"Twin spirits." Tang San mumbled as he tried to regain himself. The counter attack had been outside of what he predicted to be possible. Using the 'Controller of the Crane and Dragon' in order to restrain their opponents guard long enough for Xiao Wu to preform one of her heavy attacks was a combo that hadn't ever failed before.
It was starting to make sense. His ability to reach such a high rank so quickly. During the lower ranks, one could boost themselves along by absorbing higher powered spirit rings. That's why the first spirit ring is still considered important for future spirit masters to choose wisely, even though the actual effectiveness of that first tier skill falls off quickly.
By absorbing spirit rings that were so close to the believed limit for safe attempts, Tang San and Xiao Wu had managed to skip from rank ten to rank thirteen. And if a four hundred year old spirit could let them skip so many ranks, what would two or even four thousand-plus spirit rings let him skip? Such a method would fall off quickly and provide nearly zero benefit once you reached rank thirty, but the head start would be huge.
"Carrots..." Xiao Wu giggled to herself as she pushed herself to her feet. She seemed a little light headed.
"Xiao Wu, are you alright?" Tang San asked his adopted sister.
"She'll be fine. The toxins in my grip come from the Heaven Swallowing Python I absorbed a few days ago, it's only a hallucinogen. She should snap out of it in a few minutes." Ichi Guo said, looking over at Tang San. "Who the hell are you? I understand why the rabbit is as skilled as she is, but something tells me you didn't learn to use hidden weapons or binding spells at this school. So where did you learn it?"
"I invented them myself." Tang San said a little defensively. He wondered what the boy meant by the comment about Xiao Wu's skills, but he didn't want to reveal his own origins. Not in front of so many people.
"Bull crap!" Ichi Guo said with a scoff. Tang San winced at the conclusion that the boy reached. It was odd how others hadn't reached the same conclusion. But then, to his surprise, Ichi Guo seemed to just stop caring. "Whatever, none of my business anyways."
"How about you? Where did you learn to do that?" Tang San asked, pointing towards the gash in the ground left by the older boy's technique.
"Would you believe me if I told you I learned it from a creepy man in a stupid hat who reported to have free candy?" Ichi Guo said, raising an eyebrow.
"Um... no." Tang San said, awkwardly fingering at the ornament that hung from his hair.
"And out of the two of us, I'm the one telling the truth." Ichi Guo said before turning his head towards the principal. Rukia was standing there with her chest puffed out.
"You lost our bet, time to pay up." She said cheerfully even as the woman seemed to be on the brink of tears. Ping Qang had just let two of the most promising students she could have found slip through her fingers, and she had lost a bet. Not to mention that everyone saw it.
Ichi Guo started to walk away from Tang San when the monk boy called out after him. "Wait! The dart in your leg!" He shouted.
Ichi Guo paused. "Oh, right. Forgot about that." He said, looking down at the piece of metal sticking out of his leg. Tang San was about to suggested letting him remove it to minimize the damaged caused by removing it, when Ichi Guo grabbed onto the thing and ripped it out, barbs and all, cutting open his leg. He didn't even wince as he pulled the thing out, as if the pain was nothing.
Tang San's eyes widened, and his thoughts immediately went to getting a healer when the boy placed a hand over the wound. His fingers began to glow green, and he had a look of concentration on his face. A few seconds later, he removed his hand to show that the cut had been patched up. Then, he just kept walking, as if nothing had happened.
"What in the world is he?" Tang San mumbled to himself. Just like Tang San himself knew too many skills for any seven year old boy, this person was far too skilled for an eight-year-old, not to mention he spoke a language that Tang San was fairly sure didn't exist in this world. The most reasonable conclusion that Tang San could draw was that he was also someone who was reincarnated with his memories intact. Someone who had been a master swordsman and a spiritualist in a previous life. He had read a bit about Japanese Samurai, Shinobi and Onmyōji. It wasn't impossible.
However, his personality wasn't very noble-like. He talked more like a thug rather than a proud warrior; a mercenary or some kind of pariah perhaps? Or maybe their societies are just more accepting of cocky assholes. It seemed like that was the case in Heaven Dou Empire. Tang San would grudgingly admit to himself that the longer he lived in this new world, the more cocky he became. Emotions and personal pleasure started to rule out over logic and honor.
He knew his old master would have been disappointed with him, letting his pride get him involved in fights when he hadn't done proper preparations for it. His original sneak attack had been rather half-assed. Not to mention revealing his knowledge of Japanese without considering the consequences. Maybe he was getting too cocky too. Maybe this Ichi Guo had been a real proud warrior before in his old life, and he just started to get cocky after reincarnation.
Tang San tried to run the battle through his head, analyzing the boy's attack patterns. It was clear that he was a veteran. Not just someone who trained for many years to master a style, but an actual war veteran. Even though Tang San had spent a lifetime Mastering the theology and skills of the Tang Sect, he had not been in any wars personally. He had only ever read or been told about the differences between people who had lived true battle compared to people who had only studied it. The difference in reaction speed was incredible.
While Tang San would believe that his plans had been better within that fight, the speed of Ichi Guo's reflexes had let him find a way out of Tang San's traps before he could be taken down. It had been a battle between theory and experience as much as a battle between powers, and experience had won.
"Don't get discouraged." Yu Xiao Gang said as he walked up to his students. He looked as tired as ever, as if the battle hadn't done anything to excite him. "The two of you are talented, but you weren't ready to fight such an opponent just yet. Give yourself time and let this be a learning experience. From failure, learn your weaknesses and prepare for the next encounter."
Tang San smiled. "Master, I am not discouraged. It gladdens me to see that there is still so much for me to learn. The fact that he exists means that there are greater possibilities." Tang San said, meaning every word of it. "I will train harder and smarter, until I can bridge the gap between experience and knowledge."
