Crown of Silence

Chapter 242 The Moon in the Mirror The Man in the Dream

In the cave of sleep, in the silver light, Maxwell appeared next to the sublimation ceremony at some point. He glanced at Hermes beside him and asked softly:

"Should we start?"

Hermes nodded, and the wings of light floated silently behind him, illuminating Maxwell's eyes and making him couldn't help but smile:

"I haven't seen you look like this in many years. Lord Merlin."

Hermes glanced at him, "Call me Hermes. Merlin is just a title you gave me. I have never accepted it."

"After you showed your true colors, you lost a lot of popularity. I still like your careless look. At least it makes me feel that we are the same kind."

"Don't come to me looking for a sense of identity, Maxwell, no one is the same as you." Hermes said disdainfully: "No one."

Maxwell smiled, "That's why we are the same, isn't it?"

"hehe."

Hermes smiled too.

Maxwell didn't feel dissatisfied. He just squatted down and stared at the evaporating mercury on the ground. His eyes became clear: "You chose a classical-style sublimation ceremony, and the danger has increased a lot."

"This is the true nature of the sublimation ceremony, and only in this way can its ability be maximized." Hermes sneered, "And what you like and value is the enhancement of musicians and The induction between the ethers - is just a side effect of it.

Over the years, you have kept changing it over and over again, and you have even forgotten its original appearance. "

"As expected of the fallen snake and the oldest alchemist."

Maxwell said, "I'd love to hear the details."

“The original purpose of the sublimation ceremony is to enhance the connection between humans and the great source, so that humans can be given the right to truly mobilize the ether.

Human beings call it "relation between heaven and man", which is the connection between man and heaven. If you see heaven, heaven can also see you.

But before that, you got one thing wrong. "

Hermes said lightly: "The purpose of the sublimation ceremony is not to induce the induction of heaven and man, but to complete the preparation before the induction of heaven and man."

"What preparation?"

"'Great Source' never needs to prepare. What needs to be prepared is yourself." Hermes said, "You must understand your true colors and what is your true self.

If you don't even understand where you are or what you are, how can you sense the Great Source?

Therefore, you can only do what you are doing now, like a blind man touching an elephant on a long night journey, or relying on illusory luck and experience to feel blindly, or relying on hard work day and night.

Although it is feasible, it is already on the wrong path. How can walking on the true right path be so difficult and troublesome? "

"right way?"

Maxwell was silent for a long time and couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Perhaps, for human beings, knowing their own 'right path' is the most difficult thing, right?

After all, what humans are best at is ‘not overestimating their capabilities’. "

"That's why there is an 'ascension ceremony', isn't it?"

Hermes stared at the young man in the ritual, looking at his painful expression: "Burning spices, crushing gems, pouring mercury... The ether will enter his body, and he will see himself and his true self. soul."

——

It was like an instant, everything became thinner and moved away quickly.

Ye Qingxuan forgot what year and month it was now, where he was, and what the occasion was. He just lowered his head in astonishment and looked at the test paper in front of him.

All that is left in the world is a test paper and a pen.

"Start answering the questions."

It was as if someone put the pen in his palm, curled up his fingers one by one, and asked him to hold it tightly: "You only have one chance, and you will never come back if you lose it."

But he didn't know why, but he felt a little scared.

On the test paper, the first question had already caught his eye.

.

Question:

Xiao Ming has a happy family, with a father who loves him and a mother who loves him. Xiao Ming's father made a mistake and disappeared when Xiao Ming was very young. Xiao Ming and his mother were exiled to other places because they were implicated by their father.

That winter, Xiao Ming's mother passed away. Xiao Ming became a lonely person.

Please describe Xiao Ming’s mood.

"Xiao Ming?"

Ye Qingxuan murmured in a low voice.

Xiao Ming, why the hell is it Xiao Ming again?

Why has it always been you since childhood?

Xiao Ming went to buy groceries, Xiao Ming went to take a ride, Xiao Ming went to play with friends... and then something went wrong in the middle. You need to help him figure out how much a pound of cabbage costs, how long it will take for the bus to arrive at the station, how four people can cut three cuts and divide a cake...

