Silent Crown

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The dim city was suddenly illuminated by the moonlight.

Moonlight turned into swords, which whistled as they broke through the air.

Guided by Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, they traced various complicated trajectories in the air, gathering together, then separated and moved towards all directions, firmly blocking Lancelot from dodging in any direction.

Serious murderous intentions gathered on the blades that were born out of the Symphony of Predestination. When Ye Qingxuan gave a wave of his hand, in an instant, they crossed the lengthy distance and completed the encirclement. Taking aim at the critical weaknesses all over Lancelot's body, they quietly struck.

The cold moonlight illuminated the dark golden blade of the Lance of the Dragon Slayer, and Lancelot took a step back. The next moment, a loud bang burst forth.

It was the loud noise caused by dozens of times of collision superimposing in an instant.

The movements had exceeded the speed of the wind.

The bang couldn't catch up with Lancelot's actions.

At the moment, he was so fast that there wasn't even enough time for afterimages to be left behind. One could only see the burning radiance that remained from the movement of the lance as it cut the air apart. The radiance intertwined, criss-crossing in the air, slicing through each and every of the swords of moonlight that were close to striking him.

Ye Qingxuan grunted, his face slightly pale.

The essence of the swords of moonlight was interwoven music theory, born of his Symphony of Predestination, and was also inextricably linked to him.

When the swords of moonlight were forcibly taken apart, the residual impact of the Lance of the Dragon Slayer was also transmitted towards him along the perception threads.

Fortunately, the three-in-one structure of the musical movement was stable enough. After the shock was absorbed by the section of the stone of sage, which had the strongest endurance ability, Ye Qingxuan only felt his vision going black momentarily. For an ordinary Symphony of Predestination, just the aftermath alone would probably tear it apart?

He did not give Lancelot a chance to fight back.

Ye Qingxuan lifted a hand again.

Once more!

The crystal blades once again emerged from the moonlight, flying out according to Ye Qingxuan's will.

Powered by Ye Qingxuan with all his might, Jiu Xiao Huai Pei played fervently, deftly guiding the interweaving of music theory, and swords of moonlight emerged continually.

In a flash, 16 blades whistled as they flew towards Lancelot once more.

Sounds of shattering rang out one after another.

Innumerable pieces of broken light flew out, swords were crushed by the blade of the lance, but new swords were immediately regenerated from the moonlight.

16 swords flew at Lancelot nonstop, constantly shattering and regenerating, their trajectories interlacing in midair as they flew out, forcing him to stay where he was.

Ye Qingxuan expended his energy almost extravagantly, exploring his own limits.

As the sub-originator violently extracted aether, the sea of aether formed a funnel-shaped depression around him. A massive amount of aether flowed out of the pure white moon, creating a waterfall-like wonder.

But before the flow of aether from the waterfall reached the ground, it turned into sword blades in Ye Qingxuan's hands and flew towards Lancelot.

How many times did the blades of the swords and the lance collide in an instant?

Dozens?

Or hundreds?

Or a staggering number of thousands?

At the moment, the rate of attack of the swords of moonlight had approached Lancelot's limit. The radiance from the Lance of the Dragon Slayer interlaced in the air, constantly smashing the attacking moonlight into pieces, and stirred up a hurricane. A far distance away, the pressure from the hurricane almost suffocated Ye Qingxuan.

Lancelot still brought Ye Qingxuan tremendous pressure despite being in defense mode.

No, it was exactly because of Lancelot choosing defense that Ye Qingxuan's stress kept on building up. Obviously, Lancelot gave up attacking for the buffer time to pass and chose conservative defense.

Once he was done recovering, or had at least managed to recover to an extent whereby he could somewhat use the ability, a killer blow that could finish his opponent up in one go would inevitably be in store for Ye Qingxuan.

Then, before it happens, I'll just… kill you first! Ye Qingxuan thought.

The moonlight quaked violently.

Under the tremendous pressure, Ye Qingxuan's own operation techniques had also transformed.

In the past, relying on the swords of moonlight alone was enough to achieve an irreversible effect that guaranteed him victory. The properties of the swords sufficed to cause heavy damage to any enemy, be it the horrifying speed or the purifying music theory the blades carried.

But when facing opponents like Lancelot, the strengths in terms of speed and music theory were suppressed, and the shortcomings of having unchanging trajectories and being stiff and inflexible in response to different situations were exposed.

As they continuously emerged and struck, the swords that were initially only of a single variety had also become very different from that in the past.

Some swords gradually developed thicker ridges and evolved towards the direction of the two-handed epee. Some blades became thinner and more slender, and when intercepted by the Lance of the Dragon Slayer, they even learned to avoid and turn like snakes. Some other blades simply exceeded the scope of long swords, turning into scimitars popular among Canaanites, and they traced circular arcs in the air as they rotated and struck.

Gradually, Ye Qingxuan gained experience and was free from the bonds of his original understanding of swords. Various weapons that originated from a myriad of countries showed themselves from his hands.

The eight-faced sword from the East, the flame-bladed sword of the Asgardians, the two-handed ax favored by pirates, the wrought iron chokutō from Yunlou, the hand-and-a-half sword which could be maneuvered nimbly, the slender and quick rapier, the short and small dagger used by assassins, the heavy halberd which was a favorite of the Northern Highlanders, iron hammers of exaggerated proportions, and even goddamn flails…

In addition to the changes in model, the music theory attached onto the weapons also became very different.

The texture of the weapons became closer and closer to that of metal, and when the incorporeal crystallized aether cut through the air, it even produced the whistling sound of weapons striking.

Nature interference!

The nature of iron was bestowed upon the incorporeal aether!

