Led by a teacher from Tiandou Academy, Qiu Yuxin and Lin Yuan soon arrived at the reception area of Tiandou Academy's administrative building.
It was still early, and the group began chatting.
"Ah, this must be Director Qiu. You must have had a tiring journey!"
"Oh, what director? I'm still a teacher. Are you teasing me?"
"Come on, everyone knows that any teacher in charge of exchange students will definitely be promoted to director after returning, right?"
"Then I'll gladly accept Teacher Li's good wishes."
This is really boring.
Lin Yuan rested his chin on his hand, idly playing with a thermos as he half-closed his eyes and prepared to meditate.
Suddenly, a graceful and deeply emotional qin melody rang out.
This music... it can actually stir emotions. Is it related to spiritual power?
Pulled out of his meditation, a flicker of surprise passed through Lin Yuan's half-lidded eyes.
That's right!
What better suited the qualities of spiritual power than music?
The pleasant qin music continued to echo, smooth as a babbling stream formed from melting glacier ice, nourishing everything around it.
"This music..." Qiu Yuxin's eyes shone as the exhaustion from days of traveling by spacecraft seemed to vanish completely.
"Teacher Qiu, there's no rush for the exchange students. Tiandou Academy knew you were coming, so we invited Master Ruo Ye in advance to perform for you."
"In that case, thank you. Little Lin, we... Huh? Where did Little Lin go?"
While the teachers were talking, Lin Yuan had vanished from beside them!
Inside a spacious multipurpose room, a refined middle-aged man sat before an ancient qin. The qin was pale and pristine, its notes lingering in the air. After finishing a piece, the middle-aged man looked at Lin Yuan beside him and was immediately surprised, thinking to himself.
This child is truly beautiful.
When the middle-aged man saw that Lin Yuan's attention was focused on his qin, he could not help but smile.
"At your age, aside from my little princess, you're the first person who can sit quietly and properly listen to an entire piece."
"Mm, thank you. May I try playing it?"
Lin Yuan curiously examined the ancient qin.
"You can play the qin?" Ruo Ye was surprised now, his eyes sparkling as he looked at Lin Yuan.
"I think I can."
Lin Yuan nodded. Ever since his spiritual power had rapidly increased, the memories from his previous life had become clearer and clearer.
Among them were quite a few timeless compositions.
He wanted to try and see whether he could use spiritual power to attach the music and spread it outward.
For example, forcibly attaching his spiritual power to someone weaker than himself, then raising his hand and unleashing Planetary Resonance. Just thinking about it was exciting!
"How could I possibly refuse such a request from such an adorable child?"
Ruo Ye chuckled, rose to his feet, and gestured for him to proceed, giving off the feeling of a warm spring breeze.
"Thanks, Uncle."
Lin Yuan did not stand on ceremony. After thanking him, he sat before the ancient qin and recalled the music from his previous life.
In the end, he chose the most well-known piece, High Mountains and Flowing Water, as his foundation and began to play.
When Lin Yuan's fingertips touched the strings, he was still unaccustomed to them at first. Notes went wrong one after another, making Ruo Ye laugh.
"Your skill is somewhat similar to my precious daughter's. If you two knew each other, I think you would definitely become friends... Wait, this is?!"
Suddenly, Ruo Ye's pupils contracted slightly.
The qin music became tranquil, like a secluded valley's spring water dripping with soft chimes, as though a tiny person were peering into the mysteries of the universe.
Lin Yuan seemed to enter the universe once more, with a Singularity at his side.
"No, this still isn't enough..."
Lin Yuan muttered to himself. This was only spiritual power blending into the piece; the morning star had yet to appear...
A few seconds later, Lin Yuan's rhythm suddenly became hurried. The sound seemed to take on form, layer upon layer accumulating, as though outlining the shape of stars amid soundless gaps.
All of a sudden, Lin Yuan exerted force beneath his fingers, and the qin music surged with passion!
"Music of the immortals, this is simply music of the immortals."
Ruo Ye was utterly entranced. He stretched out both hands and could not stop himself from dancing to the melody.
The qin music was no longer tranquil. Over the past year, Lin Yuan's spiritual power had already reached 489 points.
His spiritual power surged forth. A thousand sheer cliffs rose, ten thousand ravines competed in their flow. It was as though snow atop towering mountains had melted into raging waves, carrying the force of thunder as they flowed upward against the current between precipices and jagged cliffs, reaching straight into the universe.
