Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  Under everyone’s dazed eyes, Ye Qingxuan watched calmly as Jon was taken away. Hearing his cries, Ye Qingxuan remembered something. He pulled out a strip of paper filled with words from his pocket and shredded it.

  “Oh, I almost forgot to destroy the evidence,” he muttered. “I didn’t have enough time, so I had to cheat for the exam. Sorry.”

  —

  Outside of the ring, Edmund’s eyes were dark. “What the heck is this?”

  Beside him, someone replied uncertainly, “Perhaps, maybe he really…”

  “You want to tell me that someone who just became a student ten days ago can sense aether like a musician?” Edmund retorted. “Are you stupid?”

  “Maybe he really is crazy like that…” the guy muttered.

  Edmund turned around and his menacing glare shut the guy up. Clenching his fist, Edmund said, “No worries. If he wants to play, then we’ll play with him. This is only the fifth round. Send someone else up, but be smart about it.”

  —

  The next three were smarter than Jon and even forced Ye Qingxuan to start using runes and battle like a true musician. But Ye Qingxuan seemed to guess every move before they made it, and they were all were taken out by him. Even the way in which each of them lost was strange. However, Ye Qingxuan was reaching his limit as well.

  It was like a high intensity relay race over a short period of time. After the fifth round, he faced three consecutive opponents who were much more skilled than him. To win, he had gathered together all of his potential so that he could quickly get used to a battle between musicians. His brain was aching, and his thoughts flew so rapidly that he was pushing his limit. But as if a god were helping him, Ye Qingxuan used Rune · Light to blind his last opponent just as he had finished his chant, and pushed him out the ring.

  In the silence, Ye Qingxuan bent over, hands on his knees, panting in exhaustion. He had won the eighth round!

  —

  The audience cheered excitedly. The giant tide of the sound angered Edmund more and more.

  In the beginning, people had just been curious as to what a new student could do. The first battle tactic had been enough to make jaws drop, but his uncanny ability to predict his opponent’s moves, and his senses were even more unbelievable. But what was even more exciting was that Ye Qingxuan clearly had the disadvantage in the three formal duels. But every time, he had been able to grasp the right timing, and his use of runes was so creative! Without a doubt, today’s stage belonged to Ye Qingxuan—the Eastern genius!

  Faced with everyone’s cheers and praise, Ye Qingxuan blushed faintly. But he could not afford to be shy. He could only put on his poker face and confuse the opponent, making sure that none of them knew his cards.

  —

  “Kids these days are getting better and better at cheating. Didn’t know you could bully someone like this.” Dominic snacked on his peanuts and smiled cruelly. During all of the matches, he had never looked inside the snake circle. Instead, his eyes fell on the spot under Charles’ feet. As the situation inside the ring changed, the angle of Charles’s feet would change too.

  “Since the aether is completely blocked outside of the ring, he’s reading lips and postures to see what the opponent is planning and conduct virtually. And the other guy has amazing reflexes. He even has the ability to leave the commander and fight by himself. Kids these days are impressive.” He sighed and murmured, “Abraham has some good students.”

  —

  “Next!” Brian glanced at Edmund and announced gravely, “This will be the ninth round.” His eyes said, “It’s the ninth round! When will you put this guy in his place?” It was his first day on the job. He hated Edmund for letting that d*mn commoner steal the glory from the honorable bloodlines on his first day at work. He could already imagine what the school board would say about this. They might even doubt his work ability!

  Edmund grew pale. He knew what that Brian meant to say, “You caused this so you deal with it!” Clenching his jaw, Edmund nodded toward the boy he had bribed with a large amount of money. “Duncan, you’re up.”

  The student named Duncan nodded. Cracking his knuckles, he walked out from the crowd.

  Coming from a fallen elite family, Duncan was different from the others. He knew since birth that he had nothing other than his title. Becoming a musician was his only hope. He had extraordinary talent, and his family had sacrificed everything to train him. When he entered the academy, he was already at Rhythm level. Under his genius halo, he found respect, but he was also scared to lose this title and be seen the same as a commoner.

