The place fell into silence once again after Song Ling'er's domineering words, and the participants trembled at the thought of challenging Song Ling'er.

The participants then turned to look at Yuan who suddenly looked much bigger than previously, almost like he'd grown a few sizes. However, that was just their admiration for Yuan making it seem like he was bigger than normal.

After witnessing his god-like performance that'd seemingly summoned a goddess instead of a god, they did not feel like competing against such a monster.

Suddenly, someone within the participants stood up and approached Yuan.

The others there turned to look at this individual, who was Wei Kang.

Once he was standing before Yuan, to everybody's surprise, Wei Kang lowered his head and bowed to Yuan before speaking in a respectful voice, "Congratulations on winning the competition, Senior. You definitely deserve it even though the whole thing was somewhat abnormal and unprecedented."

"L-Look! That arrogant Wei Kang is lowering his head to someone else that isn't Senior Fairy Song!"

"I can see that for myself!"

A few moments later, Ai Wan followed Wei Kang's footsteps and also bowed to Yuan in a respectful manner.

"Hello, Senior. I am Ai Wan, and I would like to thank you for opening my eyes today. This may sound a little disrespectful to my master, but you have broadened my views with your zither arts. Hopefully, we can play the zither together in the future."

Yuan nodded at them and said, "Thank you. If there's ever a chance, let's play the zither together."

Sometime later, Song Ling'er asked the other two judges, "Do you have anything else to say? If you are not satisfied with the results, we can talk about it."

Senior Zou quickly shook his head and said, "No, there's no need. I already knew the results of this competition the moment he played the Soul Ensnaring Zither before my very eyes, and if I was as daring as you, Senior Song, I would've also ended the competition early."

"What about you, Elder Jing? Do you have something else to add?" Senior Zou then asked Elder Jing, who quickly shook his head.

"Do whatever you want. I am only here because my sect is sponsoring the competition. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be here." Elder Jing shrugged.

"Then it's decided."

They turned to look at Song Ling'er, who nodded.

A few moments later, Song Ling'er turned to look at Yuan and Fei Yuyan and spoke in a loud voice that resounded clearly, "This concludes the zither competition! Congratulations to the winners, Fei Yuyan and 'Yuan' from the Dragon Essence Temple, for achieving first place in this competition!"

"W-What did she just say?"

"Huh? Did I just hear 'Yuan'?"

The players there stared at the figure wearing the black jade mask with shocked looks on their faces.

Literally, three seconds later, a large notification appears directly above the competition, confirming the players' doubt.

[Congratulations to the participants that have attained the top three for this event!]

[First Place: Player Yuan]

[Second Place: N/A]

[Third Place: N/A]

[Player Yuan's brilliant performance that mesmerized millions of spectators as well as the judges with his zither arts has achieved first place and will be given a special reward for his achievements!]

In front of Yuan, a couple of notifications appeared.

[Due to your performance in the zither competition, you have gained a massive amount of fame!]

[Fame +1,000]

[You have gained the title 'Zither Prodigy' for obtaining first place in the zither competition]

[Because of your title 'Zither Prodigy', spiritual music played from a zither will have an enhanced effect, increasing its buff strength by 50%!]

"What?! He's really Player Yuan! The currently leading player who's rumored to be a cheater!"

"Impossible! I thought he was a little girl! I knew I couldn't have trusted those bullshit rumors!"

"So that's Player Yuan! He's somehow exactly as I imagined! Mysterious and all!"

The Players were excited to see this infamous Player Yuan for the first time with their very eyes, as there have been only speculations about his existence this entire time. In fact, some of them even believed that Yuan was created by the creators of this game to fool the players!

"Does this mean he's really a Player and not some NPC created by the creators? Heavens! I can see the forums exploding once they find out about this!"

"They said he's from the Dragon Essence Temple, right? This is huge news! Maybe we'll even get to speak with him soon!"

Meanwhile, the players within the participants felt an urge to approach Yuan and speak with him, perhaps even shake his hands, but alas, Song Ling'er had just left the judges' platform and stood before Yuan, preventing anybody from approaching them with her immense aura.

"Follow me so I can distribute your rewards for your achievements," Song Ling'er said to them.

Fei Yuyan and Yuan nodded, and they followed Song Ling'er into the building, leaving everyone else behind.

Once Yuan left the area, the players there immediately began logging out of the game and jumping straight into the forums for Cultivation Online, spamming the place with new threads.

[Breaking News! Player Yuan has appeared in the zither competition!]

[Shocking new information about Player Yuan has surfaced!]

[Player Yuan is currently a disciple at the Dragon Essence Temple!]

The online forums were bombarded with new threads regarding Yuan, and the forums quickly flared with excitement from this new information.

The news traveled so fast that Yu Rou, who was still at school, was already hearing about it.

"Did you hear?! They say Player Yuan has appeared in the zither competition that a couple of our students had participated in! This is his first public appearance ever!"

"What! Really?! What did he look like?!"

"He was wearing a mask so they couldn't see his face properly, but he was a tall and slender man!"

"So he wasn't a little girl? I was right to not listen to the previous rumors regarding his gender!"

"Anyway, this is huge news! I'm sure there will be a lot of people visiting the Dragon Essence Temple now that they know his whereabouts!"