Dugu Bo

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

Dugu Bo is a scruffy elderly man with a hoarse voice and withered, skeletal hands 85 86.

• Green hair and eyes: His eyes glow eerily in darkness 85.
• Poison-related hair coloration: After treatment, some of his green hair returns to pale white, revealing that its coloration was not natural 89.
• Martial Soul Avatar: Becomes a Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor more than ten meters long 93.

Personality

Dugu Bo is initially withdrawn, suspicious, and intimidating. When Lin En exposes his family’s poisoning, he responds with threats and escalating Soul Power pressure. He also refuses to accept a young stranger’s medical claims without proof, despite desperately wanting a cure 85 86.

His affection for Dugu Yan overrides most other concerns. He treats her gently, calls her his last hope, and is willing to risk his life, steal, or fight to obtain the Soul Bone she needs. His grief over his son and daughter-in-law makes the prospect of losing her especially painful 85 88 89.

He is pragmatic rather than chivalrous. After recognizing Lin En’s calculating nature, he decides that befriending him would be beneficial, while privately considering killing him if cooperation became impossible. In combat, he uses ambushes, prepared terrain, and deliberate feints 88 96 97.

Once treatment earns his trust, Dugu Bo becomes more cheerful and openly grateful. He regrets his earlier hostility and insists on repaying Lin En rather than leaving the favor unanswered 89 90.

Abilities & Skills

Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison

Dugu Bo has studied poisons for much of his life, but his inherited Martial Soul also poisons his own body 86.

• Releases poisonous mist that slows enemies and corrodes their bodies 93 96.
• Uses a core pearl to prepare a powerful emerald light attack capable of breaking apart the Purple-Winged Spider Emperor’s carapace 93.
• Can suppress his internal toxins with Soul Power, but cannot naturally prevent their backlash 86.
• His poison is ineffective against Lin En after the latter’s transformation and treatment preparations 89.

Martial Soul Avatar

His avatar transforms him into an enormous Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor, which he immediately uses against the Purple-Winged Spider Emperor as his strongest combat form 93.

• Attacks with bites, constriction, and heavy tail strikes 93 97.
• Remains vulnerable to physical injury: a wound to the avatar’s tail causes severe pain in his leg 93.
• Cannot safely overpower the nearly eighty-thousand-year-old Spider Emperor through physical strength alone 93.

Jade Phosphorous Poison Array

Dugu Bo’s prepared poison array creates a Jade Phosphorous Domain, compensating for his Martial Soul’s inability to grant domain-type skills 96.

• Envelops a large stretch of Sunset Forest in poisonous mist.
• Restricts the battlefield and slows the poisoned target.
• Improves his serpent avatar’s agility within the affected area.
• Requires prior arrangements in the terrain 96.

His protective miasma around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well is also dangerous enough that Dugu Yan warns even a Titled Douluo against assuming they could pass through unharmed 85.

Medusa Petrifying Rays

His Medusa Head Soul Bone fires paired white petrifying beams from his eyes 97.

• Requires time to recharge between volleys.
• Can be evaded by sufficiently fast opponents.
• Dugu Bo deliberately misses successive shots to lure the Spider Emperor into an opening for Time Freeze 97.

Time Freeze

His eighth Soul Skill releases an emerald pearl that freezes the surrounding area, immobilizing the Purple-Winged Spider Emperor in midair 97.

• Used to set up his ninth Soul Skill.
• Consumes substantial Soul Power 97.

Jade Phosphorous Divine Light

His ninth Soul Skill unleashes emerald and dark-green light that melts armor and corrodes flesh 97.

• Combined with Time Freeze, is described as powerful enough to destroy an entire city.
• Its enormous Soul Power cost makes it a technique he avoids unless necessary.
• Fails to finish the grievously wounded hundred-thousand-year Spider Emperor, which forces the attack back with its purplish-black power 97.

Possessions & Territory

• Medusa Head Soul Bone — Grants petrifying rays and becomes the storage vessel for his internal toxins during Lin En’s treatment 89 97.
• Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well — A spring under his control that he has guarded for decades. Despite possessing the site, he cannot safely descend into its waters 87 88.
• Herb garden — Contains the Infernal Delicate Apricot and Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass. He harvests both for Lin En using the latter’s instructions 86.

