Douluo Dalu - Volume 09 - Golden Iron Triangle

by Tang Jia San Shao

  Flender helplessly said:

  “You really are a cultivation madman. With you here, I’ve become the gentle and soft representative.”

  After eating some simple rations, everyone set out once again. At nightfall, lead by Ning Rongrong, they finally arrived at their destination: Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.

  “Rongrong, you’re sure it’s here?”

  Flender asked with a somewhat strange voice.

  Ning Rongrong nodded, saying:

  “Yeah, no mistake. Heaven Dou Imperial Academy wouldn’t change places, I’m sure it’s here.”

  “But this is a mountain!”

  “This mountain all belongs to Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. Eh, and that forest behind it and that lake at the foot of the mountain too, they’re all under the Academy’s supervision. We’ll enter the Academy grounds at once.”

  Seeing the dumbstruck Flender, Grandmaster contentedly said:

  “Mountains on one side and water on the other, it really is a good place.”

  The other teachers all nodded in admiration.

  The scenery here was indeed beautiful, especially this moment as the sun was setting in the west. Under the contrast of the red colored clouds in the west, whether it was the lake at the foot or that thousand meter tall mountain covered in every kind of plant itself, all gave people a feeling like the garden of peaches of immortality.”

  The distance from here to Heaven Dou Empire’s imperial capital Heaven Dou City was less than twenty kilometers, and with such beautiful surroundings, recalling that they would live here from here on, even Zhao Wuji and the other teachers all felt greatly satisfied.

  Only Flender was still unconvinced:

  “The setting is good, but is the area really so amazing? Does it foster strength? It doesn’t compare to our Shrek Academy. Even though our place was small, there were a lot of monsters.”

  Grandmaster nodded thoughtfully,

  “Flender, honestly, up till now I’ve never been too clear on how so many children with outstanding potential could be duped into entering your Shrek Academy. What method did you use to swindle them into enrolling?”

  “I used…… That’s rubbish, what are you calling swindle, it’s called my charisma!”

  Flender hastily corrected himself, glaring at Grandmaster,

  “We can go up the mountain just in time for dinner. Let’s have a look at the treatment here. If it’s not good, I’m still not staying.”

  Right now Flender appeared more like a rash child, even the Shrek Seven Devils to the side couldn’t help but laugh inwardly. Right now, they could also understand Flender’s mood. After all, the crystallisation of his heart’s blood, the Shrek Academy, had already ended, to his eyes this Heaven Dou Imperial Academy more resembled a rival opponent.

  Before walking more than a few steps, trouble arrived.

  “Who are you to stand around here?”

  Ten eighteen or nineteen year old Spirit Masters were barring the way. Although they hadn’t summoned their spirits, from their goose yellow uniforms it was apparent these were all students of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.

  Flender grandly said:

  “We’re Shrek Academy. Complying with Heaven Dou Imperial Academy’s invitation, specially here for the exchange. Lead the way.”

  The leader of the youth’s looked Flender up and down several times, again taking a look at the others’ clothes, wearing a disdainful expression,

  “You country bumpkins have come for an exchange at our Academy? To me, you look like beggars from somewhere. Hurry up and get lost. Otherwise, we’ll have to use force.”

  After travelling for close to ten days, everyone from the Shrek Academy were indeed somewhat travel worn, but not as extreme as he said, this Heaven Dou Imperial Academy student leader clearly was one to judge by appearance. Seeing the Shrek Academy group’s simple clothes, and adding Flender’s haughty and austere words left him out of sorts, making him say this.

  There were truly very few with the ability to enter Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, the majority relied on connections and noble titles to gain admittance. This was also always Heaven Dou Imperial Academy’s biggest issue, otherwise, how would they have the reputation of the number one academy without the number one strength?

  Let alone the Shrek Academy teachers who were originally all haughty contemporaries, renouncing the opportunity to join Spirit Master clans or other influential powers in order to found Shrek Academy, right now, even the Shrek Seven Devils’ anger reached the heavens from the other side’s arrogant words.

