Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  The door to hell was open.

  So the demons swarmed out!

  Throughout the Physical World, all black musicians cheered ecstatically, dancing, kneeling on the ground, and making ready to receive the supreme gift!

  Despite of its traumatic wounds, the Hyakume almost went insane, laniated the abyss, and cast its own power into the Physical World. It generously and tyrannically gave its power to all mortals who called its name, all qualified demons, and all obedient black musicians on the ground…

  This was a feast!

  Hundreds, thousands, millions…

  Numerous seeds of darkness were spread to the Physical World and the countless awakened heaven catastrophes, sharing the generous gift from Hyakume to all non-human beings!

  The entire Physical World ushered in the turbulence of terror in a very short time.

  The air of those awakened heaven catastrophes continued to swell, rose like beacon-fire, echoing one after another in the dark world.

  In the abyss on the verge of collapsing, a shadow of terror slowly emerged.

  He stood on the altar, manipulating the horrible music theories that were moving like stars. Then he clanged a huge bell that rang as loud as thunder.

  “Come here!”

  A vague, burly figure rode a white horse, and was crowned the shadow, saying, “Go to the human world to conquer the humans again and again!”

  That was the incarnation of the Hyakume, the King of Slaughter.

  The bell rang for the second time. A slim figure on a red horse came out of the abyss, and a poison was put into its hands by the shadow. “Take peace from the ground and make them kill each other.”

  That was the incarnation of the Hyakume, King of Persona.

  The bell rang for the third time.

  An old figure in a robe, riding on a dark horse, appeared silently…

  Every time the bell rang, an incarnation emerged from the abyss.

  In the end, except for the former dark Popes that first descended, Hyakume released all of his incarnations by cutting the abyss open and casting them into the Physical World!

  “Make waves in the contemptible human world!”

  With Ludovic’s hoarse voice, the Hyakume gave its final order. “Go to the ground! Don’t give them peace, and let them fight each other! Kill all humans and destroy all living things! Spread my seeds, shepherd my beasts, and retake my world!”

  All the dark ministers in the abyss were awakened, given an unchangeable mission, and cast into the Physical World.

  Ye Qingxuan even felt that the air of Paganini flashed above the Sacred City and flew to a corner of the Physical World.

  The worst thing was that before the destruction of hell, all the demons were shoved into the world.

  Let them make waves…

  The Hyakume didn’t hesitate to use up all its power and destroy the abyss which was its center, even if it would therefore fall into endless sleep and wait for a long time to be reborn in the Originator.

  He wanted the humans to pay for what they had done!

  That was the revenge of the Hyakume!

  Putting aside the fact that the Physical World would definitely become a dark land, what the Hyakume did was almost equivalent to casting the entire abyss from the aether world and throwing it into the Sacred City.

  He chose for them to die together!

  “Enjoy your victory!”

  The burning Ludovic tore up the palm of the giant monster, stepped out of the seal, and laughed at Ye Lanzhou. “Eternity should be enough for you to enjoy its bitterness.”

  “But before that, you must pay the price!”

  520 Gif

  Bang!

  In the blink of an eye, the gravitational force in the abyss was greatly enhanced.

  The abyss was going to collapse, as countless music theories moved inside it. At the same time, countless creatures died and were reborn again.

  A scholar once mentioned that before the Dark Age came, the human race might have already gone through a catastrophe: a meteorolite dropped onto this world and bumped into the earth crust, creating a devastating earthquake. Even the axis of the earth shifted, disrupting the passage of the four seasons. Dust rose up from the ground and covered the sky, the sunlight was blocked, and all living creatures lived in the darkness and coldness ever after.

  Now, Hyakume caused another catastrophe! He threw his scepter “abyss” out from the Aether World, and the scepter slammed right into the Physical World! Of course, God would not die, but the mortals lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.

  Hyakume meant to totally destroy the core system of the Physical World!

  Once the scepter “abyss” exploded in the Physical World, a huge number of people would die. Besides, the enormous circulation chain of aether that connected the Physical World, the Sea of Aether, the Aether World, and the Originator would be broken.

