Silent Crown

It was dark. In the faint, gloomy, cold mist, one couldn't hear the splattering of rain. As the icy rain passed through the mist, the raindrops seemed to blend into the squirming mist and disappeared. Droplets of water fell on the dead silent sea, almost invisible to the naked eye, only leaving fine ripples behind.

Shattered ice crystals in the ripples collided with each other and spread outwards, pushing the swollen corpse forward. It was unclear how long the deformed corpse had been soaked in the sea. It had already rotted, and the ghastly white abdominal cavity swelled due to the gases produced in the rotting process. It was like a balloon floating on the sea.

Strange fish that smelled the odor of putrefaction swam up from the deep sea. The fish, which were about the thickness of human fingers and resembled iron wire, greedily ate the carrion. They punctured the balloon, which burst with a muffled sound, and the foul stench grew thicker.

In the appalling rustling sound of sharp teeth munching on bones, a dark shadow slowly emerged from the bottom of the sea. It opened its huge mouth and surfaced suddenly, then shut it again.

Crack, crack, crack. Hundreds of strange fish were crushed as the six rows of teeth munched on. Viscous blood oozed from the huge mouth and stained the surface of the sea, dyeing the pitch black ocean into a ghastly dark green.

As it chewed carefreely, in the fog, two pale white glows lit up silently. They were like the huge eyes of a behemoth, shining through the fog.

The calm surface of the sea was shattered. Before the creature which the huge, gigantic mouth belonged to could dive into the sea once more, overwhelming roars echoed in the deep sea.

The fierce glow of lightning flashing shone from the clouds. It struck down like a blade, opening up a gap in the mist that was so thick it made one feel breathless. When it fell on the sea, it completely shattered the waves that were brewing up on the surface of the sea.

In the turbulent waves, the blaring of horns sounded. The vast, pitch black shadow sailed on the surface of the sea, coming from afar. It brought with it a hurricane, and advanced along the path opened up by the lightning. At the foremost of the shadow hung the pale white skull of a giant snake. A scorching glow was emitted from the eye sockets of the skull. Simply by sweeping across the water surface, it cast down flames and bestowed destruction equally upon all demons.

The huge mouth was instantly burned into ashes in the pervasive invisible fire, leaving no trace behind.

Far away, something roared hoarsely as if it was enraged. Across the long distance, the roars could be heard. Their effects were almost tangible, like that of a hammer knocking in one's heart, rendering one breathless suddenly, as if one was suffocating.

The roaring creature was joined by the second, third, and fourth... As if they had sensed the arrival of an uninvited guest, the monsters hidden in the fog roared maliciously, in a clearly threatening manner.

The hurricane bringing the roars in it hit an invisible wall and was crushed as the ship sailed forward. Only a weak gust of wind remained and blew at the silver hair of the young man standing on the deck.

Ye Qingxuan put down the binoculars that could not enable him to see anything and sighed. "How much further?"

"One hour." Carol, who was temporarily serving as the first officer and chief engineer, replied, "Actually, we are quite near Avalon. On a sunny day, one can already see the White Tower of the palace in the uptown. But the fog is getting more and more powerful. This region of the sea is rejecting us."

"We never intended for it to welcome us anyway." Ye Qingxuan fished out the lens of the Eye of Silence from his pocket and wiped it with a handkerchief. "Go and tell the purification musicians to speed up once more. At any rate, this is the first battle of the re-established Religious Court of Inquiry. Stop goofing off. f𝘳𝚎𝐞we𝐛𝑛𝐨𝘃e𝘭.co𝘮

"In ten minutes," he said, "I want to see where Avalon is."

Carol's expression twitched. He touched his bald head, forcibly swallowed to prevent himself from vomiting blood and took out his aether ball to pass the orders of the Grand Inquisitor down.

In the bilge of the warship, amid the vast alchemy array, the dozens of purification musicians who were about to break down from stress received the orders and almost vomited blood in unison.

Have the superiors been thinking that we have been slacking here this whole time?! Doesn't anyone know how stressed they are right now? The pressure from opening up the fog and guiding the way is already about to blow up their sound of heart movements!

In the array, the musicians of the School of Abstinence located at several core positions glanced at each other and lifted their sleeves to wipe the sweat off their foreheads. Soon, their veins and eyes bulged, as if they were burnt red.

In an instant, they became similar to puppets that had fallen apart, with their heads hung low and their bodies slumped on the core of the array, but their tenacities traveled along the vast alchemy array and blended into the entire Mountain of Nomadism.

In a flash, they flowed through the four layers of outflowing, creating, circulating and forming, and entered the core.

A pool of aether several meters in width was located in the center of the sixteen main circuits and the four Instruments of harmonious melody. Aether that had condensed into liquid form swirled in it. One couldn't see how deep it was by looking down from directly above the pool. As if it led to another unpredictable world, glints flashed across the pool constantly.

In the silver glow of the pool of aether, the giant heart of the Mountain of Nomadism was soaked inside. Having been transformed into a living aether furnace, the heart was emitting a terrifying amount of heat at the moment. f𝐫ee𝘄ℯ𝚋no𝐯𝐞l.c𝘰m

It spewed out liquid aether as it beat slowly. The glow from the power contained within alone was glaring enough for one to be unable to look at it directly.

