Tai Tan held his hands behind his back, shooting a cold glance at his grandson,
“Shut up.”
With just these two words he had completely forced down Tai Long.
Let alone Tai Long, even Tai Nuo didn’t understand why this grandfather absolutely insisted on following them to Shrek Academy today. After returning yesterday Tai Nuo hadn’t dared conceal anything and explained the whole matter. The result he had obtained was a slap to the face from grandfather Tai Tan and loss of face.
At first light this morning, Tai Long and Tai Nuo had both prepared to sleep a while since their injuries hadn’t fully recovered, but had been dragged up by grandfather and directly brought to the Academy. Grandfather hadn’t told them what he was up to, but even Tai Nuo could only keep quiet in front of his overbearing manner.
Tai Nuo understood very clearly that this father of his wasn’t someone with a good temper, that nature of shielding one’s mistakes was even more difficult to deal with than his own. It was very possible he would do something impulsive. Originally, if it weren’t for this, then his clan wouldn’t have…… Thinking of this, Tai Nuo couldn’t help secretly sighing, in his heart praying that grandfather wouldn’t be too rash. After all, that Tang San was only a teenaged child. Grandfather wouldn’t be too serious with him.
Right then was when Tang San and Oscar walked out from the Academy in a crowd of other students.
The moment Tang San first saw grandfather Tai Tan, he couldn’t keep his heart from contracting. Purple Demon Eye upgrading to the mustard seed level allowed him to see not only what was on the surface, in one glance he could see that this grandfather was perhaps even more difficult to deal with than he had imagined. Even though he was alone, standing there he resembled a towering mountain, immovable.
“Who is Tang San?”
Tai Tan asked indifferently. Even though his voice was somewhat aged, it still gave people a kind of sonorous feeling. That wording brimming with force seemed to make even the air in the surroundings vibrate.
“I am.”
Tang San unhurriedly stepped forward, at the same time pushing the spirit power within his body to its peak condition, prepared to adapt to any situation.
“Yesterday it was you who injured my son and grandson?”
Tai Tan asked indifferently.
Tang San nodded once,
“Yes.”
He didn’t want to explain more. From his point of view, when such a formidable Spirit Master as this came to look for him over such a matter, his explanations wouldn’t hold any significance.
“Good.”
A light suddenly flashed in Tai Tan’s eyes, and an incomparably forceful feeling abruptly erupted from his body. Tai Nuo and Tai Long standing at his side couldn’t endure and were both simultaneously pushed back four or five steps before they could stand steady. Including Tang San and Oscar, all the Shrek Academy students collectively recoiled a step. The atmosphere became thick like liquid in this instant.
“You injuring my son and grandson is all because of their lack of skill. But my One Strength Clan[ (力之一族) Not sure if this should even be the name of the clan, or even “one of the strengths of the clan” since there are various ways to interpret it, but will go with this for now.] isn’t so incompetent. As the big I wouldn’t take advantage of the small, so how about we make a bet?”
Tai Tan said calmly.
Tang San looked straight at the counterpart,
“What bet?”
Tai Tan casually waved his hand, and a stick of incense flew out from his sleeve, flying ten meters straight like an arrow to nail into the not distant Academy gate, the stick of incense simultaneously igniting.
Seeing this scene, the Shrek students couldn’t help simultaneously cry out in alarm, even Oscar couldn’t keep from cursing inwardly, ‘Fuck me.’
The Academy gate was actually cast from pure iron, how much more frail was a stick of incense? Relying only on strength throwing a stick of incense more than ten meters to pierce the gate, without any damage to the stick of incense, what kind of strength was this?
Tang San saw even more than others. The reason that stick of incense ignited wasn’t because it had been lit in advance, but because it had travelled too fast and ignited from the friction with the air, but only his Purple Demon Eye was keen enough to catch this minute detail.
“I won’t attack, I also won’t release my spirit. As long as you can endure the pressure I release until this stick of incense has burnt out, it will be your win. I’ll have Tai Nuo and Tai Long kowtow to you in apology. If not, I want you to become a member of our One Strength Clan.”
