Chapter 23

The team headed towards the tiger's territory. When the team arrived at the tiger's habitat, they got into formation. They found the tiger after a couple of minutes and attacked. The tiger was of the earth element and was equally strong as two high foundation stage cultivators. It attacks the group directly but was halted by two guys with a pair of shields. The tiger was then trapped in an encirclement by Xiang Mo and the other six guys.

After trapping the beast they were able to reach a stalemate under the support of Jiang Mang, Xia Ruoyin, and Song Meiling. This continued for half an hour before they successfully suppressed the beast. It was now Jiang Mang's turn to calm and manipulate the beast. He took his flute and played Nature's call, he became in control of the plants in his surroundings as a precaution while he used the music to calm the beast down. The tiger became calmer and calmer until it laid itself down on its own. Xiang Mo approached the beast to try and tame it.

He managed to tame the tiger after a couple of minutes but immediately ordered it to attack Jiang Mang. Jiang Mang responded by hindering it with the plants in its surroundings before escaping and grouping with his two friends. Song Meiling shouted at Xiang Mo asking him why he attacked Jiang Mang. Xiang Mo responded with a grin before mentioning that she would be his and that Jiang Mang was in his way. This disgusted her while she kept protecting her friend.

Xiang Mo became enraged and ordered the others to take the trio down in the forest. They hesitated until Xiang Mo promised to grant them each with medicine to help break through to the manifestation stage after they reached the peak foundation stage. The moment they attacked, Song Meiling fired arrows towards them while Xia Ruoyin used an ice mirror to defend against ranged attacks. Both girls managed to hold Xiang Mo and the boys off while Jiang Mang dealt with the tiger.

Jiang Mang immediately knocked the tiger out with Flower's hand combined with hidden moon traversal. He then took his flute and played Reincarnation Paradise and pulled all the boys in their illusions. He indicated to the girls to bind the boys up while he continued his performance. All the boys were now experiencing a new mortal lifetime every 10 minutes. They were sometimes commoners, sometimes kings, sometimes slaves, and sometimes nobleman. They forgot themselves in the reincarnation circle as they lived multiple lives until they forgot who they were. His new qi song allowed Jiang Mang to manipulate his target's memories and reshape their personalities. This ability is only useful on weak-minded and young targets in the foundation stage. Unfortunately because of the academy's knowledge about their trip, he held back. He ended their illusions with a reexperience of their current life from their memories with only a simple twist. He changed Xiang Mo's betrayal for his love toward Song Meiling into becoming friends after finishing the mission in which they fell unconscious after a heavy battle against the tiger.

The boys woke up in confusion before 'remembering' about what happened. They thanked the trio for safeguarding them and became extremely friendly. Xiang Mo became friends with Jiang Mang and reassured Jiang Mang that he could rely on him if people dared to trouble him. Everyone eventually returned after a successful task and gained 100 Tiancai points from Xiang Mo.

Song Meiling followed the duo towards the musician house and they spent the evening feasting and chatting. Jiang Mang was happy with his friend reunion and he invited Song Meiling to visit him in the future if possible. The trio eventually parted and the night was illuminated by a full moon. Xiao Lu was by Jiang Mang's side who sighed about the day's events. Everything went smoothly with no injuries or problems but he was again reminded about human greed and selfishness. He also knew that his signature technique Reincarnation Paradise's capabilities could not become known as he would become a hunted and persecuted person.

He was the only person who could perform the technique due to his unique life qi which had allowed him to conceal the technique's true abilities from his teachers. He ultimately decided to never use the technique's abilities unless necessary. The next day he used his 100 Tiancai points on a new illusion qi song for his flute which created an illusion which was harder to get out of than Reincarnation Paradise but would not harm the target's like the former which was reformed by himself.

He trained the new qi song until it became his new illusion technique. He tested it on Xia Ruoyin and his new friend Xiang Mo who praised the technique as it immersed them immediately unlike the gradual approach of going through different lives. Jiang Mang was then satisfied with his new technique and began training his close combat ability against his guards.

Time gradually passed as everyone spends their life in the Imperial Academy. Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin had been students for a year now and had participated in two survival assessments from the academy in the forests nearby. The duo topped their year's rankings as a team while having both entered in the top 5 strongest of their year in individual skill. Xia Ruoyin had secured first place while Jiang Mang secured fifth through his musical abilities only while hiding his physical abilities. The other first-years still knew that Jiang Mang was the actual first place from the tournament but no one spoke it out loud as they didn't have evidence except for that one occurrence.

The duo had also become 11 years old while Song Meiling had become 14 years old. The two girls had become closer over the year and as they showed up on the campus more often together. They became known as the twin flowers which had brought Jiang Mang a bunch of envy as he was the person who spent most of his time with the twin flowers. Multiple guys had challenged him but they had all been beaten by the two girls next to him. This earned him the title: dainty master.