by Feng Yue
No, it was not a giant…
Through the moss and other matter, there was a giant object immersed in the foul liquid. The short and fat limbs had turned black. Parts had even crystallized. Half a head of the swollen and stubby body had come out of the water. Outside the liquid, the head had already decayed. Inside, the face had turned white from the water but was still complete.
Charles finally saw it clearly. He stumbled back. Holding onto the wall, he started throwing up. Tears and snot streamed out embarrassingly. He vomited like he wanted to spit out his organs.
It was not a giant.
It was a meters-tall…baby!
“Every time I see how it died, I feel sad,” Gaius murmured to himself as he smoked. “The child of the future, the baby of endless times, the eternal fetus…”
478 Longevity
If the other displays scared Charles, this one disgusted him and made him want to retch. This creature was hundreds of times larger than a regular baby. Immersed in the foul liquid, half of it was skeletal while the other half still looked so alive.
Finally recovering, Charles gathered his courage to study the thing. “What the f*ck is that?”
“As you can see, it’s just an infant.” Gaius looked away. “It’s an infant with longevity that had the blood of a natural catastrophe injected into it as an embryo and born after a series of large surgeries.”
“Longevity?” It sounded ridiculous. “How many years do you think that can live?”
“The life expectancy for the average man is fifty years,” Gaius suddenly said. “The rich and powerful nobles take care of their bodies, have healthy meals, and have good doctors that can treat them at any time. Their life expectancy is eighty years. In some places, it can be up to ninety.
“The base life expectancy for musicians is similar. Resonance musicians can live up to one hundred twenty years. After becoming a Scepter, aether transforms the body and they can live up to two hundred years. You can try everything after that and manage to live five more years. If you sublimate into a holy spirit and go into hibernation, you can live three hundred more years. After that, the light goes out and the ashes fly, just like Emperor Aeneas recently.”
Gaius said, “Charles, the maximum number of years humans can preserve their consciousness is five-hundred years. Only five-hundred years. It sounds long but compared to the entirety of the world, it is like dust.
“The rocks under our feet, the dust on our body, the rivers beside us, even the iron we mold, and those terrifying undying natural catastrophes all live much longer than us. In fact, we still don’t know their limits… You are still young and have not yet experienced the fear of aging and terror of dying.
“For sixty-year-old men like me, we feel how we age day by day. Wrinkles crawl like bugs and I must be careful even when walking. I can break a bone just by falling and be overtaken by illness, never to recover. You do not understand the value of longevity and have never had the chance to face this choice.” He stared at Charles. “You can only have one life. If anyone dies, they stay dead. There is no heaven or hell. All that is waiting for you is an eternal void. In that cold eternity, even death loses meaning. Everything we struggle and yearn for in this world is just so we can live a bit longer.”
Eyes cool, Charles pointed at the infant. “How long can it help you live?”
“Decades ago, so many musicians slaved to create it. According to our calculations, it can live more than two thousand years…For the first three hundred, it would look like an infant. It was known as the baby of endless times, the future giant.”
“But it’s dead,” Charles said coldly. “It doesn’t seem to live very long.”
“Infant mortality is unavoidable. You must understand that,” Gaius said. “But the Sacred City already received enough results and data from it.
“According to information, after I left the Sacred City, they found a way for humans to break through the limit and even remain on this world as a regular human. This news has always been locked but to the big figures in the high levels, it’s not much of a secret.
“You only need to pay some things and go through a surgery, and a dying old man would go back to his prime… Didn’t you see it at the square? Archbishop Ludovic that stood beside the pope is the best proof.
“He was the first to undergo the surgery. Twenty years ago, he accepted it at the brink of his death and disappeared. Five years later, he reappeared as an ascetic monk. He walked through the Sacred City with the Holy Grail containing ashes as if he had returned from the kingdom of death.
“All who understood this knelt before him, begging for his blessing and mercy for longevity. That was how the Ecclesiastical Order rose so quickly. Compared to the insubstantial rebirth, nobles care more about living longer now. Ludovic displayed his ability and the dying men raised him up like a god…
“Within a few years, Ludovic grasped more than half of the Sacred City’s power. Now, he has complete control over the city.”
“With your help…” Charles added for him. “You’re his great benefactor.”
“Things aren’t that simple, Charles.” Gaius shook his head, seemingly mocking himself. “I’m just a primer. Even if I hadn’t assassinated the pope, someone else would have. Everyone must become accustomed to their role. Isn’t this something the Revolutionaries must do?”
Charles remained silent.
Boom!
Great shaking came from above them as if the Judgement Tower was about to break apart again. Gaius looked up thoughtfully and narrowed his eyes at the ceiling.
As expected of Ye Lanzhou’s son, he thought.
It was much faster than he had expected but thankfully, he was prepared.
-
Five minutes ago, the Sacred City was still a mess. Explosions happened constantly, throwing the city’s most festive holiday into turmoil.
From a bird’s eye view, cold reflections of armor flowed through the streets like rivers and quickly covered every inch of space. The high towers all began ringing. Musicians constantly rose up into the sky. Everyone radiated with the same aether waves. Following previous training, they instantly connected and went into coherence with the bell towers.
