Dugu Bo: You Brat Want to Murder Me! Snowy Swan Kiss!

The Ice and Fire Demon Wolf King's mismatched wolf eyes swept over the ancient tree.

"!!!"

Ye Qing felt as if an invisible hand had viciously clenched around his heart.

It was the instinctive reaction of being targeted by a top predator.

Fortunately, the giant wolf merely gave him a cold glance before turning its gaze back toward the depths of the gorge.

A low whine rumbled from its throat, as though it were warning something.

At the same time, it stared fervently into the gorge, its eyes filled with intense desire!

Dugu Bo's expression had already darkened enough to drip ink.

He lowered his voice, speaking three times faster than usual. "Kid, I'll tell you the truth. If it were only the Crimson Flame Ancient Tree, I'd be completely confident in taking it down."

"The combat strength of a top-tier ninety-thousand-year soul beast already surpasses that of a newly advanced Titled Douluo."

"With the Crimson Flame Ancient Tree added in, I can at most ensure that you escape unscathed."

Ye Qing caught the unspoken meaning in Old Poison's words.

He had begun to back down.

For Dugu Bo to say something like "ensure that you escape unscathed,"

meant that, in his heart, the odds of winning this battle were already too low to be worth gambling on.

Yet Ye Qing did not respond immediately.

He stared at the giant wolf wreathed in ice and fire atop the cliff, the light in his black eyes flickering uncertainly.

After a moment, he suddenly said, "Senior, don't rush."

"We might have a chance."

Dugu Bo frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The Ice and Fire Demon Wolf King couldn't have appeared in another seventy-thousand-year soul beast's territory for no reason."

Ye Qing's tone was so calm that he did not sound like an ordinary Soul Ancestor at all.

He sounded more like an old hunter who had spent half his life struggling through the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Soul beasts above ten thousand years all possess intelligence, especially ones at the seventy-thousand-year and ninety-thousand-year level."

"They have an extremely strong sense of territory. This gorge should be the Crimson Flame Ancient Tree's domain."

"If a powerful soul beast invaded its territory, it couldn't possibly remain indifferent."

The moment he finished speaking,

a world-shaking roar suddenly erupted from the depths of the gorge.

A ring-shaped shockwave of flames exploded from the bottom of the gorge.

Crimson waves of fire swept outward with unstoppable force, instantly melting every rock in their path into dark red slag.

The entire gorge trembled violently.

Ye Qing instinctively raised a hand and released Chaos Green Flame, absorbing the oncoming heatwave.

Faced with the towering sea of flames, the Ice and Fire Demon Wolf King atop the cliff merely snorted softly.

An icy-blue barrier appeared out of thin air before it.

The power of extreme cold collided head-on with the fiery shockwave, and hissing white mist surged into the sky.

The flames dispersed.

"Awooo!!!"

The Ice and Fire Demon Wolf King threw back its head and let out a long wolf howl.

It leaped forward, its massive nine-meter-long body plunging from the cliff and crashing into the depths of the gorge.

"They're about to fight."

Dugu Bo's brows shot up.

Ye Qing stared at the churning ice-and-fire light in the depths of the gorge, and a fiery glint flashed through his black eyes.

He fell silent for several breaths before turning around and looking at Dugu Bo with an earnestness the latter had never seen from him before.

"Senior, this Ice and Fire Demon Wolf King is also suitable to become my Soul Ring."

Dugu Bo froze for a moment, then shook his head with a laugh of disbelief.

"Kid, do you take me for a god?"

"One at seventy thousand years and one at ninety thousand years—even if I could handle them, I wouldn't have said all that just now."

"Not necessarily."

Ye Qing interrupted him, his tone utterly resolute.

Dugu Bo's brows knitted tightly.

Though this brat usually spouted nonsense, he never said anything he was not confident about at critical moments.

Could he truly have some kind of plan?

"Senior, I want these two soul beasts to become my sixth and seventh Soul Rings respectively."

Ye Qing raised two fingers.

As if afraid Dugu Bo had not heard clearly, he repeated himself.

"I want them both."

Dugu Bo nearly laughed from anger. "Do you know what you're saying?"

