"You really are... impossible to reason with."
"I'm so young and full of life. How could I possibly be sickly?"
Dugu Yan seriously suspected there was something wrong with Li Qinglian's eyes.
"Three years."
Li Qinglian raised three fingers on his right hand.
"What three years?"
Dugu Yan's heart skipped a beat.
Looking at Li Qinglian's face, she was suddenly struck by an ominous premonition.
"At most, you have three years left before you're gone."
Li Qinglian crossed his arms, a faint smile lifting the corner of his lips.
"Ah!"
"Don't think I'll be afraid of you just because you're Spirit Hall's Holy Son!"
Dugu Yan completely lost it.
In three years, she would only be twenty.
That would be the prime of a woman's youth and beauty.
And she would wither away then?
"I'm very accurate when it comes to judging people."
"Especially when it comes to seeing people die. That's my old trade."
Li Qinglian found Dugu Yan's outburst rather amusing.
As the Death Divine Tree, even without relying on his Pure Heart Eyes, he could easily sense the life force within Dugu Yan being corroded.
The poison within Dugu Yan's body was engaged in a tug-of-war with her own life force. But poison grew stronger as it accumulated over time.
Three years from now would be the tipping point when the poison completely overwhelmed her life force.
In fact, if Dugu Bo had not helped suppress it, she might have already died suddenly by now.
"You!"
"How dare you bully me like this? I haven't even provoked you!"
Dugu Yan exploded completely.
She abruptly summoned her Martial Soul. A jade-green serpent phantom rose sharply behind her, its vertical pupils cold and sinister as its forked tongue flickered.
A thick cloud of dark green poison mist suddenly spread outward from her, carrying a sweet, nauseating stench as it surged toward Li Qinglian like a tidal wave.
Sizzle!
The instant the dust in the air came into contact with the poison mist, it gave off faint corrosive sounds. Its toxicity was clearly extreme.
"You fierce woman, I was kindly warning you."
"Yet you're so unappreciative. You need to be taught a lesson."
He raised a hand and summoned his Martial Soul.
The shadow of an ink-black jade tree silently rose behind him, and an invisible aura of deathly stillness spread outward.
The overwhelming poison mist seemed to have all its vitality drained away the instant it touched the Death Domain.
The green poison mist abruptly turned gray and withered, becoming sluggish before falling to the ground like dead leaves, stripped of all lethality.
Dugu Yan's pupils contracted sharply.
She had never seen her poison mist so effortlessly neutralized.
That was the Jade Scaled Snake Venom she had always taken pride in, poison that even Soul Ancestor-level experts feared.
Yet the young man before her had not even moved, and the entire cloud of poison had turned into dead ash on the ground.
"Just what kind of monster are you..."
There was a tremor in her voice.
But anger and fear made her lose her reason.
She charged at Li Qinglian, baring a pair of sharp venomous fangs and viciously biting toward his arm.
Then she bit nothing but air.
Li Qinglian merely turned his wrist slightly, easily avoiding her fangs.
The next instant, he caught her with a backhanded grab, flipped her over, and pressed her across his knee.
Then he brought his hand down hard.
Smack!
A crisp sound echoed through the quiet courtyard.
Dugu Yan's whole body froze.
A burning pain came from behind her, accompanied by indescribable shame and shock.
She—
She had been spanked?!
"You... let me go—!"
She struggled violently, her voice filled with shame and rage as her dark green hair scattered across her shoulders.
"Have you calmed down yet?"
Li Qinglian did not release her, his tone still calm.
"No! Let me go—!"
Smack.
Another hit.
Dugu Yan was completely dumbfounded.
Since childhood, as Poison Douluo's treasured granddaughter and a genius student of Heaven Dou Royal Academy, who had ever dared touch even a finger of hers?
Much less press her over their knee and spank her!
Her eyes immediately reddened as shame, anger, grievance, and bewilderment all flooded over her.
"You... you bastard..."
Her voice fell, carrying a slightly aggrieved nasal tone.
Only when Li Qinglian saw that she had finally stopped struggling did he let go and help her upright from his knee.
"Calmed down now?"
Dugu Yan covered her butt and glared at him with red-rimmed eyes.
Her dark green eyes were filled with both anger and grievance. Her lips were pressed tightly together, but she did not dare attack again.
"The three years I mentioned."
"I wasn't trying to scare you. Your Jade Scaled Snake Venom has already invaded your internal organs. Your grandfather's methods of suppression have done well to last this long, but in three years at most, the poison will erupt completely."
Looking at her like this, Li Qinglian softened his tone somewhat, no longer carrying his earlier teasing manner.
Dugu Yan froze.
She opened her mouth, wanting to refute him, only to find her voice caught in her throat. She could not say a single word.
Because she suddenly realized—
Li Qinglian might be telling the truth!
Her body did sometimes suffer from inexplicable discomfort. Her chest would occasionally ache dully, and her limbs would sometimes turn cold... but she had always thought it was merely because cultivation was exhausting.
And when Grandfather suppressed her poison, did that mean...
Every so often, her grandfather would come to guide her cultivation.
Could that have been him helping suppress the poison?
"You... you can see the poison in my body?"
"I told you, it's my old trade."
"If you want to live, have your grandfather come find me. I have a way."
Li Qinglian looked at her, paused, and suddenly became more serious.
Dugu Yan stood where she was, covering her still faintly burning butt as she looked at Li Qinglian with reddened eyes.
Her mind was a mess.
Shame, anger, shock, and a trace of belief she was unwilling to admit even to herself.
She could feel that what Li Qinglian had said earlier did not sound like something he had made up casually.
That composed, certain tone and those eyes that seemed able to see through everything made the ominous feeling in her heart grow stronger and stronger.
"You... you're telling the truth?"
"The poison in my body... I really only have three years left?"
Her voice dropped, carrying a faint, barely perceptible tremble.
Li Qinglian nodded without saying anything more.
Dugu Yan bit her lip and remained silent for a long time.
Her dark green hair draped over her shoulders, hiding most of her face and leaving only one slightly reddened eye visible.
"I... I'll go back and ask Grandfather."
"If you dare lie to me—I might not be able to beat you, but I still won't let you off."
She finally spoke, her voice muffled and carrying a stubborn refusal to concede.
She sounded fierce, but there was an undisguisable note of panic at the end of her words.
"Mm."
Seeing her outwardly fierce but inwardly timid appearance, Li Qinglian unusually did not continue teasing her.
"Just you wait. I'll be back."
Dugu Yan glared at him once more before turning and leaving.
Her steps were somewhat unsteady. When she reached the courtyard gate, she even tripped over the threshold and staggered before managing to steady herself.
She did not look back. Her dark green hair flickered in the dusk before she vanished around the corner of the alley.
Li Qinglian watched her leave, slowly withdrawing his gaze before lowering his head to look at his palm.
"Poison Douluo... Dugu Bo."
He murmured the name, a faint flicker passing through his eyes.
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