Qiao Chen returned back to the little attic he lived in. He packed his things up and prepared to leave early in the morning. There wasn't much to what he owned. He didn't have much to really clean either, so he randomly packed a couple of relatively new clothes along with some old ones up. Then he entered the room where his mother stayed.
He picked up a wooden box at the foot of the bed. It contained the cremation diamond made from his mother's ashes. He planned to bring her back with him and reunite her with his grandfather and uncles. There was also a dusty wooden box that was hidden beneath the bed. Qiao Chen pulled the box out and blew off the dust. Inside the box lay a violin case.
It was the violin his grandfather gave to him to celebrate his birth. It was a very precious and rare violin. It was the only thing of value that his mother took with them. Even at the most difficult time of their lives, his mother still couldn't bring herself to sell the violin…
He decided to use the violin that was filled with his mother and grandfather's love and expectations to reach the top of the musician profession. Qiao Chen brushed his fingers against the violin's strings and alongside it's body. With this violin, I will make those who were filled with evil pay dearly.
…
This country didn't have a suspension train that went directly to Katao country, so it would take several days of transfers that spanned over two countries before Qiao Chen could reach Katao's borders. It would only take a day to reach Katao's capital once he reached the border.
After several more long hours on the suspension train, Qiao Chen headed off to board another empty train on the small country planet. However, as soon as he exited the train and reached the platform, he heard a loud sound screech in the air. The people who heard the noise seemed to feel a sense of impending danger and rushed off the platform.
Qiao Chen didn't want to get caught in the impending danger either, so he also quickly followed. Unfortunately, another loud sound quickly pierced the air. The entire platform's metal emitted another ear bursting screech. The people who hadn't had enough time to leave the platform collapsed to the ground in pain. They held their head in agony and Qiao Chen immediately had the system seal his hearing.
The sound was caused by the rail station's defense system breaking down. The people in this world had sensitive hearing, so these harsh sounds were extremely harmful to people's spiritual strength. Qiao Chen quietly thought that the small country wasn't very safe. The defense system was too weak.
Just as Qiao Chen decided to exit the platform, he looked back and saw the scene of people rolling on the floor in agony. He sighed. His apathy wasn't as bad as it had been before, so he turned back. One should do a good deed each day.
Qiao Chen took the violin out of the case and began to play. The world's rapid development of modern civilization, science, and technology made it so that playing music didn't only restore people's spiritual strength. It also had a variety of uses and benefits that also caused the musician's status to sky rocket. With that in mind, Qiao Chen covered the screeching with the sound of his violin.
The people who were prone on the floor were able to recover from the pain and stand up. They looked at Qiao Chen gratefully and quickly left. Qiao Chen kept playing and the music from the violin gradually reached the defense system's sensor. Once the screeching sound gradually faded, Qiao Chen put away his violin in its case and walked towards the exit.
Suddenly, two strangers dropped from above. They abruptly landed a few meters away on both of sides of Qiao Chen. Why was Qiao Chen able to immediately see that this was a two way battle? Because it can be easily seen from the state of their weapons and the way they landed that they were just fighting. It was also highly probable that the defense system was destroyed due to their scuffle.
On Qiao Chen's right, four or five men and women stood a few meters away. They appeared to be in good condition with no visible wounds. On his right, was a lone man. He looked badly injured and there was blood running down his face. His head was down as he crouched on the floor with his hands gripping the floor and he seemed to be in severe pain.
"Sire, please stand behind us." The woman with the smoking hot body from the right said.
'Sire' was the way people addressed high level musicians who were able to eliminate sound from defense systems. Only musicians who reached the eighth level were able to perform such a feat. It was good for anyone to be able to attract a high level musician on their side. Therefore, it was very obvious that the woman wanted to bring Qiao Chen to her side.
Qiao Chen didn't want to be involved in a battle between the two sides. He planned to leave the platform when he inadvertently glanced to his left and was stunned. He stopped in his tracks. The seriously injured man had stood up, and even though half of his face was drenched in blood, the outline of his face was far too similar to the man he had fallen in love with for two lifetimes. Qiao Chen hurriedly activated the system to confirm the man's identity. Once the system issued a confirmation that the man was this world's Aunan Andrei, Qiao Chen briskly walked over to him.
"Sire, that man is dangerous. Please don't approach him." The woman exclaimed. She was very surprised that Qiao Chen would walk towards the man. The man's spiritual power was already on the verge of exploding and those around him would probably be injured by his spiritual outbursts. Normal people wouldn't choose to approach the man even if they didn't want to stand behind them and help their side.
