Silent Crown

Chapter 285 Strange White Tower

"So I can’t go in?" Ye Qingxuan furrowed his brows. However, his bowler hat suddenly vibrated and a glimmer of light flashed before his eyes. A complex star map suddenly appeared on the black iron gate in front of him. After looking carefully, it dawned on Ye Qingxuan.

"Aries?" he muttered.

Walking briskly around the tower, he realized that he was right. Each of the twelve gates had a different star map on it. The doors of Leo and Capricorn showed signs of being opened earlier. People had already entered. No matter how Ye Qingxuan hurried, he was still slowed down by the demons that had awakened along his path.

"Seems like every second is precious in this battle?" Closing his eyes, he pressed his hands onto the gate and instantly resonated with the music score within. This prohibition…was definitely from the School of Abstinence!

Many of the techniques used were familiar. Some had appeared in the music theory from the School of Stone Heart. The School most likely had something to do with the entire construction of the White Tower.

Ye Qingxuan could feel that the twelve gates led to twelve different places. All led to the core of the Elizabeth Tower in the end but had different lengths.

According to his calculations, the distance behind the Leo gate was the longest but it led to the core directly. There were not many blockades. The path behind the Capricorn gate was difficult to distinguish. It emanated with a sinister feeling and had already been tainted by the natural catastrophe’s power. The paths of the other unopened gates were hidden in the fog.

"So I’ll just have to gamble?" Ye Qingxuan began thinking but his hat vibrated and resonated with one of the gates.

"Libra?" It dawned on Ye Qingxuan. As the developer of the sub-originator theory, the School of Stone Heart focused heavily on the balance of both inside and out, as well as the structure and resonance between music theories. They would not sacrifice strength on one side to reinforce another side. Thus, there was neither a strongest point nor an obvious weak point. It was sealed as tightly as stone and sturdy enough to be intimidating.

"If that’s the case, then I shouldn’t wait any longer."

Ye Qingxuan pressed his hands onto the door and began resonating with the music score on the door. "I’m the best at things like interpretation!" he muttered softly.

His consciousness entered the gate instantly and began fighting against the defensive prohibition. After grasping the core theory for the School of Stone Heart, the seamless and flawless prohibition quickly showed many loopholes.

Analysis, interpretation, and eradication! Just like picking a lock, Ye Qingxuan could easily create his own key after understanding the lock’s core structure. The establishment and undoing of enchantments was one of the School of Abstinence’s specialties.

The orthodox method of cracking defenses was never to force one’s way through. It was to use music theory and the musician’s experience to perform reverse interpretation.

Ye Qingxuan calculated his time. With his current progress, he could probably open the gate within three minutes—if he was not disturbed.

A rotting odor suddenly blew in with the night wind, and small footsteps sounded. It sounded like dozens of marbles had fallen onto the ground. Something that smelled sour was coming.

At the most critical point of the cracking, Ye Qingxuan saw a black shadow project onto the gate, grow angry, and pounce toward him. Then it snapped into two halves in the air.

Ye Qingxuan smirked and closed his eyes, focusing entirely on the cracking. When he opened his eyes again, the small noises were gone but the sour smell had multiplied. He looked back. Two meters away, demons that looked something like centipedes lay on the ground in pieces.

All the pieces were two meters away. Their blood and bodily fluids formed a mournful arc. Anything that tried to pass that arc had shattered.

Ye Qingxuan looked away. Only an idiot would not put up defenses when cracking codes in a creepy place like this.

With a crack, aether solidified into a strange key in his hand. He pushed it through the gate and the stars on the surface extinguished one by one. Finally, an invisible force swept past him and disappeared—Bell Authority Confirmation Complete!

A monotone mechanic voice sounded in his ears. Then, the seamless door rumbled and slid into the walls, opening the path.

Ye Qingxuan stared into the empty space and his expression changed. The youthful song had started again. It echoed in the darkness behind the door.

