Silent Crown

Chapter 266 Thunder and Moonlight

Soon, something humongous climbed out of the darkness. The giant shadow practically toppled the walls. A large compound eye appeared in the crack. Pungent wind surged behind it, along with a shrill shriek.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop… All the giant eggs in the room cracked open. Oddly shaped spiders covered in stickiness climbed out. Struggling in the dust, their shells quickly hardened and became menacing.

"It wants me to feed its kids?"

With the sudden realization, Ye Qingxuan looked at the sea of spiders flying out of pores in above and around him. A mere glance was enough to see it was a terrifying amount.

Though he could not rate the giant spider mother he had not yet seen, the other spiders were not very high quality. But if he added them together, it was enough for quantity to be over quality.

Should he run? He looked down at the manhole cover. After short hesitation, he could not help but sigh.

"Let me show you something good first!"

Boom! He slammed the black iron cane on the ground. The majestic boom was the horn that represented the coming of dawn! The clanging of iron sounded continuously under the fast melody. The tangible sound hacked at the thick spider webs like an ax. The ringing stunned the newborn spiders.

Dozens of long silver nails appeared out of thin air and pierced in all directions. They passed through the black wave of baby spiders and shot into the direction of the strange aura.

Shrieking sounded instantly. Many half-transparent spiders appeared amidst the black mass of bodies. Their large tails shook. Pungent venom shot out and sizzled on the ground. Even their own brethren had melted.

Ye Qingxuan felt chills. He thought he could practice with the babies! Why were there matured ones hiding amongst them?

The dozens of long silver nails crisscrossed, piercing the faces of the transparent spiders. The scriptures carved onto them flashed with a blazing light and spat out burning flames. The fire that burned within the spiders used their flesh as fuel and burned gloriously. A burning ring instantly appeared around Ye Qingxuan.

The melody was pressing to the point of suffocation. Under it, the flames danced like living beings. They melted into the rhythm and swallowed the endless spiders under Ye Qingxuan’s guidance.

At the moment, it was a stalemate. The most pressing matter had been solved, but Ye Qingxuan began to sweat under the high pressure. Unfortunately, he had not prepared well enough. If he had time to prepare the materials needed for Night on Bald Mountain, he would be able to create a massacre.

The dozens of silver nails were the materials for singing Night on Bald Mountain. If Ye Qingxuan could hire an alchemist to create a similar set for himself, he would have the confidence to face that giant spider mother. Unfortunately, that was expensive…Too expensive!

Back when the Church’s Ministry of Faith was still called the Inquisition, they were known as the monster department. They used up to forty percent of the Church’s budget each year!

At that time, the discipline musicians used this piece as their weapon. Pure silver flowed out from them like water. Lethality created by the buildup of money was more terrifying than any other type of power.

They did not only use the sacred metals created by green gold and pure silver. They also used large amounts of holy water. All of that was money, money, money…

If the Church was not the biggest financial support of the world, they would probably go bankrupt from this.

For Ye Qingxuan’s financial status, the materials needed for strengthening was too much of a luxury.

Boom! The entire nest of spider demons was shocked awake. The spider mother shrieked. At the same time, dozens of metallic spiders dropped from the air with incredible speed. However, Ye Qingxuan had already raised his cane. The amber gem at the tip brewed with thunder and lightning.

"Do not let the three realms turn to ashes!"

Lightning shot out and wrapped around the youth. Ye Qingxuan’s vision went black as he almost suffocated. It was a total overload to withstand the burden of Night on Bald Mountain and Indrah’s Eye at the same time!

Boom! Boom! Boom! He guided the lightning to criss cross around him. The light brewed from blood was like a glowing pen that sketched with sharp strokes in the air. The beams of light converged rather than dissipating. They joined together, transforming into complex designs that one could not stare at for long. Then they scattered in all directions.

Ye Qingxuan felt his blood dissipating quickly. He used all his energy to guide the lightning. Cracks appeared in the ground and air around him. The lightning died away in a snap of the finger.

However, the complex cracks had already connected. The complicated music theory had completed its structure under the guidance of the lightning. As if they were made of silver, the complex notes crisscrossed and overlapped. They were branded into the stone, air, and pillars. They resonated with the wild aether, sucking dry the aether within a hundred meter radius!

