Silent Crown

The changes that happened in an instant stunned everyone.

Ye Qingxuan was the first to react. Upon hearing the hoarse murmurs coming from the nun’s throat, his pupils instantly dilated. Without thinking, he sprang towards her and pressed a finger on the old nun’s forehead!

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust… It was a last rites prayer.

When combined with the situation in front of them, even if one was to use one’s heel to think instead of one’s brain, one could understand what exactly Schubert’s scepter intended to do after the bell!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The sound of strings snapping continued to ring out. Dozens of bloody gaps cracked open on Ye Qingxuan’s fingers, intersecting in a crisscross manner, and blood gushed out. It was a result of the backfiring caused when the overloaded precise operations of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei were crushed by a power far too vast.

Even though the strings were regenerated upon being destroyed, the recoil of the music theory had already caused fine cracks to emerge on the bones of Ye Qingxuan’s palms. As if it was moving between rocks, when the finger pressed on the old nun’s forehead, it was already bloody. Despite it being flesh and flesh touching, a metallic clang burst forth.

Frenzied air billows swept outwards in all directions.

A terrifying resonance erupted from the skull and swept upwards along Ye Qingxuan’s arms. In an instant, it overcame his music theory and defenses, almost crushing him into pieces completely. It was as if he was a broken ship in front of frenzied waves hundreds of thousands of feet high, being destroyed inch by inch.

At the very moment, Ye Qingxuan saw the scepter which was operating like a scorching sun in the empty body. Endless light and heat were directed towards him, almost swallowing him up.

The clothes on Ye Qingxuan’s upper torso were instantly torn apart by the terrifying recoil. Jiu Xiao Huan Pei activated forcefully, planting itself in his flesh, like a waterway guiding the torrent. The immense heat of a fiery red swept upwards along his left arm, passed through the heart, bringing an intense pain, as if it was igniting his soul, and flowed to his right hand along Jiu Xiao Huan Pei. In the end, it flowed into the broken stone plate clutched in his hand.

The core of the Ultimate!

The notes on the stone plate lit up, flickering painfully to the rhythm of Ye Qingxuan’s heartbeat. Fortunately, he still had it to withstand the aftermath that resulted from the saint’s scepter operating full on.

“What are you all still standing there stunned for!” He cast a look at the 21 masters present. “Waiting for supper? Open up for resonance!”

In a flash, the masters surrounding him recovered from the shock. Without even requiring Ye Qingxuan’s command, they chose their own position, and 21 aether waves were instantly activated at full force, like various planets orbiting the sun.

Just like what the forebears of the School of Stone Heart did to Ye Qingxuan back then, they formed a joint blockade. 21 aether waves echoed each other, and in a flash, a loose array was created, surrounding Schubert’s scepter in the center.

But just when they were ready to strike again, the strings of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei extended from nothingness, crisscrossing and intersecting with each other. The strings shot outwards and set themselves up all around. Innumerable perception threads followed and connected them.

In a flash, the 21 aether waves were united as one. The masters were surprised upon sensing that the control of their Symphonies of Predestination had been forcibly taken over. The 21 Symphonies of Predestination were united around the same theme. Three of the temporarily attained scepters were also integrated into it completely, forming a vast structure of music theory.

The resonance system that was carelessly created initially was broken in an instant and then reassembled immediately, the components fitting closely with each other as if they were one, like a disorganized group of stars that had finally become unified as a galaxy.

If the loose array just now was seen as a work violently tied together with cables, the structure at the moment would be a work pieced together and applied so delicately that it was dumbfounding.

If not for the suppression of the Ultimate, Ye Qingxuan could have integrated them seamlessly!

For Ye Qingxuan to operate 19 Symphonies of Predestination and three scepters simultaneously, the pressure was not just hundreds of times higher than usual. Rather, it was as if he was dancing on the knife blades, and a little carelessness would result in him being turned to ashes by the pressure on both sides.

“I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to experience the compound symphony of multiple Symphonies of Predestination so quickly.” Blue veins bulged on Ye Qingxuan’s face, and he forced out a grotesque smile. “Very good…”

One hand pressing on the old nun’s forehead, the signet ring on the index finger of his other hand slipped off, and he threw it at Mabel standing with her arms folded not far away.

“If anyone dares to attack amid the chaos, shoot to kill!” Ye Qingxuan yelled.

Mable nodded and acknowledged the command respectfully. Holding the signet ring, a fire rose in the distance. The pure blue fire of Nirvana was like lava and spewed out of the crust. In the fire, the phoenix evolved from the endless bestiality died and was reborn, constantly evolving into new forms and dragging everything along when it returned to death.

For Mabel, the Chapter of the Golden Victory was no foreign object at all. The music theory passed down among the Royal Musicians was an extension of the Chapter of the Golden Victory in itself. At the moment, the signet ring was in Mabel’s hands, and the Firebird within that was strengthening it instantly turned into a fire of Nirvana that knew no boundaries.

The fire spewed up from the ground from a distance, crisscrossing and intersecting, blocking off the entire area, and forlorn screams could be heard faintly. Everyone who dared to approach was swallowed up by the flames that resembled living creatures. Then, the horrifying fire would make its way into the seven orifices [1] of its victim, plundering every bit of vitality from the inside out.

Despite not possessing any temperature, it brought death.

After robbing one of all life and music theory, only ashes would be left scattered on the ground.

Mable grabbed a handful of white powder from the pocket on her. It was the ashes produced by incinerating human bones. She casually flicked it a couple of times.

A fiery glow was attached to the ghastly white ashes. In the blink of an eye, amid the rumbling melody, the ashes proliferated rapidly. The dust particles connected themselves to each other, turning into white bones, and the bones grew in the fire, drawing strong vitality from it.

First, it was the bones. Fasciae and flesh followed shortly. Finally, the flames turned into blood and coursed through the body consisting of ashes. The musician who had just died tragically in the flames was thus revived with such a strange appearance.

The eyes showed no trace of consciousness anymore, only a dim glow as the Symphony of Predestination operated.

The fire of Nirvana stripped its victim of life and music, then used the ashes as a foundation. Before the enemy’s Symphony of Predestination dissipated, it was filled into a new body once more, creating a perfect phantom beast. It killed a person, then resurrected another person. After losing an enemy, the controller of the fire would have one more puppet to control.

Such a technique of borrowing a chicken to lay eggs made everyone on the scene shudder. Although it had all sorts of harsh restrictions, under the strengthening of the Chapter of the Golden Victory, Mabel’s ability more than sufficed to keep it going even for the span of one night.

“I’ll leave the rest to you,” she said.

Ye Qingxuan nodded, and returned his gaze to the old nun, looking at her cracked skin, and the scorching brilliance bursting forth from her body under the black habit.

“Next, it’s time to solve your problem!”

Bang! The staff of fate tapped on the ground, and it was as if the Ocean-Pacifying Magical Pillar [2] had been cast into a sea with frenzied waves of hundreds of thousands of feet high. The aftermath dissipated, revealing the original appearance of Schubert’s scepter.

Dim moonlight rose as Ye Qingxuan directed the masters’ Symphonies of Predestination, blocking any room for the scepter to operate and suppressing the self-destructing operation.

Thus, next came the question…

How could one stop a saint from committing suicide?

[1] In Chinese culture, the seven orifices are the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and the mouth.

[2] It is a magical object described in A Journey to the West, one of the Four Classic Novels in Chinese.