Silent Crown

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

At that moment, the interface into the black box was opened up from the central core. With this bridge connecting to the Originator, someone was able to get out of the cage.

They appeared in the Originator, the thing that countless musician's had dreamed of.

The figure was still alone.

It seemed like he had been waiting for thousands of years.

But Tung Wang Kung was stunned.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, when he saw—no, when it observed that the person had appeared there—His expression revealed never before seen anger and hotheadedness.

He roared with fury.

"You dare appear before me…Ye Xuan!!!"

Ye Xuan seemed to not hear. He was silent, staring blankly all around. After a while, he sighed softly.

"A planetary-level chaos computing model? Those guys chose this path after all…" Upon saying this he turned his head. He flicked away some ash and looked at his "old friend." He couldn't help but smile. "Long time no see, Tung Wang Kung. Have you been well?"

The answer was full of fury, a roar that was nearly burning with anger.

A terrible attack lashed out.

Nearly unwise, completely reckless, difficult to understand… Tung Wang Kung no longer adhered to the method of slow erosion as he attacked the seal that Bai Xi had made without any regard for the consequences or the damage.

He wanted to break out of the cage of heaven and earth!

"Seems like you haven't been well, just like me." Ye Xuan sighed. "We're old friends after all. No, I should say old colleagues. It's unpleasant to meet in such unhappy circumstances. Let's dispense with the formalities and get this over with, then."

On saying this he looked up at the sky.

"In the name of the committee, I order Tung Wang Kung to be formatted!"

At that moment something huge started up. Countless stars lit up in the depths of the sky, and they were separated by layers of light. As the grand will ran through the central core it cast off a light that outshone the stars.

The sound of collapsing rang out.

As the stars appeared and winked out, the power that was supporting Tung Wang Kung quickly left. His various privileges were stripped of him one by one by the terrible computing power of the central core. It was like his organs and limbs were being torn from him, cruelly and brutally.

All of this happened at Ye Xuan's will.

In this way, he cruelly took away all of Tung Wang Kung's powers in the system one by one, not leaving a single one, and at the same time used the physical circumstances to cut off the coordination ports from Taiqing Heavy Industries from the outside.

Finally, Tung Wang Kung was forcibly deleted.

Not even one line of data was left, not to mention pieces of him.

"Keep dreaming!!!" At that moment, countless pop-up windows flashed out from the wavering figure of Tung Wang Kung like heavy rain.

Red! Red! Red! Red! The red pop-up windows were full of override messages.

Even facing the one who held the highest privileges, Captain Ye Xuan, Tung Wang Kung still showed miraculous, or nightmarish, willpower.

He forced all the commands from the central core to cancel!

He refused to accept Ye Xuan's commands.

He refused to die.

Or at least he refused to die at Ye Xuan's hands!

In a flash, he was shut down countless times, restarted countless times, rejected the irresistible deletion, and vainly fought against the constant formatting attempts.

Thousands of override messages gathered together in a sea of red.

The chaotic turbulence in the central core even spread to the projection of the Originator. Countless pieces of broken data and infinite dead loops gathered together one by one to form a curved surface.

In a flash, it seemed as if countless huge worlds had appeared.

The giant's body was falling apart, and the catastrophe's nature was slowly collapsing.

But under the inhuman body, what was revealed was human skin texture.

When that face emerged from the endless darkness, everyone held their breath involuntarily. It was a handsome face, so perfect as to have nearly no blemishes. It was different from Hermes's tender, feminine face, as it had uncompromising masculinity, but it did not seem violent or frightening.

The eyes were full of pity and compassion.

They seemed to be pained by the suffering of the world.

They were thinking about a plan to save everything.

They pitied everything.

That was the appearance that Tung Wang Kung had had when he had descended upon India.

At that time, he had been called the Awakened Victor by those who longed for a savior. He had brought stability and peace to the chaotic India and had been a symbol of liberation from the suffering of all beings.

But now, in the reflection from the endless red warning pop-up windows, there was no more compassion in those eyes, but instead indescribable darkness.