  Dai Mubai’s figure flickered, at once already standing before Flender, ice cold air bursting out in a flash, ever since childhood this was the first time anyone had insulted him like this, and still with such a loathful tone. He was never a good tempered person, and furthermore they had even insulted his teacher. If the Evil Eye White Tiger could endure this, then he wouldn’t be a tiger, but a sickly cat.

  Hong——, Dai Mubai kicked the speaking youth into the air, directly afterward, he unleashed his spirit.

  At the sudden change, these Heaven Dou Academy noble children immediately lost their heads out of fear, how could they have expected that the other side would actually dare fight them at the gate of their Academy. Besides a few thinking fast enough to release their spirits, the majority unexpectedly quickly retreated, for fear they would be involved. But even if it was those few students with spirits released, with one look at the three spirit rings sparkling over Dai Mubai, how would they still dare fight, and swiftly retreated. In their minds the concept of ‘winning from a position of weakness’ didn’t exist, spirit rings were an absolute gap, and among them wasn’t even one who had reached the thirtieth rank.

  With Dai Mubai’s abundant battle experience, by the ‘strike first and ask questions later’ principle, he didn’t even give the other Shrek Seven Devils the chance to act. Tiger paw swinging, he already sent flying a few individuals who were slow to retreat.

  Watching Dai Mubai fight, Flender and the others couldn’t help but frown. Naturally they wouldn’t be dissatisfied because Dai Mubai beat up the other side, but rather because these Heaven Dou Imperial Academy students really were too lacking in inner qualities.

  Part 2 (TL by Josh)

  Flender once said, its alright to be arrogant, but you must be able to back up your arrogance. Otherwise there’s a problem with your brain. Yet, each and everyone of these young people, were unexpectedly unable to take a single blow. One must know, although their spirit power was very far from Dai Mubai’s, they had the absolute numerical advantage. If they were to combine their powers and stand up to Dai Mubai’s attack, they would at least be able to resist him. However, in front of them was an unexpected situation: none of them retaliated. They looked like deserters who threw away their helmet and ran away from a battle. There were even some crying for their mom and dad, completely lacking the appearance of Spirit Masters.

  Flender faced Zhao Wuji and said,

  “This is Heaven Dou Imperial Academy’s students? They are all trash. I’ve already started to suspect coming here was a mistake.”

  Zhao Wuji smiled wryly,

  “Don’t ask me, how would I know? Last time the little monsters fought the Heaven Dou team, they weren’t like this. It could be that there are trash in all places.”

  Even Grandmaster who had strongly advocated coming here, was lost for words at that moment.

  “Alright, Mubai.”

  Flender called out to Dai Mubai. If they kept of fighting, it wouldn’t be a beating anymore; there might be serious injuries.

  Dai Mubai finally stopped fighting, demonic light flickering in his evil eye double pupils,

  “Lets see who really gets lost”

  “You-, you guys have the impertinence to cause trouble in our Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. This is a provocation to the empire. You just wait…You just wait.”

  Flender said in a cold voice,

  “That’s a fine accusation, too bad yo
u’re trash. Call out your Academy teachers.”

  At this moment, a bold voice was suddenly heard,

  “What’s going on here? Why is there so much noise?”

  From the shady trail on hillside forest, a figure quickly appeared in a silver coloured tight suit and he appeared to be around the same age as Flender. His face was like a silver plate, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, both his hands behind his back. He seemed like an expert.

  “Excellent. Teacher Sun has arrived.”

  The youth from before acted like he saw a saving grace, and he practically crawled over to welcome him.

  “Teacher Sun, they actually dared cause trouble here. They even hit us. You must support us!”

  Teacher Sun looked at the student in front of him as if at a stray dog. He couldn’t help but wrinkle his eyebrows,

  “Xue Beng[ (雪崩) Literally “Avalanche”], do you know what you look like right now?”

  In front of strangers, he did not reprimand his student further as his gaze swept across Shrek Academy’s party.

