It was three days before he could leave.
Dugu Bo had finally left Sunset Forest. Ling Yun proceeded cautiously the whole way, nearly ending up in a Soul Beast's jaws several times.
There were plenty of Soul Beasts with unusual abilities and sharp senses.
The most notable were the Shadow Leopard, the Ghost Tiger, and the Crypt Demon Spider.
The Shadow Leopard could control dark elements and form a black fog resembling a domain. It was naturally suspicious and sensitive, and the moment Ling Yun entered its range of perception, the dark elements immediately went berserk.
Fortunately, the Chaos Bead Martial Soul had the ability to traverse space and time. Otherwise, the Shadow Leopard could probably have enjoyed a hearty meal.
The Chaos Bead's concealment ability was unquestionably one of the best. Traversing space and time was merely an instinct.
Every place, every point in time—wherever the Chaos Bead wanted to go, it could.
This was the most basic ability of the Chaos Bead Martial Soul. Its cost was low—low compared to its effects, that was.
But for someone with only fifteen levels of Soul Power, it was still a bit too much.
Just as the Shadow Leopard was about to attack him, he spent a fifth of his Soul Power and appeared three kilometers away.
The Ghost Tiger was even more outrageous. Ling Yun had only glanced at it, yet in the blink of an eye it was right in front of him, its tiger paw swinging down without hesitation.
Once again, Ling Yun activated the Chaos Bead Martial Soul's spatial ability and escaped by the skin of his teeth.
Even now, he still couldn't figure out how the Ghost Tiger had found him.
The Crypt Demon Spider was a complete sneak attacker. It could burrow underground, and its tunnels were like a maze. If an animal walked across the surface, it could sense it.
This sneaky Soul Beast detected its targets through vibrations. Compared to other spiders, the Crypt Demon Spider's ability to burrow underground made it impossible to guard against.
He still couldn't forget the moment the Crypt Demon Spider suddenly appeared, face-to-face with him. It had been terrifying.
Ling Yun shook his head, casting aside those awful memories. At the sight of the dense fog before him, his eyes lit up with unprecedented excitement.
The Chaos Bead Martial Soul's Chaos Barrier protected him as he entered the fog-shrouded area. Along the way, he came across quite a few Soul Beast corpses and scattered skeletons, which crumbled at the slightest touch.
The fog contained terrifyingly corrosive toxins.
After going farther, he caught a familiar, fishy scent: the poison array Dugu Bo had laid out.
Here, he could faintly sense the aura of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. Without hesitation, he traversed space.
He appeared right beside the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, his landing spot exactly on target.
He was at the bottom of a valley. Looking up, he couldn't see the sky at all; dense fog covered the entire area above.
The fog originated from the spring pool before him, which was thirty meters in diameter. It wasn't particularly large, but its energy concentration was astonishing.
One half of the spring was scarlet, giving off terrifying heat. On the bank beside it grew a plant that looked like a cabbage, except it was entirely red, and it radiated terrifying waves of heat.
The other half of the spring was milky white and exuded cold. On its bank grew a medicinal herb with a translucent, crystalline white flower at its tip, shaped like an octagon and radiating chill.
The two colors of spring water looked like the yin and yang fish of a taiji symbol.
The red half was the Scorching Yang Spring, and the milky-white half was the Extreme Cold Yin Spring.
At the point where yin and yang met, the boundary was distinct, yet everything was unusually calm, each side staying obediently in its own place.
A billowing heat haze rose from the line between the milky-white and scarlet water.
Thirty centimeters above the spring, the currents of hot and cold air grew especially violent. They collided, producing a large amount of mist that continuously drifted outward.
This process carried an abundance of heaven and earth energy.
The whole valley was saturated with these two extreme forces of heaven and earth: scorching heat and bitter cold.
For plants that could withstand this unusual environment, this place was an absolute treasure trove.
It could promote plant growth tenfold.
One year of growth here was equivalent to ten years outside.
