Chapter 353: Chapter 353

This made Xiaoyao feel very strange, and even stranger was that these scores seemed to have some subtle differences. These were differences targeting various instruments, but there seemed to be some other differences as well.

Under each score, there seemed to be an instrument placed on a stone platform that couldn't be moved!

"Old man, there's a big problem with your score," Xiaoyao frowned.

"What?" The old man didn't quite understand.

"The scores here clearly all have some differences. Why do you only have one score?" Xiaoyao pointed to the scores beside them and asked.

"This is just differences in instruments. Come take a look and you'll know. As long as you can play, this isn't really a problem," the old man replied without much concern.

Right—if this was just this problem, then it wasn't really a problem. You'd just need to study it here to understand.

"This seems too simple. I think this needs more study," Xiaoyao shook his head, then walked under one wall and stared at the score above.

"Studying it is good. If we can find problems, that's best. Otherwise, we might all die," the old man didn't stop Xiaoyao. He wasn't in a rush at this moment.

He knew about the lessons of those before—even when they played the score correctly, what was activated were defensive mechanisms, and they all died under the mechanisms.

There must be something that didn't match up. The answer might be in these subtle variations. Hopefully this kid could see what these variations really were.

After studying for a while, Xiaoyao's eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had discovered something. Immediately after, he suddenly ran to check under another score.

"What what? Did you discover something?" The old man was somewhat nervous and a bit excited. If an answer was really discovered, then he truly had hope this time.

The family wish of so many years will finally be realized in my hands!!

"I did discover something... Haha, you guys are really too funny..." Xiaoyao said while looking at those scores.

"What? Discovered what? Why am I funny?" the old man asked somewhat puzzled.

Xiaoyao didn't answer. After looking around in a circle, he returned to the center position and smiled as he began answering the old man's question, "You need to prepare yourself mentally. This answer might make you want to commit suicide, because you've all been getting one thing wrong all along."

"What thing?" the old man pressed.

"You think that to open this passage, you need to play the instruments here, right," Xiaoyao pointed to those instruments by the walls.

"That's right. Isn't that so?" The old man nodded, then asked. Since Xiaoyao said this, it meant that in reality it wasn't .

If this was really the case, then hadn't the direction his family had been working toward all been wrong? And this seemed to be the method passed down from the previous family, meaning his family had inherited an incorrect door-opening method.

Was this intentional by that previous family, or had they also used this wrong method? This was unknowable.

As for whether to blame his own family for not thinking about it or blame the previous family, this didn't seem important anymore, because now his family only had himself left. Blaming or not blaming was meaningless.

"Of course not. You were wrong from the start. These scores aren't for playing—they're an operational method for opening mechanisms," Xiaoyao said.

"Operational method? What do you mean?" The old man didn't understand, and neither did Guxing and others. However, they believed Xiaoyao already knew, and they didn't want to know about this problem—they just needed to know that Xiaoyao knew.

"Simply put, when a mechanism opens, these scores will naturally operate, and the instruments below will naturally play sounds. I believe the person who originally designed this mechanism must have really liked this piece, so they used such a strange method to operate the mechanism. However, this mechanism's design is very precise and ingenious..." Xiaoyao didn't forget to express admiration at the end.

At this moment, the old man was depressed. He wanted to curse the person who designed this: Why did you design such a boring thing, causing us to get it wrong for thousands of years!!

Thousands of years!!!

Wait, then why could these things be played? And why would they activate defensive mechanisms? The old man quickly asked this question.

Xiaoyao shook his head and said, "I don't know about this. Maybe this is also a method. This designer might have hoped that if someone could play it, then let that person enter the Martial Arts Holy Land—maybe it was hard to find someone who understood music. The reason defensive mechanisms would activate might be because they weren't qualified yet and couldn't become his musical soulmate."

"If you put it that way, we weren't completely wrong in direction," the old man immediately said, finding comfort in his heart. At least this was also a path.

