Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  Lola suddenly had the urge to kill him.

  Ye Qingxuan pretended nothing was wrong while listening closely. He heard a song.

  A boy’s youthful voice sounded in his ears again. Like a dead spirit, he sang quietly, “The king and his helpers kidnapped the queen, imprisoning her in dreams. We have power and the sea so which direction should we wander…The bell has already rung in the cemetery. Did you hear the eerie song? Respond to our calls, the blood debt will be paid…”

  The song sounded faintly again, but then disappeared like a hallucination. This thing undoubtedly had a definite relationship to Avalon’s Shadow. But what mystery was hidden inside? And what did that chilling song mean?

  He did not understand.

  The song disappeared after that one time and did not reappear no matter how Ye Qingxuan waited. It was as if the curse haunting the hat had left, dissipating with the rotting scent. The wrinkled surface became smooth again after the dust fell off.

  It had returned to its original graceful and elegant appearance. The dim music score inside the hat brightened again, waiting to be called upon.

  “It seems that this is its true appearance. What did you do?”

  “I don’t know. I just struck a pose. I guess it likes to see me pretend to be cool,” Ye Qingxuan praised himself shamelessly, however, his eyes twitched. Seeing something inside the brim, he reached in and felt a line of slightly protruding words. Too much time had passed so the silver thread had turned black, making it difficult to make out.

  Relying on the touch, Ye Qingxuan subconsciously sounded out the words, “There is a limit to man’s power and he must obey the boundaries.”

  This was one of the vows for a musician set by the first three kings. Every musician must abide by them. But why were they carved here? Unless…

  He froze and his smile stiffened. “Unless this was the spell to activate the hat.”

  Putting weird and mysterious alchemy equipment on his head was one thing. Being close to uttering its activation chant…This could definitely be in the top ten of “One Hundred Dumb Ways to Die for a Musician.”

  He subconsciously tried to take his hat off but it was too late. The world went black. All he could hear was a crisp sound. And then the sky fell down!

  The experience at that moment was painfully pleasing. It was indescribable. It felt as if someone hacked a giant hole into his head with a hammer. Then, something like mercury was forcefully poured in. An immense amount of runes and images flashed past his eyes, drowning him. Inheritance of a heart mark?

  This should definitely be the inheritance of a heart mark but why was this so weird. Did they want to kill him? He fell unconscious before he could react.

  After who knows how long, he opened his eyes and found himself on a metal bed. He saw the pale white light of a shadow-less light.

  “How long was I out?”

  “One full hour.” Lola grasped a cup with two hands and looked down on him. “You wasted another of my recovery medicines.”

  “Sorry.” Ye Qingxuan rubbed his swollen forehead and got up with difficulty. “My brain is a little messed up.”

  “Seems like it really is the heart mark inheritance.” Lola looked at him gleefully. “The bad thing about old-fashioned alchemy equipment is that the load is too heavy. What school is it?”

  “Ancient…School of the Stone Heart…it combined Abstinence and Modifications,” he said with pauses in between as he searched through all the new information in his brain. “We weren’t wrong. The hat is its inheritance ceremony. Its previous owner is…the first concertmaster of the Royal Musician Division, Andrea Casiraghi. Unfortunately, there isn’t more information related to the user. There aren’t any more records on Avalon’s Shadow. The music score carved in this comes from…the Requiem?” Taken aback, he carefully distinguished the aether music score in his memories and let out a long breath. “It’s the Requiem!”

  “Which Requiem?”

  “What else can it be? Of course it’s the Requiem composed by Mozart, King of Yellow, which the Royal Academy of Music uses for its enchantment!”

  Ye Qingxuan waved his fists in excitement. This reward alone made all his dangerous life-or-death experiences worth it! Worth it? No, he had hit jackpot!

  “Don’t get happy so soon,” Lola dampened his excitement. “Which movement does the score come from? It’ll be fun if it’s Dies irae. It’s a supersized forbidden score that requires more than three orchestras in coherence to play. We’re not enough even if you sap us dry.”

