“This young lady named Zhizhi—when I first saw you tagging me in the comments section, saying you thought you were quite skilled at singing and welcoming me to critique you, I assumed you were being overly conceited.”
“Now I see that your musical sense is genuinely strong. You’ve fully integrated the singing techniques you’ve mastered with your vocal timbre, and you know how to play to your strengths while avoiding your weaknesses. The only flaw is in the higher register—you struggle a bit there. I’d guess you’ve been seeking a breakthrough in high-note technique, am I right?”
After hearing Mr. Li Mingda’s critique, Xia Zhi felt both flattered and honored.
She unmuted herself and carefully chose her words to respond: “Mr. Li Mingda, first, I’d like to clarify that it wasn’t me who left a comment on your page. However, it seems I should thank whoever did, because otherwise I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to participate in this livestream program.”
“I also want to thank you for affirming my strengths. I do genuinely want to continue developing my high-note technique. My purpose in joining this program was to meet a teacher as highly respected in vocal music as yourself.”
Her response was neither servile nor overbearing, and the livestream chat was filled with praise for Xia Zhi.
Old Mr. Li Mingda’s weathered face wore a warm, benevolent smile as he too showered Xia Zhi with compliments: “Very good, very good. You’re willing to face unfairness head-on—I admire that about your character. I came to Shanyin to participate in this Good Voice event because I wanted to discover talent in vocal music. Come now, Miss Zhizhi, let’s follow each other.”
Xia Zhi’s eyes lit up instantly.
The event wasn’t even over yet, and Mr. Li Mingda had already taken the initiative to follow her. Her goal had been achieved ahead of schedule.
This was wonderful!
Without hesitation, Xia Zhi seized the opportunity and followed Li Mingda back.
As the two finished their exchange and host Xiao Shan was about to move the event to its next phase, Leona’s comment steered things in an entirely different direction.
[Sorry, Lady Zhizhi. I assumed this event allowed using money to solicit votes by default. If voting for you isn’t permitted, then why have other streamers been doing the same?]
Leona tried his best to mimic the tone of the people in the livestream chat as he typed, his golden eyes filled with guilt.
He had wanted so badly to help the Little Female, but he’d nearly made things worse.
If the Little Female hadn’t been talented in her own right, his behavior of inviting viewers from other livestreams to vote would have been nothing but a smear against her.
Fortunately, the money he’d sent had all been refunded.
Leona looked at the transfer-return notifications in his private messages, feeling it was a blessing within a misfortune.
To make amends to Xia Zhi, Leona had obtained an IP-decryption technique from a security technician in the Nado Empire.
It turned out to work on the Shanyin software as well.
He decrypted the accounts that had called out their supposed “paid trolls” in the livestream chat, found their posting histories elsewhere, compiled them into a video, and tried posting it to his Shanyin profile page.
That worked too.
Only after posting the video did he send the comment he’d typed earlier.
The people in the Little Female’s world really liked browsing others’ profile pages. After he posted, someone was bound to check his.
Once they saw it, they’d be able to clear the Little Female’s name.
Sure enough, people soon started discussing it in the chat.
[The video on Brother Leona’s profile page is solid proof! Brother Hao bought his own trolls and then tried to flip the blame—only three cents per comment, I’m dying laughing!]
[The event allows soliciting votes anyway. If some people can’t handle the game, they shouldn’t play at all.]
[The other two streamers also bought a small number of votes. Are some people just jealous that other fans are willing to spend ten yuan on votes?!]
As the barrage erupted in outrage, a flicker of frustration passed through Axis’s eyes. He had just finished preparing a rebuttal video, but Leona had beaten him to it.
Axis: [The video was a waste of effort.]
Nezuko: [I wanted to help clarify too, but you guys are way too fast!]
The audience was completely fired up:
[Who are these big shots? They actually managed to dig up Taobao bot transaction records!]
[Brother Hao is being two-faced, unfollowing!]
Seeing his follower count begin to plummet, Brother Hao hastily opened his mic: “It wasn’t me buying votes for myself. A streamer friend said they’d help me get votes to reach first place, and the condition was that I teach this new streamer Zhizhi a lesson.”
Having worked so hard to grow his account past one hundred thousand followers, Brother Hao didn’t want to be blacklisted by netizens just like that.
“I’m sorry, Streamer Zhizhi. I apologize to you. You really do have talent—I’m just not as skilled as you. I’m willing to voluntarily withdraw from this competition. As for who told me to do this, I’ll post a clarification video on my homepage later.”
With that, Brother Hao disconnected the call directly.
The streamer who was supposed to stay until the second round had run off on his own. Xiao Shan was momentarily stunned but quickly adjusted his script: “Since the second-place contestant has voluntarily given up continuing the competition, let’s have the third-place contestant take their place.”
After saying this, Xiao Shan wiped the sweat from his forehead and pretended to look troubled: “Give me some face, everyone. Let’s not keep making a fuss. Vote-pulling was always tacitly allowed anyway—let’s not argue over whether it was ten-yuan votes or thirty-cent votes.”
His long-time fans played along, typing “hahaha” to lighten the mood.
[Yeah, vote-pulling was always tacitly allowed anyway. It’s just that our Zhizhi really does sing beautifully.]
[Waiting for the second song.]
This time, Xia Zhi drew the opening slot.
The song she chose this time was also a classic from a female singer—one of Angela Chang’s signature pieces, “Invisible Wings.”
The melody wasn’t particularly high, but even some people who knew singing techniques would crack on certain notes.
Xia Zhi did her best to maintain stability, singing slowly along with the rhythm.
The audience was flooding the barrage with praise, but Axis was puzzled.
When Xia Zhi had sung the previous song, his Evolution Crystal had reacted. But for this one, the Evolution Crystal showed no response at all.
The only sensation was that the Pollution Value was still dropping—it had reached 2%—and some long-standing ailments in his body were gradually fading away.
If he hadn’t reacted, Leona certainly wouldn’t have had an evolutionary response either.
Axis reached up and touched his forehead.
Just thinking about the feeling of evolution made his head itch again.
What Axis didn’t know was that when Leona heard Xia Zhi sing the line “I know, I’ve always had invisible wings” in her gentle yet powerful voice, she too began to feel an itch somewhere in her body.
But it wasn’t her forehead like Axis—it was on both sides of her back.
As the itching sensation spread, the Evolution Crystal inside Leona spun wildly.
For a Beastman whose natural form was a lion, the evolutionary pattern wasn’t like a serpent’s, which grew horns first—instead, wings would sprout first.
Leona recalled how Axis had asked if he’d felt anything different when Zhizhi was singing earlier.
Could it be… that Lady Zhizhi’s singing could also cause Males to evolve?
Only Females with a Matching Rate as high as 90% could trigger evolution in Males. And yet, both she and Axis actually shared this resonance with the same Female.
But they were not even in the same world as Lady Zhizhi.
A trace of melancholy flickered in Leona’s molten-gold pupils.
Unable to meet, unable to touch—a high Matching Rate across Planes could only be a tragedy.