"I'll be cultivating. Keep watch nearby and don't disturb me," Qin Yao instructed.
"Yanzi understands!" Dugu Yan immediately focused.
Qin Yao placed the Soul Bone against his right leg, then closed his eyes and began guiding it with his Soul Power.
His forty-sixth-level Soul Power surged out of his body, taking the form of substantial purple flames that enveloped the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone.
Drawn by his Soul Power, the blue-gold leg bone sank straight into Qin Yao's right leg.
The Amethyst Winged Lion King's domineering Purple Fire and the Blue Silver Emperor's extreme vitality began to fuse in his leg.
Qin Yao furrowed his brow slightly.
The energy contained within a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone was simply enormous. Even though the Blue Silver Emperor's nature leaned toward gentle healing, the surging energy still made his meridians ache and swell.
But Qin Yao's formidable body, tempered by ice and fire, was now showing its terrifying capacity to endure.
Time passed second by second.
The blue-gold light around Qin Yao's right leg grew brighter and brighter as the Blue Silver Emperor's vitality was slowly absorbed.
Meanwhile, in Heaven Dou City, at the Ye Family Medical Clinic.
A faint fragrance of medicinal herbs filled the clinic's back hall. A beautiful woman in a simple, elegant long dress was carefully sorting the herbs. She was Ye Lingling's mother, the current Nine Heart Begonia Soul Master, and a sixty-ninth-level Soul Emperor: Ye Shutang.
"Mother!"
Ye Lingling hurried in from outside, forgetting even to slow down. Her breathing was slightly rushed beneath her black veil.
Hearing her, Ye Shutang looked up, a questioning note in her gentle eyes.
Seeing her daughter in such an uncharacteristically flustered state, she set down the herbs in her hands.
"What's wrong, Lingling? Why are you in such a hurry?"
Ye Lingling drew a deep breath and recounted everything in detail: how Qin Yao had intervened on the street, what she had witnessed later at Dugu Manor, and the promise he had made.
When she heard the words "lift the curse on the Nine Heart Begonia Family," a fierce tempest stirred for the first time in Ye Shutang's tranquil eyes.
Her usually pale fingers tightened unconsciously around the edge of the herb basket before her.
The curse was a nightmare her family had been unable to escape for generations, a shackle they had spent their entire lives yearning to break free from.
Her own husband, a supremely gifted Battle Soul Master, had ventured deep into perilous lands in search of a way to break it—and had ultimately fallen.
"Mother, he also cured Yanzi's Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison," Ye Lingling added, her voice trembling with barely contained excitement. "And Yanzi's Martial Soul evolved into the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor!"
Those words were the final straw that tipped the scales in Ye Shutang's heart.
As a Nine Heart Begonia Soul Master, she had dealt with the Dugu Family quite often.
That girl, Dugu Yan, had been raised by her grandfather, Dugu Bo, since childhood. She was covered in poison, and Ye Shutang knew better than anyone how much she suffered whenever it flared up each year.
Dugu Bo's only son, Dugu Xin—the father of Dugu Yan—had also been a genius. Yet hadn't he died young from the backlash of the serpent poison, too?
A deadly poison that even Poison Douluo himself was powerless to treat had been cured by a twelve-year-old boy?
A Holy Son of Spirit Hall who could casually cure the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor's deadly poison, cause a Martial Soul to evolve, and even boldly promise to lift the curse on the Nine Heart Begonia Family.
Ye Shutang's heart was in turmoil.
She looked at her daughter's eyes, so full of hope—a light she had never seen in them before.
After a long while, Ye Shutang slowly let out a breath and picked up another herb.
"Lingling, I understand."
Sunset Forest, the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
The energy tide within the valley had lasted for a full hour.
Qin Yao sat cross-legged on a boulder, his entire right leg shrouded in dense blue-gold light. The boundless vitality was so powerful that a ring of fresh shoots had sprouted from the earth around him.
Dugu Yan, standing guard nearby, had gone from astonished to almost numb.
She simply watched Qin Yao in silence as the purple flames around him intertwined with the blue-gold light on his leg, and an indescribably profound aura spread through the air.
At last, when the final wisp of blue-gold light had completely merged into Qin Yao's right leg and vanished, a powerful wave of Soul Power erupted from him!
Dugu Yan stared at Qin Yao in shock.
That wave of Soul Power had far surpassed the Soul Ancestor realm!
Qin Yao slowly opened his eyes. A flash of blue-gold light passed through his dark purple pupils.
He could clearly feel that his Soul Power had broken through the bottleneck at level fifty.
A twelve-year-old Soul King!
Qin Yao felt little stir in his heart. This was exactly what he had expected.
With the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well and a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone, it would have been strange if he still hadn't broken through to level fifty.
It had been just over a month since he left the Worship Hall, yet his Soul Power had risen by seven levels. No one would believe such a rate of cultivation if he told them.
That was just how things worked on the Douluo Continent: taking pills and absorbing Soul Bones didn't lead to unstable cultivation.
On the contrary, absorbing Immortal Herbs and Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones could strengthen a Soul Master's foundation. That was what had enabled such a rapid increase in Soul Power.
Qin Yao stood up and gently flexed his right leg, now fused with the Soul Bone.
A sense of power and vitality unlike anything he had felt before flowed from his leg. The Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone had not only brought a huge increase in Soul Power, but also granted him two Soul Skills: flight and healing.
And with the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone's flight ability combined with the wings of his own Martial Soul, he might be able to fly even faster.
"Your Highness, have you broken through to level fifty?" Dugu Yan asked tentatively, her voice trembling slightly.
Qin Yao turned to look at her. He didn't answer, only curled the corner of his mouth.
Dugu Yan understood at once.
She could hardly breathe.
A twelve-year-old Soul King...
The word "genius" was no longer enough to describe this.
He was a monster! A legend!
"You'll get used to it," Qin Yao said casually. "If you stay by my side, you'll see plenty of things like this."
"Yanzi... Yanzi understands!" Dugu Yan quickly lowered her head, her cheeks growing warm.
Qin Yao paid her no further attention. His thoughts had already turned to his next plan.
His fifth Soul Ring had to come from a Soul Beast at least twenty-five thousand years old, with a special bloodline.
After all, even his fourth Soul Ring had already been twelve thousand years old.
Now that he had tempered his body with two Immortal Herbs and the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, he could definitely absorb a twenty-five-thousand-year Soul Ring.
The only problem was that Soul Beasts with special bloodlines were hard to find. Whether Sunset Forest had one, he might have to ask Dugu Bo.
Once he absorbed his fifth Soul Ring, it would be time to return to Spirit City.
Then he could get the Immortal Herb catalog from Yue Guan and fully realize the value of the Immortal Herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
"Yanzi, I want to find a Soul Beast with a good bloodline in Sunset Forest, somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand years old," Qin Yao said, looking at Dugu Yan, who was still dazed beside him.
Dugu Yan jolted back to her senses from the shock of Qin Yao's breakthrough and quickly bowed.
She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Your Highness, Sunset Forest is vast, but Soul Beasts that meet your requirements are extremely rare. Perhaps... we should ask my grandfather when we get back. He's lived here for a long time, so he ought to know something."
Qin Yao nodded. That suited him perfectly.
Dugu Bo knew this forest far better than anyone else.
"Then let's go."
Qin Yao said no more. He put an arm around Dugu Yan's waist again, unfurled his dark purple bone wings, and shot into the sky, flying toward Dugu Manor.
Before you continue