Silent Crown

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

After integrating Gungnir, the Music Theory of Reform sprouted from the New Testament Sword, like the glory of the world gathered together.

As the blade plunged, violent lightning fell from the sky, tearing through layers of fog. It seemed like they hit an invisible field, and an ear piercing sound rang out.

Numerous rippled of chaos emerged from the void. There was a flash of light accompanied by a sharp scraping sound. In the originally empty realm of aether, the illusion of a huge city suddenly appeared.

But compared with everything else, it was as small as a speck of dust.

A blow at full power merely made its form emerge from the chaos. Under the support of the Wheel of Balance, even its weakest points were firm, and it was almost unshakeable.

Now Ye Qingxuan stood in front of it, like a speck of dust trying to pierce through an iron wall.

"Again!" Ye Qingxuan was not discouraged but instead was stirred up by his fighting spirit. A line of the Net of Aether came from far away, and the World Tree's arrays appeared, followed by… the Gungnir orchestra!

It was as if the catastrophe Odin had reappeared.

Under the guidance of the supreme elemental void, a concrete outline of Gungnir emerged from the void energy. A lightning spear so violent that it seemed like it wanted to pierce through the heavens and the earth appeared in Ye Qingxuan's hands.

Then it struck!

Bang! The Great Wall's shadow surged, and a fissure emerged from within the fog. Countless streams of light flew out and repaired the cracks. Somewhere far away terrible raging waves gathered together.

This was the Great Wall's automatic defense system.

But soon, Gungnir struck again.

As the loud roar rang out, Ye Qingxuan cast out Yunlou Qingshu's beacon, and it stuck into the invisible crack. Because of this, a great deal of Heaven Ladder Music Theory burst out.

In a flash, it extended a great distance towards the core arrays of the Great Wall.

Outflow, creation, formation, activity…

It pierced through the four elements.

Hermes's alchemy worked together with the Ye family music theory that had been established when the Great Wall was built, coordinating both inside and out to open up a huge gap in the front of the Great Wall.

A narrow vortex emerged in the rolling fog, with electricity curling within it, as if it was a crack that would lead to hell.

Without thinking, Ye Qingxuan jumped into it, letting the darkness engulf him.

The fleeting vortex crashed shut behind him, and the New Testament Sword protected him from enough pressure to crush flesh into dust.

Ye Qingxuan saw countless streams of light flying before his eyes.

As far as the Great Wall was concerned, this guy who had come in through the back door was undoubtedly a virus that had infiltrated its circulatory system. It immediately launched its defensive measures, and music theory intertwined to form the image of a bronze drum.

A great wind blew, and thunder roared.

The wind and thunder laughed, and lightning cut down like an ax.

Armageddon!

This was the punishment that the East imposed on forbidden musicians, the eternal shackles set by the Bloodline of the Dragon. After the supplementation of dozens of generations, there was no exemption even for those of the Bloodline.

Once you violated it, it would be like a maggot in your bones. It would not rest and it would not die!

"Aren't I just knocking down a wall?" Ye Qingxuan sighed. "Why does it need to be so ruthless?" He raised the New Testament Sword and brought the blade down, and music theory clearly and nimbly cut off the links that entangled him to the outside world. In the end, Ye Qingxuan had become nothing more than a simple "hole" in the Great Wall.

There was no echo or resonance, all noise and music theory was absorbed. He slipped effortlessly through layers and layers of barricades. The lightning of armageddon swirled around him, brushing past him continuously. At its closest, it still was a little distance away.

Even so, it gradually honed in on Ye Qingxuan's position, shrinking in towards the center.

"Tsk!" Ye Qingxuan frowned but could do nothing but prepare to resist it.

In the end, Armageddon suddenly came to a standstill and then collapsed, strangely disappearing right before the life and death struggle began. And behind layers of electricity, a blurred phantom emerged amid countless streams of light.

It had no face, no contours, it did not even seem like a human figure, but for a fleeting moment, it formed a coincidental pattern, throwing Ye Qingxuan's will into turmoil. It was like a switch had been pressed. In a flash his mind became unsteady and he lost control of himself.

There was not even space left in his mind for him to be shocked.

Trees, the sea, fish… a series of completely different images appeared in his mind. In the end, they pointed to traces of something that he had long before pushed into the deepest part of his memory.

He inexplicably remembered; he remembered the phantom that had appeared beside him when he had opened the musician's door and burned his Dream of a Millennium.

It was nothing more than an inflexible memory, but at that moment, it came alive. The musician with features similar to his own walked out of the stillness and nodded at him with a smile.

He seemed to be greeting him.

He was telling him: I'm here.

Then, the series of images and thoughts fell apart and disintegrated once again. His turbulent mind re-stabilized as if nothing had happened. All that was left of what had just happened was a hint of stress.

But Ye Qingxuan could not help but think of what the phantom had asked him.

Do you regret it?

A new meaning to the question that had haunted him for so long had appeared in that moment. Even though the phantom had no ill-intent, and had even helped him to overcome armageddon, it still made him uneasy.

"Was it… the Millennium Fate?" He remembered Yunlou Qingshu's demented words, and he grew irritated. The thing he hated most was people who seemed to know everything yet said nothing.

Always with a mysterious smile and condescending look, as if they were watching a drama that they had long since seen through, staring at him like he was a puppet to be pushed towards its ultimate fate.

