After Su Ling chatted with Liu Erlong for a while, she let him stay in the wooden cabin that night and even cooked him a dinner, though it was not particularly lavish.
Unfortunately, her affection score had not even reached sixty, and nothing special happened that night.
Early the next morning, Su Ling said goodbye to Liu Erlong and left Heaven Dou City for Sunset Forest.
Su Ling chose to enter from the direction of Heaven Dou City. Since Dugu Bo could bring Tang San there in a short time, it could not be too far from the city.
Next, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well lay on a mountain roughly five hundred meters high. That was its first distinguishing feature.
The second was that all the Soul Beasts around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well were over a thousand years old.
As for the third, there was a Poison Formation there that even thousand-year and Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts dared not enter.
Putting those three clues together, finding the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well in Sunset Forest would not be difficult.
After all, Sunset Forest was not particularly large. It was much smaller than Star Dou Great Forest.
Holding a sharp dagger, Su Ling found his Carefree Journey movement technique very useful in the forest.
Before long, Su Ling spotted traces of thousand-year Soul Beasts.
He looked for mountains first. If a mountain was the wrong height, Su Ling immediately ruled it out. That saved the most trouble.
On the first day, he found four mountains of the right height, but unfortunately came away empty-handed.
On the second day, Su Ling found ten mountains of the right height, but still failed to locate the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Not until the third day did his persistence bear fruit. Beneath a peak roughly five hundred meters tall, all three distinguishing features of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well were present.
A mountain, a gathering of thousand-year Soul Beasts, and an area at its foot that none of the Soul Beasts dared enter.
With the Supreme Detoxification Pill supplied by the system on him, Su Ling walked straight inside. Sure enough, a moment later, he checked his panel and found a notification on it.
Host: Su Ling (poisoned; please detoxify within two hours) Age: Nineteen Martial Soul: Five Elements War Bow Soul Power: Level 43 Spirit: Level 56 Soul Rings: Yellow (320 years, water attribute), yellow (652 years, wood attribute), purple (1,358 years, fire attribute), black (10,086 years, dual metal and earth attributes) Soul Bone: External Soul Bone, Golden Dragon Armor (10,086 years)
Su Ling did not detoxify immediately. Instead, he carefully climbed the mountain, doing his best not to leave any traces Dugu Bo might notice.
An hour later, Su Ling stood atop a sheer cliff.
A layer of mist below the cliff concealed the view beneath it. Unless something unexpected happened, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was down there.
Unfortunately, Su Ling could not fly yet, nor did he have a convenient tool for descending like the Eight Spider Lances. The Golden Dragon Armor was clearly unsuitable.
Thus, Su Ling could only take out two daggers, drive them into the rock face, and slowly descend.
After descending about fifty meters, Su Ling could clearly see the two springs of ice and fire below, along with all sorts of medicinal herbs.
Confirming that this was the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was enough, so Su Ling climbed back up.
After clearing away his traces, Su Ling descended the mountain and soon left Dugu Bo's Poison Formation.
He took out the Supreme Detoxification Pill and swallowed it. A few minutes later, Su Ling checked his character panel in the system again. The poison had been neutralized.
Yet after walking outward for another ten minutes or so, Su Ling spotted a green-haired old man streaking past in the distance.
Was that Dugu Bo?
"Phew..."
Su Ling let out a long breath.
That had been close. Had he stayed to enter the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and harvest the herbs, he might have run straight into Dugu Bo.
From that alone, his plan had been the right one.
He could not pin his hopes on others, much less gamble his life on luck.
Running at full speed the whole way, Su Ling returned to Heaven Dou City that night.
Along the way, Su Ling had not seen Dugu Bo return.
So Su Ling also seized this opportunity to stir up panic for Xue Xing.
To be safe, Su Ling forged two different letters.
One was addressed to Dugu Bo, and the other to Xue Xing.
The letter to Dugu Bo was simple enough: he posed as one of Dugu Bo's enemies.
Then he pretended to have captured Dugu Yan, who was away participating in Soul Fighting with the Imperial Fighting Team, to lure him far from Heaven Dou City.
After disguising himself, Su Ling spent a hefty sum hiring different people to deliver the letters to their respective residences.
For Dugu Yan's sake, Dugu Bo would have to go, even knowing it was a trap.
As for the letter to Xue Xing, that was simple too, containing just one sentence: Xue Qinghe had begun to suspect Xue Beng's act and might soon send experts to test him, or even arrange an accident to kill him.
