That night, Su Jiu ultimately could not settle into meditation. Her gaze flickered as she watched the candle flame before her, her thoughts unreadable.
The female cultivator named Lin Yue was probably ruined.
Sure enough, the neighboring courtyard erupted into chaos again early the next morning.
Amid the jumble of voices, Su Jiu caught one sentence: "Lin Yue is gone."
The shattered zither had vanished along with her.
Sect Leader Xu sat on Lin Yue's bed, his face looking a little more weathered. He shook his head and sighed. "Was I wrong?"
Several female disciples stood there helplessly, not knowing how to comfort their master.
They all knew their master had acted for Lin Yue's own good, but none had imagined that Lin Yue would actually sneak away for a zither spirit, utterly disregarding the sect's reputation.
At that moment, Feng Piaoxu felt that Lin Yue was both pitiful and selfish.
Whatever happened in that courtyard, however, the matches continued. Yet in the matches that followed, nearly all the Heavenly Music Pavilion disciples were noticeably off their game.
This match pitted Su Jiu against Feng Piaoxu.
At first, they were rather pleased to see a female cultivator at the middle stage of foundation establishment, thinking they could finally win a match.
But one incense stick's worth of time into the match, none of them dared underestimate Su Jiu anymore.
Su Jiu's footwork was graceful and nimble. What astonished them most was that this single set of footwork allowed her to evade every one of Feng Piaoxu's attacks.
Feng Piaoxu excelled in music, and her instrument was a pipa. Unlike an ancient zither, which had to be played from a fixed position, it allowed her to keep moving and attack from multiple angles.
Though sound attacks were fearsome, they still followed