Chapter 797 — The Enigma of Truth and Falsehood
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Lingxiao Hall was steeped in a killing austerity.
This place had once been the Northern Heavenly Court of the Supreme Emperor's era, and the Lingxiao Hall was where the Supreme Emperor held court with his assembled ministers, where the gods deliberated—hence the vast expanse of the great hall.
Now, within this hall, gods great and small numbered in the thousands, their faces drawn with panic as they watched the pair of "man and woman" locked in a qin duel at the center, fearful of being caught in the crossfire.
The sound of the qin rose within the hall. Of the two players, one was the scholar, a donkey standing behind her; the other was the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu, rosy clouds trailing behind her in streaks and bands like phoenix feathers.
The two faced east and west, no one else near them—even the mightiest demigods kept their distance.
The two played with abandon. The scholar was wild and unconstrained, her qin spinning ceaselessly around her, as though she had grown countless arms, fingers flying in a display of terrifying skill. In melody and fingering alike, she was flawless!
Yet the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu seemed utterly at ease, lacking the scholar's profusion of technique, possessing instead a plain and unadorned quality—and yet her music brimmed with surging, monumental emotion!
The scholar's mastery of technique was unmatched, beyond even Qi Xiayu's ability to rival—a veritable paragon of perfect melody. But in emotion, she fell far short of Qi Xiayu.
Her qin music held emotion too, but not the abundant, ever-shifting passion of Qi Xiayu's.
The two qin melodies clashed in mortal combat. The space around them twisted, stretched, became layer upon layer of membrane—space itself seemed to transform into visible musical notes, leaping and dancing around them!
Gradually the scholar began to falter. Her qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting had all reached heights unmatched in the world, yet it was precisely this natural deficiency in emotion that barred her from advancing further.
The four Celestial Masters of the Kaihuang era each had their achievements, each their strengths—but the scholar's temperament held flaws, and she could not match Qi Xiayu's courage to love and hate, her surging passion.
Her faltering grew apparent. Suddenly the donkey behind her reared up on its hind legs, transforming into a Donkey Demon King, its great mouth gaping as it brayed—hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw—piercing to the extreme.
The two women's qin music fell into chaos; each pressed a hand to her strings.
The donkey's braying was so shrill it made every powerful being in the Lingxiao Hall frown deeply and cover their ears.
Within the hall, whether demigod or god or demon, all watched the two with alarm—even the donkey inspired a measure of dread.
These two in their qin duel—thankfully they aimed at each other. Had they aimed at the others, the mighty in this hall would surely have suffered grievous casualties.
Yet six or seven people showed no change of expression, clearly each with something to rely upon, their cultivation and strength exceedingly high—they did not fear the scholar and Qi Xiayu.
"Hahahaha, I have lost after all!"
The scholar put away her qin and bowed to the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu. "The Red Emperor's skill is indeed extraordinary. After all these years, you can still best me by a notch."
"Celestial Master Zixi is too kind."
Qi Xiayu rose and returned the courtesy, her gaze flickering—she too feared the scholar immensely, unwilling to fight her to the death. She smiled. "The Earth Mother Venerable God has not yet appeared, and we have already dueled a round. Would that not make us the laughingstock?"