In truth, Su Ling also intended these two letters to drive a wedge between them. They provided an extra safeguard as well-what if one of them failed to see his letter?
As long as Xue Xing saw his, he would certainly want Dugu Bo to protect Xue Beng. Yet after reading his own letter, Dugu Bo would certainly go protect his granddaughter. The two choices were completely at odds.
Su Ling wanted to see how they would choose.
The next morning, Prince Xue Xing had just risen when a guard rushed into the residence and reported, "Your Highness, a beggar delivered a letter, saying it concerns the fourth prince's safety."
"Xue Beng?"
Xue Xing immediately opened the letter. Upon reading the words Su Ling had left, his expression grew grave.
Very few people knew about Xue Beng's act. Aside from himself, perhaps only Dugu Bo knew.
"Where is that beggar? Bring him to me," Xue Xing said.
Reading the passage again, Xue Xing said, "Someone, go invite Mr. Dugu Bo."
Even after saying that, Xue Xing remained uneasy, wondering whether he should bring Xue Beng back from the Heaven Dou Royal Academy.
After a while, the beggar was brought before him.
His questioning yielded absolutely nothing. After all, Su Ling had disguised himself down to the teeth and even altered his voice. Prince Xue Xing would never trace this back to him.
Helpless, Xue Xing could only give up and wait for Dugu Bo to arrive.
Yet despite waiting a long time, Dugu Bo never came.
"What?! You're saying Mr. Dugu Bo left Heaven Dou City? More than two thousand kilometers away? Didn't we agree he would tell me before making a long trip?" Xue Xing grew angry. In a fit of rage, he grabbed the vase beside him and smashed it onto the floor.
"Go after him! You must bring Mr. Dugu Bo back. Also, station people at Heaven Dou City's gate. Have them wait until he returns, then bring him to see me."
"Also, summon all the retainers serving the residence. I have an important task for them," Xue Xing said.
While Xue Xing was frantic enough to scorch his brow, Su Ling had once again entered Sunset Forest.
Dugu Bo had already left. What Su Ling had not expected was that Dugu Bo would leave directly, without discussing it with Xue Xing.
Dugu Bo was fast, so Su Ling had to make the most of his time.
The location Su Ling had named lay more than two thousand kilometers from Heaven Dou City. Even as a Titled Douluo, Dugu Bo would need over five days for the round trip.
That would just barely give Su Ling enough time to handle the herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and complete his Ice and Fire Body Tempering.
Meanwhile, at the Crown Prince's Residence, Qian Renxue finished a night of cultivation.
"Strange. Why do I have a bad feeling?"
"Someone, check whether anything important has happened in Heaven Dou City today," Qian Renxue said quietly.
After entering Sunset Forest, Su Ling also reached the cliff above the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as quickly as possible.
Using the same method as before, Su Ling descended by driving his daggers into the rock face. Before long, he reached the ground.
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well lay directly ahead of him, less than fifty meters away.
Glancing over the various herbs around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Su Ling first took a detoxification pill to neutralize the poison, then began gathering the herbs.
Time was limited, so Su Ling gathered only the good herbs!
The Record of Immortal Herbs documented all sorts of different immortal herbs, along with how to take them, harvest them, and preserve them.
Su Ling harvested all the useful immortal herbs, including aromatic silk beauty, aromatic silk beauty, and narcissus jade muscle bone, and stored them in his system space.
Aside from immortal herbs, Su Ling also gathered nine-grade purple ganoderma, ten thousand year ginseng king, and many other herbs at the ten-thousand-year level.
Su Ling even took highly poisonous immortal herbs such as the Snow-Colored Swan Kiss. Naturally, there were also quite a few poisonous immortal herbs that had never been mentioned in the novel.
In the novel, Tang San had refined many poisonous immortal herbs into the Soul-Reaping Yama's Invitation.
That hidden weapon was excellent. Even a Soul Saint could not withstand being struck by it, but it was refined from many immortal herbs.
Being poisonous did not mean being useless. Different medicinal herbs nourished or counteracted one another. If taken properly, even poisonous immortal herbs could produce beneficial effects under certain conditions.
Octagonal mysterious ice grass and infernal delicate apricot were perfect examples.
Taking one plant was poisonous, and taking both was poisonous too. But if one used the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to absorb them and achieve balance, it became Ice and Fire Body Tempering.
As it happened, the Record of Immortal Herbs in Su Ling's possession was very comprehensive.
Most of those poisonous immortal herbs could produce beneficial medicinal effects under specific conditions.
