After the first team was disqualified, they continued onto the second team, who was shaking a little, obviously quite nervous after seeing what happened.
"Begin." Senior Zou said to them.
Fifty-five seconds later, the team began playing their music.
Luckily for this team, they’d managed to calm down enough within those fifty-five seconds to play more than half of the song without making any mistakes.
However, in the end, they made a couple of mistakes towards the end, which resulted in even more mistakes because they thought Song Ling’er was going to immediately disqualify them for a single mistake.
But to their surprise, Song Ling’er did not disqualify them right away.
Once the judgment began, Senior Zou said, "It was pretty decent at the beginning, but after your first mistake, like a ripple effect, the rest of your song became riddled with mistakes. Two points."
"I enjoyed the first half, so I’ll give you three points at the very least," said Elder Jing.
Song Ling’er then said, "Zero points. You’re disqualified."
The third team began playing their song a couple of moments later.
But alas, just like the first team, they were immediately disqualified by Song Ling’er after their first mistake before the thirty-second mark.
"It looks like Senior Fairy Song intends on disqualifying those who make mistakes early."
"Man, I cannot imagine what it would be like to be one of her disciples. They must be under a lot of stress with her straight and unforgiving character."
"If you want to be the very best, you have to sacrifice some things in your life..."
Half an hour and a dozen disqualified teams later, the first team to make zero mistakes during their performance finally appeared.
"Finally, someone competent." Senior Zou said, and he continued, "The performance was pretty amazing overall, your music notes were in sync, the pace was neither too fast nor too slow, and your techniques were smooth and precise. Ten points from me."
"I agree with Senior Zou. Ten points from me as well." Elder Jing said.
"Seven points." Song Ling’er said, surprising the audience with her high score.
"Who are those two?! They also received somewhat high scores from Senior Fairy Song in the last part as well!"
Some of the audience that did not recognize the team then asked the others.
"That’s Zhao Jieyu and Zhao Chengjiao. They’re siblings that placed 2nd and 3rd in the last competition."
"Wow! Second and third place?! Their family must be grinning from ear to ear!"
A couple of hours later, it was finally Ai Wan and Wei Kang’s turn to perform once again, and the audience immediately straightened their backs with some even leaning forward from anticipation.
"What song should we play?" Ai Wan asked Wei Kang.
"God Descends from Heaven!" Wei Kang quickly responded without hesitation.
"What?! You want to play God Descends from Heaven? That’s one of the most difficult songs in existence! There’s no way we can play this song without making any mistakes!" Ai Wan said to him with a look of surprise on her face.
And she continued, "We’re already behind that team with Fei Yuyan and that mysterious masked person! We cannot risk losing any more points!"
"They are exactly the reason why we must take this risk! Do you think we’ll defeat them without going all out? Did you not hear that masked person’s three music notes? There’s no way we can defeat someone like that if we don’t go all out!"
Ai Wan turned silent for a moment after hearing Wei Kang’s words, and then she nodded a moment later with a serious expression on her face, "You’re right, Wei Kang. Our Master told us to not be complacent. If we don’t take this seriously and lose first place, we’ll be a laughing stock!"
"Are you ready?" Senior Zou asked them since they took a little over a minute to discuss.
"Yes, we are." Wei Kang said to him.
A few seconds later, the two of them began playing the zither, and a dozen unique music notes appeared in quick succession, dumbfounding the audience with their face-paced music.
"T-This song is God Descends from Heaven! One of the most difficult songs in this world with over ten thousand music notes, and they’re going to play this in a competition?! As expected of Senior Fairy Song’s disciples— they’re very bold!"
"Heavens! Look at how fast they’re playing the zither!"
"Legends has it that a god had descended to the Lower Heavens from the upper realms when this song was first created, hence its name!"
Meanwhile, Senior Zou and Elder Jing looked at Ai Wan and Wei Kang with surprised looks on their faces. Even they can’t play the God Descends from Heaven song perfectly, yet these two are going to play it in a duet during a competition?
And as one would’ve expected, Ai Wan and Wei Kang made plenty of mistakes during their performance— over a hundred mistakes before the thirty-second mark, yet Song Ling’er did not disqualify them and allowed them to continue to play this seemingly impossible song.
However, they were also playing the music too quickly for most people to notice these mistakes, so only the top experts like the judges were able to discern these mistakes.
’What fast-paced, chaotic music... This is my first time hearing such a song...’ Yuan glared at these two people with narrowed eyes, clearly piqued by their music.
Exactly three minutes later, Ai Wan and Wei Kang stopped playing at the exact same time with their last music note rippling throughout the place, their faces and body soaked in sweat.
Three seconds later, once the audience realized that the music had stopped, the entire place exploded with cheering that shook the atmosphere there.
Sometime later, Senior Zou said while clapping, "Even though there were many mistakes in your performance, I cannot help but still admire your courage for playing this song during a competition, even playing it to the end without any major mistakes or obvious off syncs. And this is my first time hearing the God Descends from Heaven song during a competition despite my experience. Therefore, I am going to give you ten points."