Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  A second musician followed, then a third, and a fourth…Terrified, the musicians wanted to leave the resonance, but they found that they had stepped into the quicksand. Even if they wanted to stop, the melody and wild aether inside them would urge them on, ravage their bodies, and force them to burn up the rest of their lives, pushing this satanic song to its climax!

  Breath of Boiling Blood! This was a technique that the former Rain Artist had used before, but now it became the hidden trap in the music score. Other than the robin and Red Eye, every single musician was sapped dry.

  Bits of light flew from the openings of the empty shells and converged before Red Eye. The light transformed into an ancient leather scroll. Lines of scriptures were written in blood, describing how to use life and fresh blood to hold the ritual and please the gods in exchange for the reward. It was the Codex Calixtinus! This was the copy created by the lives of sixteen musicians.

  The robin turned to look at Red Eye. His eyes were eerie and cold, rather than angry. “Those are my men. Aren’t you afraid I’ll be angered if you just kill them like that?”

  “They’re just a group of cannon fodder that knows too much. Even if I didn’t do anything, you’d take care of them too, right? But if I do it, the trash won’t go to waste.” Giving it no mind, Red Eye just glanced back at him with his single remaining eye. “Besides, my two brothers died because of you. You owe me.”

  “You better not ask for more.” The robin looked away and raised his head toward the vortex in mid-air. It had solidified into a glow the size of a fist and was slowly descending. This was the sign of the Blood Path, created at the cost of the battle of downtown. From now on, he would be able to use this to open the Blood Path at any time and enter the dark, shadowy world. Under the mask, he revealed a faint smile and reached out to grab the ball of blood light, but in that moment, his body shook and his eyes turned fierce. “Who is it?!”

  A chilling laugh sounded behind him. “You’ve worked hard.” It was the Professor’s hoarse murmur.

  The alchemy equipment under the robin’s long robe was activated immediately, forming layers of guards. He grabbed the ball of red light immediately after.

  Red Eye acted immediately. He spewed out a green ripple that expanded in all directions. A black shadow was revealed in the ripple’s path, despite nothing being there.

  The Professor was revealed, but he did not hesitate at all. He sped up and charged toward the sign. His left hand reached out, grabbing the rim of light. His prepared right hand rose from his sleeve and pointed the silver flute at the other two. “I have a gift for you.”

  The music score within the flute was awoken. The icy melody burst out of thin air and instantly brought forth a freezing wave. Was he from the School of Modifications?

  Red Eye’s pupil moved. He flipped open the scroll before him, and the hymn sounded out of thin air. The pile of skeletons were yanked from the ground and dragged toward the overwhelming cold tide, but the tide passed through the wall like an apparition and it swept away everything except for Red Eye and the robin!

  This was not Modifications—this was Illusions! Red Eye realized it immediately, but he was submerged in the hallucinatory melody. This was the trap that the Professor had set just for them! In an instant, layers and layers of frosty hallucinations surrounded him. A wind vane, a river of frozen tears, a Bodhi tree, a recollection, a ghostly fire, a spring dream, loneliness, a street sign, an inn…

  Perfect “mental images” rushed into his mind one after another, invading his thoughts. There was the freezing winter wind, or the flowing icy river, or the frosted Bodhi tree, or the eerie, ghostly fire. Then it became a gentle spring dream and he felt so lonely…In an instant, his mind was torn to pieces. He had been swallowed by the hallucination without his permission.

  This was Winterreise, written by Saint Schubert of the School of Illusions. In the freezing winter, it was like an endless dreamlike travel. This music score was not the most destructive, but even the most powerful musician would be trapped by the twenty-four cages. He would never be able to leave once he fell in. Red Eye was caged in by the illusion immediately, but it gave the robin a sliver of a second to escape.

  The layers of guards around the robin burst and blocked the cold tide. Then, a black robin flew out from his pocket. The phantom beast had taken the blow from the illusion for its master. The pieces of consciousness in its mind had been killed by the hallucination, destroying the bird instantly. The robin, however, was unharmed. He had escaped from the trap that the Professor had planned for so long!

