Chapter 45: Journey to Spirit City
Over the following month, Ye Wen began treating Dugu Bo and his son, Dugu Xin. He found Tang San's original method of infusing poison into a soul bone to be nothing short of a ticking time bomb for Dugu Bo's body. With that method, managing the poison would be more labor intensive than simply expelling it altogether. The entire plot felt like a convenient, superficial fix that, somehow, even Dugu Bo a true master of poison had accepted without question. It really made Ye Wen doubt the intelligence of Douluo's romance focused heroes.
The Douluo world itself had an odd fascination with dragons. Dragon blooded soul beasts existed in both Eastern and Western forms, and creatures ranging from snakes to carp, lizards, and salamanders were considered to possess dragon blood. The Jade Phosphor Serpent, too, belonged to this prestigious lineage, although its talents leaned heavily toward poison. Dugu Bo's family, however, had limited themselves to hunting only venomous snakes for their soul rings, thus amplifying the poison within their bloodline to the brink of lethality.
With a soul master's insight, Ye Wen suggested a different approach: they should hunt for powerful dragon type soul beasts that specialized in resilience and poison resistance. These would temper the Jade Phosphor Serpent's toxicity and even enable the martial soul to evolve, aligning it with dragon attributes. Though the poison would weaken somewhat, the spirit itself would begin a metamorphosis toward dragonhood.
Dugu Bo and Dugu Xin took his advice, abandoning their original control type path in favor of a powerful attack type strategy. Dugu Xin sacrificed two hundred year rings for the shift, but Ye Wen assured them it was the right move.
As for Dugu Bo, he had already evolved his martial soul to the level of the Serpent Emperor a feat he could not reverse. With no way to alleviate his poisoning short of evolving his soul further into a dragon lineage, he would continue to suffer. A glimmer of hope might come if he could push his martial soul through another evolution when he reached Title Douluo, but it was far from certain. Even so, Dugu Bo accepted his situation with a rare stoicism, accustomed to the ever present pain his powers brought.
Seeing this, Ye Wen's compassion stirred for the elder soul master. "Mr. Dugu," he said, handing him a microscope, "this is a microscope. It might just be what you need to study and counteract your own poison over time. Just avoid any more venomous soul rings in the future, and it shouldn't worsen."
Dugu Bo marveled at the microscope. Although Douluo had ancient soul tools, the continent's technological level was pitiful in comparison. Seeing his body's poison under the microscope, Dugu Bo was ecstatic he had been curing based on guesswork all these years. If this tool could help him save his son's life, his gratitude to Ye Wen would be boundless.
"Thank you, Principal Ye," he said sincerely. "Should you ever need my assistance, I will be at your disposal."
The transformation in Dugu Bo was remarkable without his usual stoic mask, he looked more like an approachable elder than the feared Poison Douluo. Ye Wen shared another thought. He hadn't yet managed to fully analyze Dugu Bo's complex poisons himself; some of these compounds would stump even the greatest chemists. Yet Douluo's ancient remedies, like the Eastern medicine Ye Wen knew in his past life, worked in miraculous ways, even if scorned as pseudo science. In particular, he thought his powerful toadstone concoction might help with Dugu Bo's symptoms, and he shared it freely.
When Dugu Bo learned that this potent remedy was derived from an 80,000 year Battle Toad, his eyes gleamed with excitement. If not for the debt he already owed Ye Wen, he might have tried to seize the rest for himself.
Meanwhile, Ye Wen began teaching Dugu Xin techniques like the Six Styles and the climbing and water walking practices. Although the Dugu family was ancient and esteemed, they had never seen anything like the Eight Original Combat Skills, and Dugu Xin was quickly absorbed in them. With such a treasure trove of self created techniques, soul skills seemed almost unnecessary.
Even Dugu Bo, curious about his son's progress, was amazed by these training methods. Seeing Ye Wen share his teachings so freely, Dugu Bo's appreciation deepened. He also dived into his own training with renewed vigor, integrating his mastery of poison with these new techniques. After two months, he had completed climbing and water walking, even adapting Finger Gun to infuse poison into his strikes, crafting his own technique, Poison Finger Gun.
He also realized that, despite the inherent incompatibility between a snake's flexibility and a human's physical limits, the agility of his martial soul gave him a surprising advantage in explosive speed. He developed a stronger attack type foundation, leading Dugu Xin to form an early prototype of the attack style lineage Ye Wen had envisioned.
During this time, Dugu Bo and his son became familiar faces at Tiangxing Academy. The older students quickly warmed to their new peer, Dugu Xin, and he, in turn, adjusted to life in the academy. Once the bonds among the students were firmly established, Ye Wen started making preparations to travel to Spirit City for the highly anticipated event: the All Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament.
As for Ah Yin, who had yet to reach the Soul Emperor stage, she would be staying behind. The risk of visiting Spirit City the stronghold of the angelic bloodline was too great for her right now.
End of Chapter
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