Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  In the midfield, the light spots in Ye Qingxuan’s hands flowed out like a faucet and scattered in all directions. The speed was incredible. The energy usage was large, but the effects were fast as well. Within ten minutes, the entire field was covered in traps. The touch-activated music notes connected with each other, creating a mind-numbing formation.

  Under the student council’s full-out attack, Bench Guy finally showed signs of breaking down. He began retreating and dodging those students’ forceful music. After all, he would be forced off the field if he was not careful…

  Finally, as the student council began closing in, Bench Guy sighed helplessly. He retreated and no longer blocked their attacks. If he continued, he would probably cut his lifespan in half.

  Seeing that he moved to the side so easily, the spectators suddenly felt a pity for him, but he had already worked hard enough to face them alone for so long. No one thought that he was slacking off.

  Seeing that Bench Guy had given up on stealing the ball and had given them a free pass, Cullen ignored him and went straight for midfield. If he kept dragging things on, there might be more problems. Who knew what tricks the Eastern kid had?

  The student council finally released their crushing power and recovered their aggressive attitude. Their fans in the audience instantly began cheering, but when they saw the dense traps, they grew hesitant. The notes were all single-use notes and were not very powerful, but would be troublesome once activated.

  The white-haired kid was also especially crafty with the formation. They were basically all connected in a domino effect with no blind spots. Stepping on one would cause a whole area to explode. It was as if nails had been strewn all over the field, but Cullen did not have the time to worry about them. It would take forever to undo the notes one by one.

  Cullen glanced back at his teammates. The student who had already undergone Deva sensing and was a formal musician moved past Banner, who had the ball, and ran to the front. He charged straight into the traps! Explosions sounded instantly.

  But before that, a melody wrapped around his body and played abruptly. Under the passionate music, the student’s skin turned into a metallic rock color. His height instantly shot up and transformed into the rock giant Gigalith. The melody intensified again as he roared. A shapeless burst of air spread from his body.

  Boom! The explosion of air swept through, instantly activating all the traps. Frost rays, air, fire, erosion, ice, explosions…Hundreds of music notes were set off instantly. The power from the explosion converged under the guide of the chain reaction. It was comparable to a regular music score.

  But had the musician really chosen to forcefully absorb the shock? The string of explosions and light instantly swallowed him. When he rushed past the danger zone, his body was covered in wounds. His melody had been interrupted too, and the backlash of the music theory made him dizzy. He stumbled and could not move after a few steps; he sat down and panted in exhaustion.

  He had not cared about any restraints, targeting or dodging. He had just charged forcefully. No wonder he was from the School of Modifications! He had taken everything in stride.

  The trap zone had been devastated too and completely emptied. On the field, Egor nodded lightly. He was not angered by the practically mindless tactic, but sighed as he looked at the exhausted musician. “What a determined child.”

  As an important figure in the team, sacrificing oneself when needed was one of a musician’s responsibilities. Cullen had made the decision in an instant to use his main force here in order to destroy the history department as fast as possible. Clearly, the student council was very determined.

  Seeing their ferocity as each rushed over with almost suicidal determination, even Ye Qingxuan with his tricks felt a headache coming.

  “Yezi, what should we do?” Charles asked.

  The youth thought for a moment and sighed. “Seems like I underestimated them.” Soon, the white-haired youth moved away from the student council. He did not block them at all and just let them charge forward. “Senior, move away. Let them have this goal.” Having witnessed the student council’s determination, he gave up on the pointless defense and sighed. He had grown naïve after the recent success and thought that everything would work as he had planned. But once his opponent took things seriously, he did not know what to do. Whatever! He would just see it as treating them to dinner. He gritted his teeth and thought, “Welcome and come play!”

  Confused noises sounded in the spectator stands. No one had thought that Ye Qingxuan would just move aside like this! But then a piercing roar sounded behind them, giving them no time to marvel over anything.

