Chrysanthemum Guan's Martial Soul Evolution, Crimson Vajra Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum Douluo was currently dressed in dusty, gray servant's robes, his face smeared with charcoal ash.

Upon hearing Fa Ma's words, he shuddered in fright, instinctively shielding his chest. "G—Guild Master?"

"Why do you want to see my Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum?"

"Enough nonsense! I told you to release it, so do it!"

Fa Ma urged him impatiently, "I suspect the material of your martial soul is just right to serve as a filter!"

A filter?!

Chrysanthemum Douluo was stunned.

His magnificent, top-tier immortal herb martial soul—the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, which could grant an indestructible body if consumed—was, in this old man's eyes, merely a tool for filtering medicinal dregs?!

"Hurry up! Stop dawdling!"

"If you delay my alchemy, even refining you wouldn't be enough to compensate for the loss!"

And so, under the pressure of Fa Ma's five-star Dou Emperor aura, Chrysanthemum Douluo tearfully and tremblingly released his martial soul.

Hum!

Soon, a massive chrysanthemum with purple-gold petals slowly bloomed in his palm.

Although its radiance was significantly dimmed due to the suppression of the plane, that unique aura of an immortal herb still remained.

"Good! What a treasure!"

The moment Fa Ma saw the flower, he slapped his thigh in excitement. "The texture of these petals is practically a natural spiritual energy sieve!"

"And these gold-attribute veins are perfect for absorbing the fire poison of the Red Flame Dragon Fruit!"

"It's simply a born filter for medicinal dregs!"

Having said that, Fa Ma grabbed Chrysanthemum Douluo's wrist and dragged him directly toward the scorching alchemy furnace.

"Come, come, stick your hand in!"

"Spread your martial soul! Block the fire vent!"

"I need to borrow your martial soul to filter the impurities out of this medicinal liquid!"

Stick it into the alchemy furnace?!

Chrysanthemum Douluo looked at the raging beast fire, his face turning green. "No, Guild Master! That's beast fire!"

"Even though my martial soul is of the plant type, it can't withstand such burning!"

"Besides, it's my life-bound martial soul, connected to my soul! If it gets burned, I'll become an idiot!!"

"Oh, stop with all the nonsense!"

Fa Ma was single-mindedly focused on alchemy at this moment; how could he care about the life or death of a slave?

He struck out with a burst of Dou Qi, forcibly controlling Chrysanthemum Douluo's arm.

Then, he shoved that Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum straight into the scorching mouth of the furnace!

"Ahhhhhhh!!"

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

A shrill, miserable scream instantly echoed throughout the alchemy room!

The moment the delicate Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum touched the high-temperature medicinal liquid and flames, Chrysanthemum Douluo felt as if his soul were being grilled on a red-hot iron plate!

That pain was ten thousand times more intense than physical agony!

"Hold it! Don't shake!"

Fa Ma ignored his screams entirely, instead commanding with a stern face, "Spread the petals wider! Yes! Just like that!"

"Keep this position! The fire poison is being absorbed!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, this effect is even better than the Heavenly Silkworm Mesh I bought for hundreds of thousands of gold coins!"

And so, under the horrified gaze of the entire Douluo Continent.

The man who was once second only to one and above ten thousand in the Martial Soul Hall, the man who cherished flowers and plants above all else, was now acting like a living funnel!

The scorching, crimson medicinal liquid washed over his martial soul again and again.

The fire poison was forcibly absorbed by his petals, while the pure medicinal liquid flowed down through the stamen.

The originally purple-gold Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum began to rapidly turn charred and withered under the erosion of the fire poison—

"My flower, my flower."

Chrysanthemum Douluo was a mess of snot and tears from the pain. Watching his beloved martial soul turn into charcoal bit by bit, his heart was bleeding.

"That's enough!"

Half an hour later.

As the last wisp of black smoke was absorbed by the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, Fa Ma was overjoyed and slammed his palm against the furnace: "Condense the pill!!"