By the time he had swept up all the good things, more than twelve hours had passed. Only then did Su Ling finally approach the edge of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Now, only two immortal herbs remained in the entire Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well: octagonal mysterious ice grass and infernal delicate apricot!
Su Ling's body was strong enough, even stronger than Tang San's at the same point.
Enduring the trial of ice and fire, he swiftly picked the two immortal herbs and consumed them.
Then Su Ling stripped off all his clothes and placed all his belongings into his system space.
Within just a few breaths, heat and cold alternated through Su Ling's body.
The five elements that had originally been balanced within him fell into chaos again, until the sensation became almost unbearable.
With a splash, Su Ling jumped into the spring waters of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"That feels so good!"
Two different forces flowed into his body.
Su Ling immediately circulated his soul power using the Five Elements Breath Cultivation Method, bringing ice and fire into the transformations of the five elements within him.
My Ice and Fire Body Tempering seems a little different from Tang San's.
Before he knew it, Su Ling noticed that the Five Elements War Bow within him seemed to be merging with the ice attribute.
Could it be adding an ice attribute for me? Is the Five Elements War Bow not the final stage?
Su Ling recalled the book about the Five Elements War Bow from his predecessor's family. It seemed to contain a line stating that if the Five Elements War Bow continued absorbing other attributes and achieved balance, the Martial Soul might evolve again.
Those words had come from the clansman who had evolved the Five Elements War Bow back then. He had been satisfied with its combat power and had taken no further risks, but he had written down his thoughts.
The ice attribute?
Then let's merge it in!
Su Ling also controlled his Martial Soul, beginning to incorporate the new ice attribute.
Because of the relationship between water and ice, Su Ling found that his Martial Soul accepted it quickly. Soon, his Martial Soul acquired the characteristics of the ice attribute and could freely shift between it and its own water attribute.
Time slowly passed. Su Ling kept cultivating, rather than fainting in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as Tang San had.
After all, there was an enormous difference in their physical strength and soul power when they underwent Ice and Fire Body Tempering.
Thus, Su Ling absorbed the medicinal effects of these two immortal herbs faster as well.
Four days later!
More than two thousand kilometers away.
Dugu Bo arrived at the location Su Ling had named, but could not find the person who had written the letter.
Taking out the letter and examining it, Dugu Bo said, "I've been tricked."
Only then did he realize that the apparent age of the writing did not match. Although it had been artificially aged, he still discovered the flaw.
The letter he had received must have been written the day before, and there was simply not enough time to deliver it from here to Heaven Dou City.
"Why would someone want me to leave Heaven Dou City?" Dugu Bo put away the letter and headed back to Heaven Dou City at his fastest speed.
Yet he would never have imagined that he had been lured away from Heaven Dou City because of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
After all, it was guarded by a Poison Formation. Anyone below Soul Douluo rank who entered would certainly die.
At that very moment, Su Ling leaped out of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"I actually cultivated for four days."
"Time to leave."
Su Ling dressed, then filled two large, special bottles with water from the Yang Spring and Yin Spring Water respectively. Only then did he climb the cliff and leave.
"Not bad. Ice and Fire Body Tempering really is powerful." Su Ling assessed his body along the way.
The first trait was that, after Ice and Fire Body Tempering, a hundred poisons fled before him. He had already experienced it just now: leaving Dugu Bo's Poison Formation had not affected him at all.
Next came immunity to ice and fire, and finally, his body had become even stronger.
Because he had cultivated longer in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, combining Ice and Fire Body Tempering with the medicinal effects, his body-tempering results were even better than Tang San's.
His physical strength had now reached the Soul Saint level.
His soul power had also risen from level forty-three to level forty-five, likewise because he had absorbed more of the medicinal effects.
Tang San might only fully exhaust all the medicinal power from his Ice and Fire Body Tempering upon reaching level seventy.
As for Su Ling, he might exhaust it around level sixty. Thus, even though these two immortal herbs focused on body tempering, they had still raised his soul power by two levels.
Aside from that, consuming immortal herbs offered another benefit: they could improve one's innate potential to a certain extent.
For instance, Su Ling's cultivation speed was now clearly much faster than before.
Leaving Sunset Forest, Su Ling headed straight for the mountain behind Blue Tyrant Academy to find Liu Erlong.
He had originally said it would take more than a month at the earliest, yet he had finished in fewer than ten days.
Finishing early was good too. In principle, the things he could obtain by raising goddesses' affection might eventually surpass the gains from his trip to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. After all, the system was his most important foundation for standing firm in this world.
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