Silent Crown

As Ye Qingxuan made his choice, at his fingertips, the speck of residual light slowly floated upwards, towards the tens of millions of Bai Xi’s.

In the futures born of countless choices, countless Bai Xi’s superimposed in one place looked up at the specks of light that lit up in the fragments of fate that seemed like illusions.

The countless pieces gathered towards the center.

In the end, all the futures had disappeared.

As they superposed in the residual light, a vague outline slowly emerged.

In the end, a side profile Ye Qingxuan was familiar with was revealed.

“It’s been a long time,” Ye Qingxuan chuckled softly, “Bai Xi.”

But Bai Xi didn’t look at him, as if she was in a fit of temper. She looked away in another direction and remained stubbornly silent. Her silence persisted even though Ye Qingxuan had walked over to her.

He lifted a hand.

Her shoulders trembled and she closed her eyes.

But the hand did not hit her with anger.

It simply touched on her head gently, then violently messed up her silver hair, feeling the familiar touch, until her hair resembled a chicken’s nest.

“What’s this?” Ye Qingxuan bent down and looked at her eyes. “The test before the final challenge? A painstakingly planned prank? Or are you upset because I have taken so long to come and save you?”

Bai Xi was silent.

But Ye Qingxuan did not give up, and he kept asking, “You have been watching me all the time, right? Bai Xi, you were watching me make a fool of myself…”

“Weren’t you happy?” Bai Xi lifted her eyes, seemingly out of spite, and glared at him. “Even though you won’t admit it verbally, you enjoyed it incredibly, right? You could have picked the well-behaved one or the obedient one at will. See, I have given you a chance, you are the one who failed to seize it.”

“And then?” Ye Qingxuan asked her. “Taking a part of you with me, I leave this place and abandon most of you in the projection of the Originator?”

Bai Xi bit her lip stubbornly and turned her head away. “Well, no matter which one you choose, at least I won’t have to deal with you turning up your nose at me in the future.”

Ye Qingxuan shook his head and forcibly turned her around, forcing her to look at him.

“Remember what I have initially said to you?” He looked at the young girl who was no longer as childish as she was in the past, at the unfamiliar traces on her facial features and told her, “Please ask me for help, Bai Xi.

“Then I will come and save you.” Ye Qingxuan repeated what he had once said in the past as if he was declaring the truth, and told her resolutely, “I will save you, no matter which one, even if I am dead.”

“Will you save me even if I am not as good as you have imagined?” Bai Xi looked at his expression, and her eyes became a little red. “I am full of jealousy, I am narrow-minded, I am frighteningly possessive, I am bad with words, and I like power so much. Will you still save such a troublesome woman like me?”

“I will.” Ye Qingxuan nodded without the slightest hesitation.

“Even though I am disobedient, love getting into trouble, and will continue bothering you all my life?” Bai Xi asked.

“Yes!” Ye Qingxuan nodded, smiling. “If you get into trouble, I will help you to settle it. If you do something wrong, I will correct you. If you are disobedient, I… I will get used to it one day, right?”

In the brief silence, time seemed to be paused.

Bai Xi looked at him, stunned.

After a good while, she chuckled softly. She extended her hand, stroking Ye Qingxuan’s face and gazing at his eyes and brows. In the end, she couldn’t hold her tears back anymore.

“Then, for the of my life, please take good care of me.” She hugged Ye Qingxuan, wiped her tears and mucus on his clothes. She clutched him so forcefully, her snivels and sorrowful whimpers dissipating as they hugged.

After such a long time, she once again requested help from the same person.

Please help me.

I don’t want to be alone here.

“As I promised, I am here to save you, Bai Xi.” Ye Qingxuan reached out, held her hand, and smiled. “Let’s go back home.”

…

In the distance, the projection the Originator quietly gazed at their figures, watching them embrace each other. Then, she turned and left, dissipating in the endless mysteries, the lights, and the shadows.

But at the very moment of dissipating, she looked back from afar, engulfed in the light.

The face that gradually became vague had a satisfied smile on it.

From then on, she felt no more reluctance at leaving and her attachment to the world.

The last obsession that Yunlou Qingxue’s deceased soul had held on to since 19 years ago dissipated.

It was the secret that no one would ever know.

…

As the projection dissipated quietly, the noise of a tsunami was heard through the layers of light. Something was coming from the outside, flowing in the aether. Hundreds of millions of signals echoed each other, forming the huge outline of an individual.

It was like a waterfall that flowed in the opposite direction of the current.

