Silent Crown

Chapter 339 Snake of the Atrium

In the last moment, Ye Qingxuan pushed Baro behind him. He reached out to guard everyone. A hymn sounded.

"Holy! Holy! Holy! The god of all authority!"

Dozens of lances fell onto the shield and landed on the ground silently. However, more lances fell in other places and exploded instantly. Red fire and wild explosions shattered the walls and bricks. A violent current of air swept across. The entire tunnel shook to the brink of collapse.

After the fleeting hymn, all was changed. The area had been turned into a giant and empty crater. The land that they stood on was still whole but everywhere else was covered in lava…

Using Holy two times in a short period made Ye Qingxuan's face stark white. He practically collapsed onto the ground. Behind him, Miller pressed onto the back of his head. A gentle melody accompanied the chanting of a saint, helping him recover.

"Two more rounds!" Ye Qingxuan exclaimed. "At least two more rounds!"

Behind the steel wall, the lancers took off their lances once again. They slowly raised their hands, getting ready to throw again.

"If you have any good tricks, let them all out! We're facing the alchemy puppets made by Romulus at their golden age. They're the two-hundred-soldier Romulusian formation! They can flatten the Chainsaw Fraternity's heavy artillery group!"

Ye Qingxuan's words extinguished the last bit of Baro's wishful thinking. Of the power and weapons that the Chainsaw Fraternity sold, the cost of hiring a heavy artillery group was enough to bankrupt an entire merchant city-state. Their performance also proved how terrifying the killing machine made of pure money was!

"How rich were these guys to have guards like these?!" Baro complained. There was a flash of pain. He pulled out a bone flute and played harshly but Sam was faster.

The copper mountain rumbled and the Foehn wind swept through. Red wind surged along the tunnel instantly. Within it, a roaring melody shot out. It was filled with wild aggression. Hundreds of formulas rose from the music theory one after another. They combined and changed until finally transforming into something complex yet detailed.

Under the music theory, dirt was burned into lava. It climbed up Sam's body and quickly cooled down into blocks of sharp black rock. Sam instantly became a flaming giant radiating terrifying heat.

Mazeppa! This was the music score written by Saint Liszt according to the legendary hero Mazeppa. He had come back to life and received holy power. He wielded the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. He was unstoppable on Earth! The flames transformed into the hero's stallion and the violent winds became his wings. The iron rumbled in his hands, singing highly.

Sam roared and rode the melody, charging forward! The next instant, he faced the Romulusian formation. Before him, the lances shattered in the air. His black rock armor was damaged but quickly regenerated seemingly endlessly. The long lances pierced his giant hands but the steel wall was crumbling under the deafening rumbles as well.

Countless shards flew out. Sam crudely grabbed at the clay puppets that were not able to escape and threw them at the lancers. In his hands, the clay was melted into lava by fire formulas. They fell and splattered in all directions, melting the clay puppets in the vicinity.

Next, Sam took a deep breath and the black giant's chest swelled. His exhale was an extremely cold gale of wind. The ghastly white wind instantly shrouded the formation, freezing the clay puppets.

Following Baro's flute music, the roaring deep within the earth grew more and more dramatic. Something huge seemed to be coming. Within the formation, Sam retreated under Baro's cries. Then, the tunnel's walls shattered. A yawning mouth emerged from the side and, brushing past Sam, rushed toward the formation.

The mouth was more than a dozen meters wide. It easily swallowed everything and returned into the wall, the giant body following. After a few good minutes, it finally faded away.

The crack formed from its appearance and disappearance was dozens of meters deep. Sam and Ye Qingxuan were rooted to their spots.

"What was that?" Ye Qingxuan was stunned. All he knew was that this was a projection from the aether world.

"It's the great king earthworm that the School of Dragon Rock has raised in the aether world for centuries." Baro's face was pale. "It's sixteen kilometers long. The entirety can only be summoned by Scepter musicians. It's known as the 'snake that can wrap around the atrium of the world'." He sadly put his bone flute back. The instrument was covered in fissures and would not last much longer.