  Teachers and students, after all, were not the same. When Teacher Sun made eye contact with Flender, his heart could not help but secretly tremble as he hurriedly advanced a few steps, faintly saluting

  “If you please, this one is Sun Buyu[ (孙不语) “Descendant Not Speak”], may I know what business you have with our Heaven Dou Imperial Academy?” He didn’t even mention the fact that his students were beaten. When he stood there, an unflustered aura emanated from him.

  As the man was being very courteous, Flender naturally wouldn’t dwell on the earlier events as he calmly said,

  “We are here to find Qin Ming. Earlier your noble institution’s students said we were beggars, telling us to get lost. Thus we had a conflict.”

  “You are here to see teacher Qin?”

  Sun Buyu was shocked as his heart moved,

  “Could it be that everybody is from Balak Kingdom’s Shrek Academy.”

  Flender nodded his head,

  “It’s true.”

  Sun Buyu was shocked as his expressions suddenly became extremely polite,

  “Able to teach a talent like teacher Qin, I truly admire you. Regarding the situation just now, I apologize on behalf of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. Everybody please enter.”

  He said as he extended an inviting gesture while glaring at those Heaven Dou Imperial Academy student as if to say he would deal with them later.

  The Shrek Academy party, then followed this teacher Sun Buyu as he guided them along a mountain path, towards the school in the heart of the mountain.

  Watching them gradually disappear in the distance, previously kicked flying by Dai Mubai, Xue Beng couldn’t help but display a poisonous light in his eyes,

  “Shrek Academy? What Shrek Academy, still haven’t come to our Academy to work for food. Hmph, just wait. With me here, you won’t want to stay.”

  “Your majesty, this isn’t good.”

  The student next to him cautiously said.

  “What isn’t good? Even this empire is owned by my family. Let’s go, I won’t go to class today. I will first look for justice as royalty cannot take a beating. If we don’t drive them away, I won’t be able to rest easy.”

  Entering the middle of the mountain, one is finally able to understand the extent of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. The stone steps used to climb the mountain were created by sculpting white marble as every stone step all had different designs of various spirit beasts; exquisite craftsmanship. The glow of the setting sun on the white marble left behind jagged shadows of dancing red trees, further adding a unique and tranquil feeling.

  Breathing in this fresh air, it was as if everyone had walked into a botanical world. The one whose thoughts were stirred the most was Tang San. His Mysterious Heaven Skill’s inner strength grasped onto his Blue Silver Grass aura. In this mountain range full of plants, it seemed to be extremely lively. This feeling was also felt when they entered Star Dou Great Forest, but not as obvious as now. Tang San knew that this was due to him breaking through the thirtieth level bottleneck.

  After breaking through rank thirty, spirit masters would have an even more acute sense of energy when near things of the same attribute. Tang San’s Blue Silver Grass spirit was a botanical spirit, thus, surrounded by this botanical world, his spirit power would naturally become much more sensitive.

  Among the reasons why Grandmaster wanted to bring the Shrek Seven Devils, the most important one was because this advanced Spirit Master academy was built by the Heavenly Dou imperialfamily, thus all equipment here would naturally be the most outstanding. However, regarding spirit training methods, although external facilities weren’t decisive, their assisting effect couldn’t be ignored.

  Among the most effective activities for a spirit master was mimicry cultivation for their attributes. So called mimicry cultivation, refers to letting Spirit Masters Cultivate their spirits in the most fitting environment. Although doing it this way would not use twice the effort for half the result, it was able to provide a considerable assisting effect.

  For example, a forest or place full of plants would be the most suitable place for Tang San to cultivate, with his plant type spirit.Thus being in the kitchen of restaurant would fit Oscar, whose Spirit was food related. Additionally beast spirit masters according to their spirits have increased spirit cultivation effects when cultivating with similar animals. Specific bonus effects would be dependant on the Spirit master’s own attribute. In summary, the stronger a spirit was in itself, the more potential he would have and in a mimicry environment, training would be even more beneficial.

