Dugu Yan Was Poisoned: "Grandpa, Are You Really Poisoned?" Dugu Bo: "We're Going to the Holy Dragon Sect!"

The Secret Chamber fell silent again.

Then Tuoba Xi slowly opened his eyes, a brilliant light bursting from them!

Tuoba Xi's chest heaved several times before he threw back his head and laughed:

"It worked!

I did it!

The heavens haven't forsaken the Holy Dragon Sect!”

Tuoba Xi opened his right hand and looked at his palm.

Besides the Lightfire he had just gained, a ceaseless stream of pure, concentrated Soul Power surged through him like a mighty river.

Deep within his Dantian, a solid crystal the size of a grain of rice floated quietly, glowing with a soft white light.

It spun without pause, ravenously drawing in the surrounding Heaven and Earth Essence!

"Congratulations on forming a Soul Core, Grandfather!"

Yin Changqing smiled and cupped his hands.

Yin Yu smiled in relief as well:

"How do you feel, Father-in-law?"

Tuoba Xi rose and clenched his fist, marveling at how thoroughly his body had changed:

"Incredible... Truly incredible!

Now that I've formed a Soul Core, my Soul Power recovers several times faster than before!

And its quality has risen by more than one level!

I'm still at level 91, but in total Soul Power and explosive strength, I can stand toe-to-toe with a level 93 Titled Douluo!"

Two Soul Cores!

The Holy Dragon Sect now had two Titled Douluo who had formed Soul Cores!

One was Yin Yu, a level 95 assault-type Super Douluo. The other was Tuoba Xi, a level 91 Douluo with formidable defenses.

With strength like that, the sect was a behemoth capable of dominating a region even on the Douluo Continent of today!

"Good. Excellent!"

Tuoba Xi steadied his excitement, then looked at Yin Changqing and Yin Yu and said gravely:

“Now that Yin Yu and I have both completed our transformations, the Sect's foundations are as solid as bedrock.

Next, we'll see whether that Old Poison, Dugu Bo, takes the bait.”

Yin Changqing leaned against the stone wall and smiled calmly:

"Don't worry, Grandfather. By now, he should be nearly done investigating us in Heaven Dou City.

He'll come to us in a few days."

Heaven Dou City, Dugu Manor.

Dugu Bo sat alone in a high-backed chair in his study.

Several scrolls packed with intelligence lay across his desk.

They contained the latest information on the Holy Dragon Sect, gathered through every connection he had in the Heaven Dou Empire over the past few days.

“The Holy Dragon Sect... Yin Changqing...”

Dugu Bo murmured the two names, a cold light flickering in his green eyes.

The more he read of what his investigation had uncovered, the more alarmed he became.

The Holy Dragon Sect had kept a low profile in recent years, but its strength had grown at a terrifying pace.

Its leader, Tuoba Xi, had entered the ranks of Titled Douluo long ago, while his son-in-law Yin Yu's strength was unfathomable.

Yin Yu had only broken through to Titled Douluo five years earlier.

Yet rumor placed him among the strongest Titled Douluo.

As far as Dugu Bo was concerned, Yin Yu was someone he absolutely could not afford to provoke.

What shook Dugu Bo even more was Yin Changqing.

Not only did the boy possess the mutated, top-tier Light Saint Dragon Martial Soul and reach the astonishing level of around 40 at just twelve years old, he also wielded considerable influence within the Holy Dragon Sect.

At the Heaven Dou City auction house, the Holy Dragon Sect had spent a fortune on Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber and a Golden Earth Dragon King Spirit Bone.

At Prince Xue Xing's banquet, Yin Changqing had answered every question with ease and commanded the room. He had even toyed with Prince Xue Xing through his words.

All of it showed that the Holy Dragon Sect was no ordinary Lower Four Sects power. Its resources and ambitions were staggering!

"Grandpa..."

The study door opened softly, and Dugu Yan came in carrying a bowl of hot tea.

The gloom vanished from Dugu Bo's face, replaced by affection and concern.

He turned to his granddaughter and asked gently:

"Yan Yan, why aren't you resting? It's late."

Dugu Yan set the tea on the desk and looked at him worriedly:

"Grandpa, you've been frowning for days. Is it because of what that boy from the Holy Dragon Sect, Yin Changqing, said at the Prince's Mansion?"

Dugu Bo was silent for a moment.

He reached out and gently held Dugu Yan's wrist.

As he sensed along her meridians, he could clearly detect it.

Deep in her bone marrow and meridians, a faint but tenacious Jade Phosphorous Serpent poison was slowly eating away at his granddaughter's life.

Dugu Yan was only in her teens, and her cultivation was still shallow. The symptoms of the poison's backlash were not yet particularly obvious.

She felt a dull, cold ache only occasionally around midnight, when a green tinge appeared at the corners of her eyes.

But Dugu Bo knew exactly what it felt like!

His son, Dugu Yan's father, had died in agony in the prime of his life because he could not withstand the terrible poison's backlash!

And if Dugu Bo had not forcibly suppressed it with the immense Soul Power and powerful body of a Titled Douluo, he would likely have met the same fate long ago!

Even so, on nights when the moon waxed or waned, pain like countless ants gnawing through his bones still pierced his soul and tormented him beyond endurance.

"Yan Yan."

Dugu Bo looked at his granddaughter's youthful face, his voice hoarse:

"What that boy said that day... was all true."

Dugu Yan trembled, disbelief filling her eyes:

"Grandpa!

What... what are you saying?

I'm really poisoned?

But my Martial Soul is the Jade Phosphorous Serpent!"

"That's precisely why we're poisoned."

Dugu Bo sighed deeply, helplessness and pain filling his eyes:

"The Jade Phosphorous Serpent's poison is too fierce for even our own bodies to bear completely.

That's how your father died...

I searched the world for medicinal treasures. Only by staying in the Medicine Garden in Sunset Forest did I barely manage to keep myself alive. I've also been giving you herbs to suppress the poison all this time.

I thought I'd hidden it well. I never expected... that boy from the Holy Dragon Sect to see through it at a glance."

Dugu Yan stood frozen.

She had never seen her grandfather, who had always held his head high before the world, look so vulnerable and pained.

"Grandpa... then what about me..."

Dugu Yan's voice trembled.

"Don't worry!

As long as I'm alive, I won't let anything happen to you!"

A fierce resolve flashed in Dugu Bo's eyes.

He stood and walked to the window, looking toward the distant Holy Dragon Sect.

"At the banquet, Yin Changqing said the Holy Dragon Sect was gathering rare treasures and herbs from across the continent...

He also said that wherever there's a deadly poison, a way to counter it can be found within a hundred paces."

Dugu Bo clenched his fists, his voice conflicted:

"That boy is so young, yet his mind is as deep as the sea.

He brought this up in front of Xue Xing because he knew I'd never dare gamble with your life!"

Dugu Yan bit her lower lip and said quietly:

"Grandpa, what if the Holy Dragon Sect is only bluffing? What if they want to use this chance to hold us hostage?

They're a major sect with two Titled Douluo, after all."