130 Who is the Most Hateful?

In Indian legends, the demons created three metallic cities—gold, silver, and iron. Melded together, they created immense strength and an indescribable image. The gods were furious at this, and shot three arrows at the cities. Where the arrows fell, gold rusted, silver crumbled, and iron melted. The destructive fire killed all demons. Coldly watching as the earth burned to ash, the gods finally extinguished their destructive fire.

The phrase had been left behind by the God of Destruction. Using this to awaken the Eye of Indrah proved it to be an important treasure of the School of Modifications!

With this thought in mind, Ye Qingxuan tightened his hold on the orb. He was oblivious to Puspotkata’s faint sneer. "Then let me try it. Who knows if you’re lying?" As Puspotkata had expected, Ye Qingxuan grasped the Eye of Indrah and chanted, "Do not turn the three realms into ashes!"

The moment the words left Ye Qingxuan’s mouth, his palm went numb, and the Eye crackled with a bolt of lightning. As if a layer of dust had been wiped off, a crack appeared in the carved orb, revealing angry light. It shed layers of rock until it looked like a gemstone. Within it, eternal lightning flashed.

Faint rumbling of thunder came from the rock. Ye Qingxuan’s vision spun as a tidal wave of aether rushed from all direction into his control. Then, sapping Ye Qingxuan’s energy, it began to move on its own accord like a group of horses out of control. Countless silver light spots appeared around the youth.

For a moment, all color disappeared from Ye Qingxuan’s world. All that remained was the black and white of aether. As if it was the end of the world, the clean air above the crack fell and putrid gas from hell rose. Two types of ineffable power existed in one spot. They rubbed and crashed against each other, sparking destructive light.

"It—it’s moving on its own…" Under the light, Ye Qingxuan began to panic. He frantically tried to control the music score that was way beyond his abilities.

The Eye of Indrah suddenly shook and blood seeped into the gem. Ye Qingxuan’s panic intensified. "Help! It’s taking my blood…the power…I’m gonna…"

Stunned, Bai Xi tried to take the d*mned thing from Ye Qingxuan, forgetting that the electricity would burn her to ashes.

Puspotkata cackled. "Go die, Holmes!"

The drum beats sounded once again. Manipulating the aether, he created the shadow of Vidyā-rāja, the God of Light. The god opened his eyes, furious!

Puspotkata had said everything before to trick Holmes into reciting the spell. There was nothing wrong with the spell, but not everyone could use the power of the Eye! It was a destructive item that called forth the power of the Indrah, the God of Thunder! Otherwise, he would not use this relic as the medium to call forth the Holy Spirit.

The destructive thunder was definitely powerful, but not even a Resonance level musician could control unless he was very careful. The smallest distraction would cause the musician to burn to a crisp.

Now, Holmes was standing at the edge of the cliff. Puspotkata no longer had to battle with this d*mn dark musician. He just had to give the man a light shove, and he would fall down the bottomless abyss.

"Do you feel the cost of greed now?" Puspotkata cackled, focusing the God of Light’s image at Ye Qingxuan. "Die from Indrah’s uncontrollable greed!" The God of Light attacked, but then someone snickered.

Puspotkata froze. Behind the God of Light, he saw the dark musician raise his head, his eyes full of mockery.

With a smile, Holmes said, "…I was lying." He opened his hand. The ruby stone that seemed to be embedded in his hand lit up with destructive light! The wild electric current transformed into a dragon. It leapt into the night, and roared with mighty power. The electricity instantly shattered the God of Light’s image and landed on Puspotkata, swallowing him whole.

With a painful cry, the charred Puspotkata collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. The holy-looking white hair and beard were all burnt now. His skin had cracked, and his body was numb.

Ye Qingxuan walked over slowly and looked down at him.

"Why?" Puspotkata sputtered his eyes lost. "Why…can you control…"

"Yeah, why?" The youth shrugged. Slowly, he put the Eye of Indrah into a groove on his cane. It fit snugly onto Jiu Xiao Huan Pei with a click. Without a doubt, this thing was his from now on.

Ye Qingxuan bet that Puspotkata had never thought there would be an instrument that could control Indrah’s thunder, or that Holmes had such an instrument.

He had guessed Puspotkata’s dirty trick the moment he was willing to hand the Eye over. At first, he was worried that Puspotkata would keep chasing him. He had planned on parting with his beloved, and throwing the Eye in the other direction while he and Bai Xi ran for their lives in the sewer. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all. But who knew that this b*stard had ran out without bringing his instrument or defensive weapons and was struck by lightning?

Seeing that Ye Qingxuan was unharmed, Puspotkata’s eyes filled with anger. If not for his own injuries, he would do anything to kill the man, even willing to tear him up with his own teeth. "I-I won’t give up!" he howled. "That’s supposed to be mine!"

