Silent Crown

Chapter 171 There Should Be Moonlight

"Strum the instrument and sing the mournful song with me!" In the hidden room, Red Eye’s head hovered in the air. There seemed to be snakes writhing under his twisted features, and they changed constantly. Before him, the sharp sacred music appeared from the ancient scroll and resounded in the darkness. Waves of hoarse singing followed immediately in the darkness.

In the faraway "warehouse," countless empty metal hooks on the ceiling shook…there was nothing there already! Those dead corpses had already started moving again! They crawled, writhed, walked and grouped outside the central security room, pacing through the complex underground palace. Without exception, all of their eyes turned blood red!

When the hymn sounded, all of the corpses began trembling. They turned toward the direction of the sacred scroll in unison. Their red eyes shone with fiery light as if they had been ignited.

The shrill hymn echoed in every corner. Under the music, the corpses raised their heads and opened their mouths, singing the fallen hymn in unison.

This choir of the dead—choir from Hell—hidden in the darkness was the result of Red Eye’s longtime experimentation. He did not care about his physical body because each of these mutants could become his new body. Now, his consciousness jumped out of his shell and flowed in these innumerable bodies. Under his control, the thousands of people were like one.

They sang hoarsely, "Strum the instrument and sing the mournful song with me!" When the song resounded in the darkness, every Royal Musician looked up abruptly. They saw the shapeless darkness above their heads writhe. An open mouth seemed to form and chant the destructive hymn.

"The wheel of fate turns heartlessly. Destruction falls and pain is here! Do not hesitate now. The most courageous warrior has already collapsed under fate and is crying in pain. Offer petty alms, but for the extortion of greed…"

The Carmina Burana which required dozens of musicians to perform together was now produced by thousands of mouths howling, murmuring, and harmonizing. The fallen hymn moved the darkness and ignited the mercury runes carved into the layers of stone tiles.

In an instant, nightmarish fog poured out of thin air and swallowed the entire hospital. In the darkness, the silhouettes of countless demons danced. They wailed, impatiently waiting to take over the flesh and become substantial.

In the underground palace, mud dripped from the ceiling. A Royal Musician that was raiding outside felt something cold drip onto his neck. He wiped it away, but the squirming mud spread on his hand. The mud shot up his shoulder and burrowed into his heart, traveling through his blood. The flesh and bones in its path were turned into pure blackness.

He yelped and stumbled back. When his companions looked over, they saw him holding onto the wall and vomiting.

"Asa, what’s wrong?" A musician raised his lantern to illuminate the man.

"I—I’m fine." With his back to the others, Asa shook his head. He wiped away the mud at the corner of his lips and breathed with difficulty. But an empty smile appeared on that stiff face. "I’m just…a little hungry."

Outside the central security room, layers of blood-red music notes and scores appeared on the walls and dome. It was as if hemp and rattan were entangled with each other.

The darkness swallowed everything, turning the underground maze into something otherworldly. It was isolated from the outside world! This was the song of despair dedicated to fate. It was the ceremony of death dedicated to Satan.

The entire underground palace was now a giant quagmire. Everyone in it had sank and was struggling. They struggled with all their might, but all that awaited them was hopelessness.

-

"Just immerse yourselves in hunger. Tonight, you can feast here. Everything here is an offering to Hyakume!" The robin gripped his half of the sign. His eyes were eerie and devoid of any pity, but when he looked at the two incoming figures, he felt slightly unsettled. These two—Holmes and Moriarty—must be killed!

"Red Eye, first corrode the two in the final laboratory. The sign must be in our hands!"

Red Eye closed his eyes and his sleeves shook before him. The hymn rippled and the dark mud moved under his control. It was as if the walls had turned into an angry current. It rushed toward the final laboratory instantly.

-

In the laboratory, the sticky black mud surged from cracks in the ceiling, floor, and walls. They transformed and corroded every living thing in its path.

Ye Qingxuan retreated slowly, but the mud was closing in on him. It radiated with a corrosive strength that made his vision go black faintly. Even the tiniest bit on him would have bad results. Now, there was no way for him to leave.