  After the circulation chain was broken, the musician system in this world would disappear. Aether would vanish from this world, which was the last thing the human race would want to see.

  The King of Blue, the King of Red, and the King of Yellow all had their own duties. The King of Blue was responsible for exploiting territory for the human race, the King of Red was responsible for guiding the souls of the people, and the King of Yellow was responsible for guarding the core of the musician system. If the King of Yellow was still alive, in a few months or even a few days, the circulation chain would be rebuilt, and people would never need to worry that the musician system might vanish.

  However, the King of Yellow had already died…

  In this situation, many creatures did their best to stop the scepter “abyss” from hitting the Physical World.

  The Hecatoncheir shouted and reached out its arms to stop the abyss from falling further! In the blink of an eye, its hundreds of thousands of arms were broken, but soon, they grew out again. Unfortunately, it was getting more and more difficult for it to stop the falling abyss.

  Inside the holy temple of Sarroman, the King of Red played a holy song with his holy ax. Meanwhile, the vague contour of the holy emblem appeared in the Aether World. The emblem was giving out magnificent energy, and the energy materialized and shrouded the falling abyss, trying to pull it back.

  The energy of the holy ax and Hyakume’s energy intertwined together and fought against each other. The energy wave spread in all directions, making the already unsteady Physical World even more chaotic.

  Even the sensing of the entire human race and the space construction were disturbed. The Sea of Aether raged and was crushed into a thin layer by the great gravitational force of the music theory.

  Due to this, the Aether World and the Physical World overlapped. The space above the Sacred City turned into a bizarre and chaotic area.

  In this area, the rules and principles of the Physical World were no longer useful, and no one could get close to this area.

  The energy of the holy ax and Hyakume’s energy flowed across Hecatoncheir, inside its body, and the two energies kept bumping into each other. Once the two energies leaked out, the entire Sacred City would be destroyed.

  In fact, only Hecatoncheir’s body could withstand the two energies. Ye Lanzhou knew that he should try his best to stop the abyss from falling further.

  Once the balance between the two sides broke, this world would be doomed.

  But no one knew how long Hecatoncheir’s body could stand the two energies; maybe a few seconds, or maybe tens of millions of years. Maybe before Hecatoncheir collapsed, it would have been transformed by the music theories of both the holy ax and Hyakume.

  Bang! While Ye Lanzhou was trying his best to keep the balance of the two energies, the former dark pope silently appeared in front of Ye Lanzhou and penetrated Ye Lanzhou’s chest with his hands.

  “…” Ye Lanzhou was shocked. He lowered his head and stared at the hands. At the same time, the theory of abyss began to spread all over his body.

  “Do you
remember what you just told me?” Ludovic sneered. “Laugh, laugh! You are bound to die!”

  Since Ye Lanzhou was holding the abyss and stopping it from falling, he could not move. Hearing this, he forced out a smile and said, “In fact, I also want to tell you, ‘Be patient, why not sit down together and have a cup of tea?’”

  “Are you trying to buy yourself more time?” Ludovic said while tore apart Ye Lanzhou’s chest. He sneered. “Yes, I admit that you are good at this, but you really think I will give you more time?”

  “You are such a fool…” Ye Lanzhou sighed. “Throughout time, there is one thing that every member of the Ye family is good at, and that one thing is calling for help when in a serious situation.”

  Hearing this, Ludovic was startled.

  Ye Lanzhou shouted, and Hecatoncheir roared as well, “Ye Qingxuan, come!”

  “Sh*t! My father is in trouble!!!” Ye Qingxuan shouted back.

  “After all these years, as my father, the first thing you said to me is ‘Ye Qingxuan, come!’ ?” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “What an unqualified father.”

  In the Sacred City, the ground made of steel and iron was full of cracks, and the end of the road led to either to the bottom of the earth or a cliff.

