by Feng Yue
“She’ll be played by those disgusting men for free, raped by those who had once looked up to her, be impregnated and continue to accept clients. She’ll become a cheap whore but…she’ll still remember you, Ye Qingxuan. She’ll still love you deeply even as she falls lower every day until she becomes a pile of rotting meat that even a beggar looks down on. What do you think?”
Ye Qingxuan looked at him indifferently. He was not angry or furious. He just stared at Ludovic with his dark eyes.
“You won’t dare.” Ye Qingxuan stuck his face closer and told him, “Ludovic, your words have successfully angered me but you won’t dare. You won’t even dare to let something like this happen. Your humanity has allowed you to understand the weaknesses of humans but sadly, he won’t give you the courage. You. Won’t. Dare.”
In the silence, Ludovic laughed. “Why won’t I?”
“Then why did you put in so much to persuade me?” Ye Qingxuan asked back. “I’m not your father, Ludovic. Yes, I’m a prodigy and I have Deva’s blood. I’m the sword bearer of Anglo and the youngest demi-grandmaster in the world. But so what? So what?
“I’m not worth enough for you to pay so much, sacrifice everything, and do those lowly things to make me surrender. Ludovic, answer me. You paid such large costs to solicit me. Why?”
“Do you think you can understand my intentions with your human thoughts?” Ludovic looked at him with disdain. “No matter what, you’re just an ant limited by your mortal body. You can’t even imagine what my original shape is like.”
“Stop using the logic of being unable to understand a deity,” Ye Qingxuan scoffed and shook his head. “If humans can’t understand deities and are meaningless, then why are you here? You sacrificed so much to come to this world so why do you use such laughable logic to disguise your intention? Why don’t you just say that you were in a good mood and wanted to satisfy our wishes?”
He paused and sneered. “But since you’re hiding yourself, then let me guess. You said you value my thinking abilities. So are you trying to solicit me because…” Ye Qingxuan paused then said, “Ye Lanzhou is still alive, right?”
“Just that?” Ludovic snickered. “Interesting thought. Very clever.”
He did not receive an answer but Ye Qingxuan could not hold his laughter in. He was so happy, like an old wolf who had stolen a chicken from the butcher. He was almost crying from laughter.
Ludovic froze. His smile stiffened and fell apart, becoming menacing. He squeezed out from his teeth, “You’re fooling me?”
“What a disappointment for the incarnation of humanity, Ludovic.” Ye Qingxuan wiped away some tears. He was so happy he could barely speak. “Had anyone told you that a good Mind musician will instinctively sketch anyone around them, even if that person is the pope?
“Congratulations, you are a very successful ‘human’ but your only flaw is that you talk too much! You’ve spent so much time pretending and taking advantage of how you can read minds that you probably never thought of this, right?
“You see Ye Lanzhou as someone you’re grateful to but do you truly understand him? Analyzing personality through micro-expressions and sketches is his best skill! Okay, now you can start lying to yourself. You actually lost to Ye Lanzhou. This has nothing to do with the ant before you. You totally aren’t trying to win over his son to act as a shield because you’re scared of him…”
He rudely stared at Ludovic’s twisted face and sighed, shaking his head. “I’m really curious how many of your weaknesses and secrets he knows that makes you so scared.”
“Scared? Me?” Ludovic’s expression trembled like a pile of furious mud. At the same time, he was trying to plaster on expressions of anger, mockery, and menace. If his face was a pot, these expressions were all stirred into a mess that made one nauseous.
This was the deity that humans could not understand trying to show his fury to Ye Qingxuan through his human incarnate.
“I’m scared of Ye Lanzhou?! Stop joking, you idiot! You don’t understand how far I am from you insignificant things! Even if he knows my weakness, so what? No matter what he does, I won’t be hurt at all! At most I’ll just sleep for one hundred years!”
“Just sleep for one hundred years?” Ye Qingxuan scoffed. “You’re the one joking, aren’t you? You know you can’t bear the cost of that. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so careful.”
