Silent Crown

Chapter 347 Good Start

Ye Qingxuan froze in place. He gaped at Hades' Door. It seemed that no one had been regularly maintaining it through the centuries. The music theory array within it had actually eroded by itself and fell apart quickly with their outside pressure. The speed was unbelievable. As Hades' Door broke down, mournful cracking sounds began one after another. The wildly advancing clay puppet battalion froze in place. They quickly began to melt and cave in, returning to the mud and disappearing.

"It's over?"

"We won!"

"They're outdated puppets. They have a lot of tricks but they're all too rigid. They're not threatening anymore once you understand the pattern, no matter how large the quantity is."

"Is the Underground Palace open?"

Everyone started talking at once. They surged to the door, rubbing their hands in anticipation to start exploring again.

"Wait! Don't rush." Ye Qingxuan stopped them, still not feeling exactly right. "Don't you guys think something's wrong?" Amidst the noise, some grew serious and started pondering. Others thought that Ye Qingxuan was just scaring them and started interrogating him. He could not reply either. He did not know what the problem was. Even the bad premonition was just a strange feeling.

The door opened gradually amidst rumbles. Dust fell down in clumps onto his hair, shocking him from his thoughts. Stunned, Ye Qingxuan turned around and furrowed his brows. "Who opened the door?"

No one replied.

Before the door, Colt and Torre stared back at each other. They exchanged glances. Suddenly understanding something, their faces changed dramatically, turning stark white. No one had opened the door. This meant that someone had pushed the door open from the other side!

"Oh, Tityrus," someone sang hoarsely from the solid darkness behind the door.

A foul miasma spread out. A tall withered figure limped forward. The shackles on his legs dragged on the ground with grating clanks. The chains seemed to be red-hot. Sparks flew as they scraped against the ground.

"Tityrus!" the pained voice sang hoarsely. "You, 'neath a broad beech-canopy reclining, on the slender oat rehearse your silvan ditties."

In the darkness, the hunched figure slowly straightened up. The creaking of joints sounded painful like cracked wood. He stepped into the palace outside the door. Firelight shone and illuminated his face. The shackles on his feet were still singing painfully.

"Look," they sang. "I from my sweet fields, and home's familiar bounds, even now depart. Exiled from home am I; while, Tityrus, you sit careless in the shade!"

When the dim flickering firelight illuminated the figure's face, everyone shivered. It was a withered skeleton. It walked through the darkness and crossed Hades' Door, stepping into the grave palace. The bone-dry skeleton still wore a pure white robe. The silver thread tattoos had broken down but he was still abnormally solemn. Even if he was now a shackled prisoner.

Now, everyone realized that there was nothing on his neck. He was holding his skull in his right hand. Someone had poured melted gold into his mouth, twisting his face into something menacing and ugly. However, his lips were still open, chewing on the dark gold and singing The Eclogues.

He gripped a sacred and solemn scepter in his left hand. The scepter thudded on the ground with a sonorous sound like a whip cracking in everyone's hearts. Waves crashed in the aether sea the moment he stepped from Hades' Door and shook along with his hoarse singing.

It finally dawned on Ye Qingxuan why it was so easy to break Hades' Door. The power source was connected to this skeleton!

He could see through the Eye of Silence that countless strands of gold light extended from the entire Underground Palace and wrapped around the skeleton. That was the music theory that should have been on Hades' Door. Now, this skeleton was the core of the array and the controller of Hades' Door!

It did not even have reinforcement but it was terrifying enough. It was a complete…

"A saint's remains!" someone yelped and stumbled back, finally recognizing it. "Those maniacs! Those Romulusians-they…they turned a saint's remains…into that thing!"

This saint's remains that had been sealed for centuries now dragged his shackles forward. The skull singing in his hand seemed to smirk. Flames of fury burned in his eyes. He opened his mouth and roared soundlessly. The scepter slammed down.

Boom! There was a rumble like a mountain crashing down. Mud fell to the ground like an endless waterfall. Under the sound of mud bubbling and boiling, countless burly clay warriors walked out again. The hundreds upon thousands of clay warriors held square shields and spears. Like soldiers from Hell, they knelt in the palace and bowed to the 'prisoner' who had walked out of Hades' Door, offering him pure respect. They were welcoming their ruler back!

"Their ruler…I see!" As if struck by lightning, Ye Qingxuan's muddled thoughts suddenly cleared. He finally realized what was wrong.

The Romulusian formation contained everything they needed, from lancers, javelin-wielders, warriors with shields and swords, to chariots. Only one thing was missing. This entire time, they had used set processes and modes to chase away invaders but they lacked their leader and commander. How could an army without a commander fight to their full strength?

Now, Ye Qingxuan finally realized why it was so easy to decode Hades' Door.

This was probably a trick the dead Romulusians had designed! When the core of Hades' Door decided pure defense was unable to fight off the invaders, the music theory would break off and guide all the power into the saint's remains behind the door.

Next, the invaders would be celebrating ecstatically, thinking they had succeeded. At that time, the saint's remains would walk through and lead the endless Romulusian formation into a massacre! It was all a trick! The deceit was pure evil!

Ye Qingxuan felt numb. Those dead Romulusians had really put everything into keeping their dead safe from outsiders. But what should they do now?

Those that could be acknowledged as a saint were undoubtedly powerful musicians who were influential in the material world and had status in the aether world. Their power in the material world would dissipate once a saint had fallen but their scepter would still remain in the aether world.

This meant that this corpse before them was at least a Scepter grandmaster! He had also covered this underground palace with an alchemy array, continuously supplying Hades' Door with inexhaustible power.

In Ye Qingxuan's eyes, this skeleton was a giant vortex. Other than the skull shining like the sun in his right hand, the 'scepter' in his left hand was also covered in complex music theory. This was his symphony of predestination! This was the unique music score the saint had used all his soul and will to write before his death!

Under everyone's stares, the saint straightened and slowly raised the cracked scepter. A majestic horn sounded out of thin air. A holy realm was about to descend.

At that moment, Ye Qingxuan slammed his cane down. Jiu Xiao Huan Pei rang with a cold and sharp sound. Dozens of silver nails shot out of his bag. Countless shackles wove together in the air, forming a net and tightening. It locked the saint in place.

Cracks appeared on the shackles instantly. Ye Qingxuan felt as if he was restricting an active volcano rather than a dead object. The strength of the anti-shock was enough to make his vision go black. Blood seeped from the corner of his lips. The silver nails shooting toward the saint pulverized silently; the shackles fell apart.

Ye Qingxuan was not trying to restrain a mere body. He was fighting against the entire realm that had descended from the aether wall—the miraculous power that had been called forth by the symphony of predestination.

It was light fighting against the entire Avalon's Shadow…

It was as laughable and incredulous as an ant trying to stop a car.

At this moment, everyone finally realized what they were facing. There was no need for hesitation. There was no need for yelling. There was no need for communication.

At this moment, everyone awakened their instruments in unison and cast their most destructive music scores at the skeleton! If they were still in a daze and allowed this guy to finish expanding his scepter, it would be a massacre… They could imagine hundreds of ways to die!

For a third or fourth level musician to fight against a saint in his territory was as useless as a chicken trying to fight the butcher on the chopping board. No matter how quickly the chicken waved its claws, it was nothing against the butcher's knife. So if they wanted a chance to live, they had to do it before getting placed on the chopping board!

Frantic music scores sounded continuously in an instant. Fierce melodies collided, resonating with the aether sea, and performing the blazing light of destruction.

The earth spat out fire, lightning cracked… Countless streams of liquid fire descended from the sky amidst the rumbling, enveloping the eerie saint.