Forming a Soul Core
Spiritual energy still filled the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"Ready?" Jiang Baiyu looked at Dugu Bo, whose face was ruddy and whose aura was stronger than ever.
Su Wu had already summoned his martial soul, the Jade-Green Nine-Jointed Bamboo, and stood ready nearby. Ever since Jiang Baiyu had brought him to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well the day before, the two had worked without pause to heal Dugu Bo's hidden injuries and strengthen his body. Now they were ready to try the Soul Core Method Jiang Baiyu had described.
"Enough talk. I've never felt better," Dugu Bo said bluntly. Ever since he had agreed to try the Soul Core Method, Jiang Baiyu had gone mad with determination, refining another body-strengthening pill for him every few hours. In just a few days, even his seemingly unbreakable Soul Power barrier had become fragile enough to shatter at a touch. If not for the need to keep the experiment stable, he could have broken through at any time!
"All right. Give me a moment." The Shennong Cauldron was filled with water from the Ice and Fire Spirit Spring, and Pill Flame blazed beneath it. "Gather!" Jiang Baiyu pointed, and several Spirit Herbs nearby swayed gently, releasing specks of their essence that he drew toward him.
"What's that?" Su Wu's brow twitched as he watched the Spirit Plants Jiang Baiyu had drawn upon.
Growing in a crack between the rocks of the cold spring was a Spirit Herb as white as snow. Its stem was supple, and fine, silvery patterns covered its leaves like countless snow-white silkworms resting on them. It was Snow Silkworm Grass, prized for enhancing mental strength. The amount Jiang Baiyu had just drawn out would have been enough to raise someone's mental strength from that of a Soul Elder to a Soul King. Yet he was using it as medicine—and it was only one ingredient.
A clump of Frostfire Heartsettling Grass grew wild nearby. Its roots and stems were slender but tough, while its leaves were naturally divided into two distinct forms, one yin and one yang. It excelled at steadying an unsettled heart meridian and countering reversed Soul Power or disturbances of the mind. It was also an exceptional Spirit Plant for breaking through bottlenecks and stabilizing one's cultivation.
Another plant, a chrysanthemum, possessed the strongest Spirituality of all. Its central stamens rose more than half a foot above the petals, their tips gleaming faintly gold. Even the tiny bit of essence it released was pale gold.
Was that... a Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum? Su Wu stared wide-eyed at the Immortal Herb he had only ever read about in a fragmentary family record.
He looked back at Jiang Baiyu, who was combining everything in one cauldron. "Is Xiao Baiyu planning to raise a god outright? What a lavish hand." Su Wu was dumbstruck.
The Shennong Cauldron glowed red and blue as it drew in the power of heaven and earth. "Grandpa, help me! I'm running out of Soul Power!" Jiang Baiyu called to Su Wu while keeping a close eye on the ingredients inside.
"This boy." Pale-green Soul Power flowed from Su Wu toward Jiang Baiyu, drawing in the vital energy of the surrounding plants. In an instant, the Medicine Flame inside the cauldron burned even fiercer.
The twin energies of ice and fire entered the cauldron, one yin and one yang. Following the ancient Shennong method, Jiang Baiyu refined the ingredients over a gentle flame, then used fierce heat to form the pill, leaving only the purest medicinal power.
Before long, the Shennong Cauldron began to hum, and the fragrance of the pill filled the air.
"It's done!" Limited by his own Soul Power, Jiang Baiyu had often borrowed Su Wu's to refine pills lately.
A pill flew from the cauldron, pure white and wreathed in faint streams of blue and red light. Jiang Baiyu caught it. "The Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum is the main ingredient, supported by Snow Silkworm Grass, Frostfire Heartsettling Grass, and water from the Ice and Fire Spirit Spring. Taking it can forge a nigh-indestructible body, increase Soul Power, and strengthen mental power for finer control over Soul Power."
He handed the pill to Dugu Bo, his eyes alight. "Senior, it's time."
Dugu Bo accepted the miraculous pill and looked Jiang Baiyu in the eye. "Boy, whether this succeeds or not, you've earned my respect. If it does succeed, I'll be the most powerful connection you have!"
