Flowing Water on High Mountains Calls the Morning Star

Under the guidance of a Tiandou Academy teacher, Qiu Yuxin and Lin Yuan soon arrived at the reception area of Tiandou Academy's administrative building.

It was still early, so the group began chatting.

"Oh, this must be Director Qiu. You must have had a tiring trip!"

"Hey, what director? I'm still a teacher. You're teasing me, aren't you?"

"Oh, come on, who doesn't know that any teacher in charge of exchange student activities is bound to be promoted to director after returning?"

"Then I'll take Teacher Li's auspicious words to heart."

This is seriously boring.

Lin Yuan rested his chin on his hand, fiddling with his thermos. His eyes half-closed, and he had just been about to meditate.

Suddenly, the graceful, emotional sound of a zither rang out.

This zither music... can actually stir emotions. Is it mental?

Pulling himself out of meditation, a strange glint flashed through Lin Yuan's half-lidded eyes.

Right!

What could suit the nature of mental power better than music?

The pleasing zither notes still echoed, gentle as the murmuring streams formed from a melting glacier, nourishing everything around them.

"This zither music..." Qiu Yuxin's eyes shone again and again. She only felt the exhaustion from several days aboard the airship being swept clean away!

"Teacher Qiu, there's no rush with the exchange students. Tiandou Academy knew you were coming, so we invited Master Ruo Ye in advance to perform."

"In that case, thank you. Xiao Lin, we... eh, where did Xiao Lin go?"

While the teachers were still talking, Lin Yuan, who had been beside them, had disappeared!

Inside a spacious multipurpose room, a refined, jade-like middle-aged man had a guqin placed before him. The guqin was pale white, its music lingering in the air. After he finished playing a piece, the middle-aged man looked at Lin Yuan beside him and was immediately surprised, thinking to himself, This child really was good-looking.

When the middle-aged man saw Lin Yuan's attention fixed on his guqin, he could not help laughing softly.

"To be able to quiet your heart at this age and listen properly to a piece—apart from my little princess, you're the first."

"Mm, thank you. Could I try playing it?"

Lin Yuan studied the guqin curiously.

"You can play the guqin?" This time, it was Ruo Ye who was surprised. His eyes practically sparkled as he looked at Lin Yuan.

"I should be able to."

Lin Yuan nodded. Ever since his mental power had risen rapidly, the memories of his previous life had grown increasingly clear.

Among them were no few melodies passed down through the ages.

He wanted to try whether he could attach his mental power to a musical piece and spread it outward.

For example, forcibly attaching his mental power to someone whose mental power was lower than his, then raising his hand and firing off a Planetary Resonance—just thinking about it was exciting!

"How could I possibly refuse a request from such an adorable child?"

Ruo Ye chuckled, stood up, and gestured with his hand, giving off a feeling as refreshing as a spring breeze.

"Thank you, uncle."

Lin Yuan did not stand on ceremony either. After thanking him, he sat down before the guqin and recalled the pieces from his previous life.

In the end, he chose the most widely known "High Mountains and Flowing Water" as his basis and began to play.

Lin Yuan's fingertips touched the strings. At first, he was not used to it, and all sorts of notes kept going wrong. Ruo Ye laughed softly as he listened.

"Your skill is rather similar to my precious daughter's. If you knew each other, I think you two would surely become friends... wait, this is?!"

Suddenly, Ruo Ye's pupils contracted slightly.

The zither music was quiet as a clear spring in a secluded valley, dripping with a crystalline ding-dong, as though a tiny figure were peering into the mysteries of the universe.

And Lin Yuan seemed to enter the universe once more, a singularity accompanying him at his side.

"No, this isn't enough..."

Lin Yuan murmured to himself. This was only his mental power merging into the piece. The morning star had not appeared yet...

A few seconds later, Lin Yuan's rhythm abruptly grew urgent. The sound seemed to take on form, piling up layer upon layer, as though outlining the shape of stars within the silent gaps.

Suddenly, Lin Yuan exerted force beneath his fingers, and the zither music instantly turned soaring and impassioned!

"Immortal music. This is simply immortal music."

Ruo Ye was entranced. He stretched out both hands and, unable to control himself, began to dance beneath the melody.

The zither music was no longer tranquil. Over the past year, Lin Yuan's mental power had already reached 489 points.

His mental power surged up, like a thousand sheer cliffs standing tall and ten thousand ravines vying in their flow. It was as if the snow atop towering mountains had melted and gathered into raging waves, seeming to carry the force of thunder in its wake as it flowed upward between steep cliffs, reaching straight into the universe.

At that moment, the singularity suddenly exerted its power, linking the surging flood to every star and forming a planetary ring made of water, breathtakingly beautiful.