Ludovic did not reply. He did not even spare Ye Qingxuan a glance. The writhing expressions quickly recovered. Once again, he looked intelligent and composed.
“I underestimated your arrogance and wildness, Ye Qingxuan. It seems that this conversation cannot continue today.” He sighed with mock sadness. “Congratulations, you won this round. You have intelligence rare in humans. Sadly, it can’t save you. You’re still a prisoner. Ye Qingxuan, there are many ways to control someone. Since you rejected the best one, there won’t be such nice actions waiting for your now.”
He returned to his seat and knocked on the table. All strange sights disappeared. The setting sun returned outside the window, casting down dusky light.
The door opened. Two figures with black smoke walked in.
“Give him to Samuel.” Ludovic waved.
Samuel. Hearing this familiar name, Ye Qingxuan frowned. He quickly remembered that Samuel was the grandmaster who had failed his scepter sublimation and turned into a beast…
Sneering, Ludovic ordered, “Tell Samuel that I’m giving him a descendant of the Blood Tribe. I’d like to see if Mr. Ye, who has such a bright future, will still be so adamant after becoming a beast that is addicted to blood…”
The shackles tightened. Ye Qingxuan could not struggle. He was yanked up from the chair and dragged outside. But before the door, he stopped. Ignoring the pulling, he looked back to behind the table.
“Hey, Ludovic—or rather, that thing.”
“Huh?” Ludovic looked up. He saw Ye Qingxuan’s genuine smile.
He said, “Thank you.” But he did not say what he was thankful for because they both knew.
Thank you for the misery, thank you for telling the truth, thank you for telling me you designed all of this… It was hard to tell whether he was genuinely grateful or if it was an almost tangible hatred and thirst for bloodshed.
“You’re welcome.” Ludovic chuckled coldly.
Ye Qingxuan still did not move. Ignoring the bloody marks from the shadows pulling on his chains, he looked at Ludovic curiously. “What kind of thank you gift would you like?”
Ludovic gave him one last glance and waved impatiently. “If you think you still have the chance… I’ll be waiting for whatever you prepare.”
Ye Qingxuan was dragged out. His footsteps faded at the end of the hall. Ludovic stood before the window. He watched indifferently as Ye Qingxuan was shoved into the prison car. Then, a black-clothed priest with a sword walked in. He unsheathed his sword and cleaned out everything that was still alive.
He destroyed the last marks.
“In the end, still incapable…”
Ludovic narrowed his eyes and turned away. All that remained was silence. Under the setting sun, there was no more sound in the office behind the window. There were only a table and three chairs, refracting the dying light.
-
At dusk, someone entered the antique store. Bai Xi was shocked by the bell.
“Is anyone here?” It was an unfamiliar voice.
These days, Bai Xi rarely slept soundly. She was always awakened by nightmares. Now, she had sprawled on the counter and finally slept well. Hearing the voice, her temper came. She angrily picked up whatever was next to her, felt the weight, and hurled it!
“Shut up!”
The heavy candelabra tore through the air with a whistle. Totally shocked, the intruder caught it. The sharp points almost stabbed his eyes.
“Uh…sorry, I guess I’m in the wrong place.” The man awkwardly set the candelabra down and smiled. He walked out, looked at the sign, and pushed the door open cautiously. Sticking
his head in, he asked, “Hey, I don’t think this is wrong. Is Hermes here?”
Bai Xi could not fall asleep anymore. She climbed up, wiped away her drool, and sat blankly for a while before her mind was running. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the intruder. It was a dusty man wearing a dirty jacket that seemed to have gone unwashed for years. The original color was hard to see. His face was hidden by a wide brim hat. Despite being hidden in the darkness, he still felt attractive.
“Who are you?” Bai Xi asked in confusion.
“Just an old customer.” He chuckled and tossed his ragged backpack onto the ground. Rubbing his hands, he scooted toward the fireplace. “I haven’t been here in a long while. I can’t believe the Sacred City turned into this mess. I was lost for a while and I’m freezing… Ah, right, you’re Bai Xi, right?”
Bai Xi cocked her head. “You know me?”
