Silent Crown

In the rumble, Ye Qingxuan lay in the ruins, looking up at the turbulent sky.

Fierce glows lit up one after another. Despite clearly being fires that sufficed to burn the mortal realm away, turning it into purgatory, when they gathered in one place, they were gorgeous to look at. Colorful reflections flickered in his eyes.

Without anyone realizing it, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

The dream was so calm and long.

Tides swept from afar, and waves washed onto the beach. He stepped on the gravel barefoot. A small crab crawled out of a hole in the sand, climbed over his feet, and fell into a puddle.

The familiar smell of seawater was in the air.

The blue sky was reflected on the surface of the sea.

Ye Qingxuan sat silently on the beach, watching the calm waves surge, washing up on the beach. The wind blew from a distance, bringing fresh air with it. It blew on the dilapidated palaces of the Ultimate.

No disputes.

No fights.

No ambition.

Nor was there so-called future.

In the quiet ruins, only eternal loneliness and beauty were present.

After a long time, he suddenly realized the truth.

“Is this my dream?” Ye Qingxuan chuckled softly and rubbed his forehead embarrassedly. “I didn’t expect that I still like to deceive myself…”

He lifted his head and looked up at the sky, raising his voice. “The world is not like this, is it?”

A rumble came from afar.

The smell of the wind changed.

“The world has never been so calm and gentle.” Ye Qingxuan stepped on the waves and walked along the beach, talking to himself, “The sky is not of such a color.”

So, the blue sky broke, and the fierce lights from the battle emerged from the gap as if the door of purgatory had been opened. Fire burned the clouds as if iron had been ignited. White clouds were dyed black by ink, and when they brushed against each other, a high-pitched sound of steel colliding burst forth.

The calmness was torn apart.

“The wind does not smell like this,” he said.

The breeze paused. Then, the Föhn wind of purgatory blew from the fire. The wind brought along a pungent smell of sulfur, and the wind was dyed yellow. When it blew on one’s face, it stung one’s eyes, and one could not help but tear up.

“The sea water is not of such a temperature,” he said.

So, the clear sea water boiled, and the stench rose from it. Stinking white foam surged between the reefs, like a boiling spring beneath the earth’s crust. The water was no longer pure, and it was full of the smell of bodies rotting, the bloody scent stinging one’s nose.

“The ground is shaking,” Ye Qingxuan murmured softly, turned back, and saw the collapse of the dilapidated yet calm palace as the island shook. Cracks emerged on the road paved with stone, and the lava of purgatory spewed out from beneath the earth’s crust, dyeing the island a blood red bit by bit.

“The light of the stars has gone out,” he said.

So, stars fell, breaking through the clouds, and ignited the air. With a long trail of lights behind them, they fell into the sea, stirring up tides tens of thousands of meters tall. Some fell on the ground, leaving tragic scars behind.

It seemed as if a cruel child was casually doodling on a masterpiece with red paint.

Everything was beyond recognition.

But something was still missing.

Ye Qingxuan thought for a moment, nodded, and said, “Let there be forlorn whines.”

The rumble sounded like countless blasts of thunder colliding. The gale howled forlornly as if countless desperate souls had emerged in the wind, crying softly, mourning the death of everything.

Ye Qingxuan stood between the sea and the skies. He raised his head, looking up at the world.

Under the burning sky, the sea was blood red. Broken islands spat out lava, stars fell, and Föhn wind blew and swept. Forlorn howls and mournful crying sounded one after another, then dissipating in the air like illusions.

Everything seemed to be from a nightmare about purgatory.

“Such is the real world.” Ye Qingxuan looked at his creation with satisfaction. It was so detailed and real, honestly presenting its actual appearance. But he couldn’t smile and simply felt tired.

After bidding farewell to hypocrisy, his dreamland was finally exactly the same as the world. But he couldn’t tell whether he was awake or he had stayed in the dream.

“The world shouldn’t be so, right?” Ye Qingxuan reached out and fished out cigarettes that did not exist in the dream from his empty pockets. After igniting one, he smelled the fragrance of tobacco burning. Ashes rolled around in his lungs, bringing a familiar stinging sensation.

He could no longer distinguish between reality and dream.

Reality was so absurd that it seemed like a nightmare, but the dream was so cruel that it seemed like reality.

No one responded.

Only a rumble sounded from the sky, and Föhn wind stirred up forlorn howls.

Ye Qingxuan silently savored the taste of ashes. After a long time, he threw the cigarette that had finished burning into the boiling sea, raised his head, and repeated softly, “It shouldn’t be so.”

Illuminated by the lightning and fire, he slowly lifted his palm. “The sky should be clear!”

In the rumble, a wisp of pure white moonlight shone from the sky. The moonlight shone bright, the music theory of the quiet moon operated, creating a perfect, round moon. The moon operated in the sky as if it was opening the world up. It wiped out the fire and thunder, opening up a calm night sky amid the turmoil.

In the night sky, stars lit up once more, so deep and far.

Compared to the large-scale turmoil, the starry sky was so small, but it firmly shrouded the Ultimate and resided in Ye Qingxuan’s dream.

“The wind and the ocean should return to their original appearance,” he said.

So, the Föhn wind of purgatory quietly stopped, the boiling seawater returned to calmness. The blue ocean reflected the stars, surrounded the Ultimate, and a cool wind blew from the sea.

