Douluo Dalu - Volume 12 - A Hammer Called Clear Sky Read online

  In force, this thousand year spirit beast basically couldn’t match Liu Erlong.

  Raising the front claws and smashing down simultaneously, one slamming down on top of the Giant Earth King’s head, Liu Erlong roared ferociously,

  “I’ll show you wrecking an old woman’s happy occasion.”

  The Giant Earth King’s sharp cry stopped abruptly, of its giant body only those two claws were still above ground.

  “If this old woman doesn’t play until you’re dead, my name isn’t Liu Erlong!”

  Hong, hong——

  Completely without abilities, using only the brute force of the Scarlet@ Dragon Avatar, Liu Erlong’s both front claws unhesitatingly struck at the Giant Earth King’s front claws, and immediately following her claws cut downwards, precisely at the joints where the Giant Earth King’s claws connected to its body.

  With a terrifying kaka sound, the Giant Earth King’s head and body shuddered violently, but Liu Erlong’s strength was too great, and no matter how it struggled it didn’t have any chance of escaping.

  With a pupu sound, the two enormous scorpion claws were torn off by Liu Erlong while the beast was still alive, and deep red blood sprayed out.

  However, to Liu Erlong, this was only the beginning.

  In front of everyone’s stupefied attention, Liu Erlong’s tremendous body turned, one front claw already gripping the Giant Earth King’s tail stinger. In fact, this tail stinger was the Giant Earth King’s most powerful weapon, not only incomparably hard, but also surprisingly hot.

  Only a fire attribute Spirit Master like Liu Erlong would dare directly grab it like this.

  The next moment, Liu Erlong leapt down from the Giant Earth King. Of course, this wasn’t to let it off.

  Swinging her front claws, the already embedded in the ground Giant Earth King whirled up, and then again heavily smashed onto the ground.

  In Liu Erlong’s hands, the Giant Earth King was like a broken burlap sack, continuously thrown up and smashed down again.

  That brutal scene made everyone’s stomachs churn. Even Tang San with his calm and steady temperament wanted to ask his Teacher, ‘She, is she really human?’

  Right now, none of the Shrek Seven Devils dared step forward to speak to Liu Erlong, telling her that this spirit beast still had its use.

  After throwing it around several times and it could be seen that the Giant Earth King had completely lost any ability to fight and seemed somewhat lifeless, Liu Erlong stopped moving. Just when everyone thought the brutal scene was over, they could just hear Liu Erlong muttering to herself:

  “Having you wreck an old woman’s happy occasion, this time I’ll have you……”

  As she muttered, using her dragon claws she began to dismantle that Giant Earth King into its components. Starting with the minutely varied tailbones, afterwards the joints of the tail, in a moment, of this supposedly magnificent spirit beast only remained the head and torso, the surroundings filled with discarded remains and sprays of blood.

  However, this Giant Earth King’s vitality was indeed unyielding, even now it still breathed.

  Liu Erlong swung her dragon claw, throwing the Giant Earth King’s body in a parabola in the air, falling heavily to the ground in front of the Shrek Seven Devils.

  “There, Fatty. It’s yours. You’re also fire attribute, it suits you well.”

  The instant the Giant Earth King crashed loudly onto the ground, the Shrek Seven Devils practically simultaneously retreated a step. The three girls’ complexions were already pale from watching the gruesome spectacle, and if it wasn’t for Grandmaster’s special training before, perhaps they would already have vomited.

  “For-, for me……”

  Ma Hongjun looked at that terrifying scarlet dragon, probingly asking.

  “Still not moving? This old woman let you have what you wanted, why so much nonsense.”

  Liu Erlong’s dragon eyes widened, the intimidation almost knocked Ma Hongjun to the ground, before he hastily moved, with a heart filled with mercy finally ending that pitiful Giant Earth King’s life.

  The red light withdrew, and Liu Erlong again recovered her human form. The fiery gaze had now become completely ice cold, somewhat bitterly sweeping across Grandmaster, then without saying anything she returned to the tent to sleep.

