Chapter 21
The tournament ended with an unexpected result with the musician school as the winners. The students and teachers were stunned and unable to react before Jiang Mang disappeared with Xia Ruoyin out of the venue. His performance had shocked everyone as they had never expected the blind musician to be so strong in melee combat.
The other houses congratulated the musician house before leaving in defeat. The duo both received 500 Tiancai points and resumed their training together after the tournament as they had witnessed their defeated teamwork. Jiang Mang became known as a mysterious upcoming genius in the academy but was slowly forgotten as the duo wasn't seen for an entire month after the tournament.
The duo trained all day and night. Their teamwork became flawless and seamless to the point that they could read each other's intentions with a single movement. Xia Ruoyin had improved her ice techniques by incorporating her zither skills. She strengthened and controlled both ice techniques by playing music which had increased the potency of the techniques but made her unable to move. Jiang Mang had mastered all his qi song's with the qi application and improved the abilities of the four qi songs. He renamed the four qi songs to Reïncarnation Paradise, Drunk Parade, Lust Waves, and Nightmare Cage.
Nightmare Cage transforms the surrounding areas into a cage where everyone is subjected to waves of hallucinations while dulling the senses. Drunk Parade traps the targets in an endless circle through disoriënting the targets. Lust Waves enables the performer to agitate the emotions of the targets until they lose rationality and also makes mind control possible on weak-minded targets with intense emotions. The mind control is only temporary and can only make the target perform simple instructions. The strongest qi song became Reincarnation Paradise. It pulls every target in a series of illusions which simulates an unending reincarnation cycle. The cycle makes the target forget their identities through living through multiple lives and incapacitates every person from combat when pulled in. The cycle can only be broken by a qi strength at the peak foundation stage and can only be avoided through the interference of the qi and music waves.
Jiang Mang would only use the new songs except for the original Nightmare Hell which he had mastered during the month and could now use for assassination and putting targets to sleep. Every qi song had become equal to peak mid Huang tier techniques and was effective on high foundation stage cultivators. He had also learned how to unleash death qi waves through plucking zither strings which allowed him to defend against elemental attacks while keeping melee fighters distanced. The power behind the qi waves was equal to his cultivation level.
Xia Ruoyin and Jiang Mang could now defeat any team of the mid foundation stage with less than five members through musical skills alone. They could trap knight house cultivators before bombarding them, while they were undefeatable against those from the sorcerer house with Jiang Mang's illusions, mind control, trapping, qi waves, and hallucinations alone. Those from the mystery house who had enhancement and mental type profound spirits countered Jiang Mang's qi songs, but would probably often face defeat by the combination of Jiang Mang's qi waves and Xia Ruoyin's exquisite ice control.
Their training would now temporarily halt as they had perfected both their techniques and teamwork in musical abilities. Jiang Mang and Xia Rouyin would relax and explore the academy together as they had only trained or fought since their arrival. They had decided to visit the assignment department to look for an available task for the duo, while also visiting the technique department to look for new techniques to spend their 500 Tiancai points on.
They first made their way towards vice-head Cang Lang to ask for help about finding an assignment. The moment they arrived, Cang Lang welcomed the duo and informed them about all the different sorts of tasks. The most common tasks are hunting tasks of a wild beast in the neighboring forests, which would most often be undertaken by students at the mid foundation stage and higher. Some uncommon tasks required finding herbs in the woods or concocting medicines, creating weapons, dispelling techniques, or taming beasts.
Musician cultivators would mostly perform techniques to dispel certain techniques and tame a captured beast to become mounts or companions. The duo decided to accept a task to help tame a tiger at the high foundation stage during a hunt. This task was assigned by someone from the sorcerer house who wants a tiger battle companion. A beast or spirit beast could become a battle companion only if they were branded by a taming technique voluntarily or through mental manipulation. The client would award 100 Tiancai points to every participant if the taming succeeded. The party would only set out at the end of the week so they had still a week to prepare.
The duo headed towards the technique department after visiting Cang Lan. Xia Ruoyin wanted to pick some qi songs and defensive techniques, while Jiang Mang would pick what stood out to him as he was already well rounded. They had decided to only pick high Huang tier techniques, which would cost 200 Tiancai points at minimum. The technique department was bustling with people when the duo entered. They headed towards the second floor where the high Huang tier techniques were kept.
They first headed towards the ice elemental techniques where Xia Ruoyin chooses the technique Ice mirror for 300 Tiancai points. Ice mirror allows the user to create up to four mirrors and control them to act as a shield against attacks, the technique provides a mediocre but controllable defense at the cost of a high qi consumption. Afterward, they headed towards the qi song section. Xia Ruoyin wanted a qi song that would complement her profound spirit. She found two songs called Frozen soul and Snow Queen. The first froze the consciousness of the target until it immobilizes and stops thinking which will hinder her opponents, the second technique changes the perception of the target towards the user. The qi song Snow Queen plants a seed in the mind of its listeners to make them view the user as a queen who should be obeyed. This qi song is appropriate for brainwashing and public performances but not for combat.
She eventually chose Snow Queen for 200 Tiancai points as she decided that she would focus on ice elemental techniques for combat and musical qi songs for other more obscure purposes. Snow Queen is a rare charm technique and the only available one in the academy at the Huang tier. Unfortunately, it can only be played by those with an ice elemental musical instrument profound spirit. Jiang Mang was a bit astounded by her choice as he couldn't see her purpose for the technique, but he quickly accepted it and looked for a technique for himself.