The tables turned, a new element?

Dugu Yan once again proved the truth of the saying "beat your little brother while you still can" through personal experience.

Dugu Yan had not paid much attention to the saying before.

After all, she was a Soul Master!

Besides, even if Gan Lin had awakened a Martial Soul, she was still quite a bit older than him.

A gap that large in age was hard to make up for with talent.

When Gan Lin awakened a god-level Martial Soul, Dugu Yan knew that her little brother would surpass her sooner or later.

Honestly, after learning how extraordinary Gan Lin's talent was, she had been happy for him from the bottom of her heart. But she had never imagined he would overtake her so quickly.

Gan Lin had just finished cultivating at the time, sweat beading at his temples. He had simply taken off his outer robe, tossed it aside, and stood there bare-chested. "Sure, Sister Yanzi, come at me. But I won't use my Martial Soul today. I'll play with you using just this 'little body' of mine."

Before the fight, Dugu Yan had dismissed his words as the boasting of a hot-blooded youngster. She said no more. An eerie light flashed at her fingertips as her Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul instantly possessed her. Pale purple snake scales covered her arms, and two yellow Soul Rings rose from beneath her feet. As light rippled through the rings, she unleashed her first Soul Skill, Jade Phosphor Purple Poison.

Pale purple poisonous mist poured from her palm and drifted toward Gan Lin on the wind. Even the slightest touch of this poison would numb the meridians; an ordinary Soul Grandmaster would not dare take it head-on. As she saw it, Gan Lin would either have to summon his Martial Soul to block it or retreat in disarray.

But the next second, her pupils suddenly contracted.

The boy kicked off the ground, shooting diagonally away like an arrow loosed from a bow. His foot left shallow cracks in the bluestone paving. The poisonous mist was about to brush the hem of his clothes, but he twisted at the waist in a movement that nearly defied common sense and dodged it, moving so fast that he left only an afterimage.

"How is that possible?" Dugu Yan was startled. Before she could react, Gan Lin had already closed in on her. She instinctively swung her scale-covered arm at his shoulder, the blow whistling through the air. She held back, intending only to force him away.

But Gan Lin neither dodged nor retreated. He raised his left arm across his body, his muscles bunching into solid blocks, and took the blow head-on. Instead, the impact left Dugu Yan's wrist tingling.

"Sis, your Soul Skill is strong, but you're too slow at close range."

The boy's voice sounded by her ear, carrying a touch of youthful clarity. Both shocked and angry, Dugu Yan fired poison needles in rapid succession from her fingertips, backing away all the while to open up some distance. Her Martial Soul excelled at long-range and poison attacks, so she was at a disadvantage once an opponent got close. But Gan Lin clung to her as though glued in place, his footwork swift and tricky. Every time she opened up half a step of distance, he was right back against her the next second.

Gusts from his fists, shadows of his palms, elbow strikes: there was not the slightest fluctuation of Soul Power in the boy's attacks. Relying entirely on physical strength and instinctive reactions, his every move was stripped down to its simplest form, yet each one sealed off her chance to cast a Soul Skill. Dugu Yan's two Soul Rings flared and dimmed again and again. Several times, her Soul Skills were on the tip of her tongue, only for him to interrupt her with a punch to the shoulder or dodge sideways and seize her wrist with a backhand grip.

At last, her vision blurred. Someone caught her wrist in a backhand grip, pressure bore down on her shoulder, and she was forced to one knee. The boy's arm looped around her from behind, locking her shoulders and neck in a firm hold. He controlled his strength perfectly, leaving her unable to move without hurting her in the slightest.

"Sis, thanks for going easy on me," Gan Lin said above her head, a hint of laughter in his voice.

Dugu Yan froze, her two Soul Rings still shining brightly and the Jade Phosphorous Serpent's scales yet to fade. But she had lost. She had been utterly and completely defeated—a Soul Grandmaster who had unleashed her Soul Skills, yet still failed to beat her level-fifteen little brother, who had not even activated his Martial Soul.

When Gan Lin let go, she got to her feet and looked at the boy, who was neither out of breath nor red in the face. She was angry, but the whole thing also felt absurd. She had wanted to "discipline" her little brother a few more times before he grew up, to establish her authority as his older sister. And now look: he had dealt with her using nothing but physical techniques, without even bringing out his Martial Soul.

Afterward, she ground her teeth whenever she thought of it. When she complained to her grandfather, Dugu Bo, he laughed until his beard shook.

After sending Dugu Yan away, Gan Lin began studying his Vision Martial Soul.

For the past few days, Gan Lin's Vision had kept flashing. He did not know if it was his imagination. Not only that, he had sometimes even seen it turn a different color for an instant.

If he had not already been a Soul Master, making it unlikely that he had seen wrong, Gan Lin would even have suspected that his eyesight was failing him at such a young age.

Since there was nothing wrong with his eyes,

the situation was obvious.

A Vision had seven elements to begin with. His had been Geo when it first awakened, so perhaps he had met some condition that had caused it to begin awakening a second element.

As for why it was still only flashing and could not switch at will,

Gan Lin was not sure either. But that did not matter; he would figure it out someday.

Of course, he did not need to spend too much time on it each day. It was enough to find out how much it had changed since the day before.

As the days accumulated, he would discover it eventually.

After recording the state of his Vision for the day, Gan Lin did not rush to cultivate. Instead, he opened a book.

That was right: it was the Compendium of a Hundred Herbs that Gan Lin had obtained from the Heaven Dou Imperial Family.

The sooner he consumed an Immortal Herb, the better it would be for his body, talent, and cultivation. He usually absorbed the energy in Juvenile Jade, so he was already cultivating who knew how much faster than others his age. At this stage, there was no need to rush to advance his Soul Power Level; consuming an Immortal Herb sooner was the proper course.

Leaving aside the fact that an Immortal Herb had a better marrow-cleansing effect at a lower level, his cultivation speed after consuming one would certainly far surpass his current speed.

The Compendium of a Hundred Herbs recorded a great many medicinal herbs, and Gan Lin was no medical student, so he skipped straight past them to the section on exotic flowers and rare herbs.

Whenever Gan Lin came across an Immortal Herb he already knew was present at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he wrote down how to pick and consume it. If he saw an Immortal Herb suited to himself, Dugu Bo, Dugu Yan, or Ye Lingling, he also noted its appearance, intending to search for it around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well later.

At this thought, Gan Lin also felt somewhat fortunate. If he had not been precocious from childhood and earned Dugu Bo's trust, he probably would not even have had a chance to approach the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Dugu Bo himself had said that even he would have a hard time if he fell into the spring, to say nothing of Gan Lin.

There were countless exotic flowers and rare herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Aside from the few Tang San had picked in the original story, there had to be some better suited to them. If he really could not find anything more suitable, he could only refer to what the Shrek Seven Devils had consumed in the original.

But in Gan Lin's estimation, given Tang San's personality, even if there had been better Immortal Herbs, he would surely have saved them for his real people. If a person could only consume one Immortal Herb within a short period, Gan Lin could understand that.

But if a person could only consume one in an entire lifetime, that certainly was not realistic.