31 Sound in the Moonligh (1/2)

In the long street, Ghosthand was silently smoking his pipe. Although the air was filled with cheers and laughter, the atmosphere around the bench was destitute, like the winter. A homeless man was shivering on the ground.

”Excuse me, how do I get to Luther Street?” someone behind Ghosthand asked. It sounded like the person was lost and had been asking everyone nearby for directions, then finally he came to ask Ghosthand.

Irritated, Ghosthand did not show a temper, but was also not interested in turning around to answer the question. He silently continued to smoke his pipe, then pointed to the right.

”Oh, thank you!” The pedestrian got their answer, and happily left.

The smashing sound continued until the group of people had completely searched through the hotel from attic to cellar. But they still did not find where the white-haired boy and his dog were hiding.

Finally, Ghosthand went inside the hotel, looked at the ruins of the front desk, his eyes gloomy, ”Did they say anything?”

”I swear he is not here...he is not here anymore!” The wife of the hotel owner, who had been tied up and slapped around a few times choked as she sobbed, ”He left half an hour ago! You came too late...I really do not know anything, nothing!”

”So we missed him again?” Ghosthand put down his pipe, and knocked off some ash on the wall. His voice was cold, ”So you are saying, that we just missed that d*mn kid again?”

The homeless guy who had wanted to escape had his leg broken. He came into the ruins of the hotel. ”Sir, it had nothing to do with me, I did not expect that! I swear!” The homeless guy begged, ”Let me go, I was truthful to Mr. Shaman, and I really did not...”

Ghosthand put down his pipe, and sneered at the homeless guy on the floor.

The homeless man's voice became lower and lower, the finally, his whispers had no sound. His eyes full of despair.

”I do know that this was just a little mistake. You should not be blamed.” Ghosthand bent down, and pressed on the right eye of the homeless guy. His cloudy eyes were full of sorrow, ”But unfortunately, I'm not like the Scotland Yard...they're too understanding.”

There was a sickening snapping sound! Something broke.

...

”Thought of everything, but I still missed two things.” On the streets, dragging an old suitcase, Ye Qingxuan was murmuring despondently, ”First, I did not account for the hands-on examination, and second, I did not think...”

Ye put his head down and stared at the crystal ball in his hands, whining, ”Why is this aether ball so expensive!”

In the hands of Ye Qingxuan, the fist-sized crystal ball was flashing with the reflections of the street lights. With the hustle and bustle of the people nearby, the crystal ball sometimes flashed erratically.

It was like broken silver dust was constantly reborn, disappearing and converging inside the crystal. It would made you dizzy after a while.

This was one of the most commonly used measurement tools for musicians: the aether ball.

It looked like a solid crystal ball, although it was just a thin layer of crystal solidified by a high-temperature. The refractive index and thickness were of the highest standard. The inside was engraved with runes, filled with pure aether, and was able to respond to the lowest sound.

The one in Ye's hands was bought from a store for civilian use, or for musician apprentices to play with. It was the most basic type. It would last for about four months, but it had cost almost all of Ye Qingxuan's money. It was said that in the army, and in the musicians union, there were much better quality aether balls and measuring tools. They were not things money could buy.

As for 'learning how to communicate with the aether,' the most suitable material for the introductory lesson was in his hands.

He rubbed the notebook that Wolf Flute had given him, and sighed softly.

Even though he had the aether ball in his hands, the difficulty level was still very high.

So far, musicians were still rare in the human world. Every book said that in order to communicate with the aether, musicians needed to recite the runes.

The runes of the notes were the basis of all music sheets and power. They came from the exploration and research from past years. They were composed of complex basic syllables, hard to understand, and difficult to recite.

More than half of them were the sounds of the world converted by aether.

From runes to a measure, and from a measure to a movement, it finally became a complete music score in the end. From their long exploration, mankind had developed a complete system divided into seven branches and hundreds of specialization.

In Wolf Flute's notes, only three basic notes had been recorded, which were the basis of three different schools. They were the ”extraction” of the School of Modifications, the ”peace” of the School of Abstinence, and the ”beastly nature” of the School of Summoning.

As long as you could master any of them, you would be able to pass the test.

However, Ye Qingxuan had no confidence in learning how to complete this seemingly simple test within ten days. Especially since this was Avalon. In order to avoid the large-scale chaos of aether caused by loud noises, the city was completely surrounded by the enchantment of aether.

This enchantment was like a griddle, able to completely suppress aether interference caused by ninety-nine percent of the noise, and only the most accurate syllables could work. After all, not many ordinary people dared to have anything to do with aether. Most were rather afraid of it.

Whether it was the notes of Wolf Flute, or of any musician, the covers of their musical sheets would always have a commandment from the first Pope. The commandment, written in black ink, had been engraved in everyone's heart, from birth until death, never forgotten--awe of aether.

-

Having studied the history of the church, Ye Qingxuan was able to have a more comprehensive understanding of the current world. After all, for mankind, ninety percent of the world was undeveloped dark areas.

Researchers around the world would uniformly use four colors while marking maps.

The most central regions were white, representing the density of aether, and how much land could be occupied by man on a large-scale. Yellow represented where extreme loud noises were banned. And black was the danger zone outside of the border. In the black areas, even the slightest cough would cause a chain reaction as dangerous as avalanche.