Chapter 72 - Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament (2)

She finished introducing the rest of them as well, he was surprised that the young lady from the Nine Hearts Apple Clan was also a part of Shrek and understood when Rongrong told him that she followed her teacher Qin Ming who was a Spirit Emperor back to Shrek.

"It's quite nice to meet all of you and I hope that you all take care of my daughter, if you want then after your graduation you can all join the Seven Treasures Clan, I'll surely welcome you all, that includes even the substitute members"

When the substitutes apart from Xie Lingling heard that they were quite happy, they had gotten an invitation from the Seven Treasures Clan quite before their graduation, even if they lost the tournament they would be able to go back with such a huge gain.

"Oh right, Tang San, I wanted to speak with you privately, can we do that now, if you aren't busy??"

"Sure, Uncle Ning"

"I want to come too!!"

Rongrong shouted while clinging to her father, he tried persuading her a few times but he gave up after a while and let her follow but told her not to disturb them during their discussion.

…

When they were walking towards a private room Ning Fengzhi asked Tang San,

"Are you the sect master of the Tang Sect??"

"Yes"

Tang San instantaneously replied not giving it much thought, he then asked him back,

"Uncle Ning, can I have your permission to date your daughter??"

He said that while looking straight towards him, Ning Fengzhi wasn't shocked by his question, he had already figured out that her daughter and Tang San had done it and he had already guessed their relationship by that.

But Ning Rongrong was shocked by how randomly the question was asked, she had followed them thinking that they would discuss official matters or something like that, even if he had asked such a question she didn't expect that he would have brought it up so abruptly.

"Tang San, though I had expected you to ask such a request, couldn't you have done it more prudently??"

"Uncle Ning, I could have asked you to agree after giving you a lot of gifts or offers like serving your clan for a few years or some conditions like that making you not rejecting my request but I only want to show you my feelings and didn't do anything like that"

"Truly I wished that I had a son like you, but I guess I can settle for a son-in-law"

Ning Rongrong jumped and hugged Ning Fengzhi real tight after hearing him accept their love. She was scared that he would reject him because of him being from Clear Sky but seeing how he responded even she felt like she was making a mountain out of a molehill.

"Thank you, Daddy!!"

"Well since we got this out of the way, Tang San don't you think it isn't appropriate to ask me for blessings after the deed is done??"

"..... I've already given Rongrong something to compensate you"

"Well truly the two Beautiful Silk Tulips you gave us do-"

"Daddy that isn't it!! He gave me something to give you, here this is it"

She gave him a black box that looked sealed from all sides and found three ring-like structures on it with numbers.

"To open the box you'll need to put in the numbers 333 into the locks, but can you open it in your clan and not here?? There are a lot of people who might want that item"

Smiling he kept the box into his spirit tool, he had noticed the Black Eye Mark on the box so he guessed that it was something that Tang Sect had manufactured and decided to view it later.

They then entered a private room where they saw a familiar figure, this person was none other than the fourth prince who had kicked them out from the Heaven Dou Academy. Rongrong wanted to ask her father why he wanted them to meet such a person but she didn't say it out loud, she knew that it wasn't worth it to offend the price of Heaven Dou no matter how arrogant he may be.

"Greetings Crown Prince"

"Greetings Uncle Ning"

When Rongrong heard her father call this person the fourth prince as the crown prince she almost couldn't believe it. But the one who couldn't truly believe it was Tang San, he had expected to meet Xue Qinghe or to be more precise Qian Renxue acting as the crown prince Xue Qinghe or any other Spirit Hall member impersonating as the crown prince but instead he had met Xue Beng.

This meant one thing, the Spirit Hall's infiltration failed and the new Crown Prince Xue Beng was still acting like an arrogant prince to fool the Spirit Hall but they had succeeded in killing all the previous princes of the empire.

This seriously made Tang San's head to ache, how was he able to think that because of Qian Renxue not taking part of this plan they would have failed and the whole set of events caused by this to have an effect on the future.

But after thinking for a while he felt that it was better this way and even the Spirit Hall would be set back of their plan to conquer the Heaven Dou Empire by a lot, this can also help him sow seeds of distrust against Spirit Hall among all the large sects and clans in the Empire.

Ning Fengzhi saw Tang San's change in expression, from shock to confusion to realization and maybe relief?? He could see that Tang San was able to understand the general happenings in such a short time, this shocked him a bit.