  Besides Ma Hongjun who quickly sat on the ground and released his spirit to begin absorbing the spirit ring, the others stood there motionless, seemingly afraid that a single sound would infuriate Liu Erlong again.

  After a long time, Zhao Wuji furtively glanced at the tent behind him, saying in a low voice:

  “It’s really difficult to imagine, before I actually shared a tent with a humanoid tyrannosaurus rex. Flender, when you said before that your sister Erlong had a temper I didn’t quite believe you, she’s so pretty. But now I know, you weren’t exaggerating a bit, even so much that you didn’t say enough. I’ve decided, I’ll take the night vigil from now. Don’t fight me over it.”

  Flender nodded repeatedly, saying:

  “Fatty’s absorbing the spirit ring, as his teacher I should still watch over him. Xiao Gang, you go rest. Me and Wuji will handle things here.”

  “Rest your face.”

  Grandmaster extremely depressed glared at Flender. By now the burning flames in his heart had completely gone out. Glancing at the tent, he walked straight to a tree stump to the side, and sat down closing his eyes without a word.

  Dai Mubai coughed,

  “Teacher Erlong really is my idol. Now I know what true violence is. No wonder she’s called the slaughtering corner of the Golden Iron Triangle.”

  Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing were unwilling to stay here another second, and swiftly returned to the tent. As for whether the scene Liu Erlong’s displayed affected their sleep, only they knew.

  Oscar pulled Tang San,

  “It seems tonight there’s no need for you to keep watch. Little San, boss Dai, let’s go back to sleep.”

  Returning to the tent, because they were one Ma Hongjun less, Tang San had a flash of inspiration and had Dai Mubai and Oscar shift aside, leaving an empty space between him and Xiao Wu, then again lay down. However, in the minds of each of the six within the tent, the scene of the havoc wrought by the scarlet dragon played repeatedly.

  This was the true strength of a high level Spirit Master, a five thousand year spirit beast perished in a flash, and moreover was still dismembered by that ‘particular’ method.

  After an eventless night, when everyone woke from their dreams early the next morning and left the tent, Ma Hongjun was still sitting where he had been last night. Only now he had already changed considerably.

  The first thing to catch the eye were the four spirit rings, two yellow and two purple.

  Only his body that had slimmed down some because of taking that immortal treasure herb seemed to have grown a size fatter. The atmosphere around him seemed to be brimming with fiery bursts.

  Flender stood beside Fatty with a satisfied expression, his disciple being able to obtain his fourth spirit ring even earlier than Tang San made him extremely pleased.

  People will inevitably have vanity, and he was no exception.

  “Dean Flender, has Fatty still not finished?”

  Tang San asked somewhat astonished. Generally speaking, for absorbing a spirit ring half that time was enough, but this had already taken a full night.

  Flender said:

  “The absorption finished long ago, I had him continue cultivating to let the spirit ring’s energy merge completely with his body. This Giant Earth King suits him precisely, it seems that this fourth spirit ring’s ability of his should be pretty good. You work hard as well, quickly find a suitable spirit beast.”

  Making the three girls feel much more comfortable was that last night’s Giant Earth King remains had already disappeared, clearly Flender and Zhao Wuji had cleared them away. Only the depression in the ground still reminded everyone of the purely one sided ba
ttle that took place last night.

  As everyone simply washed up, and after eating breakfast, Ma Hongjun woke from his cultivation.

  A resonant phoenix cry rose from his mouth, his chubby body leaping up, covered in flames, golden red light releasing in a flash, then vanished again, the four spirit rings quietly merging into his body. The instant his little eyes opened, a radiance flickered. His expression was lively and spirited.

  Just as everyone were about to ask Fatty how he felt absorbing the fourth spirit ring, and angry voice berated from within the other tent,

  “Who has nothing better to do that shouting things at first light?”

  When the originally somewhat complacent Fatty heard this voice, his whole body shivered immediately, and without the slightest hesitation he dodged behind Flender.

  Flender frowned,

  “Alright, what are you hiding from. Don’t tell me you really thing teacher Erlong would hit you? You must understand that she’s after all no longer young, her hormones are somewhat out of tune. Her character is mostly as usual.”

