Online Cultivation
episode 198

"Who's your partner, Fairy Fei?" The worker asked him.

Fei Yuyan pointed at Yuan who was still wearing his black jade mask and said, "My partner is a fellow disciple, Yuan."

The worker turned to look at Yuan with raised eyebrows.

‘The pair is male? What a lucky bastard,’ the worker cursed Yuan inwardly, feeling envious.

After writing their names in the notebook, the worker handed over two tokens, both with the number 5163 engraved in them.

“Token This will show that you are a partner, and your score will be added at the end of.”

When Yuan received the token, a notification appeared before him.

‘Top three, huh? Since I've been trying to reach third place, this is perfect.’ Yuan smiled inwardly upon seeing the notification, wondering what the game would give him to reach the top 3.

“Now that we have registered for the competition, we just need to wait to get started. What do you want to do until then?” Fei Yuyan asked Yuan afterwards.

“I want to go somewhere where I can play Soul Ensnaring Zither,” Yuan replied after pondering for a moment.

“You want to play sitar? How about a break before the competition?” Fei Yuyan looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“I can't help it. My hands have been itching to play the zither ever since I received Soul Ensnaring Zither!” Yuan sighed.

"Are you? A junkie?" Fei Yuyan shook her head with a desperate smile on her face.

"By the way, if you want to play the zither, I know the place, and you can even have an audience there."

"Thul? Let's go." Yuan agreed immediately.

Thus, Fei Yuyan left the meeting area before bringing Yuan and the others to the large park in the middle of this city.

However, there were already people playing music in the park. In fact, there are many different instruments that are played at the same time, almost like they are competing against each other.

"What's going on here? Why are there so many people playing musical instruments here? And isn't it rude to play when someone else is already playing?” Yuan asked Fei Yuyan.

“It's usually like that, but this place is a little special. Musicians come here to receive recognition, and it's almost like a competition for people here to see who has the most audience

"After all, what do you get for doing something like that?" Yuan raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, this is also considered an exercise for many people because your concentration can be easily distracted in this chaotic atmosphere with so many people playing at once. Getting recognition is just a bonus.”

"I understand ..." Yuan nodded.

“Just find an empty place and try. You might be surprised by how difficult it is to play in this place.”

After putting it on the stone table, Yuan took a deep breath to calm his mind and it took him a long time to get used to the noisy atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Fei Yuyan and the others sat nearby, patiently waiting for Yuan to start with anticipation on their faces.

‘This is nothing new to me. I have been trained to ignore my surroundings and just focus on instruments, even playing through the big earthquake one time ..’ Yuan thought inwardly.

Moments later, it was almost like there was a filter in his mind, Yuan isolated the surrounding voices, and the only sounds he could hear were his own breathing and the sound of his heartbeat.

Ting~

Yuan started playing the zither a while later, instantly filling the garden with heavenly zither music.

When others in this garden heard this divine voice, they immediately began to try to figure out where it came from.

“Who plays this zither music?! I've never heard anything that sounds this beautiful before!”

"This ... sounds too good to be true …"

"I have to see for myself who produced such a magical tone even if it was the last thing I did in this life!"

Very quickly, everyone in the park began to approach Yuan's location, and even the other musicians in the park stopped playing their instruments to admire his music.

“Anyone who plays this is definitely a top expert! I can't miss this opportunity to meet a top zither expert!”

Thus, even the other musicians in the park started walking towards the Yuan location.

A minute after Yuan started playing the zither, over a hundred people had already gathered at his location to watch his performance.

“S-Who is that? The mask was blocking his face so I couldn't identify him, but he was definitely a man! I didn't know any male sitar experts could play the sitar perfectly”even Master Zou didn't! There was no disrespect for him, of course!"

“L-See the instrument he used! Are my eyes deceiving me, or is it the Soul-Snaring Sitar ?! ”

"What?! A Soul-Snaring Zither?! That's impossible!"

The audience there quickly noticed the beautiful zither Yuan was playing, and they were in disbelief.

“It must be a replica! The Soul-Snaring Zither could not be played by anyone other than the Sitar Goddess! It's been like that for thousands of years!”

“No one currently living in the Under Heaven has ever heard the voice of the Soul-Snaring Zither before so there is no way for us to know if it is genuine or just fake. However, even without any proof, I can say with confidence that Soul Ensnaring Zither is a fake!”

Although the audience did not believe even for a second that the instrument Yuan played was the legendary cursed instrument, they could not question his zither art, and they quickly ignored the instrument and refocused on the music.

And while everyone there was too immersed in Yuan music to care about their surroundings, a tall and slender figure wearing a veil over their heads suddenly appeared behind the crowd to watch the show as well.

‘That must be the original Soul Sitar Trapper.. But how…? Who is this guy?’ The hooded figure wondered, feeling extremely shocked by the abnormal situation they had encountered by chance.