All fell quiet within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Two hours, four hours...
After waiting four hours and seeing that Tang Feng could indeed remain unharmed in the spring, Dugu Bo began preparing medicinal ingredients. For those missing from the herb garden, he immediately flew to Heaven Dou City to purchase them.
An entire day passed. When Tang Feng broke through the water, his skin had taken on a strange jade hue, with dark gold and crimson patterns faintly flowing across it. As his eyes opened and closed, light of ice and fire actually flickered within them, as though he had donned a layer of invisible armor.
At that moment, Tang Feng felt every inch of his sinews and bones cheering. All the scars left by Spirit Hall's pursuit had vanished as well.
His muscles, already tough from years of arduous cultivation, were now like refined steel forged anew through a thousand hammerings, their density increasing more than threefold.
The most astonishing change was in his meridians. Repeatedly tempered by the power of ice and fire and the two immortal herbs, Tang Feng's meridians had been forcibly widened by fifty percent, their walls as tough as dragon sinews. What had once been a trickling stream of Soul Power had now become a surging river.
Stranger still, two currents of ice-blue and crimson Qi faintly intertwined and spiraled within his meridians, automatically forming a miniature ice-and-fire taiji. This meant that Tang Feng now possessed a natural resistance to extreme cold and scorching heat, and could even wield both attributes simultaneously.
The changes to his bones were even more thorough. Looking inward, he saw that his once-white bones now had a translucent, jade-like quality, their density far surpassing that of ordinary Soul Masters.
Tang Feng could clearly feel that, even without protecting himself with Soul Power, taking a full-force blow from a Soul Grandmaster of his own level would leave no more than a white mark.
This was a true ice-and-fire golden body. His physical strength had probably already approached the Soul King level!
With a thought from Tang Feng, the Clear Sky Hammer appeared in his palm.
The hammer remained dark gold, but ice-and-fire patterns intertwined with ice-blue frost across its surface. Yin and yang converged at the center of its face, forming a miniature ice-and-fire taiji diagram.
A field of ice and fire actually formed spontaneously around the hammer. Within three feet, cold air and heat waves surged in alternation. Ordinary Soul Masters who approached would feel their blood roiling, leaving them in extreme discomfort.
This meant that every hammer strike Tang Feng unleashed from now on would carry additional damage from both ice and fire, vastly increasing its power!
By then, Dugu Bo had also finished refining the antidote pills. He came over to Tang Feng. "Little Monster, has the quality of your Clear Sky Hammer improved? Why does it look a little different from before?"
"Hahaha!" Tang Feng laughed heartily. "Every strike from my Clear Sky Hammer now carries additional damage from both ice and fire. Its attacks are even more ferocious!"
Dugu Bo sighed in wonder. "These immortal herbs actually have such heaven-defying effects! All things in this world truly are marvelous beyond compare."
Tang Feng put away the Clear Sky Hammer, his expression turning serious. "Old Monster, let's treat your poison first!"
With that, Tang Feng took out a white jade porcelain bottle he had prepared long ago. He slit his palm with a dagger and filled half the bottle with deep red blood carrying a faint sheen of ice and fire, then handed it to Dugu Bo.
"Old Monster, there are two hundred drops of my blood here. Take one drop each day with an antidote pill, and it will certainly dissolve the accumulated toxins in your body little by little."
Dugu Bo stood on no ceremony. Taking the porcelain bottle and sensing the presence of ice and fire and the tremendous vitality contained in the blood, he hurried impatiently toward a nearby cave. "Little Monster, wait here. I'll be right back!"
Tang Feng also found a flat spot, sat cross-legged, and began meditating to cultivate.
Tang Feng could clearly feel that, after the Ice and Fire Body Tempering, his cultivation speed had increased by nearly fifty percent, and his Soul Power circulated without the slightest obstruction.
This speed could already match, or even surpass, those peerless geniuses with Innate Full Soul Power.
Tang Feng was secretly delighted, knowing he had won his gamble. This ordeal had been not only a crisis, but an immense opportunity.
About an hour later, Dugu Bo finished expelling the poison and came eagerly to Tang Feng's side, his emerald eyes filled with excitement and exhilaration.
"Little Monster, you really were right! I've only taken one drop of blood together with the antidote pill I refined, yet I could clearly feel a trace of the poison in my body dissolving!
"This method really works! Hahahaha! To think that, within my lifetime, I could still escape these days of being haunted by this poison demon!"
Dugu Bo laughed with utter abandon, as though he had finally glimpsed an end to the suffering that had weighed on him for decades.
His gaze toward Tang Feng was now filled with gratitude. "Little Monster, you're my benefactor now. If you ever need anything, come to me. Don't stand on ceremony. This herb garden is yours from now on!"