He came from outside the Originator.

He tore all the light apart.

A huge tenacity that surpassed that of human beings by tens of thousands of times emerged from the projection of the Originator.

Like mud splashing through countless streams of light, the giant climbed out of the cracks of the light, opened His three eyes, and blocked Ye Qingxuan’s way.

It was Tung Wang Kung.

He finally controlled the central core completely. He came late, but not too late.

Everything had not been settled completely.

He looked at Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan also looked at Him.

In the silent confrontation, Ye Qingxuan messed Bai Xi’s hair up and ask her to stand behind him.

So the human and the non-human confronted each other.

Fortunately, as Tung Wang Kung arrived, the projection of the Originator was no longer closed off to the outside world. Ye Qingxuan could finally sense the music theory from the outside world after such a long time, and the gushing aether was back within his control. When he reached out and clutched the air, he could feel the tangible touch coming from the hilt.

The return of power was so reassuring.

“Ye Qingxuan, if you have even the slightest responsibility towards mankind in your heart, you should not stop me.” In front of him, the behemoth produced a cold and rigid sound. even after being given human wisdom and mind, it still maintained its original stiffness and coldness.

Or rather, it did so deliberately.

The tone was so familiar.

It sounded so incredibly righteous.

Ye Qingxuan was amused. “Then what should I do? Lend you my head?” He bent his fingers and tapped the air in front of him. So, as the sonorous whine of a sword sounded, the blade of the New Testament sword emerged from the emptiness. “I believe that you already have a good understanding of my stubbornness and selfishness.

“In such a situation, surely, you weren’t still intending to ask me to die in order to save humanity?”

“Leave her here.” Tung Wang Kung gazed coldly at Bai Xi behind Ye Qingxuan. “She is the pillar supporting the Originator, and she can’t be allowed to leave this place. If you are willing to cooperate, after I am done with her, I can still return her to you.”

Ye Qingxuan was stunned.

The feeling… was such a new one.

It was as if he had heard a lame joke that wasn’t funny at all.

In his life, he had experienced many grand events, schemed against Hyakume, hit Arthur with a surprise blow, and stole the jobs of the Sacred City, but how should he put it?

It was his first time having a catastrophe try to steal his girl!

“Hey, listen, Tung Wang Kung…” He combed his fingers through his hair, as if the situation was somewhat hurting his brain, and phrased his words. “Should I say, is it really that your puberty stage started late? Although I can understand the hunger and thirst you feel after being single for a few centuries, and the curiosity you harbor towards the female body, erm, sure enough, even an AI should be given physical education. It can also be considered as a flaw in the former human education system?”

As he said so, Ye Qingxuan sighed. “However, as a senior human, I have a heartfelt suggestion.”

He looked at Tung Wang Kung and took on the tone Ye Xuan had adopted back then whenever he gave out prescriptions to his patients prescription. “If you really need to vent your inner perversion…

“It would be better for you to go back to the engine and f*ck a dog!” At the moment, his gentle and peaceful tone, which sounded disgusting, came to an abrupt stop. Instead, the fierce light erupting from the New Testament sword replaced it.

It rose into the sky.

As summoned by the blade, the ideal country far away in the future—the Land of Dreams—descended.

After breaking through the blockade of the Dragon Bloodline, using the illusory boundary as a transit linkway, the Net of Aether who was actually tens of thousands of miles away was projected here. The huge crystal broke through the layers of streams of light, as if it was rising from the sea.

Endless stars spewed out of it.

That moment, it was as if the Milky Way rushed down. Tens of thousands of musical movements of destruction gathered into a ray, forming a fiery stream of light that made the whole world appear dim in comparison. It swept towards the catastrophe in front, violently colliding with the projection of the Kingdom in Heaven.

In the projection of the Originator, which was so narrow compared to the terrifyingly large scale of the collision, terrifying forces that the physical world could not withstand were flowing in various directions.

After the earth-shattering collision, the core of the Net of Aether still hung high, but the projection of the crystal polyhedron became fleeting. Waves of heat radiated from it as a result of overloading. The overloaded stream of light almost melted all the instruments of harmonious melody and network channels transmitting power along the way. Even though numerous workers were repairing it urgently, it would be difficult to connect it once more in a short time.

Meanwhile, in the brilliant and majestic Kingdom in Heaven, a tragic scar appeared as well.

At the moment, the two major catastrophes, namely the Net of Aetheric and the Kingdom in Heaven that was attained after reversing the Great Wall, collided in the most direct way possible where neither retreated in the slightest bit.

