Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

—That was her own childhood singing voice, perfectly blending with the old woman's humming.

"Did you hear that?" Xiaoyin whispered. "The sound... is starting to find its way home."

Xiaoman clenched her fist, blue light flowing from her fingertips: "They are waiting for us to unlock them."

Su Ting glanced at her and scoffed, "You're just a beacon of sound, echoing wherever you go."

“Then let them all hear it.” Xiaoman looked up at the deep pit covered by iron netting to the west. “We’re not just going to play music…we’re going to—blow up the entire Silent Era.”

Suddenly, the gray child struck the drumsticks three times, the rhythm light and quick, like raindrops falling on the eaves.

The others were stunned for a moment, then—

Duoduo clapped her hands gently, keeping time with the rhythm.

Xiao Yin hummed a tuneless melody.

Su Ting scraped the ground with the tip of his knife, producing a low-pitched sound that surprisingly matched the beat.

The old man's lips curled slightly, and the copper bell rang again—still silent, but to everyone's ears, it seemed as if millions of people were singing in unison.

Xiaoman closed her eyes and gently parted her lips:

"Spring breeze... blows across the hills... flowers bloom..."

Before the song had even finished, a deep, muffled "thump" came from deep underground.

It was like a giant bell that had been gently struck.

In the distance, at the entrance to the "Echo Well" behind the iron fence, a red light slowly illuminated, like the eyes of a sleeping behemoth opening.

The old man said in a low voice, "It... sensed it."

Su Ting sneered: "Looks like we don't need to look for a door anymore."

“The door has never been closed.” Xiaoman opened her eyes, starlight falling into her pupils. “It has always been waiting for someone who dares to sing.”

The procession continued forward, and the singing grew louder.

The wind carried the sound in all directions.

In an unknown, closed room, a man who had been deaf for twenty years suddenly covered his ears and burst into tears.

“I heard it…” he said, trembling. “I fucking…heard it!”

Meanwhile, in the monitoring tower above the wellhead, a cold, mechanical voice slowly rang out:

"S-level acoustic resonance detected. Target: Xiaoman."

Codename activated: 'Summer's Punishment'—The Sound Hunters, unleashed.

In the darkness, a pair of golden vertical pupils slowly opened.

"I've found you... The Voice of Spring."

The voice was deep, like metal scraping against bone, with an inhuman quality.

Inside the monitoring tower, a body bound in bronze chains slowly rose to its feet. Dark red veins emerged beneath its skin, like lava flowing through blood vessels. Its eyes opened, golden vertical pupils burning in the darkness, the pupils split in two, like those of a reptilian creature.

He raised his hand, and a string of black blood dripped from his fingertips, igniting upon landing and burning into the shape of distorted musical notes.

"Seventy years... The system sealed away spring, and you—" he chuckled softly, his voice like the whispers of hundreds of people, "have actually awakened the 'Fragment of Mother Sound'."

Beneath his feet, iron bars slowly opened, leading to the depths of the well. Twelve figures emerged from the shadows, their bodies covered in bony armor, with twisted vocal sacs on their backs and enormous, butterfly-wing-like ears that twitched incessantly, catching every vibration in the wind.

Chapter 1395 Living Sonic Weapon

They are the "Sound Hunters"—living sonic weapons created from defected singers, who obey only the orders of the "Summer Execution Platform".

The lead Sound Hunter knelt on one knee and let out a sharp cry: "Chase! Kill! Sound-Awakener!"

At the same time, Xiaoman suddenly staggered and grabbed the wall for support.

"What's wrong?" Su Ting immediately helped her up, frowning.

“I…heard it.” Her face was pale. “So many sounds…painful…screaming…they are crying at the bottom of the well…”

The old man looked at her solemnly: "That's the memory of the 'Echo Well' responding to you. The stronger the voice of spring within you, the more the well awakens. But now... you've become the prey too."

"Then let them catch us." Su Ting sneered, the blade swirling and creating a ripple. "I was just thinking of testing whether this knife could cut the throat of the 'humanoid speaker'."

"Don't be impulsive." The old man pressed down on his wrist. "The Sound Hunters are not afraid of pain or death. Their only mission is to devour your voice. Once your singing is captured by them, it will be poured into the 'Summer Execution Platform' and become the requiem for suppressing new voices."

Xiaoman raised her head, but her eyes suddenly became firm: "Then I won't sing for them."

