Silent Crown

A commotion suddenly sounded in the quiet square, along with hurried footsteps from the tunnel.
“You in front, move!”
“It’s the concertmaster challenge. Hurry up! It’ll be over if we’re late.”
“I want to see Eastern Ye beat up the challenger. Hurry up, hurry up…”
“Psh, I bet he’s the one getting beat up!”
“Look, Mom! I’m going to be on the Notice List!”
“Someone come and drag this psycho away…”
The dark crowd took up the entire square. Everyone was startled and stared at each other.
“Did it start yet? Get on with it, I’m in a hurry!”
“Front row seat, front row seat!”
“Hey, don’t leave! You, you made me drop my drumstick!”
“Sh…stop playing around! It’s the concertmaster challenge!”
Besides the rowdy students that came to see the show, there were many curious professors as well.
Ye Qingxuan recognized some familiar faces, such as the gloomy Banner, and Ben who had rushed back to campus after receiving the news.
Charles cut through the crowd like a fish in water. “I have stools. Does anyone want some? Anyone? Sit up close to the first concertmaster challenge of this year! Don’t miss this opportunity! “Pumpkin seeds, soda and ice cream, anyone? It’s all five pounds per set. They’re not being sold individually. Don’t want it? Okay then.” Charles called out, “Hey, I have a rotating chair for you, Professor. Would you like one? It’s only fifty pounds, very cheap! You want three? Great!”
“Charles…” Ye Qingxuan could not help but bury his face in his hands and sigh. He should have guessed this was what would happen when Charles had lugged a mysterious pile of things over. So this was what he had been waiting for!
Rooted to his spot, Brian’s expression changed. He prepared to say something, but behind him, a hoarse voice said, “Good. Just like this.”
Dominic spoke from the shadows. He rolled the peanuts in his hands and threw them in his mouth, one by one. Seeing that they tasted good, he waved. “Hey, come here, give me two more bags…”
Brian grimaced, but he did not say anything. He took one last glance at Ye Qingxuan, not hiding his disgust whatsoever. “Since the school office has already verified it, we can start now. But it’s different from regular duels. You are allowed to injure and maim in the concertmaster challenge.” Spitting out the word allowed, he announced the start of the challenge and left.
The square silenced in an instant. It was finally starting.
—
At the heart of the snake circle, Bart stared coldly at Ye Qingxuan.
Facing each other, they put their hands to their chest for a bow, performing all the required etiquette. But when they looked at each other, Ye Qingxuan heard Bart say, “You will regret this decision. I’ve been a student for two years!”
Ye Qingxuan was calm as ever. He gazed at Bart with frustrating pity. “If I win, I hope you will promise me something.” He sighed. “My time is precious. Can you all go and read more books and stop causing trouble for me?” He paused, shaking his head. “Wasting other people’s time is shameful.”
“Are you scared?” Bart chuckled. “This is only the beginning.”
Ye Qingxuan pursed his lips. It was as if they were speaking different languages—it was a waste of time.
According to etiquette, they were to take ten steps back after bowing, and stand at the rim of the snake circle. Outside of the ring, Brian flipped a coin.
Bart kept his eyes glued on the coin, watching as it flipped in the air, cut through and landed in the center of the square. A sharp sound rung out as it bounced on the stone. It had begun!
Bart raised a hand instantly and began chanting loudly. A mouthful of syllables hung in the air. Aether gathered at his fingertip, forming a blurry shield in front of him.
“Planning and attacking” was the typical way Revelations fought. They believed that finding the right timing was more important than blind attempts. They first had to protect themselves, and store strength. After finding the right opportunity, they would destroy the enemy with one blow!
As he chanted, a blurry rune rose from his heart. The rune seemed as strong as stone, standing in his soul, and calming his slightly panicked mind. This was the most common protection rune—one of the uses of “Iron.” By transforming the aether into an iron wall, one had produced a shield. This effect was long-lasting, and would not break unless it was hit with an explosive rune. It could also take in new aether and become stronger through chanting.
But when he finished chanting and looked up, he froze in shock. His enemy was right in front of his eyes.
—
The moment the coin landed, Ye Qingxuan moved and charged! Sprinting as if he were in race, he inhaled a lungful of cold air. Holding down his heart, he spat out unclear syllables. The syllables left his mouth and turned into ripples.
Without caring if his breathing was stable, he began chanting while running! His skin instantly turned red, his veins bulging, as if he was burning with a high fever, but he continued to speed up! He traveled dozens of meters in the blink of an eye!
