Silent Crown

With such a major boost, the four Devas merged into one. Just their breathing alone was enough to raise storms and lightning. The four of them stood firm. Until this point in time, the pressure on the master of the Yuan family was finally reduced, thanks to all the pain that he had to go through just now.

“Too slow! Too slow!” The old swordsman finally heaved a sigh of relief. “Are all of you tortoises? You may as well come even later just to lower me into my grave.”

“Do you think everyone is an old monkey like you?” The man, wearing a coronet, shook his head and sighed. “If the Ye family’s Heaven Ladder was still around, projecting from the City in the Sky wouldn’t have been so difficult.”

“The Ye family is still around.” The master of the Yuan family laughed mysteriously. “But do you have the cheek to seek help from them?”

“You can’t put it that way. Back then, it was a collective decision to set them on exile…”

“You two old fellows can go somewhere else to bicker about old times. Full of nonsense.” The old man, who had been created from dead bestiality, looked up and barked, “Do what we need to do first!”

The musicians, who all occupied the very top positions in the entire east, looked at each other. The mysterious projection dimmed and its humanoid body began to break down, revealing the true appearance of aether. This was a scepter who had been completely separated from the realm of aether and had almost become an actual body in the physical world. There were four artifacts that had been perfected by endless prudent music theories and generations of bloodlines.

There was ‘Moon in the Well,’ which was a hu qin created from the Paths of Abstinence and Modifications. There was ‘Yaksa,’ which was a biwa made of white jade, and had landed in the arms of the old madam after rocketing into the sky from the Ultimate. When the man with the coronet waved his hands, ‘Bronze Peacock,’ which was a huge drum filled with the patterns of all sorts of beasts, flew out of his sleeve.

Finally, amidst the roaring laughter of the master of the Yuan family, there was a beam of light from the east, which raised air currents and thunder, that shot into his hands. The ball of light turned into an ancient sword with seven holes, resembling the seven apertures in humans. When he flicked the sword, a powerful white rainbow appeared in the sky.

‘Chun Jun’!

The four Devas looked at each other. With the projection from the City in the Sky as the foundation, their music theories combined together and the four artifacts glowed with holy light, so that the immortal city in the sky boomed with a mighty melody.

“Yun Men Da Juan!” [1]

In an instant, the nine doors of the City in the Sky opened and the projection turned into the land of aurora. If one was to peek through the nine doors, he would be able to vaguely see bustling signs of life.

For a moment, the City in the Sky seemed to be standing up to the staffs of the three kings and was no longer to hide its intention of taking over the Wheel of Balance. The King of Red lowered his head and looked at the gigantic warship that was hundreds of miles away. On the deck of the warship, the white-haired main raised his head. He seemed to be able to sense that someone was staring at him and he began to smile.

“Why?” the King of Red asked coldly.

“In actual fact, there are plenty of reasons.” The man, who was called Bai Heng, pondered for some time before replying in all seriousness, “If you really insist on knowing the reason, then I suppose it’s for the country?”

For country? The entire world would have been amused that such words had just left the mouth of a dishonest and deceitful thief.

“The chain is about to break, Your Majesty.” Bai Heng spoke seriously. “For so many years, everyone has become used to the difficult times of living in a cage. Now that everyone has finally had the taste of freedom, why do you want to chain them all up again? Didn’t Asgard, who has always been a staunch supporter of the Sacred City, have their own plans too? Besides, the damage that the Wheel of Balance can cause will be too severe… Please forgive me for speaking so directly.”

The King of Red remained indifferent. He turned back and looked in the direction of the illusion beside Paganini. “What about you, Gaius? Have you chosen to fight as well?”

“Haven’t I always done so, Your Majesty?” Gaius retorted, “Arrogance is a sin. The world is not a toy that the church can take control of. Why do we still choose to neglect this even at this point in time? Nevertheless, since you have posed me this question, then I shall give you a proper answer.” He paused for a while, as the smile on his face was a huge contrast against the will and determination in his eyes. He raised his palm and spoke, “Yes, I have chosen to fight! Give the order for the massacre and unleash the hounds of war!”

He had only just completed his sentence when a horrible clash occurred in the skies, creating roars that reverberated around the entire world. The terrible aether waves came crashing and even under the suppression of the Wheel of Balance, nine layers of the sea of aether were raging instantaneously.

The movements of ‘A War Symphony’ and ‘Yun Men Da Juan’ clashed and the after-effects were beyond anyone’s expectations as the resultant ripples almost caused tens of miles of sea to be boiling. It was as if the entire world had been thrown into the oven of Genesis and was being destroyed.

