Douluo Dalu - Volume 04 - Shrek Seven Devils Read online

  Flender held both hands behind his back,

  “Well, time to begin, you have also seen Ning Rongrong and Oscar’s results. If you want to remain here to cultivate, you will follow the Academy’s regulations. To get better every lesson, my word here is law, next you will start Shrek’s first class. Each of you all will independently accomplish your own course, do not blame me for not stating in advance, if you do insufficiently well, then, to not die you must shed a layer of skin.”

  Part 4

  Dai Mubai very quickly returned, nodding to Flender, indicating he already had Oscar comfort Ning Rongrong.

  Flender waved his hand, saying:

  “To start off, keep up with me.”

  Finished speaking, just seemed his toes pointed to the ground, leaping up light as a feather, advancing towards the outside of the Academy.

  Everyone hurried to keep up.

  Flender all along maintained a fast pace, currently observing the gap in strength between the five students.

  Following precisely behind Flender’s back, was spirit power most profound Evil Eye White Tiger Dai Mubai. Behind Dai Mubai was not at all Tang San, but Zhu Zhuqing.

  Tang San’s Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track was exquisite when it came to accelerating in a straight line, but on the contrary not equal to Zhu Zhuqing as an agility attack system Spirit Master. Therefore he and Xiao Wu were lined up side by side in third place. Ma Hongjun last, but also not falling behind much compared to Tang San.

  All the way, Flender did not say anything, Tang San’s group also did not utter a word, in their minds still recalling the previous conversation between Flender and Ning Rongrong.

  Very quickly, Tang San discovered Flender’s destination, was exactly Suotuo City.

  From Shrek Academy to Suotuo City was not at all far, when soon about to reach Suotuo City’s south gate, Flender’s speed slowed, letting the five students all catch up.

  Suotuo City located in Balak Kingdom’s interior would not suffer any external threat, therefore this city gate stood open the whole day. The six people smoothly entered within the city walls.

  Even though by now the sky had already darkened, Suotuo City seemed to have just woken up, bustling even more than in the daytime. On both sides of the street, the shops were all brightly lit, some peddlers only who only appeared at night one by one found their customary places selling some snacks or maybe small trinkets and such things.

  Although Tang San and Xiao Wu lived in Suotuo City for two days, they had not gone out in the evening, Tang San was tolerant, but Xiao Wu exhilarated looked everywhere, on seeing some interesting thing, quietly moved closer to look more. If not for Tang San pulling her along, maybe she would already have wandered off.

  Zhu Zhuqing still had an ice cold expression, it seemed as if nothing external had any relation to her, gaze all along staying on Flender in front of her, not a little bit influenced by the outside world.

  Behind Dai Mubai’s eyelids showed his calm side, appearance seemingly exactly the same as Zhu Zhuqing, only his face lacked that austerity, everything appearing very natural.

  But Ma Hongjun’s eyes were a little insufficient for his use, although not like Xiao Wu interested in anything, his eyes were whirling, his targets were all the most characteristic women on the streets.

  Over six years old, under sixty, Ma Hongjun’s eyes seemingly let none slip him by, when seeing some ample figure, he immediately swallowed, fortunately he was last in line, and the others did not discover his current appearance.

  Flender suddenly stopped walking, looking at the sky, thinking out loud:

  “There still is some time. Follow me.”

  Speaking, Flender brought the five to enter an unremarkable tea shop on the side of the street. The six sat down around a round table and Flender asked for six cups of their cheapest tea.

  Xiao Wu looked at that full of tea suds tea before her and directly scowled,

  “Dean, our first class wouldn’t be here, right.”

  Flender said.

  “Of course not, the place for your first class, is there.”

  While speaking, he pointed towards the outside.

  Following the direction of his finger, Tang San saw, not far from the tea shop, was a wide and tall building. From their angle, they could only see that building was nearly a hundred metres tall, incomparably enormous, in the dark of night, appeared extremely profound. From in that immense building, faint light twinkled.

