254 Black Zone

The song rode the cold wind but instantly disappeared, giving Ye Qingxuan the chills.

The guy hanging on the tree was clearly sent by the parliament. Before coming, he was definitely like a tiger and could take on ten enemies at the same time. Now, he had become a corpse for some reason and hung from the tree like a ragged doll.

All his blood had run dry and flowed into the Blood Path. His corpse was dry as a matchstick. Ye Qingxuan looked at the ‘matchstick’ and the ‘matchstick’ looked back at him. He looked and looked, and a sticky tear rolled out of the dried out eyes.

"Save me, save me," the mouth without a jaw stammered. He begged with a muffled voice, "Please help—no, kill—kill me…"

He was still alive?

The moment he spoke, his withered body suddenly swelled as if dozens of rats were scuttling within him and chewing something. It swelled larger and larger. In the end, something ate the last bit of his flesh and broke through!

Boom! There was a muffled sound. Ye Qingxuan quickly retreated but he still felt his vision going black. Then he felt something pounce at him.

With no time to think, he raised his hand. A complex music note appeared out of thin air. Instantly, hundreds of notes were flattened and were complete at the same time. They formed a music score and shot forward.

The melody overlapped, transforming into a hoarse murmur that announced gravely, "Do not turn the three realms into ashes!"

The darkness was torn apart by the wild electric light. The electricity shot out like a flood. Heat surged, swallowing the thing coming toward him and that corpse. Ye Qingxuan did not dare to hold back during this moment. He used his strongest weapon at once—Indrah’s Eye.

After the sublimation ritual, his power had finally reached the lowest threshold and no longer needed to use his blood to activate the Eye; however, it was harder.

Indrah’s Eye was the best at destruction. Even if there was a third level musician clad in full armor and shield, he would still be destroyed. Soon, the moonlight in Ye Qingxuan’s eye brightened again, breaking through the darkness.

The hanging corpse had fallen onto the ground in pieces. The weird thing that had jumped out of its stomach rolled on the ground, already charred.

It looked like a child, but it had four long and thin limbs. Its burnt face was like a beast. As it writhed on the ground, its burnt body cracked open and something dust-like floated out of it. The dust melted into the wind.

Soon, it stopped moving. It fossilized and then broke apart, turning into powder. The powder disappeared quickly as well. All that remained was its skeleton and the stunned Ye Qingxuan.

He soon snapped out of it. After pondering, he took two coins out of his pocket and hurled them toward the deep end of the street. The coins flew through the air and landed with a crisp ding.

After the small sound, Ye Qingxuan saw the dust around the coin rise up for no reason, converge, and swallow the coin like a living thing. The dust scattered quickly but the coin had already lost all luster. It had been eroded into scrap metal. Then, it broke into a few grains of sand without anyone touching it, and rolled into the darkness with the wind.

Ye Qingxuan was covered in cold sweat. This truly was a black zone. The so-called black zone was actually a general term for the Dark World on the map. The safe zones for living were white zones, unstable areas were yellow, and dangerous areas were red. The black zone was the area of death.

In actuality, not even the Dark World had many places that could truly be called a black zone. In a black zone, the aether had already mutated and was uncontrollable. It had eroded the environment, turning it into unreliable and abnormal territory.

Any sound could create unpredictable reactions and consequences. It was like causing an avalanche by coughing on a snowy mountain but worse. To a human, it was an entirely different world. Just like now…

According to Ye Qingxuan’s guess, any outside interference could lead it to be eroded and assimilated by Avalon’s Shadow. In other words, it would become one with Avalon’s Shadow.

This was probably what had happened to the guy who had been hung. He most likely awakened the sleeping darkness and instantly fell to the painful state of not even being able to die. His companions did not dare to help him and abandoned him.

Ye Qingxuan was terrified too. Thankfully, he did not fully activate Indrah’s Eye. Otherwise, the crack of lightning would be enough to kill him, or at least skin him. Any music score would probably create unpredictable consequences here.

But he was not exactly safe, even if he did not make any sound. The flash of light just then had attracted many of the…weird things living here.

Crackle…crackle… Amidst the broken crackles, some things appeared under the broken tiles behind the decayed wall. Sticky black aura emanated from them. Under the pale moonlight, they latched onto everything and transformed into primates, formless ghosts, water demons and other unstable figures. They solidified and came from all directions.

Red eyes looked toward Ye Qingxuan. They froze and then burst into roars because there was nothing there. Hearing the screams behind him, Ye Qingxuan sped up.

He ran—of course he ran! Why would he wait for those things to come fight him as if he had run into a beehive? Who knew what would happen if they got into a fight if things were already this bad? Life was short and he did not need to try that.

Ye Qingxuan did not stop until he had run far enough. Gasping for his breath, he just felt that Avalon’s Shadow was too weird. He was far into downtown now. The farther he went, the slower the connection between him and aether. Like a fish out of water, the connection was getting weaker and more broken.

A musician’s roots had been taken away. If he was a regular musician, he would probably be like an average person now.

"This sucks. If you’re so powerful, then give me something even worse and I’ll respect—" Ye Qingxuan muttered. Suddenly feeling something wrong, he looked up.

Pairs of red eyes looked down at him from a withered tree. The eyes were cold and the things opened their black wings, shooting up. Sharp caws followed immediately after.

What was worse than angering a beehive?

