7 Datura Snake

Unfortunately, the three did not leave the area fast enough. From their right, the howls of wolves could be heard.

Grandmaster spun around and growled, "A pack of tenth ranked hell wolves! San Pao can handle this."

Raising his hand, Grandmaster sent his spirit Luo San Pao towards the wolves. A yellow ring of light flew out to encircle San Pao's body and flashed as Grandmaster activated his ring's ability Thunder Shock. San Pao shot up into the air almost five meters and faced his rear toward the wolves. A deafening sound like the rumble of thunder erupted at that moment.

A yellow cloud engulfed the six wolves and caused them to fling up like broken burlap sacks. They plunged down more than ten meters away, with two hell wolves' waists smashing against tree trunks. They howled pitifully, but were unable to rise.

The other wolves on the ground rolled over quickly. From those fresh blood was flowing out of the hell wolves' mouths, Tang San and Durand could see how powerful the shockwave had been. Following a short period of wolf cries and whimpers, many quickly ran away.

Grandmaster at this time still did not neglect to instruct his students, "Wolves and dogs bodies are very alike in structure, both with weaknesses in the waist."

While speaking, Grandmaster stepped forward with big steps and at some point he had drawn a short knife, cutting the necks of the two unmoving hell wolves. As he did so, he also spread some realgar on the bodies, thus covering the smell of blood.

Pointing at the white rings that had coalesced above the dead wolves, Grandmaster said, "Within two hours, these rings will disperse on its own. This is why we had to treat Durand so quickly. Otherwise he would have lost his chance at absorbing his first spirit ring. Little San, hand me two white radishes."

Tang San fumbled at his waist, drawing out two white radishes from Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges and handing them to Grandmaster.

Grandmaster offhandedly tossed them towards Luo San Pao, who, following a burst of excited "luoluo" sounds, gulped down the two radishes with lightning speed.

"Variant spirits' characteristics already cannot be understood like ordinary spirit theory. San Pao can rely on eating food to reduce my spirit power consumption. But for its only three attacks, every time one attack is used it must immediately replenish."

"Does San Pao only eat white radish?" Tang San asked.

Grandmaster gave him a pained look, saying, "You saw, San Pao attacks by farting and the stench is quite nasty. Spirit beasts similarly cannot stand it, therefore those hell wolves fled quickly. White radishes, are particularly good at replenishing Luo San Pao's "ammo": just two are enough for one charge."

Tang San and Durand looked awkward; they wanted to laugh but this was obviously a subject of pain for their teacher. Seeing this, Grandmaster quickly changed the subject.

"It will get dark soon. We should start setting up a camp for tonight," Grandmaster said as he looked at the sky above that was slowly turning orange.

Turning back to his students, Grandmaster delegated a few responsibilities, "Durand, focus on healing your internal wounds by circulating your spirit power. Don't summon your Tree of Life, it isn't safe. You also need to stabilize your cultivation since you just barely got through your advancement. Tang San, spread the realgar in a circle around our camp."

Grandmaster passed Tang San a bag of white powder. Realgar helped to mask their scent, preventing predators from detecting them too easily. Also, it was useful for keeping insects and other small critters away while they slept.

Durand sat down cross legged, meditating. Though his Tree of Life spirit could passively repair any injuries he received, the effects were slow as he had not absorbed any rings and his wound this time was extremely severe. Internally, he could sense the exact damage the spike had caused to his left shoulder. It had shattered his clavicle and ripped out a significant portion of his trapezius muscle. Fortunately, the spike had just narrowly missed the left subclavian artery. If that had been severed and given that it had already been nearly two hours since the injury, his left arm had just barely escaped from significant muscle damage.

