Divine Level Witch Doctor

Finally, after writing out ten musical scores, Zhao Yuan put down his pen.

He glanced at the crowd, who were completely engrossed in the musical scores, and asked, ”What do you think? These pieces I plagiarized are pretty good, right?”

”Heh, Zhao Yuan, you certainly have a sense of humor.” Huang Shijia looked up from the musical scores, smiling warmly at Zhao Yuan.

He looked at him as if he were some kind of priceless treasure.

”Plagiarism? Don’t say that, Zhao Yuan. We all believe you composed these pieces yourself!” Zhang Liping said, comforting Zhao Yuan while shooting a fierce glare at Yao Jie. She then berated him, ”What are you standing there frozen for? Hurry up and apologize to Zhao Yuan! It’s bad enough that you have no talent, but to slander others on top of it? Did your master not teach you to learn virtue before learning your art?”

Yao Jie took the tongue-lashing without daring to talk back. In fact, he was even starting to think he really had been wrong.

’How could someone who can produce ten astonishing pieces in one sitting be a plagiarist? Who would be so stupid as to have all these masterpieces and not publish them, just leaving them around for someone to steal?’

He hurriedly said to Zhao Yuan, ”Zhao Yuan, I’m sorry. I was blind to your greatness and offended you.”

”You didn’t offend me,” Zhao Yuan said, waving his hand dismissively. ”You weren’t wrong. I did, in fact, copy these pieces.”

Yao Jie was on the verge of tears.

’What happened to being the bigger person? What happened to being magnanimous and forgiving? This isn’t how the script is supposed to go!’

It wasn’t just Yao Jie; Huang Shijia, Zhang Liping, and the others all assumed Zhao Yuan’s words were laced with bitterness. They never would have guessed he was telling the absolute truth!

This was exactly the effect Zhao Yuan wanted.

He had anticipated this skepticism from the start, but he wasn’t worried.

’So you say I plagiarized? Fine. I’ll admit it, and then I’ll ”plagiarize” ten more! If ten isn’t enough, I’ll do a hundred, then a thousand! The Information Leaf has a countless number of musical pieces in its miscellaneous knowledge section. If I bury them under a mountain of scores, no one will believe me even if I admit to plagiarizing!’

Yao Jie felt incredibly wronged, but he didn’t dare let it show and could only continue to apologize. Even Huang Shijia and Zhang Liping began to apologize as well.

Seeing this, Zhao Yuan couldn’t keep up the act. He waved his hand and said, ”Alright, that’s enough. It’s over, so you can stop apologizing. It wasn’t a big deal anyway. Senior Yao, can you teach me how to play the Guqin now?”

”Yes, of course.” All of Yao Jie’s previous arrogance had vanished. His face was wreathed in smiles as he nodded incessantly, acting as much like a suck-up as he possibly could. His heart swelled with excitement and honor.

’In my opinion, Zhao Yuan is destined to become famous in the world of music, maybe even go down in history! If I become his first Guqin teacher, won’t I become famous alongside him? Won’t my name also be immortalized? The very thought is thrilling!’

Unfortunately, Yao Jie’s happiness was short-lived.

Just then, Huang Shijia’s eyes lit up like a fox in a henhouse. In a flash, he darted in front of Zhao Yuan, grabbed his hand, and asked, ”You want to learn the Guqin? Wonderful! I’ll take you as my disciple! I will teach you everything I know!”

Yao Jie’s jaw dropped. He felt as if he’d plummeted from the heavens into the abyss. He ranted internally, tears streaming down his face, ’Are you kidding me? Elder Huang, you’re a world-renowned Guqin master! What happened to your aloof demeanor? Your dignified air? Your integrity? You’ve thrown it all away to steal a student from me? I remember you just announced a while ago that you were too old to take on any more students. Why the sudden change of heart? Aren’t you afraid your nose will grow for breaking your promise at your age?’

Before his internal rant was even over, something even more shocking happened.

Seeing Huang Shijia try to take Zhao Yuan as a disciple, Zhang Liping wouldn’t stand for it. She rushed forward, grabbed Zhao Yuan’s other hand, and said with her cheeks puffed out, ”Elder Huang, what do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to steal a disciple from me? Let me tell you, I won’t have it! I’m dead set on taking Zhao Yuan as my disciple!”

Huang Shijia frowned. ”Zhao Yuan has an extraordinary talent for composing music. It would be a waste for him not to learn the qin from me. Stop making a scene!”

”What do you mean, ’making a scene’? Zhao Yuan’s talent for choreography is every bit as good as his talent for composition! A genius like him should naturally be my disciple and learn dance from me! Besides, I’m not just a dancer; I’m also very knowledgeable about musical instruments. If Zhao Yuan wants to learn an instrument, I can teach him. You should just focus on enjoying your retirement and stay out of this.”

Ordinarily, Zhang Liping was deeply respectful toward Huang Shijia, but at this moment, she was willing to throw caution to the wind to claim Zhao Yuan as her own.

The two artists, both considered national treasures, held on to Zhao Yuan tightly, refusing to let go. They glared daggers at each other, looking as if they might come to blows at any second.

This scene made everyone’s jaws drop. Yao Jie, in particular, was so shocked he nearly collapsed onto the floor.

’Am I dreaming? I must be. Given Teacher Zhang’s and Elder Huang’s stature, it’s usually other people begging them, tears and all, to take them as disciples. How are the roles reversed now, with them practically begging to take someone on? They even look like they’re about to fight over him? This is just unbelievable!’

’But on second thought, it made sense. Who could blame them, when Zhao Yuan’s talent was so monstrous? It’s only because my own status is too low; otherwise, I’d be right there fighting over him with Zhang Liping and Huang Shijia!’

The two artists kept bickering, neither willing to back down, arguing until they were red in the face. Zhao Yuan tried to interject several times but couldn’t get a word in, which left him feeling incredibly awkward.

In the end, they reached a compromise.

Huang Shijia said, ”How about this: we’ll both take him as our disciple. You teach him dancing, and I’ll teach him the qin!”

Zhang Liping thought for a moment. It was indeed the best possible arrangement, so she nodded in agreement. ”Deal!”

The two artists finally stopped arguing.

Zhao Yuan finally found an opening to speak. With a wry smile, he said, ”Teachers, aren’t you going to ask for my opinion?”

Huang Shijia and Zhang Liping both froze.

Before they could ask, Zhao Yuan spoke again. ”Teachers, I’m afraid I must apologize, but I have no intention of becoming your disciple.”

The moment he said this, Yao Jie’s legs went weak with shock, and he collapsed onto the floor with a THUD.

’Has this guy lost his mind? Countless people would kill for the chance to become a disciple of Teacher Zhang or Elder Huang, but never get it. Now he’s being accepted by both masters at the same time—what an incredible honor, what a bright future—and he... he actually refused?’

Yao Jie truly wanted to cry. ’You don’t want a chance like this? Damn it, if you don’t want it, give it to me!’

It wasn’t just him. Chen Jiao, too, was so shocked by Zhao Yuan’s words that her jaw hung open, and she couldn’t seem to close it.