Silent Crown

Ye Qingxuan had always thought that the ten legends were just folktales and myths. Many people believed in them, but Ye Qingxuan had always felt that they were too incredible to be true. But now there was an entire bookshelf of their records in front of his eyes. Things did not seem to be so simple…
The Shaman was the mysterious man who had made the rules that guided the entire criminal underworld of Avalon. He was Avalon’s Dark King, and had ruled downtown until his disappearance six years ago.
The Chrysanthemum Hotel Massacre, three years ago, was complete slaughter in Avalon’s classiest hotel. Everyone regardless of their gender and age had been pulverized. Viscount Filo, the target, had had his head yanked off from his body. This was one of the records of the Bloody Butcher.
The Soul Eater was one of Avalon’s midnight horror stories. A series of research found its true form—a musician who had turned himself into a snake demon after converting to Satanism. Hunted by multiple Royal musicians, he jumped into the sewer in the end.
According to the records, the Soul Eater was injured and went crazy while fleeing. Motivated by hunger, he attacked a school. Because that had violated the Shaman’s rules, he had been killed by the Shaman’s assassin, Ghosthand.
Ghosthand, known as the debtor in legends, and was the Shaman’s right hand man. Anyone who violated the Shaman’s rules would be hunted by him. Legends said that the Phantom Carriage soared through the air at midnight. The Musician’s Union verified that it was alchemy equipment left behind from the Dark Ages. It was unimaginably fast and even to this day, no one could describe it clearly. No one knew who rode it or why it was there…
There was also some whom Ye Qingxuan had seen with his own eyes. “Analysis of Hariti’s Death.” Ye Qingxuan opened the book with trembling hands.
Hariti had lived undetected in downtown for countless years. She steered clear of the larger organizations, never tried to steal territory, and never tried to dabble in smuggling or the black market. Instead, she supplied the larger organizations with live items. Her clients were scattered throughout all of Anglo, and the demand was huge every year. The requests included strong workers for plantations, slaves for the mines, beautiful virgins, and more often, children…
When the Shaman had been around, there was no space for her. But after the Shaman disappeared, she no longer needed to follow the rules, and started her business again. Then half a month ago, she died.
According to research, she had been commissioned before she died. It was unclear what it had been for, but some suspected that it had something to do with Yunlou City’s ambassador entourage. Then, she died.
She died in her own nest, bleeding from every pore, her face completely hopeless. The survivors went crazy after overdosing on opiates. They were sent to the Arkham Asylum, but there was no hope for recovery.
The Chorale musician responsible for the autopsy had reported, “According to the dissection, her body had mutated in what seemed to be the ‘Siren transformation.’ This should be one of the missing experiments from the attack on the Royal Research Institute twelve years ago.
Note: Please see file BP198 for more information on the attack on the Royal Research Institute. Must be Scepter level and…”
The words were crossed out after that point. According to the autopsy, Hariti had not only inhaled large amounts of opiates before her death, but had also experienced the back bite of the formless ghosts and had gone insane. The cause of her death was sudden mental trauma. The fatal trauma had destroyed her tenacity instantaneously, destroying her entire brain, turning it into mush. Swift and clean.
Most of the evidence had been wiped out, but according to measurements from the aether ball, there had been a performance above the Scepter level. It was suspected to be related to the phenomenon of the moon above the ocean which had occurred in downtown that night. It was suggested that related departments investigate further. The last bit of conclusion had been scribbled over in black and was unreadable.
After reading, Ye Qingxuan quietly put the report back in its spot. Originally, he had thought that the crazy woman was just a regular human trafficker. But now he had started to think that things were much more complicated than that. Thankfully he and Bai Xi had not left behind any traces, otherwise he could not know if he would have been at the academy or in prison.
But this ignited Ye Qingxuan’s curiosity about the ten legends. Unfortunately, that curiosity was killed as he read about the nude man who ran about at midnight. The Avalon Police Force had used every type of investigation method and had finally established a hypothesis.
“Spy theory: this d*mned nudist is a Burgundian spy. He wants to transmit some message to his cohorts by running while nude. According to experts, the locations he appears in, and the streets that he runs through are all predetermined codes. His cohorts can learn secrets about the Avalonian Royalty by decoding these.”
“Yeah right! The locations he appeared in were based entirely on how much money he had had at that time, alright? And the streets he ran through were determined by the debtors chasing him…” Ye thought.
Even more absurd was the phenomenon theory, the illusion theory. Many experts strongly believed that the nude man was a collective illusion representing that Avalonians were facing higher work stress and craved freedom. Some also hypothesized that the nude man was a mysterious natural phenomenon. An eyewitness said that a flying disk had appeared in the sky right before the nude man had appeared…
“Take care, Senior.” Ye Qingxuan put the book back where it belonged.
