Shen Yan leaned back on the sofa, a soft chuckle coming from beneath his hood.
"Not only do I know you've been poisoned, I also know..."
"The only reason you're still alive is the place where you grow those herbs."
Dugu Bo's pupils abruptly contracted.
The place where he grew his herbs was his greatest secret!
Apart from himself, not even Yanyan knew its exact location!
How could this senior know?!
Shen Yan offered no explanation. He merely held out his hand to Dugu Bo.
Dugu Bo froze for a moment, then caught on.
He hurriedly took the Wishing Treasure Pouch from his robes and presented it with both hands.
Shen Yan accepted the Wishing Treasure Pouch, weighed it in his hand, then spoke.
"I can cure your poison."
"The method is simple, too: extract the toxins directly from your body."
Dugu Bo was stunned.
"Extract them?"
He repeated the words under his breath, his eyes filled with confusion.
Shen Yan nodded and began to explain.
"Your martial soul is the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor, a beast martial soul."
"A beast martial soul's defining trait is merging a soul beast's power with your own body."
"As a result, the toxins have also become one with your body."
"That's why the more you cultivate, the deeper the poison takes hold, until it eventually turns against you."
Dugu Bo's expression changed.
Those words struck right at his weak spot!
All these years, he had been fighting the toxins in his body.
With every breakthrough, the poison grew a little worse.
He had only survived this long because the herb garden there suppressed it.
Shen Yan continued.
"If you had a tool martial soul-say, if your Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor became a Serpent Cane..."
"Then you could concentrate the toxins in your martial soul without being poisoned yourself."
"But yours is a beast martial soul. That cannot be changed."
"So, if you want to keep both your poison and your life, you need to find a new vessel for all the poison in your body."
"And the Poison Core inside you is the best vessel."
Dugu Bo's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Over the years, he had concocted countless antidotes.
But none had done any good!
Watching his reaction, Shen Yan continued.
"I know you certainly won't give up all your poison-based attacks."
"So I ruled out the Ice and Fire Immortal Herb method outright."
"Though that method could cure the poison, it would also destroy all your poison cultivation."
"Use your Poison Core as a foundation, compress your soul power, and form a soul core. From then on, it will operate every day, constantly drawing the toxins out of your body."
"A soul core?" This was the first Dugu Bo had heard of it.
"Exactly. This is essentially storing the poison in your body inside a vessel!"
Shen Yan continued.
"And your cultivation will progress faster afterward."
Dugu Bo was rather bewildered.
"But how should I condense this soul core?"
Shen Yan fell silent for a few seconds. He had merely proposed a conjecture.
After all, he had never condensed a soul core himself.
Suddenly, inspiration flashed through his mind.
"Have you ever seen a typhoon? It's something like that."
"At your dantian, compress your soul power from gas into liquid, then finally condense it into a solid."
"During this process, you need to channel the poison in your body into it."
Hearing this, Dugu Bo felt as though wisdom had been poured straight into his head.
He abruptly bowed deeply to Shen Yan.
"I understand! Senior, I will remember your great kindness until my dying day!"
Shen Yan waved a hand.
"Don't thank me yet. We still need to try it to see whether it works."
"Sit cross-legged right here and try circulating your soul power."
He happened to want to see whether it would work, too.
Dugu Bo nodded firmly!
"Yes, Senior."
Without any hesitation, he sat cross-legged on the sofa and closed his eyes.
Emerald-green soul power circulated around him, gathering in his lower abdomen.
After the auction ended, Shen Yan had already disabled the Nine Dragon Tower's soul power suppression function.
Watching Dugu Bo begin cultivating, Shen Yan's lips curved slightly upward.
Dugu Bo helped Tang San a great deal. Winning him over should shave off quite a bit of Tang San's fortune.
Then Shen Yan also used this time to deal with what he had gained from the auction.
With a thought, his Conversion Table martial soul appeared in his palm.
