688 Wheel of Balance (2/2)

The aftermath of the collisions between elements took place one after another. The layers of waves intertwined like ripples, spreading outwards in all directions, spilling a tremendous amount of pressure downwards. Matter was not damaged in the slightest bit, but all music theory oscillated in the aftermath. It was like houses whining forlornly in an earthquake.

The scepters with elements of a lower class would burst completely and cease to exist in an instant when placed within, and the Symphonies of Predestination which were one class weaker couldn't even approach. The musicians who approached hastily were swept away by the airwaves. Then, they fell from the sky like insects and crashed onto the ground, becoming piles of meat pulp. Before that, their will, their Symphonies of Predestination, and all their music theory had been brutally erased.

It was the melting pot of the creation, the manifestation of the destruction of the world, the enormous power that operated the world. All human beings were only dust in front of it and could in no way hinder it. They couldn't even be considered as mantises blocking the carriage [1].

The crystals proliferated from the small core. A physical form was being bestowed upon the new catastrophe.

But Ye Qingxuan just looked up at the sky, lying motionless in the ruins. Initially, he wanted to involve himself in the Ultimate and get his share of the catastrophe that was being born.

At the moment, after understanding its nature clearly, he had no desire to even touch it.

Like what he said to Paganini, he had given up.

It was a power that had been irrigated with blood, a miracle for which countless people had given up their lives in return.

How was such a thing different from rotten meat?

Just thinking about it made him want to vomit.

But in the silent observation, the embryonic form of the body of the catastrophe had gradually emerged. It grew wildly, evolving towards the most perfect form. In the friction and collision between countless elements, brand new music theory and power slowly emerged from it.

At the moment, no musician would have their minds on other things. Their consciousness, their gaze, all their senses were directed towards the sky, and they used every method available to them to get closer to the core, sensing the earth-shattering changes and experiencing the wonder of the operation of the world.

Everyone saw different things, but all of them felt that they had only seen the tip of the iceberg of the behemoth, and it was difficult to see the whole picture. Just gazing and sensing it would make one's power increase wildly, and aether waves erupted one after another like volcanoes. But soon, the incorporeal waves dissipated, and the colliding elements gradually disappeared.

In the greedy and lingering gaze of countless musicians, the gap in the realm of the aetheric world closed silently, and the blessing from the Originator was over.

They had no time to be sentimental or regretful because as the moment arrived, mighty tolls of bells resounded through the perception of all the musicians in the entire physical world.

They announced the emergence of new power and the establishment of new rules and order.

A new catastrophe had been born from nothingness!

At the moment, the existence hanging high above the sky finally revealed its true appearance. It was an odd stone wheel that seemed to be carved from rocks. The stone wheel that seemed to have been carved crudely had hundreds of precise scales on it. Under each scale were odd patterns consisting of countless complicated notes.

If one was to look closely, one couldn't perceive the texture of the rock at all. It was just an illusion caused by the distortion of the air, and it was difficult to even determine whether it had weight.

It was as if the surface of the world had peeled off, revealing a crack leading to the core, allowing humans a vague glimpse of the complex structure within.

At the moment, the stone wheel hung high in the sky, motionless, but it gave one the illusion that the whole world was slowly rotating around it.

Perhaps, it really was spinning.

It was just that the stone wheel was the midpoint of the world, and when it decided to spin, what would rotate would be the whole world.

Just by sensing and looking at it, in the blink of an eye, everyone understood its essence.

Just as what everyone had hoped, after consuming countless resources, the catastrophe born had entered the level of abomination, alongside the Three Pillar God and the Three Wise Men.

It was just that it was neither a manifestation of human nature nor a result of divinity operating within. Instead, it was something purer, an item, a tool created in order to reach a certain purpose.

Or in other words, a pure artifact.

As the stone wheel rotated, it subjugated all music theory completely, and all the elements emerged at just the right timing, converging together as a whole.

By right, everyone should have felt its power at the moment it appeared. If it had been a lethal artifact, it wouldn't have been impossible for all musicians to die once it had been born. If it had been a savior-like miracle, then an exuberant vitality would have naturally emerged with it.

But at the moment, all the people there perceived nothing unusual.

It wasn't until when some musicians were ready to act before the rest that they realized that something was wrong, and they couldn't help but give a yelp of shock — the realm of aether, which was initially close at hand, did not respond to their call, and the rules of the physical world remained just as stable as before.

At the moment, the musical movement that was originally enough to shake the heavens and the earth could only stir up weak ripples in the physical world!

Until then only did they discover that the physical world and the realm of aether had been quietly separated, and the boundaries between the two were no longer unclear, but instead, they became distinct.

The nine-layered sea of aether seemed to have a new order and structure. The structure was complex and clear, forming a perfect balance between the two realms.

Everyone got a serious case of goosebumps.

The artifact could actually control the 'distance' between the physical world and the realm of aether!

As long as it operated, be it completely overlapping the physical world and the realm of aether to create a magical wonderland beyond the imagination of human beings, or be it separating the physical world and the realm of aether totally, blocking off elements and scepters, causing the sea of aether to stop flowing, and forming a vacuum with no trace of aether within, all such actions would be just a breeze.

Then only did the name given to it by the Originator emerge in everyone's heart.

The Wheel of Balance!

[1] The author is referring to a Chinese proverb that literally translates as ”blocking the carriage with one's front legs as a mantis”. It means being unaware of one's incapability to do something and attempting to do it to no avail, often harming oneself in the process.