The customer smiled. He reached out his dirty hand to ruffle her hair. Like a senior seeing a cute kid, he was gentle and loving. “I’ve heard of you. You’re a good girl.”
For some reason, Bai Xi felt happy instead of disgust. Even the depression from these past few days disappeared.
“Is Hermes upstairs?” the customer asked. “Please tell him that his old friend is here to take something I deposited.”
“What thing?” Bai Xi glanced upstairs and pursed her lips. “If I call him down, he’ll just talk nonsense with you and then scam you out of a bunch of money. He probably won’t even give you the thing. Tell me and if I know what it is, I’ll get it for you.”
“Thank you so much.” The customer smiled, seemingly embarrassed. He gestured with his hand. “Probably this big inside a jar. It’s not that rare of a thing and you can find them anywhere but it’s important to me. Simply put, uh…” He paused and said seriously, “It’s just a head.”
489 The Last Supper
After being “enthusiastically” pushed into the carriage, Ye Qingxuan was treated like a felon.
First, someone injected a tranquilizer into his neck, his eyes were covered with a blindfold, and a bag was pulled over his head. Then, he was forced to wear handcuffs and legcuffs. Finally, his clavicles, arms, and neck were all shackled with the shackles of Aether. His sense with the musician was totally cut off.
Because of the strong magnetic field, all the shackles were firmly fixed on an iron plate. Suddenly, the iron box was closed, and Ye Qingxuan was in complete darkness.
He could not hear anything.
Ye Qingxuan was lying in a coffin made specifically for him. He could feel a tremble beneath him from time to time and knew that the carriage was still moving.
Occasionally, the carriage turned left, then right. Sometimes, it moved upward and then downward.
In the pure darkness, Ye Qingxuan was counting the time with his fingers, and he almost fell asleep. After a long while, the carriage finally stopped.
“Ask someone… to send him to…”
“…is dead already… won’t go…”
“It should be… turn to…”
Ye Qingxuan could vaguely hear people arguing and the sound of a lifter as the iron coffin was pulled forward. The wind was blowing into the air vent, Ye Qingxuan was feeling colder and colder. He thought that he had probably been brought either to a refrigeration house or a basement.
At last, the coffin stopped.
After a long while, Ye Qingxuan heard people talking.
“Let Lord Samuel deal with him… that’s what Lord Ludovic has said.”
“There is no need to bother Lord Samuel,” someone said in a low voice. “I will deal with this man.”
“You want to use this blood slave to your advantage? Aren’t you afraid that you will be burnt into ashes under the sun once Lord Ludovic knows?”
“Come on, Quintus, I know you are starving too,” he sneered. “Judging from the smell, the man inside the coffin must be a musician. The quality of the blood of a musician is very good, and besides, someone told me that this man is a big figure. I want him to be my own blood slave, and I am willing to give half of his blood to you only if you agree to cover for me.”
Outside of the coffin, Ye Qingxuan could hear that one was chewing something, while the other was sucking something. After a long while, the other replied, “…fine, let’s do it then.”
The two lifted the iron box and put it on a table.
They opened the box with a key, then removed the blindfold and the bag that covered Ye Qingxuan’s head. Because of the strong magnetic field, Ye Qingxuan could not move, but he was happy to finally see the light.
He felt a bit dazzled.
The light of the shadowless lamp in the operating room was cold and dazzling.
He could smell the disinfectant and the blood.
Two men who were wearing aristocratic clothing were watching him. They looked rather pale and had very sharp canine teeth. Watching Ye Qingxuan, they could not help swallowing their saliva.
Ye Qingxuan squinted his eyes and smiled.
“Hey, are you two ready to eat your meal now?”
The two men were surprised and backed away two steps. After making sure that all the shackles were still there, they were relieved. The slim man squinted his eyes and said, “You are still awake?”
“Yes.” Ye Qingxuan nodded. “The tranquilizer you guys gave me is not that effective, I just took a short nap. It seems that I have come to at the right time for you to eat your meal.”
