Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  Paganini glanced at him. “The plan will go even smoother than I expected, right?”

  “But it will be hard to avoid a few minor incidents.” Naberius picked up the broken crystal and weighed it in his hands. He sighed softly. “A bright crystal that can be used to infiltrate the Saints and motivate the will of the kings dwelling in the depths of the Ultimate. Tricking the tiger into swallowing the wolf, doesn’t that sound familiar? He probably doesn’t even know that someone is hindering him.”

  Paganini, who had created Changing Music Theory, was best at silent interference and distortion, whether it was of music theory or personality. As long as he was given a small opening, he could corrode and transform someone’s will and music theory from within.

  Changing Music Theory was also a dangerous tool that he had created. It may have been easy to use, and had a variety of forms, but once one was lost in that infinity of changes, sooner or later they would be eroded by the change, lose their self, and become a part of it.

  By the time the user discovered this, they would already be trapped and unable to extricate themselves. It was through this trick that he was able to cultivate a nest of Dark Musicians right under the nose of the Sacred City, and pull almost half of the musicians there into the Abyss by the end. Even the Pope had not suspected anything.

  Unfortunately, he had run into the snag that was Ye Qingxuan.

  “I tried to use the kings to distort his will, but unfortunately it seems like he does not have the slightest bit of respect for them. And he never allows others to interfere with his ideas.”

  “I did remind you that you were treading on dangerous ground.” Naberius shook his head. “He is much stronger than me. At least that much is clear.”

  Paganini did not care in the least about his own setbacks. “I can’t win, but the Sacred City is also at its wit’s end when it comes to him. He was always destined to be an outlier, a freak who would shake the foundation of the Church sooner or later. Even if I did nothing, the kings would never allow such a person to elevated into the Ultimate, and sooner or later the Sacred City won’t be able to tolerate him anymore. He’ll have nowhere to hide. When that day comes, where can he go save the Abyss?”

  Naberius said nothing. He just leaned on the cold stone bricks.

  He closed his eyes and listened to the melody.

  Amid the dark underground crevices and the putrid scent of moss, there was only a dim, far away flame and a low echo.

  Crack…crack…crack…

  Crack! Crack! Crack!

  It was like rotten wood being cut with a chopper, like a dead branch being snapped, but also like… something was devouring the most delicious of meals.

  The sound of chewing was fascinating to listen to.

  “That sounds delicious.” Paganini was envious.

  Crack…crack…crack…

  The flickering candlelight illuminated the motley frescoes at the top of the dome. The ancient vessels that had been carelessly discarded on the ground were already broken. The bronze swords were rusted all over. The gems on the ancient crown had been exposed to wind and dust.

  The faint light cast a deformed shadow on the wall. One could faintly discern that it was a human-like figure that crept across the ground. The freak looked like a rabid dog hunched over its food to devour it.

  667 A Better World

  The skinny, hunched-over figure was draped in ragged grayish-white hemp clothes. It was as if he was wearing an old shroud.

  He crawled on the broken stones. The fragments still had finely carved patterns on them, and one could vaguely make out the outline of what was once a huge stone sarcophagus. But at the moment, the solemn mausoleum had become the backdrop for a feast. The finely crafted stone sarcophagi had been smashed into pieces, and the valuable grave goods worth tens of thousands in gold were thrown aside, with no attention paid to them. Meanwhile, the owners of the mausoleum—the corpses that were once noble—had been dragged out by the monster mad with hunger. It dove into the feast eagerly.

  Crack! Crack! Crack! In the sound of bones being chewed into pieces, a crown covered in tooth marks rolled out of the debris.

  The crown of the moon that the Sage of Iron Moon was once proud of had become so. The monster held a withered, broken skull as if he was holding his lunch box. He sucked at the residue on his fingers, slurping everything inside dry, and finally munched away at the crunchy skull as if he was eating cookies.

  The perfect afternoon tea.

  The withered and hunched figure seemed to grow slightly plumper, and on the shriveled face, it was as if flames were burning in the two eyes. He looked up and stared at Naberius.