“This isn’t fair.”
Before Tang San could speak up, Oscar hurried to talk. He knew Tang San’s character was even more resolute than Dai Mubai, if by any chance he agreed, he would be unable to take it back. Glaring at Tai Tan he said:
“If you lose, your son and grandson only have to kowtow in apology. Even though they’ll lose a bit of face, it’s still no great loss to them. But if little San loses he will have to join your clan, bound for a lifetime. How is this fair?”
Oscar deliberately lowered the pace of his speech so that the stick of incense on the gate could burn a bit more. In petty cleverness, even Tang San couldn’t compare to him.
Tai Tan calmly said:
“Then how do you think it should be done?”
His words weren’t directed at Oscar, but rather directly asked Tang San.
Oscar hastily interfered:
“Very simple. If you lose, you’ll have them join Tang San’s clan.”
“Oh? You also have a clan?”
Tai Tan looked at Tang San, his eyes revealing a trace of doubt.
This time, Tang San spoke up himself,
“I do, my clan is called Tang Sect.”
Tang Sect? Tai Tan searched his brain for a moment, but didn’t have any memory of such a school. let alone a formidable one. Immediately he believed that this was just a small unremarkable little school. He immediately nodded without hesitation, saying:
“Fine. It’s agreed. If I lose my son and grandson will join your Tang Sect. If you are unable to endure, you need only withdraw beyond a twenty meter range from me or fall to the ground. I will withdraw my force.”
Oscar’s eyes displayed a cunning light, quietly placing a recovery sausage in Tang San’s hand, then quickly withdrew. He was very clear about Tang San’s resistance, originally at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy he had withstood a Spirit Douluo’s pressure for a very long time, not just that of a stick of incense. This old fogey also couldn’t be a Title Douluo. Even if he also was a Spirit Douluo, Tang San could absolutely stand it. Besides, he still had his recovery sausage.”
“Work hard little San, getting two slaves isn’t bad.”
As the person involved, Tang San didn’t have Oscar’s light mood. Even though he had once at the thirty third rank endured the powerful pressure a Title Douluo could produce, and furthermore at this opportunity broken open his Penetrating Meridian, he was certain that the pressure this old man would give him would only be even greater. Because, he was also a Spirit Douluo. At that time Spirit Douluo Zhi Lin[ The Heaven Dou Imperial Academy board member who used his pressure on Tang San.] had been a control system Spirit Master, and hadn’t had such potent spirit power. But Tai Tan’s whole family was pure strength type Spirit Masters, the pressure he could produce couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath.
Tai Tan didn’t seem to care a whit about the stick of incense burning a bit during their previous discussion. After once again indicating that Tang San should be careful, the surroundings began to change.
The students standing around watching the fight could all see the air between Tang San and Tai Tan distort, rippling like a water surface, but nothing could be felt. But in that instant Tang San’s expression suddenly changed, completely withdrawing a step. At the same time he immediately released his spirit.
If speaking of the pressure
Spirit Douluo Zhi Lin gave him as an endless large river, then the pressure this Tai Tan gave him was more like raging waves and swelling seas. Violently surging berserk oppressive force filling every part of Tang San’s body in an instant, Tang San could even hear his bones start to make slight noises under the pressure.
Part 3 (TL by Bagelson)
Tai Tan’s fierce eyes displayed astonishment. In order to win this bet he had released about sixty percent of his pressure from the start. To him, the other party was just a thirty seventh ranked Spirit Elder. This alone should already be enough to suppress the enemy.
On the surface Tai Tan appeared extremely bold and powerful, but in fact his mind was extremely meticulous. Since coming here, even in the previous discussion and the proposal of the bet, he hadn’t said anything about what level of Spirit Master he was. But he knew the rank of Tang San’s spirit power.
Yesterday after Tai Nuo and Tai Long had returned and described their battles with Tang San, Tai Tan immediately realized that Tang San definitely was a genius among geniuses. Therefore he had come personally, regardless of his status. One reason was to have a look at what kind of youngster Tang San was after all, the other was also in the hopes of being able to recruit him as a future power of his clan. His clan had already begun to decline, to Tai Tan this was something that had to be done.