  “Flender, do you want to die?”

  Even though Flender spoke very quietly, Liu Erlong’s hearing was even better.

  A messily dressed humanoid tyrannosaurus rex burst out from the tent.

  Part 2 (TL by Bagelson)

  Liu Erlong’s eyes were somewhat red, clearly she hadn’t slept well last night. In the beginning she had still hoped Grandmaster would enter the tent and continue what they were doing before, but as she waited and waited, with no sign of Grandmaster, Liu Erlong’s mood was as one might expect.

  “Eh…… Erlong, I wasn’t talking about you.”

  At this time Flender didn’t wish to provoke her, and simultaneously sighed inwardly, somewhat pleadingly looking at the apathetic Grandmaster, eating breakfast to the side.

  Erlong, enough.”

  Grandmaster finally spoke up.

  Liu Erlong stopped her charge at Flender, turning her head to look at Grandmaster, her delicate body trembled slightly,

  “You’re even less good, even bullying me.”

  After speaking, she turned sharply and dashed back into the tent, leaving a string of sparkling drops in the air.

  Grandmaster painfully closed his eyes, and even though he didn’t say anything, the steamed bun in his hand had already been squeezed into paste.

  After an hour the packing was done and the party set out once again, only the mood had clearly become a lot more delicate.

  Liu Erlong gloomily walked behind the group, while Grandmaster, Flender and Zhao Wuji took the front, against expectations letting the Shrek Seven Devils walk in the center.

  Oscar bumped Ma Hongjun,

  “Fatty, dealing with the fourth spirit ring, how does it feel? Easily absorbed?”

  Ma Hongjun nodded, saying:

  “Very easy, it was settled in just an hour. It didn’t even bring me any trouble. Really strange. Don’t tell me, did that Giant Earth King already give up its wish to live under teacher Erlong’s tyranny and believed I helped liberate it, letting me absorb it?”

  Tang San said:

  “In some sense, such circumstances can occur. In Teacher’s research, if a spirit beast doesn’t have any deep resentment when it’s killed, then absorbing it will be a bit easier, relatively speaking. Vice versa, if the spirit beast carries extremely deep resentment, then absorbing the spirit ring will become severely challenging. Last time when I absorbed the Man Faced Demon Spider’s spirit ring was under such circumstances. But, Teacher also said, absorbing the spirit ring after the spirit beast died under these two kinds of circumstances will have benefits to the Spirit Master. One kind is when the spirit beast is brimming with extreme resentment, under such circumstances the chance of a spirit bone dropping is substantially increased. The other kind of circumstances is when the spirit beast dies voluntarily, voluntarily letting itself become a Spirit Master’s spirit ring, there’s practically a one hundred percent chance of a spirit bone dropping, and moreover the spirit ring will be perfectly absorbed, not suffering the restrictions of age limit. In other words, even if we’re now only fortieth rank, if a ten thousand year spirit beast wanted to let us kill it and absorb its spirit ring, we still wouldn’t suffer any backlash.”

  “So good?”

  Oscar and Ma Hongjun spoke in unison.

  To the side Dai Mubai said:

  “Good how? You think it’s easy! Why would a spirit beast wish to let you kill it, wish to give you its spirit ring? This is only an ideal situation, one might say it’s basically impossible for it to happen.”

  Xiao Wu rocked the ‘Yearning Heartbroken Red’ in her hands, calmly saying:

  “Nothing is impossible. With a destined coincidence, perhaps it will happen.”

  Fatty somewhat disappointed said:

  “Then tell me, was this spirit ring I absorbed the first kind, or the second kind of circumstances?”

  Tang San said:

  “If that Giant Earth King had been killed by senior Erlong, perhaps it would be the first kind of circumstances.”

  Listening to him, everyone couldn’t keep from shivering, recalling Liu Erlong’s berserk attack yesterday. Each person were somewhat shaking in fear at the bottom of their hearts.

