Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  In the silence, Colt collapsed onto the floor as if all his energy was sucked out. He was covered in cold sweat. He looked at Crowley but saw no reflection in his eyes—only darkness from the abyss.

  Colt seemed to have found his true nature in the darkness.

  He lowered his head.

  -

  In that moment, Ye Qingxuan and Torre, who had been shaken by the dragon breath, met each other’s eyes. Behind them, no more sound came from the shattered front. They could only sense a writhing shadow. It seemed to solidify into a human with thousands of hands, hundreds of feet, crawling over to them. They could not keep going!

  Torre tapped his finger onto the air. The emptiness shook. His bloody gray robe suddenly expanded. Blazing light glowed within. Under it, the blood and grayness warped, burned, and transformed into a flame. Hoarse singing rang out from him, guiding aether to descend. A star shone in the black sky and rose gradually. It told of a holy arrival!

  The strange youth suddenly looked up. Something murderous flashed past his eyes. Invisible dragon breath surged and tore through the air like a white dragon shooting toward Torre. Everything in its path was pulverized by the iron. However, Torre closed his eyes and started praying.

  “Who can bear it when he comes? Who can remain standing when he appears? He is like the fire that smelts gold, the alkali that cleanses one…” As he sang the holy hymn, radiant light fell from the sky, breaking through the dark abyss and falling on everyone. Ye Qingxuan was untouched but the strange youth shook, practically falling to the ground.

  The dragon breath dissipated!

  All of the aether was forcefully converged into the glow. The power was comparable to how Yunlou Chaoyue had awakened the ‘Taiyi’ and transformed into the sole master of aether. All white noise and demonic sounds were chased away.

  This was the Messiah—the music score that announced the coming of God and Heaven!

  This was a specialty of Discipline musicians. After investigating the true nature and rules of aether, they created the discipline way in the School of Abstinence. Thus, they were able to see the patterns of all beings and learned ways to counter them. It was the same faced with Modifications, Illusion, and the dragon breath.

  But even for Discipline musicians, performing the Messiah at the Resonance level was still too dangerous. Torre had only chanted the beginning but his body was already burning. His skin cracked apart and blood flowed from his eyes.

  The light burst through but flickered like a candle in the wind.

  Ye Qingxuan did not waste the precious time Torre fought for him. He unfurled his Jiu Xiao Huan Pei and instrument strings overlapped, abruptly playing a melody.

  Sub-originator—activate!

  Layers of thunder and lightning overlapped and shot out, carving a complex music score in thin air. The electric score changed with the melody. The image of a moon instantly rose behind Ye Qingxuan.

  The music jumped past the overture and straight into the ‘main melody.’ Without stopping, it swept past ‘cold,”calling,”death,”qi’, ‘soul’…until it reached the eighteenth measure of the main melody—‘sword!’

  “Moonlight is the symphony of predestination that Teacher could not complete even after he entered the Scepter level,” Lola had once said to Ye Qingxuan. “It contains all of his work. And even though ‘sword’ sounds graceful, it’s actually contains ten steps of murder. It’s similar to the deadly phenomena of the white rainbow, a comet crashing into the moon, and the black eagle who assassinated the emperor. All of Teacher’s murderous wishes are put into this measure.”

  Thus, the image of moonlight turned black like a steel curtain of black clouds. The clouds wavered as if they were inside a thunderstorm.

  The sword! Moonlight broke through the clouds, falling down like a sword!

  The cold light swept across. Nothing in its path was harmed but the implied negativity disappeared. All sadness, fear, and coldness vanished. All that remained was the flashing sword of moonlight.

  The moonlight broke through!

  In that instant, the boy shook. He forcefully broke free from Messiah’s halo. Torre spat out blood and stumbled back. However, the boy sensed danger and looked up. Golden fire burned in his eyes. Scales appeared on his limbs and his fingernails sharpened. Digging into the stones, he charged at Ye Qingxuan before the moonlight fell.

  At that moment, Ye Qingxuan opened his mouth and roared, “Mordred, you dare disobey me?!” The voice was not like his at all. It was hoarse and low, seeming to contain endless hysteria and fury—this was the roar from crazy King Arthur who had paced through Avalon’s Shadow for centuries!

