The next day, Sunset Forest, Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
Thick mist hung in the air. Vapor rose from the hot and cold springs, refracting the morning light into pale colors. Dew clung to the spirit herbs along the bank, and their medicinal fragrance was crisp and clean.
Dugu Bo sat cross-legged beside the spring, an open box containing a Spirit Bone before him.
Blue-gold light spilled out like a living thing, tangling with the mist.
The leg bone was slightly smaller than an ordinary Spirit Bone. It was blue-gold all over, its fine patterns like the veins of a plant, or ancient runes.
He stared at it for a long time.
"A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone."
Dugu Bo finally spoke, his voice low.
"I've lived this long, and this is the first time I've seen one."
His palm hovered an inch above the bone, never touching it.
The blue-gold glow seemed alive, pulsing faintly as it wound around his fingertips. Dugu Bo's hand trembled.
"Such pure life force."
He murmured, his eyes complicated.
"The owner of this Spirit Bone... had no resentment when she died."
Chen Jieqi said nothing.
The Blue Silver Emperor had offered herself willingly. She'd harbored no resentment—or so it seemed.
Dugu Bo fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Are you sure?"
"Sure."
He wouldn't ask again whether their attributes were incompatible. He could see the hint of calculation in the brat's eyes.
Drawing a deep breath, Dugu Bo took out the Spirit Bone and placed it before him on his knees.
"Stand guard."
"All right."
Chen Jieqi rose, retreated ten meters, then sat cross-legged and watched in silence.
Dugu Bo closed his eyes. Dark green Soul Power surged from him, weaving together with the blue-gold light.
Mist billowed over the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, and ripples spread across both the hot and cold springs.
The absorption began.
There was none of the violence or backlash he'd expected. The blue-gold light flowed in like a gentle stream,
winding along the meridians in his arm and into his body, carrying a dense, almost tangible vitality.
Dugu Bo felt the old injuries from years of backlash, accumulated in his bones and blood, begin to heal inch by inch under the wash of this power—
like a dead tree budding in spring, like parched earth welcoming rain.
His heart jolted.
This Spirit Bone had come from the Blue Silver Emperor. Its life attribute was utterly pure, and should have been incompatible with the snake venom within him.
Yet, in an utterly baffling way, it transformed the corrosive toxins into nourishment, using them to repair the meridians that had once been riddled with damage.
Ten meters away, Chen Jieqi stared fixedly at Dugu Bo's back.
He didn't dare close his eyes.
The next day, the sun was already high, but the mist had yet to clear.
Dugu Bo remained seated, though his complexion was much rosier than it had been the day before.
The phantom of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor hovered quietly behind him. Blue-gold patterns wound around its body. It no longer struggled; instead, it seemed docile.
Chen Jieqi could feel the power of the leg bone merging perfectly with Dugu Bo's. There wasn't the slightest sign of it getting out of control.
His clenched fist never relaxed.
Though there was no violent fluctuation, the mist around the outskirts of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well faltered slightly at noon,
as though something had gently stirred it.
On the third day, the sun began to sink.
Dugu Bo's breathing was steady and unhurried. His complexion was rosy, and he showed no sign of anything amiss.
Sitting ten meters away, Chen Jieqi's palm was slick with sweat.
Then Dugu Bo slowly opened his eyes.
A flash of blue-gold flickered in his pupils, then vanished, leaving their usual color behind.
But his bearing had changed. He wasn't sharper—he was calmer, more grounded.
Like a blade reforged in the fire.
He looked down at his hands, clenched them into fists, then relaxed them.
"Rank ninety-five."
He spoke calmly, but with a tremor he could barely hide.
"But this shell... has cracked."
Chen Jieqi looked at him. "The bottleneck has loosened?"
"More than loosened."
Dugu Bo raised his eyes, a light burning in them.
"I saw the door."
The door to rank ninety-six.
Once impossibly far away, it now stood right before him. He only needed to take one last step.
And the Spirit Bone had given him far more than that.
With a thought, Dugu Bo's body floated into the air.
No wings, no fluctuation of Soul Power—just an instinct granted by the Soul Bone Skill.
He could turn, accelerate, and hover freely in the air, as if on solid ground.
He circled once above the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, then landed soundlessly. Even the poisonous mist beneath his feet parted naturally at his presence.
"Flight."
He said it mildly, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
What moved him most, however, was the power of regeneration hidden deep within the Spirit Bone.
"Wildfire can never be burned away; when spring winds blow, it rises anew."
That was the Blue Silver Emperor's source power. As long as a spark of life remained, she could rise again.
With the Soul Core within him and his mastery of poison, Dugu Bo fell silent for a moment.
Even against Tang Hao, he might have a chance of winning. Even if he couldn't beat him head-on, he could wear him down.
"Listen."
Dugu Bo's voice dropped, his earnestness tinged with awkwardness.
"I've absorbed this bone into my body for now.