  No one had expected the robin to be a musician from the School of Summoning! Sparks floated from his fingertip and flew toward the corpses surrounding him…When the sparks wormed into the corpses’ noses and mouths, the bodies swelled up. Burning light could be seen under the skin, as if the blood and flesh had been ignited. In an instant, the corpses were nothing but empty bags of skin. A tidal wave of sparks surged from their pores, charging toward the Professor. It was a swarm of phosphorescent insects. It was harmless to dead objects, but it was the natural enemy to living flesh!

  The Professor’s movements did not change. He still charged directly toward the sign, not caring about the tidal wave of phosphorescence at all. Something rippled through the swarm, and a giant boom sounded. Light danced wildly as a burning figure ran through it all.

  The Professor had pushed through the torture from the insects and used his demonic blood to fight against their gnawing. After sacrificing so much, he was only a finger’s breadth away from the blood light!

  The robin had miscalculated! Shock flashed through his eyes, but he quickly grew ruthless again. Gritting his teeth, he slid the ring off his forefinger and tossed it in the air. “If you want to take everything straight on, then try taking this!” he thought.

  The ring flew toward the Professor. The inlaid ruby cracked soundlessly and turned to powder. An eye appeared in the crystal light of the gem’s powder. It was the Fleeting Glimpse! Endless malice and wildness seeped from the single eye. It was practically tangible. The Professor shook as if he had been struck by lightning. His body stopped abruptly, and he quickly tried to escape.

  Under the stare of the “eye,” the Professor’s palm shattered bit by bit, turning into a pile of deformed flesh. His entire body was tainted by the gray aura of defeat, and seemed to be close to toppling over. His shield was useless, his defense was useless, his caution was useless…Gazed upon by that eye, all defense was meaningless.

  Even though the Professor had dodged it quickly, he had barely escaped being turned to ashes! If he was not powerful in both Mind and Illusions, he would have gone mad already and become a fanatic follower of the eye…

  “The Eye of Satan!”

  The Professor fell to the ground and broke his own left shoulder. The warped arm dropped onto the ground and started moving like a living thing, crawling around. It had become a dependent of Satan!

  How did the robin have an eye from Satan Hyakume? This was a fleeting glance cast at humanity from the god that was responsible for sin and evil. It was enough to destroy any mortal being! In an instant, the tides had been turned.

  “This was specifically prepared for you uninvited guests! How does it feel, Mr. Moriarty?” The robin began cackling as he looked down on the writhing Professor.

  He reached out to catch the descending ball of blood light. As it was about to be in his hands, his smile became distorted in excitement. No matter how hard anyone tried, it belonged to him and would always be his! No one would be able to take it away from him!

  “Wow, you’re laughing so happily! Did something good happen?” a youth’s voice suddenly rang in the darkness.

  Boom! The entire laboratory shook as if a giant had smashed down his hammer. The air pressure changed dramatically, and a furious wind swept through all directions.

  In an instant, the shaking sigh turned the dome to pieces, and the heavy shards fell to the ground, whistling. As the broken pieces
flew, the wild mutants poured in endlessly from the darkness, charging toward the robin. Then the Vengeful Spirit descended from the sky, going straight for the blood-red sign!

  “What a nice thing. It’s mine now!”

  169 Despicable Demon!

  Seeing that the descending shadow was about to steal his sign, the robin roared mournfully, “In your dreams!” As he roared, an endless wave of black birds flew from his sleeves. These black robins spread their wings and soared into the sky with angry caws. As the phosphorescent insects continued to dance, the robins were painted with a layer of firelight. The flames were ice blue and radiated with frigidity. Everything in the path of these cold flames, even the stone tiles, were turned to mud. This was what the phantom beast Robin truly looked like!

  “Really?” Faced with the wave of robins, Ye Qingxuan opened his mouth and smiled. Between his teeth, the Crystal of Virtue glittered.

  With a crack, he broke and swallowed half of the crystal. Then he gripped his cane and showed the gem on the cane to the robin. Lightning flashed through the gem, as if it was a projection of a thunderous world. “Do not turn the three realms into ashes!”