"Even if I risk this old life of mine—"

"I'm not asking you to rush in and fight them head-on."

Ye Qing cut him off.

A mysterious smile curved across his lips.

"I'm asking you to use your poison."

At the mention of the word "poison," Dugu Bo's expression changed.

After pondering for a moment, he slowly shook his head. "My poison is fairly effective against soul beasts of sixty or seventy thousand years, but against eighty- or ninety-thousand-year soul beasts comparable to human Titled Douluo, their Soul Power would suppress most of its toxicity."

"I could poison them to death, but it would take a long time, and time is the one thing most lacking on a battlefield."

Ye Qing did not reply.

He reached into his Ruyi Hundred Treasure Pouch and took out a plant.

It was an immortal herb that was crystalline and snow-white throughout.

Every blade of grass was slender and curved.

Its lines were as graceful as a swan's neck.

Dugu Bo stared at the immortal herb for two breaths, his brows furrowing deeply. "This is an immortal herb too?"

"Yes. It is called the Snowy Swan Kiss."

Ye Qing softly stated its name, then said something that left Dugu Bo stunned on the spot.

"With it, Senior could even poison a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast to death."

"What?!"

In an instant, Dugu Bo's expression shifted from confusion to shock, then to doubt.

He stared fixedly at the immortal herb in Ye Qing's hand, which appeared harmless aside from its beauty.

"If I eat it, can I break through to Rank Ninety-Five or above?"

"Of course not."

Ye Qing shook his head. "This immortal herb isn't meant to be eaten."

"If you ate it, Senior, you would probably be instantly poisoned to death by your own poison."

At those words, Dugu Bo's face immediately turned black as a pot's bottom. "You brat want to murder me?!"

Ye Qing gave a bitter smile and hurriedly explained, "Senior, you misunderstood."

"It is not poisonous itself. It could even be said to offer no direct benefit to cultivation whatsoever."

"But it possesses a characteristic that defies the heavens."

He paused, then enunciated every word. "It can amplify the toxicity of any poison it comes into contact with by hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times."

"And this amplification is irreversible, with no antidote capable of countering it."

"!!!"

Dugu Bo's pupils suddenly contracted.

Disbelief flashed through those jade-green eyes, followed by the fanatical light unique to the foremost poison master of the age.

Ye Qing did not need to explain anything further. As the person who understood poison best, he instantly grasped what this immortal herb represented.

Catalyzing poison!

Hundreds or thousands of times!

Irreversible!

Put those three phrases together, and to any poison-using soul master on the continent, they were nothing less than a miracle.

His Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor poison could already threaten opponents at the level of Titled Douluo.

If its toxicity were amplified tenfold or a hundredfold,

then forget the ninety-thousand-year Ice and Fire Demon Wolf King.

Even against the legendary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, he was confident he could show them what true deadly poison was.

"You mean—"

Dugu Bo's voice trembled slightly with excitement. "Use this immortal herb to intensify my Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor poison..."

"Then poison both soul beasts in one stroke."

Ye Qing completed his words and gently handed the Snowy Swan Kiss toward Dugu Bo.

"Kill two birds with one stone."

"I'll obtain my sixth and seventh rings together!"

The Snowy Swan Kiss's glow reflected in Dugu Bo's jade-green eyes.

In those old eyes, usually cold and proud, a long-lost fighting spirit and fervor now burned.

A dangerous, confident smile rose on his lips.

"Kid, do you know that in anyone else's hands, this immortal herb would merely be a rare treasure?"

"But in my hands, it is no less than a divine artifact."

Dugu Bo carefully placed the Snowy Swan Kiss into his own Ruyi Hundred Treasure Pouch.

Then he turned toward the gorge where flames roiled,

"I've spent my whole life playing with poison, but I've never looked forward to anything this much."

"Let those two soul beasts of seventy and eighty thousand years taste the catalyzed Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor poison at the same time."

In the depths of the gorge.

Flames and frost continued to clash madly.

The deafening booms rolled on without end.

Dugu Bo stood with his hands behind his back, a sharp light flashing in his jade-green eyes.

"Kid, I'll be back soon."