Silent Crown

Arrows of frost flew all over the icy cold ring. The bone-numbing coldness spread with the arrows, crystallizing on the ground. The water molecules in the air froze, turning into icy powder scattered by the wind and falling onto the ground. Even the cold sweat on Ye Qingxuan’s body froze, turning into a thin layer of frost. It stuck to his skin, melting from the heat of his blood…
Ye Qingxuan panted heavily. He started hating that the circle was only a few dozen steps in diameter. Following Charles’s orders and dodging Edmund’s frost arrows took up all his focus.
The downside to Frost was that the effect wore off quickly. As an arrow, it was powerless after going more than ten meters.
But they did not have ten meters between them. If Edmund stood in the center of the ring, he would be able to shoot in any directions without any effort. Known as the most cost efficient student level rune, frost arrows used up almost thirty percent less energy than other runes, and the chanting was twice as fast. With Edmund’s experience, he could shoot twenty arrows in one breath.
Ye Qingxuan could only find the right timing and dodge, dodge, dodge! When an arrow brushed past him again, Ye Qingxuan reached out and crumbled the ice on his shoulder, panting. He could not let the match drag on like this. He had to admit that he had really underestimated that d*mned fatty.
Watching the humiliated Ye Qingxuan from the center, Edmund could not help but snicker. “What’s wrong? That’s all you can do? Come closer, Mr. Concertmaster! You don’t even have the guts to fight back?” Three more frost arrows shot out with that, flying out with grandeur!
“You want to tire me out?” Edmund laughed mockingly as if he saw through Ye Qingxuan’s little tricks. “It’s not that easy.” He took a small thumb-sized bottle from his pocket. Biting off the cork, he poured the blue liquid down his throat. The cold drug slid down his throat, pooling into his stomach, and spread through his body like an explosion. The powerful coldness spread through his entire body, finally flowing into his brain as a warm current.
Edmund’s face, pale and sickly from the energy loss, instantaneously recovered, flushing with an unnatural redness. He had taken a stimulant drug which sapped nutrients from his other organs to stimulate his brain. If a skinny person tried that, he would probably be bedridden for a long time afterward. But Edmund’s body was covered with a thick layer of fat, and it had enough nutrients to feed the drug for awhile.
Seeing Edmund take drugs in public, the audience booed.
—
“Objection!” Charles yelled. “Edmund is using recovering drugs!”
“Objection not valid.” Brian gazed at him lazily. “Drugs, alchemy equipment, and chanting material are all part of being a musician. They are allowed during the challenge.”
Charles retorted angrily, “What the f*ck? Why don’t you just get some opiates and have a drug party? It’ll be so much fun!”
“Please watch your language, or else I’ll have to ask you to leave.” Brian pointed at Charles and then at the exit. “I am the teacher here. If you want to stay, then you will follow my rules!”
Bai Xi laughed coldly and opened her mouth to retort, but someone pressed down onto her and Charles’s shoulder.
“Calm down.” An old man suddenly appeared beside them. The faint smell of engine oil came from his metal arm.
“Teacher?” Charles flinched. “When did you get here?”
“I’ve been here since the beginning,” Abraham said. “How could a teacher be unaware that his students left early in the morning to take part in the concertmaster challenge?”
Awkwardly, Charles said, “I was just worried that you’d get worried.”
“Don’t be so impatient. No matter what you do, the duel will still continue.” Abraham patted Bai Xi’s shoulder, telling her to sit down. Seeing Charles send secret signals to Ye Qingxuan, he knocked on the side of his cheating student’s head. “There’s no need,” he said quietly. “Yezi isn’t looking anymore.”
Charles froze and glanced at the youth. He finally realized that the youth had stopped paying attention to his signals for a long time.
Ye Qingxuan was completely focused. Staring at his enemy, his irises were filled the reflection of his enemy. The usual coolness and light pity in his eyes were gone, replaced by a fiery enthusiasm. The corners of his lips curled, as if smiling. He had begun putting his all into the fight. He wanted to win—to win fair and square…
“The fight has suddenly become challenging.” Ye Qingxuan studied Edmund’s red face and murmured, “Let’s just try a bit.” In the bone-numbing coldness, he suddenly took a deep breath. The coldness pierced his lungs, but his mind finally became clear. He did not need drug stimulation or a long break. An enemy was the best stimulant. It was something that he could try out his new skills on.
In the midst of the dodging, Ye Qingxuan suddenly stopped. Standing straight, he lifted up a hand. Aether from all over gathered in his direction, as if something was about to be awakened.
Sensed by everyone, the ring on Ye Qingxuan’s finger sucked in aether and radiated cold, silver light. The instrument sleeping within resonated and woke.
