by Feng Yue
It dawned on Ye Qingxuan. Many problems could arise during a scepter’s sublimation. However, the core element could not contain anyone else’s aura! Unless the original blood was not Samuel’s product…
Thinking of this, Ye Qingxuan’s gaze turned pitiful. Samuel was more than ninety-years-old now and had been stuck as a grandmaster for so many years. The euphemism was that he had accumulated a thick foundation. In other words, he had made no progress in all those years.
A grandmaster was a high position too but there were hundreds of them. Who would care about Samuel, especially in the Sacred City?
This was only a frustration for other musicians. However, Samuel was extremely thirsty for power and strength. Seeing the seat of a saint so close and yet so far, it was more painful than being in purgatory. And even someone like Wolf Flute could become a Scepter!
Why couldn’t he?!
The worst feeling in the world was that a priest could touch a nun’s *ss when you couldn’t… This logic was bad but Samuel, obsessed for his entire life, could not tell the difference anymore. Therefore, he chose to take a risk. He would create the original blood even if he needed to use an outer object…
Ye Qingxuan blanked for a moment. Then he became determined. Pushing Wolf Flute down, he grabbed a black dagger from his boot. He stepped inside and jumped past the restraining music score, going right to the array.
“Yezi, what are you doing?!” Wolf Flute was aghast. “The array is overworking. It’ll explode if you disrupt it!” Before he finished, Ye Qingxuan spun the dagger around and stabbed down!
Boom! Boom! Boom! The expected explosion did not happen. Instead, there was a string of gloomy pops. Then the bloody mercury evaporated.
Ye Qingxuan covered his face. Hot wind swept by him. Under the dagger, the element that represented the original blood quickly fell apart. About to burst, the music theory now collapsed like a snake without bones. The array collapsed. Then the grandmasters’ restraining music score descended from the sky and completely sealed the scepter’s strength. The only sound in the dead silence was Samuel’s screams.
Drenched in sweat, Ye Qingxuan tossed the broken dagger away and walked out of the array. Wolf Flute moved up and patted his shoulder. He looked pleased and not at all worried. “I knew you’d have a solution. You took the spotlight again!”
Ye Qingxuan smiled and collapsed onto his chair. Merely deciphering the entire array had taken all his energy. He felt as if he would black out soon.
The Central Church had become a mess. The Silent Authority quickly maintained order. Wolf Flute had a Choir musician come check on Ye Qingxuan. Realizing that he had just used up his energy, he was given a blanket and a cup of coffee. Then the musician left to take care of someone more important—Samuel.
Countless Choir musicians worked together and saved Samuel’s life. However, he was now a bag of bones and on his last breath. His entire body was white like a bloodless mummy. He was barely conscious and barely breathing. After the emergency treatment, he was lifted onto a stretcher to be taken to the hospital. However, when the sunlight from the broken ceiling fell onto him, the unconscious man opened his eyes. An inhuman scream ripped from his throat.
Sunlight fell onto his body and burned him to crisp as if was melted iron. Getting strength from somewhere, he shot up. Crawling at an unbelievable speed, he escaped into the shadows. He screamed, “Thirsty! Water! Give me water!” The voice was as sharp as steel wires. While everyone was still shocked, Samuel shot up and pounced on a young musician. His sharp canines tore apart the young man’s throat.
He drank to his fill.
With a crisp pop, the blood flowed into Samuel’s body. He quickly recovered and became strong yet ugly. His entire body was still pale white and hairless. He looked like a ghoul.
“He has mutated,” someone murmured.
Countless Silent musicians pounced. Wolf Flute sighed and patted Ye Qingxuan’s shoulder. “Let’s go. There’s nothing for us anymore.”
“Did Samuel fall?” Ye Qingxuan asked quietly.
“Possibly.” Wolf Flute lit a cigarette and muttered, “Look at him. Does he still look like a human? His best case scenario would be working in the underground palace of the Judgement Tower for the rest of his life.”
Ye Qingxuan was confused. “The Judgement Tower has an underground palace?”
“Probably not.” Wolf Flute shook his head. “Everyone says there isn’t one so I guess there isn’t.”
