356 The Shadow of the Aether World

For thousands of years, the Eastern Deva's blood, the Ye family of the nine dragon bloodlines, and all musicians who had reached the Resonance level had left their mark here. Whether near or far, they guided the road for Ye Qingxuan. However, there were very few people up ahead.

Ye Qingxuan began to feel weary and exhausted but the flames of the Skull of Truth still provided him with the power to fly to the depths of the sea. Finally, he saw the familiar figure.

The ethereal figure stood alone at the highest point, hanging high like the moon as if waiting for the successor with a smile.

"Father?" Ye Qingxuan was stunned. He had been walking down the musician path into the depths of the aether sea. His sense of the aether world also reached an unprecedented clarity.

As if standing at the peak of the land, he gazed at the stars and saw countless sweeping nebulae in the starry sky. It was either the territory and lair of natural catastrophes or the scepters and temples of first generation kings and saints.

The most striking of all was the Sacred Temple, which was shrouded in divine light. Countless magnificent songs played in the temple. Saints stood like star, illuminating layers of darkness like the sun.

It was the Sacred City founded by the first three kings, around which countless saints and the scepters of the holy spirits revolved like satellites. Together, they created a galaxy.

In another distant place, Ye Qingxuan sensed a huge abyss, full of darkness. Endless cries emerged from it. There seemed to be countless huge figures hidden in the dark. Those shadows loomed in the dark with terrifying outlines.

As he gazed at the abyss, the abyss seemed to be watching him too. The horror emblem of the Eyes Within the Eye emerged from it. It was the territory of Hyakume, the original darkness of the world where all the evils gathered.

Ye Qingxuan felt distraught with a mere glance, growing breathless. He dared not to look again. Somewhere else, there were countless scepter territories operating.

One of the scepter fields was like a huge scorching sun, overbearing but lacking agility as if it was sleeping. It was the throne of the Burgundy Kingdom—the evidence of the Sun King. However, the position of the Sun King had been vacant for hundreds of years. No one had risen to it yet.

In the east, Ye Qingxuan could feel a huge wall extending tens of millions of miles. On that high barrier, countless beacons burned with eternal light. They were the physical incarnation of the holy spirits. The light interwove into an enchantment, resisting all the darkness and attacks, firmly shrouding the eastern land.

For hundreds of years, the saints from the nine Dragon Bloodlines were not welcomed into the Sacred City after their deaths. Instead, they became a part of this horrible realm. The Eastern emperor and the nine families had spent hundreds of years creating this weapon of terror to keep natural catastrophes away from.

Then, Ye Qingxuan perceived the direction of Anglo and the faintly revealed Holy Grail. This was the legendary artifact—the destructive Grail covered the country, emitting cold murderous intention, keeping people from approaching it.

Deeper in the void, Ye Qingxuan sensed a broken city... It was the fallen Avalon's Shadow! The moment he sensed it, a bell rang from the shadowy city. The resonance between the enchantment of Avalon and the sub-originator was clear and unguarded toward him.

If Ye Qingxuan wanted to enter sub-originator with others' power, he should anchor himself in Avalon's Shadow. This way, not only could he reach the Resonance level, he could also inherit the Avalon's Shadow in the future and leap into the Scepter level. Unfortunately, he was not planning to get involved in this rotten legacy from hundreds of years ago. In fact, he intended to keep as far away from it as possible...

At the same time, he sensed another realm that seemed to have lost touch and drifted into the depths of the aether world. When he looked in puzzlement, he saw countless tombstones in that realm, desolate and old like a cemetery. He could see his own name on one of those tombstones! All the lights under the tombstones were extinguished; only a solitary lamp was lit before his tombstone.

It suddenly dawned on Ye Qingxuan when he saw the light. That was where he had pushed open the door of musicians and made a pact with the Originator. It was also the realm that had been passed down the Ye family for the past hundreds of years. The moment he sensed it, he felt his vision spin. His induction quickly blurred. In his hand, the flame of the Skull of Truth trembled like a candle in the wind. It extinguished.

It had to be now!

Before Ye Qingxuan could react, he felt his perception decline rapidly and fall from the sky. As he was falling, he looked back and saw his previous direction.

Light was surging on the desolate land of Romulus! Countless lights flowed under the earth like rivers and gathered in the underground palace where he vaguely saw a door. It was the door that could only be seen through the flames of the saint's remains!

