A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return

Qin Zifeng could feel himself at the losing end too.

He regained his composure and steadied his voice. “At the end of the world, you’re standing tall in the distance, while I walk the path as a humble being…”

Xia Ling admired his steadiness. It took a lot of mental strength to be able to regain one’s composure so quickly. She didn’t have anything against Qin Zifeng and did not want to embarrass him in any way, so she made sure not to go overboard in exhibiting her prowess. Instead, she mellowed down her voice naturally and with ease, the way a Phoenix was in control of her wings at will. “The humblest of believers, in a night of revelry…”

Qin Zifeng had regained his footing onstage but still felt tentative of the situation, worried that Xia Ling would have further tricks he couldn’t guard against. Just as he was all wound up and getting ready to tackle what she might come up with, she unexpectedly went along with his melody in the next line. That took some weight off his shoulders.

Qin Zifeng sang a few more lines, and Xia Ling’s voice went along well as an accompaniment. Although there were some interesting improvisations here and there, she did not come up with anything too difficult for him. Slowly, Qin Zifeng felt himself regain control of the stage.

That’s right . He thought. This girl probably knows that she won’t be able to beat me, so she executed her strategy right at the beginning of the song. Who knew that I would actually regain my footing so quickly, leaving her with no other option but to back off.

Qin Zifeng was convinced that he was right, and hence, regained his confidence.

He raised his pitch and sang with his most spectacular voice. “As time has passed and turned to dust, our connection becomes a thing of the past.” He intentionally played with the tune at the end of the line, making it difficult for her to continue with the next. Now that he was confident again, he couldn’t wait to overshadow her and make it clear who the winner would be. He wanted to teach this girl a lesson.

Xia Ling simply smiled.

She actually made conscious efforts to ensure he wouldn’t lose with embarrassment, but it seemed like he was getting ambitious and wanted to defeat her. At that moment, she altered her voice the way an elegant Phoenix would spread out her beautiful wings, slowly and mightily. It was a splendid scene.

“A connection that transcends boundaries, has reached the end of the world, vanishing into dust…”

Her voice seemed to be able to paint pictures — of a sunset in the distance, a bleak end of the world, a connection that had turned to a magnificent cloud of dust, and even the hopeless expression of a lover.

Instantly, the audience was fully captivated. They held their breaths as she sang that line.

Qin Zifeng tensed up again as the feeling of being overshadowed by her returned. Unable to better her, he barely managed his next line. “In ash and dust, lay memories of the past…”

The beautiful scape at the end of the world seemed to have vanished.

His line had everyone snap out of the fantastical world Xia Ling had painted and back to reality. Now conscious that they were simply viewing a performance and not experiencing it, they felt some disappointment.

“Gosh… unbelievable…” One of the megastars in the group muttered. “Qin Zifeng is really going down.”

True enough, Xia Ling had the upper her hand for the rest of the song, and he had to go along with her beat and rhythm. She was like the empress, requiring no effort for others to bow down to and abide by her wishes.

Qin Zifeng felt her might very strongly.

And so did the other megastars sitting in the audience.

The audience was not so professional, but they could sense something too — although Qin Zifeng was good-looking, he did not manage to tug at their heartstrings the way Xia Ling did. During this performance, it was Xia Ling’s voice that truly had the audience completely immersed in it. She was simply amazing. Having left the arena for a year, she was actually a match for an extremely popular megastar.

The song came to an end.

Applause roared.

Xia Ling gave an elegant bow to end the performance while the audience screamed: “Encore!”

This was only a head-to-head competition and not a concert, how could there be an encore? But the audience was too enchanted by her voice to consider that. In fact, they neglected Qin Zifeng’s presence onstage and cheered solely for Xia Ling—

“Ye Xingling! We want to hear your single!”

“Single for ‘End of the World’!

“Single for ‘End of the World’!

This was Qin Zifeng’s original song, but through this duet, they had a newfound admiration for the girl beside him instead. Qin Zifeng looked awful as he gritted his teeth in frustration. He completely regretted taking up this challenge.

Bai Murong looked at the scene, and a thought flashed past his mind.

He had deliberately egged them on in order to test the waters and see just how good Xia Ling could get. It seemed like she was in complete control of the stage and the audience — she would mellow down slightly when she wanted to, but she had the ability to steal the limelight and take center stage anytime she wanted. It was her call.

This was even more terrifying and impressive than just trying to overshadow her opponent throughout the performance.

Even a Heavenly King as strong as Bai Murong felt threatened by her.

However, the rest of them did not know her well enough and thought that Xia Ling was simply lucky. “Zifeng isn’t in good form today. He managed to overshadow her in the middle part of the song but somehow lost it towards the end? This girl’s form isn’t all that stable either — she probably doesn’t have the stamina to overshadow him for the whole performance — which was why there were some parts she seemed a little more mellow. She could improve on her control of the stage.”

Bai Murong laughed on the inside as he heard their conversation and suddenly felt superior to them intellectually. Hmph, you’ve all been duped by this girl. She’s not as simple as you think. And you’d never be able to feel the true power and pressure of her presence until you share the stage with her.

He looked towards Qin Zifeng with a hint of sympathy.

Qin Zifeng was in deep thought.

This girl was a little strange, he could not tell whether she was lucky to have won the competition or if she really were so good at controlling how much stage presence she wanted to assert. He suspected that she was giving him a chance in the middle part of the song since it seemed like she was fully capable of overshadowing him in the beginning and ending parts. But, what if this girl just did not have the stamina to keep it up throughout the performance?

He narrowed his eyes slightly and thought about it.

The audience’s cheers had not ceased.

Xia Ling felt a little bad. She had just wanted to beat Qin Zifeng to obtain the champion title of the head-to-head competition and never thought of embarrassing him this way. After all, he was a senior that she looked up to. But it seemed like things did not go as expected, and she had won by a far larger margin.

At that moment, she really did not know what to say.