"Looks like Dugu Bo and that Transmigrator, Dugu Jue, have sheltered her too well." Lin Yuan could not help laughing. In just a few sentences, Dugu Yan had revealed nearly everything about the people close to her.
After that private observation, his expression turned serious. "Sorry, but I've never made a habit of turning my back on anyone."
"Then what will it take for you to turn around? I'll give you an Immortal Herb, all right?" As if afraid Lin Yuan did not know its value, Dugu Yan added:
"Any Soul Master who eats one will be transformed. Several people have come here claiming they could cure my grandfather's poison, but my grandfather and my little brother killed them all. They only wanted to trick us out of an Immortal Herb. I'll give you one, and you leave right away."
This world really has no shortage of fools!
Learning that Transmigrators had actually come knocking at Dugu Bo's door, Lin Yuan sneered inwardly. Outwardly, he gave nothing away. "All right."
"You can't just eat any Immortal Herb. Tell me what Martial Soul you have, and I'll pick one for you. Once you have it, leave quickly." Dugu Yan crouched in the pool, not daring to raise her head.
"A Plant-type Martial Soul." Lin Yuan did not tell her exactly what his Martial Soul was.
"A plant? Then this one..." Dugu Yan crept toward the Soul Tool beside the pool and took out a jade box over a foot long. She released her Martial Soul, hooked the box with her snake tail, and tossed it to Lin Yuan.
At the sight of Dugu Yan's six Soul Rings—yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black—and her Martial Soul, which had evolved into the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor, Lin Yuan's mouth twitched.
He did not catch the jade box. Instead, he waved a hand, guiding it safely to the ground before lifting the lid. Inside lay a large black jade bamboo shoot weighing about a pound.
A faint golden current swirled over its surface. It was undoubtedly an Immortal Herb.
"That's a shoot from the Black Jade Divine Bamboo, and it's the only part of the plant you can eat. Just peel off the outer layer. It'll transform your Martial Soul. There, I've given you what you wanted. Hurry up and go, or I'm calling someone."
Dugu Yan urged him on, her voice trembling with panic.
"In that case, I'll take my leave." Lin Yuan drew the large black jade bamboo shoot into his hand and put it in the Storage Soul Tool beneath his black robe.
As for the jade box, Dugu Yan did not seem to mean him harm, but it was still best not to touch it. Caution never hurt.
Lin Yuan flashed onto the courtyard wall and was about to leave when Dugu Yan called from behind him. "Wait! You haven't told me your name."
"We met by chance. I'm sure we'll meet again." With that, Lin Yuan vanished into the night.
"Then can you at least tell me how old you are?" He was, after all, the first man to see her naked. Before her mother and father had left to make their way through the Soul Master World, they had told her that a girl's body was for her future husband's eyes alone.
Dugu Yan could hardly dismiss it.
His voice sounded young, but what if he was an old man?
After several seconds of silence, Lin Yuan's voice came through the darkness again. "Twelve."
"Twelve. The same age as my little brother?" Dugu Yan crouched lower, sinking her whole head beneath the water until only her large, watery eyes remained above the surface.
A moment later, steam seemed to rise from her head.
After leaving the courtyard, Lin Yuan spotted several other huge, luxurious buildings outside it.
Beside them hung three sets of clothes: two for men and one for a woman.
The green armor obviously belonged to Old Poison, and the purple dress to Dugu Yan. The young man's clothes, barring a surprise, belonged to that Transmigrator, Dugu Jue.
Looks like only the grandfather and his two grandchildren live here. I didn't expect to get an Immortal Herb suited to me so easily. What a haul. Still, I should see if there are any others.
Of all the Immortal Herbs, the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot mattered most to Lin Yuan. Strengthening his body was secondary. The important thing was that they would let him withstand the waters of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eyes.
That ability would be immensely useful to him later.
When Lin Yuan reached the Mandarin Duck Pot, he found the area around it almost completely bare.
Only a few roots and seedlings remained exposed.
"They really stripped this place clean. Were they that afraid someone would come steal from them?"
Lin Yuan wasted no time. He located the roots of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot at opposite ends of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eyes and dug them up. Then he took the most conspicuous plant at the boundary between the two halves of the Mandarin Duck Pot.
He guessed it was the Aromatic Silk Beauty.
If he encountered a poison-type Soul Master in the future, it could be his key to victory.
Lin Yuan left the seeds of the other Immortal Herbs alone. Taking them would only be biting off more than he could chew.
After all, he did not have that much time to gather Green Liquid and make them grow.
Once he had finished, Lin Yuan returned to the hilltop above the Mandarin Duck Pot. He aimed in the opposite direction from his approach and used Blue Silver Pole Vault again, clearing the poison formation. He left Sunset Forest that very night.
Meanwhile, after searching for nearly an entire day,
Dugu Jue and Dugu Bo had checked dozens upon dozens of waterfalls before finally finding the location of the Blue Silver Emperor's Soul Bone and the Seed of Life.
Unfortunately, someone had beaten them to it.
"Chrysanthemum Pass? And Gui Mei? You two?" The ones who had arrived first were none other than Yue Guan and Gui Mei.
Yue Guan stood outside the waterfall in golden armor, clawed gauntlets covering both hands. Beside him stood Gui Mei, wreathed in an eerie aura that hid his face. The sight made Dugu Bo's anger flare.
Because of Dugu Jue, Dugu Bo had become a Titled Douluo several years earlier than in the original story. At Dugu Jue's insistence, he had not gone to Spirit Hall for his title.
He had simply given himself the title of Poison.
When Spirit Hall failed to recruit him, it had not sent anyone to hunt him down. Yue Guan and Gui Mei had had no quarrel with him then.
But six years ago, only days after the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect had taken several Immortal Herbs, the two of them had sneaked into his medicinal garden.
He had driven them off in the end.
Even so, they had made an enemy of Dugu Bo.
After that, Dugu Bo had followed Dugu Jue's advice and gathered up every Immortal Herb.
The most dangerous place was the safest, or so the thinking went.
They had stored them in Dugu Yan's Soul Tool.
A few petty thieves had slipped inside while Dugu Bo was away, but they had found nothing.
He had killed them all, too.
Since then, not a single Immortal Herb had been stolen.
"Old Poison? What are you doing here?"
Chrysanthemum Pass was shocked to see Dugu Bo, but fear soon overshadowed his surprise.
Gui Mei's expression turned grim.
Dugu Bo was no longer the man he had once been.
Even among Spirit Hall's elders, his strength would place him near the top.
Last time, he had sent the two of them fleeing in disgrace.
The encounter had left them both shaken.
How could they not be afraid?
"Enough talk, Chrysanthemum Pass. If you know what's good for you, the two of you will hand over what's inside. Otherwise, don't blame this old man for what happens next."
Dugu Bo's voice was cold.
Before you continue