Angering a crow’s nest!

Hundreds upon thousands of these sinister birds flew up from the withered trees instantly. They hovered around Ye Qingxuan’s head like a black cloud that screamed like a siren.

Broken sounds rang out endlessly. They were the demons that had been attracted by the calls of the birds that announced death. Amidst the cries, darkness flowed like a stream. Demons crawled out of destroyed homes and wells, surrounding this place seamlessly. They charged toward the shocked Ye Qingxuan without needing any commands, but the youth laughed rather than become angered.

"You think you can eat me, huh?!" Gritting his teeth, he raised his cane and made two slow circles.

Boom! A heavy yet majestic horn sounded out of thin air. Aether rippled and quickly converged toward Ye Qingxuan. Unexpectedly, he could still use aether in this messed up environment!

So what if he could not sense it? He never used sense to play music scores! He had never relied on the outside environment. The translation method was a music theory created by Abraham, using his experience in the Dark World, in the first place. In terms of adaptation, it was suited for every environment.

No matter if it was a black or white zone, as long as the essence of aether was the same, he could still use the translation method to play and retain basic fighting ability. Now the formulas that Ye Qingxuan had memorized, the five-hundred plus ancient records, the books that no one had been able to organize fully…they finally proved to be useful.

Now, it was… Night on Bald Mountain!

The majestic horn sounded abruptly, followed by a thunderstorm-like melody. The melody was like demons singing in the fire, and countless witches and satanic followers dancing around the bonfire. Because dawn was arriving, they were filled with unprecedented craze.

The demonic shadows instantly froze in the air. Invisible ropes extended through the air, restraining them.

Immediately after, the horn sounded again. It contained the strength of a blazing sun and had a realistic glow. This was Avalon’s Shadow. There was no sun here, but at this moment, a blazing light was illuminated in the dark downtown area.

It was firelight—the light from the burning stakes.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Countless black crosses shot out of the ground like a forest. They were already red-hot and covered in purple-blue flames. Invisible strength pulled the demons and nailed them onto the crosses. They screamed in pain as flames shot from their limbs, mouth, nose, eyes, and ears!

The firelight chased away the darkness. Even the downtown district had sunk into silence. At this moment, there was only the sound of the fire of punishment and the horn of judgement. In only half a minute, all demons were burned to ashes. The dark aura had been eternally purified and disappeared. The crows fell from the sky, landing in the embers and burning.

This was Night on Bald Mountain, the trademark score of past inquisitors that caused countless demons to tremble in fear!

Then Ye Qingxuan’s vision went black and his legs gave out. He was a bit exhausted. This purification score had a range wide enough to target hundreds of demons. Though Night on Bald Mountain had helped, Ye Qingxuan was only at the edge of a third level musician. Even with Lola’s aid, it still took a toll on him.

Resting against the wall, he panted heavily and glared at the shadow of the distant city, flipping it off.

"If you’re so powerful, come at m— oh f*ck, I’m sorry! Don’t do that!" Before he could even finish, a thunderous sound rang in the distance. Wild pressure shot out of thin air. Ye Qingxuan just wanted to slap himself. Why did he say that?!

The pressure was getting stronger and stronger; it felt as if his bones would break. Even with the distance, he could sense a pair of dead eyes lock onto him. And then war stallions neighed!

What was that saying...kill the minions and attract the big boss?

He cried inwardly. If he knew this would happen, he would not have used such an attention-grabbing move. Unfortunately, he had no alternatives and there was no pill for regret on this world.

The walls at the end of the street suddenly shattered. Steel hooves pulverized the tiles. The shards flew and were lit by the sparks from the horses’ hooves, turning into flying embers. The crazily dancing embers illuminated a giant black stallion.

Black gas wound around, solidifying into the shadow of a menacing head for the headless stallion as it screamed. The demons in its path were forced to the ground by the aggressiveness and shattered.

This was only a domesticated stallion, yet it was already this powerful. The knight on the stallion was covered in heavy armor and held a long sword. A pair of deadly eyes in the darkness underneath the helmet was filled with murder.

Ye Qingxuan could not help but swear. He recognized the armor clearly. Anyone who had read Illustrated History of Anglo would know in his heart that this was the Round Table Knight that had been a decorated warrior under King Arthur, killed countless demons when expanding the kingdom, was remembered by all for his loyalty and bravery, and was finally beheaded by King Arthur!

"Percival!" Ye Qingxuan gritted his teeth but he felt an invisible strength push his body. He crashed against the wall with a thud and was pressed deeply into it, unable to move.

It was just from the gaze—the gaze!

The war stallion whinnied. Percival rode the huge headless horse as if he was riding a wave of darkness. He stepped on thunder and roars sounded. Amidst the wind and lightning, he unsheathed his sword. The blade vibrated with a sharp echo.

It was only an echo but it cut the music score that Ye Qingxuan was preparing. He could not even fight back!

In that instant, Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes and growled in his mind, "Lola, if you keep watching, I’m going to die!"

No one replied.

Stunned, he looked up at the dim moonlight. He had gone too far without even knowing. "It’s just going to end like this?"

In the next instant, Percival’s helmet was already too close. In the pair of dead eyes, the sword blade’s reflection was lifted, cutting the moonlight apart.

And then…It swung down!

The moonlight shattered and the youth’s head flew up.

He had died with his eyes open.