Over the next few days, Dugu Manor shed its usual deserted chill and suddenly bustled like a marketplace, keeping everyone in the household busy.
Although Dugu Bo was reclusive by nature and had never liked socializing, his advancement from Titled Douluo to Super Douluo was, after all, a major event that shook all of Heaven Dou City.
Within half a day of the news spreading, every faction sprang into action. Imperial relatives, aristocratic houses, Soul Master sects, and families great and small all sent people to his door bearing gifts, offering congratulations while probing his strength.
Dugu Bo sat in the seat of honor in the reception hall. His gaze swept over the gift boxes and visiting cards piled across the floor, and the corner of his mouth twitched, his face full of impatience.
"These old bastards used to avoid me like the plague. Now every last one of them is crowding around."
Dugu Yan covered her mouth and giggled beside him. "Grandpa, you're a true powerhouse now. Of course they're rushing over to curry favor with you."
"Curry favor, my ass." Dugu Bo picked up his teacup and took a great gulp. "They're just here to find out how strong I really am."
He glanced at the glittering pile of gift boxes and added, "They certainly haven't skimped on the gifts. But every one of them arrived in a hurry and left in an even greater hurry. They wouldn't even let the tea touch their lips, as though they were terrified I'd poisoned it."
Dugu Yan burst out laughing. "Who told you to go around with the name 'Old Poison'? Now that your strength has risen another step, people outside are saying one sneeze from you could poison half a street to death. How would they dare stay long?"
Far from being annoyed, Dugu Bo stroked his beard and laughed heartily. "That saves me some trouble, then. If anyone dares bother me again, I'll just sneeze a few times and see whether they still dare set half a foot through my gates."
As he spoke, he set down his teacup and casually opened a brocade box by his feet. After a glance inside, he jutted his chin toward you, who were leafing through a poison manual nearby, and raised an eyebrow. "Boy, see this? A thousand-year purple spirit reishi, sent by Sect Master Ning of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."
"Oh, it really is. This is the first time Sect Master Ning has sent such a lavish gift." Dugu Yan leaned over for a look, her green eyes curving as she said, "Grandpa, does this count as... a salted fish turning its fortunes around?"
Dugu Bo's aged face stiffened. "What salted fish turning its fortunes around? This is years of accumulated effort finally bearing fruit, understand?"
Sitting to one side, you folded the book on your knees halfway shut. Watching the grandfather and granddaughter bicker, you unconsciously smiled faintly.
For all Old Poison's scornful words and expressions, the pride he could not hide in his eyes fooled no one.
Even as he basked in his pride, he did not forget to back you up and pave your way.
Whenever an important guest visited, he made a point of calling you over and introducing you as a younger relative from a distant branch of his family. Anyone could discern the weight of the affection and regard in his words.
As a younger relative of a Super Douluo, your status alone demanded a measure of deference from the vast majority of factions in Heaven Dou City.
After four or five straight days of entertaining visitors, Dugu Bo finally used "entering seclusion to stabilize his cultivation" as an excuse to close his doors to guests, and the manor at last regained its former peace.
He claimed to be cultivating quietly in seclusion, but in reality-
That night, the moon hid behind thick clouds, and all was silent.
You were sitting cross-legged on your bed, circulating your power and regulating your breathing, when someone suddenly kicked the door open.
You opened your eyes to see Dugu Bo stride inside with a bulging sack slung over his shoulder, his green eyes gleaming eerily in the dimness.
He casually slammed the sack onto the flagstone floor. The figure curled inside struck the ground hard and let out a muffled groan of pain.
"This is that brat Xue Beng." Dugu Bo dusted off his hands and lifted his chin toward the sack. "He'd just finished fooling around at his villa in the west of the city. I snatched him on his way back. Not a soul saw."
His voice was extremely low, carrying a touch of the particular lightness that came with returning from a nighttime excursion.
After a pause, he added, "Make it quick. I still have to get him back before dawn."
Muffled whimpers and sounds of struggling came from the sack. Its mouth kept writhing, and a strong reek of alcohol mixed with rouge and powder washed over you.
You rose from the bed, stepped barefoot onto the slightly cool blue-brick floor, and slowly approached the sack before crouching down.
Without untying it, you merely sensed through the coarse hemp cloth, and the contours of his shoulders, back, waist, and legs became clear.
Seemingly sensing someone approach, the person inside struggled harder. The sack bulged and dipped, producing dull thuds.
The rag stuffed into his mouth blocked his cries for help, leaving only indistinct whimpers.
Soul Power stirred faintly in your palm, and Blue Silver Grass silently appeared. Vines coiled around your fingertips, taking shape and solidifying.
In moments, they had assumed the form of a pale blue-green staff, long and straight, its surface bearing a warm wooden sheen.
You gripped one end. Its length and thickness fit your hand perfectly.
Dugu Bo leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded, watching with interest.
Crack.
A crisp sound, clean and decisive. The lower left leg of the person inside the sack snapped.
