The feeling was so strange.
However, Yun Zhonghe kind of understood why Patient Eight had tried to mute his senses.
A person's world was made up of his vision, hearing, olfaction, touch, et cetera.
But Patient Eight, a.k.a. Beethoven, thought that being distracted by the outside world interfered with his connection to his own spiritual world. To rectify that, he first blinded himself, then deafened himself.
After that, he was almost completely isolated from the outside world, and he therefore became more connected with his spiritual world.
Yun Zhonghe now knew how the man had sensed the outside world. He was using… the pineal gland. For real.
"Sh*t, you really are crazy," Yun Zhonghe thought.
Patient Nineteen, Da Vinci, had dissected the pineal gland and sketched out the details of its structure. He came to the conclusion that a person's pineal gland would become more functional once the other senses were weakened. One could, therefore, improve his mental strength and even receive extraterrestrial signals.
Naturally, no one took his words seriously. He was a nutjob!
Besides, he mentioned that one must first blind and deafen himself to unleash the power of the pineal gland. Who would want to do that?
Normal people wouldn't, but a madman would.
Beethoven had done it, and godd*mnit, his musical skills had improved a lot after that.
He was already a great musician, but he became the devil of music, the Grim Reaper of music. His music could kill people.
On top of that, he claimed that he received extraterrestrial signals.
Everyone thought that he was just bullsh*tting them, but absurdly, Yun Zhonghe could now feel his pineal gland heating up. But the sensation was very blurry right now, and he couldn't sense anything with the organ.
He set those distracting thoughts aside.
"The goals of those nutjobs were way too far-reaching. Normal people like me should just go after down-to-earth things like money, power, and beautiful women," Yun Zhonghe whispered to himself.
"So, what song should I choose?"
There were very few songs that would impress people with only two bars.
However, that wasn't a problem at all to Beethoven. He was like an all-encompassing music library, and he could play almost all music pieces in the world.
He knew quite a few songs that would mesmerize the audience and make their hair stand on end with only two bars.
For example, "Ambush from All Sides" and "Moonlight over the Spring River."
Especially "Moonlight over the Spring River.'' The first two bars were euphemistic and moving. They were extremely beautiful.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be performed during the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
On the other hand, "Ambush from All Sides" was stunning from the beginning to the end.
There were also famous music pieces which were passed down from ancient times like "Guangling Verse" and "High Mountains and Flowing Water," but Yun Zhonghe thought that they were too angelic, not electrifying enough.
Therefore, either "Ambush from All Sides" or "Moonlight over the Spring River" would be a great choice.
But Yun Zhonghe didn't choose either of those.
He decided to play a piece that was rather out of time. "Flight of the Bumblebee" had been known as one of the most frenzied music pieces in the world!
This piece was very popular, and it had been composed by a Russian composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It was used in Pushkin's opera, "The Tale of Tsar Saltan."
But Maksim, a Croatian musical prodigy, was the one who made it well-known.
It was also used as the last piece of the piano battle in the movie, "The Legend of 1900." (The last piece of the piano battle in "The Legend of 1900" was actually "Enduring Movement," but we'll let it be.)
The rhythm of this piece was extremely fast. It required the finger speed and coordination of a spammer, and it made the listener feel like countless bumble-bees were dancing around him.
In the movie "The Legend of 1900," after the main character finished performing this piece, the audience was astounded. The rhythm was so fast that it caused the piano strings to become so hot that he even lit his cigarette off of them.
Guqin pieces usually had a slow rhythm, depicting the beauty of the mountains and rivers.
Guqin wasn't a suitable instrument for the "Flight of the Bumblebee."
It wasn't that the song itself wasn't good; the piece was a classic, both wild and extremely cool.
But the instrument was unsuitable for the song, and modifying a song like that to be fit for the guqin would be as hard as hell. Even though the guqin in front of Yun Zhonghe had seven strings, and it was equipped with the art string and martial string, modifying the song would still be very difficult.
But who was Patient Eight?
He was a musical prodigy, the greatest musician of his time, the Grim Reaper of music.
It was a piece of cake for him to perform the "Flight of the Bumblebee" with a guqin. He had already played and fine-tuned that piece a dozen years ago, and he had perfected the guqin version of the song in the process.