[Author note: Clavicle = collarbone. Trapezius muscle = muscle above and behind collarbone, connecting neck, arm and back. It is the most common area for self-shoulder massages. Subclavian artery = extremely important artery that brings oxygenated blood from the heart to your arms. Located just below the clavicle. Google-san says that human muscle tissue can survive two hours without blood before significant muscle damage occurs. Minor damage occurs around 30-45 minutes]

As he circulated his spirit power, he gritted his teeth from the pain, as his bones and muscles regenerated. His body rapidly absorbed spirit power from his surroundings to maintain the rate at which his regeneration depleted. As he did so, his cultivation climbed until he reached the 12th rank. He had already been near the 12th rank since he had continued to cultivate even after the awakening ceremony. However, it was the excess energy from the 600-year spirit beast ring that had pushed him to the next level.

Slowly, as his injury became smaller and smaller, he began regaining his senses around him. The first thing he smelled was hot soup. Grandmaster and Tang San had made a small pot of soup; a suitable meal for an injured person. After that, he realized that the forest was extremely dark. His healing process and cultivation had taken several hours and the moon had already risen high into the sky. Seeing as Grandmaster and Tang San were still awake, they must have stayed up in order to guard him while he was weak and susceptible to danger.

Durand looked at the two emotionally with gratitude. His experiences as a child in his previous life had given him a great appreciation for the value of being cared for, especially in vulnerable situations.

"Is your injury healed already?" asked Grandmaster. Before, even though Durand's skin had healed over before he had absorbed his first ring, there had still been a visibly large bruise from the internal bleeding. However, Durand's shoulder looked almost completely normal without even a trace of having had a spike driven through it just two and a half hours before.

"It's pretty much healed," said Durand.

Grandmaster and Tang San looked as if a heavy weight had been lifted from their shoulders at the news. They hadn't shown it, but Durand's injury had scared the both of them: Grandmaster because Durand was one of his first disciples and Tang San because Durand was like a brother to him.

"Alright, Durand, summon your spirit so we can take a look," said Tang San.

Now that Durand had recovered, both Grandmaster and Tang San were very curious about Durand's first spirit ring. Grandmaster was especially curious to examine the changes to Durand's martial spirit.

Durand nodded and summoned his new mutated martial spirit. A milky-white jade armor wrapped around his torso, arms and legs. Finally, a spiked round shield, encrusted with similarly milky-white jade and nearly as tall as Durand, seemed to hover in front of his right arm. He could feel that as soon as he willed it, the shield would instantaneously move to anywhere he wanted.

Grandmaster and Tang San stared in wonder. Before, Durand's Fifteen Ton Ant Emperor had manifested itself like Luo Pan Sao instead of on Durand's body. Now, the spirit had changed from a beast spirit to a tool spirit. The change was baffling to Grandmaster who had never even hypothesized a mutation like this could occur.

"It seems that when your body and spirit was pushed to the limit to absorb the higher age ring, your martial spirit mutated to absorb the excess energy," said Grandmaster.

After a pause, he asked, "Do you have a new name for your spirit?"

"Uhh…" Durand was stumped. (Didn't the System say that it would name my spirit for me? Status!)

[Status]

Name: Durand Emrys

Age: 6

Title: Spirit Master

Soul Power Rank: 12

Martial Spirits:

- Tree of Life (Cosmetic Appearance: Glowing Blue leaves) [Number of Rings: 0]

- Mutated Fifteen Ton Ant Emperor [Number of Rings: 1] [Select for Naming Options]

Class: Defense

Stats:

- Strength: 20 (+14)

- Agility: 6 (+2)

- Endurance: 30 (+22)

- Intelligence: 25 (+2)

Soul Rings:

[Shield Teleport – 600 Year Spike Plated Tortoise]

[Spirit Ring Effect: Shield can teleport anywhere within 10 meters (+31,250 m) to block attacks]

Though his spirit awakening had increased his stats by a couple points, it was nothing compared to the changes made by absorbing his first spirit ring. His endurance and strength had increased significantly and his agility and intelligence had increased slightly. However, what caught Durand's eye was the [Select for Naming Options] on his Status page.