Ye Qingxuan curiously looked around and asked: “What do you plan to eat? What’s so delicious that makes you keep swallowing your saliva?”
He saw there was a dry corpse on the operating table next to him. The stiff body had bite marks everywhere, and one of its arms was gone.
Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan frowned.
“Quick-frozen food? It seems that the living conditions here are less than ideal. You guys can’t even afford something fresh?”
“Shut up!”
The slim man slapped him. Ye Qingxuan still smiled at him. “I guess you two are going to eat your meal. You should pay attention to your health and eat something that has been cooked. Eating raw food is bad for you. I suggest you either roast it or fry it, and it will taste better if you add some pepper salt.”
The two musicians who had become vampires looked at each other and turned gloomy. One of them said, “You know you are going to die, how can you still be so chatty? Be quiet! We will grant you the blood of glory later, and you should thank us for giving you this opportunity.”
“Can you be gentle?” Ye Qingxuan looked at his two sharp teeth. “I fear pain… why not set me free?”
Hearing this, the two men become very gloomy.
“Ninuo, we should give him a tranquilizer injection,” Quintus suggested. “Don’t ever give him any chance to run away, his eyes look rather strange…”
“Good idea,” Ninuo replied after hesitating a while.
He walked to the operating table and extracted around five times of the usual amount of the strong anesthetics. He put the needle against Ye Qingxuan’s neck and sneered, “Don’t try to run away, you may have a nice dream instead.”
“Sounds good.” Ye Qingxuan nodded and quietly watched them while blinking his big eyes.
A minute passed, two minutes passed, ten minutes passed…
Ye Qingxuan was still blinking his eyes and watching them. Gradually, Ninuo stopped laughing and grew more gloomy.
Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help tittering.
After going through the sub-originator transformation, both his hormones and organs were no longer the same as an ordinary person’s. Besides, with the help of the Stone of Sage, his body successfully mutated. The anesthetics wouldn’t do any harm to him; even if he ate poisonous potions, he’d just get diarrhea.
For him, the anesthetics that would cause an ordinary person brain death were just no big deal.
“Hurry up! The clock is ticking,” Ye Qingxuan said. “How about eating me alive? The last thing I want to
do is to starve you two. I promise I will be quiet from now on, okay? I do sympathize with you two, since you are locked under the ground all the time and don’t even have the chance to enjoy the sunlight. I will just pretend I am doing a favor for you two…”
Slap!
Hearing this, Ninuo’s face was convulsed with rage. He heavily slapped Ye Qingxuan and said, “B*stard!”
Since Lord Samuel failed to upgrade his Scepter, all the students of the School of (Music) Theory turned into vampires. Although they had not been eradicated yet, they had to stay underground and scramble for the few bodies of wanderers. If they made any complaints, they would be thrown above ground by Samuel, and burnt to ashes by the sunlight.
Therefore, they didn’t dare to contradict to Samuel. Seeing Ye Qingxuan, who was just a “blood bag,” mocking him, Ninuo was furious and took out a scalpel.
“You are proving to us that you are so articulate, right? Why not let me cut the corners of your mouth and make it bigger, so you can talk louder!”
Ninuo cruelly cut Ye Qingxuan’s mouth. An extremely big and bloody crack crawled to his jaws.
The blood spurted out.
Ye Qingxuan didn’t scream at all. Instead, he put a bigger “smile” on his face and watched the two men. Immediately, the two men’s eyes turned red.
After they became vampires, blood was something they could never resist, especially the blood of a musician. For them, the blood of an ordinary person was food, but the blood of a musician was a panacea that could greatly enhance their power. Ye Qingxuan’s blood was the blood of Deva. It was something even the Elder Hydrargyrum Lola would crave for.
Quintus’ eyes were bloody red. He instantly crawled onto Ye Qingxuan, bit his neck, and began to suck Ye Qingxuan’s blood.
“There is no need to hurry, take it slow,” Ye Qingxuan said gently. “Don’t choke yourself.”
Ninuo was furious, and when he tried to drag Quintus away, Quintus began to scream.
