Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  With the assistance of the hoister and pulleys, the new figurehead was installed on the bow of the ship very soon. Inside the dust-cloth, the figurehead was like a living thing, struggling with all its might, which made Ye Qingquan and his crew pleasant.

  The rope that tied up the dust-cloth was undone, and the cloth was blown up into the sky by the heavy wind. The thing under it was finally revealed, gasping for air.

  Seeing Ye Qingxuan with his blood-red eyes, he shouted desperately in his hoarse voice, “Ye Qingxuan, you will die miserably!!!”

  On the bow, Xavier, tied up on the cross, was struggling in an attempt to get out of the chains. But his limbs were merged into iron by some sort of magic of alchemy. Welded on his body like a turtle shell was a sharp iron plate, on which someone wrote with paint: I am a defeatist.

  With the iron structure, he replaced the bronze woman statue. As the new figurehead of the ship, he would break the waves and be the first to sail into the dark sea.

  “How do you like it?” Patting the new statue, which he considered to be his masterpiece, Igor asked Ye Qingxuan, who nodded in admiration.

  “This is like a piece of art, my captain,” Ye Qingxuan said.

  “Haha. I knew it.” Igor laughed heartedly. “I was born to be a f*cking artist!”

  “Ye Qingxuan! I curse you! You will be damned! Sooner or later!” Xavier shouted desperately from the bow of the ship. Seeing the dark sea of surging waves, he became aware of his own fate. His face twisted with terror, he screamed with all his strength, “Kill me, you pussy! You pervert! Lunatic! Psychopath! I curse you! Curse you!!!”

  “It’s so good to see you in such a good health.” Looking at Xavier calmly, Ye Qingxuan said, “Enjoy our journey, Mr. Xavier. As I promised, you will witness everything from the best position.”

  In the midst of the screaming and cursing, Ye Qingxuan turned to Igor with a smile. “Set it off, my captain. I can’t wait to go.”

  Igor nodded and tossed the cigarette under his feet. Stomping on the cigarette butt, he waved to the bridge. “Turn to the North!” To Anglo! To Alderney! Weigh anchor! Set sail!”

  The steamer tooted. The iron wheel gave out a loud and sharp sound, tearing apart the eternal silence of the darkness like the roaring of a giant beast. The noise almost deafened everybody’s ears.

  The iron anchor was raised slowly out of the sea. The shaking of the iron wheel caused turbulence in the sea. Propelled by the engine, the wheel drove out the water and tore up the waves.

  They were singing, tweeting and shouting.

  They sailed into the deepest part of the lightless sea.

  Darkness devoured everything.

  537 Sain

  In the beginning, there were still stormy waves and heavy rains.

  Even if the aether engine operated at full capacity, the ship could only sail at a speed of 20 knots.

  Except the necessary sailors, all the rest of the passengers were ordered to get into the cabin and waiting for the storm to end. After an unknown amount of time, the storm began to dissipate.

  When the stormy waves calmed down, they had already passed through the thick fog and sailed into the depths of the Lightless Sea.

  Even at midnight, there were still no stars.

  The sea was dead and calm, without any waves. The cold wind blew from afar and into the bone marrow of those on the ship, a bitter chill they could hardly bear.

  Here, the breathing sound was hard to notice, as if it had been diluted.

  In the darkness, only the lonely lights were shining, illuminating the fairway ahead.

  On the deck, Ye Qingxuan sat in a wet chair and looked at the silent sea under the searchlight, pondering something in silence.

  After a long time, Igor, who handed the rudder to the first mate after finishing the shift, took his precious liquor to the deck and sat beside Ye Qingxuan.

  “Mr. Ye, you don’t want to sleep?”

  “I can’t sleep.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “The cabin walls are so thin that I can clearly hear the snoring sounds from the next room. Captain Igor, your ship is passable.”

  Igor felt helpless. “Don’t be so picky, Mr. Ye. It’s just a clipper, not a fortress on the sea like one of Asgard’s ships. It doesn’t have a name, ‘cause it was launched as soon as it was built. In order to contain over 300 people for you, I even had my captain’s lounge torn down. You should be more lenient, and put up with the sound of snoring.”