Sam removed Mazeppa's effect, revealing horrific burns all over him. Thankfully, Miller could heal them. Otherwise, they would all have to go home.

After this mess, none of them looked down on the Romulusian relic anymore. No one knew what kind of person needed all these creepy clay puppets as guards… However, they soon understood.

-

"This is a large-scale public cemetery!" Inside the large underground square, Baro looked into the distance. He used his night vision to see endless rows of stone coffins standing on the ground. They had seen more than a thousand coffins along the way and there were most likely even more!

When Ye Qingxuan saw this public cemetery, he was silent for a long time. Then he took out a crowbar and walked toward the nearest coffin. Baro tried to stop him but Ye Qingxuan had already pried open the coffin.

Amidst the muffled scraping, the coffin was activated. Dust that had settled over the centuries rose up and the dried bones were revealed under the light. The skeleton slept in the coffin, its mouth open as if in a smile. There were no traps, poisonous snakes, or beasts.

"As expected." Ye Qingxuan reached out and carefully took the burial sword from the dead. He waved it lightly but cracks snaked across the blade as it corroded and weathered quickly. "These are all Romulusian civilians."

He looked around at the densely packed coffins. "If I guessed correctly, the statuses of the dead will get higher the deeper we go. There may be soldiers, generals, priests and…even their king, Augustus. The Romulusians are pagan and worship the family flame. They believe that the souls of their ancestors live in the flame. Their ancestors' bodies are buried here so foreigners can't taint them."

"But didn't you just have fun tainting it?" Baro murmured. However, his eyes quickly lit up. "What about musicians? Where are the graves of the musicians?" Hearing that, the eyes of the other two brightened as well.

It was difficult to track the King of Yellow but the cemetery would not move around. This trip would not be made in vain if they could find some classical music scores, precious instruments, or alchemy equipment.

"Musicians?" Ye Qingxuan laughed and shook his head. "First of all, you have to know that ancient Romulus specialized in alchemy but the instruments were all handed down the family. The sons inherited their fathers' business. Other than damaged or extremely meaningful instruments, they'd rarely be buried with their owners. Literature and scores are archived in their temples and rarely spread amongst the public.

"Secondly, there are so many coffins here. Are we going to open each one to find which is a musician?"

"They're all together?" Baro furrowed his brows. "Musicians are buried in these public cemeteries too?"

Ye Qingxuan nodded. "In Romulus, musicians are just another job. They were known as the 'black marquis,' and were couriers. They had high status but were still only civilians. Only nobles, priests, elders, philosophers, and Augustus had the right to be buried alone."

"Philosophers?" Baro was stunned. "Why? Are they more useful than musicians?!"

Ye Qingxuan pursed his lips. "It's because they're too annoying during life. No one wants to be their neighbor in death. Would you want that?"

Baro was speechless.

"Shall we continue?" Ye Qingxuan put on his backpack again and extended his perception threads, walking to the front. They passed by many more traps but it was obvious much time had passed without maintenance. The mechanics of the traps had all rusted and could not be opened. Some doors were unmovable as well. Sam had to forcefully destroy them.

The more they walked, the more amazed they were at the scale of this underground palace. They had walked two levels down but they still saw coffins and rooms for descendants to worship in. According to their judgements of the burial items, they were still civilians. However, they were richer. Many of the burial items were jewelry cost thousands. However, musicians could only use these things as chant consumables. Of course, they could fill the emptiness in Sam's wallet. The others, some took for the memory.

When they opened the next door, they saw ruins littered on the ground and heard whistling wind. The well-prepared Baro huffed. His figure shook and a lizard-like scale demon emerged from the shadows. It stuck its head out and smacked its lips like an alligator.

Crack. A cracked stone monkey shattered all over the ground. The scale demon spat it out in distaste and disappeared back into the shadows. However, Ye Qingxuan's group's attention fell onto the corpse amongst the ruins. It was still fresh and the blood had not dried yet. He had probably died a few dozen minutes before their arrival.

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