Crown of Silence

Chapter 241 Sublimation Ceremony

"Hey, kid, you've kept me waiting for a long time."

Ye Qingxuan stood at the door and didn't come back to his senses for a long time. Hermes looked at his ghostly expression and smiled with great joy.

Behind him, a huge silver vortex turned silently, emitting faint fluctuations. Just below the vortex, a huge ritual composed of mercury, gems and various materials that Ye Qingxuan couldn't recognize was slowly changing, absorbing the power of endless ether, opening a vague cave that seemed to lead to another world.

This is the sublimation ceremony.

Under Hermes' control, the mercury in the gully flowed silently, and the viscous and heavy silver-white liquid glowed with a burning light.

Ye Qingxuan had never thought that the person who performed the sublimation ceremony for him was actually Hermes.

"Are you scared?" Hermes asked with a smile.

"A little." Ye Qingxuan nodded honestly.

"Your principal paid for it, and I came to take a look when I had some free time."

Hermes shook his head and sighed: "I haven't been to this damn place for a long time. I didn't expect you to maintain it well. But the newly built buildings are too ugly and have no taste at all. It would be better to follow the original design drawings honestly, but you have to add unnecessary details, tut tut tut..."

Ye Qingxuan listened obediently to Hermes's criticism of every corner of the Royal Academy of Music from beginning to end, until the end, Hermes looked down at the mercury flowing on the ground, and didn't worry about being poisoned at all, and directly put his palm in.

When he pulled out his palm, the mercury emitted a burning glow and quickly dissipated at his fingertips. Hermes nodded with satisfaction: "The whole ritual is almost synchronized.

In addition to the sublimation ceremony, there is also the heart seal inheritance. The musicians nowadays are really regressing. They can't even handle this kind of compound alchemy. How can they have the nerve to make a living?

Hey, the white-haired kid over there, have you decided what heart seal inheritance you want?

This is a treasure trove, Bach's "Chaconne", Mahler's "Symphony No. 2 - Resurrection", "Nocturne", "Four Seasons"...even "Concerto No. 1" has more than a dozen pieces of various kinds.

Since your principal has said that you can choose any of the resonance level, don't be polite to him, it's not you who pays, right? "

Hearing Hermes' words, Ye Qingxuan woke up from his daze, hesitated and said:

"——"Night on the Barren Mountain""

He said, "I choose "Night on the Barren Mountain" from the forbidden faction. "

Hermes' smile froze for a moment, and then he became weird all over: "It's really... very suitable for you..."

He originally wanted to say, 'I didn't expect that the children born by mice can really dig holes', like father like son and other nonsense, he really didn't expect that Ye Qingxuan would choose one of such a large music library.

It's not that this music book is very weak, but this movement is really very weird.

It is not just because it is a forbidden faction movement, but this movement is specially created for the fallen black musicians and demons.

These days, except for the judgment musicians who specialize in hunting down black musicians and monsters, almost no one chooses to practice this extremely difficult and unpopular movement.

At that time, its creator hid his identity and mixed in with the evil god believers and witches who worshiped the natural disaster.

The so-called "Night of the Desolate Mountain" is the carnival festival of the fallen. A bonfire is lit in the middle of the night on a certain day every year. Witches, evil god believers, and black musicians praise the evil god, offer blood sacrifices, enjoy the evil god's gifts, and dance around the flames until dawn.

At dawn, the creator lurking in it suddenly rose up, and together with the judgment musicians lurking around, they completely killed the evil god believers who were reveling all night.

They used the generous melody to announce the arrival of dawn to sweep away the evil god's hymn, and created this movement with it.

Only the Judgement Musician would practice this movement, because it is almost invincible when dealing with evil demons. No matter what kind of evil demons they are, or what faction the black musicians come from, as long as they carry the breath of natural disasters, they will be imprisoned and sealed by this movement, nailed to the stake, and burned to ashes in the fire.

No matter how dark the night of the desolate mountain is, it will be illuminated by the forest of stakes.

However, if the target is replaced by a human, then in addition to the original shackles and sealing effects, there is no lethality.

"It really...suits you very well."

Hermes was stuck for a long time before he squeezed out this sentence.

Ye Qingxuan had already considered the choice of movement for the inheritance of the Heart Seal.

Although he was not qualified to read many important movements in the library, he could still see the catalogue. He simply copied the catalogue and went to Abraham and Laura for advice.

After Abraham looked through the catalog, he marked off several pieces of music from the revelation and change factions. After a moment of hesitation, he marked off "Night on the Barren Mountain" as a backup for Ye Qingxuan.

And Laura's suggestion was that it was better to make up for one's own shortcomings rather than strengthening one's strengths.

