This Is My Granddaughter, Dugu Yan

Water splashed up.

Huo Yuhao landed squarely in the very center of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Right on the line between life and death where the red and white springs met!

The scalding red spring and the bone-chilling Cold Spring surged like two wrathful dragons startled awake. Waves rose several meters high and swallowed him whole!

"Senior Brother!!"

Tang Sanmei's heart clenched, and she instinctively rushed forward.

"Stay back, girl! Do you want to die?"

Dugu Bo grabbed her and stared at the churning well, cold sweat pouring down his body.

"That water can dissolve refined steel! That brat... he really jumped in!"

In the shadows overhead, a huge boulder shifted slightly.

Deep within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the opposing waters were like countless blades of red-hot and ice-tempered steel, tempering Huo Yuhao's flesh and meridians.

Any ordinary Soul Elder who fell into that meeting point of life and death would have lasted less than half a second before turning into a wisp of smoke.

But Huo Yuhao had survived the self-destruction of a divine position in his previous life. The essence of his soul was incomparably resilient.

And deep in his dantian, the Pseudo Soul Core that had run day and night since he was six sensed the energy around him. Like a starving beast, it began drawing it in with the force of a storm!

"Gurgle!!!"

The extreme cold of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the extreme heat of the Infernal Delicate Apricot collided wildly inside Huo Yuhao, their medicinal power fierce enough to destroy heaven and earth.

But the waters of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well shared the same source. Under their pressure and neutralizing influence, the two violent forces had their sharp edges ground away, becoming intertwined streams of red and blue energy that surged through his meridians!

With every surge, old impurities burned to ash. Frail meridians froze, burned away, then grew anew under the nourishment of life force.

His meridians widened, his bones became like jade, and his blood surged like a dragon!

"This is amazing! So damn amazing!!"

Deep in the Spiritual Sea, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm rolled about, howling with excitement.

"Yuhao! Hold on! Those two medicinal forces are remaking your body from the ground up! Once this is over, you'll truly be impervious to fire and water, and a hundred poisons will shy away from you!"

"And..."

A feverish light shone in Brother Sky Dream's tiny eyes.

"With the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass as your foundation, plus the ten-thousand-year cold left by the Ice Dragon King tempering your body, the source of ice within you has fully awakened! You're finally fit to bear that proud little scorpion from the Far North! Bingbing can be saved! We can go get Bingbing soon!!"

Listening to Brother Sky Dream howl inside his head, Huo Yuhao slowly closed his eyes beneath the water. His mind was clear as a mirror.

He could distinctly feel his constitution undergoing a transformation, as though he were shedding his old bones for new ones.

His bones, once somewhat frail from childhood malnutrition, were now incredibly strong!

Who knew how much time passed? On the shore, silence lay as still as death.

Dugu Bo stood three yards from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, holding a worried Dugu Yan back. He stared at the surface boiling with white steam, his aged face deathly pale and his palms slick with cold sweat.

"An hour..." Dugu Bo swallowed with difficulty, his voice unbearably hoarse. "Even refined steel melts if you throw it in. That brat... could he really have dissolved without so much as a scrap of bone left?"

Tang Sanmei said nothing, but a frightening violet light gleamed in her clear eyes. Her hands gripped the Hidden Weapon pouch at her waist, her whole body taut as a bowstring drawn to its limit. If anything had happened to Senior Brother, she swore she would turn this valley and the old poisoner to dust, even if it cost her life!

High above, in the shadow of the sheer cliff, Tang Hao gripped his massive black iron hammer so tightly his knuckles turned white. The Titled Douluo breathed like a wheezing bellows. The rock beneath his feet had crumbled to powder without his noticing, and he was ready to leap down to save Huo Yuhao at any moment.

Splash!!

Suddenly, water broke with a roar, and waves several meters high surged from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!

A slender figure in black stepped out across the waves and landed steadily on the bluestone shore.

Huo Yuhao stood with his hands in his pockets, a faint white mist rising from his body.

After the baptism of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot, he seemed utterly transformed.

"Senior Brother! Are you all right?"

Tang Sanmei's eyes lit up. She hurried over, peppering him with anxious questions, her face full of concern.

"I'm fine. Never felt better."

Huo Yuhao casually ruffled Tang Sanmei's hair, then looked toward Dugu Bo, whose face had long since gone ashen with fright.

Dugu Bo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Even his voice trembled.

"Y-young friend, I wouldn't dare touch a single drop of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, yet you walked out without a scratch! Then the lingering poison in Yan Yan and me..."

"What's the rush?"

Huo Yuhao lazily flicked his wrist.

"I've already told you how to force the poison into your bones. As for clearing out the old poison that's built up in your organs over decades... I'll leave the rough work of preparing medicine to my junior sister."

"Don't worry, Senior Brother! Leave it to Sanmei!"

Tang Sanmei answered respectfully, her delicate face solemn.

She turned and used the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to dart through the garden's riot of flowers, swiftly picking several mild herbs that could neutralize poison. Then she activated the Mysterious Jade Hand and crushed them barehanded into two rough pills in a few quick motions.

Tang Sanmei turned back to Huo Yuhao and said earnestly,

"Senior Brother, these herbs can only neutralize the poison. They treat the symptoms, not the cause. To remove every last trace from their bodies, the crucial ingredient is a few drops of your blood."

Dugu Bo froze.

"Your blood?"

"That's right."

Tang Sanmei sounded certain.

"My senior brother just consumed immortal herbs. Add his blood to the pills and take them, and even the fiercest snake venom will obediently seep out through the pores until none remains."

Huo Yuhao nodded, took a small knife, and lightly nicked his fingertip.

"Drip. Drip."

Two drops of strangely pale-gold blood, faintly gleaming red and blue, fell and instantly melded into the pills.

The unremarkable pills took in the blood and released a refreshing fragrance that lifted the spirits.

"Here."

Tang Sanmei casually handed the two pills to Dugu Bo.

"One each. Within three days, every trace of poison in your bodies will be gone."

Dugu Bo cradled the pills as though they were precious treasures. At the scent of their fragrance, the dull ache in his meridians eased at once!

The old poisoner trembled with excitement.

"Thank you, young friend! Thank you, young lady! I'll never forget this kindness as long as I live!"

After seeing Tang Sanmei's remarkable methods and the unfathomable Huo Yuhao beside her, Dugu Bo's mind began to race.

He quickly pulled forward the granddaughter who had been staring in amazement behind him and introduced her with a broad smile.

"Ah, I haven't formally introduced you two! This is my only granddaughter, Dugu Yan!"