  “Wait a moment, wait a moment, I’ll serve the next course immediately.” Paganini stepped forward, lifted the hammer in his hand, looked around at the coffins surrounding them, finally selected one, and smashed it. In the sound of stone shattering, a rotten smell rose from the cracks in the sarcophagus.

  “Hah, your luck is pretty good.”

  Naberius squatted in front of the crack, peering at the bones slumbering in the darkness, his gaze joyful. “I wonder how the Master of the Golden Palace will taste?”

  Crack! Crack! Crack! Soon, the sound that made one’s hair stand on end rang out again. The feast of horror featuring the various kings of the first generation as dishes had reached its climax…

  …

  Crack! Crack! Crack!

  Ye Qingxuan also grabbed some tough flatbread and chewed as hungrily as a rabid dog. After undergoing a turmoil of music theory, Ye Qingxuan, whose entire body was completely destroyed, was reborn once more under the power of the sage stone, but the amount of heat lost in the process could not be made up purely with aether. Fortunately, at the moment, he had completed the process of half-aetherization, and half of his body was made up of aether. Otherwise, it might not be so easy to even be reborn.

  In the short span of five minutes, Ye Qingxuan completed his Symphony of Predestination, met the various kings of the first generation, directly rebuked the group of old men that simply refused to die for good, then completed a qualitative change of aether successfully, and possessed a strange characteristic that even he himself could not put into words.

  The fiercely changing aether was like thunder and lightning, constantly changing, eroding the surrounding matter, yet indifferently maintaining its own balance. Countless strands of music theory were born and destroyed in the brief instant one was able to glimpse at it.

  The mere acts of observation and analysis made the masters who had just recovered have the urge to vomit blood again.

  But it was not the most important issue at hand.

  The most important issue was in front of Ye Qingxuan.

  Ye Qingxuan swallowed the last piece of flatbread and gulped down more than half of the canteen of water, finally ridding himself of his deep hunger. He wiped his mouth, lifted his eyes, and looked at the old nun in front of him. “You can use Schubert’s power? Why didn’t you tell me…”

  “I didn’t know either.” The old nun had recovered from the supernatural state just now and looked a bit tired. Facing Ye Qingxuan’s sharp gaze, she forced out a smile. “God probably responded to my prayers?” She reached out, wanting to wipe the sweat off Ye Qingxuan’s face for him out of habit, but Ye Qingxuan held her wrist firmly, his fingers like iron pliers.

  Turning his fingers, Ye Qingxuan rolled up her sleeves. He saw the burnt skin and the overloaded alchemy array. To an insignificant mortal, the saint’s power was like fiery lava. If one tried to touch it, one must play with fire, and it would be impossible for one not to pay the price.

  Ye Qingxuan could sense that her internal organs were so weak that they were almost at their limit, and the muscles under the skin were convulsing involuntarily. She was supposedly suffering from deep pain in her bones, but the old nun’s gaze remained soft and serene. She looked at Ye Qingxuan with no sadness at all and simply smiled.

  In his heart, Ye Qingxuan felt more an
d more agitated, and his voice turned cold. “Sister, be clear about this, I am not one of your group of children. Please put away your excessive love, I don’t need your charity.”

  The old nun was still looking at him, her gaze soft. “No matter who you are, God loves the world.”

  “But God doesn’t love you,” Ye Qingxuan retorted coldly, without the slightest bit of mercy or sympathy. “Be clear about this, Sister, it was me who saved you back then! Your God only wants you to die!”

  The old nun was stunned, and her smile became a bit flustered. She lowered her head awkwardly. “But God will love you, Your Excellency. I think you are someone who should be loved by God.”

  “I hope so.” Ye Qingxuan withdrew his gaze and didn’t feel like saying anything more. He simply motioned for Mabel to tend to her injuries, then got up and left.

  After a moment, Mabel returned to his side. Seeing him sitting on the steps looking indifferent, she couldn’t help but smile. She took out half a corn cob from her pocket, cut it deftly, and hollowed it out. After inserting two tubes, two exquisite corn pipes were made.

