Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  Behind his head, a red halo gradually solidified into a menacing shadow. It was Agni, the spirit of fire!

  The Copper Mountain roared and the Foehn wind billowed. The earth began to shake instantly as countless flames rose from the earth like an abruptly appearing forest. The blue flames transformed into solid spears and instantly swallowed the formation, piercing through it, evaporating it…The scalding temperature scattered with the wild wind, turning the place into a true hell.

  Sam walked forward within the forest of fire. Flames licked around him like a throne of molten iron.

  He was the incarnate of the spirit!

  Miller yelped as he gaped at Sam’s figure. “That guy’s able to bond with Agni like that?!”

  Baro had not expected for Sam to be this powerful and be acknowledged and deeply bonded with a spirit merely at the Resonance level!

  The skull in the saint’s hand slowly swept its gaze to Sam. Its song became mournful.

  The two warriors manning the chariots beside him suddenly shifted. Mud surged and their bodies reformed. This time, they were two priests with unclear features, war drums, and horns.

  349 Under the Shell

  Shocking waves of aether shot through. One of the priests beat the war drum. The drumbeats were desolate and bleak. The quagmire bubbled and six heads gradually rose from it. It was a giant six-headed snake. Dozens of meters tall, it was covered in dark green scales. It emanated coldness and pounced toward Sam.

  The other priest blew a horn. The blare was deafening and seemed to contain tangible malice and murderous intent. With the help of the horn, the clay warriors instantly sped up and strengthened. They attacked the musicians with crazed strength.

  The horn sound contained Mind music theory. At the same time, it eroded at the musicians’ will to fight. It magnified their fear to thousands times the original, causing them to panic.

  Within a few seconds, dozens were torn apart by the soldiers. They did not even have a complete body. No one had expected for there to be musicians hidden within the clay warrior battalion to provide large-scale help.

  The saint regained his upper hand. He raised the scepter. Though cracked, it radiated. Under the pressure of the scepter territory and the collision of music theories, the Hole of Destruction had contracted to half of its original size. It only knew how to swallow matter rather than defending itself. Its structure began falling apart and was close to collapsing.

  The skull in the saint’s other hand continued to chew on gold and sing hoarsely. Electric light shot out of its black eye sockets without stop. The lightning jumped through the crowd. Each flash evaporated an enemy.

  The lightning seemed to have a special sensory as well. It targeted those that it deemed musicians of special threats. Within a few seconds, six musicians had been swallowed by electricity.

  Only two survived. One flickered in and out like a bubble but was unharmed. He had clearly used a special defense score. The other was worse off. He crawled out of his burnt shell like a shedding snake. He was a bloody mess but quickly recovered with the help of a Choir music score.

  These two were clearly from famous schools and had many life-saving objects. Their instruments were above average as well. By going all out rather than hiding their true ability, they were able to push back the immense pressure and save many people.

  The skull in the saint’s hand slowly turned, locking onto those two. Electricity brewed in its eye sockets, ready to shoot out. A beam of light cut in diagonally.

  Crack! The electric chain of hundreds of meters long cracked across the skull’s face. The temperature was hot enough to reduce on to ashes but it did not damage the skull at all. This type of electricity was more like humiliation to the skull rather than an attack. It was as if someone had waited for its moment of carelessness and ran over to slap it across its face. The electricity winding in its eye sockets rose and looked into the distance, locking onto a figure in the crowd.

  There, the youth with a cane waved excitedly at the skull as if saying “hey, look here!”

  In that moment, moonlight guide lines extended from the wound in his fingertip. They floated in the wind. The real yet unreal moonlight gently wrapped around the saint’s skeleton. Next, an invisible river of imageries emerged from Ye Qingxuan’s mind. They traveled down the moonlight lines, whistling and invading the saint’s consciousness.

  If it still had a consciousness. Technically, even a miraculous saint could not retain his consciousness after death. At most, he would leave it with the aether and sublimate into a holy spirit to be enshrined in the Sacred City.