More and more went into coherence until there were hundreds of musicians! Hundreds of grandmasters!
If they attacked any nation, it would be flattened completely within a day. Now, several scepter auras also appeared in the secret depths of the Sacred City. In the Papal Chamber, a majestic aura also rose and transformed into metallic light.
It was an armed shadow riding a giant horse with eight hooves, wielding a spear of lightning, and enveloped in electric light. His mere appearance chased away the layers of fog over the city. It was suffocating.
Saint Wagner!
This saint had retreated to the Papal Chamber due to his age, but now he had been awakened. He guided the countless musicians and created a subtle net. It covered the entire city and divided into several zones, sweeping back and forth.
Next, a giant wind tunnel opened in the Papal Chamber.
In the tunnel of light guarded by furious winds, dozens of auras as powerful as Wagner flowed out. Clearly, the saints outside had received the news and opened the wind tunnels from thousands of miles away. Wind tunnels could not teleport living objects but they could send their powers over.
The auras waited tensely for the worst case scenario. If anyone dared to act brashly, they would be attacked by the combined strength of these saints.
The dust of unrest quickly separated under the net and the situation began settling. However, it was clear that there were still many more problems. Now, they just needed time.
But among the various investigatory waves and ripples, a ray of dim moonlight flashed past. It was agile and fast, going under radar. Even when brushing past the grandmasters, it was like a breeze that did not alert anyone.
Covered by moonlight, Ye Qingxuan flew in the air. He was using the same technique as the purple-ey
ed griffin from days ago. He used the music theory system within him to construct a territory, isolating him from the outside world. Using the nature disturbance’s repulsion, he flew up.
However, compared to the griffin’s skill of landing and moving lightly like dust, Ye Qingxuan was still inexperienced and awkward.
He flew like a rocket. Not only did the wind whistle, but his turns were sharp and sudden too. He improved quickly within a few minutes but it was just a complete rookie turning into an amateur.
If Lola had not used the ‘illusion realization’ to disguise him, the Sacred City would take him down in a second. This technique could even turn death into an illusion. It was more than enough to disguise him.
Lola had wanted to come too but Ye Qingxuan rejected her. At that time, her expression had been dark.
“Are you sure you don’t need someone to collect your body?”
“Don’t jinx me,” Ye Qingxuan had sighed. “I have something else I need your help with. This will determine whether or not I can go all out, so please.”
“What, help you get reinforcements?”
“In a place like the Sacred City it’s easy to find an enemy, but tfinding reinforcements is harder than finding an archbishop without a lover.” Ye Qingxuan had sighed again. “You have to help me find a place and a person. If he’s not there, then leave the city and don’t look back.”
“Who is that important?”
Ye Qingxuan said a name. After a long pause, Lola sighed and left without speaking.
Ye Qingxuan did not know if Lola had found him, but using his moonlight perception threads, he reached the sky above the Judgement Tower.
Above the silent and broken tower, Ye Qingxuan looked down on the ground. He pulled out the Eye of Silence that he had not worn in a while and exerted all his power. With the help of Anglo’s secret royal artifact, cold moonlight lit up in his eyes, subtly illuminating a wavering shadow.
It was hidden under the tower and rippled as the music theory outside changed. It reached all the way underground. Ye Qingxuan had never seen something like it before.
A hidden territory?
But what attracted Ye Qingxuan more was a figure hidden in the ruins.
In Avalon, the Stein Chamber that contained the royalty’s treasures was more like this. It was created by an individual piece of the aether world. It overlapped with the material world but was definitely not part of the material world.
Even in Ye Qingxuan’s eyes, the figure was wrapped in a layer of water vapor. He was blurry even when Ye Qingxuan stared carefully. He could not tell if the man was a hallucination or really there.
The complex and careful territory had hidden his existence. He was impossible to detect with the naked eye or through observation.
Thankfully, Ye Qingxuan still recognized the griffin mask on his face and those emotionless purple eyes.
“Hey, we meet again,” Ye Qingxuan muttered to himself. He raised a hand and cold moonlight lit up. It solidified; the sharp coldness made his eyes seem fiercer as well.
“Let me greet you again.”
The purple-eyed griffin still had not noticed him. Ye Qingxuan threw down the sword!
479 Rebuilt Moon
In the past, the sword that Ye Qingxuan created with the Sword movement was just an insubstantial shadow. But now, with the support from the grandmaster level Bell Tower, Heaven Ladder instantly crossed an unimaginable distance and extracted power from the depths of the aether sea without creating any ripples or waves.
Ye Qingxuan now held a heavy sword of a few meters long. Once connected to the Heaven Ladder, the music score Ye Lanzhou had created released incredible power. The sword was created by solidified moonlight. Like crystal, it was clear and translucent. However, heart-shaking hallucinations flashed past. After integrating with Ye Qingxuan’s own music theory, the Abstinence music theory framework of Moonlight was combined with the essences of Illusion and Mind. Finally, it used Revelations to lock onto the enemy’s location. Even if he was thousands of miles away, Ye Qingxuan could aim precisely using Heaven Ladder to lock onto the sound of heart.