In terms of pure destructive power, he already has the Eye of Indra. Under the watering of the blood of the celestial being, the thunderous rage that bursts out can allow him to directly fight against opponents of higher levels.

Even if he gets other pieces, they are limited to his own realm and may not be able to surpass their effects in a short period of time.

In comparison, Night on the Barren Mountain is relatively biased, but it makes up for his own weakness of not being good at long-term frontal combat. Moreover, he can do whatever he wants without worrying about killing the enemy if he hits too hard.

After understanding Ye Qingxuan's plan, Hermes could only sigh: "Young people today are really amazing with their imaginations..."

"Okay, the ceremony is almost ready, you can go in."

He stepped aside and signaled Ye Qingxuan to go in quickly and not waste time.

Ye Qingxuan walked into it and felt almost suffocated in an instant. The ether flash that was about to condense into substance flowed in the air, thick and heavy, as if under dozens of meters of water, making him almost out of breath.

But after looking around, Ye Qingxuan made a new discovery and was shocked: "Wait a minute, where is the most important medium for the sublimation ceremony? Boss, you won't cut corners, right?"

"medium?"

Hermes looked at him sideways, "Isn't it on you?"

With a buzzing sound, the palm-sized piece of stone flew out from the boy's arms, suspended in mid-air, sucking in the ether almost endlessly, and turned into a small sun.

In the light of the scorching sun, the cuneiform characters on it seemed to have undergone new changes, making him dazzled, shaken, and unable to control himself.

"Hey, kid!"

Hermes suddenly tapped his shoulder behind him, waking him up.

"Let's put the ugly words up front: the alchemy I'm good at is completely classical, there aren't that many safety measures, and it's definitely not a comfortable experience.

Rather, the longer it goes on, the more torture you will suffer.

During the ritual, you may see some unexplained visions, hear inexplicable sounds, or sense the vague outline of something terrifying.

I won't be responsible if you get driven crazy by that thing.

So, are you ready? "

"..."

After hearing this, Ye Qingxuan was speechless for a while and couldn't help but sigh:

"——To be honest, I can't wait. Can we start quickly?"

"Good boy, I knew you were a good man."

Hermes' palm pressed on the top of his head. His fingers were cold and without any warmth, like ice and iron, which made Ye Qingxuan couldn't help but shiver.

"There is one last question." Hermes suddenly asked: "You know that there is a high possibility of death during the sublimation ceremony, right?"

"Huh? Wait..."

Ye Qingxuan was shocked, and immediately his vision went dark, and he didn't know anything anymore.

——

At the moment when he fell into a coma, solemn singing and melody sounded from the sublimation ceremony. In the hoarse singing and majestic melody, the ether seemed to be on fire, reverberating like a roaring ocean tide.

That huge power, like a flame, instantly fell on the young man's body. After burning all his clothes, it penetrated into his limbs and bones, causing him to twitch involuntarily and scream.

But his eyes were gone, as if his soul was no longer here.

It has risen to the sky or fallen into the abyss.

"You are born in the ether and pass away in the ether - you should also fear the ether!"

Hermes declared solemnly, he pressed the young man's forehead, his expression was neither sad nor happy, but seemed to be full of joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, just like the statue of the god engraved by the cult, which was awe-inspiring.

Behind him, twelve huge wings of light broke out from his attire, unfolding to cover the sky and the sun.

The wings of light waved silently, causing huge waves in the invisible sea of ​​ether.

"Ye Qingxuan, the so-called sublimation ceremony is to purify the soul."

He stared into the young man's dim eyes and whispered in his ear: "In that chaos, you will see your true self."

——

Ye Qingxuan only felt that he fell into a nightmare again. In that long nightmare, unspeakable huge chaos swallowed him up.

He felt that he was involuntarily thrown into the sky, out of the scope of human beings, and entered the cold and indescribable icy realm.

There was nothing there.

In a startling glance, it seemed as if something extremely majestic and gigantic was passing by him, as if it was the support of a god. And when he turned back inadvertently, he seemed to see a burning hell wailing at the bottom of the abyss beneath his feet.

In an instant, he seemed to realize: Perhaps, this is the 'etheric realm' described in countless classics, the world observed from the ether, and the true face of all things.

But in this lonely flight, he suddenly heard a call from behind. He turned around in shock and saw a huge city slowly emerging from the darkness.

Under the illumination of the blue moon, the city was shrouded in fog, revealing a ferocious, sharp, huge and dark outline, like churches and palaces made of piled bones. The flow of blood formed roads and rivers, and countless vague shadows lingered in this city of the dead, unable to escape.

