189 Stage

On the long avenue, a galloping carriage suddenly stopped and disappeared in a flash, revealing the youth behind it, and the dumbfounded group behind him.

"Design mistake." Ye Qingxuan shook his head. "What kind of carriage has uneven wheels and can still be so stable and fast?" Passing through the graduating student’s remaining shocked apparition, he continued forward. In passing, he flashed his badge on a sign beside the road.

"F*ck!" the sign yelped and quickly disappeared.

Ye Qingxuan side-eyed him. "The perspective is completely wrong. Go back and study again. How bad does a woodworker have to be to make a sign like that?" Continuing forward, he slapped his badge on a streetlight. Looking up at it, his eyes were reluctant as he sighed. "Tell me truthfully, what streetlight looks like a chimney?"

The streetlight shook. It turned to light before it could reply. His wail dispersed in the air, "Is it my fault for being fat…"

Ye Qingxuan continued. The dazed students behind him had already turned into zombies. They followed his each step and had lost all capability to think. What was going on? Seriously, what was going on?

Why did this world suddenly become so weird? Where were the professors? There seemed to be something wrong…

Under everyone’s stares, Ye Qingxuan suddenly halted. He turned and entered the crowd. The students moved, quickly getting out of his way. They watched as he took a right and entered a café.

The enthusiastic server greeted him. "How may I take your order?"

Ye Qingxuan ignored him and pushed him away, entering the café. Outside the window, everyone saw clearly as Ye Qingxuan walked past the bar, lounge and stopped by the corner. He looked up at the oil painting and seemed to say something.

The painting did not move and did not reply.

Ye Qingxuan narrowed his eyes and snatched the lighter on a nearby table. With a crack, he lit the fire and held it close to the painting.

"If you don’t own up, I’m going to burn you."

"Wait, wait, don’t! Don’t burn!" The painting actually moved and climbed down from the wall. "What’s wrong with my mimicry? I checked!"

"Go back and study art history." Ye Qingxuan mercilessly lit the painting on fire. "This entire street is decorated with classicism, which was popular centuries ago. Why would there be a Rococo wall painting from one hundred years later? It’s too obvious." He flashed his school badge and the burning oil painting disappeared without a trace, save for a pile of hemp ash on the ground.

"Here’s your lighter." Ye Qingxuan tossed the lighter back at the dumbfounded customer and picked the lit cigar out of his mouth, snuffing it in the coffee. Ye Qingxuan smiled and waved farewell. "No smoking in public. Thanks."

-

When the sixth hour ended, the environment changed once again, transforming from the streets of Avalon to a barren island. Beasts thrived and the students even faced the challenge of survival now.

Ye Qingxuan had just seen a parrot being chased by a tiger and screaming, "Come get me, come get me! I don’t want to get eaten…"

And so Ye Qingxuan happily obeyed the fifty points that had given itself up and killed the tiger for the heck of it too. The tiger actually had resistance because it was born in an area of dense aether. Its mutation level was not low either and required a lot of effort on Ye Qingxuan’s part. He almost tripped and fell into a ditch.

"But if you’re gonna be a rock, can’t you at least be something cooler?" He raised his hand and kicked the rock under his foot. "Granite? Diabase? Or limestone? There are so many volcanoes on this island. Can’t you at least turn into volcanic rock?"

The rock trembled with every knock. Finally, it gave up. "Who cares what rock? This is what I look like!"

"Then you deserve to die." With a scan of the badge, fifty more points entered his hands. "Where are you going?" Ye Qingxuan looked back out of the corner of his vision. Behind him, the weird shrub that had prepared to tiptoe away and escape suddenly stiffened. The shrub’s movements froze and it warped, as if slowly turning around. "Wh—what did I do wrong?"

Ye Qingxuan suddenly asked, "You don’t have friends, right? Know why?"

"Huh?" The shrub’s voice was obviously lacking in self-confidence. "I don’t know what you’re talking about…"

"Obviously it’s because you’re too ugly!" Ye Qingxuan flashed his badge on the shrub’s face. "Even your mimicry is so ugly and you want to graduate? Repeat the d*mn year!"

"Wah…" The shrub disappeared with a snap. One could faintly see the brokenhearted face of a graduating student.

"And you!" Ye Qingxuan pointed at the ruins of a boat stranded on the beach. "I didn’t even look at you. Why are you shaking?"

"I-I…" The damaged boat lay in the ocean tide innocently and tried to justify himself. "I’m cold, alright?" He got a school badge on his face in reply.

"Come back after you change your clothes!"

Snap! The boat disappeared without a trace. The school badge vibrated once again with another fifty points.

"Is there still anyone who doesn’t understand the rules?" Ye Qingxuan shook his head slowly.

