Jiang Mang was first overwhelmed but this lasted only seconds before he became depressed. While his talent in cultivation was of the highest order, the music instrument type profound spirit is known to be a type with no combat ability at all. All music instruments type profound spirits are only known to be able to calm or disrupt a person's mind and even if this can be effective in combat. A musician type cultivator is also known to have no defensive abilities which make them unable to participate in combat. On the Xuan continent, musician type cultivators are known only for their entertainment purposes. Even if a musician type cultivators cultivate to become a saint stage cultivator, they will still be weaker than other type manifestation stage cultivators as from the manifestation stage onwards, the profound spirit becomes a cultivator's strongest mean of attack and other weapons would be incomparable to spirit weapons.
The crowd was also shocked when the twin spirits type became known which created an uproar and this would become the biggest joke on the Xuan continent for the coming years. The youths were looking at him with derision and contempt and some even laughed without care. The king's earlier smile had also vanished before as shame had overcome him. He left the hall before others and returned to the castle while disregarding all the guests.
Jiang Mang was still in a trance until he was shocked awake by a cough from the high scholar which indicated his required leave from the circle. As he left the circle and wanted to leave, his path was blocked by Ming Yan who spoke in an arrogant tone: "Your second highness, I hope that you haven't forgotten our prior agreement for my guidance."
This was the last straw for Jiang Mang because although his profound spirit was useless, this would only become apparent after entering the manifestation stage. In the foundation stage, the profound spirit would only provide a difference in the type of qi a cultivator could utilize which was not even applicable to these youths who hadn't even started cultivating. Jiang Mang responded with an even more arrogant tone: "I will guide you once we have left the hall. Although I am blind and have musical instruments as my profound spirits, I will still be able to sweep the floor with you before reaching the manifestation stage."
These words created an uproar and angered Ming Yan to the point of speechlessness. Jiang Mang made his way outside the hall and assumed a combat stance which proved that he was serious. Ming Yan looked at him in contempt before also assuming a combat stance in an arrogant manner which contrasted the serene posture of Jiang Mang. This scuffle also attracted the attention of the nobles who were leaving the hall and thus Duke Ming's attention who send a mental note to Ming Yan to not trash the prince too hard as he was still of royal descent.
Ming Yan spoke before the spar: "Your second highness, I hope you will not take what will be coming to hard as this is just a scuffle of our generation." Jiang Mang responded with a snort and a hand sign which meant "Come get me if you can !".
This made Ming Yan's anger erupt and he shot towards Jiang Mang intending to land a punch. Jiang Mang sensed the changes in the air and some slight danger which made him avoid the punch. This shocked Ming Yan and the crowd but that was all.
Ming Yan unleashed a fury of punches after his first failure. They were all narrowly avoided by Jiang Mang who could have ended his opponent with a single throwing dagger but to keep his abilities hidden, he only avoided his opponent's attacks to tire him out before finishing him off.
As the spar continued the crowd became astonished by the blind second prince's performance before turning deadly quiet. Duke Ming's expression had also changed from a smile to a sour face at the sight of his son's failure to hit a single punch. Ming Yan also became more frustrated as time went on and he made a slight mistake when he lost his thoughts for a moment which settled the end as a second later, he ended on the floor with his head buried in the ground.
Jiang Mang then left before the spectators processed what had happened. On his return journey, he fell into silence and directly headed towards his room before crying for the first time since the age of two. He had trained for years to lay a foundation to succeed in cultivation and proof to the world that he was not a useless blind person but all his dreams were squashed in one single day. He eventually fell asleep and only woke up when it was midnight. He opened his room and headed to his yard before sitting against the peach blossom tree while listening to the silent night. He picked up a leaf and started playing it to calm his thoughts and heart. Xiao Lu also came over and stood by his side looking at him with curious eyes while also listening to the music. As the song progressed and his heart calmed down, the view of his surroundings together with a crane-like bird with green and red feathers came into his mind but his profound spirits were also activated and started absorbing the qi from his surrounding but also circulating on its own. Normally a person would have to learn a circulation method appropriate to his or her type of profound spirit but Jiang Mang's profound spirits circulated the qi following certain unique passageways like it is meant to be. Eventually, the qi approaches his dantian before splitting into two streams and transforming into a green and black like gaseous substance around the two profound spirits. The qi around the flute of life was filled with vitality while the qi surrounding the zither of dead had a sinister and quiet aura, like everything it touches would eventually succumb to death. This strange phenomenon lasted until the song ended an hour later and the streams of qi heading towards Jiang Mang had startled Xiao Lu but it hadn't disturbed the boy. When he opened his eyes he was confused as if he had been in a trance before he became aware of the changes that had happened to him. He had broken through to the early foundation stage.