"Secret"

The heavy boots crushed the dead wood in the snow, and the owner of the boots let out a heavy, labored breath.

He Wei Ni Ya followed silently behind him, seemingly lost in thought.

Finally, the man stopped, bent over, held his knees, and gasped for breath, clearly in very poor condition.

"Are you sick?" He Wei Ni Ya asked casually. "If you're sick, you can see a doctor."

"... Shut up!" the man growled, then abruptly raised his head, staring intently at He Wei Ni Ya with his bloodshot eyes. "You dare laugh at me?!"

"I'm just stating the facts," He Wei Ni Ya said calmly. "If you're really feeling unwell, I can take you there. With Physician Enorman's medical skills, he'll definitely be able to help you."

The man smiled after hearing He Wei Ni Ya's words.

But it wasn't an ordinary laugh; it was a laugh tinged with anger and mockery.

"Stop pretending, He Wei Ni Ya!" the man said. "No one in this academy knows your true colors better than I do!"

"Oh? Is that so?" He Wei Ni Ya slowly put her hands behind her back. "Tell me, what kind of face do I have?"

At the same time as she put her hands behind her back, the staff that had been hidden before slipped from her sleeve and was caught by He Wei Ni Ya.

This action was naturally invisible to the man, and at this moment, his attention was entirely focused on He Wei Ni Ya herself. He had been further enraged by He Wei Ni Ya's nonchalant tone.

"You think I'm putting on airs, He Wei Ni Ya!" The man raised his hand, pointing at He Wei Ni Ya. "Don't you know what you did in the Seed Zone?"

He Wei Ni Ya narrowed her eyes slightly.

Memories from a year ago flooded her mind again.

Was it discovered at that time?

But there shouldn't have been anyone around at the time.

So, does that mean this guy already knows her identity Gold Score?

A series of questions flooded He Wei Ni Ya's mind at that moment, but these questions were quickly condensed and summarized into one question.

How can I shut him up?

He Wei Ni Ya did not reveal her thoughts, but said, "You've already called me here, and now it's just the two of us, so let's be more clear about things... After all, I still don't know who you are."

"You don't recognize me... Heh, you really don't recognize me, after all, you didn't notice me back then." The man put his finger under his eyes, then slowly widened his eyes. "But I was watching you back then, hiding to the side watching you, when you... killed that person with your own hands."

Upon hearing this, He Wei Ni Ya's expression grew even colder, and the staff she had hidden behind her began to rapidly gather Magic Power energy.

I'm just waiting for the man's next words.

"Heh, that expression... that's the expression, very good, really good. You finally can't keep up the act anymore, He Wei Ni Ya!" The man roared at He Wei Ni Ya, "What you and your family did in the Seed Zone, all the people you killed, I saw it all! I saw it all!"

The man practically roared out the last half of his sentence.

The spreading sound waves shook the snow off the branches.

Snowflakes, as fine as goose feathers, drifted down between the two of them.

Then came silence.

The Magic Power vortex that He Wei Ni Ya was about to unleash behind her slowly dissipated.

Oh, so that's what it was...

He Wei Ni Ya finally understood what the man meant by murder.

And some scenes from the depths of memory, like snowflakes falling from the mind, flutter down one by one.

"This won't work."

"This potential is also very poor; even if it's raised to adulthood, it won't reach silver."

"Hurry up and get rid of it."

A figure moved about, and someone came up in front of her.

"This one seems alright."

"Let's observe further."

The last snowflake melted into the snow, and there was no longer any obstruction in the field of vision.

He Wei Ni Ya was still watching the man, but her eyes had regained their calm.

This gave the man an unsettling calm.

Is this all you wanted to tell me?

The man was stunned. "W-what do you mean, 'just this'?"

"I thought you'd come up with something more surprising," He Wei Ni Ya said, tucking her snow-dampened hair behind her ear. "But this is all I got. It's a little disappointing."

"You, you, you're just putting on an act!" the man roared. "What you and your family have done in the Seed Zone, once the Academy finds out..."

"So what if I know?" He Wei Ni Ya said. "Do you really think it's a secret?"

"...What's the meaning?"