  In the next moment, the black clouds over Avalon city resonated with his voice. The gods had been angered! Lightning poured from the cane like a tsunami. It swallowed the cold flames and transformed the entire laboratory into a hell of furious electric light. The extreme light and heat illuminated all the demons.

  “Holmes!” The robin’s expression changed dramatically, and he squeezed out the words from his mouth. “You b*stard…”

  He charged forward, not caring that he was rushing toward destructive lightning. He was going to charge and take back his Blood Path sign, even if there was the risk of being turned to ashes.

  The destructive light swallowed everything.

  When the light faded, Ye Qingxuan was on the ground. Even with the Crystal of Virtue, the extreme blood loss still made it hard to breathe. On the other hand, the robin was burnt to crisp and badly injured. But he held the blood light in his hands. He had gotten the sign to the Blood Path!

  “Haha haha!” Even though he had fallen to this sad state, he still could not hold in his laughter when he saw Ye Qingxuan. “You can try to take it but it’s mine! Mine!”

  “Really?” Ye Qingxuan chuckled and raised his hand, showing the robin what was in it. “Then what’s this?”

  The laugher cut off abruptly. The robin gaped at what was in Ye Qingxuan’s hand and then back at his own blood light. What was this?!

  Ye Qingxuan held a blood light identical to what the robin had! In the moment of fighting, the blood light had been split into two? The robin took one half, while the other was now Ye Qingxuan’s! They split it equally?

  “What the f*ck!” The robin could not accept this reality…F*cking why? He had worked so hard for five years, putting in mental and physical work, planning and strategizing, pressured by the Royal family and the Shaman’s attacks. He had risked being caught by the Royal Musicians, and finally had hope for success…but now someone else had taken half the reward! How was this fair?! And he did not know if he could activate the Blood Path with just half the sign!

  The bloody light finally dissipated in Ye Qingxuan’s hand, revealing its true shape. It was a crystal clear ornament, like a conch carved from jade.

  “You b*stard! Give me the sign!” the robin roared, gripping his half of the conch. “You think you’re good enough to take my things?!”

  “Of course. The treasures of the world belong to the virtuous!” Ye Qingxuan stuffed the conch into his pocket shamelessly. “This was my bench in a past life. It belongs in my pocket. Don’t even think about taking it. And anyway, you dark musicians have wretched lives. Do you think you can handle it?”

  “You—you…” Under the mask, the robin’s face turned purple in anger. His vision had gone dark, and he felt the urge to cough up blood.

  “Silence!” Ye Qingxuan interrupted, glaring at him. “You despicable demon, how dare you fight with me? Do you feel no shame?!”

  “Good, good!” The robin cackled in anger. He listened to the commotion coming from afar, as well as the Royal musician’s music, and his eyes hardened. “Even if you have half of the sign, you might not be able to keep it…”

  Shrill music came from his broken sleeves, and the dying embers on the ground shook abruptly. Fiery blue robins jumped from the flames as if a gate had been opened. Hundreds upon thousands of robins flew out endlessly. They spread their wings, grouped, and swarmed toward Ye Qingxuan!

  Ye Qingxuan’s expression changed. He raised his cane to activate Indra’s Eye again, but the surging fire suddenly shook and disappeared. The robin had vanished in the dissipating flames…He escaped?

  Ye Qingxuan was stunned. He let out a sigh in relief, but he was still a bit upset. “Where’s your courage?” he thought. “I saw you as a man and was going to fight to the death!” But then he realized what the guy had wanted to do. How could he forget? There was still trouble here…

  He raised his head slowly and glanced at the one-armed figure. The crippled arm was regenerating from the flesh. Ye Qingxuan looked at the blood-red conch in his pocket and then at the sharp sword peeking out of the other’s sleeve.

  He sighed. “No way, more fighting?” The sword thrusted toward him!

  -

  “It’s so funny seeing dogs fighting each other!” In a hidden room, the robin watched coldly at the fighting figures in the water mirror. He sneered. “I don’t care if it’s the Professor, Holmes, or those Royal musicians. They won’t get it!”

