Silent Crown

Chapter 125 Stealth

This was the reason why the Jiu Xiao Huan Pei had been hidden by the Ye family for thousands of years. No matter if one looked at its specifications or shape, this instrument could be regarded as a very rare zither, a treasure. There was only one string left, but its sense of aether remained unchanged.

Ye Qingxuan had never played any instrument before, but he could feel that no other instrument could be compared to Jiu Xiao Huan Pei. After all, the Ye family’s reputation of being experts at aether was not just an exaggeration.

With the zither’s ringing, the aether ball began to light up. Then the ball heated up in the young man’s hand like fire. Silver dust rippled violently in the ball.

Like a conductor, Ye Qingxuan used Jiu Xiao Huan Pei as a signal amplifier, magnifying the aether ball’s detection accuracy hundred-fold. Large amounts of information poured into it, practically making the ball explode, but Jiu Xiao Huan Pei cleverly controlled the brink of collapse, maintaining the ball at the junction between overclocking operation and complete collapse, ruthlessly squeezing out each function to work at its peak.

A brilliant light illuminated the room. The ball in Ye Qingxuan’s hand rose up slowly, suspended and revolving in the air. The silver dust inside shook along with Ye Qingxuan’s thoughts, faint images flashed through the ball.

A crack appeared.

The youth sighed. It was a basic piece of equipment after all. It could not manage much. If it was the legendary palace of the sacred city—the biggest aether ball in the world, it could detect the aether tide in any corner of the world. According to rumors, countless scholars would gather in the palace all any given moment to observe every aether movement in the world.

Whenever a musician broke the Barrier of Knowledge and resonated with the world, the aether waves set off would create a rising star in the palace. Each musician's data was recorded in the star field. All the powerful musicians in the world were under the observation of the sacred city. Even those who had seen some grandeur before would finally realize what ‘divine power’ truly was. It was a point of view that only the gods had.

Compared with this legendary ball, the one in Ye Qingxuan’s hand was nothing. Even so, it was enough to display the entire structure of Ganlu City.

Gradually, more and more fractures appeared on the ball in his hands. Finally, it shattered with a snap, crumbling to dust. This luxury item had cost Ye Qingxuan half a year’s wage, and it burned to ashes with one use.

Ye Qingxuan’s heart hurt. If he could not get the money back from the Indians, this trip would be a total loss! He took out a pen and leaned over to scribble on the paper. The structure of Ganlu City gradually appeared amongst his scrawls.

As the largest brothel downtown, it had hundreds of rooms and countless corridors. There were also dozens of private rooms for distinguished guests, as well as secret doors, secret passages, basements, and more structures needed for dirty work. Most of these structures appeared on the paper as the youth sketched.

"Wow cousin, you’re really good at this. Where did you learn it?" Bai Xi took some sweets from the table.

"My father taught me in a place called Hawaii."

"…It seems that your dad knows everything!" Bai Xi muttered. "What else did he teach you?"

Ye Qingxuan shrugged, "Too much to count."

As the girl glared, Ye Qingxuan finally sighed, "Alright, I studied some mechanical engineering by myself. Architectural drawings and mechanical drawings are pretty much the same, so I just learned both at the same time. Done!"

Ye Qingxuan put down his pen and gazed at the map that took up the whole table. He nodded in satisfaction, "The general structure is here. There are still many details I remember, but there’s no time to draw them all."

Bai Xi’s eyes lit up. "Where’s the treasure?"

Ye Qingxuan pointed at three blanks on the map. "There are total of three places that the Jiu Xiao Huan Pei can’t get through. There’s either something interfering or there is an enchantment covering this area. The treasures should be hidden there."

"We're going to go through it all?"

"No, at least one can be ruled out…the most dangerous one." Ye Qingxuan pointed at the blank in the center, "Of the three, there’s one in the very center of Ganlu City, one in a secluded courtyard in the back, and one in the basement.

"I suspect that the one in the back should be the place where the Puspotkata lives. He is a musician of the Indian School of Asceticism and does not like noise. Besides, he’s old, and probably tries to avoid the prostitutes, so the treasure can’t be here."

"What if he put those things in his room?"

"Not possible." Ye Qingxuan shook his head, "The essence of the resonance ceremony is to let the Holy Spirit’s consciousness temporarily enter the body, then break the Barrier of Knowledge.

"So he requires absolute purity, which must be established in absolute silence, isolated from the outer world. There can be no interference before summoning the Holy Spirit.

