541 The Moon in the Water, the Person on the Heavens

"Faster!"

The hull shook, and the boat showed signs of an increase in speed!

Behind Ye Qingxuan, the Son of Phoenix smiled bitterly. In accordance with the orders of Ye Qingxuan, he let out a signal in the form of a music note. With this part as its focus, the hull reinforcement process began. He pressed his palm on the center of the fine arrays on the wall, using formulas to activate the power within. At the moment, the hull, which had been on the verge of collapse, started repairing itself!

Complex layers of arrays spread outwards from the core of the hull, similar to complicated tree diagrams, interlaced with each other and enveloped the massive hull. After sacrificing the service life of the boat by a large extent, the alchemist's arrays had maximized the performance of the materials of the hull, upgrading the toughness, strength, and ductility of the alloy and steel by at least 30%!

In this day and age where materials science had reached its limit, the results of a one percent improvement would be considered shocking enough, let alone an increase of such a crazy extent?

The speed of the ship had stabilized at 50 knots at the moment, which was still a far cry from the terrifying speed of 97 knots achieved by last year's champion of the Burgundy Boat Racing Competition. But that was a speedboat that sacrificed everything for speed. It was completely covered in arrays, making it almost equivalent to alchemy equipment. Moreover, this was a cargo ship! Its weight alone was way heavier than that of the speedboat!

"It can travel at such a fast speed?" Igor looked at the musicians around him, confusion on his face, but the Son of Phoenix also looked baffled and clarified, "No... Not me."

As soon as he touched the arrays, he felt a vast tenacity flowing through the opening he established and entering the arrays for hull reinforcement. It penetrated the four layers of movement, creation, formation, and outflow. Then, it unexpectedly traveled against the current. Following the link created between him and the arrays, the stream of aether bypassed all of his precautionary measures, connecting itself to his sound of heart movement before he could react. He did not even have time to react from the beginning to the end!

Then, the resonance, that could be considered frightening due to its large scale, began. Under the connection of the phantom string, every musician's sound of heart movement was forcibly penetrated. A magnificent and vast axis connected them together immediately after, guiding their music theories to evolve madly towards the daunting unknown.

At that moment, the arrays, the hull, the musicians, all three were united into one forcibly. It had neither flaws nor contradictions. It was as if they had been born that way!

For the first time in their lives, they felt such a huge amount of aether aggregating under their summoning, obeying their dispatch. It was as if an invisible hand was cleverly gathering scattered water waves, forming an ocean tide, that could destroy the heavens and the earth with them.

"How can this be..." A musician in the bilge exclaimed, "Where can such a large amount of aether be gathered from! It's like..."

It's like the entire sea of aether has been hidden in a bag!

The continuous flood of aether was following Ye Qingxuan's guidance and fell into the Physical World from the sea of aether. Integrating itself into the arrays, it was transformed into terrifying power.

The Son of Phoenix thought, in the area we are at, within of the sea of darkness, the nine layers of the sea of aether are full of strange impurities. It's as if they have been covered in fog together with the Physical World.

Perhaps the Masters who have already been able to communicate with the realm of aether can enter the sea of aether forcibly due to their amazing attainments, but unexpectedly, Ye Qingxuan can help other musicians to sense the existence of the sea of aether as well.

It's as if Ye Qingxuan has gifted his credit account at the Church Bank to three papers, for them to squander profligately!

After the Son of Phoenix figured out what was going on, he couldn't help but take a cold, deep breath.

In the situation that we have not consciously cooperated, he can connect us to the arrays flawlessly. It can be said that his attainments in music theory and fine manipulations of aether are simply jaw-dropping. But how in the world did he let us communicate with the sea of aether directly?

Ye Qingxuan understood his confusion, but only smiled slightly, offering no explanation.

No one realized that on the side of the ship, the heavy anchor originally there had disappeared without a trace. By using Jiu Xiao Huan Pei to erode it and attaching music theory to it, Ye Qingxuan had temporarily transformed it into an alchemy weapon, a layer of buffer wrapped around Jiu Xiao Huan Pei.

He could indeed sense the sea of aether and the realm of aether clearly, but it had nothing to do with his attainments. Instead, it was because he had ascended into the sub-originator in the realm of aether.

The illusory Indigo Moon was shining on him all the time, leaving a trail of moonlight behind. Like a road sign, it penetrated the foggy sea of aether full of impurities, guiding him to where the power resides.

Fog and impurities had negligible effects, as the connection would only be broken if he was locked in the Ultimate... But after Ye Qingxuan incorporated the Quiet Moon into himself, surely no enemy would do such a stupid thing?

So, in an easy and effortless manner, he threw the anchor into the realm of aether, and simply hooked it somewhere. A huge amount of power was then drawn from the sea of aether, filling the arrays and forming a miniature pool of aether. Besides supplying the musicians, it was even sufficient to power the keel with.

The situation on board has stabilized, next... Ye Qingxuan looked at the Mountain of Nomadism following closely and gradually closing the distance in between. He smiled.

Next, it's my turn.

This was his first fight with someone—no, some monster beyond the imagination of the ordinary person—after leaving the Sacred City. In his heart, he felt an indescribable excitement and anticipation. His lungs were trembling slightly, his breathing gradually became scorching, but the complicated considerations occupying his brain slowly disappeared. In the end, only a calming silence was left.

He took a step forward.

As the music theory evolved, his Symphony of Predestination was awakened.

An unseen force lifted his body up, and he took another step forward.

Treading on the invisible ladder, he ascended step by step. In the end, he was standing in the sky. All he could see was the boundless dark sea. Roars of fury and the blaring of horns could be heard coming from the surface of the boiling seawater. Although the darkness felt cramped, the sky and ocean were vast after all.

The scenery here is breathtaking, he thought.

He sat cross-legged in the void, and Jiu Xiao Huan Pei emerged from his knees. It was no longer just a collection of disorderly strings, but a quaint and aged qin. As his fingertips plucked the strings, clear notes flowed from the qin.

Young swallows chattered by the draped curtains, ancient dragons hummed in the turbulent waters.

Moonlight shone silently, not from the sky, but from the sea.

The boiling waters of the sea of darkness subsided in a sudden and returned to a calm silence. The dark sky was empty, but on the calm sea, an Indigo Moon radiated light.

Innumerable strings consisting of music theory drooped from Ye Qingxuan, connecting him to the phantom shadow of the moon. In the empty sea, countless music theories reverberated and intertwined, evolving into a vacuum. They displayed spirituality and performed the Symphony of Predestination.

It was moonlight.

The moon in the water and the person on the heavens.

At the moment when the projection of the quiet moon emerged in the water, Ye Qingxuan felt like the tenacity in the moon had entered the body of a monstrous beast. From the layers of blurry fog and illusions, it picked up a trace of something real and chasmic.

The ocean is alive, he realized.

For a brief moment, Ye Qingxuan's heart sank.