Chapter 140: The Beat Necropolis

Echo's shadow - covered hands trembled as she played the Chaos drum score, her fingers turning transparent like sheet music. "Every beat... it's eating my physical form." Her shadow notes now leave trails of fading staves, and Li Wei's violet charge has developed a staccato flicker—their fusion talent is turning them into living rhythms.

Chen Jiuzhang pressed the Entropic Ink quill to his scar, which projects a map of the Milky Way's core—where a black hole pulses with the lost heartbeat of the Creation Rhythm Group. "The Beat Necropolis—they're entombed in the event horizon's tempo grave." He grabs the Life Resonator, now a glowing metronome, as the lunar staff's crystals begin to beat in unison with the hole black's lament.

Starlight strums her jazz harp, but the strings echo with a ghostly backbeat. "I hear them... the Rhythm Ancestors—their souls are trapped in a never-ending 4/4 march."

Nova's dark matter skin ripples, forming a pair of soundproof coffins. "The event horizon is playing their final jam session on repeat—like a broken record." She presses her ear to the viewport, eyes widening. "The Rhythm Eaters are feeding on their trapped beats—they're the ones who!"

Just then, the hall's crystals shatter under a wave of mechanical beats. The Groove Guardians burst in, their bongo bodies now welded to metronome arms. "Free rhythm is a lie," their collective voice rasps, "we come to make the perpetual rhythm."

Echo steps forward, shadow notes forming a graffiti - covered drum set. "A beat without soul is a heartbeat without life." She plays a blues shuffle that mixes her fading shadow with Li Wei's staccato violet, and the nearest Guardian's metronome arm snaps.

Chen Jiuzhang has an idea. He dips the Resonator metronome into a vial of "Soul Syncopation"—collected from planets where music still moves hearts. "Starlight, play the heartbeat of a dying star. Li Wei, add the swing of a saved soul. Echo, weave in the silence of a missed beat."

As the trio plays, the Groove Guardians hesitate, their welded parts creaking out of sync. "This... is the 'Heartbeat of Freedom'," their leader says, body wavering between mechanical beats and organic thumps. "We thought it was lost in the Genesis's final jam."

But a new threat emerges from the black hole—billows of "Necro - Beats" that turn living rhythms into undead marches. "They're not alone," Lyra shouts, hacking into the beats' frequency. "It's the 'Drum Corpse Mafia'—they want to turn all living rhythms into mindless percussion."

Starlight has an epiphany. She plants an Entropic Seed in the hall's grand staff, which blooms into a "Soul Snare"—a drum that beats with the pulse of remembered emotions. "We need to play the 'Rhythm of Remembrance'—beats that carry the weight of lived moments."

Li Wei channels his staccato violet into the snare, creating a pulse that flickers with memories of hope. Echo adds her fading shadow beats, each thump a reminder of what's worth fighting for. Chen Jiuzhang conducts, and the entire lunar staff becomes a giant "Heartbeat Amplifier".

The result is a rhythm that doesn't just move bodies, but shakes souls. The Groove Guardians' mechanical parts rust and fall off, revealing bongo bodies thumping with organic rhythms. "We... were wrong," the leader says, body becoming a djembe painted with ancestral patterns. "Rhythm should honor the past, not bury it."

As the Necro - Beats dissolve into a shower of soulful backbeats, the black hole's event horizon parts, revealing the Creation Rhythm Group's petrified instruments. Echo touches a ghostly bass drum, and the entire universe's forgotten rhythms pour out—forming a river of beats that gives life to the undead marches.

But Echo and Li Wei are fading fast, their bodies now 50% musical notation. Chen Jiuzhang holds up the Chaos Drum Score, which is glowing with a strange light. "The only way to save them is to play the 'Final Cadenza'—but it might rewrite the universe's heartbeat."

Back at the Entropy Arts Academy, a new student arrives with ears that can hear the rhythm of forgotten dreams. Chen hands her a pair of "Soul Drumsticks", smiling through the pain. "Welcome to the 'Rhythm Remembrance' class. Remember: every beat you play carries the weight of all who came before—and all who will follow."

And in the depths of the former Beat Necropolis, a new star system forms—its planets thumping in the rhythm of different cultures' heartbeats, their moons playing drum circles on asteroid cymbals. The Groove Guardians have become the Rhythm Keepers, helping civilizations remember that every beat is a moment of connection.

As the academy's students begin to practice with the Soul Drumsticks, a single, glowing ghost note drifts through the cosmos, its surface engraved with a heartbeat. The next movement of the cosmic symphony will be played with the weight of memory, and the only rule is to never forget that behind every rhythm, there's a soul worth beating for.