"Yeah," Ye Qingxuan snickered. "And I’m not supposed to be chased by you all for no reason. If the world operated on ‘supposed to be’s,’ there would be no market for the medicine of regret. Oh, you’re a monk, right?" With that, he put the cane on Puspotkata’s head. "Have you counted how many sins you’ve committed after going against the creeds of your religion?"

Puspotkata froze, his eyes filled with despair. "Don’t kill me! I can give you the secrets of our School. I have six movements of Mahabharata. You can have them all! My uncle has the right Eye of Indrah too! I can trick him into giving it to you!"

Ye Qingxuan just laughed. "Since you believe in reincarnation, try to be a better person in your next life."

Puspotkata tried to say something but his words were caught in his throat. A wailing melody sounded in his ear. The despair and frustration dug into his brain, and transformed into a dark river that practically drove him crazy.

"Sinful, sinful, sinful!" He seemed to hear Asura’s welcoming cheers from Hell. Painful wails sounded in his memory as faces flashed by, drowning him in the dark river. They drowned him bit by bit. He struggled with all his might, but ultimately drowned in his own evil doings. Under the cane, Puspotaka trembled and then stopped.

"Is he dead?" Bai Xi asked, stunned.

"Of course not." Ye Qingxuan knocked the side of her head. "I may be underage, but I don’t break laws." He paused, and gazed at Puspotkata’s blank eyes without pity. "I’m just sending him to the Arkham Asylum so he can make more friends."

With that, he turned to leave, but his legs wobbled and he fell, almost landing beside Puspotkata. Bai Xi quickly caught him. "What’s wrong?"

"I think I lost too much blood." His face as white as paper, Ye Qingxuan looked at the stone in his hands. "This stupid thing really does use the musician’s blood for electricity…I can’t use this too much."

Bai Xi pursed her lips. "He should be glad he’s from the dragon bloodline," she thought. "Otherwise, he’d be sapped dry."

With Bai Xi supporting Ye Qingxuan, they started on the way home. But when they left the alley, Ye Qingxuan halted. He looked up at the end of the street…A figure stood under the cold moonlight—The Professor.

He did not seem to be waiting to attack Ye Qingxuan. He just watched them silently. Seeing Ye Qingxuan, he scoffed. "Listen, I don’t care who you are, but stay away from the Blood Path," he warned. "Or else you’ll regret it."

Ye Qingxuan laughed and shrugged carelessly. "To be honest, I don’t want to get into the mess…but sadly, I’ve been forced into it."

The Professor did not reply. As if too tired to fight, he gave one last glance and turned around.

Ye Qingxuan watched him leave, and turned in the opposite direction.

Bai Xi looked at his eyes, then turned to look at the Professor’s silhouette. For some reason, her eyes became confused. "Hey, Cousin, you two are really similar."

"Really?" Ye Qingxuan was taken aback.

"Yeah." The girl nodded, her expression troubled. "You said you’ll follow me. Don’t run off with that guy, alright?"

Ye Qingxuan could not help but laugh and hit her lightly. "Bai Xi, you know who we all hate the most?"

Bai Xi shook her head after thinking for a bit.

"Ourselves." Ye Qingxuan looked back in the darkness. "The more similar they are to ourselves, the more we hate them."

--

In the backyard of Ganlu City, Silo looked at the charred old man on the rack, his eyes cold. The servants and slaves knelt on the ground, too scared to even breathe.

"He’s a retard now." The choir musician checked Puspotkata’s vitals and shook his head. "His physical injuries aren’t too bad. They can heal with treatment, but his brain is unfortunately gone. Even if he wakes, he’ll be a lunatic."

"Is there still hope?"

The musician shrugged. "It’s harder than creating a new body. You can’t afford it."

Silo fell silent. After a long time, he waved. A servant cautiously pulled out three bars of gold for the musician and led him out.

Po Sinai stumbled from the basement, face pale. He shook his head at Silo. "They’re all dead."

"How did they die?"

Hesitating, Po Sinai replied quietly, "They’ve all turned into shriveled up corpses, as if mummified by wind. The martial monks that Puspotkata had invited from India died too. All that remains is bones."

"Isn’t the Professor also injured?" Silo asked coldly. "They deserved to die if they couldn’t fight against an injured man."

"Yes." Po Sinai could only lower his head.

"Get rid of all guards tonight. There’s no point in keeping these failures," Silo ordered. "Doesn’t the opiate factory need slaves? Send them all there. The dead ones can be used as fertilizer."

Po Sinai lowered his head, sweat rolling down. "Yes."

"Contact the robin," Silo said as he turned. "Tell him about the Professor and the Vengeful Spirit. Tell him that if he wants us to work for him, to bring us Moriarty and Holmes’ heads!"