Chapter 62 - Sunset Forest (Prelude)

With nearly one and a half months left for the tournament, Tang San and the other two Shrek's Devils came back to Shrek Academy they went straight towards Dean Flender's office to report back their arrival.

Knock Knock

"Who is it??"

"Dean Flender it's us we're back"

Ma Hongjin shouted from outside, the sound of footsteps hurrying came from inside the room and the door suddenly opened with Flender staring stunned at the three figures.

"Dean Flender we're back"

Oscar and Tang San greeted Flender.

"Oscar, Tang S-.... who are you??"

Oscar and Ma Hongjin laughed while rolling on the ground, they knew that this would be everyone's reaction when they would see Tang San now. The previously ordinary and plain-looking boy now became a handsome and cool looking guy.

Tang San gave out a wry smile at Flender and said,

"Dean Flender I know it's tough but it's me, Tang San"

Flender looked astonished at how much he's changed, he was also surprised at the aura the three of them were giving out, they had all changed, it was such a short time but the changes they had was quite astonishing especially Tang San, Flender was still in doubt at his identity and was resolved only when he saw the inspiring Clear Sky Hammer with no rings, he was actually thinking why he didn't release his Blue Silver Grass but didn't think about it too much.

"I've called up Liu Erlong, Grandmaster and Zhao Wuji to come to my office so just wait a while and since the three of you are back we can go and hunt for spirit rings for the remaining Seven Devils, I'm sure 'that' person would have helped you to get your spirit rings already so..."

When he mentioned spirit rings Oscar and Ma Hongjin's faces made a weird expression, they had to fight a Ten Thousand Year Beast just by themselves and Ma Hongjin was even restricted to use only his first three abilities so it was a fight to remember. Not to mention the two fights they had to go through to get their fifth spirit rings, that was an unforgettable fight….

Flender who noticed their expressions felt something was wrong so he asked,

Oscar denied it by shaking his head and said,

"No Dean Flender, it's just that… we had to go through quite a lot to get these rings and even the training…. I'd rather go and train under grandmaster than to go through that again…."

Even if they had benefited by it, they had to put in quite the efforts to receive these rewards and with them lagging behind the others they had to accept this training to catch up so they couldn't just, not go to this training.

Then a knock could be heard from the door with Zhao Wuji shouting,

"Dean Flender it's us"

"Come in"

Three people entered the room and when they saw Oscar and Ma Hongjin they had wide smiles on their faces. Zhao Wuji laughed and said,

"Haha, you two twerps are finally back, how was the 'training'?? Hahaha"

Ma Hongjin shouted back and said,

Zhao Wuji stopped laughing and glared back at Ma Hongjin only to pout and look away not reacting to him at all.

Grandmaster just shook his head at their antics and asked,

"That's right, where's Tang San?? He went with the two of you as well right??"

Tang San bowed towards him and said,

"Teacher, I've returned safely"

Only then did the three of them notice the Blue haired boy in the room, but when he greeted himself in front of Grandmaster as Tang San all three of them were shocked, his appearance had really changed, previously it was Ma Hongjin and now it was Tang San, even the girls had their hair slightly changed after eating those herbs but it wasn't that big to be shocked, but Tang San and Ma Hongjin's changed were… shocking to say at the least.

"Y-Y-You're Tang San???"

Zhao Wuji shouted while pointing his fingers at Tang San, he didn't respond since Flender spoke before he could,

"Shocked right?? Even I was the same, only I was more dignified and didn't scream out loud as you did"

"Boss Flender we all know how you would react, and Tang San is that you?? You've changed quite a lot since a few month's ago, you've become quite handsome in fact"

"Yes Teacher Zhao, Vice Dean Liu it is me and thank you Vice Dean Erlong for the compliment, a lot of things happened and my face became like this"

"What happened exactly??"

Grandmaster was the one who asked this, Tang San then told him all that had happened,

"After a month of training under father, he took me to a special place telling me that it would help me awaken my spirit and took away Ma Hongjin and Oscar to get Oscar's fourth ring. When I went inside I found out that my spirit was, in fact, a variation of the Blue Silver Grass called Blue Silver Emperor from an 85,000 year Blue Silver King who was also a variation of the Blue Silver Grass and he said that my mother was the one who gave me this spirit and it couldn't easily be awakened and even the human spirit awakening would only partially awaken it. It then helped me awaken my spirit which made it look like this"

He then activated his Blue Silver Emperor and when they saw it they were shocked, it looked nothing like before, it wasn't wrong to say that it had totally changed, it was now coated in a gold vein-like pattern all around the grass and on that, five rings came up - Yellow, Yellow, Purple, Black, Red

The eyes of everyone in the room bulged out when they saw the fifth ring, Oscar and Ma Hongjin knew about it during their training so it didn't affect them much. But for Flender, Xiaogang, Liu Erlong and Zhao Wuji, it was a shock that almost stopped their hearts.

