Dugu Yan shook her delicate frame and spat the words through gritted teeth:
"No, Chen Jin is the captain of Blazing Fire Academy."
"He has two yellow Soul Rings and one purple, but he's bizarrely powerful."
"Chen Jin is at Blazing Fire Academy's lodgings right now."
Dugu Bo snorted coldly, the green light in his eyes flickering.
"I don't care who Chen Jin is. Anyone who dares touch my granddaughter must pay the price!"
"I'll go take that brat's head right now!"
Before his words had faded, his green figure flickered and vanished on the spot.
Only withered vegetation remained across the ground.
By then, the night had grown late.
Chen Jin and the students of Blazing Fire Academy had just returned to their lodgings.
The day's victory had left Huo Wushuang and the others exceptionally excited, and they had discussed the details of the match the entire way back.
Only Chen Jin seemed particularly calm, as though he had not been the one who defeated the Heaven Dou Royal Academy Second Team that day.
"Brother Chen, we really owe today's victory to you."
Huo Wushuang stopped at the door and spoke with feeling.
Chen Jin gave a slight nod.
"It was no more than lifting a hand."
"Everyone, get some rest early. The coming matches will be even tougher."
After parting with the others, Chen Jin pushed open the door to his room and walked inside.
He locked the door behind him.
The room was elegantly furnished and carried a faint scent of sandalwood.
Chen Jin walked over to the bed and sat cross-legged.
He overlapped his hands over his dantian.
The Nine-Heaven Divine Phoenix Soul Power within him began to circulate slowly.
Faint purple-gold flames flickered over his skin, gently nourishing the meridians within his body.
After his Soul Power completed several circuits through his meridians, the day's fatigue gradually faded.
Suddenly.
Every hair on Chen Jin's body stood on end.
A sense of extreme danger instantly enveloped the entire room.
It was the oppressive might of a powerful expert, almost enough to make breathing impossible.
The Nine-Heaven Divine Phoenix Soul Power within him surged violently at that instant, sounding a warning.
Without any hesitation, Chen Jin bent sharply backward, his entire body drifting back into a corner like a falling leaf.
Almost at the same moment.
A green figure appeared as abruptly as a ghost on the bed where Chen Jin had been sitting.
The green-robed old man's expression was cold, his emerald eyes devoid of any feeling.
The surrounding air seemed to freeze in that instant, carrying a faint, sickly-sweet smell.
"Your reactions aren't slow."
Dugu Bo looked at the young man who had evaded him in surprise, his words steeped in lofty arrogance.
Chen Jin steadied himself, sensing the terrifying, abyss-like fluctuations of Soul Power emanating from the man.
He had already guessed the man's identity.
Beat the young one, and the old one came.
That way of doing things certainly suited the Poison Douluo's character.
Chen Jin stood in the corner of the room, his gaze locked firmly on the green-robed old man on the bed.
The old man was gaunt, his emerald hair and beard looking especially eerie in the night, like a poisonous plant blooming in the darkness.
Undisguised killing intent flickered in those green eyes, deep as pools.
The terrifying pressure of a rank ninety-two Titled Douluo instantly enveloped the entire room like an invisible mountain.
The sickly-sweet smell in the air grew stronger, and even the surrounding wooden furniture began to creak beneath the unbearable burden.
Chen Jin secretly circulated his Nine-Heaven Divine Phoenix Soul Power to resist the pressure.
Although his Martial Soul had already transformed, the gulf between rank thirty-four and rank ninety-two was like a heavenly chasm.
In a direct confrontation, he had absolutely no chance of winning.
Chen Jin drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in his heart while keeping his expression calm.
"May I ask what guidance brings you sneaking into this junior's room so late at night?"
Chen Jin looked at the green-robed old man, his tone neither servile nor overbearing, without even a trace of panic.
Dugu Bo gave a cold laugh and raised his withered hand slightly.
"Guidance? Hardly. I've come tonight to take your head."
"You injured my granddaughter Yanyan and even dared humiliate her before everyone's eyes. Did you think Blazing Fire Academy could protect you?"
