In this extreme environment, Shen Feng not only had to endure the physical and mental torment it inflicted, but also expend enormous effort prying out the Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal.
In these circumstances, every time Shen Feng exerted himself, he challenged the limits of his body.
Every exertion unconsciously stimulated the medicinal power of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot that had accumulated in his body.
Every exertion further activated his Body Martial Soul.
Before long, Shen Feng was astonished to find that the harder he worked, the more strength he had—and the easier it became.
Gradually, a faint radiance began to shine from Shen Feng's body, and the Soul Power within him began to surge.
On the first day, in the extremely harsh environment at the bottom of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, black light suddenly gleamed around Shen Feng.
The External Soul Bone, Black Scale Armor, completely fused with Shen Feng. From that moment on, they became inseparable.
He refined a little of the medicinal power of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, and smoothly broke through to level 37.
On the second day, he continued prying at the Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal and refining the medicinal power of the two Immortal Herbs in his body, breaking through to level 38.
On the third day, he refined more medicinal power and broke through to level 39.
On the fourth day, he refined more medicinal power and broke through to level 40.
On the fifth day, he refined more medicinal power and accumulated Soul Power. The Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal finally shifted.
On the sixth day, he refined more medicinal power and accumulated Soul Power. The Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal shifted even further.
On the seventh day, as he refined more medicinal power and accumulated Soul Power, two dazzling lights suddenly shone from Shen Feng: one crimson, the other milky white.
This meant that Shen Feng had completely absorbed the medicinal power of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, the two Immortal Grade Herbs.
Drawing on this sudden burst of strength, Shen Feng's body blazed with brilliant light. He put all his strength into prying with the Leiming Blade, and the already-loosened Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal immediately flew free.
Excitement spread across Shen Feng's face, visible to the naked eye. His heart began to pound violently.
Suddenly, something went wrong!
The Dragon Crystal, freed from the Fire Dragon King's skull, burst into an extraordinarily dazzling crimson light.
I'm done for. Shen Feng's pupils contracted, and the blinding light turned everything before him blood-red.
The next moment, just as Shen Feng thought the Dragon Crystal was about to explode, it began to collapse in on itself like a black hole.
Wave after wave of tremendous suction came at him, making it impossible for Shen Feng to keep his footing.
In desperation, Shen Feng activated both his Body Martial Soul and his Leiming Blade Martial Soul in one go, performing his Martial Soul Fusion Skill for the first time.
As golden light and purplish-black lightning blazed, a giant wielding a blade appeared, surrounded by purplish-black lightning.
The giant stood over five meters tall. He wore black-and-gold Bright Light Armor and a battle helmet, his face hidden behind a mask. In his hands was a purplish-black saber as tall as he was, its blade snowy white and gleaming coldly, crackling with dazzling purple lightning.
Aside from the somewhat jarring sight of only three Soul Rings around him—one yellow and two purple—the giant's design would unquestionably take first place among the many humanoid Martial Soul Fusion Skills on the Douluo Continent.
Boom—
With its tip pointing down, the blade's nearly four-meter-long edge plunged straight into the boulder at the bottom of the spring. The giant clung tightly to the hilt, over a meter long, and only then managed to steady himself.
The Dragon Crystal's suction grew stronger. The Fire Dragon King's skeleton, now missing its Dragon Crystal, began to let out a sorrowful wail.
Crack! With a sharp snap, the Fire Dragon King's skeleton finally broke under the force of the suction.
Then, a mass of shattered bones began to surge madly into the gravitational vortex created by the Dragon Crystal.
At the same time, the balance between the water and fire elements broke. The Water Dragon King's skeleton began to shudder violently, then let out a groan of unbearable strain.
Shen Feng, transformed into a giant, felt a pang of sorrow. He had already seen brilliant light begin to shine from the Water Dragon King's Dragon Crystal, too.
The milky-white light was exactly like the light from the Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal.
A milky-white gravitational vortex appeared, and the Water Dragon King's skeleton was the first to be dragged into it.
As the gravitational pull grew stronger, the Water Dragon King and Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystals began to interfere with each other. One to the left, one to the right; one above, one below—they began spinning rapidly.
"Glug, glug, glug." (Damn it! Even dead, you two can't leave anyone in peace. Is heaven trying to kill me?)
