Silent Crown

Chapter 255 Chase

Chapter 255 Chase

Ye Qingxuan saw his own head fly from his shoulders. It flew into the sky and fell onto the ground, rolling into a corner. Stunned, he felt his neck and then his head. His neck was fine and his head was still in its original spot. There didn’t seem to be any problem.

Then whose head just flew off?

"My illusion can’t fool him for long. What are you waiting for?" Lola’s voice sounded again. "Hurry up. He’s already become one with Avalon’s Shadow. You can’t kill him here!"

The Blue Moon’s glow in the sky grew stranger, with a tinge of sultriness in the dimness. Just looking at it made one dazed. Relying on the resonance between them and the road mark, Lola used the Blue Moon’s glow to forcefully send her power into this world.

The distortion level. This was definitely the distortion level.

In that instant, she used the moonlight to erode the sword blade and assimilate it. The steel blade turned into illusory light. The moonlight and the youth passed each other. They did not make contact, but a thin line of blood appeared on Ye Qingxuan’s neck. He did not expect Lola to use the extremely uncommon ‘thought realization’ method. She could make the illusion tangible or turn real objects into illusions. She had combined the School of Illusion and Mind together. It seemed that Lola did not choose an easy level for her Scepter.

Ye Qingxuan was thinking about random things but he had no time to hesitate. The moment Lola’s voice rang out, he spun around and ran.

Percival was fooled by the illusionary head and did not notice the youth that melted into the moonlight. Becoming one with the Blue Moon was a strange experience. It felt as if he had lost all physical weight and floated in the air. His speed was unimaginably fast too. He crossed dozens of meters with one step; it was as if his legs were the wind.

But after two steps, he suddenly stopped and turned around, running back!

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"He came from that direction and had blood on his sword. Whose blood do you think it is?" Ye Qingxuan passed Percival and sprinted toward the direction he had come from. He could practically here Lola gritting her teeth.

"Ye Qingxuan, do you want to die?"

"Haha, you’re funny," he grinned and uttered. "What have I done in Avalon that wasn’t flirting with death? I finally found a trace so let’s talk after I find it!"

A pair of eyes appeared in the moonlight and they rolled in displeasure. However, Lola’s power did not dissipate. Instead, it wrapped around the youth even tighter, transforming him into the omnipresent light.

A small breeze blew from the ruins.

Ye Qingxuan soon stopped because he had seen a horrible corpse. Clearly, a sacrifice left behind. The poor guy had probably taken Percival’s sword straight on. Half of his body had evaporated.

Yes, evaporated. He had seriously evaporated.

Half of the medium-rare corpse lay on the ground. It was cut into large portions by the surrounding demons, who were thinking, "The benefits of Avalon’s Shadow are so bad. It’s been so long since there was a hot meal. Eat it when it’s still hot."

This time, Ye Qingxuan did not need to speak for the moonlight to flow like water and melt the strange creatures. Seeing it gave Ye Qingxuan the chills.

"What are you still waiting for? You came to see and you saw it. What now?"

"What else?" Ye Qingxuan tugged his leather gloves. "You’re not as good as me at collecting evidence. Just watch."

He had not used his skills in this field since he participated in the school day trials. He was a little excited to be able to use them now. The moonlight in his eyes blazed and swept across the corpse. His vision went through the messy flesh and looked to the broken bones underneath.

"From the bones, I think he’s around forty-years-old. The aether in his blood is heavy. He should be a musician. His race…" He picked up the incomplete skull and nodded after studying it for a while. "From the brow bone, cheekbones, and structure, he probably isn’t from Anglo. As for his upper body…aha!" Lifting the clothing on the corpse’s chest, he saw the distorted design on it—he was Hyakume’s follower. "Lola, can you tell which natural catastrophe this guy signed a contract with?"

"There’s scale-like soft tissue under the skin, and residual signs of webs on his fingers. Behind his ears, there aren’t any gills, so it shouldn’t be a pure aquatic catastrophe. It should be a demonic mutation of the amphibious type."

"Oh?" Ye Qingxuan pondered deeply. "Forty-years-old, dark musician, has the ancestral protective charm that border countries like, has harp as his instrument, is mutated from an amphibian. There are only three on the wanted list that fit these characteristics. One died last year, one is a girl, and the last is probably this one before us. He’s the ‘Kirin’ that has been on the list for twenty-one years."

After a long silence, Lola asked, "So?"

"So nothing. I was just acting cool."

Lola did not bother replying. Ye Qingxuan speedily moved around the corpse until he finally found a hand-drawn map from the corpse’s bag. A large portion had been torn and only one third remained.

Thankfully, the crude map marked their destination. However, there were no related words and it was pretty useless. Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes to think. He compared the routes endlessly. If this Avalon’s Shadow really came from Avalon, things would be easy.

Avalon’s overall layout had not changed in centuries. Therefore, if he used the exhaustive method, he might be able to find it. But soon, his eyes flew open as confusion flashed through his mind.

