Chapter 170 - Practicing for the Competition (1/2)
After hearing the door being knocked on, Yuan went to open the doors and greeted Disciple Fei.
”Hello, Disciple Fei. Come inside.” Yuan invited her inside with a nonchalant look on his face.
Disciple Fei nodded and entered the building.
Sometime later, once they were sitting in the living room, and Yuan asked her, ”So? What are we going to do, Disciple Fei?”
”First and foremost, you can stop calling me 'Disciple Fei'. Although it's only temporary, I am now your partner,” she said in a calm voice.
”Then what am I supposed to call you?” Yuan raised his eyebrows.
”Fei Yuyan, that is my name, and you will call me as such when we are alone,” she said with a stern look on her face as she glared at Yuan.
Yuan nodded without thinking too much about it and said, ”Okay, Fei Yuyan. What are we going to do now?”
A moment later, Fei Yuyan placed her zither on the table and said, ”What else? We're going to practice the zither for the entire week until the competition!”
Yuan looked at her with raised eyebrows, and he said, ”We're both going to use the same zither? Wouldn't it be better if there was another one?”
”Of course not! I know you probably don't have a zither, so I brought an extra one with me.” Fei Yuyan said as she retrieved another zither from her spatial ring.
”You'll be using this one for now. Everyone at the competition will be provided with a zither of similar quality so you don't need to worry about unfair conditions because you don't have a good zither.”
Yuan nodded and looked at the familiar-looking zither, as it was the one he'd first played at the Dragon Pavilion.
”Anyway, before we begin our practice, allow me to explain a little more about the zither competition in more depth.”
”First and foremost, there will be three main judges— each of them a top zither expert with hundreds of years of experience under their belt so you can expect a fairly accurate judgment for your skills. Of course, you won't see them until the final part of the exam.”
”The previous competition was split into three parts, and we will be graded for each part. In the end, whoever has the most points will win the competition, simple as that.”
”However, they might do things differently this year because of the Heaven and Earth Palace. Furthermore, we will have a partner this time, so anything can happen.”
Yuan nodded and asked, ”What did you do last year?”
”We were graded on our hand techniques for the first part, so how you play the zither will be very important.”
”If you do not meet their expectations, there's a good chance that you might not be able to proceed to the second round so keep that in mind.”
”For the second part, you will be given one hour to memorize and play a random song that will be provided for you. Once again, if your performance is not satisfactory, they will fail you on the spot.”