  “We should say goodbye here, Mr. Vasco.” Ye Qingxuan stood on the edge of the cliff, while watching Hecatoncheir in the distance.

  A strong wind was blowing, and his long silver hair moved with it. Behind him stood the Knights Templar.

  “Thank you all.” Ye Qingxuan turned back and said gently, “Your mission has been completed. I will count on myself from now on.”

  Hearing this, Vasco said, “Take care, Mr. Ye, and thank you for what you have done for the city.”

  “I did it for my own sake.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head and pointed to the sky with his finger. “See? If not me, then those powerful men in the sky would do something to save the city.”

  “At least, you have saved many people’s lives, including ours,” Vasco said. “After the enchantment was gone, it was you who made the underground shelter continue to function properly. All the survivors in the Sacred City appreciate what you did.”

  “Leave the thanks for the future.” Ye Qingxuan laughed. He waved his hands and said, “Before I leave, would you mind doing me a favor? Do you have any weapons available? Something short will do.”

  Hearing this, a few people walked forward. They offered some heavy guns and a steel gun, and a huge halberd. Since those weapons were too huge, Ye Qingxuan chose a smaller and lighter curved sword and a short blade instead.

  Ye Qingxuan hung the two weapons on his clothes of original sin.

  “Will this do?” Vasco asked.

  “Yes, this will do.” Ye Qingxuan laughed and waved his hands. “I need to leave now, my father needs me.”

  He stepped forward and fell off the cliff. Seeing this, Vasco was shocked. He lay on his stomach on the edge of the cliff and looked deep into the gorge. A strong wind was blowing from the bottom of the cliff.

  Suddenly, Ye Qingxuan stopped falling and began to rise up to the sky! In the blink of an eye, he arrived at the spot where the holy ax and Hyakume were fighting.

  He was just like a moth that was flying towards the sun. The energy wave was powerful enough to destroy him in less than a second.

  Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes, and played the music theory “the sleeping world·sleeping dragon”! Immediately, an invisible wave spread out, and the powerful energy wave disappeared.

  Ye Qingxuan fell asleep and all the creatures in this world fell asleep too.

  With the help of the Abraham’s music theory of inheritance, an enchantment of “sleeping dragon” formed around him. Light sleep, deep sleep, having dreams, sleeping dragon… The enchantment got stronger and stronger.

  Once the music theory outside touched this enchantment, it disappeared instantly, forming an open circle around the enchantment.

  The circle was in fact a black hole, and everything around it was devoured and vanished.

  Go to sleep and have a nightmare with me…

  Ludovic turned back in shock and saw Ye Qingxuan coming towards him.

  “How are you, my friend?” Ye Qingxuan greeted him. The “sleeping dragon” enchantment fell upon Ludovic, and Ludovic tried to stop it from falling but failed.

  Ye Qingxuan raised his hands, and the curved sword glinted in the light. He penetrated Ludovic’s hand with it and thrust the blade into Ludovic’s chest. Blood spurted out from the wound and began to vaporize.

  Ludovic fell onto the ground, and the blade penetrated the ground, trapping him there. He stared at the blade, having no idea why a blade made by human hands could hurt him.

  “Do you still remember what I said to you in the prison?” Ye Qingxuan said softly, standing up from the ground. His arms and face had been cut by the sharp crystals, and blood flew out from the wounds. He looked terrifying.

  He stumbled forward and set his foot on the blade of the curved sword. “Take it.”

  Half of Ludovic’s lung was cut into pieces, and he screamed with great pain.

  “Take it, this is the gift I prepared for you!”

  521 Justice

  “Honorarium?”

  Enveloped in the Wyrmrest enchantment, Ludovic finally saw the face of Ye Qingxuan, realized what had happened, and squeezed his twisted face into a smile.

  “The Wyrmrest enchantment? And… a knife? Ye Qingxuan, you expect to kill me with that insignificant stuff? So naive…”

  Ye Qingxuan pulled out a short knife, bent over, and pointed at Ludovic’s throat with his hands clenched. He stabbed the entire knife into Ludovic’s throat expressionlessly, and then suddenly made a cross-cut.

