Er Bidong: How come my neck feels a bit chilly?

"I think he's spotted us," Bai Cangyue told Toji through Soul Power Transmission.

Toji sneered and made a throat-slitting gesture.

The meaning was obvious: launch a sneak attack.

Why didn't he use Soul Power Transmission? Because he had so little Soul Power that he couldn't.

The moment Dugu Bo heard something cutting through the air behind him, he scattered the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor poison he had prepared and activated his Martial Soul Avatar.

"Seventh Soul Skill: Martial Soul Avatar!"

Toji charged in with a vicious grin.

Dugu Bo met those icy eyes, and his pupils trembled.

"Tyrant Douluo! I've done nothing to you. Why are you trying to kill me?" Dugu Bo roared.

But he would never get an answer.

Poisonous gas poured from his body as he transformed into a massive Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor and opened his jaws wide.

Toji gripped a broad blade, grinned, and swung hard!

The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor's defenses were formidable, but its enormous jade-green scales parted like butter beneath a hot knife.

Special Grade Cursed Tool, the Soul-Eater Blade: it ignored physical hardness and struck directly at the soul.

Toji had once used it to kill Suguru Geto's Rainbow Dragon with a single stroke.

"How is this possible?"

Horror seized Dugu Bo. He tried to stop Toji with his Eighth Soul Skill, Time Freeze, but his head spun and exhaustion washed over him.

In that single second, his chances of survival vanished.

By the time Dugu Bo came to his senses, the blade had already swept across his neck.

Poison Douluo, who would one day have ruled the world with poison—and become the greatest sucker on the Douluo Continent—died then and there!

Toji stared at Dugu Bo's corpse and fell into thought.

"Was Dugu Bo really that weak...?"

He had planned to wound Dugu Bo first, throw out a few taunts, and farm some Emotion Points...

"You could kill him with one punch, yet you were still so cautious." Bai Cangyue stepped out of the shadows. She hadn't even had a chance to fight. Her teasing remark sounded less wooden than before.

"..." Toji's face fell. Was it his fault he'd been careful?

How was he supposed to know the man was this weak as a Soul Douluo? Or perhaps Toji himself was simply too strong.

Toji dispersed the surrounding poison mist, then forced the toxins out of his body.

Bai Cangyue searched Dugu Bo's corpse and soon pulled out a Head Soul Bone glowing faintly green—the Ten-Thousand-Year Medusa Skull. She also took the Wishful Treasure Pouch from his waist.

The two had intended to clean up the scene, but Dugu Bo's poison mist had corroded away every trace of the fight. There was nothing left to clean.

That saved them some trouble.

The two Titled Douluo headed straight for the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Seeing the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well in person was far more spectacular than seeing it in anime or manga.

The hot spring in the valley was not large. It held two oval pools, one milky white and the other vermilion. Stranger still, although they occupied the same basin, the two waters remained sharply divided and never mingled.

Steam billowed upward and slowly dispersed at the mouth of the valley.

"The Ice and Fire Mandarin Duck Pot!" Toji landed, surveyed the Immortal Herbs around him, and clicked his tongue.

He didn't recognize a single herb, but that was no great problem. At worst, he could find a chance to abduct Yang Wudi and make him identify them.

"The Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum circulates energy through the limbs and blood through the eight meridians. It can help you forge an impervious body. It suits you." Bai Cangyue suddenly pointed to a chrysanthemum nearby.

The flower was enormous and a gorgeous shade of purple. Its petals were downy, but it gave off no fragrance. Golden light shimmered at its center.

Toji's eyes lit up. "You actually know Immortal Herbs?"

"Yes. In the life I established for myself, I had a mentor who specialized in poison. He knew a great deal about Immortal Herbs." Bai Cangyue kept her answer brief.

Toji nodded without giving it much thought. Why dig into questions about the system? He was the one benefiting from it anyway.

"The Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew can greatly strengthen Mental Power. Bai Ranmo will find Limitless much easier to use after taking it. The Narcissus Jade Muscle Bone would go well with it."

"The Darknight Netherworld Grass is mine."

"There's another plant here, too. Hei Ranbai can have it."

"The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot would be better for Li Bai's body refinement."

"..."

With Bai Cangyue serving as a walking encyclopedia of Immortal Herbs, there was no need to worry about any of Bai Ranmo's Clones.

Bai Ranmo himself had reached level twenty, and Qian Daoliu had sent people to catch a Hundred-Year Soul Beast for him. Bai Cangyue's Martial Soul, Dark Shadow, could come and go without a trace, so she simply slipped into Spirit City and brought Bai Ranmo to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Bai Ranmo had suggested absorbing a Thousand-Year Soul Ring as his second ring, since he planned to take Immortal Herbs afterward. Qian Daoliu knew that once a Soul Master's body grew strong enough, they could absorb Soul Rings older than the usual limit. But he refused to take that risk, especially with the first few rings.

What if the child couldn't withstand it? The Angel God Trial could raise the age of his Soul Rings later anyway. A few hundred years less on the early rings would hardly matter. That was also why he hadn't let Qian Renxue take thousand-year rings for her first and second rings.

Even Qian Xunji's Ninth Soul Ring was black because he had not yet undergone the Angel God Trial and raised its age.

What good were impressive-looking rings if you ended up dead? Staying alive was what mattered.

That day, one of Qian Daoliu's Soul Masters finally caught a Soul Beast capable of sealing space. Qian Daoliu prepared to send someone to bring Bai Ranmo back to the Worship Hall.

Lately, Bai Ranmo had been staying in a dormitory at Spirit Hall Academy. He said he couldn't be bothered to keep traveling back and forth, and Qian Daoliu had let him be.

But about fifteen minutes later, a subordinate rushed in, panic written across his face. "Great Enshrined, Young Master Bai... Young Master Bai, he... he..."

"What happened to Ranmo?" Qian Daoliu spun around from his prayers before the statue of the Angel God. Soul Pressure from a level-ninety-nine Limit Douluo burst forth, and the entire Worship Hall seemed to tremble.

The subordinate swallowed and said in a shaking voice, "Young Master Bai... is missing."

"What did you say?" Qian Daoliu could no longer contain his fury.

Killing intent surged within him. His first thought was that Er Bidong had taken out her hatred for Spirit Hall and the Angel Clan on Bai Ranmo and killed him.

There could be no other explanation!

"Bi—Bi—Dong!"

Qian Daoliu could no longer hold back his rage. His reasons for sparing Bibi Dong had been simple. First, she was Xue'er's birth mother, and Ji'er had wronged her. Second, she was undergoing the trial for the Rakshasa God's Godhood. He had made Bibi Dong Pope so Spirit Hall might gain another God.

But Bai Ranmo was his disciple—his only disciple! How dare Bibi Dong?

Qian Daoliu was a gentleman. Less kindly put, he was an honest man who let things go!

He had set aside the murder of his son and spared Bibi Dong. He had also honored his old agreement with Tang Chen: after the Clear Sky Sect withdrew from the world, he had not gone up the mountain and slaughtered them all.

People like him were the easiest to push around.

But push an honest man too far, and disaster was truly at your door.

For some reason, while handling her duties as Pope, Bibi Dong suddenly felt a chill, as though disaster were about to befall her.

She also felt an inexplicable weight on her back, as if someone had dumped the blame for something terrible on her.

Strange. Why does my neck feel so cold?