Qiao Chen took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the blood from the man's face. No wounds were found on his face, so the blood belonged to someone else. Qiao Chen sighed in relief.
Augea was surprised to see Qiao Chen walk towards him, and Qiao Chen's movements were even more surprising. His first instincts would have normally been to attack as soon as Qiao Chen took his first steps toward him, but Augea didn't. He couldn't even say why he chose not to… It felt as if the one who approached him was a dearly important person. However, he was pretty sure that he had never seen the person standing before him.
Qiao Chen stood ten meters behind Augea and once again took his violin out of the case. He began to play a very difficult classical styled song with good energy buffs. This piece was able to not only restore the combatant's spirit, but it was also able to enhance the person's combat effectiveness. The people on the other side were professional, trained killers. Their faces changed immediately after they heard Qiao Chen's song.
"So it turns out you know each other." The woman sneered and immediately took up her arms and initiated an attack.
Qiao Chen could sense that Augea's spiritual strength was very strong. If he wasn't injured, than the people opposing him wouldn't even be a threat. Those people should have attacked Augea after he was injured. Qiao Chen concluded.
Qiao Chen rapidly healed Augea's on-the-verge-of-exploding spiritual strength. His fighting capabilities were also greatly improved, so the people opposing him weren't his opponents at all. They were only able to push him to this state after he had been severely injured. If he was at full strength when they attacked, then it would have been child's play for Augea. After several rounds of fighting, the opposers lay on the ground wounded. However, those people seemed to be thinking about killing Augea even if they had to take him down with them. They all collectively triggered their own spiritual energies in an effort to self detonate.
It was at this moment that several people dropped down from the above and landed in front of Augea. One of them eagerly went to Augea's side and asked, "Your Highness, are You all right?"
Qiao Chen stopped playing when he saw Augea's men arrive. The people on the other side seemed to know that after the new group arrived, they wouldn't be able to even injure Augea with their spiritual explosion. They changed their idea of suicide bombing him. Then they quickly started up their rocket boots and fled into the air.
"Don't leave a single soul alive." Augea ordered. His men immediately set out to pursue the attackers once the orders left Augea's mouth.
"Thank you very much for your help." Augea faced Qiao Chen and said.
"There's no need for a word of thanks- a payment would be better." Qiao Chen said. He deliberately showed an interest for money, because it would have been strange for him to help a person he had only met for the first time.
"A payment?" Augea raised his brows in surprise.
"Why should I help you without a monetary incentive? Don't tell me you think I only helped you because you are handsome." Qiao Chen retorted.
"…I do think you did." Auguea said as the corners of his lips curved up in a small smirk. When Qiao Chen helped him wipe the blood from his face just now, he clearly saw the pain and empathy in his eyes.
"Narcissism is an illness. Please remember to take your medication on time." Qiao Chen rolled his eyes and said impatiently. "Hurry up and give me the money. I need to go to another station and catch the next suspension train to Katao."
"Are you going to Katao?" Augea asked. "What a coincidence. It just so happens that I'm heading that way too. I can give you a ride to any planet you want as thanks for helping me. Of course, I won't short you on the money either."
"I'm going to Katao's capital. It is also along the way for you?" Qiao Chen said. He had been waiting for him to say that.
"It's too convenient. I'm heading there too, please follow me." Augea said as he looked like a kidnapper.
Qiao Chen thought to himself, If I didn't know who you were or loved you for two lifetimes, then the how the hell would I follow you with an expression like that?
…
Qiao Chen had a very relaxing trip back to the capital on Augea's ship. After they reached the capital, Qiao Chen went with the flow and was finally 'lured' and 'kidnapped' into Augea's mansion with the promises of his sizable remuneration.
Augea was the only brother of Katao country's current emperor. This meant that he was the only prince in the country. So although his residence wasn't a big as the imperial palace, the magnificence was comparable to the it. Qiao Chen was given a room and they retired for the night.
The next day, Qiao Chen woke up early and was already out of bed. He was in the middle of showering when the bathroom door suddenly opened. Qiao Chen immediately turned to look at the person at the doorway.
"Help me repair my mental strength." Augea said as he clung to the door with one hand and held the door frame with his other. His complexion showed that he looked somewhat uncomfortable. When he looked up and saw Qiao Chen's naked body standing under the running water, he was stunned.
Augea was actually more interested in women with curvy figures. He didn't think much of the ghers who looked no different from men. However, once he saw Qiao Chen's long and slender legs with his rotund butt, his lower body lost control and reacted without his permission.