  Riiip! The flesh was torn apart, and blood splattered. The boiling hot gas of blood burst out and billowed in the storm.

  But Ludovic remained laughing, the sound of it coming through the cut on his throat where the severed vocal cords could almost be seen quivering.

  “You are too weak,” he sighed. “Too weak!”

  Ludovic reached out to the hand that Ye Qingxuan used to hold the knife, and clenched it as tightly as a pincer!

  Snap!

  In an instant, a crisp snapping sounded.

  Grasped tightly by an old and wrinkled palm, Ye Qingxuan’s hands were twisted abruptly, and the broken phalanges pierced out of his flesh and blood, turning into a bloody pile of flesh in an instant.

  “Did you see it?”

  The cut on Ludovic’s throat opened and made a strange laughter.

  In the sharp laughter, the blood flew back, the hot gas of blood that moved like living things sweeping back to the cut.

  In Ye Qingxuan’s hands, the blade dyed black by the blood quickly weathered and rusted, and turned into a piece of scrap metal.

  There seemed to be a strong poison in the blood that destroyed the steel!

  Ludovic just waved his hand, and Ye Qingxuan was blown away like a dead leaf, and rolled on the ground like a broken and bloody bag full of rotten meat.

  Immediately afterwards, he ground his teeth with a sharp and terrible sound.

  Disregarding the five fingers cut by the blade, Ludovic grasped the knife in his chest, and pulled the blade distorted with flesh and bloodstains out of the wound.

  It was like pulling out the stinger of a bee.

  The distorted knife landed on the ground, quickly rusted, and fell apart.

  Ludovic got up from the ground, looked down at the hole in his chest where the organs were beating. Soon the flesh knitted together, and the wound disappeared and smoothed.

  However, the changes continued.

  His skin proliferated quickly, then dissimilated and became yellowish. His pores secreted a large amount of grease. Terrible metabolism was going on in his body. His hair got white and fell, his eyes were covered by a thick white pannus, and his nails grew crazily and fell off.

  In the end, the person covered by dead skin, white hair, and turbid oils reac
hed out and pulled off the layer of skin that seemed to be covered with mud.

  He was like a snake that cast off the old skin.

  He became young again.

  “I almost forgot.”

  Ludovic, who had returned to the prime of his life, looked at his own hands and said in a low-pitched voice, “Although this body has been strengthened through the resurrection ritual and possesses enormous vitality, it has been imprisoned in an old body for the purpose of maintaining its original appearance and state… you reminded me of that.”

  He slowly straightened his back, and a crispy rubbing sound came from his joints. Then he took a step forward.

  The earth boomed.

  The ruins of steel in front of the giant’s chest suddenly quaked and a huge hole appeared.

  The hurricane swept in all directions, and almost blew Ye Qingxuan away.

  “The Wyrmrest enchantment is really perfect. But what a pity! Don’t regard me as a fragile thing like you.” Ludovic walked forward slowly and said coldly, “Do you think that I can’t do anything to you if I can’t use aether? It’s ridiculous. From the beginning to the end, you’re just tripping yourself—”

  Bang!

  The voice stopped abruptly as Ludovic was knocked back.

  It was a sudden punch.

  Ye Qingxuan’s fist, like an iron hammer, struck his face with a sharp breaking sound of air. His disdainful look and arrogant cheekbones were broken. His nose bridge was smashed back into the skull.

  The smashing sound of bones and loud noises mixed together. Ludovic, like a football kicked by someone with full strength, flew backward, tumbled on the ground, and crashed into the ruins.

  Ye Qingxuan remained standing there, pulled back his fist, and spat on the ground.

  “Why the hell do you always talk nonsense?”

  In the huge hole, Ludovic looked at the sky with fishy eyes. His broken jawbone was twisted into a weird shape. His torn lips opened and closed as if he was whispering something.

  What’s going on here?

  No, something’s wrong!

  There is definitely something wrong!