  To climb higher, he needed money to buy better music scores and materials, so he had taken Edmund’s bribe. He would go up and leave Ye Qingxuan with just enough energy to be destroyed by Edmund. But how would he do it? He walked out of the crowd while he thought about it, but just as he was about to raise his hand, he heard an unexpected voice.

  “I want to challenge him!” A girl standing in the very front raised her right arm and said fiercely, “He’s been annoying me since day one!”

  As everyone gaped, Bai Xi sauntered out and beamed at Ye Qingxuan.

  82 Rune Stone

  “I want to challenge him.”

  “You can’t!” Brian protested when he saw Bai Xi walk over. But he quickly realized that he had said the wrong thing.

  “I can’t?” Bai Xi put her face up to his. “Why not? I’m also a first year student, and I just entered the school too. How come they can but I can’t?”

  “This…you…” Brian stammered.

  “What, can’t find an excuse? Then move,” Bai Xi huffed. “I want to challenge him and I want to be concertmaster!”

  “I support you!” Charles called out from the crowd. “You’re prettier than Yezi! It won’t be a waste if you’re concertmaster!”

  Faced with Bai Xi’s protests, Brian could only retreat. But he still would not Bai Xi enter the ring.

  Commotion erupted. They could allow his bias against the challenger, but not letting someone participate was too obvious. The audience started gossiping, and Brian’s expression turned ugly as he listened to the taunting discussions.

  Yunlou Chaoyue quietly watched the show from the entrance. As if she did not understand, she turned to Sydney and asked, “Why can’t she? Is there a school rule about this?”

  “Uh…” Sydney was troubled. He could not simply say, “This is just so a group of elites can show a kid his place. Oh, right, that kid is Eastern like you. We’re really not discriminating. Really, don’t think like that…”

  “She can,” he forced out with a tight smile. “Why can’t she? Of course she can!”

  And so the most boring duel in the history of the academy unfolded before everyone’s eyes.

  —

  It was unnaturally calm within the snake circle.

  “Cousin, are you thirsty? I brought water for you.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Ye Qingxuan accepted the bottle and drank it in one breath. His burning throat finally felt a bit better.

  “Cousin, are you hungry? I brought peanuts.”

  Ye Qingxuan’s eyes lit up. “Are they salted? Give me some. Seeing Charles eating made me so hungry.” And so a bag of toasted peanuts landed in his hands.

  “Cousin, I brought a stool,” Bai Xi said. “Take a seat.”

  “Okay!” Ye Qingxuan felt like he was hallucinating and had the sudden urge to cry. “Cousin, you’re being so nice to me all of a sudden.”

  Over the audience’s boos, Bai Xi asked politely, “Cousin, is my service good?”

  “Of course!” Ye Qingxuan had never been treated so well by his cousin before. It felt like heaven.

  “Of course. If you dare to say anything bad, I’ll kick you out of here!” Bai Xi ground her teeth and threatened Ye Qingxuan, “I’ve never served anyone like this in my entire life, but I’m doing this for you. If you lose, kill yourself.”

  “You don’t need to tell me.” Ye Qingxuan clenched his fist. “I
’ll win for you.”

  —

  “Edmund, you should personally go next round.” Outside the ring, a hoarse voice sounded behind Edmund. He looked back in confusion and saw Banner’s eyes. His pupils were vertical like a wild beast and their green light shone in the darkness. They were thirsty for blood.

  “You…lost control?” Edmund yelped.

  “Not yet, but ‘it’ is angry, you know?”

  Edmund studied him, seeing the murderous intent in those beastly eyes. The thirst they reflected upon Edmund’s pale face was chilling and menacing.

  “Don’t disappoint me,” he or ‘it’ said softly. “If we lose the title of concertmaster to him because of you…there will be no need for you to stay in this school.”

  “I know.” Edmund nodded, fierceness flashing through his eyes. “I’ll take care of him.” He rubbed the amber ring on his forefinger and turned toward the snake ring.