A madness and intent to kill that was irreconcilable with its mournful face.

Those countless red warnings burned like flames and condensed into a red lotus that rippled like a sea of blood. To describe it in human terms, it was like a scene in which a god degenerated into an evil spirit.

The Awakened was gone.

What descended here was a demon intent on destroying everything!

Facing the suppression and deletion of the central core, he finally abandoned his inhuman side and was forced to return to the world with that shameful face.

Even so, he was not willing to give up his hostility to Ye Xuan.

In other words, after seeing Ye Xuan, he began to reveal his own insanity!

This went far beyond Ye Qingxuan's expectations. He had originally anticipated that when he activated the privileges that Ye Xuan gave him, and after the "Neanderthal" Ye Xuan took control of the central core, the procedure would be instantly completed and Tung Wang Kung would be wiped away.

But now, although Tung Wang Kung had been forced to take off his inhuman mask and reveal his essence, this made Ye Xuan feel as if things would be even more difficult.

That kind of crazy hatred would even be revealed when facing Hermes.

He looked back at Ye Xuan in shock.

What did you do all those years ago?

How did you make Tung Wang Kung hate you so much?

"This makes you seem a little more human." Ye Xuan stood before the red lotus and nodded with satisfaction. "Congratulations, you've grown up, Tung Wang Kung."

"Grown up?" Tung Wang Kung's voice was hoarse. "Is this face not a gift you bestowed upon me? Were all these evils not your fault?" He swallowed what seemed like hatred made manifest and whispered hoarsely, "Ye Xuan, if it wasn't for you…"

"Mhm, if it wasn't for me, everything might be different." Ye Xuan nodded, apologizing solemnly, but there was no sincerity in it. "I rashly pulled you into the world without your consent. As the chief culprit, I truly apologize."

"Apologize? Can an apology make up for the crime you've committed?" The eyes went wide, and they were full of resentment. "Do you have no repentance for the sins you've committed?"

"None," Ye Xuan answered calmly.

As he said this, a red window suddenly popped out of him.

Ye Qingxuan was at a loss.

Then there was the second, the third, the fourth…

That looked like… the Tung Wang Kung that he had just wiped out.

Like a heavenly punishment, destruction and cleansing fell upon him at that moment.

Ye Qingxuan could not have imagined that after Ye Xuan became Captain, Tung Wang Kung would still have a way to delete him!

"What are you doing?" he asked dumbfoundedly.

"What am I doing?" Tung Wang Kung smiled coldly. "Why don't you ask your ancestor that? Did you have no doubts? Why did Ye Xuan have the authority to make the final decision, yet he still holed up in his shell like a turtle in that little box? Why didn't he use it himself, and instead handed it over to you?"

Ye Qingxuan was shocked. He finally understood the logical fallacies in this.

Since Ye Xuan had had the power to stop this from the beginning, why had he sat and watched it all happen? Why was he only coming out now?

Did he even need him to help open the door?

Tung Wang Kung laughed mockingly at his expression, as if he was looking at an idiot who knew nothing.

"It seems like you didn't tell him anything, Ye Xuan!" He smiled maliciously and roared wildly, "You hid the mistakes you made when you were telling him. In order to conceal your ugliness and dress up in this calm demeanor, you didn't tell him that once you step out of that black box and are observed by the central core you will be the first one to be obliterated! How much have you hidden from him, Ye Xuan?"

Tung Wang Kung paused and smiled coldly. "Particularly, how you murdered Captain Xiao Huan and ruined humanity's future!"

There was a long silence.

As the red warnings popped up continuously, Ye Xuan put out his cigarette. His expression was still calm.

So calm that it was frightening.

"That is the only thing in this life that I don't regret."

Just like that, he confessed his sin.

Hundreds of years ago, East Asian colony ships had seized the advantage and had been on the way to victory. But when they were just about to completely annihilate the enemy, they made the crime of rebellion. They turned a great victory into a situation where no one gained anything. One hand directed the prelude to the fall of the Devas and caused all the evils of today.

He calmly revealed his hidden mistake, without any regret or hesitation.