"Yes. That's a good way of seeing it." The Master said with a short nod. He also looked as Ichi Guo and Rukia were being led away. "A pity, they would have made interesting students."
"Hey! You aren't thinking of replacing us, are you Master!?" Xiao Wu said angrily as she got over the effects of the mild poisoning.
"Wouldn't think about it." Yu Xiao Gang said, a weak smile passing over his face. "Xiao San, make sure you meditate on the events of today. Consider your assumption and see if they are worth making."
"Yes, Master." Tang San said with a bow as his teacher took his leave coughing into his hand.
Yu Xiao Gang spent hours in his study, trying to figure out what exactly had happened during that day's match. He hadn't been surprised at all by the fact that his 'boss' lost. The woman put far too much value in raw power and speed, neglecting planning and style in her battles. But for Tang San and Xiao Wu to lose had been slightly surprising to him.
Both Tang San and Xiao Wu were more than just talented in the field of raw power, their skills and teamwork were top notch. The two of them could have gone up against any or even all of the teachers and have a good chance of coming out on top. Ichi Guo had just been a different type of monster entirely. It was as if fighting was his nature, rather than something he had simply practiced. Even now, Yu Xiao Gang was having a hard time wrapping his mind around what the boy had been able to do.
Twin Spirits. The greater diversity in attack patterns was a good boon on the battlefield, but the visible second it takes to switch from one to the other is a fatal flaw. Tang San also had twin spirits, and Yu Xiao Gang had advised him to focus solely on his Blue Silver Grass, despite it being the weaker of the two spirits.
This was for two reasons, the first being that his second spirit, the Clear Sky Hammer would grab the wrong kind of attention. The second was because of a plan to wait until he was able to absorb much higher rank spirit rings so that even his lower tier skills would be as powerful as high tier skills, making the ultimate spirit essence.
But with what he had seen, that idea was coming into question.
Ichi Guo possessed spirit rings that far exceeded his current level, and on both spirit essences. Was there a possible loophole in the use of such spirit essences? Something that could give Tang San an even greater edge? As Tang San's mentor, it was his duty to make sure he explored every possible option to insure his disciple's success.
However, there was something that bugged him. Ichi Guo had manifested both of his twin spirits at the same time. Something that he shouldn't have been able to do. It was a rule imposed by the very nature of spirit essences that you could only synchronize with one at a time. So how had the boy used two at once?
"Unless he didn't." Yu Xiao Gang mumbled to himself. "He made two spirits one." Pulling out some paper he started to rapidly draw out calculations and theories. It was not something that had happened before to his knowledge. The situation would have been rare enough for no one to even try. He wasn't even sure if it was possible. "Spirit Fusion with only one person involved."
Spirit Fusion involved a resonance between two spirit essences with a noise factor of less than twenty percent. For any two spirits to be able to perform it was extremely unlikely. The odds were roughly one in fifty thousand. So when combined with the one in a hundred chance of twin spirits, you have a one in five million chance of it happening. Not by any means impossible, but rare enough that no one would even think to look for it. Had such individuals always existed but have been simply overlooked and gone untrained due to the case being unknown?
Could a single host manage to sustain a Spirit Fusion? Yu Xiao Gang had no idea. In his experience, Spirit Fusion had always been between two or more skilled Spirit Masters, not a single individual.
If two Greater Spirit Master's preformed a Spirit Fusion, then the byproduct would be a power that could match a Spirit Ancestor with ease. What if Tang San could do something similar? Unlikely, but would take more research to be sure.
Yu Xiao Gang got up from his desk and moved through the hallway towards the library, his eyes still focused on the book in his hand, though his mind wondered to what other resources he would need. It wasn't until he actually went to the shelf where the book he wanted should have been, patting the spot where it should be only to find nothing there that he looked up. His jaw dropped open as his book slid out of his hand. Not only that shelf was empty, but all of the shelves were.
"Wha... What happened to all my books!?"
Saying that Ichigo has combat experience is like saying that the ocean is wet.
While Tang San has his skills, he is more of a person who has studied combat, rather than someone who has lived it. So there will be differences between how Ichigo and Tang San approach things.
For example, Ichigo's opinion of Tang San is... whatever... nice fight. Not really curious, and content to mind his own business as long as no lives are at risk. While Tang San deeply wants to get whatever information he can to learn and get stronger.
Ichigo is like a free lance bodyguard, while Tang San is a monk assassin(or maybe the leader of a group of assassins).
I'm on some new meds right now, so I might be talking nonsense here. Please feel free to ignore it.
I'm wanting to spoil things for you guys. Not out of any desire to ruin the reading experience for people, but because I realize that there is about 1% of you people how are simply impatient beyond belief and are going to make all the wrong assumption before I have a chance to explain. Then they are going to whine my ear off about it.
For example, I have received several reviews stating how stupid it is to bring Aizen back from the dead as the main bad guy, even after I already established that it was a nightmare, simply because people wouldn't read on to the next freaking page before giving me crap. It was even obvious before you read the next chapter that he wasn't real.
None of you people who did it ever even apologized. Assholes.
Anyways. Consider this line your spoiler warning. Just stop reading here if you believe yourself smart enough to see things coming or want to keep it a surprise or are willing to keep your mouth shut and not to get confused or anger that it takes five minutes to establish a plot before you can do the plot twist.
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Rukia has the Hōgyoku inside of her as a second Spirit Essence, and Old Man Zangetsu is keeping it hidden. I've already hinted towards this several times and it will be hinted to a lot more in the coming chapters before I openly reveal it in the plot (if I ever get that far). Ichigo's use of Spirit Fusion has its negative effects that he doesn't know about yet, which he will later have to overcome. (again, if I ever get that far)