Soon, under the little girl's arrangements, Gu Qingfeng followed a manor attendant to bathe.
One had to admit, this manor was truly comfortable. Even the bathing area was well-appointed, complete with a hot spring to soak in and a Light Rain Formation overhead. When the formation activated, it was like a gentle drizzle falling from the sky. This made Gu Qingfeng sigh inwardly: people nowadays really know how to enjoy themselves.
Thinking back to his own cultivation days, the spiritual energy of this world had been sparse, spiritual veins were monopolized by the great sects, and even spirit stones were considered luxury items. Sometimes, people fought tooth and nail, shedding blood, just to seize a single spirit stone. Now, however, after a great calamity, it was as if heaven and earth had been reborn. All things began to recover, spiritual veins were everywhere, and operating formations no longer caused heartache over spirit stones.
Joy lifts the spirit, and a bath and change of clothes feel like a new spring.
After bathing, Gu Qingfeng felt greatly refreshed. He ate a few Vitality Pills. Though his body was still weak, it was much better than when he had first awakened, and his complexion gradually improved.
Changing into the new clothes brought by the attendant, they fit reasonably well. Looking at himself in the bronze mirror after putting them on, he felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity.
In the mirror, his figure was tall and straight, his black hair casually disheveled. His fair face bore distinct, sharp features that exuded a cold handsomeness. His pair of narrow, long eyes were as still, deep, and profound as an abyss.
Gu Qingfeng touched his own face, a feeling he couldn't quite describe stirring within him.
Cultivation knows no time.
To be honest, it had been a very, very long time since Gu Qingfeng had looked in a mirror after tempering his body with the Nine Nethers Primordial Fire—so long that he had almost forgotten what he truly looked like.
"Back in the day, I was the handsome young lad famous in all the nearby villages...
Nowadays...
Ah!
I've grown old..." Although his appearance looked to be in his early twenties, and he wore a very youthful, brand-new white robe, he still lacked the vigor of a young man. What he possessed was only that profound aura of twilight.
Cultivating a Golden Core could indeed preserve eternal youth, but it could only preserve the youthfulness of one's appearance, not the youthfulness of one's heart.
No matter how young one's face looked, it couldn't conceal the traces left by the passage of time deep within one's soul.
Ah.
The attendant brought over quite a few fruits and melon seeds. Gu Qingfeng ate while he waited, but after a good long while, Ouyang Ye still hadn't come. Feeling bored, he went out for a stroll.
Earlier, he'd heard from that girl Ouyang Ye that some sort of Musical Arts gathering was to be held here, and it seemed many Musical Arts masters had come to the Qingyang Region. As Gu Qingfeng wandered along, various zither melodies reached his ears, causing him to shake his head. The tunes played were a chaotic mess, truly living up to the old saying: "just plucking wildly."
"These can be called masters?
Back when I first started dabbling in Musical Arts, I played better than this..." If a profound melody could be played with artistic conception, it could indeed make one dream of ancient times. But if it couldn't, it was simply torture, because Musical Arts could easily resonate with a person's spirit.
The manor was full of gardens, and it seemed someone was playing the zither in each one. Listening as he walked, Gu Qingfeng couldn't help but stop in front of one particular garden. It wasn't because the zither music inside was beautiful—on the contrary, the sound coming from this garden was quite ordinary, clearly that of a beginner.
The reason Gu Qingfeng stopped was because the zither sound inside made him want to laugh.
The notes were intermittent. The player seemed to be practicing, stopping every time they made a mistake, then starting again, only to err again...
In this back-and-forth, they had already made mistakes over ten times, and the player seemed very stubborn, persistently playing and making the same mistake in the same spot.
"What a stubborn one..." Gu Qingfeng couldn't bear to listen any longer. Following the sound, he walked in. To his surprise, the player turned out to be a little girl of seven or eight with yellow hair.
The girl wasn't tall, with blue hair, and looked very cute. At the moment, she was standing in a pavilion, tilting her little head as she played. Perhaps because she kept making mistakes, the girl wore a very frustrated expression, muttering to herself, "Why do I always make a mistake here...
What's the reason? My fingering is clearly correct, the strings are right...
