Silent Crown

The wind hurled upon the earth from the sky like iron sand. An enormous

cyclone appeared from nowhere and stretched onto the ground. It tore up lots

of buildings into pieces and flipped the rooves of palaces into the air. The

whole place was full of dust, which was sucked in by the cyclone and surged

up into the sky.

Then, a storm began to pour rains down. The dark sun pulled and dragged

the rain water. Those rain drops, captured by it, circled around it. The blazing

lava in the mirror of the hell was shining as if it were lit up.

A beam of light was shot at Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan flipped the cigarette and raised his head to look into the sky.

“You are slow, Shi Dong.” Ye Qingxuan asked. “You are so eager to get

another grand inquisitor for you?”

The massive iron battle ship, appeared from behind the cloud, kept its

imposing posture and hovered in the sky upside down with its broad deck

toward the ground. Beside the row, a figure, as if nailed onto the deck, was

looking up at the ground. Hearing Ye Qingxuan’s voice, he grinned, mocking

Ye Qingxuan for his misfortune.

“I told you, never believe anyone.” The figure said.

“Cut it off, Shi Dong.” Ye Qingxuan answered. “You don’t believe anyone.

That’s all.”

“That’s how one can live a long life, isn’t it?”

“Cut the crap.” Ye Qingxuan raised his eyebrow. “You have one minute to get

me out of this shit place.”

Shi Dong heaved a sigh and said, “is it really appropriate for you to ask such a

huge favor, considering we’ve just met?”

“That was mean. When have I been appropriate? You know me, I was always

asking too much.” Ye Qingxuan raised his finger to show Shi Dong the

cigarette on his fingertips. “You have 40 seconds before I finish this cigarette.”

“OK, OK. Ten seconds would be enough.” Shi Dong didn’t hurry but asked

leisurely, “regularly, it’s the subordinates’ job to finish the work, while it’s the

obligation of the boss to be held responsible for the consequences. Right?”

Ye Qingxuan saw what he meant and couldn’t help smiled self-mockingly. He

waved his hand and said, “as you like it. I sanctioned it.”

“That is good.” Shi Dong said.

Seeing the dim figures behind the dark sun, Shi Dong’s eyes became full of

thirst and eagerness. “Seeing all those heretics wandering around, I cannot

help itching to kill some of them. Is this a sort of occupational disease?”

In the sky, the upside-down Mountain of Nomadism boomed to operation. The

heavy cannon barrel was raised out from below the deck. The dark muzzle

was aimed at the ground and super-hot light began to shine in the cannon

muzzle. The terrible aether movement was initialized.

[Level six propelling power. Finished.]

[Warm up finished]

[Lock up finished]

The great demons on the ground was transfixed in astonishment.

This bunch of stupid men! We have their boss is in our hands. They don’t

even care about Ye Qingxuan? What are they doing? A riot? They want to kill

their boss in this chaos?

This was crazy for the dark musicians who abided by the strict hierarchical

systems. They had never heard of anything like this. This was beyond their

imagination…

“Wait!” A hoarse voice was heard from the fog, “I require a negotiation with

your commander in charge…”

“Stupid pig…” Ye Qingxuan, smoking his cigarette in the blockade, couldn’t

help shaking his head mockingly.

“Sorry, the Religious Court of Inquisitors never negotiate with heretics.” Shi

Dong Smiled grimly, obviously being happy and waved his hand while

speaking out the initialization word, “Pray! Give the world the gift of misery.”

– Petitioner, fire!

The whole world suddenly fell into darkness.

Then, a piercing beam of light fell from the sky. It was like a plough controlled

by the god to plough the earth, yet what it planted was only the seed of

destroy.

It was the light of doom. It struck on the earth, with no regard about Ye

Qingxuan at all. Under the impact of the light, the dark sun shivered violently

and collapsed quickly. The Landscape of Hell squealed and finally exploded

into pieces.

The light devoured everything. Windsor Manor, the summer palace where the

royal family had lived for several centuries, was utterly destroyed.

The light went out.

Ye Qingxuan tossed the cigarette stump on the ground and stamped it out.

Stepping on the ground that had melted due to the horrible heat of the light,

he walked out and bent over to pick up a corpse that was so badly burned that

only the head was still recognizable.

