A month had passed and it was the day before the tournament. Both Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin had only spent their time training and at the moment they had just finished their afternoon training session being able to defeat the two guards with their powers suppressed to the mid foundation stage. All the teachers and the headteacher were happily surprised by the duo's combat prowess when they worked together. It was, of course, only the revealed part as Jiang Mang only played as the support with his flute and didn't even attack. If he used his death qi or hidden weapon mastery, then he alone would be able to take on a cultivator at the peak foundation stage and maybe even win. If he and Xia Ruoyin worked together at full power, they can kill peak foundation stage cultivators or wild beasts which they had tested the night before, when they killed such a wild beast.
The duo was extremely coördinated. The two could both support and reïnforce each other when needed. Jiang Mang's was able to move and attack with more ease because of Xia Rouyin's ice techniques while Xia Rouyin could attack without danger if Jiang Mang supported her with his mastered qi songs.
The duo could transition between attacking and retreating but wasn't able to defend against unavoidable attacks, which was the duo's greatest weakness. Xia Ruoyin had mastered her two ice techniques to perfection, while Jiang Mang had mastered every qi song besides Nightmare Hell. He was able to imprison his targets in illusions with the qi song Immortal Paradise, which enhanced the primary ability of his life qi. His illusion technique could still only trap people below the peak foundation stage. The target would now be trapped in an illusion based on the target's desire, which enhanced the hypnotic effect. He had also created a new illusion technique through the use of the qi song Drunk Night. This illusion shrouded the opponent's senses and confined them to a certain area. The target's senses would be altered so that he would walk in circles, the moment he heard the qi song. The target could only escape if he stopped Jiang Mang's performance or if he could ignore the disorienting effect from Drunk Night.
Jiang Mang had also mastered the qi song Demonic Lust taught by teacher Mei. This qi song allowed him to charm persons and make them obey his instructions. He could charm any person at the same cultivation stage as his through this low-level technique as long as they showed some kind of emotion towards him. This emotion included hate, admiration, love, anger, sadness, and more. The qi song would enhance the emotions of its target, to intrude, and take control of their consciousness. This qi song only allowed for short term control and wouldn't change a person's personality like other high-level techniques could. He had tested the technique on Xia Ruoyin with success and concluded that a target had to be subjected to at least ten seconds of demonic tunes before he would be able to charm a person to do his bidding. The control would last as long as the performance which could be repeated until the user was out of qi. Jiang Mang was able to play Demonic Lust for two continuous hours with his current cultivation.
Jiang Mang has come close to mastering Nightmare Hell and is already able to put every target in a radius of 15 meters to sleep. The time it took to put them to sleep was dependent on the target's will and cultivation. He was able to put ordinary early foundation stage cultivators to sleep in a single second, but someone like Xia Ruoyin took a whole minute which was the time taken for ordinary high foundation stage cultivators.
Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin had decided to spent the night before the tournament together to discuss their tactics again while also trying to master Nightmare Hell. If he mastered the technique, then they would have a hidden trump card capable of attacking any unprepared targets. This was the case as the technique was a unique attack type qi song if mastered while the attack was also able to avoid detection.
Jiang Mang had also learned from teacher Ming that he could apply the same application technique for any qi song at the Huang tier, as long as he mastered Nightmare Hell. This aspect was only known to teacher Ming and both Jiang Mang and Xia Ruoyin, who would be learning the qi song after the tournament under teacher Ming. This aspect would enable the user to play any qi song at the Huang tier while catching any target unprepared if the user hid out of sight.
The duo went towards Jiang Mang's room and after they finished their preparations, Jiang Mang would play Nightmare Hell. He played the song for two hours before he stopped, he decided to ponder about the words: "Fuse himself with the song."
He was in thought for an hour when he suddenly opened his eyes and heard a stone falling into the pond. Xia Ruoyin was bored and had thrown a stone in the pond, which caused ripples to appear. These ripples inspired Jiang Mang about Nightmare Hell. He was unable to form a stream of harmonized qi and music without further training on qi control, but he could influence his qi to behave in certain ways. If he could make the harmonized qi and music behave like the ripples or waves on a water surface then the technique should change into an attack. That attack would continuously ram into the consciousness of the target, inducing sleep, and hallucinations formed from a more concentrated form of qi combined with the negative emotions stemming from the music.
Jiang Mang tried his idea after asking Xia Ruoyin to be his practice target. The moment he started playing, he infused his death qi in his zither while he controlled the qi to create a wave-like application were the harmonized qi and music would be split into concentrated and empty moments like surging waves with silent gaps in between. Jiang Mang was able to recreate his idea, but he didn't know the effectiveness of the form until he finished the song and studied Xia Ruoyin's experience. After the girl narrated her experience, he was pleased as he was able to change the technique while strengthening certain aspects. Xia Ruoyin had been targeted by a continuous wave of light mental attacks which sped up her rate of falling asleep while she was also put in a hallucinating state from the very first attack where the hallucinations grew stronger until she fell asleep. When she was sleeping, nightmares were continuously attacking her. The horrors were weaker than in the original method but should be equally effective in causing mental damage. The new technique also dismissed the stealth aspect in exchange for an area of effect attack capable of attacking multiple opponents in the same intensity as the effect of the original on a single target.
Jiang Mang was happy with his new trump card when Xia Ruoyin stated the technique was both usable for suppression and attack. She even stated that she would instantly lose combat effectiveness when attacked by the technique in her current condition. They both agreed to keep the technique as their trump card which they renamed Nightmare Hell's waves to make the distinction between the old and new. Jiang Mang was also curious about his new qi application's effect on his other qi songs and would further experiment through the night to try and strengthen his techniques before tomorrow.