Soon after, he became enraptured by the most horrifying of the ten legends. It was the Ripper—the Whitechapel killer. Apparently, this mysterious serial killer had often appeared in the Whitechapel area, specifically targeting prostitutes and gossipers in the night. The police force had been hunting him for a long time but could never find any trace of him. To catch him, the police had even sent a beautiful policewoman, disguised as a prostitute, and had even used advice from criminals to wait outside the Whitechapel for half a year. She had countless clients, but had never met the Ripper. Instead, murders continued happened in other places, and the honeypot mission ended in failure.
“This d*mned b*stard is, without a doubt, a complete lunatic,” a psychoanalyst said in the file. According to analysis by criminologists, all murders had some sort of interest, wanted to fulfil his ideal, or wanted to silence someone. But the Ripper seemed to have no motive whatsoever. He seemed to only be venting his emotions through serial killing. The murders were ongoing, but not a trace had ever been found.
Obsessed, Ye Qingxuan followed the book’s appendix and found more and more related records. Without realizing it, he had wandered into the deepest part of the library. And he finally realized that something was wrong. There seemed to be something behind the Ripper case.
In many cases, the police force had an extensive and seamless trap, and were always one step away from catching the guy. But the Ripper always got away at the most vital moment.
The police force hypothesized that the Ripper was a School of Revelations musician and could predict their plan. But not even a Scepter level Revelations musician would be able to toy with the police force for five straight years. Also, Anglo had skilled musicians who could block predictions as well.
There were all types of coincidences, but if one looked closely, there were also all types of strange occurrences. The first couple of times may have been coincidences, but the others were too bizarre to be considered coincidences! The guy seemed to be able to teleport!
According to records, other than the priest who had the gods’ tenacity, no one else in the world could teleport thousands of miles like characters in novels. No one could even teleport to the next room.
The ultimate proposition of the School of Modifications was “human teleportation.” But to that very day, even the Saints could only teleport everyday objects through the wind tunnel. If a human tried it, they would be torn to pieces or evaporate into a cloud of blood. No one was able to disappear instantaneously, unless he got rid of every last molecule of himself. So how did the Ripper do it? Could it be that Pope Beethoven had gotten bored and came to Anglo to kill people for fun?
“Stop joking.” Ye Qingxuan had made himself laugh. After reading through the last record, his gaze fell on a line in the middle of the analysis, “After investigation and research, we have reason to believe that the Ripper is somehow related to the Shadow of Avalon.”
Suddenly remembering Bai Xi’s cards, Ye Qingxuan was stunned. One of the ghost cards had a deserted palace! The Shadow of Avalon was one of this city’s well-known horror stories.
The legends said that there was a city sleeping in Avalon’s shadow. The dead, and souls of demons slept in that shadowy city, hiding secrets from the Dark Ages. Some said that that was the true Avalon, but that was just a made-up story. Why would it appear in the report by the police force? Unless there was some truth to it…
Ye Qingxuan fell into deep thought before hurriedly closing the book. Remembering the other cases mentioned, he walked to the other end of the bookshelf. If he were not mistaken, there would be more clues hidden in that shelf. Suddenly, it was as if he had crossed an invisible and forbidden line. A chill ran through his body.
—
In the silence, the lights dimmed, and started flickering. A sudden wind blew through the sealed library. Faint wailing sounded in the wind. Ye Qingxuan gazed around in a daze, sensing that something was seriously wrong. He tried to step forward, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. There was no one behind him, but he could hear light footsteps. The steps were so gentle in the silence, as if someone invisible was walking behind him, following his every step, leaving no trace behind.
Fifteen steps away from the bookshelf, he stopped. The footsteps shadowing him were right behind him. He could even feel cold breath brushing against his neck. This was the end. Some entity in this large library uttered its last warning, “You are attempting to solve a mystery you should never have touched.”
Ye Qingxuan froze in place and raised his arms in surrender. “Sorry, I just wanted to find the academy’s personnel files…” He stepped back, showing that he did not mean to pass into the danger zone.
After a long while, the eerie coldness finally disappeared. Sweating profusely, Ye Qingxuan turned back. As before, there was nothing behind him under the dim light, but it was the first time he had been comforted by the vast emptiness.
Everything had returned to normal, but there was a faint trail of footprints on the floor. As if it were a guide, it stopped before one bookshelf. A row of books on the shelf had been pushed out half an inch. It seemed to say, “What you’re looking for is here.”