Chapter 36: Info about the Past

"The qualifying competition's first round, first match, formally starts!!" The referees announcement formally started the tournament.

As the two sides looked at each other coldly, all of them released their spirit rings simultaneously.

Gasps of surprises sounded around the arena. As almost all had two yellow and 1-2 purple spirit rings, one of them stood out a little bit more. In the Shrek academy side, Tang San, standing in the middle of the team had 2 yellow, 2 purple and 1 black spirit ring. One could basically understand what black signified.

The VIP room had already been alarmed as they looked at Tang San with shock.

"This must be the team Master Ning must be optimistic about, right? Said Xue Ye.

"Hmm." Ning Fengzhi nodded and glanced at Nian Zhen thinking how was Nian Zhen's take on this matter.

Nian Zhen, was in fact, not at all shocked. He was just sighing as he looked at Tang San. "Still too weak…" Nian Zhen thought.

"Why are you surprised so much? Just get this over with already." Nian Zhen's lazy voice sounded throughout the arena.

Looking at the carefree Nian Zhen, Ning Fengzhi's heart made another huge wave. He had thought that seeing Tang San's ring, Nian Zhen was bound to be surprised but….

Taking a faint glance at Nian Zhen, Tang San shouted and directly attacked the dull Heaven Dou Team.

As what had happened, the match ended in about a minute due to the Heaven Dou Team's coach surrendering.

"Referee, they clearly violated the rules. The tried to murder my Students." Snarled the coach.

"Dear Referee, they have not died. Our healing type spirit master had already deployed a healing ability on them as soon as the match started." Tang San said with a smile.

At this moment a cold and mocking voice came from above, "Brat, even if it is against the rules, being merciless is what makes a person strong enough to stand on the top. Rules are meant to be broken. Especially here. Isn't it, Lord Salas?" Nian Zhen said, looking towards the VIP room.

"..." A blue vein popped in Salas's forehead. Nian Zhen was clearly trying to offend him. Yet he stopped his impulse to kill Nian Zhen and remained silent.

"Tch." Nian Zhen clicked his tongue.

"My humanity does not allow me to do so." Tang San said indifferently, looking at Nian Zhen.

"Your humanity? Hahaha." Nian Zhen laughed causing Tang San's mouth to twitch. Ignoring Nian Zhen, Tang San with his teammates retreated.

Evening

The matches that were meant to be conducted today had been completed. As the arena started to become empty, the Shrek Seven Devils were meeting with their long lost friend, Nian Zhen.

After changing back to his original self and dispersing his clones right after the match ended, Nian Zhen decided to give the shrek seven devils a visit because he had someone he wanted to meet.

Ning Fengzhi was also currently with the devils, possibly trying to talk with Tang San alone.

"Who may you be?" Ning Fengzhi asked Nian Zhen, a new face he had seen today.

"Lord Ning, I am the current generation patriarch of the 'Ancient Forge Clan'. I was hoping I could talk alone with you." Nian Zhen said with a smile.

Looking at the blindfolded kid in front of him, Ning Fengzhi suddenly felt a strange feeling.

"I am sorry. I need to speak with Tang San here alone. Maybe some other time?" Ning Fengzhi said with a smile.

"I know what Lord Ning wants to talk about with him. It is related to Tang Hao, isn't it? I am kind of that old man's forging disciple." Nian Zhen said truthfully. This piece of information did not need to be hidden from anyone.

"Y-You mean you know where my dad is?" Tang San asked, as his heart tightened looking at Nian Zhen with hope filled eyes.

"Well, I know. Now Lord Ning, will I be eligible to accompany you?" Nian Zhen asked with a bright grin.

After looking at Nian Zhen strangely, Ning Fengzhi nodded. Ning Fengzhi brought the two inside an antique tea house. Entering inside an elegant room, Tang San saw a lone young man, who had already heard the footsteps and stood up to greet them.

"Uncle Nin-" The young man stopped as he looked at an unexpected guest, Nian Zhen was smiling back at him.

"Qinghe, what happened?" Ning Fengzhi looked at his disciple who was acting strangely.

"N-Nothing." Xue Qinghe said, looking strangely at Nian Zhen.

"Tang San, this here is the crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire" Nian Zhen said with a smile on his face.

Looking strangely at Nian Zhen, Ning Fengzhi nodded at the shocked Tang San.

"Tang San greetes Crown Prince Xue Qinghe." Tang San said while bowing.

"Ahem..No need to call me crown prince, just call me big brother Xue." Xue Qinghe said with a forced smile.

"Alright, 'Big Brother' Qinghe." Nian Zhen said with a strange grin causing Xue Qinghe to shudder.

"Alright, Qinghe this here is the current generation patriarch of the 'Ancient Forge Clan'. He said he wanted to talk to me. I hope you don't mind me bringing him here." Ning Fengzhi said, pointing Tang San and Nian Zhen to take a seat.

"Yes, will you mind, your highness?" Nian Zhen said.

"N-No." Xue Qinghe said, sitting down. After the incident that day, Qian Renxue will always think about what happened at the end causing her to blush fiercely. Even now, looking at Nian Zhen, her heart raged a huge wave remembering that night, (AN: Except during convo I am going to be calling Xue Qinghe, Qian Renxue from now)

"Big Brother Xue, I heard from Uncle Ning that you know something about my father." Tang San said.

After some time

"That's all I know. I have not yet gotten any solid information except these. I am truly embarrassed." Xue Qinghe said, no longer glancing at Nian Zhen.

"No thank you brother Xue, this is already very helpful." Tang San said with immense gratitude.

"Now, Uhm..Lord Nian Zhen. You said you had something related to tang San's father as well." Ning Fengzhi said. Even if Nian Zhen was similar to his disciples' age, he was obviously a patriarch. Even if the Ancient Forge Clan may not be well known, it's records have been possessed by his sect so he obviously knew something about that clan.

"Hmm. As far as I know that old man, he must be basically lying about going into seclusion and hiding somewhere around here, looking after Tang San. I know that old man's character. When he was training me about blacksmithing, he used to talk about tang San non-stop without stopping even a single bit. I was fed up with him due to that. The last time I saw him was about 2-3 weeks ago. That's all I know. As far as the thing regarding the past, I know about that as well. As well as who your mother is and what happened to your parents that time. I know things regarding the spirit hall and its members too." Nian Zhen said, instantly dropping a huge bomb.

"You...You know all?" Ning Fengzhi was the one to stand up and look at Nian Zhen incredibly.

"Of course. I am someone who is related to spirit hall after all. I knew about those things from there. As said by Qinghe, the important thing the spirit hall required had something to do with your mother. As the Old Man tried to hide you and your mother from the Spirit Hall, Qian Xunji, the previous patriarch and his people were able to find your parents' location."

"Planning to take away your mother, Qian Xunji cornered your parents so much that your mother had to sacrifice herself in order to let you and the Old Man escape. This is all I know. I don't know what the important thing is though. Ah! I wanna see the Old man's face if he is listening to me telling his secrets. He must be wanting to kill me right now." Nian Zhen said, with an extremely serious look on his face.

"Now I am telling you this because I know you must be hating Spirit Hall right now. I don't care about that. Though I said I am related to the Spirit Hall, I am only related to a certain someone or two from there" Nian Zhen said glancing at Qian Renxue.

"But, right is not the time. Focus on winning the tournament kid. Get stronger. You are too weak even if you have the black spirit ring." Nian Zhen said.