  “The sign was stolen?” The remains of a head trembled in his hands and shook off the hallucinatory frost. A bloody eye opened. Red Eye had escaped from the cage.

  “Just half of it.” The robin swallowed the expensive medicine and his burnt skin began to flake off, his flesh regenerating. He stared coldly at Red Eye. “What use are you if a mere illusion can trap you?”

  “A mere illusion? That’s the winter hell created by the Saint Schubert. In its full extent, it can leave a reflection in the aether world!” Red Eye said hoarsely. “If the Professor hadn’t been defeated by the satanic eye, I would’ve probably died in there. I can’t believe he has weaknesses like that. This guy’s powers keep fluctuating…”

  “Whatever.” The robin’s eyes were icy. “Awaken your spare body.”

  Red Eye was taken aback. Hesitation flashed past his eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “Is there anything more important than the Blood Path sign now? Do you want those royal musicians to take everything we’ve accomplished?” The robin gazed at him gravely. “Awaken the spares and activate the praise ritual.”

  Under that stare, Red Eye hesitated but acquiesced. “…As you wish, my lord.”

  As Red Eye chanted quietly, the Codex Calixtinus opened slowly. It reached its peak in an instant. The ritual book that depicted the feast in Hell and chaotic killing had nothing in the end. There was only a black eye. It seemed to stare into the human world from a deep abyss. The messy sketch harnessed an immeasurable amount of wild darkness.

  “The long night has arrived,” he heard something murmur from the abyss.

  170 Elegy Memorial

  In the final laboratory, swords brandished. The sounds of notes exploding came constantly. A thin nine-foot-long blade shot out of the Professor’s sleeve and fell on the ground. Like a snake dancing, it weaved layers of dreamy coldness. The notes engraved on the blade lit up continuously, dazzling one’s eyes and confusing them. If one became lost in it, one might shatter into pieces from one moment of absent mindedness.

  “By the way, don’t you think that I’ve improved a lot?” Compared to the pathetic escape last time, Ye Qingxuan dodged more easily this time.

  With the reading and interpretation of perception threads and the modified “steel skeleton,” he dealt with the blades and notes easily while trying to distract the Professor by endlessly spouting nonsense.

  “Sorry.
It seems that I spoil your plan every time we meet. But everything is gonna be okay, isn’t it? Look at me. You played me, but I’m not angry at all. I even saved you just now. Since we’re old friends, can’t we just take a seat and have a talk?”

  “Old friend?” The Professor scoffed. “Your friendship gives me insomnia…”

  “It’s okay. You friendless and eternally lonely people are always like this, I understand.” A cold light flashed in Ye Qingxuan’s eyes. “When I strip you and hang you later, we’ll be best friends forever.” With the swords intertwined, he took a sudden step forward and pounced onto the gorgeous cold light, as if embracing death.

  The Professor’s robe fluttered slightly, and the blade bounced like a snake. Dancing, it wrapped around Ye Qingxuan, layer by layer. It would then be tightened in a second and he would be torn to shreds.

  At that moment, Ye Qingxuan raised his arms. The plain black armor on it glowed with burning red light.

  Boom! The ‘Sigh’ had finally cooled down and unleashed a frantic quake once again! In a blink of an eye, it was as if a balloon had exploded. The bloody air suddenly swelled, forming strong wind pressure, and blowing in all directions.

  The tornado swept by, flicking away the tightened blade. Ye Qingxuan’s fingers tightened instantly, two fingers clamping on the drifting blade of the sword with perfect timing.

  Shakes rushed into the nine-foot blade like a tide, causing it tremble crazily and crack bit by bit. This dangerous weapon, which required extreme skill to manipulate, was practically out of control under the high pressure from the Sighing Sword.

  Under the hood, the Professor’s pupils dilated and he stepped back. A gloating light flickered in the youth’s.

  In the next moment, the black river, which gathered countless feelings of resentment and hatred from the mutants, expanded under Ye Qingxuan’s control. It was accompanied by a plaintive melody, suddenly winding toward the Professor. He had been waiting for this pause for a long time.