At Peach Garden Academy, Su Ran diligently taught Meng Yiran the unique skills of Necromancy and netherworld instrument thousand cry, setting her on a development path as a summoner Spirit Master and a master of hellish Hidden Weapons.
Zhu Zhuqing also absorbed a Spirit Bone from a Nether Beast, a thirty-thousand-year-old Nether Beast Right Leg Bone, which granted her an excellent Nether skill and significantly increased her spirit power, giving her the Spirit Ability: Netherworld Vortex.
To Su Ran's slight surprise, upon returning to the academy, he learned that Ning Rongrong's third spirit ring from the Steel Bone Ironclad Tiger not only perfected her second stage of Golden Bell Cover but also yielded an Ironclad Torso Bone.
Unexpected, yet reasonable—this was one of the reasons Su Ran hunted Spirit Beasts that aligned with their cultivation techniques; what if a Spirit Bone dropped?
Spirit Bones are extremely rare on the Douluo Continent; even a thousand-year Spirit Bone is something Spirit Masters dream of.
The power of a Spirit Bone lies not only in its potential to grant a Spirit Master a Spirit Ability but also in its growth potential. Even a thousand-year Spirit Bone can strengthen as the Spirit Master grows, though its growth rate is slow. Few Spirit Masters can temper their physical bodies to exceed the strength of a ten-thousand-year Spirit Beast.
However, external Spirit Bones, which are independent of the six major Spirit Bones, grow at a faster rate.
Fortunately, this Ironclad Torso Bone complemented the Seven Treasure Golden Bell Shield perfectly.
Having already cultivated the defensive ultimate skill, Golden Bell Cover, coupled with this impenetrable Spirit Bone ability, it could provide Ning Rongrong with over 50% increased defense and a weight bonus from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, directly elevating her shield value to a level unbreakable by Spirit Masters of the same realm.
Su Ran also equipped Ning Rongrong with a bone-nourishing fluid specifically for warming Spirit Bones, which could rapidly increase the Spirit Bone's age. Given time, it could elevate it to over ten thousand years, significantly enhancing its effects.
While in the Star Dou Great Forest, Su Ran considered hunting the Man Faced Demon Spider that Tang San needed, as it possessed a growth-oriented external Spirit Bone, the Eight Spider Lances. However, he thought it over and gave up.
Firstly, finding that Man Faced Demon Spider in the vast outer region of the Star Dou Great Forest would be difficult. Secondly, even if he found it, the Man Faced Demon Spider was only two thousand years old, which was still too young. Moreover, Zhu Zhuqing and Meng Yiran, who were suitable for absorbing the Man Faced Demon Spider spirit ring, were both girls. If they absorbed the Eight Spider Lances...
Can you imagine a blossoming young girl, during a Spirit Master battle, having her back clothing torn, exposing her upper body, and unfurling Eight Spider Lances?
There was a very powerful woman on the continent who, because spiders were too ugly, fought timidly and avoided using her spirit power when possible, resulting in her being furiously hammered by someone four or five levels lower than her.
Simply because that thing was too ugly.
So Su Ran gave up.
He could find better Spirit Bones for his disciples in the future; there was no need to care about a single Eight Spider Lances.
...
In the following period, Meng Yiran followed Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong in their daily training, each cultivating their unique skills. Due to Zhu Zhuqing's prior exposure to a hellish Hidden Weapon given by Su Ran—the Ghost Shuttle—Zhu Zhuqing also learned a bit of netherworld instrument thousand cry and exchanged pointers with Meng Yiran.
Necromancy was a cultivation method compatible with Meng Yiran's Spirit, requiring her to absorb the power of the sun, moon, and stars through her snake staff and ingest the death qi from the earth's veins. It was exclusive to her Spirit, and only when the snake staff evolved into a Death Spirit Snake Staff would she be considered to have truly entered the path.
As for netherworld instrument thousand cry, in addition to learning about hellish and netherworld Hidden Weapons, it also required practicing movement techniques and crafting methods. Like Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill, it had a very important ability: hand training.
However, Tang San trained in Mysterious Jade Hand, while Zhu Zhuqing and Meng Yiran trained in Earth Nether Hand. The two had similarities but also significant differences.
However, one thing was certain: if Tang San were to see their perfected Earth Nether Hand, he would be greatly astonished.
And so, at Peach Garden Academy, four students diligently cultivated their top-tier ultimate skills, reversing their destinies.
The students of Shrek Academy were not idle either.
Under the urging of Zhao Wuji and the new teachers at Shrek, Tang San, Oscar, Ma Hongjun, Dai Mubai, and Xiao Wu were also diligently cultivating. Each of them used primitive weighted methods, carrying a large stone on their backs, enduring the scorching sun or heavy rain, running back and forth between Shrek Academy and Soto City like idiots, training their basic physical endurance.
At Peach Garden Academy, even when Ning Rongrong trained her basic physical endurance, Su Ran specifically spent money to custom-make weighted equipment for her, fitting her body movements.
Shrek, it was poor to a certain extent.
If carrying bricks were useful, then the young men at construction sites should all be Titled Douluo, right?
...