The whimpering inside abruptly rose, only to be choked into a sharp, muffled sound.
His whole body convulsed like a fish flung ashore, his leg bent below the knee at a grotesquely unnatural angle.
You shifted your feet slightly and repositioned the staff in your hand.
Crack.
Another crisp sound. His lower right leg broke cleanly.
The movement inside the sack stopped short, and his struggling body abruptly went limp.
The person inside had passed out.
You stood and flicked the Blue Silver staff in your hand. The vines dispersed into specks of blue-green light.
You turned toward Dugu Bo and nodded slightly. "Sorry for the trouble, Senior. Take him back."
Dugu Bo raised his eyebrows, a flicker of surprise crossing his green eyes. "You're not leaving a mark? How will the brat know who he offended?"
You brushed the dust from your hem, pursed your lips, and looked at him speechlessly. "What mark? It's enough that I've had my revenge."
"You certainly know how to let things go," Dugu Bo remarked.
He bent down, lifted the sack, hefted it, and slung it back over his shoulder. As he reached the door, he glanced back at you, undisguised appreciation in his green eyes. "Boy, that temperament of yours is even rarer than your abilities."
As his words fell, he had already vanished into the night with the sack. His movements were ghostlike, his boots making not the slightest sound against the blue bricks.
When Dugu Bo returned the next morning, a smile still lingered on his lips. He carried a jug of fine wine he had casually pilfered from Xue Beng's villa.
"I dumped him back there. He's probably still unconscious in bed." He set the wine jug on the table, a mischievous glint crossing his green eyes. "That brat has enemies everywhere. Even if he wants to investigate, he'll never find out who did it."
He picked up the jug and shook it, his lips quirking. "From now on, even the slightest rustle of wind through the grass will probably leave him trembling all over. He'll have plenty to suffer."
You gave a noncommittal response. "Hopefully he'll rein himself in a little from now on."
With that, the matter was put behind you.
Over the next three days, you helped Dugu Yan inventory and put away the congratulatory gifts. You also discussed the finer points of condensing a Soul Core and insights into subsequent cultivation with Dugu Bo in detail, resolving your many questions about poison theory and Soul Power circulation one by one.
On the morning of the fourth day, you formally bade farewell to Dugu Bo and his granddaughter.
You had just stepped through the manor gates when hurried footsteps sounded behind you.
Dugu Yan hurried out from beneath the covered walkway. The morning breeze stirred her purple hair, gilding it with a faint golden edge in the rising sunlight.
"You're really leaving?" She stopped two steps in front of you, slightly breathless. "Can't you stay a few more days?"
You smiled and shook your head. "Sister Yan, every feast under heaven must come to an end. I've imposed on your household for so long. It's time I set off."
"That's true." The corners of her mouth drooped slightly, and a trace of disappointment crossed her eyes. "Someone like you was never meant to be confined to one city."
After a pause, she took a green jade medicine box from her sleeve. Her fingertips gently stroked its lid before she offered it to you. "I don't have much to give you. Your skill at refining poisons and making medicine has long since surpassed mine. These are a few rare medicinal herbs I carefully selected from the storeroom. Take them. They might come in useful on the road."
You lowered your head to look at the medicine box. After a brief moment's thought, you accepted it and put it into your Storage Soul Tool, then looked up with a smile. "Sister Yan, that was thoughtful of you."
Dugu Bo stood on the stone steps nearby, quietly watching without interrupting, his hands clasped behind his back.
The morning breeze stirred his dark green robes. A faint melancholy lingered in his green eyes, but in the end, he said nothing to ask you to stay.
A moment later, he reached into his robes and took out a token of solid green.
The token felt warm and smooth to the touch. A coiled Jade Phosphorous Serpent was carved on its front, with two dark green crystals set into its eyes. Its overlapping scales glinted with tiny flecks of cold light in the morning sun, as though it might come alive at any moment. On the back was a large character for "poison," its strokes sharp and forceful, carved deep into the surface.
"Keep this safe." He pressed the token into your hand, not forcefully, but with a decisiveness that allowed no refusal. "I have few friends, but plenty of enemies. Outside the Heaven Dou Empire, this token may not work everywhere, but it will still offer some protection."
He paused, his lips curling into a sinister arc. "If you truly run into an obstacle you can't overcome, show it to them. Tell them-"
"I may not excel at fighting, and there aren't many Titled Douluo I can beat. But I can still unleash enough poison to leave only the Titled Douluo alive in their entire household."
At his words, the corner of your mouth could not help twitching, but you still accepted it solemnly. "I'll remember, Senior."
Without another word, you took one last look at the grandfather and granddaughter, then turned and stepped into the morning mist.
Your footsteps on the flagstones receded, one after another.
After you had walked a little over a hundred feet, Dugu Yan's voice suddenly rang out behind you, cutting clearly through the morning mist. "Next time you come to Heaven Dou City, remember to stop by!"
You did not turn back, only raised your right hand and waved behind you, calling, "I will."
Before you continue