"Success."

After the flames were extinguished, the exhausted Ye Qingxuan leaned on his cane, panting for breath. With the flames gone, the black mass of spiders shrieked and converged toward him quickly. The darkness surged. The only noise in the silence was the chilling broken scraping sounds.

In this terrifying silence, someone sucked in a breath and raised his hand.

Snap! The crisp snap spread. As if it was an order, the hidden music notes in its path exploded with lightning. They connected with each other and affected the complicated threads of music theory, causing them to reveal their true appearance.

It was a music score created by lightning—the movement Moonlight!

Amidst the cold melody, moonlight descended from the sky. The illusionary moonlight illuminated the youth’s face and scattered equally in all directions. The spiders in its path screamed in terror. The sharp shrieks rose in waves but were unable to cover the sparse and cold music.

A pure white moon appeared over Ye Qingxuan’s head, scattering the clear radiance.

All demons trembled violently under the moonlight. Restricted by the formless moonlight, they were forced to ground, shaking. The all-reaching moonlight passed through their shells and compound eyes, melding into the spiders’ bodies. Gently, yet undeniably, the moonlight purified the demons from the inside out.

All chaotic auras were flattened and transformed into moonlight. They integrated into the silence and order, causing the clear radiance to shine even brighter.

The moonlight converged onto Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, making up for Ye Qingxuan’s energy loss. He suddenly recovered from his exhaustion. In fact, he was stronger than before. He could feel the Deva’s blood within him strengthening gradually.

"As expected of moonlight." Ye Qingxuan sighed. He was covered in cold sweat. Thank God this idea worked. Otherwise, he would have had to run for his life!

-

An idea bloomed in his mind after reading the sub-originator theory. Since his blood contained moonlight and Indrah’s Eye sucked his blood, could it activate the music in his place? If it could withstand the enormous pressure, he could activate the overture of Moonlight with his current power. It was doable in theory. The most difficult was the conversion stage.

After studying for the night with Lola, he had used the newly-acquired music theory from the School of Abstinence and his enlightenment from Deva sensing to create this idea.

The Emerald Tablet was known as the source of all current alchemy techniques. Its content was deep and difficult to grasp. Ye Qingxuan was not an alchemist, but he had touched upon it during Deva sensing and was inspired by it.

The inspiration could also be called ‘creativity.’ For some reason, any method would become an unorthodox and astray path in Ye Qingxuan’s hands. Otherwise, he would not have turned into this from an average person in a few short months.

Using the compatibility of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei and Indrah’s Eye, paired with the translation method, he was able to create a one-time alchemy object by carving the music score in the surroundings with lightning. Thus, Moonlight’s effect became an alchemy ceremony. He could not personally create the effect, so he used other objects to make up for it. He was then able to perform the overture of Moonlight.

Here, Ye Qingxuan’s headache worsened. Moonlight did not consist of only one movement. The entire score comprised of forty-five movements. There were three overtures, four main sections, twelve pure sections, nine mixed sections… Other than the section’s own effect, different combinations had different effects as well.

Back in the day, Moon Chant had played around and created his own rules for purifying demons as the first demon hunter. Not only was there an immense amount of music theory, it also included the complete profiles of most demons in the world, their weaknesses, things to keep in mind, and ways to deal with them. It could help people in the future inherit his role and continue to kill. Ye Qingxuan could only say that this was crazily boring.

Crack. A crisp sound traveled to his ears. Ye Qingxuan rolled forward without thinking. The moonlight above him dimmed. It had been covered by white spider webs without him realizing. His original spot had been gouged by an invisible blade. It had been going for his head.

Strands of spider webs hung in the air. He did not know where they came from, but they hovered in the wind, quietly covering everything.

Ye Qingxuan’s head shot up. The giant spider mother behind the crack in the wall had disappeared. All that remained was the strands of webs falling to the ground like snow. However, they carried chilling murderous intent.

Shadows that the moonlight could not shine onto began writhing like living creatures. Endless streams of tiny spiders climbed out and flowed forward.

A huge and oddly-shaped shadow had appeared above the empty wall without him realizing. There was nothing there but when the moonlight shone upon it, it cast a menacing and dim shadow.

There was something there!