Chapter 519 - Pretty Good I Guess, Aren’t You Too Puny
Yang Xiyun sat beside Murong Xuan and kept exchanging whispers with him. The pair looked like a lovely couple.
The remaining people felt envious upon seeing that.
One after the other, they got up to the stage to showcase their respective guqin skills, hoping to draw Yang Xiyun’s attention and win her heart.
“Well, this song named Mountain Heights has a really profound artistic conception.”
“Guqin Master Lin’s skills have improved to another level.”
A guqin master walked down from the stage and threw a glance at Yang Xiyun.
However, she merely responded with a modest smile before turning over to continue her conversation with Murong Xuan.
That guqin master felt really annoyed, but there was nothing he could do.
Not far away, Chu Kuangren, Shang Qingxue, and Feng Yaorao were seated at the same table.
“Brother Chu, what are your thoughts on Guqin Master Lin’s performance?” Feng Yaorao broke the ice and asked. She just wanted to create an opening to chat with Chu Kuangren.
Chu Kuangren, on the other hand, fell silent for a while after hearing her question. He then said, “I don’t know. Pretty good, I guess.”
Shang Qingxue, who was beside Chu Kuangren, was staring at his reaction when he said that. Noting how he fell silent for a while before responding, she could immediately tell that her Sect Leader did not even listen to the song earlier.
In fact, the truth was not far away from that.
From his perspective, except for Yang Xiyun’s opener at the beginning, the other people’s guqin skills were not even worth paying attention to.
Theirs were too crude.
He did not understand why these audiences were cheering and clapping for them. Were those kinds of guqin music even pleasant to the ears??
Nevertheless, he understood that his skills were on a whole other level than these people, so he should not be judging them by his own standards. Thus, he did not lash out at his criticism but responded with a mere ‘pretty good’ remark. This was already the biggest tolerance that he could give.
Yet, the tolerance that he perceived was just perfunctory in the eyes of others.
Everyone at the table frowned, but they did not add on any comments.
After that, another person went up the stage to perform.
Once the song ended, the entire hall gave a round of applause.
“Brother Chu, what about this one?” Feng Yaorao inquired again.
“Pretty good, too.”
‘Pretty good again??’
‘D*mn, this guy is quite arrogant.’
That was what everybody secretly thought, and they glared at Chu Kuangren with hostility.
“Right, Daoist Li, why don’t you go up and perform a song too, as an eye-opener for everyone. What do you think?”
Just then, one of the guqin masters suggested.
The crowd then turned their glances onto Li Changyin.
Even Yang Xiyun did the same.
Murong Xuan followed suit too. As he looked toward Li Changyin, he immediately noticed Chu Kuangren and Shang Qingxue, whom he stared at wide-eyed.
“Sect Leader!!”
Murong Xuan exclaimed in shock.
Chu Kuangren threw him a knowing glance. “You’ve finally noticed your Sect Leader.”
Everybody looked toward both of them.
Yang Xiyun’s eyes lit up also when she saw Chu Kuangren, and she turned to ask Murong Xuan. “Brother Murong, is this the Sect Leader you’ve always talked about?”
“Yes.”
Yang Xiyun nodded slightly, then stood up and bowed toward Chu Kuangren. “Pleasure to meet you, Sect Leader Chu. My name’s Yang Xiyun.”
She did not refer to him as Brother but Sect Leader. This show of respect felt a tad bit like she was meeting a parent.
Chu Kuangren returned her a gentle smile. “My pleasure, Lady Yang.”
“Sect Leader, why are you here?” Murong Xuan asked curiously.
“Well, long story.”
“If that’s the case, please wait till the end of the banquet. We are here to enjoy the guqin festival, not to hear your stories.”
A guqin master said discontentedly.
Chu Kuangren and Murong Xuan stared at that person, but they did not say anything.
“I shall go up and ridicule myself then.” Li Changyin smiled as he went up the stage and took out a guqin.