“An instrument! This guy…” Features tightening, Edmund took a step back to wait and see. He had not expected that Ye Qingxuan would keep an instrument as his trap card. And this was Moldable—one of the most valuable types of instrument too. It could be kept by one’s side and used at any time!
Just as he was waiting, the light on Ye Qingxuan’s ring suddenly extinguished. It was as if there had been rolling thunder, but not a drop of rain. The instrument went back to sleep just as quickly as it had woken up.
Ye Qingxuan had tried multiple times to wake up the Jiu Xiao Huan Pei in his ring over the past few days, but sadly, his resonance with it had stopped halfway every single time. It was as if he lacked the most crucial thing and could not continue.
“Uh…I guess I still can’t do it,” Ye Qingxuan chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry, I was just trying to show off…”
Edmund replied with countless angry frost arrows, almost turning Ye Qingxuan into an icicle. Ye dodged humiliatingly and took a deep breath, starting to chant.
“It’s too late to start now!” Edmund mocked, hearing the chants. He reached forward, continuing to shoot frost.
Attacked with a gust of coldness, Ye Qingxuan began fleeing. Ignoring the tossing of his stomach, he chanted quickly as he moved. The air around him surged to the rhythm of his chants.
Edmund glanced at the youth charging toward him, disdain flashing through his eyes. The closer Ye Qingxuan came, the less ability he had to dodge, and the more powerful the strength of the frost became! Yes, he was definitely out of his mind.
Edmund raised a hand, pointing at Ye Qingxuan’s body once again. Frosty light began brewing crazily on his fingertip, icy coldness coming from all directions.
The distance between them was closer than ever. The cold light illuminated Ye Qingxuan’s eyes.
Seeing that Ye Qingxuan was within five steps, murderous intent flashed in Edmund’s eyes. Immediately, frost twice as strong as before shot out!
Regular frost could freeze internal organs from that distant, but after raising the intensity, the coldness could turn someone into an ice statue instantaneously!
At that moment, the audience yelled out in surprise because Ye Qingxuan was still charging forward, not dodging at all! The explosive arrows shot out, straight toward Ye Qingxuan’s forehead.
But the air around him suddenly started rippling. It was as if the arrows ran into a boundary, and the scene changed. The wavering air twisted randomly, blurring Ye Qingxuan’s features.
When the frost arrows pierced into blurriness, they shook and almost frantically changed their direction. They had slightly changed course by a few degrees, and the arrows brushed past Ye Qingxuan’s hair.
Edmund gaped. His eyes reflected Ye Qingxuan’s face closing in on him. “What is going on?!”
—
“Rune · Haze!” In the crowd, Abraham’s eyes lit up as he murmured, “That’s right. This is how you do it!” All of the runes that Ye Qingxuan had learned until then had been chosen one by one by Abraham for their effect.
Light could provide illumination in the darkness and guide the sun; Flow could increase physical strength and purify water; Air could control wind, erase one’s body scent to hide from animals and protect oneself from poisonous gas. Haze was for stealth and protection against long distance attacks! It was a rune that every scout musician had to learn.
By stirring the air with aether, Haze could create a shield of air. It did not provide any protection on its own, but the musician could manipulate it and add pressure to it.
The effect of the chaotic pressure was like a lens. Endless lenses overlapped, refracting and bending light randomly, blurring the object.
In a dim environment with complex rays of light, Haze could blur the edges of an object and make it blend into the environment. It could not exactly shield one, but it could affect the arrows’ trajectory. There was not a more cost-efficient effect.
Outside the ring, Abraham stared closely at the youth who had just brushed shoulders with death. Pleased, he thought, “Yes, this is how you should do it. Lead the enemy on and activate Haze at the last moment. After that, he should close in even more and then…”
—
Inside the ring, the youth stepped past the five-step boundary. He stalked forward, the complicated syllables overlapping in his mouth, sending shockwaves of aether. As he chanted, a vortex-like rune gradually lit up in his heart, preparing for launch!
In the next heartbeat, Ye Qingxuan was right in front of Edmund.
Seeing him raise a hand, Edmund shrieked instinctually. He raised his elbow, shielding his face, and stumbled back. He pointed a finger in panic, getting ready to release more frost.
But the expected fist had not landed on him. Ye Qingxuan was no longer chanting for Flow anymore either. They were a hair’s width apart as Ye Qingxuan uttered the last syllable!
In that instant, Edmund shrieked again. Frantically and wildly, his hands scrambled to shoot frost arrows. Then he felt a hand press against him, gently on his chest.
Boom!
The shrieking silenced.