Dugu Bo nodded and stepped back a few paces. "Go ahead. Be careful."
Dugu Yan stood beside her grandfather, clasping her hands together as she watched Qin Chuan's back, somewhat nervously.
Qin Chuan stepped forward and felt two forces beginning to press in on him. A wave of heat pushed in from the left, while icy air pressed in from the right, like two invisible hands squeezing his body.
Fifteen meters, ten meters, five meters.
The air began to distort. The two energies formed a small vortex around him, enveloping his entire body.
Qin Chuan lifted his foot and took a few more steps.
One meter.
He could see the surface of the spring now. The scarlet water churned, while the deep-blue water froze over. Two kinds of water, two colors, two temperatures—so close he could reach out and touch them.
Dugu Bo's astonished cry came from behind him. "Impossible! He actually made it all the way there!"
Qin Chuan didn't look back.
He could feel the Heavenly Dao Power in his body no longer surging. Instead, it had entered a marvelous state of balance.
The heat of the Yang Spring flowed in from his left, while the chill of the Yin Spring seeped in from his right. The two forces converged within him, perfectly neutralized and fused by the Heavenly Dao Power, transforming into pure energy for cultivation.
Qin Chuan sat cross-legged at the very center of the spring.
He closed his eyes and began to meditate.
Twenty meters behind him, Dugu Bo's eyes were wide, disbelief written all over his gaunt old face.
"Grandpa, why isn't he afraid of those two powerful energies?" Dugu Yan tugged at her grandfather's sleeve.
Dugu Bo's lips moved several times before he managed to force out a sentence. "Because... the Taiji gives rise to the Two Principles. The Taiji is the Heavenly Dao. The Heavenly Dao Power surpasses the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well."
Dugu Yan didn't understand.
"You don't need to." Dugu Bo slowly exhaled a breath of stale air. "All you need to know is that this classmate... is definitely no ordinary person."
He stood there and watched Qin Chuan for quite a while, making sure his condition was stable and nothing seemed amiss before finally relaxing.
"Come on, let's wait in the little wooden hut nearby."
"All right, Grandpa."
Their footsteps gradually faded away, and silence returned to the cavern.
Only the steady flow of the two springs, one hot and one cold, and Qin Chuan's even, unhurried breathing remained.
After Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan left, Qin Chuan opened his eyes, his gaze quickly fixing on several unusual spots.
Several kinds of rare Immortal Herbs grew on the ground around the spring.
To the left of the Yang Spring, a small, entirely scarlet plant poked out from a crack in the rock. It had only three leaves, each like a clump of solidified flame, radiating a scorching glow.
Infernal Delicate Apricot.
To the right of the Yin Spring, an octagonal herb, crystalline all over, grew close against the ice. A layer of frost that would never melt clung to its stems and leaves. Bathed in the deep-blue light of the spring, it was as beautiful as an ice sculpture.
Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass.
Farther away, high on the rock wall, a golden-yellow chrysanthemum bloomed alone. Its petals were long and thin as threads, and an exceedingly fine ray of golden light shot from its center, pointing straight at the cavern ceiling.
Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum.
Looking deeper into the cavern, he spotted several more medicinal herbs hidden in the dark corners. Qin Chuan couldn't name them, but their colors and shapes all gave off an extraordinary air.
[All the heavenly treasures nurtured by the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well are here. Looks like Dugu Bo doesn't recognize these Immortal Herbs at all—he's treating them as ordinary ornamental plants.]
Qin Chuan looked around to make sure Dugu Bo had truly gone far away, then stood up. First, he plucked the Infernal Delicate Apricot.
The instant his fingers touched the little scarlet plant, a searing sensation shot up from his fingertips, as if he'd been burned by a red-hot iron plate. Gritting his teeth, Qin Chuan channeled Heavenly Dao Power into his palm, suppressing the heat, then pulled it out by the roots.
Next was the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass.
This herb felt entirely different—so cold his fingers nearly lost all sensation. Qin Chuan used Heavenly Dao Power to dispel the chill as well, then carefully plucked it.
After that, he also picked the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, Aromatic Silk Beauty, Lovesick Heartbreak Red, and several unidentified medicinal herbs, storing them all in his Space Soul Tool.
The whole process took less than a quarter of an hour.
Qin Chuan returned to the middle of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well and sat cross-legged again.
I'll consume the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot first, then enter the spring to temper my body.
He took the two Immortal Herbs from his Space Soul Tool, holding the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass in his left hand and the Infernal Delicate Apricot in his right.
He drew a deep breath.
First, he brought the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass to his mouth.
It melted as soon as it entered. A force of extreme cold instantly spread from the tip of his tongue throughout his body, as if countless ice needles were threading through his meridians, making every hair on his body stand on end.
Before the chill had finished spreading, Qin Chuan shoved the Infernal Delicate Apricot into his mouth.
The fiery energy surged out from his stomach like a furious fire dragon, charging recklessly through his meridians and slamming head-on into the cold energy.
Qin Chuan's body shuddered violently.
The two forces exploded within him, one cold and one hot, clashing wildly and churning his meridians as if they were about to burst.
Pain.
Qin Chuan clenched his teeth as the Heavenly Dao Power circulated within him.
The Heavenly Dao Power represented balance and order.
Guided by this force, the two energies within Qin Chuan, which had been violently clashing, seemed to find their anchor. Slowly, laboriously, they began to fuse with each other.
Ice was no longer pure lifelessness, and fire was no longer pure destruction.
A trace of vitality was quietly born from the blending of ice and fire.
Qin Chuan knew the moment had come. He could enter the spring.
He wasted no time. He took two steps forward and slowly slid into the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well!
His body settled into the spring, half in the Yang Spring and half in the Yin Spring.
If the pain just now had been hell, then this was heaven.
The ice-and-fire energy in his body instantly resonated with the ice-and-fire energy in the surrounding spring water. An endless stream of pure energy poured through every pore in his body, washing through his limbs and bones.
He felt like a dried-out sponge tossed into the sea, greedily absorbing every last bit of energy.
The Soul Power within him began to surge at a terrifying rate!
Rank twenty-nine... rank thirty!
Under the dual assault of the ice-and-fire energy and the Heavenly Dao Power, the bottleneck shattered in an instant, like paper.
Qin Chuan's body shuddered violently, and an unprecedented sense of power surged through him. His Soul Power surged through his new meridians like a breached floodgate.
He had broken through!
And this was only the beginning.
Every Soul Master on Douluo Continent had to absorb a Soul Ring upon reaching a whole-numbered rank to break through the shackles and continue advancing.
But Qin Chuan had shattered this ironclad rule!
The instant he broke through, the system's notification rang out.
[Congratulations, Host. You have discovered the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well and successfully activated [Heavenly Dao] meditation.] [Mission complete. Calculating rewards...] [Heavenly Dao Power +4. Current Heavenly Dao Power: 10/10.] [Heavenly Dao Power is full. Promotion requirements met.] [Congratulations. You have obtained the divine eye technique—Six Paths Reincarnation Eye (First Heaven) (Current EXP: 0/10)!] [Second Martial Soul unlocked—Zhu Xian Sword!] [Detected: Host's foundation has been reforged, greatly increasing potential. The Heavenly Dao System will clear away all obstacles for you. You will face no further bottlenecks before Soul Power rank fifty!]
A series of notifications thundered through Qin Chuan's mind like crashing bolts of lightning, leaving him completely dumbfounded.