The extreme water and fire elements ran rampant, slicing and scraping like knives and combs. The giant Shen Feng had become was being shaved away, inch by inch.
An immense pain hit him, no less than being cut by a thousand knives.
The giant's body trembled like a sieve. In the end, Shen Feng could not hold on.
A flash of light passed, and Shen Feng was forcibly separated from the Martial Soul Fusion Skill. His battered body fell unconscious, and the merciless force dragged him toward the center of the perilous vortex of water and fire elements.
Unconscious, Shen Feng had no idea that his body had not given up on him. It was still making one last stand.
The black light from his External Soul Bone, Black Scale Thunder Armor, began to shine.
The milky-white light from the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass began to shine.
The crimson light from the Infernal Delicate Apricot began to shine.
Even the pale golden light from his Body Martial Soul began to shine.
Even the Leiming Blade, which was not good at strengthening the body, unleashed its own lightning. It wrapped around Shen Feng, trying to take even a sliver of the pressure off him.
At this desperate moment, Shen Feng's body seemed to love him more than he loved himself. United, its parts began resisting the danger from outside.
Gradually, the different lights began to pulse at similar frequencies. With the Body Martial Soul as their core, they began their final fusion.
They hoped to unleash one last reserve of strength and save his body, which seemed beyond hope.
At the same time, the surface of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well reacted to the tremendous disturbance below.
The once-calm water began to boil. The two clearly divided springs started mixing rapidly, just as they were at the bottom. A vortex spanning the width of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well began to form.
"This, this, this..."
Dugu Bo, who had been picking Immortal Grade Herbs according to the book Shen Feng had left behind, had noticed the strange changes in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"Seven days. Seven whole days, and you still haven't died, you brat."
"Hahaha! Hahaha! As they say, heaven never bars every path. If even my incurable illness could be cured, of course you wouldn't die so easily!"
Dugu Bo's joy came from the heart. He could not hide his excitement.
Seven days earlier, after confirming that Shen Feng was 'dead,' Dugu Bo had mournfully inherited his belongings.
He then spent a day studying the Immortal Grade Herbs described in the book, focusing mainly on the Earth Dragon Golden Melon and the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot Shen Feng had taken.
However, everything Shen Feng had done was fundamentally consistent with what the ancient texts recorded. Dugu Bo could not find a single fault in it.
With no other choice, Dugu Bo set up an altar and burned incense for Shen Feng for three days, together with Dugu Yan.
On the fifth day, Dugu Bo took the risk of consuming the Earth Dragon Golden Melon. His Martial Soul successfully evolved into a true Poison Dragon, completely eliminating the hidden danger, and his level soared to 93.
On the sixth day, Dugu Bo prepared Antitoxin Serum himself and cured Dugu Yan of her hidden danger.
Today, on the seventh day, Dugu Bo had been about to pick some suitable Immortal Grade Herbs to send to Shen Feng's parents. First, to thank them for Shen Feng's efforts; second, to apologize; and third, to ease his own guilt a little.
Yet just as Dugu Bo was grieving, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well began to behave strangely.
When all seemed lost, a new hope appeared.
How could a guilt-ridden Dugu Bo not be delighted by such a sight?
But Dugu Bo had rejoiced too soon. The strange changes in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well lasted only one day before it returned to its former stillness.
Even the two colors of water that had mixed together separated again, each returning to its own side. Everything was just as it had been before.
Most importantly, Dugu Bo still did not see Shen Feng return.
"Damn it!"
Dugu Bo angrily flung out a blast of Soul Power, striking the cliff by the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and instantly blasting a huge crater into it.
Rubble tumbled down, destroying a patch of rare herbs, but Dugu Bo had no mind to care.
"You brat, did you really die in there?"
"Make a sound! You damn well make a sound!"
"I'm already an old man, and you still have to scare me like this. I—I..."
Dugu Bo's voice grew quieter and quieter. Murky tears gradually filled his eyes, which had already turned black.
At last, a tear of sorrow fell and bloomed on the ground like a flower of pain.
A strand of silver hair suddenly appeared amid Dugu Bo's dark green hair.
"Grandpa."
