Chapter 49 Defeated in Love, Supreme in Song

"This is just the level of music education in a small town; she can't even manage basic vocal cord closure, yet she wants to walk the Path of the Triumphant Song?"

As the examinee left the stage, a professor sitting in the back row muttered quietly, immediately causing the candidate's footsteps to stutter and her lips to press into a tight line.

She was on the verge of tears.

Resisting the urge to cry, the candidate made a hasty exit, while a student union member working part-time diligently handed the next examinee's file to the professors.

"Oh, look at this little girl, she is ridiculously cute..."

"Really is."

"Indeed, she has the look of a star."

"Hey, my daughter's due date is after the Lunar New Year. If she could grow up to look like this... hehehe..."

"Keep dreaming. That level of appearance is a gift from the heavens. With your cursed constitution—where you don't even win a consolation prize in the lottery—hec, please."

"?"

The professors first expressed their admiration for Jiang Qianqian's appearance.

Then they saw from her file that this student had chosen a self-created Path: the "Singer of Living Beings."

Huh?

There are experts hiding even here!

Seeing a self-created Path at the Maple Sugar City vocal audition felt like watching amateurs try to copy professional-tier strategies in a high-stakes match—it had a surreal and cringeworthy absurdity to it.

Very well, truly living up to the reputation of Maple Sugar City.

Initially, the professors had been holding onto a glimmer of hope that they might unearth some wild, undiscovered genius.

As it turned out, there was not a single speck of gold to be mined!

Vocal arts were different from science and engineering; the demand for educational resources was exceptionally high. Aside from a few regions known for producing raw, earthy folk singers, it was practically impossible to find hidden gems in small towns anymore.

Even if one existed, they should have been sent to study in a major city by junior high school, or at the very least, to a provincial capital.

However, Jiang Qianqian's looks added an extra layer of anticipation for the professors.

The art world was just like this: if someone looked exceptionally stunning, practitioners would subconsciously expect their skill level to match.

"Hello, teachers. I am Jiang Qianqian from the senior arts-specialized class at Maple Sugar City No. 1 High School..." The girl bowed energetically, paused for a moment, and added, "Currently employed by the 'North of Dawn' exploration team."

"Working part-time in a team already? Very good, very good. Haha, today's young girls aren't afraid of hardship. Taking on a part-time job as an explorer is extremely beneficial for future development." The examiner seemed to be in a good mood.

Another examiner, however, wore a gloomy expression. Unlike the professors who were just there to enjoy the spectacle, this particular examiner had a rather unhinged style and took a special delight in targeting pretty girls.

He was in charge of the music theory common-sense questions.

"Here is a common-sense question: Can you explain the mechanism behind the Siren Path's singing, which produces an adaptive effect tailored to the listener's preferred pitch?"

The examiner next to him tilted his head, glanced at him, moved his lips, but ultimately said nothing.

Good grief, he had gone straight for the hardest question in the entire question bank.

It seemed somewhat intended to make things difficult for the young girl, though procedurally, it was entirely within the rules.

Jiang Qianqian answered without a moment of hesitation: "According to New Era medical research, the input terminal of the human auditory system can be regarded as a high-pass filter, which is essentially a Fourier transform, converting time-domain signals into frequency-domain signals. During the transformation process, different positions on the auditory nerve respond to different frequencies. Additionally, the time delay of neurotransmitter electrical signals imposes an offset on the frequency, defined as $f + Delta f$. The singing of the Siren Path cannot alter $f$, but after exciting the neural location corresponding to that frequency, based on the target's emotional feedback, it influences the time delay of the target's neurotransmitter electrical signals. By altering this delay, it changes $Delta f$, allowing the pitch 'heard' in the target's cerebral cortex to perfectly match their preferences, thereby producing extraordinary effects such as charm and hypnosis."

Examiner: "...Entirely correct."

"Hahaha, student, your theoretical foundation is exceptionally solid." The other examiner beamed, awarding a full score in the common-sense section of the evaluation sheet.

One could tell it wasn't just rote memorization; she truly understood the material.

Thank goodness. After enduring more than enough academic slackers today, someone of Jiang Qianqian's caliber was a rare treat.

