Old-time musicians

After listening to Julius's words, Fan Ning was silent for a while.

Fan Ning actually agrees that the carriers of hidden knowledge and invisible forces need to be uniformly controlled rather than grow wildly. However, on the other hand, he does wonder why the Special Patrol Office is so stingy with official quotas and is still reducing its establishment and increasing its control over the years. The intensity of arrests and suppression of those who violate the prohibition.

It stands to reason that blocking is worse than opening up. Bringing more inspired and talented people into unified management will not only prevent them from going astray, but also provide more strength for the security of the mysterious side of the empire. To solve the problem of the proliferation of secret organization activities, official personnel are overwhelmed. The current situation is to kill two birds with one stone.

[Writing this, I hope readers will remember our domain name Taiwan Novel Network→𝚝𝚠𝚔𝚊𝚗.𝚌𝚘𝚖]

Of course, this is not the reason for those who violate the ban to join secret organizations and sacrifice human lives to worship evil gods.

However, it was unknown whether she could leave this situation alive. Rather than thinking about how Fan Ning would deal with herself in the future, Julius was obviously more worried about the present. Similarly, Fan Ning is not in the mood to settle the bad debts now.

He asked: "Do you know Erov's whereabouts?"

Julius shook her head quickly: "If it were the beginning of the year, I would have known a little bit, but recently their activities have been concentrated in Fort Santalan, so I am not very clear."

"Probably what?" Fan Ning thought of the candles in the photo provided by Lu.

"It seems to be an advocacy... advocating for people to practice 'experientialism' and 'nihilism' with open mind and body, so that the risk of accidents in the industrial world can be maintained at a high level? Of course, the few factories under their protection in the Imperial Capital can be exempted from accidents The risk of frequent occurrences...and the subway, Erof seems to be very concerned about subway-related trends..." Julius was trying to list some keywords, which seemed to indicate that she was not clear about the purpose of the Transcendental Club's activities in the imperial capital. .

Increase the risk of production accidents? ...Fan Ning secretly thought that it was indeed related to them, but what he was wondering was, what good would the frequent industrial accidents everywhere do to them? Need to sacrifice those randomly lost lives? ...It’s impossible that they built an altar under the entire Santalan Fort. The most powerful official power of the Empire’s knowledgeable people is gathered there. If they can do this under their noses, I’m afraid they won’t have anything to worry about. .

The results of the current conversation were not satisfactory. Fan Ning nodded: "If I think of other questions, I'll ask you again."

After saying this, Fan Ning returned to silence and continued to observe the surrounding environment.

The dirt and grass had come to an end, and everyone crossed into the country road. The distant lights seen on the train were now not far away.

This is indeed a market town. Through the fence entrance covered with weeds in front, Fan Ning has seen the streets inside. The buildings are in the style of the last two decades of the last century. Of course, this kind of lingering style is not uncommon in small towns today. , there are piles of firewood, bullock carts and farm tools scattered on both sides of the street.

"This is obviously...not Gogol Town, right?" Sheeran looked ahead worriedly, "I always feel that this thing is weird, are you sure you want to go in? Maybe wait until the dark fog dissipates to see what is happening in all directions. As for the environment, the visibility is too low now and there is too little information for reference. "

Several people had doubted whether there was daylight in this ghost place before. Now based on common sense, since there were traces of farming activities along the way, there should still be some.

Fan Ning said: "There are at least several hours before dawn. Have you forgotten the divination revelation of the 'Mirror of Transfiguration'? To be honest, I am worried that something will happen on the train now... We can't waste any more time." "

"Well, you can't be too timid at this time." Qiong agreed with Fan Ning's point of view and thought of previous experiences, "What scenes have we not seen before?"

Several people walked into the town as before. It was quiet here and the footsteps seemed a little out of place, but considering the midnight time, it seemed normal.

After walking along the street for a while, Fan Ning discovered that this small town had shops, squares, hotels, farmhouses and other things. Although most of them were dilapidated and old, it was not deserted as he had previously suspected.

On the contrary, the popularity seems to be not low, and there are even lights shining through the windows of every house, which makes Fan Ning wonder why the residents of the town don't sleep at night or turn off the lights when sleeping.

