Three Principles

Yang Fan took a deep breath and stepped toward the white peony. With every step closer, he could feel a strange, mournful aura washing over him.

He walked up to the white peony and slowly crouched down, staring at the blood-red petals. Unbidden, the faces of those he cared for most surfaced in his mind.

Lan Yin sat beside him in the secret chamber every night, her smile as gentle as a spring breeze... After several years together, Yang Fan considered her his closest companion.

"Sincere and devoted, with a heart focused on one..."

Yang Fan inhaled deeply, circulating his soul power and stirring his blood. He bit his tongue hard, spitting out a mouthful of heart-blood infused with pure soul power, which landed precisely upon the blood-red petals.

Yet, the moment the blood made contact, a multitude of figures flashed through his mind: Na'er, Tang Yuehua, Leng Yaozhu, Dugu Yan, Ning Rongrong... Most absurdly, even the young girls he had only met once, Xu Xiaoyan and Xue Ke, seemed to flicker past.

But at that moment, the Heart of Eros within Yang Fan's spiritual sea seemed to sense something, resonating faintly with the Love-Sickness Broken-Heart Red.

With a soft hum, the white peony, which had been blooming silently, began to tremble violently the instant it touched his heart-blood.

The red threads on the petals seemed to come alive, greedily absorbing the essence of his blood and radiating a dazzling, golden-red luster.

The next second, the Love-Sickness Broken-Heart Red detached itself from the Wu Jue Stone, fluttering like a butterfly before landing lightly in Yang Fan's palm.

Do I actually have the potential to be a scumbag...

Yang Fan muttered to himself, his voice so low that even the Titled Douluo Dugu Bo could not hear him; after all, the man was busy watching his granddaughter and Ye Lingling.

"So, you brat really did fall for my Yan-yan at first sight!"

Dugu Bo crossed his arms over his chest, his dark green eyes filled with amusement and realization.

He looked Yang Fan up and down, unable to resist teasing, "No wonder you've been running to the Heaven Dou Royal Academy every few days since the Crown Prince's Coming-of-Age Ceremony. So that was your true intention all along."

Dugu Bo was certain in his heart; the Love-Sickness Broken-Heart Red was the flower of ultimate devotion and could never lie.

He mentally reviewed his investigations into the boy. While Tang Yuehua had a gentle temperament, her talent was mediocre, hardly fit for high society. As for Ning Rongrong of the Seven Treasures Glazed Sect, she was eccentric, and the way Yang Fan looked at her was clearly that of a brother toward a sister.

Eliminating the others, only his own granddaughter, Dugu Yan, remained. She was not only close to Yang Fan in age but also possessed a heroic spirit. A young hero paired with a peerless beauty—falling in love at first sight was perfectly natural.

"Back in the day, my son and daughter-in-law were the same... Sigh."

At this thought, a rare trace of melancholy flickered in Dugu Bo's eyes, which were usually filled with wickedness and the weight of time, and he couldn't help but let out a soft sigh.

Meanwhile, Yang Fan stood his ground, appearing calm on the surface, though the stone in his heart finally dropped.

Fortunately, he had the power of the Heart of Eros—a force of absolute devotion—to deceive the test of the Love-Sickness Broken-Heart Red; otherwise, he might have missed out on this immortal herb.

Just as Yang Fan was about to consume the herb, he caught a glimpse of Dugu Bo out of the corner of his eye, head bowed and eyes filled with loneliness.

After a moment of hesitation, Yang Fan did not consume the Love-Sickness Broken-Heart Red immediately. Instead, he took a specially crafted jade box from his Soul Guidance Device and carefully stored the herb inside.

He then walked slowly to Dugu Bo's side and spoke softly, "Senior, are you grieving over the backlash of the Jade Phosphorus Snake venom in your family again? Actually... I might have a way to resolve your hidden concerns once and for all."