A door?

Late at night, Ye Qingxuan opened his eyes in the darkness. In his hand, the Skull of Truth had turned to ash and dropped from the fingers. But Ye Qingxuan did not feel down. He was ecstatic! He had completed the 'completion stage' in advance and organized his chaotic music theory system. It was worth the price. Moreover, his strength had made great progress with this experience.

He believed that he could enhance his perception to find the origin in the near future, even if he could not break through the Barrier of Knowledge. Now, the most important thing was that he finally found the clue hidden in the underground palace!

"Sure enough, the problem is still hidden in the temple..." Ye Qingxuan murmured to himself. He quickly packed things up and wore the Governor under his coat. Opening the window, he silently ran toward the mine under the dark night.

-

Upstairs, the loudly snoring Angloian grandmaster turned amongst the scattered plastic containers and dirty dishes. He stared blearily in Ye Qingxuan's direction.

"It's so late. Why is he running around instead of sleeping?" he muttered. He snapped his fingers and continued to sleep. By his bedside, something flashed vaguely.

-

Ye Qingxuan sped through the silent underground palace, bypassing the musicians who stayed up late looking for clues. He did not attract anyone's attention and walked into the temple.

In the silent shrine, there was only debris all over the ground.

The statues were shattered by the musicians in anger and the precious artifacts had become fragments. This was also the reason why Ye Qingxuan was unwilling to come here. As a scholar of ancient studies, it made him uncomfortable to see all this.

The eleven statues had all been smashed. The walls were also pitted. They had truly dug three feet under and even the ceiling was full of holes... Ye Qingxuan sighed, slowly shaking his head. A nation's history and past was completely destroyed.

Some places had been pulverized. Nothing could fix it.

Ye Qingxuan wandered in the decadent temple, staring at the eleven statues. They were proved to be the holy spirit Aeneas, the father of Thunder; Aeneas's wife who was later worshipped as the mother of the gods; and several of their children including the God of Light, Cupid, Goddess of Hunt, Two-sided Ares, the God of Secrets, as well as the God of Wine and the God of Wealth…

Ye Qingxuan walked around while counting the statues again and again… In the end, he was finally sure that his guess was correct.

There were twelve deities in the ancient book that Caligula gave to himself but there were only eleven here! Ye Qingxuan stopped between two statues. There should be another one here. It should be Mercury, the messenger of the gods and the spirit of the traveller.

In Romulus's pantheon, Mercury's domain was of traveling and messengers. In the ancient language of Romulus, both musicians and messengers were known as 'Dark Duke'.

On the day of his introduction, Abraham once told him that musicians also served as messengers.

In ancient Romulus, musicians were loyal to the temple and conveyed the will of the gods. The aether was the messenger that led those who had gone astray back to the Originator. Therefore, Mercury also served as musician!

The missing deity's archetype came from the oasis in the Desert of Thebes, the origin of mankind centuries ago. People called it Thoth, the god of wisdom.

Although Mercury's position was not very high among the gods of Romulus, he was obviously still very important. It was not possible to omit his existence in order to save space. So, this meant that his statue was ignored deliberately! In order to hide something...

Ye Qingxuan thought for a moment, looking at the gap between the two statues. The longer he gazed, the more familiar it was. He had seen this somewhere.

All of a sudden, something flashed through his mind.

He took out a crumpled map. Comparing them, he became confident in his guess. He had seen this place amidst the graffiti he had bought from Elsa. On the back of the map, Elsa's graffiti clearly depicted this corner of the image but the graffiti looked vague and strange so he could barely recognize it. However, the space was not empty in the graffiti. There was a door!

Ye Qingxuan walked forward, touching the potholes on the wall. He could only feel the cold and solid rock. How could there be a door? There was not even an empty hole!

He looked down at the back of the map to look at the scribbles. After a long while, his expression became helpless. Elsa's drawing was too messy. She was really a 'soul painter.' Everything was crooked and nothing could be figured out.

There was something strange drawn on the door as well. Ye Qingxuan struggled at it for a long while. Suddenly, something dawned on him. He pulled out his pocket watch and compared them. He was almost shocked to death.

The two squiggly lines was the double snake emblem!

Did she draw it here to test his imagination?