Ye Qingxuan turned back and gazed at the Ultimate. “The ground is stable and supports the sky.”

The turbulent Ultimate returned to stillness, and the gaps in the shattered land closed up once more. The cracks disappeared, and the burning lava quietly solidified. The collapsed palaces were finally whole again, the dust on them was wiped away.

The gale and the rumble subsided, and the sorrowful whines disappeared.

Blocked from the turmoil of the outside world, the small dreamland seemed to be removed from reality once again, obstinately denying everything, and it returned to calmness and stability.

The ground was stable, the stars shone, everything was calm, singing joyfully for the long gone past and the future.

It was just as wonderful as the world should be.

In the silence, Ye Qingxuan felt an inexplicable illusion.

He seemed to be slumbering in the deep dream where everything was beautiful, but he was clearly awake, standing in the shaking, collapsing Ultimate, looking at the world from afar as it slowly slid into purgatory.

He was in two very different worlds at the same time. They were so distinct, yet the dream and the reality were closely combined, with they themselves acting as the links.

At the moment, he finally came to a realization and began laughing softly. “So that’s how it is.”

Ye Qingxuan spread his arms. He stood against the calm wind in the dream, but breathed in the smell of sulfur, letting the ashes burn in his lungs. As his body dimmed and faded out, the light of aether lit up in his blood, and his body entered the aether circulation once more.

Electricity spread silently, his Symphony of Predestination broke free from the shackles of his body, rapidly expanding. Countless strands of music theory evolved and proliferated. In an instant, they covered the entire Ultimate.

Jiu Xiao Huan Pei flew out from his fingertips and extended forward. The Heaven Ladder was built from thin air and expanded upwards, instantly disappearing into the far-reaching night sky.

As if It had found a long-lost destination, the Heaven Ladder did not stop and kept on moving forward and forward. Like a giant tower leading to the sky, it defied the conventional rules of the physical world, reaching across the nine-layer sea of aether, and disappeared into the depths of the realm of aether.

And as the strings of the qin made a sound like that of a dragon whining, from the depths of the realm of aether came a corresponding echo.

The forgotten land drifting around in the higher dimensions was awakened.

Responding to the melody of the Heaven Ladder, it crossed an endless distance. After slumbering for decades, the scepter of House Ye finally heard the music of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei which it had been awaiting.

The fleeting dream followed the guidance of the Heaven Ladder and moved downwards, without any hesitation or reluctance, like stars following the moonlight. Disregarding its own collapse and dissipation, it moved downwards, downwards, and further downwards.

It passed by the Holy City, disregarding of the countless bell tolls persuading it to stay. It passed by the dissipating abyss, crushing its last residue. It passed by the illusion of the Great Wall, ignoring the calls of joy from the countless beacons.

Under the echo from the Heaven Ladder, it broke through the last barrier of the realm of aether with a slam, smashing into the sea of aether. Burning, shaking, and collapsing, it disregarded its own rapid dissipation and cast itself towards where the Ultimate was.

Then only did Yuan Changqing finally remember why its vibe was so familiar.

“The Dream of a Millennium of House Ye…” he murmured softly, looking at the huge scepter crashing down with a complicated look, the deep dream that the bloodline of House Ye of each generation had been constructing for centuries.

As if reflecting all the changes in the world, drastic changes were revealed in the streams of light of the dreamland. Joys and sorrows occurred in cycles within it, the life processes of birth, aging, falling sick, and death were accorded meaning, and in the end… everything within naturally returned to a long slumber.

At the very core of the Ultimate, in the ruined palace, the young man with silver hair raised his head. Looking up at the Dream of the Millennium that was falling towards him, he lifted his palm.

“Let the melody begin!” Ye Qingxuan whispered softly, waved, and played the first note. “The founding movement of the future!”

At the moment, the dreamland that had come from the realm of aether fell into the Ultimate. It produced no roar, no loud noise, and no turmoil. It was so calm that it seemed as if nothing had happened, like it was just an illusion. The huge scepter instantly merged into Ye Qingxuan’s dream, making his dream wildly expand, expand, expand, and expand further…

It was like the evolution of a speck of dust into a world.

With the Ultimate as a melting pot, Ye Qingxuan’s Symphony of Predestination and the Dream of a Millennium connected to each other and quietly integrated as one. Earth-shattering changes sprouted from the silence.

Countless dreamlands burned and turned into firewood, incorporating into Ye Qingxuan’s Symphony of Predestination.

On the wilderness with tombs all over it, the extinguished lights in front of the tombstones were re-ignited. Cracks emerged on the tombstones, and they immediately collapsed into dust and disappeared. But amid the lights that shone like stars, figures of the past walked out. The musicians who had passed away in the distant past once again emerged from their dreams.

Some were old, some young. Some handsome, some ugly. Some cold and serious, some calm and tranquil. The musicians who put their souls and future in their dreams seemed to be resurrected again.

They stepped forward and nodded at Ye Qingxuan as a greeting, entrusting their dreams which their whole lifetimes had condensed into to Ye Qingxuan’s Symphony of Predestination, and then completely dissipated in the flames without the slightest trace.

Jiu Xiao Huan Pei hummed in a low tone and played an elegy for the deceased musicians.

Each integration of a dream brought about drastic changes. The Symphony of Predestination operated like electricity, incorporating the inheritances from the past, constantly evolving, collapsing, and being reborn.

In the end, a sparkling brilliance like that of a crystal bloomed.