Ye Qingxuan understood what he meant.
“Stop spacing out. It’s time for us to work.” Wolf Flute turned and walked toward the carriage outside the door. “We’ve waited for so long. There should be an effect now.”
Just as he finished, a second boom sounded. Ye Qingxuan looked back. In the distance, a plume of black smoke rose from the Judgement Tower, creating a big hole.
-
The Judgement Tower was littered with corpses. Charles gaped at the bodies outside the cell. The sight was familiar as if he had seen it before—perhaps in his hallucination or in real life.
They were the guards of the Tower. Though they were sometimes mean, they were mostly nice. Two of them had recently gotten married and had kids. When Charles tried to get close to them, they would give him some cigarettes.
Now, they were all dead.
The things he had hallucinated were now real. He sank into a daze, completely forgetting his true reason for being here. Something exploded and the steel door fell apart. Constantine walked out of the cell and stood in the puddle of blood outside the door. He opened his arms, letting the rescuers to put a black robe onto him.
“Wake up, Charles.” Constantine studied the shocked Charles and reached out. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to see the sun.”
438 A Silk Embroidered Shoe
When Ye Qingxuan’s carriage arrived, the Judgement Tower was already split into two. The fire had been extinguished. Smoke rolled out in plumes and scattered in the strong wind. One half of the tower had crushed the surrounding walls as it crashed into a department building. It was like a sword that had sliced the building into two.
The Knights Templar had arrived and isolated the place.
In order to prevent riots, the Church even sent out a Gospel Armor squad. The sixteen hung in the air. Their swords were already dyed red. The unrest was squashed before it could start but when Ye Qingxuan saw the scene, he still gasped. The Revolutionaries could make such a mess?
“What’s going on?” Wolf Flute looked to the panicking prison warden. Under scrutiny, the warden’s face was extremely pale. He stuttered but could not speak. Even if it was not his fault, he would probably be fired after this disaster. A member of the Silent Authority in black uniforms walked over and murmured something to Wolf Flute that made his face darken.
“Those f*ckers!” He clenched his jaw. “They hijacked the new aircraft we were testing and crashed into the Judgement Tower! Thankfully this is a martial law area so there aren’t any civilians. Otherwise…”
Silent, Ye Qingxuan looked toward the city. If those guys had crashed there… Thinking of the consequences, Ye Qingxuan could not help but gasp.
Soon, a warped black ship was taken out of the rubble. Under a roaring melody, the iron plane, dozens of meters long and sixteen tons heavy, hung in the air. It was unrecognizable.
“What about casualties?”
“Forty-four died,” the investigator replied. “As for the wounded…they’re everywhere. Most prisoners had been transferred to the other two prisons. Some tried to take advantage and escape. More than thirty have died.” Here, he looked up at the Gospel Armor in the air. The blood on the sword had not dried yet.
After a long silence, Ye Qingxuan looked to Wolf Flute. “Is this worth it?” he asked. Was it really worth it to clear out of the Revolutionaries if there were so many sacrifices made in the beginning?
“Even if we didn’t investigate, they would still do this.” Wild green light flashed past Wolf Flute’s
eyes. “Those *ssholes are so brave…they created such big news.”
Ye Qingxuan held onto the cracks and stepped onto the broken tower. He gazed at the tower in the distance through the still-dissipating smoke. To be honest, he did not care about the Sacred City. He was worried about something else…
Soon, Wolf Flute tossed a pass into his arms and they went past the rings of guards to the Judgement Tower. The more they moved up, the worse the sight. When they reached the location of the crack, the stairs were covered by dried blood. Stepping on it, they could feel the nauseous stickiness. There were seven bodies not buried by the fallen walls. They had frozen from the icy wind and even their blood had frozen.
A silent musician squatted by a body and touched the wound. “It was a quick killer. His throat was slit in an instant and the killer was someone he did not suspect. He did not know what happened up until his death.”
“A mole?”
“Perhaps.” The silent musician nodded. “We also can’t exclude the possibility of an illusion.”
