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“Xiwu, play it once first.”

“Yes, Immortal Master.”

At Mo Shubai’s signal, Su Qiwu’s zither began to sing. Though he himself possessed a cold and breathtaking beauty, the tone of his music was unexpectedly warm and impassioned. Even in a melody as dreamlike and illusory as this one, there was a fervent emotion surging beneath every note.

Judging solely from his music, he would probably love with the force of a world-ending calamity—demanding absolute possession and absolute surrender.

Song Chi did not dare approach someone like that.

There was a reason people said she had no heart. Her own music had never held such passionate emotion. Her teachers had criticized her for it more than once, warning that unless she made up for this deficiency, she would never reach the pinnacle of musical accomplishment.

But Song Chi had never cared about fame or success. Playing music was supposed to be about the playing itself. Whatever her teachers said simply went in one ear and out the other.

This time, Su Qiwu missed one note yet again.

After he finished, Immortal Master Mo Shubai gestured to her. “Song Chi, you next.” Then he added, ever so slightly, “Play properly.”

His gaze was faint, but there was an unmistakable severity to it, as though he were warning her that any mistake would have consequences.

Even so, when Song Chi began to play, she stubbornly tried to miss a note. Before the tone had even finished turning, Mo Shubai cast her a sidelong glance.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, casting his face into alternating brilliance and shadow. He was so beautiful that he seemed divine.

But Song Chi would have bet anything that if she dared miss even one note, this godlike man would punish her in ways she could never imagine.

And so, like the coward she was, she did not miss a single note. She played on until the final tone slipped from her fingertips.

“Very good.”

Mo Shubai’s voice was mild. He gave her a faint smile of approval, then asked Su Qiwu, “Qiwu, do you know where you went wrong?”

“This disciple knows.”

“Play it again.”

“Yes.”

Sure enough, this time he played the previous note correctly, but made a slight mistake elsewhere in the circulation of spiritual power. His wood spiritual root was actually his weakest, so he had committed the same error as Jiang Linyue: he had focused too much on the output of his wood spiritual power, causing his metal spiritual root to release just a little too much. As a result, the tone had become the slightest bit too shrill.

In truth, the difference was minuscule. There were probably only a handful of disciples present who could hear it.

Yet Mo Shubai asked Song Chi, “Song Chi, can you hear where he went wrong?”

“This disciple…”

She wanted to say no, but under Mo Shubai’s indifferent gaze, she surrendered.

“Yes.”

“Next…”

Before Mo Shubai could finish, the disciples throughout the classroom had already begun struggling to contain their laughter. They wore expressions that said they had finally been waiting for this moment.

Song Chi hurriedly cut in. “Why not let Senior Brother Su continue playing while I tell him where the mistake is?”

Mo Shubai glanced at her. “That will do.”

Su Qiwu continued playing. When he reached the passage where he had erred, he somehow played it correctly this time. But on the very next note, the transfer of spiritual power went slightly awry.

Song Chi sent a thread of spiritual power toward him. Su Qiwu’s cultivation was higher than hers, however, and not only did he rebound her spiritual power, the zither’s music became as muddied as water clouded by a stone.

“Again.”

Mo Shubai spoke with the calm indifference of an unfeeling judge of the dead.

This time, when Su Qiwu reached the passage where he missed the note, Song Chi decided to go all the way. After murmuring an apology, she placed her palm over his hand and helped even out his spiritual power.

A flicker of surprise crossed Su Qiwu’s face. Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, his handsome features gradually flushed a deep pink.

Below the platform, some disciples bit their lips while others covered their mouths. Every startled exclamation was swallowed in their throats. Recording mirrors had already been raised discreetly all around the room.

Song Chi could not help glancing at Su Qiwu. His luminous eyes happened to be looking back at her. The instant their gazes met, his cheeks flushed even more visibly.

That did it. Song Chi heard one of the female disciples finally let out a soft laugh.

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She released his hand and stood to one side as though nothing had happened, but could not resist sneaking a glance at Immortal Master Mo Shubai.

He was being far too unreasonable. All he had to do was point with one finger and correct the mistake. Instead, he had forced a weakling like her into the middle of it.

“Next time, you need only point out the error. I will say nothing more.”

Mo Shubai’s voice rang through her mind, clear and cold as winter plum blossoms, with a trace of amusement.

What he meant was that she only needed to tell Su Qiwu which spiritual root had caused the mistake. There had been no need for her to go up and touch his hand at all.

Song Chi nearly felt her face split apart.

How could she have… And this Immortal Master, too—he looked as beautiful and pure as a celestial being, but once one opened him up, he was probably black through and through.

After Su Qiwu finished the piece, he and Song Chi returned to their seats one after the other.

When Su Qiwu turned sideways to pass Jiang Linyue and move toward his own place, Song Chi glanced at him. To her surprise, his face flushed lightly yet again.

Song Chi heard the bastard Qi Zhenmo laughing into his desk, his shoulders shaking. She was utterly speechless.

Su Qiwu was obviously the son of an aristocratic clan. It was said that the great families were forever embroiled in open and covert struggles. How had someone like him managed to remain so innocent?

Song Chi now felt that Immortal Master Mo Shubai was the enemy of her entire life. Just look at the mess he had made.

The rest of the lesson was nothing more than practice. Song Chi gathered her thoughts and continued working hard.

Her goal was simply to establish her foundation and move one or two steps closer to the dream of forming a golden core.

As for these noble young masters and all the rumors surrounding them—once she reached the sixth level of Qi Refining and widened the gap between them, surely no one would bother mentioning a weakling like her anymore.

