Time flew by, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
The Sunset Forest seemed untouched by the changing seasons, remaining lush and green all year round.
At the center of the forest lay an inverted, cone-shaped valley, shaped like the mouth of a gourd, its entrance extremely well hidden.
Beyond the valley's treacherous terrain, a belt of poisonous mist formed by deadly plants like the Jade Scale Seven Absolute Flowers guarded its perimeter. Ordinary Soul Masters or Soul Beasts would suffer severe injuries or even die if they went near it.
On closer inspection, the Jade Phosphorus Seven-Absolute Flowers seemed to breathe as they continuously exhaled clouds of green poison.
Drawn by some mysterious force, the poison then flowed into the Seven-Colored Poison Miasma. This natural defensive barrier had been transformed by Dugu Bo's Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor poison after he settled there.
Inside the valley, a bird's-eye view revealed an oval pool divided in two by a natural stone ridge. Its two halves were sharply distinct and did not mix.
On one side lay a milky-white Cold Spring, its chill bone-deep, with a thin layer of ice often forming around it.
On the other side lay a scarlet Hot Spring, its waves of heat so intense they distorted the air.
Not far from these strange springs stood a small thatched hut. Inside was our silver-haired little boy—
Chen Jieqi.
He sat facing the hut's entrance, legs crossed and back straight, his hands folded in front of his abdomen and his eyes tightly shut.
A gentle golden light shimmered between his brows, over his heart, and across his hands. Holy Light gathered from the world around him and the Naaru Brand between his brows.
Like a warm current, it soaked into his body and merged with his blood, flowing and gathering as his Soul Power guided it.
Chen Jieqi's Soul Power repeatedly surged through his meridians, yet an invisible barrier kept it trapped on the far side of his bottleneck.
It was the limit of his Soul Power's circulation, the shackles of body and mind. Each attempt to break through left his meridians aching and swollen, as if they might burst.
He calmed his mind and focused, sinking his spiritual power deep within himself as he guided his Soul Power to crash against the bottleneck again and again.
At first, there was only a faint tremor. Gradually, his Soul Power swelled like a surging river, growing more and more powerful.
"Crack!"
Suddenly—
A faint, brittle sound rang out from within him.
The barrier that had troubled him for so long shattered.
His sluggish Soul Power instantly surged like a tide, rushing through his meridians as the circulation of energy through his body finally opened up completely.
A far richer, purer Soul Power erupted from between his brows, sweeping through his limbs and bones as it coursed through his flesh and Martial Soul.
Holy Light blazed around Chen Jieqi, and his Soul Power rose steadily. Breaking free of his restraints, he had achieved a complete breakthrough.
The instant he opened his eyes, a golden glimmer flashed in his pupils and vanished. His aura was steady and powerful, and he seemed like an entirely new person.
"I finally made it to level 20."
Chen Jieqi exhaled a breath of stale air.
He brushed nonexistent dust from his clothes. As he stood, he pressed his left palm to the ground and placed his right hand over his chest, murmuring:
"May the Holy Light be with me!"
Chen Jieqi had barely finished his "May the Holy Light be with me!" when he heard soft footsteps outside the door.
"Little Qi, are you done breaking through?"
Dugu Yan's clear voice came from outside.
"Yes. I've successfully reached level 20."
Chen Jieqi walked toward her, a faint smile still lingering on his face after the breakthrough.
"A six-and-a-half-year-old Soul Grandmaster-to-be? You might be the only one on the entire continent. What a little monster!"
Dugu Yan ruffled his hair, marveling at him. Her astonishment was plain to see.
Chen Jieqi smiled and tilted his head away from her hand, his voice teasing.
"Sis Yanyan, you might not be the only one to reach level 30 and become a Soul Elder-to-be at thirteen, but you're definitely the only beautiful Soul Master to break through several levels at once after obtaining a Soul Ring."
He paused, silently adding to himself:
Except for that certain angel who gives herself away for free, of course!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the spring, Dugu Bo was cultivating.
