One week later.
The core area of Sunset Forest, the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
Using the System Map, Qian Xunji successfully made his way to this land of opportunity.
Without the System Map, who knew how long it would have taken a directionally hopeless man like him, who relied on the useless Map app whenever he went anywhere, to find the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well in the vast Sunset Forest?
A roar rang out. A gigantic ten-thousand-year Medusa, with a human head and a serpent's body, appeared before him.
Dugu Bo's Eighth Spirit Ring and Head Soul Bone.
Facing a Spirit Beast hostile to humanity, Qian Xunji didn't hesitate to summon his Martial Soul.
He donned the Emperor Armor and gripped the Golden Treasure Sword.
He used his Fourth Spirit Ability, Angel Light Blade, summoning more than ten golden short swords to attack with.
Combined with his Eighth Spirit Ability, Angel Roar, he quickly took down the guardian beast of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
A black Spirit Ring floated in midair.
Qian Xunji collected Medusa's corpse, and the black Spirit Ring disappeared along with it.
Curious, he opened the System Space to take a look. To his surprise, the Spirit Ring, Spirit Bone, and Spirit Beast's body had all appeared on the panel.
Curious, he reached out and tapped the Spirit Ring.
The system displayed an explanation.
After killing a Spirit Beast and obtaining a Spirit Ring, if its body was collected before the Spirit Ring dissipated into the world, the Spirit Ring released upon the beast's death could be stored in the System Space.
Spirit Rings stored in the System Space along with their owners' bodies were no longer bound by the Douluo Plane's rule that "only the person who killed a Spirit Beast can absorb the Spirit Ring it releases." They became ownerless Spirit Rings.
Anyone could absorb and refine these ownerless Spirit Rings, provided they were strong enough to absorb them.
"The system even has this feature. Not bad, not bad." Qian Xunji praised.
Qian Xunji charged up a punch and smashed through the rock wall, entering the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well Secret Realm.
Two springs stood side by side, filling his view.
One blazed like blood that could burn the heavens; the other was cold as marrow from the netherworld.
The Red Sun Spring churned like a river of molten rock. Heat waves billowed, scorching all vegetation within a hundred zhang and reducing stone to powder. A fire dragon seemed to circle in the air, breathing in and out, flames surging from its jaws. Even the wind caught fire, hissing softly.
The Blue Ice Spring, by contrast, lay as still as a frigid abyss, its chill piercing to the bone. Black ice that had endured for a thousand years floated on its surface, its patterns like curses that froze the soul at a touch. Icy mist curled around it like the spread wings of an Ice Phoenix; wherever it passed, birds dropped their feathers and insects froze into corpses.
Around the springs, wondrous flowers and herbs vied with one another in a riot of color.
He had no time to admire the spectacle or marvel at nature's uncanny workmanship.
Qian Xunji had a clear goal: first, he would absorb the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, an Immortal Herb capable of boosting his spiritual power.
The dew bead entered his eyes. A refreshing coolness washed over him, and he immediately guided his Soul Power to refine it.
Qian Xunji sat cross-legged. After absorbing the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, his spiritual power surged, reaching the Spirit Domain Realm.
With spiritual power at the Spirit Domain Realm and one Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring, he would have the entry ticket to become a Limit Douluo.
But the Spirit Domain Realm wasn't enough to satisfy him.
Refining the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew had raised his spiritual power to the Spirit Domain Realm. His thoughts became much faster, and his memory came close to never forgetting anything he had seen.
His eyesight improved too. He could see farther and had gained dynamic vision; he could even make out certain bacteria as if looking through a microscope.
But what he lacked was an ability that could directly boost his combat strength.
Something like illusions or Laser Eyes, for instance.
For the time being, Qian Xunji stayed in the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, this treasured cultivation ground, to train.
Every day, he used System Appraisal to identify spirit medicines and Immortal Herbs, seeking herbs suited to his current level so he could absorb and refine them to improve his cultivation.
After all, with a hundred thousand tons of food to choose from as support, he wasn't short on provisions.
He had enough to stay at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well and cultivate all the way to the Limit Douluo realm.
A month had passed since his transmigration.
After frantically absorbing and refining Immortal Herbs and spirit medicines, and using Ice and Fire Body Tempering to absorb the energy in the springs of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, Qian Xunji's cultivation had reached level 89.
By refining the Star Luo Spirit Pearl, he condensed a Spirit Core, and his Soul Power broke through to level 90, the Quasi-Titled Douluo realm.
He opened the system panel and tapped the check-in button.
[Check-in successful. Obtained one unrestricted Spirit Ring Age Increase Card, which increases a Spirit Ring's age by ten thousand years.]
The unrestricted Spirit Ring Age Increase Card could add ten thousand years to a hundred-year, thousand-year, ten-thousand-year, or Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring, as well as a Ferocious Beast Spirit Ring.
If he used it on the Spirit Ring produced by the 990,000-year-old Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, it could break through the limit and become a million-year Divine Beast Spirit Ring.
Of course, hunting the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King was out of the question.
Even with a thirty-minute Quasi-God cultivation experience card in hand, it was impossible.
Bo Saixi, who possessed the Sea God Martial Soul on Sea God Island, held divine power within her body, could briefly wield a divine artifact, and could summon the Sea God's phantom to fight, still couldn't defeat the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King.
Even the protagonist, Tang San, had relied on a god shamelessly stepping in to help him before he managed to kill the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King.
So Qian Xunji, whose cultivation was only at level 90, the Quasi-Titled Douluo realm, wasn't about to get carried away and recklessly hunt the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King.
Even if he brought every Titled Douluo from the Worship Hall and Elder Hall along, they would still have little chance of success.
So he'd have to change targets for his Ninth Spirit Ring.
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, that lovesick, fat silkworm, became Qian Xunji's primary target.
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's ice attribute clashed with the fire attribute inherent in the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul, but that was insignificant compared with its nearly million years of cultivation.
As for the Spirit Ring released by Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, the Spirit Skill it produced had no real offensive power, and Qian Xunji didn't care much about that.
As the saying went, only lazy weaklings relied on powerful Spirit Skills.
What mattered to Qian Xunji was that the Spirit Ring obtained from killing Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, along with the Head Soul Bone it might release, could perhaps raise his spiritual power to the Divine Origin Realm once refined.
Only sufficiently powerful spiritual strength could support him in turning the wild ideas in his head into power.
But Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was currently deep in the Far North.
To travel to that frozen, snowbound place, he needed to prepare some proper cold-weather gear.
And...
Qian Xunji's gaze swept over the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. His eyes darkened, and he made up his mind.
He wouldn't leave Tang San so much as a drop of water or a grain of sand from the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
As for whether Dugu Bo would die because he couldn't come to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well to suppress the toxins in his body...
Qian Xunji: Respect other people's fate.
Dugu Bo had a strange temper.
What kind of normal person would become sworn friends across generations with a little thief like Tang San, who went around saying, "You have a Way of Seeking Death"?
It couldn't be denied that the original Dugu Bo was exceptional in group battles. He was especially powerful against cannon fodder, practically a walking, human-shaped poison bomb with a wide blast radius.
But so what?
Poison wasn't the only way to kill enemies over a wide area.
An everlasting, inextinguishable fire could do the job too.
He'd drain the springs, shovel up the soil, and hollow out the entire Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
He wouldn't leave Tang San a single drop of water or grain of soil to enjoy.
He'd store the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King remains in the System Space.
As for the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' left and right arm bones, he'd play it safe and wait until the system had recovered enough energy to wake up before absorbing them.
That way, he wouldn't risk being possessed by a remnant soul while refining the Spirit Bone.
Before you continue