Green Soul Power gathered in Dugu Bo's palm, forming a little emerald serpent that flicked its forked tongue.
The surrounding space gave off faint hisses as the poison corroded it.
Dugu Bo clearly had no intention of wasting words. He raised his hand to strike Chen Jin's chest.
"Wait."
Chen Jin's expression did not change, but the words he spoke made Dugu Bo's movement stop abruptly.
"If you don't want your granddaughter to live, go right ahead and kill me now."
Dugu Bo's pupils contracted sharply, the emerald Soul Power in his palm suspended in midair.
"Brat, death is staring you in the face, and you still dare spout nonsense?"
Dugu Bo's voice was low, and killing intent blazed in his emerald eyes.
Chen Jin took a step forward and looked straight at this notorious Poison Douluo.
"Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison is one of the deadliest poisons under heaven, but it's also a lethal poison that turns against its own bearer."
"Whenever the weather turns overcast and rainy, your granddaughter suffers unbearable numbness and itching beneath her ribs. At midnight, it feels as though ten thousand ants are gnawing at her bones, leaving her in agony."
"Am I right?"
At those words, Dugu Bo looked as though he had been struck by lightning.
Apart from Dugu Bo himself, no third person knew about Yanyan's physical condition.
Yet the young man before him had exposed it in a single breath.
"How do you know all this?"
Dugu Bo's figure flashed, instantly closing in on Chen Jin, his skeletal fingers reaching for Chen Jin's throat.
Chen Jin did not dodge. He merely watched Dugu Bo quietly.
"Not only do I know that, I also know that within three years, the poison will attack your granddaughter's heart, and her entire body will dissolve into a pool of black liquid as she dies."
"And in all this world, no one but me can help cleanse her poison."
Dugu Bo's fingers stopped an inch from Chen Jin's throat.
The chill emanating from his fingertips raised goosebumps across Chen Jin's skin.
"Arrogant!"
"I've worked with poison all my life. How could I not know how dangerous this poison is?"
"This poison comes from my Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul. It's inherited through the bloodline. There is no cure!"
Although Dugu Bo's words remained forceful, a deep despair flashed through his eyes.
To cure the poison, Dugu Bo had spent his life's effort trying countless methods, only to end up merely suppressing it.
Even his own son had died from the poison's backlash.
Now, hearing a young man barely above rank thirty claim he had a cure, Dugu Bo found it absurd.
"Just because others can't cure it doesn't mean I can't."
Chen Jin met Dugu Bo's gaze, his eyes full of confidence.
"If you don't believe me, you can strike right now."
"It's just a pity that young girl will have to be buried alongside your stubbornness."
A deathly silence fell over the room.
Dugu Bo's fingers trembled slightly.
As he looked into Chen Jin's utterly fearless eyes, towering waves surged through this Titled Douluo's heart.
Reason told Dugu Bo that this was merely a delaying tactic by the young man before him.
But what if?
What if he really had a way?
Dugu Bo was already old, and Yanyan was the only one left of his bloodline. He absolutely could not watch his granddaughter follow in his son's footsteps.
A long while passed.
Dugu Bo slowly withdrew his hand and clasped it behind his back.
"Brat, you'd better not be toying with me."
"Tell me. What needs to be done?"
There was a note of compromise in Dugu Bo's voice.
A gentle smile appeared on Chen Jin's face.
"I need a place where ice and fire converge, where the workings of creation are mysterious and wondrous."
"Only by drawing on that extreme balance of yin and yang can I completely eradicate the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison that has seeped deep into the marrow."
At the words "a place where ice and fire converge," Dugu Bo's expression changed drastically.
Wasn't that hot spring deep within Sunset Forest precisely a place where extreme heat and extreme cold converged?
Could he even know about that treasured place?
Dugu Bo gave Chen Jin a searching look, the wariness in his eyes growing stronger.
"I'll come for you again in three days."
"If I discover that you've been spouting lies, I'll show you what it means to beg for death and be denied."
Before you continue