He took a deep breath and was ready to perform.
Xu Anting was anticipating Yun Zhonghe's music, his eyes wide and attentive.
A pained expression spread across Sister Xu Antiing's face. Seeing a guqin always reminded her of her disfigured face.
Then, she closed her eyes.
She would judge Yun Zhonghe's skills justly, but she wasn't expecting much.
She had seen far too many mediocre guqin players like Yun Zhonghe. They didn't appreciate art; they only played guqin to pick up women.
That kind of performance was shallow and lousy.
He claimed that the two bars with only 14 notes that he was going to perform would be so good that they would give her chills? How could it be possible? He was just daydreaming.
Then, Yun Zhonghe started to play.
The madness of the "Flight of the Bumblebee" and the super-fast rhythm came pouring out of the guqin.
So swift.
So mad.
So invigorating.
So mind-boggling?
If it was played by any other player, it would have been completely chaotic and lacked the power it needed.
But this was Beethoven who was performing. His music could drive people to do insane and deadly things.
At that moment, the power of his music could not be put into words.
Whether the piece was nice to listen to was another issue.
But the power and the force of the music were unparalleled.
The musical notes were like bullets shooting out of the guqin. The piece, which was originally written for the piano, was more sharp and crisp, more heart-piercing when played with a guqin.
In a split second, everyone in the room was dumbfounded.
Almost all of them shuddered abruptly like they had been shot after hearing the two bars of the piece.
Yun Zhonghe's performance was too bizarre, and it felt like the musical notes had entered their brains and hearts directly instead of going through their ears.
After that, chills swept through their bodies.
The music made their hair stand on end.
The music still wasn't pleasant to the ears, but it was extremely exciting.
If it had been performed by another person, even if that person was a great musician, the effect wouldn't have been as explosive.
Patient Eight had completely incorporated his unfathomable skills into his performance, and the sound waves he generated were very unique.
It was like being attacked by magical powers.
However, Yun Zhonghe, who was possessed by Patient Eight, kept playing faster and faster as if he had gone mad.
At last, his music felt like a violent storm.
The people were listening to his music, their hearts racing faster and faster, and they began to feel as though they could no longer breathe. Their hearts were beating so fast that they felt pain in their chests.
Yun Zhonghe played faster and faster.
"Argh, I can't take it anymore!" One of the guards covered his ears with all his might, but he found that he couldn't stop the musical notes from entering his body.
He couldn't suppress the urge to smash his forehead against the wall.
Yun Zhonghe played faster and faster.
Suddenly, the music stopped.
Boom! The sound of something exploding rocked the room.
A string on the guqin couldn't withstand the force and had snapped.
Yun Zhonghe's frantic performance ended.
A heavy silence fell upon the room.
Yun Zhonghe was panting as Beethoven's spirit left his body.
Yun Zhonghe felt empty, like a tide had receded. He was immensely exhausted, and he felt that his brain was about to explode.
He had summoned the spirits of three nutjobs to possess him in quick succession. They had each been in his body for more than a half-hour, and they had used up all his energy and vitality.
He didn't even have the energy to think at that moment, let alone summon another patient's spirit.
He opened his eyes slowly and asked, "So, what do you think?"
"It was very bad, so bad that I want to smash my head against the wall," Xu Anting said. "But… I think that you have gone beyond the limit of human ability. I have never seen nor heard anything like that before."
Yun Zhonghe then asked Xu Antiing, "Sister, what do you think? Did I pass?"
Xu Antiing was still in a daze, lost in her own thoughts.
After a while, she looked at Yun Zhonghe like it was the first time they had met. She couldn't believe what she saw.
"I have never seen a style like that. It is an unprecedented overturning of humans' perception of music, and I find it completely unacceptable." Xu Anting continued, "But if we are talking about guqin skills, you are way better than me, so much better that your music is utterly beyond my comprehension. Anyone who could play that piece must be a prodigy, but he is most definitely also a madman."
"So if 100 is the full score, how many points do I get?" Yun Zhonghe asked.
Sister Xu Antiing said, "I'm not qualified to judge you, as you are way out of my league. But if I really have to give you a score, I think I'll give you 250."