"Maybe. This is just my speculation," Xiaoyao said.

"Stop with so much nonsense and quickly get to business—open the mechanism," the Young Miss urged. She now had an excited expression, and her desire to see the Martial Arts Holy Land was written all over her face.

Everyone present was about the same, all very expectant, looking at Xiaoyao with anticipation.

Just then, everyone saw Xiaoyao suddenly take out a small knife and cut his hand... Then they saw figures flash by and discovered several girls had come to Xiaoyao's side, wanting to snatch that small knife. Naturally, Guxing was first.

Xiaoyao's small knife was snatched away, and in the chaos, his blood scattered on the nearby area.

"What are you doing!" Xiaoyao said irritably, looking at his spilled blood and thinking to himself that this was really a waste.

"We should be asking you that—why did you suddenly cut your hand?" the Young Miss asked first.

"Do you need to ask? This mechanism needs my blood. Isn't this obvious? Can't you think?" Xiaoyao said irritably. This matter was very simple, with no difficulty at all.

Actually, if it weren't him but someone else, they would have immediately thought it was this—the blood was used to open the mechanism. But because it was Xiaoyao, their first thought was to stop him, and even Third Miss Nangong had run over.

"Ah, this is to open the mechanism? How strange—why would it need your blood?" The Young Miss stepped back, and the other girls also stepped back.

Of course, they could know the answer to this question just by thinking about it, because Xiaoyao had mentioned this matter before.

"Did you forget? I might have blood from people over there, which could open that Demon Cult box and might also be able to open this mechanism. I thought of this from that box. This platform seems to be for dripping blood," Xiaoyao pointed to the solitary platform in the middle of the room. If this platform wasn't the passage entrance, then it must be the mechanism's activation point.

"Then quickly drip some and see!" the Young Miss urged.

"I was originally going to drip some—you guys were making trouble..." Xiaoyao said while placing his hand on that platform and squeezing out a little blood.

When the blood drop fell on that platform, the blood immediately disappeared, as if absorbed by the platform. At this moment, Xiaoyao thought he needed to continue, but the next moment this platform began showing unusual movement, indicating it didn't need more.

The originally flat platform began showing regular changes from what had seemed like decorative patterns, rising upward, spreading outward, etc., finally forming a flower-like shape with a cylinder on each petal.

Soon, a beam of light shot from the platform. The light was refracted and transmitted to each cylinder, and the cylinders then shot these lights to the walls on all sides, landing precisely on those scores.

Then, these lights began moving from the first note of the scores toward the back, each one doing so. When these light beams moved to a note, the surrounding instruments naturally made sounds, playing the notes on the scores—a complete "Laughing at the Vast Sea."

This was truly too marvelous. Xiaoyao sighed in his heart—the designer of this mechanism was an unparalleled genius!!

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is!" the old man said dazedly. He now understood—the music he had heard wasn't actually played by people.

This also explained something they had always found strange—they had thought these outsiders were all musical experts who could each play these instruments.

In reality, these outsiders just needed to drip blood and could sit there listening to music.

"This piece is quite good, but it doesn't sound as nice as Xiaoyao's," the Young Miss gave an evaluation after listening for a while. She felt Xiaoyao's was much better.

"Mm!" Guxing nodded—this was also her thought.

"Right, the little servant's sounds better. This feels like it's missing something," Nangong Suxin also gave her evaluation.

"Xiaoyao's has more emotion. This kind is too regular. Although it's good, it doesn't have that resonance Xiaoyao gives people," Third Miss Nangong said. Her answer should best explain this reason.

"Xiaoyao, do you think if you played it, could this mechanism open?" Nangong Suxin asked a question.

Xiaoyao's answer stopped there—not because he couldn't answer this question, but because a strange circle of light suddenly appeared and swallowed him, making him disappear before everyone's eyes.

This was something no one had expected, including Xiaoyao!!

(End of Chapter) Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs novel[f]ire.net