  Corpses of regular people would decay completely within two to three years but saints were not the same. Transformed by their symphonies of predestination, their bodies could be preserved for thousands of years. Their bodies would still contain their original strength and were unmatchable treasures, such as the Indrah’s Eye that Ye Qingxuan had.

  In addition, this complete corpse had been modified by alchemists. It was connected with the music theory of the entire underground palace and could even awaken the fallen scepter.

  Ye Qingxuan suspected that something else was hidden in the corpse! He instantly felt that he had jumped into a dazzling glow. The boundless light swallowed his senses and practically burned him to ashes. It felt as if he had walked into the sun. Nothing was able to hide before the light.

  It was the symphony of predestination!

  Ye Qingxuan’s vision went black. He had almost evaporated but thankfully, the ‘invisible river’ was tiny and existed between real and unreal so it was not destroyed by that instant.

  He had not expected that the symphony of predestination’s spirit was supporting the skeleton. The music score sang of Romulus’ glory. Its spirit was like the blazing sun as well, majestic and aggressively shining in all directions.

  Even more shocking was that the Romulusians had carved the music score directly onto the saint’s body, turning him into a puppet through alchemy. This explained why a dead person could have a musician’s scepter and awaken the territory. It was unmatchable alchemy equipment by itself! It was just made from a saint’s relic.

  Musicians often said that excellent music scores contained a spirit which was the score’s soul. However, it was too weird to use a music score’s soul to replace a human’s soul.

  Ye Qingxuan was going crazy. How many messed up studies had the Romulusians done? Didn’t they say they wanted to respect the dead, let them rest in peace, and worship their ancestors?

  The remaining bit of the symphony of predestination was almost beyond his limits, let alone the saint’s consciousness! He struggled at shrinking the invisible river to the extreme, reducing the speed of evaporation. His vision flickered. Soon, a sliver of moonlight rose in the river.

  “I can interpret it if it’s a music score, right?” He guided the moonlight to meld into the sunlight and began to decipher the music theory of the symphony. Blood poured from his nose. The extreme expenditure sapped him of his energy.

  Unable to care about anything else, he drained a bottle of medicine, forcefully maintaining his connection with the saint’s body.

  He had not delved too deep into the School of Mind. It was much harder to try interpreting a music score in someone else’s mind. He could only do his best and ignore everything else.

  The saint had not perceived Ye Qingxuan as a threat but it felt the connection. Disturbances of its music theory structure had clearly been classified as an alert. The skull quickly locked onto Ye Qingxuan. Its eyes burned with electric light and it shot out without warning.

  In the last instant, a white lion jumped from Ye Qingxuan’s side. It absorbed the lightning. Its metallic body was burned red-hot, almost melting.

  Behind the iron lion, Baro wiped at his sweat and glanced at Ye Qingxuan. “You’re spacing out here? You wanna die?!”

  “Forget about all that and shield me!” Ye Qingxuan did not even have the time to wipe his blood away. Gritting his teeth,
he grasped Jiu Xiao Huan Pei and put all his effort into deciphering the symphony. “Done shortly!”

  -

  Shortly? No one knew how long ‘shortly’ was. As mindsets changed, even an instant could seem like eternity.

  Ye Qingxuan transformed his consciousness into moonlight and assimilated it into the music score’s spirit. He worked at interpreting the structure but felt his own insignificance when he realized what this immense entity was. He did not know what the symphony of predestination was called but it undoubtedly included music theories from Modifications, Choir, Summoning, and Abstinence. Countless music notes had intertwined to create something as vast as the sun.

  It had dimmed and broken through the passage of time but it was still beyond Ye Qingxuan’s abilities. Merely observing it used up all his strength. Compared to the huge music theory system, Ye Qingxuan was even smaller than dust. There was no way he could use it to his advantage and attack it.

