Even Dai Mubai who had evacuated the area previously to escape the stench could feel perfumed air tickling his nose.
Tang San explained to his group,
“The medicine I used on the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure will nourish it, causing it to temporarily lose its poison suppression effect for about two hours, however, within this time its scent will rapidly spread to a minimum of ten li[1]. This should be more than enough to attract some spirit beasts. After all, the scent belongs to one of the exceedingly rare heavenly treasures; there should no beasts that wouldn’t like it.”
The rest of the group couldn’t help but be amazed at Tang San’s application of medicine. Of course they all attributed this to the half year Tang San spent studying under Dugu Bo.
Nourishing the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure and attracting spirit beasts, for Tang San, this could be considered two birds with one stone. As the gentle scent slowly saturated the air, the Shrek Academy party also became increasingly alert.
The three with the weakest fighting power, Oscar, Ning Rongrong and Grandmaster were positioned closest to the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure, the rest are around them, carefully observing in all directions.
Having finished preparing the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure, Tang San did not immediately join his friends in surveying the surroundings but rather walked around the flower a distance away. The scent produced by the divine flora held great attraction to all spirit beasts regardless of their cultivation level.
In order to prevent the spirit beast with too low of a cultivate level to disturb them and disrupt their planning, Tang San prepared his own layer of protection via poison.
His poison formation clearly wasn’t as severe as the one created by Dugu Bo, but it should be effective in filtering the spirit beasts. According to Tang San’s calculations, spirit beasts that had less than two thousand years of cultivation should not be able to easily enter.
Spirit beasts were different from humans; their senses were much sharper. Especially towards dangers such as poison, their judgement was rarely wrong.
Once they discovered that the poison was not something they could resist, they would never risk their lives.
With the assistance of this poison protected ground, the Shrek Academy’s group of people could save a lot of energy. They only need to choose targets among the sufficiently cultivated spirit beasts.
The stage had been set, all that was left was to tighten their formation and wait. Even though this hunting method could easily attract more powerful spirit beasts, it was equally dangerous. Whether the spirit beasts that came were too powerful or too weak, neither would satisfy Tang San and the others’ requirements. As a result, no matter how you put it, luck held a certain part.
The lure of the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure’s effect was even bigger than Tang San had expected. Once they have finished setting up, less than a cup of tea’s time had passed before the first spirit beast appeared.
A low rumbling roar and a faint stench reached them, the trees to their left started to sway, as if brushed by a gale.
“Cloud follows the dragon and wind follows the tiger. It should be a spirit beast of the tiger family. Everyone be careful.”
Grandmaster calmly deduced.
Just as Grandmaster finished speaking, a gorgeous yet ferocious tiger burst through the thickets.
The tiger was covered from head to toe in murky black fur; the only exception being the “king” character[2] on its forehead patterned in white. The length of its body was over three meters long and stood at one meter fifty shoulder height. Although it was quite large, it was nevertheless very nimble.
Even before anyone had a clear look at the beast, it already pounced towards them. Its movement like a trail of shadows and its aim was precisely the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure being protected behind everyone.
“Begin combat!”
Tang San roared, and without withholding any spirit power raised his arm, releasing a Spider Web Restraint. Due to his spirit power increase, his limit had now increased to four Spider Web Restraints.
Spirit beasts from their outer appearance can be seen that generally those with cultivation less than ten thousand years would increase in size the more they cultivate, but those that have surpassed ten thousand years instead will start decreasing in the size the more powerful they grow.
Of course, there are some exceptions, but other than spirit beasts that are especially powerful or weak most do follow this development path. The black tiger before them could easily be identified as one that has cultivated between three thousand to five thousand years, perfectly suitable.
Tang San without hesitation chose to fight rather than flee.
The green light expanded in a flash. Sometimes having too fast of a speed is not always good; such as the case for this spirit beast Phantom Tiger[3] that only has the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure in its eyes.
