Chapter 10

Jiang Mang left the study and headed back to his room. After he returned to his room, he looked through the circulation method but found out that it was incomparable compared to the method in which his body automatically circulated qi when he cultivated. So he put the method aside and started cultivating in his room by sitting in silence trying to enter a meditative state, but when he finally was able to draw in qi he noticed that it was incomparable to last night and much slower. He stopped his cultivation session and pondered about his observation. He eventually walked outside and started playing a song like last night. His mind quickly calmed down and the surrounding qi started gathering towards him in large amounts like last night. He kept playing while his body circulated the energy automatically before sending it towards his dantian where it split into two streams again. He stopped playing after an hour and smiled.

It seemed like he cultivated faster when he played music because the qi in his dantian had doubled in this hour while it would take two days of normal cultivation before he would have been able to cultivate this amount. Unfortunately, it would seem that he could only do this one's a day for an hour before his profound spirits would be satisfied. But this cultivation speed would still be four times faster than the average person's if that person were to cultivate for a whole day without pause. Jiang Mang has to gather double the amount of qi because he had to satisfy both his profound spirits, but if he could play music and cultivate once a day for an hour, then he would be able to reach the mid foundation stage in only a year which would shock other people. It would be even faster than the little princes who had reached that stage after cultivating for only two years.

This revelation made him ecstatic because he was not only unrivaled in cultivation speed but he could also spend the remaining time to hone his combat or musical skills while others spend their time in meditation.

He passed the rest of the day while practicing the two other signature techniques of his master and familiarizing himself with the two qi types in his dantian. He observed that the qi from his flute of life was especially suitable for the shooting leaf technique and hidden moon traversal in comparison to the qi from the zither of death. When he used the former qi, he could move double as fast while being able to turn a leaf double as sharp in comparison to the usage of the latter qi but if he used the latter qi to coat a dagger before throwing towards a target than the dagger became a weapon of destruction while the former qi would not affect the dagger. He eventually derived the names for his qis from his profound spirits and called them respectfully life and death qi.

Life qi had another usage as it allowed Jiang Mang to heal his wounds at a speed visible to the naked eye. Both the life and death qis were another sign that his twin spirits were quite extraordinary.

The next day he woke up again at sunrise and he started the day with a cultivation session of playing music before having breakfast and starting his day. He picked up training the two techniques from yesterday and he became more and more proficiënt in his usage of them. They depleted his qi storage quite fast but he also discovered that he could restore the used qi at an astonishing rate if he played some music. So he repeated the circle of training and playing a tune for a couple of hours until he was disturbed by a servant which displeased him. He asked for the reason and the answer replaced his anger with happiness because his father asked for his presence to learn how to play the flute and zither. He headed towards the study hall where the tutor was waiting, the tutor was an old man with grey hair but a kind face. The old man was playing the zither in a way that mesmerized all who listened. The music stopped when Jiang Mang entered and the crowd of servants snapped out of their daze and continued their work. The old man had turned his gaze towards Jiang Mang and gestured his hand towards a seat beside him, but the prince remained oblivious. This irked the tutor who repeated his hand signal towards the only other person in the room, but the boy still didn't move and the silence continued. The tutor's anger exploded and he suddenly roared: " You disrespectful youngster, why did you ignore my gestures to sit beside me. Do you think I am too low class to sit beside?" This startled Jiang Mang into laughter which further fuelled the tutor's rage who kept waiting for an answer. Jiang Mang was only able to curb his laughter after a minute and respectfully answers: "Teacher, I am at the fault to have ignored you, but I was born as a blind man and thus can not see you or any gestures you make. I would have to request the teacher to always speak up at me when a problem arises as to avoid further misunderstandings."

This answer turned the tutor's anger into shame as he had forgotten the prince's blindness which also ruined all of the prepared music scores. He restored himself into the image of a kind but a wise old man towards Jiang Mang, who remained oblivious towards all the changes in the tutor's facial expressions. The tutor reintroduced himself and Jiang Mang came to know that the tutor"s name was Li Yang and that he specialized in playing the zither and dabbled in playing the flute. The lesson eventually started and Jiang Mang received a zither and flute for temporary usage as he would gain better instruments at the Imperial Academy. The lesson lasted all day and Jiang Mang would receive tutelage on the musical arts from morning to evening for a whole month before his departure towards the Imperial Academy. Li Yang would also accompany Jiang Mang on his journey, to continue teaching the boy, and also because he wanted to meet an old friend who was a teacher at the Imperial academy.