Above the high walls, a tragic scar had emerged.

Soon, it rapidly closed.

After the reversal of the Great Wall, a stream of aether that could be considered endless was controlled, driven, and used by the central core. With such an insane premise, even serious damage of such a degree became a small wound that could be healed in just a moment.

“Still so… stubborn.” Tung Wang Kung gazed at him, his tone almost like a sigh. “You all are always so, so disappointing!”

At the moment, the Kingdom in Heaven shone bright! In the endless strong light, the brilliant Aurora seemed to press down towards Ye Qingxuan.

The 16 counties turned into 16 streams of light, rising high from the sea of light. They propped up the virtual image of the Aurora landscape, then, an unprecedented, frenzied pressure pressed downwards.

In the rumble, hundreds of domains set up with Holy were shattered.

Ye Qingxuan’s face was pale.

Gravity.

It was just pure gravity.

No unpredictable godly power nor movements were involved, Tung Wang Kung simply exerted the force, yet it already seemed as if he lifted up all of Aurora and threw onto Ye Qingxuan’s head.

“Have you understood,” Tung Wang Kung demanded indifferently, “how heavy the burden of responsibility to society is?”

Boom! The Net of Aether could not be sustained anymore, and the connection was cut off. The crystal polyhedron projected in the sky abruptly collapsed and dissipated, and it was blocked out from the Aurora.

Ye Qingxuan gritted his teeth, and fiery thunder leaped out from the New Testament sword in his hand. In a flash, in the array of the World Tree, it turned into a lance of crystal condensed from thunder.

It was the artifact that the Asgardians had used up all their resources to create artifacts for the future god Odin—Gungnir!

Destruction condensed to form the blade of the lance, and as Ye Qingxuan struck, it pierced into the sky!

The Armageddon was coming!

Despite lacking the support of a massive amount ether, only by relying on the activation of Ye Qingxuan alone, an infinite power erupted from it.

The 16 streams of light propping up the Aurora shook violently. A stream of light snapped with a rumble and collapsed. A detectable part of the terrifying power immediately dissipated, but what happened next made Ye Qingxuan’s expression suddenly change.

In the projection of the Aurora, the part supported by the stream of light shattered with a rumble. Despite being blocked by the high-level dimensions, in the deepest part of the realm of aether, Ye Qingxuan, who manifested in the form of a holy spirit, could still sense the tragic screams coming from the physical world.

It was the eruption of earth-shattering disasters.

In a flash, the earth quaked, poisonous fire spewed out, and the sky fell.

Like how a decisive man might cut his hand off to prevent the poison from a lethal snake bite from spreading, in order to avoid weakening overall, Gungnir’s power was instantly guided to the projection of the county that was supported by the stream of light.

As the projection was destroyed, tangible disasters descended onto the physical world.

Several big cities and countless villages were caught in a terrifying earthquake in an instant. Fireballs fell from the sky, blood-like rain poured down, and meteors bombarded the country from the sky.

Destruction spread like a tide.

For a moment, Ye Qingxuan had gone all out and almost brought irreversible damage to a county, fully proving his destructive power.

But he couldn’t feel the slightest bit of joy…

“Tung Wang Kung!!!!” Ye Qingxuan roared. “Is this what a heavy responsibility to society means to you?!”

“A man of great ambition does not bother about trifles. Isn’t it what humans like to say the most?” Tung Wang Kung asked back, looking down at him with cold eyes. “The gains and losses of a city or a county bother you, yet you fail to see the big picture of the world. People like you are doomed to lack the strength to propel the world forward! No, Ye Qingxuan…

“You have failed the power you have!”

The next moment, the force from the weight of Aurora descended again. A gap instantly cracked open on Ye Qingxuan’s manifestation as a holy spirit, and red blood oozed out from his nose and mouth. It was the aether that had been dyed red with fury…

The lightning from Gungnir flashed furiously.

It could still support three more times of attack.

Three full-force attacks.

Even if Tung Wang Kung channeled the power to other places, it would be enough to cause him irreversible damage. But at the moment, lightning flashed in anger, unable to withstand the weight of the entire Aurora, and was almost extinguished…

The horrible impact was instantly exerted on Ye Qingxuan.

The Land of Dreams shook violently.

He was losing consciousness.

In his trance-like state, he heard a roar from afar.

It was as if someone was pulling his ear and roaring in his ear with anger, transmitting the fury through his empty body to the deepest part of the realm of aether, and the words resounded in his ear. “From the very beginning, Ye Qingxuan, did you even figure out what you were actually going to do!”

