131 Rune Stone Meditation

Late at night, a lamp lit up in Bai Xi’s room. After washing off the stinky oil and stains, the refreshed girl changed into her pajamas. Her long white hair fell down to her shoulders, like silver reflecting light.

She sat cross-legged on the bed holding a bunch of stuff. Her eyes seemed to sparkle under the light. "Thirty-thousand, twenty-thousand, sixty-thousand, one-hundred and ten-thousand! This one’s cheaper, only twelve thousand, but better than nothing. Wow, this is good, the purity of the gem is really high. I’ll price it at two-hundred thousand!" She smiled with satisfaction, and counted her war trophies over and over. She was so happy that she could melt into fluff.

The most exciting thing after committing a robbery was sharing the booty! Just counting everything was enough to make her want to scream in excitement. Bai Xi rolled on the bed with a pillow in her arms. "Oh my God! So much money! I feel like dying. How can I calm down, Cousin?"

"Die after we split everything." Ye Qingxuan reached over to knock her back to reality. "We agreed that you can take half of everything. Have you decided what to take?"

"This is yours, this is mine, yours, mine, yours, mine…." In the shadow of the lamp, Bai Xi quickly divided the stuff into two parts, then pulled the bigger pile into her arms. "The gold, silver, and gems belong to me. Everything valuable is mine! You take those useless rune stones!"

Ye Qingxuan was speechless. This girl chose money without hesitation and gave away all the invaluable rune stones. "You don’t want the rune stones and materials?"

Bai Xi glanced at him. "Cousin, I’m a genius, okay? It would only take me one day to master all the instantaneous notes. Do you think I need those? Plus, I’m a girl. I can’t be fighting all day, right? It’s not easy for me to earn a lot of money, but now I’ll be a rich girl and live a rich life."

Ye Qingxuan was speechless at his lack of talent. But also, what did Bai Xi mean by "girl?" Since when did Bai Xi see herself as a girl?

He sighed, having no say in the matter. He was about to argue, but when he looked at Bai Xi’s innocent smile, he could not say anything. He ran his fingers through her hair. "You’re the boss. I’ll take it all then."

He gathered the small mountain of rune stones, and counted again. He could not believe it. In all, there were more than two hundred runes. They were all the basic notes that Ye Qingxuan needed. The Indians had probably swept through all of the surrounding black markets to collect these. But soon, something occurred to him. He looked blank and amazed immediately.

Bai Xi looked at him. "What’s the matter? The sky’s falling down?"

"Well…" Ye looked up at her and asked quietly. "Do you know how to use rune stones?"

-

As the dawn began to light up the room, the youth, with crossed hands before his chest, seemed to fallen asleep. He sat as if he were meditating like an ascetic Indian monk. His body faced upwards, and he created a seal with his intertwined fingers. In his entwined fingers was a crystal prism. A faint note shimmered within the prism.

The light from the aether tripled with his breaths, and transformed into waves. The youth chanted the syllables in a low voice again and again, resonating with the stone in his hands. In his mind, a vague note appeared, and gradually became more visible. Finally, it became solid.

The note suddenly changed on its own. It transformed into a dancing flame and began to burn. The burning rune flashed, radiating with a mysterious light as if it had become a star. With the will of the youth, the meditative notes in his mind rose slowly into the illusionary sky and shone together with the stars.

More than thirty stars glittered in the night sky. The notes that had turned into stars flowed like a river, some dim and some ever-changing. As the rune Fire intensified, the position of the stars suddenly changed, rising gradually to leave space for the new notes.

The starry sky changed slowly. The stars wandered aimlessly before finally stabilizing. There was a gravitational pull among them, formed from an uncertain force. The stars were moving under the momentum of that force.

Crack! With a snap, the rune stones in Ye Qingxuan’s palms shattered and turned to dust. The youth slowly opened his eyes and took a deep breath, lifting his fingertips. Flames had burned on his fingertips with just a short chant.

He smiled. All eleven stones of the rune Fire had been used up and internalized. He had reached the instantaneous level of yet another rune. It would be activated with just a thought!

With so many rune stones, his mastery of notes as a beginner had reached the level of most third level musicians. After all, not everyone had the opportunity to spend so much on precious runes to cultivate these notes.

Bending over, he swept the ashes to one side. Beside him, the runes' ashes had formed a small hill! He had consumed sixty runes overnight. This would take most students one or two years.