  This voice had given Ye Qingxuan immense fear in Avalon’s Shadow. This was why he remembered it. As the voice sounded, the sub-originator in Ye Qingxuan’s heart—the core of Avalon’s enchantment—radiated with the king’s aura.

  “Ah!” Terrified screams broke out.

  The boy’s movements suddenly stopped. His face filled with fear as if he was swallowed by a nightmare. He screamed deliriously and scrambled on the ground as the deadly moonlight sword fell down!

  Silently, the moonlight blade cut through his shoulders, piercing into his chest and nailing him to the ground. Cold moonlight entered his body and spread, fusing into his blood. It transformed into thousands of tiny blades, tainting his blood, destroying his organs, and turning him to dust from the inside out.

  “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts…” On the ground, the boy named Mordred rolled and writhed in pain. He scratched at his chest, tearing his flesh as he tried to dig out the nonexistent moonlight. However, specks of cold moonlight wrapped around his body, turning his organs into dust again and again, and they died away and regenerated.

  Like a real kid, he rolled in pain without even thinking of fighting back.

  “Daddy, don’t hit me… I’m sorry, daddy, I’m sorry… Don’t lock me up, I’m scared…” Mordred wailed, rolling on the ground. He cried, “It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Don’t hit me, daddy, my head hurts…”

  The dragon breath turned into destructive electric light, shooting up to the sky! Under the light, Mordred transformed into a demi-dragon. He lowered his head and dragon breath poured from his mouth. This was the true nature of the dragon’s destructiveness. Not even he himself could stop it.

  Half of his body along with the moonlight dimmed in an instant. But then it grew rapidly, flesh growing and bones extending. The blood of the red dragon had given him endless vitality, causing him to grow wilder!

  “Split up!” Ye Qingxuan only had the time to stuff his bag into Miller’s hands. “Don’t worry about me and go to the mine! Everything to open the room is in here! I’ll find you guys after I get rid of this beast!”

  Without waiting for Miller’s response, he activated the Governor and rushed toward the other direction. Mind-numbing murderous intent followed, whistling past. He heard a string cracking sounds. It was the furious Mordred crashing through layers of obstacles.

  Ye Qingxuan looked back. The sight he saw made the hair on the back of his neck stand up straight. Mordred had transformed into a dragon completely. He was chasing with blood-red eyes.

  “Daddy, don’t go!” it roared hysterically. “Let me kill you! Let me kill you! I’m going to! Kill! You!”

  Boom!

  Ye Qingxuan’s vision went dark and he flew out. In the air, he felt himself get hit at least ten times. Each time was enough to pulverize him. If he had not activated Holy in time, he would be a mass of blood now, raining onto Auschwitz’s dry dirt. Maybe there would be flowers here next year. But before he could keep thinking nonsense, he smashed into the ground. He rolled and finally crashed into a burning home.

  In the next moment, the flames were extinguished by Mordred’s dragon breath. Furious, he grabbed Ye Qingxuan. His red eyes were murderous. He raised his other hand, about to scratch his face into shredded flesh!

  “Mordy…” A hand reached out of the darkness and tapped the back of
his head. “Stop.”

  The sharp claws stopped.

  Mordred abruptly came out of his dragon state. Losing all strength, he collapsed onto the ground. His eyes were blank like a broken doll.

  The hooded musician walked out of the darkness and picked Mordred up by the neck as if he was a pet. Then he looked down at Ye Qingxuan’s pathetic state and tsked. “Such a small world. My friend, you always surprise me.”

  “The feeling is mutual.” Ye Qingxuan coughed and tried to catch his breath. He looked up at this ‘old friend.‘“Naberius, aren’t you dead?”

  “The musician’s stage is cruel, my friend. Every important character needs the skill of faking deaths. Coincidentally, I’m the best at this.” Naberius lifted his hood, revealing the familiar face with an arched eyebrow. “How about it? Are you surprised?”

  “Surprised your *ass,” Ye Qingxuan swore weakly. “Why are you always here? You’re so annoying!”

  Naberius sighed and scratched his head awkwardly. “I couldn’t help it. The abyss has a shortage of people and I have a shortage of money so I had to come work.” He suddenly changed the topic and his expression grew more cheerful, “However, compared to the destruction before, we’re here as lofty masters of justice this time!”