At that moment, Dugu Bo actually revealed some genuine feeling.
Warmth filled Tang Feng's heart, and he deliberately teased him. "Old Monster, why stand on ceremony between us? You saved my life too! Besides, I haven't come away empty-handed. Tempering my body with ice and fire improved my physique several times over, gave me a body immune to all poisons, and granted me considerable resistance to ice and fire."
Tang Feng paused, his gaze sweeping over the immortal herbs and spirit medicines filling the valley, then said sincerely, "But I do need some of the herbs here to refine pills and poisons. When the time comes, I'll also pick out some that can help your cultivation."
"Fine, no problem. Take whatever herbs you need." Dugu Bo waved a hand, his generosity soaring to the clouds. "Even if you empty this place out, I won't say a word against it!"
And so, the old man and the boy settled down at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Every morning, Dugu Bo took one drop of Tang Feng's blood essence together with a refined antidote pill, then sat cross-legged beside the spring, circulating his Soul Power to stabilize his cultivation and thoroughly refine away the toxins;
Tang Feng practiced the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer during the day. At dusk, he submerged himself in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to soak and meditate, using the power of ice and fire to continue absorbing the remaining medicinal potency and increase his cultivation speed.
Time hurried by, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
At dusk that day, Tang Feng leaped out of the spring, steam curling around his body as fluctuations of Soul Power burst outward.
Tang Feng clenched his fists, feeling the power surging within him, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly. "Level twenty-six. Two levels in half a year. Without Ice and Fire Body Refining, I could have gained at most one level in that time."
Not only that, Tang Feng's Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer had also broken through to eighty-one strikes, each swing carrying astonishing might. However, Tang Feng could currently only execute it at a basic level and had yet to achieve full mastery.
By now, Dugu Bo looked more than a decade younger. His frightening emerald pupils had turned a deep black, and his hair had gradually changed from dark green to jet black.
The sinister air about him was gone, replaced by something of an immortal's bearing. As he breathed, a faint fragrance actually surrounded him, with no trace of the foul stench remaining.
Tang Feng looked Dugu Bo over. "Old Monster, judging by your hair and eyes, I reckon the poison in your flesh and blood has nearly all been cleared away. Next, you can begin medicinal baths to expel the residual poison in your bone marrow."
"Hahaha, you're right." Dugu Bo laughed heartily. "Lately, I've also felt that the antidote pills have barely any effect. I was just planning to start medicinal baths tomorrow."
Dugu Bo's soaking lasted another half a year.
On the day Tang Feng was about to turn twelve, he stood beside the spring and swung the Clear Sky Hammer for the eighty-first strike,
"Boom!!!"
With all eighty-one strikes-nine times nine-brought to complete mastery, Tang Feng let out a long cry, and his Soul Power thundered through the level twenty-eight bottleneck.
By then, Tang Feng had spent a year and a half cultivating at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Excluding the two months spent unconscious from his injuries and treating the poison, Tang Feng's Soul Power had soared by five levels over the past year or so. Through Ice and Fire Body Refining, he had raised his physique to the Soul King level, gained a cultivation speed on par with Innate Full Soul Power, and even forged a friendship across generations with someone possessing the strength of a Titled Douluo. Such an opportunity was enough to make any Soul Master green with envy.
After half a year of medicinal baths, all the toxins in Dugu Bo's body had been cleared away. He no longer needed to suppress them with Soul Power, and his cultivation had naturally advanced to the peak of level ninety-two, like water flowing into a channel.
Dugu Bo now had black hair cascading like a waterfall and clear eyes. For a fleeting moment, he seemed to have returned to his prime.
Tang Feng found Dugu Bo and told him that he had broken through to level twenty-eight.
Dugu Bo was delighted. "Not bad, Little Monster! Five levels of Soul Power in a year-your cultivation speed feels even faster than someone with Innate Full Soul Power! It won't be long before you become a Soul Elder! When that happens, I'll go find you a Soul Beast!"
"That can happen very soon." Tang Feng waved a hand. "I plan to take an immortal herb without side effects first, to rapidly improve my cultivation and physique further."
"All right. Which one do you want?" Dugu Bo pointed toward the bottom of the valley.
Tang Feng raised a hand and pointed at an utterly inconspicuous, lustrous white blade of grass. Its stem was as slender as a hair; without looking closely, one would only think it was an ordinary blade of green grass.
"That one. It's called the Primordial Immortal Herb. Its core effects are purely to increase Soul Power Level and purify Soul Power. My physique is already close to the Soul King level, so what I lack most right now is an accumulation of Soul Power. But there's no rush. I'll help you improve first."