After finishing all that, Su Ming dug up a Ten-Thousand-Year Dragon Blood Ginseng and used his Golden Finger to turn it into a mild pill. He swallowed it, found a spot, and went to sleep.
The pill was mild, leaving his body warm and cozy. On top of that, Soul Power was abundant in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, so Su Ming slept soundly until Dugu Bo came over and kicked him awake.
Early that morning, Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan arrived at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. They looked around and saw no one. Dugu Bo swept the area with his spiritual sense and found Su Ming fast asleep in a corner.
Dugu Bo walked over to the corner where Su Ming was sleeping and kicked him.
"Quit sleeping and wake up already. Tell me, kid, did you eat some kind of herb?"
Woken by the kick, Su Ming saw Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan, then stood up, stretched, and said, "Senior Dugu, you two are here. Perfect. There's something I need to talk to you about."
As he spoke, Su Ming walked toward the open space beside the Immortal Herb Field. When he got there, he took a table and chairs from his Soul Tool and gestured for them to sit.
"Sit here and wait a moment."
With that, Su Ming went to a corner nearby and took a basin of water from his Soul Tool. He quickly washed up.
Once he had finished tidying up and taken a seat, Su Ming took out the Snake Pill and placed it on the table before them.
"Senior Dugu—no, I should call you Old Monster."
"I studied your Snake Pill last night. You said your Martial Soul had evolved, so why can't you store your toxins?"
"You must have formed this Snake Pill by sheer chance when your Martial Soul evolved. I doubt you even know how it formed."
"In theory, Old Monster, since you can form something like a Snake Pill, you shouldn't suffer from poison backlash. But you formed this Snake Pill by sheer chance."
"So you can't even call this a Snake Pill. It's simply an amalgamation of all kinds of toxins."
Hearing Su Ming say this, Dugu Bo felt as if a knife had been plunged into his heart. If the toxins hadn't erupted when his Martial Soul evolved and he'd been able to experience the process of the Poison Pill forming, perhaps he could have replicated it—and then he wouldn't have had to watch his child die before him.
At the thought, Dugu Bo stared at the Poison Pill, looking as though he'd aged several years.
"Ah, you're right. This Poison Pill really did form by sheer chance. Back then, I'd just reached Rank 90 and was searching alone in the Sunset Forest for a suitable ninth Soul Ring when I stumbled upon this place and ran into that seven-thousand-year-old Queen Medusa."
"After a fierce battle, my poison proved stronger, and it slowly poisoned her to death. She dropped a Soul Ring and a Soul Bone."
"After I absorbed the Soul Ring and Soul Bone, my Martial Soul evolved too. Just as I was rejoicing, something strange happened—the toxins in my body suddenly surged. Before I could use my Soul Power to suppress them, the pain knocked me unconscious. Before I passed out, I thought I was going to die."
"But when I woke up and used my Soul Power to examine myself, I found this Poison Pill in my dantian."
Sitting beside Dugu Bo, Dugu Yan heard that her grandfather had gone through such an ordeal and couldn't help feeling deeply moved. She quietly rested her head on his shoulder.
Watching the sorrowful grandfather and granddaughter across from him, Su Ming hurriedly interrupted them.
"All right, all right. No more getting emotional. We have serious business to take care of—detoxification."
As he spoke, Su Ming took out the two pills he had prepared the night before.
"Here, one each."
Seeing the two black pills in Su Ming's hand, they each took one and popped it into their mouths.
After watching them swallow the pills, Su Ming stood and went to an open area nearby.
"Watch me. I'll teach you a set of boxing moves and the breathing method that goes with them. These exercises get your blood moving, nourish your internal organs, and balance yin and yang. For people like you, with large amounts of toxins in your bodies, nourishing your organs is the best thing you can do."
"Come on, follow along."
Su Ming began practicing the boxing moves in time with his breathing, and Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan followed along.
After they'd gone through the routine five or six times, Su Ming began correcting their movements and breathing.
They practiced for about two hours. Then Su Ming started pricking the joints in Dugu Bo's body with needles to let out blood. As the blood flowed, he explained why he was doing it. The blood that came out was foul-smelling and black, and he continued the treatment all morning.
Dugu Yan tried several times to stop him, but held herself back each time.
While letting the blood, Su Ming also used Blood Ginseng to make Blood Vitality Pills to replenish it. He made more than a hundred pills in all.
Calling it refining was a stretch. He simply put a Blood Ginseng into the Creation Furnace, extracted its essence, and divided it into a dozen or so pills.
They stopped the bloodletting at noon, and Su Ming began giving Dugu Bo Blood Vitality Pills to replenish his blood.
After Dugu Bo started refining the Blood Vitality Pills, Su Ming began letting Dugu Yan's blood.
Of course, Dugu Yan's poisoning wasn't too severe. He only let her bleed for a little over ten minutes before her blood turned red again. Once the wound had stopped bleeding, Su Ming gave her a Blood Vitality Pill. By then, Dugu Bo had woken up too.
Dugu Bo looked much healthier now. Some color had returned to his skin, which had been a sickly blue-green.
"Old Monster, how do you feel? The treatment's working, isn't it?"
After waking, Dugu Bo stood and stretched his limbs, then circulated his Soul Power. The bone-deep, icy pain in his joints had eased considerably.
"Su Ming, kid, you're more of a Little Monster than I am an Old Monster. You figured out my Poison Pill in no time at all."
As he spoke, Dugu Bo seemed to remember something. He looked at Dugu Yan, then asked Su Ming, "By the way, Little Monster, how is Yanyan doing?"
"Old Monster, don't worry. She's much better off than you. You're poisoned to the bone—you're practically poison from head to toe."
"She wasn't poisoned too badly. I let her bleed for just ten minutes, and her blood turned a normal red. We'll do that two more times, then I'll make her a Detox Pill."
"Once she takes it, the toxins in her body should be almost completely cleared. Then she can eat the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid, and she'll be as good as new."
Dugu Bo nodded in satisfaction. Then he frowned. "Wait, that's not right."
"Hold on, didn't you say there was a direction for her Martial Soul to evolve in? What's the evolution path?"
Su Ming thought it over, then answered Dugu Bo with utmost seriousness.
"Before you took out that Snake Pill, I'd already thought of three possible paths."
"The first was a complete Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul, which could control its poison freely without suffering backlash."
"The second was a Jade Phosphorous Ice Flood Dragon Martial Soul, with both ice and poison attributes."
"The third was a Jade Phosphorous Fire Flood Dragon Martial Soul, with both fire and poison attributes."
"But your Poison Pill threw everything into disarray. Now there are many more possible paths."
"The first is still a complete Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor. The second is to transform into a dragon. As for the dragon's attribute, any one will do."
"After all, she's already eaten an Immortal Herb, so her foundation is strong enough. Even though her first three Soul Rings were wasted, her later Soul Rings, along with this Immortal Herb, will easily help her advance to Super Douluo."
After hearing Su Ming out, Dugu Bo carefully considered the information he had just shared.
"Little Monster, from what you said just now, before I took out that Snake Pill, you were confident you could help the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul control its poison, right?"
At that, Su Ming burst into applause.
Before you continue