Douluo: Starting by Forging a Gun Chapter 42

In this extreme environment, Shen Feng not only had to endure the dual devastation the surroundings inflicted upon his body and will, but he also had to expend great effort to pry loose the Dragon Crystal of the Fire Dragon King.

Under such circumstances, every ounce of strength Shen Feng exerted was a challenge to the limits of his body.

Every time he exerted force, he would unconsciously stimulate the medicinal power of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot that had been stockpiled within his body.

Every time he exerted force, it served as a secondary activation of his Body Martial Soul.

Suddenly, Shen Feng was surprised to discover that he was becoming more energetic and finding the task easier the more he worked.

Gradually, Shen Feng's body began to emit a faint, precious glow, and the spirit power within him began to climb rapidly.

On the first day, in the extremely harsh environment at the bottom of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, a black precious light suddenly bloomed from Shen Feng's body.

The External Spirit Bone, the Black Scale Armor, completely merged with Shen Feng, becoming inseparable from that moment on.

With some of the medicinal power of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot refined, Shen Feng successfully broke through to level 37.

On the second day, he continued to pry at the Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal and refine the medicinal power of the two immortal herbs, breaking through to level 38.

On the third day, he refined the medicinal power and broke through to level 39.

On the fourth day, he refined the medicinal power and broke through to level 40.

On the fifth day, he refined the medicinal power, accumulated spirit power, and the Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal finally loosened.

On the sixth day, he refined the medicinal power, accumulated spirit power, and the Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal loosened further.

On the seventh day, he refined the medicinal power, accumulated spirit power, and suddenly, two types of precious light—crimson red and milky white—bloomed from Shen Feng's body, looking exceptionally magnificent.

This symbolized that the medicinal power of the two immortal herbs, the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot, had been completely absorbed by Shen Feng.

Borrowing this suddenly erupted power, a brilliant precious light burst forth from Shen Feng's body. He used all his strength to pry with the Leiming Blade, and the already loosened Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal immediately flew out.

Shen Feng's expression became excited at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his heart began to beat violently.

Suddenly, an accident occurred!

The Dragon Crystal, having detached from the Fire Dragon King's skull, suddenly bloomed with an extremely brilliant crimson red light.

It's over, Shen Feng's pupils contracted; the blinding light turned his vision completely blood-red.

The next moment, just as Shen Feng thought the Dragon Crystal was about to explode, it actually began to collapse crazily, like a black hole.

Huge waves of suction began to pull at him, making it impossible for Shen Feng to steady his body.

In his desperation, Shen Feng activated his Body Martial Soul and Leiming Blade Martial Soul in one go, performing his self-originated Martial Soul Fusion Skill for the first time.

Accompanied by the blooming of golden light and purple-black lightning, a giant wielding a blade, surrounded by purple-black lightning, emerged.

The giant was over five meters tall, clad in black-gold Bright Light Armor, wearing a battle helmet with a faceplate that obscured his features. He held a giant purple-black horse-slaying blade as tall as himself; the blade was snow-white, radiating cold light, with brilliant purple lightning dancing upon it.

Except for the one yellow and two purple spirit rings circling his body that looked slightly unsightly, the giant's appearance could absolutely claim the top spot among the many humanoid Martial Soul Fusion Skills on the Douluo Continent.

Boom—

With the tip of the blade pointing downward, the nearly four-meter-long edge was driven directly into the giant rock at the bottom of the spring by the giant. He gripped the meter-long hilt tightly, only then barely managing to stabilize his form.

The suction of the Dragon Crystal gradually increased, and the Fire Dragon King's skeleton, having lost its Dragon Crystal, began to emit a sorrowful wail.

Crack, with a crisp sound, the Fire Dragon King's skeleton was finally snapped by this suction force.

Immediately afterward, a large amount of shattered bone began to pour crazily into the gravitational mass created by the Dragon Crystal.

At the same time, the balance of water and fire elements was broken. The Water Dragon King's skeleton also began to shake violently, and subsequently, it too began to emit wails of unbearable strain.

Shen Feng, incarnated as the giant, mourned silently in his heart; he had already seen that brilliant light beginning to erupt from the location of the Water Dragon King's Dragon Crystal.

That milky white light was identical to that of the Fire Dragon King's Dragon Crystal.

A milky white gravitational mass appeared, and the Water Dragon King's skeleton was the first to be pulled inside.

