Soul Power Reaches Level Twenty, Awakening a New Element

What Gan Lin had not expected was that the trace of ponderous power buried in the Primo Geovishap's bloodline would become his last means of enduring the tempering of ice and fire.

He did not know how much time had passed. Perhaps a quarter of an hour, perhaps half an incense stick's burn.

The earth-shattering collision inside him gradually, gradually changed from "tearing" to "grinding."

The ice no longer froze his bones, and the fire no longer scorched his heart. Bit by bit, that ponderous power drew them apart and set them in order. Each followed its own path along a separate meridian, until they finally sank into the deepest part of his dantian and settled quietly.

Gan Lin lay sprawled on the ground, drenched from head to toe, as though he had just been pulled from the water.

But his eyes were open, and though his chest heaved violently, a grin slowly spread across his face.

Warmth.

A pure warmth unlike anything he had ever felt spread outward from his dantian. He could feel it with perfect clarity—the clash of ice and fire had forcibly widened and tempered his meridians, leaving them far tougher than before. The two forces that should have been poison had been subdued and tamed, and had instead become nourishment for his foundation.

"Grandpa," he panted, his voice soft and hoarse, yet bright with excitement he could not suppress, "these herbs can be taken. The formulas are most likely all correct."

Dugu Bo let out a long breath of stale air. The poison barrier he had maintained under strain for so long vanished with a snap, and the old man's back was drenched in cold sweat too.

"You little madman," he cursed, though his tone was gentle. "...As long as it worked."

With a cry, Dugu Yan rushed over and dropped to her knees beside Gan Lin. Tears still clung to her face, but she immediately began scolding him. "Do you know how pale your face was just now? White as paper! And you kept saying there was no need, no need. You scared me to death, do you know that-"

Gan Lin was a little dazed by her scolding. He looked up at Dugu Yan, then at Dugu Bo, whose face plainly said, "This old man doesn't want to deal with you," and suddenly gave a low laugh.

"...I told you." He gazed up at the sky overhead, sealed off by the poison barrier so that not a trace of daylight could reach them, and softly finished the words in his heart. "I made my choice, so I'll bear it."

"Xiaolin, there was probably another reason you wouldn't let this old man test whether the 'Compendium of a Hundred Herbs' was right or wrong, wasn't there?" Dugu Bo looked at Dugu Yan. After turning it over in his mind, he had reached a conclusion.

"Hm?" Dugu Yan, still upset, froze for a moment.

Was there another reason besides what Gan Lin had said earlier?

"Yanyan, nine times out of ten, it had something to do with you too." Dugu Bo stroked his beard and smiled. "If I had taken those herbs and, like Xiaolin, endured them and gained only benefits, that would have been well and good. But if anything had happened to me, the people I offended in years past would have devoured this old man's only granddaughter, leaving not even a scrap of bone."

"Yes. That wasn't just to leave Sister Yanzi a way out, but to leave one for myself too," Gan Lin added.

Dugu Yan opened her mouth, but no words came.

She suddenly understood.

It was not that Grandpa was not strong enough, nor that he had been afraid to try. It was that once Grandpa fell, she, his granddaughter who had grown up sheltered beneath his wings, would not even have a place to weep.

The people Grandpa had offended in years past, the enemies who had been held down by the name Poison Douluo for decades... this was the day they had been waiting for.

Gan Lin had shielded Grandpa from more than the risk of a single Immortal Herb.

He had shielded her from malice.

"You..." Dugu Yan's eyes reddened again. Her voice caught in her throat, and after a long while she could only squeeze out, "Are you stupid?"

Gan Lin did not answer. He only smiled.

Bracing himself against the ground, he slowly sat up and flexed his wrists. His joints gave a series of crisp cracks, like freshly sprouted bamboo branches, crisp and strong.

Something was different.

Too light.

It was not the lightheadedness of weakness, but... as though something heavy had been lifted away. He looked down at his hands. Beneath his skin was the faintest hint of a jade-colored sheen, as though a gentle light were flowing slowly through his meridians.

"Grandpa," Gan Lin suddenly said, a note of confusion in his voice, "I think... I've broken through to level twenty."

Dugu Bo had still been lost in thought. At those words, he whipped his head around. "What?"

Gan Lin closed his eyes and looked within himself.

In his dantian, the two tamed forces of ice and fire lay quietly in its depths, like two sleeping pearls, one blue and one red, turning slowly. They no longer tore at each other. Instead, they drew each other together, forming a marvelous balance.

That was not all.

He could feel that his meridians were more than twice as wide as before, as tough as steel forged through a thousand hammer blows. His blood flowed with a steady, powerful sound, and each beat of his heart was like the striking of a small drum, pumping not ordinary blood, but power carrying a faint warmth.

"The tempering of ice and fire has forcibly raised your foundation a whole level." Dugu Bo drew a sharp breath and reached out to take Gan Lin's pulse. A moment later, his expression grew complicated. "Your meridians have widened, and your Qi and blood have grown solid... I'm afraid your body is far stronger now than that of an ordinary level-twenty cultivator."

"That's not all. From now on, I'm afraid ordinary ice- and fire-type attacks will have a hard time hurting me."

Dugu Bo was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Immunity to both ice and fire... I've never heard of such a constitution. Boy, you've stumbled upon a heaven-sent opportunity."

Gan Lin smiled and was about to speak when his chest suddenly grew hot.

His Vision Martial Soul emerged from his body of its own accord. The blue-gold emblem, originally Geo in attribute, was glowing faintly. No, it was not glowing. It was changing.

The blue-gold Geo patterns began to fade from the edges, replaced by an extremely pale, clear shade of green. That green was like the newly budding branches of a willow in early spring, or the first wisp of wind brushing over the tips of grass-light, free, and possessed of an indescribable liveliness.

The Geo attribute's sense of weight was still there, but it was gently wrapped in this newborn green. The two colors intertwined without seeming at all out of place, like a fresh breeze blowing over mountain rocks, adding a touch of grace to their steadiness.

"Wind..." Gan Lin murmured.

He tried to summon that newborn power.

It lacked the weighty, downward pull of Geo; the wind attribute was as light as a feather. With a thought, he sent a wisp of breeze swirling up from his palm. It circled his fingertips once, then dispersed with a whoosh, making the nearby blades of grass sway gently.

"Geo turning to Anemo?" Dugu Bo was stunned too. "A Martial Soul can change attributes?"

"It didn't change." Gan Lin felt the two utterly different kinds of Elemental Power within him—the weight and steadiness of Geo, the lightness and freedom of Anemo. Each acted independently, yet they coexisted in a marvelous way. "I... gained another one. I have two attributes now."

He raised his hands. Geo condensed into a small blue-gold stone shard in his left palm, while Anemo whirled into a wisp of green air in his right. One heavy and one light, one still and one moving, they existed together in his palms.

Dugu Bo stared at the two masses of Elemental Power for a long while, then suddenly cursed. "You brat, what kind of monster are you?"

There was not the slightest reproach in his voice. Instead, it held a trace of pride he could not hide.

Gan Lin himself was stunned for a moment, then smiled.

Tempering his body with ice and fire, breaking through to level twenty, immunity to both ice and fire, and two attributes for his Vision... the gains from this herb trial were greater than he could have imagined.