After a day and a night of swift travel, the terrain before them abruptly changed.
The rolling hills gave way to a primeval forest so dense it blotted out the sky and sun, and the light instantly dimmed. The air was thick with the smell of damp and decay. The once-solid ground became soft black mud that swallowed each step.
They had reached Sunset Forest.
Dugu Bo slowed his pace and said gravely, "Stay right behind me. This forest is full of poisonous miasma."
Feng Lingtian nodded slightly and followed close behind. The deeper they went, the more forbidding the trees became, and the thicker the poisonous miasma grew. A faint emerald halo rose around Dugu Bo, and the deadly mist retreated in all directions the moment it touched the light. Feng Lingtian held a Clear Pivot Turbidity-Transforming Pill in his mouth and followed silently behind him.
About an hour later, the view suddenly opened up.
A secluded valley surrounded by mountains appeared before them, its entrance sealed by thick vines. Dugu Bo casually pushed the vines aside. The scene within was utterly different from the sinister forest outside. On the left was a scorching hot spring, boiling and churning beneath clouds of steam; on the right was a deathly still pool, its waters motionless and its cold piercing to the bone. At the singular point where ice and fire met grew rare plants of all shapes and forms.
Scorching heat and extreme cold had somehow reached an uncanny balance within this tiny space.
Feng Lingtian's breath caught involuntarily. This was the legendary Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
He stood at the valley entrance, his eager gaze sweeping over the exotic flowers and herbs. Infernal delicate apricot, octagonal mysterious ice grass, singular velvet sky chrysanthemum... These immortal treasures, found only in ancient records, were now growing quietly in this secluded realm cut off from the world.
Dugu Bo remained silent beside him, merely watching Feng Lingtian's expression.
Feng Lingtian soon withdrew his gaze. This was no time for wonder. Dugu Bo had brought him here solely to find the immortal herb that could cure the jade phosphorous serpent poison at its root.
For an entire day, Feng Lingtian covered almost every inch of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. From the areas surrounding the hot spring and cold pool to the poisonous herbs in Dugu Bo's medicinal garden, he examined and identified them one by one. Yet the immortal herb capable of stripping away the origin poison remained nowhere to be found.
As dusk closed in, Dugu Bo appeared at the valley entrance.
"Have you found anything?" Neither pleasure nor anger could be heard in his voice.
Feng Lingtian turned to meet his gaze. "Not yet."
In an instant, Dugu Bo's pupils contracted sharply, and the emerald light in his eyes flared. A terrifying, suffocating pressure erupted from his body, making the poisonous herbs in the valley tremble beneath it. Feng Lingtian felt an almost tangible killing intent coil around his throat like an icy venomous snake.
"You swore you could find it. I gave you a day, and this is your result?" Dugu Bo's voice was cold as frost, each word seemingly forced through clenched teeth. "Yan Girl can't wait that long!"
Feng Lingtian stood where he was without retreating half a step, though his fingers tightened unconsciously inside his sleeves. It was not fear of that killing intent, but a guilty conscience. He had indeed boasted before coming, never expecting the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to cover such a vast area. One day was nowhere near enough.
The killing intent in Dugu Bo's eyes did not fade, but Feng Lingtian could sense that he was doing his utmost to restrain it.
Only when the pressure eased slightly did Feng Lingtian speak, his voice low but unusually firm. "One day truly isn't enough. The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well is much larger than I expected. Today, I only had time to survey the area around the springs. More than half the area remains unexplored. Although the poison flared up once, the Clear Pivot Turbidity-Transforming Pill is still working, so Dugu Yan's life is not in danger in the short term. Please give me a little more time. I will find it."
Dugu Bo stared hard at him. Only after a long while did that pressure slowly recede, though it did not vanish completely. He remained silent for a long time before finally turning his back on Feng Lingtian.
"Three days." His icy voice came through the darkness. "If you still haven't found it in three days, leave. I don't keep useless people around."
Feng Lingtian nodded. "All right."
For the next three days, Dugu Bo never appeared again. But Feng Lingtian knew full well that those icy eyes were watching him from the shadows all along. Whenever he paused for a brief rest, he could feel a chill coming from the valley entrance.
With near-obsessive persistence, Feng Lingtian searched every rock face and every crevice. Finally, on the morning of the fourth day, he pushed aside layer upon layer of withered vines beneath a rock face in the deepest part of the valley.
