107 I’ll Be Back Soon (1/2)
”Okay, now try jumping!”
Ye Qingxuan obeyed, but then his vision blurred and he almost crashed into the ceiling! Mind going blank, he was a heap on the ground before he could react. The basement ceiling was low but it was at least three meters high, which meant that just by jumping slightly, he had shot up more than one meter! Usually, he would need three layers of the rune Flow to achieve this.
”Scared?” Charles smiled proudly, ”Back in the day, I carved all of the auxiliary runes I knew, just in case. It’s pretty basic as alchemy equipment, but at least you won’t need to use Flow and other weird methods to run.” He walked around the youth in satisfaction and patted his shoulder, ”The effect is pretty good. With your physical strength, you can escape from everyone and anything as long as you don’t come face to face with something as crazy as the legendary Butcher.
”I also have openings and slots for upgrades. If you can find the frame of a complex note armor, you can instantly turn into someone awesome like Knight Templar! Just imagine you punch like usual, but now your fist can go through a steel wall! Then nothing in Avalon would be able to stop you, other than the armor of the Round Table Knights!”
”But I have to get a complete frame of a complex note armor first, right?” Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes, ”Senior, why don’t you just wish that the Sword in the Stone will accept me as its master, and suddenly get taken to the palace to become the future king of Anglo?”
”Wow, I didn’t know you had such a good imagination! If you’re the master of the Sword in the Stone, then shouldn’t I be taken to the sacred city to be the pope?”
”Hey, who was the one that first started fantasizing?”
”I was just thinking for you!” Cackling, Charles tossed over a jar of something. ”Here, rub it on yourself.”
”What is this?”
”You don’t want to be discovered as soon as you go out, right?” He pointed at Ye Qingxuan’s hair. ”Long-lasting hair dye. Blonde. You can’t get rid of it with water. It only dissolves with Tung oil. With this on, nobody will be able to tell you’re Eastern.”
”Why didn’t you give this to me earlier?” Ye Qingxuan grabbed the ointment and began rubbing it in carefully. When he was done, Charles brought over the mirror. They were both stunned. The boy in the reflection was purely Western. The long hair was now light blonde, completely different from before.
Charles took two steps back, giving him a once-over. In the end, he realized that there was still something missing. Charles looked around for a long time before he finally put a hunting hat on Ye Qingxuan’s head. Now, the harmless Eastern kid had disappeared. Instead, there was a gloomy youth, pale face in stark contrast with his black robe.
Ye Qingxuan smirked, instantly turning eerie. If not for the Dungeon Gentleman’s menacing aura, he would look like a cheap version of Hermes at first glance.
But Charles was still shoving things at him, like a salesman eager to get the rich customer to spend even more money. ”Look at this. Helps you breathe underwater.”
”Uh, it might be useful?”
”Hand-cranked lockpicker. It’s totally easy to pick locks now!”
”I don’t think I’d use that.”
”This catapult hook is a must for scaling walls!”
”Do I need it?” Ye Qingxuan asked, at his limit.
”What about this?” Charles shoved a mask and two steel canisters. ”A gas mask and smoke bombs? I put a bunch of pepper into the smoke bombs. No one will be able to breathe after it explodes!”
”…Sorry, I don’t need that either.”
When Charles finally could not find anything else wrong with him, his gaze fell on the youth’s fingers. ”This one, this weird ring, take it off. If you want to hide your identity, you can’t leave behind any trace.”
”No need,” Ye Qingxuan chuckled. His fingers flitted over the ring. The instrument strings wrapped around it suddenly shot out, twanging. ”I remember this is…” He thought for a bit, thinking back to the frustration carved into his mind, and began chanting.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Layers of crystals suddenly covered the delicate strings. The aether rested on the surface, and transformed into something smooth like black metal. As a highly expensive adjustable instrument, its appearance was no problem at all—the technology was designed to make large instruments portable. Merely changing the outer appearance was as easy as lifting a finger.
Under Ye Qingxuan’s careful control, Jiu Xiao Huan Pei slowly changed. Finally, it became a black cane in his hand. Ye Qingxuan gripped the cane and twirled it before tapping it against the floor. Rather than a muted thud, it created a crisp and delicate sound, like jade pearls rolling on a copper plate. It was the sound of an instrument string thrumming.
”What about now?” Under the shadow of the hat, the youth smiled slyly.
”This is…an instrument?” Charles moved closer. Before he could say anything, a faint noise sounded in his ears. It was the melody of despair that flowed like a black river. The melody snaked into his ears, burrowing into his soul like a live creature, echoing coldly. As his vision went dark, Charles sat onto the ground subconsciously. Very quickly, the sound dissipated and he could see again. But when he looked at the youth, his eyes were full of shock.
”The first measure of Black Friday? Since when could you play complex notes? You’ve reached the Rhythm level!”