The Phantom Tiger’s horrific speed and combat prowess was well known, it can be considered to be among the strongest spirit beasts. It was also incredibly aggressive and will not hesitate to fight anyone that dares intrude in its territory to the death.
Because its speed was incomparable, even other spirit beasts that had achieved similar years of cultivation, ordinarily would not seek to fight it.
Part 2 (TL by Bagelson)
Seeing Tang San unleash Spider Web Restraint at the Phantom Tiger, its body flickered strangely, and the originally one Phantom Tiger suddenly turned into three.
The one in the Spider Web Restraint faded away unseen like a mirage, while the other two advanced even faster.
Phantom Tiger’s innate ability, Shadow Doppelgänger.
Dai Mubai roared deeply, four spirit rings simultaneously flashing up from below. When the Phantom Tiger appeared, his body already swiftly swelled up, and now watching the Phantom Tiger dash forward he went head to head with it without the slightest hesitation.
A pair of tiger paws slapped forward, and from his mouth a white light jetted out, already releasing White Tiger Light Wave.
Spirit power rising substantially increased the might of spirit abilities, and Dai Mubai’s goal was also only to block the Phantom Tiger’s charge.
In the flash of white light, another Phantom Tiger disappeared. Without a doubt, Dai Mubai’s target had also been a shadow.
Ma Hongjun and Xiao Wu went up simultaneously, preparing a cooperative attack on the Phantom Tiger’s true body. It’s enormous body flashed with black light, once again separating two silhouettes. By now it was already in front of everyone, the three forms simultaneously charging at the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure from different angles. With the previous lesson in mind, right now nobody actually knew which form was after all the real Phantom Tiger.
At this moment, purple golden light flashed out of Tang San’s eyes, his gaze sweeping, already shouting,
“The left one is real. Careful, Zhuqing.”
Under the gaze of Purple Demon Eye there was nowhere for the Phantom Tiger to hide. Even though Tang San’s eyes still couldn’t be called ‘piercing eyes’, after reaching the mustard seed stage, his eyes could even distinguish energy attribute differences, and could naturally differentiate the the aura fluctuations around the three Phantom Tigers.
Right now, the only one confronting the real body was Zhu Zhuqing, and behind her back were Ning Rongrong and Oscar. This Phantom Tiger was undoubtedly clever, choosing the weakest direction to attack from.
Flender, Liu Erlong and Zhao Wuji were all already waiting for action with their strength stored up. If the Shrek Seven Devils were unable to withstand the attack of this Phantom Tiger, they would act immediately.
The Shrek Seven Devils had cooperated for so long that the tacit understanding between them had long ago already reached a certain boundary. Seeing Zhu Zhuqing in danger, the gold purple light in Tang San’s eyes suddenly intensified, everyone seeing a glaring light flash past.
/>
That Phantom Tiger hissed sharply, and its forward momentum immediately slowed down somewhat, and even the other two disappeared like smoke.
Zhu Zhuqing very clearly understood that there was no space to dodge behind her, and advanced rather than retreating, going up to meet the Phantom Tiger’s charge. It was also now that three streams of warmth entered her body from behind, strength, agility as well as spirit power simultaneously upgrading substantially, immediately letting her condition surpass her peak.
Hell Rush Stab unleashed, Zhu Zhuqing’s delicate body directly struck the Phantom Tiger, the keen blades at her fingertips ruthlessly flitting across the Phantom Tiger’s throat, leaving behind several deep cuts.
The pain woke up the Phantom Tiger from Tang San’s mental attack, and with a fierce roar, black light rushed out from its whole body and it distorted, inconceivably shifting sideways, just dodging away from Zhu Zhuqing’s followup Hell Hundred Claws.
However, this brief moment’s obstruction was already enough. Dai Mubai’s tall figure already charged over from the side. The tiger stripes all over his overbearing form had all turned golden, and snarling, golden light burst out. With his body as the center, countless fist sized golden spheres of light locked on to the Phantom Tiger, flocking towards it. It was precisely the fourth spirit ability Dai Mubai obtained not long ago, White Tiger Meteor Shower.