  —

  “Ten minutes have passed.” Brian looked impatiently at Bai Xi. “Stop wasting time if you’re not going to challenge him.”

  “Who said I’m not going to challenge him?” Bai Xi rolled his eyes. “I poisoned him. Don’t you see him eating it now?”

  “You poisoned him?” Brian echoed.

  “Yeah. In one-hundred years, when he’s an old fart, the poison will be activated, and he’ll die after burping!” Bai Xi mimicked slicing one’s throat. “Are you scared?”

  “I’m so scared! What am I going to do?” Ye Qingxuan acted along, crying and putting on a terrified expression.

  Brian’s facial muscles quivered as he tried to keep himself from losing control. Clenching his jaw, he enunciated carefully, “Stop wasting time!”

  “Psh!” Bai Xi kicked Ye Qingxuan. “Are you ready? I’m going to start!”

  “Oh, yeah! You can start!” Ye Qingxuan hurriedly wiped the crumbs from his lips and returned the stool, water bottle, and half a bag of peanuts. She had come stocked with supplies and was going back like that too.

  Under everyone’s annoyed gaze, Bai Xi stood at the edge of the snake circle. Ye Qingxuan lifted her by the back of her collar and dropped her outside the ring.

  Beside them, Brian announced listlessly, “The ninth round goes to Ye Qingxuan.” He was starting to hate this job.

  —

  “Are you done fooling around?” a cold voice asked behind Ye Qingxuan.

  Ye Qingxuan turned around. Seeing Edmund, he finally understood. “You waited until everyone tired me out to appear?”

  “Tire you out? There’s no need for that.” Edmund’s eyes were sinister. “Having others participate was just so we could all play a little longer. But sadly they were useless pieces of sh*t and couldn’t help at all…”

  “Pieces of sh*t are like birds of a feather. They’re your friends so don’t be so hard on them,” Ye Qingxuan replied, obviously bored.

  Pa! A cold arc zipped past Ye Qingxuan’s foot. It landed on the ground, leaving a white frost burn. Edmund had cast a rune without chanting or with even any preparation, making the audience to yell in surprise. “Pay attention. I’ve spent a lot of money to deal with you.” Edmund blew away the cold smoke around his fingertips and cackled. “Next, I’ll let you and all of the other mutts know who’s the real boss.”

  Studying Edmund’s palm, Ye Qingxuan’s eyes finally turned serious after being sure that he had seen correctly. “Instantaneous rune?” he murmured to himself.

  —

  “Yezi is dead meat.” Outside the ring, Charles’s brows furrowed. “The opponent is starting to fight with money.”

  “Are you talking about rune stones?” Bai Xi finally processed the fact.

  “You know about that?” Charles asked in surprise. “I’d prepared a long explanation for nothing!”

  Bai Xi did not even bother to roll her eyes anymore.

  Rune stones were from the Dark World. There were many theories about where they had came from, but there were only two main output methods. One was to create a fissure in a region with heavy aether, and use large scale equipment to track the rune stones. The other method was the favorite of Pioneer musicians from the Dark World—Hunting.

  In regions where the aether was chaotic, most organisms would be killed by the aether. The few survivors would become even stronger, fiercer, and more violent. Just like the children of the Dark Mother, they would transform into demons. Some demons had a frequency inside their bodies after death that could help to find rune stones.

  Rune stones were naturally occurring crystallized aether in the structure of a rune. Because of its stable structure and pure state, they were able to be kept in specific circumstances.

  These rocks that had natural rune power were one of the most important alchemist resources. Most alchemy equipment depended on their power. Of course, there was an even more luxurious use—Smelting Meditation. The musician would reach Coherence with the rune stone. By using the rune stone’s power, he could quickly increase his sense of the rune. In the end, he could reduce a complicated chant to a single syllable. That was the Instantaneous rune.

  It was a trademark of a Musician, but with the help of a rune stone, even a student could reach the same level after using enough rune stones. The only downside was that it could only instantaneously cast the rune that the stone could sense. And if one wanted to use this method, one would need a lot of money.