  “Would you like some? The tobacco leaves are top-notch. I exchanged it from an oddity eight years ago.” She fished out a black pouch, and the thick fragrance of butter and tobacco leaves floated out.

  Ye Qingxuan looked at the little girl in front of him stuffing the pipe skillfully, and he couldn’t help but give her a complicated look.

  “Hey, what?” Mabel cast him a look and cackled. “Grand Inquisitor, I am an old lady who is already 80 years old. Although it is said that you are not at all picky, surely your taste is not so extreme?”

  Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes and said nothing, simply taking the pipe from her.

  The mellow tobacco leaves burned and smoke curled upwards.

  Mable tilted her head to one side and looked at him. “As Prince of Avalon, one of the most powerful people in the world, you feel upset receiving charity from a commoner, no?”

  Ye Qingxuan cast her a look. “Had a dog not had my back in the past, I would have died a long time ago. Please, my self-esteem is not so fragile, okay?”

  “Then why are you agitated?” Mabel asked.

  “…” Ye Qingxuan was silent for a long time, then said with a boxy voice, “I just feel that it’s not worth it for her. Her God is not worthy of her giving everything she has. Nor is the Church worthy of it.”

  “She has said nothing about it all this while, but you seem to know something?” Mabel asked.

  “One could guess it using just their toes [1]. The tricks up the Church’s sleeve are more or less all the same.” Ye Qingxuan snickered. “As long as they hold the banner of righteousness, they’ll have a steady stream of fools willing to sacrifice themselves. It’s really good, really, really good.

  “She isn’t the first, nor will she be the last. Father Bann is one of them, my goddamn father is another, and so are Shi Dong and the group of old men, even in their deathbeds, they never forget the crusade.

  “But what’s the outcome? The Church only considers them as outdated tools. They want to shine and provide heat, and they won’t hesitate to ignite themselves if that’s what it takes, but the Church doesn’t need their spark at all. They shouldn’t sacrifice themselves for such things, it’s not worth it.”

  He took a deep breath from the pipe, squinted his eyes, and spurted out blue smoke from his nose and mouth. “Mable, I don’t like the world the way it is.

  “I don’t like it at all.”

  Mable didn’t say anything and just smoked the pipe. In the end, she threw away the corn cob that had finished burning, reached out, and patted him on the shoulder. “Your Royal Highness, do you still remember what she said?”

  She looked at Ye Qingxuan. “You are someone who should be loved by God. Her Majesty and Mr. Maxwell firmly believe so, and so do I.

  “If you give an order, I will obey it.

  “Because I believe that you will make the world a better place.”

  “I hope so.” Ye Qingxuan threw away the pipe that he had finished smoking, got up, dusted himself off, lifted his head and smiled. “Let’s go, help the old men tend to their injuries first. Don’t let them accuse the Court of being black-hearted.” But soon, he looked at the old men in front of him and could no longer smile.

  He felt cold all over.

  “What is going on?” he asked.

  [1] This is a Chinese expression for something that is so obvious one could understand it using their toes, as opposed to using their brain.

  668 You are Finally Here

  “What is this?” He looked at all the Masters in front of him in shock. There was a sense of foreboding that made his heart go cold.

  “What’s happening?” Auden looked at him with a confused look on his face. “Are we in such bad shape? Hey, don’t tell me that you think we are too much trouble for you and you are trying to lie your way out of this?”

  “How can that be?” Ye Qingxuan shook his head and took a deep breath. “Hang on.” All of a sudden, there was a deep sound coming from his body that resembled a thunderous heartbeat that was beating at a fixed rhythm. The Stone of Sage glowed brightly with heat within his chest. Electricity shot out from within and pierced the air. All sorts of sounds were stacked on top of one another, creating a mysterious and strange melody. Both of his eyes reflected the shape of the moon that was created by streaks of electricity. The moon rose from the blackness in his eyes and shone light from within as if the light could pierce through Auden’s body and reveal the aether. It allowed a peek into the complexity of music theory.

