Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  The sunshine outside the window fell on his long hair, making it look like golden silk. It was indescribably beautiful. But his eyes were dark, as if the clouds of hell lingered in those emerald orbs.

  He asked, “Bai Xi, is there a moment where you thought you really understood ‘death’?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If you have to describe it, it’s probably an immersive experience—it’s like you know what fire is, what iron is, and there’ll be a moment where you finally know what ‘death’ means in the end. This experience may come from a funeral, a corpse, a sad story or the passing of a loved one, or…from your own personal experience. Answer me: Have you ever felt this way before?”

  Bai Xi nodded in silence.

  Hermes smiled. “Then you know how fragile humans are.”

  He looked out of the window at the pedestrians. Looking at all the faces, he laughed with a hint of mockery. “Regardless of whether you’re good or bad, when one truly comprehends what ‘death’ is, there’ll be a moment of enlightenment. You will see your own fears and insignificance, your loneliness and powerlessness, and you will see who you truly are. Like a beast gazing at his reflection in the water.

  “Only through a realistic experience will you realize that the ideals, standards and bottom lines you believe in are nothing but dust compared to it. There is no better teacher than death.

  “It is greater than all the stars and morals combined, more indispensable than food and love, more inescapable than fate and hatred…If there really is an eternal truth in this world for mankind, then I believe it must be ‘death.’ That is why the Three Kings wrote it into the oath. You must have seen it already.”

  “Everything goes from life to death, only the Originator is eternal,” Bai Xi muttered.

  “That’s right. Nothing can escape from death. This is the destiny of mankind,” Hermes snapped his fingers with appreciation. “In order to avoid its arrival, mankind is willing to do anything, no matter how cruel.

  “Since the beginning of time, the vast majority of crimes committed by mankind are due to this. For some people, committing sins is okay in order to survive. It is understandable to make a mistake in order to protect your life, even if the mistake is intolerable to the whole world, right?”

  Bai Xi did not reply, but Hermes read the answer in her eyes. He whispered, “That is the scariest thing about Ye Qingxuan.”

  Bai Xi was stunned. “What the h*ll are you talking about?”

  “Do you not understand, or do you just not want to understand?” Hermes snickered. “Have you witnessed it?

  “Your cousin has had countless encounters with death. He hasn’t been lacking in life-or-death situations even after coming to Avalon. It can even be said that he spends his life flirting with death. He is closer to death than anyone else and has been more deeply exposed to the nature of death.

  “But what’s frightening is that he’s blind to those things. If he became a homicidal maniac or a cold-blooded butcher, it would make sense, but…fear and death haven’t changed him at all!

  “Even if countless people threaten his life with a blade, or he’s chased by monsters, or steps into hell after running into the Blood Path…he still doesn’t change.

  “None of the pain changed him; none of the happiness changed him. He did not rise, nor did he fall…What is he thinking?” Hermes’s eyes were black, as if they were an abyss.

  139 A Study of Blood Words I

  Early morning in downtown, dawn had not yet come and everything was still in darkness.

  “Last night, the police office received a message,” Lestrade stood at the crossroad and said to the man beside him. “The man who betrayed the professor was found. He contacted us on his own prerogative.

  “After betraying the professor, he should have left Avalon secretly by boat last night. Unfortunately, the Professor somehow suddenly controlled all the smuggling routes. The guy was cautious and sent a man to take his place first. When the guy didn’t come back after five minutes, he ran.

  “His buyer behind the scene had abandoned him, and he had no choice but to turn to the police for help. The guy said in the message that he knew a big secret about the Professor, an absolutely unbelievable secret. If we want to know the secret, we need to save him immediately.

  “When we received the message, we quickly organized a brigade of police to help him. The director personally applied for the ‘Silent Authority, ‘ which is used to deal with musicians.

  “Unfortunately, it was too late.” Lestrade sighed. “When the police arrived, all they found was a body. The upper part of the body was burned to ashes, as if it had been thrown into an incinerator, but the lower part was intact.

  “According to the coroner’s report, he was still alive when his body was lit—he burned to death. Even most of his blood had been vaporized. He died in the flames of hell. The only clue was a line of words that the man had written in blood before he died.”

  “Where are the words?” the man known as Holmes asked from the shadows.

  Lestrade pointed back at the house. Almost half of it was charred. “It’s inside. The crime scene is well protected. I know you are concerned about the Professor, so I took it from the inspection—”

  “Wait here.” Holmes interrupted him without emotion. Lestrade’s smile stiffened. He stood at the crossroad awkwardly, and waited obediently.

  When they brushed shoulders, a small bag was thrown into his arms. A hoarse voice sounded by his ear. “You did a good job. This is your reward.”

  Stunned, Lestrade opened the packet to see dense handwriting written on a stack of papers. He immediately became ecstatic and no longer dared to complain.

  —

  “What did you give to him?” Bai Xi whispered after he entered the room.

  “Another part of the Pyramid King’s scheme. It includes some of his trade channels.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “Anyway, we still have enough for at least ten more times. This guy is kind of interesting. Let’s just have some fun with him.”

