“Who?”
Zhao Wuji’s ice cold gaze turned to look in that direction, spirit power suddenly amassing, this was already Tang San’s most crucial moment, he couldn’t let any person or maybe spirit beast disturb him.
“Teacher Zhao.”
A slender silhouette ran out of the forest. Seeing her, not just Zhao Wuji paused, the others also couldn’t help staring blankly, suddenly coming running out of the forest, unexpectedly was Xiao Wu.
Right now Xiao Wu cut a somewhat sorry figure, her clothes were greatly damaged, the orderly scorpion braid on her head had also become disheveled, but her her complexion was extremely healthy, compared to before apparently a bit more mature.
“Xiao Wu, you didn’t die?”
Just as Oscar said this he became aware that his words were somewhat unpleasant.
Xiao Wu snapped:
“Did you hope I would die? What is this? This mist……, Heavens, what’s happened to little San?”
Seeing Tang San within the light red mist, Xiao Wu’s heart immediately tightened, rushing over.
She had been carried here by the Titan Giant Ape. Although the area of Star Dou Great Forest was extensive, if the forest king Titan Giant Ape wanted to find the Shrek Academy party here it was hardly difficult, all spirit beasts could be its eyes. After Xiao Wu was delivered to the vicinity, the Titan Giant Ape just quietly left.
“Don’t disturb him, he’s absorbing the third spirit ring.”
Zhao Wuji hurriedly stopped Xiao Wu.
Xiao Wu involuntarily cried out:
“But, how could absorbing the third spirit ring become like this?”
Turning her head to look at the Man Faced Demon Spider’s corpse to the side, she more or less understood,
“It’s a Man Faced Demon Spider. Not good, this Man Faced Demon Spider’s cultivation age exceeds two thousand years, Grandmaster said, a Spirit Master’s third spirit ring limit was one thousand seven hundred sixty years, little San he……”
Zhao Wuji stared blankly,
“How do you know this Man Faced Demon Spider has cultivated two thousand years?”
Xiao Wu at this became aware of what she let slip,
“The Man Faced Demon Spider’s cultivation will be seen from the length of its legs. You see, this Man Faced Demon Spider’s legs already surpass three metres, this is the mark of cultivation age exceeding two thousand years. Don’t tell me you all didn’t know thousand year spirit beast cultivation will engender some clear change with each each millennium passed? Like hundred year spirit beasts will change with each cultivated century, and like ten thousand year spirit beasts will change according ten thousand years?”
Zhao Wuji somewhat impressed said:
“I truly didn’t understand this clearly. I didn’t expect you to have so much knowledge of spirit beasts.”
Xiao Wu said:
“These are all taught by Grandmaster.”
Covering for the mistakes of her mouth by shifting them to the most knowledgeable in spirits Grandmaster clearly was a very good method. As expected, hearing her words, everyone’s doubts eased.
Zhao Wuji said with a wry smile:
“Little San already started absorbing this spirit ring. Right now there’s no chance to stop. We can only hope for him to withstand the shock of the energy in the spirit ring, enduring this mountain pass. Oh right, Xiao Wu, how did you escape the Titan Giant Ape’s demon hand? Tell us first what happened?”
She couldn’t tell everyone that it was because the Titan Giant Ape Er Ming sensed her smell that it specially came to carry her, before returning Xiao Wu naturally had thought out what to say. Worriedly looking at Tang San before her she explained:
“I also don’t know what it was all about, that Titan Giant Ape grabbed me and ran into the forest. Before running very far it seemed a cow like roar came through from one direction, that Titan Giant Ape appeared very nervous. Looking at me, it threw me aside at once. Afterwards it ran off.”
“A cow roar? What cow could make a Titan Giant Ape nervous? Afterwards?”
Zhao Wuji couldn’t help but scowl.
In Xiao Wu’s eyes displayed a fearful light,
“As that Titan Giant Ape dumped me, before leaving it made a howl. I only felt a sky spinning and earth revolving dizziness pass, once I woke up, it was already nowhere to be seen. The scene at that time was terrifying. All around were at least ten spirit beasts unconscious from the shock, the weak were directly shocked so they bled out of the nose and mouth and died. I don’t know whether to say my luck was good or bad, I suddenly discovered, my spirit power had also broken through the thirtieth rank.”
