Poison Core: Absorbing the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot

"Since I've already sworn an oath, swallow this Poison Core as a precaution. It's a Core Bead my Jade Phosphorous Serpent formed after evolving into a Serpent Emperor. If I die, it'll explode inside you. Even a Titled Douluo couldn't survive an explosion like that from within. You're a crafty brat. I have to keep something in reserve."

Lin Hao caught the Poison Core Dugu Bo offered him with Soul Power in his right hand and examined it closely.

Seeing that Lin Hao was studying it rather than swallowing it, Dugu Bo did not press him.

After a careful inspection, Lin Hao confirmed that the Poison Core in his hand bore no resemblance to a Soul Core. It was simply a pellet formed from a mass of Soul Power mixed with a mass of toxins.

No, they did have one thing in common: both were round and solid.

"Senior Dugu, you must have formed this Poison Core by accident when your Martial Soul evolved. You didn't witness the entire process of its formation inside your body."

"Am I right?"

Dugu Bo nodded.

"You are. I did form it by accident. I'd just reached level eighty and was searching the Sunset Forest alone for a suitable eighth Soul Ring.

"After several days, I stumbled upon the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and encountered a Queen Medusa Soul Beast over seventy thousand years old guarding it.

"After a fight, my Jade Phosphorous venom slowly poisoned Medusa to death. She dropped a Soul Ring and a Soul Bone."

"Once I'd dealt with her, I explored the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. That was when I discovered this place could suppress the toxins in my body.

"I was overjoyed. Not only had I obtained my eighth Soul Ring and a Soul Bone, I'd found a place that could suppress my toxins.

"I sat down cross-legged not far from the center of the spring and began refining the Soul Ring and Soul Bone.

"After absorbing them, my Martial Soul evolved. But just as I was celebrating, something went wrong.

"The toxins inside me suddenly surged. Before I could use my Soul Power to suppress them, the pain knocked me unconscious. I thought I was going to die.

"But when I woke and examined myself with Soul Power, I found this Poison Core in my dantian."

Lin Hao nodded.

"Senior Dugu, I was wondering how you could still be unable to control your Martial Soul's toxins after your Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul evolved into the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul and formed a Poison Core.

"You lost consciousness while the core was forming. By rights, you should have died.

"But because your Martial Soul evolved in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, you absorbed a great deal of the abundant Heaven and Earth Origin Power here, which carried traces of vitality.

"Driven by the desperate will to survive in your mind, body, and Martial Soul, that power formed this core: a mixture of vast amounts of Soul Power and various toxins."

"If the toxins in your body hadn't erupted while the Poison Core was forming, you could have experienced the process firsthand. You might even have been able to recreate it.

"Even if you couldn't reproduce it perfectly, witnessing and feeling the entire process would have given you a starting point.

"Senior Dugu, you reached the rank of Titled Douluo. You're certainly perceptive enough to form a poison pellet inside yourself that can control the toxins produced by your Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul."

Lin Hao's explanation felt like a knife in Dugu Bo's heart.

If my toxins hadn't erupted back then, I could have felt every step of the Poison Core forming inside me.

Just as Lin Hao said, I could have formed a poison pellet to control the toxins from my Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul. Then I wouldn't have had to bury my own son.

Feng'er! Your father failed you!

Seeing Dugu Bo's grief, Lin Hao offered the Poison Core back to him.

"Senior Dugu, you should keep this. I know you're still uneasy, so I'll make a Martial Soul Oath too."

"I, Lin Hao, swear upon my Martial Soul that if I fail to cure—"

"All right, Senior Dugu. I don't know how to turn the Poison Core inside you into a complete form that lets you control your toxins freely. But when my cultivation is higher, I'll study it.

"I'm certain I can find a way for high-level Soul Masters to form this kind of Inner Core, condensed from Soul Power, in their dantians."

"But I won't be able to start until I reach level seventy and become a Soul Sage. That'll probably be another ten or twenty years.

"For now, I can prepare a medicinal remedy to suppress your toxins and help you live another thirty or forty years—long enough for me to work out how to form a solid Inner Core inside the body."

Lin Hao remembered that when he'd read Douluo Continent II in his previous life, Xuanzi had explained the principles behind forming a Soul Core to Huo Yuhao in detail.

If Lin Hao studied the subject seriously, with the help of his [Extraordinary Comprehension] and [I Reckon] abilities, he could work it out in three to five years.

He was confident about preparing a remedy to suppress Dugu Bo's toxins, too. After all, Tang San had revealed all sorts of Tang Sect methods for making poisons.

Lin Hao had studied them carefully before coming here.

After gathering the supplementary ingredients he needed from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Lin Hao took a little pollen from a large pink-and-blue flower: the Aromatic Silk Beauty.

As for a Pill Furnace to prepare the remedy, Lin Hao had one in his Storage Bag. Dugu Bo, who worked with poisons year-round, naturally had one as well.

But Dugu Bo used his Pill Furnace to make poisons, so Lin Hao used his own to brew a pot of medicinal soup.

Dugu Bo drank it three times a day for three days, and the pain caused by the backlash of his toxins had eased considerably.

During those three days, Lin Hao also consumed the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, then soaked in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

"Old freak, you've felt the effects of these three days of treatment. Take me to Heaven Dou City."

"I need to buy boxes for storing medicinal herbs and tools for harvesting them.

"You can bring Miss Dugu Yan back with you. I'll prepare the remedy she needs so she can complete her Martial Soul Evolution."

"Fine! And you call me an old freak? You won't even turn twelve for another eight months, yet your Soul Power is already at level thirty-eight. You're the real little freak."

Over those three days, Lin Hao had gone from calling Dugu Bo "Senior Dugu" to "old freak" and "old poison."

Lin Hao grinned and readily accepted the nickname Dugu Bo had given him.

"Deal! I'll call you old freak from now on, and you can call me little freak."