Chapter Text
Hello! I have looked for something like this for years until I decided to try to make my own if no one else was going to. PS. I don’t own anything at all, except for the imaginary room I teleport them to.
When Tang San opened his eyes all he saw was black. He tensed, getting ready for a possible attack, before recognizing the smell around him and deciding that the black in his face was his best friend’s wall of a hair that for some reason was out of her scorpion-tail.
The last thing he remembered before ending up here was that he had been preparing for the last entrance-test into Shrek Academy. He had just been introduced to the two other people that were trying to get into Shrek Academy, a black-haired and a pink-haired girl, as well as introduced to Oscar, a white-haired boy with a beard for some reason. He and three girls taking the test were just about to start planning how to defeat the teacher and now here he was in a room which looked like a library with 16 other people, which he noticed when he pushed the hair out of his face. Other than Xiao Wu, who still hadn't moved from his chest, he could see both Zhu Zhuqing, the before mentioned black-haired girl, and Ning Rongrong, the pink-haired girl. Both girls stood up and were warily staring at everyone they didn't recognize before moving to stand with Dai Mubai and Oscar, who suddenly didn’t have his white beard anymore, who had also been joined by a short and fat redhead.
He pushed Xiao Wu off of himself before pushing himself off the ground. He helped Xiao Wu up and together they went to stand with the other teenagers while he continued checking out the other people in the room. He recognized three people so he wasn't so worried about what was going on, even as he knew that no one of the people he was familiar with would be overly familiar with him.
“Anyone recognizing someone? Oscar, Ma Hongjun and I know two people at least, Zhao Wuji and Flender, the Dean of Shrek Academy, but the others are unfamiliar,” said Dai Mubai quietly to the others. The seven were the only young people there, the rest looked to be middle aged or older. Tang San took note of the name Ma Hongjun, guessing that it was the redhead’s name.
“Yes! I recognize almost everyone in the group of four men over there. The black-haired one with the tie is my father, and the other black-haired one and the white-haired one is friends. I don’t know about the greenhead though,” came from Ning Rongrong, gesturing to a group of four people talking together some meters away. Just as she had said, one of the black-haired men wore a white suit with a matching white tie and a pair of glasses. Tang San was sure that this was who Ning Rongrong had said was her father, which begged the question if she was famous in any way, because her father sure seemed to have an aura of importance. In addition, the two friends she mentioned felt too powerful to just be normal spirit masters, and it wouldn’t surprise Tang San if they acted as guards to protect Ning Rongrong’s father.
“So we can guess that the green haired man is at least friendly because the four men are all talking together. That leaves us with six people left. I know that man in brown over there and that blue-haired woman is with him so I assume that we won’t face trouble from them either. That leaves the last four people. We all are familiar with Zhao Wuji, and I’m guessing that the black-haired one with glasses is the Dean. Xiao Wu and I recognize the white-haired one and the girl seems to know them so everyone seems to be on friendly terms,” Tang San reasoned. Just as he told the others, Tang San did recognize one man in brown in the crowd. It was his father, younger, but still recognizable.
“Hey!” came the shout from one of the trio standing with Zhao Wuji, and the white-haired man who Tang San and Xiao Wu knew as Grandmaster went to the middle of the room. “We don't know why we are here and we don't know each other. So how about we all just sit down on these seats that just now magically appeared and go around introducing ourselves with names and spirit rank?”
Everyone looked around and Dai Mubai glanced at Oscar and Ma Hongjun before walking over to where Tang San knew Zhao Wuji, Grandmaster and the Dean were.
While they walked Zhu Zhuqing decided to tag along, probably having no one there that she herself recognised, and when the three boys were before Zhao Wuji they bowed calling him ‘Teacher’, before turning to the black haired man with glasses and doing the same but calling him ‘Dean’.
The black-haired Dean man stared at them.
“I'm sorry. But I'm not a dean of some kind,” he said, unsure about how to handle the situation.