Zhao Wuji was alarmed,
“What? You already reached thirtieth rank? Who is older of you and Tang San?”
Xiao Wu said:
“I’m some months younger than him.”
Zhao Wuji was speechless a spell, the record Tang San had just now set, had already been altered. However, Xiao Wu’s next words widened his eyes even more.
Xiao Wu said:
“At that time I was very frightened, perhaps the reason my spirit power increased was because the external excitement was too large. I happened to discover a comparatively suitable for me thousand year spirit beast that had fainted, so I killed it to obtain my third spirit ring.”
“That as well?”
Fatty stared at Xiao Wu, showing an expression like a blind cat at a dead mouse.
Xiao Wu displayed an expression of lingering trepidation,
“Consider my fate great, I basically believed I would die. So that none of the surrounding spirit beasts would wake up to attack, I had no choice but to jolt the surrounding spirit beasts to death. After absorbing the third spirit ring my physical strength recovered. Then I just walked in the direction I remembered coming from, before hearing voices from this side and coming over to look, finally finding you.”
* * *
[1] Idiom: There’s always someone better than you.
[2] “Three”, which is also the san in Tang San.
[3] 5寸 = 16.7 cm
[4] (听声辨位) “Hearing Sound Distinguishing Location”
[5] Idiom: Having sentimental attachment.
[6] Oscar uses (儿), a diminutive suffix, in this case meaning something like “son”.
[7] This one is a pain to translate. It’s close to a line from a poem in the famous 1989 comic by Ma Wing-Shing (马荣成/馬榮成) Feng Yun/Fung Wan “Wind and Cloud” (风云/風雲) also variously adapted as “The Storm Riders”. The full poem is (金鳞岂是池中物，一遇风云便化龙；九霄龙吟惊天变，风云际会潜水游), which a daring person might butcher by translating as
A golden carp within a pond, meeting storms (wind and cloud) thus becomes a dragon;
Nine heavenly dragons’ cry change the sky, at storm’s edge will dive and swim
What confuses the issue somewhat is that here “golden carp” (金鳞) is misspelled as the homonym “golden (female) unicorn” (金麟) which differ only in one radical, and by a quick google seems to be a common typo. Further confusing the issue is that the top hits on a google search will refer to the erotic web novel by Monkey by the same name (金鳞岂是池中物) about a street hoodlum growing up to become a business tycoon.
In any case, I can’t find an explanation of it and won’t be bothered reading the comic to figure it out, so you get a best fit translation.
[8] Idiom: Misarranging matches through mistaken identification of couples. Mandarin ducks are a common symbol for lovers - as are most birds in pairs.
[9] This rhyme (nu da san, bao jin zhuan 女大三,抱金砖) is part of a series of how various age differences in couples improves married life. Rhymes don’t translate well to English.
Chapter 035: Tang San’s Tyrannical Third Spirit Ability
Part 1
Although Xiao Wu’s excuse had a few loopholes, she had come back alive. Who would have thought she and the Titan Giant Ape had a relationship of so
me sort? Everyone subconsciously chose to believe her.
Zhao Wuji nodded and said:
“As long as you’re back. After you were taken, little San was so worried his eyes turned all red. He asked for a mushroom sausage from Oscar and went after you immediately.”
He briefly summarized everything that happened while Oscar passed a Recovery Sausage to Xiao Wu.
Listening to Zhao Wuji, Xiao Wu’s eyes reddened. Tears fell like a broken string of pearls, rolling down her cheeks. Looking at Tang San enveloped in a bloody mist, she murmured: “Ge, please don’t get hurt. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault I made you worried. You have to persevere through this. As long as you wake up, I would do anything.”
Xiao Wu felt truly remorseful. A moment of carelessness caused her to forget to restrain her aura, causing Er Ming to find her and come to meet her. If she didn’t get kidnapped by Er Ming, nothing after would have happened, and Tang San wouldn’t absorb a spirit ring in such a condition.