Selecting it, a screen popped up in front of him.

[Mutated Fifteen Ton Ant Emperor Naming Options]

Jade Plated Emperor

Emperor Jade Armor

Jade Guardian

Guardian Emperor

Moonlight Guardian

Custom: Enter here

Looking at this teacher and friend, Durand asked, "What do you think of Moonlight Guardian? The white jade-like accents on my armor and shield look really similar to the jade on Tang San's Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges belt. Also, the shield and armor remind me of a guardian figure."

Grandmaster and Tang San thought for a moment and nodded. The name felt suitable and Durand mentally selected the Moonlight Guardian option his screen.

[Name "Moonlight Guardian" selected. Status Page updated.]

As Durand closed his status screen, Tang San excitedly asked, "So what is your first ring ability?"

"The shield, which has gained the defensive power of both my original spirit and the Plated Tortoise, can teleport anywhere within 100 meters," replied Durand. He felt a flash of guilt though for lying about the actual range of his abilities. After all, Grandmaster and Tang San cared for him and were trustworthy. But, it would be difficult to explain his reincarnation and how he had received his abilities. Especially since it would touch onto the fact that their entire world had been a work of fiction in his previous life.

"Hmmm, that is quite useful. It can be used in several different ways in a fight. Does the shield stay in place after it has moved away from you?" mused Grandmaster.

"The shield will stay in place. However, the force hitting the shield will be automatically transferred to the outside of my right forearm. Regardless of where the shield is physically, I will have to physically resist the force that the shield receives with the outside of my right arm," responded Durand.

"You'll have to spend a lot of time learning how your ability can be used. Remember, there are no trash spirits, just trash spirit masters. The way you can use your spirit ring will determine how strong you are as a spirit master," instructed Grandmaster.

"I'll work hard, teacher," Durand paused as his stomach rumbled. He asked with some embarrassment, "Can we eat now?"

Both Grandmaster and Tang San laughed as they scooped a bowl of soup for Durand.

Suddenly, Grandmaster asked Tang San and Durand a question, "Little San, Little Durand, do you know why a spirit master's youth is the most important time for their cultivation?"

Tang San and Durand shook their heads and Grandmaster responded, "Before their twentieth year, a spirit master's cultivation determines their future success. If one is able to pass the thirtieth rank before reaching twenty years of age, then their future prospects become limitless. However, if they aren't able to pass the threshold after twenty years, they will forever be unable to move beyond. Therefore, the two of you cannot delay a single minute. Though I can help with your first two rings, you will have to work without me to get your third spirit ring. The two of you must work very hard."

Suddenly, the forest grew quiet. The air around them seemed to gain a trace of a foul scent with a faint touch of sweetness.

"There's poison!" Tang San warned. Clearly, Tang San's experience with poison in his previous life had been brought with him into the world.

Nearby, they could hear a slight rustling. Tang San and Durand's eyes flashed purple; they strained their Purple Demon Eye's to the limit to locate the hidden threat. In the darkness, the two of them barely spotted a dark green triangular snake head hidden in a shrub with little ruby-like eyes staring at them like prey.

Tang San pointed in at the snake head's direction and urgently whispered, "Grandmaster, there."

Durand reacted quickly too, summoning his Moonlight Guardian and pulling out Hornet's Sting.

Grandmaster pulled a flare from his wrist spirit tool and tossed it in the direction that Tang San pointed. The flare landed and rolled on the floor as it illuminated the area. Grandmaster gasped in fear at the sight.

"It's a Datura snake! Why would this kind of ferocious fellow appear on the outskirts of the Spirit Hunting Forest? Hopefully, it's just a ten year spirit beast," said Grandmaster.

The snake seemed to become infuriated by the flare, raising its head and hissing at Luo San Pao. However, the realgar powder seemed to deter it from attacking at the moment.

