Is Danheng a Soul Beast in Human Form?

Sunset Forest lay a hundred li east of Heaven Dou City. Danheng and Dugu Bo hurried at full speed and arrived before long.

A light rain fell from the sky today. Fallen leaves on the ground had been soaked through, and the rain-mixed soil gave off the forest's distinctive scent.

"It's not as large as the Star Dou Great Forest, but there are still some high-level soul beasts here."

Danheng's senses swept briefly across the entire forest, and he discovered quite a few ten-thousand-year soul beasts here as well.

However, upon seeing Dugu Bo, those soul beasts all fled far away like mice spotting a cat.

After all, Dugu Bo had spent many years here. The soul beasts of this forest could recognize his aura, and none were willing to provoke that Old Poison.

"Did you set up this Poison Array?"

After passing through Sunset Forest, Danheng gazed at the rather expansive Poison Array before him and turned his eyes toward Dugu Bo beside him.

"Yes. Just a minor trick. Please forgive the display."

Dugu Bo's feelings were extremely complicated now. He no longer dared to casually try anything with Danheng and had become thoroughly obedient.

Yet Danheng's immunity to his poison gave him a faint glimmer of hope. If Danheng helped, perhaps the poison afflicting both him and his granddaughter could be cured?

"Why the hell did I have to be so stubborn back then?"

Dugu Bo shook his head with a sigh. If only he had not been so obstinate before and insisted on testing Danheng with different poisons.

With their current relationship, let alone asking Danheng for help, he would already be fortunate if Danheng spared his life after looking over the Herb Garden!

After all, he had brought Danheng here. The ownership of everything here naturally belonged to Danheng now.

If Danheng took a liking to it, why would he need to consider Dugu Bo? If he killed him, the Herb Garden would still be Danheng's!

"Gah."

Suddenly, Dugu Bo felt waves of numb itching around his ribs, making him uncomfortable all over.

"Is it already noon?"

Suppressing that strange discomfort, Dugu Bo raised his head. The overcast sky made it impossible to judge the time, but based on past experience, it should be noon by now.

He had been lost in thought throughout the journey and had not paid attention to the time at all. He had never expected the ailment that struck him on rainy days to flare up now.

"If you're not feeling well, rest first. I've roughly sensed where your Herb Garden is."

Seeing Dugu Bo in that state, Danheng assumed his own poison had acted up, so he walked directly into the Poison Array.

"Thank you."

Dugu Bo watched as Danheng's figure was swallowed by the Poison Array. Only after a long silence did he utter those two words.

What terrifying poison resistance. Had the heavens sent someone specifically to counter him?

Danheng: I really am a visitor from beyond the heavens, but I didn't come specifically to counter you.

Passing through the Poison Array, Danheng saw a vast Herb Garden before him. He could sense that the power of heaven and earth here was several times denser than outside.

"There really are quite a few rare and exotic herbs."

Danheng walked up to a massive chrysanthemum, crouched down, and examined it carefully.

Its gorgeous purple petals and golden stamen rising more than half a chi above them made Danheng reach out and touch it.

"How am I supposed to dig this thing up?"

Danheng studied the peculiar chrysanthemum's growing environment. Combined with the exceptionally unusual energy he sensed within it, he figured it was likely some famous rare flower or herb, though he knew nothing about it.

Generally speaking, things like this required special harvesting methods to avoid damaging them.

"Hmm, there seem to be quite a few more over there?"

Danheng looked deeper into the Herb Garden and found many more strangely shaped flowers and plants.

"Entirely red, with a cockscomb at the top and crimson-gold leaf veins. Never seen this before."

"The lower half is a vine, the upper half a tulip. Never seen that either."

"This one's interesting. Its roots are actually growing on a rock."

In Dugu Bo's Herb Garden—no, since Dugu Bo had used this Herb Garden as compensation, it should now be called Danheng's own Herb Garden.

After taking a stroll through his own Herb Garden, Danheng's mood improved considerably.

They were all things he had never seen before. His initial judgment was that if people of Douluo Continent consumed them, they would receive significant improvements.

Of course, they were useless to him.

The medicinal power contained in these flowers and herbs was just right for people of Douluo Continent to absorb. For him to absorb it—

It would be no different from dripping a drop of water into the ocean.

Still, with these things, the progress of solidifying the train should advance quite a bit further.

"Mm, very good. It's already past one-third."

The Carriage Projection before him had already gained a substantial solid form. At this rate, returning to the train was just around the corner!

"But how do I take all these flowers and herbs with me?"

After his joy subsided, Danheng began considering how to take these flowers and herbs away.

He had seen the items, but how could he not know their names? He had to find someone knowledgeable to identify them, right? Otherwise, wouldn't he have seen them for nothing?

Besides, without names, the Database would not even know how to record them!

"I need to come up with a foolproof method."

After wandering through the Herb Garden, Danheng discovered an unusual hot spring that he had somehow missed earlier.

Though the spring water was red and white, the two colors remained clearly separated within it, as though divided by a distinct boundary.

"Ice and fire, two types of energy gathered together. That's something."

Danheng dipped a finger into the spring water, then put it in his mouth for a taste.

Mm, it had no real flavor. It was both hot and cold.

"Looks like this should be the source providing spiritual energy to the surrounding plants."

Danheng looked at the hot spring before him and found himself in a difficult position.

He could tell that beneath the spring lay something like a bottomless abyss, unfathomably deep. It would not be easy to move it directly.

Danheng's original plan had been to uproot the entire Herb Garden and stuff it straight into the train.

The train should be able to hold it, right?

But this hot spring disrupted his plans. If he wanted to move the spring as well—

The train definitely would not fit it!

"...Is this guy really human?"

Not far away, Dugu Bo had endured that wave of discomfort in Sunset Forest. The corner of his eye twitched as he witnessed Danheng tasting the spring water.

The power within that spring water was extraordinarily mysterious. Even he could not remain in it for long.

Yet Danheng could drink it directly? Was he even human?

No, could Danheng be a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in human form?

A seemingly absurd thought suddenly surfaced in Dugu Bo's mind.

If Danheng truly was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in human form, that would be terrifying. Judging by his strength, Danheng was definitely above rank ninety-six!

His sworn enemy, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, possessed rank ninety-five strength, yet Dugu Bo had never been so miserable facing Yue Guan as he had been facing Danheng.

But what kind of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could possess poison resistance as terrifying as Danheng's?

"Forget it. As long as I keep my life, that's enough."

Thanks to boss Kira Yamato_EA for the monthly ticket.

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Thanks for the support, bosses!