A hundred thousand year ring was something that was worshipped by spirit masters and would only be found as the last rings of a Titled Douluo and only one or two might have such a ring in a century or so but Tang San was barely 14 and he had a hundred thousand year ring as his fifth.

"H-H-H-Hundred Thousand Years!!!!!!"

"I was quite lucky to get this ring, the Blue Silver King told me that this ring was formed by myself using my spirit blood and Spirit Power, it will evolve along with me and will become whatever is the strongest ring that my body can handle, because of the immortal herbs I ate in my childhood my vitality had always been improving and compared to others my body was much stronger. After awakening my Blue Silver Emperor my vitality had increased exponentially and even my already strong body was enhanced even further. That's not all"

He then activated his Blue Silver Domain and a blue light spread through the room.

"This is…. A domain!!"

Grandmaster was easily able to find out what the blue light was just in a short period.

"That's right, teacher, my spirit even had an innate domain called the Blue Silver Domain, the uses aren't much compared to other domains, for now, it can neutralize killing intent, all the blue silver grass in the area of the domain can be used by me and it also gives me this ability"

He then changed the color of his rings using the innate camouflage ability to - Yellow, Yellow, Purple, Purple and Black

The standard ideal configuration for spirit masters, then he changed the combination again to - Red, Red, Red, Red, Red

With so many hundred thousand year rings on the same spirit, he looked quite scary right now.

"This ability is called camouflage, using this ability I can change the color and aura of my rings, I can use this ability even without activating my domain so we don't need to worry about unnecessary attention my fifth ring would draw during the tournament"

"It seems that letting you go with your father was truly the best decision, after all, I can see that you've almost halfway reached the Spirit Emperor Rank, that along with your hundred thousand year ring, are not something you could have gained by cultivating here at Shrek"

"Grandmaster, even me and Ma Hongjin also improved a lot from our training you know"

Oscar shamelessly replied to grandmasters praise,

"That's right grandmaster, I and Oscar were the ones who suffered the most in this trip, compared to us Tang San's training was much easier"

"That's because you two are lazy, Tang San was always diligent compared to you two so he's much more used to intensive training but for someone as lazy as you two it should have been quite the experience"

Zhao Wuji refuted them while still harboring some hatred towards Hongjin regarding his comment about his eye.

"I guess we should all prepare to go and hunt for spirit beasts for the other's as well, the tournament is drawing near we should finish our preparations by this month. Oh right, I forgot to ask what abilities did you gain from your new spirit rings??"

Grandmaster asked them so that he could plan well for the other Shrek's seven devils next few abilities.

Oscar was the first to say his ability,

Ma Hongjin then told his abilities next,

"My fifth ability is called Phoenix Asteroid Shower, it's a wide range attack and shoots out high-speed projectiles in all directions, it's simple but quite powerful, it's a 30,000-year ability"

Tang San then spoke up,

"My Fifth ring gives me two abilities, Blue Silver Emperor Golden Sphere and Blue Silver Emperor Silver Sphere, the first ability shoots out a golden light to my target and paralyzes them for a certain duration and also interrupts their spirit ability, my second ability stops the person's spirit but after a short duration they are able to use it again but it weakens them slightly"

Grandmaster was surprised at how powerful their abilities are, individually they seem great but their greatest power lies when used together as a team, if these three alone go to the tournament with no one else in their team then their chances of winning are as high as 45% which is a lot!!

"All your abilities are truly well planned for the team it seems that you've followed my advise Tang San, your fifth abilities Blue Silver Emperor Silver Sphere will surely play an important role in the team matches, its hidden function is to disturb or stop a spirit fusion isn't it??"

"That was exactly what I thought teacher, with this ability our threat against spirit fusions will have decreased significantly"

"Oscar your choice of getting an ability to boost yourself is truly a good choice, even if you have to fight alone in the future then as long as you get a good self-support ability next, to boost your combat power you can even fight those of the same rank as you without any problem, even your boosting as a whole will increase due to this ability"

"Ma Hongjin, your choice to get a wide area ability is also good, your main weakness was that most of your abilities were a single target or small ranged attacks and it limited your phoenix spirit's fire by a lot but with this ability, you've covered that weakness"

"But… don't be overconfident just because you have good abilities, in a team battle only the team which works well together, complimenting each other's abilities can survive. You will find that in this world individual strength isn't everything"

After complimenting them all Grandmaster then gave them a harsh lesson to not be overconfident the three of them already knew that, despite the strong abilities they had, they weren't even able to make Tang Hao use a single ability before he defeated them all. This was a lesson which they had already learned in their training.