  Dai Mubai’s expression changed, in a low voice saying:

  “Dean, making them go there on their first day?”

  The dean indifferently said:

  “Remember, you are all monsters, not ordinary people. Since you are monsters, you will have monstrous cultivation methods.

  Speaking up to here, he paused, dropping his voice:

  “Your spirits are all different, so each of you also has your own cultivation methods. What the Academy can instruct you in is how to use your spirits even better, help you obtain even better spirit rings, possess even more battle experience, to as far as possible develop your own potential. The remainder is knowledge about all aspects of spirits, as well as the circumstances of Spirit Masters on the Continent. Among these things you need to learn, the most important is combat experience.

  “With equal level strength, the amount of battle experience is key to deciding victory or defeat. Only by repeated combat are you able to as far as possible promote your capability to adapt in combat. Therefore, your first class, is fighting. And that place, is your classroom.”

  Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun looked at each other, Ma Hongjun did not dare utter a word, in Dai Mubai’s evil eyes just expressed helplessness, they clearly both knew what place that was. But Tang San, Xiao Wu as well as ice cold Zhu Zhuqing, all showed puzzled expressions.

  Flender said:

  “Buildings similar to this one can only be possessed by Lord City level cities. Its scale can even be said to be a sign of a city’s and nation’s wealth and power. Buildings like these are known as Great Spirit Arenas[ (大斗魂场) Literally “Big Fighting Spirit Field”]. Furthermore they will use the name of the city it’s located in. Thus, before you, is known as Suotuo Great Spirit Arena.”

  “What is called a Great Spirit Arena is a place for battling with spirits, in other words a place for Spirit Masters to fight. Whether it’s Heaven Dou Empire or Star Luo Empire, both have places like this, Spirit Arenas decide a nation’s prosperity.”

  Tang San frowning said:

  “Dean, aren’t Spirit Masters the noblest vocation? Why would there still be places like this Great Spirit Arena, like some kind of monkeys on show competing with spirits before spectators?”

  Part 5

  Flender shook his head, saying.

  “No, you’re mistaken, although I also do not like places like this Great Spirit Arena, I have no choice but to admit that the Great Spirit Arenas is an important place that absolutely reflects the value of Spirit Masters. Your thinking is too simple. Great Spirit Arenas are part of a complete system, but can also be said to be a special power. It was founded by all the seven most famous Spirit Master clans on all the Continent, not belonging to either great Empire or to Spirit Hall. It can be said to be a third power, extremely wealthy, Spirit Masters making their names in Great Spirit Arenas become dazzling celebrities of entire nations, not only can one obtain immense benefits, and can also obtain maximum prestige, but also, Great Spirit Arenas are a relatively fair place, here, even if you’ve killed some great clan’s disciple, you still need not worry about reprisals, this is its fairness.”

  Saying this, in Flender’s eyes glittered a dazzling radiance,

  “The spirit’s level is a mark of whether a Spirit Master is strong or weak. Spirit rings are even more the best method to express this. But, this is not at all representative of a Spirit Master’s genuine capabilities, only a title obtained by one’s effort from within Great Spirit Arena is exactly the best reflection of one’s strength.”
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  “Any level Spirit Master after entering the Great Spirit Arena, are all only represented by the two words ‘spirit fights’, after obtaining the first victory, will receive a badge. Afterwards, every victory obtained, will accumulate a certain amount of points. When accumulated points reach a certain degree, the badge’s rank will upgrade. This badge is the Great Spirit Arena’s token, but also is commonly possessed by Lord Cities on the whole Continent. The higher the badge’s rank the more benefits. I will not explain in detail. The badge’s rank is differentiated according to mineral quality, the lowest is iron badge, which also is for iron spirit fights, upwards in order is copper, silver, gold, amethyst, sapphire, ruby, diamond. Altogether eight ranks.”

  Speaking here, Flender’s gaze swept across the five people in front of him,

  “Your assignment is to, before graduation, hold a silver fighting spirit badge, understood?”