The rhythm isn't bad either. Could it be I'm using the wrong Spiritual Art?"
Since Musical Arts were hailed as one of the Ten Great Immortal Arts, they naturally weren't as simple as just plucking strings. A beautiful zither piece, if played empty, might be pleasing to the ear or even heavenly, but if played infused with spiritual power, it was like giving the piece a soul—more vivid and more profound. The reason Musical Arts could subdue demons and monsters was precisely the effect of infusing spiritual power. The power of a formidable Musical Arts piece could even rival a terrifying divine ability.
The little girl was stubborn, perhaps also a bit adorably clumsy...
Repeating it dozens of times back and forth, she actually made the same mistake in the same spot every time. She really was a blockhead. Gu Qingfeng walked over and said with a laugh, "Little sister, your fingering isn't wrong. The strings and rhythm are also correct. What's wrong is your application of the Spiritual Art."
"Ah!"
Hearing someone speak, the girl exclaimed in surprise. Seeing Gu Qingfeng, besides surprise, she seemed even more shy, her little face immediately flushing red as she asked timidly, "You...
Who are you?"
"Me? I'm just passing by. I heard you playing the zither and came to take a look."
The girl made an "oh" sound, then seemed to remember what he had just said. Lifting her little head again, she asked, "Big Brother, what did you say just now? Was my Spiritual Art application wrong?"
"You were using the Four-String Shaoyu Art just now. For that particular melody, it's a bit too heavy."
Gu Qingfeng walked into the pavilion and sat down, saying, "Why don't you try switching to the Light Caress Layered Ripple style, and then use the Three-String Minor Return Art?"
"Switch to Light Caress Layered Ripple style and use the Three-String Minor Return Art?"
The girl opened the score in her hand and looked at it, then replied, "But...
That's not what's written in the score."
"The score is dead, but people are alive. How will you know if you don't try?"
The girl tilted her head, thought for a moment, stared with her big eyes for a while, then played again with a mixture of belief and doubt. When she reached the problematic melody, she switched her fingering to Light Caress Layered Ripple style and her Spiritual Art to the Three-String Minor Return Art. Unexpectedly, she succeeded immediately.
Perhaps because she hadn't expected it to go so smoothly, or perhaps because she couldn't quite believe it was real, the girl tried again... and succeeded once more.
The girl looked at the score, then stared at Gu Qingfeng, utterly unable to believe it, and even more unable to understand why not following the score could still produce that melody.
"Big Brother, are you a musician here?"
"Me?" Gu Qingfeng shook his head, indicating he was not.
"Then Big Brother must understand Musical Arts very well, right?"
"Passable. I dabbled in it for a while in the past."
"Then Big Brother's attainment in Musical Arts must be very high?"
"Of course."
Sitting in the pavilion, Gu Qingfeng crossed his legs, cracked melon seeds, and said with a smile, "Back when I was into Musical Arts, if I claimed second place, no one dared claim first. There wasn't a single piece in the world I couldn't play."
"Ah! Really? Big Brother, can you play 'Flowers Fall Without Sentiment'?"
Flowers Fall Without Sentiment? Gu Qingfeng truly hadn't heard of this piece.
"Then... 'Purple Clouds Soar'..." Gu Qingfeng shook his head again. He hadn't heard of this piece either. Then the little girl listed over a dozen pieces in succession, none of which he had heard. Facing the girl's doubtful gaze, Gu Qingfeng's expression was rather awkward. He pondered that his boast had been a bit too big.
"Big Brother, didn't you say there wasn't a piece in the world you couldn't play... How come... you can't play any of Sister Su Hua's famous pieces?"
"Who is Su Hua?" Gu Qingfeng thought for a moment but found the name unfamiliar.
"Sister Su Hua is the musician Jin'er admires most!"
Gu Qingfeng surmised that this so-called Su Hua was probably a musician who had emerged in recent years.
"Big Brother, what pieces do you usually play then?"
"Usually..." Gu Qingfeng thought seriously and said, "The pieces I usually play might be a bit too old for you. I don't know if you've heard of them. For example, I can play pieces by Demon Rock Patriarch, Black Zither Granny, Sima Xingkong—pieces by those great experts."