“But you must sing it to the ‘First Recorder’,” the old man whispered. “Only by playing the ‘Mother of Spring’ in its entirety can the core of the recorder be completely destroyed—otherwise, it will self-replicate and regenerate forever.”

"So... it's a one-for-one exchange?" Duoduo bit her lip. "Only by destroying the vowel can the machine be destroyed?"

“No,” Xiaoman said softly, “it’s the vowels…that wake up the machine.”

Everyone was stunned.

The blue light in Xiaoman's palm flickered slowly, as if responding to some distant call: "Mother's song... wasn't created to be sealed away. It's the key, and also the spark. What we need to do isn't destroy the tape recorder—"

She looked up, her gaze sharp and intense:

"It means to restart the playback."

The gray-haired boy grinned and raised his drumsticks: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's sing, Xiaoman!"

"Get past us first!"

A sharp shriek ripped through the night sky as three sound hunters leaped down from the high wall, their sonic sacs bulging and emitting high-frequency sound waves!

"Get down!" Su Ting roared, sweeping his vibrating blade horizontally. The sound of the blade clashing with the sound waves created a visible shockwave!

Duoduo quickly retreated, turned on the recorder, and played a high-frequency noise in reverse, tearing the eardrums of one of the sound hunters apart! The monster screamed, its head exploding in blood, but it still lunged forward!

"It's no use! They don't feel pain!" Xiao Yin screamed, then suddenly whistled, using sound waves to resonate and crack the ground, the fissure swallowing a Sound Hunter.

"Use memory waves!" The old man suddenly shook the copper bell, and the silent waves spread out. The two sound hunters stopped abruptly—fragments of their childhood flashed in their eyes, and in a moment of confusion, Su Ting's blade severed their spines!

“They’ve been turned into machines, but their brains still retain memories!” the old man gasped. “By striking their ‘auditory memories,’ we can freeze them!”

Xiaoman stood still, with her eyes closed.

"Xiaoman?!"

"Don't disturb her!" the old man hissed. "She's tuning... she's using vowels, searching for the tape recorder's resonant frequency!"

Sure enough, Xiaoman's lips moved slightly, uttering a syllable—

"Woo——"

Gentle, yet penetrating the roar of all battles.

From deep underground, a similar "woof" echoed back, like an ancient behemoth murmuring in a dream.

Chapter 1396 Covering Her Way into the Well

"Found it." Xiaoman opened her eyes, and a surge of blue light appeared. "It's waiting for me."

"Then let's not keep her waiting too long." Su Ting grinned, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. "The whole team, cover her as she enters the well!"

"understand!"

Duoduo threw out a string of recorders, each playing noise at a different frequency, creating a sound screen interference;

Xiao Yin leaped onto the high wall and used her whistle to lure away the two sound hunters.

The gray child frantically pounded the drums, the rhythm chaotic, yet precisely disrupting the sound hunter's vocal sac resonance;

The old man's copper bell rang repeatedly, releasing waves of memory that caused the pursuers to briefly "freeze from their memories."

Su Ting covered the rear, his blade flashing like a wheel, cutting down any approaching figures.

Xiaoman, under Su Ting's cover, rushed toward the well opening that was flashing red light.

The iron gate opened automatically, as if welcoming her return.

The steps descend into an unfathomable abyss, and the walls are inlaid with countless glass capsules, each containing a distorted human face—a singer from the past, whose voice has been extracted and imprisoned here.

“Mom…” Xiaoman reached out and touched a capsule, and the face trembled slightly, as if in response.

"Hurry up!" Su Ting shouted behind her, "Don't stop!"

They rushed all the way to the seventh door at the bottom of the well.

Before the entrance floated a massive machine—shaped like an old-fashioned tape recorder, but constructed of obsidian and bronze, its surface engraved with taboo symbols. Inside the central cassette tape compartment, a translucent "vocal tape" slowly rotated, emitting a low hum.

That was the "First Tape Recorder"—the machine that sealed away humanity's last spring of freedom.

Xiaoman stepped forward and extended her hand.

Blue light flew out and gently landed on the surface of the tape recorder.

The machine suddenly trembled violently, and the runes flickered, as if in resistance.

"Is it... rejecting me?" Xiaoman frowned.

“No.” The old man caught up, panting. “It’s testing you. Only the true ‘Successor of the Voice of Spring’ can make it play.”

"How do I make it recognize me?"