When a gigantic spear was cast from Ye Qingxuan's hands, Lancelot, who was parrying his attacks, was forced to step back, to his surprise.

Lancelot was momentarily shocked, and when he looked at Ye Qingxuan, the eyes beneath the helmet grew more and more cautious.

Although the huge pressure had caused a nosebleed in Ye Qingxuan, making him look unusually flustered, but the murderous intent radiating from the silver-haired young man had grown so sharp and strong that that it had gathered and materialized.

No longer using only the music theory of sword-casting, at the moment, he had constrained the frenzied murderous intent contained in the music theory in his palm and was using it freely. On several occasions, it almost made Lancelot come close to missing.

Presently, his only shortcoming was his martial skill that was so crude that one couldn't bear to look at it.

Although his strength was terrifying, his way of attacking was too inexperienced. If someone slightly more proficient in martial arts was to use the power for a change, Lancelot would probably be suppressed to the extent of being unusually flustered.

At the moment, Ye Qingxuan was totally using Lancelot as a wooden dummy to practice the entry-level sword routines the old men of the Religious Court of Inquiry had taught him…

Although actual masters of martial arts could use entry-level routines to overcome everything forcefully, Ye Qingxuan felt that no such day would ever come in his life no matter how he looked at it…

Bang!

Amid the nonstop breaking sounds, a crisp sound of collision rang out.

As the Lance of the Dragon Slayer blocked the attacks from reaching Lancelot, a fleeting shadow of a sword suddenly went past Lancelot's defense and struck his helmet. Moonlight collided with steel, yet it produced a sound as if something substantial had struck.

Although the black Firebird in his body resisted and blocked the attack, the stab from the force carried by the blade made his face hurt.

He was… actually hit?

He hadn't even had time to react!

He stared at the dozens of swords of moonlight in shock, and at Ye Qingxuan's figure behind the swords that had almost materialized as gold and iron. In Ye Qingxuan's hands held a fleeting wisp of moonlight.

It was light…

It had no murderous intent, no texture, even its shape was unfixed.

After stripping everything else away, what emerged from Ye Qingxuan's hands was the purest moonlight.

The sword of moonlight.

The battle with Lancelot was like a process of cruel forging. Like a furnace, combat caused the power of the sword of moonlight to change qualitatively once more. Its magnificence faded, its impurities were discarded, and only pure light was left.

Moonlight turned into swords.

Such was the fastest speed in the world, as no one could surpass light.

The wisp of light slowly emerged from Ye Qingxuan's fingertips and aimed at Lancelot once again.

Although the technique was not profoundly mastered as Ye Qingxuan had just gotten the hang of it, and the power it carried was far lesser compared to that of the other swords that had taken on the nature of metal, what it represented was a reversal of the situation.

I must not drag the battle on any more… Lancelot thought.

At the moment, Lancelot ignored the swords of nature interference around him which were disturbing him, and took six steps back in a flash. In the loud bangs of iron boots stamping on slabstones and shattering them, he once again posed himself to attack. The blade was lifted high and was aimed at Ye Qingxuan's face.

The scorching high temperature radiated from the armor, evaporating a large amount of blood rain, shrouding Lancelot in a vague mist. But in the mist, a deeply ingrained murderous intent burst forth!

Even though it was so hot, the mist was frozen by the chill coming from the armor, and even the water puddle at the foot of Lancelot started frosting.

Coolant enough to turn the entire city into a snow country coursed through the veins of the armor, like blood flowing, and suppressed the fiery heat.

The next moment, a dragon's roar burst forth from the frost.

Everything came to a stop abruptly.

In the frozen world, only the radiance of the Lance of the Dragon Slayer was ignited.

Propelled by Lancelot, it broke through the obstruction of the blood rain, overcame the restraints of gravity, leaving deep footprints on the ground, and advanced forward.

All the swords of nature interference blocking its path were torn apart by the radiance with irresistible force. The Lance of the Dragon Slayer thrust forward and collided with the pure moonlight, resulting in a loud bang.

The Lance of the Dragon Slayer paused.

The moonlight that had evolved again fell apart in the collision.

In a flash, the counterattack brewed up by Ye Qingxuan was forcibly suppressed!

Even the armor was almost melted by the horrifying heat. The black Firebird suppressed the huge pressure and the temperature high enough to evaporate the body. The coolant was completely atomized, rose upwards, burning the air, distorting the light, and formed a blurry void.

The hurricane swept across and destroyed all obstacles, then extended in all directions.

The figure close at hand was like a demon.

It only took a moment.

Ye Qingxuan backed away rapidly.

But at the moment, Lancelot, who had just completed accelerating, once again posed himself to attack.

Immediately, the aether furnace overloaded and whined in unbearableness.

Totally disregarding his crumbling body, Lancelot did not take the slightest break, and launched the alchemy array in the armor once again!

It was the jaw-dropping…

— two-stage acceleration!

The world was frozen once more and everything was paused in place.

The blood rain was suspended, the evaporated coolant had yet to dissipate, and the battlefield fell into stillness once again. Only the burning armored knight launched an attack at his enemy!

The Lance of the Dragon Slayer pierced through the frozen air, the blade a scorching red from friction, and thrust towards Ye Qingxuan's head.

Death was close at hand!

At the moment, the spurt… stopped short.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Loud booms burst forth from Lancelot's body one after another, like countless steel cables breaking. The armor stirred up a hurricane, which swept across, and the horrifying wind pressure almost tore Ye Qingxuan's robes apart and was close to knocking him over.

Facing the hurricane, Ye Qingxuan slowly raised his head, gazing at the Lance of the Dragon Slayer one step away from him, and revealed a mocking smile.

The short distance of a stone's throw effectively separated the sky and the abyss.