The Dumbfounded Ice Jade Empress Scorpion

Dugu Bo murmured, "Your Eminence means An'er and Yan'er can't use the third method?"

Zhu Huang said, "It's not that they can't, but it can't be done in a short time. We can take a two-pronged approach and use the second and third methods together. Then it will truly be foolproof. This way, we won't necessarily need soul bones over fifty thousand years old either. Soul bones over ten thousand years old can serve as a transition first. Once the Poison Core is cultivated, the soul bones will no longer be needed."

Dugu Bo made the decision on the spot. "Then I'll have to trouble Your Eminence. As for soul bones, I'll think of a way."

Whether it was the empire or the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, they should have idle ten-thousand-year soul bones. With his status as Poison Douluo, he could negotiate terms with both sides. There was still hope of obtaining two pieces. At most, the price he paid would be a little greater.

Zhu Huang said, "There's no need to go to that much trouble. I still have a few soul bones on me. Since you need them, take them and use them!"

His right hand brushed over his spatial ring, and two Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones appeared in his hand, one black and one green. They gave off a cold, vicious aura, and the young Dugu Yan's face immediately turned pale as she trembled all over.

Dugu Bo looked at these two Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones. They were indeed exactly what he urgently needed right now. Deep gratitude appeared in his eyes, and he immediately pulled Dugu An, Lin Xin, and little Dugu Yan to kneel, swearing, "Master has shown my Dugu family the grace of rebirth. My Dugu family swears to follow Master to the death, to brave boiling water and raging fire, to give our lives without regret even through nine deaths."

Dugu An and Lin Xin, who had been tormented for decades and brought to the brink of death, understood even more deeply how great this favor was. Tears of excitement and gratitude flowed from their eyes, and they choked out Dugu Bo's words again.

The little girl Dugu Yan also hurriedly imitated her grandfather and parents, solemnly repeating it once.

Zhu Huang nodded inwardly. With his judgment, he could naturally tell whether their words were true or false. No one could fool him.

Although Dugu Bo was ruthless, solitary, and arrogant, it had to be said that his character was still acceptable. At the very least, when it came to keeping faith and repaying kindness, he surpassed the vast majority of people in the world.

That was already very good. He was worth supporting. It was only a few soul bones; to Zhu Huang, they were dispensable. If they could raise Dugu Bo's loyalty, it was completely worth it.

"Get up, all of you. I trust the character of your family. From now on, we are all on the same side. With me here, I will ensure your Dugu family remains safe and sound."

Zhu Huang reached out for the four of them to rise. After they sat down, he pointed at the two soul bones and said, "Of these two soul bones, the thirty-thousand-year Three-Striped Bamboo Green Left Arm Bone will be for Dugu An. The fifty-five-thousand-year Single-Horned Colorful Scale Python Right Arm Bone will go to Yanyan. I can see that her talent is quite good. This Colorful Scale Python can lend her a hand. In five years, there is still hope for her to cultivate to Soul Elder."

When Dugu Bo heard that the quality of the soul bones was so high, especially the one for his granddaughter Dugu Yan, which even among the upper three sects would be treated as an inherited soul bone and would absolutely never be allowed to fall into the outside world, he could not help being deeply moved. In his heart, he swore once again that no matter what happened in the future, his family would blindly serve Master with absolute loyalty. Even if it meant making enemies of the entire world, he would not hesitate.

"Master, this subordinate thanks Master on Yanyan's behalf!"

Dugu Yan was seven this year. In five years, she would only be twelve. If she could cultivate to Soul Elder at twelve, then her future would be limitless, and even Title Douluo would be within reach.

"Then let's begin the detoxification," Zhu Huang said.

Hearing this, although Dugu Bo was excited, he still said, "This subordinate has already ordered a banquet prepared. Why not eat first, and wait until Master has rested before beginning treatment?"

Zhu Huang waved his hand. "No need. Treating you comes first. I'll take a look at your specific condition first, then I can develop the most suitable cultivation method."

"Thank you, Master!"

Dugu Bo immediately walked in front of Zhu Huang. Zhu Huang used his spiritual power to carefully examine his body. Dugu Bo released all his defenses and allowed Zhu Huang's spiritual power to probe through his body and even his spiritual sea. At this moment, if Zhu Huang harbored any ill intent toward him, a single thought would have been enough to take his life.

After more than ten minutes, Zhu Huang withdrew his spiritual power. Once he had grasped the situation, he already had an idea in mind. After spending a little more time later, he would be able to use the cultivation method of the Demon God Art to create a secret cultivation method suitable for Dugu Bo.

Of course, a cultivation method created using the Demon God Art would inevitably carry the characteristics of the Demon God Art. Its power went without saying, but it would also imperceptibly increase the cultivator's loyalty, making it absolutely impossible for them to betray him.

During this process, Dugu Yan and Dugu Yan began absorbing the soul bones.

