doesn't have many appreciators; its value of ten taels is already quite high. There wouldn't be women who can recognize and appreciate its value by flinging it around like you're doing. It would be b...Chapter 353: The Way to Activate It
Around him, the walls seemed to be inscribed with something. This appeared to be the sheet music for "Laughing at the Vast Sea," but it was odd that there were several versions of the score rather than just one.
This puzzled Free-and-Easy greatly, and what's more, the scores differed slightly in various ways, reflecting differences among different instruments as well as some other reasons.
Below each score seemed to be an instrument fixed on a stone platform that could not move!
"Old man, there's something wrong with your scores!" Free-and-Easy frowned and said.
"What" the elder was somewhat confused.
"Clearly, these sheets all have some differences. Why do you only have one book of sheet music" Free-and-Easy asked while pointing to the nearby score.
"That's just a difference between instruments. Just come and look and you'll know what I mean. As long as you can play it well, this isn't an issue." The elder replied nonchalantly.
True enough, if that were the only problem, it wouldn’t be much of one, as he could figure out how to solve it here.
"This is far too simple. I think we need to investigate a bit more," Free-and-Easy shook his head and then walked under a wall, staring at the score above him intently.
"It's not bad if you want to study more closely. If you can find something wrong with it, that would be best, otherwise, we might all die here." The elder didn’t stop Free-and-Easy; he was too anxious now to do so.
The lesson from the previous people’s fates was clear: even if they played the right score, they triggered a defensive mechanism and died because of it.
There must be something that isn't quite right in this place. The answer might be hidden among these subtle changes; he hoped this kid could figure out what those changes were.
"Eh This is…"
After Free-and-Easy had spent some time studying, his eyes suddenly brightened, as if he’d made a discovery. He then rushed to another score for inspection.
"What What did you find" The elder was nervous and excited; if this kid really found the answer, he might have a chance of success.
After so many years, my family’s wish will finally come true!!
"I found something... hahaha, you guys are hilarious..." Free-and-Easy said as he looked at those scores.
"What What did you find Why do you think it's funny" the elder asked in confusion.
Free-and-Easy didn’t answer. After glancing around one more time, he returned to the middle and began answering the elder’s questions with a smile: "Be prepared psychologically; this revelation might make you want to kill yourself because of something your family has been wrong about all along!!"
"What's that" the elder asked.
"You think activating this passage means playing these instruments, right!" Free-and-Easy said while pointing at the instruments next to the walls.
"Yes. Is it not so" The elder nodded and then questioned him; since Free-and-Easy had mentioned that, it implied things were different from what he thought.
If this was true, his family’s efforts in the past would have been for nothing, and this seemed to be a method passed down from previous generations. This meant his family had inherited an incorrect way of opening the passage.
Was it done intentionally by the family above them, or did they themselves use that wrong approach He didn’t know!
And whether he should blame his own family for not having thought about this, or blame the previous one was also unimportant now. After all, his family only had him left, so there wasn't much point in blaming anyone.
"Of course not; you got it wrong from day one. This score isn’t meant to be played but is a way of activating this mechanism," Free-and-Easy said.
"Activating the mechanism What does that mean" The elder was confused, as were Solo Star and others, though they believed Free-and-Easy had already figured it out; they didn't want to know more about what exactly the mechanism meant. They only needed to know he knew how to activate it.
"Simply put, when this mechanism is activated, these scores automatically run, and instruments below will naturally produce sounds that make up the melody. I believe whoever designed this mechanism must have liked the tune so much they wanted to use such a strange way of activating it. However, its design is very intricate, very ingenious..." Free-and-Easy praised at the end.
At this point, the elder was frustrated; he wanted to curse the designer for creating something so boring and misleading them for millennia!!
Millennia!!!
No, why could these things be played then Why would they activate defensive mechanisms The elder quickly asked this question.
Free-and-Easy shook his head: "I don't know about that. It may also be a method the designer wanted people to play; if someone plays it well enough, he might want them to enter the martial arts holy land. Perhaps due to rare understanding in music, the defensive mechanisms were activated because they weren’t qualified as an understanding soul.