It was Bai Heng’s voice.

“Think properly!” He roared with all his might, “This country and Bai Xi, which do you want to save!”

At the very moment, in the empty consciousness, a murderous intent rose.

Violent, frenzied waves of heat erupted from the dying lightning.

Destruction gathered once more.

It pierced into the sky!

Despite knowing that his actions would bring disasters and horrific consequences, this time around, the terrifying force he invoked was even more powerful than ever before.

Even though living beings will suffer.

Even though it will destroy the country.

It doesn’t matter.

It’s not Ye Lanzhou who is standing here, and I no longer have the so-called love for the world.

Even though I may fail to live up to the power I have and be unworthy of my current status and identity.

I will abandon most people and save only one.

The answer is so simple!

So, the sky collapsed.

The sky above the kingdom was torn apart. Layers of thunder roared, and thousands of flashes of lightning rushed down from the darkness, bombarding the earth!

At the moment, in the steel temple under the palace, Bai Heng gave a gratified smile.

“Yes, that’s right, that’s it.” He let go and staggered backward. “You just need to go and save Bai Xi.” In the harsh alarm, he staggered and stumbled forward. Then, in the radiation of the Iron of Decay, he vomited blood, as well as pieces of his broken internal organs.

The schedule of his death had been pushed forward, and his vitality was destroyed at tens of thousands of times faster than the rate it could regenerate. Even breathing was difficult.

But as he gazed at the throne in front of him, at the slumbering empress, his eyes shone, as if his soul was burning. “Leave the job of saving the world to me.

“The world… and my emperor. ”

At the moment, he lifted the blade and struck down violently. As the blood spurted out, the blade sank into the chest of the empress. In the projection of the Originator, the brilliant and mighty Aurora suddenly shook. Tung Wang Kung screamed and roared, “Bai Heng!!!”

“Don’t always call my name, at least say something else.” Bai Heng cackled, but his hands opened up the chest cavity of the empress in an extremely deft manner, separating the bones, and finally, clenched the heart, which was beating weakly. Half of the heart seemed to be made of steel. Under the flesh and blood, the delicate and fine electronic components still shone with a fluorescent glow after so many years.

The core that was once Tung Wang Kung, was growing together with the heart of the Empress.

Then, they were removed together.

They were destroyed in Bai Heng’s hands.

And they fell apart.

But at the moment, Tung Wang Kung had already freed himself from the restraints of the core and returned to the central core. Even though the core was destroyed, it would not damage him at all.

It was just in vain.

“Ridiculous.” The hoarse voice sounded from the central core. “You can’t kill me!”

“That’s correct.” Bai Heng nodded and said indifferently, “But I can kill the Empress, no?”

At the moment, in the piercing alarm, an extraordinarily sorrowful bell chime rang.

As Bai Heng removed the heart from the chest, the bell chimed nine times.

In a flash, the chimes spread throughout the Aurora.

They announced to the entire East.

The Empress was dead!

As countless people looked up in shock, feeling lost and crying in the violent earthquakes and bloody rain, the bells instantly spread the news of the empress’s death throughout the entire empire.

And with the death of the emperor, the projection of the Kingdom in Heaven suddenly collapsed and dissipated. The power of the Dragon Bloodline and the music theory that were forcibly channeled away were returned to the counties once more, forcibly suppressing all the earthquakes, dispersing the bloody rain, and extinguishing the fireballs in the sky. It suppressed all the uncontrollable disasters and the chaos forcibly.

In a flash, all the disasters were gone.

The power of the Kingdom in Heaven had left Tung Wang Kung!

Then, it automatically gathered on another person, a person whose bloodline was the purest in the whole palace, whole capital, or even Aurora, with no one able to compete against her.

At the moment, a small imperial jade seal appeared in Bai Xi’s hands.

Then, the layers of music theory intertwined, forming a robe that was as bright as the fierce sun, covering her thin body. Finally, a crown emerged from thin air and appeared on top of her head.

Bead curtains drooped down.

The countless musicians, who were integrated into the Great Wall centuries ago, and the hundreds of scepter musicians, who supported the Kingdom in Heaven, emerged from the glaring light, together with the majestic palaces and the mighty scene of the 12 buildings and cities. Each of the musicians held a jade Hu [1] in their hands and bowed down to the new ruler of the world.

They presented themselves before the empress!