Consider it... staying with Grandpa for a while. I'll keep it safe for you."
He paused, then snorted, as if trying to smother the warmth in his voice.
"When you need it, or if I'm gone, you can take it whenever you want.
Don't let some outsider get their hands on it."
Chen Jieqi looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.
"All right."
Dugu Bo turned his head away.
Chen Jieqi couldn't see his expression. He only saw Dugu Bo's Adam's apple bob once, as if he'd swallowed back some words.
When Dugu Bo turned back, his voice had returned to its usual hoarseness.
"All right. Grandpa will remember."
He closed the box and carefully put it away.
After a moment of silence, he asked,
"Are you sure? You could use it yourself."
"Our attributes don't match," Chen Jieqi said.
Dugu Bo snorted.
"Bullshit. Even if the attributes don't match, a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone can be forcibly fused. You deliberately gave it to me."
Chen Jieqi didn't deny it.
Dugu Bo fell silent for a while, then reached out and patted his shoulder, hard.
Dugu Bo suddenly asked,
"Where did you dig up that Blue Silver Emperor sapling?"
Chen Jieqi paused.
"In a cave on the mountain behind Holy Soul Village."
"A cave?"
Dugu Bo narrowed his eyes, his gaze deep.
"After the Blue Silver Emperor sacrificed herself, Tang Hao should at least have found a place rich in spiritual energy to raise that sapling.
Why would he stash it somewhere like that, where it was dark as night?"
He turned and fixed his gaze on Chen Jieqi.
"Brat, you said earlier that you found the leg bone in a hidden compartment in that same cave?"
"Yeah."
Dugu Bo sneered.
"If Tang Hao really loved the Blue Silver Emperor, he wouldn't have left the only thing she had after death to rot in a cave alongside a Spirit Bone."
He paused, his eyes cold as a venomous snake's.
"I suspect that sacrifice back then might not have been entirely voluntary.
Or, to put it another way, it might not have been entirely the Blue Silver Emperor's choice."
Chen Jieqi looked at him without denying it.
"I've wondered about that too."
His tone was as calm as if he were talking about someone else's affairs.
"If Tang Hao really cared about her that much, he would at least have planted the sapling somewhere with plenty of sunlight and Soul Power."
"There's another possibility. He knew the value of the sapling, and the value of this leg bone.
He couldn't bring himself to destroy them, but couldn't use them himself, so he stored them away."
Dugu Bo was silent for a long time.
The night breeze brushed past the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, stirring the water with a faint sound.
"Interesting."
That was all he said in the end, but his eyes were icy cold.
The outskirts of Sunset Forest.
Several Soul Hunting teams patrolling the forest's edge stopped almost at the same time.
"Was that... a light?"
"Did it come from deeper in? It looked emerald green."
"Must've been a trick of the eye. That place is choked with poison. How could anyone be living there?"
They exchanged glances, then chalked it up to their eyes playing tricks on them and continued on their way.
They didn't know that, not long ago, a flash of emerald light deep in the forest—enough to draw the attention of even a Titled Douluo—
had briefly torn through the poisonous mist, only to be suppressed by layers of poison arrays, leaving behind nothing but a fading trace.
A watchtower thirty miles southeast of Heaven Dou City.
A sect disciple on duty rubbed his eyes and looked toward the southeastern horizon.
"Senior brother, did you see that?
It looked like a flash of light over by Sunset Forest."
"Stop being so jumpy. What's out there besides poison and Soul Beasts?
Come on, it's time to change shifts."
The disciple muttered as he left, paying no mind to the fleeting strange sight.
That night, beside the campfire,
Dugu Bo asked no more questions. He pulled a porcelain bottle from his robes and tossed it to Chen Jieqi.
"New Antidote Pills. They work better than the last ones. Take them."
Chen Jieqi caught the bottle and tucked it away.
"What are you planning to do next?"
"Go back to Heaven Dou and make my move."
Dugu Bo snorted. "You're playing a big game."
"Not that big,"
Chen Jieqi said.
"I just need time."
"And one more thing,"
Dugu Bo said, turning his back. His voice was muffled.
"Send word if anything happens. Don't shoulder it alone."
Chen Jieqi looked at his back, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Got it, Grandpa."
The night was deep, and the moonlight flowed like water.
In the distance, amid the alternating hot and cold mists, the stem of the blue-gold seedling seemed a little sturdier than it had been three days ago,
its blue-gold hue warmer and more lustrous as it swayed gently in the moonlight.
Dugu Bo took a long swig of wine and glanced at Chen Jieqi, but asked nothing.
Some things no longer needed to be said.
Beneath the moonlight, an old man and a young man sat beside the bonfire, drinking wine in silence.
The blue-gold seedling swayed gently in the wind, as if guarding something, or perhaps waiting for another stretch of water to call its own.
The night breeze swept past, carrying away the words left unspoken.