Silent Crown

Chapter 365 Cannot Go Anywhere

"Prove your words." Colt reached out. "Do you have proof?"

"No."

"Any way to get in?" Colt asked again pressingly. "You came here to take us all into the underground palace but you won't even tell us how to get in?"

"I'm the only one who can do it," Ye Qingxuan replied indifferently. "I don't plan on publicizing the details."

"Ha." Colt scoffed. "You must have some results, right? What about the King of Yellow? Any trace of him?"

Ye Qingxuan fell silent. After a long pause, he said, "I don't know."

Colt looked at him strangely as if looking at a lunatic. "So, you have no proof and you're unwilling to provide any details or the exact location and method of entering, yet you want everyone to risk their lives and help you find a possibly non-existent secret room?" Colt raised his voice, "Ye Qingxuan, are you dreaming?"

"Colt!" Miller shot up instinctively and glared.

Torre looked over too, and Casper opened his mouth, revealing sharp canines. Colt stared back without fear. In his corner, a few musicians with clenched fists walked forward silently, preparing to surround them.

"Wanna fight?" Colt sneered and looked at Ye Qingxuan. But Ye Qingxuan stayed silent. He smoked, blowing out plumes of gray. An eerie phantom appeared from the smoke. It was a wisp but wrapped around the two. It seemed that it would appear behind Colt at any time and place invisible swords on his neck.

Colt stiffened. He looked at Ye Qingxuan darkly. "I was kind enough to let you all in but you've wanted to fight since the beginning?"

Ye Qingxuan still did not reply. Finally, the pipe went out. The figure in the smoke disappeared. Lowering his head, he knocked off the ashes and wiped his pipe clean with a handkerchief. He slowly rose and put his bag back on his shoulders.

"Since you're all willing to wait here and die, I have nothing to say." Without looking at Colt, he said nonchalantly, "We're leaving in two minutes. Those who are willing to believe me can come."

Sensing his contempt, Colt's expression darkened. However, the confused crowd rustled when they heard Ye Qingxuan's words. Some hesitated but walked toward them.

"Hey, are you really going?"

"What if it's true? We'll just be waiting here anyway. Doing something is better than not doing anything at all. If I go and attract the dark musicians, I can make it safer for you."

"Then—then I'll go with you."

"What about you?"

"I…"

The whispers snuck into Colt's ears. Coldness flashed past his eyes and his lips thinned. With Ye Qingxuan's arrival, everyone forgot the things he had done. They'd rather believe that demagogic guy. It was always like this! As long as that guy was present…

Already five or six people were preparing to leave. The others started having doubts too, panicking especially when Miller prepared to retract the Copper Mountain.

Hiding the darkness in his eyes, Colt made his decision. "Wait!" he raised his voice and looked at Miller. Miller turned around, his hand stopping in mid-air. "I'm not against your leaving." Colt stared at him coldly. "But if you take it away, then what about the rest of us?"

Hearing this, everyone grew anxious. Menace appeared in some eyes. Miller finally realized that he had become surrounded at some point.

"Leave the Copper Mountain behind if you're leaving." Colt looked at him with a cruel expression. "With so many people here, any resource is valuable. It can't go to the grave with you."

Miller froze. Seeing all these people around him, he was helpless. "B-but…this is Sam's…"

Ye Qingxuan waved, gesturing for him to stop. "The Copper Mountain is what Sam left behind and I'm taking it. Even if I don't, I still won't give it to you all." He glanced at the people surrounding him. His cane popped out of his fingertip and thudded on the ground. "If you want to fight, then come. If you want to talk about philosophy, then here's something for you—what does your life and death have to do with me?"

Hearing this, Colt laughed. He pounded his staff and asked quietly, "So you're set on going alone?"

"Stop the nonsense, Colt. Haven't you been waiting for that?" Ye Qingxuan arched an eyebrow, his lips twisting into a smirk. "But are you confident in winning against me? Or are your teammates really that useful? Think carefully. Since I've come here, how many times could I have put a hint in your minds? Or put down fulcrums? Plus…"

Plus what?

Behind him, Casper's figure slowly expanded. A wild shadow scurried up the wall like a burning flame, emanating with beastliness. The music note key on Torre's arm had appeared. He could activate the 'humanity seal' instantly.

"Are you ready?" Ye Qingxuan asked. Are you ready to make chaos in the front? Are you ready to face self-destructive methods? Or rather, are you ready to make this broken front completely fall apart?

Colt fell silent. He grasped his staff with a dark expression. Then everyone's vision went black.

