After Senior Zou mumbled about the competition and some of its history, he turned to look at Song Ling'er and spoke, "Senior Song, are we ready to start the competition?"
"..."
However, almost as though she didn't hear him, Song Ling'er did not respond to his question, making Senior Zou repeat his words for a second time.
"Senior Song, are we ready to start the competition?"
"Eh? What did you just say?" Song Ling'er suddenly snapped out of her dazed and turned to look at Senior Zou's dumbfounded face.
"I-I said, we are ready to start the competition whenever you are ready, Senior Song."
Song Ling'er then nodded, "Yes, we can start."
Senior Zou nodded his head, and then he turned to look at the thousands of participants there and said, "Follow me to the arena where you'll perform in front of millions of people."
The participants there swallowed nervously when they heard that there were going to be millions of people.
While they'd expected and prepared themselves for a large crowd, they didn't expect such a massive audience! This must be the influence of the Heaven and Earth Palace and the Sect Master of the Heavenly Melody Academy, Song Ling'er!
Senior Zou suddenly turned around and walked into the building, and the participants followed him.
A few minutes later, Senior Zou led them through the entire building and into a vast, empty area that spanned for almost an entire mile, with spectators blocking the scenery in every direction due to the sheer amount of people that were present.
However, upon closer inspection, the area wasn't actually empty, and there were thousands of small wooden tables placed around the area in an orderly fashion with a zither resting on top.
Furthermore, each of these zithers looked exactly the same, and none of them looked any different from another. In fact, they were all ordinary zithers.
When the spectators saw these participants coming out of the building, the noises in that area exploded with excitement, causing the air to shake.
"You have five minutes to find a seat, and you must be sitting directly next to your partner. Go." Senior Zou said to them, and the participants scattered like ants to find their seats.
Although it was a bit messy at first, all of the participants were seated before five minutes had passed.
Once everyone was seated, the three judges jumped on top of three tall platforms that were placed directly in front of the participants before taking a seat.
Sitting directly in the middle of the participants was Song Ling'er with Senior Zou on her right side and Elder Jing on her left side.
"Thank you all for coming here today." Senior Zou spoke in a calm voice, yet his voice boomed loudly and rippled throughout the area, sounding as though he was using an invisible microphone.
"Before we start, allow us to introduce ourselves."
Senior Zou suddenly stood up and introduced himself, "My name is Zou Fujian, and I was only 7 years old when I first touched the zither. It has been exactly 135 years since I've started practicing the zither, yet I still cannot help but become excited when I see a zither in front of me. This is also my 9th time acting as a judge here. That's all."
After his brief introduction, Senior Zou returned to his seat whilst the sect elder from the Heaven and Earth Palace stood up and began introducing himself with a proud aura around him, "Surname Jing, and I am a sect elder from the Heaven and Earth Palace for the Inner Court disciples. I will admit that my experience with the zither is not as vast or profound as the other two judges, but I have supervised over 100 disciple examinations for the Heaven and Earth Palace, bringing hundreds of talented disciples to the sect, so I know a thing or two about judging people. That's all."
After Elder Jing sat down, everybody in the area turned to look at the beautiful figure sitting in the middle, their gaze filled with admiration and anticipation.
A moment later, Song Ling'er stood up and removed her veil, revealing to the audience her peerless beauty.
"Heavens! What a divine beauty!"
"As expected of the Divine Zither Fairy! Her beauty knows no boundaries!"
"Hahaha! I didn't come here to watch the zither competition, only to witness for myself whether Senior Fairy Song was as beautiful as people say she is! I can now say for certain that she's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen! This trip was definitely worth it!"
"Aaaaah! Senior Fairy Song! I love you!"
The men and women there showered Song Ling'er with praises regarding her beauty, almost like everyone there were her admirers.
However, Song Ling'er did not pay attention to the noises, and her eyes remained fixed in a certain direction.
Noticing this, Senior Zou followed her gaze and turned to look in the direction she was looking at.
'Why am I not surprised?' A slight smile appeared on his face when Senior Zou saw a distinct figure wearing a jade black mask who was also sitting beside a very pretty young lady.
'She's really obsessed with him, huh? Well, I cannot blame her. After all, she always talked about how she will be the first one to play the Soul Ensnaring Zither after the Zither Goddess⊠I can imagine the shock that she'd received when someone much younger than her stole that achievement from her.'
A few moments later, once the noises in the area died down, Song Ling'er spoke in a calm voice, "Sect Master of the Heavenly Melody Academy, Song Ling'er. We are always looking for talented individuals in the Dao of Music, especially those who specialize in the zither. Therefore, if you can attain at least the top ten, I will consider accepting you as a disciple in the Heavenly Melody Academy. As for whoever achieves first place⊠I shall make you my own disciple!"
The crowd gasped in shock when they heard such words from Song Ling'er. She was going to accept a disciple today? This was something nobody there could've expectedâ not even her own disciples!
Meanwhile, Yuan looked at Song Ling'er's beautiful figure from behind the mask, pondering to himself, 'Why does it feel like she's talking specifically to me?'