As for Lin Xin, she did not need a soul bone. The poison in her body had originally been transmitted to her by Dugu An. As long as Dugu An, the source of infection, was controlled, and the toxins already present in her body were dealt with, she would completely return to normal.

While Dugu An absorbed the soul bone, Zhu Huang helped Lin Xin draw out the toxins in her body. To him, this was not difficult.

"So light... It's been almost ten years. I've never experienced what it feels like to live so healthy and unburdened. It's as if I've been reborn."

Feeling the changes in her body, tears of excitement streamed down Lin Xin's pretty face, and she thanked Zhu Huang profusely once again.

After thinking it over, Zhu Huang also bestowed a suitable Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone upon Lin Xin. Its quality was about the same as Dugu An's, and he had her cultivate together with them using the cultivation method he had created for the Dugu family.

Although Lin Xin could not condense a Poison Core, cultivating this method was somewhat more effective than an ordinary meditation method, similar to the Mysterious Heaven Skill Tang San cultivated. It could speed up her advancement later. If it were released to the outside world, it would definitely be sought after by countless people.

Zhu Huang did this to lock in Lin Xin's loyalty as well. The human heart could not withstand testing, and Zhu Huang had no wish to test it. If his identity were exposed one day, he did not want the Dugu Bo family he had supported to waver in any way.

Lin Xin thanked him profusely once more, then happily took the soul bone and began absorbing it.

After Dugu An and Dugu Yan successfully absorbed the soul bones, their strength improved to different degrees.

Zhu Huang then began treating the father and daughter. The process did not take too much time before he had the two of them thoroughly transformed, as if they had been reborn.

The dark green and ashen-gray color on their faces had completely vanished. Their eyes and hair had both returned to their normal colors, and they had thoroughly bid farewell to the torment of illness.

Now only Dugu Bo remained. Zhu Huang spent half a day in the secret chamber creating the cultivation method, then handed it to Dugu Bo. After Dugu Bo read it, he was so excited that he danced with joy. Every word of this cultivation method was precious, vast, and profound. It truly had been tailored for their family. It was a real family treasure, countless times more precious than soul bones.

At the same time, he was also shaken by Master's supreme talent. Just by looking over his condition, he had created such an exquisitely profound cultivation method in half a day. Under all heaven, who else could do such a thing?

"Oh, right. I saw a valley in Sunset Forest. Inside it was a peculiar hot spring that gave off an aura of extreme cold and extreme heat. You previously used that place to suppress the backlash of your poison, didn't you?"

Zhu Huang suddenly asked Dugu Bo.

Dugu Bo was startled. At this point, he no longer cared much about the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. He merely treated that place as a decent medicinal garden, not a place tied to his life and fortune.

Therefore, he did not react strongly and nodded. "So Master also discovered that place. That's right. I previously relied on the power of extreme cold and extreme heat there to suppress the poison. Unfortunately, that place is far too harmful to soul masters. Even as a Title Douluo, I can't stay there for too long. As for An'er and Yanyan, the time they can remain there is even shorter, and they don't have the ability to use the power of extreme cold and extreme heat to suppress the poison. That place is useless to them."

Zhu Huang said, "Some of the herbs inside are somewhat useful to me. I want to pluck a few and take them away."

Dugu Bo said, "Zhu Huang, pluck whatever you like. I have no use for the herbs there. Aside from a small number of poisonous herbs that are useful to me, I don't recognize most of the rest, nor do I dare touch them. Earlier, I touched one of the medicinal herbs and nearly got poisoned to death there. Those herbs have no value to me at all. If Master can use them, there would be no problem even if you plucked them all."

Zhu Huang nodded. "I am researching alchemy. The herbs there are just right for me to refine pills. Since you have no use for them, give those herbs to me."

Dugu Bo said joyfully, "If those herbs can help Master refine pills, then this subordinate can finally repay a tiny fraction of Master's great kindness and virtue. That valley's hot spring shall be offered to Master. I'll move my medicinal garden elsewhere. There are plenty of places where poisonous herbs can be planted, so it won't have much impact."

Zhu Huang said, "Then I'll accept it. As for the medicinal garden, there's no need to move it. Continue planting your poisonous herbs inside. That place is very suitable for herbs to grow. Also help me watch over it, and prevent idle outsiders from accidentally entering."

Dugu Bo nodded in agreement. Although that valley was hidden, it was not impossible for someone to discover it. From now on, he, Dugu Bo, would protect that place well for Master, so that ignorant fools would not think they had discovered an ownerless land.

Everything Zhu Huang had come to the Dugu family to do had already been completed. He did not stay for the meal and left directly.

"Respectfully sending off Master!"

The four members of the Dugu family saw Zhu Huang out of the manor with every courtesy. Zhu Huang stood outside the gates and, from a glance at its aura, could tell that Dugu Manor had become completely different. It had gone from deathly still, its fortune in decline, to brimming with life and flourishing luck. The atmosphere throughout the manor had also changed from its former oppression and silence to ease and comfort.

