Journey to Sunset Forest

"Little Griseo could get shy too, huh~"

On the road, Lang Lei teased her with a mischievous smile.

Earlier, Lang Lei had quickly bought and changed into his clothes. When he found Little Griseo, however, he discovered that she was staring at a little blue dress.

The way she looked at it so eagerly was unbearably adorable.

Seeing that, Lang Lei bought the little dress without hesitation. Little Griseo did not change into it, though, and was still wearing her original outfit. As for the reason...

Little Griseo wanted Lang Lei to help her change, but she was too embarrassed to do it in that kind of place.

"Brother Lang Lei is a bad guy!" Griseo huffed and turned her head away.

"Sorry..." Lang Lei chuckled. He rarely got to see Griseo act shy. Most of the time, Little Griseo was an expressionless, quiet girl with no emotional reactions.

"Hmph~"

"Brother Lang Lei will buy you candied hawthorn later. How about it?"

"Hmph!"

"Mm... two sticks?"

"Okay!"

Before long, after buying candied hawthorn, the two left Suotuo City. Unlike before, they headed in a different direction this time.

Having gotten lost many times already, Lang Lei finally stopped being stubborn. Not long after leaving the city gates, he and Griseo rode a World-Painting Creation into the sky.

Their destination this time was Sunset Forest...

There was no need to say what lay there.

Douluo Continent's most valuable opportunity—the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well—was there.

That was right. Lang Lei had come to Sunset Forest to find the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Absorbing the Million-Year Spirit Ring this time had sent Lang Lei a message: his future journey would not be confined to Douluo Continent.

Recently, Aetheria had appeared less and less often, and even when she did show up, she looked listless.

Combined with the first ability of this Million-Year Spirit Ring, Lang Lei guessed that this new function was very likely related to worlds beyond Douluo Continent.

The system would not act without reason. As currently the only method that could drastically raise Lang Lei's level beyond Douluo Continent, he felt he needed to take it more seriously.

Besides, even without considering that, the Million-Year Spirit Ring formed by his Second Martial Soul, Heavenly Fire Sacred Judgment, still provided him with an enormous boost.

According to common knowledge on Douluo Continent, Twin Martial Souls could not be used at the same time. Even as a transmigrator, he had to follow that rule.

When using Zero Rated Power of Heavenly Fire Sacred Judgment, he could not use Earth Dragon Dust to reduce the backlash he suffered.

However, after testing it, Lang Lei found that all the boosts provided by Heavenly Fire Sacred Judgment's first spirit ring could take effect.

He could use the fire-controlling ability that far surpassed even ordinary ultimate fire while Earth Dragon Dust was active.

The same was true for fire resistance. It could take effect as well.

And these abilities were all passive skills!

As everyone knew, passive skills generally consumed very little, and many of them cost nothing at all.

Unlike active skills, passive skills did not require him to painstakingly control their power, precision, or anything else. They were entirely automatic.

So, even without taking matters beyond Douluo Continent into account, Lang Lei had more than enough reason to pay closer attention to this.

As for whether he would run into Dugu Bo...

Lang Lei rather hoped that he would, because it would save him a great deal of trouble.

Of course, Lang Lei was not planning to wipe the man out without reason, or bully him with his power. Not at all!

His system actually came with several built-in functions.

The first was that it could automatically determine ownerless items Lang Lei encountered, or items gifted to him by others, as acquired items and directly store them in the System Space.

The second was that it could view an item's information within the System Space.

This directly spared him the steps of picking and identifying the herbs.

As for what that had to do with persuading Dugu Bo to give him treasures...

Considering the number of Immortal Herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Lang Lei did not believe there were none that could solve the problem.

As for why Tang San had not mentioned this in the original novel...

Lang Lei guessed it was most likely because of selfish motives.

The first possibility:

Dugu Bo and his granddaughter Dugu Yan both possessed the poison-famous Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul. Dugu Bo's had merely evolved into the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor after he became a Titled Douluo, but at its core, it was still a Jade Phosphorous Serpent.

The Immortal Herb or treasure medicine capable of evolving this Martial Soul was most likely related to poison. Or rather, such a herb was extremely useful to Tang San!

And what was Tang San best at?

Hidden weapons and poison!

In the original Douluo Continent novel, after Tang San obtained the herbs from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the first thing he did was refine the hidden weapon known as King of Hell's Paste.

What made that hidden weapon formidable was not its physical attacking power, but the nearly incurable poison coating it!

It was highly possible that the heavenly treasure Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan needed overlapped with the ingredients needed to refine King of Hell's Paste. Given Tang San's personality, he would never sacrifice himself for others.

Especially when the other party had only just threatened his life.

So Tang San settled for the next best thing, choosing to slowly keep Dugu Bo in check by refining medicine for him.

That way, he could gain a Titled Douluo bodyguard while also securing greater benefits.

Why would Tang San refuse?

The second guess:

Tang San could not bear to part with them.

There was actually an even more convenient way to solve Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan's problem.

Evolve their Martial Souls.

At its core, Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan's issue was still a flaw in their Martial Souls.

The solution was simple: evolve their Martial Souls and make up for that flaw.

But Immortal Herbs capable of evolving Martial Souls were also exceedingly rare. Given Tang San's personality, after squeezing every bit of value out of Dugu Bo, even if they were temporarily useless to him, he would most likely keep them to generate greater value later...

Of course, this was not a matter of right or wrong.

After all, Tang San did ultimately help Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan solve their Martial Soul problems. Dugu Bo had merely been deceived by the information gap.

Every man for himself, or heaven and earth would destroy him.

Lang Lei did not intend to criticize Tang San for anything. After all, he was about to do the same thing, only... he would be a little more generous.

Trading two Immortal Herbs for an entire treasure land—he would make a guaranteed profit!

Still, because Little Griseo was with him, and because Lang Lei was not an utterly wicked person, otherwise, with the power he possessed now, he could have simply seized the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Dugu Bo would not dare utter a single word of complaint.

As for why he would not use Tang San's method from the original novel to obtain even greater profits...

First, he had not read novels that carefully in his previous life. He had not even seriously paid attention to Dugu Bo's symptoms. If he made something up, Dugu Bo, with his medical expertise, would definitely not trust him.

Second, he did not know how to refine medicine...

"Brother Lang Lei..."

Suddenly, Little Griseo, who was in front of Lang Lei, spoke up.

"Hm? What is it, Little Griseo?" Lang Lei immediately stopped thinking and looked at her.

"Can you talk with me for a while?" Little Griseo asked softly. "I'm so bored..."

"Of course!"