That's the Shadow of Avalon...

In an instant, Ye Qingxuan's body stagnated, and he felt it approaching quickly... No, he was falling there quickly, and it was pulling him!

Ye Qingxuan struggled hard, but was unable to do anything. As he fell rapidly, he felt the powerful power from the Shadow of Avalon tearing at his sanity, almost tearing him apart.

For a moment, he seemed to sense two selves, three selves, four selves... This was the prelude to schizophrenia.

A strong sense of crisis filled his brain, but at that moment, for some reason, a line of inexplicable characters flashed through his mind.

It was the cuneiform runes engraved on the stone tablet.

Those inexplicable runes intertwined with each other in his mind into strange intervals, constantly growing and expanding, from just a few characters to a huge work that seemed to have tens of millions of words.

In an instant, the huge amount of information almost overwhelmed his consciousness, and then, that rigorous and huge horror movement began to shrink and collapse rapidly.

Ye Qingxuan did not understand the music theory involved, let alone hear it, and could not even recognize the specific direction.

In an instant, it grew to the largest, and in an instant, it collapsed to the smallest.

Ye Qingxuan was completely unable to observe that tiny spot, and even his consciousness was pulled into that tiny point that was almost non-existent.

Before he completely fainted, he only heard a magnificent chanting that seemed to shake the heaven and earth:

"——As above, as below, so all things begin!"

——

"Ah!!!"

Ye Qingxuan screamed and jumped off the table, and the whole classroom was silent.

In the morning reading classroom, all the students who were reciting the text looked up, and even the drowsy teacher on the podium was startled.

Ye Qingxuan looked around in astonishment, not understanding where this place was. But in his mind, the memories of the past were disappearing rapidly like a dream.

He stared at those eyes dully, at a loss.

"Ye Qingxuan, how many times have I told you not to doze off during morning reading!"

On the podium, the bald teacher frowned: "Stand and recite at the back!"

Until now, Ye Qingxuan realized that he had fallen asleep during morning reading and had that strange dream.

He lowered his head in embarrassment, picked up the English book, and stood obediently at the back of the classroom.

Perhaps because he had a good attitude to admit his mistakes and was serious about his studies, the teacher did not make things difficult for him and left after the bell rang.

His deskmate Wang Qiang came up to him and gloated: "Ye Zi, I have seen so many people dozing off, but I have never seen you talking in your sleep so loudly."

"You didn't remind me!" Ye Qingxuan rubbed his eyes and yawned: "I played GTB5 all night last night and fell asleep accidentally."

"Today is the second mock test and you are still so idle? You are awesome."

The deskmate glanced at the words '88 days to the college entrance examination' on the blackboard behind him and asked: "Do you have any gel pen refills? Lend me one, I have run out of mine."

"They are all in the pencil case, take them yourself."

Ye Qingxuan was absent-minded and dazed.

"Hey, what's wrong with you? Fever?"

"I don't know." He shook his head: "I always feel like I forgot something."

"Don't!" Wang Qiang was shocked: "My English depends on you during the exam! What should I do if you don't perform well?"

"What's the big deal?" Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes at him: "I did a bad grade that time? Anyway, you can just turn on your phone when the time comes."

Wang Qiang shook his head, "It's said that it won't work this year. For this mock exam, the school is said to have blocked the signal, and the phone can't receive any signal."

"You won't use your phone if there is no signal?"

Ye Qingxuan squinted at him: "Turn on Bluetooth , then you can just change the name of your phone to the answer, right? Don't tell me your phone doesn't even have Bluetooth. "

"..."

Wang Qiang's expression suddenly became very interesting. He was stunned for a long time before squeezing out a few words from his teeth: "Why the hell didn't I think of it!"

"Because you have a low IQ."

...

"This time, the mock exam was set by Teacher Xia from our school. Everything is strict and strives to simulate the real college entrance examination. I hope that all students can answer the questions seriously and don't cheat."

The head teacher said seriously: "Do you understand?"

"I understand." There was a sparse response from the audience.

Soon, the test paper was handed to everyone. Ye Qingxuan took it casually, put it aside, and couldn't help yawning.

For some reason, he still looked out the window absent-mindedly, as if immersed in some focused thinking, but he knew that his heart was empty and he didn't think about anything.

Just in a daze.

Just felt that something seemed wrong.

"Answer the questions carefully."

The invigilator knocked on the table gently and reminded in a low voice.

Ye Qingxuan's body shook, and he nodded in confusion as if he had just woken up from a dream, then lowered his head, looked at the test paper, and fell into a long stagnation.

Not Chinese, not math, not English, not geography...

What the hell is this?