Jiang Mang and his entourage had been traveling for three and a half weeks when they arrived at Tiancai city. Tiancai city was one of the five great cities in the Chu empire because of the Imperial Academy stationed in the city. The Imperial Academy had full control over the city and had divided the city into an inner and outer part where the inner part was for students and teachers of the academy while the outer part was for visitors of the city.
Jiang Mang's musical ability in both the zither and flute was now already comparable to master musicians who weren't musical cultivators like Li Yang. Li Yang was an early saint stage cultivator, who was also a high scholar of the royal court who had stood by Jiang Mang's grandfather's side during his reign and had only picked the arts up after Jiang Mang's grandfather's abdication. Li Yang had stopped teaching Jiang Mang the week before they arrived.
Jiang Mang kept playing during that period but he had also started infusing life qi in all of his songs because he wanted to increase the proficiency of his illusion technique. He could now conjure the illusion of an inhabited village where the target would gradually integrate into the village life until he was lost in the illusion. He had also discovered that the infused music notes not only disrupted the target's senses while pulling him into an illusion but also induced a hypnotic influence which made the target believe to be a part of the illusion. This discovery pushed Jiang Mang to further develop different variants of the illusion realm because the illusions would have varying degrees of effects depending on the type of illusion used on a certain target. He had even tested his technique on some bandits that had attacked the carriage three days before their arrival and he had managed to trap every bandit weaker than a peak foundation stage cultivator of which half had been immersed to the point where the illusion had become their reality after an hour and even the other targets eventually became emersed in the illusion after more than three hours of music. At that point, he stopped playing but the bandits would forever be trapped unless they would be freed by Jiang Mang himself or someone who was either stronger than Jiang Mang in illusion techniques or a common cultivator at least in the manifestation stage.
After they had entered Tiancai city and settled in an inn. Li Yang asked Jiang Mang to accompany him to his friend who was a teacher at the Imperial Academy. Li Yang had first planned to part with the prince after their arrival in Tiancai city, but after spending a month with the prince he had decided to help the prince a bit by introducing him to his friend. His friend was one of the two vice heads of the assignment department where all the commissioned tasks for the Imperial Academy were managed. His friend was called Cang Lang and was also an early saint stage cultivator.
When the duo arrived before the gates of the inner city they were stopped. The guards asked for their reason to enter as both had no token of entry. Li Yang asked the guard to mention his arrival at Cang Lang. After waiting at the side for fifteen minutes, the guard returned with an elderly man but in contrast to Li Yang, this man looked full of life even with a head full of white long hear. Cang Lang welcomed his old friend while assessing the young aloof man by his friend's side. Jiang Mang had only reacted when Cang Lang had walked within ten meters of him which had surprised Cang Lang because other youths would not ignore him when they should have noticed his approach.
Cang Lang led Li Yang and Jiang Mang towards his residency where he prepared some tea before sitting down. He started a conversation with Li Yang: "Old friend, this is the first time you have brought some company with you in all the times you have visited. Who is this young man you have brought to me." Li Yang smiled at his friend's question before introducing Jiang Mang: "Old Cang, this young boy is the second prince of the Kingdom of swords, Jiang Mang. He is also the boy who awakened twin spirits during the last awakening ceremony, namely a flute profound spirit and a zither profound spirit. He will be attending Imperial Academy's musical department."
This surprised Cang Lang and made him reassess the boy in front of him. Jiang Mang introduced himself to Cang Lang after Li Yang's introduction before returning to silence as he didn't know what to say. This made the two old men's lips twitch but Li Yang expected it before returning to his conversation with Cang Lang about Jiang Mang: "Old Cang, you shouldn't bother about his indifference as the boy has seldom interacted with people outside the palace due to his blindness. Although it can come over as arrogance, he is, in fact, a humble person who is willing to learn from the experience of his elders." This remark piqued Cang Lang's interest, who asked his friend: "I understand his behavior now, but this should not be all this boy has to present if you brought him to me. Right?" Li Yang gave a knowing grin at his friend before answering: "Although the prince is blind and of the unpopular musician type. I guarantee that he is a prodigy in his field. After less than two months of being under my tutelage to learn to play the zither and the flute, he had already surpassed myself in terms of skill in both the flute and the zither. Old friend, you know better than anyone else my level of mastery over the zither."
This astonished Cang Lang who looked for confirmation from his friend again. Cang Lang eventually asked Jiang Mang to play a zither piece. Jiang Mang eventually chose his favorite piece called Eternal Silence. This piece was written by a zither master in honor of her husband's death. He took his zither out from his cosmos bag, which was a storage artifact given to him by Li Yang to store his instruments and valuables. He started playing the piece and a sorrowful tune filled the room as if only it and silence existed. The music gradually evolved from a sorrowful tune to a soft tune that could stop existing at any moment until eventually, the music stopped at its lowest and most depressing point. This piece had entranced both old friends who had seen many loved ones dying until only a couple were left. Cang Lang even praised Jiang Mang who humbly accepted it after hearing Cang Lang's sincere tone. He had seen the emotions of both old men during his performance and was touched by their lingering feelings for their deceased friends and lovers. He played another piece called Happy Times. This was another piece about death but this piece centered around the happy memories a person remembered before they died. After this song was played, the two old men were smiling and both thanked Jiang Mang for his performance before they started catching up about their old times while Jiang Mang listened to their experiences.
Li Yang decided to stay with his friend for a certain period and both he and Cang Lang invited Jiang Mang to stay with them until the welcoming ceremony of new students by the Imperial Academy. Jiang Mang agreed after they allowed both his guards and Xiao Lu to accompany his stay there.