245 Evidence

"Today, I am not the only one who is humiliated. The path of Revelations and the entire atmosphere of the academic world has been humiliated as well. If this lowly trend cannot be restrained, countless of others will be humiliated like me in the future!" At the podium, Ingmar was still speaking with gusto. Angry and sad, he did not realize that everyone was looking behind him in confusion, and continued speaking.

"Therefore, I advise the council members to seriously consid—" Just as he was getting to the main point, he felt someone poke him, and poke him, and poke him again. The pen cap did not hurt but it was annoying.

"What the f*ck are you poking me for? How annoying!"

Ingmar’s voice suddenly stopped. He spun around and glared at the other. "Presumptuous!"

Under everyone’s confused eyes, the presumptuous youth in question looked at Ingmar calmly and waved his pocket watch around. "Mr. Ingmar, you only have three minutes to speak but you’ve spoken for an extra minute and a half. Do you want to start a talk show or something?"

Ingmar’s expression changed, filling with dark fury. Finally, he huffed and left with billowing sleeves. When he brushed past the youth, he squeezed out, "B*stard, you won’t be laughing for long."

"Ha." Ye Qingxuan chuckled. "Don’t overthink. It’s bad for your health."

The two brushed shoulders.

The youth stood on the podium and smiled, bowing politely to the judges. "Sirs, if it’s okay, I’ll start now."

Sergey finally reacted and wrinkled his brows, asking, "Wait a minute. Why isn’t it Abraham? Who are you?"

"My name is too lowly to be spoken." Ye Qingxuan smiled. "I am Abraham’s student and the witness to this case. My teacher is not skilled at speaking, so I will conclude things for him. Is that not allowed?"

"There have been no precedents," Heisenberg huffed.

"But it’s doable, is it not?" Lola glanced over with a smile. Without waiting for their decision, she stated, "Mr. Student, please begin."

Shocked, Heisenberg glared coldly at Lola, who rolled her eyes and seemed to smile. The glare was like a sword pierced into water. Other than insignificant ripples, there was no other reaction.

The dark gaze quickly moved away and Heisenberg no longer spoke. Barthélémy opened his mouth but did not say anything. The Eastern Mr. Hu looked at the youth’s white hair with interest. His eyes brightened as if anticipating some good show. No one disagreed and so the youth at the podium smiled.

-

"To be honest, Mr. Ingmar’s speech touched me." The youth uttered his first words with a somber and hurt expression.

What he said confused the audience—what was going on now? Was he going to side with Ingmar and cut ties with Abraham? But that did not seem right.

At the podium, the youth was still speaking with regret. "Mr. Ingmar’s misfortunes are tragic and should be pitied. If I were you all, I would definitely feel that he had suffered the world’s greatest wrong, even greater than snow in June. If you don’t support him, then you’re totally unjust and unreasonable. Even the Sacred City would shed tears for him."

He paused. The heavy sadness disappeared from his face, replaced by a mocking and evil smile. "But sadly, nothing he said was about the content of his interpretation! Excuse my brashness, but Mr. Ingmar’s talents are more than enough to be the reporter of a small newspaper. Maybe he can even start a popular column like ‘music theory life’ or ‘voice of Anglo.’

"But for the scholarly fields that speak in the language of theories and research, he’s far from enough. This is not the place for kids to roll around. This is also not somewhere one can win by telling a sob story and painful pasts!"

There was a crack.

That was the sound of one’s teeth practically breaking.

Offstage, Ingmar’s face twitched as he clenched his fists, too angry to speak. Heisenberg pounded his gavel.

"Abraham’s student, this is not the place for you to attack others!" he said coldly. "If you don’t have any conclusions to make, you can leave now."

The youth shrugged helplessly and looked at the eyes around him. He asked seriously, "Didn’t anyone find it strange? Why does the beginning and end of his interpretation contradict each other? Why is there such an obvious break in logic? Is it really a rare mistake?

"If he really isn’t guilty, why is he so nervous that we filed a complaint? Why did he keep blocking our right to receive what we deserve through official means? And is he really as great as he said? Why didn’t he mention how he threatened and harmed my teacher? Why didn’t he mention how he reduced the music history department building to ashes? Did he think that no one could see these obvious things?"