History

Family Poison Affliction

The Dugu Family’s inherited Martial Soul introduces Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison into its bearers’ blood and veins upon awakening. Dugu Bo survives by suppressing the poison with his cultivation, but suffers recurring rib numbness and itching in rainy weather, as well as agonizing midnight pains and convulsions 86 88.

His son dies from poisoning. His daughter-in-law is also infected and dies after giving birth to Dugu Yan. Dugu Bo conceals the truth from his granddaughter while searching for a way to prevent her from suffering the same fate 89.

Meeting Lin En

Dugu Yan brings Lin En through the barriers surrounding the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well after he identifies her hereditary poisoning. Dugu Bo initially intimidates him, but Lin En’s precise description of his symptoms forces him to take the proposed cure seriously 85 86.

Dugu Bo permits Lin En to take two herbs, expecting him to recover before demonstrating resistance to poison. Instead, Lin En consumes them and jumps into the spring. Dugu Bo waits for a week, first fearing that his chance at a cure has died and later realizing that Lin En probably sought an opportunity beneath the water 86 87 88.

When Lin En returns, Dugu Bo demands an explanation and claims the opportunity as his own. He ultimately abandons the dispute, acknowledging that he could not have retrieved it himself, and turns his attention back to treatment 88.

Treatment and Alliance

Lin En proposes moving the family’s toxins into Soul Bones so that the poison can be retained without continuing to damage their bodies. Over three days, he helps Dugu Bo channel his toxins into the Medusa Head Soul Bone and heals the damage caused by their backlash. The result is preliminary control lasting at least six months, not a confirmed permanent cure 88 89.

Dugu Bo then brings Dugu Yan for treatment. Because she lacks a Soul Bone, Lin En stabilizes her condition temporarily. Determined to repay him, Dugu Bo agrees to locate a suitable high-level Soul Beast for Lin En’s fifth Soul Ring 89 90.

Purple-Winged Spider Emperor Hunt

Dugu Bo locates five Soul Beasts over eighty thousand years old in Sunset Forest. Lin En agrees that any Soul Bone obtained should go to Dugu Yan, and the two set out together. Their hunt leads them to a Purple-Winged Spider Emperor, which they severely wound with assistance from Sagros 92 93.

The fleeing Spider Emperor slaughters and consumes its own clan to approach the hundred-thousand-year threshold. Dugu Bo welcomes the possibility of obtaining a guaranteed Soul Bone for Dugu Yan and prepares an array to trap it after its tribulation 94 95 96.

Despite the array, petrifying rays, and his eighth and ninth Soul Skills, Dugu Bo cannot finish the beast. Chen Xin’s arrival turns him from the main combatant into a supporting fighter, exposing the gap between him and the Rank 96 Sword Douluo 97 98.

The arrival of other major factions creates a standoff over the beast. Before ownership is settled, the Spider Emperor feigns self-destruction and sends its Spiritual Origin into Lin En. No Soul Bone acquisition for Dugu Yan is confirmed in these events 98.

Relationships

• Dugu Yan — His only granddaughter and “last hope.” Her safety drives his search for treatment and determination to obtain a Soul Bone 38 88 89.
• Lin En — Initially a suspected deceiver, later his benefactor and hunting partner. Dugu Bo promises to spare no effort in repaying him, unaware of the full extent of Lin En’s designs on the spring and his allegiance 83 88 90 92.
• His son and daughter-in-law — Both died because of the family’s poison affliction. Dugu Bo mourns that they did not survive to see a treatment 89.
• Chen Xin — A fellow Titled Douluo addressed courteously as Sword Douluo. They fight together against the Spider Emperor, although Dugu Bo fears losing the Soul Bone to him 97 98.

Notable Quotes

“As long as I can save Yanyan's life, even if I have to stake this old life of mine, steal, and fight, I'll get her a Soul Bone!” 88

“If you ever have any use for me, Dugu Bo, just say the word. This old man will spare no effort to help!” 90