Silent Crown

“Why are you willing to work for someone so ambitious? You are all so successful and accomplished. If you use your skills for good, you will help so many people,” Yunlou Chaoyue sighed.

“Silence, witch!” the huqin musician retorted. “Twenty years ago, Yunlou Qingshu took advantage of the ailing leader to revolt, and stole the power after his concubine had a bastard child! Now he calls the old leader’s first son Qingxi Highness as the traitor. Is that not blasphemy?”

The musician with the pipa laughed, his voice soft like a girl’s. “And you are not even Yunlou Qingshu’s daughter. What right does a phony have to judge my leader? Don’t think I don’t know that the true princess hasn’t been in Yunlou City since last year.” He continued, “Yunlou Qingshu is so sneaky. His real daughter disappeared and he replaced her with some girl to send to Anglo, but at the same time, he sent people to search for his daughter. Why would he send you here if it wasn’t look for her?”

Yunlou Chaoyue listened without replying. After a while, she nodded. “I heard that Yunlou Qingxi’s Eunuch Chang appeared here too, but I didn’t believe it then. So you’re all looking for her…” She paused, regret flashing through her cool eyes. “Then I won’t keep you here.”

“You boast shamelessly!” The beasts on the old nanny’s—no, she could not be referred to as an old nanny anymore—skin roared soundlessly. Sharp blades sprung from between her five fingers, turning her hands into wolf claws, and she clawed at Yunlou Chaoyue’s face. “Watch me gouge out your eyes, b*stard!”

Yunlou Chaoyue looked up, watching the incoming claws. Her long eyelashes trembled, but there was no fear in her bright eyes, only pity. Soundlessly, the wolf-woman’s claws froze a hair’s width away from those eyes.

“Righteousness and title again. Are they really so important?” Yunlou Chaoyue asked, gazing at the three. “Because of them, you’ve killed so many people and will kill yourself too.”

“What are you waiting for? Go! Kill this witch!” The wolf-woman attacked wildly, but her claws could only scratch against air. Sparks flew, but she could not move an inch closer.

Wordlessly, the pipa musician strummed his instrument, clanging sounds resonated in the air! A giant torrent swept through the alley.

—

Hot wind blew out of nowhere, flying crazily to the beat of the pipa’s music. There was manic heat in the wind, eradicating the humidity from the ocean, turning the alley into a scalding desert. A mirage of the setting sun rose from the wind, radiating heat. A crescent moon rose from the other side. It was so cold, but burned one’s soul like fire. Amidst the hot wind, the neighs of battle stallions suddenly sounded. The century-old tiles on the floor of the alley cracked. On the shattered tiles were the imprints of hooves, as if the battle stallions had galloped across them. The thunder-like gallops sounded along with the pipa. It was the “General’s Mandate!”

The musician plucked the pipa’s strings, releasing the clang of swords clashing. The echoes were full of murderous intent. As he played the instrument, the music notes flew above the hoof prints, flying and dancing in the air. The neighs of the stallions grew closer.

Finally, dozens of black shadows broke through the yellow sand and torrential wind, galloping out of thin air. The hooves actually stepped on the shattered tiles, turning them to dust.

Sitting atop the armored black horses were bodies that looked like demons. Their bodies burned with wild desert fire. The fire transformed into black armor, burning radiantly on the shells of their bodies. They breathed greedily, sucking in the flames as if they were galloping in Hell. They roared in the furious wind. Even the setting sun and crescent moon shattered in the madness.

Sixteen demonic knights charged in the tight alley like a steel wall pushing forward. The quick blades in their hands sliced at the brick in the walls, leaving ugly marks and flying pieces of brick. Swords sang in the air; steel hooves clattered! Like a tidal wave, the black knights rushed out of nothing. They charged toward Yunlou Chaoyue, leaving shattered tiles and flying dust in their path. Even the air was ripped apart by the burning murderous intent.

The huqin floated above the din. Its notes were long like plaints in the night. and they came in from all directions, creating an inescapable trap. Like strands of affection, they intertwined around one’s body. Not only did they constrain the body, but they also wormed their way into the girl’s mind, awakening the lust and love in her. It worked to make her forget where she was and drown in the attack.

But throughout all of this, Yunlou Chaoyue only gazed coolly at the thread around her body, the eerie Foehn wind, and the Asura that came in the wind. She closed her eyes and sighed in pity.