In a low voice, Grandmaster said, "The Datura Snake's venom is extremely potent. Not only does it have a paralyzing effect, but it also causes powerful damage to the body's nerves. It's one of the most terrible among poison attribute spirit beasts. Its body is extremely tough, making it difficult to hurt with common weapons. Its mouth and eyes are the only weak points on its body. However, Datura snakes are very good at consistently protecting these two places and its speed is also incomparably fast. Most frightening about the Datura snake is its aggressive character. Datura snakes launch an attack at practically every human it encounters. The realgar powder will not be able to restrain it for long and it's just waiting for an opportunity to attack."

Grandmaster quickly pulled Tang San and Durand behind him. As he did so, he reminded, "Little San, Little Durand, I will instruct you in a principle. Rings many, bones many, attack. Rings few, bones few, run. I'll explain what spirit bones are later. Just remember that when you have more rings and bones than your opponent, you should attack to eliminate your opponent as quickly as possible. When you have fewer rings and bones than your opponent, you must unhesitatingly escape. Honor and pride have very little importance when compared to your life. If this Datura snake is only a ten year spirit beast, then we can risk our lives to fight it. If it is a hundred year spirit beast, the two of you must immediately run away."

After explaining this, Grandmaster immediately ordered Luo San Pao to attack, "Thunder Strike!"

Like with the wolves before, the massive snake body flew off the ground and was flung into the distance. The moment Grandmaster saw the Datura snake's full body, he immediately yelled at Tang San and Durand, "RUN! Quickly!"

From the size of the snake, Grandmaster knew that the snake had already reached four hundred years. He doubted that the three of them would be able to confront a spirit beast as fearsome as the Datura snake. Even though they had faced an even older spirit beast earlier that day, the Spike Plated Tortoise was not nearly as aggressive and did not have the capabilities to chase after prey if the three of them needed to retreat. In comparison, Grandmaster and his two students were surely to lose their lives if the Datura snake was able to catch them.

Turning his head to look as he ran with Grandmaster and Tang San, Durand could see that Luo San Pao's shock wave had surprisingly been unable to injure the Datura snake in the slightest. Just as the snake's body was just about to hit the ground, it immediately bent in a flash, darting forward. Every time its whip-like body came into contact with the ground, it could immediately shoot up like a spring. Its speed was incredibly fast and it continuously gained ground on the three of them.

In an effort to delay the Datura snake, Grandmaster commanded Luo San Pao to use Mesmerize. Though the ability had been marginally effective against the slow Spike Plated Tortoise, the Datura snake simply leapt over the yellow mist. Moreover, its poisonous attribute increased its resistance towards toxins and was merely slowed by Luo Pan Sao.

Just as the snake neared, Grandmaster commanded Luo San Pao to block the snake in desperation. However, at this moment, Tang San and Durand moved. Tang San's left hand pulled radishes from his Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges on his waist and began throwing them at the snake.

At the same time, Durand's first spirit ring flashed and his shield disappeared from his right forearm and reappeared in front of Luo San Pao. He then spun his right forearm so that the outside of his right arm faced backwards. The moment the Datura snake's head smashed into the shield, Durand launched himself toward the snake. The additional force of the snake hitting the shield transferred to Durand which caused him to fly even closer to the snake.

At this time, Tang San continued to distract the Datura snake with his radishes. In a flash however, he had jumped up and pulled out his sleeve dart that he had forged before he had left for the academy. Unfortunately, the snake was able to shift its body so that the sleeve dart failed to hit its eye and merely bruised the snake after bouncing off is hard scales.

In anger, the Datura snake's scales shined a faint yellow light and in even faster speed, pounced at Tang San. At this time, a massive shield, larger than Tang San, appeared in front of him. Once again the snake smashed into the shield. Durand, who had activated his ring ability once again, held Hornet's Sting in his left hand in a reverse grip and his right hand placed over his left. This time, the force from the Datura snake hitting the shield provided Durand the ability to break the snake's powerful defenses.

