271 The Most Dangerous Place is Not the Safest Place

How far would he run? Of course he would run as far as possible!

After escaping from Naberius’ range, Ye Qingxuan’s heart recovered. It no longer pounded crazily but he was still in bad state. In other words, he was pathetic.

There was a music score that was popular amongst dark musicians called the Devil’s Murmur. It could vibrate the aether and create terrifying sounds that humans could not hear. The capillaries of all organisms would burst under that sound. The organs would be affected as well, going crazy until bursting. The organism would swell into a giant due to the bursting vessels while the innards would turn into messy paste.

Naberius’ attack was no weaker than that; however, it was more specific. It worked directly on the sound of heart. Ye Qingxuan could not even fight back unless he was at the Resonance level. He was probably bleeding internally right now.

Other than the stimulant for his physical strength and the hemostatic agent, he also gulped down the recovery medicine Lola gave him as if he was drinking water. The side effect to all these drugs was that his mind became muddled. Now, it was as if he was drunk. He could no longer maintain the rational thinking he was so proud of.

In reality, the fact he could escape had nothing to do with his brain. It was actually because of the jacket that he had neglected and had gradually forgotten about—the Dungeon Gentleman. Created by Charles, this was not alchemy equipment and had average quality. It could only protect the critical locations.

Its essence though was Charles’s kinetics masterpiece—the steel skeleton that fit closely to his body. After adding the chainsaw monk’s technology to it, it provided ten times the amount of strength support than regular humans, making up for his fatal weakness. Here, it had saved his life.

He had no more strength, but thankfully, Naberius’ sound of heart interference was ineffective against steel. He was able to crawl out of range with the help of the steel skeleton. It seemed that Charles was usually unreliable but could really save his life when needed.

Ye Qingxuan had never felt so grateful to Charles in his entire life. Charles’s image in his mind now was an angel with a halo and two chicken wings.

Angel Charles…huh, it sounded pretty nice.

Having slow and wandering thoughts and difficulty concentrating was another side effect. Ye Qingxuan felt like he had taken some opium. He started hallucinating uncontrollably.

He swayed as he walked on the street in the fog, using the last bit of his sanity to avoid the wandering demons. He instinctively searched for a safe spot. Danger lurked at every spot on the road. Many times, he brushed past a terrifying aura. He hid in the darkness, not daring to find out what demons were there.

His steps finally came to a stop after some time. He finally realized that he had somehow run to the lakeside of midtown in Avalon’s Shadow. He had run to the place his subconscious mind thought was the safest—the Royal Academy of Music.

-

"But where the f*ck is this?" The youth looked up under the heavy fog. He gazed at the slightly hidden building. It had a menacing silhouette and, hidden in the fog, it looked like a crouching beast.

The gates had been pushed open by some mysterious power. The surroundings looked like a battlefield. The ground was covered in corpses of demons, including strange creatures that terrified Ye Qingxuan. A trail of footprints led into what was supposed to be the academy.

Behind the walls of this place, rows of stakes rose toward the sky like a forest. Under the ghastly fog, they looked like ghosts restricting souls.

If Ye Qingxuan guessed correctly, this was not the Royal Academy of Music. It had not yet been established during King Arthur’s reign centuries ago. But no one had ever said what it originally was.

Ye Qingxuan knew now. This was a prison!

Darkness oozed under the pale fog. Under the silence, Ye Qingxuan walked through the gates and saw the sinister buildings sleeping in the mist. He also saw dried blood on the ground, corpses abandoned after torture, unruly weeds, and various dilapidated scenes.

The uniformed jailers had long died and lay on the ground as skeletons. Their long swords were rusted and looked like warped snakes. Recently, this was also a demon’s nest. But It was not anymore.

Now, they were deader than dead. Their pieces were scattered about, and blood covered every inch of the ground and walls. There seemed to have been a massacre.

So what the h*ll was this?

Ye Qingxuan was chilled to the bone. He really wanted to look up into the heavens and sigh. What was this? He had just gotten out of one danger, only to walk into another? He knew he was always unlucky, but this…was unprecedented.

His heart suddenly twitched and pain began to spread. Turning around in shock, he heard footsteps approach. That d*mn dark musician had actually caught up.

What had he used this time? He was able to put a tracker in Ye Qingxuan’s heart without any sign, so he was probably able to follow without any traces as well. Faced with an old creature who had been stuck at the Resonance level for sixty years and had an unreasonable amount of experience, Ye Qingxuan was clueless no matter how clever he was. There was no time to hesitate.

Gritting his teeth, he ran into the ruins. Since he was going to die either way, why not choose the slowest death?

-

The ancient gates opened abruptly with sharp grating sounds. Dust flew up, falling onto the youth’s white hair. Ye Qingxuan used all his power to close the gates. He leaned against it in exhaustion and looked up at the empty hall.

Scattered corpses lay under the strange and dim lantern light. Half was dust; half was blood. Half were decadent images that had been weathered for thousands of years. The other half was covered in blood from demons fighting.

The bones of the jailers who had died long ago were still sitting in their original positions. One could still faintly see their serious solemnity from yesteryear. The demons’ corpses and blood were poured on them, adding a menacing color to them.

The dark eye sockets on these withered faces seemed to study the suddenly-appearing guest. It was as if they would rise and unsheathe their swords at any moment.

"What is this? Are you planning a Christmas party or something?" Ye Qingxuan stared back at them. "Want me to join? I have some new poker cards we can play with too."

No one replied.

The corpses obviously would not open their mouths to retort at them. They retained their original posture. They would shatter if he touched them.

Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan’s tensed body relaxed a bit. He could not help but laugh. What was he thinking? Was he truly panicking? How could these dead things come back to life and kill him?

If that was the case, he should be overjoyed instead of afraid. Rebirth was a miracle that the School of Choir had been searching for for a millennium. It was a great proposition second only to the ‘man in a beaker’ from the School of Modifications.

Ye Qingxuan shook his head, chasing away the ridiculous thoughts. He must hurry. Sensing the Ripper’s traces, he quickly followed it.

Along the way, everything was barren. There was no life at all. In the prison that had been turned into a school, all was in ruins.

He gazed around at the decadent scenes and felt more and more anxious. If this was a prison…what was kept here? After thousands of years, were the…weird things here still alive?

Extremely cautious, Ye Qingxuan pushed open the gate to the underground. Dust fell in clumps, dropping through his suddenly thinning figure onto the ground. He carefully raised his lantern and illuminated the darkness.

The dungeon was silent. The only sound was the dripping of water. He padded down the stairs and entered the darkness.

The jailer’s dried corpse at the entrance fell down the steps. Its head bounced on the stone tile until it broke into three pieces. The empty eye sockets rolled into the darkness with the other shards.

The silence returned. There was no sound on either side of the cells. There was nothing there, other than the dust-covered chains and the bedrolls which had decayed to dust.

For some reason, Ye Qingxuan let out a relieved sigh. And then there was laughter in the darkness. Laughter…

Laughter came from the cell beside him.

Ye Qingxuan spun around.

And saw himself.