“According to the rules established by the nine families of the Dragon Bloodline, if the emperor has no heir and has not specified a successor before his death, then the power of the Dragon Bloodline will automatically select another person in the nation, making the Deva with the purest blood and the most powerful talent the new emperor,” Bai Heng murmured softly. “As you wish, Bai Xi, the throne is now yours.” As he said so, he reached out and stroked the cheek of the woman in front of him, smiling softly.

From now on, all the matters of the Aurora and the prosperity of the nation no longer have anything to do with her.

After losing her heart, before her death, the woman who had been imprisoned by the throne for 15 years was finally free.

Even though the freedom was so short-lived. As if she had been briefly awakened from a long nightmare, she opened her eyes with difficulty, but she could not see anything clearly. “Am I… going to die?”

“Rest assured, you still have a very long time ahead of you in the future.” Bai Heng bent down and picked her up from the throne. “As compared to this short slumber, you still have a long time to experience the suffering in the world.”

As if he was holding a treasure of unparalleled value in the world, he carefully staggered towards the corner of the palace, towards the life-maintaining cabin that exuded a faint chill.

He simply reached out and violently tugged open the lock of the life-maintaining cabin, dragging out the specimens kept inside, as well as Xiao Huan’s body, kicked them aside, then put the woman in his arms inside.

“Where am I?” She panted softly and trembled. “I feel very cold.”

“Yes, the world is very cold,” Bai Heng replied softly. “That’s why hugs are so precious.” He reached out and fixed the woman’s hands and feet, lowered his head, and entered various parameters into the panel in front of him, trying to maintain her life. However, the alarm in the life-maintaining cabin remained and it was not activated.

The most important thing was missing.

Bai Heng was momentarily stunned and knocked himself on the head.

“I almost forgot.” Then he pulled open his collar, pointed the knife at his chest, directly above the scar on it, and stabbed it down hard.

The dry muscles were pulled apart, the flesh at the edge of the wound curled, but no blood spurted out. He wasn’t left with much precious stuff, such as blood.

In the opened chest cavity, the only complete organ—the heart. It was beating with difficulty, even though it was attached to blood vessels, it had been carefully packaged in a tailored lead box to avoid excessive damage.

Bai Heng reached out and pulled it out of his chest, just like picking an apple.

In the empty chest, the broken blood vessels repaired themselves, and the machinery implanted elsewhere loyally followed the preset commands, sharing the workload of the heart, working in vain, just like trying to put out the flames on a burning wagon full of firewood with a cup of water.

“See, I am really good at planning.” Bai Heng happily disassembled the lead box and put the heart into her chest, his brows moving up and down with joy as he spoke. “At least one out of a thousand things a fool thought about would be useful, it really describes me accurately!”

So, the reassuring pale fluorescent light lit up, and as the heart was filled in, rows of slender iron arms moved. After being sealed for centuries, they were still flexible. They crafted blood vessels delicately and carefully, putting the new heart into the chest of the subject.

Under the stimulation from electric shocks, the new heart beat once, with some difficulty.

Then twice…

Thrice…

It adapted to an unfamiliar environment just like that, stubbornly trying to survive, just like its new owner. It tried to wake her from her coma, letting her take another look at the culprit of all these, the man in front of her who had saved her, amid her tiredness and pain.

She opened her eyes.

It was as if she had awakened from the 15-year-long nightmare and manipulation, yet she found it hard to recall anything from the dream and couldn’t really remember the old face in front of her.

“Who are you?”

“Probably a pathetic soul that can’t even keep a cat properly?” Bai Heng smiled. “15 years ago, you met an immature man. You taught him what courage is, so he used all the courage in his life to repay you.”

“You need not worry about it, it’s just a side episode in your life.” He smiled, shedding no tears, and told her calmly. “It’s not worth mentioning.”

Despite having lost his heart and being destined to death, as his body had weakened to such an extent, at the moment, he did not seem melancholic at all. He just smiled, feeling the life drain out from his body bit by bit.

“You have had a long dream. Now, you are awake.” He slowly lifted his hand, feeling the temperature on her cheek. “You will probably feel scared? But you have to open your eyes and face the world, experience pain like a human being, and be as brave as you used to be, laughing with your own free will.

“The remaining part of your life may be rough, perhaps full of hardships, but it is all part of the price you must pay to taste happiness and joy. You will seek, request, and find your own happiness.”

Bai Heng bid farewell softly in her ear, using up his last strength.

“Your Majesty, you are free.”

[1] A ritual tablet originally used at ancient Chinese court for the taking of notes.