94 Records of a Genius (1/2)

Half a month ago, Ye Qingxuan had come out of the library and slept for two days straight afterwards. When he had woke up, he told Abraham and the others something totally shocking, he seemed to have found a music sheet entirely suitable for him.

But before Abraham could be happy for his student, bad news came. ”Black Friday” was so unconventional that it barely stayed in line. It was a hair’s width away from being demonic music.

The relationship between its notes created an ”interval.” Usually, music pieces avoided using the ”tritone” interval and instead used ”pure tones.” The disharmony of a tritone interval could activate the dark side of man’s heart and of the aether, causing people to turn wild. Yet Black Friday almost entirely used those demonic intervals. Even the dark pieces that Satan had given to his own squire were not so hopeless, frantic, or eerie as ”Black Friday.”

Faced with Abraham’s questioning, Ye Qingxuan only said that it suddenly entered his mind when he opened a notebook in the library.

This worried Abraham. He could not understand why any master from the School of Mind would hide such an odd melody in his notes, and imprint it into someone’s consciousness through a mark.

The materials for a music sheet that could transport memory and imprint a mark were close to none. He could not comprehend why anyone would put something like that in a page of ordinary notes.

”Black Friday” was a music score from the School of Mind. It was considered to be at the Musician level, but if one separated the measures, it was possible to be a practice piece for Rhythm level too.

Analyzed by Abraham, its five measures could be paired with different music notes to create five different effects.

First, the melody would evoke the listener’s negative emotions, causing him to lose control. Then, guided by the melody, aether would influence and control the enemy’s senses. He would become a disabled person who could not see, hear, or feel. It was a superb composition with a wide range of uses.

Interpreted by Abraham, if the five measures were connected, it could also activate a hidden effect. But no matter what he tried, he could not find it. It probably required a unique playing technique and instrument.

Abraham became even more worried. He could not think of a reason as to why Ye Qingxuan insisted on learning such a mysterious piece.

But to Ye Qingxuan, practicing Black Friday was the most important task at hand. Of course he had to practice! Why would he not practice it? When he tried playing it for the first time, he realized that the eternally sleeping Jiu Xiao Huan Pei actually had a reaction!

Ye had been ecstatic then, practically jumping up and dancing. He had a premonition that he would be able to truly awaken Jiu Xiao Huan Pei when he finally learned the piece.

He had grown up hearing about the zither that had accompanied his father. Apparently, it was a treasured instrument passed down through generations. He did not fully understand how the zither had turned into that, despite it always being in the case. But the most important task at hand was to awaken and learn it. Its help in controlling the aether would be the best way to climb to the top of the musician levels. It would make up for the lack of ”sense.” Then he would be able to grasp the complex notes easily, break through the student level and reach the Rhythm level.

Knowing how much of his troll his father was, new clues were sure to appear after unlocking Jiu Xiao Huan Pei.

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”You’re moving too fast. What if your foundation isn’t good?” Abraham tried to warn Ye Qingxuan. ”You’ve only learned half of the forty-eight music notes of Equal Temperament. If you want to enter Rhythm level, you need to at least learn all of them and practice for a few more years.” He asked, ”All you care about is speed. What if you lose control?”

Ye Qingxuan shook his head. ”Professor, you know my situation. I’m different from students who only rely on ‘sense.’ My foundation is built on the experience of people before me, so I’m okay as long as I memorize them all. And after learning your translation method, I’m much faster at deciphering basic syllables and creating concise structures.

”I don’t like to use sense to control the aether, so if I need to cast runes, I only need to choose the right syllables based on the aether’s reaction. Even if it’s a situation with no previous record, I can still calculate and create new syllables based on the environment and rules. Unless I miscalculate, there’s no way I will lose control. And anyway, compared to that senior, I’m not that fast, right?”

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Hearing this, Abraham only shook his head. ”His situation is different.”

Remembering the rumors around school, Ye Qingxuan was suddenly curious. ”Did he really go from the student level to the Rhythm level in one month?”

Usually, if one relied only on talent and ‘sense,’ it was a long and hard journey. From learning runes to complex notes and measures, and then finally getting to Rhythm level, the process required blood, sweat, and tears. A regular student needed three years. If he was smart and worked hard, he could do it in two.

But then years ago, a guy named Charles destroyed that rule. He took only one month to reach Rhythm level and pass the Academy’s examination. He had shocked many people then and became known as the Academy’s hope, Anglo’s future master, and even a candidate for a saint. But then ten years passed, and yesterday’s genius was still stuck between the Rhythm and Musician level, and had turned into a useless failure who liked drinking and running around naked…

Ye Qingxuan really felt bad for him.

”It wasn’t one month,” Charles corrected Ye seriously from the corner of the room. ”It was two days.”

Crash.

That was the sound of Ye Qingxuan’s jaw hitting the floor. He almost jumped onto the piano in shock. ”How many days?!”

”Two days.” Abraham sighed and scratched his head. ”More precisely, it was one and a half. I was a bit busy then and had to squeeze out time to teach him.”

”Professor, stop joking!” Ye Qingxuan’s eyes almost popped out of his head. ”One and a half days? And you had to squeeze out time?”

”That’s right.” Charles, with an encyclopedia on his head shrugged helplessly. ”You know, I used to be a genius.”