230 Sublimation Ritual

"Hey, kid, I’ve been waiting for a long time."

Ye Qingxuan stood at the entrance, unable to process what he had seen. Hermes looked at his shocked expression and laughed joyously.

Behind him, the silver vortex spun silently with faint ripples. Under the vortex, a large track made of mercury, gems, and other material Ye Qingxuan could not recognize transformed slowly. It absorbed the endless strength from the aether and opened an invisible cavern that seemed to lead into another world.

This was the sublimation ritual.

Under Hermes’s manipulation, the mercury in the gully flowed soundlessly. The thick and heavy silver-white liquid radiated with burning brightness. Ye Qingxuan could never have guessed that Hermes would be the one performing the ritual for him.

"Are you shocked?" Hermes asked with a subtle smile.

"A little." Ye Qingxuan nodded honestly.

"Your principal spent money and I had time, so I came over for a look." Hermes shook his head and lamented, "I haven’t been to this stupid place in so long but I’m surprised you’ve all been maintaining it well. It’s just that the newer buildings are too ugly. There’s no style at all. If would be fine if you just followed the original design. Why did you have to add stuff? Tsk…"

Ye Qingxuan listened obediently as Hermes judged and destroyed every inch of the Royal Academy of Music. In the end, Hermes finally looked down at the flowing mercury. Without caring about being poisoned, he reached a hand into it.

Pulling out, the mercury in his hand shone and quickly dissipated from his fingertip. Hermes nodded in satisfaction.

"The coherence of the track will be complete soon. Other than the sublimation ritual, the heart mark’s inheritance will be done at the same time. Musicians have really regressed these days. They can’t even do these compound alchemy processes, how can they call themselves musicians?

"Hey, white-haired kid, have you thought about which heart mark you want? This is a treasure chest. There’s Bach’s Chaconne, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2—Resurrection, Nocturne, The Four Seasons…There are even dozens of Concerto No. 1s. Since your principal said that you can choose whatever you want from the Resonance level, just go all out. You’re not the one paying, after all."

Hearing Hermes’s words, Ye Qingxuan finally snapped out of his daze. After hesitating, he said, "Night on Bald Mountain. I choose the Night on Bald Mountain from the School of Abstinence."

Hermes’s smile stiffened and instantly grew odd. "That really…suits you…" He really wanted to say something along the lines of, "the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree" or "like father, like son." He had not thought that Ye Qingxuan would happen to choose this out of such a large archive.

It was not that this music score was very weak, but that it was just really weird. Not only was it from the School of Abstinence, it was also created for targeting fallen dark musicians and demons.

These days, other than judgement musicians who hunted dark musicians and strange beasts, no one else would choose this extremely difficult and unpopular piece. Its composer had concealed his identity and joined the satanic believers and witches that worshipped natural catastrophes.

The so-called Night on Bald Mountain was a fiesta for the fallen ones. Every year, bonfires would be lit in the middle of a certain night. Witches, satanic believers, and dark musicians would praise Satan, perform blood sacrifices, receive blessings from Satan and dance crazily around the fire until daybreak.

At dawn, the composer, hidden among them, would join with the judgement musicians hiding in the surroundings and kill all the celebrating satanic believers. They would use a majestic melody that announced the coming of dawn to kill the cantos to Satan, and thus created this music score.

Only judgement musicians would study this piece because it was infallible at defeating demonic followers. No matter what type of demon or dark musician, anything with the aura of natural catastrophe would be sealed by this music score, nailed onto the stake and burned to ashes in the fire. No matter how dark it was, the night on the bald mountain would be illuminated by a forest of stakes. But if the enemy was a human, it was powerless, save for the shackle and sealing effect.

"It really…suits you," Hermes finally said after his mind went blank.

Ye Qingxuan had considered his choice for the heart mark carefully beforehand. He was not qualified to look through many of the library’s important music scores, but he could at least look at the catalogue, so he copied it and asked Abraham and Lola for advice.

After Abraham looked at the catalogue, he marked some scores from the School of Revelations and Modifications. After hesitating, he also marked Night on Bald Mountain as Ye Qingxuan’s backup.

