Every student was eventually led towards their respective houses. Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin didn't ask any questions or even speak a single word while being led towards their residence in the musician house. When they arrived at an enormous mansion in the northern part of the inner city, They were informed that this place was the musician's house, where they would live and learn about cultivation for the coming years. They were allowed to bring two attendants and one spirit beast to live with them in the academy. Xia Ruoyin had only brought a maid along in comparison to Jiang Mang's two guards and Xiao Lu. The duo was further informed of all the rules of the academy and their own respective house. The Imperial Academy centered around self-study aside from some weekly guidance which was provided for free in everyone's house. The academy's four departments which were responsible for the management part are respectively the assignment department, the discipline department, the technique department, and the market department.
You can find and complete tasks at the assignment department for Tiancai points while you can spend your Tiancai points at the technique or market department and every rule breaker will be punished at the discipline department. The last piece of information they were given was that they would have their first lesson tomorrow morning at the guidance hall.
Jiang Mang and Xia Rouyin separated from each other to find their respective rooms in the house. Jiang Mang found his room under the guidance of his guards and entered without much thought. After some exploration, he found that the room had four bedrooms and one main hall connected to all the rooms. The room had pleased him and he eventually settled down in the main hall. He instructed his guards to gather some information about the musician house. When they returned, Jiang Mang was informed that there were only fifty-two official residents in the musician house of which fifteen were teachers and thirty-seven were students. There were thirty students at the foundation stage and seven at the manifestation stage. The Imperial academy rules stated that only students who reached the manifestation realm below the age of twenty were allowed to stay at the academy while those who broke through above the age of twenty were asked to leave after graduation.
The low amount of residents had surprised Jiang Mang because it was even lower than his expectations. When he asked about the teachers, he became informed that every teacher was a saint stage cultivator with a musical instrument as their profound spirit. The headteacher of the house was a peak saint stage cultivator with a fire elemental zither profound spirit and he was the only other person beside Xia Ruoyin with an elemental musical instrument as his profound spirit. The headteacher's name was Zhu Min and he was also known as the strongest headteacher of all the houses and this was the only reason why the other houses never bothered with the musical house despite being disdainful about it. Zhu Min was also known for his protective nature over all his house's students. This piece of news had won Jiang Mang's respect for the headteacher and also made him look forward to tomorrow's first lesson.
He spent the rest of the day inside his room playing the zither and flute, while occasionally conversing with his guards about cultivation. Xiao Lu always stayed by his side enjoying the music.
The next day quickly arrived and he woke up at sunrise again and started the day by cultivating first before having breakfast and heading towards the guidance hall. He arrived under the guidance of Xiao Lu and sat down in meditation as he was the first to arrive. Ten minutes passed before he heard some light footsteps, he determined them to be the same as Xia Ruoyin's from yesterday. He turned his head towards her direction and greeted her: "Good morning, Xia Ruoyin."
His words made her look towards him and she greeted back before asking with interest: "How did you know it was me and not some else." Jiang Mang laughed before explaining: "I can recognize a person by differentiating the sound of their steps and I remembered the sound of your steps from yesterday." This intrigued her as she first thought of him as a blind prince who could only rely on others. She wanted to continue the conversation but was interrupted when a couple of middle-aged and old men together with one woman entered the room. These people should be the teachers of the house. Xia Ruoyin walked forward and greeted them while Jiang Mang followed her actions after he heard her greeting.
Five teachers had come and they asked the duo to sit down after they seated themselves. Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin both sat down in front of the teachers and stayed silent. The situation stayed so for a minute before the middle-aged men in the left corner spoke up: "You two kids should be the new students assigned to the house. We will be your teachers in the house and help hone your musical abilities while guiding your cultivation. You can call me teacher Wang and I have a flute profound spirit. The teachers beside me can be called teacher Meng, headteacher Zhu, teacher Zi, and teacher Mei. Teacher Zi has a flute as his profound spirit too while the others have a zither profound spirit."
Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin listened carefully before greeting all teachers by name. Headteacher Zhu took teacher Wang words over: "Xia Ruoyin, you will train under me, teacher Mei and teacher Meng while Jiang Mang will train under all five of us. Does any of you two object."
Both Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin accepted their teachers before headteacher Zhu continued: "Before we can train and guide you two. We have to first assess both of your abilities. We want you two to perform a piece individually while you infuse your qi into your music. Jiang Mang, you will have to play both a zither and a flute piece so that we can assess both of your profound spirits and their qi. Xia Ruoyin, why don't you set the example."