by Feng Yue
“It would combine the best of both worlds, isn’t it a good idea?”
“What nonsense are you saying?” Without lifting her head, the Empress knocked on her forehead with her knuckles. “It seems that you have made up your mind to leave?”
“It isn’t a bad thing, is it? It’s good for both you and me.” Bai Xi lifted her head and rubbed the red mark on her forehead. Her smile was hidden below her palm, and her voice was soft. “Your Majesty has taught me so much, wanting to turn me into you… But all along, I have been watching you rack your brains and put in all your efforts for the sake for those pointless things. Your flustered state has only made me feel pity for you.
“Every time, I can’t help but think, why am I not the person sitting on the throne? How good would it be if it were me?” Bai Xi sighed softly, and she said, “You are definitely not as good as I will be.”
In the lengthy silence, the Empress looked down at the teacup, and after a long time, she began laughing softly.
“Is it so?” She murmured softly, “I can rest assured then.”
In her sighs, the sound of the armor parts scraping against each other rang out. In the rumble, the door slammed open, and two columns of forbidding soldiers rushed in. In a flash, layers of shackles trapped Bai Xi.
Flanked by the Praetorian Guard, the Empress reached out and flicked the dust off herself and bid farewell to Bai Xi. “Then, no matter what happens, you can at least achieve one out of your two wishes of ‘leaving here’ and ‘becoming the ‘Empress’.”
…
Ye Qingxuan heard the sound of thunder.
He opened his eyes and saw the ceiling above his head falling apart in front of his eyes.
At the moment, the entire roof was like bubbles deformed by the strong wind, distorting itself according to the tyrannical force, yet having difficulties maintaining its structure. In the end, it didn’t even have time to whine, and it met its end, falling apart.
Then only did the loud noise erupted.
As the girder snapped, innumerable pieces of broken tiles and pebbles dropped down. The four walls flew out as blasts of air swept across, leaving only a mess behind.
Amid the countless particles of dust flying around, Ye Qingxuan slowly got up, and the bed behind him finally collapsed completely.
Through the domain of Holy, he looked at the sky where a few musicians were floating in. He sighed softly. “What are these people trying to do?”
“Ye Qingxuan has presently rebelled. He has violated the laws of the country, disrespected the Empress, schemed against the throne with the rebels in secret, and harbored ill intentions…” In the sky, a musician unrolled the scroll and blabbered on for a good while, then looked at Ye Qingxuan coldly. “Marquess Changyu, if you surrender now without putting up a fight, you can still submit a plea to Her Majesty to revoke your title but spare your life. Otherwise, don’t blame me for showing you no mercy.”
Ye Qingxuan tilted his head to one side and looked at the officers and soldiers surrounding and forming three layers around him. He was silent for a long time. HE couldn’t help but break out in inappropriate laughter.
“Is this considered ‘casting aside the bow once the birds are gone’ [1]? No, what about, ‘slaughtering the hound for meat after the cunning hare is dead’ [2]? Not really, hmm, if I have to put a term to it, it should be ‘burning the bridge after crossing it’ [3]?” He looked in the direction of the palace and curiously asked, “What for?”
You wanted Bai Heng, I’ve captured Bai Heng for you.
You wanted to wait till nightfall, I’ve waited till nightfall as well.
Yet you are stirring up so much trouble now…
Why bother?
“In the end, after all, we still have to fight.” He reached out and tied his long hair that had been hanging loose into a ponytail behind his head, nodding slightly. “Then, let’s fight.”
In the sky, the expression of the scepter musician in the lead was dark. “You refuse a toast [4] …”
Boom! After a glaring ray of light flew past, half of his bloody body fell from the sky.
Facing the rest, whose faces had turned ghastly white, Ye Qingxuan nodded slightly. “The first.”
He took a step forward, and countless stars rose from behind him. A brilliant and majestic aura rose into the sky, scraping against the invisible music theory in the empty air, and the sharp noise of metals colliding sounded.
The staff of authority of the King of Yellow and the power of the Great Wall clashed.
Under the blockade of the Great Wall, all aether ceased to flow, but under the propulsion of the staff of authority of the King of Yellow, the frozen aether was violently mobilized by an invisible force again.
It was as if water that had frozen into ice in a stone urn was forcibly stirred with an iron rod. Ice cubes fell apart, and a bone-chilling cold spread, and countless fine pieces of ice flew out in all directions.
Then, the melody of From the New World sounded.
Stars erupted.
Another spot of scarlet exploded in the sky.
“The second…” Ye Qingxuan murmured softly, and was done tidying his collar based on his reflection in the broken bronze mirror in the ruins. In the rumble, he advanced towards the palace in the distance, going against the iron-like stream of cavalry rushing towards him in the street.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! He seemed to be dragging an invisible behemoth around with every move, and the sound of countless strings snapping rang out one after another.
The Great Wall that was built and maintained by Aurora for centuries pressed down in the capital at the moment. The horrifying gravitational force that was enough to suppress a catastrophe was imposed on Ye Qingxuan’s scepter.