  “It’s ‘Holy’.” Ye Qingxuan felt the aether waves in the hat with his eyes closed. “This piece is called ‘Holy’. It seems that its effect is protection abandonment.”

  After a short silence, Lola nodded slowly. “This is one of the most famous core elements of the School of Abstinence. It really does have the School of Stone Heart’s style. You’ve really gotten lucky. It’s the prototype of the School of Abstinence’s scepter. It can create a completely pure territory and reject any outer music theory. As a defensive music score, it is definitely one of the best. Furthermore, it can completely protect you against one fatal blow. It’s a savior for musicians.”

  Ye Qingxuan instantly grew overjoyed. “So I’ll be able to do whatever I want now?”

  “If you can bear its burden.” Lola glanced at him with pitiful eyes. “You probably can’t wear it past…thirty seconds at your current level.”

  “…”

  “Don’t just stand there. What else is there? What else did the heart mark inheritance say?” Lola asked. “The School of Stone Heart went extinct after appearing during King Arthur’s reign. Maybe the reason is in the inheritance.”

  “What else? There’s also…” Ye Qingxuan searched through his memories and recited seriously, “:?xt=urn:btih:WCJX3P5C5HZT26SKSHMWTD7WJW4LPM3Y…huh? Is this a password?”

  “This should be the result after transforming music notes into binary numbers and modified with music theory. Its purpose is to ensure that others won’t know about its secret core technique.”

  “It must be something good! Let me do it! I’ll finish decoding in three hours!” Ye Qingxuan’s eyes brightened and he excitedly climbed out of bed, not caring that a medicine bag was still hanging to him. “These century-old tricks are outdated. Do you have pen and paper?”

  Lola shook her head helplessly and gave him the pen and paper. She also placed a translation dictionary of the lingua franca from one hundred years ago on the table before he could ask. And so the room fell silent once again.

  Ye Qingxuan began focusing on the decoding and moved quickly. It was from years ago but the changes in sentence structure and music theory were headache-inducing. There was a multitude of problems. However, the further he went, the more excited he became. His eyes practically shone. He was so focused he had forgotten everything else.

  Beside him, Lola gazed at his expression. She sighed after a long while. “You’re growing more obsessed with decoding. If you continue…do you really want to be a scholar?”

  “To be honest, I haven’t considered it.”

  “Huh?” Lola was taken aback. “Never?”

  Ye Qingxuan looked up and, after thinking, asked, “Lola, did you ever think about what you wanted to become when you were a kid?”

  After a pause, Lola nodded. “Yes.”

  “Same with me. When I was little, I wanted to be a toy buyer. When I matured, I wanted to inherit the family business. After the catastrophe, I wanted to become a filial son. Then later, I wanted to become a priest. I wanted to pray for those who had died and live in a rural church until my death.

  “Those are all pretty good, aren’t they? Now that you mention it, I think being a scholar is pretty good too. But these are just for thinking. Anyway, for me, a lot of things are like that.” He paused and chuckled. “Just think about it and that’s it. It’ll never happen so you don’t need to think too much.”

  Lola fell silent. Seeing the youth’s self-deprecating expr
ession, she wanted to speak but stopped herself and looked away as if avoiding something. For some reason, she suddenly felt sad.

  The only sound in the silence was the pencil scratching against paper. After some time, Ye Qingxuan set down his pencil. He stretched and moaned happily.

  “Done! Lola, come look.”

  Lola snapped out of her thoughts and accepted the stack of notes Ye Qingxuan offered. Her expression grew stunned. “The Sub-Originator Theory? You’ve really taken back something impressive.”

  262 Sub-Originator Theory

  The Sub-Orginator Theory. Its full name should be “The Exploration and Production Method of the Sub-Originator Within the Human Body.” This was the technique passed down from the School of Stone Heart, which had abruptly declined centuries ago. It contained a large amount of music theory and related scores that Ye Qingxuan sorely needed after entering the School of Abstinence. However, the most important was the core technology—the production method of the sub-originator.