"Seventeen more notes." Ye Qingxuan gazed at the stack of stones before him. After mastering the remaining seventeen notes, he would have forty-eight in his mind. The forty-eight basic notes recorded in Equal Temperament would be fully mastered by him. At that time, the starry sky in his mind would revolve as if it were real. At that time, he would reach the Rhythm level.

Next was the rune Extraction. He clenched a rune stone again and closed his eyes. But quickly, he was forced out of the serenity, and his vision spun.

"Too much for today?" He rubbed his forehead and laughed bitterly. He had pushed twelve notes to the instantaneous level overnight. So many people longed to get even one rune stone to resonate in the same way starving people longed for roast turkey, but he had not expected that he had ‘eaten’ too much! This dizziness made him so happy that he could cry.

Ye Qingxuan sighed and put away his rune stones. He still had time to sleep for a few hours before his afternoon class. But when he got into bed, he could not help but think of the Professor's warning before leaving: "Blood Path."

Ye Qingxuan sighed. For many years, Avalon’s Shadow had been home to a bizarre legend. Some said it was Arthur’s kingdom on Earth; some said that it was the secret home of the Maiden of the Lake; some even said that it was a storage area full of treasures and precious music sheets. The Blood Path was the only way to enter it.

For all these years, people had been trying to find this path. How had Ye Qingxuan randomly run into the mysterious path? Truthfully, he was not even interested in the so-called "Avalon’s Shadow." He only wanted to be a musician, to find out what happened to his father, and to get revenge for his mother so she could regain her dignity and rest in peace. He had no interest in anything else, but now it seemed that his father was somehow connected to Avalon’s Shadow.

Every time Ye Qingxuan thought of this, he would get confused. What exactly did his father do to make everyone hate him so much that he had to run for his life? Until now, the only things he knew about his father were from his own childhood memories and Wolf Flute’s notebook...

Ye Qingxuan’s eyes suddenly opened. The notebook! There might be something on it that he had not noticed before. What else did his father keep in the seal?

He jumped out of bed and began to rummage through his things. The notebook! Where could it be? It was not on the table, not in the cupboard, not under the bed…He searched the whole room but could not find it. In panic, he pushed the door open and ran to the living room to keep looking.

Beside the table, Charles, who had gotten up early, yawned while stirring oatmeal. Seeing Ye Qingxuan rush downstairs, he could not help but spit and cough wildly. "Wow, junior, you’re just like me from a couple of years ago!" Charles gave him thumbs up. "Running around in just a pair of shorts is such a youthful thing to do!"

"Senior, stop your nonsense, okay?" Ye began frantically rummaging through the living room. Still, he found nothing.

"What are you looking for?" Charles came over with a cup of milk to watch.

"Senior, have you seen my notebook?" Ye Qingxuan asked. "That one you stole the first time we met, but then you returned it to me. I remember putting it on the table, but now I can’t find it."

"Oh, that one." Charles thought for a moment, as if he knew something, and nodded. "Yes, I saw it."

Ye Qingxuan was overjoyed. "Where is it?"

"Isn't that it?" Charles pointed to the corner of the living room.

The youth suddenly froze. That direction...For some reason, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

-

In downtown at dawn, the noisy market had begun to sell vegetables. Women with baskets, butchers with lamb legs in their hands, and beggars all gathered amidst the hawking. The day had begun with the rising sun.

The recent fighting and bloodshed every night was like another world. In fact, gangs existed in another world for most people, and did not feel real. Only when they opened the door in the morning to find blood in the alley would they understand what had happened the night before. Then they would wash the stains away with a bucket of water, and go on with their day.

Beside the market, in the midst of all the bustling, the tavern was supposed to be closed during the daytime, but now its windows were open, allowing the morning light to enter into the dim room. All was silent in the room. The bustling outside was muffled.

In the quiet tavern, the bartender behind the counter had already been driven out of the house. He obediently squatted on the steps to smoke, and smiled awkwardly at the burly guards.

People sat around the only round table in the dim room. After downtown’s infamous Vengeful Spirit and the Professor worked together, causing chaos that night, Silo was present as well.

Silo sat in the chair, slowly smoking his hookah. Seeing his bloodshot eyes and knowing what had happened to him last night, the others laughed secretly at his misery.

To his left was the Sicilian leader, the head of the Luca family—Alberto. He was known as the ‘grandfather’ amongst the Sicilians. Lorenzo was his son.

The man on his right was a short man with a scruffy beard. He was the leader of the Asgardians—the Basset, Werner. The three most powerful leaders of downtown were gathered together. The Professor should have taken a seat as well, but he most likely would not come. So now, there was only one person left…