The phrase "no road towards the heavens, no door toward Hell" was probably made to describe these kinds of situations, right?

"I was too bold." He chewed on his lips and his brows furrowed. "Miss Professor, can you not space out now? We can talk about our matter and who the sign belongs to later. But now, do you have any idea how to let us get out of here?"

"Huh, even Holmes is powerless now?" The Professor chuckled, as if she were happy that Ye Qingxuan was lowering himself. "I have an idea. I’ll tell you if you beg me."

"Okay." Ye Qingxuan fluttered his lashes and gazed at her with innocent eyes. "Sister, please…"

"…" The Professor heard his plea, but she did not feel proud at all. Instead, there seemed to be something caught in her throat. "Don’t you have any dignity?"

"It’s just asking someone for help. There’s nothing to do with dignity. Life is precious and begging someone isn’t too bad." Ye Qingxuan turned. He punched the ground and the vibrations forced the incoming mud back, keeping this small space temporarily. "I’ve done much more lowly things to survive. If you want to see me humiliated, you’ll be disappointed."

"…" Gazing at his backside, the Professor fell silent, but the look in her eyes was complicated. She could not help but sigh. "Since you know Black Friday, do you know Moonlight, the advanced movement?"

"It’s in my head, but I can’t play it." Ye Qingxuan shook his head. "That’s a Resonance level movement. I can somewhat read the overture, but I don’t understand it."

"What about Jiu Xiao Huan Pei?"

"…It’s here." Ye Qingxuan raised his hand and showed her the instrument that was now a ring.

The Professor smiled. "Then, do you want to go into Coherence?" She looked into the youth’s eyes as if wanting to find the hidden fear. "If you want to leave this place, I can give you some energy. But aren’t you scared of being sucked dry by a demonic musician like me?"

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a moment. Then he gripped her hand. Her hand was soft and cool, but it was not frightening. Instead, it felt familiar. There was that feeling of familiarity again…

"Okay," he said quietly.

"Let’s have a moment of silence for your choice." She licked her lower lip and chuckled. "Falling into my hands is worse than death."

Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes, letting her do whatever she needed to. He could feel a cold finger flitting across his neck, bringing a cold feeling. Then sharp teeth sank into his skin, piercing his blood vessel. His life was being sucked.

He could feel his blood being sucked continuously. A strong emptiness appeared in his heart, but Ye Qingxuan still did not feel shocked. He began playing Bolero again, taking in the water vapor and forming perception threads. The threads wrapped around the Professor and entered her body.

For the first time, he could sense the aether in her body. In an instant, his pupils dilated. "This is your sound of heart?"

-

It was as if he was listening to the morning tide crash onto the shore. The waves overlapped into a symphony. The roaring music filled his ears and the world quieted down. This was her sound of heart!

The sound rushed into Ye Qingxuan’s body through the perception threads. His vision went black, and the hallucination of endless ocean waves appeared before his eyes. He was practically drowning.

"Cleanse your soul." The Professor embraced Ye Qingxuan from behind. Her voice, gentle and delicate, murmured in his ears, "Awaken Jiu Xiao Huan Pei and I’ll cooperate with you."

The waves changed. Her sound of heart was tuned to Ye Qingxuan’s fluctuations.

He felt as if he had fallen into a bottomless sea, falling, falling, falling to the deepest part of the sea…

The sound of heart resounded in his body; the sound of tidal waves flowed endlessly to his fingertips. Burning light radiated from the instrument string and it vibrated without stop! Finally, it let out a crisp sound—a beautiful sound, but in actuality, a weapon responsible for life and death!

"Long time no see, Jiu Xiao Huan Pei." Ye Qingxuan opened his eyes. Waves were reflected in his eyes. He looked down at the entangled strings around his body. They silver-white strings crisscrossed in the air, but the beginnings and ends could not be seen, as if they had stretched out from nothingness. After such a long time, Jiu Xiao Huan Pei had expanded fully once again.