  The School of Stone Heart had fallen from its status as a major branch of the School of Abstinence in a few decades because they had lost this technology, making it unable to be passed down.

  The Originator was the basis of the world, the core of the aether world, the source of the sea of aether, the birthplace of all music theory and miracles, and the location of all power and mysteries of the world. So many people dreamed of finding it.

  Musicians had studied it day and night for countless years. After the pioneers of the saints and three kings, they established the foundation for the seven schools of musicians. These seven paths of aether led to the Originator.

  Within these seven schools, there were hundreds of different theories and views with countless of research directions. One of them was the School of Abstinence branch that had been renowned for a time: the School of Stone Heart.

  This school did not have many members and its music theory was mostly secretive. This was the School of Abstinence’s unique point. They did not focus on appearances and just explored music theory fervently, searching for the aether’s pattern. Thus, the others did not truly understand their direction of research and music scores. They were also the most mysterious of the seven major schools.

  The School of Stone Heart’s research direction was known as the sub-originator. This was a concept they suggested in contrast to the world’s Originator—every human body contained a sub-originator.

  By opening up, developing, grasping, and strengthening its power, a musician could store large amounts of aether inside their bodies. There was no need for outside help.

  “With this as the fulcrum, one can lever open the sea of aether. One day, we will resonate with the Originator, and join the unknown.” This was how the original creator had described it in the book.

  “It truly is a good idea, but unfortunately,” Lola could not help but shake her head, “It’s impossible.” The sub-originator theory had natural restrictions.

  Ancient Eastern musicians had done similar research, which was the research of the ‘dantian.’ A distinguished work even suggested that the ‘zifu,’‘tanzhong,’ and ‘danfu’ were one. If one ingested mercury and lead, one could open three sub-originators simultaneously…but what of it?

  Even if one took illegal drugs, used up one’s life, and opened one-hundred and eight sub-originators in their bodies, what would happen? Mankind had its limitations.

  The saying that man would win against nature was nonsense. Mankind had natural limits, so how could it be compared to the sea of aether? In theory, it was not impossible to develop the sub-originator so that it could resonate with the Originator; however, later experiments found that its success rate was a few thousand ‘zeros’ after a decimal point, and then a lonely ‘one.’ And then add a percentage sign at the end. It was a dead end.

  However, Lola sank into a long silence after finishing reading. She had never expected the School of Stone Heart could achieve so much in a dead end. They had reached the peak of findings on the sub-originator. They were able to develop their own aether by opening up the sub-originator within their bodies and use precious materials to push the strength to its max. In the end, it was transformed into a strong ‘heart.’

  Different from the flesh heart, this was the ‘stone heart.’ With this, musicians could temporarily use more than ten times the strength they had and perform music scores above their level!

  There was even a technique to assimilate their instruments with their own aether. By aether-izing their instruments and storing it in their stone hearts, the heart would become a cavity, creating a unique instrument.

  Seeing this technique, even Lola was tempted. Unfortunately, she could only learn from these techniques. She had her own path and music theory. If she tried to use it forcefully, it would be painful and impractical. Her damaged symphony of predestination would break down once again.

  Furthermore, the materials needed to realize the theory was ridiculous. Merely opening up a sub-originator was enough to bankrupt her. The materials needed for strengthening the aether was like a bottomless hole. No amount of money was enough.

  “It’s a good plan but too expensive.” Gritting her teeth, she set it down. “Yezi, can you find something more useful next time?”

  “Don’t you think this stuff suits me?” Ye Qingxuan glanced at her with something like a smile. “It might be useless to you but it’s perfect for me!”

  “In your dreams!” Lola snickered. “First, you need to develop a medium that has the nature of aether and blood at the same time. Where are you going to steal such a precious thing? Of the dozens of formulas, not one is easy to find. You’ll spend up to three-hundred thousand just to find the rare material. Then you must hire an alchemist to refine it and the failure rate goes without saying!

  “In addition, the possibility of death when implanting it into one’s body with our current technology is more than seventy percent! Only rich people who want to die choose to undergo this type of surgery!”

