensing the call, the heavy rain outside the church that had paused suddenly began falling from the sky again. Thunder shook the world.
Surrounded by crimson red, the Professor breathed in the flames and suddenly let out a roar. Immediately, his body began shaking. The burning silver dust was shaken off his body and his two swords buzzed. A line of blood flowed from the moon-like blades.
The melody on the blades repeated over and over. The effects Dragon Attack, Blood Knot, and
Rot were activated.
It could be seen by the naked eyes that wind was being swept up by the blade and even the stone tiles cracked, as if ravaged by a dragon. There was also a hidden curse that the opponent would never heal once he bled.
Sensing that Holmes was about to call for thunder and lightning, the Professor prepared his power, his ferocity surging. At this time, he was no longer a musician, but a warrior with sword. Hidden in his sleeves, the two swords shook like a roaring dragon.
If Ye Qingxuan could not kill the Professor with this blow, then he would be the one dying! The moment the swords’ whistling rose to the peak, frenzied aether erupted from Ye Qingxuan’s body.
As the silver dust danced, Ye Qingxuan suddenly reached out and pointed forward. Bright light illuminated the Professor’s eyes, stunning him. Boundless light glowed as if the sun had fallen from the sky. It was not the thunder of Indra’s wrath, but the note Light played to its peak!
With the control of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, Ye Qingxuan overlapped dozens of instantaneous Light runes. The power increased tenfold. The light that shot out from his fingertips was enough to blind someone, or even pierce through the body to reveal the silhouette of the bones. The light swallowed everything.
The Professor instinctively raised his hands and covered his eyes, but the silver dust dancing in the air spontaneously multiplied. They combined with each other to create a mirror. Dozens of large mirrors sprang up, forming a matrix and swallowing the Professor. Only he was able to “enjoy” this brilliant light.
In the matrix, the glow was as bright as ten suns in the sky at once. The silver dust in the light could tear one’s flesh into pieces with crushing pain in an instant. This light was kryptonite for the Moon Spirits. It was like the light of the Silver Moon!
The Professor screamed and roared. Blades whistling, he cut the matrix and broke free! But the church was empty…where was the enemy? “He ran?!”
Standing in place, the Professor’s mangled body quickly recovered. The deadly wounds created by the silver regenerated slowly as well. The white bones, flesh and pallid skin gradually returned to him, but his eyes were so furious, so startled, and so…depressed!
Holmes’s laughter seemed to echo in the air. Running away after pretending to be cool was so fun!
-
“Lalala, lalala, I’m the best at running away, not afraid of the wind or rain…lalala, I’m the best…” A man pushed a small cart in the pouring rain, like someone who loved to work. As if he heard the angry roar in the distant church, he turned back and revealed a cheerful expression under the hunting hat.
He ran?
“Of course I ran!” Ye Qingxuan pouted. “You were trying so hard to kill me. Why would I stay to die?” He sped up as he muttered to himself. Thankfully he had sent Bai Xi back earlier because the Professor was too dangerous. Otherwise, he would not even be able to run now.
He looked at the “loot” in his cart under the pouring rain. It was supposed to be the Professor’s loot: a huge heavy sabre that he carried—the Sighing Sword, as well as the ‘steel skeleton’ left behind after the Chainsaw monk was ingested by Blue Teeth. The skeleton could be implanted inside the body. It was entirely blue-green because green gold had been mixed in while casting. Even the face had a layer of twisted mesh made from the material.
This was the Chainsaw Fraternity’s craft. After separating from the Church, these monks became the world’s largest arms dealer group. They were the best at body mutations. They could implant steel machinery into a body and turn the fragile human body into an invincible warrior.
If one added the Sighing Sword, designed for breaking through defenses, the monk would practically be a musician killer. The technology not as powerful as the Gospel armor, but it was still powerful enough!
The parliament had probably spent a fortune on hiring this Chainsaw monk to do their dirty work. What did senior say before? The skeleton was far from the technology of the Gospel armor, but with some modifications and repairs, there would be no problem in adding it to the “dungeon gentleman,” right?
Imagining the Chainsaw monk’s ability to break through walls as if they were made of paper, Ye Qingxuan could not help but laugh. “I didn’t expect the Professor to fight full force, but this was worth it…” Ye Qingxuan whispered, comforting himself. This was worth it!
In the rain, he pushed the trolley and jogged, getting away from the church bit by bit. But then a figure appeared. It was a homeless man perched on a heap of garbage. He should have had some sense of self-preservation and stayed away from those he would not be able to beat, but for some reason, he summoned up the courage to stop Ye Qingxuan. “Mr. Holmes?” he asked cautiously.
“Yes.” Ye Qingxuan frowned.
“Someone wants to see you.” The man was stung by Ye Qingxuan’s sharp gaze and stepped back subconsciously. He timidly uttered the name that gave him courage. “Shaman.”