  In the black consciousness, the spirit of the music score hung in the air like the sun. Its radiance was like Romulus’ past glory. It rotated as the scepter territory changed, transforming into layers of light. The music theory scraped past each other, creating a majestic melody. It was incomplete and unable to fully operate but it still resisted the musicians’ attacks and maintained the territory.

  Wait… A bizarre idea flashed past Ye Qingxuan’s mind. Deciding upon it, he grasped something invisible and closed his fist.

  Boom! The faint sound of a bell spread out. The faraway and eternal ringing hid within the chaos and quickly disappeared. However, moonlight shone in Ye Qingxuan’s eyes. He had activated the sub-originator!

  As if he had broken free from the restrictions of his body and received unparalleled freedom, Ye Qingxuan felt unprecedented closeness to the aether. His strength was exploding as well.

  This was his first time experiencing Resonance-level power in a red zone. He had not expected for his power to raise this much… The sub-originator reinforced it. The higher the density of aether, the more strength it supplied. He only had fifteen minutes but it was more than enough.

  In the space of his consciousness, Ye Qingxuan smiled. He transformed into moonlight and flew into the ball of light!

  350 Hellhound

  Boom!

  Everyone saw it in an instant. Light continued to burst from the scepter. If it shone like the sun before, now they had entered a holy realm. Burning light was everywhere. All mundanes were about to be purified to nothingness! The saint’s hoarse singing resounded on the ground as if it was in the sky. The air was filled with the majestic praises of Romulus.

  “Ye Qingxuan…” Colt turned around in shock.

  He saw Ye Qingxuan’s faintly discernible connection to the saint, as well as Ye Qingxuan’s explosive waves of aether. Colt sensed an immense cold shadow emerge from the youth’s chest and then disappear. Like a sliver of moonlight amongst the black clouds, it was distant and untouchable.

  However, the saint seemed to have taken a tonic or something. It instantly went all out, singing the symphony of predestination powerfully. The glorious territory was completely activated! Everyone was at the brink of defeat…

  Colt knew without thinking that Ye Qingxuan was messing around. “*sshole! What are you doing?!” But he had no time to care about Ye Qingxuan. He felt the light burn above his head like a tidal wave. Something was coming. The Eclogues resounded throughout the palace.

  Under everyone’s stares, the saint rose into the air. The cracked scepter transformed into the blazing sun, illuminating everything under it. Countless shadows emerged from the light, looking down like deities.

  The ground shook. Covered by the light, the silent palace erupted into cheers. Layers of stone steps suddenly appeared on the walls. Countless shadows in white robes appeared on the steps. They watched the musicians fight against the Romulusian military, dancing and cheering.

  This moment and location under the scepter’s territory was no longer the quiet and empty palace. It had transformed into the location of the sacred battle that the Romulusians had built in legends. It was the Romulusian Arena!

  From its construction to after it was destroyed by natural catastrophes, countless gladiators, beasts, and musicians had fought and killed in competition. Countless men had either died under the eyes of the audience or seized victory and sat onto the throne.

  This was a sacred place to all Romulusians. It was a paradise for warriors and competitors.

  However, under the cheers and praises of the audience, the clay warriors now threw their heads back and yelled, raising their swords and spears. Their already-muscular bodies expanded again. Their hair burned like fire and they walked across the earth, banging on their shields with the swords and roaring in unison.

  The shadows of a bull and eagle appeared above the formation. According to legends, the Romulusians were descendants of gods. However, these clay soldiers seemed to have truly transformed into the descendants of gods now. Their roars were like thunder, their movements like wind. Their power had more than doubled.

  They instantly destroyed dozens of musician shields. The faltering defense line was practically washed away. If some musicians had not taken out their strongest defense music scores, they would have been completely defeated.