His strength back then was incomparable to the Professor’s sound of heart. The forgotten jewel had finally revealed its true power. Ye Qingxuan only had to lightly touch it for all the mud around them to start shaking. The crisscrossed strings strummed, resonating with each other, and produced a clear sound that entered every pore.

Tuning with the perception threads and blood, Ye Qingxuan seemed to turn into the Professor and looked down at the world with her eyes. He could hear the waves in the darkness, the old song under the earth, the clanging of clouds rubbing in the sky…and his own heartbeat, now beating to the same rhythm as the Professor’s.

He could hear her breaths, the sound of blood flowing in her veins and the unclear melody she was humming. It was the melody—the familiar music score—carved into his mind.

"Is this Moonlight?" he murmured. With his eyes closed, he strummed the instrument.

In the sea of aether, ripples spread in all directions, brewing with immense power. In that instant, Ye Qingxuan forgot everything. The moment he pressed down the first note, his heart and mind were completely taken over by the music score in his memory. As if the music had come to life, Jiu Xiao Huan Pei expanded as he played. It guided his consciousness, controlled his body, and performed the cold and sparse music!

Ye Qingxuan lowered his eyes, focused completely and immersed in the incredible power—immersed in Moonlight. There should be moonlight.

-

In the dark underground palace, the chaotic hymn of thousands of demons roaring had reached its climax. The solidified pieces of darkness contained power from Satan and extreme evil and wildness. Contact with a bit of it would cause it to invade one’s body, tainting the blood, burrowing into the lungs, polluting the mind, turning a human into a demon, twisting all reason into insanity.

The changing mud transformed into countless distorted figures. They walked through the underground palace, singing the crazed hymn in unison. Under the song’s influence, everyone turned wild. They could no longer restrain the irritation and anger within them. Some had already lost control…

But a gentle sound appeared over the shrill and cacophonous hymn. No one knew where it came from, but it echoed throughout the underground palace. It was as if a small white dot had appeared in the black mud. It was extremely glaring and strange.

In the hidden room, Red Eye furrowed his brows. He conducted the hymn and began the climax again, trying to destroy all resisting sounds. The fanatic hymn drowned the melody, but when it reached the peak, the cool melody reappeared. In fact, it had strengthened, and was brewing…

"What is this?" Red Eye murmured, opening his sole eye. In that eye, a sliver of light shone in the empty darkness.

There was light.

His head flew up and he looked in the direction of the central security room. There, the cool music was rising as if the long brewing process had finally ended. The rise and fall of tidal waves were crashing down on the wild hymn!

In an instant, the angry rhythm was interrupted. A blank space appeared in the shrill chorus of the countless zombies! And then, a beam of light shone through the darkness.

"What the f*ck?!" Red Eye roared. He extended his perception in that direction and used the zombies’ eyes to gaze into the mud-covered final laboratory.

He saw the darkness surging and tossing as if something huge was brewing within. It crashed against the locks repeatedly—it was about to burst out!

"Holmes? What is he doing?!" he muttered hoarsely. He tried to add more power into the locks, but the sudden change caught him off guard.

Boom! In an instant, the black mud exploded. The youth’s figure was finally revealed, as well as the vibrating instrument strings in his hands, and something rising slowly behind him.

It was some sort of solidified power. It grew out of the darkness, but it shone with pure yet terrifying light. Like a lotus, like clear water, like a mirror, like an illusion of one’s heart, like an ancient song, like the convergence of all purity in the world…It was moonlight as pure as white jade!

The melody changed suddenly, transforming from cold and sparse to a surging wave. The resounding melody grouped behind him, lifting the nonexistent moon into the sky. And so, there was radiant light in the darkness!

It was not burning, blazing or wild. It was merely cool and shone selflessly, giving its flawless light to the ceremony filled with evil.

He was only illuminated by it, but Red Eye felt a wave of pain. The eyes of the body he was using suddenly exploded, as if it could not make eye contact with such pure light. The illusion-like moonlight shone through the walls and tunnels, illuminating all that was dark, far and beyond.

The moonlight was like a tidal wave, but there was no thunderous crash. In its path, the black mud began to tremble, toss and turn. It evaporated into strands of black gas and disappeared in the moonlight.

