Coming Here Anyway, and Making Yourself Suffer for Nothing

Sunset Forest lay roughly a hundred li east of Heaven Dou City.

For ordinary people, covering such a distance would take more than ten hours, but for Soul Masters like Jiang Li and Dugu Yan, it was not particularly far.

Moreover, since Sunset Forest was the largest Soul Beast habitat near Heaven Dou City, high-level Soul Masters often came here to hunt Soul Rings.

As a result, carriages and similar vehicles frequently traveled around Sunset Forest, making transportation fairly convenient.

Thus, the two of them reached Sunset Forest without spending much time.

After arriving at the outskirts of Sunset Forest, however, the horses pulling their carriage could not withstand the terrifying aura of the Soul Beasts within the forest, so they could only continue on foot.

As an aside, viewed from above, Sunset Forest was distributed in an irregular, elongated oval shape.

It was over two hundred li wide and more than a thousand li long.

It lay a hundred li east of Heaven Dou City.

After Qian Xunji, the pope of Spirit Hall, was killed by Tang Hao when Tang San was born, Tang Xiao, Tang Hao's older brother and the new leader of the Clear Sky Clan, had no choice but to expel Tang Hao from the clan and announce its closure.

After the Clear Sky Clan sealed itself away, its location was three hundred li east of Heaven Dou City.

That was right—on the other side of Sunset Forest.

This was why, in the original story, despite the Clear Sky Clan being sealed off, it could still produce elders at the Title Douluo level and had no shortage of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts for Soul Rings.

All that could be said was that the Clear Sky Clan had sealed itself off for nothing.

Back to the matter at hand.

Jiang Li looked at Dugu Yan and said calmly, "Miss Dugu Yan, we've gone deep enough into Sunset Forest, haven't we? Aren't you going to contact Senior Poison Douluo?"

"Do you need to tell me that?!"

Dugu Yan shot Jiang Li a glare. For some reason, she always felt that she and the man before her were fundamentally incompatible. The sight of him annoyed her.

Still, she took a small emerald-green snake from her Storage Soul Tool. It looked exceptionally venomous.

Jiang Li looked at Dugu Yan in surprise. He had not expected her to possess a Soul Tool capable of storing living creatures.

Ordinary Soul Tools with storage space were already expensive. For common-born Soul Masters without the backing of a great clan or noble family, it was not as though there were no ways to buy one.

But even after saving for half a lifetime, they might not have enough money to purchase one.

As for Soul Tools capable of storing living creatures, they were even rarer and more precious.

In the original story, only one had appeared: the Wishful Hundred Treasures Pouch that Dugu Bo gave Tang San.

He had not expected Dugu Yan to possess a similar one. A Title Douluo really was obscenely wealthy!

Still, Jiang Li had his Summoning Space, so he was not jealous. He was merely curious about the green venomous snake in Dugu Yan's hand. "Is that a Jade-Coiled Snake?"

"I didn't expect you to have a bit of discernment." Dugu Yan looked at Jiang Li with some surprise. She had not expected him to recognize it. "That's right. It's a Jade-Coiled Snake."

The Jade-Coiled Snake was a special type of snake that existed only on Douluo Continent.

Each time it reproduced, it laid only one egg, but that egg would hatch into two Jade-Coiled Snakes.

Aside from its potent venom, the Jade-Coiled Snake's greatest feature was a special organ on its tail, much like that of a rattlesnake, which could produce sounds.

As long as two snakes born together were not too far apart, when one made a sound with its tail, the other Jade-Coiled Snake's tail would make the same sound.

Furthermore, while moving, a Jade-Coiled Snake's tail would always sway, intentionally or otherwise, in the direction of the other Jade-Coiled Snake.

So Dugu Yan used this thing to contact Poison Douluo.

It really suited Poison Douluo's Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor Martial Soul.

Dugu Yan extended her delicate hand and lightly flicked the Jade-Coiled Snake's tail.

