Chapter 122: Soul Land 1 (part 3)

Chapter 122: Soul Land 1 (part 3)

Word count = 1410 on 12/4/2023

The Shrek academy folk return home and continue their training after collecting new rings for pretty much everyone in the group including Rong Rong who achieved level 30 during the past few days they spent in Sunset Forest.

Once they are back, they are given some time to consolidate their realms before it is announced that they would all be heading out to the Great Spirit Arena which is held in a border city of Heaven Dou.

Flender avoids the Empyrean spirit arenas to not expose their bond with the empire but also to let his students see the wider world of people. Along the way, they encounter a group of school students at an inn and a fight breaks out. Once it is revealed that everyone in the team is a 3 ring spirit master, the regular students give up quickly and are beaten up at which point their teacher who is an ugly master roshi knockoff picks a fight with them. The group works together to take him down with Zhao Wuji and the grandmaster on standby if something happens to the 'monsters'. Luckily nothing bad happens and they continue their journey to the arena.

Along the way, they are told a bit about the arenas history, the various ranks and with the exception of oscar and RongRong, the others suggest to sign up for individual fights as well as forming 3 team of 2 which allows RongRong to also participate, leaving oscar the sole one behind to heal them up after the fights. Oscar still obtained his original flying spirit ring for his and as such the shrek teachers want to hide his flying abilities if they can.

They spend a month there and get a resounding reputation which quickly culminates into the form of the Shrek Seven Monsters. They have had many hard fights due to fighting above their original level as canon but they were eventually able to all get to gold ranked fighters with the exception of Oscar. An idea was put forth to create another new team with one of them. Letting one person be in two teams but the arena administration denied this possibility unless they were willing to break up the original team. Oscar declined this offer on behalf of everyone. They are eventually approached by the arena master to see if they would be willing to fight the Heaven Dou Academy students, the Emperor team. They quickly accept that the only reason they would not typically set the match without warning them like this is because of their team leader, a level 43 Spirit Ancestor by the name of Dugu Yan. With the assistance of both her parents and her very resourceful grandfather Dugu Bo. She was raised as an even greater monster than the team of monsters.

In fact, Dugu Bo originally wanted her sent to Shrek but Xue Tie vetoed this decision as being in a place filled with regular folk would humble her more but Xue Tie was also thinking of how to speed up the process of Shrek merging with Heaven Dou Academy without causing an issue with either empire. He decided that Dugu Bo would serve as a lynch pin for such a major decision if he retained his position as elder for the school. Granted Xue Tie kept mum about Liu Erlong and her Blue Tyrant Academy as that could be converted to a backup school or a subsidiary school later down the line for the other facilities related to the secondary professions.

Dugu Yan herself is very similar to her original self but less bewitching and more comprehensively beautiful due to her being less of a dominating beauty and more atmospheric. Like a purple Bellflower set upon a lonely hill. Observed but untouched as either her parents or Dugu Bo would likely rip out their brains through their asses thanks to the gigantic poison affinity the whole family has with the exception of Dugu Yan's mother.

The fight between the Emperor Team and the Seven Monsters is underway and the coordination is quite exceptional on both sides and unlike canon, Tang San is not able to get rid of Yan's poison with alcohol and fire, as such, most of his team is poisoned except him. But before they were down for the count, they took down Dugu Yans team so it was just a 1v1 of Tang San and Dugu yan. Almost like the original but he didn't go crazy due to the enemy team teaming up against Xiao Wu.

He is still able to secure the win due to his external martial spirit as his poison was deadlier than hers so she could only surrender with humility instead of being stubborn about it. Tang San won for his team and that concluded the Great Spirit Arena arc with the exception of the final fight being against the Fiend team that was heavily beaten up with one person even dying as they still used the Zhuge crossbows just in case. The killer was Tang San himself who used it to save RongRong from a powerful attack and overused the powerful weapon. That officially concluded their time at the arena.

Dugu Yan did have a private meeting with Tang San after their fight, so they could get to know each other and perhaps even have her join their school soon as this unintentionally fulfilled a condition her parents set for her.

It seems that as long as Dugu yan showed that she lost while using her full strength, they would provide her more freedom as Heaven Dou Academy would have showcased their lack of care if someone as talented and pampered as Dugu Yan still lost.

After the Shrek team left, Dugu Yans parents met with her and fulfilled their part of the agreement with one conniption to the plan as Dugu Bo told them about the Yin Yang well agreement and their relation to Xue Tie/Empyrean. Dugu Yan was noticeably shocked that Tang San had such connections at a young age. Her animosity towards him is lessened, especially so when Dugu Bo himself arrives and reveals a part of his plans to her.

Two weeks go by as they rest and recover before heading over to Heaven Dou academy in order for a cooperation between schools. The team still got into an argument with the prince Xue Beng though he is later disciplined for starting an argument against a team of spirit masters who are just as young as himself while being far more talented as they are obviously all above level 30. Once they arrived at the school's office and met the elders. Tang San and the others were still tested by them through their spirit power pressure but all of them resisted with some stress with Dai Mubai and Tang San himself after unleashing his eternal spirit bone. He could have tried to fully resist but he recognized that his value would he higher with it and it would have eased on his pressure.

The principal of the school and other elders all show signs of approval, including Dugu Bo which was a surprise inclusion for Tang San. Especially since he learned from his teachers that he had just beat his granddaughter not too long ago.

Xue Xing the younger brother to the emperor and overseer of heaven Dou appears and tries to dismiss them on grounds of offending the royal family. Shrek tries to argue that they didn't start shit with the prince but they eventually left. Dugu Bo then also announced that he was extracting Dugu Yan and bringing her to Shrek which almost makes Xue Xing cough up blood from confusion before it was revealed that Heaven Dou imperial Academy was just a means to an end for him and his family. Xue Xing was later punished by the emperor for his negligence as he both rejected a team of outstanding spirit masters who could serve as pillars for Heaven Dou if they played their cards right. They are after all friendly with The Empyrean Empire where they are from. But they also lost the support of a titled douluo and his family which is on the border of reaching clan status if Dugu Yan can secure the next generation of it or she gains siblings that can do so in her place.