"I think you've only been to that one Seed Zone," He Wei Ni Ya said slowly. "If you'd been to other Seed Zone, you wouldn't be saying such childish things to me now."

The man understood He Wei Ni Ya's words.

In other words, all Seed Zone... are like that?

The man opened his mouth, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"You, you're just making excuses."

"What's there to argue about?" He Wei Ni Ya slowly raised her head, as if looking down at the somewhat hunched man in front of her. "The Hai Luo Family, that is, our family, has always been in the middle in terms of seed harvest rate in the entire Holy Sound... In your eyes, we, who are so unscrupulous in order to ensure the harvest rate, can only be in the middle."

She paused, and those memories flooded back into her mind.

"So, what did the other families upstream do?"

"Think about it carefully. Eliminating unqualified seeds is something every family does."

"And you, do you really dare to make all of this public?"

He Wei Ni Ya's words were like a heavy stone, crushing the man and causing him to kneel on the snow. His breathing, which had just returned to normal, became heavy again.

He wasn't completely ungrateful.

If, as He Wei Ni Ya claims, every family does this in their own Seed Zone, then there will only be one outcome for him who makes all of this public—death.

He only wanted to control He Wei Ni Ya and would never dare to offend the entire nobility.

But why is this happening?

The man clenched his fists tightly, large beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.

Seeing the man's reaction, He Wei Ni Ya simply shook her head slowly, said "This is boring," and then turned to leave.

But just as she lifted her foot, the man's voice rang out again.

"So, is torture and murder also part of the unspoken rules?"

He Wei Ni Ya stopped in her tracks.

She turned back again and looked at the man kneeling in the snow.

The man's body was trembling more and more violently, whether from nervousness or a problem with his body was unclear.

But at that moment he was staring intently at He Wei Ni Ya, his bloodshot eyes filled with a desperate madness.

"I saw it with my own eyes," the man said, emphasizing each word. "How you eliminated those substandard seeds... that wasn't elimination."

"That is..."

The man took a deep breath, using the pungent cold air to briefly stop his trembling, and then clearly uttered those two words.

"Slaughter".

That was the first time she met the "young lady" from the Upper City District.

Well-dressed and glamorous, unlike anyone else here.

"Young Miss, let us handle these matters..."

No, no need.

She slightly raised the corners of her mouth, and a smile she had never seen before appeared on her youthful face.

Crazy and bloodthirsty.

"Let me give it a try."

You weren't even ten years old back then!

The man roared at He Wei Ni Ya like a madman.

"Do those people in the academy who now idolize you know what you did when you were not even ten years old?!"

"Do they know that you can smile and kill children younger than you with a knife?!"

"He Wei Ni Ya Hero, do you even know how many lives like this are on your hands?!"

"If your followers knew what kind of person you were, do you think you could still be like this... cough cough cough..."

Before the man could finish speaking, his other leg gave way, and he collapsed to his knees in the snow.

At the same time, he tightly clutched his neck.

From He Wei Ni Ya's perspective, one could see the musical notes beneath his clothes writhing wildly like maggots, as if they were about to burst forth at any moment.

Just then, he heard He Wei Ni Ya's voice. "So that's it. You're the Ayman from fourth grade, the one who's always wanted to reshape the musical notes."

He Wei Ni Ya paused.

"It seems your attempt to rebuild has failed, and... the backlash has already begun, hasn't it?"

Ayman suddenly raised his head and stared intently at He Wei Ni Ya.

He Wei Ni Ya, who had been expressionless just moments before, now wore a faint smile.

Ayman's pupils narrowed slightly.

Because this smile was just like the one he had seen in the Seed Zone many years ago.

Young He Wei Ni Ya walked towards the eliminated seeds with that same smile, and the scene that followed has remained etched in Ayman's mind ever since.

If he hadn't been desperate, he really wouldn't have wanted to get involved with this guy.

But there was no way to fix it; his notes were flawed, and very flawed. Conventional repair methods were useless; the only option was to try to reconstruct them.

However, restructuring carries enormous risks.

Now, the risk has already arrived; his reshaped notes are almost uncontrollable.

If things continue like this, there will only be one outcome for him—losing his musical notes, becoming an ordinary person, and then ending up in the Seed Zone.