  Hearing this, Ye Qingxuan could not help but scoff. “Justice? Since when do dark musicians have the right to talk about justice with me? Is it justice to turn people into demons?”

  Naberius glanced at him with a strange expression, smiling but not smiling. “You…don’t think that no one discovered when the Sacred City did those small things to Auschwitz, right? Who do you think asked us to come and save the Romulusians from the disaster?”

  In that moment, Ye Qingxuan froze. He had guessed the answer but he did not believe it.

  “That’s right! The answer is…” Features dancing, Naberius uttered the name, “The elder of Auschwitz, the last saint of the Romulusians—Caligula!”

  368 I’ll Whistle for You

  When Ye Qingxuan regained consciousness, it felt like his head was cracking apart. In the underground room that had been transformed into a prison, he was half naked and soaked in some sticky liquid. Breathing was difficult. He could not feel blood flowing and had lost his sense of aether. He felt drowsy too and could not collect his thoughts.

  “Hey, do you have to be so serious?” Ye Qingxuan rasped out, struggling to open his eyes. “Can’t you just use a rope?”

  “How can a rope be suitable for someone of your status?” Naberius snickered. “You’re experiencing the treatment of a grandmaster right now. How is it? Happy?”

  “F*ck you.”

  “I’m reassured seeing how feisty you are.” Naberius nodded in satisfaction. “I’ll have Mordred accompany you during the wait so you won’t be lonely. He’s really obedient and you can ask him for anything you need, even bedtime stories. Don’t worry, it won’t be long. It’ll be your turn in a few hours.”

  He paused. His narrow eyes squinted in anticipation. “Don’t be afraid. You won’t feel anything being taken away when you fall into darkness. All you’ll receive is liberation. I’m really excited. How powerful will you become from the evil thoughts and unimaginable darkness locked away in your mind?”

  Ye Qingxuan lowered his eyes, no longer listening. He quietly sensed his surroundings but he was disappointed. The dark musicians had really given him the grandmaster treatment. There was not even a handkerchief on him. He obviously did not have something as powerful as Jiu Xiao Huan Pei either.

  Thinking of this, he could not help but look over at Naberius. All of his belongings were hanging on the wall behind the youth reading fairytales on the ground…

  “How long was I unconscious for?” Ye Qingxuan sighed.

  “Two months.” Naberius chuckled. “So don’t worry, Auschwitz has already been burned to the ground. As for the trial, the good news is that all your competitors are dead. The bad news is, you didn’t gain anything.”

  Ye Qingxuan did not even glance at him. “Tell the truth.”

  “Tsk, half an hour.” Naberius shook his head. “Being too familiar isn’t a good thing. I can’t even crack a joke.”

  Just as he finished, footsteps appeared outside the dungeon. A black shadow walked toward Naberius. “Leader Crowley calls for you.”

  Naberius nodded. He glanced over at the newcomer, eyes filled with involuntary shock. “He chose you? He has good taste. Since the leader thinks highly of you, I’ll leave this to you. I’m sure you and the prisoner will have a good time.” He patted the man’s shoulder and left. All that remained in the cell were Ye Qingxuan, shackled in the cage, and the man outside the cage.

  “Hey, Colt…” Seeing his cold expression, Ye Qingxuan could not help but laugh in amazement. “Your new clothes are pretty handsome. I didn’t expect this to suit you, really.”

  Faced with the undisguised mockery, Colt remained cold. “Whatever. Even with your abilities, aren’t you in this state too? People have to know when to give up so they won’t become as pathetic as you.

  “I can’t believe Naberius is so good to you. He even added some of the Dark Gaia’s flesh into the treatment liquid. Other than treating your wounds, you’ll have an extra ability after your transformation. You should thank him. He treats you well.”

  “Really?” Ye Qingxuan chuckled. “I didn’t know dark musicians were so hospitable. I can’t wait to join this loving family! When will you take me to meet the ‘parents’?” He paused, his expression turning into disdain. “Oh, right! You’re not a dark musician yet either. You haven’t even seen ‘daddy’ yet and you’re already here to sing the praises? Your teacher at the Rock Institute will be sad, you know.”

