A few days later.
Sunset Forest.
Two people stood before a thick, emerald-green poison miasma.
Dugu Yan linked her arm through Ye Qing's, her posture intimate and natural, her long green hair fluttering gently in the breeze.
"Once we get through this miasma, we'll reach my grandfather's Medicine Garden."
Dugu Yan turned to look at Ye Qing, a hint of tenderness in her eyes.
Compared to a few days ago, her whole demeanor had softened quite a bit.
If Dugu Yan had been a drawn sword before, now she was a drawn sword in its scabbard.
Well, still a sword.
But in front of Ye Qing, she had sheathed every last bit of her edge.
Ye Qing was very pleased with this.
His body really was remarkably strong.
Over the past few days, during their repeated contests at the hotel, he'd always gotten the better of Dugu Yan, making the proud young lady meek and compliant.
The old saying about love blossoming with time had not lied to him.
Though the word "time" here seemed to carry another meaning...
Never mind.
"What are you thinking about?"
Seeing his faraway expression, Dugu Yan couldn't help asking.
"I was thinking about how we've been spending time together... day after day, growing closer and more in love."
Ye Qing kept a straight face.
"Is that so?"
Dugu Yan gave him a suspicious look. She felt like he'd just said something a little off.
But she wasn't in the mood to pursue it right now.
The real test was coming.
"This antidote pill can neutralize the poison in the miasma."
Dugu Yan took an emerald-green pill from the small pouch at her waist and handed it to Ye Qing.
"Your Soul Power may have increased, but you still have no resistance to poison. Without this, you won't get far before you collapse."
Ye Qing took the pill and swallowed it without hesitation.
A cool current slid down his throat into his stomach, then spread through his limbs and bones.
"Let's go."
Dugu Yan drew a deep breath and tightened her grip on Ye Qing's hand.
Ye Qing reminded her, "Remember what I told you. Don't mess it up."
"I know." Dugu Yan rolled her eyes at him.
He just blurted out stuff about what happened in bed, without a hint of shame.
Ye Qing squeezed her hand. "In this life, I, Ye Qing, never drop the ball."
The two of them stepped into the emerald-green miasma side by side.
The miasma was thick, like a dense fog under a red-alert warning.
Ye Qing could only feel Dugu Yan's hand clasped tightly around his.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, the miasma suddenly parted before them.
Their view opened up in an instant.
Then Ye Qing saw the most fantastical sight of his life.
A mountain valley.
One half was scarlet, the other icy blue.
Ice and fire converged at opposite ends of the valley, forming a strange, circular spring.
Plants covered the ground around it.
Ye Qing's breathing quickened.
This was the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!
The starting point of Tang San's rise, and one of the biggest cheats in all of Douluo Continent!
Just as he was about to admire this legendary treasure trove,
A terrifying pressure descended from above!
"Yanyan, who is he?"
A chilling voice boomed through the valley.
A green figure appeared before them like a ghost.
He was a tall, slender man.
His emerald-green hair fell over his shoulders, and sinister light glimmered in his green eyes. His whole body radiated the dangerous aura of a venomous snake.
He narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on Ye Qing.
That gaze scraped over Ye Qing like a knife, raising goosebumps all over his body.
"Yanyan."
His voice was low and dangerous. "Who is he?"
Dugu Bo!
His title was "Poison."
The greatest poison expert on the continent.
A ninety-first-rank Titled Douluo.
At that moment, this terrifying figure stared at Ye Qing as if he were a mouse that had wandered into a snake's nest.
Ye Qing took a deep breath, his heart pounding at full throttle.
Here it was!
The real test!
Dugu Bo had been in a terrible mood these past few days.
To be precise, a truly awful one.
Ever since his granddaughter, Dugu Yan, had suddenly come back that day and bluntly asked him, "Grandpa, does our family's Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul poison people?" he'd known he couldn't hide the truth.
He'd planned to laugh it off and brush her question aside.
But Yanyan seemed determined as an iron weight in a scale this time; she wouldn't rest until she got to the bottom of it.
With no other choice, he'd told her the whole truth.
The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul carried a bloodline poison. The stronger one's Soul Power, the deeper the poison.
Apart from him, who could barely suppress it with his Titled Douluo cultivation, every other descendant of the Dugu Family had died from the poison.
Yanyan's father, uncles, and aunts... none had escaped.
And if Yanyan herself cultivated to the Soul Emperor level, the poison inside her would erupt completely.
By then, even the gods couldn't save her.
When he finished telling her all this, Yanyan hadn't cried.
She'd only fallen silent for a long time before getting up and leaving.
Dugu Bo hadn't stopped her.
He didn't know how.
He was a Titled Douluo, the greatest poison expert on the continent, yet he was helpless against the deadly poison inside his own granddaughter.