For him, such an ending was worse than death.

The only thing that can change all of this is "Stars" from the Seven Sound Song, and it must be Seven Sound Song with a gold-plated composer.

The problem is that, given his qualifications, it would be impossible for him to join a gold-tier orchestra under normal circumstances.

Therefore, he could only set his sights on the only Jin Jie who had any "intersection" with him.

This is his only chance.

He wants to He Wei Ni Ya Hevinia's orchestra and play the Seven Sound Song!

But things didn't go as he had hoped.

"What a mess."

He Wei Ni Ya spoke softly.

"What did you say?!" Ayman stared intently at He Wei Ni Ya. "Aren't you afraid I'll tell everyone everything?!"

"Oh? From what stand do you intend to say this?" He Wei Ni Ya asked.

"...position?"

"Yeah, you can't just say it's because I don't want you to join my band."

"...I did this for those you killed," Ayman said, "To expose your true colors!"

He Wei Ni Ya shook her head. "It's too fake."

"What?"

"I mean, what you're saying is too unbelievable," He Wei Ni Ya said. "Senior Ayman, you probably haven't been to the Seed Zone many times either... maybe, just once?"

"So what?"

"You're not a nobleman, and you're not from the Seed Zone," He Wei Ni Ya said calmly. "So you don't know what nobles do, and you don't know what life is like for people in the Seed Zone. So what you say is laughable to nobles and foreign to people in the Seed Zone ... Do you know what people in the Seed Zone are thinking? Do you know what they really want?"

Ayman instinctively wanted to ask, "What is that?", but the words caught in his throat as he suddenly realized he was being led by the nose by He Wei Ni Ya. He gritted his teeth and said, "You say I don't know? Then do you, the executioner, know?!"

"Oh."

He Wei Ni Ya chuckled softly, her tone filled with undisguised mockery.

"If I could, I would prefer not to know."

After saying this, He Wei Ni Ya didn't give Ayman time to think about it, and looked at the increasingly uncontrollable musical notes behind Ayman.

"Furthermore, putting aside our positions, Senior Ayman, do you really think anyone will believe you?" He Wei Ni Ya said. "Even I know what's wrong with your body, so what about everyone else? Why would anyone believe you but not me?"

"Also, you seem to have misunderstood one of the most crucial things."

He Wei Ni Ya smiled again, and that smile was reflected in Ayman's pupils.

"I am admired by others not because of my good personality. On the contrary, even if I had a bad personality, even if I had killed so many unqualified seeds, they would still admire me."

"Because I am the Seventh Sound of the gold scale."

"And you, even if you really are a partner of justice."

"It's nothing more than... a silver tier that's about to lose its notes."

"How I see you now."

"They are no different from the seeds I killed."

After saying this, He Wei Ni Ya turned and left without looking at Ayman again, as if Ayman's desperate gamble today was just a joke to her.

Ayman opened his mouth.

"You, you, you..."

Ayman gripped his thigh tightly.

Reason told him that he absolutely could not lay a hand on He Wei Ni Ya; once He Wei Ni Ya did, there would be no turning back.

Just then, He Wei Ni Ya turned to the side and glanced at him.

Then he chuckled softly.

"Ridiculous."

In that instant, reason crumbled.

Ayman pulled out his staff and charged at He Wei Ni Ya, yelling, "You filthy bitch!"

But halfway through the race, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

There was only a trail of footprints on the way here.

That's his.

He Wei Ni Ya, on the other hand, had always followed in his footsteps.

Ayman immediately sensed something was wrong. "This is..."

But it was too late. When he reached the spot where He Wei Ni Ya had been standing, the snow beneath his feet suddenly sprang up, sending up countless swirling snowflakes.

"《Three Sounds · Graceful Dance》"

The swirling snowflakes burst open, each one making a sound like a gentle pluck of a harp string.

The exploding snowflakes ripped open Ayman's skin from all sides, spurting out lines of blood that instantly froze, freezing Ayman in place.

Like a dancer wrapped in countless red threads.

This is... a trap!

Only now did Ayman understand the moment He Wei Ni Ya followed him here.

There was no intention to let him go back alive.