Hard-to-Eat Immortal Herb (Physically), External Elixir Secret Method

In the original story, the 190,000-year Earth Dragon Golden Melon was as large as two fists put together. The one before Chen Ming, however, seemed to be only around 20,000 years old and was about the size of a single fist.

Rather than a watermelon, it looked more like a golden muskmelon.

Chen Ming crouched down and tremblingly weighed the Earth Dragon Golden Melon in his hand. He discovered that this palm-sized thing actually weighed nearly a hundred jin. When he tapped its rind with a finger, it felt as though he were knocking on a metal ornament.

Forget eating it—even lifting such a tiny thing was difficult for Chen Ming.

After all, the Earth Dragon Golden Melon was only fist-sized, making it far harder to exert force on than a normal large object.

Chen Ming's body trembled under the instinct of his Martial Soul, yet the sheer mass of the thing left him silent for a long while.

Earth Dragon Golden Melon?

Chen Ming had thought it was merely a name, with "golden melon" referring only to its properties and appearance. Now, he realized that "golden melon" might also mean that this thing possessed a density even more astonishing than metal of the same volume.

Earth Dragon referred to its medicinal effects and attributes, while Golden Melon referred to its literal physical weight.

Chen Ming remembered this thing clearly from the original story. Tang Wulin had taken it away, and it had fused with Yuanen Yehui in the form of a Spirit Soul. Put simply, there had never been any mention of how it was supposed to be eaten.

Chen Ming suspected that Spirit Beasts with the bloodline of earth dragons or Mountain Dragons could reach nearly ten meters in length after ten thousand years. For such enormous creatures, swallowing this little thing would not be difficult.

They could swallow it whole, allowing its medicinal power to disperse and transform their entire bodies.

But for Chen Ming, if he wanted to stuff this thing into his mouth...

Dugu Bo crouched down and tapped it with a finger. His mouth twitched. "How about picking something edible? If it didn't have a vine attached, I'd think some family's carved metal ornament had fallen into my field."

"I think that Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng King is pretty good. I can catch you two Ten-Thousand-Year Purple Ganodermas as supplementary herbs, mix up some medicine, and keep you fed for quite some time. Once you're done, your cultivation should be about right. I'll help you obtain a Spirit Ring, then we'll come back and I'll make more medicine for you."

"Yan Yan and I couldn't finish all the herbs in this garden even if we stuffed ourselves to death. Adding you won't make a difference. It's not as though someone would strip away all the herbs whether they could eat them or not."

Dugu Bo added a little Soul Power to his fingers and tapped the melon. A sound like clashing metal rang out. He shook his slightly numb hand, and his expression turned even stranger.

"This thing... I don't think I could even cut it open without getting serious."

By getting serious, Dugu Bo did not mean merely using his Martial Soul. He meant releasing his Martial Soul Avatar and biting it directly. Under normal circumstances, Dugu Bo absolutely could not break open the Earth Dragon Golden Melon's rind.

"I-I'll think of something." Chen Ming sat down on the ground in frustration, summoned his Martial Soul, and hugged the Earth Dragon Golden Melon against his chest.

Feeling his wildly throbbing Martial Soul and the cold Immortal Herb in his hands, which gave not the slightest response to his Martial Soul, Chen Ming could only look helpless.

His mind raced as all kinds of ideas flashed through his head like lightning.

From Dugu Bo's perspective, Chen Ming's complexion rapidly shifted from normal to flushed, then bright red. His brows drew tightly together, his face twisted in agony, and great beads of sweat fell from his forehead.

"Don't get worked up, don't get worked up, don't get worked up!" Dugu Bo feared that Chen Ming might become so enraged that he would suffer cultivation deviation and die, so he hurriedly tried to persuade him.

After a long while, Chen Ming opened his eyes. His entire face and hair were soaked with sweat, but there was a glimmer of understanding in his gaze.

"Senior, don't worry. I'm fine. I was just thinking about something a little too complicated."

"You call that thinking about something a little too complicated? I thought you were about to explode! Your face was as red as a kettle boiled dry!" Dugu Bo gestured in the air, seemingly trying to describe Chen Ming's condition from moments ago.

"Senior, don't worry. I have a solution. Do you remember what I said about Dragon Cores?"

"I remember." Dugu Bo spat out his Inner Core and found that it seemed a little rounder than it had been over a month ago, no longer looking so rough and pitted.