Lin Yuan's music surged again, as if he meant to force those currents into the stars.

But no matter how hard Lin Yuan tried, the planets erupted with Gravity against one another, constantly fighting over it. That powerful Gravity seemed about to tear the water apart, and that pain affected Lin Yuan in reality.

Blood actually seeped from the corner of Lin Yuan's mouth, and his spiritual power kept withering.

"Where exactly is the problem?"

Lin Yuan could not help growing a little anxious. Just as he rallied himself and prepared to launch another offensive, a warm, gentle voice suddenly rang beside his ear.

"Listeners don't listen to how stirring your piece is. You have to pour your emotions into the music and make them resonate with it. Only then are you a true musician."

Pour emotions into the music and draw out their resonance?

It was as if thunder exploded in Lin Yuan's mind.

"That's right. I shouldn't be fighting them. I should be resonating with them!"

All of a sudden, his left hand bent a string, drawing out the lingering note.

Then a shocking scene appeared!

The stars that had originally resisted suddenly steadied, and Lin Yuan followed their resonant frequency to completely merge the currents into them.

At the same time, a faint halo radiated from Lin Yuan's eyes, those eyes as deep as Black Holes.

In his spiritual sea, the ocean that had originally been calm and still instantly surged. The planets and stars that had once been illusory fully manifested in Lin Yuan's spiritual sea at that moment.

Streams of water slowly fell from the stars, merging into the ocean.

At that moment, Lin Yuan only felt that his spiritual power was incomparably abundant!

Spiritual power: Spirit Sea Realm!

Achieved!

At seven years old, an age where thirty or fifty points of spiritual power were enough to be called a genius, someone had actually broken through to the Spirit Sea Realm for the first time!

A faint smile rose at the corner of Lin Yuan's mouth. Without warning, the sound of the zither sank, and that surging torrent seemed to pour into a boundless deep sea.

Clap, clap, clap.

Ruo Ye applauded, his eyes shining brilliantly as he looked at Lin Yuan, filled with irrepressible admiration. As he watched Lin Yuan, he clicked his tongue in wonder again and again.

This child was truly incredible. He had actually completed such a difficult piece...

And he had never heard this piece before in his life. Coupled with the way Lin Yuan had been somewhat clumsy yet practiced just now, as if constantly testing and correcting himself, could it be... his original composition?

Lin Yuan left the zither seat and thanked Ruo Ye earnestly.

"Thank you very much for your crucial guidance. It helped me complete this piece."

Ruo Ye shook his head, his tone carrying unconcealable admiration.

"This is your original composition?"

"Yes, that's right."

Lin Yuan admitted it without the slightest change in expression.

Ruo Ye immediately grew excited and circled around Lin Yuan, the admiration in his eyes instantly turning into delight.

"A genius, simply a genius! If not for the fact that I can't bring myself to lose this old face, I would want to take you as my teacher. In that music just now, I seemed to feel your loneliness, your longing for friendship and a kindred spirit, and I seemed to see all things in the universe through mountains and flowing water. If you devoted yourself to the way of the zither, I dare guarantee that you would absolutely become the greatest musician in the Federation's history!"

"A musician?"

Lin Yuan shook his head. His ambitions did not lie there. But at that moment, another thought suddenly occurred to him.

Still, Tang Wulin—oh no, he was called Tang Le now—should be getting dragged around by his manager Le Qingling to hold concerts all across the Federation, right?

If I ever get the chance, I could go up and perform with him once. Just thinking about it sounds interesting.

The corners of Lin Yuan's mouth lifted slightly, and his mood was quite good.

Tang Wulin could truly be called someone who had walked out of suffering.

"I nearly forgot. You're a soul master. How could a soul master possibly devote himself deeply to this path? At most, it counts as cultivation." Ruo Ye smiled and shook his head, not feeling particularly regretful.

"You aren't a soul master?"

"I'm just an ordinary person." Ruo Ye spread his hands and smiled.

"Oh, right. If you have time, could I take up one day of yours and invite you to sit at my home for a while? To be honest, my wife has a strange illness, and music can ease her symptoms very well."

"One day?" Lin Yuan thought for a moment, then nodded.

"All right. Without the advice you gave me just now, Uncle, I reckon I would still have needed to keep trying before I could understand it. This is only right."

Creak.

Just then, the door was suddenly opened.

Standing outside were Qiu Yuxin and the teachers of Tiandou Academy.

Beside them was Lan Mengqin, her hair snow-white and her features cold and aloof. And beside Lan Mengqin stood a girl of peerless beauty, her hair a deep blue like the ocean.

Their gazes were slightly frozen, clearly drawn in by the music just now.