But it was too late to say anything, and they could only hope that Tang San’s resolve was firm enough to help him pass this crisis.
At the moment, in Tang San’s consciousness there was only one sentence. Xiao Wu, I will go save you. With this thought, no matter how excruciating the pain, he always bitterly withstood it, not letting his mind collapse first. In this life and death situation, Tang San’s childhood cultivations were starting to show its use. His body was already stronger than people his age, and Mysterious Heaven Skill was even more a hundred percent toughness focused orthodox sect internal strength.
If the Man Faced Demon Spider’s spirit ring had a consciousness, it would discover that its violent power would almost break through Tang San’s body every time, but his body would always, at the last moment, block it back with sheer tenacity.
And each time he warded the energy off, Tang San would absorb a tiny bit of the energy in the spirit ring. Under this slow growth, the ruthless energy was constantly weakening.
Tang San now had to face the most crucial problem: after he absorbed the spirit ring’s energy, how could he merge it with his body, his Mysterious Heaven Skill, and his spirit Blue Silver Grass.
Though Blue Silver Grass itself was weak, it wasn’t likely to repel any other source of energy, but the energy in the Man Faced Demon Spider’s spirit ring was too tyrannical, as to make even the Blue Silver Grass spirit unwilling to absorb it.
Fortunately, when he started absorbing the spirit ring, he ate another one of Oscar’s Recovery Sausages, or else his stamina would be the first to fail.
Tang San’s bones started to make concentrated cracking sounds. This not quite loud sound made everyones’ hairs rise, as if Tang San’s body could rupture at any second.
From the pores, the blood that oozed out slowly gained another layer of gray. With the absorption of the spirit ring, the energy contained started a very forceful process of cleansing Tang San’s body. The resulting pain was unimaginable.
Finally, with Tang San’s unyielding willpower, all the energy in his body started to give in, starting the process of merging.
The fine beads of blood stopped oozing. Tang San’s furrowed brows smoothed out. A dim layer of blue light started to creep out of his body.
Zhao Wuji was elated:
“He succeeded. The most dangerous moment has passed. Now is the process of spirit power transforming. Tang San really is worthy of being called a creator of miracles. Even a two thousand year old Man Faced Demon Spider’s spirit ring was absorbed by him. The Unrivalled Dragon Serpent should really feel lucky: if their granddaughter absorbed this spirit ring, she would probably have burst by now.”
Along with the release of the blue glow, Blue Silver Grass started slowly growing around Tang San. The Blue Silver Grass’s size hadn’t changed much. Compared to before, it had actually become slightly thinner. Originally dark blue, it has also changed into purplish blue. That was a merged color, not showing in the form of patterns anymore.
The Blue Silver Grass was now about two fingers thick. The biggest difference from before was its luster, it looked as if the grass had been coated with a glaze.
Zhao Wuji had everyone back up a bit. He knew, since Tang San couldn’t fully control the newly gained power, so some spirit power could overflow. In Tang San’s current state, he would be surprised if Tang San could control the energy.
“AH——”
Just when everyone thought nothing else would happen, suddenly, Tang San’s brows furrowed up again. A scream escaped his mouth, his cross legged body starting to convulse violently. His chest suddenly stood out, his entire upper body arcing into the air, the display terrifying.
“Ge——”
Xiao Wu cried out quickly, tears streaming from her eyes. Her nails were already cutting into her palm, but she didn’t even notice.
Wuji was also surprised. What was wrong? Just when everyone was startled, suddenly, accompanying the sound of splitting cloth, the clothes on Tang San’s back suddenly tore open. Standing behind him, Dai Mubai clearly saw, next to Tang San’s backbone, on either side were eight fist sized bulges.
What was this? With Dai Mubai pointing it out, everyone discovered the change on Tang San’s back. Tang San currently looked like he was withstanding immense pain. Blood started oozing out of his skin again, his entire body convulsing.
Immediately afterward, the eight bulges suddenly ruptured. The strange thing was, Tang San’s skin didn’t peel back. Eight fist sized dark purple objects came out of the nubs, growing with an astonishing speed.
