"Senior, please step back thirty meters. No matter what happens, don't come near me, and don't probe me with your Soul Power."
Dugu Bo was shaken by the unyielding tone in Xue Yao's voice, but when he saw the boy's desperate resolve, he obediently retreated.
With Dugu Bo out of the way, Xue Yao drew a deep breath.
These two Immortal Herbs were a fusion of deadly poison and extremes. An ordinary person wouldn't even dream of eating them; just touching them would instantly freeze them into an ice sculpture or turn them to ash.
But Xue Yao had something to rely on!
"Wind, rise!"
Xue Yao thrust both hands forward. His thirty-sixth-level Soul Power surged out without reservation.
His affinity for the wind element was driven to its utmost limit. Two solid-looking blue Wind Blades crossed dozens of meters in an instant, striking the stems of the two Immortal Herbs with pinpoint accuracy.
"Clink! Clink!"
Two crisp snaps rang out.
The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot broke free of the soil at the same time, borne aloft by two miniature tornadoes and suspended in midair.
The instant they were uprooted, the light of the two Immortal Herbs dimmed abruptly, as if they might wither at any moment.
"Now!"
Xue Yao abruptly brought his hands together.
In midair, the red and blue Immortal Herbs crashed into each other amid the howling wind!
A wondrous sight unfolded.
The instant the frigid Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass touched the scorching Infernal Delicate Apricot, their domineering energies of ice and fire neutralized each other within just a few breaths. In the end, they became a ball of medicine, red and blue intertwined, its aura calm and even.
But Xue Yao knew that this calm was only a brief illusion. If he didn't swallow it within ten seconds, its medicinal effects would vanish completely into the world.
Xue Yao opened his mouth. The ball of medicine, red and blue intertwined, was precisely guided inside by the wind and slid down his throat.
The instant the Immortal Herbs entered his stomach, Xue Yao felt no discomfort at all. He even sensed a faint sweetness and coolness.
Yet a mere second later—
An utterly indescribable, terrifying energy erupted inside Xue Yao's organs!
The briefly neutralized powers of ice and fire had come into contact with human flesh and blood—and now the two supreme Immortal Herbs unleashed their most primal, most savage destructive force!
"Argh—!"
Even Xue Yao, whose will was as unyielding as iron, couldn't stop himself from throwing his head back and letting out a scream of unimaginable agony.
His body split in two in an instant!
A thick layer of icy-blue crystals spread across the left half of his body at a visible speed. Even his eyebrows and hair were coated in a layer of freezing frost.
The right half of his body, meanwhile, turned like a red-hot iron brand, its crimson skin even giving off wisps of white smoke!
Extreme cold! Extreme heat!
The two terrifying forces, utterly opposed to each other, made his dantian their battlefield and began a frenzied struggle to tear each other apart!
"What terrifying energy..." Dugu Bo stared in shock from afar. He wouldn't dare touch either of those forces!
An ordinary Soul Elder would have exploded and died within a thousandth of a second of eating even one-thousandth of these Immortal Herbs, unable to withstand the extreme tearing of flesh and meridians.
But at the very boundary between life and death, Xue Yao's trump card had a crucial role to play!
"Vmmm!"
Just as the storm of ice and fire was about to destroy Xue Yao's meridians, the still-lingering medicinal power of the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum within him was fully activated! A dazzling, dark golden light bloomed from the depths of his bones, firmly shielding his heart and main meridians!
No matter how wildly the powers of ice and fire raged, that diamond-hard barrier trembled violently, but never collapsed!
At the same time, agony battered Xue Yao's mind, trying to shatter his reason.
But the sea of spirit that the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew had just broadened kept him perfectly clearheaded!
Pain! Heart-rending pain!
Every inch of muscle was frozen, then burned by flames. Every nerve wailed on the verge of collapse.
It's not enough... If I rely on my body to digest this, I'll be worn down to death!
Xue Yao endured the splitting pain that seemed to be bursting his skull and abruptly opened his eyes—one icy blue, the other crimson. He stared at the roiling Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well before him.
"Bang!"
He pushed off hard with both legs, leapt high into the air, and plunged straight into the place where the red and blue spring waters met!
"Kid! Have you lost your mind?!" Dugu Bo cried in alarm. Even he didn't dare casually set foot in those waters of death!
But Xue Yao could no longer hear him.
The instant he fell into the very heart of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the immense freezing and scalding waters outside seemed to have found an outlet. They burrowed wildly through Xue Yao's pores, answering the ferocious medicinal power of the two Immortal Herbs within him!
"Arghhh—!"
Under the water, Xue Yao's body convulsed violently. This was a true furnace of hell!
The spring water outside refined his flesh and skin; the Immortal Herbs inside tempered his organs.
