Silent Crown

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

Everything that was recorded in The Book of the Ultimate was happening again.

All of the musicians were stunned. Amid their silence, the ceremony had already entered its final moments.

Three indistinct shadows climbed onto the high platform before the stone cauldron. This situation had the smell of a catastrophe in the making.

One could vaguely make out that they were an old man, a woman, and a thin youth.

Standing on the deck, Ye Qingxuan's eyes jumped around wildly as he watched the scene unfold.

He didn't know the old man or the woman, but the young man's silhouette seemed familiar. Moreover, upon seeing the unmistakable double-snake emblem on the back of his hand, he suddenly realized who it was.

Do you get yourself mixed up in everything, boss?

In the illusion of the Ultimate, the sacrifice had already begun.

The three people each revealed the true nature of their sacrifices.

The first was black gold, symbolizing the power and glory of kingship. The second was frankincense, symbolizing indestructible divinity. And the third was myrrh, symbolizing original sin and death. Humanity was trying to establish a golden era!

These three people were without doubt the incarnations of the three Wise Men.

Before everyone's eyes, the old man known as Tung Wang Kung placed his black gold into the Sacred Cauldron. Behind him, someone dressed in black proclaimed the first commandment: "Obey fate, everything passes from birth into death."

Next was the woman, who must have been Nibelungenlied, who placed her frankincense into the cauldron. Behind her, someone dressed in red read out an unbreakable vow, "Human strength is limited, stay within your limits."

Finally, the young man smiled brightly and inserted the myrrh that symbolized original sin and death. Behind him, someone in yellow made the last oath, "Be in awe of aether, only the Originator is eternal."

A roar loud enough to split heaven and earth emerged from the cauldron.

The musicians began to tremble.

The oaths that the Three Kings had taken and the oaths that the musicians had taken on the day that they became apprentices resonated in the sacred cauldron. In the chaos, it seemed like countless beams of light were soaring into the sky.

The silver light that shrouded the Ultimate began to boil and spread in all directions, revealing the islands and huge, complex cities within. After being seen for a moment, the cities were once again shrouded in fog along with countless other illusions.

Soon, only the mighty sound of a bell rang out from the cauldron.

In that moment everyone's expression changed.

This was because a roar was emitted from the Asgardian sea fortress. Amid the ear-piercing battle alarm, countless huge gun barrels were raised. They pointed in all directions with an unmistakable intent to kill.

And among the clouds, Scepters began to reveal themselves, particularly above the fortress. This placed the fortress within the Scepter's area of influence, turning ordinary iron into something miraculous.

"You have until I count to ten to leave this place…"

A bolt of crisscrossing lightning rose from the sea fortress. The Second Emperor looked down on everyone indifferently, his single eye radiating scorching sunlight.

"…or else the punishment of Asgard will come down from the sky!"

The situation was becoming more dangerous by the moment.

Not caring that it would make an enemy of everyone, Asgard had revealed its intention to obtain the Ultimate at all costs, and was forcing everyone to leave.

If the Ultimate had just been the normal remains of a catastrophe, then the nations would fight and haggle over it, but the final result would be that it would be divided up and shared equally. The only question would be who would get the most out of it.

But in the image that everyone had just seen, the information that had been revealed about the Ultimate raised its importance even higher.

In all of history, the appearance of the remains of a catastrophe had never led to a gathering of the spirits of the kings, not to mention the shadows of the Cauldron of the Ultimate and the three Wise Men.

Without a doubt, the Ultimate held a position of great importance within the Great Originator. That which was hidden inside it was definitely not something as simple as raw power, there must be a deeper secret.

Even if it meant going to war with all the other powers gathered there, the Asgardians had no choice but to obtain the Ultimate. Not only did the Second Emperor's position depend on it, but it was also enough to determine the fate of the West for several hundred years.

As the most powerful nation in the history of the West, Asgard could not share something so important with the other powers.

That left them with two options.

Either leave, or fight.

"What do we do, Your Highness?" asked Mable. "What do we do?"

Ye Qingxuan tapped the Staff of Fate on the ground, his face expressionless. "Do you still need me to teach you?"

Rumble!

A low, lingering sound rang out between the iron staff and the deck. A brilliant radiance sprang up out of Ye Qingxuan's head, becoming a gorgeous and majestic halo. It swept away like a burning golden Firebird, transforming into a blazing sun.

The music of the Chapter of Golden Victory filled the air. It went into the first Pomp and Circumstance March, ringing out between the sea and the sky.

Just then, a bird's cry rose up from above the water. A giant phoenix hatched from an egg of flame. It rested above the Royal Navy as it slowly spread out its burning wings, sending wild tides through the nine levels of the Sea of Aether.

A Heaven Ladder descended from the sky, connecting to the bestial form of the phoenix. The music of the Golden Chapter of Victory infused the phoenix, draping it in the majestic garments of the Firebird.

This was one of the first uses of the Net of Aether. Under Ye Qingxuan's command the phoenix's form began to transform wildly, until finally it rose up from the Sea of Aether and broke into the realm of aether as its pieces began to come together.