He knew that this was Xiao Ming's story.

So, relax, it's just Xiao Ming's story.

It's just that something happened to him now, and you need to help him, just like you help yourself. He is such an unlucky guy, he will get into trouble no matter what he does, but he doesn't know anything. If no one helps him, he can't even buy a piece of fruit. If you don't even help him, he won't survive.

But Ye Qingxuan didn't understand how Xiao Ming would feel when encountering such a thing.

‘Xiao Ming’

Ye Qingxuan wrote two words, stopped again, hesitated, and after a long time wrote in the blank: 'Xiao Ming is very sad. ’

Question 2: What should Xiao Ming do?

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a long time and wrote the answer below:

‘Xiao Ming doesn’t know either. ’

Question 3: Xiao Ming was sitting on a carriage and saw a child playing on the road. The child was about to be hit and killed. Xiao Ming can adjust his direction and choose to hit and kill another innocent elderly couple. What should Xiao Ming do?

Ye Qingxuan thought for a while and replied: 'Kill the child. ’

Why?

Ye Qingxuan wrote down the answer without hesitation: Because Xiao Ming hates dead children the most.

Question 4: There are two boats. The one on the left holds fifty people, and the one on the right holds one hundred people. There is a ship that must be bombed and sunk. Which ship should Xiao Ming choose?

Answer: left

If there are five hundred people sitting on the boat on the left, but only her mother is sitting on the boat on the right, which boat should Xiao Ming choose?

Ye Qingxuan said without hesitation: ‘Left side’

If there are 10,000 people sitting on the boat on the left...

Still without thinking, left

If there are 100,000 people...

Still on the left.

If there were a million people...

enough! Where the hell is there a boat that can fit a million people? Moreover, even if there are 10 million people, 100 million people, or a billion people, all of them are sitting on that ship.

Still on the left!

As long as she can survive, even if everyone in the world is sitting on the left boat, Xiao Ming will sink it without hesitation!

The answer sheet was silent.

After a long time, a new line of writing appeared on it:

What would happen to Xiao Ming if a gangster uncle Wang with many big eyes told Xiao Ming that as long as Xiao Ming became his little brother, he could resurrect Xiao Ming's mother?

Ye Qingxuan wrote his answer expressionlessly:

‘Xiao Ming will let him eat shit. ’

If Xiao Ming's father had joined the underworld, Xiao Ming would...

Xiao Ming will let him eat shit too.

What if Xiao Ming's father is actually an undercover agent...

Xiao Ming will still let him eat shit.

If a virus appears... if a meteorite falls from the sky... if there is a big ball of light... if Jade Perry has an old grandfather...

There are so many what-ifs in the world!

Why don't you ask me, what would it be like if none of this happened? If she had not died, if their father had not abandoned them, how happy and beautiful would their life have been?

Even if you have nothing, even if you are wandering around the world.

Even if the whole world abandons me.

Until the end, the answer sheet was turned over page by page, leaving only the last big question, causing Ye Qingxuan to fall into a long silence:

[Do you think Xiao Ming’s father abandoned his mother and Xiao Ming on purpose, or did he have some unavoidable reasons? 】

Is it intentional or is there a reason?

Xiao Ming doesn't know, and neither does Ye Qingxuan.

His pen came to a standstill and he let time pass by bit by bit. The clock on the wall was ticking. Everyone handed in their examination papers one by one, and he was the only one left in the examination room.

The lonely light illuminated the boy's white hair, and the countdown began.

In the last few seconds, he wrote down his answers and put the test paper into the teacher's hands.

Xiao Ming's story ends here.

The lights went out and the classroom fell into darkness and silence.

He sat in his seat, leaning against the table behind him, closing his eyes in the darkness, and let out a long breath, as if he was about to spit out the pain and annoyance in his lungs.

A wave of sleepiness hit him, he lowered his head and fell into a deep sleep.

The night is long.

——

In the deepest part of the darkness, a light slowly turned on.

The grading teacher made a cup of hot tea, looked at the only test paper that needed to be graded on the table, and sat in his chair.

The middle-aged teacher opened the window and let the moonlight outside the window shine on himself and his white hair.

He also shines like the moonlight.

