Chapter 20

The ranking matches started the second day. The duo would face against a team from the mystery house as their first opponent. They were both calm, but the other teams gloated at their misfortune and were also curious about their next tactics. They would fight as the third match, and they were ready to go on stage when the second match was ending. The moment the second match was over both teams headed towards the arena. When they arrived, nobody said anything and both teams waited for the referees signal. Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin were at ease while the mystery team was vigilant but confident. Jiang Mang would again use his flute while Xia Ruoyin would attack. The moment the signal came, the mystery team unleashed three demonic qi's to surround them against the music that came their way from Jiang Man's performance of Immortal Paradise. Their defense protected them from the music, but the same couldn't be said about Xia Ruoyin's Ice arrows. The arrows were also blocked but the mystery team was pushed back. Jiang Mang's music whittled their qi protection away which would disappear in 10 seconds. They summoned ghosts to attack the duo, but they avoided all the ghosts and maintained their attacks on their opponents. The ten seconds passed and all ghosts disappeared when the trio was pulled into an ordinary illusion world. Xia Ruoyin threw them out of the arena and they immediately snapped out of the illusion, because of outer force and Jiang Mang who stopped his performance before returning to his seat. They were crushed by the duo, which stupefied both the trio and the crowd. The crowd began labeling the duo as a dark horse. The vice-head teachers also took note of the duo and complimented vice-head teacher Qin for gaining two talented students in the musician's house.

All matches went smoothly and the top 16 teams were decided. There was one team from the musician's house and four teams from the mystery house in the top 16, while the knight house had five teams and the sorcerer house had six teams in the top 16. Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin defeated their opponents again and advanced towards the top 8 by using the same tactics as the last match. Their last match was against the strongest team of the sorcerer house. All their opponents specialized in the wind element which made them extremely fast.

Their last match was also the first of the top eight matches and would immediately begin. When they faced each other in the arena, both teams exchanged polite manners before the match and got into position. The match started and both teams immediately sprung into action. The sorcerer team sprinted towards Jiang Mang while cloaking their senses with their qi while Jiang Mang took his flute to play Drunk Night and Xia Ruoyin deployed Snowfield. When the sorcerer team attacked, Jiang Mang avoided them with ease thanks to Xia Ruoyin's deployment and managed to trap the opponents together with him. He dodged all their methods of attack with ease while Xia Ruoyin bombarded them with Ice arrows from outside the entrapment. The duo won after a minute and secured a spot in the top 4 for the next day.

The other matches were concluded after an hour. The top four also included two mystery teams and one knight team. The knight team specialized in sword techniques, while the weakest mystery team specialized in poison. Both teams would pose no threat against Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin but the strongest mystery team consisted of a master in mental attacks and a pair of twins who had awakened war gods as their profound spirits. These war gods increased the physical strength of the twins and transformed them into fighting machines with extreme will power and fighting instincts.

Jiang Mang would have to employ Nightmare Hell's waves to beat the mental master and slow the twins down because his illusion would be ineffective against the twins because their disrupted senses wouldn't affect their instincts and thus not be able to trap or hinder them while the mental master would make taking control of one person difficult in a short period and Xia Ruoyin wouldn't be able to beat both twins. Only the sleep effect of Nightmare Hell would affect the twins' performance while the hallucinations would be able to counterattack the mental master and defeat him. The duo could only use that tactic if Jiang Mang didn't want to expose his combat skills which would be able to crush the opposite team.

The last day of the tournament started at noon and the duo was prepared to take the crown. Their first match was against the knight team who were defeated by Jiang Man trapping them along with himself, he dodged their attacks with the provided help from the Snowfield technique cast by Xia Ruoyin, who bombarded their opponents with her Ice arrow technique. The other match was won by the mental master and the twins. The other rankings were determined before the finals and the top 5 were the finalists followed by the weaker mystery team at third place followed by the knight team at fourth place and the strongest sorcerer team at fifth place.

The finals would be between the mystery house and the musician's house. The final match began without a word. Jiang Mang had taken his zither out which surprised the opponents and the crowd. Xia Ruoyin immediately cast the Snowfield technique while Jiang Mang played Nightmare Hell's Waves. The twin's frontal assault immediately slowed down while the mental master was locked in battle with Jiang Mang's hallucination waves. The mental master was blocking the hallucinations for the twins, but would quickly be beaten by Jiang Mang's performance which meant that the twins had to interrupt Jiang Mang's performance as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Xia Ruoyin was capable of holding them down and as time passed the mental master was about to be beaten. The twins decided to expose their trump card which caught Xia Ruoyin unprepared. They had trained in a combination technique that would let them enter in a frenzy without reason while doubling their power by burning their qi. Xia Ruoyin was instantly beaten back before being heavily wounded. Jiang Mang was too late to react but saw everything in his inner vision. The moment she was heavily injured, he became enraged and he saw that they continued their attack on the defenseless Xia Ruoyin which prompted him to unconsciously pluck a string which unleashed a death qi wave around him. The death qi wave pushed the twins back while knocking Xia Ruoyin unconscious.

This attack was unexpected but Jiang Mang was now put against 3 opponents. The twins and mental master were all exhausted but still formidable for him who didn't want to expose himself. He decided to win and put his zither away. This puzzled his opponents but they immediately attacked. Jiang Mang performed hidden moon traversal and immediately reached the twins before instantly knocking them unconscious as they were still frenzied. A second later, he had also incapacitated the mental master and instantly defeated the strongest team of newcomers from the mystery house. He picked Xia Ruoyin's unconscious body up, as he had seen her position before he quit his performance, and left the stage.