"Hm? She didn't accept?"
The group of women kowtowed and asked for forgiveness. "Please, spare us, Master. Her aura was too much of a deterrent for us to do anything else! We were feeling as if our souls were going to burst if we kept insisting!"
"I see. So, her aura is stronger than mine?" The young man's aura burst outward, grabbing the kowtowing women and lifting them as if they didn't weigh more than paper. Their faces utterly paled in horror as their throats were squeezed by an invisible hand. Quickly after, they started to turn redder as they began to feel asphyxiated. "It is stronger than mine, isn't it? After all, you are not saying anything for me to stop."
He smiled and ignored their terror-filled eyes and pleas. "Hm~. What to do with you lot… Well, you probably failed to say who I was. I usually tell you to hold back that information, after all. If not, she wouldn't have rejected the invite of this King, right?"
The floating women nodded their heads as if their lives depended on it.
"I guess this is my fault." He released all of them, making them fall as they tried to take in a deep breath and coughed.
The man stood up and muttered. "Since Ayanduin returned, things are going a bit awry, aren't they? That old man is truly… annoying. I guess I'll need to do something about him. Hm… Right, he had a disciple called quite ridiculously. What was it?"
One of the women answered, her voice somewhat weak from what just happened. "T-The name… of that disciple… is Money, Lord Gu."
"Money? Well, suitable to name his precious disciple after what he loves the most."
Meanwhile, Yasenia was in the music shop, choosing an instrument with Ilarune and the rest of the maids. The shop owner approached. He was a mild-mannered middle-aged man with a gentle smile. "Welcome to my shop. What is the Lady searching for?"
Ilarune smiled back. Her eyes flashed and she answered. "Hello, we want to see the best Pipa you have. Money is not a problem."
The man pondered. "The best one? We don't have a best one, miss. We might have one that's suitable for your miss. But there is no best instrument, in my humble opinion."
Ilarune nodded a few times. "Great! I would've been disappointed if you had another answer to that question."
The man laughed. "A test? That's not fair to do, miss. But I'll accept it. I am aware that it is rare to find good music-related shops lately. Music cultivation is becoming increasingly rare."
Ilarune asked. "Really?"
Back in the Sky Continent, there were powerful sects that focused on Music Cultivation, so she was confused. While it might not have the strongest combat power, Music Cultivation was incredibly tricky to face. The array of skills that Music Cultivators had was plenty, and in groups, they could create extremely lethal skills.
The man nodded and turned around. "Follow me. I'll guide you to where I store the pipas."
They all followed and arrived at the back of the shop. There, a grand array of instruments arranged like a gigantic orchestra could be seen. Ilarune was impressed. "This is gorgeous. They are situated as they would in an orchestra of this scale."
The man laughed softly. "I am a Music Cultivator myself. Well…" The man smiled sadly. "I was."
Yasenia got interested and asked. "What happened?"
"I was the Sect Master of the Instrumental Valley, but we got attacked. To save the sect, I fought with everything I had and sacrificed my tendons to activate a mass-scale destruction skill. I could protect the sect but at the cost of ruining my ability to create music forever."
The man approached an instrument and tried to extend his fingers. However, they only trembled, unable to fully stretch. He took his hand back, hiding it between his long sleeves and sighed.
The dragoness looked at his fingers and pondered. 'Perhaps if I can save his fingers, he'll give me some kind of precious treasure that he has. I can smell quite a few nice treasures in this shop, but very few are here.'
"Flora."
Flora stepped forward and bowed elegantly. "Yes, Young Miss?"
Yasenia asked. "Do you think it is possible to heal him?"
Flora looked at Yasenia and tilted her head, confused. The maids were similar, looking at their miss with confusion. After all, they knew their miss was mostly indifferent to the worldly affairs of other creatures.
Still, Flora answered faithfully. "I would need to analyze him."
The man who listened smiled gently. "No need to worry. Not even one of the best doctors in this city could do anything about it other than reduce the pain."
Flora approached and nodded. "While I won't disrespect that person, I am a dryad, a creature with an innate affinity with nature and life. Please, let me take a look and see if I can see beyond what that doctor said."
The man looked at Flora with a conflicted expression and smiled sadly. "You know… giving false hope to a person who has given up is one of the cruelest things you can do. If I accept, I will be tearing open old scars that have healed."
Flora raised her eyebrow. "Well, I might be able to heal those scars as well. It is up to you, though. My Young Miss is usually indifferent to what other people are going through. Somehow, your little story might've touched one of her sensitive nerves, but you managed to move her. I am telling you right now that you are being fortunate.
'Well, I only want his treasures, but that works…' The dragoness thought for herself.