Lola’s suggestion was to improve on his shortcomings rather than further strengthening his strong points. For pure destruction, he already had Indra’s Eye and the Deva’s blood to help him fight with furious fire at a level far above his own. Even if he learned other music scores, it would be useless in the meantime, due to his own restrictions.

In comparison, Night on Bald Mountain was more specialized, but offset his weakness at lasting face-to-face fighting. He would also be able to kill the enemy without worrying that he would go too far.

Understanding Ye Qingxuan’s intentions, Hermes could only lament, "Children these days are so creative…Okay, the preparation is almost complete. You can go in." He moved aside, motioning for Ye Qingxuan to hurry inside and stop wasting time.

Ye Qingxuan entered and instantly felt that he was about to suffocate. The almost tangible aether flow shone in the air, thick and heavy. It felt as if he was in a pool of water and he could barely breathe. After looking around, Ye Qingxuan had a new discovery and almost jumped out of his skin.

"Wait, where’s the most important medium for the ritual? Boss, are you cheating?"

"Medium?" Hermes side-eyed him. "Isn’t it on you?"

With a hum, the palm-sized stone flew out of the youth’s pocket. It hovered in the air, absorbing the aether almost endlessly, and transformed into a small sun. Within the blazing sun-like glow, the words on the surface transformed. They seemed to have new changes and dazzled before his eyes. His mind was shaken and he could not control himself.

"Hey, kid!" Hermes suddenly hit him on the shoulder, shocking him out of his thoughts. "Let me warn you though, the alchemy I’m good at is pure classicism. There aren’t many safety precautions and it’s definitely not comfortable. You can say that the longer it lasts, the more torturous it gets. During the ritual, you’ll see unexplainable hallucinations, hear weird sounds, or feel something frightening. I’m not taking responsibility if you go crazy from all that. So, are you ready?"

Ye Qingxuan was speechless and could not help but sigh. "To be honest, I can’t wait. Can we start soon?"

"Good kid, I can see that you’re a true man."

Hermes pressed a hand on the top of Ye Qingxuan’s head. His fingers were icy without any warmth. Ye Qingxuan shivered at the cold, steel-like hand.

"One last question." Hermes suddenly asked, "You know that it’s highly possible to die during the sublimation ritual, right?"

"Huh? Wait…" Ye Qingxuan yelped but then his vision went black and he lost consciousness.

-

Just as he sank into unconsciousness, a solemn song and melody rose above the ritual. The aether seemed to ignite in that hoarse singing and majestic song. It echoed like a tidal wave. The immense strength fell onto the youth’s body like a flame, burning his clothes. It dug into his limbs and bones, forcing him to struggle involuntarily and scream in pain.

However, his eyes were soulless as if his spirit was gone. It had already risen to the sky or had fallen into the abyss.

"We grow under aether and die as aether—we must be in awe of aether!" Hermes announced gravely.

He held down the youth’s forehead. He did not seem happy or sad, but there seemed to still be emotions in his expression; he was like a saint’s figure carved by the Church and was awe-inspiring.

Behind him, twelve wings of light burst through his robe and unfurled, covering the sky. The wings of light flapped soundlessly, creating huge ripples in the invisible sea of aether.

"Ye Qingxuan, the so-called sublimation ritual is to purify your soul." He gazed at the youth’s dull eyes and murmured in his ears, "You shall see your true self in the muddled chaos."

-

Ye Qingxuan felt as if he had fallen into a nightmare again. In that endless nightmare, the ineffably immense chaos swallowed him. He felt himself being thrown into the sky, leaving the world of men, and entered a cold world that was icy yet difficult to describe.

There was nothing.

In the blink of an eye, something extremely solemn and large brushed past him. It seemed to be a strategic response by the gods. But when he inadvertently turned around, he seemed to see the bottom of the abyss underfoot. There was a burning hell and it was wailing.

He understood instantly: perhaps this was the "aether world" that had been described in countless books. It was the true appearance of all organisms, as observed by the aether.

Under the illumination of the blue moon, the city was shrouded in fog. Its fierce, sharp, large, and dark silhouette was revealed. The church and palace stuck through like piles of bones. Blood flowed into paths and rivers; countless vague shadows wandered through the city of the dead, unable to be freed.