Ye Qingxuan stood beside the broken door and looked inside the crude cell. This had been Charles’ cell. Now it was a pile of rubble. He bent down and picked up some scraps of paper from the cracked bed. They were doodles that Charles had drawn when he was bored. They were ugly and casual, without any value.
Someone stopped him. “That’s evidence. You can’t take it.”
Ye Qingxuan did not move and just looked up. Wolf Flute blocked the man. “It’s not anything important. Just let him take it.”
After hesitating, the man nodded.
Ye Qingxuan carefully put them in his notebook.
The silent musician beside them opened his eyes. “I’ve finished reading the aether but there is too much white noise. They’ve brought interference equipment and covered the records.”
Wolf Flue waved. “Play whatever you can find.”
Soon, the cello played and aether converged. A projection replayed. In the chaotic and unclear video, they could only see a few blurry figures. Bits and pieces flashed by. They could make out a group rush in and start killing.
Constantine walked out of a cell and put on black clothing. Finally, he reached out and said something to someone. As if sensing eyes from the future, a figure in the corner suddenly looked up. The face was blurry but the pair of purple eyes was unnerving.
“Practically nothing was left behind.” Wolf Flute sighed. “How did they leave? Don’t tell me that we don’t even know how those motherf*ckers left.”
“…There’s worse news.” The musician with white gloves handed over a shoe. The size forty shoe was old-fashioned and ugly. The Amnesty Ministry’s mark was printed on it. This was given to all prisoners for the winter but it was not warm at all. The prisoners had to add layers of tissues to make it comfortable.
Stunned, Wolf Flute took the shoe. Using a dagger, he lifted the sole. A thumb-sized metal piece fell out from the slit. It landed on the ground with a chilling clink.
Wolf Flute fell silent. It was Charles’ shoe. The Silent Authority had put a tracker in Charles’s shoe so they could locate him in the future. However, rather than being with Charles, it was here now.
Every second counted in a prison break. How could he have time to change his shoes? Or did he only change one? If the shoe was found out, then what about Charles?
“It might not be as bad as you think.” Ye Qingxuan took the shoe. Rather than being angry or panicking, his eyes were deathly calm. After a long while, he said, “There’s only one shoe. He may have thrown it here purposely.”
“Huh?” Wolf Flute furrowed his brow. “Why would he do that?”
“Maybe to send a signal.” Ye Qingxuan fell into deep thought. “Maybe he discovered something and to tell us, he could only take…take…” He trailed off. Soon, he looked up at Wolf Flute. “Search through the ruins! Check if there’s a corpse with only one shoe!”
Ten minutes later, the fallen wall was flipped over, revealing the crushed body under it. Its left foot was bare. Ye Qingxuan reached out and measured the foot with his hand. It was a perfect size forty.
“As expected…” Ye Qingxuan murmured, his expression darkening. His guess had come true. Charles had voluntarily took off his shoes because he realized that if he kept it, he would blow his cover.
Ye Qingxuan looked back at Wolf Flute. “There are two possibilities.” His voice sounded directly in Wolf Flute’s mind. “There was a Revelations musician within the rescuers. He wiped all records and found the medium inside the shoe so Charles was forced to throw it away.”
“And the other possibility?”
“The other is worse.” Ye Qingxuan said coldly, “Charles had to change his shoes to save himself. Maybe the Revolutionaries already knew that the spy’s shoes are suspicious. Which means…the Silent Authority has a mole.”
Wolf Flute fell silent, his face darkening. “We’re not sure if there’s a mole yet. For now, we must find where Charles is. Otherwise, the mission will just be a joke.”
Ye Qingxuan asked, “Does the Silent Authority only have that plan?”
“There are others.” Wolf Flute nodded. “Before he entered prison, I personally injected Charles with a tracking drug just in case. Within a few months, he will have some endocrine problems. He’ll have more sweat that remains for longer. As long as he’s still in the Sacred City, my wolves will be able to find him. But it’ll take time…”
After a long silence, Ye Qingxuan nodded slowly. “That’s all we can do now. Hopefully, nothing will happen to Charles.”
