After hearing the door being knocked on, Yuan went to open the doors and greeted Disciple Fei.


    "Hello, Disciple Fei. Come inside." Yuan invited her inside with a nonchnt look on his face.


    Disciple Fei nodded and entered the building.


    Sometimeter, once they were sitting in the living room, and Yuan asked her, "So? What are we going to do, Disciple Fei?"


    "First and foremost, you can stop calling me ’Disciple Fei’. Although it’s only temporary, I am now your partner," she said in a calm voice.


    "Then what am I supposed to call you?" Yuan raised his eyebrows.


    "Fei Yuyan, that is my name, and you will call me as such when we are alone," she said with a stern look on her face as she red at Yuan.


    Yuan nodded without thinking too much about it and said, "Okay, Fei Yuyan. What are we going to do now?"


    A momentter, Fei Yuyan ced her zither on the table and said, "What else? We’re going to practice the zither for the entire week until thepetition!"


    Yuan looked at her with raised eyebrows, and he said, "We’re both going to use the same zither? Wouldn’t it be better if there was another one?"


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    "Of course not! I know you probably don’t have a zither, so I brought an extra one with me." Fei Yuyan said as she retrieved another zither from her spatial ring.


    "You’ll be using this one for now. Everyone at thepetition will be provided with a zither of simr quality so you don’t need to worry about unfair conditions because you don’t have a good zither."


    Yuan nodded and looked at the familiar-looking zither, as it was the one he’d first yed at the Dragon Pavilion.


    "Anyway, before we begin our practice, allow me to exin a little more about the zitherpetition in more depth."


    "First and foremost, there will be three main judges— each of them a top zither expert with hundreds of years of experience under their belt so you can expect a fairly urate judgment for your skills. Of course, you won’t see them until the final part of the exam."


    "The previouspetition was split into three parts, and we will be graded for each part. In the end, whoever has the most points will win thepetition, simple as that."


    "However, they might do things differently this year because of the Heaven and Earth temple. Furthermore, we will have a partner this time, so anything can happen."


    Yuan nodded and asked, "What did you dost year?"


    "We were graded on our hand techniques for the first part, so how you y the zither will be very important."


    "If you do not meet their expectations, there’s a good chance that you might not be able to proceed to the second round so keep that in mind."


    "For the second part, you will be given one hour to memorize and y a random song that will be provided for you. Once again, if your performance is not satisfactory, they will fail you on the spot."


    "By the time you reach the final part, there will only be a dozen participants remaining at best. And as for the final part for thepetition, if you can make it there, you’ll have to y the zither with one of the judges."


    "Huh? ying music with the judge?" Yuan raised his eyebrows in a surprised manner, as this is the first time that he’s ever heard of such a thing in a musicpetition.


    Fei Yuyan nodded and said, "One of the judges will pick a song, and you’ll have ten minutes to memorize the song. Once time’s up, the judge will y the song and you will follow along, and you will have points deducted for every mistake made. The judge will not stop ying even if you make a mistake, but if you suddenly stop ying, you will automatically fail, so you must continue ying the zither even if you make a mistake."


    "Wow... What an interesting way to do a musicalpetition..." Yuan mumbled with a somehow excited smile on his face.


    Fei Yuyan shook her head at him and said, "I know it sounds fun, but it’s actually really difficult. I myself made over a dozen mistakes during the song. Furthermore, the judge’s performance will easily distract you because of how amazing it sounds."


    "Anyways, let’s start practicing now. We don’t have much time before thepetition. For today, we’ll take turns ying the zither just to get ourselves familiarized with each other’s ystyle. Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin practicing for thepetition for real."


    Yuan nodded.


    "Then I will start first."


    Fei Yuyan took a deep breath, and she began ying the zither shortly after.


    A few minutester, she said to Yuan, "It’s your turn now. Try to y the song I’d just yed even if you don’t know it. This will be good practice just in case you’ll have to do the same during thepetition."


    Yuan nodded and closed his eyes to recall every music note Fei Yuyan had yed and all of her hand movements.


    A few momentster, Yuan began moving his fingers on the zither strings, following Fei Yuyan’s movements perfectly.


    ’This Disciple Yuan... He’s really a genius...’ Fei Yuyan mumbled to herself as she silently admired Yuan’s zither skills.


    Even though this is her first time ying this song in public, Yuan had managed to y the song perfectly without missing a single note, perhaps even slightly better.


    "What do you think?" Yuan asked her afterward.


    "Good enough," Fei Yuyan responded with a stiff expression on her face.


    "I will now y the next song."


    Fei Yuyan began ying a few secondster, and Yuan started ying after she stopped, repeating the song.


    They repeated this for the entire day, ying over 100 different songs by the end of the day.


    ’T-This guy is a freaking monster!’ Fei Yuyan stared at Yuan with wide eyes and her body sweaty from ying the zither so much.