Titled Goalkeeper? Not Anymore!

Ling Yun understood Dugu Bo's line of thinking; a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush, after all! It was only human nature.

"Do I look like that kind of person?"

"Since I mentioned three methods, I will tell you all three and let you make your own choice."

"The second method might not work for others, but it is absolutely perfect for you—it is the most suitable method you could possibly choose."

Dugu Bo's interest was piqued, and the curiosity in his eyes could not be hidden no matter how hard he tried.

"Since you have already condensed a Poison Core, you have the capability to condense a Soul Core. I have kept the Primordial Immortal Grass for you—a medicinal herb that hasn't quite reached the level of an immortal herb yet. As long as you consume it, you have a ninety percent chance of success."

"Its function is to purify your soul power and assist in the condensation of a Soul Core."

Dugu Bo listened, completely bewildered. He recognized every word individually, but when strung together, he couldn't make heads or tails of them.

"What is a Soul Core?"

"A Soul Core! It's quite troublesome to explain, but simply put, it is an energy core formed after a soul master converts the soul power within their body from a gaseous state to a liquid state, and then into a solid. You use your spiritual power to control the soul power, making it rotate at high speeds within your dantian, continuously compressing it until it becomes a solid crystal."

"Once it reaches a point where it remains stable without the need for spiritual control, it will undergo a process of Soul Core collapse. Afterward, a separate Soul Core space will form within your dantian, with a high-speed rotating vortex acting as a bridge between your dantian and the Soul Core."

"After condensing a Soul Core, a soul master's explosive power and endurance will be significantly enhanced. Once you condense the core, all your toxins can be gathered into it."

"The problem of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent venom backfiring will be completely trivial once you successfully condense a Soul Core."

"Theoretically speaking, as long as an 89th-level Soul Douluo successfully condenses a Soul Core, they can smoothly advance to become a Titled Douluo."

"If you condense two Soul Cores, you can become a Limit Douluo."

Dugu Bo had been a Titled Douluo for many years, yet this was the first time he had heard of something so shocking. The purity of the soul power within his body was quite high—semi-solid—though that was largely due to it having transformed into a Poison Core.

If something were to go wrong with his Poison Core, his combat effectiveness would drop by at least half, if not more.

As he pondered the Soul Core that Ling Yun described, he realized it was indeed feasible. He remembered the process of accidentally condensing his Poison Core quite clearly; he had the experience.

"This is an entirely new method of cultivation. I find it hard to imagine how you know all of this."

Dugu Bo was certain that even Martial Soul Hall did not possess such a method, because current soul masters who managed to become Titled Douluos relied entirely on opportunity and their own insights into their martial souls.

If one's insight into their martial soul was lacking, wanting to break through to become a Titled Douluo was, in two words, a pipe dream.

"That is a secret, and I am not at liberty to say!"

"As for the third method! It lies in this Extreme Cold Yin Spring and the Scorching Yang Spring, and it will require the medicinal herbs from your garden."

"You remember the two herbs that originally grew on the banks, right? The white, octagonal one called the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, and the red, cabbage-like one called the Infernal Delicate Apricot."

"Of course!" Dugu Bo was all too familiar with them. He couldn't stand the aura of those two herbs; one carried terrifying cold poison, the other terrifying fire poison. He couldn't touch either of them.

Although he couldn't touch them, they were quite a sight to behold. Now, he could only think about them in his mind, which was truly frustrating.

Ling Yun continued, "Both herbs are highly toxic, but they counteract each other. If you place them together, they transform from deadly poisons into beneficial medicine. By consuming them, you can use the two springs to refine your body with ice and fire."

"From then on, you will gain immunity to ice and fire."

"I refined those two herbs into the Ice-Fire Body Refining Pill, and there is still some left. The extreme cold and extreme heat are both the bane of your snake venom; you have been using the energy of the ice and fire to suppress your venom all this time anyway."

"By taking the Ice-Fire Body Refining Pill, you will be able to enter the ice and fire springs unharmed, just like me."

Dugu Bo felt a flicker of excitement upon hearing this. Those were springs he didn't even dare to touch, and he could gain immunity to ice and fire.

It sounded incredibly tempting, but he didn't speak, choosing instead to listen and wait for Ling Yun to finish.

"You know how powerful these springs are. With their power, dissolving the snake venom in your body would be effortless. By then, you would have both ice and fire energies within you."

"However, this method has one flaw: your Jade Phosphorous Serpent venom will not be preserved. Unless you are a 99th-level Limit Douluo, your Jade Phosphorous Serpent venom is nothing but trash compared to the springs of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well."

"And when you start cultivating again, the venom regenerated by your Jade Phosphorous Serpent will be completely unable to withstand the medicinal power left in your body by the Ice-Fire Body Refining Pill."

"That little bit of venom would be nothing more than a speck of dust to the medicinal power of the pill."

"If you are willing to stop relying on the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor venom as your primary means of attack in the future, this method is worth considering."

The excitement in Dugu Bo's heart was immediately cast to the winds. The Jade Phosphorous Serpent was his symbol, and this venom was the guarantee that other factions wouldn't dare to trouble him. This final method was completely out of the question.

"I'll stick with the first method. Give me the prescription!"

Dugu Bo decided to play it safe. While the method to condense a Soul Core was attractive, was it really that simple?

He had gone through a life-or-death struggle to condense his Poison Core; condensing a Soul Core would surely be even more difficult.

As for the Primordial Immortal Grass, since it could assist in condensing a Soul Core, he would save it for his precious granddaughter.

"I thought you would choose to condense a Soul Core!"

"Here!"

Ling Yun tossed the jade bottle containing the Viscera-Moistening and Meridian-Protecting Pill to Dugu Bo and said, "These pills will last you a long time. As for the prescription, I will give it to you once I am completely assured of your intentions, but not now."

Dugu Bo caught the jade bottle, glanced at Ling Yun, said nothing, and left the valley with the pills.

Clearly, he was going back to force out the toxins.

Ling Yun paid him no mind and continued his cultivation; for him, the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well was the perfect environment.

Before the various academies began their terms, he decided to stay here and go nowhere else, improving as much as he possibly could.

One month later.

Ling Yun's spirit power had risen to level twenty, meaning he could absorb another spirit ring; his cultivation speed was practically like riding a rocket.

"You truly are a monster, reaching level twenty so quickly! Perhaps you, brat, could break the records of all spirit masters and achieve the legendary level one hundred."

Over the past month, in between his own cultivation, Dugu Bo had developed a relationship with Ling Yun akin to family, and Ling Yun had even handed over the pill formulas to him.

At this moment, the fishy stench was gone from Dugu Bo's body, his emerald-green eyes had returned to a normal color, and his green hair had turned a salt-and-pepper white, combed neatly into place.

His spirit power had also broken through to level ninety-two, no longer making him a mere gatekeeper of the Title Douluo realm, and his entire mental state was exceptionally vibrant.

"How about it? As long as you call me Master, I'll go catch a spirit beast for you right this instant!"

"I already call you Grandpa Dugu, yet you're still obsessed with becoming my master? Wait until you become a Limit Douluo before talking about that!"

"If you don't want to, then you don't want to! As if reaching level ninety-nine is that easy."