  “…” Bai Xi pursed her lip, not knowing what to say. She looked around at the messy and cramped room and all the charred things. “What are we doing here?”

  “To find a big secret. The Professor’s big secret.” Ye Qingxuan looked around, searching carefully.

  “Why don’t you just fight him?”

  “There’s already a big difference between our abilities. If you don’t even know your enemy well, and you try to fight him, there’s no way you’ll win. Our aim is to force the Professor to withdraw from the fight for the Blood Path. Or at least ask him to let go of me, the Eastern kid…”

  Ye Qingxuan stopped searching suddenly. He looked at the center of the wall and exclaimed, “That’s it!”

  -

  In the dilapidated room, Ye Qingxuan looked up and gazed at the vague handwriting on the wall. It had been two days since the crime was committed. The blood at the scene had faded, but the original shape could still be seen.

  The walls had been painted white. Now they were blackened by flames, but one could faintly see the dried blood. That was the mark the traitor had left before his death, but it seemed to have no patterns and no meaning at all.

  Even as Ye Qingxuan thought of all the languages he knew, he still could not figure out one that matched with the strange handwriting. The music notes were the same, but the handwriting looked as if it had been written casually, like a child’s doodles.

  If one was forced to explain it, it could be understood as a variant of calligraphy, but that type of writing required time and energy. How could a dying person who was on fire write something like that?

  “How bizarre.” Ye Qingxuan gazed at the bloodstains on the wall and shook his head slowly.

  By his side, Bai Xi was bored enough to roll her eyes. “What if he did it for fun?”

  “How could a man getting burned to death and suffering to that extent have the energy to write something like that for fun?”

&
nbsp; Ye Qingxuan understood that this was the guy’s revenge. Even if he was killed, he would reveal the Professor’s achilles’ heel and let others kill the Professor to avenge his own death…But why would the Professor appear? It was too reckless if it had been just for revenge. If he were the Professor, he would definitely take it for now and find another chance.

  It could be concluded that the traitor must had been the Professor’s confidant who knew many things that he should not have known, including the Professor’s biggest secret! The professor was badly injured now and needed to recuperate. All of his allies had abandoned him, betraying him under the hunt by the parliament. It could be said that he was weak as never before. How important must the secret be for the Professor to personally go out and risk being killed by the police?

  The policemen might not be very powerful, but one must not forget that they were from the police department. As long as they had the Silent Authority, they could send a signal at any time and call up the silent enchantment over Avalon. At that time, the aether would be suppressed until it was useless. A musician would essentially be powerless.

  Moreover, the musicians stationed at the headquarters could arrive at any time. If the commotion became messy, it could attract the attention of the Garrison Corps. If he had bad luck, the leader of the garrison that day would be a knight of the round table, and then the best solution for the Professor would be to commit suicide.

  The Knights of the Round Table were the defenders of the knight’s virtues and the supremacy of the armed forces in Anglo.

  Before King Arthur had died, he had sealed his phantom beasts into twelve sacred sets of armor. He gave them to his knights who were asked to guard the empire he had established for eternity. The Knights vowed to guard Anglo with their lives, gaining the recognition of the twelve sacred armors, and came to possess extraordinary powers. The terrifying power that the armor contained was equal to that of the saints. Just one millionth of the power was enough to defeat any musician.

  So…What secret was big enough for the Professor to risk being besieged to personally kill the traitor?

  Ye Qingxuan fell into deep thought.

  “Why are you so interested in the Professor?” Bai Xi asked. “Is it because you two are fated?”

  “Stop kidding. That guy is still after my head.” Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes. “I was thrown into all this for no reason, you know. I obviously need to find out who started the rumors. I’m also curious about whose attention I’ve caught.”

  “You suspect the Professor?”

  “It’s possible. When everyone was still skeptical, he was the first person to declare that he wanted the kid. He must have evidence to prove that I have something to do with Avalon’s Shadow. Or does he want me to join him because I’m so attractive?”

  “…Cousin, you’re self-love is getting to be as shameless as Charles.”

  “I’m flattered,” Ye Qingxuan accepted the praise unabashedly. The result was getting kicked on the shin by Bai Xi.

  “Then you have figured something out?”

  “Almost, almost.” Ye Qingxuan rubbed his painful shin. “Let me look again.”

  Bai Xi pursed her lips. Looking around at the ruins, she shook her head. “Look at this mess. Only a saint could find anything.”

  “Not necessarily,” Ye Qingxuan muttered. “Sometimes, a ruined site reveals more.” He looked around in the silence. Suddenly a glimmer of enlightenment flashed through his eyes. “It’s a murder!”

  And then he was kicked by Bai Xi. “No sh*t! Everyone can tell it’s a murder. Would you believe me if I said I even know who the murderer is?”

  Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “No, I mean the whole process was part of the Professor’s plan, including the traitor’s escape.”

  “Are you saying that the Professor deliberately let the traitor go?” Bai Xi was stunned. “How do you know?”

