221: Quarterfinals

"With a flower in my left hand, a sword dancing in my right"

"Ten thousand years of snow fall between my brows"

"A single teardrop, ah ah ah"

"That is me, ah ah ah"

When that chant, comparable to a dolphin voice, rang out, the audience below erupted.

Professional musicians could immediately tell that this song by Lu Qingyu spanned seven octaves.

Li Yan, listening from below the stage, slapped his thigh repeatedly: "Good, good, too good!"

The song's musical style was distinct and unique, belonging to the ancient style genre unique to the Dragon Kingdom. The lyrics were simple, yet the imagery was incredibly strong. The entire song's arrangement spanned seven octaves; it was pleasant to the ear, yet extremely difficult to perform.

It is no exaggeration to say that this song could not only serve as Lu Qingyu's signature work but could even become the signature work for this entire genre.

They had just been worried about whether Lu Qingyu could beat Levi, but after hearing the first verse, they were absolutely certain that Lu Qingyu would win this performance.

The fans had already erupted when Lu Qingyu sang that "ah" comparable to a dolphin voice, especially those who loved ancient style music; at this moment, they could no longer contain their inner excitement.

【Holy crap, holy crap, this is awesome, it sounds so good.】

【This is the level a Dragon Kingdom singer should have.】

【Lu Qingyu, Lu Qingyu, Lu Qingyu.】

On stage, Lu Qingyu was completely immersed in the song. Wearing in-ear monitors, he couldn't hear the audience's cheers and uproar; at this moment, he still didn't know how deep an impact this song had on these people.

"My left hand flicks a finger, my right hand plucks the strings"

"A boat ferries across the waters of the River of Oblivion"

"When worries can bloom into a red lotus"

"Do not stop, give me distracting thoughts"

"My left finger points to the moon, my right hand takes the red thread"

"Bestowing upon you and me the fated connection we desired"

"In the moonlight, ah ah ah"

"You and me, ah ah ah"

The accompaniment for the second verse went full throttle, adding percussion on top of the first verse. All the ice-blue lights on stage were turned on, flickering against the pitch-black background.

Lu Qingyu seemed to be standing in the starry sky, with a vast, boundless universe behind him.

"My left hand turns into feathers, my right hand into scales"

"One life in the clouds, one life in the forest"

"Willing to follow you in the form of a speck of dust"

"Appearing in all the mortal worlds"

"My left hand picks you up, my right hand puts you down"

"When I press my palms together, you are all taken back into my heart"

"A stick of incense, ah ah ah"

"You are me, inseparable and indistinguishable"

When the pitch is high, many singers can only emit a single note, but the brilliance of Lu Qingyu's song was that everyone could hear the last line, "inseparable and indistinguishable," with perfect clarity; that shock went straight to the top of one's head.

When everyone watches the live stream, the performer's voice is captured by equipment and then converted; no matter how good the equipment is, its processing of the human voice will not be a 1:1 restoration like being there in person.

The barrage in the live stream was going crazy, and the number of viewers had exceeded 120 million, long ago breaking the record from the previous episode.

The director suddenly felt it was a great pity; it would have been wonderful if these 120 million people could have seen Lu Qingyu's live performance.

It wasn't until the whole song ended that the director cut to the other singers backstage, and everyone discovered that the other singers were also covering their mouths in shock.

It turned out that it wasn't just the audience who would be shocked upon hearing the song; fellow singers would be shocked too.

Levi's hands were clenched into fists; he wore a fake smile on his face, but his heart was already in turmoil.

He hadn't expected Lu Qingyu to be so formidable, but what angered him even more was that he had originally thought his own song, after being rearranged to span four octaves, would definitely shock the musicians and audience. Yet, compared to Lu Qingyu's song which spanned seven octaves, it was simply unwatchable.

The audience for the ancient style circle is not as large as that for pop music. When singers who love ancient style music participate in music variety shows, they wouldn't choose ancient style music when it comes to competitive content, because ancient style music rarely features high notes, so it appears inferior in competition.

Zhou Yueqi is a pure ancient style music singer. Recently, she has been following the show King of Singers. Since King of Singers started airing, she has also been live-streaming her reactions to the show.

Every time she promotes ancient style music during her live streams, there are many trolls in her stream who urge her to switch to singing pop music. Everyone's arguments are more or less the same, telling her that ancient style music is not suitable for participating in shows because its competitive nature is not high.

On the show, when Lu Qingyu finished singing "Left Finger Points to the Moon," it goes without saying how excited she was when she heard this song; she even stood tall in her live stream to confront those who urged her to sing pop music.

"Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Ancient style music has high notes! Whoever tells me again that ancient style music can't compete, I'll have to fight them!"

Zhou Yueqi's live stream fans: "666, this is the best song I've heard in a long time."

"Amazing! When I heard that high note just now, I tried it myself and found that I couldn't sing it at all."

"That high note was so satisfying, but everyone is right; although this song is suitable for competition, not everyone can sing it."

Seeing this comment, Zhou Yueqi was stunned. This song's pitch was so high that ordinary singers really couldn't hit it.

The fans cheering in the plaza watched Lu Qingyu finish the whole song. They were happy and excited for Lu Qingyu's performance, and without any rehearsal, they all chanted Lu Qingyu's name in unison.

It startled passersby who thought some celebrity was about to appear, so they also stopped and looked over.

After Lu Qingyu's performance ended, he calmly thanked everyone and then walked off the stage.

The singers backstage even set off a small party popper the moment he appeared.

Sister Na: "Awesome, too awesome."

Su Wang also couldn't help but stand up and give Lu Qingyu a hug.

Levi didn't know Chinese, so he just stood to the side with a fake smile on his face.

After the last two singers finished their performances, the semi-finals concluded.

At this time, the vote count for the singers was also finished. The director already had the results in hand; he took the results and walked backstage to announce them to everyone.

The semi-finals had to eliminate half the people, but the psychological state of the singers in this semi-final was completely different from previous seasons.

In previous seasons, the singers on stage all wanted to stay; they tried their best to present their best works and best state to the audience.

But this episode was a bit different. Every time Director Hong announced someone was eliminated, that person not only didn't have a look of sadness on their face, but they couldn't even suppress the smile at the corners of their mouths.

When it was Su Wang's turn, he really didn't hide his happiness at all.

Finally, f*cking leaving.

Before leaving, he hugged Lu Qingyu again: "Although I'm leaving, I will support you in spirit."