Desperate Situation

Sea God Island, Sea God Pool.

The pool water was no ordinary seawater. It was a deep azure blue, as though an entire starry sky had been condensed within it. Soft golden patterns of light slowly flowed along the bottom, radiating an aura of holiness, vastness, and boundless vitality. This was one of Sea God Island's most vital sacred grounds for healing and cultivation, containing the Sea God's divine power and the essence of the endless ocean.

At that moment, Luo Kes sat cross-legged in the center of the pool, with only his head above the surface. His eyes were shut tight, his brows deeply furrowed, and subtle tremors occasionally ran through his body. The pure Sea God's Power and life energy within the water flowed endlessly into him, combining with his own Soul Power to form layers upon layers of blue light cocoons. They wrapped around and suppressed the dark-purple Dan-Devour poison raging through his meridians and soul.

At the poolside, aside from the stationed Sea Star Douluo, a healing-type Soul Master who was fully focused on controlling the pool's energy, several core elders were present as well, including Sea Dragon Douluo, Sea Horse Douluo, and Sea Maiden Douluo. Their expressions were grave as they watched.

"This poison... is it really that troublesome? Even the power of the Sea God Pool can only barely suppress it and cannot eradicate it?" Sea Horse Douluo asked in a low voice as he looked at the dark-purple markings flickering across Luo Kes's body, fiercely struggling against the blue cocoon of light.

Sea Star Douluo, an elderly man with a kind face but an incomparably focused gaze at that moment, slowly withdrew the Soul Power he had used to examine Luo Kes and sighed. "This poison... is no longer simply within the scope of 'poison.' It seems to possess some extremely high-level properties of 'rule erosion' and 'life-binding.' It acts directly upon Luo Kes's life origin and soul imprint, becoming utterly entangled with its host like the most vicious curse. The Sea God Pool's sacred purifying power can continuously wear away at its surface toxicity and prevent it from spreading too quickly, but to completely strip it away from the depths of his origin... difficult. Too difficult. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Sea Dragon Douluo pressed.

"Unless there is a purifying or healing power of the same level—or even stronger—that specifically restrains this poison, or possesses a deeper understanding of the laws of life and the soul, to remove it precisely. Or..." Sea Star Douluo paused. "Find the one who poisoned him, force it to withdraw the poison, or find an antidote or method of breaking it from that creature."

Everyone fell silent. Force the Poison Beast to take it back? Easier said than done. The Poison Beast's fate was unknown, and its whereabouts were completely lost. Even if they found it, given its ferocity, it would never submit.

"On the continent, if we speak of poison and antidotes," Sea Maiden Douluo suddenly said, her voice ethereal, "Poison Douluo Dugu Bo is undoubtedly a master in this field. His Jade Phosphorus Serpent Emperor Poison is incomparably tyrannical, and his understanding and research of poison run extremely deep. Perhaps..."

Sea Dragon Douluo slowly shook his head. "I thought of that as well. I have already dispatched people at top speed to send urgent invitations to the Heaven Dou Empire's royal family and Dugu Bo himself. We offered a generous reward and asked him to come to Sea God Island to help treat Luo Kes and study this poison."

"And the result?" Sea Horse Douluo asked.

"The Heaven Dou royal family was polite enough and said they would do their best to pass on the message. But Dugu Bo himself..." A trace of helplessness and anger appeared on Sea Dragon Douluo's face. "His reply contained only one sentence: 'This old man has recently been studying the principles of poison and is at a critical juncture. I will receive no visitors. As for Sea God Island's affairs, forgive me for being unable to comply.'"

"He refused?" Sea Maiden Douluo frowned.

"It was a polite refusal, but his stance was clear." Sea Dragon Douluo snorted. "That old poison freak has always been solitary and eccentric. He has never given face to any faction. Besides, he has probably realized how troublesome this matter is and does not wish to get involved lightly, much less leave those treasured herb gardens of his. Getting him to cross the sea and detoxify Luo Kes will be difficult."

The hall fell silent once more. Even Poison Douluo, renowned across the world for his poisons, could not be invited. Who else could cure this poison?