"Senior Dugu, whenever it's cloudy or raining, do you feel a numbing itch in your ribs that gradually intensifies, lasting for over an hour, occurring once at noon and once at midnight? And in the dead of night, around the third watch, do you feel needle-like stabs in your crown and the soles of your feet, followed by full-body spasms for at least half an hour?"

Yang Fan spoke fluently; no one knew how many times he had practiced this line over the past few years.

Finally! He had said the classic line.

Any transmigrator who came to the Douluo Continent without saying this line lacked a soul!

"That is correct. This is the drawback of our Jade Phosphor Snake martial soul. Unless one avoids absorbing poison-type soul rings, it is difficult to survive the Soul Saint stage of the Martial Soul Avatar. Even then, as cultivation increases, the toxicity of the martial soul only deepens. If I hadn't been lucky enough to find this treasure land, I likely wouldn't have lived to this day."

Dugu Bo nodded in affirmation before asking, "Then what solution do you have?"

Yang Fan did not beat around the bush. "I have three sets of plans. The first is a temporary fix: forcibly strip the toxins from your body and condense them into a soul bone. A soul bone is relatively independent of the soul master yet closely linked, making it an excellent poison sac. However, the soul bone must not be in a vital area like the head or torso; otherwise, if the poison goes out of control, the consequences would be unimaginable."

Dugu Bo pondered for a moment, agreeing it was a good idea, though soul bones were rare; even he only possessed one ten-thousand-year head bone.

"The second is a moderate approach. This treasure land is filled with immortal herbs, and perhaps a detoxifying medicine could be concocted. But the herbs required would be precious; while it might save a few, it is not a long-term solution."

Dugu Bo nodded; it was true. These herbs might cure the poison, but given the potency of their family's martial soul, the requirements for the age and quality of the herbs would be extremely high.

"The final method is the Soul Core. I hear that you, Senior, have already been walking this path, though you haven't truly solved it."

Yang Fan paused, looking at Dugu Bo with admiration.

To have explored the method of the 'Poison Pill' in this era without the concept of a Soul Core—Dugu Bo's talent was truly stunning.

"I once read of an ancient secret technique in a tattered scroll, known as the 'Soul Core'."

Yang Fan took a deep breath, preparing to drop the real bombshell.

"It is a special cultivation method created by the ancients, mimicking the way ten-thousand-year soul beasts cultivate. When a soul master reaches the Titled Douluo realm, both spiritual power and soul power undergo a qualitative leap. At this point, one can imitate soul beasts, using powerful spiritual energy as a guide to compress the soul power within the body, transforming it from liquid to solid, condensing it into a core!"

At this point, Yang Fan's voice rose, carrying a confidence that did not belong to this era. "Your Jade Phosphor Snake Emperor is a top-tier poison-attribute martial soul. You can use your internal Poison Pill as a foundation to sublimate it and establish a true poison-attribute Soul Core! Once the core is formed, it will not only perfectly absorb and transform the martial soul's toxins, resolving the backlash, but it will also cause your poison arts to undergo a earth-shattering transformation, skyrocketing your combat power!"

Yang Fan held back, however. Just like forging, he kept the advanced versions—the Co-resonant Twin Soul Cores and the Yin-Yang Complementary Triple Soul Cores—to himself. A single Soul Core was already a dimension-crushing blow in this era.

When Dugu Bo first heard "ancient secret technique," his eyes had been dismissive. If such a heaven-defying method were truly practical, why had it never been passed down through the long river of history?

However, as Yang Fan detailed the core principles—"liquid to solid," "spiritual compression," "sublimation of the Poison Pill"—the disdain in Dugu Bo's eyes vanished.

In its place was a light that grew brighter and more fervent by the second.

"Using the Poison Pill as a base... transforming liquid to solid..."

Dugu Bo muttered to himself, struck as if by lightning, standing frozen on the spot. The bottleneck that had plagued him for decades seemed, in this moment, to have been pierced through by Yang Fan's casual words.