Boom!

A round, plump red pill, exuding a rich medicinal fragrance, flew out from the furnace and landed steadily into a jade bottle.

"Success! A peak fifth-grade, top-quality Spirit Fusion Pill!"

Fa Ma looked at the pill, which was devoid of even a single impurity, and grinned from ear to ear.

Beside him, Chrysanthemum Douluo, having been used up, lay limp on the floor like a discarded rag.

His right hand remained in an outstretched position, but the once-magnificent Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum in his palm had turned into a blackened, foul-smelling lump of charred remains.

His aura had plummeted instantly from Title Douluo to the Soul Saint level!

His Martial Soul was damaged, his foundation completely destroyed!

"Hmm, you've performed a great service with this alchemy session."

Fa Ma was in high spirits; he casually grabbed a handful of scraps left over from the alchemy and tossed them in front of Chrysanthemum Douluo. "Here are some dregs from the Energy Recovery Powder, consider them a reward."

"Go back and recuperate well, and grow that flower of yours back."

"I'll need to use it again when I refine a sixth-grade pill next time."

Need to use it again?!

Upon hearing these three words, Chrysanthemum Douluo rolled his eyes back, began foaming at the mouth, and passed out cold.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Douluo Continent.

Martial Soul Hall, from the perspective of Ghost Douluo.

"Yue Guan!!!"

Looking at that chrysanthemum turned to charcoal, looking at his old partner twitching on the ground.

An unprecedented ghostly aura erupted from Ghost Douluo's body.

"How dare they—"

"That is his life! It is the thing he has cherished most in this entire world!"

"They actually used it as a filter?"

--

"And after using him up, they expect him to recover so they can use him again?"

"This is nothing short of hell!!"

Gui Mei knelt on the ground, his fingernails digging deep into his flesh.

He felt hatred!

But he felt fear even more!

Because he knew that if it had been him, with his Ghost Martial Soul, who had gone there, his fate likely wouldn't have been to serve as a filter, but rather to be snatched up by those alchemists to be refined into a Ten Thousand Soul Banner or a Heavenly Demon Puppet!

Sunset Forest, Dugu Bo.

Poison Douluo watched the fate of Chrysanthemum Douluo and instinctively touched his own Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness I deal in poison—"

"But if I were to go there, would I be used as a poison catalyst?"

--

"Or perhaps just thrown directly into a pot to be stewed?"

At the mere thought of it, Dugu Bo couldn't help but shiver.

He suddenly felt that, even though he was hunted down on the Douluo Continent, at least no one used him as a funnel!

Battle Through the Heavens Plane, Jia Ma Empire.

Alchemist Guild, corner of the alchemy room.

In the dim corner, the air was filled with the smell of burning and a strange medicinal fragrance.

"Cough, cough, cough—"

Chrysanthemum Douluo curled up on the cold floor, his entire body wracked with pain, as if every bone in his body had just been dismantled.

He tremblingly raised his right hand, looking at the Martial Soul in his palm—once magnificent and noble, now a lump of black charcoal emitting a pungent sulfur stench—and tears flowed down his face once again, unbidden.

"Ruined, completely ruined."

"Old Ghost, I can't go back—"

"My Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, my pride... now it's not even as good as a wild chrysanthemum by the roadside."

At this moment, his Soul Power had fallen to the Soul Saint level, his meridians were eroded by fire poison, and his body was so weak he couldn't even stand steadily.

Just then, his gaze fell upon the pile of trash Fa Ma had casually tossed before him.

It was a pile of black, sticky medicinal dregs mixed with fragments of failed pills, emitting a pungent, strange odor.

"Gurgle—"

Suddenly, Chrysanthemum Douluo's stomach let out an uncooperative growl.

In this world where spiritual energy was abundant but consumption was equally immense, he, a Titled Douluo who should have been able to abstain from food, was currently feeling a hunger that originated from the very depths of his soul.

