Chapter 56
Chapter 56
[‘The Last Supper’s’ tremendous success in the painting field has given you inspiration for the secret to clearing the game.]
[No need for gentle soothing, no need to empathize with the audience. The best healing art is to forcefully infuse your emotions into every viewer’s soul, overriding their original spirits.]
[And you’ve become skilled at similar things.]
[You once embodied an otherworldly demon in the eyes of countless cultivators, stirring up everyone’s inner demons. Now you’re just infusing all good emotions into everyone, suppressing the spread of mad pollution deep in their spirits.]
[You’ve transformed from a devil that stirred up evil thoughts in people’s hearts to a deity suppressing the devils deep in people’s hearts.]
[Written as healing art, read as forced healing. Achieving great success in the painting field has opened the door to a new world for you. You’ve set your sights on more artistic fields.]
[The first one you targeted was the World Music Awards, which was about to begin right after the Painting Grand Prix.]
In this world, musicians were divided into creators and performers. Regardless of which type, they focused on conveying emotions through sound. The emotions conveyed in their music could influence and affect every listener on a spiritual level.
Because of this, musicians had an even greater influence than painters. A dark art musician could make hundreds or even thousands of people go mad by performing a piece in public. Conversely, a healing art musician could also soothe the spirits of a wide range of listeners simultaneously with their own power.
Generally, wherever large-scale mental pollution occurred, the Federation would often dispatch top musicians to perform wide-range healing. Even if it didn’t take effect immediately, it could delay the spread of pollution.Therefore, the Music Awards were held in a music hall made of special soundproof materials to ensure that the contestants’ performances would be confined to the hall and not affect passersby outside.
The judges participating in the selection were also top musicians themselves. Even if someone from the dark art school sneaked in to cause trouble, these judges could handle them on their own.
Bai Yi, who had just won first place in the Painting Grand Prix, signing up for the World Music Awards caused quite a stir.
Given what happened at the Painting Grand Prix, the Music Awards organizers were initially worried that this guy might pull some stunt again, perhaps performing a self-composed dark art masterpiece on the spot.
But they soon put their minds at ease.
Because Bai Yi had signed up for performance, not original composition, and he chose to perform the classic healing masterpiece “Sacred Prayer,” a piece praising the creator god of this instance world.
As a religious belief that had been passed down for thousands of years in this world, its audience was already extremely wide. After the world became polluted, most ordinary people had become believers. Every healing art musician would know this piece because it indeed had miraculous effects in soothing people’s hearts and dispelling mental pollution.
Perhaps it was because people truly hoped for such a deity to save this gradually maddening world?
Among the contestants this time, quite a few had chosen to perform “Sacred Prayer.” With the same score, it would be clear whose healing effect was stronger.
When Bai Yi walked into the music hall, the judges had just detached themselves from the previous contestant’s performance. Coincidentally, the previous contestant had also performed “Sacred Prayer.”
Realizing that Bai Yi had chosen the same piece as the previous person, the musician judges showed knowing expressions and gestured to him. “Please begin your performance.”
Bai Yi chose the piano as his instrument. This was the instrument that the character “Joey” was skilled at, although its rating didn’t even reach the lowest F class.
— When performing with this character in the game, Bai Yi felt as if someone had stolen his musical sense. He didn’t even know if he was playing the piano or cotton.
— He, the “Music Prince” who would let fish enjoy a concert experience before eating them, a musical genius, had been reduced to this state!
— The innate talent of this body was so touching, it seemed deliberately mocking him!
After playing the piano a few times with this body, Bai Yi realized that with this character’s musical “talent,” even grinding wouldn’t help. Apart from cheating, he had no choice.
Bai Yi’s fingers struck the first note on the piano.
All the judges’ eyebrows twitched, then furrowed.
[You have activated the Web of Thoughts, connecting…]
[You have borrowed the power of faith accumulated by the Flower Speaker.]
[Inputting power of faith…]
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!
The sound of keys being struck on the piano echoed throughout the music hall. Although it was a piece strictly played according to the score, it was unimaginable why every note was out of tune. It was as if the performer had created a new piece on the spot, and it wasn’t even being played on a piano, but rather sounded like frantic ding-ding-ding hammering on iron.
The judges gradually put on pained expressions.
But accompanying this sound, more unpleasant than hammering iron, a holy, grand, and extremely devout emotion floated throughout the entire music hall. It seemed to transform into pure white mist, seeping through everyone’s senses, penetrating their minds, and surging towards the depths of their souls.
Unconsciously, they seemed to truly become devout pilgrims, with unparalleled peace and tranquility arising from the depths of their hearts. It was as if they saw the gates of the divine realm opening before their eyes, and everyone’s soul floated up to heaven.
But the ding-ding-ding sound would always occasionally wake them from this wonderful illusion, torturing their ears. Although it was an extremely unpleasant piece, their ears, brains, and souls seemed to each have their own set of senses, and the intense conflict between them left everyone mentally exhausted.
Ears: Painful mask — So awful it makes me want to cry!
Brain: Dumbfounded mask — What on earth is this???
Soul: Intoxicated mask — Ahh, so comfortable.