  Rune stones were in high demand. They were often sold out as soon as they were out, and the price was never low. Many musicians even used them as hard currency. At the moment, the price of a basic rune stone was about the same as two lapis bricks made by the church. If converted to Anglo currency, it would be at least a few million!

  For a student to reach that level of instantaneous casting, the rune stones he had used were surely enough for high grade alchemy equipment. That was why Charles had said Edmund had starting fighting with money. And it was because of this that he started to worry about Ye Qingxuan.

  —

  Charles had been the one handling Ye Qingxuan’s practice and training over the past few days. He knew his junior’s level better than anyone else.

  It had already been five days since Ye Qingxuan took those moldy books from Hermes. Over those five days, Ye Qingxuan stayed in the library and learned to read ancient literature with Abraham in the morning and started practicing in the afternoon. He would lock himself up in the basement, memorizing madly.

  Charles could not deny that Ye Qingxuan had improved immensely over the past five days. In fact, he had improved a dozen times faster than others. But it had only been five days…only five days.

  Even with the “Light” and “Mirror” rune that he already knew, Ye Qingxuan had only learned five runes. They were the easiest auxiliary runes too.

  They were: Flow, originally designed to control liquids, now modified to increase physical strength; Blur, to warp the air and blur everything; Air, to create wind. None of them were attack runes. He had used practically all of them in previous rounds.

  Now, faced with an opponent who could use a rune stone and instantaneously cast Frost, and knew him like the back of his hand…How could Ye fight back?

  Outside of the ring, Charles scratched his head in worry. He racked his brain for a battle tactic, but could not think of any solution.

  “Yezi, you’re dead this time,” he murmured.

  At this time, the center of the snake circle was already illuminated with Frost!

  83 I’m Just Showing Off

  Arrows of frost flew all over the icy cold ring. The bone-numbing coldness spread with the arrows, crystallizing on the ground. The water molecules in the air froze, turning into icy powder scattered by the wind and falling onto the ground. Even the cold sweat on Ye Qingxuan’s body froze, turning into a thin layer of frost. It stuck to his skin, melting from the heat of his blood…

  Ye Qingxuan panted heavily. He started hating that the circle was only a few dozen steps in diameter. Following Charles’s orders and dodging Edmund
’s frost arrows took up all his focus.

  The downside to Frost was that the effect wore off quickly. As an arrow, it was powerless after going more than ten meters.

  But they did not have ten meters between them. If Edmund stood in the center of the ring, he would be able to shoot in any directions without any effort. Known as the most cost efficient student level rune, frost arrows used up almost thirty percent less energy than other runes, and the chanting was twice as fast. With Edmund’s experience, he could shoot twenty arrows in one breath.

  Ye Qingxuan could only find the right timing and dodge, dodge, dodge! When an arrow brushed past him again, Ye Qingxuan reached out and crumbled the ice on his shoulder, panting. He could not let the match drag on like this. He had to admit that he had really underestimated that d*mned fatty.

  Watching the humiliated Ye Qingxuan from the center, Edmund could not help but snicker. “What’s wrong? That’s all you can do? Come closer, Mr. Concertmaster! You don’t even have the guts to fight back?” Three more frost arrows shot out with that, flying out with grandeur!

  “You want to tire me out?” Edmund laughed mockingly as if he saw through Ye Qingxuan’s little tricks. “It’s not that easy.” He took a small thumb-sized bottle from his pocket. Biting off the cork, he poured the blue liquid down his throat. The cold drug slid down his throat, pooling into his stomach, and spread through his body like an explosion. The powerful coldness spread through his entire body, finally flowing into his brain as a warm current.

  Edmund’s face, pale and sickly from the energy loss, instantaneously recovered, flushing with an unnatural redness. He had taken a stimulant drug which sapped nutrients from his other organs to stimulate his brain. If a skinny person tried that, he would probably be bedridden for a long time afterward. But Edmund’s body was covered with a thick layer of fat, and it had enough nutrients to feed the drug for awhile.

  Seeing Edmund take drugs in public, the audience booed.