Behind him, there was a knock on the door.

"Excuse me, is Teacher Ye here?"

Outside the door, someone asked softly, but without waiting for his answer, he pushed the door open and entered. The light illuminated his fine clothes, blond hair, and face that looked as feminine and handsome as a boy's.

He stared at the middle-aged man in front of the window with complicated eyes, and after a long time he sighed softly:

"It's not easy to meet you, Ye Lanzhou."

In front of the window, the middle-aged man on the chair shook his head slightly: "Mr. Hermes, you have found the wrong person. I am not Ye Lanzhou."

"The moon in the mirror."

Hermes expressed its true nature without expression: "I know that you have hidden part of your own memory in Ye Qingxuan's heart.

You now are just a reflection of that part of memory that has been given a personality. Although it's not, it's not bad either. "

Ye Lanzhou shrugged slightly, as if he agreed with his statement.

The moon in the mirror, the flowers in the water, the phantom in the fire, the mirage. At this moment, Ye Lanzhou does not exist here. He is just a phantom that only responds mechanically according to preset instructions.

"You really think about the long term."

Hermes unceremoniously pulled up a chair and sat down, looking at him coldly: "First the seeds in the Nine Heavens Ring, and then all the guidance along the way... In order for my son to inherit his mantle, it's really... Take great pains.”

"Ye Zi is not me. He has his own ideas and choices."

Ye Lanzhou shook his head: "From the beginning, I never asked him to inherit the Ye family's things and curses. He will go his own way.

That’s why I never taught him any of the power or musical scores inherited from the Ye family.”

"But what about you?"

Hermes asked back: "Do you think you will get rid of the cause and effect you created? I don't need to repeat what you did back then, right?"

Ye Lanzhou responded calmly, "Whether I suffer the consequences myself or whether I am destined by fate, whether I am dead or alive now, and to what extent I have fallen, is my own choice. It has nothing to do with other people."

"I didn't put in so much effort to come here just to talk to you about an illusory fate. I only have one question to ask you, Ye Lanzhou, one question."

Hermes raised a finger and looked at him with a solemn expression. His voice was like the fiery sound made when the gray iron in the cauldron is transformed into gold:

"——What exactly was the thing you brought out from the Shadow of Avalon back then?"

Ye Lanzhou did not answer, but just shook his head: "Hermes, this has nothing to do with you."

"Of course it's relevant!"

Hermes stood up and took three steps forward. In three steps, he transformed from a delicate and thin noble prince into a majestic god with wings on his back. His voice made the whole world roar and made this dream tremble:

"Ye Lanzhou, tell me, what you took away...is it the art of ascension to the gods engraved on the Sword in the Stone?"

Ye Lanzhou smiled. He stared at the pair of eyes that contained endless power and said softly:

"It's time for you to go."

"Wait..." Hermes' expression changed drastically, but Ye Lanzhou waved his hand and his figure disappeared: he was expelled from here.

In the silence, the room returned to its original deserted state.

Ye Lanzhou picked up a pair of glasses from the table and put them on his face, took off the cap of the pen, and began to judge the examination paper with a vermilion color.

However, when he saw the last question, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Did Xiao Ming's father abandon Xiao Ming and his mother on purpose, or did he have other reasons?

Under that question, the boy wrote his answer in decisive handwriting: 'No matter what the purpose is, the result cannot be changed. ’

Yes, even if you have difficulties, what can you change? The consequences have been done, and the woman who was the most important to the two of them died as a result.

Everything is irreversible.

Ye Lanzhou was silent for a long time and slowly took off his glasses.

It was like being able to see the young man sleeping in the dark, his eyes full of complexity and exhaustion.

"After so many years, Ye Zi, you seem to have become so realistic. But after all, you are still living in your own dream." He murmured softly, "Maybe this is fate, the future you choose for yourself."

"Ye's blood has been inherited for thousands of years, and the curse and prophecy that he has been carrying will be fulfilled in your hands."

Ye Lanzhou picked up his pen and wrote his own comments at the end of the examination paper, the ancient name that traveled between reality and dreams, brewed from the thoughts and dreams of all living beings:

"——Dream Weaver."