Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  Ye Qingxuan gave in and sighed. “Ten will be fine then.”

  “Please follow me.” Albert glanced at Ye Qingxuan, turned around, and walked towards the deepest part of the palace.

  It was completely dark around them, and the two walked on the stairs and passed many mysterious doors.

  As time went on, it was getting hotter and hotter. Ye Qingxuan felt like he was in a sauna. When he breathed in the hot air, he felt as if his lungs were going to melt away.

  The two stopped. In front of them, there was only one more door.

  “Is the internal water cooling system broken?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

  Albert did not reply. Instead, he asked Ye Qingxuan to wait for a while. Then he walked into a small room next to the door.

  Albert walked out wearing thick, heat-resistant clothing. Looking through the glass on the helmet, Ye Qingxuan found that Albert was also wearing a portable rebreather.

  “Remember to protect yourself,” Albert said and pulled down the rod.

  Bang!

  The door opened, and hot steam spurted out. Ye Qingxuan could see that the other side of the door was simply a big smelter, in which numerous Instruments of harmonious melody were standing upright.

  More than half of the Instruments of harmonious melody had already dimmed, and only the six Instruments of harmonious melody in the center were still shining with a dim light.

  Each Instrument of harmonious melody was cone-shaped and a few meters high. Countless threads were twining around the Instruments of harmonious melody, extending to the upper roof.

  All the Instruments of harmonious melody were standing in the steam, and one could only see a vague silhouette of them.

  Ye Qingxuan felt like he had stepped into a foggy forest, but it was not fog, it was burning hot steam.

  All the other engineers were wearing the same clothing as Albert. Apart from them, there were groups of musicians hurriedly walking around. They were working very hard to maintain the Instruments of harmonious melody and prevent them from collapsing, something that was going to happen at any minute.

  “Hello, I haven’t see you guys for such a long time,” Albert greeted them. “Congratulations! Your former boss has come back, right? But it is such a pity that he might be the last one who is in charge of this damn place.”

  “We are in the control center of the enchantment?” Ye Qingxuan covered his nose and said. At the same time, a boundary layer appeared around him and blocked the scary steam.

  “You are right.” Albert pushed away the working staff who were in his way. He then walked to the central area and bypassed the huge central Instrument of harmonious melody.

  In the middle of the six instruments of harmonious melody stood an enormous “Aether Pond” that was ten meters wide.

  Normally, the pond was very calm. Because of the huge pressure of the Instrument of harmonious melody, the Sea of Aether had congealed. The complex alchemy array here, together with the magnificent music movements formed by the music theory of the Sea of Aether, formed the core of the enchantment of the Sacred City. Or in other words, the Moving World among the four alchemy worlds.

  This was the place where the original music theory of the enchantment was kept. Via the music theory, the central holy temple managed to control…?

  However, the enchantment was out of control.

  Over half of the Instruments of harmonious melody did not work anymore; the Aether Pond also became a mess due to the outside interference.

  An ordered system now became an “Aether Whirlpool” that was full of scary fragments of the music theory. Drastic reactions were happening all the time and the balance could break down at any minute.

  Moreover, most of the alchemy array did not work anymore, and the left part was overloading.

  Seeing this, Albert cursed. His face was now convulsed with anger. If Ludovic were standing in front of him, he would definitely have loaded himself with bombs and killed both Ludovic and himself.

  Watching the boiling red soup of an Aether Pond, Ye Qingxuan was a bit confused.

  “You do not mean to ask me to jump into the Aether Pond to repair the enchantment, right?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

  “You are right.” Albert laughed and said with a serious face, “On behalf of the cardinal church, I now command you to save the Sacred City!”

  Hearing this, Ye Qingxuan forced out a smile and nodded.

  Albert then touched his left eye with his hand, and when he moved his hand away, Ye Qingxuan saw that his left eyeball was gone.

  In Albert’s hand, there was an artificial eyeball that was still moving.

  “What is that?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

  “When I took charge of the central holy temple, people from the artifacts exhibition room took away one of my eyeballs and made this artificial one for me.”

  Albert then handed this eyeball to Ye Qingxuan and said, “Take it with you. When you manage to repair the enchantment and you are still alive, you will need this.”

  The eyeball began to disassemble itself and took off its outer wrapping. What was now left was an extremely complicated music movement that was made up of countless dancing musical notes. The musical notes gathered together and formed a clock.

  In the blink of an eye, the clock merged with Ye Qingxuan’s body and integrated with his music movement of fate.

  Actually, this clock was a key, but Albert did not tell him what was it really for. He then waved his hands and asked Ye Qingxuan to leave soon.

  In a short while, Ye Qingxuan took off all his belongings. There was only one thing left on him, and that was the clothes of original sin. It was no longer black, instead it looked almost invisible, which was the result of the change of music theory that had twisted both the light and senses.

  “Are you ready?”

  Ye Qingxuan waved his hand. “Start when I give the signal.” He was standing next to the pond and heard Albert shouting at him in the distance.

  “What?” he turned around and looked at Albert.

  Albert looked a bit worried, full of expectation and a bit of longing.