As if a hammer was striking his heart, Red Eye’s single eye went black. If he still had a body, he would have started vomiting. He could feel the walking dead, the twisted humans, start to break apart and break down, swallowed by the moonlight. Even the Royal Musicians who had huddled together and used countless secret treasures and scores to avoid the mud were now immersed in the moonlight-like melody. Their eyes changed dramatically—sometimes ferocious, sometimes wild.

They tried so hard to fight against the moonlight. But in the end, they sat onto the ground soullessly. All that remained in their eyes was serenity. A drunken smile appeared on their faces. They were immersed in the all-consuming moonlight.

Crack! Before Red Eye, the Codex Calixtinus trembled suddenly. A crack appeared on the old lambskin scroll and the words written in blood began to fade. The treasure created from the lives of dozens of musicians had been damaged too, but Red Eye did not have the time to feel sad. He had to worry about himself now.

The frantic hymn began wildly again, fighting against the moonlight melody like a tsunami. It still held the upper hand and still had the absolute advantage, but it still could not eradicate the melody of the moonlight. No, even worse, the moonlight had started to…seep in!

In that moment, the bodies of the countless zombies in the underground palace shook and tremored. With every tremor, Red Eye’s reason would shake. He could barely keep sane. It was a shaking between his body and mind!

The moonlight’s gentle melody seeped into the zombies’ bodies, resounding in the long-dead minds. A crack appeared between the consciousness and bodies that had become one.

The dead bodies and Red Eye’s consciousness had always been two entities. With each shake, the differences between them enlarged. They were close to tearing apart now!

As the consciousness did not belong to the dead, Red Eye felt his manipulation and control grow more difficult with each shudder. Every music note that rang struck his weakest spot, causing his mind to grow heavy. This was so cruel. Holmes was trying to cut off his source!

Red Eye’s broken face twisted. He roared suddenly and broke the connection, giving up on the advantage. During a fight where both sides were entangled, the worst was becoming muddled and confused. Cutting it off now was better than Ye Qingxuan taking over the connection completely and using the walking dead to control him. It would be truly problematic at that point!

His facial muscles twitched violently as sweat beaded on his forehead. It was difficult to breathe, but for some reason, something lit up in his eyes. He froze. Coldness spread through his body…it was the moonlight, the d*mn moonlight!

What was going on? When did it invade his will and plant such a fatal seed in his mind?!

He roared angrily. The Codex Calixtinus before him cracked abruptly and burned without fire. As it burned, the satanic power within it rushed into the remains of his skull. It transformed into horrifying anger and wildness, using his mind as a battlefield to fight the moonlight. But the light was like a tidal wave, drowning the darkness.

No matter if it was heinous hatred, wild murderous intent or uncontrollable anger, nothing could stop the invasion on the deepest part of his soul. Under the moon, hatred was smoothed, murderous intent dissipated and anger vanished. All will and emotions were assimilated under the moonlight. Even terror had disappeared without a trace.

Like water, the moonlight seeped into his soul. It was not cruel, but it washed away the dark memories in his mind like a god. All despair and darkness were washed away, transforming everything into tranquility and peace. All was pure.

Red Eye had never felt so relaxed and unrestrained before. He had become free of Satan’s control, as well as the evil thoughts and greed in his mind.

The redness in his eyes dissipated, gradually clearing. The clear eyes stared at the moonlight, shedding tears of repentance.

"It’s so beautiful," Red Eye mumbled, drunk from the beauty of the flawless moonlight.

Like that, he bathed in the moonlight and took his last breath. Eternal peace fell upon him. He was dead.

"Beautiful?!" the robin muttered hoarsely, curled up in the corner.

No, he did not see any beauty. The satanic blood within him had practically burst into flames. It pierced into his heart, burning his consciousness, torturing his soul. He felt uncontrollable anger and…pure terror!

"This is the moon of purity! The moon of purity!" He bit his lower lip and thought of the strange rumor passed between the dark musicians. And the man who was like the Grim Reaper…