In terms of burst attack power, perhaps this fourth spirit ability of Dai Mubai’s couldn’t compare to Fatty’s Phoenix Cry Sky Strike, but its greatest feature was that it could lock in on the opponent. Once the target was locked in, all the White Tiger Meteors formed from spirit power would launch as a concentrated volley.
The entire attack power could be concentrated on one opponent, and they could also disperse to attack multiple opponents.
The attack power contained by each ball was equal to one tenth of Dai Mubai’s spirit power, which showed how powerful growth potential this spirit ring gave him. He could launch more than a hundred meteors.
If the Phantom Tiger hadn’t suffered Tang San’s mental attack it could still have used its Doppelgänger ability to as much as possible of Dai Mubai’s attack, but right now its mind was injured by Purple Demon Eye, and it was temporarily unable to fully use Doppelgänger. Helplessly, it could only stiffly resist Dai Mubai’s attack with its own body.
Black light flashed out and transformed into a black light cover that enveloped the Phantom Tiger. Each White Tiger Meteor that bombarded it would erupt in a loud explosion, and concentrated booms echoed continuously, ring after ring of golden ripples erupting on that black light.
The Phantom Tiger curled up its body as much as possible, making the area suffering the attack smaller in order to increase its defense.
The Shrek Seven Devils’ cooperation was so implicit, Ning Rongrong’s hand supported the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, already releasing her three spirit abilities on the five people in charge of attacking.
Besides strength and speed amplification, her third spirit ability, also a thousand year spirit ability, directly amplified spirit power. In other words, currently the effective spirit power of Tang San and the others was one hundred forty percent that of normal.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda’s effect as the first support spirit had become more and more clear as Ning Rongrong’s strength grew.
Of course, as a result of the spirit ability effects increasing, the consumption of Ning Rongrong’s own spirit power was no doubt immense. Amplifying three aspects simultaneously, even though she already possessed fortieth ranked spirit power, she could at most persevere for ten minutes.
Intense explosions made the soil turn, the Phantom Tiger was like an angry wolf in a small boat, constantly rocked by the shocks. But it was indeed powerful, under this kind of attack it actually still didn’t collapse.
When the White Tiger Meteor Shower finally ended, the instant all the explosions finished, suddenly the Phantom Tiger’s curled up body instantly unfolded. Immediately followed by an immense flash of black light and shadow bursting from within its body, going straight for Zhu Zhuqing.
That black light and shadow suddenly condensed in midair into an identical form as the Phantom Tiger, with even the same size. Terrifying energy fluctuations made the air issue ear-piercing sharp hisses, as if cut open by that black light.
The five Shrek Seven Devils in charge of attack now surrounded the Phantom Tiger, but it movements were really too fast, and nobody had expected that after just now having endured the White Tiger Meteor Shower bombardment and with blood flowing from its nose and mouth, it could still so quickly issue an all out attack.
There wasn’t even enough time for Tang San to release Blue Silver Grass to save Zhu Zhuqing.
A more than three thousand year spirit beast’s all out attack was terrifying, the Phantom Tiger’s attack capability couldn’t be any less than the Pink Queen. The reason it chose to attack Zhu Zhuqing was because behind her was the closest way to the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure.
As long as it could break out from this situation, it could not only grab the Aromatic Silk Beauty Immortal Treasure, but also turn and escape.
Unfortunately, this Phantom Tiger still underestimated Zhu Zhuqing’s strength and resolve.
Confronting this black light and shadow attack, Zhu Zhuqing didn’t dodge or escape, her third spirit ring flashed with purple light, both hands like lightning folding over her head, the claw blades of the five fingers on each hand fusing together with astonishing speed, becoming a one chi[4] long sharp blade.
Black light also rushed out from within Zhu Zhuqing, and her whole body seemed to become a part of that sharp blade, swinging both hands down to meet the black light released from the Phantom Tiger.