  Tang San continued:

  “There’s equally a large problem with the first kind of circumstances, in order to have the spirit beast’s resentment reach such an extreme, it requires fighting it yourself. You can’t use others, or the spirit beasts resentment will be scattered. But, in ordinary circumstances, the strength of the spirit beast a Spirit Master wants to hunt would be a bit stronger than himself. Something as difficult to accomplish as the one sided pattern like teacher Erlong yesterday would naturally be impossible to achieve. And although teacher Erlong could oppress the Giant Earth King like yesterday, since the strength difference between it and teacher Erlong was too great, even if teacher Erlong needed another spirit ring right now, she definitely wouldn’t choose it.”

  Oscar thought deeply and said:

  “No wonder spirit bones are so rare. These circumstances are too extreme. Oh, right, Fatty, what’s your fourth spirit ability?”

  Fatty had a secretive expression,

  “Wait until there’s a chance to use it, and I’ll let you see. But it really seems very good! It’s a pity the attack range is a bit small. Moreover there’s no way to lock down the opponent again.”

  The morning air temperature in the Sunset Forest was low and the air was extremely humid, forming a morning mist.

  The fog was extremely cold, and along with a fluttering breeze, right now when the sun still hadn’t risen, the fog was very dense.

  Tang San pulled out a small porcelain bottle from Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges and dumped out some small black pills from inside, handing out one for each person, including Flender, Grandmaster and the others.

  “What’s this?”

  Flender looked at that only rice grain sized pill, puzzled asking Tang San.

  Tang San said:

  “This is a miasma pill I made myself. In the woods and deep mountains, miasma will frequently appear. The miasma air is incomparably poisonous, and eating this pill you can at least avert the majority of the misma attack. It also has an invigorating effect.”

  Flender said with sudden understanding:

  “This is what that old freak Dugu Bo taught you. It seems you indeed learned a lot of things from him.”

  Tang San smiled faintly, not explaining. With the cover of his half year together with Dugu Bo, the medicines he used wouldn’t provoke anyone’s doubts. It would be even less likely someone would associate this with his innate gifts.

  The morning mist grew denser and denser, and although the morning cold didn’t influence a group of generally over fortieth rank Spirit Masters like them, the visibility grew worse and worse.

  Flender cautiously said:

  “Everyone be careful, some spirit beasts are especially fond of moving in the earl
y morning. With the visibility so poor right now, gather a bit closer just in case there are any surprises.

  Liu Erlong quickly took a few steps forward, reaching Flender’s side and patting Zhao Wuji’s shoulder,

  “You go in the back. We’ll change places.”

  Although Liu Erlong seemed to have recovered her calm, Zhao Wuji didn’t dare say anything against her and hastily changes positions with her.

  Liu Erlong glanced at Grandmaster, standing on his other side and protecting him from both sides along with Flender. Even though this process was very simple, nobody would miss that Liu Erlong was afraid the weakest Grandmaster would meet any danger in the mist, and wanted to personally protect him.

  Grandmaster naturally also understood Liu Erlong’s intention, and secretly sighed, but didn’t have anything to say, still silently moving forward.

  Before they had moved forward three hundred meters, suddenly, a strange wind blew from the front, unexpectedly causing a change in color in the morning fog. The originally dense white mist instantly became pink, directly shrouding everyone within. That pink fog held a faint sweetness, giving people a kind of addictive sensation.

  “Everyone careful, the mist’s poisonous.”

  Flender shouted loudly, simultaneously as Liu Erlong making a palm strike forward, relying on their profound spirit power to scatter the poison fog in front. At the same time he also couldn’t keep from inwardly sighing in admiration over Tang San’s previous foresight. This seemed to be the miasma he spoke of.

  However, everyone quickly felt something was amiss, this suddenly appearing poison fog was even thicker than they had imagined, and even though Flender and Liu Erlong’s spirit power could scatter it, it condensed again very quickly, and in just a few eyeblinks their surroundings were already pink. Most shocking to the Shrek Academy party was that within that pink fog their visibility dropped to its lowest point, and it was difficult to even see the people next to them.