That hunger was telling him: Eat it! Eat it and you will live!

"This, this is medicinal dregs."

"It's the waste left over from that old man's alchemy—"

"I, Yue Guan, have lived a life of refinement, drinking only dew and eating only petals; how could I possibly eat something that looks like excrement?"

Chrysanthemum Douluo's heart resisted and struggled.

But when that warm scent—the residue of a Grade 5 pill—wafted from the dregs and burrowed into his nostrils, his damaged meridians actually let out a groan of longing!

"To hell with it!"

"To survive, to be able to take revenge in the future, I will eat it!!"

At this thought, Chrysanthemum Douluo steeled his heart, closed his eyes, and with a trembling hand, grabbed a handful of the sticky, black medicinal dregs and shoved them into his mouth!

Smack, smack.

The moment it entered his mouth, it was bitter.

So bitter it made him want to retch.

It was the taste of fire poison and impurities.

But the next second!

BOOM!!!

An energy as scorching as magma and as vast as a flood instantly exploded within Chrysanthemum Douluo's mouth!

"Mmph!!!"

Chrysanthemum Douluo's eyes snapped wide open, his face instantly flushing to the color of liver!

It was the residual medicinal power of the Grade 5 Spirit Fusion Pill, mixed with the fire-poison essence of the Tier 5 Red Flame Dragon Fruit!

To Fa Ma, this was impurity, trash that had to be discarded.

But to a Douluo-world native who had never encountered such high-concentration energy, even if this were excrement, it was the excrement of a divine dragon!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

The violent medicinal power surged down his throat into his stomach, instantly spreading to his limbs and bones!

"Ahhhhh, hot! So hot!"

Chrysanthemum Douluo rolled wildly on the ground, his skin turning bright red, even beginning to emit white smoke!

He felt as if he hadn't swallowed medicinal dregs, but a sun!

Yet, this overbearing fire-attribute medicinal power did not destroy him; instead, it began to frantically repair and reshape his scorched Martial Soul!

Crack! Crack!

He watched as the charred black chrysanthemum in his palm began to crack, its outer layer of carbon peeling away inch by inch!

From within those fissures, a heart-stopping crimson-gold light began to shine through!

"This is—"

Chrysanthemum Douluo endured the excruciating pain, staring fixedly at his Martial Soul.

His originally delicate plant-type Martial Soul, after absorbing these fire-poison dregs, had undergone an inconceivable mutation!

The black skin fell away!

A brand-new, strange chrysanthemum, crimson as fire with golden edges inlaid on its petals, slowly bloomed!

Each petal looked as if it had been carved from ruby, with flowing, scorching magma patterns coursing across them!

Martial Soul Evolution, Crimson Vajra Chrysanthemum!

"ROAR!!"

As his Martial Soul was reshaped, the Soul Power within Chrysanthemum Douluo's body began to erupt like a geyser!

Level 70, Level 75, Level 80—

Level 90, Level 95—

Level 96!

Level 97!

BOOM!

A terrifying aura, even more powerful than when he was in his prime, suddenly rippled out from his body!

Although he remained at the Titled Douluo realm, his Soul Power was now filled with the attributes of Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Metal!

That was Fire Immunity!

And Vajra Indestructibility!

"I, I broke through?"

Chrysanthemum Douluo sat blankly on the ground, feeling the power within his body that seemed capable of incinerating everything.

He had been trapped at level ninety-five for several decades!

He had dreamed of breaking through to level ninety-six!

And yet, after eating a handful of medicinal dregs, he had broken through to level ninety-seven?

His martial soul had even evolved into a top-tier fire-attribute mutated martial soul?

"Hahahaha!"

Looking at the remaining half-handful of dregs in his palm, Chrysanthemum Douluo suddenly burst into manic laughter.

He laughed and wept at the same time, then, like a starving ghost reincarnated, he scooped up every bit of the black dregs from the ground and shoved them into his mouth!

