The day of the engagement had just ended. Jiang Mang and Xia Mei became engaged and Jiang Mang had also become adopted by Xia Mei's parents. He called them now mom and dad like her, while he gained the Xia surname when in the Xia family.
They would spend another week inside ice city before they would travel through the Holy continent towards the inheritance ruins. The Zither palace had also sent an engagement gift for Xia Mei, which was one of the spots for the inheritance ruin. They had done this because the inheritance ruin of yin yang sovereign is peculiar in that it makes the people undergo challenges as duos with one male and one female. This would allow the newly engaged couple to enter the ruins together.
Jiang Mang would also be allowed to visit the technique library of the Xia family tomorrow and choose three techniques that are suitable for him. They will have to be approved by patriarch Xia first though.
Xia Mei only cultivated two techniques, but they were both powerful, which showed that he could find some worthy techniques to cultivate as he had already mastered all the techniques in his possession to perfection for the saint stage.
The techniques Xia Mei cultivated was the legacy technique seven styles of the frost sword and a body tempering technique called ice queen physique. The second allows the body to be tempered with ice to become a special ice element physique, which makes the body more suitable to cultivate and control ice qi.
The next day, Jiang Mang stood before the door of the technique library with patriarch Xia who explained its rules:
"Xia Mang, when you enter the technique library, you will not find any books but a collection of introduction jade slips that explain all of the techniques inside. We of the Xia family specialize in ice elemental techniques and sword techniques, but we also have a collection of unique techniques of other daos. You will, however, not find any common techniques inside as they are stored in our public library. That library is something you can visit this week with Xia Mei."
Jiang Mang said that he understood and thanked his new father. He then entered the technique library. When he entered, he started browsing all the techniques and he was surprised by the number of powerful ice techniques and sword techniques they had. After browsing for an hour, he had found one suitable technique for him. It was a sword technique of the yin attribute called nine killing swords. This technique was usable until the emperor realm and suited his death qi, which was of the yin attribute and the darkness attribute. He then entered the unique section to start browsing techniques. This section was much smaller but contained many strong but unique techniques from many different daos. He eventually found two techniques that interested him.
The first is a sutra used to calm the heart and soul called the ice heart sutra. This technique would help him deal with his personality becoming increasingly more lustful due to the abundant yang energy.
The second is an eye manual called death eyes. It allows the user to nourish the eyes with yin qi, which will transform them to become death eyes. Death eyes are similar to a special physique as they allow the user to cultivate special eye techniques included in the technique. These techniques use death eyes to launch offensive attacks.
The manual includes three techniques called: frozen body, frozen heart, and frozen soul. The first technique freezes the body in ice. The second technique freezes a person's emotions and desires in ice, and the third technique freezes the soul in ice. The first two techniques can be undone, but the third is a killing technique.
There are, however, two drawbacks. One is that a person needs to possess a qi of both the yin and the darkness attribute. The second is that cultivating dead eyes makes the user blind. Jiang Mang, however, isn't constrained by these two techniques.
He then left the technique library with three jade slips. Patriarch Xia read all three techniques and approved of his decision. Jiang Mang then acquired three copies of the three techniques and returned to his room. He started cultivating the ice heart sutra, which made his urge for lust diminish together with his other emotions and desires. He had now regained a calm and clear mind.
He also started his cultivation of the death eyes, which would only need a day to form. Its three accompanying techniques didn't use qi but a soul's force to attack. To freeze a peak saints body or heart required one-tenth of his soul's force, and to freeze a soul would require one fifth, which is equal to the entire force of a normal peak saint soul's force.
The next day, he had cultivated the death eyes. This had turned his pupils to become pitch black like an abyss. He made his way towards Mei Mei's room as he wanted his new sword technique with her.
When she opened her door, she was pleasantly surprised to see Jiang Mang. After hearing his reason for coming, she instantly agreed, and they both entered the Xia family's training court to start sparring sword techniques.
Jiang Mang used the nine killing swords. The technique contained nine different sword styles, which were formless, but each contained a different type of killing intent.
The couple's sparring match attracted the attention of many Xia family members, of which most were of the younger generation. The sparring match was performed by Jiang Mang, who had an incredible affinity with swords, and Xia Mei, who was a pure sword cultivator and a talent comparable to holy children.
Many people became enlightened by how the two utilized their swords. Some even managed to further their comprehensions of the dao. Patriarch Xia was also watching and could see that both his new son in law and daughter were getting along. He could also tell from the way they sparred that some affection had already formed between the two.
The two eventually spent the entire week together, either cultivating, sparring, or talking to each other, and would now leave ice city to travel the Holy continent and explore the inheritance together. Their first destination would be Charm city.