"Even if this is your house, please remember to knock on the door first, Your Highness." Qiao Chen turned off the water and grabbed the towel from the cupboard on the wall. He immediately wrapped the towel around his waist. This damned pervert. He had always been particularly interested in my butt for the last two lives. After Qiao Chen caught the look in Augea's eyes just now, he determined that Augea hadn't changed his hobby in this life either.
Augea pulled his eyes away from Qiao Chen's butt, but as Qiao Chen exited the bathroom, Augea's eyes landed on the two red dots on Qiao Chen's chest. Augea followed closely behind him.
"What are you doing when I'm trying to wear my clothes?" Qiao Chen asked when Augea entered the dressing room with him.
Augea immediately remembered that even though ghers looks like men, they still needed to be treated like women in terms of gender. Augea apologized and walked out.
After Qiao Chen finished wearing his clothes, he walked out of the dressing room. He saw Augea on the sofa and continued his way there. Then he sat next to Augea on the sofa. Qiao Chen placed his hand on Augea's neck to sense Augea's inner spiritual strength. The spiritual energy wasn't completely restored after his last injury. It looked like his song didn't do as much as he thought it should have. Qiao Chen observed Augea's spritual energy some more and found that it was slowly getting worse and worse. Qiao Chen didn't know what Augea did last night to exasperate the problem with his spiritual wounds, but it was starting to look pretty bad.
Qiao Chen took out his violin and began to play a soothing song to help Augea recuperate. Augea leaned back onto the sofa and quietly concentrated on the music to recover. Usually, when Augea restored his spiritual strength with a musician's song, he just closed his eyes and focused on the sounds of the music to heal. However, he couldn't help but keep his eyes open. He had been totally entranced by Qiao Chen's performance. People originally enjoyed both the music and the musician's performance. Augea figured that this was the reason why. He was enchanting.
"It's best to rest well during this period where your spiritual strength hasn't fully recovered yet. If not, then you will have to suffer with the consequences and aftereffects of a worsening spiritual constitution." Qiao Chen lightly advised. Even though Qiao Chen was distressed over Augea's indifference towards his own body, their relationship hadn't reached the point for him to be deeply concerned or interfere with Augea's life.
"Where are you going?" Augea asked. He saw Qiao Chen carrying his violin case. It looked like Qiao Chen was leaving.
"I'm headed to the Imperial Academy of Performing Arts' Registration."Qiao Chen replied.
"Registration?"Augea asked, surprised. "Aren't beginner musicians the ones who need to register?"
"Since I didn't register when I was a beginner, I'm going to register now." Qiao Chen replied curtly. He didn't want to talk to Augea too much for the time being.
Augea saw that Qiao Chen didn't want to talk anymore, so he didn't ask any more questions. He stood up and offered, "Let me bring you over."
"You take me? There's no need for that. You are the prince. I can't afford to hire such an expensive driver. I can just go on my own. Besides, it's just registering, so it won't take too long before I come back." Qiao Chen rejected. There were a lot of people who knew Augea's face, and he didn't want to go to the registration and cause a huge stir.
"Didn't you just tell me to rest? Well, I have nothing else to do now, so let's go." Augea said. He quickly walked out of the room ahead of Qiao Chen without listening to his reply.
Qiao Chen was helpless. He had no choice but to let Augea take him. However, once they reached the school's trade union, Qiao Chen insisted that Augea had to wait in the car. He wanted go to the union and register by himself.
Before registering, musicians had to pass some music exams. These were quite simple for Qiao Chen, so he easily passed them all. After registering, Qiao Chen's ID card identified him as a musician. However, he was at the lowest level, so he was ranked as First Level Musician. There were fifteen levels for musicians. The lowest was level one and the highest was level fifteen.
The higher the level meant the better the special treatment a musician could enjoy. Of course Qiao Chen's decision to register wasn't to enjoy such benefits. The main reason he registered was because most competitions and concerts required musicians to register with Academy of Performing Arts before they could join in any competitions.
After the registration, Qiao Chen immediately went to the union center and applied for the big competition that was held once every three years. The competition was being held at the capital planet's Jingfeng city in the near future, and all musicians under level ten were eligible to participate.
The competition's main objective was that the musician had to play music that would cause the city's three year old crystal blossom to bloom. Crystal blossoms had both a mineral texture and plant characteristics. It was a magical and stunning object with a dangerous attribute. They could only bloom once strong enough music was played that stimulated its growth process.
