385 Infinity

With a snap of the finger, the frosty moonlight sword broke out, piercing through Paganini's body. He was like a broken scarecrow but no blood existed in his chest. Instead, solid music theory was revealed.

In the cleaved darkness, the broken music theories were like broken chains and disordered music scores. They tried to recover but could not connect again under the moonlight.

The abyss music theory fell like a house of cards before the moonlight. This was the purification score that Moon Chant had created for the abyss. It was only a shred of its original but it was not able to be overlooked.

However, even with his body damaged, Paganini still had no reaction. It was like a breeze to him. There was no pain. He just looked at Ye Qingxuan. His eyes changed from shock, confusion, to…scorn!

"That was your last desperate attempt?" He looked at Ye Qingxuan with uncertainty and disdain. "It's wild, shallow, and completely illogical. I am so dis-disa-" His voice cut off as if frozen. His expression froze as well. Rattling came from his body, rising and falling until a horrible scream came from the thousands of cracks in unison.

"Ah!!!" Countless black feathers flew from his hood like a crow molting right before death. They burned to dust. His body instantly shattered. The peacefulness of the hall was also destroyed.

The copper mirror shattered, transforming into shards of light, revealing the hall tainted by blackness. The entire hall had been corroded by a flesh-like darkness. The pure black color seeped into the stones. The abyss music theory transformed into pulsing veins.

The entire hall had turned into the body of a giant beast. And Ye Qingxuan was inside of it!

In the heart of the darkness, tentacles dropped down. The layers thinned and narrowed, delicately reaching into the Sacred Fire. However, the corrosive music theory did not stimulate the Fire's counterattack.

The music theory changed nine times and the end of the tentacles were completely different. They grew radiant like fire as if coming from the same place as the Sacred Fire.

This was Paganini's specialty—Channeling Change.

Otherwise, how could he be undiscovered for dozens of years as a demonic follower until he suddenly dragged half of the Holy Choir into the abyss in one day? That day, he had shaken the world. Hundreds of years later, the human world would once again be shaken.

Within the abyss, Paganini immediately rose to the top of the 'dark followers.' His status was even above that of Hyakume's first daughter, the Eagle Wing Mother.

Before Ye Qingxuan's arrival, he had already transformed this place into his territory. He used his music theory to imitate the Sacred Fire and quietly meld into the flames. Then he slowly, carefully polluted it until it became part of him! He would then swallow everything and he had almost succeeded!

The outer edge of the Sacred Fire had already blackened. The hardest part was complete but with Elsa sleeping, the Sacred Fire did not even know. Next, he could have gone with the flow, pushing it easily until the Fire was completely swallowed.

But someone had burst through, stirring up a mess without following the rules, respecting authority or manners, and pulled out his sword!

With an unhesitant throw of the sword, he had shattered the body Paganini created and jumped into the Sacred Flame dozens of meters away. Compared to the immense power, the moonlight was nothing.

Ye Qingxuan's action was like sticking an elephant with a needle.

The problem though, was that he had stuck the elephant when the giant snake was halfway through swallowing it and the elephant reacted…

Countless delicate and complex purification theories solidified into pure moonlight. It stabbed into the fire to disturb the abyss theory.

It was like a drop of water in a pot of oil—it exploded!

The Sacred Fire blazed furiously. Terrifying power converged, destroying all power that dared to invade it. This included the moonlight. It also included Paganini.

When the moonlight clashed with the fire, the fighting only lasted for a moment. The music theory twisted, fought, and rejected, creating thousands of changes in an instant. Ye Qingxuan guided the fight toward the way of Modifications.

He obviously did not have any knowledge of it and was defeated. However, his goal was achieved.

The music theory changed constantly but the abyss theory that had used the Channeling Change could not keep up. The slight disparity was obvious. Even water was divided between pure and murky. Thus, the Sacred Fire began rejecting and purifying!

