Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well

Dugu Bo's Medicine Garden lay hidden in the Valley.

To be precise, ordinary people could not see the Valley at all. Layer upon layer of Poison Formations wound around its entrance. Jade-green droplets clung to the plants, and when they fell on stone, they ate tiny pits into its surface.

Dugu Bo stood before the formation and looked back with a warning. "Once we're inside, don't touch what you shouldn't. Don't sniff plants you don't recognize. If you die in there, I won't take responsibility."

Ma Hongjun swallowed. "Is it too late for us to go back?"

Bai Jin patted his shoulder. "Too late. Be brave."

"I could choose not to be brave."

"Then no dinner tonight."

Ma Hongjun puffed out his chest at once. "I think I can be a little braver."

Xiao Wu held back a laugh, but Tang San was not distracted. He studied several turns in the Poison Formation, his frown deepening. Dugu Bo's formation was powerful, yet someone had tampered with parts of its outer edge. The traces were faint, as though someone had been too afraid to enter and could only probe it bit by bit from outside.

Bai Jin saw them too.

He said nothing. He merely tapped the empty air twice, widening an invisible gap that kept most of the poisonous fumes away from the group.

Dugu Bo opened the Gate to the formation.

The next instant, waves of heat and cold rushed over them.

Deep in the Valley, a spring was divided into two colors. One side resembled cold jade, with white mist rising from it; the other burned red, its heat roiling upward. The two extremes met at the spring's center without swallowing each other. They only twisted together, as though heaven and earth had forced ice and fire into