Playing the flute required a stable breath. At the beginning, Senior Sister Kong didn't let her play any songs, focusing instead on practicing her breathing and holding long notes.
Senior Sister Kong’s original words were: "Although cultivators can use spirit energy to adjust their internal breath, as a music cultivator, the fundamentals are essential."
"If you want to truly master an instrument, you must never take shortcuts with spirit energy. Instead, you must rely on your own ability to truly grasp the craft."
Thus, Gu Ningyun spent her mornings lying flat on her bed with her hands on her lower abdomen, practicing her breathing. In the afternoons, she sat among the roses to practice her long notes.
The breathing exercises were manageable; although she wasn't used to the technique, she could gradually adapt.
However, the long notes proved to be a struggle.
The sounds she produced were as if they had been hacked by sword qi—discordant, grating, and painful to the ear.
After leaning against the flowerbed in the middle of the courtyard for two days, she silently moved to a different spot.
For no other reason than the fact that she had suddenly noticed the two rings of roses were looking somewhat wilted.
After six days of practice, she had moved to almost every corner of the yard. Every rose in the small courtyard was drooping despondently, and even their fragrance had faded significantly.
Gu Ningyun let out a deep sigh.
She felt like she and these flowers were mutually harming each other.
She was devastating them with her music, and they were providing her with very visible feedback.
The root cause was that she had struck first. Gu Ningyun touched a flower stem, looking at the roses whose thorns were no longer even sharp, feeling a pang of guilt.
Senior Sister Kong watched her with a mixture of amusement and pity, patting her head to comfort her. "It's fine. Every beginner on the flute starts like this."
"These roses were planted within an array and have been raised far too delicately. A bit of tempering might not be a bad thing."
"Are you sure, Senior Sister Kong? I feel like they're at death's door."
"These are spirit flowers that have lived for decades; they aren't that fragile."
"It's just that they have spent years listening to me play in this courtyard, so they are quite sensitive to music."
As Kong Lingyan spoke, she took out a flute and played a melody.
The melodious sound of the flute flowed out, yet remained contained within the Cloud Residence by the array.
The roses throughout the courtyard straightened their stems and unfurled their petals, awakening from their slumped state.
Their fragrance swirled through the courtyard, seemingly intent on staining every strand of hair and every corner of her clothes with an elegant, rich scent.
Gu Ningyun closed her eyes, her mind and body intoxicated by the floral scent and the flute's melody.
The discordant, ugly sounds gradually faded from her mind, replaced by vast fields of roses blooming one after another in her heart.
At some point, the flute music gradually receded.
Gu Ningyun raised her own flute and blew a single long note.
The tone was full and steady, no longer sounding broken as it had before.
Kong Lingyan raised an eyebrow in surprise, then broke into a radiant smile.
When she smiled, she looked like a fairy under the spring sun, causing even the roses in the garden to lose their luster.
"I forgot—your ability to imitate is exceptionally strong."
Gu Ningyun was dazed by her beauty, only snapping out of it when Kong Lingyan spoke.
Senior Sister Kong spent her years dealing with music and rhythm; every movement she made carried a unique charm of melody.
A low-level music cultivator like herself could benefit immensely just by staying by her side.
Gu Ningyun lowered her gaze and, drawing on the feeling she had just experienced, practiced her long notes throughout the night.
That night, she didn't wilt a single rose.
From that day on, in addition to guiding her flute playing, Senior Sister Kong would personally play a piece before Gu Ningyun began her practice.
This was both to help her enter the proper state and to give her something to imitate and learn from.
Under such meticulous guidance, Gu Ningyun was finally able to play every note well and began practicing rhythm and tempo.
While she was learning the flute at Senior Sister Kong’s Cloud Residence, Wen Xuan and the others had successively broken through to Foundation Establishment and emerged from seclusion, coming to her to collect a large number of Blue Lake Scallops.
They had also discovered the issue regarding the duration of the Blue Lake Scallops' consumption.
The four of them suffered greatly while eating the scallops, and their messages could be seen in the group every day.
Jiang Yao even stated that he never wanted to eat a scallop again for the rest of his life, feeling nauseous just at the sight of them.
Human joys and sorrows are not always shared; seeing her friends in such a miserable state, Gu Ningyun’s mood instantly brightened.
Even the dull and tedious fundamental flute exercises became more spirited as she practiced.
Her fundamentals, which grew more solid by the day, delighted Senior Sister Kong. She repeatedly proclaimed that Gu Ningyun was a natural talent for music cultivation and that she would definitely nurture her well, refusing to let such talent go to waste.
Gu Ningyun watched the wailing in the group chat with a faint smile, saying nothing as she focused solely on her flute.
After a month of solid fundamental training, Senior Sister Kong finally approved of her progress and began teaching her how to play songs using spirit energy.
The songs she currently knew included the support melody 《Clear Note》, which could evoke resonance, clear the mind, and resolve mental blocks.
She also knew the healing melody 《Zongjiao》, the attack melody 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》, the defense melody 《The Qin and the Wei》, and the hybrid attack-support melody 《Lingtai》.
This time, Senior Sister Kong taught her a new song: 《Guiyuan》.
"《Guiyuan》?"
"I once drank Martial Aunt Yi Kong's Guiyuan wine and felt inspired, so I composed this piece."
Gu Ningyun thought to herself: The gap between people is sometimes truly immense. While she was still foolishly thinking how delicious the wine was, someone else was already able to use it to create a song.
Senior Sister Kong truly deserved her title as the progeny disciple of the Music Peak Master and the undisputed First Senior Sister of Music Peak.
《Guiyuan》 was a support melody. When a music cultivator played it with spirit energy, it formed a unique rhythmic vibration.
This vibration was very similar to the spirit energy fluctuation of Guiyuan wine, and it could increase the vitality of the spirit energy in the air.
When a music cultivator played the piece, whoever they locked onto with their divine sense would have the surrounding spirit energy flow into their body softly and in large quantities.
It was a support melody with an excellent effect for recovering spirit energy, capable of both single-target and group support.
"Though the song is named 《Guiyuan》, it ultimately cannot compare to the Guiyuan wine."
Kong Lingyan ran her index finger over the long flute, letting out a long sigh. "The essence of Guiyuan wine lies in the first sip, which directly increases a cultivator's cultivation."
"The subsequent recovery of spirit energy is merely a secondary effect."
"My song can only assist a cultivator in recovering their spirit energy to its original level; it cannot assist in cultivation. It is far inferior to the Guiyuan wine."
"Martial Aunt only allowed the song to share the wine's name to encourage me."
Gu Ningyun was silent for a long moment. "Senior Sister Kong, I think you might be holding yourself to too high a standard."
With great responsibility came the need for great ability.
Music cultivators were rare to begin with. As the leader of the younger generation of music cultivators, Senior Sister Kong must be under a lot of pressure.
Was she holding herself to too high a standard? Kong Lingyan was stunned; she had never thought of it that way, never even realized the issue.
Her gaze, as gentle as water, fell upon her little junior sister. Seeing the girl's pure and genuine concern, Kong Lingyan suddenly smiled.
"You're right. I'm only at the early Golden Core stage, so why be in such a rush?"
"If I'm not satisfied with the song, I can slowly modify and perfect it in the future."
"A music cultivator's compositions are different from spells; the most important thing is the intent. Creating a song requires the right moment, so why shouldn't perfecting one also require waiting for the right time?"
Sometimes the player is lost while the spectator sees clearly.
Having realized this, Kong Lingyan suddenly felt a sense of open-mindedness.
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