A silvery-white plant stood quietly rooted in a crack in the stone. Its needle-shaped leaves were covered in exceedingly fine silvery-white hairs that gave off a faint glow in the gloom. Half its roots reached toward the scorching hot spring, while the other half extended toward the bitter cold of the pool.
Feng Lingtian's breathing stopped at that moment.
A silvery-white plant growing on a rock face, half its roots toward fire and half toward ice. The description in the ancient text matched the sight before him perfectly.
It was aromatic silk beauty!
Feng Lingtian whipped his head around and shouted toward the valley entrance, "Senior Dugu! I've found it!"
Dugu Bo appeared at the valley entrance in an instant and reached the rock face in a few strides. He stared fixedly at the silvery-white plant, his voice carrying an almost imperceptible tremor. "This is the herb that can save Yan Girl?"
"Exactly," Feng Lingtian said with certainty. "According to the ancient records, this herb can neutralize a hundred poisons. If refined into pills with other medicinal ingredients, it will be enough to neutralize the poison in the martial soul origin."
Dugu Bo looked at Feng Lingtian. "How confident are you?"
Feng Lingtian fell silent for a moment. "Completely."
Dugu Bo nodded emphatically. "Then refine it."
Feng Lingtian carefully plucked three leaves from the plant on the rock face. They felt slightly cool in his hand, their silvery-white hairs still shimmering with light. He placed the leaves in a jade box, then returned to the pill-refining platform.
Heartbreak grass, aconite, and thunder god vine-the three poisonous herbs were already prepared. Feng Lingtian sat cross-legged and placed the ingredients into the furnace one after another.
"Although aromatic silk beauty can neutralize a hundred poisons, neutralizing the poison in the martial soul origin requires fighting poison with poison," Feng Lingtian explained as he controlled the furnace fire. "The three poisons of heartbreak grass, aconite, and thunder god vine stimulate one another, creating an extremely brief window the instant their toxicity erupts. In that instant, the medicinal properties of aromatic silk beauty will seep into the meridians and strip away the accumulated poison layer by layer."
The three poisons went first, with the immortal treasure bringing up the rear. The furnace fire rose, and the medicinal ingredients mingled and transformed within. Feng Lingtian's Soul Power seeped through the furnace walls, carefully guiding the fusion of their medicinal properties.
This attempt at pill refinement was far more difficult than any before it. The three deadly poisons surged wildly within the furnace, every collision making its walls hum. Fine beads of sweat soon covered Feng Lingtian's forehead.
Dugu Bo stood quietly to one side, his gaze shifting from the furnace fire to the young man's resolute face, where it lingered for a moment. Since entering the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, this young man had not uttered a single complaint or retreated in the slightest. He could keep his composure and bear the pressure. Dugu Bo had seen countless geniuses, but those with such a disposition were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
He withdrew his gaze and continued watching the furnace fire. Silence returned to the valley, broken only by the crackling flames.
It was already late at night when the furnace fire went out. Feng Lingtian lifted the lid, revealing eight silvery-white pills lying quietly at the bottom. Moonlight poured down from above the valley and fell upon them. Each pill shone with an exceedingly faint silver glow, as though all the valley's frosty radiance had been gathered within.
Feng Lingtian divided the pills among bottles and pressed the stoppers firmly into place. The poison in Dugu Yan had accumulated too deeply. One pill would strip it away, and another one or two would be needed afterward to neutralize newly formed poison. He would keep the rest-the Clear Pivot Turbidity-Transforming Pill neutralized poison in the martial soul origin, and others might need it in the future.
He held one of the bottles out to Dugu Bo.
"Have her take it. Afterward, she will suffer a violent poison backlash, more dangerous than any she has experienced before," Feng Lingtian said gravely. "But as long as she endures it, at least seventy percent of the poison accumulated in her meridians will be stripped away."
Dugu Bo accepted the jade bottle, which still held the lingering warmth of the furnace fire. He looked at the pills in his palm, then at the beads of sweat still wet on Feng Lingtian's forehead.
"What if she doesn't endure it?"
Feng Lingtian remained silent.
Dugu Bo tightened his grip on the jade bottle, turned, and strode out of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. The valley sank into deathly silence once more, with only the bubbles in the hot spring still gurgling.