  “Are you sure about this?” Albert asked.

  Ye Qingxuan laughed. “No worry. I worked as a repairman in the town of Lute for five years, and I was responsible for all the bell towers there! You know what the people from Anglo’s Privy Council have said to me?”

  “They said I am a professional repairman, so I am trustworthy!”

  In the next moment, Ye Qingxuan jumped into the pond and disappeared in the red boiling water.

  Albert anxiously rushed to the pond and hurriedly looked for Ye Qingxuan’s body, without caring if he would be hurt by the heat and the bright light.

  Suddenly, the Aether Pond became calm again.

  Countless music theories were intertwining with each other, dazzling Albert. He tried to analyze it, but he soon felt very dizzy and stopped.

  It was already beyond his limit to analyze the music theory that had changed drastically.

  This was all because of Ye Qingxuan.

  Thinking of this, Albert could not help murmuring, “What a monster he is…”

  A white light suddenly flew out of the Aether Pond and blazed across Albert’s face. Albert was terrified by this and fell on the ground.

  Suddenly, the low and deep sound of zither came from nowhere. At the same time, countless strings of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei surfaced and intertwined with each other. In the blink of an eye, they filled the whole space.

  The strings were all vibrating and playing different musical notes. It was the music movement of “Tune of the Sea Dragon.”

  The Heaven Ladder was activated.

  The strings resonated with each other and shrouded all the Instruments of harmonious melody.

  Accompanied with the ongoing music notes, the rest of the Instruments of harmonious melody all lit up again.

  One instrument, two instruments, three instruments… In the blink of an eye, all the Instruments of harmonious melody were
shining in the cold light, and everyone present was shocked by this scene.

  All the Instruments of harmonious melody that had stopped working due to the collapse of music theory began to work again.

  “He did it! He managed to activate the Instruments of harmonious melody,” a musician exclaimed. “I have also got the signal from the music theory of the Moving World.”

  Everyone was cheered up and amazed by this scene.

  It was just like a dying old man whose heart rejuvenated again had opened his eyes, stood up, and yelled, “I am not dead yet, I am still alive!” while his family was preparing for his funeral.

  505 Don’t Even Think About It!

  “What are you waiting for?”

  Albert rushed up and kicked the man, “Wake up the cooling matrix module and get ready to reconnect to the coordinating instruments outside!”

  He yelled at all the dull people, “It’s not the time for a doze! All of you, move! Switch on all standby modules and discharge the pressure in the aether pool! Restart operation!”

  “Where should we discharge it to?” someone asked weakly, raising his hand.

  “Any f**king places you want to, understand?” Albert took his collar and shouted angrily, “Even if you discharge it to your mother’s house, I must see the enchantment of the Sacred City restarting! Do you understand?”

  The operational musician nodded unconsciously, opened the panel, and pulled off the drainage valve.

  Then, in the dark Sacred City, everyone heard the high-pitched horns of the pipe organ.

  Immediately afterwards, a splendid and glowing light emerged from the top of the Central Temple, like a beautiful aurora, spreading in the sky and illuminating those bleak faces.

  “Bishop, the bell tower system has been warmed up.” The voice of Rubens rang from an external communicator. “We have taken control of the sixteen underground bell towers nearby, ready to resonate.”

  “Connect with them.”

  In the insulated helmet, Albert dangled a lit cigarette in his mouth and spewed smoke which blurred his face. He said, “All of them.”

  “All of them?!” Rubens was shocked.

  “All of them.”

  Albert nodded. “I’m a bit convinced that this little monster can do it.”

  Rubens remained silent for a moment and switched off the communicator.

  “The bell towers prepare to resonate!”

  Under the tremulous nebula, he ordered the operational musicians, “Get all of them connected!”

  The six operational musicians who had retaken their positions nodded and stood in front of the huge pipe organs. Twelve palms fell on top of the eight-story keyboard. Driven by the steam, the steel made a terrible and deafening sound!

  The solemn and low melody spread.

  Immediately afterwards, a roaring bell rang suddenly under the ground.

  The pool of aether boiled again all of a sudden.

  Ye Qingxuan’s roar came.

  “May God give us mercy.”

  Albert took the holy emblem off his chest. “Ye Qingxuan, you must make it!”

  In the aether pool, Ye Qingxuan felt like he was going crazy.

  If he knew that Albert believed in himself so much, he couldn’t help but swear.

  Sixteen bell towers!

  Sixteen bell towers on him!

  It was equivalent to giving the music theory and power of sixteen master musicians to one person!

  Sixteen master musicians!

  In an instant, Ye Qingxuan’s body inflated and almost exploded.

  In the sharp pain, Ye Qingxuan scolded, “Albert, allow me to thank you!!”

  Although he had reached the limit, the external power remained plugged in… in fact, it had only just begun!

  There were still thirteen masters waiting for him!

  Subconsciously, the Symphony of Predestination operated.

  “Nature intervention”!

  It started from the blood. The blood of Deva began to change, and the nature of it was peeled off. The music theory in it became active and bright. Then, the music theorization of neural system was completed. Next, it came to the bones, organs, flesh… from the inside out. At the end, Ye Qingxuan was completely into the state of “vacuum.”

