The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm

Ten days later, Gu Ningyun headed toward the library, carrying the points she had recently earned.

During this period, she only played her zither during the peak hours for injured disciples at the Trial Tower—noon and evening. Even though she treated twenty-five people in each wave of group healing, she still managed to earn fifty thousand points.

Adding that to her previous savings, she now had 73,626 points.

Gu Ningyun tried her best to suppress the upward curve of her lips. Her primary goal had been practice; earning money was just a side effect.

She hadn't expected to reap such a massive harvest. This was even faster than the ancient script translation tasks.

Hehehehe, she was grateful for Martial Aunt Kong's guidance in the music cultivation introductory class, grateful for her own talent in music, and grateful to her past self for firmly choosing to exchange for 《Zongjiao》.

Besides earning money, she had practiced the healing capability of 《Zongjiao》 to her current limit. As for its purification ability, she wasn't sure about it yet since she hadn't found a subject to test it on.

Continuing to play at the Trial Tower's entrance would no longer help improve her strength. Gu Ningyun bid farewell to her reluctant "customers" and turned her sights toward the other types of melodies she had been looking forward to for a long time.

Returning to the third floor of the library once again, Gu Ningyun used the same method to select the attack melody 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》 and the defense melody 《The Qin and the Wei》.

Perhaps due to her talent, these two melodies were also among the top-tier selections in their respective categories.

Gu Ningyun had been prepared to spend a fortune, but she was surprised to find that the exchange prices for these two melodies were far lower than that of 《Zongjiao》.

As the most expensive melodies in their categories, 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》 cost twelve thousand points, and 《The Qin and the Wei》 cost eleven thousand points. Combined, the two were roughly equal to the price of 《Zongjiao》 alone.

Combining this with her previous observations of healing melodies, Gu Ningyun guessed that the reason 《Zongjiao》 was so expensive was likely due to its purification ability. This made her even more curious about that specific power.

It was just a shame she didn't have a chance to try it out yet.

《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》 was a versatile melody that combined mental and physical attacks, which was exactly why Gu Ningyun had chosen it.

The tone of the melody leaned toward sarcasm and sharpness. By mastering the tone, the player could choose to deliver a purely sarcastic mental attack, a purely sharp physical attack, or a dual attack that incorporated both.

It was designed to be used at will, making it unpredictable.

Of course, it was also very difficult to pick up.

When she first saw that the only requirement for 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》 was a talent for music, Gu Ningyun had been quite confident.

After all, she hadn't encountered any difficulties when learning a melody with such a monstrous difficulty level as 《Zongjiao》.

To be precise, she had managed to get the hang of it quite smoothly after only playing it a few times.

However, to her surprise, when it came to playing 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》, she couldn't bring out any of its offensive power at all, let alone master it.

Gu Ningyun: ...This is just ridiculous.

She tried to use 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》 to attack the fish in Spirit-Heart Lake. Forget about controlling the form of the attack—no matter how she played, the lake remained perfectly calm.

Well, there was the occasional reaction.

Once she could play 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》 fluently, the fish in the lake would blow bubbles along with her music or leap out of the water one after another, as if they were dancing to her tune.

Gu Ningyun: ...She felt insulted, but she had no proof.

She guessed that it was because her own desire to attack the fish wasn't strong enough. After all, she wasn't in the habit of harming life for no reason.

So, she carried her ancient zither to Changting Abode, where there was a processing station for slaughtering spirit beasts to provide ingredients for the Qixia Peak dining hall.

Facing a group of unranked spirit beasts waiting to be slaughtered, Gu Ningyun placed her hands on the zither. Once the song ended, nothing had happened.

Actually, that wasn't entirely accurate.

These spirit beasts had known they were about to be slaughtered and were all trembling in fear.

After hearing her melody, their behavior completely changed.

Those who liked the melody tilted their heads and listened intently; some even flapped their wings to the beat.

Those who didn't like it became agitated and scurried around the room, creating a scene of utter chaos.

Witnessing this, Gu Ningyun held her zither and fell silent.

The handyman disciple in charge of the processing station asked her tentatively, "Senior sister, how about... I just do it myself?"

Senior sister?

Gu Ningyun swept her gaze over his cultivation: Qi Refining level two.

Alright, he was indeed lower than her.

In all her time at Xiaoyao, this was the first time she had encountered a disciple with lower cultivation than herself. Gu Ningyun felt a bit unaccustomed to it.

However, hearing his words, she quickly snapped out of it.

She held her zither with a calm expression. "I mainly wanted to see if spirit beasts that have listened to music would taste better when cooked."

Handyman disciple: ...

The silence on the scene was a bit awkward. Gu Ningyun didn't care what he thought and played a rendition of 《Clear Heart》.

Naturally, she controlled her spirit energy, soothing the chaotic spirit beasts while allowing this junior brother to gain a bit of insight.

When the junior brother's expression shifted from numbness to thoughtfulness, and finally to pure ecstasy once the song ended—looking at her with eyes full of gratitude and admiration—Gu Ningyun finally put away her zither to take her leave.

"The previous melody did indeed cause trouble for your task and wasted your time. Consider this melody an apology."

"Thank you for the melody, senior sister! Might I ask for your name?"

Gu Ningyun had already left by the time he finished speaking, running off so quickly that she didn't hear him at all.

It was mainly because she was filled with helplessness. After struggling for so many days, she hadn't made any progress with 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》.

When she took the teleportation array back to Qixia Peak, she caught sight of a different kind of slot on the platform.

While all the other slots were labeled with the names of floating peaks, this one was shaped like an ancient zither.

She had once used this slot for thirty days—Music Peak.

Gu Ningyun's eyes lit up. Oh, right! She could ask the beautiful Martial Aunt Kong for advice!

Without even waiting to board the teleportation array, Gu Ningyun crouched in a corner and organized the difficulties and questions she had encountered with 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》, then sent them to Martial Aunt Kong.

Seeing that there was no immediate reply, she finally took the teleportation array back to Qixia Peak.

By evening, after Gu Ningyun had finished soaking in her body-refining spirit herbs and reviewed the final section of the 《Almanac of Heavenly Wonders》—the chapter on identifying artifacts—she checked her identity jade token messages before starting her cultivation.

She had received a reply from Martial Aunt Kong: 'Ningyun, bring your zither and come here.'

Below the message was a location.

Gu Ningyun entered it into her map and saw that it was located toward the inner part of Music Peak.

After confirming the time with Martial Aunt Kong, Gu Ningyun tidied her hair, which had become messy after her bath, and followed the map's guidance to the location.

As soon as she arrived, a gap opened in the array.

The beautiful Martial Aunt Kong appeared at the door, draped casually in an outer robe.

"This is my Cloud Residence, May."

The scent of roses drifted toward her as Martial Aunt Kong appeared, happening to soothe Gu Ningyun's anxious mind.

Noticing the change in Gu Ningyun, Kong Lingyan's lips curled into a smile. "Follow me, Ningyun."