"Enough." Sea Dragon Douluo waved a hand, and a sharp glint flashed through his eyes. "Since we cannot borrow outside help, we will rely on ourselves! Sea Star, continue presiding over this. Spare no cost—use the Sea God Pool's accumulated reserves if necessary. You must stabilize Luo Kes's injuries and delay the poison's erosion. Sea Horse, Sea Maiden, how are your preparations?"

Sea Horse Douluo and Sea Maiden Douluo bowed together. "The hunting squad has assembled. The imitation Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud and the Sea-Cleansing Spirit Pearl are also in place. We can depart at any time."

"Good!" Sea Dragon Douluo said heavily. "Remember, the primary objectives of this mission are that Poison Beast's life and a sample of its poison origin! Alive, we see its corpse; dead, we see its poison! If we can obtain its intact corpse or poison sac, perhaps we can reverse-engineer a method to counter it—and maybe even save Luo Kes! If it resists, kill without mercy!"

"Yes!"

The two Title Douluos accepted their orders, killing intent blazing in their eyes. They not only intended to avenge Luo Kes, but also to eliminate this enormous threat to Sea God Island and seize the source of that bizarre poison, which might contain astonishing power.

Just as Sea God Island was urgently preparing its final hunt and relying even more heavily on its own strength after failing to invite Poison Douluo—

In the unknown depths of Eternal Silence Return Ruins, a place of absolute darkness and deathly silence where even energy had nearly run dry, within a hollow in the rock wall—

Time seemed to have lost all meaning.

Jingtian's consciousness drifted amid endless cold, agony, and emptiness. He felt his body "dying" bit by bit, turning cold and stiff, as though it were about to become part of this Guixu death zone. His Soul Power had long since been exhausted. His Poison Source lay silent like dead ash, and even the final trace of warmth from the Water-Condensing Pearl had completely dissipated.

Was he really going to... die here?

Unwillingness. Endless unwillingness.

The Soul Bone in the Western Silent Sea Abyss... stronger poison... the obsession to take revenge on those lofty figures... They were like the faintest sparks, stubbornly flickering in the depths of his consciousness as it was about to be extinguished completely.

Then—

He "felt" it. At the very core of his silent, seemingly dead Poison Source, the deepest trace of spirituality that had once resonated with the Scorpion Tail Soul Bone, absorbed a thread of its origin, and deeply fused with Dan-Devour suddenly gave an exceedingly faint pulse.

As though it sensed its master's desperate brush with death, or perhaps because it had been stimulated by the external environment of "poison"—though Guixu's energy was violent, it also contained all kinds of bizarre and negative energy traits, making it a kind of "poison" in a sense—that trace of spirituality began, at an incredibly slow and nearly imperceptible pace, to spontaneously and passively absorb the sparse yet omnipresent negative energy and deathly aura around it.

It was not active cultivation. It was more like an instinctive, dying struggle and assimilation.

Guixu's deathly energy was cold, inert, and filled with the meaning of endings. To ordinary life, it was deadly poison. Yet to the core of Jingtian's Poison Source, which had long been tightly bound to "poison" and "death," it seemed to become... a final sliver of nourishment?

That trace of spirituality absorbed so slowly it was despairing, and the amount it absorbed was negligible. Yet it truly was absorbing, slowly injecting that imperceptible energy carrying Guixu's deathly traits into Jingtian's nearly collapsing life origin and soul imprint.

It was not healing, but a bizarre form of preservation that kept him barely alive. Like covering a dying fire with cold ash that shut out the air, allowing the embers to smolder at the slowest possible pace.

Jingtian's life aura, already so weak it was on the verge of vanishing completely, was somehow maintained with extreme difficulty in a state almost like false death, preserving the final undying thread.

There was no recovery, no improvement. He simply... did not die completely at once.

Darkness remained endless darkness.

Cold remained bone-piercing cold.

Pain became a numb, dull sensation.

But he was still "there." In a bizarre state neither alive nor dead, suspended between existence and nothingness, he remained "there."

He did not know how much time had passed. Perhaps days, perhaps months, perhaps... longer.

Until, at a certain moment, his numb consciousness caught a trace of an extremely distant and faint disturbance in the water flow, one entirely different from Guixu's deathly environment.

