Mighty and Majestic

Liu Zhengfeng looked at Wang Jingyuan's astonished expression and said smugly, "Since this piece was composed, the two of us have never played it together in front of anyone else. Now we're about to leave, so let's let you hear it. You won't get another chance after this."

As he spoke, the two men took out a zither and a flute and began to play. Wang Jingyuan's grandfather had loved playing the erhu, and when Wang Jingyuan was little, he'd often been forced to learn it. He could still appreciate traditional classical music.

But when traditional classical pieces were composed, the emphasis wasn't on sounding pleasant. What mattered was atmosphere and harmony. At important occasions, a piece even had to conform to proper etiquette. If it sounded too pleasant, it could be considered inappropriate.

Pieces that cared only about sounding good and nothing else were called lewd songs. But Wang Jingyuan was a vulgar man who liked lewd songs.

Music that prized atmosphere and harmony could be left to the overworked wage slaves, exhausted from working overtime, to use as sleep therapy before bed.

As Wang Jingyuan listened to the two men play, he began to feel drowsy. Qu Feiyan, standing nearby and utterly absorbed in the music, couldn't bear to see it. She reached out and shook Wang Jingyuan awake, so he had no choice but to force himself to listen to the piece to the end. He could only curse the game for being so hardcore that it didn't even have a "Skip" function.

When the piece ended, it was time for the two men to leave. Wang Jingyuan followed them out of Liu's residence and saw that Mr. Mo Da was already waiting outside.

He was a quiet man. He watched Liu Zhengfeng with a complicated expression and said nothing, just as he had for decades. Their disputes had always stemmed from their differing views on music. Mo Da had been standing outside just now, so naturally he had heard The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. He couldn't help but sigh. He doubted he would ever compose a better piece in his lifetime.

Mo Da kept silent, but Liu Zhengfeng bowed to him gratefully. Mo Da waved a hand and still said nothing.

Liu Zhengfeng looked at his senior brother with a sigh. He felt that Wang Jingyuan had been right: he really was a ridiculous man. He had been able to open his heart to Qu Yang not long after meeting him, yet he had never truly understood the senior brother he had known for decades.

Qu Yang's martial arts were certainly formidable, but the reason he had managed to launch a successful sneak attack that day, with Fei Bin and several Imperial Guards present, was also thanks to Mo Da. Mo Da had secretly found out where the men were stationed and told Qu Yang.

Liu Zhengfeng moved close to Mo Da and whispered something to him. Then he got into the carriage with his family, and they headed toward the city gate.

At that moment, Mo Da walked up to Wang Jingyuan and looked him over. "You're the one who wants to learn the Hengshan Cloud-Mist Thirteen Forms of Ever-Changing Illusions?"

Wang Jingyuan smiled.

He knew that after Liu Zhengfeng's Golden Basin Hand-Washing Ceremony, Liu Zhengfeng couldn't directly pass on martial arts to him. But Wang Jingyuan still smiled at the two old geezers for clearly blaming him for his extreme methods and playing a trick on him before they left. Wang Jingyuan was petty and impatient, though. He believed in settling a score on the spot.

Wang Jingyuan glanced over Mo Da's shoulder and saw the erhu strapped to his back. Perfect.

He reached out to Mo Da. "Uncle Mo, may I borrow your erhu?"

Mo Da seemed puzzled, but after a moment's hesitation, he took the erhu off his back and handed it to Wang Jingyuan. Wang Jingyuan casually drew the bow across the strings to check the tuning. It was just right.

As mentioned earlier, when Wang Jingyuan was little, his grandfather had forced him to learn the erhu. What kid would enjoy that? Weren't cartoons and video games much more fun?

So Wang Jingyuan had started to rebel. Open defiance was out of the question; it would only get him beaten. His grandfather would beat him, then his father would beat him. So he had to be clever about it.