In an instant, the lively and writhing darkness screamed. It jumped from the fire like black oil splashing out of a well. It was endless. But the oil had already been ignited. The layer of firelight shrieked and could not continue.

Paganini's hard work had failed!

"From your saint's position, you abandoned your human body. This must be your body now, right?" Ye Qingxuan stared coldly at the sticky darkness with mockery. "How is it? How does it feel to be burned from the inside out?"

"Wh-why-" the voice rasped. "Why?!"

Paganini's question was unclear but Ye Qingxuan understood: why would Ye Qingxuan choose to fight a dark follower so far above him?

"Firstly, thank you for lowering yourself to waste so much time talking to me." Ye Qingxuan bowed in gratitude. "To be honest, I almost believed for a moment that you really just wanted to talk."

"Why…"

Why didn't he believe it? "It's simple. I don't deserve it." Ye Qingxuan shrugged. "Someone as powerful as you doesn't need to waste so much effort on talking. There's nothing wrong with talking about principles but ants and dust don't need to know this. Just squashing them is a much better choice. Unless…" Ye Qingxuan paused. His gaze was mysterious. "Unless you're trying to drag out the time!"

"You're more difficult than I thought. Ye Qingxuan…you're beyond my expectations, just like your father."

Black tar bubbled on the ceiling, the walls, and the ground. Countless bubbles burst with a hoarse laugh.

"Sadly, you don't know what you missed… You missed the only chance to learn about Ye Lanzhou… You will never, never know how he died."

Under the strange laugh, the ball of blackness surged. A vague figure slowly emerged. It transformed into a black cape again. A white face reached out of the mud and opened its mouth, exhaling deeply.

A suffocating wind blew through the hall.

Ye Qingxuan paled. He had recovered?

If one wanted to use the Channeling Change to steal the Sacred Fire's power, he needed to undo all defenses and enter it completely. He should be extremely weak. In addition to being burned and cleansed by the Sacred Fire, he also suffered the abyss music theory's backlash. It was a fatal wound.

It was as if someone had a third degree burn and his immune system broke down. It was even possible to drop down dead…even though this may be too insignificant to Paganini. But Ye Qingxuan had not expected for him to recover so quickly!

It was too fast. So incredibly fast…

After a few short exchanges, Ye Qingxuan had not even found a weakness to stab but Paganini had quickly extinguished the fire on himself. He had reconstructed the broken music theory and scepter.

He had not recovered fully but he was not weak and defenseless now. For someone as strong as Paganini, who had already become an elite of the scepter level hundreds of years ago, had been a saint, and was a dark follower in the abyss…

He could completely destroy Ye Qingxuan with just a pinky finger!

He could die from the backlash of his music theory breakdown.

He could be tormented to death.

He could have a mental breakdown and go crazy until death.

His body could degenerate and wither until death.

Hundreds of ways to die flashed past his mind. If Paganini was creative, he could probably think of more fun ways.

"Infinite movement," Paganini suddenly said. He stared at his regenerated hands. They were slender and white. Different from regular humans, each finger had four joints. They were mesmerizing when he stretched them out.

"You must be very confused as to how I could instantly heal a wound that should take decades," he said. "It's simple. Back when I became a saint and inherited the name of 'Paganini,' the ritual known as 'infinite movement' happened.

"After that ritual, I am able to construct music theory thousands of times faster than the average man. That means that, as long as I can withstand it, I can achieve results in the snap of a finger that others need tens of thousands of times more for.

"There are many restrictions for the ritual and the Sacred City's tastes are very annoying. If not for your reminder today, I would have forgotten all about it. A pity." With that, Paganini reached out. Blackness came in plumes, weighing down with thousands of tons.

Ye Qingxuan was dragged to the air. He spat out blood but could not move. He could sense that the aether around him was quickly extinguishing as if he had fallen into the abyss. The slightest breath could cause his music theory to fall apart.

On his heart, a crack appeared on the sub-originator. He could barely maintain his heartbeat.

It would collapse at the slightest touch!