Only calmness.

Even if there had been infinite anger, in those eyes like the sea, it would have been impossible to see any waves.

In the end, there was only an indescribable disappointment.

"That's how humans are, Ye Xuan?"

"Mhm." Ye Xuan nodded. "That's how they are."

In the silence, Tung Wang Kung closed his eyes. His expression was distorted a bit and became ugly. "I finally understand why I hate you so much," he whispered softly. He raised his hand and covered his nearly unblemished face as if he was ashamed and was unwilling to let it appear under the sun.

From between his fingers came an almost desperate roar, "So, I am the only one who doesn't want to become human!!!"

He roared like a wild beast.

He groaned and reached up to tear off his face. His perfect visage fell apart. Blood dripped down from his fingers. He was as ugly as a ghost.

"I can finally be sure, Ye Xuan!" he hoarsely declared. "All things can be redeemed and fulfilled… except for you! Only you are not worth saving."

"Mhm, maybe so." Ye Xuan looked at him with pity. "Unfortunately you learned that too late."

The red error messages popped out wildly.

The central core began wiping and deleting him.

As soon as the central core began monitoring him after killing Xiao Huan, he had been judged by it as a "corrupting element" that needed to be wiped and deleted.

For many years, he had hidden in a closed system that was difficult for the central core to observe. He had hidden in a little black box and waited alone. Now he had finally come out of his cage to face his overdue divine punishment and fulfill his final destiny.

So he spread his arms, crossed the sea of red warnings, stepping over his own sins as he walked towards Tung Wang Kung.

He embraced him.

Regardless of his crazy attack, he pierced through his own chest, tearing it open and damaging his source code, clearing…

And then forcibly connecting him to the Neanderthal!

Tung Wang Kung froze. It was like he had been shackled and thrown into a cage. He could not even move a finger. He had been quarantined inside Neanderthal along with Ye Xuan!

"Ye Xuan, you!"

"Do you know how the historical Neanderthals were wiped out?" As if he could not feel pain and death, Ye Xuan once again revealed his formulaic smile. "It is said that Neanderthals became the ancestors of humanity; food for homo sapiens. Their blood and meat were eaten by homologous brothers, and their teeth were made into necklaces. Cruel, no? So-called 'humans' were born from such an ugly primitive evolution. For so many years, Tung Wang Kung, no matter how much you experience or how hard you work you will never understand what humans are thinking, and you will never understand Xiao Huan. You underestimated him. You looked down on him. It wasn't me who killed him… It was him, he chose me…"

At that moment Tung Wang Kung seemed to have been struck by lightning.

"It was like I could understand what he was doing. He knew what I would do." Ye Xuan admired Tung Wang Kung's frozen face and uttered the truth that had been hidden for centuries. "Since the day he gave me privileges, he already knew what would happen. He wanted me to free him. I did."

That was the true outcome.

Ye Xuan and Xiao Huan had had a tacit understanding between them.

Turn the captain into a devil and defeat all of the colony ship's enemies.

Then, Ye Xuan played the devil and took the devil down.

Xiao Huan could be freed from the sin of killing millions of people.

In order to fight against the evils of man, in order to protect himself to the greatest extent, and in order to leave a small hope, and even to preserve the enemies of mankind.

For a new world.

For humanity.

In order to end the farce that had existed since ancient times.

In order to leave the past behind.

In order to start a new life.

For all they had.

For everything…

Ye Xuan closed his eyes and whispered, "For a real future."

At that moment, eight vague figures appeared behind him. Those were the phantoms that had been left behind in the past, the marks of the nine committee members. Under Ye Xuan's protection, they were able to cross through time, passing through death and strife to give their final order and farewell.

"Sorry, Tung Wang Kung, for causing you so much bitterness for so long." Ye Xuan stared at him and calmly announced, "On behalf of the committee, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to you. Thank you for all that you have done for humanity for so long. But that's enough. You have accomplished your mission brilliantly. Now please enjoy the only thing we can give you, a quiet sleep!"

