The Method of Interpretation

After obtaining his third Soul Ring, Lu Yang could clearly feel that his cultivation had slowed to a crawl.

Previously, he had cultivated five times faster than ordinary people. Even Tang San, with his cheat-like Mysterious Heaven Skill, could not possibly compare to him when it came to meditative cultivation.

But now that he had passed level thirty, Lu Yang cultivated much more slowly than ordinary people, even with his fivefold boost.

This discovery left Lu Yang somewhat dejected. After growing accustomed to feasts of meat and fish, anyone would struggle to adjust to coarse tea and plain rice.

Still, Lu Yang had prepared himself for this back when he first suspected that his Martial Soul possessed an ultimate attribute. Besides, his Winged Dragon of Ra Martial Soul possessed two ultimate attributes-ultimate fire and ultimate light-which placed an even greater burden on his body. The slowdown in his cultivation was unavoidable.

Precisely because of this, Lu Yang longed for the Immortal Herb Compendium until his eyes all but strained from waiting. Once he obtained it, he could try consuming immortal herbs to strengthen his body, thereby alleviating the slow cultivation that plagued Soul Masters with ultimate attributes between levels thirty and seventy.

Yet several months passed as he waited. Aside from meeting his daily cultivation needs and providing ample nutrition, Qian Renxue never once mentioned the Immortal Herb Compendium.

This puzzled Lu Yang. By his reckoning, the talent he had demonstrated should have prompted Qian Renxue to invest more heavily in him. And the Immortal Herb Compendium was in Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan's possession. Even if Chrysanthemum Douluo now served Bibi Dong and carried out her orders, he had once been Qian Xunji's bodyguard! Was it really so difficult for Qian Renxue to contact him and obtain the Immortal Herb Compendium?

What Lu Yang did not know was that several months earlier, Qian Renxue had already sent Ci Xue to Yue Guan with a handwritten letter, asking to borrow his Immortal Herb Compendium.

Originally, Yue Guan had not intended to refuse, but Bibi Dong caught wind of the matter.

Back then, Ma Xiunuo had sent information about Lu Yang to Spirit City, but Qian Renxue intercepted it as it passed through Heaven Dou City. That was why she had dispatched She Long to Nuoding City and recruited Lu Yang, a genius with innate full soul power, into her service.

However, the trouble Yu Xiaogang had caused at Nuoding Academy not long ago had also alerted Spirit Hall. The Nuoding City Spirit Hall Branch was too low-ranking to decide how to handle the matter, so it likewise reported the news to its superiors.

In places such as Heaven Dou City and Spirit City, where senior members of Spirit Hall held office, they knew at least something about the past between Pope Bibi Dong and Yu Xiaogang. Although much time had passed, they dared not act on their own authority in a matter involving Yu Xiaogang, so they reported it to Bibi Dong.

After learning what had happened to Yu Xiaogang, how could Bibi Dong, that longtime bootlicker, possibly remain unmoved? She immediately ordered her Two Generals to Nuoding City, where they handled Yu Xiaogang's affairs very "appropriately." It was also during that incident that the Two Generals learned about Lu Yang from Ma Xiunuo and the others in Nuoding City, then reported it to Bibi Dong.

Upon learning of this, Bibi Dong flew into a tremendous rage. Yet for some reason, she did not send the Two Generals to Heaven Dou City to bring Lu Yang back to Spirit City. She merely suppressed the matter.

This time, however, when Bibi Dong learned that Qian Renxue wanted to borrow Chrysanthemum Douluo's Herbal Compendium, she immediately suspected that it had something to do with that brat from before. She therefore ordered Chrysanthemum Douluo not to hand over the compendium, leaving Ci Xue to return to Heaven Dou City empty-handed.

With things having reached this point, Qian Renxue should have sought help from Qian Daoliu and the other consecrators. But the stubborn woman's relationship with Bibi Dong was already strained, and she backed herself into a dead end, refusing to ask Qian Daoliu for help. Thus, the matter of borrowing the Immortal Herb Compendium was delayed.

But Lu Yang knew none of this!

One day, Lu Yang went to the Ye Family as usual to study pharmacology. With the knowledge he had accumulated, he could already assist the physicians seeing patients in the Medical Clinic's front hall by writing prescriptions for common ailments.

But Lu Yang had never truly intended to study pharmacology for its own sake. His goal remained the immortal herbs, so during a discussion with Ye Lingling, he brought up the subject of rarer medicinal herbs.

"Little Yang, what made you think to ask about these?" Ye Lingling asked in puzzlement.

"Do you remember how, the last time we went Soul Hunting, I noticed that Sister Yanzi seemed to have been poisoned after absorbing her Soul Ring?" Lu Yang asked in return.

"I remember, but Yanzi is a Soul Master with the Jade Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul. How could she possibly be poisoned?" Ye Lingling did not quite believe Lu Yang's assessment.

"I'm not entirely certain either, so I can only research it myself. Besides, I've noticed that the green at the ends of Sister Yanzi's hair has been growing more pronounced lately, and the color of her eyes seems to have started changing too. That's why I think my original assessment was probably right."

At this point, Lu Yang paused briefly before continuing, "I know Sister Yanzi is a Soul Master with the Jade Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul, so she shouldn't be susceptible to poisoning. But if she really has been poisoned, that makes the matter all the more serious! That's why I wanted to see whether I could find a way to neutralize the poison. But I discovered that ordinary methods would remove all the poison from her Martial Soul. Sister Yanzi probably wouldn't choose a method like that."

Hearing Lu Yang's explanation, Ye Lingling's expression grew serious as well. If he had merely been guessing, she could have dismissed it as a mistaken judgment. But now that he had presented things that could serve as evidence, she could no longer ignore it.

After pondering for a moment, Ye Lingling rose and left the rear courtyard. She sent someone to Heaven Dou Academy with a message asking Dugu Yan to come to the Ye Family immediately. Then she returned to the courtyard, took Lu Yang with her, and left the Medical Clinic for the Ye Family residence.

After they arrived at the Ye Family residence, Ye Lingling laid out Lu Yang's assessment directly. Hearing what the two of them had to say, Ye Qingling also showed a hint of surprise.

However, Ye Qingling was not surprised that Dugu Yan had been poisoned, but that Lu Yang had actually discovered it.

Not long before, Dugu Bo had visited the Ye Family. He had revealed everything about the poison of the Jade Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul, hoping that Ye Qingling could help him find a way to neutralize it.

Dugu Bo had promised a substantial reward for this, and as a highly accomplished physician herself, Ye Qingling naturally would not refuse. However, she had encountered the same problem as Lu Yang: the methods she devised would completely remove the poison of the Jade Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul, effectively crippling all the poison arts Dugu Bo and his granddaughter had cultivated.

Naturally, Dugu Bo did not want to accept such a method, so the matter had remained unresolved. Now, prompted by Lu Yang's reminder, Ye Qingling recalled that among the texts passed down through the Ye Family, there seemed to be an exceptionally precious medicinal herb compendium. However, the herbs recorded within, known as divine medicines, had not appeared on the Douluo Continent for hundreds of years, so she had long since consigned it to a forgotten corner of her memory.