When the musicians' tenacities flowed into it along with musical notes, the rhythm of the beating accelerated ever so slightly.

[Code—Gaze at the abyss]

[Sequence of notes is activated.]

[The valve between sections nine and eight is closed.]

[Activation of the second mode is completed.]

The hull shook slightly. In the silent alchemy array, three more complicated movements were awakened and connected to the main axis.

The engineers beside it were relieved. The aether furnace made of the heart smoothly changed from the first mode designed for pure navigation to the second mode designed for situations where the ship was on alert.

Silently, the silver glow in the pool of aether surged. A fountain-like torrent of aether poured out of the nine-layer sea of aether and was devoured by the greedy hull, leaving no drop behind.

At the moment, musicians could sense that the violent gravitational force emitted by the Mountain of Nomadism had formed a large depression in the sea of aether, plundering non-stop and attracting all loose energies, gathering them together.

The scale was comparable to that of an artifact!

Honestly speaking, the method in which the Religious Court of Inquiry processed the Mountain of Nomadism was really sketchy.

The ship was built based on the corpse of the Mountain of Nomadism. The raw material was processed and manufactured while the cells were still active. Basically, the humongous sea monster was cut up into pieces and reassembled into a ship.

In Carol's original words to Ye Qingxuan, "First, we have no industrial base. Second, we do not have enough alchemists. Third, we do not have shipbuilders at the forefront. To conjure up a legendary warship that can screw whoever dares to attack it over in such a short span of time is simply impossible. However, if you are willing to settle for the next best alternative... well, it's not impossible."

So, Igor only realized something when he took over... To forcibly say that it was a ship was indeed not wrong, one could even go out on a limb and call it a warship.

But in fact, what Ye Qingxuan they all had done was to use the best materials to build a gun emplacement that was fit for war and could float on the sea while carrying three cannons capable of causing insanely high damage. Although it could fly in the sky using the sixth mode, that still couldn't change the fact that it was just a gun emplacement!

If it wasn't for Ye Qingxuan who stopped Igor with all his might and promised him "We will have bread, we will have milk [1]. When I finish saving the nation, I'll make sure Anglo equips your ship with everything you want," Igor might have jumped into the sea in sorrow and frustration.

Not that Igor could help it. From a harsher perspective, the warship lacked any technical substance. The only things worthy of praise were the insanely strong firepower and extremely extravagant raw materials.

The former came from the three Petitioner-level main batteries made by the Religious Court of Inquiry. By right, the forbidden technology should still be sealed at the moment unless a special order was issued.

The latter was because as raw material, the quality of the Mountain of Nomadism itself was simply too high. During the manufacturing process, the purification musicians had marveled at its nature countless times. They even suspected that it had descended from the direct bloodline of Leviathan and that it was a prince that had been granted its own territory in the seven seas by Leviathan.

Thanks to that, the Mountain of Nomadism was basically a living artifact, and insane results could be achieved simply by using it as raw material alone.

Presently, the disturbance in the sea of aether caused by the Mountain of Nomadism was at most no more than that caused when it was breathing, and they didn't even have to activate anything deliberately to achieve such a result.

Back when they were drawing the designs for the ship, the old devils already began to thump their chests and stomp their feet in regret—How can such good material be wasted on building warships, it is born to be used as a musical instrument, gods be damned!

With just the slightest bit of nurturing, it can become a new artifact. If a Scepter Musician is put in charge of the process, it's not entirely impossible for it to become an artifact of the very top quality.

It's such a pity to have a prodigal for their new Grand Inquisitor.

Artifact? Sorry, Ye Qingxuan couldn't care less. Let's not mention the clothes of original sin he robbed from Paganini first…

Ye Qingxuan had Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, the proof of the Ye family's Bloodline of the Dragon, which enabled him to control aether with a frighteningly high level of precision and came with the Heaven Ladder effect that allowed him to practice music theories across all seven systems. It was the exclusive instrument of Dreamweavers and was even the key to the Ye family's legacy in the realm of aether.

As long as Ye Qingxuan could break through the Level of Master and advance to the Level of Scepter, he would be able to obtain the scepter in the realm of aether that had integrated the powers of the Dreamweavers of the past generations. Then, he could combine it with the dream he himself wove, and it would basically allow his powers to increase from that of a musician who had just attained the Level of Scepter to that of one who was at the peak of said level. It was equivalent to having his ancestors pass down their powers to him, and he would be no less powerful than even the saints who had been canonized by the Sacred City.

It was one of the reasons why the nine families of Dragon Bloodline was on equal footing with the saints!

The stone sword, which was the artifact guarding the country and the symbol of Anglo's sovereignty, would almost certainly become his as well.

Other than the scepter named Heavenly Kingdom on Earth which King Arthur created in the form of a sword with all the wealth of Anglo to help him ascend as a god and was so famous that it was fairly pointless to talk about, there were also the Twelve Chapters of the Golden Victory. Each chapter represented a Phantom Beast that was well known back in those days.