"Monsters? Is this what you call monsters? As soon as I arrived, I heard that you all were beaten so badly by Peach Garden Academy next door that you lost your temper. How dare you call yourselves monsters? I think you're all good-for-nothings."
"Everyone, an additional ten rounds of running back and forth!"
At Shrek Academy, a man of medium build, plain appearance, in his forties or fifties, joined. As soon as he arrived, he heard Zhao Wuji and a few Little freaks reporting the situation to Flender.
Upon learning that Tang San had absorbed the Man Faced Demon Spider and the external Spirit Bone Eight Spider Lances, he was quite pleased. However, when he learned that the other students of the academy—Dai Mubai was severely injured by Zhu Zhuqing, who was of a lower realm than him, and Evil Fire Phoenix Ma Hongjun was evenly matched with a support Spirit Master—his expression instantly changed.
Useless, all useless!
The next day, he joined forces with Zhao Wuji to conduct special training for several Shrek students:
Grouped Spirit Master duels within the academy + weighted running.
It was hard to say how effective it was, but these Little freaks of Shrek were indeed exhausted, their backs bent by the weight of the rocks.
By dusk, after finishing the last lap, Oscar couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed at the entrance of Shrek. Ma Hongjun also collapsed, sitting on the ground, complaining:
"Grandmaster, isn't this intensity too high? I feel like I'm going to die from exhaustion."
"I can't take it anymore, I can't take it. I feel sore all over now. If tomorrow is still this intense, I feel like I'll be meeting the King of Hell."
"No pain, no gain. If you can't even endure this little bit of special training now, do you still hope to achieve great things in the future? That's simply dreaming."
Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang snorted.
"Want to lighten the load? When you can surpass the students of Peach Garden Academy, then we can talk about it!"
"Grandmaster is right, look at how those students from Peach Garden Academy have suppressed you? Don't you have any ambition?"
"Xiaogang is one of the most knowledgeable people on the continent, once the wisdom corner of our Golden Triangle. With his special training and guidance, given time, you will definitely surpass those students from Peach Garden Academy. Train hard, understood?"
Because the students of Peach Garden Academy performed exceptionally well, and it was rumored that they had recently recruited a new student, Flender's sense of crisis was very strong as he had failed to poach them.
"So tired."
Is this special training something a human could devise?
Running with bricks, freedom is the direction~
Xiao Wu's face was full of fatigue, and she also sighed deeply, but hearing Flender also exaggerate the Grandmaster's wisdom, she tried to lift her Spirits again.
"Alright, stop complaining. I've already calculated your weight limits. Not to mention dying from exhaustion, you won't even get injured. It's just running, that's all."
"Little San, what do you think?"
Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Tang San and asking.
Tang San was also extremely tired, but he still bit the bullet and nodded: "Teacher must have his reasons, I believe in Teacher."
"Hmm, that's good. Alright, you all should go in and rest quickly."
With Tang San's affirmation, Yu Xiaogang gained a bit more confidence, nodded, and motioned for the Little freaks to return to the academy to rest.
"Ouch, my back~"
Not long after Yu Xiaogang spoke, Oscar got up from the ground, took a couple of steps, and his expression changed. Due to the sudden day of negative pressure, his back... was strained.
"Grandmaster..."
Oscar looked at Yu Xiaogang aggrievedly, weren't you saying we wouldn't get injured from this training...
"It's nothing, it's nothing. Little San, help him back to rest for a while, apply some medicine, and he'll be fine. food system Spirit Masters are naturally weaker in physique."
"Mm." Tang San nodded.
...
"They're all tired and gone back to lie down. Why aren't you going back to rest?"
Watching the students who had undergone special training return to the academy one after another, Yu Xiaogang sighed. Turning around, he discovered that the only girl in the academy hadn't left yet; she was looking at him from behind, seemingly with something she wanted to say.
"Um, I heard from Brother San that Grandmaster, you are very knowledgeable and learned. I have a question I'd like to ask you."
Xiao Wu rubbed her fingers, stammering.
"What question? As long as it's not a particularly secret or niche question, I should be able to tell you the answer." Yu Xiaogang puffed out his chest, confidently.
"Um, um... Grandmaster, you are so learned, do you know who the most handsome young man on the continent is right now? What's his name? Where is he now? Um, he shouldn't be over twenty years old, and he's probably six or seven feet tall."
Xiao Wu looked at Yu Xiaogang expectantly.
This question was very important to her.
As long as she could get the answer, she wouldn't complain even if she had to run with weights for another month.
This chapter mentions Spirit Bone evolution, and some readers have questions.
I have reviewed the original text's description of Spirit Bones in this section. The original text did state that all Spirit Bones could evolve, but it's also possible that Tang Jia San Shao later changed the setting, rewriting it so that only external Spirit Bones could grow with the Spirit Master.
Here, I have adopted the former setting. Since they are all bones absorbed into the Spirit Master's body and connected by blood, it makes sense that they should all be able to grow with the Spirit Master, with only differences in the speed of evolution. Otherwise, if I'm level 99 and my bones are only at five thousand years' strength, is that reasonable? Wouldn't my bones shatter if an extreme Douluo hit me?