  “Do not think that obtaining a silver fighting spirit badge is an easy matter, Mubai and Hongjun already participated here for more than a year of combat. Mubai. You tell those three, what the requirements are for promoting a badge here, also your accomplishments.”

  While speaking, Flender drank a mouthful of the shoddy tea before him. He already established Shrek Academy twenty years ago, and naturally knew the easiest way to make students accept instruction: that was to rouse their interest. Regardless of the matter, if having interest that one word as precondition, then, that was half the work.

  Able to be chosen for Shrek Academy they undoubtedly were monstrous children. These perhaps said to be monsters, perhaps said to be genius students, were fundamentally impossible to instruct using ordinary teaching methods.

  Dai Mubai said.

  “I was twenty ninth ranked at the time I started in the Suotuo Great Spirit Arena games. I have altogether participated in fifty six fights, current fight record is twenty nine wins and twenty seven losses, currently accumulated points are two. To promote from iron spirit fights to copper spirit fights, you need to accumulate one hundred points, each obtained victory will give one point. But, if losing a fight, you will also correspondingly lose one point. If continuous number of victories exceed five, then, for each successive victory, the points directly increase by ten, when successive victories exceed ten, winning again gives a hundred points. Even if points reaches successful advancement to copper spirit fights, as long as points drop below one hundred, this will also cancel copper spirit fight qualifications. Promoting copper spirit fights to silver spirit fights requires one thousand points, fighting in copper spirit fights. Every one victory will gain ten points. Losing one fight will also deduct ten points. Points obtained in successive victories scale like with iron spirit fights.”

  Regarding Dai Mubai’s strength, Tang San still somewhat understood, hearing his words, not just secretly shocked,

  “Mubai, with your strength just twenty nine wins, twenty seven losses? How is this possible, your spirit should be a very formidable existence among beast spirits.”

  Dai Mubai said with a wry smile:

  “Nothing is impossible. Great Spirit Arena cannot be such a good place to mix, the games here have three kinds of styles, one kind is called contest, and is of an exchanging pointers nature, also with the regulations is which I just now mentioned. Carried out divided according to rank, in other words it’s carried out in subgroups by spirit ring numbers. When you have one spirit ring, then, you only can participate in group one games. When I was twenty ninth rank I had four successive victories, and was about to receive ten points for successive victories, my strength also promoted to thirtieth rank, obtaining third spirit ring, then afterwards I had ten consecutive defeats. Points became negative. Equival with third spirit ring, the thirtieth ranked me, dealing with thirty eighth or ninth ranked opponents how would victory be possible. If wanting to obtain consecutive victories here, then only participate in games while you are twenty ninth ranked, after thirtieth rank, halt participation, and after reaching thirty seventh rank again enter games. This is possible, but our goal is real combat, so naturally we can’t do like that, so my fight record naturally also has some discrepancy. My points still are not as high as Fatty’s.”

  Ma Hongjun spoke up:

  “Up till now I have thirty three fights with twenty one wins, twelve losses, nine points.”

  Flender glanced at the sky outside,

  “Nearly time, we will leave first, I will tell you the rest of the circumstances at the scene one by one.”

  Leaving a tip, the party of six left the tea shop, walking towards Suotuo Great Spirit Arena.

  Coming closer, Great Spirit Arena produced an shaking feeling even more amazing. When Tang San and Xiao Wu just arrived in Suotuo City, they had not at all gone to this side of Suotuo City. Therefore they had not at all discovered that Suotuo City unexpectedly also had an imposing building such as this.

  * * *

  [1] (宁风致) Literally “Peaceful Wind Delicate” which can mean “Peaceful Grace”.

  [2] (剑叔) “Sword Uncle”

  [3] (龙叔) “Dragon Uncle”

  [4] (第一尖锋) More literally “the first spearhead”.

  [5] The imperial sword gives the bearer arbitrary powers.

