When the female disciples began demanding a second song, Yuan turned to look at Disciple Fei, who quickly nodded her head, giving him the approval to continue using her zither.
Thus, Yuan placed his fingers on the zither strings once again and began playing another song.
The atmosphere immediately changed again, and Yuan's zither music echoed throughout the area, allowing disciples far away from their location to enjoy the music as well.
"Wow! This must be Fairy Fei's zither performance! I think she has improved yet again!"
"As expected of a genius, her talents with the zither are off the charts!"
"What beautiful music… I can listen to this all day if it was an option…"
Yuan finished his second song a few minutes later, and the world turned quiet again, even feeling a little bit lonely without the music.
"A-Again! Play another song, Disciple Yuan!" One of the Inner Court disciples said with a slightly bashful look on her face.
"Yeah! Two songs are not enough! You need to play at least a dozen songs!" Another one said.
"A dozen songs…?" Yuan raised his eyebrows.
"You can play until you are satisfied," Disciple Fei suddenly said to him.
Yuan nodded, and he began playing the zither again shortly after.
Meanwhile, the Inner Court disciples and Disciple Fei closed their eyes and fully indulged themselves in the music, feeling their minds entering an indescribable state that allowed them to think with more clarity, almost like there was some sort of special effects coming from Yuan's zither play.
An hour later, Yuan suddenly stopped playing the zither, as he'd run out of songs to play.
"Eh? Why did you stop? I was so close to entering a state of enlightenment! At least that's what it felt like!"
"Don't stop! Play some more!"
The Inner Court disciples immediately began complaining.
However, Yuan shook his head and said, "That's all the songs I know."
"Just repeat the songs then!" One of them quickly responded.
"Okay, calm down, Junior Sisters. Disciple Yuan has already showcased his abilities enough. Let's give him a break." Disciple Fei said, and she continued, "Furthermore, this gathering was supposed to end over an hour ago. Come back next month, perhaps Disciple Yuan will be here again."
"If you say so, Senior Sister Fei…"
Although the Inner Court disciples were reluctant to leave, they had no choice.
"I'm sorry for being rude to you at the beginning, Disciple Yuan." Disciple Feng said to him with an apologetic expression on her face before leaving the place.
"I would also like to apologize for doubting your abilities, Disciple Yuan. Thank you for today's performance." Disciple Ying said to him with a friendly smile on her face.
"If you ever need anything, you can find me at Building #921," said Disciple Gu.
"See you next time, Disciple Yuan. Make sure you're here next month, too!" Disciple Zhao said to him.
Once all of the Inner Court disciples left the place, leaving Yuan and Disciple Fei alone, Disciple Fei immediately lowered her head slightly and spoke in an apologetic voice, "I am really sorry for calling you my student and pressuring you to play the zither again!"
Yuan shook his head and spoke in a calm voice, "There's no need to apologize. I don't mind it, and I also wanted to play the zither."
Disciple Fei nodded, and then she said a moment later, "By the way, what are you doing here? Why were you knocking on my house?"
"Oh, right… I nearly forgot…" Yuan showed Disciple Fei the mission that she'd created.
"Ah… that…" Disciple Fei immediately blushed, looking like someone who was caught doing something embarrassing.
"I wanted to look for you regarding something coming up, but I didn't know where you lived or who you were even after asking many sect elders, so I could only resort to such a method…" Disciple Fei said, and then she continued, "And since you showed up yourself, I guess it technically means that you have completed my request, so I'll give you the 50 contribution points now. Give me your identification token."
Yuan nodded and handed Disciple Fei his identification token.
"Hm? This is a bronze identification slip. What happened to your gold one?" Disciple Fei asked him when she noticed this.
"You mean this one? I only use it when I need contribution points since the bronze one has none," Yuan explained.
"Y-You have two identification tokens?" Disciple Fei looked at him with wide eyes.
Why would they give him two identification tokens? It was almost as though the sect was trying to hide Yuan's real identity.
However, Disciple Fei decided to not think too deeply about this for now and transferred the contribution points to him.
"I gave you 60 contribution points instead of 50 because of your performance just now," Disciple Fei said to him after returning the identification token to him.
"Thank you," Yuan said afterward.
"By the way, you said that you were looking for me? Why?" Yuan asked sometime later.
"About that…" Disciple Fei suddenly began acting hesitant.
A few moments of silence later, she spoke, "Well… I am in need of a partner…"
"Partner?" Yuan raised his eyebrows.
"What kind of partner?" He asked her with an innocent face.
One would normally think of 'lovers' when they hear the word 'partner' from a female, but Yuan was too innocent to think of such things.
"There will be a large zither competition next week, and I need a partner in order to even participate. I have been looking for someone who can play the zither even half as decent as I can, but there's no such person in the Dragon Essence Temple. However, you… you can definitely do it! Please! I will pay you as many contribution points as you want if we can participate in this competition!" Disciple Fei said to him in a slightly desperate voice.
"Zither competition, huh? What's so special about this competition anyway?" Yuan asked, his interest piqued.