Tempering the Cauldron, Awakening Spirits
Ancient trees reached for the sky, and mountain ridges rose one behind another.
With Dugu Bo leading him, Jiang Baiyu finally reached the most blessed place on all the Douluo Continent—a wondrous realm of fortune no protagonist would ever pass up: the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
The moment they entered, two utterly opposed forces of ice and fire merged into a seamless whole. Rich life essence surged with them, instantly enveloping Jiang Baiyu and Dugu Bo. Extreme heat and extreme cold should have torn all things apart and annihilated each other on contact. Yet within this narrow valley, they had maintained a perfect balance for millions of years. Yin and yang cycled without end, nurturing a marvel found nowhere else in the world.
Dugu Bo stood at the cliff's edge with his hands behind his back, green Soul Power naturally circling him. Sensing the surrounding essence of extreme cold and extreme heat, he drew out a fine wisp and slowly absorbed it.
"Xiao Baiyu, don't blame me for not telling you beforehand. The spiritual energy here is abundant, but it contains both extreme heat and extreme cold. Absorb it carelessly, and it won't just fail to improve your Soul Power—it could damage your meridians. I cultivate here only to use those forces to suppress my poison," he said calmly. "The most valuable thing here is probably the Spirit Herbs in my Medicine Garden." As he spoke, he felt a pull beside him, drawing in the essence of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
He whipped around. "You brat! Didn't you hear me? Absorb it directly, and you'll ruin every meridian in your body!"
But Jiang Baiyu was looking at him awkwardly. Ever since they had arrived at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the Shennong Cauldron—his long-dormant innate martial soul deep within his dantian—had been trembling without pause. At last, it had manifested outright and begun devouring the Heaven and Earth Essence accumulated here over millions of years.
Ever since Jiang Baiyu had met his ancestor, the Flame Emperor, and received a trace of the Shennong Cauldron's projection, the cauldron had remained steady and gentle, radiating the inexhaustible vitality of a hundred herbs. Even when he realized he would follow the Shennong Farming Dao, it had only trembled faintly, its power held within. It had never behaved strangely—until now. The instant it sensed the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the ancient, massive cauldron slowly rose into the air. Light flowed across its jade-green body, and its mouth swallowed spiritual energy like a bottomless pit. The entire cauldron hummed and trembled beyond his control.
The tremor was faint, but it carried the instinctive craving of someone starving at the sight of food. Before long, the Shennong Cauldron stopped trembling and let out a deep hum.
Jiang Baiyu stared at it. Was it full?
He gently reached toward the Shennong Cauldron with his Soul Power. Hummm!
A peal many times louder than before rang through his sea of consciousness. Pure yang power washed over the cauldron first, staining the patterns on its jade-green walls with true fire. Crimson light spread through the ancient designs, which carried the overwhelming force of burning away filth and impurities, until it covered the whole vessel. Extreme cold followed close behind. Cool blue light wound around the cauldron, calming the power stirred up by the yang energy, locking it firmly in place and bringing it into balance. Frost flowers traced the divine patterns, rapidly cooling the heated walls. The two forces, one cold and one hot, crashed together within the cauldron. Yet the Shennong Cauldron's inherent power to harmonize all things confined them to an endless cycle, the two poles of yin and yang generating and restraining each other.
At a certain threshold, the crimson and icy blue vanished. In their place shone a green vitality brighter than before. Deep, lingering peals echoed across his inner lake. Inside the cauldron, a quiet change took place. The Shennong Cauldron had already held the life-giving way of the hundred herbs and Myriad Green Qi. Tempered by the Heaven and Earth Essence here, it was now imprinted with the Two-Yi Great Dao, where yin and yang coexisted and water and fire sustained each other. The first seed of a living world quietly emerged.
"This is..." Jiang Baiyu sensed the change. "A small world!" It was astonishing, but it made sense. Yang governed life and yin governed death; between burning and freezing, their interplay held the power of creation. Stirred together with the Shennong Cauldron's way of nurturing all life, they had formed this Inner World. At the same time, Soul Power infused with Yin-Yang Energy flowed into his meridians—the Shennong Cauldron's gift to him as it absorbed energy and evolved. His Soul Power rose rapidly: level 32, level 33, then all the way to the peak of level 34. Only through Jiang Baiyu's constant efforts to consolidate his foundation did it finally stop.
He closed his eyes and slowly adjusted to the immense changes in his Soul Power. When he opened them again, his aura had settled, but his eyes were brighter. A trace of the Great Dao of yin and yang flashed through them.
"Your Eminence," Jiang Baiyu said, looking at Dugu Bo, who had watched the entire process and stood there stunned.
