After hearing the door being knocked on, Yuan went to open the doors and greeted Disciple Fei.
"Hello, Disciple Fei. Come inside." Yuan invited her inside with a nonchalant look on his face.
Disciple Fei nodded and entered the building.
Sometime later, once they were sitting in the living room, and Yuan asked her, "So? What are we going to do, Disciple Fei?"
"First and foremost, you can stop calling me 'Disciple Fei'. Although it's only temporary, I am now your partner," she said in a calm voice.
"Then what am I supposed to call you?" Yuan raised his eyebrows.
"Fei Yuyan, that is my name, and you will call me as such when we are alone," she said with a stern look on her face as she glared at Yuan.
Yuan nodded without thinking too much about it and said, "Okay, Fei Yuyan. What are we going to do now?"
A moment later, Fei Yuyan placed her zither on the table and said, "What else? We're going to practice the zither for the entire week until the competition!"
Yuan looked at her with raised eyebrows, and he said, "We're both going to use the same zither? Wouldn't it be better if there was another one?"
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"Of course not! I know you probably don't have a zither, so I brought an extra one with me." Fei Yuyan said as she retrieved another zither from her spatial ring.
"You'll be using this one for now. Everyone at the competition will be provided with a zither of similar quality so you don't need to worry about unfair conditions because you don't have a good zither."
Yuan nodded and looked at the familiar-looking zither, as it was the one he'd first played at the Dragon Pavilion.
"Anyway, before we begin our practice, allow me to explain a little more about the zither competition in more depth."
"First and foremost, there will be three main judges— each of them a top zither expert with hundreds of years of experience under their belt so you can expect a fairly accurate judgment for your skills. Of course, you won't see them until the final part of the exam."
"The previous competition was split into three parts, and we will be graded for each part. In the end, whoever has the most points will win the competition, simple as that."
"However, they might do things differently this year because of the Heaven and Earth temple. Furthermore, we will have a partner this time, so anything can happen."
Yuan nodded and asked, "What did you do last year?"
"We were graded on our hand techniques for the first part, so how you play the zither will be very important."
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"If you do not meet their expectations, there's a good chance that you might not be able to proceed to the second round so keep that in mind."
"For the second part, you will be given one hour to memorize and play a random song that will be provided for you. Once again, if your performance is not satisfactory, they will fail you on the spot."
"By the time you reach the final part, there will only be a dozen participants remaining at best. And as for the final part for the competition, if you can make it there, you'll have to play the zither with one of the judges."
"Huh? Playing music with the judge?" Yuan raised his eyebrows in a surprised manner, as this is the first time that he's ever heard of such a thing in a music competition.
Fei Yuyan nodded and said, "One of the judges will pick a song, and you'll have ten minutes to memorize the song. Once time's up, the judge will play the song and you will follow along, and you will have points deducted for every mistake made. The judge will not stop playing even if you make a mistake, but if you suddenly stop playing, you will automatically fail, so you must continue playing the zither even if you make a mistake."
"Wow… What an interesting way to do a musical competition…" Yuan mumbled with a somehow excited smile on his face.
Fei Yuyan shook her head at him and said, "I know it sounds fun, but it's actually really difficult. I myself made over a dozen mistakes during the song. Furthermore, the judge's performance will easily distract you because of how amazing it sounds."
"Anyways, let's start practicing now. We don't have much time before the competition. For today, we'll take turns playing the zither just to get ourselves familiarized with each other's playstyle. Starting tomorrow, we'll begin practicing for the competition for real."
Yuan nodded.
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"Then I will start first."
Fei Yuyan took a deep breath, and she began playing the zither shortly after.
A few minutes later, she said to Yuan, "It's your turn now. Try to play the song I'd just played even if you don't know it. This will be good practice just in case you'll have to do the same during the competition."
Yuan nodded and closed his eyes to recall every music note Fei Yuyan had played and all of her hand movements.
A few moments later, Yuan began moving his fingers on the zither strings, following Fei Yuyan's movements perfectly.
'This Disciple Yuan… He's really a genius…' Fei Yuyan mumbled to herself as she silently admired Yuan's zither skills.
Even though this is her first time playing this song in public, Yuan had managed to play the song perfectly without missing a single note, perhaps even slightly better.
"What do you think?" Yuan asked her afterward.
"Good enough," Fei Yuyan responded with a stiff expression on her face.
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"I will now play the next song."
Fei Yuyan began playing a few seconds later, and Yuan started playing after she stopped, repeating the song.
They repeated this for the entire day, playing over 100 different songs by the end of the day.
'T-This guy is a freaking monster!' Fei Yuyan stared at Yuan with wide eyes and her body sweaty from playing the zither so much.