Joan made a suggestion: "Caron, instead of wandering around in the street and guessing like this, why don't we knock on the door of a house and ask the people inside where it is... Well, although it is a bit rude late at night, this method is definitely Simplicity is much more effective.”

"Are you sure there are people living inside?" Xilan's rhetorical question made Qiong cover her mouth.

The streets of the small town, which originally had a slightly human smell, suddenly became even weirder due to her words.

"Let's go around in a big circle first. Don't rush for a while. I visually estimate that this place is not very big." Fan Ning said this, just as he motioned for a few people to look in another direction -

With a "squeak" sound, the door of the nearby house opened.

Fan Ning's heart suddenly twitched. For such a long time, all the sources of sound were caused by his own people. Suddenly, he found that his endurance had dropped a lot.

Several people couldn't help but take two or three steps back while turning around.

The orange light at the door reflected the figures of four people gradually walking down the steps. They must be a family of four. The man and woman were wearing old-style dark rough canvas clothes, and the two little girls were wearing knee-length yellow children's skirts.

...as long as it's a person. Fan Ning relaxed slightly. As for why the whole family went out in the middle of the night, this issue was no longer a priority for him.

The family of four had obviously noticed Fan Ning and his party, but they didn't say hello. They glanced briefly and walked towards the street ahead.

After the figures in front of him were far away, Roy said in a low voice: "These people are quite strange."

"What's weird?" Qiong asked doubtfully, "I think they look a little tired on their faces, but there's nothing unusual about it, or does the senior think it's weird for them to go out in the middle of the night?...Honestly, I don't like this kind of thing. Did it too."

Roy shook his head: "No, the strangest thing about them is that they don't think we are strange."

"You are a resident of a small town. In the middle of the night, you find five formally dressed gentlemen and ladies standing on the street, all of them staring at the door of your house. Isn't this against the rules? ... Is it understandable that they don't say hello to strangers? , but there’s something wrong with that kind of look, just turning around and walking away with a casual glance, as if you are very accustomed to our presence..."

"Don't worry about them for now, let's continue to go around on our own route." Fan Ning said.

Just as the five of them were about to take another step forward, the sound of opening the door sounded one after another.

I saw that more than half of the doors on both sides of the street were open.

More and more residents are walking on the street. Most of them are dressed in the usual farmers or craftsman clothes, and some are slightly more decent educated people. But the same thing is that they are all sleepy-eyed, and their attitude towards Fan Ning and his party is also the same as at the beginning. A family of four looked alike. They glanced at each other, passed each other, looked ahead and walked away.

This seemingly normal and abnormal sight made Fan Ning feel indescribably weird, but he still decided to follow the direction they were walking and take a look.

Several people followed the crowd and turned through several streets, and saw two clusters of dry fountains with sculptures. After going around two large figure-eight roundabouts with different terrain heights, they stood in front of a flat and wide gray building. Not far away.

The double-open wooden doors were so old that they were almost falling off. Residents of the town stepped in in twos and threes. The dim orange light penetrated through the doors and glass windows, vaguely illuminating the halls, porches and stairs inside.

There were still ten or twenty meters away from the gray building. Fan Ning was about to take a closer look at what kind of place it was when a hoarse young man's voice came from the side.

"You don't need to be so careful in the city. You can be out of sight for no more than an hour."

Fan Ning looked at the young man wearing a soft hat and jacket with a very surprised expression. After so long, he finally heard some residents speaking. He had almost doubted whether these people were walking corpses or sacrifices. class.

Moreover, he still spoke the common Hoffmann language with a slight northern accent.

Fan Ning couldn't help but ask a long list of questions: "Where is this? Are you a resident here? What are they doing?"

"The regular concert time is coming soon, and you will have to attend every day from now on."

"Concert?" Just when Fan Ning was confused, the sound of music was already coming out from the door of the building, and the residents were still filing in.

"Why is the concert held at midnight? Moreover, why did the music start playing before the audience even entered the venue?" he couldn't help but ask.

"It's not important. It's just to treat or alleviate a hidden illness. It's inevitable to be so sleepy on and off stage that you lose interest." The young man didn't stop talking to Fan Ning. He walked towards the door.

Seeing that he was almost gone, Fan Ning, who was increasingly doubtful, waved eagerly, "Sir..."