"In that case, we haven't been heading in the wrong direction either," the elderly man said immediately, finding comfort in the thought that this was still a valid path.
"Maybe so. It's just my guess," Xianyao replied.
"Stop with all the idle chatter and get down to business! Open up the mechanism!" Miss Big Sis urged impatiently, her excitement evident on her face as she yearned to see what was inside the martial arts holy land.
Everyone there shared a similar sentiment, looking at Xianyao eagerly with anticipation.
At this moment, everyone witnessed Xianyao suddenly take out a small knife and cut his own hand... soon after, they saw figures dart around as several girls rushed to snatch the knife from him, led by Loner Star who was the first one there.
Xianyao's knife was snatched away amidst the chaos, with some of his blood splattered nearby in the process.
"What are you all doing" Xianyao asked irritably as he looked at the spilt blood, inwardly lamenting how unfortunate it was.
"I should be asking you that. Why did you suddenly cut your own hand" Miss Big Sis asked before anyone else could get a word in edgewise.
"Is there any need to ask This mechanism requires my blood, and that's obvious. Don't tell me none of you thought about it," Xianyao responded irritably. It was such an evident matter; there shouldn’t be any difficulty with understanding it at all.
In reality, if someone else were in his position, they would have immediately figured out the blood was needed to activate the mechanism. But because of who Xianyao is, they first thought about trying to stop him, and even Princess Nangong hurried over too.
"Ah! This must be used to open the mechanism then... this is strange, why would it need your blood," Miss Big Sis stepped back, as did several of the other girls around her.
Of course, they could have easily figured out the answer themselves if they thought about it. Xianyao had mentioned such a scenario before.
"Don't you remember There might be someone else's blood on me that can open up the devil sect’s box and possibly this mechanism as well. I got this idea from that box, which makes me think this platform is meant for dripping blood onto it," Xianyao pointed at the solitary platform in the room’s center. If this wasn’t a passageway entrance, then it must be the trigger point of the mechanism.
"Then hurry up and try it!" Miss Big Sis urged again.
“I was about to do that before you all got in my way…” Xianyao said while placing his hand on the platform, squeezing out a little bit of blood.
Drip!
The moment his blood touched the platform, it vanished instantly as if absorbed by it. At first, Xianyao thought he’d have to continue dripping but moments later, the platform began to show unusual signs indicating that no further action was needed.
The originally flat surface of the platform started showing regular patterns and elevating upwards while spreading outwards; eventually forming a flower-like shape with cylindrical columns on every petal.
Shortly after, beams of light were emitted from within the platform, refracting off to each cylinder and then projecting onto the walls around them, hitting the musical scores just right.
The lights moved along the notes sequentially on each score, causing instruments in their surroundings to naturally play out the melody. A complete rendition of "Laugh at the Vast Sea" was thus produced.
This mechanism was incredibly ingenious; Xianyao marveled inwardly about its designer being a genius beyond comparison!
"So that's how it works, so that's how it works!" The elder stared blankly as he realized the music they were hearing wasn't actually produced by someone playing an instrument.
This explained their earlier confusion over why outsiders seemed to be proficient at these instruments when in reality all one needed was a drop of blood for the mechanism to play!
"Though this tune is nice, it's nowhere near as good as Xianyao’s," Miss Big Sis gave her opinion after listening to it for a while. She found his music far more pleasing.
“Yeah,” Loner Star nodded in agreement; that was also her thought too.
"Indeed, Little Houseboy's rendition is better as it feels like something’s missing," Nangong Susan shared her views as well.
Princess Nangong added, “Xianyao’s performance carries more emotion. This one seems too mechanical despite being pleasant; it doesn’t resonate with people the way Xianyao does.” Her response probably best explained why.
"Xianyao, do you think if you were to play this yourself, could it activate the mechanism" Nangong Susu posed a question to him.
“This…”
Xianyao’s response ended there; he wasn’t able to answer due to being suddenly enveloped by an odd beam of light and disappearing right before everyone's eyes.
No one had expected this, not even Xianyao himself!ny medicinal pills. If you want them, please have your own alchemist make them for you.""What do you mean, anyway" The Fourth Prince stared at Xiyao, seemingly unable to comprehend what Xiyao was sayi...