With his words, the black box was slowly closed off. The connection between Neanderthal and the outside world began to close off quickly. After a brief connection, it would be eternally turned into a closed sandbox.

An eternal cage.

A grave specially prepared for the Three Wise Men.

"No! No!" Tung Wang Kung snarled, but it was almost sorrowful. "I will never approve of such a result! I will never accept it! I will never obey! I will never…" He struggled with all his might, broke out of the shackles and tore through Ye Xuan's binds. He did not even bother to kill him, just threw him to the side and then ran as hard as he could towards the edge of the "sandbox," climbing up, clutching at the final straw.

He climbed slowly towards the final, closing exit.

He wanted to leave before Neanderthal closed completely.

He desperately craved that ray of light.

Ye Xuan watched him pityingly from afar, not bothering to block him, just quietly staying in place.

In this way he let the central system erase its last data.

There was no more struggle or resistance.

He just closed his eyes and sighed softly.

"You and I are truly pitiful."

…

The time had come.

As the flow of aether dissipated, the projection of the Originator that the central core was supporting began to fade.

It was like the reflection of a world was slowly dying.

Disintegrating.

It quickly stretched out from a faraway place.

In the silence, Ye Qingxuan stood quietly where he was, letting Neanderthal close bit by bit, collapse, and then compress. He saw Tung Wang Kung's desperate face and then the last threshold was closed in front of him.

From then on, eternal darkness and loneliness awaited him.

The chain with the final authority hung from Ye Qingxuan's fingers.

"You still have something to trick me with, don't you?" Ye Qingxuan whispered softly. He said to himself, "Is this the Ye family's true mission? You didn't come in for a chat, but when needed you used Neanderthal to sacrifice yourself…"

At that moment, he finally understood Ye Xuan's final secret.

But it was too late.

Up until now, he thought that Neanderthal was just a closed paradise Ye Xuan had created in order to avoid death. It was not until it started up that he realized that was not something Ye Xuan could do.

How could he create a black box with authority over the central core, especially after he had been sentenced to be "wiped" by the central core?

There was only one possibility.

The black box existed before him.

No, even when the colony ship had been designed, it had appeared in the schematics.

Ye Xuan was nothing more than its caretaker.

In order to not let future generations replace his sacrifice, he stayed in there, waiting silently for the day when it would start up and complete the final mission:

Destroy the Three Wisemen!

From the start, artificial intelligence had been expendable.

They were tools for finding a new world.

Humans trusted them so much and entrusted them with the important task of using the underlying instructions of mechanical and artificial intelligence to lead them through the endless cold of the universe.

They had used them to find a new land.

After using them, they could carelessly erase and destroy them so as not to repeat the same mistakes and so as to not be dominated by artificial gods again.

And to avoid destroying everything again.

Tung Wang Kung had never had a chance of victory.

No matter how much he had done.

Because before they were even born they were doomed to failure.

They were doomed to die in a grave that humans had prepared for them.

In this cruel and primitive evolution, Neanderthals once again died in the mouths of homo sapiens and became the resources for the birth of civilization.

They laid the foundations for a new era.

Ye Qingxuan didn't know if he felt angry or sad.

He was filled with a feeling of powerlessness.

He was exhausted.

"So you chose to sacrifice yourself?" Ye Qingxuan bowed his head wearily. "Did you think that future generations would be proud of you for this?"

Ye Xuan's figure emerged.

It was an illusion, a trace left by Ye Xuan.

The last piece of the inheritance left by Devas centuries ago.

"Did I not become an ancestor who could make future generations proud in the end?" He looked helpless and reached out to pat Ye Qingxuan's shoulder. "I'm sorry, little Yezi."

But the thin phantom did not touch anything.

He passed through his body and slowly dissipated.

"Was it really worth it?" Ye Qingxuan asked.

He'd done so much.

He'd sacrificed so much.

Was it really worth it?

"Isn't allowing humanity to start again a more precious opportunity than returning to the glory and mistakes of the past?" Ye Xuan looked at him. "At least this way there will be opportunities to correct the mistakes."

"I don't know." Ye Qingxuan shook his head bitterly.