"Delicious! It's so delicious!"

"How can these be medicinal dregs?"

"These are immortal pills!!"

"My Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum is nothing compared to this! This pile of trash is the true divine object!!"

Meanwhile, on the Douluo Continent.

At the Martial Soul Hall, Ghost Douluo.

Gui Mei watched the light screen, staring at his old partner who was kneeling on the ground, frantically devouring black waste, and leveling up as he ate.

His expression shifted into one of existential doubt.

"Level ninety-seven."

"Yue Guan ate shit and reached level ninety-seven?"

"And his martial soul evolved? He's no longer afraid of fire?"

Ghost Douluo looked at the precious spirit herbs from the Worship Hall held in his own hands, suddenly finding them utterly bland.

"The resources we once fought tooth and nail for."

"In that world, are they really not even worth as much as trash?"

"I want to go eat trash too."

For a moment, an absurd longing spread through Ghost Douluo's heart.

In the Battle Through the Heavens World, inside the alchemy room.

Creak.

Just then, the door was pushed open.

Guild Master Fa Ma walked in holding a new prescription, and his eyes immediately landed on Chrysanthemum Douluo, who was glowing with red light and exuding a vastly different aura.

"Hmm?"

Fa Ma paused, then twitched his nose: "What's going on? Where are those medicinal dregs?"

"You ate them?"

Hearing the voice, Chrysanthemum Douluo whipped around.

At this moment, he no longer possessed his previous fear or submissiveness.

But he did not resist!

Thump!

Chrysanthemum Douluo slid across the floor on his knees, rushing to Fa Ma's side to clutch his leg tightly. His flushed, bewitching face was filled with sycophancy: "Guild Master! You are truly my second parent!"

"Those dregs were so delicious! So nourishing!"

"Thank you for your bounty, Guild Master!!"

Fa Ma was stunned by this sudden display of enthusiasm and kicked his leg in disgust: "Let go! You smell like medicinal dregs!"

"You didn't die from eating that? It seems your life as a flower spirit is quite tough."

"Eh?"

Fa Ma suddenly noticed the Crimson Vajra Chrysanthemum swaying behind Chrysanthemum Douluo, and his eyes lit up again: "It mutated?"

"Fire resistance increased? And the metal attribute is purer?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, not bad, not bad!"

Fa Ma nodded with satisfaction, as if he had found an upgraded tool: "I was worried your pathetic flower wouldn't withstand the heat, but I didn't expect it to evolve after eating some trash."

"Perfect! The next batch of grade-six Break Calamity Pills requires the use of Heavenly Flames's split flames for refining, which involves higher temperatures and more intense fire poison!"

"I was just worrying about not finding a heat-resistant filter!"

"Come, come! Since you've recovered, let's get back to work!"

Upon hearing the words "continue working."

If this were in the past, Chrysanthemum Douluo would certainly have been scared out of his wits.

But now, a brilliance never seen before erupted in Chrysanthemum Douluo's eyes!

Continue working = continue acting as a filter = continue absorbing the essence of fire poison = continue eating higher-grade medicinal dregs = continue growing stronger—"Yes, Lord President!"

Chrysanthemum Douluo leaped up violently, rushing toward the scorching pill furnace of his own accord, even impatiently thrusting his Crimson Vajra Chrysanthemum toward the fire vent: "President! Hurry!"

"Burn me with fire! Burn me hard!"

"Even if it's Heavenly Flames, it doesn't matter! I don't fear the pain!!"

"As long as you reward me with all the medicinal dregs after the pill is refined!!"

Watching Chrysanthemum Douluo, who looked like a masochist actively begging to be burned.

Fa Ma was stunned, then burst into hearty laughter: "Good! What determination!"

"A top-tier tool like this is something I could only pick up from another world!"

"Ignite! Begin refining!!"

BOOM!!!

The purple beast fire rose once again!