Theory and Practice, Inner and Outer Cultivation

In one shichen, he had memorized six medical books and two poison manuals, more than 150,000 characters in total. Not only did he remember every word without error, but while reciting, he could also connect them to similar content from other books and point out omissions, mistakes, and contradictions between them.

Was he even human?

Even printing words onto paper with wooden blocks could not have been this fast, right?

Dugu Bo no longer doubted whether Chen Ming was a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. He suspected that Chen Ming was the product of some legendary Million-Year Spirit Beast taking human form, something that did not even exist in the tales.

But no matter what, after witnessing Chen Ming's learning ability, Dugu Bo finally concluded that Chen Ming was no ordinary person. He might not even be human.

Over the next few days, Chen Ming first asked Dugu Bo for some lumber. With exquisite craftsmanship, he built a small wooden house and the accompanying facilities within the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. Then, he began studying Dugu Bo's medical arts and poison arts under him.

In roughly ten days, Chen Ming had drained Dugu Bo dry. Whether it was the knowledge Dugu Bo had accumulated from books over the years or the little insights he had gained through practice, Chen Ming had committed all of it to memory.

If Chen Ming's Martial Soul had been the Jade Phosphor Snake, Dugu Bo would have suspected that Chen Ming could follow his path and cultivate all the way to the rank of Soul Douluo in one breath.

As for why not use his experience to cultivate to Titled Douluo... Dugu Bo knew his own limits well enough.

As for Dugu Bo's poison arts, Chen Ming had already learned roughly sixty to seventy percent of them. He had not mastered them all because much of what he knew had never been put into practice, and because Dugu Bo's poison arts relied heavily on his own Martial Soul.

Even so, if Chen Ming went out now, he would look more like Dugu Bo's successor than Dugu Yan did.

During this period, Chen Ming also recorded Dugu Bo's condition every day: his heart rate, pupils, breathing rhythm, Soul Power circulation speed, degree of muscle stiffness, tongue coating, steadiness of his breath, and so on...

Over those ten days, Chen Ming also compiled a small chart during his studies, roughly documenting Dugu Bo's condition.

Judging from that chart, Dugu Bo looked like he was about to die.

Though he was a Titled Douluo with a powerful physique and vast Soul Power supporting him, the fluctuations in Dugu Bo's condition were extremely obvious. Once he used his Soul Power, the changes in his condition would become even more uncontrollable for a while afterward.

Some of his basic physical indicators were not even as good as those of an ordinary man in his prime. He had survived until now entirely through the natural constitution of a Titled Douluo and the benefits provided by the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.

However, after observing Dugu Bo's condition, Chen Ming felt that stabilizing him would be even simpler than he had imagined. After all, Dugu Bo had no control over his own condition at all, so even basic methods could bring tremendous improvement.

Chen Ming's ability was AI Thinking, which allowed him to enter a state of absolute calm and bring his brain's processing power close to its maximum. It allowed multiple streams of thought and calculation, granting him memory and analytical abilities beyond the ordinary.

To outsiders, this ability was practically like a system. He could continuously raise his skill level by grinding experience, but in reality, Chen Ming could not see any so-called progress bar and could only make rough estimates.

Chen Ming divided the process of treating Dugu Bo into five stages, with each stage accounting for twenty-five percent.

The first four stages had an extremely high theoretical chance of success and could bring Dugu Bo's condition under control, so they were counted as the full one hundred percent. The remaining twenty-five percent was the theoretical possibility of strengthening Dugu Bo, an optional extra.

The first stage: relief.

Based on Dugu Bo's condition, Chen Ming modified his own cultivation method. He simplified and slowed the flow of internal energy, transforming the internal art meant for rapid cultivation into one that slowly stabilized the body and reduced metabolism.

Under Chen Ming's guidance, Dugu Bo practiced this newly modified internal art daily. When Dugu Bo was about to suffer his first backlash, he followed Chen Ming's instructions and entered a deep, slow meditation.

By making his condition resemble that of a hibernating snake and reducing his metabolism to the absolute minimum, he allowed the violent toxins to settle down once more.

It could be used not only when a backlash was imminent. After Dugu Bo expended a great deal of Soul Power in daily life, he could also use this method to calm the surging toxins within his body.

After safely getting through a backlash that should have occurred, Dugu Bo's trust in Chen Ming rose sharply.

After informing Dugu Bo, Chen Ming took some rare herbs from the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well for cultivation and began experimenting with medicine refining. Then he continued deducing the next stages of the plan.