  The beastly roar sounded out of thin air. Then, with a rumble, something soared toward the white-haired youth’s back, which was completely unguarded and open in the attack! Instantly, everything fell silent. Everyone looked toward midfield in shock. It was Banner, who had completely transformed into a beast.

  What…was this?

  The moment the beastly roar had sounded, Cullen’s scalp went numb and he knew that things had gone wrong. When he saw that Banner, who was at the front for offense, had rushed toward Ye Qingxuan, he knew that it was too late. It was over.

  His vision went dark and he felt heavy remorse. Banner had not planned on listening to any commands since the beginning. He had sunk too deeply into hatred and could not see anything else. And so, he had used the taboo technique of “beast fusion!”

  Under the crazed and disorderly melody, the manticore roared and transformed into a writhing black shadow. It slammed into Banner’s body and Banner’s eyes instantly turned red as he roared like a beast. The thin youth had instantly transformed into a giant demon with fiery wings and black fur!

  This was “beast fusion”—a technique that musicians had taken from werewolves. The Romulus people had wandered across the world after their country had been destroyed by a natural catastrophe and were known as the wolf people. Because they were cursed by the natural catastrophe and lived in eternal pain, their bodies contained hundred times the beastly nature than the average man.

  The beastly nature would awake once per month and turn them into crazed werewolves, unable to resist their thirst for blood and death. After dissecting and analyzing many werewolves, Summoning musicians extracted the technique from them and modified it for themselves.

  By forcefully fusing themselves together with their phantom beasts, they could instantly receive the beastly strength and transform into a killing machine. But the beastly nature was too powerful, and one could easily fall into darkness and turn into a dark musician. Thus, this technique soon became forbidden, but many Summoning musicians would learn it secretly and use it at the most critical point or…just in case.

  But no matter what, it was a taboo and something Summoning musicians should never be allowed to touch. No one had imagined that Banner would know this technique and use it in broad daylight just so…just so he could rip the youth before him into shreds!

  Cullen had thought that he was reasonable and that Banner would listen to him, but he had forgotten that Banner was not his follower—Banner was Gavin’s brother. This guy had never cared about Cullen’s warnings…There was no time to be angry. He tried to stop Banner, but it was too late.

  Too late.

  Too late.

  It was already too late.

  He saw Ye Qingxuan turn around, his pupil reflecting the beast that was Banner. The large shadow swallowed Ye Qingxuan before he could even struggle…

  There was a fulmination and the wild waves of aether transformed into a hurricane, lifting the broken grass from the ground. The fire that shot out of Banner’s mouth blinded everyone’s eyes. They could only hear the continuous roars from the beast, and the cracking sounds that followed.

  An explosion, and an explosion, and an explosion, and another explosion.

  There was the fanatic music score, the piercing melody and finally, the youth’s hoarse roar.

  The audience’s faces
paled instantly. Some girls already started screaming in fright. In the stands, Egor jumped up subconsciously. The power of the four elements wind, water, fire, and earth shone and spun in his hands, forming a faint black hole. Dazzling light brewed in the darkness of the hole. He disliked the history department’s ways, but he could not allow a student to be killed in such a cruel way in front of him.

  Ludwig’s eyes shone with the light of a beast as well. He growled and summoned a dragon eagle out of thin air. It flew down to force them apart.

  Ingmar did not move. There was no joy in his eyes, but rather more and more…anger? “A joke.” He stood and left with flapping robe sleeves.

  The principal did not move either. He sat in his chair without any movement. In fact, he even forcefully stopped the two coaches’ interferences.

  Egor looked at him in shock. “Mr. Principal?!”

  “Don’t worry.” The principal chuckled. “Something interesting is going to happen.”

  -

  On the field, there was an instantaneous boom and dust rolled. Fire, light, and the beastly roars shot out continuously. The fierce single-sided killing at centerfield finally ended. A scorched figure rolled out of it all.

  Everyone yelped in surprise as they stared at the wounded figure. Soon, there was uproar. No matter if it was coaches or the spectators, everyone yelled in shock. The one who was scorched and covered in wounds was…Banner!

