Bloodletting Therapy

"Knock, knock, knock~"

Yu Cheng kept pounding on the door.

"Senior, are you all right?"

Inside the room.

Dugu Bo felt alternately freezing cold and burning hot. One moment, it was as if he had been thrown into magma; the next, as if he had been frozen in an ice cave.

His scalp felt as though it were being pierced by needles, and every inch of his meridians convulsed.

Yu Cheng's voice came from outside the door, and Dugu Bo felt his mind clear slightly.

"Kid, get lost!"

Dugu Bo shouted with all his strength.

The backlash from the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor's Vicious Poison was a nightmare he had been unable to escape for years.

"Bang!"

Yu Cheng kicked the door open.

"Senior, are you all right?"

He hurried to the bedside and saw Dugu Bo curled up on the bed, his eyes tightly shut.

His body was drenched in sweat, and his hair was a mess.

At that moment, he looked nothing like a Title Douluo, but rather an ordinary decrepit old man.

"Senior, what's wrong? Did you suffer internal injuries in today's battle?"

Yu Cheng asked with concern.

Dugu Bo forced his eyes open. Through his blurred vision, he saw Yu Cheng looking at him with worry written all over his face.

"You should leave. I'm not injured. It's just an old problem."

Dugu Bo said weakly.

"Senior, let me take a look."

Yu Cheng grabbed Dugu Bo's wrist and placed two fingers on his pulse.

At that moment, Youth Yu Cheng came online.

"Heh."

Watching Yu Cheng's focused expression, Dugu Bo could not help but chuckle.

It was an old ailment that had plagued him for decades. Even he, a Title Douluo, was helpless against it. What could Yu Cheng, an eleven-year-old Soul Master, possibly do?

At the same time, a strange feeling arose in his heart.

Other than Dugu Yan, no younger person had ever dared to get this close to him.

"Urgh... ah..."

The next moment, another wave of agonizing pain struck Dugu Bo.

"Senior, your old ailment is somewhat similar to Sister Yan's Snake Venom. Perhaps I have a way to ease your pain."

Yu Cheng spoke.

"You? What could you possibly do?"

Dugu Bo gritted his teeth, his consciousness teetering on the brink of collapse.

"Go ahead. How do you want to treat me?"

Dugu Bo had no other options.

Letting Yu Cheng treat him was nothing more than treating a dead horse as if it were alive.

"Senior, bear with it. It may hurt a little."

With that, Yu Cheng took a short blade from his Soul Tool.

Dugu Bo glanced at it from the corner of his eye. It was neither a scalpel nor a silver needle, but an utterly ordinary short blade, the sort that looked fit for cutting rope or meat.

"Kid, what are you doing?"

Dugu Bo could not help asking.

"Slitting your wrist. Letting blood."

Yu Cheng said it as naturally as could be.

Bloodletting?

That extreme?

Dugu Bo instantly became a little more awake.

Bloodletting therapy usually involved pricking a blood vessel with a needle. Who directly slit someone's wrist?

However, Yu Cheng had already made his move.

The short blade swept across Dugu Bo's wrist, fast and steady.

Dark red blood with a faint bluish-black sheen flowed out and into the jade bottle Yu Cheng had prepared.

To Dugu Bo's surprise, the instant the blood flowed out, the agony in his body truly seemed to lessen a little.

"Senior, your blood is full of toxins."

Yu Cheng carefully collected the blood as he explained.

"It's like overeating and getting indigestion. You have to use drastic measures to expel some of it before your body can function properly again."

Dugu Bo's mind cleared further.

He could feel that as the poisoned blood drained away, the sluggish sensation of his meridians being clogged with toxins was easing.

Though the pain remained, it was at least bearable now.

"Huh? What are you smiling about, kid?"

Dugu Bo caught sight of the smile on Yu Cheng's face and asked suspiciously.

Yu Cheng looked as though he had found money on the ground.

"Hehehe."

Yu Cheng stared at the bottle gradually filling with poisoned blood, his eyes gleaming.

He did not explain further.

If Dugu Bo knew he wanted to use this blood to refine pills, he would probably leap up and send Yu Cheng flying with a single slap.

Before long, the jade bottle was full.

Yu Cheng stoppered it, then took out a new jade bottle.

He skillfully stopped Dugu Bo's bleeding, applied medicine, bandaged the wound, and switched to the other hand to continue letting blood.

Then came both feet.

Only after the fourth bottle was full did Yu Cheng finally stop.