  Like Abraham, he had turned himself into nothing but pure music theories.

  The more profound power the musicians had, the more obvious their physical differences from normal people would become. After resonating, it could be said that the differences were vast.

  From that moment on, another system in the musician’s body would be completely formed.

  In addition to the blood circulation and organ functioning of its own flesh and blood, the body hosted aether systems that were either large or small, perfect or incomplete.

  Aether was the blood, music theory was the bone, spirituality was the soul…

  Those systems would grow larger and larger as the musician’s abilities increased. Finally, it would be able to survive alone after separating from the shackle of the physical body.

  That was the Holy Spirit.

  In this case, the circulation of Ye Qingxuan’s physical body had fallen into a deep sleep, his heart rate having dropped to one beat every minute, as if he was already dead.

  In contrast, the Aether circulation was unprecedentedly active.

  In the vacuum formed by nature intervention, the music theory had completely escaped from the shackle of the physical body, and exerted all its power without any interference.

  For all musicians, this was a unique advantage.

  The Symphony of Predestination operated fiercely with no need to worry about any pressure it might bring. Nevertheless, there happened to be endless aether for him to make use of.

  The sub-originators started!

  The Heaven Ladder was used as a bridge to transform all the power that exceeded Ye Qingxuan’s containing limit to the sub-originators in the Aether World. At the same time, Ye Qingxuan also took advantage of that to materialize the sub-originators and bring them to the Physical World.

  A moon emerged silently emerged from Ye Qingxuan’s arms.

  First, it was only a vague outline.

  The empty outline was like a vortex, madly absorbing the aether and music theory around and growing bit by bit.

  In the state of vacuum, Ye Qingxuan overlapped with the annular, allowing it to greedily draw all the music theories inside his body. In a flash, even his consciousness seemed to be drawn into it and turned into a part of it.

  Ye Qingxuan felt himself turning into an unreal moon, growing rapidly and absorbing the aether endlessly…

  Every time the bell rang, the moonlight ushered in another round of transformation.

  At the end, his Symphony of Predestination had already turned into a real moon, rising slowly from the aether pool. The bright moon was enveloped by the cloud of the clothes of original sin.

  The Symphony of Predestination of the sixteen masters blended with Ye Qingxuan, forming a monster-like colossus.

  The gravity carried by his music theory destroyed all noises and clutter, forcibly washing away the pieces of music theory that had broken down in the aether pool and begun to rebuild!

  This had already become a project that no one could finish alone.

  Fortunately, there were hundreds of coordinating instruments in the strings of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei.

  Ye Qingxuan used himself as an intermediary to allocate the deduction and construction of music theory as tasks, and built up the outcome through the combination of the powers given by the bell towers.

  At this moment, Ye Qingxuan was like the other Boleyn girl, turned into the spirituality of the enchantment matrix!

  He felt himself becoming something even bigger in the vacuum. The hundreds of coordinating instruments were his own brain, and the power of sixteen masters brought by the bell towers was his hands and feet.

  Ye Qingxuan, who had been incarnated into a bright moon, was in the center of the huge
system, coordinating and leading the terrible transformation of power to evolve miracles.

  In an instant, wherever the moonlight shone became silver.

  The bright moon that Ye Qingxuan was incarnated into was carried by the sloshing iron flames in the aether pool, rose slowly, and blended with the action layer of the enchantment in the Sacred City.

  The impending explosion of the aether pool was completely eliminated, and the enchantment system of the Central Temple thus far recovered completely from breakdown and started operating again!

  “The next step is to recapture the enchantment,” Albert murmured with determination. Then he shouted, “Open the enchantment buffer layer! Switch off the closed system! Reopen the connection with the outside world! The creating layer, the forming layer, and the outflowing layer… We must let him go outside!”

  In the dead silence, no one dared to respond.

  Shocked, Albert turned his head and saw the guilty face of the person in charge.

  “Rembrandt commanded we cut off the connection with the outside world… We opened the cut-off brake,” he whispered. “We don’t have the password, so we can’t connect with the outside world.”

  The cut-off brake was also known as the final suppression device.

  It was used to cut off the connection with the external enchantment at the last moment and prevent the internal core from getting out of control. Once it was opened, the music theory of the Central Temple would get into a closed circulation.

  A total separation of the inside from the outside.

  Silence.

  In the dead silence, only the fire in the eyes of Albert was burning.

  “Then remove the cut-off brake!”

  He ordered word by word, “Reconnect even with your hands, your teeth! Now! Right now! Immediately! Shut off the f**king brake!”

  In his snarl and roar, everyone rushed to the corner of the control room. The engineer broke the iron plate open and found the operation circuit.

  Someone pulled down the fire axe on the wall and slammed it down.

  Sparks flew. Constant steel collisions continued to ring. The hot steam suddenly spewed out, and a harsh screaming came.

  “Crap, get out!” Albert rushed in and kicked the scalded engineer aside. He reached out, picked up the axe, and hacked down fiercely in spite of the hot steam that scorched his proximity suit.