The gravity gradually intensified, and the Dragon Crystals of the Water Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King began to interfere with each other. One on the left, one on the right, one above, one below, they actually began to rotate rapidly.

"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle." (Damn it, you won't even let me rest in peace after death. Heaven is trying to destroy me.)

The extreme water and fire elements began to rage, sharp as knives and combs. The giant that Shen Feng had transformed into was actually being shaved away inch by inch at this moment.

Immense pain surged, no less than being sliced by a thousand knives.

The giant's body shook like chaff; in the end, Shen Feng could not hold on any longer.

A flash of light flickered, and Shen Feng was forced out of his Martial Soul Fusion Skill. His broken body fell into a coma at this moment, being ruthlessly pulled toward the center of that extremely dangerous water and fire elemental vortex.

At this time, the unconscious Shen Feng had no idea that his body had not yet given up on him and was still putting up a final resistance.

The black precious light from the External Spirit Bone, the Black Scale Thunder Armor, lit up.

The milky white precious light from the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass lit up.

The crimson red precious light from the Infernal Delicate Apricot lit up.

The pale golden precious light from the Body Martial Soul also lit up.

Even the Leiming Blade, which was not adept at augmenting the body, ignited its own lightning glow at this moment, circling Shen Feng's body surface, trying to share a sliver of the pressure for him.

At this critical juncture, Shen Feng's body seemed to love him more than he loved himself, uniting in solidarity to begin resisting the crisis from the outside world.

Gradually, the frequencies of the several types of precious light began to align, and with the Body Martial Soul as the core, they began their final fusion.

He hoped to summon his final strength to salvage a body that seemed beyond saving.

At the same time, the surface of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well began to show abnormalities due to the massive disturbance at the bottom.

The previously calm water began to boil, and the two distinct springs, just like at the bottom of the well, began to mix rapidly, forming a vortex that spanned the entire cross-section of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

"This, this, this..."

Dugu Bo, who was currently following the books left behind by Shen Feng to harvest immortal herbs, had already discovered the anomaly in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

"Seven days, a full seven days, you brat actually didn't die."

"Hahaha, hahaha, as expected, heaven never blocks all paths. Even my terminal illness could be cured, so you, brat, certainly wouldn't die so easily."

Dugu Bo's joy came from the bottom of his heart, and his excitement was impossible to hide.

Seven days ago, after confirming Shen Feng was 'dead', Dugu Bo had inherited his legacy in grief.

He then spent a day studying the immortal herbs recorded in the books, focusing primarily on the Earth Dragon Golden Melon and the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot that Shen Feng had consumed.

However, every step Shen Feng had taken was basically consistent with the ancient records; Dugu Bo couldn't find a single fault.

Helpless, Dugu Bo could only set up an altar and, together with Dugu Yan, burn incense for Shen Feng for three days.

On the fifth day, Dugu Bo risked consuming the Earth Dragon Golden Melon, successfully evolving his martial soul into a true Poison Dragon. His hidden dangers were completely cleared, and his level jumped to rank 93.

On the sixth day, Dugu Bo personally prepared the Antitoxin Serum to clear the hidden dangers for Dugu Yan.

Today, the seventh day, Dugu Bo was about to pick some suitable immortal herbs to send to Shen Feng's parents—partly to thank Shen Feng for his sacrifice, partly to apologize, and partly to slightly alleviate his own guilt.

As it turned out, just as Dugu Bo was wallowing in grief, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well underwent this strange change.

When you think you have reached the end of the road, you find a new path through the willows and flowers.

In such a situation, how could the guilt-ridden Dugu Bo not be overjoyed?

Dugu Bo rejoiced too soon; the anomaly in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well only lasted for a day before returning to its former silence.

Even the two-colored spring water, which had mixed together, separated once again into distinct halves. Everything was exactly as it had been before.

Most importantly, Dugu Bo still could not wait for Shen Feng's return.

"Damn it!"

An enraged Dugu Bo waved his hand, unleashing a burst of soul power that struck the cliff of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, instantly blasting out a large crater.

Debris tumbled down, destroying a patch of rare medicinal herbs, but Dugu Bo had no heart to care about that now.

"You brat, did you really die in there?"

"Make a sound, you damn brat, make a sound!!"

"I'm already at such an old age, yet you still come to scare me, I, I..."

Dugu Bo's voice grew quieter and quieter, and murky tears gradually drowned his eyes, which had already turned black.

In the end, the tears of sorrow fell, blooming like a painful flower upon the ground.