At the moment, even the existence of the Sea of Aether seemed to have become so far away, let alone the Net of Aether.
The element of the fragment of the Wheel of Balance that the Aurora had obtained was “maintenance.”
After incorporating the element of maintenance into it, the Great Wall had become almost indestructible, and the level of stability of its music theory had risen to an extent that humans had difficulty imagining, and it had no gaps at all.
The huge enchantment separating the inside and outside was shrinking at the moment, becoming a cage that trapped Ye Qingxuan.
Even though he had the authority of the King of Yellow in hand, the aether he could mobilize was becoming less and less…
Dozens of musicians in the sky were attacking Ye Qingxuan with all their might at the moment, disregarding their own life and death, forcing him to continue fighting back and waste the power of the Dragon Bloodline.
“That’s it, don’t stop!” The musician conducting the attack at the scene tightly clutched the scroll that allowed them to use the power of the Great Wall to block the attacks of Ye Qingxuan, and his expression was ruthless. “Even catastrophes have their limits. I don’t believe that he could still squander his power after the Net of Aether was cut off and he no longer had access to the strategic reserves of Anglo…”
At the very moment, he felt a cold gaze on him.
It was from Ye Qingxuan, who was on the ground.
It was not a murderous intent driven by embarrassment and anger.
It was an indifference and disregard for someone making a fool of himself.
Ye Qingxuan glanced at the commander, then withdrew his gaze like he couldn’t care less. Then he fished out the last pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and ignited a wisp of flame with his finger. After lighting the cigarette, he inhaled slowly, then exhaled a blue wisp of smoke towards the sky.
Despite being surrounded by thousands of soldiers on horses, he acted as if no one else was around.
The musician was provoked by the contempt in Ye Qingxuan’s eyes, his face becoming purple with rage, and he furiously gave the order to attack, “With the nets in the sky and the snares on the ground to trap you, let’s see how long you can continue being arro
gant!”
Then, he saw it.
On the ground, Ye Qingxuan’s hand, which was holding a cigarette, slowly lifted and pointed to the sky.
In the frozen wind, the dark red glow of the flame flickered at his fingertips. The grayish-white smoke condensed into a line, rising toward the sky.
It was the last strand of aether contained in Ye Qingxuan’s blood.
Attached to the smoke, it turned into a speck of burning star and rose into the sky. After gathering the music theory of the New Testament sword, the star that contained endless electricity soared above the sky in a flash.
In the star, countless complicated alchemy arrays emerged. In the blink of an eye, the four layers of outflow, creation, formation, and circulation were completely constructed. In the space that was even smaller than the point of a needle, countless strands of music theory were shaking, connecting with each other, forming a structure that was almost impossible to observe with the naked eye.
Then, it exploded with a boom!
It was light.
It was a pure and violent light of music theory!
It was only maintained for an instant.
Light that had sparked for tens of thousands of times superposed. As it flickered in and out of existence, it formed the violent electricity of Gungnir. It went up, up, and further up… After tearing the layers of shackles apart, it disappeared in the blockade of the Great Wall.
However, the fierce light that was bright enough to be observed by the human eye passed through the illusion of the sea of clouds covering the Aurora, sending a signal to the steel warship hovering above the clouds—I’m here.
At the moment, the Mountain of Nomadism awakened from its slumber, the deck opened layer by layer, and even the armor on most of its hull fell off as the rivets broke.
Concealed by the armor and deck was the terrifying main battery that occupied nearly one-third of the hull.
At the moment, as the ship turned, it took aim at where the light was.
Hephaestus was started!
[1][2][3] Various metaphors that mean “casting someone aside when he has served his purpose.”
[4] The complete proverb is “refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit.” It means “showing no appreciation of favors offered by others and choosing to do things the hard way.”
782 Broken Sky
“Cannons, ready!!!” The moment when the blinding light shone out of the clouds, Egor shouted his command from the bridge, staring ahead with his bloodshot eyes.
The dynamic valve was pulled all the way with a low rumble. Shortly after, the entire iron boat began to tremble with a roar. After shaking off the unnecessary armor, the patrolling Mountain of Nomadism traveled in an arc across the sky and, from a thousand miles away, it adjusted its aim at the source of the blinding light.
At this moment, above Aurora and within the music theory of Great Wall, not only was the land being sealed by the never-ending illusion of cloud layers and the surface of the sea being covered by fog, but even the changes in geomagnetism and sunlight were unstable. No one on the inside would be able to determine their own location or take a look at the changes that were taking place.
But now, with the appearance of that streak of light, the monster that had been patrolling in the dark had finally found its target. This opportunity would only last for a moment; there would not be a second chance after this.
The sound of the alarm was ear-shattering and above the vault of heaven, the quiet iron star was lit up. “Pioneer,” which was an instrument of harmonious melody that hung high within the vacuum, received the feedback from the bridge. In an instant, the encryption key and authorization, that represented Ye Qingxuan, began to run and the movement of “From the New World” was called upon.
The first connected was completed, followed by the second, then the third. The signal had been anchored.
