Time trickled past, and the atmosphere inside the great hall grew unbearably tense.
Dugu Bo sat upright on a meditation cushion, his back ramrod straight, veins bulging on his forehead and teeth clenched as beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks.
His hands gripped his knees tightly, his knuckles turning an unnatural bluish white from the strain.
The dark green robe he had just changed into was already soaked with sweat, clinging to his body and outlining his lean yet resilient frame.
Sweat dripped from his chin, pooling into a small, dark patch on the floor that continued to spread.
Behind him, Dai Mobai kept his eyes half closed, his ten fingers hovering over the acupoints on Dugu Bo's back. Blood-red flames slithered between them like spirit serpents.
Ten strands of flame moved separately through Dugu Bo's body, advancing along different meridians toward the depths of his bones.
Wherever the flames passed, the dark green poisonous deposits lining his meridians cracked and peeled away, vaporized by the heat into wisps of blue-green smoke that escaped through his pores.
The smoke carried a pungent, sickly sweet odor, gathering into a hazy jade-green mist inside the side hall before the Blood Demon Flame burned it away completely.
Even the remaining Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison retreated steadily beneath the scorching flames.
Ninety percent of the black discoloration deep within Dugu Bo's bones had faded, leaving only stubborn dark patches in a few sections at the very depths of his spine.
Those patches were the serpent poison's final strongholds. They had entrenched themselves in his marrow for decades and fused with it, making them extremely difficult to remove.
But Dai Mobai remained patient. With his spiritual power, he controlled the ten strands of flame, surrounding, scorching, and stripping away those patches one by one.