This was the thousand year spirit ring ability Zhu Zhuqing obtained after reaching the thirtieth rank —— Hell Decapitation.
Equally ear piercing tearing noises resounded, on both sides of the Hell Decapitation, the air distorted like rippling water, clearly splitting open.
The black light blade only condensed in a straight line, and just as it struck down it heavily bombarded that Phantom Tiger’s transformed shadow.
With the assistance of Ning Rongrong’s Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, this attack could be said to be Zhu Zhuqing’s most powerful attack at present.
There was no noise of a collision, only a teeth ache inducing grinding sound.
In midair, the Phanttom Tiger shadow paused before that sharp Hell Decapitation attack, and the instant the Hell Decapitation struck it was cut in half.
But, this was after all only the third spirit ability, while this shadow attack could be said to be the Phantom Tiger’s all out attack. Its body already came charging closely behind.
The might of the Hell Decapitation was in the end still by far counteracted by the Phantom Tiger’ far superior energy.
Perhaps it was because it was stopped, after that black shadow halted, it immediately used even higher speed to strike at Zhu Zhuqing.
And this moment was just after Zhu Zhuqing had just released her full strength attack, the dangerous juncture when new strength had not yet been born.
A massive silhouette just like a shield moved across in front of Zhu Zhuqing, and without any fanfare struck out head on with a white furred tiger palm.
With a loud bang, that massive silhouette swayed once, but still didn’t agree to retreat a single step. It was precisely the Evil Eye White Tiger Dai Mubai.
Even though Zhu Zhuqing’s Hell Decapitation couldn’t completely cut open the Phantom Tiger’s attack, it could still fight for time. The instant he discovered the danger Dai Mubai had rushed over, just in time to shield Zhu Zhuqing.
Using his tyrannical spirit power to shield her from the remaining attack.
In spite of wisps of blood flowing from the corners of his mouth, Dai Mubai immediately revealed his overbearing side. Faced with the Phantom Tiger’s charge, condensing spirit power he released White
Tiger Body Barrier, stiffly blocking the Phantom Tiger’s charge.
Part 3 (TL by Bagelson)
White Tiger collided with Phantom Tiger, a muffled grunt and a sharp hiss echoed practically simultaneously. Dai Mubai staggered back before turning, but that Phantom Tiger was also sent flying by him.
A slender figure quietly appeared behind the Phantom Tiger, a pair of slender perfectly straight thighs quietly winding around its neck, Waist Bow launching, Xiao Wu completed a graceful backwards summersault in the air, and under the powerful strength of her Waist Bow the Phantom Tiger’s more than three meters long body was thrown directly into the air, and slammed back down heavily on the ground.
There was an intense boom.
In the blink of an eye, the Phantom Tiger was stunned.
A flicker of red light, Ma Hongjun’s plump body already since long ago waited where the Phantom Tiger fell, and the instant Xiao Wu’s long legs released it, his right fist also accurately struck the ground. He and the Phantom Tiger were completely enveloped within distorted air.
A resonant phoenix cry once again echoed in the Sunset Forest, and along with an immense bird of flame soaring up, and the large Phantom Tiger no longer even whimpered.
From Zhu Zhuqing halting the Phantom Tiger with Hell Decapitation, to Dai Mubai tyrannically blocking it from the front and sending it flying, Xiao Wu’s midair Soft Skill linking up to Ma Hongjun’s right hand restricting it with Phoenix Cry Sky Strike, all of this flowed as smoothly as running water and moving clouds.
Hong——
The Phantom Tiger’s body covered in flames fell heavily on the ground. Even if it wanted to crawl it wouldn’t be able to succeed.
The red hot phoenix flames were constantly eroding its body. Successively enduring Dai Mubai’s White Tiger Meteor Shower and Ma Hongjun’s Phoenix Cry Sky Strike, even though this Phantom Tiger was any number of times stronger than the Pink Queen, in the end it still suffered life threatening injuries.
“Zhuqing, do it.”
Douluo Dalu - Volume 01-48 Page 153