  After he spoke, he shook his liquor. “Have a shot?”

  “I’d love to.”

  The liquor rippled in the glass.

  Ye Qingxuan held a glass of liquor and looked at the sea. “When I was outside of here, I thought that it would be stormy waves everywhere. I did not expect it to be so quiet.”

  “Yes.” Igor sighed. “It is like sailing in the Styx.”

  “Actually, they are not the same.” Ye Qingxuan thought for a second, then shook his head. “I’ve seen the Styx; it’s not as big as this.”

  “Haha, Mr. Ye, you’ve got a sense of humor.” Igor laughed and didn’t believe him.

  Hearing that, Ye Qingxuan didn’t care, but just asked, “Did you shut down the main engine? I can’t hear the operating sound of the first wheel set. Can we arrive in Alderney tomorrow at such speed?”

  “It’s okay. We’re lucky! We caught a free ride.” Igor shook his head carelessly and pointed to the sea below.

  After reading through the perception thread, Ye Qingxuan was stunned.

  “An ocean current?”

  “Yeah.” Igor nodded.

  To navigate the sea, one had to be familiar with the flow of ocean currents.

  “Each year in winter and summer, this current forms from East India, and flows through the Asgard Channel with a large number of spawning fish, then passes by Anglo and Caucasus, and finally travels on to the East. Her name is ‘Igni.’ In the Highland language that means ‘the daughter of the sea.’”

  “I see.”

  “The arrival time that we predicted is tomorrow, but with her, we may get there in four hours or so,” Igor said. “However, I heard that few people were willing to go to Alderney. That was a deserted island on which there was no city but some trees. It was not close to the main fairway, and even can’t play the role of a hub. Mr. Ye, I thought you were busy saving Anglo, so why do you want to get there?”

  “To try my luck,” Ye Qingxuan replied calmly. “That is a fiefdom of my friend. If he didn’t lie to me, I should be able to find a way there to save the country.”

  “…”

  Hearing that, Igor shrugged. “Then I wish you luck.”

  To be honest, he wished that Ye Qingxuan would be outside on the sea every day and couldn’t go deep into the center. He had spent a lifetime in saving money. He owed a heavy debt, and finally got a new ship from the shipyard in the Sacred City though a lot of relationships.

  Now the world had changed, and almost no one needed to rent a ship.

  He counted on it to make a fortune.

  “Although Ye Qingxuan’s payment was sufficient for me to repay the loans, and I could even earn an additional large sum of money. But who would be complaining about having too much money?”

  “Therefore, it would be better if they circle around the island several times and go home.”

  “Of course, that is impossible.”

  Thinking about that, he couldn’t help sighing.

  “The world is tough. After having shaken off my bad reputation, I still have to earn money at the risk of my life. What is the difference between this and being a pirate on the Illusion Islands before?”

  He shook his head and took a shot. Then he no longer thought about that and chatted randomly with Ye Qingxuan.

  “Mr. Ye, you rarely put out to sea, right?”

  “Well, although I grew up in Anglo, there aren’t many opportunities for a boat ride.” Ye Qingxuan took a sip and said softly, “When I first arrived in Avalon, I took a ship like this, but that one
was very old and crowded. One hundred pounds for one bed in the bottom tank, ten days of board, a public toilet, no bathroom. Ten days, that almost drove me crazy.”

  “Most of the ships are like that.” Igor shrugged. “When I was young, I dreamed of having a boat that only belonged to me. I could sail it, with my woman, wherever I wanted to go. Unfortunately, I’ve got the ship, but I haven’t found my woman. I should have gotten some prostitutes on board. At least we could have some fun now.”

  “Speaking about that, you reminded me of something.” Ye Qingxuan smiled. “There was a special service on the ship that I took previously.”

  “Oh?” Igor’s eyes lit up. “How special?”

  “Thirty pounds.” Ye Qingxuan raised three fingers. “Only thirty pounds, and you could enter the captain’s sheepfold and stay with the sheep there for half an hour… I didn’t understand at the time. When I heard the sheep bleating in the room, I felt that everyone was so kind and caring. Later I heard that someone thought thirty pounds was too expensive, so he quietly shaved the wool off. Then, the captain got angry and people couldn’t stay with the sheep anymore.”