Within the realm of aether, the illusions of the Sacred City and the Great Wall clashed together and resulted in storms that ravaged the entire upper-tier dimension. All the musicians in the entire world became extremely fearful all of a sudden. They lost control of the music theories within their bodies and they were trying their very best to suppress their consciousness as they lingered on the brink of breaking away. There was no way to observe this terrible battle. Only those who had been immersed in the battle would be able to perceive just how terrifying and destructive these powers were.

Countless elements rose like stars. They clashed with each other and produced glowing heat before disintegrating from this cruel battle. The battle for control over the Wheel of Balance had officially begun.

…

All this while, humans had always thought that the abyss was the source of all evils. Countless battles and cleansing have started for this reason. But the funny thing was that as the abyss officially left the picture, what awaited the humans was not the peace they had been yearning for. It was another new battle.

Paganini obeyed Gaius order and quickly retreated. He saw how the church and the Devas were desperately trying to kill each other and could not help but smirk. What a joke.

“Wow, this place is hard to find. How did you manage to come to such a deserted place?” a voice suddenly spoke beside him.

That voice was so near that Paganini was taken aback. He quickly turned his head around, only to see a handsome young man with a head full of sweat. He had no idea when this man appeared behind him. He was completely silent. There were no signs nor traces.

Before that fellow had opened his mouth to speak, Paganini had no idea about his existence behind him at all. Besides, even at this point in time, Paganini still could not sense his presence in the space that he was supposedly occupying. There was no breathing, no pulse, and no heartbeat. This person should not exist. But his eyes seemed to be fooling around with him because clearly, he could see someone standing right before him.

“What happened? You look like you have just seen a ghost.” The golden-haired young man wiped off the sweat on his face and continued to look at him. “Uncle Constantine has asked me to meet up with you, didn’t he tell you? Aiya, but I must say, this location is really hard to find. I came over from Caucasian and had to take a few detours and was almost beaten up by those two groups of people up there. I’m so tired. Eh? Do you have water with you? Let me have a sip…” He had been talking non-stop but the moment he spotted the huge bowl in Paganini’s hand, his eyes immediately lit up. He took the bowl over and drank up all the darkness in it. Then, he patted his stomach contentedly.

“Burp~”

“… Paganini was stunned. He felt like the world was playing a cruel joke on him. To think that someone would be capable of swallowing the last lands and godly power and godly nature of the abyss and Hyakume into their stomach as if it was no big deal.

Damn it… what is this thing! For the first time in his life, he felt a deep sense of fear and trepidation. His entire body was shivering with fear! No wonder Gaius was so comfortable and at ease with his pledge of allegiance. It was as if the former had never considered the possibility that Paganini might betray him.

At this very moment, he looked at the handsome-looking monster standing in front of him. He felt creeped out. Just what was hiding underneath this human-looking appearance? Regardless of what it was, it was definitely fundamentally different from humans!

Gaius… where did he find such a monster!

“What’s happening?” That young man looked at him before lowering his head to look at the empty bowl. He began to feel awkward. “Oh, I’ve only just drunk a bowl of your water. Surely, that’s no reason to look at me like this. At most, I will treat you to meal when we are back. How about that?” With that, the young man smiled and stretched out his hand. “You can call me Charles. I have long heard of your incredible abilities. I look forward to learning from you.”

Paganini stared at him and after some time, finally stretched out his hand and forced out a smile. “For sure, for sure.”

They bowed to each other and shook hands and finally became friends. After that, Charles peered into the distance and saw the turbulences that were not too far away from them. “What do we do next? Uncle Constantine has asked me to obey your orders.”

“Cough cough… We should wait for the right opportunity. For now, the situation is still pretty chaotic.” Paganini’s brain was in a mess and he barely knew what he was talking about. “Wait first. The Wheel of Balance is of utmost importance… Hmm, we need to be cautious…”

“Wheel of Balance?” Charles raised his hand and pointed at the silhouette in the core, “That broken wheel?”

“Broken wheel? Er… yes, you are right.” Paganini took some time to react to what he was saying before nodding distractedly. “We’ll wait until their battle is about to finish, then we will get ready to sneak in. I will first…”

When Paganini finally stammered through whatever he had to say, there was only a confused look on Charles’ face. “Eh? Is it that difficult?”

Paganini coughed a few times and did not know what to say.

“So, all we have to do is to obtain that broken wheel, right?” Charles cracked his neck and revealed a smile that only made Paganini feel extremely uneasy.

[1] A traditional song and dance that began in the era of the Yellow Emperor. It praised all the great things that the Yellow Emperor achieved, such as uniting the people and being a person of great honor.