This was the first time Ye Qingxuan experienced the power given by the Bell Tower. He greedily sucked at the power. After all, with the Philosopher’s Stone, he did not need to worry about the pressure. If he had the Chapters of Golden Victory at hand, he could even cast Kingdom Come.
With Ye Qingxuan’s urging, the moonlight sword’s power increased again. Under the crisp sound of crystallization, the moonlight on the blade thickened. Finally, it was like flowing mercury that radiated with metallic light and murder.
That instant, the purple-eyed griffin in the ruins sensed something. He looked up.
Soon, he saw the abnormal moonlight. He could not tell what happened behind it but the change in music theory he felt sent warning bells ringing.
At that moment, Ye Qingxuan smiled and let go.
Silently, the moonlight sword fell from the sky! Moonlight was not solid, only the grouping of spirits, but anything with a consciousness heard a strange, abnormal, and loud screech!
Merely the whistle of breaking through the air was hair-raising.
Mercury-like moonlight rushed down the crystallized sword, projecting the sight of a rainbow piercing the sun. In an instant, all the murderous intent in the blade came at him!
The purple-eyed griffin shook. Rather than escaping, he extended a gloved hand and pointed at the falling sword. Tremendous waves crashed in the aether sea!
In the air, there was the sound of metal clashing and colliding. The cacophony grated everyone’s ears. The sound that was impossible to analyze unexpectedly began to construct a music theory. It swept the aether into a score that Ye Qingxuan did not understand.
It was that strange cacophony again!
Ye Qingxuan remembered the last failure clearly. After thinking it through, he finally understood what it was. Naturally, he had a solution for it.
Subconsciously, Ye Qingxuan used the interpretation method to hear the noise. The music notes it was made up of were reordered in his mind. Their original appearance was revealed!
Gregorian chant!
It was a Gregorian chant!
The purple-eyed griffin used a strange music interpretation method to extract the essence and structure of the music score. Removing the original chant, he replaced it with the strange noise. He had reinterpreted it with a musician’s understanding of the score. It was like how a talented musician could just whistle without performing to reach a level that regular musicians could never reach.
But what the griffin used was a cacophony that encroached and attacked all music theory. If Ye Qingxuan did not understand this or could not guess what score was used, he could only get beaten and dragged into the griffin’s rhythm.
In a blink, Ye Qingxuan found the music score hidden within.
Its format was…Passion!
His pupils constricted. Passion was definitely one of the highest of the highest level Abstinence scores. Only musicians above the Distortion level could attempt it. None of the scores created with the theme of a saint’s passion were simple!
The original meaning of passion was to be tormented in place of someone else. In the School of Abstinence, its deeper meaning was to replace the world’s rules with one’s own music theory. It would wipe all common knowledge, disturb all laws, and turn the music theory into the spindle of the material world. It would create a space like the aether world in the material world.
Simply put, it was legendary!
In an instant, powerful music theory rushed out of the griffin and swept in all directions. Then, the moonlight sword landed silently. It pierced his palm, his face, and fell, coming out of his feet. However, his body was undamaged like a hallucination.
The sword went through his body and buried in the earth. Finally, it crashed onto the patch of light that Ye Qingxuan saw with the Eye of Silence. It suddenly shattered and shook. However, the strange thing hidden in the Judgement To
wer was undamaged.
In the sky, Ye Qingxuan’s expression twisted.
It was nature disturbance!
Again!
Different from the stubborn self-preservation of the Shadow Cereus, the griffin used disturbance to change his own nature. This way, the moonlight washed over his body like true moonlight without any power.
When Passion was unfolded, he became insubstantial. He was right there but so far away. In the School of Abstinence, this type of ‘vacuum’ was a state that all musicians dreamed to reach. Once at this level, only Abstinence musicians at his level could touch him. Everyone else could only get beaten. Therefore, it was comparable to incredible techniques such as ‘element incarnation’ and ‘illusion realization.’ This did not mean that the ‘vacuum’ was undefeatable. It also had its weaknesses and solutions. Sadly, Ye Qingxuan could not do any of it.
The most common was to find a musician from the School of Destruction. The vacuum was nothing before destruction…
Faced with someone who used their attainments so rudely, Ye Qingxuan was pissed but had no counterattack solution for the time being. The simplest was to clench his jaw, stomp his feet, and close his eyes.
He would enter the Dreamscape.
The Wrymrest Enchantment was known as the prototype of the Ultimate. It was the nemesis of all music scores and aether. Unfortunately, it could not distinguish between friend and foe. At that time, the griffin would be powerless but…Ye Qingxuan was still in the sky! Would he try to kill the griffin by crashing into him?
Seeing that Ye Qingxuan was powerless, the griffin’s eyes were still emotionless. He reached out and smashed the air before him. The grating cacophony rose and turned into something that broke down one’s sanity.
The counterattack was starting!