  Hearing that, Igor slapped his sighs, “Oh, what a pity!”

  Ye Qingxuan was silent for a moment and smiled cunningly. “However, the sailors told us that although there were no sheep, you could also go for the captain…”

  “Hahahaha!”

  Igor almost laughed his yellow teeth out of his head. “To the great captain.”

  “To the great captain.” Ye Qingxuan made a toast and drank the glass, then put the empty glass on the bench. Igor was about to pour more liquor, but saw Ye Qingxuan waving his hand.

  “I’m bad at drinking, it’s already enough.”

  “What a pity.” Igor didn’t mind, boozing directly from the bottle. “The rest is mine.”

  In the silence that followed, he finished the bottle and threw it into the sea. Suddenly, he asked, “It’s hard to play vicious, right?”

  “Hmm?” Ye Qingxuan looked up. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you don’t look like a villain.”

  “Maybe I am.”

  Igor sighed and pointed to his own wrinkled face.

  “Mr. Ye, I’m forty-five,” he said. “I have been sailing on the sea for thirty years. The people I deal with every day are the sailors who escaped on a ship after committing a crime, and the bad guys who are about to get off the ship and commit a crime. I’ve seen many bad guys, and you’re not one of them.”

  Ye Qingxuan kept silent for a long time, and scratched his head. “Is something wrong?”

  “Vicious people hate this world. Because the world is not good to them, they could only be good to themselves. But Mr. Ye, when you look at people, where does the sorrow and sympathy in your eyes come from?”

  “Presumably you read that wrong.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “I take so many people to meet death for my own sake… If I’m still not a villain, then what kind of person am I?”

  Igor thought for a moment and spoke with a serious look which showed that he was not telling a joke.

  “Probably… a saint?”

  Ye Qingxuan was shocked for a while, but suddenly laughed. “Am I such a kind person in your eyes?”

  “You are not bad, you are just arrogant.” Igor got up and patted him on the shoulder. “A madman like you always thinks that he can change everything, so he show so much mercy and sympathy to the world.”

  “Do you want to talk for another few minutes?”

  “No, I’m sleepy.” Igor waved. “You should go to sleep too, Mr. Mad, and think about how to toss this world tomorrow.”

  As soon as he stopped, a loud noise suddenly burst out.

  Boom!

  A horrible snarling suddenly rose out of the dead sea.

  The anxious silence turned into boiling craziness, and countless bubbles floated out of the sea. Something rose from the depths of the dark sea, rolled up a few meters high, and hit the hull bottom fiercely.

  The steel wheels that weighed hundreds of tons almost overturned under the terrible impact, and drifted like duckweed.

  Igor’s feet slipped in the fierce turbulence, and he was thrown out by the shaking deck.

  He screamed and fell towards the dark, boiling sea.

  A hand suddenly reached through the air and grabbed his collar. The next moment, a strong force, like a rolling winch, hauled him up and pulled him back to the deck of the ship.

  Igor fainted and almost passed away.

  In an instant, he passed by Death.

  He panted in fear, looked up and saw Ye Qingxuan in front of him, but he felt so strange about him.

  It seemed that something terrible was awakening in his body. It was operating with a large sound, burning vigorously, spewing out grand power stronger than an aether furnace.

  His dark eyes were ignited with cold moonlight.

  Like a resurrected saint who walked down from the base of a stone statue, he looked majestic even without any jewelry or laurels.

  “I’m sorry, Captain Igor. I’m afraid you can’t sleep tonight.” Ye Qingxuan looked at him and pointed to the dark sea beneath them. “When you finish pissing your pants, can you tell me what the hell that thing in the sea is?”

  538 The Mountain of Nomadism

  The area of the sea that Ye Qingxuan pointed at was no longer quiet. A sudden wild wave burst out of the surface. The glaring beam of a searchlight pierced through the darkness, lightening up an area with a terrible green color. It was the skin of something. Looking closely, one could see scales the size of a thumb, but no one could believe it because it was so huge. The nightmares of all of the sailors put together was nothing compared to it. In the searchlight, what they could see was only a tiny fraction of it. In the deep sea where the searchlight could not reach, it crept swiftly.