"One hundred is the full score, and you're giving me 250? What are you talking about?" Yun Zhonghe thought to himself.
"Where did that crap in your file come from?" Xu Antiing asked. "There are people from all kinds of backgrounds in the Order of the Black Dragon, including quite a few great guqin masters. Your guqin skills are awe-inspiring. One can easily tell that, even if you are playing like a madman. Why would they say that your music was flat and uninspired?"
"Sis, Yun Zhonghe's guqin skill is that amazing?" Xu Anting asked.
"He is a genius, one in a million."
"While Yun Zhonghe seemed to perform that insane piece of music with ease, Tianyu Pavilion won't accept that kind of music," Xu Anting mused. "But if he can play someting like that, he should be able to play normal pieces easily. Anything he plays would beat the performance of the most popular courtesan in Tianyu Pavilion, which would be good enough to capture Lady Musk's attention and mesmerize her."
"In which case, that's fine, that's fine."
"So, when can I go to Tianyu Pavilion to seduce Lady Musk… No, I mean, when can I go on the mission?" Yun Zhonghe asked. "The earlier I enter the residence of the castellan, the earlier I can complete the task."
"Tomorrow, please prepare a normal and pleasing musical piece," said Xu Antiing.
"No problem!"
***
The very next day, Yun Zhonghe took off to Tianyu Pavilion in a carriage to attend an interview.
He had an entirely different appearance now. He was dressed as a gorgeous gentleman, a talented man in a chaotic world.
In contrast to the hustle and bustle outside the carriage, Xu Antiing was very quiet, and she was wearing a veil.
After traveling for a few kilometers, the carriage gradually slowed down.
"We are almost at the Tianyu Pavilion," Xu Antiing said. "Have you decided which piece you are going to play?"
"Yes."
Yun Zhonghe was ready. Well, he didn't even need to prepare as long as Patient Eight would enter his body to play a masterpiece. Once he performed "Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank," the audience wouldn't be able to get his music out of their heads for at least three months.
He would become the greatest guqin player in Tianyu Pavilion within ten days.
Within a fortnight, he would be known to the whole City of Torn Gust.
By that time, Lady Musk, who loved guqin music with all her heart and soul, would definitely come to Tianyu Pavilion.
And when she saw the extremely good-looking Yun Zhonghe, who had awesome guqin playing skills, how would she be able to resist the urge to leap onto him like a tiger pouncing on a tender deer?
Then, Yun Zhonghe would be brought back to the residence of the castellan by the female gangster and used a hundred times, a hundred times.
By then, the first part of his mission in the City of Torn Gust would be a success.
***
At that moment, the carriage stopped.
Yun Zhonghe opened his eyes and whispered to himself, "I am ready. Ladies and gentlemen, here I come. Be ready to witness the marvel."
"I promise to make every one of you lose your minds, and every woman in the Tianyu Pavilion will be crazy about me."
"I will be known to everyone in the City of Torn Gust in a fortnight, and women will come after me in swarms."
He took a deep breath. Then, the most handsome man, Yun Zhonghe, stepped out of the carriage.
His clothes were as white as snow, and he was as poised as a Greek God.
"Tianyu Pavilion, here I come. I see you, and I will conquer you!"
"Lady Musk, here I come. You see me, and you will conquer me."
Just like that, Yun Zhonghe walked gracefully away from the carriage.
This… this was Tianyu Pavilion.
It was indeed splendid and luxurious, a high-class, five-star place.
It was prosperous and glorious. It lived up to its reputation as the best brothel in the City of Torn Gust. It was a top-notch place for a lascivious and an extravagant enjoyment.
But what had happened?
Almost a thousand soldiers had surrounded the Tianyu Pavilion, all of them showing official city seals.
Many beautiful girls, the procuress, and the servants had their hands on their heads. They were being walked out of Tianyu Pavilion in lines under the supervision of the soldiers.
"Why does this look so familiar?"
"F… F*ck!"
"What… What the hell does this mean?"
"I, Yun Zhonghe, am just about to show off my great talent in the Tianyu Pavilion, and it is already shut down?"
"Has the City of Torn Gust started an anti-vice operation?"