Tai Nuo’s nickname was Vigorous King, and Tai Tan’s title was subsequently Vigorous God[ His title (大力神) can be read literally as “great strength god”, which can also be translated as “titan”. So his name and title is (大力神泰坦) “Titan Titan”, but this pun only works in translation.]. His spirit was also a pure strength type. At the same time, just like Tang San had determined, his spirit power had already reached the eightieth level, he was a formidable Spirit Douluo. His precise level was eighty sixth rank.
Spirit Master cultivation all had their tendencies, just with power attack system, defense system, control system, agility attack system, food system, auxiliary system and so on had differentiating aspects.
But, no matter the tendency of that class, it was extremely difficult to obtain spirit rings that all had only the one additional attribute. Using Tang San as an example, although the spirit rings for his Blue Silver Grass Spirit for the most part aimed at increasing the resilience of his Blue Silver Grass, following the route of the control system, the abilities that appeared after adding spirit rings were all somewhat different. This was caused by the diverse nature of spirit rings. Besides resilience, Blue Silver Grass still had thorns, poison, spider web and all kinds of abilities centering on toughness. Even though they had a complementary effect, it couldn’t be denied that his spirit rings didn’t follow one attribute.
Generally speaking, adding such spirit rings was the best choice, it could grant a comprehensive growth within this system. The spirit rings Tang San chose could be said to be the result of undergoing Grandmaster’s careful calculations.
If one wanted to have spirit rings that all followed only one additional attribute, there was only one possibility. That was to obtain spirit rings from the same kind of spirit beast each time. Finding a ten year strength type spirit beast wasn’t difficult. Finding a hundred year spirit beast of the same type wasn’t challenging. Even a thousand year level spirit beast of the same type could be found. But, as this went on, finding successive spirit beasts of the same type would become geometrically more difficult.
Even more, following only one narrow path when adding spirit rings would cause an extreme weakness. That was singular capability. When confronting different opponents, one’s adaptability would be short of ordinary spirit masters. One would be powerful only in some respects.
However, following such a narrow path when adding spirit rings would also grant the greatest advantage, to maximize this one attribute.
Walking the route of strength type alone like the Tai family trio, this was also precisely the meaning of the Strength Clan. Tai Tan was eighty sixth rank, but even among Title Douluo there weren’t many who could surpass him in strength. Just like fifty eighth ranked Tai Nuo held the advantage over seventy sixth ranked Zhao Wuji if one counted strength alone.
As a pure strength type Spirit Master, the pressure Tai Tan released was naturally also based on strength. Even though it would appear he didn’t use his spirit or any abilities, it seemed to give Tang San a bit of respite. At the same time he gave himself a time restriction. But in fact, facing a pure attribute Spirit Master’s pressure was an extremely terrifying matter.
Each time the air distorted, Tang San felt as if his body would be pulverized by this immense pressure. This kind of feeling hadn’t even appeared when he was confronting Dugu Bo. Even though the pressure Dugu Bo gave Tang San was large, it was mostly mental. But now facing Vigorous God Tai Tan, the pressure was pure force.
Blue Silver Grass gushed out from Tang San. Just like last time it covered his body in a large cocoon that undulated rhythmically. Relying on his Controlling Crane Catching Dragon technique, he did his utmost to limit the harm the pressure caused him.
But Tang San very quickly discovered that as the pressure grew, Blue Silver Grass’ effect grew less and less. It was already very difficult to move the Blue Silver Grass in front.
The incense burned slowly as Tai Tan and Tang San confronted each other, silently battling extremely dangerously. The stick of incense still hadn’t even burned one third, but Tang San’s clothes were already drenched through. Gritting his teeth, he endured bitterly.
As time passed, Tai Tan’s grew more and more astonished. The power he used had already increased from sixty percent of his full strength to seventy, let alone a thirty seventh ranked, even a forty seventh ranked Spirit Master might not be able to endure. This youth was unexpectedly even more outstanding than he had imagined. It seemed he really had been right to come here.