"Tang San, I want you to meet the crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, though you might have met him under unfortunate circ_u_mstances before, I can assure you that that was all an act and all the information we discuss in this room is to be strictly confidential, that is to say you may not even tell it to your friends at Shrek"

"I understand but I want permission to be able to discuss all that we speak here with my teacher at least, he's someone I trust with everything and if he leaks any information to outsiders I am ready to take responsibility"

"This….. Prince Xue??"

"It's fine Uncle Ning, I trust in his judgment, I can see that he isn't someone careless so its fine if we allow one person who he trusts to know about it as well, but I must strictly insist that it can not be known to anyone besides your teacher"

"I can swear on it"

"Haha, Tang San, it seems Uncle Ning's choice is quite great"

Rongrong who saw this was surprised at why her Brother San, or now it would be her boyfriend Tang San was, able to forget what he had done to them in the past but she remembered her father's warnings and didn't speak in between.

Tang San acted like he still had slight vigilance against Xue Beng but Ning Fengzhi and Xue Beng didn't think this was that unusual.

"Tang San, do you know why Xue Beng who was the Fourth Prince before now the crown prince of the empire??"

"I think either the other three princes were exiled, dead or had become traitors and executed. So thinking this way the three of them should be dead right??"

"That's right, truly Uncle Ning didn't overpraise you, I can see why he even allowed you to date his daughter"

Hearing this Rongrong was surprised, how was he able to figure this out?? They had barely spoken about this before coming to the room, was this the same arrogant dandy prince she had seen in Heave Dou Academy!! She then realized that Tang San must have realized about his true nature since the start, this slightly made Tang San's figure in her mind quite big, like an all-knowing genius.

Tang San was also slightly surprised, he knew that he couldn't have thought about this from spying on them or by guessing their relationship due to Rongrong being present here, he guessed that it must have been Ning Fengzhi telling him, this showed that their relationship was quite close.

"I'm honored by Prince's word's but I don't think I deserve them, I had to work quite hard to win her affection"

If anyone outside saw this then they would have thought it was a chat among three close friends.

"Tang San, you see Prince Xue Beng has gathered information on the occurrence of what happened between spirit hall and your father 15 years ago"

When he heard that he wasn't that surprised and calmly asked him,

"They were after something which my father and mother had and due to my father refusing, the conflict started which ended up injuring my father and killing my mother isn't that right crown prince??"

Tang San asked that with a mocking smile, Xue Beng and Ning Fengzhi were shocked that Tang San knew so much.

"Tang San…. you how did you know?? This was something Prince Xue Beng had gotten from quite a lot of information sources and some were even from the spirit hall"

"..... I met father"

These words shocked everyone in the room, even Rongrong, she knew that Tang San's father was the famous titled douluo, Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao, who was rumored to have gone missing. Tang San had said that he had no news of him but now…..

"It was six months ago that I met him, he has a few injuries from the battle that day and has decided to remain in hiding while letting me take care of all the matters in his stead. He trained me, Ma Honjin and Oscar for four months and I also got to know some information from him regarding what happened 15 years ago but even he didn't tell me why they were after him or what the thing he had was. But after mothers death, he wasn't able to stay the same anymore….."

When Tang San finished what he wanted to say, there was a slight silence in the room.

"Sigh…. I'm sorry I didn't want to cause such a sad mood, but I'm still thankful for Crown Prince investigating that matter for my sake, I, Tang San will surely repay you in the future"

"You don't need to do that Tang San, I only wanted to repay you for what happened that day in Heaven Dou Academy. Haha, if I knew you were such a prodigy back then I would have surely made sure that you were all treated fairly in Heaven Dou Imperial Academy and given the best resources"

"No, I don't think it matters anymore, in fact, you driving us out was able to help my teacher get back together with his wife and even helped me befriend an old freak so I should be thankful to you instead"

"I'm thankful that you're not keeping a grudge so let's just forget about that matter and start afresh shall we??"

Tang San just nodded without saying anything, most of his plans would be quite easier now that he wouldn't need to worry about the Seven Treasures Clan getting crippled by Spirit Hall. This way the fight against Spirit Hall would be slightly easier compared to before.

He then decided to finish getting the Asura's Inheritance - DeathGod Domain as soon as possible after the tournament. He had already prepared a few contingencies for Xiao Wu in case her identity as a hundred thousand year spirit beast gets exposed, he would not take chances in that matter, as long as he was alive he would not let his women get harmed.