  Auden could not help but shiver. There was nowhere for his Symphony of Predestination to hide under those pair of eyes. This implied that any transformation of power could be clearly seen by those eyes. No secrets could be hidden. The Symphony of Predestination was damaged by the turbulence of Ye Qingxuan’s music theory but this was not the only problem…

  Ye Qingxuan turned back and looked at every single one of them. That pair of eyes that were charged with electricity looked strange and creepy. Some of them inadvertently took a step back as they thought that Ye Qingxuan might be thinking of attacking them. But Ye Qingxuan gathered his gaze very quickly. He looked at Mable and frowned. Apparently, there was something wrong, even with Mable…

  “Mable, could you come over?” He waved and gestured for Mable to come over. Mable was taken aback before stepping forward. Ye Qingxuan stared at her so intently that she felt uneasy. “Hey, Your Highness, surely you can’t be interested in an old lady like me?”

  “Stop kidding.” Ye Qingxuan stretched out his hand and grabbed her wrist. “I’m sorry. Please bear with this for a while. I hope I’m wrong.”

  Electricity shot out from his fingers immediately after he finished speaking. This time around, everyone saw it. How could that be electricity? It was light that had been created by the endless transformation of music theory and was completely different from the characteristics of electricity.

  In an instant, Mable was trembling as the turbulent music theory entered her body and into her Symphony of Predestination directly. They seeped into every single music note before delving even deeper. Soon after, Mable let out a terrible cry. It was the cry of a little girl screaming in pain from the torture of electricity.

  The changing music theory transformed into the blade of a knife and cut deeply into her Symphony of Predestination before dismantling some of the structures within. Without a doubt, her consciousness was being tampered with. Even the most resilient consciousness would not be able to bear with such pain. It was so torturous that one would rather die. All the other Masters could not help but tremble with fear. What exactly had Mable done that she deserved to be tortured in this way by Ye Qingxuan?

  Very quickly, the electricity dissipated. Ye Qingxuan relaxed his grip and Mable knelt on the ground. She began to cough very violently before vomiting. Mucus and tears were flowing freely. Soon after, a black fog began to rise from the contents of her
vomit, and it seemed to be trying to find its way back into Mable’s body again.

  Electricity suddenly shot out to take the shape of a cage. The black fog was electrocuted by the electricity and incredibly, it let out a cry that resembled a human’s. It kept trying to escape the cage but there was no way out. After realizing this, it decided to try to fuse into Ye Qingxuan’s music theory but was continuously being shredded by the electricity until it grew thinner by each time. In the end, it turned into a white snake and hissed at Ye Qingxuan across the cage. Everyone gasped when they saw something as hideous as this had emerged from Mable’s body.

  “What is this?”

  “What else can it be?” Ye Qingxuan was solemn and he continued through gritted teeth, “Changing Music Theory.” He turned back and looked at everyone else. No secrets could remain hidden beneath those electricity-charged eyes. At this point in time, he firmly believed that more than three-quarters of them have been infected with Changing Music Theory! Even the old nun was no exception!

  “Mable, check our food and water. Immediately.” Ye Qingxuan ordered. “My apologies, everyone. I think some people among us have been working for the Dark Musician and have been spreading Paganini’s Changing Music Theory within us…”

  Very quickly, Mable came back and reported that there was nothing wrong with their food and water. Everyone also managed to prove their innocence after being put through the inspection process of the Religious Court of Inquiry. No one was working for the abyss?

  Ye Qingxuan was stunned. “What have all of you done? Why were all of you infected?”

  Everyone did not know what to say.

  “We didn’t do anything.” The crippled musician, who was the unluckiest of them all, said, “Ever since I entered the Ultimate, people have been after my life. After that, I was recruited by the Chief Inquisitor and have been following you ever since. You can check my memories and consciousness. I guarantee that you will not find any problems.” He was one of the few that was not infected and was fully confident in his innocence.