Whale Rubber

"Good! Wonderful!"

"It turned out even better than we imagined!"

Ye Renxin woke from his deathlike state. When he heard how his granddaughter's Martial Soul had changed, there was not a trace of regret on his face. Beside the immense fortune of Twin Martial Souls, what did losing a single Nine Heart Begonia matter?

"Xiao Xuan, we did it!" Ye Renxin looked at his disciple, his eyes brimming with pride and satisfaction, and with the relief of a man who had survived disaster.

Lu Xuan took none of the credit. "Master, we only managed to change her fate because of your knowledge and years of planning, and because Grandpa Dugu had so many Immortal Herbs. I merely followed the opportunity you gave me."

"Dugu?"

Ye Renxin caught the way Lu Xuan addressed Dugu Bo. After a moment's thought, he understood what his disciple had in mind.

With a prospective grandson-in-law so gifted and possessed of a top-tier Martial Soul, Dugu Bo naturally wanted a share in this extraordinary good fortune.

Ye Renxin had no objection. In fact, he was glad to see it happen.

The Ye Family's fortunes were soaring. His disciple Lu Xuan was a talent who astonished the world, and his granddaughter Lingling had awakened Twin Martial Souls capable of both attack and healing, becoming a genius found once in ten thousand.

But the tallest tree was the first to be felled by the wind!

The Ye Family's current strength was nowhere near enough to protect these two prodigies. Who could say what calamities might come for them?

But if they forged ties with Dugu Bo, a Quasi-Titled Douluo, the Ye Family would have a chance to protect its younger generation.

"Haha, hahaha!" Dugu Bo strode in, beaming. "Brother Ye, congratulations! Lingling's Twin Martial Souls are every bit as impressive as the Nine Heart Begonia passed down through your family!"

"And to you as well." Ye Renxin turned his gaze aside. Ye Lingling's young face was alight with excitement, while Dugu Yan watched with a hint of envy. He looked back at Dugu Bo. "Brother Dugu, what path of cultivation do you have in mind for Yanyan?"

"Brother Ye, all Yanyan wants is a beautiful Martial Soul." Dugu Bo brought up what he had discussed with Lu Xuan earlier. "Xiao Xuan picked out a Seven-Colored Rainbowglow Ginseng for her, and thanks to you, we also caught a Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent approaching a thousand years of cultivation."

"Seven-Colored Rainbowglow Ginseng paired with a Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent..." Ye Renxin nodded slightly. He approved of the idea; it was an excellent opportunity.

But his brows soon drew together as he pointed out the greatest danger. "That serpent is already close to a thousand years old. Its age is still too high. Yanyan has only just awakened her Martial Soul. I'm afraid she won't be able to withstand its Soul Ring."

"We could let Yanyan take the Seven-Colored Rainbowglow Ginseng first," Lu Xuan said. "There's a good chance the Immortal Herb will raise her Soul Power to around rank twenty and strengthen her body at the same time. If we feed the serpent the poisonous spirit fruit at the top of the ginseng, it might also give the serpent a trace of innate affinity for her. Besides... I have another way to improve her body's endurance a little, enough for her to barely accept a Soul Ring slightly above her limit."

"What!"

"She could absorb a Soul Ring beyond her limit?"

Dugu Bo and Ye Renxin both stared at Lu Xuan in surprise. Dugu Bo raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking about using a Soul Bone?"

"Everyone knows Soul Bones can strengthen the body. Why would I make a point of mentioning that?" Lu Xuan hesitated, then decided to reveal the secret. "I'm talking about Whale Rubber."

"Whale Rubber?"

Dugu Bo and Ye Renxin exchanged a glance. Both knew what Whale Rubber was used for.

"I have a friend..." A faint trace of embarrassment crossed Lu Xuan's face. "One day, he took some Whale Rubber, hoping for a vigorous night. But just when it mattered, his wife's period started. With no other choice, he drew all its medicinal power into his body and refined it himself. By chance, he discovered it could also strengthen the body a little."

"After trying it in various ways, my friend found that it worked best when heated over a fire before consumption!" Lu Xuan paused, then continued. "That unexpected benefit let him absorb Soul Rings beyond his level. He had little trouble with a thousand-year Second Soul Ring or a six-thousand-year Third Soul Ring."

Compared with Twin Martial Souls or the peerless Immortal Herbs of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Whale Rubber was a paltry treasure—hardly worth using, yet a shame to throw away.

Lu Xuan knew its benefits had a very limited ceiling. There was no clear answer as to how much one needed to consume to raise the body's endurance significantly.

As he remembered it, even among the descendants of the many Titled Douluo in The Unrivaled Tang Sect, no one had used Whale Rubber to make their Second Soul Ring a thousand-year one.

If ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber could really add five hundred years to a person's Soul Ring limit, Mu En could have found Beibei hundred-thousand-year Whale Rubber to refine. Yet Beibei's Second Soul Ring was, in the end, only a hundred-year one.

Beibei, Xu Sanshi, Dai Huabin, and those imperial princesses—which of them had not come from a wealthy, powerful family?

Yet not one of them had possessed a thousand-year Second Soul Ring.

From this, Lu Xuan was almost certain that Whale Rubber could strengthen the body, but its effect was so slight that it could hardly raise one's Soul Ring limit by much.

In the future, however, Lu Xuan, Ye Lingling, and Dugu Yan would emerge together as three young geniuses. If they each showed the ability to absorb Soul Rings beyond the usual age limit, the various powers would surely take notice and covet their secret.

With that in mind, Lu Xuan thought it best to make the matter of Whale Rubber public.

He intended to have his master and Dugu Bo spread the discovery, preferably by reporting it directly to Spirit Hall. They could earn considerable renown and a generous reward.

During the month or so since his arrival in this world, Lu Xuan had learned that the day he arrived was the very day Tang Hao gravely wounded Pope Qian Xunji.

Qian Xunji had only just "died of his wounds," and Bibi Dong's succession ceremony was still a month away.

Spirit Hall, not yet fully seized and reshaped by Bibi Dong, remained a sacred institution in the eyes of all Soul Masters.

Making public the news that Whale Rubber could slightly raise one's Soul Ring age limit would benefit everyone and harm no one.

If someone discovered it independently later and came to interrogate them, it would only invite no end of needless trouble.

Naturally, neither Dugu Bo nor Ye Renxin believed Lu Xuan's "I have a friend" story. But whether Whale Rubber could strengthen the body and slightly raise its limit would be easy enough to test.

The same troubling suspicion occurred to them both.

Perhaps Lu Xuan's entire family had been wiped out because they possessed this secret method of absorbing Soul Rings beyond the usual limit. Someone's greed might have brought disaster down upon them all.