"My Martial Soul reacted to this thing with extremely violent tremors. Instinctively, I feel that if I consume it, my Martial Soul will undergo an excellent transformation. But this thing doesn't look like food."

"Senior, I now suspect that this thing isn't meant to be digested through the stomach at all. It may be meant to fuse into the body."

Chen Ming placed the Earth Dragon Golden Melon beside Dugu Bo's feet, then pointed at the Inner Core in Dugu Bo's hand. "Senior, look. Don't these two seem very similar?"

"They are. They're both round." Dugu Bo nodded, unsure how else to explain it. He just felt there was quite a big difference between them.

"As a human, Senior, your core is this large. Now think about it—if it were a true dragon, how large would its core be?"

"That's true." Dugu Bo suddenly understood Chen Ming's meaning. "So this is like an Inner Core made specifically for dragons? A Dragon Core grown by a plant?"

"Exactly. I suspect that if a true Earth Dragon consumed this thing, it wouldn't be digested directly. Instead, it would fuse into the Earth Dragon's body in a special way, helping it condense a genuine Dragon Core and rapidly transform into a dragon."

"If it were a True Dragon with a Dragon Core, this thing would fuse into the Dragon Core and strengthen it."

Chen Ming seriously suspected that the reason Earth Dragon Golden Melons did not appear in the first or second Douluo Continent novels was because even Tang San had not known how to eat one, or how to digest the medicinal power of this Immortal Herb. So he could only toss it aside.

It was not until Spirit Souls became widespread in Douluo Continent III, when the Earth Dragon Golden Melon voluntarily transformed into a Spirit Soul and fused with a Spirit Master, that someone truly consumed this Immortal Herb.

However, because Yuanen Yehui's Martial Soul was not of the Dragon Clan, the Earth Dragon Golden Melon had not reached its true limits.

"Very reasonable, very reasonable." Dugu Bo felt as if his thoughts had suddenly cleared, but he still had one question. "But how are you going to fuse with this thing? Have a Sub-Dragon eat it and become a True Dragon, absorb the True Dragon's Spirit Ring, then eat the True Dragon?"

"That would waste a lot of energy. Unless it dropped a Spirit Bone, and you factored in the fact that Spirit Bones can be passed down through generations, it would barely be worthwhile." Chen Ming did not deny Dugu Bo's train of thought. Compared to ordinary people of Douluo Continent, Dugu Bo had indeed thought quite far ahead.

In truth, Chen Ming knew very well why higher-level Spirit Beasts were more likely to drop Spirit Bones. The Soul Core was the key to a Spirit Beast dropping a Spirit Bone, and Spirit Beasts with greater cultivation were more likely to form the beginnings of a Soul Core. A Spirit Beast with one hundred thousand years of cultivation would inevitably possess a Soul Core, which was why it would inevitably drop a Spirit Bone.

If a Sub-Dragon ate the Earth Dragon Golden Melon and transformed into a True Dragon, it would certainly form a Dragon Core. A Dragon Core was a True Dragon's Soul Core, so killing it would most likely yield a Spirit Bone.

If he counted leaving behind a True Dragon Spirit Bone for future generations as an inheritance, the deal would not actually be a loss. In fact, the longer it was passed down, the more worthwhile it would become. Chen Ming simply had no intention of leaving the task of becoming a god to his descendants.

"Senior, cut the melon vine here. The smoother the cut, the better." Chen Ming pinched the Earth Dragon Golden Melon's stem. Compared to the hard body of the melon, this part was merely tougher than an ordinary plant.

Dugu Bo gathered Soul Power and formed his fingers into a blade, relying on the raw strength of a Title Douluo to sever the Earth Dragon Golden Melon's vine.

Chen Ming turned the stem over and inspected it, then nodded. He pressed the cut against his Dantian and began circulating his Soul Power.

The energy within the Earth Dragon Golden Melon slowly blended with Chen Ming's energy. Threads of energy entered his body under his guidance. Though it was an insignificant amount for this Immortal Herb, to Chen Ming, it felt as refreshing as eating ice cream in the height of summer.

Chen Ming's final decision was simple. Since he could not eat it, he would refine it into an External Elixir. He would drain most of its internal energy, feed it to a Spirit Beast afterward, then kill that Spirit Beast to obtain its Spirit Ring.