When the eight bulges broke and grew the dark purple objects, Tang San’s entire body became relaxed, his expression smoothing out, but his body still convulsing.
Under everyone’s surprised gaze, the dark purple objects grew over a meter in the blink of an eye, and were still extending with frightening speed. When its length went past 1.5 meters, the end grew a joint-like thing, and the dark purple once again extended from the joint in another direction.
“This, this is…..”
The eight dark purple objects continued to grow until they reached three meters. Completely shining purple, they looked extremely smooth. They were the thickest near Tang San’s back, tapering until they filed into a sharp points at the end.
“Aren’t these the legs of the Man Faced Demon Spider?”
Looking at Tang San, and looking at the corpse of the Man Faced Demon Spider, everyone discovered that the objects that grew out of Tang San’s back looked very similar to the Man Faced Demon Spider’s legs. Only, they were slightly thinner overall and looked more lustrous, accompanied by a faint sweet fragrance.
Zhao Wuji had personally seen many Spirit Masters absorb spirit rings, but this was still the first time he had seen such a scene, for a moment he couldn’t help but lose the ability to judge.
The bizarre scene still hadn’t finished. As those eight spider legs on Tang San’s back extended behind him, they began to slightly move rhythmically, the four lower spider legs slowly pierced the ground, unexpectedly lifting Tang San sitting crosslegged on the ground, raising him into the air.
Tang San right now, like they were eight three metre long arms, looked extremely strange.
Tang San’s body finally no longer convulsed, the clothes he wore were already completely shredded. Gradually, the previously spreading Blue Silver Grass slowly gathered back together, instead twisting around his body, bundling him in what resembled a large cocoon, with only the spider legs still moving slowly on the outside.
The Shrek Academy group basically did not understand how this would happen, to them, right now all they could do was wait. Faintly within, they could only hear the sound of snapping bones echo from the cocoon. As for what was actually happening to Tang San, nobody could say.
Ma Hongjun couldn’t help but say:
“Tang San wouldn’t change into a big spider, right?”
Xiao Wu ferociously glared at him,
“Impossible. How would little San become
a spider, these circumstances are certainly just because of some variation from absorbing the spirit ring. He definitely won’t be in trouble.”
Even Xiao Wu didn’t know if she was reassuring the others or reassuring herself, waiting was currently all they could do.
But, who could still have anticipated that their wait this time would be so long.
When Oscar absorbed the spirit ring, from beginning to end only took a fraction of an hour to complete, but after Tang San was wrapped up in Blue Silver Grass, it seemed like time congealed, continuously without any news.
One double hour passed, two double hours passed, the color of the dark gradually went from dark to bright, and once more travelling from bright and entering darkness. A whole twelve double hour of waiting made everyone utterly exhausted. But who dared be careless, they could only wait.
The one thing making them feel relieved was that the eight spider legs that had grown on Tang San’s back moved constantly, showing traces of life.
At Zhao Wuji’s orders, everyone took turns to rest. Only Xiao Wu said anything to refuse, continuously keeping watch at Tang San’s side. In her heart she silently prayed, praying Tang San must pass through this crisis safe and sound.
“En——”
A low groaning sound roused Xiao Wu’s already somewhat fuzzy consciousness, she hastily raised her head to look.
The slender Blue Silver Grass slowly came undone, one by one rolling outward, gradually revealing their owner within.
Tang San’s body was covered by a dark brown layer, and as Blue Silver Grass dispersed, this dark brown substance gradually came off his body like it was fruit peel, revealing the body inside.
As Xiao Wu looked once again at Tang San, her charming face couldn’t help but blush bashfully, Tang San currently didn’t wear a strand, his whole body completely naked. The muscles on his body had unexpectedly become extremely distinct, and although they weren’t bulging exaggeratedly, it gave off a feeling of brimming with strength. Under the bronze colored skin there was a faint purple light haze moving around. Entirely floating in the air, the previously crossed legs had already unfolded, limbs sagging naturally, the entire person appearing to be permeated with a kind of demonic feeling.
Douluo Dalu - Volume 01-48 Page 64