"The king and his helpers kidnapped the queen, imprisoning her in dreams…We have power and the sea so which direction should we wander…Thousands of pairs of hands will raise the sails…" The song was filled with resentment as if the trapped souls were singing. He could not tell where the song came from. If he listened closely, it felt as if the song was everything. Someone was murmuring in his ear.

The moonlight in Ye Qingxuan’s eyes flashed. It put out the seed someone had planted in his mind without him knowing. He sighed in relief. This place was too strange. The moment he opened the gate, the aura that emanated from it had planted a serious shadow into his consciousness.

Just as walking under the sun would create a shadow and going through water would create ripples, it had planted a seed in Ye Qingxuan’s mind without meaning to.

Jiu Xuan Huan Pei shot out from his cane. Ye Qingxuan activated the ‘mirror heart’ and checked repeatedly. He could not find any emotions in the surroundings. The darkness was empty.

As the silent youth walked in, the gate slammed shut. The bell at the top of the tower rang. The enormous Elizabeth Tower sank back into emptiness…

-

A gentle light rose from Ye Qingxuan’s fingertip in the darkness. It transformed into a bubble and illuminated the surroundings like moonlight. He could not see the ground or ceiling of the tower. He seemed to have walked into an abandoned hall. It was covered with dusty furniture. A plate of dried lamb chops was left on the dining table.

Opening a door, he walked into a long and narrow hall. It tilted upward slightly. After another door, he saw an empty storage room. It seemed to have displayed weapons but they had all been taken away. Pieces of low quality items were piled in the corner. Ye Qingxuan picked on up and knocked on it; it crumbled to pieces. He pushed open a door and continued.

Along his way, some rooms looked like banquet halls; other rooms were spotless. In one corner was a large glass container. It had been filled with something but now, only sticky green liquid remained. Another room was a big bedroom filled with a wooden horse, handcuffs, whips… Face twitching, Ye Qingxuan continued.

Next was an underground exhibition gallery of a water tribe. The ceiling was made of glass, separating the blue-green seawater. The water had become murky and filled with bones of various fish.

There was no place for logic here. Every room was filled with things that made no sense. The room behind each door was unpredictable. All he could feel was that he was walking and climbing in an endless hall.

He still had not seen any living thing.

There was no living thing at all.

He felt a bit unsettled.

Because he had passed the resonance bell authority, he did not run into any enchantments or prohibitions. After all, this was the maintenance pathway that the School of Stone Heart had made during construction. He could reach the heart without any worries. However, the things he saw were just too strange. He could never figure out what was hidden behind each door.

Once, he tried to go back and return to a room that had been a dungeon. But he found that it had turned into a musician’s cigar room. The tobacco had already turned to dust.

Toilet, bathroom, kitchen, garbage room… Ye Qingxuan stood at the entrance and shut the door expressionlessly. He opened it again after each minute. It was different every time.

"This place really changes…do you guys like to play with Rubik’s cubes?" he muttered.

He decided to sit down and not go any further. He pulled out some fruits and crackers from his pocket and a water kettle. It looked like he was at a picnic. He ate slowly and unhurriedly as if savoring the taste.

Once every minute, he would open the door to see what was there and throw something inside for a mark. Thirty minutes later, he felt it was enough. He rose slowly and set off again.

This time, he moved quickly. He did not check anything and passed through the rooms directly to the next door. He was twice as fast as before. However, he discovered interesting things in some rooms. There were signs of large groups walking past, as well as corpses and dust.

Sometimes, he would feel a sudden trembling. If he pressed his ear on the wall, he could faint rumbling and sounds of destructions. Then he would find incomplete bodies in the next room. The aether in the room would still have signs of battle.

Ye Qingxuan could distinguish that one aura was the Firebird that he had personally experienced. This should be the Royal Musician Division. Their emblem was the red dragon and sword because they would receive instruments bathed in royal blood when they were sworn in. Instruments with the Firebird were much more destructive than other instruments, thus becoming their trademark.

The other aura was also familiar. It was the taste of natural catastrophes and demons…