And then, they started fighting.
It was as if they knew the person before them was a toad, and their true hearts extremely rejected them, but their entire being was uncontrollably falling in love as if possessed, unable to resist the urge to kiss them. That feeling of being both clear-headed and confused, both addicted and suffering, made them question their entire lives.
Until the last note fell from Bai Yi’s fingertips.
The judges, who had been struggling repeatedly between pain and enjoyment, finally breathed a sigh of relief. They looked at Bai Yi with a string of question marks: ??????
…What on earth was that?!
With the same score, and with the previous contestant for comparison, Bai Yi had turned the god’s prayer into a devil’s curse.
But the soothing feeling deep in their souls told them that this suffocating piece actually had an incredibly powerful healing effect, definitely top-tier in washing away mental pollution.
— Based on this point alone, it couldn’t possibly be eliminated.
This made the musicians present question their lives even more.
In the short time of this piece, they felt they had forgotten how to play the original “Sacred Prayer,” and even their love for music was disappearing.
…Was there something wrong with all the musical knowledge they had learned in the past, or was this guy in front of them toxic?
…If this could also be considered a musician, it felt like the title of musician had been maliciously smeared.
However, reality didn’t change based on their will.
After artists became a supernatural profession, whether art conformed to human aesthetics was no longer the standard for evaluating whether an artist was excellent. As long as the spiritual infection was powerful, even playing cotton or hammering iron could be included in the scope of art.
[You have successfully passed the preliminary selection and entered the top 100.]
[You have cleared the selection and entered the top 32.]
[You have cleared again and become one of the top 16 in the Music Awards.]
…
[Facing severe mental pollution patients, you demonstrated healing art far superior to others, overwhelming everyone with your powerful musical attainment, and won first place in the Music Awards.]
After the Music Awards ended, except for a few original dark art pieces that weren’t made public, the performances of other contestants were broadcast online.
Although the effect wasn’t as good as hearing it live and there was little healing effect, at least every contestant’s musical skill was extremely high. Even just purely appreciating the music was enjoyable for the audience.
Until they played Bai Yi’s performance video.
[??? This is the level of the world Music Awards champion? I could do that too.]
[No, I couldn’t. Being able to play a piece so terribly is also a kind of talent.]
[I heard this Music Awards champion’s healing art is extremely powerful. For healing mental pollution, it crushed others. As for musical skill, well, that can be ignored.]
[… I don’t understand, but I’m greatly shocked.]
[Is the Music Awards champion also called Joey? Is it the same person as the Painting Awards champion?]
[Blind student, you’ve discovered the point.]
[ROFL Indeed worthy of the legendary depressing art, I’m already depressed before finishing listening.]
…..
[Main quest cleared 2/3, you obtained the title of God in painting/music fields.]
[Achievement system updated…]
[You obtained the achievement “Music Gravedigger”]
[Description: As the man who single-handedly lowered the average level and bottom line of all musicians in the Federation, your winning the title of Music God made countless musical geniuses and enthusiasts in the Federation despair about the future of music. Countless people who should have become musicians turned to other arts.]
[You obtained the achievement “So Love Will Disappear, Right?”]
[Description: Your unique music has a powerful healing effect on mental pollution. But everyone who listened to your music and was healed lost their love for music as their mental pollution disappeared.]
[You obtained the achievement “Healed, But Also Depressed”]
[Description: Your music healed countless people, but also depressed countless people. Your depressing art has spread widely.]
As these achievements flashed before his eyes, Bai Yi widened his eyes and exclaimed, arguing eloquently, “System, how can you baselessly smear my reputation? An artist’s work is based on feeling. There’s no such thing as giving up music to turn to other arts. That only shows their hearts weren’t firm enough about music in the first place. Even if such people had taken the path of music, they would have given up in the face of other setbacks in the future.”
“— I just helped them eliminate a path that wasn’t suitable for them in advance, and screened out a bunch of people who weren’t suitable for this field for the music world.”
“— Putting it this way, I’m quite considerate, aren’t I?”
Bai Yi raised the corners of his mouth, revealing a bright smile, his tone even sounding a bit proud.
However, since the simple and crude healing art had achieved success in both painting and music fields, proving the method effective, Bai Yi naturally wanted to use this one trick to conquer all fields.
The task required obtaining the title of God in at least three fields. For Bai Yi, only one remained, which was almost effortless.
With his dark cuisine skills certified by the system, if he couldn’t get the title of Food God, would that make sense?
At this moment, Bai Yi was inexplicably confident.
… The mere title of Food God was within easy reach, like taking something out of a bag, absolutely no difficulty at all.
… The only thing to be careful about was not to display his full strength.
The result of displaying his full culinary skills was exemplified by what happened to that Fushan Sect leader in Pei Hefeng’s instance.
So, for the safety of the diners, Bai Yi felt he should seal part of his power. Just 30% of his culinary skills would be enough to sweep the Culinary Awards!
… He really is a clever little ghost ah.
As for whether it would be dark art or healing art, Bai Yi, who had been meticulously studying culinary skills in this instance for a long time, stated: Only kids make choices, adults of course want it all!
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