The head was in quite good shape and the face was recognizable.

“Now we can begin to negotiate.” Looking at the dying demon coldly and said,

“to have a quick death or an anguish one, it is your choice, which depends on

how you answer my question.”

Then, he paused and get closer to the head. Gazing at the only one eye left,

he said, word by word, “tell me now, where is Mary?”

Moonlight perception thread, with the music theories of the School of Mind,

extended from his hand and permeated into the brain which was badly

wounded due to the collapse of music theories.

When a musician ascended to the higher level, he would be able to get rid of

his mortal body and build a new body with the circulation of aether. Then, he

would be much stronger than the ordinary men, both physically and mentally.

And, this a great demon who had been transformed by the abyss. Even when

he was dying, his will power was not to be wavered easily. However, this was

of no help when Ye Qingxuan manipulated his defenseless mind with his Mind

Movement.

Every Mind musician has his own specific style. For example, Ye Lanzhou

was good at influencing people’s mind without their noticing it. He didn’t need

a music movement to help him. He could infiltrate into people’s mind and

induce them to tell him what he wanted merely by a gesture or an eye contact.

But Ye Qingxuan was totally different with him. Ye Qingxuan didn’t bother to

disguise himself at all. He always attacked with brutal force and broke

people’s defenses to find the deepest part of their mind and find the answer

he wanted.

In just one split second, something clicked. The lock of the great demon’s

mind was opened.

The pupils of the great demon contracted and dilated repeatedly. The great

demon was still conscious, but he could not stop himself telling Ye Qingxuan

the answer.

“The new king has begun his tour across the kingdom in the shadow…” The

great demon said hoarsely, “the King of Hell will descend on the earth.”

“Very good.” Ye Qingxuan said, nodding his head. He plucked the head off the

body and tossed it over to Shi Dong who had came down onto the earth along

a rope. He said, “this is yours now. Find something for the old fellows to work

on, in case that they get Alzheimer's disease.”

“As you wish, your Excellency.” Shi Dong bowed to Ye Qingxuan respectfully,

but his expression was telling that he didn’t care about the head at all. He

said, “I have two pieces of news for you. Which one do you want to hear first,

the bad one, or the worse one?”

“The bad one first, as an appetizer.”

Shi Dong nodded and said crisply, “Leviathan began its attack this afternoon.

The third seal will collapse any moment now. I’m afraid it won’t be able to last

to next dawn.”

It was bad. Really bad. Ye Qingxuan didn’t know whether it was the bad one

or the worse one.

“How about Master Haydn? Is he OK?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

“I have seen him. He can hardly hold on any longer.” Shi Dong said lightly,

“the Genesis matrix was overloaded and has aetherised half of his body. If he

was not saved soon enough, he would be totally ‘melted’ by the music

theories and integrated into the overloaded Genesis matrix…Master Haydn

knew about the incidents in the city but he could not spare any time to help.

He asked me to tell you to take actions as soon as possible. Once Leviathan

breaks through the third seal and descend on the world, then the final defense

that King of Bach, asked by the royal family, had constructed in Avalon will be

automatically initiated. The national defense line will overload itself and

extract the ocean of aether buried under the ground of the country to summon

something call ‘the Holy Grail of Destruction’. Then, the whole Avalon will be

vaporized.” Shi Dong paused for a while, and then continued, “I have done the

calculation. According to my calculation, half of Anglo will be destroyed by the

blast and the whole western world will suffer from it. It will be like the war

between the three kings against the catastrophe several hundred years ago:

huge oceans waves will be generated and four countries will be wiped off the

earth. Even the cities along the coast line of the oriental world will be

engulfed.

Ye Qingxuan frowned, and he said, “destroy the whole territory of Anglo? How

come that the defense is so powerful?”

“That will be the second piece of news, which is worse.” Shi Dong heaved a

sigh and raised his head. He waved his hand toward the Mountain of

Nomadism. Following his gesture, the cannon was aimed at the ground and

under the propelling power of level four, the canon loaded the piercing matrix

and shot at the ground.

Without any sound, a hole of several hundred meters deep appeared on the

ground.

