Reverse Leveling

"I sensed it!" Dugu Bo nodded slightly.

Just the lingering scent of the Icefire Apricot Pill in the air had caused the Innate Poison dormant within him to stir once more.

It was not damaging his body, but erasing the minuscule traces of medicinal power within him.

"Then what would happen if someone took this pill? Would the Innate Poison disappear?" Dugu Yan asked curiously.

Li Tianlan spread his hands and replied, "If you take this pill, the Innate Poison in your body will disappear, but your Soul Power will be crippled as well. If it is only for detoxification, its effects are far inferior to those of a Detoxification Pill."

Upon hearing Li Tianlan's words, Dugu Bo instantly lost interest in the Icefire Apricot Pill.

As long as he could live well as the Poison Douluo, he would have to be insane to cripple his level 91 Soul Power and give up his status at the pinnacle of the Douluo Continent.

One pill simply was not worth such a loss.

Seeing this, Li Tianlan knew that Dugu Bo had given up on it. Smiling, he said, "Grandpa Dugu, I'm about to take this pill, and it might cause quite a commotion. Could you keep watch nearby and make sure no one disturbs me?"

"Don't worry, kid. The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well is guarded by deadly poison. What spirit beast could possibly get in?"

Dugu Bo remained perfectly calm. He found a stone and sat cross-legged upon it before continuing, "All right, you may take the pill now. I'm quite curious just how astonishing the effects of a pill with such terrifying power will be..."

"Mm!"

Li Tianlan did not stand on ceremony. Closing his eyes, he directly swallowed the Icefire Apricot Pill from the jade bottle.

Boom!

The instant the pill entered his stomach, two auras—one icy and one fiery—erupted at once.

The medicinal power of the frigid Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass could freeze one's soul, while the violent heat of the Infernal Delicate Apricot seemed capable of burning Li Tianlan's body to ash.

As ice and fire cycled endlessly, the sturdiness of Li Tianlan's physical body soared at an astonishing rate.

His meridians began to widen, while his dantian grew even more solid.

Feeling the changes in his body, Li Tianlan's face immediately filled with delight.

He could feel that after this strengthening, although he was only level 17, his physical body was sturdy enough to devour and absorb a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring without any issue.

And this was only the beginning!

The Icefire Apricot Pill truly deserved to be called a Seventh-grade Pill. Its medicinal effects were incredibly overbearing.

However, before Li Tianlan could rejoice—

An unexpected change occurred. He could clearly feel his Soul Power declining rather than rising.

In no time at all, his Soul Power had directly fallen to level 16.

This left him completely dumbfounded!

What was going on?

How was he leveling down instead?

In an instant, Li Tianlan grew somewhat panicked and hurriedly asked Xiao Yan, "Teacher, what exactly is happening?"

"It is normal. The medicinal power of the Icefire Apricot Pill is tempering your Soul Power through ice and fire."

Xiao Yan remained composed as he said unhurriedly, "When your Soul Power level drops, you should feel weakened. Do you feel weaker?"

"Weaker..." Li Tianlan carefully sensed himself.

Although his Soul Power had dropped by one level, he could feel that not only had his strength not decreased, it had actually increased significantly.

Li Tianlan felt even more puzzled and asked in confusion, "Teacher, what exactly is going on?"

"It's very simple. The quantity has decreased, but the quality has improved!"

Xiao Yan spoke casually. "You can think of it this way: an ordinary person is like a small puddle. Once that puddle is full, a larger puddle opens up. That is how Soul Power advances in level.

"But the Icefire Apricot Pill directly expanded your puddle.

"The quality has also changed from water into a heavier liquid.

"As a result, your Soul Power level has dropped, but your strength has risen instead!"

"So that's how it is."

Li Tianlan was relieved. He condensed the power of his Primordial Spirit and continued examining the Soul Power within his body.

By then, his Soul Power had already fallen to level 15.

However, compared to the previously thin and scattered Soul Power, his current Soul Power had become much denser.

Moreover, it was shifting from dark gray toward silver-white, with blue and fiery-red specks of light mixed within. It was remarkably mystical.

Buzz!

A fiery-red halo and an icy-blue halo rose around Li Tianlan's body.

As the two halos appeared, the water from the Yang Spring and the Ice Spring in the distance actually flew out on its own.

They slowly fused with the icy-blue halo and the crimson-red halo.

Both the Yang Spring and the Ice Spring were composed of vast amounts of Heaven and Earth Vital Energy.

The purpose of the two halos was to reverse the power of extreme ice and extreme yang into powerful ice- and fire-aspected Heaven and Earth Vital Energy.

They began cleansing Li Tianlan's marrow once more!

Rumble!

Nearly endless Heaven and Earth Vital Energy swept over him. Li Tianlan's flesh and skin became somewhat translucent, and his meridians could be seen continuously shattering and regenerating, becoming increasingly resilient.

This repeated several times!

In the end, even Li Tianlan's blood had become imbued with this power of ice and fire.

Whether it was water from the Ice Spring or the Fire Spring, when it fell upon Li Tianlan, it was like ordinary spring water and could not harm him in the slightest.

Dugu Bo sat cross-legged nearby, his eyes filled with shock as he exclaimed, "As expected of a pill that drew a Pill Tribulation. Its medicinal effects alone are enough to defy the heavens."

"It really is terrifying. He can actually touch the Yang Spring directly!"

Dugu Yan was equally astonished, but she soon noticed something was wrong.

Although the scorching Yang Spring could not harm Li Tianlan—

His clothes were not so fortunate. They immediately caught fire, and he was about to be stripped completely bare.

Seeing this, Dugu Yan instantly ran away with a flushed face.

Young girls were still rather shy, after all.

The various strange phenomena lasted for an entire day and night, yet only a small portion of the Icefire Apricot Pill's medicinal power had been consumed.

Most of what remained lay dormant within Li Tianlan's flesh and blood, slowly releasing over the coming years and further strengthening his physical body.

At this point, after being tempered, Li Tianlan's meridians were several times wider than before.

If they had once been a single-lane road, they were now at least eight lanes wide.

His Soul Power had also been condensed to the extreme, falling once again to level 11.

Yet Li Tianlan did not feel that he had lost out at all.

Although his Soul Power was at level 11, his strength was now 1.5 times what it had been at level 17, nearly matching that of a pure strength-type Soul Master at the same level.

As for the toughness of his physical body, it had increased severalfold.

It could be said that the effects of a single Icefire Apricot Pill were far greater than directly consuming two immortal herbs.

Just as he was about to stand up, Li Tianlan suddenly froze.

He discovered that Dao Tong Yan had changed. An additional type of flame had appeared upon it!

A crimson flame flickered within a fan-shaped area. The moment Li Tianlan touched it, a stream of information appeared in his mind.