  “But I don’t need surgery.” Ye Qingxuan tugged down his collar, showing Lola the bite mark on his neck.

  Lola froze.

  “From a certain aspect, I already have what’s needed since birth, right?” Ye Qingxuan smiled secretively. “I don’t think there’s a ‘medium’ more suitable than the Deva’s blood within me.”

  -

  It was already late at night when Ye Qingxuan returned to school. The rebuilt history department was silent; everyone was asleep. Of course, ‘everyone’ did not include Charles.

  He was about to graduate and suddenly did not have stress anymore. His sleeping habits were completely messed up too, and he had become a full nocturnal creature. He slept during the day and went out to drink and eat at night. He just ate and slept all day but would not gain any weight. In fact, he grew more handsome.

  Ye Qingxuan could only say…life was unfair.

  “Hey! Yezi, you’re back.” Charles waved at him with a beer bottle. “You’re just like Bai Xi, always going out to play. I don’t see you for the entire day. Come, come, drink with me!”

  “Uh, I was studying in the library.” Ye Qingxuan coughed awkwardly. Sitting down, he asked, “Senior, how was the recruitment interview?”

  “Pretty good. I’m going to work tomorrow.”

  “Senior, don’t feel dejected. The institutes that recruit in school are usually stricter. Even if you’re rejected, it’s not…Ach!” Halfway through, Ye Qingxuan spat out the water in his mouth. “You passed? You’re going to work tomorrow? Where? The Musician’s Union? The military? Or did you give up on yourself and sign up for the Dark World exploration team?”

  “Calm down and listen to me.” Charles could not help but excited as he spoke. “Here’s what happened. Yesterday, I went to the Royal Research Institute…”

  The Royal Research Institute? Ye Qingxuan could not help but laugh. This was the place all theory musicians fantasized about; it was every graduate’s dream. It only had one opening annually
and its interview was extremely strict. They would check up to three generations of the family and had fastidious requirements on morals and experience. No one had been accepted for more than three years. Even so, it was still filled with hopeful interviewees each year!

  “Senior, you really were confident.”

  “Right? You have to have big dreams. Stop getting off topic and listen to me.” Charles’s expression turned serious. “So the Royal Research Institute came to recruit yesterday, right? So I just went to see! And guess what?”

  Ye Qingxuan froze. “What?”

  “It was packed!” Charles gestured exaggeratedly and sighed. “I knew from one glance that there was no way for me. I planned on leaving after walking around, but then at the back, I saw an old guy. He was pretending to be cool by wearing a doctor’s coat and was sitting on the wall eating grapes!

  “It looked so familiar. Then I realized that it was the cluster from the School of Revelations that I’d been waiting for two months! That guy stole my food from me, such blasphemy! I was so pissed!”

  “And then what?” Ye Qingxuan’s scalp felt numb.

  “What else could I do?” Charles shot a judging glance at him. “I went up and beat him up. He stole my food! I hit him until his nose bled. You weren’t there but a lot of people cheered me on.”

  “…” Ye Qingxuan was speechless now. Charles really had the talent of causing trouble wherever he went! It was a feat to return in one piece! Even if there were one-hundred of him, it was no enough to worry over Charles.

  “But that old guy was actually happy to get beat up. He seriously said to me, ‘Very good. You successfully caught my attention. Now I can give you a chance to show me your resume.’”

  “And then?”

  “And then I beat him up again.” Charles shrugged helplessly. “Why are people so fake? He was that beat up but he was still pretending. He was just a janitor but thought he could be Newton in that doctor’s coat!”

  “…” Ye Qingxuan almost spat out blood. “And then?”

  “And then I thought he had good taste, even though he stole my grapes, so I decided to show him my resume.” Charles took it out and pointed proudly at the mass formula he had come up with a few days ago. “Look at this amazing research and world-changing discovery! That guy saw it and ran like he saw a ghost. If I reacted slower and didn’t snatch my resume back, I wouldn’t have even gotten to apply!”