That disturbance was neither an energy current nor the movement of Guixu creatures. It was more like... the subtle changes in water currents and energy fields caused by some enormous object slowly moving and searching at a relatively distant location.

And there was more than one! There were several! Two of them were especially powerful, carrying pressure that made even him tremble instinctively. Though they were separated by an immense distance and heavily weakened by Guixu's environment, the vast aura unique to Title Douluos, as though faintly aligned with the laws themselves, still stood out like lighthouses in the night and was keenly caught by his dying Poison Beast senses!

They were... pursuers! Sea God Island's pursuers! And even stronger, far more terrifying pursuers! They had actually... chased him this deep into Guixu?!

Was it because the Title Douluo struck by Dan-Devour had not died and returned to report it? Or had they used some special method to track him?

Jingtian's ash-like consciousness abruptly "awakened" for a moment under the stimulus of extreme danger!

He could not be discovered! In his current state, even if the slightest trace of the enemy's perception swept over him, he would certainly die! And judging by this formation, they were truly enraged and had sent terrifying forces capable of crushing even him at his peak!

Run! He had to run at once! Hide even deeper!

The instinct to survive overwhelmed everything. He desperately mobilized that final trace of Poison Source Spirituality, which was only barely sustained by absorbing Guixu's deathly energy, trying to control his nearly corpse-like body and react.

Yet his body had long been stiff and numb, his Soul Power completely gone. He did not even have the strength to move a single tentacle.

What could he do?!

Just as those terrifying probing waves, like invisible tentacles, began slowly extending toward the area where he hid and scanning it—

Jingtian "looked" beneath himself at the hard, cold Guixu rock layer that seemed eternal and unchanging.

A mad thought, yet perhaps his only path to survival, flashed through his consciousness before it sank once again.

Since he could not move or escape...

Then he would not move. He would not flee.

He would... completely "become" part of Guixu.

His Poison Source Spirituality began operating in an unprecedented manner. Instead of absorbing, it seeped outward. It did not release poison power, but imitated, conformed to, and merged with the omnipresent deathly, cold, terminal energy field and material structure of Guixu.

He suppressed his final trace of life aura and soul fluctuations until they were nearly nonexistent.

He tried his utmost to adjust the remaining dark-purple rings on his body until they matched the gray-black patterns of the surrounding stone.

He even attempted to guide the faint Guixu deathly energy he had absorbed over his entire body, creating a natural energy camouflage homogeneous with the environment.

This was not concealment. It was mimicry, assimilation, an attempt to temporarily transform himself from a "living being" into a "stone of Guixu."

He gambled that the pursuers' senses primarily locked onto "life fluctuations," "Soul Power reactions," and "highly toxic auras."

He gambled that the violent, chaotic energy field and deathly traits deep within Guixu could perfectly conceal his crude disguise.

He gambled that his near-death state, which had developed a bizarre resonance with Guixu's deathly energy, could deceive the probing of Title Douluos.

It was a desperate gamble, with almost no chance of survival.

But he had no other choice.

Several powerful waves of perception slowly swept across the area like combs.

Jingtian held his breath—if he still needed to breathe—and entrusted everything to instinct and luck.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

The perceptive waves passed over the rock wall where he hid, seemingly... without lingering.

They continued sweeping deeper inward.

Only after those heart-pounding waves gradually moved away and vanished beyond the edge of his senses did Jingtian's consciousness, stretched to its absolute limit, dare to slowly relax.

He had... won the gamble?

For now.

But he knew that he remained in a death trap, on the verge of dying, surrounded by even more terrifying enemies.

The thread of consciousness he had forcibly gathered because of the crisis began to scatter once again.

Yet before he sank completely, an even clearer thought branded itself into the deepest part of his soul:

"Soul Bone... Western Silent Sea Abyss... must... return... obtain it..."

Then endless darkness and cold swallowed him once more.

Only this time, within that absolute deathly silence, there seemed to be an additional spark... so faint it was nearly nonexistent, called "unwillingness" and "desire," stubbornly smoldering in the deepest depths of his Poison Source Spirituality.