"What’s wrong?"

"This isn’t Avalon’s map. It’s weird." He began to think while holding his chin. "There are many similarities but they’re all insignificant. It’s so weird. Did the parliament risk so much to send people in just to send them into the incinerator? But the layout here is similar to Avalon. If this isn’t Avalon’s map, then what is it?"

"Well, hurry up. I can tell that Percival has seen through my illusion."

Just as she finished, an angry roar sounded in the distance. Following immediately was a solid pressure that spread, causing the moonlight on the youth to flicker. But Ye Qingxuan was not listening; he was deep in thought. He subconsciously paced back and forth until he kicked something. Flinching, it dawned on him.

"Lola, this isn’t Avalon’s map." Bending down, he looked at the manhole before him in shock. "This is the map of the sewage system. There are too many dangers on the surface, so they traveled in the sewage tunnels."

The angry sounds of Percival’s horse’s clattering hooves neared. It was already difficult just for Lola to maintain the illusion on Ye Qingxuan. "Whatever, just hurry up and move!"

"No problem." Ye Qingxuan jumped into the sewer without hesitation. In the darkness, he heard the angry fulmination above him and a string of explosions. Another large creature seemed to be infuriated and jumped out of the darkness, fighting Percival.

Amidst the roars and screams, Ye Qingxuan sprinted without thinking of looking back. No matter what those things were, he would be dead if it just looked at him.

The sewage tunnel was extremely quiet. It did not have any of Avalon’s dirtiness and was abnormally clean. Walking in it was like walking in a tomb.

He walked into the deepest darkness step by step, walking toward death.

Ye Qingxuan used the moonlight in his eyes to walk and quickly discovered traces of others being here recently. There were also signs of fighting, and he found two incomplete bodies. There were many demons but Ye Qingxuan used the moonlight illusion and sneaked past without any trouble.

In the middle was a fork in the road. It was completely dark without any trace of life; it was quiet as a dark abyss. For some reason, Ye Qingxuan began feeling chills from a distance and did not dare to get close.

After hesitating, he bypassed it. He heard Lola’s voice in the long silence, "Ye Qingxuan?"

Shocked out of his thoughts, he replied, "Here."

"Talk so I don’t think you’re dead."

"Sorry, I was thinking about what they want." Deep in thought, Ye Qingxuan said, "If I’m not wrong, their destination should be the Royal Musician Division."

"The Royal Musician Division?" Lola’s reply was shocked. "What will they have in Avalon’s Shadow?"

"I don’t know. Maybe there’s a group of demonic musicians," Ye Qingxuan half-joked, but he fell silent quickly. His thought scared himself.

According to his knowledge, Avalon and the Shadow were the same on the surface and corresponded with each other. However, there were demons rather than civilians on the street. So the musicians of the Royal Musician Division here…would become what?

He did not know and he did not dare to think.

"Ye Qingxuan, I won’t be able to help you if you keep going." Lola’s voice was fatigued with a tinge of apology. "Forcefully crossing the sea of aether is too exhausting. I’m not at Teacher’s level yet."

"Who can reach the level of the ‘moon above the sea,’ other than freaks like him? Forceful resonance across the borders is already difficult. You don’t need to feel bad." Ye Qingxuan shook his head. "Leave everything to me now. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way out."

After a long silence, Lola sighed. "I’ll wait for your return."

The moonlight on Ye Qingxuan’s body immediately began to shake. Finally, it became solidified on his body like thin crystal. Lola used her last strength to lock the illusion on his body, hiding his breath and trace. Then the resonance ended.

Ye Qingxuan sucked in a breath, relaxing the faint fatigue from his limbs. Thankfully, Lola had taken most of the pressure and he was mostly unharmed. Lifting Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, he closed his eyes. He had not practiced in a long time. It would not be unfamiliar, right? An undetectable melody sounded, melting into the silence and spreading.

Bolero.

Water vapor quickly converged, forming strands of perception threads. They extended in all directions, growing and growing until stopping at the fourth measure. He had four-hundred meters of perception.

It was not that he could not continue, but that the melody would go from hidden to sonorous if he continued. He would not be able to keep restraining it. It would not be worth it if he caused Avalon’s Shadow’s weird mutations.

Four-hundred meters was already out of the regular detection range for the complicated sewage system. It was enough.

Ye Qingxuan quickly discovered many touch-activated traps. He gathered his spirits; he was close.

The parliament probably did not expect for anyone to follow them into Avalon’s Shadow. Their traps were very simple. They would be set off if a demon passed by, but they were easy for a musician to undo. It was easy as pie for someone like Ye Qingxuan who used the translation method and was an expert in music theory.

To be safe, he checked repetitively. Confirming that these were not chain reaction traps and nothing strange was hidden, he sneaked past. Who knew what would happen after he undid the traps? He still had to be careful.

The Bolero threads soon perceived something. Someone was guarding the front.

He was living.