Soul Ring Poison

There was a way to cure it completely. A'man had just said there was a way to cure it completely. Dugu Yan's suspended heart immediately began pounding wildly, and her eyes burst with boundless light.

Her body unconsciously leaned forward as she grabbed Lin Manshan's right hand resting on the table with both of hers, her voice trembling with excitement.

"A'man, do you really have a way?"

Disbelief still hung on her face.

It was like a seed buried deep underground and about to rot had sprouted, struck the morning sun, and welcomed new life.

He actually had a way? Yu Tianheng was briefly astonished. His gaze drifted to the tightly clasped hands on the table, and his brows furrowed slightly.

"A'man, you're amazing!" His little fan girl, Shui Yue'er, offered her admiration as usual.

"..." Shui Bing'er said nothing, but her bright gaze remained fixed on Lin Manshan.

Keep a low profile, keep a low profile. Lin Manshan lowered his head and glanced at the snow-white hands firmly binding his right hand on the table, then coughed lightly.

"Sorry, I got too excited." Dugu Yan's pretty face flushed, and she hurriedly pulled back her hands.

"It's fine." Lin Manshan smiled and continued. "There is indeed a solution—and more than one."

"More than one?" Dugu Yan's beautiful eyes widened. Her grandfather had traveled across the continent and pondered the matter for so many years without finding even one solution, yet this young man, who looked under twenty, was telling her to her face that there was more than one. She could not imagine what expression her grandfather would have when he heard this.

If only I had met A'man sooner... Thinking of her deceased parents, Dugu Yan's spirits sank again.

"There is indeed more than one." Lin Manshan nodded. "The simplest method is to find a Soul Bone. Soul Bones are inanimate objects, so they cannot be poisoned. As long as the poison in your body is transferred into a Soul Bone, it naturally will no longer harm your body in return."

"However, this method carries hidden risks. It can only serve as a temporary measure, not a permanent solution."

"Precisely because a Soul Bone is inanimate, its capacity is limited. How much poison it can store remains unknown."

"Furthermore, the poison of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent is highly corrosive. If all the poison is transferred into a Soul Bone, its corrosiveness will presumably grow stronger over time. Whether the Soul Bone can withstand it then is also unknown."

"Besides that, if too much poison accumulates, then when using a Soul Bone Skill or fighting an enemy, should the Soul Bone collide with an enemy's attack, if the Soul Bone is not strong enough, no one knows whether the poison inside will leak out."

"Of course, those are matters for later. In my view, while ensuring the poison is safely removed in the early stages, the most important thing is how to eliminate the lingering harm to the body." Lin Manshan's expression turned solemn. "After so many years of poison accumulating in the body, it has likely already caused a certain degree of damage to the meridians and bones. If you merely remove the poison without properly nursing the body afterward, the damage will remain and inevitably affect cultivation."

Using the Life Energy within the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone to assist in healing would actually be the most direct approach, but he would never do that. Although the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone came from a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and contained abundant Life Energy, it was ultimately limited. Using it on someone whose entire body was damaged would certainly consume a huge amount.

Moreover, the Life Energy within this Soul Bone was simply too important to him. Not only could it help him safely endure the impact on his meridians from the energy released when absorbing Soul Rings, but it could also save his life in a crisis.

It was practically equivalent to a second life.

Unless it was absolutely necessary, he would never use it elsewhere.

He could slowly nurse Dugu Yan and Dugu Bo back to health with medicinal herbs. There was no need to pursue speed by using Life Energy.

With that in mind, he could not help glancing at Ye Lingling not far away. Besides, isn't there a top-tier healer right here? Once the poison is removed, Ye Lingling's Nine Heart Begonia Martial Soul should be able to put its healing ability to use. At the very least, it can speed up the recovery of the damage.

"A'man, you're amazing!" The admiration in Shui Yue'er's eyes had reached an incomparable level.

Her lovely egg-shaped face had flushed Cherry Red with excitement, and her eyes shimmered as though they might melt.

"He really is amazing!" Everyone from Skywater Academy nodded repeatedly. He had casually laid out a solution that explained all the advantages, disadvantages, and hidden dangers. It was logical and well-founded, and it sounded workable at once. Without some real substance in his head, there was no way he could have come up with it.

"Then how can it be permanently resolved, with no lingering dangers?" Dugu Yan's eyes lit up as she hurriedly asked.

"That brings us back to the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul itself." Lin Manshan gathered his thoughts slightly and continued, "If my guess is correct, Miss Yanzi, the poison within you is, strictly speaking, not Martial Soul poison, but Soul Ring Poison."

"Soul Ring Poison?" Dugu Yan rolled those four words over in her mind, looking puzzled.

"That's right, Soul Ring Poison." Lin Manshan nodded. "Miss Yanzi, think about it. The profession of Spirit Master has existed on the continent for at least nearly ten thousand years, right? The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul must have appeared long ago. If this Martial Soul produced hereditary Deadly Poison from the moment it appeared, your family would not have survived to this day. Besides, there are countless Beast Martial Souls with poison in this world. Poison Pufferfish, Poison Spiders, Poison Frogs... there are too many to count on your fingers. Other Spirit Masters are fine, so why should only your Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul have problems?"

"This clearly defies common sense."

Not to mention Bibi Dong's Soul Devouring Spider Emperor and Death Spider Emperor. Their poison was surely more potent than that of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent, yet nothing had happened to her.

"That does make sense." Dugu Yan nodded. "Even if the Dugu Family has not been passed down for a thousand years, it has certainly existed for several hundred. If poison had begun accumulating and being inherited from the first generation to awaken this Martial Soul, it would probably have reached the point of poisoning unborn children to death within only a few generations."

Even if a fetus possessed some immunity, it could not withstand a mother whose entire body was poisonous.

Not to mention that the poison continuously accumulated. No matter how she thought about it, it made no sense.

"Exactly. That is why I believe the poison within you does not originate from the Martial Soul itself, but from outside it. Although a Martial Soul is an energy body, in a sense, it is also a form of life—a different manifestation of its host's life. Therefore, if a Martial Soul is poisoned, it may transfer that poison back into the host when it is withdrawn into the body." Lin Manshan slightly nodded. Yu Xiaogang was the best example. His Martial Soul, Luo San Pao, had been bitten by a Mandala Snake. Once it was recalled into his body, he was poisoned.

"Furthermore, the reason your family developed this condition should be related to the Soul Rings your ancestors absorbed being mutually incompatible with their Martial Souls. Of course, I mean incompatibility in terms of poison. When the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul absorbed the Soul Ring of a certain Deadly Poison-type Spirit Beast, the poison inherent to its Martial Soul Origin could not merge with the Deadly Poison inherited from the Soul Ring, so the Martial Soul rejected it into the Spirit Master's body."

Put simply, it was a rejection reaction between different poisons.

Neurotoxins, cytotoxins, blood toxins... among snakes alone, the types he had heard of could be divided into several major categories. That was without even considering the specific races of poisonous snake Spirit Beasts, or even individual snakes.

There truly were differences between Deadly Poisons.

Besides, if the innate poison carried by a poison-attribute Beast Martial Soul could affect its owner, the Spirit Master would likely die from poisoning the moment the Martial Soul awakened. After all, the Martial Soul itself was poisonous, while before a Spirit Master's Martial Soul awakened, their body contained no poison.

My poison, poisoning myself to death?