“Then my theory is correct,” commented both Tang San and Grandmaster in sync, the “Dean’s” statement confirming the theory that they both had been developing. Everyone stared at them except for Xiao Wu who was used to, and kind of expecting it. She knew how in sync the teacher and his student could be, even if the teacher at this moment knew who Tang San were.
“You go, boy,” Grandmaster said, challenging Tang San to see what theory the little boy could have come up with. Recognising this as an intelligence test because Grandmaster didn’t know him yet, Tang San didn’t allow himself to be intimidated and instead started to explain.
“If I am correct then we are all from different timelines. I believe Zhao Wuji, together with the four men are from the same time as us children. The reason being that Zhao Wuji didn’t react when he was greeted as ‘teacher’ and one of us was able to identify three of the four men before. If teenagers’s timeline as a baseline, because 12 of us is from that timeline, then I can be relatively sure that the man with the brown cloak and the lady in blue are from 12-13 years ago for reasons I won’t explain, while you and your little trio are from around eight years ago possibly, which is a guess founded by the Dean’s lack of knowledge regarding the academy,” Tang San answered loud and clear without focusing on the interested and amazed stares he got from his statement. To be honest, no one except Tang San and Grandmaster had bothered to look around yet and definitely didn’t entertain the idea of time travel in this situation.
“I'm impressed, that was my theory too. Now, hurry up children so that we can get things moving,” Grandmaster said and Ning Rongrong hopped over to the quartet and hugged the man with black hair that she earlier told the teenagers was her father.
Then it was only Tang San and Xiao Wu left to decide who to sit beside, and Tang San knew Xiao Wu would follow him wherever he went. The question was, should he go sit with Grandmaster who had been like a father to him for six years but at this point in time didn't know him, or go to his father who also didn't know him just to get to know the lady who he was hoping was his mother.
He made his decision and walked over to his father with Xiao Wu behind him.
Tang San said nothing to his parents and just took his place on one of the seats arranged in a circle. All the others walked over to the seats and sat down as well. The adults decided to introduce themself first.
“I am Flender and known as the Flying Corner of the Golden Iron Triangle, rank 83 Spirit Douluo,” said the black-haired, glasses-wearing man that Dai Mubai, Oscar and Ma Hongjun earlier had called “Dean”.
Of course Shrek Academy, known to only train monsters, would have a Spirit Douluo as Dean, thought Tang San. This was the first time he had seen the headmaster of the academy that his teacher had recommended for him and Xiao Wu. Flender’s got a reaction from everyone except Tang San’s father and the lady he was with.
“Really, I guess that means that the other corners of the Golden Iron Triangle are here too?” Ning Rongrong’s father questioned and received a sharp nod in return from Flender.
Jumping over Ma Hongjun that had taken a seat between her and Flender, the red-haired woman sitting besides Grandmaster cleared her throat, bringing the attention to her before introducing herself.
“I’m Liu Erlong and known as the Slaughtering Corner of the Golden Iron Triangle, rank 81 Spirit Douluo,” said Liu Erlong flicking her hair and intentionally hitting Flender in the face causing him to stutter and everyone else to laugh. This time nobody gave too much of a reaction, from Flender’s introduction they knew that the other two corners would be there as well so she was expected.
As to not drag out the time, Grandmaster decided to just begin introducing himself quickly, not wanting the attention for longer than necessary.
“I am Yu Xiaogang, known as Grandmaster and the Directing Corner of the Golden Iron Triangle. rank 29 Spirit Grandmaster,” Grandmaster said causing even Tang San a shock. He didn’t know Grandmaster's real name was Yu Xiaogang, to be honest, even if it was a little childish he had actually wondered if Teacher had been born with the name Grandmaster. And he was apparently part of the famous trio Golden Iron Triangle, which to Tang San was even more shocking. This also piqued the interest of the three men with Ning Rongrong’s father and Tang San’s own father. In Tang San’s and the other’s time, Grandmaster was very famous around older spirit masters despite his rank, while Teacher’s spirit rank probably shocked Tang Hao who wasn’t prepared for a “weak” rank 29 spirit master to be in a group with two Spirit Douluos.