She and those people had always belonged to two entirely different worlds.

As for the rumors, let them spread. It was not as though she would lose a piece of flesh over them.

In the days that followed, Mo Shubai inexplicably began behaving like a normal teacher. He followed the pace set by the other Immortal Masters, teaching one water-spiritual-root score every five days. He also stopped making trouble by ordering this or that disciple to come forward and play. Instead, he demonstrated each piece himself before making his rounds through the classroom and offering every disciple individual guidance.

The rumors about the supposed entanglements between Song Chi, Jiang Linyue, and Su Qiwu were soon forgotten by the disciples.

Following the pace of her cultivation, Song Chi worked hard one night two months later. At last, her spiritual power exploded through her entire body like crackling electricity, and she reached the second level of Qi Refining.

Thinking that she could now begin taking assignments as a musical cultivator, cultivating and earning spirit stones at the same time, Song Chi strolled around her little courtyard twice beneath the boundless moonlight, looking entirely self-satisfied.

Then the cold wind reminded her that it was already early winter. She had been cultivating so obsessively lately that she had forgotten to send a letter home.

She reminded herself that she absolutely had to remember tomorrow. Then she hurriedly washed up and went to bed. By the time she fell asleep, it was already close to the Hour of the Tiger.

Perhaps because one of her worries had finally been settled—and because she had gone to bed so late—she slept deeply. The next morning, it was only when Xi Ya called out to her before leaving that Song Chi sprang from her bed.

Ancient clothing was truly difficult to put on. By the time Song Chi had dressed, she did not even have time to wash her face. She grabbed only a damp cloth and rushed toward the mountain.

Even so, she failed to catch the Black Tortoise and had to spend spirit stones to hire a large spirit turtle instead. The smaller turtle simply could not run very fast.

The trip cost her forty low-grade spirit stones, which made her heart ache terribly.

She hurriedly wiped her face with the damp cloth while riding the spirit turtle. By the time she reached the academy, she had barely cleaned herself up.

She arrived at the classroom’s rear door just as she heard the second toll of the bell. It had been a close thing, but she had made it.

For some unknown reason, Immortal Master Mo Shubai was standing at the rear door today.

“Immortal Master!”

Song Chi hurriedly bowed.

“Go in.”

Mo Shubai looked over her entire face before nodding.

Song Chi quickly slipped past him sideways and took her seat.

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However, this was destined to be an eventful day.

Once Song Chi had settled in, Mo Shubai walked from the rear door toward the front. At the threshold, he looked outside for a long moment. Though she could see only his profile, she could still detect a strangely subtle expression on his face.

Then he flew away.

One of the bolder disciples went outside to take a look. When he returned, he announced that distinguished guests had apparently arrived from the sect. Several of them possessed extraordinarily profound cultivation, perhaps even rivaling the sect’s leading figures. Two of the sect’s elders had personally gone out to welcome them.

No one knew what great event had occurred.

Song Chi noticed that Ye Qingyu wore a faintly mocking expression. She lowered her eyes and gave a quiet snort, evidently already aware of the truth.

The other disciples, however, could not guess anything at all.

About the time it took to drink a cup of tea later, Immortal Master Mo Shubai returned. Three young people followed behind him, and he led them straight to the classroom door.

Then two disciples arrived through the rear door carrying a desk and chair, which they set down.

New disciples were joining the class.

The Gui-Hai Class truly was a place where stories happened. This was exactly the sort of treatment that seemed reserved for the protagonists of a novel. Song Chi could not help searching through the novels she remembered.

While she was lost in thought, the desk and chair were arranged properly, and Immortal Master Mo Shubai entered the room.

When he reached the front of the lecture platform, the three disciples behind him bowed respectfully one after another.

“Cui Xuere of the Cloud Scripture Sacred Land greets Immortal Master!”

“Su Yu of the Supreme Mystery Immortal Dynasty greets Immortal Master.”

“Ji Minghuang of the Vast Sea Immortal Dynasty greets Immortal Master!”

“Mm. Come in.”

The three immediately filed into the classroom. A wave of muffled gasps swept through the room.

“She’s so beautiful…”

It was not only the male disciples. The female disciples were equally stunned by the pink-robed woman who entered first.

Song Chi was stunned as well. The woman was indeed as beautiful as a celestial being, with peach-colored cheeks and exquisitely delicate features. Her eyes held an innocence clearer than a spiritual spring.

If she had to make a comparison, even the celestial maiden from the legendary Sword Immortal era of later generations would scarcely surpass her.

She was also extremely shy. As she walked toward the back row, her entire face gradually turned a delicate shade of red.

Like a frightened little rabbit, her gaze swept across the rear seats before quietly settling beside Ye Qingyu.

The man behind her wore a light-gold robe. His features were calm and handsome, and every movement he made was graceful and dignified.

When he reached the back row, he raised his spiritual power, and a dragon-carved desk and chair appeared behind Ye Qingyu. Aside from the golden lacquer and carved dragon, its design was unexpectedly compatible with the desks and chairs of the Azure Academy.

The final newcomer was a woman dressed in black, her hair tied in a high ponytail beneath a golden crown. Her features were stern, as sharp as a drawn sword. Her bearing was equally imposing, and there was even a trace of霸气 in her authority.

Seeing what Su Yu had done, she collected the desk and chair by the rear door, replacing them with a golden-lacquered desk and chair carved with a phoenix before taking her seat.

The entire classroom erupted into commotion.

Only after recovering from the astonishing beauty of the pink-robed woman did many people realize that the other two newcomers also possessed extraordinary identities.