"We're here."
Looking at the mist-shrouded valley in the distance, Ming Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly.
Only after entering the depths of the Sunset Forest himself did he understand just how harsh the environment was.
The miasma made it impossible for ordinary creatures to survive in the Sunset Forest. Even Ming Zhao had to activate a Soul Tool Shield to form a barrier after entering, lest he breathe in too much of it.
He was merely yin, not poison.
Miasma had limited effect on ghosts, but it was still a serious threat to Ming Zhao's mortal flesh and blood. If he breathed in too much, he would fall victim to it too.
The next question was how he himself would enter the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Before Huo Yuhao learned that his Ultimate Ice could counter the Jade Phosphor Seven Absolutes Flowers, he had flown above the miasma and used two fire-attribute explosive Fixed Soul Cannon Shells to blast a hole straight through the poison cloud, then hurried through the opening before the cloud closed around it.
Ming Zhao had originally planned to do the same. He had two Class 5 explosive Soul Cannon shells as well, so he could use Huo Yuhao's method.
But he had a better, cheaper way.
Inside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
A Soul Saint paper figure's hollow eyes suddenly gained a glimmer of life. It left the group, walked up to the Aromatic Silk Beauty, and held out a hand.
"What are you doing?" The Aromatic Silk Beauty immediately grew wary.
"Silk... Beauty Pill... hand it over."
The paper figure leafing through the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record spoke without looking up.
"...Can I refuse?" The Aromatic Silk Beauty wanted to cry but had no tears. This was the Immortal Herb essence it had spent ten thousand years condensing!
Bang!
"Aowww, aaah, hrrghhh!! I'll give it to you, I'll give it to you! Stop blowing me up, stop!" With another of its nodes detonated, the Aromatic Silk Beauty immediately wailed like a ghost and howled like a wolf, tossing out the Silk Beauty Pill without another word.
A deep purple pill, lustrous as amethyst, flew swiftly from the Aromatic Silk Beauty's flower bud and landed in the Soul Saint paper figure's hand.
The pill was no bigger than a cherry. Once it appeared, the surrounding air immediately grew fresher, and even breathing was a delight to the senses.
The Silk Beauty Pill, also known as the Heart of Silk Beauty, was the Immortal Herb essence condensed by the Aromatic Silk Beauty over ten thousand years. It could counter all poisons; as long as one held it, every poison within thirty zhang would lose its effect.
Even someone who had already been poisoned could cure a hundred poisons by holding the Silk Beauty Pill in their mouth.
Tang San had told Dugu Bo that the Aromatic Silk Beauty could only counter poison, not cure it, yet the Aromatic Silk Beauty had gone and produced something like this.
After obtaining the Silk Beauty Pill, the Soul Saint paper figure turned into a ghostly shadow and shot into the sky, leaving the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and arriving outside the valley.
As soon as the ghostly shadow appeared, all the poisonous fog and miasma within a hundred meters of it rapidly retreated as though they had encountered their natural enemy, forming an absolutely safe, poison-free domain.
This was Ming Zhao's method of entering the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. He called it "letting the first into the spring lead the one who comes after."
However, he was the only one who could use this method.
Apart from him, no one could beat all the Immortal Herbs into submission without entering the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well themselves, then force the Aromatic Silk Beauty to hand over the Silk Beauty Pill.
The paper figure crossed the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation. When the Silk Beauty Pill's domain enveloped the swaggering Jade Phosphor Seven Absolutes Flowers, they immediately folded up their finger-like leaves, while the Jade Phosphor poison cloud in the sky, formed from the blood sacrifice of countless Soul Beasts and other living creatures in the Sunset Forest, also kept well away.
It arrived before Ming Zhao without hindrance and returned to his Martial Soul, leaving the Silk Beauty Pill in his hand.
"Good stuff." Ming Zhao held the Silk Beauty Pill between two fingers, a smile appearing on his face.
Ming Zhao would never complain about having too many things that could save his life at a critical moment. Poisons came in countless strange forms and were impossible to guard against completely, and he could not guarantee that he would never fall victim to one. With this Silk Beauty Pill, he could avoid a great deal of danger.
Just like now.
With the Silk Beauty Pill in hand, Ming Zhao even turned off his Soul Tool Shield. The poison cloud and miasma dared not come near him, held firmly at least fifty meters away.
There was no need for a battle of wits and courage, nor for an Ultimate Attribute.
Holding the Silk Beauty Pill, he strolled through the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation as though taking a leisurely walk in a courtyard and reached the top of the valley.
A strong smell of sulfur rushed into his nose and mouth. With a trace of anticipation and excitement, Ming Zhao leaped down.
Sensing the presence of a living person, the thick, bizarre vines around the valley walls, like coiling dragons, lashed toward Ming Zhao, intent on turning him into their nourishment. Before they could reach him, however, he casually swung out a ribbon of Soul Power and easily shattered them.
Ming Zhao descended several hundred meters and landed lightly on the ground.
Soul Power kept the shredded vegetation and sap from the shattered vines at bay. With the hem of his clothes slightly soiled, Ming Zhao straightened up and took in the whole of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"Ice and fire complement each other, yin and yang converge. This is the treasure land I've dreamed of! This is the land of ascension I've sought for more than ten years!" Ming Zhao closed his eyes in enjoyment and spread his arms to embrace heaven and earth, his face full of rapture.
He was a monster who had died in extreme yin and been born in extreme yang, an evil being who walked alongside death and the departed. The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was simply the perfect cultivation ground for his path of cultivation.
Before him, the twin springs of ice and fire nourished and complemented each other, while the bones of the dead Dragon Kings underground had created this thriving paradise above.
Ice and fire, yin and yang, death and rebirth, seizing from without and seeking within!
He sensed the power of this paradise, using the realm of Unity of Heaven and Man that he had comprehended ahead of time to adapt to it, then worked backward from the unique laws of heaven and earth within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to excavate his own potential.
Ming Zhao understood very well that no matter how many people he killed, how much flesh, blood and soul he devoured, or how many heavenly and earthly treasures he consumed, they were only nourishment. Their ultimate purpose was still to nourish himself.
He himself was the greatest entity, the center of everything.
Power sought from without could one day be exhausted; the potential to be unearthed within knew no bounds!
Zhang Lexuan and Li Ya appeared on either side of him, their presences reflecting and interweaving with his. They gradually came into resonance with the presences of ice and fire permeating the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and, in turn, began controlling the elemental power of heaven and earth within it.
And he, acting on instinct, rose into the air and drifted above the twin springs of ice and fire.
Ming Zhao himself stood at the boundary between the twin springs, Li Ya over the ice spring on the left and Zhang Lexuan over the fire spring on the right. All the elemental power of heaven and earth took on substance as red and blue streams of light, enveloping Ming Zhao and his two Martial Souls and gradually forming an enormous vortex that swept across the entire Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Seen from above, the vortex took the shape of a red-and-blue taiji diagram!
Ming Zhao stood at the center, Li Ya formed the eye of the yin fish, and Zhang Lexuan the eye of the yang fish. Together, they set the ice-and-fire taiji diagram turning slowly, making heaven and earth pale in comparison!