Chapter 34: Becoming an Idol 5

"Look, why is she here? Doesn't she always skip class?"

"Probably scared. After all, if she keeps going like this, she's going to get expelled."

"True. She used to be so fearless, but now she finally knows how to be afraid."

"Still, what good does that do? She's fallen so far behind on the basics, and after four years she hasn't made any progress. Almost everyone from her cohort has already debuted. Well, it's too late for regrets now."

"And there are only five days left this month. Can she even pull anything together? She probably doesn't even have a partner for the collaboration."

Seeing Mu Yin, the others in the practice room began to whisper among themselves. Mu Yin paid them no mind whatsoever. She had checked the original owner's physical condition the previous night; the body was in great shape, just lacking a bit of flexibility, and needed some exercises to improve suppleness. There were no other issues. After all, the original owner had practiced martial arts for four years. Though it was only hand-to-hand combat, practicing martial arts was no less rigorous than practicing dance—their development paths were simply different.

To put it simply, the goal of martial arts was to strengthen the physique and increase bodily robustness. Therefore, martial arts movements were extremely forceful and practical, though they tended to lack flexibility unless the specific style emphasized it.

Dance, on the other hand, was different. Because it prioritized aesthetics, dance pursued flexibility to a much greater degree. Of course, modern dance also valued strength, but that kind of strength was different from martial arts strength. After all, one was purely for visual appeal while the other was for combat—how could they possibly be the same?

The original owner had taken martial arts seriously. If she had been captured by a few thugs previously, it was only because those thugs possessed offensive transformation abilities. The original owner was simply at a disadvantage there; no matter how formidable martial arts without internal energy might be, they still couldn't rival superpowers.

Therefore, before Luo Qing arrived, Mu Yin began doing flexibility stretches. She had her own set of methods, which she had learned from the dancers and enchantresses of the cultivation world. Yes, they openly taught classes on the Illusory Net, and Mu Yin had purchased their courses to study.

Once Mu Yin started stretching, the students who had been secretly watching her were dumbfounded, having no idea what she was doing. After all, at times, her movements looked truly somewhat anti-human.

Actually, it wasn't that extreme—it didn't quite defy human anatomy, just posed some difficulty. But the results were undeniably phenomenal. Mu Yin wondered when she could procure some medicinal herbs to assist her regimen for even greater effectiveness.

"I'm here! Sorry to keep you waiting." After a good while, Luo Qing finally hurried in, panting heavily. She nearly tripped upon reaching Mu Yin and would have lost her front teeth if the latter hadn't grabbed her in time.

"Have you really thought this through? Actually, choosing something else would be fine too, like *Star Companion Moon*," Mu Yin asked seriously.

"Of course! I love the song *Twin Lotus* so much," Luo Qing insisted stubbornly.

"Alright then, let's warm up first, and then we'll practice." Mu Yin shook her head helplessly.

During the warm-up, Luo Qing fell twice and tripped someone nearby once, instantly clearing a wide circle around them amid a flurry of whispered discussions. Mu Yin felt quite helpless, wondering if she was overthinking things—pulling someone like this up onto the stage might be worse than just going up alone.

Still, she turned on the television mounted on the practice room wall, selected the *Twin Lotus* dance tutorial, and began practicing with Luo Qing. This was a duet, and right from the beginning, the two of them held hands, symbolizing the imagery of twin lotuses. Consequently, Luo Qing didn't fall anymore, and she managed to tough it out through a few instances where she almost tripped Mu Yin.

As for being stepped on countless times and struck (by swinging arms) numerous times, Mu Yin no longer cared to mention it. She felt that even immortals couldn't save Luo Qing; this was no longer a matter of a poor sense of balance—it was pure lack of limb coordination.

She wondered if hitting her on the head might cure her. Unfortunately, although Mu Yin had studied medicine and learned a thing or two from medical cultivators, she wasn't an expert and couldn't treat this kind of ailment. After several rounds of practice, although Luo Qing managed to execute the dance steps—she was, after all, a three-year trainee at the idol academy, and despite frequently falling, she had formal training that surpassed Mu Yin's.

Mu Yin's movements weren't even as precise as hers, but the issue of stepping on toes and hitting people remained unchanged. Later on, she simply changed strategy: you attack, I dodge and block, transforming what was originally a tender and graceful dance into a fiercely reciprocal, entangled, and aggressive routine.

After reviewing the recording on the TV screen, she thought it looked pretty good and decided to stick with it. Besides, there was no rule stating that a cover had to replicate the original choreography. She was completely out of options, and since she had too many flaws of her own and too little time to fix them, she had to take things slowly.

This kind of dance was just right, as it masked the shortcomings of both people through the choreography. However, the tender song would probably need to be modified as well, since the original tune likely wouldn't match the dance anymore.

When it came to altering the song, Luo Qing was quite proficient. She rearranged several sections of the track, turning a previously tender, mournful ballad of willing martyrdom into an anthem imbued with a sense of solemn vow. Even the lyrics were changed in a few places. The original lyrics roughly meant: even if the whole world disagrees with us being together, let's die together and never part again.

After the revision, the meaning became: so what if the world doesn't agree to us being together? Even if abandoned by the world, we must be together, and if we die, we die together. The former exuded helplessness, while the latter was brimming with dominance.

Next came the recording of the song. Mu Yin wasn't particularly skilled in this area either, so this time roles reversed and Luo Qing guided her. "No, no, you sang this part wrong. The note isn't supposed to go like this, it should be like this..." Luo Qing sang a section herself to demonstrate where she thought Mu Yin went wrong, and it indeed sounded different from Mu Yin's rendition.

Mu Yin learned it by following along. She was a fast learner; the moment Luo Qing demonstrated, she corrected herself immediately. After finishing, she looked at Luo Qing and asked, "Is it like this?"

"Yes! You are amazing! You fixed it on the very first try, and the emotion in it is so rich. How do you do it? With talent like yours, why are you still a Level 10?" Luo Qing looked at Mu Yin, who was now easily able to sing the entire revised song, practically in disbelief.

"Oh, I've studied some techniques." Could Mu Yin possibly tell her that she had learned from sound cultivators? Sound cultivators studied music because they cultivated the Dao of Sound. To be renowned for the Dao meant it was undoubtedly the highest level of music.

Though she was only at the introductory stage—sound cultivation had four stages: the entry requirement was entering sound through emotion, which meant infusing emotion into the music; the second stage was controlling sound through emotion; the third stage was resonating emotion through sound; and the highest level was controlling emotion through sound.

However, it wasn't her primary specialization; it was just that while her alchemy, formations, array pillars, and talisman skills had reached the Grandmaster level, everything else she had only learned up to the introductory phase. After all, she merely believed in acquiring diverse skills, and as it turned out, it proved to be extremely useful.