Lingtai

Through high-intensity sparring and timely reflection, the five of them were making rapid progress.

However, during this time, Gu Ningyun only used her zither and sword, refraining from using any spells.

The 《Taiqing Astral Wind Art》 was too powerful; she was afraid she wouldn't be able to restrain it, leading to irreversible consequences.

Since the sparring sessions were fixed for the afternoons, Gu Ningyun used her mornings to learn a new melody: 《Lingtai》.

This piece came from an ancient book she had translated. She discovered it while organizing and categorizing the knowledge she had gained from her ancient script translation tasks.

The book was so old that its exact era could no longer be determined, but fortunately, it was largely intact.

Gu Ningyun hadn't originally planned on learning any more new melodies for the time being, but after discovering 《Lingtai》, her innate talent for music began to stir again.

There was no other reason than the fact that 《Lingtai》 was simply too unique.

Its introduction page contained only three simple sentences: Use divine sense to select a target. When played, it can cause the target to fall asleep unknowingly. Only a music cultivator playing the melody in reverse can wake them immediately.

The duration of the sleep is influenced by the music cultivator's cultivation level and the amount of spirit energy used during the performance.

This melody causes no harm to the sleeper, being no different from entering a natural sleep.

Such three simple sentences, claiming only to cause a painless, harmless sleep.

However, the moment Gu Ningyun saw the condition for waking, she realized how terrifying this melody truly was.

If a music cultivator's cultivation was high enough, or if they used enough spirit energy to put someone to sleep and then refused to play the melody in reverse, would that person not remain asleep for a very long time?

And while they were sleeping, if no one fed them and their internal spirit energy was exhausted, leaving them unable to maintain their bodily functions, would they not simply die in their sleep?

But from another perspective, it could also be used as a lullaby.

It was precisely because 《Lingtai》 could be both an attack melody and a support melody—unlike the purely offensive 《The Mountain Has the Thorny Elm》—that Gu Ningyun decided to try learning it now.

Since she didn't know how long her playing of 《Lingtai》 would make someone sleep, and she was worried she wouldn't be able to learn the reverse melody right away...

Before she started learning, she sent a message to the "Prosper Together" group, informing them that she would be practicing a melody in the morning and that they should absolutely not approach Tingfeng to avoid being accidentally affected.

Only after confirming that everyone had seen the message did she begin learning 《Lingtai》 in her small courtyard at Tingfeng.

The tone of 《Lingtai》 was elegant and ethereal, a melody that easily allowed one to relax. No wonder it could kill someone without them even noticing.

Being a melody from ancient times, it was still quite difficult to learn. It took Gu Ningyun several mornings before she could play it fluently.

While playing, Gu Ningyun discovered a magical, regulated power within the melody.

The feeling this power gave her was somewhat similar to the power of annihilation in the Cleaning Technique and the mysterious power in her dantian.

Equally mysterious, equally impossible to scrutinize or understand, yet each contained a unique and powerful force.

This feeling caused Gu Ningyun to elevate the status of 《Lingtai》 in her heart, placing it on par with her mysterious power.

However, unlike her mysterious power, which she kept as one of her trump cards, Gu Ningyun intended to use 《Lingtai》 frequently once she mastered it.

After all, this melody was very practical. Aside from the performer themselves, no one else would sense the magical power within the tune.

Once she learned how to play 《Lingtai》, she caught a few fish from Spirit-Heart Lake, placed them in a wooden basin from the kitchen, and kept them in her courtyard to practice with every day.

Gu Ningyun found that when she didn't use her divine sense to lock onto a target, the tune of 《Lingtai》 was purely ethereal. The fish that heard it only felt soothed and did not fall asleep.

But once she locked on with her divine sense, the swimming speed of the fish in the basin would slow down. Before the melody was even halfway through, the fish would become completely still.

Gu Ningyun made a special point to check and confirm that these fish had truly fallen into a painless, harmless sleep rather than having kicked the bucket.

With the results of the normal performance being good, she began practicing the reverse melody.

It was only then that she realized that while playing it forward was not easy, playing it in reverse was even harder.

By the time she spent another ten days or so learning to play it in reverse, the fish in the basin had long since starved to death.

Gu Ningyun cast a few Cleaning Techniques to tidy the basin and caught a few more fish for testing.

Once she could proficiently make the fish sleep and then play the melody in reverse to wake them, Gu Ningyun began researching the impact of spirit energy usage on the duration of the sleep.

She discovered that with her current cultivation, if she played 《Lingtai》 using only spirit energy and gave it her all, she could make a fish sleep for a maximum of seven days.

As for playing it with her mysterious power, she hadn't yet been able to determine the result.

After all, the fish that had been hypnotized by the mysterious power version of 《Lingtai》 had been asleep for over ten days and were still sleeping even now.

If she hadn't been feeding the fish every day, they would have starved to death long ago.

Based on her experience with using 《Zongjiao》 to heal fish versus healing cultivators, Gu Ningyun estimated that with her current cultivation, playing 《Lingtai》 at full strength with spirit energy should be able to make a cultivator of the same rank sleep for about twelve hours.

She looked toward the small plaza of Ruiyu Pavilion with a stir of interest. Why not try it out during the afternoon sparring session?

She silently pulled out her identity jade token and opened "Prosper Together."

Gu Ningyun: I've finally learned it. If you guys need anything, you can come find me at Tingfeng now.

Wen Xuan: What melody? I'm curious.

Gu Ningyun: Want to try it this afternoon?

Wen Xuan: Seeing as you sent a message to warn us earlier... this melody won't accidentally kill me, will it?

Gu Ningyun: Definitely not. I won't mess around with something that fundamental.

Wen Xuan: Alright then. I'll bring a few more bottles of Return-to-Spring Pills.

Gu Ningyun: Actually, there's no need... Never mind, whatever makes you happy.

Putting away the jade token, Gu Ningyun stroked her zither.

During the test this afternoon, she could have them help her see if there was any way to counter 《Lingtai》.

However, perhaps because the melody was too magical, or perhaps because their cultivation was too low and they didn't have any good items on hand...

During the afternoon sparring, none of the four could resist the attack of 《Lingtai》.

As long as they didn't interrupt Gu Ningyun's playing before losing their ability to resist, their only fate was to fall into a deep sleep.

But Gu Ningyun had a wind spirit root; she could use her spirit energy to carry the zither while she ran. With the speed of her wind spirit energy, they couldn't even touch her.

After repeatedly putting Wen Xuan to sleep and waking her up, then eventually putting all four of them to sleep and waking them up simultaneously, Gu Ningyun silently put away her zither.

From the current situation, it seemed she had learned a... truly extraordinary melody.

Wen Xuan and the others were also stunned into silence by her.

Mu Chenze even pulled out a jade pendant. "This jade pendant is a mysterious-rank high-grade artifact that protects the divine sense. It can resist divine sense attacks from those up to the late Foundation Establishment stage at most."

Wen Xuan's voice sounded as if it were being squeezed out of her throat. "Which means this melody either doesn't attack the divine sense, or its offensive power is far higher than the late Foundation Establishment stage."

"In the New Disciple Competition three months from now, will there be a combat segment?" Jiang Yao suddenly asked.