Ye Lingling and Dugu Yan: Love and Hate

Jiang Taichu reaped a rich harvest from taking the pill this time.

His Soul Power Level rose by two levels, his spiritual power roughly reached the middle stage of the Spirit Connection Realm, and Ah Yin's strength recovered to the three-thousand-year level.

It could be said that as long as a Soul Saint didn't come looking for trouble with him, Jiang Taichu had nothing to fear.

"Since coming to this world, I finally have a little sense of security."

Able to summon Ah Yin whenever and wherever he wished, Jiang Taichu felt this sense of security for the first time.

But it wasn't enough. He still needed to become stronger.

"I'll spend the time ahead meditating and cultivating and improving my spiritual power, and aim to break through to Soul Grandmaster within a year."

"Besides that, I also need to consider which second super Soul Beast bloodline I'll record after breaking through to Soul Grandmaster."

"Recording and fusing bloodlines is my greatest trump card. I have to make the most of it and bring the strength of my bloodline to its best."

Jiang Taichu thought to himself.

He had to start planning for the future now.

For his first bloodline, his target from the beginning had been the Blue Silver Emperor.

Moreover, he knew where Ah Yin was hiding, so he could find her easily and record and fuse with the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline.

But what about the second?

The Soul Beast Jiang Taichu needed appeared only in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Soul Beasts with super bloodlines were exceedingly rare in the Star Dou Great Forest, and every one of them was incomparably precious.

When the time came, Jiang Taichu might have to venture deep into the Star Dou Great Forest to find one.

The Star Dou Great Forest was known as a forbidden land for Soul Masters, and its reputation was well deserved.

Countless Soul Masters had lost their lives in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Although Jiang Taichu had Ah Yin, the danger was still considerable.

"What a headache."

"I'll stop thinking about it for now. The most important thing at present is to raise my Soul Power Level by one level and improve my spiritual power."

After that sigh, Jiang Taichu began preparing to meditate and cultivate.

This time, however, he didn't intend to meditate and cultivate in his room.

The speed of meditation and cultivation depended not only on one's Innate Soul Power, but also on one's meditation method and mimicry environment.

Jiang Taichu had Innate Full Soul Power, so there was no room for improvement there.

As for the legendary Innate Level 20 Soul Power, it was still essentially Innate Full Soul Power; the extra ten levels of Soul Power were bestowed by a god.

As for his meditation method, he now possessed the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline, and the method he practiced had been taught to him by Ah Yin, the Blue Silver Emperor herself.

A meditation method personally taught by the Blue Silver Emperor was naturally the best fit for Jiang Taichu, who possessed the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline.

So there was no need to improve his meditation method either.

That left the last factor: the mimicry environment.

Jiang Taichu possessed the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline. If he meditated and cultivated among Blue Silver Grass, the effects of mimicry cultivation would be far better for him than for an ordinary Soul Master.

Because he was the emperor!

The subjects of the Blue Silver Clan would offer their strength to their emperor.

Thus, Jiang Taichu planned to meditate and cultivate on a hill covered in Blue Silver Grass outside Heaven Dou City from then on.

Besides that, he would instruct Ah Yin to continue offering high prices in Heaven Dou City for heavenly treasures that could strengthen spiritual power.

This time, Jiang Taichu lowered his standards.

He wouldn't pass up even medicinal herbs that could only slightly strengthen his spiritual power.

That was because he had already broken through to the Spirit Connection Realm.

After his spiritual power had broken through to a new major realm, there was no longer much of a bottleneck to strengthening it.

Meanwhile, at Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

"Yanzi, your big sister Lingling brought you a gift today."

Ye Lingling took a porcelain jade bottle from her Storage Soul Tool and waved it back and forth in front of a young woman with purple hair and green eyes, who had an uncanny charm about her.

The purple-haired, green-eyed young woman was Ye Lingling's close friend Dugu Yan, the granddaughter of Poison Douluo Dugu Bo.

"Lingling, what's in it?"

Dugu Yan stared at the porcelain jade bottle in Ye Lingling's hand, her eyes full of curiosity.

"This is called Life Essence."

"Yanzi, you have no idea how steep a price I paid to give you this Life Essence as a gift."

"You don't know this, but for your gift, I never ate a fourth meal. I ate only three meals a day, all so I could save up to buy it for you."

"Now you know how much effort your big sister Lingling put in, don't you, Yanzi?"

Ye Lingling put on a convincing act, looking as though she had "suffered some terrible injustice."

Hearing this, Dugu Yan's lips twitched wildly.

Eating only three meals a day—how is that any kind of hardship?

Besides, little Lingling, I'm your best friend. You only have to shift your butt, and I know what's going on in that head of yours.

A fourth meal? Sometimes you're too lazy even to eat a third.

Dugu Yan raised her fair little hand and slapped Ye Lingling on the forehead.

"Little Lingling, get to the point."

"What does this Life Essence actually do?"

Ye Lingling chuckled, then began explaining to Dugu Yan:

"Yanzi, a Soul Master with a life-type Martial Soul condensed this from their own life force."

"When a young woman like you takes it, it can nourish your skin and make you even prettier."

At this, Ye Lingling began admiring herself:

"Of course, a naturally beautiful young woman like me has no need for this Life Essence."

Seeing Ye Lingling acting crazy again, Dugu Yan gave her a vicious kick.

"Ah, that hurts!"

"Yanzi, you're repaying kindness with enmity!"

Dugu Yan rolled her eyes.

"That's what you get for being so full of yourself."

"But I'll take this Life Essence."

Dugu Yan snatched the porcelain jade bottle containing the Life Essence from Ye Lingling's hand.

She opened it and found that there were only two drops of Life Essence at the bottom.

"Little Lingling, are you messing with me?"

"With a bottle this big, you only put two drops of Life Essence in it?"

"Yanzi, do you know how expensive one drop of Life Essence is?!"

Ye Lingling held up her hand, showing Dugu Yan all five fingers.

"One drop of Life Essence costs fifty Gold Soul Coins, so two drops cost a hundred."

"If there really were a whole bottle of Life Essence, I reckon it would cost hundreds of thousands of Gold Soul Coins. Even selling me wouldn't be enough to pay for it."

"It's that expensive?!"

Dugu Yan was astonished.

She hadn't expected the Life Essence to be so expensive, with one drop costing fifty Gold Soul Coins.

"Of course. But even though there isn't much, it works quite well."

"Yanzi, hurry up and take it."

Dugu Yan nodded, tipped her head back, and swallowed the two drops of Life Essence in the porcelain jade bottle.

After the Life Essence entered Dugu Yan's body, its life force began to improve it.

Before long, Dugu Yan felt a wave of comfort wash over her body. It was like a thirsty person finding water to drink in the desert.

"Little Lingling, my body feels so good."

The words slipped out of Dugu Yan's mouth.

Ye Lingling moved close to Dugu Yan, her eyes traveling up and down her body. She even lifted Dugu Yan's arm and brought her nose close to sniff it.

"Yanzi! The faint fishy, poisonous smell of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent that came from your Martial Soul is gone!"

"And the two drops of Life Essence made your skin fairer, softer, and smoother. It's so slippery and comfortable to touch!"

Ye Lingling ran both hands back and forth over Dugu Yan's arm as she gave her assessment.