Silent Crown

Chapter 162 Welcome to the Black Parade

Alberto woke up with a shock from his nightmare. Twisting his head, he gazed at the deep night sky outside the window. Firelight rose, burning the sky red. The dew was heavy. He sat on his wheelchair and placed a blanket over his knees. The flames in the fireplace flickered and the high grade pinewood burned soundlessly. It emitted a fragrant scent, calming one down subconsciously.

Even if fire was burning downtown to ashes outside, it was still serene and peaceful inside, as if he belonged to another world. This was the reward that he deserved. As the leader of the Black Hand Gang—the Sicilian Mafia— that had once controlled one-third of downtown, Alberto was now old. He did not have the energy anymore.

While being old had its disadvantages, it also gave him the ability to see through things with old wisdom. For a leader, having good vision was the most important thing. And the current events proved that he was right.

When the parliament’s messenger had appeared before him for the first time, he had not even waited for Mr. Hall to make his request before pledging his entire clan’s loyalty to the parliament. This sincerity had won him the parliament’s trust and allowed him to enter the heart of the parliament, becoming the guard of the asylum.

If this was the boat to success, he was already in first class and watching as his former enemies and partners struggled and killed each other in the ocean. No matter what the result was, everything would be changed if the ritual in the final laboratory of the central security room was successful. All former enemies would be eliminated and he would replace the Shaman as the ruler of downtown. He would be the new Dark King! Yes, if the ritual was successful.

For some reason, he still felt slightly unsettled. But no matter how much he thought, he could not find a flaw or loophole in the perfect plan.

"Father…"

The Shaman’s main force had been held down. Everyone had been blinded and distracted by the riots that had taken over the entire district. No one would be able to stop the parliament’s ritual.

"Father."

But then, where did this unsettling feeling come from? Alberto racked his brain but he could not find anything.

"Father!" Lorenzo raised his voice, shocking Alberto out of his thoughts.

Alberto’s shoulders twitched and he looked back toward Lorenzo, who has beside him. Seeing the dissatisfaction in his eyes, Lorenzo’s face paled. "Father, someone broke in through the warehouse!"

"Warehouse? Which warehouse?" Alberto asked reflexively. But then he reacted immediately and his face turned white—what other warehouse could it be? Of course it was the most important one! "When?"

"A few minutes ago. Someone in the central security room discovered that the black door in the sewer was opened. The bone primates kept outside started going crazy too and they still haven’t been calmed down."

"They broke in from the sewer?" The unsettling feeling in Alberto intensified. He forced himself to stay calm and waved his hand, ordering, "Take care of it. Don’t let them cause too big of a disturbance, understood?"

But Lorenzo did not move. He stood in place, opening his mouth to speak but hesitating.

"What are you waiting for?!" Furious, Alberto slapped the armrest of the wheelchair. "Go!"

"I already went but…" Lorenzo swallowed heavily and said in a trembling voice, "They…might be Holmes and the Butcher."

"Impossible!" Alberto practically jumped up from the wheelchair as he glared at Lorenzo. "What the f*ck are you saying?!"

Quickly realizing that he had lost his temper, Alberto forced himself to calm down. He massaged his temples as he thought. After a long while, he suddenly looked up and stared at his son. "Why did they show up here?"

"I don’t know either." Stared at by those eerie eyes, Lorenzo felt goosebumps. He quickly explained, "They just suddenly popped up out of nowhere. They came along the supply tunnel. Oh right, the smuggler that always transported the supplies was killed yesterday. Do you think Holmes did it?"

Alberto froze. But he instantly reacted. "True, he’d never give up this chance if he knew that the parliament is holding the ritual here. He even hired that butcher…Kill them!" His eyes grew fierce. "You must not let them into the central security room! Where is Red Eye and Yellow Foot? Weren’t they sent here by the parliament to protect the ritual?"

"Red Eye is still in central security. Yellow Foot already disappeared with the Butcher." Lorenzo gulped. "The third surgery room is surrounded by the dark musicians’ fog. Yellow Foot and his corpse puppets were all in there but we don’t know what happened."

