Pack Up and Run-Ah Yin Too! A Few Years Later, There'd Be Another Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring and Soul Bone!

But it was utterly unlike ordinary Blue Silver Grass.

Its leaves were broad and slender, their entire surface a crystalline azure, with golden veins that flickered faintly, pulsing like blood vessels.

In the damp, shadowy cave, it gave off a faint blue glow and swayed gently, like a beauty standing apart from the world.

"What incredible vitality..."

Dugu Yan couldn't help exclaiming. She could feel the extraordinarily pure life energy contained within the plant.

"Hmph. Naturally."

Yu Nan's voice sounded in Dugu Yan's mind, tinged with amusement and indifference:

"This isn't ordinary grass. It's the seed left behind when the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Blue Silver Emperor sacrificed herself and transformed into a human. It sprouted anew from that seed."

"In other words, this is Tang Hao's wife, Tang San's real mother—Ah Yin."

"What?!"

Dugu Yan was struck with shock. She stared at the swaying Blue Silver Grass, her expression turning strange in an instant.

Tang San's... mother?

A blade of grass?

There were plenty of legends in the Soul Master World about Soul Beasts transforming into humans, but seeing one with her own eyes still left her shaken to the core.

"Forget about that grass for now. It's not time to do anything to her."

Yu Nan urged her on:

"Go farther in. There's a hidden compartment high up in the stone wall. The item is in there."

Dugu Bo had no time to study the strange grass either. Following Yu Nan's directions, he hurried to the stone wall at the back of the cave.

He felt around the wall for a while, and soon discovered a slightly protruding rock.

"Found it!"

Dugu Bo's eyes flashed. Soul Power surged through him as he pressed down hard on the rock.

Click, click, click...

The sound of turning gears echoed through the cave.

The stone wall slowly split open, revealing a square compartment.

Inside, a black lead box lay in silence.

With trembling hands, Dugu Bo carefully lifted the lead box out.

It was extremely heavy, clearly forged from specially treated lead and iron to keep its contents' aura sealed away.

"Open it."

A hint of anticipation entered Yu Nan's voice.

Dugu Bo drew a deep breath, hooked his fingers under the lid, and flipped it open!

Whoosh!

In an instant, a dense blue-gold light burst from the box, illuminating the entire dark cave!

The light was gentle yet profound, brimming with a vast vitality that seemed to flow without end.

At its center lay a crystalline right leg bone.

It was a flawless blue-gold throughout, as though carved from the purest crystal. Liquid seemed to flow inside the bone, and its energy fluctuations were intoxicating.

The Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone!

"It really is... a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Bone!!"

Dugu Bo's voice trembled, and he could no longer hide the greed in his eyes.

He could clearly feel that simply basking in the light radiating from the Soul Bone...

The meridians in his body, long ravaged by poison, were feeling a trace of relief he hadn't experienced in years!

A treasure among treasures!

The finest of the finest!

"Quick!

Yan Yan!"

Dugu Bo whipped around to look at Dugu Yan and spoke urgently:

"Every moment we delay, the danger grows!

Absorb it here, now!"

"Once you absorb this Soul Bone, even if Tang Hao comes back, we'll be able to fight him... no, at least we'll be able to run!"

"Idiot!"

Yu Nan's furious rebuke, filled with exasperation, exploded in Dugu Bo's mind like a thunderclap, making his thoughts reel.

"Absorb it here?

Are you tired of living?"

"The energy fluctuations from absorbing a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Bone could level this entire mountainside!

And the process takes a long time—several hours at the very least, or even days."

"Do you think Tang Hao is dead?

He'll sense such a commotion from dozens of miles away!

Do you want Yan Yan to be smashed into meat paste by a hammer at the critical moment of her absorption?"

The barrage of questions was like bucket after bucket of ice water, instantly dousing the fire in Dugu Bo's heart.

He jolted, staring at the radiant Soul Bone in his hands, as cold sweat soaked his back.

That was right!

He really was getting senile!

The treasure had gone to his head, and he'd made such a basic mistake!

This was Tang Hao's lair. Absorbing his Soul Bone here was like stripping naked and dancing right under his nose—asking to die!

"Th-Thank you for the reminder, Senior!"

Dugu Bo's old face reddened. He coughed awkwardly twice, then fumbled to slam the lead box shut.

Click.

The intoxicating blue-gold light vanished at once, and darkness returned to the cave.

"Let's go!

Yan Yan, we'll leave first and find somewhere completely safe for you to absorb it!"

Dugu Bo grabbed Dugu Yan and turned to rush for the cave entrance.

Now that they had the treasure, it was time to hightail it out of there!

"Wait."

Just as Dugu Bo was about to step out of the cave, Yu Nan's unhurried voice sounded again.

Dugu Bo stopped short, nearly stumbling. He asked with a pained expression:

"Senior, what is it now?

If we don't leave, that fiend might come back..."

"Take that grass with you too."

Yu Nan said calmly.

"Huh?"

Dugu Bo froze, instinctively glancing back at the Blue Silver Emperor, which gave off a faint blue glow in the darkness.

"Take... take her with us? Why?"

Dugu Bo was at a loss:

"Senior, she may have once been a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, but right now she's just a slightly spiritual blade of grass.

She can't be eaten or used to make medicine, and carrying her would just be a burden. Worse, Tang Hao might sense her aura and track us down..."

As far as he was concerned, the Soul Bone was the real prize. Aside from being Tang Hao's wife, this grass had no practical value.

If anything, she was a hot potato.

"Old Poison Freak, your vision is still too narrow."

Yu Nan chuckled, his voice edged with the shrewdness of someone who had already calculated every move:

"Have you forgotten what sort of place the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well is?"

Dugu Bo paused.

"It's a treasure trove, the sacred ground of all Plant-type Soul Beasts..."

Halfway through the sentence, Dugu Bo's voice cut off. His emerald-green pupils widened as if he had just thought of something utterly unbelievable.

"Se-Senior, you mean..."

"The Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well has a uniquely favorable environment that can speed up plant growth a hundredfold, even a thousandfold."

Yu Nan's voice was enticing, like a demon whispering in someone's ear:

"Though this Blue Silver Emperor has sacrificed herself, her essence remains, and her vitality is astonishingly tenacious."

"If we transplant her beside the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well and nourish her with the spiritual energy there..."

"It won't take a hundred thousand years."

"Perhaps in just a few years, or even less, she'll grow back to the Hundred-Thousand-Year level."

At this, Yu Nan paused and spoke with deliberate significance:

"Then we'll have a freshly made Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, plus a... Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone."