She continued playing, her fingertips grinding violently against the strings, the pads of her fingers rubbed raw with dense clusters of blood blisters.
When the blisters burst, dark red blood smeared across the strings, staining all seven with mottled crimson.
Yet she kept playing.
As she retreated, she suddenly stopped.
Her bare feet stamped fiercely against the ground, and in that instant, her figure was nailed firmly in place.
Both her hands pressed heavily onto the strings at once. Her ten fingers crossed and locked over them, ruthlessly pinning down the seven bloodstained strings.
Hum...
An incomparably deep tremor sounded from within the zither.
The tremor had an extremely low amplitude and a slow frequency, yet its power permeated everything.
It pierced through the Arena's floor, through the Coiling Dragon Pillar, through the gigantic golden net of laws, through the barrier, carrying farther into the chaotic void.
"Music Dao: Final String."
As Yun Qingyin softly uttered those words, her body began to glow.
The radiance seeped from deep within her body. It was faint cyan at first, then grew brighter and brighter, more and more resplendent, swiftly enveloping her entire body in a gentle, translucent cocoon of light.
Her features became somewhat blurred within that radiance. Her purple dress fluttered softly in the light, while her long hair slowly drifted loose.
Her spirit veins were burning.
Her soul was dissipating.
Her life force was being stripped from her body bit by bit, transformed into the power of soundwaves that continuously trembled upon the strings.
"Xu Xun."
She spoke, but her voice had already changed from its former clear, ethereal tone into something illusory and drifting, as though it came from a place unimaginably far away.
"The thing inside you... is very strong."
"But no matter how strong you are... you