No one had expected that the spy mission would be in trouble from the start. With all contact and traces gone, they could only wait passively. From that day on, Charles and the Revolutionaries disappeared off the face of the planet.
439 Preparation
In the chilly and narrow room, a single ghastly light illuminated a face covered in stubble.
“Name,” someone in the dark asked.
The middle-aged man sighed. “Andre. Andre Wilson.”
“Gender.”
Andre’s face twitched. He unwillingly answered, “…Male.”
“Oh.” The man in the dark nodded and said mockingly, “I can see that. Age?”
Andre lost his patience. “Can you ask something meaningful?”
“Good, it’s nice to see you go straight to the point.” The man flipped through the records and said casually, “Oh, you’re married. I heard that you’re close with another woman. Are you cheating?”
Andre froze. His expression darkened. “Ye Qingxuan! Don’t cross the line! Who are you trying to scare?”
“You, of course.” A pale hand reached out of the darkness. It held a stamped and signed permit right before Andre’s face. “Look at this clearly. You’re going through the internal investigation of the Silent Authority! I ask and you answer! Otherwise I’ll send you to the Judgement Tower right now!”
Andre roared, “Do you dare?!”
The hand froze. After a long while, he retracted the permit. Ye Qingxuan sighed, seemingly powerless. Andre could not help but want to smile. However, before he could do it, the hand reached out again and grabbed his hair, slamming him to the table.
Bam! Andre’s vision went black. He struggled instinctively but then a dagger buried into the table right by his face. It twanged. A pale face was reflected in the blade. He seemed to not have slept in a long time. His bloodshot eyes had pure black pupils. They were chilling as they looked at someone.
“You’re right,” Ye Qingxuan said. “I do.”
“You—” Andre opened his mouth on instinct but the blade was tilted, stopping his mouth.
“My best friend, my senior, the man who wanted me to host his wedding in the future, was forced to be a spy by you f*cking useless *ssholes. Because of one of you, he has disappeared for six days without any news. And you pieces of sh*t who just sit in your office with the air conditioning and read the news dare doubt my right to interrogate you?” The voice was chilly like a
blade. The fingers pressing down Andre’s head were icy without any warmth. Ye Qingxuan stared at the reflection in the blade.
Looking at the trembling eyes, he uttered, “Andre Wilson, I am now an examiner authorized by the Papal Chamber to be in charge of everything related to the leak. I ask and you answer. Otherwise, I’ll give you a thirty-year break and a trip to the Judgement Tower, understood?”
This b*stard was telling the truth! The eyes told Andre that the man had gone crazy but everything was true. The idiots at the Papal Chamber had given this crazy man a sword to placate him. Now he held the sword, ready to hack at anyone.
Who would be the first victim?
Now, bitterness emerged in Andre’s heart. He regretted it bitterly. If he knew this would happen, why did he piss this man off to save his dignity? Everyone knew that this guy had beheaded Colt before so many people, and all the evidence was there. But then he was let go without any punishment. Now, he had a high status. Even if he killed Andre, would Andre be able to run to the Amnesty Ministry to complain?
“I think you understand now.” Seeing his expression change, Ye Qingxuan smirked. “You should’ve been like this earlier. Good, now let’s start over. Oh right, you know what happens if you lie to me, right?”
Clenching his jaw, Andre closed his eyes.
-
Thirty minutes later, Andre walked out soullessly with blank eyes. He was instantly surrounded by his colleagues who had been waiting. They clamored asking about the situation. Some patted his shoulder with pity, obviously guessing what had happened.
Andre held a cup of hot coffee. He did not snap out of it until a long while later. He sighed as if waking from a dream and did not say anything. If he was knowledgeable about Eastern culture, he would definitely tearfully recite ‘the past is unbearable.’ Sadly, he probably did not even know any Western sonnets. His lips trembled for a long time before he finally ended in silence.
Being with that white-haired *sshole for thirty minutes, every bit of him had been investigated. Ye Qingxuan had asked about everything since his childhood, even his sexuality. His family, lovers, previous wife, kids, and even bank account were now recorded in that guy’s notebook with simple sentences.
