Silent Crown

"Forcefully turning the wolf into a phantom beast... distortion of the rules...Scepter Level?"

Rain Artist covered his fatal wounds. He looked as if he was both crying and laughing. "You have already reached this level? How old are you? Twenty-four? Twenty-five?"

"Twenty-three." Wolf Flute wiped the blood off his face, coldly sneering. "So how about it? Are you feeling hopeless seeing the difference between geniuses and mortals?"

"Twenty-three? I am already forty-seven years old," Rain Artist mumbled to himself in shock. "I have paid so much, and have even become a believer and follower of Hyakume. I've spent more than a decade to do so. But someone like you, why did you get to this level first? Why?!"

Rain Artist raised his head stiffly. He was screaming, ignoring his tragic injury, "I've given up so much! So much!"

"I've already said so," Wolf Flute smiled fiercely like a wolf. "Because I am a genius."

He hid his own flute where Rain Artist could not see. Wolf Flute's face was blank. His fingers caressed the crack of the flute, but with twitching distress.

Sure enough, he had tried too hard.

"Are you?" Rain Artist stared at his eyes, then sneered suddenly as if he had seen the reflection of a man in his pupils. Then he realized and said, "What an honor! I thought the genius had no weakness."

Wolf Flute frowned indifferently, his fingers gently tapping. The silver wolf shouted under the moonlight and suddenly disappeared! The silver wolf snuck into the air, biting at the enemy's throat.

"Over there!" Rain Artist suddenly threw out an exploding iron. Blood aura mixed together with the iron in his hand so that the iron issued a terrible scream. Strong water vapor whistled out from the exploding iron but in the direction the opposite of Wolf Flute!

It was not trying to hit him, but in that moment, Wolf Flute felt rage burst from his brain.

The exploding iron was directed towards the white-haired teen who laid unconscious in the corner!

Rain Artist said he found Wolf Flute's weakness. Indeed, he had found it.

Wolf Flute sighed with his eyes closed and waved.

The silver wolf appeared from the air in a flash, and stopped in front of the juvenile. Grains of iron sand instantly crashed into its body. Silver blood burst out as the wolf screamed in agony, its eyes becoming crazier.

Wolf Flute's body shook a bit.

The wolf frantically rubbed its four claws, wanting to tear that damn enemy, but another burst of exploding iron hit its body like falling meteorites. Debris flew everywhere, scratching its eyes.

Wolf Flute's body shook again.

"Mr. Genius, you should not look over there. You have looked so many times. You are very concerned about him, huh?" Rain Artist laughed hoarsely until he could not breathe.

He knelt down on the ground, coughing. He was in obvious pain but his voice remained condescending, "No one would believe that a Discipline musician who could kill anyone without blinking an eye would care about a child's life? Haha, a genius like you should be a shame among Discipline musicians!"

"Are you afraid that your bet is wrong?" Wolf Flute's face was gloomy.

"But what if I win? It is fate." Rain Artist picked up the instrument in the pool of blood. After experiencing the overclocking load, the instrument which had accompanied him for years actually overheated.

Ignoring the burning temperature, he grasped it, releasing another burst of exploding iron.

Bam!

In the wheelchair, Wolf Flute's body twitched, unable to move.

Rain Artist looked back at his enemy. "It's also my luck to meet a fool who bound a consumable like a phantom beast to his life."

Wolf Flute could no longer speak, and lowered his head. Thick blood dripped from his wheelchair, converging on the ground in a puddle.

"I won," Rain Artist announced in a cold voice.

Sensing its master dying, the alpha wolf angrily got up from the ground. Despite the immense trauma to its body, it rushed toward Rain Artist.

"Three bursts of exploding iron could not solve the problem. Phantom wolves are really too troublesome." Rain Artist frowned and put the clarinet to his lips.

The sharp, high-pitched voice caused the fog to spread out. Countless mournful roars synchronized with the terrible performance. The sound was like a long knife painfully scratching one's eardrums.

In the madness of the fog, the blasting resulted in condensation again--one, two, three... six!

Six bursts of exploding iron released hot red, lethal light that could make anybody's scalp go numb. ƒ𝔯𝗲𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧oѵℯl.𝒄𝑜m

Then…Boom! ƒ𝒓e𝐞we𝚋𝙣ｏ𝚟𝚎𝘭.co𝙢

For a short moment, Rain Artist could not hear anything. His vision turned dark in front of his eyes; only a vague ray of light could be seen.

He moaned in pain. Lowering his head, he looked at his hands--they had been broken by the clarinet's explosion. Blood dripped from the broken wrist emerged.

He looked up at the moonlight, revealing his torn face, his jaw hanging on his neck, and blood dripping. Amongst the bloody flesh, only a withered eyeball remained, blinking in a daze.

The wolf which rushed to him earlier had disappeared without a trace. It had long been dying but had fought until the very last moment.

Rain Artist sharply screamed, "Wolf Flute!" He roared, "Wolf Flute!"

"The error of the instrument leads to the error of the control," a husky voice whispered amidst Rain Artist's roars. "And the error of the control makes the aether uncontrollable. When the aether is out of control, it will bring devastating consequences. What Wolf Flute said was correct."

The white-haired teen who had been unconscious opened his eyes, quietly staring at Rain Artist with bloodshot eyes.

"You lost," he said.

---

Feeling faint, it was difficult for Ye Qingxuan to open his eyes. His skull felt like it had been hammered and was buzzing.

The disturbance of any noise made him dizzy enough to kneel on the ground. The power of musicians was incredible. Even the aftershocks were enough to destroy a person's sanity and resistance.

He felt that his body was about to break.

He had been at the brink of collapse when he was hit by a power strong enough to break a wall in the very beginning.