Thousands of miles away in Anglo, the silent net of aether suddenly began to spin. Within the gigantic three-dimensional crystal was blinding light. At the highest point of the realm of aether, massive power was running and flowing down the hundreds and thousands of structures made of the net of aether. They broke through the barrier that separated the Physical World and the realm of aether before entering the sea of aether. They absorbed the endless aether and kept expanding until they all gathered together once again.
Brilliant streams of light flowed from the “Pioneer” and onto the Mountain of Nomadism. In the blink of an eye, one-third of the heat sink, which had been exposed, was burnt red and was as hot as molten lava. Shortly after, the driving power climbed steadily. It was suppressed by hundreds of throttle valves so it lingered on the brink of collapse and all of its power was pumped into the central aether pool.
Egor removed his tie and was excited as a rabid dog. He screamed at the top of his lungs, “Fire!!!”
Galaxies burst forth. Countless stars gathered together to form a river—no, a “waterfall.” At this moment, there was a hole in the wall of the universe, and the stars behind the wall gushed out to form a torrent that rained down on the world!
Tens of thousands of movements were destroyed in a short span of time to form an aether vacuum, which was a massive hole that the entire world could see in the sea of aether.
The price to pay was that the cooling liquid of several tons of lazurite evaporated instantly to become fog within the hurricanes. They were shot out from the massive iron structures of the ship and onto land.
A valuable part that would have been able to support hundreds of shots had instantly become a one-off expendable. After the shot was fired while it was in overdrive, the entire Mountain of Nomadism was now in a state of half-collapse. The sirens of countless cabins began to sound.
This single shot expended so much that even if they tried their best to repair and replace the equipment, the next time they could unleash it again was probably 16 hours later. In exchange for such a great sacrifice was the light of purgatory, that was equivalent to the explosion of tens of thousands of suns.
On the ground, everyone looked up in shock because the felt tentage, that was made from steel, had been burnt completely red.
Across the greyish black layer of clouds, one could see the burning flame dancing in the sky as countless burning light fell from the sky. The friction between light and the cloud layer released a roar like metal clashing against metal. It was the clash between the torrent of movement of “From the New World” and the music theory of Great Wall.
In the history of Aurora, a terrible battle of such scale had never been seen before. After a movement that required the absorption of one-tenth of the net of aether had been prepared, it produced an effect that was the equivalent of tens of thousands of official musicians attacking simultaneously. The powers of the military were all gathered together and unleashed at the same time. Even the Great Wall, which was also known as the Eternal Wall, began to tremble under such a devastating attack.
Countless streams of light slammed against the barrier like water jet cutter. They would pierce through bit by bit before widening the holes until thousands of streaks of electricity were like hammers as they slammed against the black felt tentage. The huge roar of impact reverberated all around. In the end, several gaps appeared on the vault of heaven, that had been thoroughly burnt red. The sky had broke.
Poisonous flow of light descended from the sky and as they kept spreading in all directions, they transformed into a destructive rain. Despite being weakened by several layers of obstructions and no longer being capable of destroying the entire Golden Palace like before, it was still able to create a sight of doom in the country of Aurora. Even though Aurora was protected by layers of enchantments, there was nothing much they could do against the star of destruction that was falling from the sky.
In an instant, all the buildings within a circumference of several miles were crushed into pieces and dust, and there was a huge crater in the ground. From this day on, “Wang Gong Square” and four other squares
that it was connected to were all erased from the map forever. As the flow of light swept across, cracks began to appear even on the walls of the palace. Countless enchantments were destroyed only to be revived, again and again, as they tried to ensure that the palace would remain unharmed.
The musicians in the sky were the first to bear the brunt of the attack. Some of them managed to escape in time, while the others were instantly burnt into ashes by the attack. It was a devastating sight everywhere.
Other than Ye Qingxuan, who had already propped up a barrier from the very beginning, one-third of the entire imperial city was completely flattened by the attack, and the rest of the city was only slightly better off. Although there were not a lot of inhabitants in the interior of the city in the first place, such a terrible attack still led to tens of thousands of casualties.
Amidst the charred earth and debris, Ye Qingxuan tossed his cigarette onto the ground and extinguished it with his foot. Within the amount of time taken to smoke a cigarette, the entire city was already almost completely destroyed.
Ye Qingxuan turned back and looked around him. He was frowning.
“What? Did anyone survive that?”
“Finish him off! What are you waiting for? Can’t you tell that he is just pretending?” The commander, who was hiding behind the group of musicians and soldiers that were lucky enough to survive, looked pale as he waved his hand and gave the order. “He has been sealed by the dragon bloodline of Great Wall and will not be able to wield any aether! Take him down now!”
There was a shimmer in the blades. With the clanging of metal armors, the armored knights, who had almost been completely burnt red, drew their weapons and raised their white tiger banners before charging at Ye Qingxuan!
“What a headache.” Ye Qingxuan sighed softly.
A roar sounded. As the flow of light dissipated and the vault of heaven was quickly repairing its wound, something seemed to fall out in an arc before landing on the ground.
