Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well

Su Cheng had originally found it strange. He had marked the central region of Sunset Forest for those Soul Masters under his command, even using the mountain range as a landmark. How had they still failed to find the place after several years?

Only after arriving himself did he realize he had oversimplified things.

Though he had read many books over the years, knowledge on paper was always shallow. The actual conditions within these great forests, where soul beasts ran rampant, were far more complicated than he had imagined.

Five hundred meters was certainly not short, but in the vast Sunset Forest, hills of that height could be found everywhere.

A carpet search here would truly take quite a bit of effort.

After all, this place was far from safe for ordinary Soul Masters. High-year soul beasts and dangerous plants alike could become fatal threats.

It seems I should visit the Soul Hunting Forest near Notting City someday and scout it out beforehand. Otherwise, once I return to the real world, finding suitable soul beasts for my first two Soul Rings on my own will probably be rather difficult.

Su Cheng thought to himself.

"Mr. Su, this is the place." Dugu Bo stood at the foot of the mountain, looking at the hill before them.

The two immediately climbed swiftly to the summit, one after the other.

Standing beside the cliff, Su Cheng saw an inverted cone-shaped depression before him. Thick heat rose from within it, carrying the distinctive scent of sulfur.

There was clearly a hot spring below.

Dugu Bo looked at Su Cheng. "In a moment, I'll use my Soul Power to protect you. We'll descend together, and we'll be there."

Su Cheng did not try to act tough. He nodded and allowed him to proceed.

With the cultivation and strength of a Titled Douluo, Dugu Bo easily brought the two of them down into the valley.

Seeing the spectacle before him, even Su Cheng was briefly stunned by its beauty.

"So this is the so-called Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well."

At the center of the valley lay an oval hot spring. Milky white and vermilion waters, utterly distinct in color, were clearly divided on either side. Where they met in the middle, clouds of steam continuously billowed upward all the way to the mouth of the valley.

Dense spiritual energy of ice and fire intertwined within, nurturing a garden full of rare and extraordinary plants.

With a glance, he easily found several spiritual herbs that were among the targets of this journey.

"Brother Dugu, I need some of the rare spiritual herbs from this place." After looking around for a few moments, Su Cheng spoke bluntly to Dugu Bo beside him.

"Don't worry. Of the dozen or so Immortal Herbs here that are the most valuable, I'll only take four. I'll leave all the rest to you, and I'll also teach you how to use these herbs."

After their several encounters, he had actually developed a favorable impression of Dugu Bo.

Though the man was ruthless and merciless, he was also principled and deeply loyal.

Su Cheng himself was no moral paragon, so he did not care much about the flaws in Dugu Bo's conduct.

Perhaps because he had underestimated the value of these Immortal Herbs, Dugu Bo appeared quite carefree. He waved his hand with a smile. "Mr. Su, you are too polite. How could such mere herbs ever repay the life-saving grace you have shown my family?"

Though he was not a member of Spirit Hall, he roughly understood Su Cheng's extraordinary standing within it. He had never intended to let Su Cheng leave empty-handed.

As a Titled Douluo who had risen from humble origins, Dugu Bo would not make foolish mistakes in dealing with others.

"Let's go. We'll treat your son first." Su Cheng nodded. There was no rush concerning the herbs.

With that, the two walked one after the other toward the Wooden House in the valley.

The Medical Dao was the foundation of Su Cheng's talents in this life, and it was also the ability in which he had the greatest confidence. Treating the martial soul snake venom afflicting the Dugu Clan was no great challenge for him.

In fact, if all he wanted was to suppress the poison and prevent it from acting up for several decades, that would be easy enough.

The only difficult part was completely curing the damage the poison had inflicted on their bodies.

The martial soul poison of Dugu Bo and his son was a compounded deadly toxin. Detoxifying it was far more complicated than dealing with an ordinary poison.

He had to identify every type of toxin it contained, then calculate the properties of the poisons after they were combined. The workload had increased by more than several times.

However, under the natural suppression of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, and with every sort of herb available here, the difficulty was not especially great.

As for Tang San's method—first consuming two Immortal Herbs to forge a body immune to all poisons, then using his own blood to detoxify others—Su Cheng had no intention of using it.

He had never considered consuming the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, then entering the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to temper his body.

To be honest, a body forged in that manner, immune to both water and fire, would naturally be excellent, with an exceptionally solid foundation. But unfortunately, it did not suit his path. There was no need to force it merely for short-term gains.

If it were a martial soul or soul bone, that would be fine. But if his Physical Body were directly tainted with such extreme ice and fire attributes, removing them later would be far too troublesome.

In fact, he did not intend to consume not only those two Immortal Herbs, but any Immortal Herb at all.

The medicinal effects of Immortal Herbs were too fierce and extreme. They would disrupt the balance of his Physical Body.

A year ago, he would have been quite willing to try them. He could even have taken the opportunity to see just how much they could enhance a martial soul.

But after absorbing his Third Soul Ring and confirming that he could use ultimate earth to balance the fire and metal attributes within his martial soul, he had abandoned his former plan.

What he wanted now was to go further—to complete the five elements and see what changes might occur.

Su Cheng had a premonition. If he wished to escape the gaze and manipulation of certain higher beings in the Douluo world in the future, finding another path would be the best option.

There was actually another approach in his mind: to focus entirely on stacking metal attributes, purifying his martial soul, and following an absolutely pure offensive path.

However, he had already made good progress along the path of balancing attributes. Moreover, there was someone better suited to test the route of purifying a martial soul. And to complete that experiment, he would need the help of this herb garden.

Medicinal liquid concocted from ordinary herbs could improve the Physical Body, but it could not penetrate deep into the bloodline, so naturally it would be difficult for it to affect a martial soul.

But rare spiritual herbs of high age were different.

Any ordinary plant would develop wondrous medicinal properties when nourished by spiritual energy, let alone high-aged treasures grown in such a rare and blessed land of spiritual beauty.

Over the next month, Su Cheng spent most of his time in this valley. Using Aromatic Silk Beauty's poison-repelling effects, he researched how to detoxify Dugu Bo and his son, while gathering all kinds of rare spiritual herbs to formulate attribute potions capable of improving martial souls.

Only occasionally did he leave, to ease the pressure that the dense ice and fire spiritual energy in the valley placed upon his body.

A month later, Su Cheng had not only cured the Dugu father and son of their snake venom, but had also finally completed more than ten types of attribute potions.

Of these, the most numerous were not those aligned with metal, the primary attribute of his martial soul, but earth.

Since he had decided to complete the five elements, he could not remain confined by the innate characteristics of a sword weapon.

Among the five elements, earth bore heaven and carried all things. It was far more suitable than the other attributes as the foundation for the initial stage.

He spent several hours reorganizing the detailed outline for the first volume, and his mind was already numb. The transitional plot would pass quickly; the climax was about to begin. Please keep reading~