Then, again in the middle of the confrontation between the two musicians, he was hit by a bunch of aftershocks, practically knocking him out. Fortunately, the last shock woke him up. He felt like a nightmare. His internal organs crazily beating each other, but his body did not listen to his call.

He could not move.

"I lost?"

Rain Artist gaped at him with dismay. He looked down at the debris on the ground and vaguely mumbled, "You did something to my instrument! It's supposed to be complete!"

"Yeah, but you did not notice that there was a part inside missing inside." Ye Qingxuan raised his hand in difficulty. On his fingertip, a slender reed reflected the moonlight, illuminating his pupils like flowing water.

"I always felt that it will be too dangerous to return the complete instrument to you, but Wolf Flute said that you would notice it if we destroyed it. So I thought I could give it to you but…" He coughed in a low voice and softly laughed, "Just needed to replace it with a needle spring."

Ye Qingxuan dropped the reed to the ground. The simple movement had already caused him great pain. "We used your original spare part, soaked it in strong acid, then carved a very shallow incision."

The juvenile gestured with two fingers. "It is simply a slight incision. In a rush, people will not notice the sound changes. The only flaw is that the high heat and intense vibrations make it easy to break."

"From the beginning..." Rain Artist staggered, approaching him with his face convulsing. "You planned it from the beginning? No, I am the only person knows the defect of Demon of Rain. Only I should know it!"

"Maybe." Ye Qingxuan lowered his eyelids, "I had almost forgotten. Demon of Rain truly is strong. Its offensive power and impact on the environment are both extraordinary but it does not mean that it doesn't have flaws--it can force the extraction of all the heat from the fog as explosive power, which upgrades the small effect of throwing items with destructive lethality. But this means that the load of the instrument is ten times that of other music. Once out of control, all the heat will explode in an instant."

Rain Artist roared, but his jaw finally fell to the ground. Blood dripped from his body nonstop. His body was quickly decaying. What had already been taken away by Satan now disappeared again. He fell to the ground, feeling his vitality quickly leaving him.

If the world was a table for the satanic god Hyakume, then the so-called believers were just the pepper and salt. Since the pepper on Hyakume's table would soon expire, it only made sense to eat him now!

Eat it up, eat it up!

"No, it should not be like this. I came following your command. Why?" Rain Artist struggled in the pool of blood with his shattered body. He crawled forward with difficulty. His one-eyed vision fell on Ye Qingxuan's body. His eyes glistened. "The body, yes. I need a new body! This is your promise. This is your promise of my reincarnation? I still have hope! I got the approval of God!"

He laughed as if to comfort himself, but only to send an empty voice. In his broken right hand, the last remnants of two fingers tried to hold a leech-like "worm."

He crawled through the pool of blood toward Ye Qingxuan. "The body, give me a new body..."

Ye Qingxuan tried to hold up his body, but was powerless. He smelled the stench from the blood. The quickly rotting Rain Artist had finally clutched his legs, smiling in ecstasy.

"Body, body!"

Ye Qingxuan turned pale. He took out half of the dagger from his sleeve with trembling fingers. Victor had given it to him for self-defense before he left. He did not expect that it would become his last straw.

Arm trembling, he held the dagger to this evil old man in front of him. But in Rain Artist's eyes, he could not see the fear and frustration, but only joke like contempt and ridicule.

"What do you have in your hand? A toy?" Rain Artist opened his cracked mouth, as if he were laughing. Then he raised his hands and snapped his fingers. His fingers were broken but the snapping sound was like a hammer hitting Ye Qingxuan's hands.

Crunch!

Ye Qingxuan's wrist suddenly dislocated, and the dagger flew out from his hand and broke into iron pieces in the pool of blood.

"Kid, do not be afraid, and do not resist me." Rain Artist looked at Ye Qingxuan's pupils, laughing with ecstasy, "It will only take a short while to complete the will transfer."

Ye Qingxuan grinded his teeth, heavily breathing, and did not say anything. He wanted to escape but the wall was behind him. He was cornered.

Through the whole process he only miscalculated one thing--Rain Artist's desperation at death. This mistake could not be remedied.

Rain Artist screamed once again because the cold worm drilled into his left eye, digging out his flesh and blood. And then it stretched out the other end of its suction cup, crawling on Ye Qingxuan's chest, quickly going towards his pupil.

Great, there was a hope for rebirth! Rain Artist was overjoyed.

"Do not resist, but accept God's reward. Good boy, we can go together to the peak of the musicians!" He was incoherent in his ecstasy. "Aren't you excited? I will always remember you, young man. What is your name? Where are you from?! Why do you not talk? You must be too nervous. It does not matter as I will forgive you. We'll be best friends, you know?"

Ye Qingxuan was too terrified to speak. He just looked at Rain Artist's back, like watching the best thing in the world. The longer he was watching, the more he could not help but laugh.

"He is not your best friend," a hoarse voice came from Rain Artist's back, stunning him.

Rain Artist finally saw the reflection through Ye Qingxuan's pupil—there was a yellow old dog standing in a pool of blood. Next to the old dog there was a blonde-haired teen looking livid, forcing down his fear.

In Rain Artist's sight, the teen raised the iron bar in his hand, which had been used to close the door, raised it up and slammed it down!

"I am!"

Crack!

Rain Artist's skull dented. He fell to the ground. His expression stiffening, he gaped at the crazy teen. He tried to say something, but Victor raised the iron bar, and then...bam!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Rain Artist's skull dented with every blow. His last gaze was full of despair. He said with difficulty, "Wait, I..."

Bang!

Victor delivered the final blow expressionlessly. Blood splattered onto his face, staining his green eyes.

After a crisp sound, all fell silent.