"During this process, the musician himself must be bathing and fasting to remove all distractions. Puspotkata is probably deep in meditation now. He’s probably not even wearing underpants. For the sake of our eyes and safety, let's rule out this possibility."

Ye Qingxuan crossed out the blank on the back of the paper and pointed to the central blank area of the city, "We’re close to this area. We can start here."

"Awesome!" Bai Xi nodded and looked out the window. "We need to walk on the roof?"

"Not the roof," Ye Qingxuan shook his head. "That’s the fastest way but it’s also the most heavily guarded. If I had a lair, I'd start with putting beast traps all over the roof, and then have people guard it twenty four hours every day. I'm afraid we'll be caught within five minutes."

"So where do we go?"

"The main entrance." Ye Qingxuan twirled his cane and grinned, "I know how to make them blind to us."

Thinking of Black Friday, Bai Xi immediately understood.

But just as she was about to leave, Ye Qingxuan stopped her. "Still remember what we agreed on before we came?" he asked gravely. "No matter what, don’t make things more complicated! We take what we need and leave as soon as we can. Don’t touch anything outside of our plan."

"I know. You've said it hundreds of times!" Bai Xi pouted.

"You promise?"

"I promise. I swear." Her face fell. "You don't trust me?"

"I trust you more than anyone else." Ye Qingxuan smiled and pinched her cheeks. "My music score requires full attention to block other people's senses. If anything happens, I probably won’t even have the ability to fight, you know?" He paused and whispered, "So now my life is yours."

"..." Bai Xi paused for a second. She looked up at him then lowered her head. Standing on her tiptoes, she patted Ye Qingxuan’s head, "Yeah, I’ll protect you."

"That’s great." Ye Qingxuan smiled and opened the door. Soon he heard someone coming through the corridor.

--

In the corridor, the steward Salman paced in worry. He hesitated to knock the door. What if those two brothers were having fun and would blame him for disturbing them? It was rare to have such big spenders, but the two still confused him a little. He had worked here for so many years and had seen a lot, but he had never seen perverts like them. There must be something wrong with them.

After a long time, he gritted his teeth and went to the door. For some reason, his mind went blank when he set foot in the corridor. He vaguely heard a plaintive melody, like a river flowing.

The oil lamp on the wall flickered at just the right moment. He shook his head and could not hear the faint melody anymore. He stood outside the door, ear pressed to the door, eavesdropping on the room.

Behind him a vague figure frowned and gripped his cane. The second measure of Black Friday—auditory interference.

Salman's expression suddenly changed. He heard heavy breathing behind the door and the sound of a whip. "These two kids know how to play," he murmured. Knocking on the door, he called out, "Sirs?"

"Don't bother us!" came a voice of disgust from behind the door.

"No, no, sir!" Salman pursed his lip and his suspicion dissipated. It seemed that there were all sorts of fetishes these days. He turned to leave, not seeing the two shadows following behind him. They walked toward the atrium under his lead.

On another corridor, Salman saw a dark, sturdy youth on the steps. He rushed over hurriedly with a smile. "Master Po Sinai, long time no see. You’re looking more and more chivalrous."

The youth covered in gold jewelry hurried past. With no time to bother with Salman, he asked, "Where is my brother?"

"Master Sila is in the atrium room. He has already been waiting for a long time."

"Tell the servants to not disturb my brother and I. We have important matters to discuss." Po Sinai went past Salman to the atrium.

After hesitating for a bit, Ye Qingxuan followed after Po Sinai. Soon, he found that Po Sinai was heading toward the atrium that he had planned to go to. But after getting closer, he realized he could not use the rune Blur.

There was heavy aether interference there. It was probably in defense against musician assassins. Notes would go out of control there. Only a more stable measure could work. Ye Qing Xuan motioned at Bai Xi to be cautious, then he woke Jiu Xiao Huan Pei and began to play "Black Friday."

Soon the black river began to flow through the mind again. A gloomy, despairing melody followed, spreading. The first measure was visual interference.

Ye Qingxuan caught up quickly after making sure that the people around him were influenced by the melody. It seemed that the Indians had really spent a lot for the Puspotkata’s breakthrough. No one was even left to guard Ganlu City’s enchantment. None of the search and defense measures Ye Qingxuan had expected were there.

They passed a few transfixed guards and came to the fortified door, but he heard a faint voice behind the door before he could unlock it.

That strange and shrill voice was full of astonishment. "The Professor is being hunted? Are you sure?"

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