"Ye Qingxuan!" Ingmar roared, shooting to his feet in anger. "This is the appraisal council, not somewhere for you to act wildly! You must speak with evidence! Do you really think that your unorthodox method can interpret the Voynich Manuscript?!"

Ye Qingxuan sneered. He was about to make a retort but heard the gavel.

"Silence!" Grandmaster Barthélémy interrupted them from his seat. He gazed at the two of them and said with a neutral tone, "May both parties please control themselves. This is an appraisal council to discuss the Voynich Manuscript. Other subjects are not within the scope of our trial.

"Also, young man, in our opinion, both you and Ingmar provided effectual interpretation methods. However, I’m sure that all who are present understand that it’s easy to use abductive reasoning to create a specific method when deciphering ancient texts if one knows the result."

Ye Qingxuan already understood what he meant before he finished. If he could not provide substantial evidence, they could only look at this argument from a traditional and conservative standpoint. Then, Ingmar was the victor without a doubt.

This was Abraham’s biggest weakness. The translation method did not have the recognition of many. Compared to the mainstream Revelations system that had been revised by countless people, Abraham’s theory did not have enough credibility.

But hearing Barthélémy, Ye Qingxuan laughed. He had been waiting for these words for a very long time.

Ye Qingxuan raised the notes in his hands. "To prove the rationality of the translation method, we used the few days before the appraisal to provide new evidence—a new result!"

Everyone was stunned. New evidence? A new result and translation? In these few short days?

Offstage, hushed discussions began again and did not stop; even Barthélémy was stunned. He quickly looked down at the youth. "A new result in these few days? Young man, perhaps you do not understand that the interpretation of ancient texts is measured by decades! A few days are not even enough time to gather material and compare with texts from the same time period."

"Perhaps everyone present doubts my words, but I swear that I am speaking the truth," Ye Qingxuan stated lightly. "To verify it, I underwent the sublimation ritual and used the opportunity for Deva sensing. The school can prove this. The council can also use the aether record of the Cave of Sleep for evidence. For this, I gambled my chance to become an official musician. I believe that it can prove the effectiveness of the translation method."

With that, the entire room fell silent. The sublimation ritual, Deva sensing.

Indeed, he would be able to find the correct direction and result by transforming into the ripples of the aether sea, resonating with the music theory, and using the power of the Originator to activate the translation method—even for a moment.

But who would do such a stupid thing?

For the translations of a few words, he gambled his chance to become an official musician and wasted his one-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Deva sensing on this?!

Crazy! He was crazy!

At that moment, everyone looked at Ye Qingxuan with pity and regret. What a pity, if it was not like this…

And how old was he? He had just entered school a few months ago, right? It had only been four or five months and he was already close to becoming an official musician?! That speed was frightening.

He was comparable to the freak student of Anglo legends who had broken through the Student level in one month. He was even more powerful than the geniuses that each School trained in secret environments since childhood.

A pity, what a pity…

-

Under all the sympathetic and pitiful eyes, Ye Qingxuan walked forward emotionlessly and passed a piece of paper through the council members.

Only a few sparse words were written on the extremely thin paper but they all fell into deep thought and silence. When it was Heisenberg’s turn, he took it and put it face down on the table, refusing to look.

Ye Qingxuan did not stop. Finally, he offered the paper to grandmaster Barthélémy.

Barthélémy hesitated but accepted it. When the youth lowered his head in gratitude, he felt vague guilt in his heart. Would he really be able to make a fair decision?

Holding the paper, his eyes wandered between Ingmar and Abraham; his mind was a mess. In the end, he looked down in dejection and sighed. But then his eyes could not move away.

He stared at the words on the paper and his hands shook uncontrollably. "This…this…" It felt as if he was struck by lightning. The aether around him instantly began tossing like stormy waves and showed signs of losing control.

He quickly reigned in the strength but he could no longer keep calm. Head shooting up, he looked at the youth. "As if you are above, as if you are below, and so all can begin…Is this the Emerald Tablet?!"