And before you forget, there was also the Lance of St. George.

It was made of meteorite metal, and also known as The Lance of the Dragon Slayer, the artifact that had sealed the Hecatoncheir for ten years. After whiling away for ten years in the Ultimate, it was still as sharp as ever. Although the two had yet to officially belong to Ye Qingxuan, anyone with a discerning eye could easily see that he would be their owner sooner or later.

When Shi Dong and the rest of the old men gave the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith away to Ye Qingxuan along with themselves in it, they had already analyzed the situation thoroughly, found themselves more than satisfied with their findings, and settled on a plan.

Who is the current bearer of the stone sword? It is the head of the fifth department, the shadow emperor of Anglo, loyalist to the crown, the one who has already appointed Ye Qingxuan as his heir, Maxwell!

Meanwhile, the meteorite iron belongs to the Knights of the Round Table.

And who is the current head of the Knights of the Round Table?

It is the leader of the Privy Council during the three years the Empress was unfit to rule, the celebrated minister who ruled the entire empire well, the army general who was discreetly known, together with Maxwell, as the Double Pillars of the Empire among the higher-ups, Lancelot!

And who is the heir of the Lancelot family? Is it his daughter Christine, the Grand Knight of the Praetorian Guard, who has inherited the name of Galahad?

No, it is his eldest nephew Ye Qingxuan!

One can say that when Ye Qingxuan's identity was recognized by the Sacred City and he became a Marquis, he has immediately become one of the most powerful people to be in the world.

With one-eighth of royal blood in his body, as long as he is determined enough to get rid of the demented eldest prince and the second eldest princess, as well as a dozen insignificant aristocrats, he will be the only rightful successor of Anglo, the future King of Anglo!

To even think about it is enough to drive one crazy.

The Lord of the Ye family, one of the nine families of Dragon Bloodline in the East, the King of the Anglo in the West, the Archbishop of the Sacred City, the Grand Inquisitor of the Religious Court of Inquiry, the Hand of God appointed by the Sacred City...

Furthermore, this lad is also the most talented musician in the past century, second to none in both the East and the West other than his own father.

If you indulge yourself and dream a bit more, fifty years later... maybe he will become the King of Blue?

I must stop thinking about it anymore, it's almost a sin to think about all this!

As long as we hold on to him tightly, when he comes into power, surely the Religious Court of Inquiry can start a crusade to the east whenever we like, and burn whoever we like?

Thinking of this, Shi Dong laughed so hard that his chin almost fell off.

Although it is a venture capital that has a 99% chance of losing terribly, if we manage to win, the profit is a few hundred times, or even thousands of times more than what we have invested!

Upon hearing that Orientals tend to be more reserved, Shi Dong even looked the Oriental term 'donning the yellow robe' [2] up in the dictionary. In private, he even drafted out a Quan Jin Biao [3]!

It was the last time he gambled in his life.

He wanted to bet everything he had on it, even if the future was uncertain.

He had confidence in it.

It had been more than two hundred years since he first held a sword...

He had gambled countless times.

Even though he was already very old, very, very old, so old that he had changed his artificial prostate gland three times. But it didn't matter, neither did anything else. He could still manage to continue living for more than a decade, continue living until he himself reached the end of this road, even if he couldn't walk anymore and had to crawl, and made Ye Qingxuan a god. Even if it meant living uglily and hideously, even if he had to humble himself and work like a horse.

Beside the pool of aether, the old man who sat down stroked his sword and smiled, gratified. When he looked up, his gaze seemed to penetrate the layers of obstacles between them and landed on the young man.

"Please be assured, Your Honor." He murmured softly, "You will become the hero who saved the country and then become a legend in the world. You will be fully deserving of your title as the Hand of God. You will be the embodiment of justice and righteousness in the mortal realm!"

…

In a flash, endless aether flowed into the ship, supplied under the second mode.

Several Resonance Musicians of the School of Abstinence disregarded the fact that the pressure might cause their cerebral blood vessels to burst and controlled the purification movements to expand the thunderclouds over the hull by several times. Thunder and lightning flashed, tearing the fog which resembled a living creature apart and pierced into the depths of the darkness.

Shrill, illusion-like screams rang out.

A straight passageway opened up in the fog.

At the end of the passage was a fiery glory that had burned the sky red.

For a moment, everyone held their breath.

It was Avalon.

Avalon was burning!

Once the Pearl of the Sea, the Heavenly Kingdom on the Earth, the City of Pure White... At the moment, it was shrouded in destruction, falling sorrowfully into the flames of war.

"What... is this?" someone asked.

[1] A reference to a famous line spoken in the movie Lenin in 1918 (Ленинв 1918 году), meaning that eventually, they would have everything they wanted.

[2] It means to ascend the throne, usually used in scenarios where the person is not the rightful heir to the throne but ascends the throne after overthrowing the previous ruler.

[3] A type of official document traditionally sent by ministers to a ruler, who holds the actual power but has yet to formally take over the throne from the figurehead ruler with only nominal power for fear of possible criticism regarding the seizing of the throne, to persuade the ruler with the actual power to ascend the throne, so that he could have an excuse to do so.