This was Avalon’s Shadow…

Instantly, Ye Qingxuan felt his body going slack. It was flying toward him…No, he was falling into it—it was pulling him!

He struggled fiercely but to no avail. As he fell rapidly, he felt the strength of Avalon’s Shadow pulling at his mind, almost ripping him into pieces. For a moment, he could feel two of himself, three, four…This was the precursor to schizophrenia. 

Urgent danger filled his brain, but for some reason, a line of strange words flashed past his mind in that instant. They were the wedge-shaped words on the stone.

Those strange words overlapped and formed an unfamiliar interval in his mind. It lengthened and swelled endlessly, turning from a few words to a novel with tens of thousands of words.

The immense amount of information practically filled his consciousness to the brim. Then, the terrifying music score with a compact yet large structure quickly began closing up and collapsing.

Ye Qingxuan could not comprehend any of the music theory within it—he had never heard of it before and could not even distinguish a general direction. It expanded to its extreme in an instant; it collapsed to something miniscule in an instant.

Ye Qingxuan could no longer observe that tiny dot. Even his consciousness was pulled and dragged into the dot that was so small it did not exist anymore. Just before he passed out, he heard the earth-shaking majestic chanting in his ear, "As if you are above, as if you are below, as if all is beginning!"

-

"Ah!" Ye Qingxuan shrieked and jumped up from his table. The entire classroom was silent.

All the students who were reading their books in the morning class looked over. Even the drowsy teacher at the podium had a scare. Ye Qingxuan looked around in confusion, not sure where he was. His memories in his mind were disappearing as if it was a dream.

He gaped at those eyes without knowing what to do.

"Ye Qingxuan, how many do I have to tell you to not sleep during morning class!" The balding teacher at the podium furrowed his brows. "Go read at the back of the room!"

Ye Qingxuan finally realized that he had fallen asleep during class and had had a weird dream. He awkwardly looked down, picked up his English textbook and obediently went to stand at the back of the classroom. Maybe it was because he had a good attitude and was usually a good student, so the teacher did not give him a hard time; he was able to sit down when the bell rang.

His desk mate Wang Qiang came over with a gleeful smile. "Yezi, I’ve seen a lot of people who sleep during class, but never someone who talks in his sleep and makes such a big commotion."

"You didn’t even wake me up!" Ye Qingxuan rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I stayed up the whole night playing GTB5 and accidentally fell asleep."

"It’s the second mock exam today and you’re still playing? Wow." His desk mate glanced at the "eighty-eight more days until the college entrance exam" on the blackboard and asked, "Do you still have lead? Give me some, I ran out."

"It’s in my pencil bag. Go get it yourself." Ye Qingxuan was spacing out.

"Hey, what’s wrong? Fever?"

"I don’t know." He shook his head. "I just feel like I forgot something."

"No!" Wang Qiang panicked. "I need you for English during the exam! If you do badly, what am I gonna do?"

"It’s not a big deal." Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes. "When has my grade ever been bad? Just turn your phone on and it’s okay."

Wang Qiang shook his head. "I heard that you can’t do it this year. Apparently the school blocked all signal for this mock exam. Your phone won’t have any signal."

"So, you can’t use your phone without signal?" Ye Qingxuan side-eyed him. "Turn on your bluetooth and then just change the phone name into the answer. Don’t tell me your phone doesn’t even have bluetooth."

"…" Wang Qiang’s expression suddenly changed dramatically. He gaped for a long time before finally uttering, "Why didn’t I f*cking think of that?!"

"Because you’re stupid."

…

"This mock exam will be given by Professor Xia of our school. It will be strict to realistically simulate the college entrance exam. I hope all students will answer seriously and not cheat," the teacher said gravely. "Understood?"

"Understood," came the scattered responses under the podium.

Soon, the test was handed out to everyone. Ye Qingxuan accepted it and put it down. He yawned involuntarily and looked outside restlessly. He looked as if he was deep in thought but he knew that his mind was blank. He was not thinking of anything.

He was just spacing out.

Something felt wrong.

"Focus on the test," the supervising teacher minded, knocking on his table.

Ye Qingxuan flinched. He nodded dazedly as if he had just woken up. When he looked down at the test paper, he went slack.

This was not language, not mathematics, not English, not geography…What the h*ll was this?