Dugu Yan furrowed her delicate brows and tugged at Dugu Bo's sleeve with concern.
"It's all right. Grandpa's fine. Grandpa's fine."
He said he was fine, but Dugu Bo's voice had already gone hoarse.
"Just wait. Just wait. I believe he'll come back..."
Dugu Bo looked up at the sky and murmured over and over.
It seemed he was trying to hide the tears welling up in his eyes again.
The strange changes on the surface of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well had disappeared, but that did not mean the disturbance at the bottom had ended. Nor did it mean Shen Feng had perished.
Just as the ocean's surface could be calm while the waters beneath were often surging, so it was here.
At the bottom of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, things were just the same.
The Water and Fire Dragon Kings had perished in ancient times, but the residual power in their Dragon Crystals was still not to be underestimated.
Otherwise, the power leaking from their Dragon Crystals could not have reshaped the surrounding environment over such a long period of time and formed the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as it was today.
Shen Feng had been lucky. The long river of time had washed away so much of the Water and Fire Dragon Kings' energy that their rank had fallen, and their power was now less than one ten-thousandth of what it had been in life.
On top of that, the powers of the Water and Fire Dragon Crystals counteracted each other. Just like the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, their yin and yang forces had gradually reached equilibrium. That was what had given the unconscious Shen Feng a glimmer of life.
But Shen Feng was still in a terrible state.
Although the Water and Fire Dragon Crystals' rampage had stopped, the gravitational pull they had generated had not dissipated.
The Water and Fire Dragon Crystals now resembled a binary star system in the universe. They exerted their own gravitational pulls on each other, circling a central point in an irregular rotation.
That central point was Shen Feng, who had been swept into the Dragon Crystals' rampage earlier.
The Water and Fire Dragon Crystals were like the two poles of a taiji symbol, one yin and one yang, revolving endlessly around Shen Feng—the 'one' at their center.
But this tormented Shen Feng, who was trapped at the center of the 'taiji.'
The extreme water element released by the Water Dragon Crystal and the extreme fire element released by the Fire Dragon Crystal used Shen Feng's body as the center of their energy exchange, constantly circulating as yin and yang turned into one another.
Shen Feng was like a transfer station, passively bearing everything without the slightest power to resist.
The vast elemental energy he could not absorb surged through Shen Feng's limbs and bones, frantically destroying every inch of his meridians, flesh, and bones.
The savagery of it was no less than being cut by a thousand knives and having one's bones crushed to dust.
Yet Shen Feng was at the very center of the Water and Fire Dragon Crystals' converging power, in harmony with the heavenly principle of yin and yang united. This also brought him an inexhaustible vitality that constantly repaired his body.
Fortunately, when Shen Feng was swept into the heart of the elemental storm, he had already completely refined the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, further strengthening his resistance to water and fire.
Otherwise, he could not have held on until now, nor maintained his life through all these coincidences.
But this was not the kind of survival Shen Feng wanted.
His body was destroyed and repaired over and over. Just like the torture itself, his consciousness passed out from pain, then woke again in pain, repeating the cycle.
Even the most determined person could hardly endure this punishment, which was like being sent through the eighteen levels of hell again and again.
Shen Feng was no different. He definitely did not want to live, but damn it, he could not die either.
Every time pain woke him, before he could even regain control of his body, it knocked him unconscious again. Then he waited for the next time pain woke him.
Hardship would eventually end, and the human body would evolve.
Time passed. In the blink of an eye, a month went by. As endless water and fire elements washed over him without pause, and amid this indescribable agony, Shen Feng's body finally began to adapt and evolve.
The first to change was Shen Feng's Body Martial Soul. Under the pressure of this extreme environment, it unexpectedly resonated with his External Soul Bone, Black Scale Thunder Armor. The two fused with each other, bringing about a Second Awakening.
From then on, whether Shen Feng activated his Black Scale Thunder Armor or his Body Martial Soul, the two would work in close conjunction, producing an effect greater than the sum of their parts.
The evolution of his Body Martial Soul strengthened Shen Feng's physical resistance once more. Amid the unceasing wash of water and fire elements, he finally gained a tiny measure of control.
When the black-and-gold light shone across Shen Feng's body, the bugle call for the counterattack had already sounded.
Before you continue