"Demon Rock Patriarch, Black Zither Granny, Sima Xingkong... They're all seniors from the ancient era, aren't they? Their pieces are all too... too strange. Jin'er doesn't like listening to them."
The girl tilted her head, thought for a moment, blinked her big eyes, and said, "Among the pieces by those senior experts from the ancient era, Jin'er only likes those by the World-Honored Empress and the Chixiao Monarch."
"The Monarch's Tune?" Gu Qingfeng raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Don't mention it. What I'm best at is Gu Tianlang's pieces."
"Big Brother!" The girl frowned, looking at him with a very suspicious gaze. "You can't even play Sister Su Hua's pieces, yet you claim to be good at the Monarch's Tune... The Monarch's Tune is far, far more difficult than Sister Su Hua's pieces."
"Ha ha ha ha! If you talk about playing other people's pieces, I really can't guarantee it. But when it comes to the Monarch's Tune, I can play them with my eyes closed, at will... Every piece full of artistic conception."
"Big Brother is boasting again. My grandfather has spent a lifetime comprehending the Monarch's Tune and still doesn't dare boast of being able to play ten pieces with artistic conception..."
"What's this? You, a little girl, don't believe me?" Gu Qingfeng stood up, stuffed the spirit fruit in his hand into his pocket, clapped his hands, and said with a laugh, "Today, Big Brother is in a good mood. I'll show you a trick."
Taking the ancient zither from the girl's hands, he tried plucking a few melodies. Perhaps because it had been too long since he'd touched a zither, he felt a bit rusty.
"Big Brother, what are you playing? It's a complete mess. And Big Brother, why are you playing empty? Why aren't you using a Spiritual Art?"
The girl reminded him, "If a piece isn't infused with spiritual power, it's like having no soul, no life. You simply can't bring out the profound artistic conception of the piece."
"Well, look at you, young as you are, you know quite a lot."
The little girl's ancient zither was a type of old Banana Leaf Zither. The surface had some broken patterns, suggesting it had some years. Gu Qingfeng plucked the strings and said, "But not all pieces require spiritual power to bring out their profound artistic conception. Sometimes, playing empty can also capture the essence of a piece."
He tried a few more melodies, familiarized himself, and then began to play. He played a piece called 'Drunken Chanting of the Blue Sea'.
Back when he was obsessed with Musical Arts, he had composed many pieces. This 'Drunken Chanting of the Blue Sea' wasn't the most profound among all his pieces, nor was it the one with the most artistic conception. The reason he wanted to play this piece was, firstly, pure fondness, and secondly, his current situation was quite similar to when he had composed this 'Drunken Chanting of the Blue Sea'.
Back then, in his youthful arrogance, he had offended many people. The number of times he'd been injured was beyond counting, and the times his cultivation had been completely lost numbered eight or nine. Once, besieged by experts from the Immortal Court, his primordial spirit withered, and he nearly lost his life. During that period, he hid by the Blue Sea, drinking wine, which later gave birth to this 'Drunken Chanting of the Blue Sea'.
And now?
Judged by the Heavenly Dao, his Great Dao foundation destroyed, his Immortal Monster King Throne seized, his cultivation gone once more...
It felt as if he had returned to those days.
Now, after so many years, playing this 'Drunken Chanting of the Blue Sea' again stirred up countless emotions.
And this was precisely the most wondrous aspect of Musical Arts—how easily it could evoke memories and touch the deepest emotions of the heart.
This was also the fundamental reason Gu Qingfeng had been obsessed with Musical Arts back then.
As the piece ended, his thoughts also returned from the past.
Gu Qingfeng let out a breath and shook his head slightly, somewhat dissatisfied. "It's been too long since I played this thing. I can't quite capture the feeling from back then for the moment."
The little girl beside him had been listening intently, her little face showing extreme astonishment. Staring at Gu Qingfeng with wide eyes, her gaze was as if looking at a monster, standing there dumbfounded as if her soul had left her, staring in shock.
"An eye-opener! Truly an eye-opener!"
An exclamation of admiration sounded. Gu Qingfeng looked over and saw an old man standing in the garden, though he didn't know when he had arrived.
Um...
Could everyone please add to your collections and vote!