"What about Holmes?" Alberto stared deeply into his son’s eyes. "Is he separated from the Butcher?"

"I think so," Lorenzo replied in a trembling voice. "He split up with the Butcher and didn’t come out after entering the patient’s ward…He seems to be interested in the mutants."

"Good, good!" Alberto’s expression turned sinister. After a short pause, he suddenly ordered, "Take some men and the four musicians from the parliament and seal the entire ward. I don’t care what you do, but kill Holmes! He and the Professor are the scourges of the parliament. They must be killed. And if he’s dead, the parliament will not let down our sacrifices."

"M-me?" Lorenzo’s face turned ghastly pale. He had heard about the dark musician’s cruelty more than once in recent days. He had singlehandedly destroyed the Pyramid Scheme, and turned the high and mighty Indian musician Puspotkata into an idiot. And apparently, the mysterious Professor had lost a lot to him too. Now Lorenzo had to go deal with him?

"What are you scared of?!" Alberto roared in anger. "No matter how powerful Holmes is, he’s just a liar who plays tricks! Have you heard of a psychological dark musician who can do more than just scare people?

"Red Eye already said that he hadn’t even broken through the Barrier of Knowledge. He probably hasn’t even sacrificed himself to Satan yet. The only thing he can do is scare people. So if you aren’t scared of him, what can he do to you? No matter how good he is at controlling people, can he control demons?"

Lorenzo froze. He was slightly reassured, but his mind was still shrouded in an eerie cloud. Were matters really this simple? He was not sure.

Lorenzo took a few deep breaths and set down his determination. Turning around to leave, he saw a pale face beside the door. Lorenzo’s face was reflected in those terrified eyes. He stumbled back and practically fell to the ground.

"Disaster, sir, disaster!" The man, face white in horror, reported in a trembling voice, "Out of control! Sir…what do we do?!"

"What the f*ck are you talking about?" Alberto glared at the man who had rushed in. "What is going on?"

"It’s Holmes, it’s Holmes!" The man’s voice quivered as he replied, "A few minutes ago, all the guards in the patient’s ward disappeared. No one knows what that guy did. When we went in, everyone was gone. There wasn’t a single reply. And then the cries came and our men…they’re all dead!"

Lorenzo’s knees wobbled and he collapsed onto the ground. "Holmes?!"

--

Ten minutes ago, under the ghastly white light, the patient’s ward was completely silent. Even the sounds of breathing seemed to be suffocated by the heavy smell of disinfectants.

"Looking at the time, they should be here right?" Ye Qingxuan strolled down the quiet hall, gazing at the bars to each side. Behind the bars, pairs of blank eyes looked at him. There was no light in those eyes—only numbness, unfamiliarity, and nothingness.

These people were still alive, but their bodies had been turned into monsters, their memories shattered, and their souls thrown into a bottomless abyss. They were still alive, but it was worse than death.

"So scary," Ye Qingxuan sighed quietly. "I can’t even find a trace of humanity." There was no excitement, no sadness and no anger or desolation. They breathed purely to survive, like a zombie. Really, was there nothing left behind?

In the silence, he pressed down on his watch. The snap was crisp. "All is dark. Only the Tree of Life is forever green," Ye Qingxuan recited. His eyes flashed with a dazzling light.

In his hand, Jiu Xiao Huan Pei abruptly began shaking and played a gentle melody. Amidst the faint yet warm melody, water vapor gathered from all directions, transformed into perception threads and spread out again.

After the first measure ended, the second began right after. The vague melody suddenly changed and every note rose in key. The second measure had begun! Just as Charles had said, the difficulty rose exponentially. The invisible perception threads suddenly trembled and split into two. They spread again, reaching in all directions. The proximity doubled!

Before the echoes of the second measure dissipated, the third replay began once again. The vague melody had gradually become clearer. It was like the rushing sounds of a river in the springtime to the ear, flowing in the air.