In actuality, the emphasis of this trial was not the students’ grasp on aether and music scores at all, or attainment of mimicry—it was observation skills.

From the Academy, the familiar safe zone they were used to; to the Queen’s Avenue, the messy place full of commotions and changes; to the dangerous volcanic island; the students had to find the incongruous objects no matter how the environment changed, and remove them!

The seemingly joke-like trial tested a student’s eyesight, determination, and decisiveness. This way would they be able to find hidden dangers, or transform into it and become someone else’s danger. Only this way would they be able to survive in the dangerous Dark World where even gravity was unstable.

Ye Qingxuan gazed around him and continued forward steadily toward the bubbling volcano at the heart of the island. The closer he got to the volcano, the more cracks there were on the ground. Scalding steam surged from the cracks. It was the boiling sulfur hot spring.

Faint bells rang in the air after noon, signaling that the next round of changes would soon come.

"We’re running out of time?" Ye Qingxuan murmured to himself. He cast a frost ray to cool the rock under his butt and sat down with his back to the volcano without hesitation. He gazed at the ground around him.

The vast abandoned island was covered with jungles, beaches and yellow sand. A gale blew from the distant, bringing with it boiling and scalding steam that curled his hair. The lava cast a layer of fire-red glow on his white hair, as if it was burning.

He looked down at the world and murmured while cracking his knuckles, "I should take the last chance and do something big."

Boom! The silver ring made of instrument strings at his fingertip produced a vague sound. Strings expanded in the sky continuously, crisscrossing and erecting beside him. He raised his finger but hesitated before pressing it down. After pondering for a moment, his fingers changed slightly and guided the changes in the strings.

The crisscrossed strings began moving, all of them changing soundlessly. They became long and thin and grouped together. Three strings dissipated into dots of silver light and converged into a long violin bow in his right hand.

This was the visual mimicry of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei. It was not just the appearance that could change once fully activated. It could also adjust its structure and frequency to the level most suitable for the music score.

"My ancestors will probably be roll over in their grave if they find out that I don’t have their repertoire and use Jiu Xiao Huan Pei as a violin." While Ye Qingxuan danced on the Ye family’s graves carelessly, his right hand rested on the strings near his neck. A melody clean as light mist sounded.

A faint and unnoticed melody sounded in the faraway echo of tidal waves, in the roaring of hot steam shooting to the sky from cracks in the earth, in the crisp pops of scalding blisters in the bubbling lava, and in the cacophonous noises that filled the island.

It floated in all directions like mist and seeped into every sound. It was small enough to be insignificant, but it was everywhere.

"What is he doing?" The confused students at the foot of the mountain looked up at the youth casually playing his violin at the peak. He looked so comfortable and calm, as if he had given up on the trial and was completely immersed in the melody.

In the cracks under their feet, scalding steam rose from the boiling hot spring. The steam hung in the air, vaguely solidifying into a long water line. The unnoticeable water line seemed to ride the melody and music notes, and spread in all directions with the vague melody.

One line, two lines…dozens of lines spread from the peak. The hot wind carried them further away. After taking advantage of the geography, Bolero’s melody resounded above the entire island.

The first measure ended and increased intensity along with the imperceptible melody. It melted into the ocean wind and tides, and seeped into every corner. The second and third measure followed immediately.

The amount and length of water lines multiplied exponentially with the start of each measure. But the melody was still mild and hidden. One could not recognize its existence, even if one listened carefully.

This long melody came silently and seeped soundlessly into every organism, hiding in every corner. It fed off of the water vapor and aether’s power and strengthened, strengthened, and strengthened…It was the sixth measure!

The sonorous melody finally broke through the disturbances of all noise. It resounded above the island and in everyone’s ears. The students raised their heads in confusion and looked in all directions. They tried to see where the melody came from, but to no avail.

But the melody sounded in everyone’s ears like a murmur. It was easy and bright, like sunlight, subconsciously guiding them into it. They could no longer differentiate between near and far.

The water vapor hung and countless perception threads rode the sea wind, floating and dancing over the island. They were like dancers with gentle moves that were heart-stoppingly beautiful. A spirited and sonorous beat was revealed in the gentle dance.

The melody lengthened and changed along with the beat, growing in intensity. Like a flood that had brewed for the entire summer and finally broke through the dam, it resounded above the entire island aggressively and quickly.

Without anyone realizing, the gentle melody intensified. It rang in everyone’s ears, projecting a bright yet strong image in their minds.

With their eyes closed, they seemed to be able to see a lovely and beautiful girl dancing wildly. She was clad in fiery red and her skirt lifted when she spun, like burning flames. She moved to the rhythm of the melody, dancing in everyone’s hearts. In the fanatic dance, the fiery red dress seemed to cover the entire island.

This had become her stage!