The energies of heaven and earth gathered wildly around him, forming a multicolored vortex several yards across. Howling winds swept up gravel and sent it flying into the air.
Vast amounts of worldly energy poured into his body and flowed along his meridians into his dantian, providing an endless supply of energy to condense his Soul Core.
Within his dantian, his liquid Soul Power was forcibly twisted by his spiritual power, forming a rapidly spinning vortex.
The vortex tightened, compressing and refining the liquid Soul Power until it changed from a variety of colors to dark green. Its sticky, liquid consistency gradually shifted toward a semi-solid crystal.
Soul Power kept spilling from the vortex's edge, only to be forcibly dragged back. His meridians throbbed with a tearing pain.
As they stretched and contracted, a jade-like white glow enveloped them, restoring them to normal.
This was the power of the Hunyuan Immortal Herb, assisting him in condensing his Soul Core.
Over the past six months, the Soul Power vortex had been compressed to its limit.
"Buzz—"
A deep rumble sounded from his dantian. The semi-solid Soul Power hardened completely, transforming into a crystal the size of a longan, shimmering with a deep green light—
his Soul Core.
It rotated slowly at the center of his dantian.
The instant his Soul Core took shape, the agonizing swelling in his meridians vanished.
The Soul Power that had just been running wild and out of control was now obediently held in check by the Soul Core's unfathomable pull, settling back into his body.
His taut meridians and overheated dantian finally steadied. It was as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and his aura settled like a deep pool.
Dugu Bo slowly opened his eyes. A profound green glint flashed in them and disappeared.
He focused on sensing the changes in his body, then slowly broke into a relieved, unrestrained grin.
"Hiss... hiss... hiss..."
His Soul Power now recovered more than ten times faster. He could unleash Soul Skills more quickly and with greater force, and control his Soul Power as easily as moving his own limbs.
Every time he used a skill, it was more powerful than ever, without the slightest resistance.
But the greatest cause for his joy was this:
He had finally freed himself from the risk of losing control of his Soul Power, suffering a Martial Soul backlash, or having his body explode.
For decades, the insidious poison and backlash of his Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul had been a sword hanging over his head. One careless moment could have spelled his doom.
But now that his Soul Core had formed, it had completely suppressed the backlash that corroded his meridians and threw his Soul Power into chaos, containing it within his Poison Sac so it could no longer wreak havoc.
"Whew—!"
Dugu Bo let out a long breath. Once his Soul Power had fully stabilized, the changes to his appearance were even more startling than the surge in his strength.
His hair and beard, once dark green from the poison seeping through his body, had lost their sinister hue and turned a mixture of frost-white and ink-black.
His dry, straw-like hair had become smooth and lustrous. His cheeks were no longer sunken from the poison, and the face that had been stiff as a mask for years finally softened into a normal, gentle expression.
His green eyes, once full of violence and bloodlust, still gleamed sharply, but their vicious edge had dulled.
He looked ten or twenty years younger, no longer showing any sign of the frailty that had once left him on death's door.
Even more astonishingly, the pungent, choking "snake stench" surrounding him had completely disappeared. All his poison was now perfectly sealed within his Soul Core.
Without activating his Martial Soul, he was nearly indistinguishable from any other elderly expert. His poison would no longer disturb those around him, and he no longer had to worry about accidentally harming the innocent.
As for his Soul Power, Dugu Bo had fully stabilized at the peak of level 91. With his Soul Core in operation, his Soul Power flowed without the slightest obstruction.
Until he reached level 95, he felt he would encounter no bottleneck at all. The road ahead was clear.
If he encountered another fortuitous opportunity in the future, even reaching Super Douluo might not be impossible.
The thought filled Dugu Bo with a surge of pride.
"Hahaha... hahaha!"
His hearty laughter echoed through the valley...
Gone was the old image of a man driven mad and made sinister by pain. In its place stood a man whose calm and domineering presence was as imposing as a mountain.
"From this day on, I am the true Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor!"