  Due to Shrek academy’s conditions, it was only natural that cultivation in a mimicry environment was impossible. However, Heaven Dou Imperial Academy wasn’t like this; The main reason why it occupied a large area and was built outside Heaven Dou City was the building of the mimicry environments. As a comprehensive Spirit Master advanced academy, they needed every kind of mimicry cultivation ground. Plant system spirit masters and food system spirit masters were still easy to handle, but various beast spirit master’s mimicry cultivation ground would not be easy to build. Consequently, it was impossible to build a mimicry cultivation ground for every form of beast spirit masters. Despite this, inside Heaven Dou Imperial Academy there were still close to a hundred various types of mimicry cultivation grounds. Using the saying Heaven Dou Imperial Academy uses for enrolling students,, one would always be able to find one that fits him.

  In the mountains, not only was the air fresh, but it was also extremely moist. A relaxing feeling came over the Shrek Academy party causing them to forget what happened earlier.

  Sun Buyu obviously did not want to talk about those students, and on the way he gave the Shrek Academy party a presentation on the scenery.

  “This Academy’s main campus is situated halfway up the mountain. The mimicry regions are separated into the mountain top, all the places below the mountain, and the lakeside.”

  Grandmaster asked,

  “Teacher Sun, how many students does Heaven Dou Imperial Academy have right now?”

  Sun Buyu said,

  “Approximately five hundred students, basically all from this Empire’s as well as the subordinate kingdoms’ nobility. There are more than fifty teachers, and their strength is sufficient, only…”

  When he reached this point, he helplessly shook his head.

  Everyone knew not to ask. As they were all Spirit Masters, this mountain path was nothing and they soon reached the middle of the mountain.

  Heaven Dou Imperial Academy’s main campus was consisted entirely of single story houses, and it gave off the feeling of a fortress. The surrounding courtyard walls were all 5 meters high. The walls were all bright yellow, making it look extremely pretty despite the top of the courtyard wall covering being a glazed roof tile. In the sunset, it was even more beautiful.

  As soon as Tang San saw the buildings here, his heart could not help but contract a little as the bu
ilding arrangement was so similar to Tang Sect’s . Filled with all senses of nostalgia, for a long time he let couldn’t control himself.

  At this moment, the color of the sky had already started to darken, along with distant clouds in the sunset starting to fade away. Heaven Dou Imperial Academy was already brightly lit by lanterns.

  Entering the school, there were actually no students to be seen, according to Sun Buyu, the majority of them were distributed among the various mimicry cultivation regions so the main campus consequently did not have any people. He then brought the Shrek Academy party directly into a parlor, letting everyone to wait a bit as he hurriedly ran off to find Qing Min.

  “What do you think of this place?”

  Flender asked his fellow teachers.

  Sweet Pea Spirit Master Shao Xin smiled as he said,

  “It’s not bad, compared to my imagination, it’s even better. I really do like the air here.”

  Zhao Wuji said,

  “Grandmaster’s proposal really wasn’t bad. Although the students are a bit trash, retiring here isn’t bad a bad option, Heaven Dou city is also very close. Everything is very convenient.”

  Flender laughed in spite of himself as he said,

  “It seems that we really will retire here.”

  Part 3 (TL by Bagelson)

  After a moment, following a burst of hurried footsteps, Qin Ming quickly stepped inside with a cheerful expression.

  “Dean Flender, you’re finally here. I’ve anxiously awaited you!”

  While speaking, he hastily stepped forward to give Flender and the other Shrek Academy teachers his salute.

  Flender pulled him up, smiling:

  “Don’t be so overly courteous, as for arriving, later we will still be relying on you to get along. Have you arranged things on this end?”

  Qin Ming hurriedly nodded,

  “Don’t worry dean, I’ve arranged it already. I’ve notified Heaven Dou Academy’s senior staff to greet you, they’re exceptionally happy to have the teachers join, although they’re not convinced the juniors are actually so powerful. But the children from Emperor Team also attested to it. There are no problems. Like this, all the teachers and juniors have travelled far, for today why don’t you first rest, I’ll give everyone places to stay. Tomorrow I’ll bring you to meet the senior staff. We’ll consider this matter decided.”