Boom!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosive cracks sounded in an instant. They built on each other, overlapping into a fulmination! The threads of affection snapped and disappeared. The Foehn winds stopped and disappeared. The steel knights stopped and disappeared…Everything that had been created by aether was stopped as if an invisible hand from the sky reached down and plucked the aether away from man, holding it in its palm. This was Taiyi!

The immensity of aether manipulation sapped all color from Yunlou Chaoyue’s face. Following her hands, the aether grouped in the wind and transformed into a vortex, like a deposit of rain, snow, and lightning.

The three paled at the thunderous cracks.

Following Yunlou Chaoyue’s hands, the quiet emptiness was filled with a deafening roar. Metal clanged and electric sparks flew. A bronze bell rang, full of power, restricting all change in aether. Different instruments overlapped, distinct from each other. The music was grave and serious, pushing down one’s spirits. The echoes were enough to shake one’s soul.

It was only the overture but the three already lost all ability to fight back.

This was not a level that any ordinary person should be able to reach, and it had nothing to do with skill. In the west, this was an advanced technique that required the cooperation between multiple musicians—orchestra. In the east, this was the powerful scepter of an Imperial Nine Musician.

Yunlou Chaoyue’s strength and talent were not the only terrifying things. There was also the grand melody that appeared from nothing. It rose to the top like a pathway to heaven…It was the heavenly music of ‘modification.’

“Da Shao!?” The pipa musician muttered in shock, “Is it Da Shao?”

“What is this? Only descendants of Yunlou can use the artifact Dijun!” The huqin musician stumbled back, his expression changing.

“She’s a counterfeit! How is she able to…”

“You are here to kill me for something grand, like righteousness. I can understand and I agree with you,” spoke Yunlou Chaoyue’s amidst the heavenly music. Even the sound of the sky falling and earth shattering could not drown out her quiet voice. This was the strength of Taiyi: nothing has meaning other than me! Despite the storm, her eyes were still full of pity. “But since the beginning, you’ve never realized…who I really was.”

—

In an instant, the three seemed to understand something. They faces turned as white as chalk.

As the loud bells rang, Yunlou Chaoyue moved her fingers, and thunder and lightning enveloped everything. All sound vanished. Even the thunder disappeared without a sound. There was only darkness in the alley. The darkness and electricity surged, occasionally flashing through the thick clouds. A dragon seemed to slither in the black clouds, showing a fierce horn every now and then. Da Shao · Stolen Ash Movement!

After a moment, the black clouds scattered and the electric light was nowhere to be seen. All that remained in the air was flying dust, floating like gray-white snow.

In the falling snow, Yunlou Chaoyue’s cool eyes studied her enemy quietly.

The three musicians were still standing in their original spot, as if turned to stone. The strange images wrapped around their bodies had disappeared, regardless of whether they were clouds, ghosts, or beasts. Their resonance with the world had been obliterated and so the images no longer existed.

After a long time, the corners of the huqin musician’s lips curled. As if mocking himself, an ugly crack cut across his face. “The Dragon blood of the Yunlou family…there is no doubt,” he murmured. “She’s real.” He had realized that the “disappearance of the Princess” was only a lie fabricated by Yunlou Qingshu to weed out traitors. But sadly, it was too late. His body cracked, fell apart, and melted into the gray ashy snow.

“Hate, such hate!” the pipa musician cried before fading away as well.

The musician who had disguised herself as the nanny gazed at Yunlou Chaoyue’s face without speaking. Close to death, her eyes softened and were no longer dark and wild. She opened her mouth and murmured something before her body collapsed into the ash. The world returned to peace.

As the gray snow swirled, Yunlou Chaoyue remained silent. She had heard the nanny’s last words.

Maybe those last few days of interactions had softened her, or maybe her inevitable death had blurred things. Maybe she had never hated the usurper princess. She had said, “Your Highness, please take care.”

Yunlou Chaoyue lowered her head and closed her lonely eyes.

—

She seemed to sense something in the silence. Looking up, she gazed past the high walls and saw the white-haired girl again.

“Are you leaving?” the girl asked softly.

There was no reply, even after a long time. But Yunlou Chaoyue’s gaze never wavered. Perhaps understanding the meaning of the silence, she sighed. “If it wasn’t for your allowance and talent Zhaodang, Da Shao wouldn’t have had any effect. Bai Xi, stop hiding. Dijun had sensed you.” As if hearing the girl’s long breaths, Chaoyue asked quietly, “How are you?”

[1] Da Shao: this is one of the six generations of ancient Chinese dance and song.