The man looked at Flora's extended hand and eventually sighed. "I am really too old to bear further false hope, Miss Dryad. So, please, make the hope truthful this time around."
The man lifted his arm and extended it forward, showing it to Flora. The dragoness looked at Ilarune and spoke. "Is there any instrument around here that catches your eye, Ilarune?"
"Well…" Ilarune muttered. "I accept that they are high-quality items. But…" Ilarune approached one of the pipas and used four fingers to play the cords, creating a rapid melody. "Their sound is not what I want for you."
Meanwhile, the man was stunned. "What was that?"
Ilarune looked over and asked. "Hm? What do you mean?"
The man didn't move since Flora was taking his pulse, but he couldn't look away from the pipa that Ilarune played. "That melody was… so profound. It was just four notes, yet I could feel such a deep understanding of music. You played the instrument exactly like the instrument would like to be played."
Ilarune shook her head and moved toward another instrument. "I don't play them like they want to be played. They are an instrument, a tool. The one making the music is me, not them; they are tools. Like a sword for a swordmaster. Like an arrow for a bowmaster. They are parts of what makes us stronger."
The man frowned. "That's… disrespectful. An instrument has a soul. Each of them has a story behind them."
Ilarune agreed. "Yes. But that soul doesn't control you. It just tells you what kind of music is suitable for it. The one that controls the instrument is me."
Her fingers moved toward another pipa and she grabbed it properly. Then, she sat on the chair and started playing a fast-paced song. Like drums of war, like a charge of a thousand horses. The melody galloped around the room with unstoppable might.
"The instrument loves to play war songs. This one has been used in battle since its creation. However…" Ilarune's fingers slowed down, and the melody completely transformed into a constant but gentle trickle of notes that composed a river-like melody. It was soothing yet powerful, not losing the essence of the treasure while changing the melody thoroughly. "That doesn't limit me."
The man's eyes opened wide, and suddenly, a powerful wave of energy surged around him and burst outward with a melodic sound. Yasenia's eyebrows jumped. 'He broke through?'
Ilarune's eyes shone with interest. "[Music Intent Level 7]! Wonderful comprehension skills. Young Miss should bring him back to Distancia and allow him to join the [Nine Pure Melody Sect]. Li Xianghua will have competition."
Yasenia smiled. "We'll see. But I think that creating a rival sect would be more interesting."
After breaking through, he looked at Ilarune with respect and clasped his hands in a respectful bow. "This junior is thankful for master's guidance." However, right after doing so, he was shocked once more. He looked at his hands and fingers, and moved them slowly. "W-What?"
Flora smiled. "Don't get happy too quickly. I just reactivated the clogged acupuncture points and meridians for a few moments. They will return back to how they were without proper healing. However, you didn't destroy your tendons. You shattered your meridians and clogged several acupuncture points. They are not properly connected to your Meridian Net. Therefore, they can't regenerate. Regardless, it is something that I can fix."
The man was shocked again, and he closed his eyes. "Hm… A dream? It must be. A goddess-like group of women suddenly appeared and allowed me to break through and heal my injuries. Yeah, this must be a dream."
Yasenia smiled, her eyes seductively crinkling over her veil, and asked. "How about you give thanks to this group of goddess-like women with your body?"
The man nodded. "Definitively a dream. However, these fairies are my saviors, so I shouldn't be disrespectful and defile their bodies! I must be righteous!"
Flora rolled her eyes and bonked his head.
"Ouch!"
"This is not a dream. Also, while I am very thankful that even in your dreams, you would hold back, she is not referring to your body in a literal way!"
The man rubbed his head and, feeling the pain, he was stunned. "Not a dream!?" He instantly kowtowed and said. "Oh, otherworldly fairies, I thank thee from the bottom of my heart!"
Yasenia blinked. "Um… 'Thee'? Well, whatever. Stand up. I want to ask something."
"Yes, my Lady!"
The gentle-looking man stood up and looked at Yasenia attentively. Yasenia couldn't help but feel that if he had a tail, it would be a wagging and bushy dog tail. "Ahem. I want to see more pipas. Ilarune hasn't really found one that's suitable for me, so I was wondering if there are more."
The man nodded. "Of course, my Lady! Follow me! These are some treasures that I don't show easily to others. However, how could I not show them to you!"
Yasenia's lips arched under the veil, and her tail wagged. 'Success~.'
The maids saw the wagging tail and realized. 'Ohhh. This is what Young Miss was aiming for!'
After reaching the back room, Yasenia's eyes instantly landed on a jade-green pipa in the back with images of dragons and flowers. She instantly knew it was the one and spoke. "That one."
Ilarune smiled. "Yes. That one is it."