"Senior, how do you feel now?"

Yu Cheng asked.

Dugu Bo circulated his Soul Power and carefully sensed the state of his body.

At that moment, more than half of his excruciating pain had subsided.

Though the root cause of the toxins remained, at least for a short while, it would not flare up to an uncontrollable degree again.

He slowly sat up and looked at the audacious young man before him.

"Kid..."

Dugu Bo's voice was hoarse.

"If you kept letting blood, I wouldn't die from poison. I'd die from blood loss instead."

"Hehe, Senior, just tell me whether my method worked."

Yu Cheng put the blood away in his Soul Tool and said with a smile.

Dugu Bo nodded.

He had to admit that this simple and crude bloodletting therapy, while treating the symptoms rather than the cause, had at least freed him from that state of wishing he were dead.

"Kid, you should leave."

Dugu Bo waved his hand.

He always felt that the way Yu Cheng looked at him was strange, as if he were looking at a mountain of gold.

The next day.

After a night of meditation, Dugu Bo had regained the bearing of a Title Douluo.

"Kid, Yan Yan will be going away for training in a while, so I'm going to see her. Are you staying here, or returning to the academy?"

Yu Cheng did not move, still fiddling with the medicinal herbs in his hands.

"Please go ahead, Senior. You have quite a lot of medicinal herbs here. I want to stay a little longer and study them."

"Heh."

Dugu Bo narrowed his eyes. This kid really did not stand on ceremony.

"Kid, you can stay here, but don't run around recklessly."

Dugu Bo warned him.

"Outside the valley is my poison formation, so remember not to barge into it. At the center of the valley is a miraculous spring where ice and fire coexist. Soul Masters below rank forty must not go near it."

"Got it."

Yu Cheng waved his hand. "Take care, Senior."

Dugu Bo's mouth twitched.

This kid really had made himself at home, hadn't he?

"Hmph."

Dugu Bo snorted and did not pursue the matter.

After all, Yu Cheng had saved half his life the night before.

His figure flashed, turning into a streak of green light that vanished from the spot.

"Dugu Bo's poisoned blood... I've been craving this blood for so long! It may not compare to a hundred-thousand-year Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor, but its toxic properties are absolutely one of a kind!"

"Refining medicine!"

"We have to refine medicine as soon as possible!"

Youth Yu Cheng's excited voice rang out.

"Man, I think I know why Dugu Bo doesn't like you."

Yu Cheng teased.

On Douluo Continent, probably no one could stand the way Youth Yu Cheng looked at people as though they were medicinal ingredients.

"Dugu Bo is gone. Should we go take a look at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well first?"

Yu Cheng looked toward the center of the valley.

There, red and blue halos intertwined, steaming with hazy mist.

"The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well is no simple place. Dugu Bo wasn't wrong. With your current Soul Power, you probably couldn't last even half a minute there, much less absorb Immortal Herbs."

Youth Yu Cheng's words were like a basin of cold water dumped over him.

"Uh..."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

Yu Cheng asked anxiously.

The Immortal Herbs were right before his eyes, yet he could only stare at them?

How was that any different from a eunuch visiting a brothel?

"You've waited eleven years already. What's wrong with waiting another year or half?"

Youth Yu Cheng comforted him.

"With your current physical condition, you should be able to approach the spring once you cultivate to rank thirty."

Yu Cheng fell silent for a moment.

"Starting today, I'm going into seclusion!"

With that, he took out a bottle of poisoned blood and began refining pills.

Spirit City.

Bibi Dong looked at the documents on her desk and slammed her palm down hard.

"That old bastard Golden Crocodile is truly hateful!"

The document on the table was precisely the impeachment submitted against her by the Second Elder, Golden Crocodile Douluo.

Such a talented theorist had failed to remain in Spirit Hall and had instead been snatched away by Heaven Dou Academy, causing the Council of Elders to express strong dissatisfaction.

"That old bastard clearly knows Xue'er's identity, yet he's still using this chance to impeach me!"

"Yu Cheng was recruited by Xue'er. How is that any different from remaining in Spirit Hall?"

"Everyone from the Qian family, including their affiliated clans, truly deserves to die!"

Bibi Dong forcibly suppressed her anger.

If she had not been in the Pope's Palace, she would have wanted to flip the table outright.

At that moment, a maid hurried forward.

"His Holiness the Pope, a man named Yu Xiaogang is requesting an audience outside."