To rebel, Wang Jingyuan had specially practiced an unusual piece. To be honest, it was extremely difficult, but to avoid learning the erhu, he'd gritted his teeth and done it. For a while, he practiced so hard that he forgot to eat and sleep.

Heaven rewards the diligent. In the end, Wang Jingyuan mastered the piece, playing it so fluently that it was practically embedded in his DNA. So the moment he touched the erhu, his DNA kicked in.

As he drew the bow across the strings, a tingling, seductive melody poured out at once. The Liu family's carriage convoy was heavily loaded and moving slowly. They hadn't gone far before the erhu music reached them from behind.

Even Hengshan disciples, who were well versed in music, felt their legs go weak at the sound. Even passersby who knew nothing about music were rooted to the spot.

Good heavens, how could this be called a lewd song? This was outright public indecency in broad daylight! No one had ever imagined that an erhu could imitate a woman's moans of pleasure—and that the sound could be even more enticing than the real thing.

The piece, Mighty and Majestic, seemed to stop time on the street, freezing everyone in place. Even after Wang Jingyuan finished playing, the crowd still hadn't come back to their senses.

But Wang Jingyuan couldn't care less. Purple qi surged across his face; he had already activated his Purple Haze True Qi. He urged the qi and shouted, "Many thanks to Master Liu Zhengfeng for teaching me this piece!"

Heh, who said you couldn't ruin your reputation even further after leaving the martial world?

When Wang Jingyuan returned the erhu to Mo Da, Mo Da repeatedly wiped it with his dirty sleeve. He felt that his erhu had been sullied and could never be cleaned again.

Mo Da looked up and stared at Wang Jingyuan with a complicated expression. "...Don't play the erhu anymore."

Wang Jingyuan nodded with satisfaction. Mo Da's reaction was exactly the same as his grandfather's back then. It seemed he still had it.

Before long, a Hengshan disciple climbed down from a carriage and hurried over to Wang Jingyuan with a small booklet. He handed it to Wang Jingyuan, barely holding back a laugh. "Mr. Liu asked me to give this to you. He said you should practice diligently and cultivate your sensibilities."

Wang Jingyuan took the booklet and saw that it was indeed The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. He casually put it away. There was no need to practice it. The original wasn't as good as the Hong Kong version, so it wasn't all that interesting.

When Mo Da saw Wang Jingyuan put the score into his Inventory, he nodded to himself. He really was good at sleight of hand. He was a perfect fit for learning the Hengshan Cloud-Mist Thirteen Forms of Ever-Changing Illusions.

Mo Da's instruction was simple. Everyone from the Liu family had already left, and no one would be coming for a while, so he simply took Wang Jingyuan back to the Liu residence.

He found an empty room and began teaching him the Hengshan Cloud-Mist Thirteen Forms of Ever-Changing Illusions.

[Mo Da is teaching you the Hengshan Cloud-Mist Thirteen Forms of Ever-Changing Illusions]

[Learn? Yes/No]

[Yes]

Only after learning this sword technique did Wang Jingyuan realize that it had something in common with Dai Zong Ru He: the key wasn't in the sword moves. Why did learning this form require studying sleight of hand first? Because sleight of hand involved all kinds of ways to block the audience's vision or draw their attention, concealing the performer's movements.

The key to this sword technique was also the word "conceal." Countless feints and ways of hiding the sword were all meant to let him deliver a deadly strike when his opponent least expected it.

Sleight-of-hand tricks always had flaws, but Wang Jingyuan's Inventory had none.

When Mo Da leaped back to avoid the huge hammer that suddenly swung out from among the layers of sword light, he was bewildered. Where on earth had Wang Jingyuan hidden such a massive hammer?

Fortunately, Wang Jingyuan had held back. If he had gone all out, Mo Da might not have been able to evade that sudden sneak attack.

As for blocking? Wang Jingyuan curled his lip in disdain. How could such a hardcore game have something so out of place? A tiny dagger knocking a broadsword flying was the sort of thing you'd only see in games focused purely on entertainment.