A fierce resolve flashed deep in his green eyes. Poison and his family's backlash had shackled him for his entire life. The toxins had plagued him for a century, and his cultivation had been trapped behind an impassable barrier. Now that he had a chance to soar in a single leap, what did he have to fear?
He swallowed the pill. Exceedingly pure Soul Power spread through him, opening his meridians so quickly that the swelling force threatened to burst them. At the same time, a cool sensation flowed into his mind, making his Soul Power easier to control. "Now!" he said.
Jiang Baiyu, who had been watching him closely, pointed a finger. The white petals of the Snow-Colored Swan Kiss trembled. The awakened Immortal Herb released its essence without restraint, and its formless yet terrifying field, capable of magnifying poison ten thousandfold, spread out around Dugu Bo and slowly converged upon him.
The next instant, the Jade Phosphor poison that had lain dormant in Dugu Bo's body for a hundred years was violently unleashed!
Under the Snow-Colored Swan Kiss's heaven-defying power, the dormant poison multiplied without limit—once, tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold, ten thousandfold!
Billowing dark-green poison mist erupted from his pores, meridians, and even the gaps in his bones. Poisonous light surged around him, its terrifying force making the spiritual energy throughout the Ice and Fire Valley tremble. The poison-attribute Soul Power inside Dugu Bo swelled at a near-frantic pace. What had been a thin, gaseous current expanded wildly, compressing and piling upon itself.
Dugu Bo felt his entire body swell until it went numb. He recalled the principles of the Soul Core Method Jiang Baiyu had taught him and relied on his newly strengthened meridians to endure.
Vast quantities of gaseous poison-attribute Soul Power compressed layer upon layer, growing denser without cease. In just a few breaths, the swirling, insubstantial poison shed its gaseous form and became a thick, heavy liquid that flowed like a spring. A pool of dark-green poison formed in his dantian, deep and immense—a terrifying reserve of power he had never touched in a century of bitter cultivation.
Just as all the poison power liquefied and neared solidity, the old Poison Core he had formed years ago when his martial soul evolved sank from deep in his chest into the pool within his dantian. Dugu Bo's eyes narrowed fiercely. He drew on his Soul Power and detonated the old core. In an instant, it turned into pure Soul Power, which the Snow-Colored Swan Kiss magnified as well. It joined the liquid poison, bringing the already near-solid pool to the brink of freezing.
"Now!" Dugu Bo's eyes blazed.
Dugu Bo's eyes snapped open, brilliant light bursting from them. The entire pool of liquid poison spun furiously, growing denser and compressing toward a solid state. Sensing the sudden eruption of Dugu Bo's Soul Power, Jiang Baiyu drew the yin and yang energies of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well toward him. The second step in forming a Soul Core was to comprehend the laws of heaven and earth!
Beside him, Su Wu gathered his pure plant-based Soul Power and sent it toward Dugu Bo as well.
Dugu Bo already possessed a head soul bone, and with Jiang Baiyu's help, his mental strength had grown tremendously of late. He slowly drew his now-solid Soul Power together into a Soul Core. At the same time, as he sensed the power of heaven and earth Jiang Baiyu was sending him, the core spun faster, compressing and condensing without pause.
At the life-or-death instant when the Soul Core was about to form—and was most likely to collapse—the vast consciousness of heaven and earth descended. The primal consciousness of Douluo Star had arrived. A gentle yet irresistible power brushed over Dugu Bo's Soul Power, sealing his rampaging poison and instantly calming the turmoil within him. The might of heaven and earth forcibly erased the danger of the Soul Core's collapse.
His Soul Power compressed to its utmost limit!
His aura grew as concentrated as it could be!
His essence became utterly pure!
Dugu Bo felt his mind clear, and the world before his eyes changed. Controlling his Soul Power became easier than ever. Within his dantian, a pure and powerful Poison-Attribute Soul Core spun without pause, translucent dark green and containing endless insights into the nature of poison. Yin and yang light flowed across it. With every revolution, his Soul Power grew a little stronger.
The first Soul Core on the Douluo Continent—a Poison-Attribute Soul Core—was complete!
At the same time, the Soul Power within Dugu Bo surged!
Level 91! Level 92! His Soul Power climbed like a rocket, shooting straight to level 95 and placing him among the Super Douluo!
In a single day of triumph, the venomous snake became a dragon!