A strand of silver hair suddenly appeared amidst Dugu Bo's ink-green locks at this very moment.

"Grandfather."

Dugu Yan furrowed her delicate brows and tugged at Dugu Bo's sleeve with concern.

"It's fine, Grandfather is fine, Grandfather is fine."

Though he said he was fine, Dugu Bo's voice was already hoarse.

"Wait, just wait, I believe he will come back..."

Looking up at the sky, Dugu Bo muttered to himself repeatedly.

It seemed as if he were trying to hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes once more.

The strange phenomenon on the surface of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well had vanished, but that did not mean the movement at the bottom of the well had ceased, nor did it mean that Shen Feng had perished.

Just like the surface of a calm ocean, there are often surging, violent waves beneath.

The bottom of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was the same at this moment.

Although the Water and Fire Dragon Kings had perished in the ancient era, the residual power within their dragon crystals could not be underestimated.

Otherwise, they would not have been able to continuously reshape the surrounding environment through the power leaking from the crystals over such a long period, eventually forming the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as it existed today.

It was also Shen Feng's luck that, after being washed away by the long river of time, the Water and Fire Dragon Crystals had finally leaked too much energy, causing their status to drop, with their power now less than one ten-thousandth of what it was during their lifetimes.

Coupled with the fact that the power of the Water and Fire Dragon Crystals restrained each other—much like the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot—the yin and yang forces gradually reached a balance, which gave the unconscious Shen Feng a glimmer of survival.

But Shen Feng was not having an easy time right now.

Although the violent eruption of the Water and Fire Dragon Crystals had stopped, the gravitational pull they generated had not dissipated.

At this moment, the Water and Fire Dragon Crystals were like a binary star system in the universe, relying on their own gravity to influence each other while rotating irregularly around a central point.

And that central point was Shen Feng, who had been swept into the vortex when the dragon crystals erupted.

The Water and Fire Dragon Crystals were now like the two poles of the Taiji, one yin and one yang, constantly rotating around Shen Feng, who acted as the 'one'. It was a cycle that repeated endlessly.

But this spelled disaster for Shen Feng, who was trapped at the center of this '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 for their energy exchange, circulating continuously as yin and yang transformed into one another.

Shen Feng was like a transit station, passively enduring everything without the slightest power to resist.

The massive elemental power, too vast to be absorbed, surged violently through Shen Feng's limbs and bones, frantically destroying every inch of his meridians, flesh, and skeleton.

The brutality of this process was in no way inferior to being sliced by a thousand knives or having one's bones ground into dust.

Yet, precisely because Shen Feng was at the intersection of these Water and Fire Dragon Crystal powers, he was in harmony with the supreme natural principle of yin and yang uniting, which brought him endless vitality that constantly repaired his body.

It was fortunate that when Shen Feng was swept into the center of this water and fire elemental storm, he had already completely refined the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot, further strengthening his resistance to water and fire.

Otherwise, he would not have been able to persist until now, nor could he have maintained his life force under such a series of coincidences.

However, this state of not being able to die was not at all what Shen Feng wanted.

With destruction and repair happening simultaneously, Shen Feng's consciousness was caught in this torture, fainting from the excruciating pain only to be jolted awake by it, over and over again.

Enduring such torture, comparable to being in the eighteenth level of hell, would likely break even the most iron-willed person.

Shen Feng was in exactly this state; he certainly didn't want to live, but he couldn't die either.

Every time he was jolted awake by the pain, he would lose consciousness again before he could even gain control of his body, only to wait for the next time he would be awakened by the agony.

Hardship eventually comes to an end, and the human body will evolve.

Time flowed on, and in the blink of an eye, a month passed. Under the ceaseless scouring of the infinite water and fire elements, and amidst this indescribable suffering, Shen Feng's body finally began its self-adaptive evolution.

The first change was in Shen Feng's Body Martial Soul; under the pressure of this extreme environment, it unexpectedly linked with his External Spirit Bone, the Black Scale Thunder Armor, merging to trigger a secondary awakening.

From this point on, whether Shen Feng activated the Black Scale Thunder Armor or his Body Martial Soul, the two would maintain a close connection, achieving an effect where one plus one is greater than two.

The evolution of the Body Martial Soul further strengthened Shen Feng's physical resistance, and amidst the constant scouring of the water and fire elements, he finally gained a tiny bit of initiative.

When a black-gold radiance lit up on the surface of Shen Feng's body, the horn for his counterattack had finally sounded.