In the lobby of the hotel, everyone turned their gaze towards Luo Chen.
“Why can I not play the piano in front of you?” Luo Chen ignored Master Di Yi’s words and continued walking towards the upstairs gallery.
There was a pristine white piano there!
“Fine, young man. Since you insist on showing off your amateur skills before an expert, I will allow it. But if your playing is substandard later, do not blame me for being ruthless in my criticism,” Master Di Yi sneered.
“Judge me?” Luo Chen had now reached the upstairs gallery. “I am afraid you are not even qualified to judge my piano playing!” Luo Chen suddenly said coldly.
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire hall fell silent once again.
Even Zi Yuan was stunned. A thought suddenly popped into her mind. Was this too arrogant? He was saying this in front of Master Di Yi!
Zhang Yang, Yuan Na, and the others were dumbfounded. In fact, everyone in the hall was dumbfounded!
“What did he just say?” someone asked with an incredulous expression.
“He said Master Di Yi is not qualified to judge his piano playing?”
“Who does he think he is?”
“How dare he say such a thing in front of Master Di Yi?” A wave of discussion instantly swept over the place.
“Friend, let me remind you. Do you know who is standing in front of you?” Chen Jie said with a frown.
He had already given this young man a chance to step down, but he did not expect him not only to refuse but also to speak so wildly.
“No matter who it is, no one has that qualification!” Luo Chen’s expression was blank, as calm as an ancient well.
“Hmph. Master Di Yi is the champion of the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition and a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in America. He is not qualified to judge you?” Chen Jie was actually angered into a laugh.
Where did this fool come from?
Acting tough without even looking at who is standing in front of him?
“Manager Luo, your words are a bit too presumptuous, aren’t they?” Zhang Yang shouted, a faint hint of mockery on his face.
“Regarding Master Di Yi’s piano skills, if he says he is second, no one in the country dares to say they are first!”
Even Zi Yuan felt Luo Chen had gone too far. That was Di Yi!
But Luo Chen ignored him.
Instead, Di Yi’s face turned black with anger this time.
He was, after all, the champion of the International Chopin Competition and the top pianist in the country. An unknown nobody actually dared to say he was not qualified to judge?
This kind of person truly had eyes but failed to see Mount Tai!
“Heh. I am the number one pianist in the country. If I am not qualified, then tell me, who is?” Di Yi retorted.
“No one in the current world is qualified!” Luo Chen actually said with a hint of arrogance this time.
But as soon as these words were spoken, Di Yi was so angry that he laughed instead of getting mad.
He could tell that the person in front of him was probably a fool.
No one in the current world is qualified?
What kind of music has no one in the current world qualified to judge?
“Zi Yuan, do you think our Manager Luo has a problem with his brain?” Yuan Na mocked.
She had just felt that Luo Chen was somewhat unfathomable. After all, he threw down twenty million right away. Perhaps she had misjudged him.
But now, just based on that sentence, she no longer thought so!
How dare he speak so wildly in front of the number one pianist in the country?
“Fine, we will wait for your piece that no one in the current world is qualified to judge!” Di Yi sneered.
Later, he would use the most ugly words to ridicule Luo Chen.
“This Luo Chen is really digging a hole for himself,” Tang Long shook his head from the side.
“Speaking so wildly before even playing. Let us see how he gets out of this later!” Zhang Yang chimed in.
“Let us wait and watch the show. Offending Master Di Yi like this, do you think Master Di Yi will let him off easily?”
“Moreover, Master Di Yi was invited by Young Master Chen. Embarrassing Master Di Yi like this, what will Young Master Chen think?” The corner of Zhang Yang’s mouth curved up, and the schadenfreude on his face grew stronger.
“After tonight’s annual party, this Luo Chen is probably going to become famous in Nanling. He has offended both young masters of Nanling in one go!” The schadenfreude on Tang Long’s face also grew stronger.
Zi Yuan, on the other hand, looked extremely anxious. It was over now. How was Luo Chen going to get out of this?
But Luo Chen had already sat down in front of the piano.
He then stretched out his hands, a look of reminiscence in his eyes, as the first note fell into everyone’s ears.
Di Yi looked at Luo Chen’s piano posture, and a sneer immediately appeared on the corner of his mouth.
Is this how you play the piano?
But the next moment, he was stunned.
Everyone in the entire hall was stunned.
Because as the notes fell into everyone’s ears, it was like a bright moon in the sky, with the blue sea rising. Layer upon layer of waves rippled and overlapped, blooming like flowers, making people’s hearts yearn for it.
But the instantly high pitched sound suddenly dropped, humming and singing softly, sorrowful and mournful. A picture seemed to appear before everyone’s eyes.
Red spider lilies blooming all over the mountains and plains. A woman in red clothes handed armour and a long sword to a man, full of deep affection yet reluctant to part.
The man turned and left. The woman waited among the spider lilies.
The spider lilies bloomed and withered. A beautiful face turned to white hair in the blink of an eye. Finally, a lone grave appeared among the spider lilies.
The woman did not wait for that person to return.
One departure was a lifetime. One wait was an eternity!
Luo Chen sighed.
The lingering sound, the wonderful yet sorrowful story. This was the divine music for crossing the tribulation, Spider Lilies Blooming!
Although sorrowful, it hid no regrets!
That man was a generation of Heavenly King who had once reversed and severed the Great Dao in the Immortal Realm. He eventually returned, but there was only a lone grave.
To seek the Dao, one must abandon the seven emotions and six desires, cast aside romantic love. Otherwise, the Great Dao would sever one’s seven emotions and six desires, just like the legend of cutting the three corpses in Taoism.
The Heavenly King was unwilling to accept this. In the end, this divine music for crossing the tribulation, Spider Lilies Blooming, emerged from nowhere. The Heavenly King used this to reverse and sever the Great Dao!
It was also from then on that the Heavenly King pioneered a way of crossing tribulation by reversing and severing the Great Dao.
Luo Chen’s sigh was because, in his previous life, if he had obtained this divine music for crossing the tribulation a bit earlier, perhaps Xi Zi Yuan would not have perished.
The piece ended. Many people had tears in their eyes without realising it, and some were already crying.
A full two minutes passed before many people came to their senses, only to quickly realise they had been crying.
Even Di Yi had unconsciously shed tears.
No one spoke. After a while of silence, Zhang Yang and the others finally opened their mouths.
“Manager Luo, I did not hear anything extraordinary about this piece.” In Zhang Yang’s view, no matter how well Luo Chen played, he had to slander him a bit.
“Shut up!”
“How can such a peerless divine music be defiled by you?”
Very unexpectedly, everyone looked up at the gallery in astonishment, because the one who rebuked Zhang Yang was actually Master Di Yi!
“Master Di Yi, he this…”
“You don’t understand a damn thing!”
“Music, when you get right down to it, is nothing but conveying emotions. Whether sad, joyful, or impassioned, every piece is like this!”
“But to present a story without any lyrics, this piece…”
“This piece…”
“The most important thing is, when this piece was just played…”
“When it was played…” Di Yi could not continue, or rather, could not find the words.
Luo Chen’s playing could not be described as merely good, or rather, Di Yi could not find anything to describe it with.
He, a generation’s number one pianist in the country, could not find any words to describe it.
“Now, do you say you are still qualified to comment?” Luo Chen looked at Di Yi with a cold gleam in his eyes.