The hole, which was of a diameter of five to six meters, went straight down.

The earth around the hole was smooth and slippery, burned into carbon in the

moment of shooting. The hole went through to the bottom of Avalon.

Shi Dong stretched his hand and signaled to Ye Qingxuan to take a look.

Ye Qingxuan went over and lowered his head to look into the hole. He saw the

sewer that was cut off by the hole and the deeper part of the hole. And he got

more and more concerned.

In the sewer, it was blood that was flowing. The blood circulated in the

complex sewer network that covered the whole area of Avalon. It was like

blood in the veins.

And in the deeper part of the hole, he saw clearly that large amount of earth

and rocks were infected with the life energy of the catastrophe’s and turned

into blood and flesh. The infection had gone to the deepest part of the earth

and even may had already expanded to the sea bed around Avalon.

Shot by the cannon, large amount of flesh and blood was vaporized, yet new

tissue was growing quickly. The speed of growth was incredibly fast.

Blood surged out from underneath the ground and filled the hole. But the

blood didn’t gush out from the hole after the hole was full. Then the blood pool

became even with the ground, with sticky red blood rippling in the hole,

reflecting Ye Qingxuan’s face in it.

“Leviathan had broken through the seal of the Genesis and turned the whole

Avalon into blood and flesh?”

“That might be not correct.” Shi Dong said after heaving a sigh, “if my guess is

right, Avalon was built on Leviathan. Or we may say, Avalon was the same

thing as Leviathan. Only that King Arthur had changed its name.”

He paused, and then told the truth, “Leviathan is Avalon.”

Ye Qingxuan couldn’t believe it at all. It was all too ridiculous. Leviathan is

Avalon itself? For several centuries, numerous people lived on the body of

Leviathan?

“Do you have any other explanation besides that?” Shi Dong laughed grimly.

“It is always a mystery how Avalon has come into being. It was recorded in no

history book. Somebody says that it was puled out of the sea by King Arthur

through The Chapter of the Golden Victory, somebody says that it was

developed by King Arthur in the world of darkness.

If Leviathan really loves King Arthur and has sacrificed its love to make him

king, then why didn’t it sacrifice his body to make him the ruler of the whole

world?”

Ye Qingxuan fell into silence.

Shi Dong couldn’t help heaving a sigh. “We have trouble everywhere, my

grand inquisitor.” He said, “Avalon is such a small place, yet it has such a

huge problem…It is right to fight the evil until the end, yet the Religious Court

of Inquisitors is not powerful enough to fight this war. We’d better retreat when

we still can. We have too much left to do and too much things to handle.”

Ye Qingxuan didn’t speak.

Looking at Ye Qingxuan, Shi Dong said to him in a low voice, “my excellence,

it takes courage to admit defeat some times.”

“This is exactly why you cannot be a grand inquisitor, Shi Dong.” Ye Qingxuan

raised his head and looked at Shi Dong. “You have wisdom, you are good at

operation management, you have the experience and you even know

everything about politics. You are the best assistant to the grand inquisitor,

lobbying the church and the countries for the grand inquisitor. You have all the

abilities that the grand inquisitor doesn’t. But you always overthink. The more

you think, the more you need to take into consideration. Then you would

compare all the different results and weigh each of the choices. Finally, you

will get afraid, you will become weak, drifting away from the original path,

even without knowing it.

Lowering his head, Shi Dong didn’t speak.

“I have said that I would rebuild the Religious Court of Inquisitors and set the

stake in the dark world again. I’m the grand inquisitor and I will not let anyone

have any control over my destiny. No one can manipulate my fate. I have

made my choice when I stepped out of the Holy City.

Staring at Shi Dong, Ye Qingxuan enunciated, “My future will begin at this

place. No matter what happens, I will never give up. Shi Dong, Never.”

After a long time of silence, Shi Dong lowered his head and bowed to Ye

Qingxuan respectfully.

“We’ll follow your order, your excellence.” He asked, “what’s our next move,

then?”

“To be honest, I haven’t figured that out yet. But things will become clear

soon.” Ye Qingxuan laughed self-mockingly. Looking at the blood path winding

into the ruins, he said, “before that, get our majesty back with me.”