  Colt’s expression remained unchanged.

  In the corner behind him, Mordred suddenly raised his cold eyes. A dragon scale fingernail shot out of his fingers like a blade. Seeming to sense this coldness behind him, Colt stepped back. The fingers clenched around his sword loosened one by one.

  “You’re on your own, Ye Qingxuan.” He stared long and hard at the youth in the cage and left.

  In silence, Ye Qingxuan watched as he disappeared and let out a relieved sigh. He really could not control his mouth. What if he accidentally pissed this guy off completely and Colt decided to end him?

  “Thanks, Mordy.” Ye Qingxuan waved at the youth in the corner.

  The youth glanced up with disdain.

  Ye Qingxuan was speechless. However, time dragged on forever in the silence. Finally, he could not help it anymore and asked, “Can you really read me fairytales?”

  Mordred looked up in confusion. After confirming that there really were such bored adults in the world, he looked down and tried to read the fairytale out loud. He stumbled over the words and butchered the story. Ye Qingxuan suspected this was a new type of torture.

  “Hey, Mordy.” Ye Qingxuan coughed, clearing his throat. “Can you get the clothes on the wall for me? And my bag—”

  Mordred raised his head and looked at Ye Qingxuan as if he was stupid. “My uncle said that if you said that, I should tell you, ‘do you think I’m an idiot?’”

  What Ye Qingxuan felt at the moment was indescribably. He sighed. “What can you do other than reading fairy tales? Can you whistle?”

  “Do you want to hear?” Mordred glanced at him and shook his head. “Because I can’t.”

  “I didn’t expect you to either.” Ye Qingxuan sighed weakly. “There’s a whistle in my bag. You can take it out and play it.”

  Mordred froze. He thought about it, hesitating. “Why should I play your whistle?”

  “Then whistle with your mouth.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Then you can only find a whistle to play, right?” Ye Qingxuan shrugged innocently. Then he started rolling on the ground, moaning, “Help! I really want to hear whistling. I’m gonna die!”

  Mordred hesitated for a long time. Finally annoyed by Ye Qingxuan, he got up and kicked the bars. “Shut up! It’s just w
histling…”

  Ye Qingxuan shut up obediently. He watched as Mordred yanked his bag off the wall and started trifling through. “Ah, it’s not there. The bottom-yeah, your right side, beside that box-yes, yes, that one!” He could not help but clap his hands. “Whistle, whistle, whistle!” he cheered like a kindergartener waiting for a performance.

  Mordred glanced at him suspiciously. He checked the whistle in his hands but found that it was just a regular thing. It could do nothing other than make loud noises.

  This showed the importance of being cunning. If Naberius was here, he would definitely break the whistle and burn it to dust. But Mordred was different. After hesitating, he picked up the whistle given to Ye Qingxuan by the Angloian grandmaster and put it in his mouth.

  He blew.

  The sound was thin yet sharp and traveled into the distance instantly. In that moment, Ye Qingxuan was overjoyed. Cackling, he almost flipped inside the cage.

  Then a long, long while later…nothing happened in the silence.

  Ye Qingxuan waited blankly for a long, long while. Still, nothing happened.

  His smile stiffened on his face like a withered cabbage. Outside the cage, Mordred was tired. He threw the whistle into the cage in annoyance.

  “If you like whistles then you blow it yourself. I’ve never seen someone so happy from whistles. Are you some kind of dog demon?”

  Ye Qingxuan clutched the whistle and cried without tears.

  -

  Somewhere in the deep abyss, darkness filled every crevice. Six captured grandmasters sat cross-legged in the cramped space, their brows furrowed. Someone pounded the darkness furiously but the darkness showed no sign of weakening.

  “Stop wasting your energy.” Mr. Hu sighed. “This is a projection of the abyss. We’re all inside the Garment of Original Sin. There’ll be no use unless someone breaks through the dark atrium or if we self-destruct. It sucks here but at least it’s difficult for them to move or hurt us. We’re just locked up temporarily.”

  “You make it sound simple!” A grandmaster rolled his eyes and glared. “Your students—those Easterners—had gone home long ago! You’re by yourself, of course you’re relaxed!”