  “It’s easy. Look at the whole room.” Ye Qingxuan stood at the door. “If I have some dirty secrets, I’ll choose somewhere to hide and prepare everything. The least I’ll do is conceal and closure, right?”

  “No sh*t.”

  “Then here is the question.” Ye Qingxuan looked around and asked, “How did the Professor get in?”

  Bai Xi thought for awhile and looked at the broken door. “It’s obvious. The door was smashed in. Didn’t he enter through the main entrance?”

  The youth shook his head. “Kicking the door in is the most barbaric way. Our lovely professor likes using his brain. How could he kick the door in?”

  “Then how did the door break?”

  “It’s simple.” Ye Qingxuan fiddled with the fragments of the door on the floor and put them together. Looking at the cracks, he laughed. “As I assumed, the door was smashed in by a hammer. The police equipment…They probably saw this strange state and just rushed in,” he said. “This kind of hand-held hammer is made by machine springs and power. Even an iron gate can be smashed instantly.”

  “How do you know it’s a hammer?” The girl rolled her eyes. “You haven’t seen it before.”

  “I have,” Ye Qingxuan replied lightly. “I don’t think you’d ever forget it if your door was smashed in by a hammer once.”

  “…” Taken aback, Bai Xi did not question further and changed the topic. “Why not from the window, then? The window is broken too.”

  “That’s even easier to understand. If the window had been smashed from the outside, the glass shards should have fallen inside. But now the shards are all outside with scorch marks. That’s because when the Professor used a music score to ignite the man, the flames expanded, and then everything exploded.”

  “So it’s not the window or door and there is no other entrance. There’s not even a skylight. So how the h*ll did the Professor get in here?”

  “Well, there are two possibilities.”

  140 A Study of Blood Words 2

  “Well, there are two possibilities.” Ye Qingxuan held up two fingers. “The first is that the Professor followed the traitor like a ghost. The traitor didn’t notice him at all and revealed all his minions and channels while escaping, providing clues for the Professor. In the end, the Professor followed the traitor into this safe house and killed him.”

  “Then what’s the second one?”

  “The second one is scarier. The Professor knew early on that the traitor would hide here.” Ye Qingxuan sighed. “Maybe the guy begged for help at the police station, ran all the way back here to hide, and then he turned around…and realized that the Professor had been waiting here all this time.”

  “So which one is it?”

  “I don’t know.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “I’m not a bug living on the Professor. How would I know? But either one is scary enough.”

  Bai Xi’s expression fell. “So you discovered all that, but it’s useless, so what’s the point?”

  “No evidence is useless.” Squatting in the center of the room, Ye Qingxuan gazed around. “It’ll be easier to deduce once we know the pre-conditions. We know that, no matter how the Professor entered, the traitor was terrified…”

  What would the Professor do to someone that betrayed and almost killed him? Cut him to pieces? No, that was too bloody and not the Professor’s style. Threaten him? No, that was too simple. The horror of being threatened was nothing compared to physical pain. Threaten his family? But someone as lowly as the traitor was most likely a poor bachelor with no family. Even if he had family, the Professor would probably bring them here and make him watch his family die before his eyes.

  Then what did the Professor do in those short minutes that suited his viper-like personality? Did he simply just burn the man? But that was not aesthetic. The man was still on fire when the police had arrived…It seemed more likely that the Professor had killed the traitor to shut him up.

  So here was the question…They had only been alone for a few short minutes. What could the Professor have done to take revenge for the betrayal?

  Ye Qingxuan began to p
onder. Quickly, he bent down and began searching through the ruins. Unfortunately, the site had already been searched through and not much was left behind; however, there were many small traces.

  In the end, he managed to recreate the crime scene…even though it still looked like a mess.

  He squatted, staring at the empty space littered with shards. He stepped onto it carefully and swung his arms before finally concluding that this is where the man stood when he was set ablaze. It was laughable.

  He had betrayed the Professor and fled with the last shred of hope to this secret hiding spot. Then he closed the door, turned around…and saw the terrifying face. It was the Professor standing behind him.

  “You betrayed me!” The Professor must have said that, right?

  Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes, entirely immersed in his imagination as he thought over and over.

  The man stood there and saw the Professor. Maybe he panicked and knelt down, begging for mercy, but it had been too late, so he fell into despair. In his last moments, he denounced this criminal who had hands dyed red with blood. Or perhaps he said something even uglier? Did the Professor become angry? Then the Professor…

  Ye Qingxuan turned around and looked at the broken chair on the ground. Perhaps the Professor had sat there, listening quietly. His expression would have been calm and composed, his face gentle and elegant. He would not have even moved his eyebrow because he had been angered long ago. Not begging nor furious insults could change his decision to punish the man.

  Then the punishment came…What could it have been?

  Ye Qingxuan shut his eyes, focusing on his thoughts.

  In the darkness, he seemed to have become the hopeless criminal, waiting to be slaughtered by the Professor. The figure walked toward him step by step and he…what did he do? Following it was endless pain. But the pain stopped suddenly. Something had surprised the Professor…Yes, it was the sound of the police.