  The scepter’s glorious territory was still rising… It would be much more powerful if the symphony completely unfolded. If the territory was completely constructed, the audience would also contain priests, nobles, and the emperor. At that time, the duelists would also have to fight against giants, phantom beasts, and even true spirits that walked off the altars to battle against the mortals!

  But at that moment, everything stopped. It should not have stopped.

  A fatal crack appeared in the singing. It was as if someone had suddenly clamped around its throat. A horrible hole appeared in the music theory. A new crack appeared in the already-cracked scepter in the saint’s hand! The light flickered and the territory shook.

  If the army had seemed to be drugged and abnormal before, they were even more drugged up now. The drugs changed but quickly went back to normal. It was so fast it was imperceptible but the changes could not escape Colt’s eyes.

  “That’s how it is…” Finally dawning on him, he understood what Ye Qingxuan was trying to do.

  That guy was not trying to damage the symphony of predestination. Fighting against a saint’s symphony was laughable. The backlash from touching the music theory’s structure could break down his mind and implode.

  Rather than damaging it, Ye Qingxuan was fixing it…

  Right now, the territory was like an ancient clock from Hermes’s shop. After thousands of years, many of its pieces had stopped working due to the lack of maintenance. It was able to operate now and then, but if it had to keep operating without changing its parts, there would be problems sooner or later.

  Ye Qingxuan had somehow assimilated into the symphony and purposely used very crappy and crude ways to fix the holes and damages that he saw. There would definitely be many side effects in the future but now, he pushed the music theory to move and perform the climax of the music piece!

  There would not be any problems in the meantime. In fact, it might even feel smooth but once the symphony reached the climax, various problems would arise in the vast music theory system.

  It was okay to make an old guy take a walk. However, it would be interesting if one made the old guy put on knee pads, take some stimulants, and go run a marathon!

  Crack! Another jagged crack appeared on the scepter but the strength of the territory increased again. The soldiers shone with tangible light. They had all seemed to turn into gold like in Middle Eastern legends.

  God’s power operated on the earth. There would be horrible after-effects, but the power now was undeniable. Colt practically broke his teeth while clenching his jaw. Ye Qingxuan was gambling everyone’s lives! It was like a bunch of amateur athletes had to survive until the old decathlon winner died!

&nbs
p; This time, Colt was not even fifty percent sure. While his expression changed, the symphony rose to another level.

  Crack! Crack! Crack! Three cracks appeared on the scepter at once but the sea of light was unfaltering! Even the sun was on the brink of falling…

  All the musicians trembled. Their gut instincts told them to bow down. This was beyond the Distortion level—the scepter was brewing true godly power!

  “We really can’t avoid it?” At the front, Torre gazed at the aggressive sunlight and sighed. Looking toward his brother, he waved lightly. “Casper, come here.”

  Enshrouded by layers of beastly mouths, Casper seemed to hear him. He twisted around and scampered over on all limbs like a black wolf.

  Torre reached out and he stopped. Torre placed his hand on his forehead. “I’m sorry, Casper,” he murmured with eyes lowered.

  Thin rings of music notes appeared on Torre’s wrist. They spun and fastened until they meandered to Casper’s face. Chains of music notes dove into Casper’s features until they reached his bones. There, they connected into a music theory and the aether transformed into a key.

  Torre closed his eyes and the ‘key’ began to rotate.

  [Surface humanity seal – Unlocked]

  Casper stiffened but his limbs began convulsing. The light in his eyes dimmed bit by bit until it sank into darkness. In the last moment, he stared at Torre. His lips opened as if he was speaking. His thin and unclear voice called, “Brother…” When he opened his eyes again, they were startling red.

  Overlapping roars sounded from the empty air around him. Countless mournful wails appeared without stop as if thousands and thousands of beasts were killing each other. This was the elegy of beasts dying and demons being reborn!

  Countless beasts continued to die but the beastly nature were reborn in Casper’s body, controlling him with the humanity’s seal. Fiery red shadows appeared in the aether sea.