  He rolled pathetically on the ground, as if some terrifying power had tossed him out. He crashed and practically rolled off field. The manticore jumped out of his body and the beastly fusion was forced to an end. The phantom beast disappeared soon after, dissipating in the air.

  He raised his head in anger and roared, staring at the rolling smoke. When he looked at the figure walking out of it, his eyes were filled with terror and confusion, rather than hate. “You aren’t Ye Qingxuan!” he growled hoarsely as he glared at the figure slowly walking out. “Who…are you…”

  The man walked out of the thick fog without any hurry. His clothes had been burnt and he coughed because of the smoke. “Who am I?” The figure walked out of the dust and revealed his white hair. “Aren’t I the unlucky b*stard that you want to kill?”

  The wounded youth shone under the sun, revealing the shadow hidden behind him. With a flash, the face and white hair grew blurry, as if it was behind a blurry lens. With another flash, the illusion broke down completely.

  Finally, the man under the disguise showed himself. Under the sun, the burnt concrete block around his head showed signs of cracking and crumbling.

  The crowd cheered and booed.

  It was Bench Guy!

  216 Perfect Illusion

  “Impossible!” Cullen could not help but yell when he saw the man clearly. How could he not be Ye Qingxuan?! He had clearly seen that it was definitely Ye Qingxuan! Why was it that Ye Qingxuan had been hit, but the one who walked out of the fog was…

  “F*ck!” He spun around to look in the direction where Bench Guy had been. Directly behind them, beside their goal…the youth with a concrete block on his head was clumsily kicking the forgotten soccer ball and strolling toward their goal.

  “Yo! Did you finally realize?” Sensing their gazes, the student with the headgear looked back, waved and kicked!

  Goal! The referee was too shocked to blow the whistle, but no one would deny that the history department had scored another point! But, what was this?!

  Under everyone’s stunned eyes, the “Bench Guy” slowly took off his headgear, and revealed the trademark white hair and mocking smile. “It’s just a headpiece. There’s no reason to be surprised, right?”

  Finally, everyone realized that Ye Qingxuan had changed identities with Bench Guy at some time…and no one on the field could tell the difference!

  “As the saying goes, it’s the darkest under the light.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “I have the same uniform, the same body, and height, but how come you guys got mixed up when I put on a headpiece?”

  “When…” Banner gaped at him with red eyes and roared, “When did you switch?!”

  Ye Qingxuan gazed at his crazed expression and shook his head, sighing in sympathy. “Idiot, of course, it was at the beginning.” The one who had fought Banner, in the beginning, was not Ye Qingxuan! “You thought too highly of me.” Ye Qingxuan walked over and looked down on him. “How can I fight against the manticore or all those phantom beasts…It’s just that you mistook Bench Guy for me since the beginning.”

  “Illusion trick?” It finally dawned on Banner but he still could not accept it. “How can it be an illusion? The manticore can see through any illusion! How did you…”

  “Maybe, but you couldn’t. You thought Bench Guy was me at the beginning. Even if the manticore saw through the illusion, it wouldn’t find anything odd, right?” Ye Qingxuan shot him a glance. He shook his head and turned to leave. “The bottom line is, humans can only see what they want to see.”

  -

  He and Bench Guy had switched identities when he had released the beam of light and blinded everyone in the beginning. It was not just the soccer ball that was switched—he was also switched. The entire time, it was not Ye Qingxuan who had fought with Banner, but the disguised Bench Guy. This was the strategy he had discussed with Bench Guy yesterday.

  He knew clearly that Banner saw himself as the mortal enemy and would do anything to attack him at the beginning. Thus, he let Bench Guy, who was more powerful and had better attainments in music, take the beating; so that Ye Qingxuan could have the space to move.

  To do so, he must be prepared to quickly switch identities at the critical moment. All Ye Qingxuan had to do was put on a headpiece, which was easy. It was hard for Bench Guy to turn into Ye Qingxuan though because he had never learned music from the School of Illusion. But that was okay.