After discovering the wonders of this place, Dugu Bo had transplanted many rare medicinal herbs here, turning it into his private garden.
For animals and humans, this was a deadly place. If they couldn't escape in a short time, they would be corroded by the extreme cold and heat of the heaven and earth energy, eventually exploding to death.
But there were exceptions to everything. For Dugu Bo, these two forces of heaven and earth had instead become the best aid for suppressing the toxins in his body.
This place was actually good for his health.
For Ling Yun, it was even more welcoming. His Yin-Yang Mirror Martial Soul had appeared of its own accord, frantically drawing in the two forces of heaven and earth.
The Yin-Yang Mirror in his mind stirred as well. For the first time, it left Ling Yun's body and appeared above the Yin-Yang spring.
The Scorching Yang Spring and Extreme Cold Yin Spring immediately began to spin violently, and the Yin-Yang Mirror drew out waves of peculiar energy.
After fifteen minutes, the Yin Spring and Yang Spring gradually stopped spinning, returning to their original state. The Yin-Yang Mirror sank back into Ling Yun's forehead, reappearing deep within his soul.
"What? You drained the divine power from the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings!"
"The Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well won't lose its effects, will it?"
"..."
"It'll only affect whether plants develop intelligence? Then that's fine!"
After learning what had happened, Ling Yun decided that this was actually pretty good. In the Douluo Continent series, whether during the current period, Huo Yuhao's era ten thousand years later, or Tang Wulin's era twenty thousand years later, these Immortal Herbs had all developed intelligence and become Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.
It all had to do with the source of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well: the Ice Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King.
Now that the Yin-Yang Mirror had drained them like this, it would probably take the two dragons another twenty thousand years to recover.
Ling Yun suddenly remembered something else and asked the Yin-Yang Mirror in his mind, "By the way, do the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings have Soul Bones?"
The answer delighted him: they really did, and the Yin-Yang Mirror had stored them away. It was absorbing the divine power inside them.
If Ling Yun had asked a few minutes later, the divine power in the Soul Bones would have been completely drained.
The Ice Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King had been the main forces in the Dragon God War. They had definitely been at the Main God level when alive, and dragons were known for their physical prowess.
It was possible the two dragons had even been stronger than the Sea God.
Soul Bones from divine beasts—could they even be called Soul Bones? They were practically divine bones. Ling Yun felt as though he'd picked them up for free.
"The Sea God Set? I'll break through it with divine bones!"
Ling Yun didn't absorb the Soul Bones. Instead, he focused on the plants glowing all around him.
The most eye-catching was a large pink flower growing on the bank beside the line where the two springs met.
Every petal of the pink flower was as clear as crystal. Its stem was three feet long, its blossom more than a foot wide, and it had no leaves.
The flower radiated a very faint pink barrier with a ten-meter diameter, centered on itself. The color was so light that it was easy to overlook unless you looked closely.
After Ling Yun stepped inside the barrier, he caught a faint, delicate fragrance. It was the Aromatic Silk Beauty.
The Aromatic Silk Beauty couldn't detoxify poison on its own, but it could neutralize all toxins. No matter what kind of poison it was, once it entered the range of the flower's barrier, it would be suppressed.
For people who enjoyed studying poisons, this thing was worth more than a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
Next were the white Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the red Infernal Delicate Apricot on either side of the Yin-Yang spring.
These were also the only way ordinary people could stay in the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well for a long time: consume both Immortal Herbs and use the spring water to digest their medicinal effects, tempering the body with ice and fire.
Either herb on its own was highly toxic to the human body: the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass carried cold poison, while the Infernal Delicate Apricot carried fire poison.
There was only one way to consume them. After picking both Immortal Herbs, you had to place them together. They would suppress each other, but only for ten short breaths. You had to swallow them within that time.
Picking the Immortal Herbs required particular care, too. If done incorrectly, at best their medicinal effects would be weakened; at worst, they would be lost entirely.
The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass had to be picked with an iron tool, while the Infernal Delicate Apricot had to be picked with a jade tool.
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