Chapter 64: Tenderness-Part Two

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Wei WuXian picked up his flute and played a section according to the score. As expected, the two parts of the melody were disconnected. The half of the score on the first page wasn't the same song as that on the second page at all.

There should be another page between these two pages. It had been torn off, cautiously, stealthily.

The person tore the page with a lot of care. There wasn't a single trace left of the page, which made it difficult to be discovered. Wei WuXian turned over the book. On the dark blue cover, there was a title of three characters.

Wei WuXian, "The Collection of Turmoil? What book is this? The songs in it sound a bit strange."

Lan WangJi, "A song collection from Dongying."

Wei WuXian, "From Dongying? So that's why the tune soundd a bit different from the ones over here."

Lan XiChen's expression was complex, "... Legendarily, The Collection of Turmoil, is a collection of dark songs gathered by one of the GusuLan Sect's cultivators during his years of wandering when he was travelling by water and arrived in Dongying. The songs in this book, if played along with spiritual energy, are able to harm others, from weakening the body to irritating the mind to agitating the spirit to shutting the senses... Those with great spiritual power could take others' lives in just seven notes."

Wei WuXian slammed the desk, "This is the one!"

He was so happy that when he slammed the desk, he almost knocked over the paper lantern on it. Lan WangJi moved it upright just in time. Wei WuXian spoke, "Sect Leader Lan, within the The Collection of Turmoil, is there any that can disturb a person's composure, making them irritated, agitated, violent, easily-angered?"

Lan XiChen, "... There should be."

Wei WuXian, "Jin GuangYao's spiritual energy isn't high. He wouldn't have been able to take someone's life with just seven notes. And killing him this way would've been too obvious. He definitely wouldn't have chosen a song so powerful. But, if he could use the reason of playing the Song of Clarity for ChiFeng-Zun to calm his temper and continued to play it for three months, would the song be able to act as a slow poison and catalyse ChiFeng-Zun's outburst?"

Lan XiChen, "... Yes."

Wei WuXian, "Then, the speculation would be very much reasonable. The torn score not part of Cleansing belonged to a missing page of the The Collection of Turmoil. All of the Dongying songs recorded in The Collection of Turmoil are complex and difficult to master. He didn't have time to copy them down in the forbidden room and could only tear it out-no, that wouldn't be right. Jin GuangYao is able to look at something once and never forget it again. He tore the page out not because he couldn't memorize it, but that there'd be no proof once it was gone. To ensure, even if one day it came to light or if he was caught red-handed, nobody would be able to find the source of the melody."

"All that he's done has been with extreme caution. In front of you, he was clearly playing the correct version of Cleansing. ChiFeng-Zun wasn't someone passionate about the arts. He had heard you, Sect Leader Lan, play Cleansing before and knew the overall melody of it. Thus, Jin GuangYao didn't dare straight up play to him the dark song and instead took trouble to combine two songs of different styles with opposite uses. And he combined them so well. They sound as though there were the same. His musical talent is indeed excellent. I'm guessing that he used little spiritual power in the Cleansing sections and only exerted power in the section of The Collection of Turmoil. After all, ChiFeng-Zun wasn't familiar with this method of cultivation, so of course he wouldn't realize the fact that Jin GuangYao had already changed one of the sections into a dark, life-taking tune!"

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