Dugu Bo slowly came to his senses. He regarded Jiang Baiyu with a complicated expression. "You..." But once he started, he found he had nothing to say. Faced with this boy, the only thing that still let him barely maintain a senior's dignity was his greater cultivation. Yet how long would it take this young child to become a Title Douluo? Twenty years? Ten? Dugu Bo hardly dared imagine it. After a long pause, he said, "I think I put my faith in the right person."
"Don't worry, Your Eminence. As for your poison, I promise that from now on, it will be a weapon for the Dugu family, not its curse." Jiang Baiyu's gaze was sincere.
Dugu Bo would have dismissed such words from anyone else as a joke. But this was Jiang Baiyu. He burst out laughing. "Good! That's all I needed to hear. My moods may change without warning, but once I trust someone, I don't doubt him. Boy, every Spirit Herb and rare flower here is yours." He gestured to the precious Spirit Herbs covering the ground, each radiating rich spiritual energy.
"This place truly is blessed. Its spiritual energy is abundant, and no one has disturbed it for millions of years. It's nurtured countless Immortal Herbs and medicines extinct everywhere else. I stumbled across it years ago, claimed it, and made it my Medicine Garden."
"But I've guarded this place for decades and searched through countless Poison Classics and ancient herbals. Even so, I can identify only half the plants here. Many of the others have mysterious origins and appear in no records. Even I can't make sense of their nature."
His expression suddenly turned grave, and his voice carried a heartfelt warning:
"Baiyu, remember this: don't touch anything recklessly. For all the Spirit Herbs here, the dangers are endless. When I first claimed this Secret Realm, I was young and proud of my poison arts. I thought no substance in the world could poison me, so I picked an unfamiliar herb to test it. One faint trace from that poisonous plant was enough. The poison inside me multiplied in an instant, turning my own arts against me. Pain stabbed through every inch of my meridians, and my Soul Power fell into chaos. If I hadn't picked a rare Snow Lotus here, I would have died on the spot. Even then, it took me three full years to recover enough to stabilize my injuries."
"Since then, I haven't dared touch a single plant here that I don't recognize. I'd rather miss out on countless opportunities than take the slightest risk."
As he spoke, Dugu Bo pointed to an inconspicuous spot near the Ice and Fire Spirit Spring. A delicate little flower bloomed there in silence. Pure white and crystalline, it had a long, curving stem like a swan's neck. Its petals were thin as icy gauze and curled slightly, like a swan leaning in for a kiss.
Jiang Baiyu looked over and jolted. "Snow-Colored Swan Kiss."
Dugu Bo grew excited. "What? You know it?"
Jiang Baiyu nodded. "Snow-Colored Swan Kiss isn't poisonous in itself, but its ability is terrifying. Any poison that touches it can multiply in potency a thousandfold. Under its influence, even the weakest poison can become one with no cure. It's among the strangest treasures in the art of poison—more dangerous than poison itself, yet exceedingly rare. I don't know whether you were lucky or unlucky. Unlucky to encounter it, but lucky that you only went near it and never touched it. Otherwise, I might never have met you."
He looked at Dugu Bo with pity.
That look from the brat made Dugu Bo flush. Anyone who practiced poison arts would be embarrassed to admit he had nearly poisoned himself to death. "Enough. Use whatever herbs you want. I'll be waiting for you to cure me," Dugu Bo said.
Looking over the valley of vibrant Immortal Herbs, all radiating potent spiritual energy, Jiang Baiyu turned to Dugu Bo with a faint smile. "You're really giving me all of them? No taking it back?"
Dugu Bo flared up at once. "What kind of man do you take me for? Once Dugu Bo makes a promise, he keeps it."
"Then try to stay calm," Jiang Baiyu said. A spark of light gathered at his fingertip, and the Shennong Cauldron appeared. Pure life force from the hundred herbs swept across the valley. The spark scattered into the surrounding spiritual energy, and the currents of ice and fire flowing through the air abruptly stilled. Then they surged toward him, becoming gentle streams of intertwined red and blue that wrapped around every plant in the valley.
Tiny motes of light coursed through every leaf and branch. Countless Spirit Herbs trembled, their roots and stems glowed, and their petals released a delicate radiance. What had been dormant life within the plants awakened into living Spirituality. The next moment, countless faint but unmistakable mental pulses appeared. Some plants even sent pillars of light skyward as the power of the Great Dao surged around them. Complete minds were taking shape within their once-dormant essence.
This was the martial soul trait Jiang Baiyu had comprehended while absorbing the Blue Silver Emperor's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone—Spirit Awakening!
A single thought kindled life; a faint light became a mystic gleam.
Clarity awakened the hundred herbs, and from then on, they knew joy and longing.