Jiang Qianqian let out a sigh of relief. *Phew*, it seemed that the knowledge Ah Ming usually forced her to learn was actually quite useful after all. Even though it was all terribly obscure stuff, Jiang Qianqian had relied on her pride and self-esteem as a childhood friend to force herself to digest every bit of it.

When people are driven to desperation, they can accomplish anything.

Next was the vocal performance.

Take a deep breath, stand steady, and signal that the accompaniment could begin.

The melodious prelude played, and Jiang Qianqian's light mixed-voice hum seamlessly cut into the rhythm.

The expressions on everyone's faces in the room instantly turned solemn.

An ancient-tonality folk song in the Cyrian language—an unfamiliar melody she had never heard before, and even the accent of the lyrics was in authentic Fresnel Greater Region elegant speech...

As the bridge between the verse and the chorus approached, Jiang Qianqian's ethereal mixed vocals gradually solidified, giving people the distinct feeling that "something big is about to happen."

Sure enough, the first line of the chorus delivered a penetrating soprano that sent a thrill through the examiners and professors alike.

*Hiss...*

"Incredible, simply incredible. She looks so tiny, yet her explosive power is this strong..."

"Shut up and listen carefully." Clearly, some examiners didn't want to waste a single second of listening to Jiang Qianqian sing.

The so-called powerhouse vocalist stood in direct opposition to the trendy "airy" singing style currently popular in the pop music world—a style that rigid academic purists disdainfully dismissed as "kidney-deficient singing" or "womb-cold singing."

Well, there was no helping it; the threshold for womb-cold singing was low. Moreover, when it came to combining extraordinary rhythms, very few people could sing with grandeur while maintaining excellent extraordinary effects.

Jiang Qianqian's vocal resonance had an exceptionally high compatibility with the extraordinary. Teachers with sharper spiritual perception could already faintly sense a spiritual pressure field swirling like a tornado inside the classroom.

And she hadn't even awakened yet!

"This child is invincible. Our Central Conservatory of Music has booked her in advance. I'll talk to her about direct admission later; none of you are to steal her from me."

"What the hell, on what grounds?"

"Exactly, exactly. Let's compete fairly. Who knows, maybe she has a prestigious-school complex and wants to attend Qinglan University?"

"Which brings up the question: why hasn't she undergone automatic extraordinary awakening yet? Logically speaking, with musicality this monstrous, it should have happened long ago... Could it be that her talent in the sea of consciousness is extremely poor?"

The professors certainly knew their stuff, instantly spotting the blind spot.

Talent in the sea of consciousness was equivalent to the capacity of the Dantian in Xuanhuan novels—it was innate. If this aspect was poor, advancing in rank became very troublesome. Some extraordinary individuals were excellent in every regard, yet their sea of consciousness lacked quality, causing them to be permanently stuck at the Second or First Rank, unable to progress any further.

If this student Jiang Qianqian had a similar issue, things would become rather delicate...

No matter how good a singer she was, if she remained locked at the First Rank for the rest of her life, she wouldn't be worth a direct special admission.

Jiang Qianqian was completely oblivious to the inner drama playing out in the professors' minds. Immersed in her performance, her genre emphasized emotional expression, so she had to pour her heart into it.

However, near the end of the song, her gaze drifted inadvertently out the window, and the scene she caught made her heart skip a beat.

At the school gate, Li Xingming and Ye Sheng were standing face to face, conversing warmly.

A gentle smile bloomed across Ye Sheng's face.

Suddenly, Li Xingming reached out, took her hand, gave it a gentle squeeze, and said something with an earnest expression. Following that, Ye Sheng's normally aloof expression melted into a rare, docile compliance...

???

The scene she had just witnessed, compounding the accumulated emotions weighing on her heart lately, combined with the emotional core of the song she was currently performing, instantly plunged Jiang Qianqian into a subtle and delicate state.

The professors had no idea what was happening outside the school gate; they only saw that as Jiang Qianqian sang, she had somehow managed to sing herself to tears.

*Oh damn, that immersion!*

As the final line of the song concluded, the emotional resonance lingered in the air, yet the vortex of spiritual pressure did not dissipate—instead, it intensified.

At the center of the vortex, right on Jiang Qianqian, something extraordinary seemed about to happen.

"Wait, is she... is she awakening?!"