By now, Zhao Wuji and a crowd of teachers had already come to the Academy gate led by Xiao Wu, and very quickly learned the circumstances from the surrounding students.
“Teacher Zhao, quickly go stop them!”
Xiao Wu somewhat impatiently said.
Zhao Wuji’s gaze fell on Tai Tan, and his expression clearly grew heavy. Shaking his head, he said:
“They’ve already made a bet, anything else has to wait until their bet ends. Bets between Spirit Masters are sacred. If we stopped them now, the when Tang San later joins the Spirit Master world he would have no trust or standing. Only, why would his opponent be this old fellow. I’m afraid this time will be troublesome.”
“You know him? Isn’t that Tai Long’s grandfather?”
Zhao Wuji gravely said:
“Of course I know this old fellow. Originally it was because I accidentally injured his clansman, and was chased after him all over the place, that I went with Flender to manage the Shrek Academy.”
“What? He’s even more ferocious than you?”
When Xiao Wu heard Zhao Wuji say this she was immediately somewhat panicked.
Zhao Wuji nodded with an ugly expression,
“This old fellow is extremely frightful, his strength is over the eightieth rank, a Spirit Douluo. If it was some other Spirit Douluo I would still have some confidence in risking it. But confronting him, I wouldn’t have a chance. He’s a pure strength type Spirit Master, and the terror of his strength surpasses even most Title Douluo. If I, as another follower of the strength path, met him, I wouldn’t even have the ability to hit back. The strength pressure he emits is even comparable to a Title Douluo. It’s hardly possible to resist without sixtieth ranked spirit power. That’s why I said little San is in a great deal of trouble this time.”
“Then what’s to be done?”
Xiao Wu’s charming little face was red with anxiety. Right now she couldn’t help recalling Da Ming and Er Ming. If the two of them were here, would there be any need to fear that old fellow’s strength? But, distant water wouldn’t help nearby thirst, Zhao Wuji said a bet couldn’t be interrupted, so what could be do
ne? No good, no matter how she still couldn’t let little San be injured.
Thinking of this, Xiao Wu couldn’t help loudly shouting:
“Ge, if you can’t endure then concede.”
Tang San was naturally unable to reply to her, but when he heard Xiao Wu’s voice his attention shifted slightly, and the tremendous pressure immediately took advantage of the gap. Tang San made a belching sound, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Using his fastest speed to stuff the big sausage into his mouth, he chewed and swallowed. Relying on this spreading heat of the recovery sausage, he just managed to endure without collapsing.
When Zhao Wuji heard Xiao Wu’s shout he immediately knew it was far from helping and hastily covered her mouth,
“Don’t disturb him. At this moment any external disturbance will influence his attention. Little San is a clever child, he certainly knows what to do. He still hasn’t hit the limit yet. If a danger he truly is unable to endure appears, then he will act without being told.”
Jacket rupturing, Eight Spider Lances rapidly extended from Tang San’s back with their muted cold light. The lower four spider lances thrust straight into the newly dug earth, supporting his body. The upper four spider lances swayed slightly, their red and white light becoming especially dazzling.
His Mysterious Heaven Skill was completely contained within Tang San’s body by the pressure. Under these circumstances Tang San discovered that the medical effects of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Precious Apricot within him were actually fusing swiftly, making his body even more resilient. Mysterious Heaven Skill also circulated frantically, dissolving wave after wave of pressure.
The stick of incense inserted in the Shrek Academy gate had already burned more than halfway. Sweat constantly dripped down the front of Tang San’s jacket. All his clothes already stuck to the skin, completely as if he had just been fished out of the water.
Tai Tan was already somewhat impatient. When the Eight Spider Lances on Tang San’s back came out he immediately saw a prediction of the end. Relying on Eight Spider Lances releasing, Tang San’s ability to resist the pressure clearly increased. Could it be that was a spirit bone? Even more one outside of the regular six spirit bones, an external spirit bone?
Douluo Dalu - Volume 01-48 Page 139