Boom! A sharp sound shattered all their eardrums. Messages from the darkness sounded outside the front. Countless girls screamed in despair but they sounded so beautiful. Their screams were gentle and graceful, inexplicably lovely. Music theory descended from the dark atrium, slamming against the shields of the front. The music notes and theory of the front cracked with tiny fissures. It was close to the end. In the air, the firelight within the Copper Mountain dimmed, close to going out.

"Dark musicians!" the musician on guard before the window yelled. "The dark musicians are here!"

"Don't panic. How many…"

"I think-think there's only two?" The Revelations musician looked down at his aether ball but his vision spun. "No, there's seven, eight…twelve…there's more than thirty!"

"Give it to me!" Ye Qingxuan snatched the aether ball. Glancing at it, his expression darkened. "There's only two and only one has acted but there are more than thirty aether waves. This is the largescale symphony that dark musicians specialize in!"

Boom! The aether ball exploded.

Outside the front, the hooded musician who had just overseen the transformation ritual of the Dark Gaia sensed that someone was watching and mercilessly cut off the connection.

He immediately played his French horn. The shields around the front groaned and twisted. A hand reached out of thin air to get rid of these annoying obstacles! The slender and feminine hand tore at the front frantically but it was somehow beautiful, like a girl waving at her lover. Under the strange melody, girls reached out from the abyss, searching for their dance partners.

Then blood rain fell from the sky. The bloody thunderstorm converged into a rumbling river. It burned like a river from hell. Brides in their wedding dresses emerged from the bloody river. The skeletal faces were covered in pure white veils. They looked gentle and lovely but their slender fingers had no warmth. The aura of death wrapped around them.

"Skeletal brides?" Ye Qingxuan froze, remembering something.

But then, a high and energetic song started. "Ah, ah, you worry so much. You're young and beautiful, gentle and kind. You're like a piece of gold shining in the mine. True love awakens here beside the Danube River, beside the beautiful Danube River of blood!" The hooded musician opened his arms wide and sang loudly. His sonorous voice was unusually attractive, making one envious. But there was no time to envy him.

The world was shaking.

Above the boiling blood river, the front was quickly covered in a layer of red. The redness seeped into the music theory outside the front, aiming to upend the entire yard. Tiles scraped and twisted, the walls shook and collapsed, the ground roared and quaked…

A ghastly crack appeared on the earth and the bloody river sprayed out. A slender and white hand instantly reached out. Then a white veil and skull shot out with a smile. A blazing silver nail burst forward.

Boom! The nail went straight into the forehead, embedding into the bone.

Ye Qingxuan held the silver nail with one hand. He clenched a fist with the other and slammed down.

Bang! With a tragic wail, the silver nail broke through the skull, digging into the bride's core. The music notes burning on the nail burst forth with a horn.

Flames exploded! The skeletal bride was nailed into the blood river. She struggled but the blazing fire was like a four-sided sword. It exploded above her skull and rose up in flames to the ceiling. Within the pillar of fire, the bride wailed and screamed, turning to ash.

Before that, Ye Qingxuan had already collected the Copper Mountain, stuffing it into Miller's arms. He yanked the dazed boy up to get the h*ll out of there. He was confident in his bad luck but he never thought his predictions would come so quickly.

The dark musician was almost there. Who knew what would happen if they stayed here? It was better to make a definite choice. After all, these guys were adamant on going toward the dead end. Ye Qingxuan would just let them be.

"Leaving again?" Miller froze and looked at the dark shadow in the distance. "There's only one. If we all fight, we might win, right?"

"You know…anyone who says that in novels fail." Ye Qingxuan chuckled dryly. He did not know how to explain the sense of danger that finally besieged him. He could only drag Miller up. While everyone was still dazed, he kicked down the swaying wall and ran out from the side. Hesitating shortly, Torre and Casper followed behind him.

"Ah, I thought you'd live and die with them."

"Living with them is okay but I'd pass on the dying." Torre sighed. "You ran without even thinking after seeing him. I'd be stupid if I stayed there."

"That makes sense."

Torre glanced at his troubled look. "You know that dark musician?"

"I don't but I have my guesses. I can't believe it." Ye Qingxuan chuckled dryly. "If I'm right, then we're in trouble." Before he finished, a frail figure appeared in the ruins before them. He was a boy around thirteen or fourteen years old.

"Uncle said I can't let you leave." The youth put his doll into his pocket and looked up. His eyes were gold, pure gold like a dragon, and wildly bloodshot. He said, "You must stay."