  [6] (大斗魂场) Literally “Big Fighting Spirit Field”

  Chapter 024: Three Five Combination’s Establishment

  Part 1

  Suotuo Great Spirit Arena was entirely oval, its height reaching one hundred twenty metres, the interior divided into one Lord Spirit Arena and twenty four Spirit Arenas, able to simultaneously hold six thousand spectators, among these were one hundred VIP boxes. This was not only an area for Spirit Masters to exchange pointers, but also a place for powers to display their own strengths.

  While walking towards Suotuo Great Spirit Arena, Flender told Tang San’s party about some remaining simple circumstances of the Spirit Arena.

  Here, fight spirits were divided into three categories, one kind was contests, which was mutually exchanging pointers, where fierce killing techniques were forbidden. Another kind was life or death fights, used for settling disputes that could not be mediated. The last kind were betting fights. With the Great Spirit Arena as referee, in betting fights both sides sent out equal numbers of Spirit Masters to compete, the ultimate victor received the balance of the bet. Betting fights in the first place were life or death fights. Many frequently when irreconcilable conflicts appeared between nobles or schools, they would use this kind of way.

  But the matches’ appearance also had three kinds, one against one, two against two and group fights. Among them, in team fights the number of people on both sides followed regulations, according to the Great Spirit Arena’s customs, ordinarily restricted within seven to ten people.

  Entering the Great Spirit Arena, the first thing reflected in one’s eyes was a huge stele, on it was carved densely packed names. Flender told them that these names, were all those who had died in spirit fights.

  Fighting spirit registration was carried out here extremely simply, the only requirement was to fill out a form including name and surname, age, birthplace and spirit, and one could receive the first iron spirit fight badge, of course, registering required everyone to pay ten gold coins as registration fee.

  Simultaneously, they also carried out a spirit test similar to Spirit Hall, making certain of each person’s rank. Dai Mubai told everyone, every time before participating in fighting spirit, everyone must first carry out spirit power test to determine the match opponent.

  Flender naturally would not excuse them, Tang San, Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing each completed their registration.

  Giving Tang San a profound impression was, when they registered, the staff member responsible for registration did not at all ridicule them or display any surprised expression because of their young age, all along having an appearance of doing official business according to official principles, and the handling speed was also extremely fast. From these simple details he could see that th
is Great Spirit Arena was absolutely not an ordinary place.

  After registration, about to undergo spirit fight sorting, Flender brought them to the contest type spirit fight area, and after simply instructing Dai Mubai with several sentences, he went inside the Spirit Arena without consulting anyone.

  Dai Mubai told Tang San and the others that at Great Spirit Arena, only under circumstances with successive victories exceeding five fights, the fighting spirit badge reaching a certain rank, or extremely high Spirit Master level, could one compete in the Lord Spirit Arena. Novices like them could only fight at the Spirit Arenas. Winning one iron spirit fight one could obtain ten gold coins as award money, while losing had no award money.

  Very quickly, the five people already finished sorting, because they had come together, they would all fight at at the contest area of Spirit Arena fourteen. Only Dai Mubai’s opponent was Spirit Elder rank, Tang San’s four’s opponents were all Spirit Grandmaster level, that’s all.

  The entire Great Spirit Arena gave Tang San a kind of dazzling feeling. Here, the various kinds of space allocation was extremely detailed. Speaking of the twenty four arenas, each Spirit Arena was also subdivided into different areas, comprised of the two types contest area and life or death area, each type was further subdivided into three kinds of styles, one against one, two against two and group battle. Therefore, one Spirit Arena had six separate elevated rings. As for betting fights, according to what Dai Mubai said, regardless of what rank, all betting fights were conducted at the Lord Spirit Arena.

  The Great Spirit Arena’s operation mode had long ago already reached an unusually coordinated degree, for different spirit fight areas the ticket prices were also different, like the one against one contest area where Tang San’s group would participate, the ticket price was least expensive, and the spectators also were the fewest.

  Spirit Masters participating in spirit fights were gathered in an arranged expansive hall to rest, waiting for their turn.