Noticing that he was the next adult in line after jumping over both Oscar and Dai Mubai who sat between Grandmaster and himself, Zhao Wuji went next.
“Zhao Wuji, rank 76 Spirit Sage,” he said quickly before mentioning for the next person to continue, not interested in wasting time on these things.
Skipping over Zhu Zhuqing, Ning Rongrong’s father cleared his throat before starting to introduce himself and his two friends.
“I am Ning Fengzhi and head of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. Rank 79 Spirit Sage,” which caused everyone except Ning Rongrong to bow to him in respect of his position in society. “And these are the guardians of my clan. Chen Xin, known as the Sword Douluo and Gu Rong, known as the Bone Douluo,” Ning Fengzhi said, mentioning to the one with long white hair when introducing the Sword Douluo and the one with short black hair when introducing the Bone Douluo. It is not often that you meet a Titled Douluo, especially when only around 10 Titled Douluos exist in the world, so the assembled crowd bowed to them as well.
Then the green haired man introduced himself quickly with a strong but quiet voice.
“I’m Dugu Bo, the Poison Douluo”.
While everyone bowed to him as well, Tang San jumped a little in surprise and excitement. Sitting beside Tang San sat a person whose spirit and interest was so invested in poison that he was called the Poison Douluo. Tang San hoped that they would be able to talk about that later, maybe experiment together as Tang San hadn’t really had time yet to partake in his passion of poison in this world. Maybe this dimension had something new and specific that he could learn from Dugu Bo. But Tang San decided that that would have to wait because if he was reading the signs right, then Dugu Bo himself was actually poisoned and might need Tang San’s help later as the only other person with extensive knowledge about poisons.
As Tang San turned back to reality he just caught his father saying “rank 89 Spirit Douluo,” which caused everyone to basically explode. While everyone seemed to stare at Tang San’s father, Tang San himself just stared at the wall trying to come up with something to support his father’s claim but came up empty-handed. Tang San hadn’t even seen his father for six years now and wondered if his absence when Tang San returned home had something to do with his spirit rank, because Tang San had always believed his father had a weak hammer-spirit. But here sat a younger version of his father from before Tang San himself was conceived, claiming to be just one rank away from Titled Douluo.
“Why are you staring?” Tang Hao said loudly before glaring at everyone, warning them to stop the staring and answer him.
“It’s… just something you do in the future, that’s all,” said Grandmaster, who Tang San had noticed didn’t stare at Tang Hao like someone had cut off his head like the others were doing.
“Hm,” was Tang Hao’s only answer which caused Tang San to shake his head. That was his father alright.
“I am Tang Hao’s soon-to-be wife, Ah Yin, rank 59 Spirit Ancestor,” said the blue-haired girl sitting beside Tang San’s father with a little smile. This caused Tang San to smile himself. The timeline matched, his father was going to marry and he recognized the look in his father’s eyes. It was the same look he knew he was sending to Xiao Wu when he looked at her so he concluded that this had to be his mother. The mother that he had never seen, heard and met before was sitting on the other side of Xiao Wu and now he was glad that she sat as a safety barrier between them, to stop him from doing anything stupid or embarrassing.
“Now the kids,” said Flender before being stopped by Grandmaster. He held up a book and a note and explained that the note said that they were going to read about the past, present and future while specifically following one of the teens and that it would be better if the book introduced them when they appeared in the story.
This caused all the teenagers to look at each other along with the adults, trying to figure out which child was the ‘chosen one’ in this case, but Tang San was pretty sure this could only be centred around himself.
“Give me the book, I’m pretty sure it’s about me. And if it isn’t then I don’t want to know how strange and twisted your past is compared to mine,” Tang San said, referencing his past life, and taking the book from Grandmaster when he held it out. “I’ll read this first chapter because of it”.
“How can you be sure it’s about you?” asked the Ma Hongjun with a cocky attitude.
“If the first chapter is what I think it is then everything will be explained,” Tang San answered back before opening the book and starting to read.