58 So-called Catastrophe

One hour before, at eight in the morning, Ye Qingxuan arrived on time to the classroom he had been tested in.

Today was the first day of school. According to the tradition of the Royal Academy of Music, the first class was there, no matter what school one was a part of. In the past, the principal would speak and encourage everyone to study hard. But this year, no one was anticipating such a terrifying experience, especially because the principal was not even present!

But when the principal entered, everyone was dragged into the hallucination.

Now the hallucination was finally gone. At the podium, the teacher carefully lifted the vinyl record from the stereo and placed it back into the box.

"Wow, it’s the rarely seen record alchemy equipment. Can’t believe I could get cool stuff by listening to first-year classes." Beside Ye Qingxuan, someone said while hitting his thigh, "The visual and audio effects are impressive. It was worth it to get up early this morning."

Ye Qingxuan slowly looked over to see Charles happily munching on an apple. There was a pile of fruit skins by his feet. Beside him, the fruit basket had been taken over by Bai Xi, guarded in her arms.

He glanced at Bai Xi, but was glared at instead. Sighing, he said, "Brother, it’s fine to come listen to lower classes. But is it good to eat like this?"

"Can’t I eat while watching a record?" Charles glanced over in confusion. "You tell me after I already finish a bucket of popcorn? Do you want some?"

"I’m okay…" Ye Qingxuan’s lips twitched, and he smartly decided not to say anything else.

He and Bai Xi had been living inside the of the academy ever since the entrance exam two days ago. Because they were both in the School of History, their dorms were together.

It was not just their dorm, but all of the classrooms, offices, student dorms, and teacher dorms of the School of History were all in the same two-story building.

They were in the corner of the campus. It was a building that was easily missed unless one was actually looking for it.

When Ye Qingxuan first saw the little building, he felt a chill.

"This house had to be over two-hundred years old, right?" he had thought.

The speckled walls were covered in ivy, and there was a pile of fallen leaves before the door. A stray cat glared at him from the roof. Countless details recreated an atmosphere that only existed in horror stories.

"Could normal people live here?"

All of the buildings in the Royal Academy of Music were arranged strangely—strange to the point that those who lived there for five years could still get lost.

The entire place was like a giant maze!

When Ye Qingxuan found out that he had to memorize a map just to buy breakfast, he felt hopeless…

Usually, a warm-hearted senior would come to the rescue in this situation. But the problem was that this warm-hearted senior was not reliable at all!

In only two days, Ye Qingxuan became well acquainted with Charles’ ability to get lost.

They could be walking down a straight and open path, then in the blink of an eye, Charles would be gone! And then he would reappear somewhere weird…

Not only did he get himself lost, but he also dragged other people with him.

Once, Ye Qingxuan followed him to the cafeteria and then somehow ended up in downtown Avalon. Then he realized why the professor had told him again and again never to let Charles lead…

--

They had only known each other for two days, but it had been a busy time for that senior!

In two days, he had been found by debtors four times, and chased six times. The night before, and earlier this morning, he had been slapped by two random girls in public. Those two pretty girls did not even say anything before he started crying and ran away covering his face…What did he even do?

"Yezi, you suddenly look like you’re in pain." Beside him, Charles moved closer in concern. "Do you have hemorrhoids? Ah, that’s bad. You have to discover it and get it treated early. Should we go to the doctor’s after class? It’s okay, I’m really familiar with them. If I take you there, the doctors can give you a discount…"

"…No, it’s okay." With twitching muscles, Ye Qingxuan forced a smile.

"Oh, that’s good." Charles produced a durian out of nowhere. "You want some?"

"…" Ye Qingxuan looked away. The durian smell made him want to sob.

"Oh, right, some people from your row keep looking over here. Are they that hungry?" Charles sighed. "If they want fruit, then they can just come over. It’s bad to skip breakfast…"

Ye Qingxuan glanced at his row and saw some elite boys looking at him with disdain. The leader was a red-haired youth. He had been the first one to be accepted.

Edmund-something?

Beside him, Banner seemed to not be awake yet. He lowered his head and stared at his fingers, his feline eyes interested. No one knew what he was thinking about.

Sensing Ye Qingxuan’s gaze, their expressions turned to disgust. They threw him a glance and looked away.

"What’s wrong?" Bai Xi followed his eyes. "Spacing out?"

"Nothing." Ye Qingxuan looked away. "Some psychos want to eat bananas."

--

"Alright, you all seem to have recovered." At the podium, the professor looked down as he finished organizing things. "Here, I have some smelling salt. The girls who are pretending to be dizzy can take some. That student over there, you don’t have to get so excited about CPR. She’s pretending, can’t you tell? And that student eating, where did you get all that?"