Hornet's Sting stabbed through the scales in the middle of the snake's body and the Datura snake screamed in pain. However, Durand was not done quite yet. The moment Hornet's Sting was lodged into the Datura snake, he released his left hand and gripped the dagger with his right, again in a reverse grip. This time his palm faced toward the snake's tail. The shield flickered and appeared behind the Datura snake.

When the snake reared its head furiously at the pain from its flank, it smashed into the shield. This time, the transferred force pushed Durand's arm and the dagger down along the snake's body. As the dagger traveled toward the tail, it split open the Datura snake's body. However, Durand paid a price for his gruesome attack. As he moved down the snake's body with the dagger, the writhing of the Datura snake caused Durand to be hit by the tail. This caused him to fly away from the snake and smash into a nearby tree.

However, the damage was done and the snake could no longer move its body's lower half. Now, the snake could no longer move as quickly or as far as it used to. Therefore, when Grandmaster and Luo San Pao attacked again with Mesmerize, the snake could not avoid it. Because it was bleeding so furiously, it could no longer resist the toxins. As it moved slower and slower, Tang San shot out another sleeve dart at the Datura snake's eye. This time the snake could not move at all and the dart penetrated through the eye and into the snake's brain. At this time, the snake had not yet died but it soon would.

Because of the dark, Grandmaster had not seen the dart enter the snake's eye. So he hurriedly called, "Durand, quickly use your shield to hold down the snake's head! Tang San, use the sword I gave you to kill it!"

Tang San and Durand moved quickly. Pressing his massive shield against the Datura snake's head, its body began thrash even more. However, Durand's strength had risen significantly due to his first spirit ring and his shield held the snake's head down firmly against the forest floor. Tang San drew the short sword quickly and after positioning the point of the sword toward the eye, pushed the sword through the snake's head. At this moment, the Datura snake could no longer keep holding onto its life and its thrashing grew slow. Finally, it grew still.

"Excellent, this is truly excellent. Little San, you're getting your first spirit ring," said Grandmaster excitedly.

Tang San gave Grandmaster a shocked look as he questioned, "Teacher, what are you saying? You can't be talking about this snake, right?"

Grandmaster nodded and replied seriously, "Exactly. The Datura snake grows a centimeter for each year it lives and this snake is already over 4 meters. This means that it is very close to the limit for normal spirit scholars to absorb for their first ring. With your innate full spirit power, absorbing this spirit ring will be no problem."

Tang San asked uncertainly, "But Teacher, my spirit is a plant, this Datura snake is a beast spirit. Won't it cause a conflict?"

Grandmaster replied confidently, "One of the ten core spirit world concepts of my research, is the spirit mimicry principle. Plant spirits do not necessarily have to absorb plant spirit rings, and beast spirits are not necessarily unable to absorb plant spirit rings. Under a variety of pre-conditions, both can equivalently absorb the other. Because the blue silver grass spirit is excessively small and weak, any spirit ring that is absorbed will not cause rejection and only passively assimilate. Therefore, absorbing this Datura snake's spirit ring is no problem. At the same time, do you remember what properties we wanted to find for your first spirit ring?"

Tang San's eyes brightened, "Toughness followed by poison. The Datura snake certainly possesses these two attributes."

Tang San quickly sat down and began absorbing the spirit ring. Just like when Durand absorbed his first ring, the large amount of energy from the ring rushed into Tang San's spirit. To the side, Durand quickly got to work, taking the bag of realgar from Tang San, he spread the powder all over the dead snake's body. Tang San would likely spend a long time absorbing the spirit ring and it was important to hide the smell of the snake's blood so that other predators did not disturb him. Grandmaster also needed to meditate to absorb his nearly depleted spirit power. After using the rest of the realgar, Durand also began lightly meditating to recover his spirit power. Of course, he maintained a constant sense of the areas around the three of them.

Fortunately, no spirit beasts wandered near them and Durand did not have to fight to defend Tang San and Grandmaster.