Dragon's Origin

Chapter 373: The Grandmaster's Test (Part 2)

Seeing this, the few grandmasters knew that Wang Sheng had passed Master Yu's test. They all breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

However, Old Man Yu was really too devious. To stick such a small piece of something inside the pipa, who could hear it? And at the beginning, he pretended that the strings were tight, making the person being tested feel that it was easy to hear the problem. He didn't expect there to be such an ambush. This Old Man Yu is really dishonest.

“I really don’t understand musical instruments,” Wang Sheng explained with a smile. “I just have better hearing recently.”

Wang Sheng was telling the truth, but Master Yu and the other grandmasters didn't think so. Good hearing could detect an extra layer of film? There are many people with good ears, but not many can pass Old Man Yu's test.

In fact, as long as Wang Sheng could hear that the strings were a little tight at the beginning, Old Man Yu would have considered Wang Sheng to have passed the test. After all, he was brought over by a few old guys, so he had to give them some face. But Wang Sheng passed this deeper and more powerful test, and Master Yu's interest immediately came.

He approved of Wang Sheng in his heart, but Master Yu still decided to test Wang Sheng carefully to see how much he really knew.

“If you want me to make a musical instrument, you can,” Master Yu said to Wang Sheng. “I’ll pack up this pipa, and you pick two pieces suitable for this pipa. If I think it’s okay, then I’ll make it for you. If I don’t think it’s okay, you can let them make one that’s barely usable.”

As soon as these words came out, the grandmasters became unhappy and spoke up one after another.

“What do you mean by barely usable?”

“Do you still want us to help you in the future?”

…

The grandmasters complained for a while, and even Master Yu couldn't hold on. But now he was eager to find talent and wanted to see how much Wang Sheng was to his liking.

“If you really don’t have any, then don’t even talk about customizing any musical instruments. I’ll give you one at random for the sake of these few. Whatever I give you is what you get, how about that?” Master Yu relaxed a little.

Unfortunately, this was far from Wang Sheng's requirements. Although any musical instrument given by Master Yu was likely to be a rare and exquisite instrument, it still couldn't meet Wang Sheng's need to upgrade his Yuan Soul.

This should be a special favor that Master Yu gave Wang Sheng for the sake of the grandmasters. Even the grandmasters couldn't say anything more. Moreover, they also knew that even if Master Yu made one at random, it would be of the highest quality. It would be unreasonable to ask for more. At this time, they could only see how Wang Sheng would respond. Everyone's eyes returned to Wang Sheng.

“Master, I said I don’t understand music,” Wang Sheng could only honestly reply. “So I can’t compose any music.”

“Then there’s no way,” Master Yu shook his head, carefully assembling the pipa he had just disassembled, feeling slightly disappointed in his heart.

He originally thought that Wang Sheng, who could tell that he had stuck a thin film on the inner wall of the pipa, could give him some surprises. Unfortunately, he still wasn't skilled enough.

“How about I hum a tune, and you try it with the pipa?” Wang Sheng asked softly in a negotiating tone. He didn't understand music and couldn't compose, so Wang Sheng could only hum and let Master Yu compose the music himself.

“That’s fine!” Master Yu immediately became interested when he heard Wang Sheng's words. Ignoring the others, he excitedly said to Wang Sheng, “Hum it and let me hear it.”

The pipa music from Earth that Wang Sheng was familiar with was only two pieces. One was the famous “Ambush from Ten Sides,” and the other was Lin Hai’s modern “Pipa Language.” Relying on Wang Sheng's ability to dig out the contents of his memory, Wang Sheng could easily hum these two pieces.

“Da, da da…” Wang Sheng cleared his throat and then slowly began to hum the tune of “Pipa Language.”

As soon as the melody came out, Master Yu's eyes lit up. He had never heard this piece before. It was a new piece.

Listening to the tune humming from Wang Sheng's mouth, Master Yu kept the pitch and rhythm in his mind. He quickly assembled the pipa in his hand, feeling as cool as drinking a bowl of iced mung bean soup on a hot summer day. As expected, a little pressure brought a surprise.

Although Wang Sheng's hearing was amazing and his memory was good, sometimes the tunes he hummed were not accurate. But this didn't prevent Master Yu from recording this not-so-accurate piece first, then playing it once, and relying on Wang Sheng's hearing to find the problem and re-calibrate the pitch.

After humming “Pipa Language” for about four minutes, Master Yu quickly strung the pipa, adjusted the pitch, and then began to play the piece from memory.

As expected of a master, he remembered all the pitches and rhythms after only listening to Wang Sheng humming. He even corrected the slightly fast, slow, high, and low parts of Wang Sheng's humming. After playing the piece, Wang Sheng only found a dozen errors in pitch and rhythm.

After pointing them out one by one, Master Yu played it again, and Wang Sheng was immediately impressed. On the second try, Master Yu's performance was no worse than those of the musicians on Earth that Wang Sheng had heard. Moreover, the charm was far better than many on Earth, making Wang Sheng a little addicted to it.

After coming to this world, he hadn't heard the music of Earth for several years. Today, thanks to Master Yu, he heard a top pipa master playing “Pipa Language,” which really made Wang Sheng feel a lot.

After listening to the piece, there was a slight change in the Yuan Soul space. The key path moved forward a tiny bit. It seemed that bringing music that didn't exist in this world was a very good idea.

Master Yu had taken out a thick notebook at some point and was quickly recording on it. He must have been relying on his memory to record the score.

Wang Sheng didn't disturb Master Yu and quietly sat down with Grandmaster Lu and the others, eating and drinking quietly. The grandmasters also gave Wang Sheng thumbs up one after another. Wang Sheng was able to cope with Old Man Yu's perverted request, as expected of someone they were optimistic about.

“What’s the name of this piece?” Master Yu quickly finished recording and then asked Wang Sheng excitedly.

“Pipa Language,” Wang Sheng quickly replied.

“Good! Good!” Master Yu couldn't be happier. This young man could actually compose good music. These old guys really brought a good young man. He would forgive them for those rude things just now.

“Are there any more?” Master Yu hurriedly wrote down the name of Pipa Language and then asked expectantly, “One more is fine!”

“Yes, there is one more.” Since he had already revealed one piece, Wang Sheng didn't hide the other. “There is another longer piece called 'Ambush from Ten Sides'.”

Completion Check: The entire original text has been translated.

Length Comparison: The length of the translated English text is comparable to the original Chinese text, ensuring completeness.

Confirmation Statement: The translation is complete and accurate, with no omissions or Chinese characters.