The information said that this guy was adept at multiple musical instruments.
Nonetheless, no matter how skilled he was, there could only be one that he was best at. In this case, that was the guqin.
Li Changyin flashed a warm smile at the audience, and with a gentle demeanor, he started plucking at the guqin strings with his fingers. With that, his performance began.
In a moment, guqin music poured out and reverberated in the hall.
Upon hearing this guqin music, the crowd could not help but feel mesmerized by it.
Even a guqin virtuoso like Yang Xiyun watched on in awe.
Once the song had concluded, everybody was still deeply immersed in that melodious tune.
“Amazing. Absolutely amazing!”
“Daoist Li is truly remarkable. This song alone is enough to induct him into the musical world’s hall of fame.”
“This song is much better than Lady Yang’s. It is even more profound in terms of artistic conception.”
The people showered him with compliments as usual, and some gave more exaggerated responses than previously.
Li Changyin was praised to the top of the world with this one song alone.
At the side, Chu Kuangren was dumbfounded by the scene. Was it really that remarkable?
“Brother Chu, what do you think of the song?” Feng Yaorao asked.
“It’s pretty good.”
Chu Kuangren admitted that Li Changyin’s guqin music was definitely far better than the others. Yet, from his point of view, it was just barely up to standard.
Like the others, his guqin music had not achieved a transcendent stage.
“Pfft, and I thought he was some kind of elite guqin master. Turns out he’s just a music idiot who doesn’t know anything about rhythm.”
A guqin master said with contempt in his eyes.
The rest of the people agreed and felt that Chu Kuangren was someone who knew nothing about guqin Dao.
Otherwise, why would his comment be the same for every song?
“Daoist Li’s guqin skills are clearly more superb than the others, but he still gave the same comment. It is obvious by now that this guy has no musical sense at all, let alone guqin Dao.”
“Exactly. I bet he doesn’t even know how many strings there are on a guqin.”
“Forget it. He’s just a layman who doesn’t know any better. There’s no need to argue with him.”
The audience laughed out loud and dropped the topic.
They regarded themselves as professionals, so to discuss guqin skills with a layman would be insulting.
“Brother Chu, are you not going up there to show them what you got?”
Feng Yaorao, who was beside Chu Kuangren, prompted. She felt a little distasteful after seeing how the crowd was belittling Chu Kuangren.
The others might not know, but as someone who had personally fought with him before, she knew.
Chu Kuangren knew guqin Dao.
Not only that, but he was an elite of guqin Dao. She could still vividly recall those Eight Celestial Demonic Chords.
“Heh, forget it. Besides, I don’t have a guqin with me now.” Chu Kuangren shook his head and said.
He looked incredibly calm, not heeding to whatever the others were saying.
These people looked at him like a layman, while he looked back at them like ignorant fools.
He would not be showcasing his guqin skills so cheaply.
Not many in this world were worthy enough to listen to his guqin music.
He would never go upstage to perform just because of some baseless criticism. He had better things to do than that.
“Alright, then.” Feng Yaorao conceded.
However, at this time, the crowd redirected their glances to Murong Xuan.
“It seems to me that you have a close relationship with Lady Yang, Brother Murong. I reckon you must have a certain degree of mastery in guqin Dao as well. Why don’t you show us some of that?”
A white-robed guqin cultivator said.
Compared with Chu Kuangren, Murong Xuan, the guy who stole Yang Xiyun’s heart, was more likely targeted by these people.
“I’m afraid I’m not good at music.” Murong Xuan straight up told them the truth.
“Brother Murong, you’ve got to be kidding, right? Are you looking down on us, thinking that we don’t deserve to listen to your guqin music?”
That white-robed guqin cultivator tweaked his tone at the end of his sentence. He sounded more aggressive.
“If you take offense in even that, I think you’re just too puny.”
Just then, a cold voice was heard.