He designed a fist art based on Tai Chi Fist and broadcast calisthenics. It could mobilize the circulation of blood and vital energy in the human body and soothe the imbalance of yin and yang.

Combined with suitable breathing techniques and specially tailored Soul Power circulation patterns, this fist art could slowly draw up the life force accumulated within the body, circulate and strengthen the blood and vital energy.

After Dugu Bo finished the routine, Chen Ming used a homemade gua sha scraper on him, then used Dugu Bo's silver needles to draw blood. By bleeding him at the joints and beneath the ribs, he released the old toxins that had accumulated in Dugu Bo's body over the years.

The blood was black and foul-smelling, nothing like what a living person should have. Instead, it resembled stagnant fluid accumulated inside a corpse. They drew blood once a day, from every part of Dugu Bo's body, for an entire month before it finally improved slightly. At least it began to look somewhat human.

Chen Ming even adjusted Dugu Bo's diet, reducing his intake of medicinal substances as much as possible. Instead, he sensibly planned out vegetables, fruits, meat, milk, eggs, and the like, creating a low-salt, low-oil, light diet rich in vitamins.

For a Spirit Master, such a diet offered little benefit to Soul Power cultivation. But whenever Dugu Bo's body converted energy into Soul Power, it would also subtly secrete part of that energy into toxins.

His body had already reached its limit in terms of bearing Soul Power. Taking in vast amounts of energy would not increase his Soul Power by much, and after part of the remaining energy was expelled, the rest would naturally be absorbed by the toxins and converted into new poison.

At present, there was little point in Dugu Bo taking any medicine. The impurities in his body had settled for too long. Medicine that was too weak was useless, while medicine that was too strong would harm his body. They could only slowly improve his condition as much as possible before making further changes.

When Chen Ming detoxified Dugu Bo, he was also doing his best to reduce the secretion of toxins within Dugu Bo's body.

Of course, the most important thing was to drink more hot water and use the toilet more. That would metabolize the impurities out of his body.

Besides that, Dugu Bo also captured some Spirit Beasts and brought them back for Chen Ming to study. Though ten-thousand-year Jade Phosphor Snakes were not easy to catch, Dugu Bo captured several thousand-year Jade Phosphor Snakes in Sunset Forest, sealed them with Soul Power, and handed them over to Chen Ming for research.

Through dissections of the Spirit Beasts and observations of Dugu Bo during treatment, Chen Ming acquired a great deal more data. Though his cultivation and processing power did not improve especially noticeably, there was much more that he could calculate.

Chen Ming also developed a clear idea for his future cultivation and for improving Soul Power cultivation methods. He only needed an opportunity to put it into practice.

After the first stage had continued for a month, Dugu Bo was stunned when he looked into the mirror and saw how much healthier he visibly appeared.

Compared to a month and a half ago, Dugu Bo felt that he had become at least five or six years younger. The dark aura between his brows had faded considerably, and his face had gained some color instead of remaining ashen white.

Even when he moved his body, his joints no longer hurt so badly. The toxins inside him no longer threatened to take his life at any moment, and when he slept at night, he was no longer jolted awake by pain in the middle of the night, writhing endlessly in bed like a silkworm. Instead, he could sleep straight through until dawn.

For Dugu Bo, who had been tormented by toxins for decades and had even prepared himself to endure that torment for the rest of his life, this condition was simply beyond wonderful.

Though Chen Ming felt that Dugu Bo had not even completed the first course of treatment, Dugu Bo saw it as his problem basically being solved.

While detoxifying him, Chen Ming had also explained the principles behind it and the reason for every step. Dugu Bo felt that if he continued maintaining this rhythm in daily life, he could live for at least another twenty years. Moreover, there would be no danger of toxic backlash for at least the next ten years.

And if his granddaughter could also control her condition according to this method, then even in old age, the toxins in her body would likely remain at a mild level. Even his descendants would no longer need to worry too much.

Dugu Bo was filled with indescribable joy. The way he looked at Chen Ming was like he was looking at his own blood brother.

He almost wanted to drag Chen Ming over on the spot and swear brotherhood. They need not be born on the same year, month, and day, but they wished to die on the same year, month, and day.

When Chen Ming asked to take a look deeper within the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well and find some good herbs to assist his cultivation, Dugu Bo agreed without hesitation.

Not only did he personally use his Soul Power to escort Chen Ming into the inner region, which Chen Ming could not enter with his current cultivation, he even emptied out his Ruyi Hundred Treasure Pouch and gave it to Chen Ming, telling him to take whatever herbs he liked.