The Innkeeper

Chapter 1809: Impact

To call it ’a dance’ would be like describing a Celestial Immortal as ’a cultivator’. To call it ’a performance’ would be like calling ’anime’ as ’a cartoon’. While both were technically correct, the amount of disrespect in the phrasing was likely to get someone killed. Or, at the very least, incredibly hurt.

The music was the foundation of the performance. It was energetic and intense, but it perfectly captured the highs and lows of the song, pumping adrenaline and keeping everyone hyped up.

But that was just the surface level influence of the music and the dance routine. As the koalas danced, they tapped into something that seemed even deeper than laws. ’Life’ was something all cultivators shared, and there were countless laws associated with ’life’ which looked and appeared differently in various parts of the universe.

The dance seemed to touch upon the very core of all life laws, affecting and resonating with the core of every living being that watched the dance. Watching the dance was a cure for burnout. It was a salve for those who had lost meaning. It was nostalgia given form for those struggling to remember what was good about life.

Of course, for those who were already doing well, it was a reminder of why life was good, improving their will power to endure hardship by merely watching the dance.

Lex had to admit, he could understand why the Salsa Boys were so popular. If just their performance was so great, he could imagine the influence their songs had on people.

He could practically see them as idols for all their fans. Lex could imagine that, with the reinvigorating effect they had, their fans would play their songs on repeat in their head anytime they were hurt, like their own personal sanctuary on the go. He could easily see why everyone who had seen them before had already given the Salsa Boys their heart – fortunately they stopped short of handing over their entire soul!

The whole performance was thirty minutes long, but honestly, it didn’t feel like it at all. When the performance ended there was no standing ovation – mainly because everyone was still recovering from the brilliant performance, stuck with a feeling of regret that it ended so quickly.

Lex made a mental note to have the Salsa Boys hold their next concert at the Inn.

“You guys ready?” Lex asked.

Z merely nodded as Gerard led the still grumbling Luthor away backstage. Since their research about past Dance Offs showed that a five person group was optimal for this segment of the competition, the Inn too had decided on a five person performance.

Z, Gerard and Luthor were the three male performers, while Jubi – formerly known as nurse Jubilation who ran a recovery room, but was now director Jubilation since she oversaw all the hospitals in the Inn – and Sandra were the female performers.

Even though Sandra, the Inn worker who could control electricity and was now collecting various types of lightning, had turned down Z’s attempt at asking her out, there was no awkwardness between them, which was a good thing because they really couldn’t afford any awkwardness in their act.

The group disappeared backstage and waited for the Salsa Boys to get off stage, and the curtains to close once more.

Luthor was still upset because his suggested name for their group, ’Demon Hunters’ wasn’t accepted since it didn’t match the theme of their performance.

Jubilation argued about why they needed a group name anyway, which Sandra ignored entirely and suggested they be called the Lightning Thieves.

Lex facepalmed.

In the end, unable to decide, and considering the fact that three founders of the various houses of Midnight were in the group, they decided to simply call themselves the Performers of Midnight.

The curtains pulled back, but unlike the bombastic start of the Salsa Boys, there was only silence, and darkness.

Let alone the performers on stage, even the stage wasn’t visible in the pitch blackness that had encompassed the entire platform.

A second – an entire eternity to an immortal – passed by with nothing happening. Then, like the softest whisper uttered in a night devoid of everything, the audience heard the sound of a bow, touching violin strings. Then, gradually, slowly, it began.

The silence bent beneath the weight of a single note, fragile as mist at dawn. It slipped from the violin like a secret unburdened, trembling in the air before finding its strength. A single mote of light, as if from a lone firefly in the vastness of eternal darkness, rippled.

So faint was the light, the audience could see only four strings, and the section of the bow touching them. In fact, not even all the strings were visible, just the mere segment where the music came from.

The audience was captured. There was not a single stray thought in their minds as their eyes gathered as rivers to the sea, drawn helplessly toward the faint shimmer where string brushed steel. That solitary spark held dominion over the room, a star suspended between silence and song.

The single note started soft, but as time drew on, its cadence began to rise, and so too did the speck of light.

Figures, outlines of five bodies, could barely be discerned in the darkness. The violinist stood in the center, while four bodies stood around it, male and female alternating.

They were lifeless and still, as if statues in the absence of everything. It was as if the weight of darkness had erased everything, leaving them as mere imitations of what they used to be.

Looking on stage, Lex could not help but recall the depression he once felt. He recalled the feeling of sitting on the bench and remembering what it once felt like to not only live, but feel alive. In that moment, he felt like an imposter in his own body. After all, how could he be the same boy, the same man, who used to have so much vigor for life, and all its splendors?

Depression. It was like being a statue, frozen still by the oppressive weight of the darkness, devoid of all color and meaning.

As that single, violin note resounded through the Midnight Realm and the Origin realm alike, a sense of solemnity gripped the two realms. Trillions of souls were tuned in, listening to the sound of Z’s violin, watching the story that was about to unfold.

Good art was something that made the viewer feel something. The Salsa Boys, through their performance, shared an adrenaline pumping, exciting display of energy and vigor, which made all those who watched feel the joy of life.

Now it was the turn of the Performers of Midnight. While their entire performance still lay ahead of them, they had at least presented an opening sequence that left an impact.