After that Tang San and Ning Rongrong left to go back to Shrek, the whole team was quite expectant when they knew their next opponent, the Elephant Armoured School. He had prepared two plan's to strike with force and deal them with agility. The first would require Dai Mubai to act along with Tai Long and Huang Yuan (Substitute with Lone Wolf Spirit) and lets them conceal their strength as much as possible whereas the second is a backup plan where they would use Tang San's Golden Silver Emperor as cover and Zhu Zhuqing's and Jing Ling's (Substitute with Skeleton Spirit) speed to deal with them.

This option was a fallback and a guaranteed win but it would reveal quite a lot of their strength, he could use his Imitation and Camouflage skills to hide their strength and spirit rings but if they had any individual fight's their strength would be revealed along with his ability which would be a total disaster for him later on.

They all agreed with this set up and let Xie Lingling be the support in this match instead of Jiang Zhu, apparently, Oscar has been chasing her these past few days and she apparently has been giving in. Tang San shook his head at that, this guy was a silent ladies killer, unlike Ma Hongjin who's quite straight forward, this guy has his ways to get women with his flirting skills and handsome face.

He then heads out to the Strength Clan saying that he had something to deal with.

These past few days Tai Tan had been buying up property in all the surrounding areas to his clan, the money was given to him by Tang San, he had to still strike up a deal with Ning Fengzhi to help him financially for his clan so he had been depending on his own money as of yet.

A total of 5 million out of his remaining 10 million was given to Tai Tan and another 1 million was paid to Dean Flender to advertise for the Tang Sect. Naturally, it was only the promotion of the sect with nothing more, as long as the champions of the Tournament had the word Tang '唐' onto it, the name of Tang Sect would spread he didn't think of what to use as his slogan so he didn't give anything yet.

Plus, even Shrek would be able to get a share of the Tang Sects slight fame leading to more students joining Shrek. He had already told Tai Tan to recruit disciples from Shrek and use Grandmaster's help later on. He also left a few Blacksmithing manuals in the Sect separating into outer, inner and core and secret techniques. The individuals would be placed into the outer members no matter their background unless they had a sect master or Elder's recommendation through which they may join the inner members. One may become an inner member as long as they make sufficient contribution to the sect, or if they have a certain amount of power. But to join the core members rank they would have to have both contribution and sufficient strength. These were only the types of members in the sect he had yet to divide and assign the roles of the members in the sect which will be done during the establishment of the sect.

He had also given him a few medical and alchemy manuals to be kept safe, he had also given him the spirit tool designing manuals he had with a to your eyes only restriction. Naturally, Tai Tan was quite interested in the spirit tool designing manual but was more focused on the designs that were given to him by Tang San these were designs of a few improved versions of the Tang Sect hidden weapons.

They would require a high leveled blacksmith to make but their power was undisputed. These designs were at least a few centuries or even a few millennia ahead in the realm of blacksmithing, he was quite glad to get these weapon designs.

After settling a few more things Tang San left and went back to Shrek Academy, he was looking quite forward to tomorrows match, Spirit Hall would have naturally made preparations to deal with Shrek and especially Dai Mubai in tomorrow's match so he was prepared to deal with them in the same way.

Today the Shrek Seven Devils were quite happy with their uniforms, the base color had changed to a leaf green color and the logo had changed to a golden color while on their back the word Tang '唐' was written, which meant that their sponsor was Tang Sect and they didn't ask anything other than one request - 'We only want champions to wear the Tang symbol'

Even the teachers were curious about Tang Sect being their sponsor, Flender only said that their sponsor wanted absolute privacy which he had promised so no one bothered asking. Though the Shrek's team sent out a silent prayer to Tang Sect in their hearts for rescuing them from such a horrifying experience.

When Shrek made their entrance everyone looked in their direction, they all calmly made their way towards their stands and sat patiently while chatting amongst each other. Ma Hongjin was not present as he was out trying to flirt with the girls from other academies, with his new looks naturally a lot of girls flirted back with a few even expressing the want to get physical, to Hongjin this was paradise, he was quite content with this for now.

Oscar was using Ma Hongjin as a reference to show how bad guys could be and was flirting with Jiang Zhu (Substitute with Healing Scepter Spirit) using him as the topic. Tang San was chatting with the other guys on the team while the girls were chatting amongst themselves too.