Once again, the perception threads lengthened and expanded. Forty-six threads floated in the air, reaching out in all directions. Ye Qingxuan’s hand trembled but the music did not stop.

The fourth measure quickly began. The aether began rippling and the perception threads shot forward under the flowing melody. They lengthened, went past the bars, wrapped around the living organisms and lengthened, lengthened, lengthened!

The fifth measure, the melody floated in the air. Though the vague clanging and exalted melody was the same, the notes were rising to a much higher octave.

The sixth measure! The crisp melody was no longer insubstantial like before. The intensifying melody resounded in the wind, becoming more awe-inspiring.

Like a command that was impossible to defy, it spread forward slowly. Transforming from thin and insignificant to dense rain, the souls sleeping in the melody was slowly stirred awake by the youth. Now, the melody had turned from the fleeting sounds to a military march!

Ye Qingxuan’s forehead was covered in beads of sweat. Even with help from the Double Snake Time Meter, manipulation at this level was still too much for him. He had actually reached his limits at the fifth measure, but he could not believe that he was able to force himself to the sixth measure. The length was multiplied six times!

Now, Ye Qingxuan felt as if his body was like a giant shapeless beast. His mind had expanded in all directions along these hundred-meter long perception threads!

He could feel all the complex levels of the Arkham Asylum, the wild aether rippling from the lowest level and also the heavy footsteps that surrounded the patient’s ward. They were the armed thugs or the musicians with rippling aether, their eyes murderous and cruel. They came here with orders to make this place his burial ground.

Ye Qingxuan opened his eyes again. He stared behind the bars and gazed at the pairs of blank eyes. He asked softly, "Everyone, are you content being turned into experiments?"

No one replied, but he could not help but laugh. His voice had an undertone of anger. "Are you really willing to have someone strap you onto a gurney, cut open and turned into a demon…to rot and die without a sound?

"Look at you right now. You can’t even feel anger—not even a bit of fear or joy can be felt. Are you truly willing?"

In the silence, the dazed eyes behind the railing gazed blankly at the youth’s figure. They seemed unable to understand or comprehend what he was talking about. No one replied. They just smiled blankly, drooling, curled inside their cages.

Bang! The gate suddenly opened with a fulmination. The figures exuding wild evilness rushed in. They held crossbows or swords and their eyes were ice cold. With a single command, they would swarm over and turn their enemy into a honeycomb or hack them into minced meat.

At the back of the crowd were a few figures clad in black robes. Aether rippled wildly around them, as if a music score was brewing within it. They stared coldly at the cornered dark musician, hiding in the safest spot to search for his weak points and wait for the fatal kill. There were more than a hundred guards, sixteen crossbows and four musicians.

Ye Qingxuan did not even need to think about it to know that he was in deep trouble. But gazing at all those cold faces, there was no fear in Ye Qingxuan’s eyes. There was only coldness and pity.

As if their roles had been switched, the high and mighty judge gazed down coldly from the clouds and asked quietly, "Have you ever repented for your sins?" The hoarse voice spread in the silence, wrapping around everyone’s ears as if it came from their hearts.

In an instant, they all felt as if they were hallucinating. They stared at the figure in shock.

They saw Ye Qingxuan slowly raise his arm and slam the cane down by his feet!

Thud! The plaintive melody sounded!

It was a melody filled with wildness and hopelessness, as if one had fallen into the abyss of despair. The sharp and broken melody shot forward like nails, resounding between the walls.

A roar sounded out of thin air. It was the surging black river!

The thousands of long perception threads around Ye Qingxuan’s body suddenly shook and moved like a living object. They covered the entire ward; passed through the layers of obstacles; wove past the ventilators, bars and cracks; and finally pierced into the sleeping minds.

Then, the hopeless melody played! The melody of judgement transformed into a black river surging from thin air. It followed the perception threads and rushed into the muddled souls.

Like a spark landing in a withered forest, it lit up the fallen leaves, the dried branches, a dead tree, and then a second tree, a third, a fourth…until finally, the entire black forest was bathed in wildfire!