Before Bart could finish his chanting, Ye Qingxuan had already crashed into the shield. Then he stepped firmly onto the ground, like a nail hammered into the dirt.
Looking up, he saw Bart’s wide eyes and his own reflection in them. He tried to remember what Victor had taught him.
Pushing off of the floor, his momentum transformed. Strength rose from the ground, following his calves, rushing into his waist and shoulders, pushing his clenched fist up, and up, and up until the raised fist smashed into Bart’s jaw.
Crack! The aether dissipated!
Jaw dislocated, Bart’s feet practically flew off of the ground due to the sudden force, and he toppled back. Still in the same spot, Ye Qingxuan’s face was expressionless, but he was cheering inside. Just like what Victor had said, that punch felt indescribably satisfying…and his knuckles hurt!
The corner of Ye Qingxuan’s lips twitched, and he resisted the urge to shake his hand out. He grimaced in pain.
On the other hand, Bart rolled painfully on the ground. Fighting though through the pain, he lifted his head, a bit of blood on his lips. “Des…” Embarrassed to death, he could barely speak. But before he could finish, the world went black, and he passed out.
This challenge ended in such an odd way within five seconds.
As everyone gaped, Ye Qingxuan remembered Bart’s last words, “Are you scared?” and wanted to sigh. “I just wanted you to feel less humiliated.” He looked down on Bart and shook his head. “Why couldn’t you understand that?”
—
“Despicable! So despicable!” Bart’s friends roared from outside the ring. “He broke the rules!”
“This has nothing to do with a challenge between musicians!”
“Foul!”
Outside the ring, Brian furrowed his brows, his expression turning upset. “This is a challenge between musicians. How can you fight like you’re brawling in the streets. You…”
Beside him, someone chomping on sunflower seeds interrupted him, “Professor, look again.” With his usual infuriating smile, Charles pointed at Ye Qingxuan.
Hearing him, Brian was taken aback. His gaze fell on the back of Ye Qingxuan’s neck. Red blood flowed continuously, faintly revealing the mark of a rune. Along with the rush of blood, there was a faint sound like a bubbling creek from the youth’s thin body. It was the sound of blood rushing and crashing against the shell of his body. “Rune · Flow?” Brian’s expression turned ugly.
“This is the rune’s effect. No one said that you can’t use an auxiliary rune, right?” Charles littered sunflower seeds all over the ground. “Boosting the inside, increasing blood flow and physical strength, this is a rarely seen rune effect.”
As a basic rune, “Flow” was pretty much a useless rune at the student level. Its effect was not for strength, and could only control the movement of liquids, such as speeding up or decreasing the flow of water.
A musician from the School of Choir once suggested a way to use it—in one’s own body, increasing blood flow, bringing along with it the rest of the organs to improve physical strength in a short period of time.
The level of precision needed for that method was too high, and its effect was never as powerful as other runes, so it was forgotten. The precise manipulation of runes had always been an obstacle all student musicians had to face. It required long-term familiarization and research of runes so that one could become accustomed to the sense. One needed to repetitively cast the rune to reach the needed level of precision.
No one would have imagined that there would be a crazy person who had forced himself to memorize who-knows-how-many syllable records of runes, and instead of mastering the control of aether, had adjusted the syllables based on the precision needed.
Just as swordsmanship requires the wielder and sword to be one, and everyone worked to become familiar with their sword, there would always be someone who looked all over the world and found one sword for chopping firewood, one for hurting people, one for vegetables, and one for breaking down doors. The former was definitely easier, and if one wanted to do the latter, he would be considered crazy. No wonder Charles had said that he “used force” on the runes.
Rooted to his spot, Brian’s expression changed as he finally processed everything, but it still felt wrong. In the end, he finally reacted. “No, it’s too fast. He chanted too quickly. It was less than half the normal time.”
Hearing Brian, a professor in the crowd reacted too. “That’s right. The effect was weaker than usual too.”
Finally, someone realized, “He weakened the effect so he could forgo some syllables. This is the ‘fast chant’ technique from the School of Choir.”
—
“A bunch of idiots who don’t even know what this is,” Dominic spat from the shadows. “Hehe, it’s the chant style of war hymns. It’s rare that someone knows this.” Thinking of something, he cackled. “This kid is Abraham’s student? Was he lucky or unlucky to fall into the hands of that old guy?”
In the center of the ring, the unsettled Brian heard Dominic’s voice.
“He didn’t cheat,” Dominic said. “The challenge continues.”