After taking a deep breath, Fei Yuyan began playing the zither again with Yuan, trying her best to synchronize her music with his, but alas, she stopped playing again somewhere in the middle of the song.
'This is too difficult!' Fei Yuyan cried inwardly with her back soaked in sweat despite barely practicing.
"It's okay, we can start again and do this until you can finish the song," Yuan said to her in a soothing tone, almost like he was trying to make her feel better.
However, Fei Yuyan shook her head and said, "Then that would make this entire practice pointless! If I cannot follow the judge after one try, I'll immediately fail!"
"But if you don't practice, how will you improve? It's called 'practice' for a reason."
"That's easy for a genius like you to say…" Fei Yuyan sighed.
"People may call me a genius, but I have spent more time practicing the instruments than anyone at my age when I was a mere child— even those twice or thrice my age. Every day, without fail, I would spend at least ten hours a day practicing different instruments, even on the days that I have competitions and whatnot." Yuan sighed after recalling the amount of time he'd spent practicing the instruments.
He'd spent so much time on instruments that his social life was basically nonexistent outside of his family and a small circle of people.
"Ten hours a day every day?"
Everybody there looked at him with wide eyes. How does he cultivate if he spends all of his time practicing instruments?
"Anyway, let's continue to practice. I'm sure you'll get it right soon or later. Once you get it right for the first time, it'll be much easier next time even if it's with a new song." Yuan said to Fei Yuyan, who nodded in a dazed manner.
Thus, the two of them continued to practice with Fei Yuyan trying her best to synchronize with Yuan's performance.
Of course, Fei Yuyan had stopped midway a couple more times, but there was clear progress, albeit rather slow.
After a dozen failures, Fei Yuyan finally managed to complete the song with Yuan, but her performance was still questionable at best with multiple mistakes.
Meanwhile, the disciples listening to their performance outside were puzzled by the weird noises coming from Yuan's building.
"Who's that second zither player? This amateur is ruining Fairy Fei's flawless performance!"
"Maybe Fairy Fei is teaching someone the zither."
"Aiya… What a damn pity and a waste of Fairy Fei's time…"
The disciples there complained about this 'amateur player', completely unaware that they were all dissing the same Fairy Fei that they were praising.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Inner Court, Elder Shan looked at the pill in her hands with a proud expression on her face.
"I have finally completed this enhanced Pill of Concealment. Now I just need to give it to Disciple Yuan." Elder Shan mumbled to herself as she left her building and made her way towards Yuan's living quarters.
However, to her surprise, there were hundreds of Outer Court disciples gathered outside the area, dumbfounding Elder Shan when she witnessed this scene.
"What the heck is going on here?"
Elder Shan approached the crowd and spoke loudly, "What is the cause of this gathering?"
When the disciples turned around and saw Elder Shan's beautiful face, they immediately lowered their heads and greeted her.
"Greetings, Elder Shan!"
After their greetings, the disciples proceeded to explain their situation to her.
"What? My disciple is playing the zither in this area?" Elder Shan raised her eyebrows, then she recalled how Fei Yuyan's going to be participating in the zither competition with Yuan.
'She must be practicing with him, huh.' Elder Shan thought to herself before speaking out loud, "Well, this is not a place for disciples to gather. If you want to listen to her zither music, you can wait until she decides to visit the Dragon Pavilion! Now scram!"
Although they were reluctant to leave, there was simply no way these Outer Court disciples could defy a sect elder, much less a high-ranking sect elder like Elder Shan.
Once the disciples left the scene, they all mumbled to each other, "Man, this is my first time seeing Elder Shan in such a close distance! Her title as the prettiest sect elder is not for show!"
"I heard she was even the number one fairy back when she was still a young disciple! Man, if only I can have a partner like that!"
"Quit your dreaming! Don't you know that Elder Shan has no interest in men? Rumor has it that she's only interested in women, hence why she only accepts female disciples!"
"Really? Damn, what a pity! But that's also hot in its own ways!"
Sometime later, Elder Shan approached Yuan's building and knocked on the door, and she shouted loudly, "Disciple Fei! Come outside!"
"Eh? That sounds like my master. What's she doing here?" Fei Yuyan turned around with a puzzled look on her face. "And why did she call for me when this is clearly your house?"
Fei Yuyan then placed her zither down and went to open the door.
"Master? What are you doing here?" Fei Yuyan asked her after greeting her.
"I have something for Disciple Yuan," Elder Shan said, and she continued, "Are you guys practicing right now?"
"Yes, but since it's getting late, we're about to stop."
"Oh? I know it's only been two days but let me see your progress." Elder Shan said.
"I have been curious about Disciple Yuan's zither skills ever since you asked him to be your partner for the competition."
"Uhhh…" Fei Yuyan immediately hesitated, mostly because she didn't want Elder Shan to learn that Yuan has already surpassed her with the zither.
'Ah, whatever… She's going to learn about it sooner or later…' Fei Yuyan sighed inwardly before nodding her head.
A few moments later, Fei Yuyan returned to the backyard with Elder Shan by her side, dumbfounding Xuan Wuhan and Min Li.
"Hmm?"
Elder Shan also raised her eyebrows when she noticed the two of them, as she wasn't expecting any other guests other than herself.
Author's Note: We have reached our goal of #1 for win-win, but we must stay in this position until the end of the month for the 5 chapters mass release! Support the novel by joining Privilege at the low cost of 1 coin! Only available in the mobile app!