It even temporarily entered into where the Scepters were!

The Royal Navy's symphony began, resonating between dozens of musicians. All of the power was entrusted to Mabel, who made the phoenix even more nimble, and more furious.

The Golden Chapter of Victory and the phoenix…

Twin Scepters!

Amid the roar of the music, the Mountain of Nomadism let loose a violent hurricane, tearing through the clouds. The Petitioner's main guns warmed up, taking aim at the massive sea fortress.

They would not yield! They would not compromise!

Up in the sky, several dozen Scepters faced each other threateningly. They displayed their power without hesitation. Movement after movement, fearful music theories overlapped each other, distorting the sky of the Physical World and transforming it into the primordial darkness of the universe. Against that primordial darkness the Scepters blazed like stars.

They menaced each other with mutual hostility.

In a flash, the musician's on the outskirts scattered in all directions. If a battle broke out, even the sweeping aftermath would be enough to smash them into pieces.

All of the mid-level musicians seemed to have disappeared without a trace, or fallen silent. But under the water, huge, gloomy shapes began to emerge from the depths of the sea.

They waited for the perfect opportunity…

The original masters' waves of aether increased under the induction of the Jiu Xiao Huan Pei. In a flash they had soared to nearly one hundred. That deep and restrained wave of aether hid terrifying potential.

Of the masters who had come here on this day, there was not one who had not been deeply immersed in music theory for hundreds of years. Tired of being limited to just being masters, they had waited impatiently for an opportunity to advance themselves. Now that the Ultimate was in sight, not one of them was willing to back down.

The gate to becoming a Scepter was frightfully difficult to open. Countless people had wasted their lives in front of it, for each Scepter was the hero of their generation.

If they could get through it, they would be famed throughout the nations and be established as a Holy Spirit. If they could not, in a hundred years they would be nothing but dry bones.

If they missed this chance, who knew how long they would have to wait for the next one?

Battle seemed inevitable.

In the dead silence, a hoarse sigh came out of the Ultimate.

It was the chorus of the three Wise Men's incantation.

"…from then on, he will be led astray."

A sound like the ringing of a great bronze bell came out of the Sacred Cauldron. A formless waved surged out in all directions at the sound, and in an instant had covered the entire area.

Limitless power began to blaze out from within, casting its light on everyone.

Everyone felt as if the deep tolling of that bell had swept through their bodies, causing the Symphony of Predestination to ring out.

The sound instantly overpowered all of the music, fusing it all into a single note. A light descended from the sky as all stood there dumbfounded.

Hundreds upon hundreds of rays of light fell upon the masters. When the light was extinguished, the masters had all disappeared.

In that moment, Ye Qingxuan could only see a flash before his eyes.

The light cut like a knife, easily piercing through the boundary between the realm of aether and the physical world and pulling him into the suffocating sea of aether. Innumerable undercurrents seemed to drag him down, only to lift him up again. He could see nothing but countless strands of flickering light flying around him.

Suddenly, he could feel gravity again.

He fell onto the floor, coughing violently. In his dizziness he vomited the undigested remains of his dinner.

His heart was beating wildly.

Wait…

That wasn't right. He felt his pulse.

He was shocked.

To anyone else, a heartbeat would be the most ordinary thing in the world. But not to Ye Qingxuan. His heart was already immersed in the Sub-Originator. After fusing with the stone of sage it was half-elementalized and rising into the realm of aether.

In other words, his heart should no longer be in his body.

But now it was back.

He looked at the ring of braided piano wire on his index finger, the Jiu Xiao Huan Pei. Even though it had been transformed into Heaven Ladder music theory and immersed in the Symphony of Predestination, it too had returned. Next to it, the signet ring on his middle finger was giving off a dim light.

It was the signet ring of the Prince of Avalon, the deputy ruler of the Anglo Kingdom.

Now, it had become the place where the music theory of the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth had accumulated. The blessings of the Chapter of the Golden Victory had all flowed into it.

And a movement had appeared in black on the back of his hand. Ye Qingxuan rolled up his cuffs, and could see the dark movement that looked like it had been engraved into his skin.

"Catastrophe resonation."

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a moment, then he pricked his forefinger and watched the metal-colored blood flow out of it…it was the blood-soaked seal of moonlight.

The stone of sage, catastrophe resonance, the seal of moonlight…his three-in-one Symphony of Predestination had been broken apart at some time, and distributed back into the Sub-Originator.

The blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth had been set inside the signet ring.

The music went silent, without so much as an echo.

This meant that…the worst had happened.

All of the foreign objects had been forced out of his body. His power had fallen from halfway to the Scepter level all the way down to the Distortion level.

Ye Qingxuan concentrated hard for a moment, trying to control the music again, trying to put the divided pieces of the Symphony of Predestination back together again. But just as he managed to put it back together it was forcibly split again by some kind of repulsive force.

It was like trying to force the same poles of two magnets together.

There was something that would not allow Ye Qingxuan to receive the support of those objects anymore.

He smiled bitterly and looked around the labyrinthian city, seeing that there were streets that gradually extended upwards before converging at the top.

Ah, it was the Ultimate.