A series of thumping sounds came from the Jade-Coiled Snake's tail.

"Strange."

As she spoke, Dugu Yan reached out again and lightly flicked the Jade-Coiled Snake's tail.

The Jade-Coiled Snake stared at Dugu Yan, flicked its tongue, and lightly swatted her with its tail.

It seemed somewhat dissatisfied with her actions.

Jiang Li asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

Although he was somewhat interested in the Jade-Coiled Snake used to contact Poison Douluo, Jiang Li had no intention of approaching it.

Even after transmigrating and becoming a Soul Master, Jiang Li still could not overcome his slight fear of animals with no legs and animals with too many legs.

"I can't contact my grandfather," Dugu Yan answered.

"Uh..." Dugu Yan's answer left him a little dumbfounded. Jiang Li scratched his head and asked, "Then should we keep going?"

Dugu Yan said resolutely, "Of course!"

Perhaps because Jiang Li had just said that both she and her grandfather were poisoned, a faint fear had arisen in her heart.

She feared that if she could not contact Dugu Bo, something might have happened to her only remaining family.

But precisely because of that, she had to go to the Icefire Yin Yang Well, where Dugu Bo often cultivated, and take a look.

What if her grandfather really was poisoned, just as Jiang Li had said, and the toxins in his body happened to flare up now?

If she brought Jiang Li with her, perhaps he could help her grandfather.

"Of course, if you're afraid, you can go back by yourself."

After hesitating for a moment, Dugu Yan suddenly remembered that Jiang Li was Ye Lingling's friend. She then said to him, "But you have to tell me what the antidotal herbs you know look like."

"What are you talking about? How could I let you go deeper into Sunset Forest alone? What would Lingling think of me if she found out?" Jiang Li said, waving his hand.

What a joke. Since he had already come all this way, how could Jiang Li possibly give up just like that?

Besides, he knew far more than Dugu Yan did about Dugu Bo's physical condition.

In the original story, Dugu Bo had managed to hold on until Tang San appeared. Surely, because Jiang Li had come a year early and intended to snatch Tang San's future opportunity—

Dugu Bo would not suddenly lose control of the toxins in his body and die on the spot, would he?

Hearing this, Dugu Yan looked at Jiang Li in surprise.

She had thought he would be afraid of danger and leave right away. She had not expected this irritating man to be rather manly.

"But we need to be careful from here on out. Neither of us has reached rank 40 in Soul Power yet."

"If we encounter high-level Soul Beasts, those that have only recently entered the ten-thousand-year level should be manageable. Even if we can't beat them, we can barely escape."

"But if we run into Soul Beasts over twenty thousand years old, we'd be courting death."

If Jiang Li had been alone, he was confident he could protect himself in Sunset Forest.

But with Dugu Yan added to the equation, he truly could not guarantee her safety.

Not only did he need Dugu Yan to guide him to the Icefire Yin Yang Well, but Ye Lingling, Qin Ming, and the others all knew that Dugu Yan had left with him.

He could not let Dugu Yan come to harm.

Otherwise, he would have to face the pursuit of a Title Douluo ahead of schedule.

However, Jiang Li did not know that the reason Dugu Yan could not contact Dugu Bo was actually because of Jiang Li himself.

Not long ago, after teaching Xue Beng a lesson, Jiang Li had fed him a red pill that made his entire body itch unbearably.

Because of that, Prince Xue Xing had sent someone to contact Dugu Bo first and summon him back to Heaven Dou City.

The reason the Jade-Coiled Snake in Dugu Yan's hand could not contact him was also because it was too far away from the other Jade-Coiled Snake in Dugu Bo's possession.

If Jiang Li knew that his own actions had forced him and Dugu Yan to cautiously search Sunset Forest for the Icefire Yin Yang Well together—

Would he feel like crying without tears, thinking that he was making himself suffer for nothing?