Ye Qingxuan furrowed his brows. As if a message had been sent, a black carriage soon arrived in the rain and stopped beside Ye Qingxuan.
A grizzled old man in the wagon pushed the door open and removed the pipe from his mouth. “Mr. Holmes?” Ghosthand studied him.
“How did you know I was here?” Ye Qingxuan took in how prepared they were.
Ghosthand smiled and raised his finger, pointing to the sky. “To tell the truth, you’re too high-profile to ignore. The Shaman said you were here, so we came.” As he spoke, a steady stream of people stepped out of the alleys onto the streets.
The group practically guarded all entrances in the vicinity. Ye Qingxuan could not tell how many people had been used to block every entrance without seeming to have any strategy. “I guess you can only do that if you have enough people,” Ye Qingxuan thought.
“The Shaman’s order was that if we found the Professor, we would keep him here,” Ghosthand said. “And if we found Sherlock Holmes, we would invite him back.”
“Invite?” Hearing this word, Ye Qingxuan raised an eyebrow delicately. “So do I have a choice?”
“Yes, ‘invite’.” Ghosthand repeated. He smiled and pointed to his back. “Do as you please. We won’t force you.”
“Oh, then I won’t go.” Ye Qingxuan laughed and pulled the small cart back, waving goodbye. “Everybody can go home now. No need to see me off. I’ll be gone soon. See you la—”
“He said that the old guy will be waiting for you there,” Ghosthand interrupted.
Ye Qingxuan fell silent. After a long while, he sighed softly. “Can you help me look after this small cart? It’s not easy to get a set of things like this and I don’t want the scavengers steal them.”
Ghosthand waved and two strong men appeared, taking the cart to the carriage. “Please.” Ghosthand got out of the carriage and opened the door for Ye Qingxuan.
Ye Qingxuan looked at him and took off the hunting hat before climbing into the carriage. “Where’s the Shaman?”
“A place you are very familiar with.” Ghosthand closed the door. “No.221 B, Baker Street.”
151 Long, Long Ago
No. 221 B, Baker Street was a graveyard. The fog suffused the gloomy night. This was the lowest place in Avalon. After summer ended, the wind and currents from ocean would be gone, and this place would be covered by mist. It was extremely hazy, even during the daytime. After tonight’s rain had pierced through the fog, it seemed to become thinner. The rain fell down on the ground with audible pitter-patters. The decayed soil full of water became muddy like a bubbling quagmire.
The carriage stopped before the graveyard. Ghosthand opened the door for Ye Qingxuan. “He is waiting for you in the yard,” Ghosthand said. “Don’t keep him waiting too long.”
“How long do you think I’m going to take for such a short distance?” Ye Qingxuan glanced at Ghosthand, put on his hunting hat, and strutted into the cemetery.
The cemetery was vast and silent. There were few people. Shadowy figures occupied the surrounding high points and entrances, sealing the en
tire cemetery. Ye Qingxuan looked away and walked forward, treading on fragments of white flowers.
There seemed to be a funeral. There was no priest or guests but an emcee in a black gown stood beside the tomb, leading the sacrificial ceremony. Beside him was an open coffin. The coffin was covered with white petals and a brocade but it was empty.
The emcee stood beside it, studying the tombstone in deep thought. The men stood far from him, not daring to interrupt his trance. But he was not so mysterious and scary. Instead, he looked just like an average old man. He was the Shaman.
“Whose funeral is this?” Ye Qingxuan glanced at the empty coffin, and interrupted the Shaman’s trance.
“Well…I haven’t decided yet.” The Shaman slowly shook his head. “Funerals are serious matters and the protagonist’s identity is always the biggest puzzle piece.” With that, he turned around and his eyes fell on the strange and young dark musician.
“There are many small gangs that have been instigated to rebel against my rules. They are troublesome little rats. I sent out six assassins to clean them up and I’m looking forward to finding out whose head will be the first to be brought back.” He stared at the youth’s face with his rheumy eyes. “Who do you think it’ll be? Take your time guessing it. There’s nothing fun about spoilers.”
Ye Qingxuan responded coolly, “What did the infamous Shaman invite me here for? Is the coffin for me?”
The Shaman was silent for a moment before chuckling softly and changing the topic. “It’s our first meeting and it’s not appropriate to talk about these unpleasant things. Let’s talk about something else. Mr. Holmes, what do you think of this city?”
Ye Qingxuan was stunned. After thinking for a while, he shook his head. “I don’t know. I always have a feeling that this place is like an old widow who’s moody and vicious.”
“Pretty much.” The Shaman nodded in agreement, but his expression grew dismal. “Even though it’s an old widow, it was once a charming beauty. In its youth, gentleness and charm exuded from its body. Heroes gave it their swords; Musicians appraised its holiness and mercy.