"You are new here like me. You can go to the hotel next to the city gate in the southern suburbs to learn more about the situation. My employer, Mr. Godfrey, is easier to deal with than the indifferent locals. Of course, you'd better donate generously. own inspiration.”

The young man slowed down his pace, turned around to explain a few words in a hurry, and then merged into the crowd of people entering the door again.

Before Fan Ning had time to digest this information, he turned his attention to the music floating inside and listened for almost ten minutes. The reason why he was attracted was not that the music was beautiful, on the contrary... it was because the performances were extremely lame. , arousing his intense confusion.

Relying on the out-of-tune melody, he could barely tell that these were some instrumental ditties adapted from works from the late Middle Ages, including those by Master Kashunich and several other well-known composers.

However, the piano was in disrepair, and Fan Ning felt that the entire keyboard was about half a degree + a quarter degree lower at first. Specifically, the keys fluctuated in different ways, and the level was close to those of the families of piano children in the previous life, who were stumbling and stumbling. The pedals are stepped on randomly, wrong notes are played... Finally, coupled with the player's insouciant attitude, the already inaccurate rhythm is made worse...

"If I were teaching piano and met a student like this, I would roll up his sheet music and throw it out of the window."

Fan Ning's comments made Roy, who was standing opposite him, look scared.

"All the violin's notes were played in the cracks of the piano. Of course, it was useless to play it on the keys because the piano was so broken." During the next piece of music, Sheeran couldn't help but curl her lips.

"Should we go in and see what's going on?" Qiong was more curious than confused.

"Of course I won't go in." Fan Ning came back to his senses, "If you take the initiative to spy on such weird things, do you think you won't die quickly enough?"

Qiong said: "I think they are too sleepy? If someone picks me up from bed in the middle of the night to play the flute, it will also be difficult to concentrate. Also, what is the treatment of hidden diseases that the person just said? What’s going on?”

"Look there, on the wall a little above the building." Sheeran suddenly stretched out his hand.

Several people looked up in the direction she pointed, and saw a large light-colored mark on the highest wall of the black building, forming the shape of a lamp.

Fan Ning stared at the light-shaped outline under the night sky, lost in thought.

The parchment that fell out during the excavation of the Turner Art Museum’s secret door…

Deep in the underground building, the symbol of the God of Origin on the stone tablet in the ruins of the Grand Palace School...

This was the third time he had seen this shape, and it was still in this weird town.

"I have seen this symbol." Roy's expression was very surprised. "It is one of the Lords of Witness that the Bologna School has studied."

"Bologna school?" It was Fan Ning's turn to be surprised. He took a step forward, while Julius, who had been silent, took a step back.

"Why is he the Lord of Witnesses studied by your school... What is his divine name?"

"I don't know." Roy explained in a low voice, "I have only seen symbols. The master of this type of witness is called the God of Origin. The Bologna School has studied three of them, but my dad once warned There seems to be something wrong with everything except me, Qiyuan Shen..."

"Everything is wrong?" Fan Ning's expression changed.

"That's right. The 'Mirror of Transfiguration' is also a ritual weapon of one of the source gods. In order to avoid unnecessary risks, and because I have not been promoted before, I deliberately avoided knowing their hidden knowledge, even the names of gods... If If my information is accurate, the Special Patrol Office and your Guidance School have also studied several of these type of source gods."

"According to my dad, due to the unknown problem of the Origin God, it is safer to understand their hidden knowledge after being promoted to a high level. Although a single name of a god or a simple description of authority is not so dangerous, it is necessary when it is not necessary. It’s better not to pry under the circumstances. It’s necessary to understand this dilemma today, but I didn’t have time to know.”

"His name is 'Hidden Light', and the aspect he controls is 'Huang'." Qiong next to him suddenly spoke softly.

"How did you know?" Roy opened his eyes wide.

Qiong's expression suddenly became dazed. She hooked her hair with her fingers and murmured, "I...I seem to have had some cracks in my consciousness since I stepped into this area. I just saw this building." I suddenly remembered the huge light-shaped symbol...and...there are many inexplicable memories that continue to emerge..."

Fan Ning frowned and took a few steps forward, and everyone followed him.

When they got closer to the black building, they finally saw clearly a row of fonts slightly lighter than black above the door:

"Vaznay Town Music Hall"