But beneath the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum's unyielding protection, this inhuman torment gradually began to undergo a wondrous change.
In the endless cycle of tearing and repair, the powers of ice and fire, once wild and mutually repellent, began to flow along his meridians in a mysterious pattern.
After destruction at the utmost extreme came rebirth at the utmost extreme.
Time passed, one second at a time.
A full three hours later.
The spring water, which had been violently churning, gradually settled, and the heart-rending screams had long since stopped.
On the shore, Dugu Bo fretted like an ant on a hot pan. Just as he thought Xue Yao had been reduced to bones and was about to plunge in and drag him out, no matter the cost—
"Splash!"
A soft sound came as the water parted.
At the point where the red and blue springs met, a tall, slender figure slowly rose to the surface.
Xue Yao kept his eyes closed, like a flawless statue tempered in divine fire. His—
His once-pale skin now gleamed with the translucent luster of white jade, while deep beneath its surface, two divine lights, one red and one blue, revolved in alternation like a Taiji diagram.
Ice and Fire Golden Body Refinement, complete!
Xue Yao now possessed an astonishing physique that would leave every ice, fire, and poison Soul Master on Douluo Continent in despair—immune to all poisons, and impervious to both ice and fire!
From now on, whether it was ten-thousand-year-old black ice from the Far North, volcanic hellfire from the depths of a volcano, or the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor poison that Dugu Bo prided himself on, all of it would be no more than a breeze brushing against his face!
Xue Yao slowly opened his eyes. A flash of purplish-golden light flickered and vanished. He leapt lightly, as weightless as a feather, and landed steadily on the shore.
"You... you succeeded?" Dugu Bo felt the terrifying aura hidden within Xue Yao and swallowed with difficulty.
How could this be an eight-year-old boy? He was a primordial Ferocious Beast wearing human skin!
Xue Yao didn't answer. He lowered his head slightly, sensing the earth-shaking changes in his body.
The Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum had only given him an indestructible skeleton. Now, after tempering in ice and fire with the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, every inch of his muscles, every meridian, even every cell, had been honed to an inconceivably powerful degree!
"I wonder how much strain my body can take now?"
A feverish smile tugged at Xue Yao's lips. He abruptly raised his head, and the wind element within him erupted.
"Second Soul Skill, Ride the Wind!"
"Vmmm!" A blue wind ring lit up beneath his feet. Speed increased by 120%!
"Stack it twice!"
"Vmmm!" The wind ring intensified, and Xue Yao's figure blurred. A 240% increase!
"Stack it a third time!"
"Boom!" The air tore apart, and Xue Yao's presence nearly vanished from Dugu Bo's senses. A 360% increase! This had been his limit before absorbing the ice-and-fire Immortal Herbs.
But now, Xue Yao's expression remained as calm as still water. Even his breathing hadn't turned the slightest bit ragged! The strain that once made his meridians ache now seemed not to exist at all!
"Still not enough! Keep going!"
Xue Yao's eyes blazed. He gave a low roar in his heart.
"Fourth stack!"
"Vmmm—BANG!"
Four dazzling blue wind rings overlapped beneath Xue Yao's feet, unleashing a thunderous sonic boom! A 480% increase in speed!
The violent air currents sent the plants around them reeling. Even the waters of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well were swept up into a waterspout several meters high!
Dugu Bo was aghast and instinctively used Soul Power to protect himself.
In that instant, he felt a terrifying pressure from this Soul Elder of only level thirty-six—the kind he'd expect from an agility-type Soul Saint!
And Xue Yao's revelry was far from over.
"Fifth... stack!!!"
With a furious shout, Xue Yao unleashed every last bit of Soul Power in his body.
"RUMBLE—!!!"
The instant the fifth blue wind ring burst open, the air was no longer an obstacle. It was smashed to pieces!
A terrifying 600% increase in speed! A leap to a limit of five times his base speed!
"Whoosh—!"
Dugu Bo saw only a flash of blue, streaked with red and blue light. Even his eyes couldn't fully catch Xue Yao's path.
The next second, a violent gale exploded behind Dugu Bo.
Xue Yao had appeared soundlessly on a massive boulder dozens of meters behind him.
Without a trace of strain!
This body, tempered by ice and fire, had perfectly withstood the terrifying tearing force unleashed by five stacks!
"Fivefold the speed of sound—now this is real movement technique. It's all about extreme speed."
Xue Yao slowly clenched his fist, feeling the terrifying power at his fingertips, enough to tear space apart. His smile was wild and unrestrained.
Immune to all poisons, master of ice and fire, sixfold speed!
From this night onward, on the vast Douluo Continent, Xue Yao finally had some power to protect himself!
Before you continue