At that moment, the Singularity suddenly exerted force, connecting the rushing floodwaters to every star and forming a magnificent ring of water around the planets.
Lin Yuan's qin music surged again, as though he wanted to force those streams of water into the stars.
Yet no matter how hard Lin Yuan tried, those planets erupted with Gravity against one another, constantly competing. The 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 as his spiritual power continued to shrink.
"Where exactly is the problem?"
Lin Yuan could not help feeling anxious. Just as he gathered himself and prepared to launch another attempt, a gentle voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
"The audience does not listen to hear how stirring your music is. You must let your emotions merge into the piece and evoke their resonance. Only then can you be a true qin musician."
Let emotions merge into the music and stir their resonance?
It was as though thunder exploded in Lin Yuan's mind.
"That's right. I shouldn't fight them. I should resonate with them!"
Suddenly, he rubbed the strings with his left hand, drawing out the lingering notes.
Then, a shocking scene appeared!
The stars that had originally resisted suddenly stabilized. Following their resonant frequencies, Lin Yuan completely integrated the streams of water into them.
At the same time, a glow radiated from Lin Yuan's eyes, as deep as Black Holes.
Within his sea of spirit, the previously calm ocean instantly churned. The illusory planets and stars completely manifested in Lin Yuan's sea of spirit at that moment.
Streams of water slowly flowed down from the stars, merging into the ocean.
At that moment, Lin Yuan felt his spiritual power become incomparably abundant!
Spiritual power: Spirit Sea Realm!
Achieved!
At the age of seven, an age when thirty or fifty points of spiritual power was enough to be called genius-level, someone had actually become the first to break through to the Spirit Sea Realm!
A faint smile curled Lin Yuan's lips. Without warning, the qin music sank, and the surging torrent seemed to pour into an endless deep sea.
Clap clap clap.
Ruo Ye applauded, his eyes shining as he looked at Lin Yuan with irrepressible admiration, clicking his tongue in amazement as he watched him.
This child was truly incredible. He had actually completed such a difficult piece...
And he had never heard this piece before. Combined with Lin Yuan's clumsy yet practiced manner just now, as though he had been constantly testing and correcting mistakes, could this be... his original composition?
Lin Yuan left the qin and sincerely thanked Ruo Ye.
"Thank you very much for your crucial guidance, which helped me complete this piece."
Ruo Ye shook his head, unable to conceal the admiration in his voice.
"This is your original composition?"
"Yes, that's right."
Lin Yuan admitted it without even blushing.
Ruo Ye immediately grew excited and began circling Lin Yuan. The admiration in his eyes instantly turned to delight.
"A genius, simply a genius! If I weren't too embarrassed to show this old face of mine, I would almost want to take you as my master. In that music just now, I seemed to feel your loneliness, your longing for friendship and a kindred spirit. Yet through High Mountains and Flowing Water, I also seemed to see all things in the universe. If you devoted yourself to the way of the qin, I guarantee that you would become the greatest musician in Federation history!"
"A musician?"
Lin Yuan shook his head. His ambitions did not lie there, but then a thought suddenly occurred to him.
But Tang Wulin—no, he was called Tang Le now—should be traveling across the Federation with his manager, Le Qingling, holding concerts, right?
If I had the chance, I could perform a duet with him once. Just thinking about it seemed interesting.
The corner of Lin Yuan's mouth lifted slightly, and he was in an excellent mood.
Tang Wulin could be said to be someone who had truly emerged from suffering.
"I forgot that you're a Soul Master. How could a Soul Master devote himself to this path? At most, it would count as cultivation." Ruo Ye smiled and shook his head, though he did not seem particularly regretful.
"You aren't a Soul Master?"
"I'm just an ordinary person." Ruo Ye spread his hands and smiled.
"By the way, if you have time, could I take up one day of your time and invite you to my home for a while? To be honest, my wife has contracted a strange illness, and music can greatly ease her symptoms."
"One day?" Lin Yuan thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Alright. Without your guidance just now, Uncle, I would probably have needed to keep trying before I understood. It's only right."
Swish.
Just then, the door was suddenly opened.
Standing outside were Qiu Yuxin and the teachers from Tiandou Academy.
Beside them stood Lan Mengqin, her snow-white hair and cool expression striking. Next to Lan Mengqin was a breathtakingly beautiful girl whose hair was as blue as the ocean.
Their gazes paused slightly. They had clearly been drawn here by the music just now.
Before you continue