Screw your freaking Spring and Autumn Dream!

Ye Qingxuan snorted, shook his head, and stopped thinking about it. That trick would only work once, like a letter being stuffed through the crack in a door. After Ye Qingxuan put up his guard, it wouldn't be effective anymore.

He had already made up his mind. He ignored everything else.

He had already done enough for this world. No one could manage the floods that would come after he died, why should he have to manage some d*mn problems from thousands of years ago?

At that moment he pierced through the Great Wall and broke through the clouds. The first thing he saw was the dried up wasteland beneath the dark clouds. A thousand miles of yellow sand stretched out as far as the eye could see, and faint yellow dust floated in the air.

The distant ground was still covered in cracks, both large and small as far as the eye could see. There was even a great spot; pitch black, like it had been scorched by the blazing sun.

"Where is this?" The first thing Ye Qingxuan felt was frustration. Had he gone the wrong way? Where was the legendary picturesque scenery? The beautiful mountains and rivers? What was going on? Forget pines and cypresses, there was not even grass on the ground!

More importantly, the group of people on the ground… what were they doing?

As Ye Qingxuan descended and looked down upon them, piercing through dust and sand, he finally saw the chaotic darkness on the ground clearly. It was a myriad of densely packed figures, entangled with each other and groaning and roaring.

A bright red color ran through this barren world.

Among the killing, a throbbing power surged through their blood and became tangled together. It attacked invisibly, advancing at every stage. Music theory intertwined with other music theory, vying for control of the physical world.

It was a battle…

Outside the killing field, two groups of musicians competed for control of the battlefield, calling down fire and thunder or sending out mana. A countless number of musician's music theory overlapped with each other, tangled together, forming a chaotic torrent amidst the tug of war.

As Ye Qingxuan descended, a beam of light blazing like a meteor appeared in the sky. Dozens of waves of aether had already locked onto him, and music theory stretched out towards him.

"Wait!" Ye Qingxuan was dumbfounded.

At this moment, the battlefield was hanging by a thread. Everyone was striving with all their might to kill, and they were determined to not let any cracks appear in their armor.

Facing the meteor descending from the sky, the first thing that appeared in the minds' of musicians on both sides was confusion.

Is he on our side?

No.

Then…

Surrounded by the power of Gungnir and the Net of Aether as he descended from the sky, Ye Qingxuan seemed to have become the enemy of both sides at the same time. As a result, the musicians on both sides sent out a devastating attack towards the sky at once.

It was like a replay of the battle with the sea fortress several months before.

But this time the one who faced the copious amounts of movements was Ye Qingxuan.

D*mn it! Ye Qingxuan's expression changed suddenly. He finally understood why the Great Wall was so weak here. It was because all of the Great Wall's power here was tied up in blocking off the aftereffects of this battle, and could not cope with an external assault.

As a result, he was able to enter it as he pleased. He never would have thought that the place that he entered was not an empty room, but a battlefield between two gangs!

Facing the incoming attack, Ye Qingxuan's first reaction was to work in tandem with the Net of Aether to help him block the tidal offensive. But he did not expect that there would be no response from the Net of Aether. He could not even feel it through the Great Wall.

Ah, they had broken the net sure enough!

Ye Qingxuan pondered and immediately became puzzled. Huh? Why did I say "sure enough"?

There was no time to pay attention to the confusion in his heart. Fortunately, he still had the New Testament Sword beside him.

Hold up the foundations of the earth and prop up the dome of heaven.

In a flash, Ye Qingxuan hid in a fault of aether, as if he was sailing a broken ship that was lashed by heavy wind and rain. Although this attack seemed terrifying, it lacked decisiveness. It had only quantity, which was not enough to damage him.

It was looked a little embarrassing for him.

Facing the roaring attacks that came one after another, Ye Qingxuan did not dare continue towards the center of the battlefield. Abandoning his prodigious strength, he forced himself to descend in a different direction. As swift as lightning, he felt himself streak across a huge arc in the sky, passing over the vast battlefield.

Wrapped in the residual power of Gungnir and the Net of Aether, Ye Qingxuan felt himself burst through layer after layer of barriers until he fell into a building.

He was like a meteorite.

Shockwaves burst out with a roar.

As dust flew all around, Ye Qingxuan coughed violently and climbed out of the deep hole. He saw an old man in front of him. In the shattered building, he enjoyed the protection of two musicians. He looked down at Ye Qingxuan and looked surprised.

"In all my years I've never seen somebody try to meet me like this." He looked at Ye Qingxuan, whose head and face was covered with dust, shook his head and sighed. "Truly… original!"

Ye Qingxuan frustratedly looked at him and his luxurious robe. Under the protection of the enchantment, his black robe had not gotten any dust on it. It was trimmed with black gold, majestic and severe.

He couldn't help but look around. All he could see outside the building were layers and layers of musicians surrounding the place. In the void, he could faintly see the fluctuations of several Scepters locking onto him with terrifying killing intent.

Ye Qingxuan's face twitched.

He was screwed!

Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

"Where is this place?" He looked at the old man.

"It's a battlefield, of course, Ye Qingxuan." The old man chuckled softly, like he knew him. "This is my camp. You don't even know where it is that you fell?"

Ye Qingxuan was stunned.

"Then you are…" Before he had finished speaking, he finally checked his mental atlas and recognized the man before him.

"Bai Heng?"