That sense of powerlessness hurt him more than any poison.
"Should I go check on Yanyan?"
Dugu Bo stood in the Medicine Garden, gazing at the herbs covering the ground. A hint of concern flickered in his emerald eyes.
That girl usually seemed proud and unruly, but she took everything to heart.
What if she did something foolish...
Just as he hesitated, two auras entered his range of perception.
One was familiar. It was Yanyan!
The other was completely unfamiliar.
Dugu Bo furrowed his brows, flashed into a streak of green, and vanished from where he stood.
He appeared before the two of them.
Dugu Yan had her arm linked through a black-haired, black-eyed boy's, her posture intimate and her expression gentle.
Dugu Bo's heart gave a thump.
This was bad.
Very bad!
He narrowed his eyes, his gaze falling on the boy like a knife. His voice was low and dangerous. "Yanyan, who is he?"
Ye Qing felt every hair on his body stand on end.
The pressure of a Titled Douluo was no joke. Just standing there made him shiver with fear.
But he held his ground, even straightening his back without thinking.
"Grandpa."
Dugu Yan took a deep breath and began the script Ye Qing had taught her.
"This is Ye Qing, the person I love."
"I brought him here today because I hope you'll support us."
"Huh?"
Dugu Bo's mind buzzed.
The person she loved?
Yanyan had someone she loved?
He froze for a few seconds, then quickly calmed down.
Yanyan was old enough to start dating. That wasn't anything to worry about.
He'd always been open-minded about his granddaughter's love life.
Dugu Bo released his Soul Power and swept it over Ye Qing.
His brows soon furrowed.
Level ten?
Thinking he might have sensed it wrong, he checked again.
Still level ten!
Dugu Bo's expression darkened. He asked coldly, "Boy, what level is your Soul Power?"
Ye Qing answered calmly and without flinching. "Level ten, Senior Dugu."
"Level ten?"
Dugu Bo laughed, though it was laughter born of anger.
A boy who looked well into his teens, and his Soul Power was only level ten?
He'd seen plenty of good-for-nothings over the years, but never one quite this useless.
Even an ordinary commoner child with a little talent would have reached at least level ten or twenty by their mid-teens.
What did it mean to be level ten in your mid-teens?
It meant being at the very bottom of the Soul Master World.
His precious granddaughter, a heaven-blessed prodigy, had fallen for a level-ten loser?
No.
Wait.
Dugu Bo suddenly thought of an even more terrible possibility.
Could this kid be a con artist?
Had he deliberately seduced Yanyan, knowing she was naive, to climb into a powerful family?
Just as his imagination reached that point, Ye Qing spoke again.
"Senior Dugu."
Ye Qing looked utterly serious, his sincerity so overwhelming it was almost offensive. "I love Yanzi, and I'm willing to marry into the Dugu Family."
"Huh?"
Dugu Bo's brain stalled.
Marry into the family?
What had this kid just said?
Marry into the family?!
"You—"
Dugu Bo laughed in fury, killing intent surging in his emerald eyes. "Say that again?"
Ye Qing was about to speak when Dugu Yan suddenly stepped forward and spread her arms in front of him.
"Grandpa!"
Dugu Yan's voice rang out, loud enough to echo through the entire valley. "You can't hurt him!"
Dugu Bo furrowed his brows. "Yanyan, step aside. This kid is obviously deceiving you!"
"He isn't deceiving me!"
Dugu Yan's face flushed bright red.
Half of it was acting, and half was genuine embarrassment.
She had gone over the lines to come with Ye Qing countless times, but when it came down to actually saying them, she still wished she could crawl into a crack in the ground.
But she knew that if she didn't make her position clear today, her grandfather would never let the matter rest.
"Grandpa—"
Dugu Yan closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and went for it!
"Ye Qing and I have done everything we should and shouldn't have done. We might even have a child!"
"He's the husband I've chosen! You're not allowed to hurt him!"
"..."
The whole valley fell silent.
The wind swept over the surface of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, stirring up a faint rustle.
In the distance, the poisonous miasma churned soundlessly.
Dugu Bo's face changed from green to blue, from blue to white, from white to black...
Even the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda couldn't change colors as fast as he could.
Everything they should and shouldn't have done?
A child?
A husband?
After saying all that, Dugu Yan herself was so mortified she wanted to die on the spot.
But she still stood stubbornly in front of Ye Qing, arms spread wide, protecting the bastard like a mother hen sheltering her chicks.
Behind her, Ye Qing was enduring the hardest test of his life.
Don't laugh!
Absolutely do not laugh!
He repeated the words over and over in his mind, but the corner of his mouth still twitched involuntarily.
A scene suddenly popped into his head.
Blond hair, a ghost-fire bike, a young girl, an old geezer!