The professor looked in Charles’ direction, his expression turning stern. "I’m talking about you, the student in the second row. I noticed you awhile ago. Do you know the rules about eating during my class?"

"Uh…" Charles froze. Awkwardly, he clutched the banana he had just peeled. Thinking for a bit, he carefully took it to the podium. "Would you like some?"

"Brother, you have no hope." Ye Qingxuan covered his face, not wanting to admit that he knew that guy.

"You do know the rules!" In the silence, the professor gazed at Charles and smiled, "A very bright student!"

As everyone’s jaw dropped, he took the banana and nodded in satisfaction. "Mm, this tastes quite good!"

"Of course! I stole this from the School of Modification this morning. They’ve been waiting for this for half a year." Charles felt around for what’s left in his pockets. "Would you like to try an orange too?"

The professor hesitated. Seeing the gaping students, he finally jolted back to reality and coughed dramatically. "We’re in class now."

Sitting in the front, Ye Qingxuan could clearly hear what the professor whispered, "Remember to bring one kilogram to the office…"

"…"

Was there still hope for this school?

--

"Ha, that was just a joke. Now, we’ll officially start the class."

After finishing the banana, the professor’s aura suddenly changed. Even his expression turned stern. "If anyone relaxed just then, please get nervous again. Breaktime is over.

"What I’ll be teaching next is all in ‘Discussion of Natural Catastrophe History and Research.’ There is also an entire textbook of exam material, so please don’t ask me what will be tested."

Ye Qingxuan sat up straighter.

The good stuff was finally here!

--

As the name implied, natural catastrophes were catastrophes unable to be prevented by humans.

Generally, those that could not coexist with humans would move away from humanity, but most natural catastrophes would wander at the borders of humanity. Ever since the Dark Ages, there had been legends of catastrophes. Every catastrophe would result in a massive loss of property and life.

Even before the Dark Ages, there were signs of natural catastrophes from cave paintings.

There was a wide variety, each with unique characteristics. Some were animals, some plants, while others did not even seem to be living. The complex classifications were thick enough for a book—the one in Ye Qingxuan’s hands now.

But no matter what, they all followed the same basic law. Or maybe they were shrouded by the same mystery.

Where did they come from?

What did they want?

And why did they…hate humanity?

Ever since the beginning of humankind, the fear of natural catastrophes followed their history. Even after humanity had control over aether, horrible events still occurred in the five hundred years after the Dark Ages had ended.

‘Till this day, humanity had only discovered and explored less than a quarter of the world. And of this quarter, less than half were arable, mild aether zones.

Every inch of earth was with blood from humans fighting against the natural catastrophes.

Every victory was built upon thousands upon thousands of lives.

But what made people hopeless was that those creatures did not die. They were made from aether and would not experience conventional death. Even if their body was destroyed, only their memories would be wiped clean, and they would return to the dark world and sleep. When they reappeared, they would have new life.

And they were becoming stronger…

--

To keep the natural catastrophes from coming, humanity put boundary markers in all directions.

In the East, four emperors of the Aurora Empire constructed the Great Wall with millions of slaves. There was a beacon tower every hundred steps, with musicians guarding it every second of the day for their entire lives.

One hundred thousand beacon towers meant one hundred thousand torches. If the torches were not extinguished, the natural catastrophes would not be able to easily enter humanity’s territory.

In the Northern tundra, the Asgard people built their entire empire on glaciers. Those who saw death as reprieve used broken battle axes and corpses for the Valhalla Defense Line.

In the deserts of the West, the original defense line created by the Samnites had already been breached. Now it was under joint reconstruction by several empires. Apparently, at the end of the desert, fire still burned in the remains of the old defense line.

The endless ocean of the West was the most peaceful. Sea monster Leviathan had not appeared for a few hundred years, but the city guarding it was where Ye Qingxuan was now…Avalon.

Anglo’s own king had inherited the hundred-year old mission from King Arthur to stand in the Western front and fight against the sea monster.

Even if it had not appeared for hundreds of years, they were still alert.

Around forty satellite islands surrounded Avalon. More than twenty were completely locked. If anyone tried to get within ten nautical miles, they would be stopped and told that it was a forbidden zone. It would not be too late to turn back, but if they decided to go forward, they would die there.

Other than that, there was a wide range of defensive measures and millions of fortresses. Humanity’s art of war was not only to kill each other, but to prevent disasters.

Here, the professor paused, and his smile became secretive. "You might have heard the name of the most dangerous natural catastrophe to mankind—the Dark Mother."