  It was a sea snake; a sea snake of astonishing size! The iron ship, which weighed hundreds of tons, was no more than one-fifth of its length! Compared to it, the ship was like a little baby in the hands of a giant.

  In one instant, the huge body of the snake wound through the dark sea. There was an enormous eye passing quickly into the darkness. The eye was greyish-white in color and had no pupil at all. It was looking at them as if it were looking at dust.

  “Moun-mountain of Nomadism!!!” Igor seemed paralyzed and fell down instantly. His eyes were full of despair as if he had seen the most terrible nightmare. He screamed, “The legend is true! God damn! I should have known it! We are going to die, Mr. Ye. We are doomed!”

  Ye Qingxuan slapped him. “We are not dead yet, Captain,” he said. “It was saying ‘hello’ just now. It has not begun yet. Get your crew in position, and get yourself together. Then tell me what the hell this Mountain of Nomadism is.”

  Waken up by the slap, Igor struggled to get up and snatched something to stabilize himself. He didn’t dare to get close to the side of the ship, not even daring to look at the monster.

  Ear-piercing alarms sounded. In a few seconds, everyone was woken up and ran quickly to Igor’s position to wait for the enemy. When they saw the enemy, everyone was seized by desperation.

  “That thing…it really exists.” Igor’s face was pale. Biting his teeth, he said, “I thought it was only a legend, a joke made by some drunkard to steal people’s money. The story was passed down from hundreds of years ago. It should not exist in this world. It’s… a nightmare.

  “Some lucky people have seen it from afar. They saw it swallowing a whale hunting ship along with a whale into its stomach, leaving the sea blood-red… It must have gotten here by following the ocean’s current! People say it was the ‘son of the ocean’, following its sisters to shepherd its mother fish.”

  “Don’t panic. You call yourself ‘son of the ocean’, don’t you?” Ye Qingxuan glanced at him. “Though it is your big brother, it is only older than you. There is nothing to fear.”

  “I…I was not her real son!” Igor wanted to cry, but fear had deprived him o
f his tears.

  “Watch out!”

  Boom! A terrible impact was felt again. The ship quivered with sharp sounds of twisting iron and steel. The Mountain of Nomadism splashed huge waves that crashed down on the ship. Amid the enormous shock, there was one moment everyone was tossed up in the air. Then, the ship was flung into the air. The next second, the ship fell into the huge wave, causing a massive splash.

  Screams came from everywhere.

  The body of the ship was torn up, leaving a huge crack through which the sea water began to pour into the ship, tilting the ship to one side. Along with the sharp sound caused by friction between the Mountain of Nomadism and the iron ship, the giant snake suddenly twisted its body. At the same time, it raised its long tail covered with barbs, then smashed down on the ship. Its move was so powerful that the sea seemed to be torn up by the strong wind it caused.

  It was like hitting a rat with an iron bar.

  The tail was flung upon them with horrible force. Even three ships combined together would be destroyed by one strike.

  At that moment, Ye Qingxuan pressed his hand on the deck.

  The Holy!

  The glorious anthem sounded. Glamourous golden light, like flowing water, enveloped the whole ship, which suddenly became as sacred as a holy temple.

  With the music theory as the pry lever, the rules governing the physical world began to twist under the weight of the Symphony of Predestination. As the music movement was formed, Ye Qingxuan felt the horrible force inflicting on the enchantment.

  No one knew how terrible the Mountain of Nomadism’s strength was, as the barrier of the Holy anthem was even shaken under its impact. Yet the balance constructed by the inner music theory offset it in an instant. Even the sea water in the ship was turning back under Ye Qingxuan’s willpower. Everything was getting better and cheers came from inside the ship. Yet, after only a few seconds, Ye Qingxuan’s face nearly turned green.

  The consumption of power was so astonishing… The moment the Holy appeared, he had begun to feel the horrible pressure from the lightless sea. Unlike the rejecting force in the physical world expected by Ye Qingxuan, it seemed that the whole lightless sea was fighting against the enchantment of the Holy.