  At that time, Ye Qingxuan had laughed and waved a thin booklet. It was what Lola had given him and was the piece he had just learned—Winterreise- Die Nebensonnen, the phantom suns. Now, people finally heard the faint melody in the wind. It faded in and out of existence, resounding like a song in everyone’s hearts.

  “I saw three suns in the sky. I stared at the long and hard, and they stared at me too, as if unwilling to leave me…” The spiritual chant was like Cullen’s hymn. The aether echo would only appear after grasping the movement’s essence and be able to sing the mournful melody.

  Winterreise was Saint Schubert’s composition and was a highly regarded piece from the School of Illusion. It was comprised of twenty-four different movements, each with a different theme and power: Die Krähe, the crow which brought the premonition of death; Der Wegweiser, the signpost which made one lose direction; Der greise Kopf, the gray head that eroded the will to fight; Täuschung, deception which cast one into a trance…its last piece was Der Leiermann, the hurdy-gurdy man which, if played in full, could force someone down the ranks and become an unsuccessful, good-for-nothing musician for life.

  The penultimate piece was Die Nebensonnen, also known as the phantom sun. It represented “a nonexistent fantasy.” It could make one see what they wanted to see, even if it was a nonexistent sun. As long as the viewer did not suspect anything, he would quickly be drawn into it. In the end, he would be in too deep and completely unable to extract himself from it, no longer able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. The phantom sun, the nonexistent sun, the nonexistent hope…

  The School of Illusion referred to the essence of a music piece as the “fulcrum.” The illusion was able to exist in this world thanks to the fulcrum. And the fulcrum of Die Nebensonnen was pain. The pain that was brought forth by life had the name of Helplessness.

  Helpless. As long as one had this feeling, one would quickly be captured by the illusion and unable to escape. This was why Ye Qingxuan had said so much to Banner at the beginning to humiliate him. When Banner’s actions hurt Cullen and his teammates, they fell into the illusion as well.

  Therefore, the phantom sun shone on them, le
tting them see what they thought was real. Under all of this support, Ye Qingxuan’s illusion was practically perfect, as long as he did not speak.

  This was why Bench Guy did not say anything directly to Banner. If he did speak, he imitated the unclear and hoarse voice…because if he did speak and revealed his own voice, the enemy would sense his identity.

  Only Ingmar had realized instantly because the School of Revelations was the School of Illusion’s nemesis, but he could not do anything other than watch the student council be played by Ye Qingxuan. In the end, he left because he could not stand it any longer.

  -

  When Egor learned of this, he sucked in a cold breath involuntarily.

  “This kid…does not seem like Abraham’s student at all,” Ludwig lamented.

  “Yes.” Egor nodded. “No one would have thought that an Abstinence teacher could have a student that likes to make illusions.”

  “You misunderstood. That’s not what I mean.” Ludwig shook his head. “Even beasts have inherited genes. A dragon’s child is definitely a dragon. A venomous snake’s offspring can spit venom as well. But that Abraham is like a dying lion and he produced…” He paused and glanced at the youth on the field. He seemed to see an invisible web under the youth’s feet, as well as the enemies trapped in the web. They could not move no matter how they struggled. The prey’s energy was sapped bit by bit until they did in the asphyxiation—before that, even death was a dream.

  “…a student like a spider.” Ludwig sighed and looked away. Hopefully, it was a misconception.

  -

  Soon, someone broke the silence by slapping the chair’s armrest in fury. Hearing his angry voice, all professors felt a chill go down their spine and spread through their body. They looked toward the front in fear. It was the principal who was furious?

  “Enough! This is too much!” Maxwell stood and yelled angrily. Everyone blanched, but his next words made them incredulous. “How is this soccer?!” Maxwell demanded. “All of you are competing with music scores, but what about soccer? Where’s your soccer playing?! Where’s the soccer we agreed on? All of you are brutish. Where are your soccer skills? These ugly techniques are worse than stuffing the ball into the goal with your hands!”