Chapter 176: Shouldn’t I Live for Myself for a Day?

Chapter 176: Shouldn’t I Live for Myself for a Day?

The plucking of strings reverberated through the room.

Zhao Changhe sat there in earnest, playing the guqin.

The maid stood nervously by the side, looking like she was ready to pounce at any time to save her precious guqin. If this bear shows even a hint of violence, I’ll kick him through the wall and I won’t let him three zhang from the guqin ever again.

However, it was very strange. Even though he had clumsily broken a string the last time he played, and he had not practiced playing the guqin these past few days, his posture now was inexplicably gentler and more relaxed. His current movements were devoid of the former stiffness that he had.

So, when he touched the strings, although his movements did still look relatively rigid, he could actually play it.

Back then, the string had broken not because it was too tight, but because he was too tense. How could a martial artist who could even use a broad saber to shave his beard not be able to control his strength and end up breaking a string?

In comparison to back then, he was much calmer and relaxed.

The only issue now was that he had never learned any songs. He was simply following the piece that Tang Wanzhuang had played for him the other day, plucking each string to produce the corresponding notes, before plucking them in reverse. Ultimately, it sounded quite boring.

But it seemed like every beginner started this way. The maid recalled when she was just five years old and had started to... Oh well, forget it.

It was boring indeed, but Tang Wanzhuang simply leaned back against the headboard, and her eyes slightly closed. She looked like she was enjoying herself. After listening for a while, she even closed her eyes as if she was dozing off, resting comfortably.

The maid’s eyes enlarged into two full circles. She could not find anything pleasant in these repetitive and boring notes. There isn’t even a hint of rhythm! It would be pretty good if you don’t start feeling irritable after listening to it for a while. How can you actually relax while listening to this?

After playing blindly for a few minutes, Zhao Changhe himself became impatient with his own playing. He began to think of ways to play simple melodies.

When he thought of simple melodies, the first thing that came to mind was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” He tried plucking the strings to the melody of the lullaby, and surprisingly, he actually managed to do it. Zhao Changhe could not help but grin, finding it quite fun!

But then he got stuck, and he could not figure out how to play the Fa note... Helplessly, he turned to the maid for assistance. “Hey...”

“My name is not ‘hey.’ I’m referred to as the guqin-carrying maid. And no, you can’t call me that. You must address me as ‘miss.’”

“Oh, Miss Carrier...”

The maid glared at him. “My surname is not Carrier!”

“Shh!” Zhao Changhe shushed her. “Your young lady is resting. Don’t get loud.”

The maid lowered her voice. “What do you want?”

“I’m humming a piece. Can you teach me how to play this note?” Zhao Changhe hummed the melody of the lullaby. “Where are the first two notes?”

“Your humming sounds terrible. I never thought that someone’s humming could sound like the squealing of a pig.”

Zhao Changhe rubbed his fists. The maid stood up and took a half step back.

“That’s a modified tone. You’ll need to use your left hand to change the tuning to play it. You can’t play it with just one hand.” Tang Wanzhuang’s leisurely voice came from the bedside. “Demonstrate it for him.”

The maid reluctantly moved closer and demonstrated with her small hands. While using her left hand to press down on one side of one of the strings, she used her right to pluck it. She played the note he was looking for.

Although having a sword in his left hand and a saber in his right might look cool, it would be really inconvenient. It was better for him to focus on his saber art for now.

At this time, the Heavenly Tome seemed to have unsealed and evolved further.

Not only could it create an illusory space where he could watch the Sword Emperor preach firsthand, but now he could also control this illusory space like a lucid dream, showcasing whatever content he desired. For example, at this moment, he only wanted the Sword Emperor to demonstrate the techniques that could be used between the fifth to seventh layers of the Profound Gate, and the Sword Emperor would comply, allowing him to choose from the various techniques of the emperor’s sword arts.

I wonder, as the Heavenly Tome becomes more and more sentient, will it eventually try to kill me? Eh...whatever, that’s a concern for another day. For now, I’ve got too many sword arts to consider to be thinking about anything else.

There were only too many such sword moves demonstrated by Sword Emperor for the fifth to seventh layers of the Profound Gate.

What he had given Sisi was just one kind of sword intent and one set of sword arts. As the so-called general outline of sword arts, how could the sword seal only have one system or category of sword arts? There were countless types of sword intent and sword arts, all of which needed a lifetime of study to be fully understood. Just at this level alone, there were already at least a hundred different kinds of sword arts, and even a casual selection could yield hundreds of moves worthy of being called ultimate techniques.

Most of them were not suitable to be integrated into his saber art, as they simply did not fit a saber or Zhao Changhe’s style. Thus, after carefully sifting through them, he narrowed it down to about a dozen options.

After eliminating some that had relatively redundant effects, Zhao Changhe finally settled on three of them.

All his thoughts now focused on how to integrate these three sword arts into his saber art. When he achieved this, would it finally be time for him to depart?

Just as this thought arose, Zhao Changhe shook his head.

Why am I starting to think like this again? I need to slow down and calm down... I should not rush to finish things just for the sake of it.

There was nothing that required his urgent attention. Patience was key.

Knock, knock, knock~

The sound of knocking interrupted his thoughts

Zhao Changhe withdrew his focus from the Heavenly Tome and realized that he had spent the entire night choosing from the sword arts. It was already dawn.

When he opened the door, he saw Tang Wanzhuang standing outside with a smile. “Now that you don’t need to write the manual anymore, am I still welcome here?”

“Are you feeling better?”

“I need some more rest, but I’m fine. It’s been a long time since I slept as peacefully as last night. Thank you for your nursery rhyme.”

“So, are you also going to take things easy? You aren’t planning to deal with the Maitreya Cult today?”

“I think I won’t. Shouldn’t I live for myself for a day?”

“In that case, I’d like to make a request...” Zhao Changhe said. “How about spending today helping me instead?”

Tang Wanzhuang tilted her head in puzzlement.

Without any embarrassment, he said very naturally, “I’ve chosen three sword arts, and I’m considering how to integrate them into my saber art. Since you’re a grandmaster, could you give me some advice?”

Tang Wanzhuang smiled. “Certainly, as you wish.” for new novels