"I will be right back," Yuan said to Fei Yuyan after taking a shower, as it was about time for him to eat breakfast.
"Okay, I'll see you in a bit."
After returning to his room, Yuan logged off the game and waited for Yu Rou to do her routine.
About an hour later, Yuan logs back into the game to find Fei Yuyan casually sipping tea in the living room.
"Did you already eat breakfast?" Yuan asked her.
"Breakfast? No. I only eat food once a week." Fei Yuyan casually responded.
"Eh?" Yuan looked at her with wide eyes.
"Once a week?! That's unhealthy! Especially if you're spending so much time practicing!" he said to her.
Fei Yuyan raised her eyebrows and said, "What are you talking about? As Cultivators, we don't need to eat as often as mortals since we feed on spiritual energy. In fact, most Cultivators treat food like snacks."
Yuan stared at Fei Yuyan with a loose jaw. Because his breakthroughs mostly relied on monster cores and fortuitous encounters such as the Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate Tower, he didn't know that he could fill his stomach with spiritual energy alone.
"Even if you can fill your stomach with spiritual energy… That still sounds unhealthy…" Yuan mumbled, as he cannot even begin to imagine eating no food for an entire week straight.
Furthermore, while spiritual energy may be able to fill up one's stomach, what about one's nutrition? Does spiritual energy have the necessary nutrition for one's body? How is that any different from drinking water to fill up one's stomach?
"If you want to eat something, you can go ahead and eat without me. I can wait for you to return before we start practice." Fei Yuyan said to him.
Yuan shook his head and said, "No, it's fine. I already ate. We can begin to practice whenever you're ready."
Fei Yuyan raised her eyebrows. Did he eat inside his room or something?
After shaking the questions in her mind away, Fei Yuyan tilted her head backward along with the teacup, gulping down the tea at once.
"Okay, let's start practice now." Fei Yuyan said to him afterward.
Yuan nodded, and as he turned to walk outside, Fei Yuyan suddenly said, "We can stay inside today; it's raining outside right now."
"Oh, okay." Yuan nodded again before taking a seat on the couch.
A few minutes later, once they were in position and prepared, the two of them began playing the zither.
Xuan Wuhan woke up an hour later with Min Li knocking on the door a few minutes later.
"Wow, it sounds even more impactful since we're inside a closed area," Xuan Wuhan said with a slightly dazed look on her face after listening to her first song for the day.
"Also, it sounded like you've both improved a lot since yesterday. How much did you actually practice last night? Did you even sleep?" Xuan Wuhan asked them afterward.
"No, we didn't sleep last night actually. Instead, we'd spent the entire night playing the zither together— alone." Fei Yuyan responded to her in a calm voice.
Xuan Wuhan's eyes widened, and she proceeded to stare at Fei Yuyan with a speechless look on her face.
"Anyway, let's continue." Fei Yuyan said to Yuan, and they continued practicing the zither again.
Time passed quickly and before they realized it, it was already night again.
"Okay, Disciple Yuan. This is enough for today. Go rest now, and then we'll spend the entire day tomorrow resting even more. Our body and mind must be in perfect shape before the competition, after all." Fei Yuyan said to him at the end of their practice session.
"Okay." Yuan nodded and went to shower first this time.
Once Yuan returned, Fei Yuyan went to clean herself.
"What do you think, Yuan? Are you confident in your abilities? Do you think you'll have a chance at 3rd place? I don't know much about zither, but if someone like Disciple Fei could reach 7th place, you'll definitely be able to reach 3rd place if not even first place!" Xuan Wuhan said to him.
"I am also unsure about my current standing since I am new to the zither and Disciple Fei is the only other zither player I know and can compare to. However, no matter what happens, I'll play the zither to the best of my abilities and hopefully, meet Disciple Fei's expectations," Yuan said with a smile on his face.
"You're quite the humble one despite your talents, Yuan. I really admire that. You're clearly already better than Disciple Fei who is already highly established and respected in the zither community, yet you act like equals."
"Well, I've learned at a very young age to never look down on others regardless of their situation, so I can only look up to or as equal to somebody," Yuan said.
"Your parents have taught you well then…" Xuan Wuhan said.
However, a bittersweet smile appeared on Yuan's face, and he said in a slightly dispirited voice, "The only thing my parents taught me was music and instruments. Everything else was either self-taught or taught by my sister."
"I-Is that so? Then who taught you to be humble?" Xuan Wuhan asked, feeling a little awkward now.
A weird smile appeared on Yuan's face, and he said, "It took a while, but I learned it after realizing why all of my opponents were crying and staring at me with hatred on their faces after a music competition."
"Although I didn't realize it until it was too late, I had always looked at my opponents with a cold and indifferent face. Perhaps they mistook my natural expression as arrogance, hence why I was hated by a lot of people."
"You? Arrogant and indifferent? I cannot imagine it, especially the being hated part." Xuan Wuhan said.
Yuan chuckled and said, "I don't really remember most of it, but my sister would always tell me how much I have changed compared to my childhood days. Perhaps living most of my life as a cripple had really changed my character."
"Eh? What did you just say? A cripple? You?"
Xuan Wuhan and Min Li stared at Yuan with wide eyes after he accidentally spilled some beans.