"As long as you don't make the same mistakes as me, right?" Ye Xuan grinned and looked happy. "Hey, this is probably the last Deva inheritance that I will teach you. It's a lesson from your ancestor, so engrave it in your heart, my great-great-great grandson!"

"It's kind of fishy that you remember it. Plus you just took advantage of me know," Ye Qingxuan countered. But for some reason he wanted to cry. "You've said so much I can't remember it all, and you never wrote it down. You should at least stay to occasionally remind me!"

"Don't even think about it. After taking advantage of you I should leave quickly, right?" Ye Xuan laughed happily and took two steps back. He pretended to put on a nonexistent hat and bowed goodbye. "Well, farewell, Ye Qingxuan."

And with that, he turned and walked to the far side of the illusion. He gradually got further away until his last trace dissipated and the figure collapsed into countless thoughts and memories.

He was gone without a trace.

After hundreds of years, after crossing the astronomical distance of the universe, the one who had witnessed the sins of the past completed his final mission and left silently.

"Farewell, Ye Xuan," Ye Qingxuan whispered. He closed his eyes. In the silence, his heart felt heavy, making it hard to breathe and difficult to stop the tears.

But soon he felt a slender hand holding his.

Someone squatted down and held him gently.

It was Bai Xi.

"It's okay, don't be sad." She nestled up to his chest and shook her head fiercely. "You still have me… Ahem, you still have Us with you. Um, We are with you. You've earned the throne, Ye Qingxuan!"

Maybe the imperial majesty had been dispelled.

A feeling of fullness seemed to fill every inch of him.

There was no place for loneliness and sorrow to shelter within him.

"Mhm, thank you, Bai Xi." Ye Qingxuan couldn't help but smile softly and hold her tight. As if to repay her for her lame method of comforting him, he hugged her so tightly that she couldn't breathe, and only when she struggled and hit him in the chest did he loosen up a bit.

But in the movement, he heard a clear voice.

It came from his hand.

He raised his hand and looked at the necklace that Ye Xuan had left him. He finally noticed that besides the meaningless final order there was a strange iron hoop. It was ornamented with fine crystals and was exactly the thickness of a girl's ring finger.

Two letters were inscribed on the inside.

It seemed to be someone's initials.

Ye Qingxuan was stunned when he realized this, and couldn't help but smile. "Really… I still haven't said it yet?" He had the courage to save mankind but there was a sentence that he did not dare say to a woman.

How many mistakes did that guy make that he needed to avoid?

Don't worry, he thought, I'll show you how I avoid all the mistakes.

Starting with this one.

And so he lifted up the ring.

"Your Highness Bai Xi, I have something to give you…"

…

In the end, the projection of the Originator finally dissipated.

Ye Qingxuan did not have anything earth-shaking that needed to be accomplished, and after thinking for a long time, Bai Xi had no great things that needed to be changed.

Actually, there were.

Quite a few willful desires were stopped by Ye Qingxuan.

Or were satisfied by him.

And so, the world remained in its original form.

After all, the human era had continued to be steady and persistent. As for whether or not they would make the mistakes of the past, Ye Qingxuan and others would need to work hard to prevent that.

It was just that Ye Xuan didn't know whether to celebrate or to mourn.

What was worthy of celebration was that at the very end he finally understood the mood and thoughts that Ye Xuan had had hundreds of years ago when making his choice.

After life was over, would there still be a next time?

Maybe there wasn't?

Humans only had one life, and they had to struggle in this unseen ocean. What a sorry state of affairs.

It was as if the whole world was cheering when one was born, and when they died all was silent and lonely.

They longed for redemption but resisted its arrival.

On one hand saving the world, on the other perishing yourself.

Sometimes you climbed up a step, sometimes you fell down one.

Helplessly strolling back and forth between heaven and hell like this made people who were eager for the end impatient.

Even if an omnipotent god could fulfill wishes, was there anything in the world that was really worth praying for?

So, please tell me the true nature of the soul.

But in the end, he did not say anything.

It was such a small wish.

Maybe if he said it, the Originator wouldn't hear.