After that, Zhu Huang made another deal with Ning Fengzhi, trading a soul bone for several storage Soul Tools.

Although he did not need that many himself, he still had a whole group of subordinates who were about to transform into humans. In the future, they would inevitably live in the human world, and he would never think he had too many storage Soul Tools.

With that, most of what he had come to Heaven Dou City to do was already done. Only Ah Yin had yet to fully revive, but her soul was already close to awakening. Zhu Huang watered her with his blood one last time, then sent the Demon God Art and some information into her soul.

He planned to let Ah Yin cultivate properly in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well for now. This place was extremely suitable for plant-type soul beasts to cultivate, far better than the Star Dou Great Forest.

After resolving Ah Yin's matter, Zhu Huang left Heaven Dou City and flew toward the Far North.

The several Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts there were very powerful, especially the Snow Empress. She was a seven-hundred-thousand-year ferocious beast. If she cultivated the Demon God Art and transformed, she would be a proper demigod-level powerhouse.

Even the Ice Empress, who was close to four hundred thousand years old, would be comparable to a rank ninety-eight Title Douluo after cultivating the Demon God Art and transforming.

As it happened, none of them could survive their next great heavenly tribulation. Right now was exactly when they were anxious and worried, so Zhu Huang planned to take advantage of the opening and capture two beautiful soul-beast girls in one go.

The Far North was one of the three great soul-beast habitats of the Douluo Continent. It was covered in ice and snow all year round, with temperatures dozens of degrees below zero. Humans could not survive there, and even among soul beasts, most were ice-and-snow soul beasts or soul beasts with especially strong resistance to freezing.

There were three great overlords among the soul beasts here, the weakest of them at least two hundred thousand years old. If the ferocious beasts in the Lake of Life were not counted, their overall strength was far greater than that of the Star Dou Great Forest.

Human soul masters almost never came to the Far North to hunt soul beasts. First, it was too far away. Second, the environment was too harsh. Most people who came here, never mind hunting soul beasts, would be thanking their ancestors if they did not freeze to death.

As for those who were strong, perhaps they knew something, or perhaps they had seen too many people go and never return. In any case, almost no one dared come to the Far North to hunt ten-thousand-year soul beasts anymore, causing humans to be basically extinct here.

When Zhu Huang flew into the Far North, the soul beasts here soon noticed him, and he was attacked from time to time.

Naturally, these attacks were nothing more than scratches to the Spider Emperor. The soul beasts that attacked him were all taught a lesson, and he caused quite a commotion along the way. Even soul beasts of fifty or sixty thousand years were no match for a single exchange with him.

Acting so high-profile naturally drew out the true ruler of the Far North at once. Of course, this was also Zhu Huang's goal.

Boom!

A vast, vicious aura suddenly descended from the sky, accompanied by a streak of jade light that landed several yards in front of Zhu Huang. A terrifying presence locked onto him.

"Damn human! You dare act so arrogantly after coming to the Far North? Watch me chop you into seven or eight pieces."

The voice was crisp and pleasant, like the tinkling of a clear spring, yet the words it spoke were extremely savage.

Zhu Huang looked at the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion that had suddenly appeared before him. She was over a meter long, her entire body a mix of ice and jade colors, crystalline and beautiful like glass, delicate and translucent. She had none of a scorpion's ugliness or terror; instead, she was full of purity and beauty, making one unable to resist wanting to toy with her.

At this moment, this beautiful scorpion was baring her fangs and brandishing her claws. Her two pretty eyes glared fiercely at Zhu Huang, while terrifying freezing power gathered on her two large pincers, brewing an unparalleled strike.

Seeing that the Ice Empress could not identify his aura and was therefore hostile to him, Zhu Huang immediately laughed aloud. "Ice Empress, open your eyes wide and take a look. Am I human?" As he spoke, he released a trace of soul-beast aura.

"Huh? What's going on?"

The Ice Empress, who had just been preparing to strike in anger and dismember this bold human intruder, was instantly stunned. She waved her two pincers, and her clear amber-like eyes blinked, filled with confusion as she wondered whether she should launch this hateful attack or not.

Although this fellow looked human, the soul-beast aura he had just emitted could not be faked. Though it could not completely dispel her hostility, it did make her lower her guard quite a bit.

"What's with you? A transformed soul beast? But you're hiding your aura way too well. Even I couldn't see through it."

The Ice Empress widened her eyes and sized Zhu Huang up. One had to know that she was a soul beast close to four hundred thousand years old. Even if a transformed soul beast had reached maturity and could fool human Title Douluo, that was one thing—but how could it possibly hide from a ferocious beast like her?

Yet before Zhu Huang released his soul-beast aura just now, she truly had not sensed the slightest trace of soul-beast aura from him. This was too unbelievable, and it made her very curious.