A panel only he could see appeared before him.
Little Tower, sell the things Qian Daoliu just handed over into my Conversion Table.
[Items tallied. Sell the following items into the Conversion Table?] [Gold Soul Coin × 100000000] [30,000-Year Ghost Tiger Left Leg Bone × 1] [40,000-Year Cave Demon Spider Right Leg Bone × 1] [50,000-Year Vajra Bear Torso Bone × 1]
Shen Yan confirmed without the slightest hesitation.
Sell them outright!
The next instant, the hundred million Gold Soul Coins and three ten thousand year soul bones stored in the tower vanished simultaneously.
The EMC value on the Conversion Table's panel began surging wildly.
[EMC +1562500] [EMC +78125] [EMC +109375] [EMC +156250] [Current EMC balance: 1906250]
Looking at the nearly two million EMC on the panel, Shen Yan found his grin harder to keep down than an AK's recoil.
I'm rich! I'm rich!
With this money alone, he could buy nineteen God-bestowed Soul Rings!
But that still wasn't enough.
Shen Yan's gaze fell on the Wishing Treasure Pouch in his hand.
He infused it with soul power.
Inside the Wishing Treasure Pouch was an independent space.
At the center of that space lay a small clearing.
Twelve immortal herbs grew in the clearing.
They were precisely the twelve kinds of immortal herbs, including octagonal mysterious ice grass and infernal delicate apricot.
Each gave off a faint halo of light.
Dugu Bo did not recognize these immortal herbs, so he had simply dug up all the unusual-looking immortal herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Looking at these immortal herbs, Shen Yan's lips curled slightly upward.
Without these immortal herbs, Tang San and his companions would no longer have the aptitude to become gods.
Shen Yan murmured softly.
I remember that in the original story, Tang San tempered his body with octagonal mysterious ice grass and infernal delicate apricot, and enhanced his Purple Demon Eye with the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew.
Dai Mubai broke through with singular velvet sky chrysanthemum, while Oscar used eight-petal immortal orchid to make up for the food system's shortcomings.
Ma Hongjun purified his evil fire with cockscomb phoenix sunflower, while Zhu Zhuqing improved her aptitude with narcissus jade muscle bone.
Ning Rongrong used aromatic silk beauty to evolve her Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, while Xiao Wu relied on the Lovesick Heartbreak Red to preserve her life.
These immortal herbs were the foundation stones of the Shrek Seven Devils' path to godhood.
Now that those foundation stones are gone, their limits should be visible at a glance, shouldn't they?
This would be extremely advantageous for his creation of a Divine Realm later on.
At that thought, Shen Yan's lips rose again.
Then he took the immortal herbs out whole and sold them into the Conversion Table.
He left the octagonal mysterious ice grass and infernal delicate apricot untouched.
These two immortal herbs with ultimate attributes required special harvesting methods.
As the other ten immortal herbs entered the Conversion Table, his EMC soared again.
[EMC +315000] [Current EMC balance: 2221250]
Looking at the EMC balance that had surpassed two million and the newly unlocked items on the panel, Shen Yan nodded in satisfaction.
Now, not only could he buy unlimited God-bestowed Soul Rings...
He could also buy unlimited immortal herbs!
Over the coming month, he planned to use these immortal herbs to greatly improve his physique.
That way, he could raise the age of his God-bestowed Soul Ring as much as possible.
Having a hundred-thousand-year first soul ring was essentially impossible.
But he could aim for ten thousand years!
Singular velvet sky chrysanthemum could forge an indestructible vajra body, while the Ice and Fire Immortal Herb could grant an ice and fire golden body.
Both could improve his physical resilience.
Moreover, he had a body martial soul, so he could definitely consume more immortal herbs than others.
Shen Yan put the Wishing Treasure Pouch away again and looked at Dugu Bo, who was circulating his soul power.
His face was somewhat pale; clearly, he was not feeling particularly comfortable.
Before you continue