If a musician successfully caused the flower to bloom, then the flower would exude a fragrance that would greatly improve the musician's spiritual energy. However, if the musician fails to resist the crystal blossom's defensive magnetic waves, and if they don't withdraw to the safe range in time, then they would be injured. The grand prize winner would also receive a big reward on top of the numerous benefits they'd get from the fame alone.
Another thing to note was that Jingfeng city wasn't an actually city. It was an enormous castle that was a big as a small city and was surrounded by walls. It was only slightly smaller than the imperial palace, and had countless crystal blossoms planted all around the grounds.
Countless musicians would arrive at Jingfeng city on the day the competition would begin. Only the participants could enter the city because the first and second days of the competition were not open to the public for viewing. Therefore, family and friends of the performers could only wait outside.
There were four gates that allowed musicians to enter, but each performer was required to verify their identity and check in at the city gates before they entered. Owing to the fact that countless musicians and civilians would come to the city, the capital planet would dispatch a large number of guards to maintain public law and order. Jingfeng city also had many soldiers stationed there to prevent accidents.
————
Qiao Chen filled out the registration form on the screen. Then, he handed his ID card to the site supervisor for verification. The supervisor was stunned when they saw Qiao Chen's rank as a level one musician. They did a double take at Qiao Chen and the screen that showed his identity just to make sure that the documents matched up. The site supervisor was a little hesitant with approving Qiao Chen for the competition.
"Are you sure you want to enter the competition? With your level, I'm afraid that you won't be able to withstand the magnetic waves when the crystal blossom blooms. If you take part in the competition as you are right now, then you would definitely be injured. How about you wait until your rank reaches a higher level before you participate in the competition?" The site supervisor kindly persuaded Qiao Chen to withdraw from the competition.
Although the competition stipulated that all performers below the tenth level could participate, the crystal blossoms' magnetic waves were very dangerous and harmful to a musician's mental strength. Generally speaking, most if not all of musicians knew this. Musicians who were level three and below didn't usually participate in this competition.
"I've already come this far, so I should give it a try, shouldn't I?" Qiao Chen had no hesitations.
The inspector also wanted to continue to persuade Qiao Chen to withdraw, but his coworker patted him on the shoulder and interrupted, "Just let him in. Every competition will have a few foolish or random people who want to try their luck. It's useless to try and persuade them now. They'll remember it when they get injured."
The man glanced at Qiao Chen with disdain and contempt. The inspector also looked helpless and shrugged his shoulders. He tapped through the screen, finished checking Qiao Chen in, and then returned Qiao Chen's ID card to him.
The crystal blossoms had a total of seven colors on it. The first two days of the prelims required the participants to make a single-colored blossoms open. If all the seven colors of crystal blossoms bloomed within two days, then the participant would be able to enter the finals. The finals were located at the garden area. This was where the seven crystal blossoms were mixed together.
The guide and recording staff brought the incoming musicians to a partitioned competition area. There were sound proof headphones for them to be able to record the results. Everything was in order and ready for the next participant. There were musicians in every area for each of the crystal blossoms' colors. As Qiao Chen and the competition staff reached each area, they passed by a large number of musicians who had already voluntarily withdrawn from the competition because their music wasn't able to resist the magnetic waves. Others had to withdraw from the competition due to injuries sustained when they insisted on enduring the crystal blossoms' magnetic waves.
The preliminary competition allowed a two day time frame for musicians to successfully complete the task. This time limit gave musicians ample amount of time to rest, so most participants chose to finish the prelims in two days. Only those who were famous and had high levels would complete the prelims on the first day. So while the contestants left, one after the other, Qiao Chen continued through the prelim tasks and finished causing all seven of the single colored crystal blossoms to bloom. All of the staff beside him was amazed. Even though they weren't musicians, they all worked in the music industry. They knew all the upcoming musicians- even the E-list ones, but they had no prior impression of Qiao Chen. It was like he came out of no where.
The staff who helped Qiao Chen record all the information in the recorder called out Qiao Chen's information. His eyes popped open as soon as he saw it. How is this person a level one musician? Can a level one musician complete the preliminary test areas in such a short time? And the completion percentage was this high too?
After Qiao Chen secured a spot in the finals, he exited Jingfeng city. Augea's car was patiently waiting for him outside.
"Do you need to come back tomorrow or the day after?" Augea asked Qiao Chen right after he entered the car. Then he poured Qiao Chen a glass of water.
"The day after." Qiao Chen replied. He took the glass of water and ended up drinking it all before he asked, "Are you coming to see me play the day after tomorrow?"
"Of course. I already reserved the VIP seat."