Beside Ye Qingxuan, a dazed man behind the railing shook and grabbed his head, crying out painfully. Cries burst from the layers of bars like a chorus. The sleeping souls were shocked awake, the wooden eyes began trembling and the blank features began twisting.

They were writhing in pain from the horror, tortured by despair, and pulled from sleep by the furious melody. Shards of memories appeared before their eyes without permission. Yes, they were remembering, remembering…Remember what those people did to you. Remember the pain and despair you have felt. Remember the fury and wildness sleeping in the deepest part of your soul! Even their nerves were lit on fire by this wild melody.

Behind the railing, the prisoners shook uncontrollably, drowning in their past nightmares. They screamed and cried, or roared in anger! The memories and pain broken and sleeping in their minds were awakened and surged into Ye Qingxuan’s mind along the perception threads. All of it entered the thundering black river.

The river trembled and changed once again. Now, countless pained faces appeared in the river. The dark memories that formed the water had never been so clear before. It was the river where all hopeless memories converged. At this moment, it was almost solid and flowed beside Ye Qingxuan. With one more step, it would be able to resonate with the Originator and become real!

In that instant, Ye Qingxuan saw the pain, fury, and the hopelessness in their hearts…it was so similar to his own hopelessness from before—the fury of being held onto the surgery table and having his future path cut off!

Bang! Inside the cage, a frail man buried his head in his hands and howled, ramming against the wall painfully. His eyes were bloodshot and his hands scratched mindlessly. They cut through the steel bars and left deep gashes in the walls and ground. The souls caught in nightmares had awakened and were now roaring in anger! Their eyes were blood-red.

In the blink of an eye, the musicians in the crowd suddenly realized what was going on and their faces turned pale. "Kill him! Kill him! He’s resonating with the mutants…"

"Too late." Ye Qingxuan sneered and raised his hand under the angry stares from behind the bars. "Next, you will repent for your sins!"

Bang! A deformed and bloated woman crashed through the bars and broke free. The gills behind her ears shook and she let out a shrill noise. The sound was solid like an ax and it spread, slicing everything in its path into pieces. Beside her, the guards were swept into the scream before they could react and shattered instantly.

Then, roars came from all directions. The empty eyes within the cages rose again. Tangible fury and wildness filled those eyes! The 312 mutants suddenly broke free from the cages and began devouring the uniformed guards. Even if they had lost their memories, they still remembered the hatred that was engraved in their hearts. They still remembered the appearances of those people, the disdainful eyes and the menacing smiles.

A mutant covered in bone material crashed against the cage and rushed into the crowd through an opening of the arrows and axes. He opened his mouth full of sharp teeth and closed it around someone’s throat, rolling on the ground. The beastly nature implanted into them had awoken along with the anger and they knew how to kill without being taught.

Clang! Clang! Clang! The sound of bars shattering rang continuously. The wild experiments charged toward the defenseless guards under the guide of the dark melody, and exacted revenge for the pain and despair they had suffered!

Sirens, bone primates, blood demons, hyenas…the mutants with inhumane body parts wailed and threw themselves onto the enemies. They did not care about their own lives. They attacked as if they wanted to die with the enemy. In an instant, the white lights were covered with a layer of blood-red. The tearing and shattering of meat and bone sounded continuously. This was a feast of revenge!

Under Ye Qingxuan’s command, these mindless mutants converged into a tide of people. They extinguished the screaming and fleeing enemy, swarming upon them and venting their hatred!

In the end, the bloody room was in ruins and there was no longer any noise. Silence had returned.

Ye Qingxuan stood in the puddle of blood. The crazed beasts turned around and stared at the only one standing in the blood that was still alive. They stared at the pair of dark eyes. Finally, they lowered their wild faces and fell, kneeling before him. They accepted the melody in the black river and the guidance from deep within their souls.

"Welcome to the black parade." In the puddle, Ye Qingxuan looked down and studied the figures kneeling before him. Gazing at the subdued beasts, he quietly assured, "I promise, this will be your night of revenge!"