With a thought from Gu Yuena, silver spatial light once again enveloped them. They took one step and appeared a thousand miles away.
When they appeared again, the air around them had changed completely.
It was no longer filled with the pure, rich aura of life from the Life Lake. Instead, it was thick with a complex mix of dampness, decay, and new life.
Sunset Forest.
They did not linger at the forest's edge. Their figures darted through the trees like phantoms, silently pressing deeper into its heart.
Before long, a strange basin appeared before them.
Clouds and mist swirled within it. One half of the spring was as red as fire, boiling with searing bubbles;
The other half was as blue as ice, radiating a bone-chilling cold.
The two utterly different forces of heat and cold met in the center of the basin, forming a clearly defined yet strangely harmonious boundary.
Nourished by the springs, countless rare and wondrous plants grew all around, seldom seen anywhere else. Their medicinal fragrance filled the air, refreshing the spirit.
This was the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, one of the three great treasure basins in the world.
At that moment, a gaunt figure sat cross-legged right where the two springs met.
He was an old man with green hair: Dugu Bo.
Today, as unrelenting rain fell, the deadly Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Poison inherited from his Martial Soul had flared up violently once again.
The poison was like a maggot burrowing into bone, rampaging through Dugu Bo's meridians. The agony it brought nearly drove even this Titled Douluo into unconsciousness.
He had no choice but to do everything in his power to reach this treasured place he had stumbled upon by chance, using the extreme environment of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to suppress the poison and win himself a brief respite.
Just as Dugu Bo was channeling his power to resist the pain, a powerful sense of danger suddenly rose from the depths of his heart!
Dugu Bo's eyes snapped open, and he looked up in alarm.
Two figures had appeared in the sky above the basin, though no one knew when.
A man and a woman hovered in midair, their garments fluttering. They seemed untouched by the mundane world.
They simply hung there in silence, looking down over the entire valley, their gazes indifferent, like deities surveying their own garden.
"Who's there?!"
Dugu Bo's heart shuddered. A chill shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head.
With the senses of a Titled Douluo, he had failed to detect when or how these two had appeared!
Such a method was simply unheard of!
Dugu Bo instinctively tried to summon his Soul Power and unleash his Martial Soul Avatar, but the rampaging Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison dealt him its heaviest blow at that very moment.
Pain surged over him like a tide. He groaned, his face turning an even more ghastly green. He could not even stand.
Damn it!
Why did it have to happen now!
Dugu Bo was shocked and furious, yet utterly helpless.
He could only stare fixedly at the two in the sky, on guard from head to toe, silently praying they were just passing through and would take no interest in him, a "fish on the chopping block."
Gu Yuan and Gu Yuena exchanged glances in midair. A trace of amusement showed in both their eyes.
This was their destination all along. They had not expected to get a "bonus" as well.
Gu Yuena's gaze settled on Dugu Bo. Her exquisite purple eyes seemed able to see through every part of his body and discern the pain buried in the depths of his soul.
Gu Yuena parted her vermilion lips. Her voice was cool as moonlight, yet rang clearly throughout the valley:
"You're lucky. Without this treasured place, the poison would have killed you long ago."
To Dugu Bo, those calm words were no less than a clap of thunder!
His greatest secret, the source of all the suffering in his life, had been exposed by this mysterious woman in a single sentence!
Dugu Bo's pupils contracted. He stared at Gu Yuena in alarm, his voice hoarse with shock and weakness:
"You... Who are you?
"How do you know about me?"
Holding Gu Yuena's hand, Gu Yuan slowly descended from the sky and landed on a boulder ten meters from Dugu Bo.
Gu Yuan looked over the surrounding immortal herbs, then at Dugu Bo's ashen face. He smiled as he spoke, his tone carrying an undeniable certainty:
"Is it so hard to know about you?
"The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul is peerless in its use of poison, but it also turns on its master.
"Every generation of its inheritors is eroded by the poison day and night. Living past sixty is already a long life.
"You've forcibly suppressed it with your strength as a Titled Douluo, but now you're already at the end of your rope."
Gu Yuan paused and pointed toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"This place can indeed help suppress the poison, but the forces of ice and fire are also nourishing the serpent poison in your body, making it more stubborn.
"Drinking poison to quench your thirst only means you'll die a little more slowly."
Every word Gu Yuan spoke struck Dugu Bo's heart like a heavy hammer.
This young man knew not only his Martial Soul and his suffering, but even the pros and cons of using the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to suppress the poison. He had analyzed it all with perfect clarity!
This was no mere "knowing." He saw right through him!
Fear—fear unlike anything he had ever felt—instantly drowned out Dugu Bo's reason.
In his eyes, this young man and woman were more mysterious and more terrifying than the pope of Spirit Hall!
"What... What do you want?"
Dugu Bo struggled to swallow. He had given up on resisting and only wanted to understand what they were after.
Gu Yuena looked at his terrified, despairing expression. The corner of her mouth lifted in the faintest curve as she said coolly:
"I'll give you a choice."
"One that will let you truly go on living."
Dugu Bo clenched his teeth. Cold sweat poured from his forehead, mingling with the sickly green poison gas as it trickled down his cheeks.
As he frantically circulated his Soul Power, trying to suppress the agony clinging to his bones, Dugu Bo struggled to lift his head. A mixture of defiance and helplessness showed in his eyes:
"A choice? Cough, cough..."
Dugu Bo coughed violently twice. A trace of black blood spilled from his mouth as he rasped:
"If there's only one choice, can you even call it a choice?
"That's coercion!
"I may fear death, but if you want me to do anything vile or against my principles, I'd rather die here beside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!"
Gu Yuan and Gu Yuena exchanged glances, amusement in both their eyes, just as they had expected.
Gu Yuena gave a slight nod, signaling for Gu Yuan to speak.
Gu Yuan stepped forward and looked down at Dugu Bo, his tone easy and casual, as if chatting about the weather:
"Don't worry. We won't ask you to do anything vile.
"The choice is simple—submit to us, join our ranks, and become the first human consecrated elder of our faction."
"Join you?"
Dugu Bo was taken aback. Then he furrowed his brows, hesitation flickering in his eyes.
All his life, Dugu Bo had acted alone, walking the line between good and evil. What he hated most was being bound by the rules of a sect.
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