While the entire Douluo Continent was shaken by the violet-gold light, Xiao Yan, at its center, never opened his eyes. He remained seated in meditation, the Dragon Phoenix features across his body having completely receded. The Dragon Phoenix phantom in the sky gradually dispersed as well. Only the violet-gold light continued to flicker within him, while four violet-gold Soul Rings revolved at his side. His Bloodline Power surged with the force of a tidal wave.
"This thing seems to contain immense Bloodline Power. It's unlike an ordinary Soul Ring..." Dugu Bo said thoughtfully, stroking his chin as he watched. "I once read in the Heaven Dou Empire's royal records that, in ancient times, there was a special kind of Soul Ring called a Blood Essence Soul Ring. It wasn't driven by Soul Power, but relied on Bloodline Power. Yet Xiao Yan's Soul Rings clearly don't operate on Bloodline Power alone. Their essence is still Soul Power... Sigh..." Dugu Bo rubbed his head. The many secrets surrounding Xiao Yan were clearly giving him an immense headache; he simply couldn't make sense of them.
"This boy... if he didn't have Triple Martial Souls, I'd suspect he was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in human form... A Little Monster with so many secrets from head to toe. I wonder how Bibi Dong raised him, and whether he gave her the same headache."
After sighing, Dugu Bo turned his gaze back to Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan's brow pulsed as waves of soul power erupted from him, churning the lake beneath him into a raging swell. Yet perhaps because most of the world's energy he had absorbed earlier had been used to draw out the Ancient Void Dragon Phoenix bloodline, Xiao Yan's spirit was clearly flagging despite his vigorous blood and robust body. He had already spent most of his soul power and was nearing the limit of what he could summon. As a Titled Douluo, how could Dugu Bo's discerning eyes fail to see that?
"I don't know what this boy is trying to do, but that third Martial Soul he just awakened clearly wasn't his original goal. Otherwise, he would have stopped by now..." Dugu Bo glanced at Xiao Yan's sweat-soaked clothes, then looked around and sighed. "Oh well. I've already reached a secret agreement with Spirit Hall, and I'll probably become one of them sooner or later. Let this help count as an investment. Investing in this Little Monster won't leave me at a loss."
With that, Dugu Bo released his Soul Power. He sent part of it into the pool to help Xiao Yan absorb the violent energy of heaven and earth within the water. With the rest, he delivered the two treasures of utmost purity from the opposite extremes of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well's yin and yang springs to Xiao Yan.
"Boy, I don't know the names or effects of these two Immortal Herbs either. But they were born of the fortune of heaven and earth in this Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. They're the heart of this place's heart, treasures among Immortal Herbs. Their effects surely won't be weak, but their poison can't be lacking either..." Dugu Bo said gravely. A mysterious premonition told him that only these two treasures of heaven and earth could help Xiao Yan now.
Though Xiao Yan lacked the strength to open his eyes, his five senses remained clear, and he could naturally hear Dugu Bo's words. But in his present state, he surely had no strength left to refine and consume the two Immortal Herbs. If he swallowed them directly, however, their poison would likely kill him before he could even feel their power.
Xiao Yan seemed to have reached a dead end with no way back, unable to advance or retreat. If he had still been possessed by the Ancient Void Dragon Phoenix bloodline, he might have had a sliver of hope. But now all his Soul Power was being fed to the Emperor Flame Martial Soul, solely to exceed this world's level limit and forcibly break the seal on a certain Heavenly Flame. In that state, he had no strength left to use the Ancient Void Dragon Phoenix Martial Soul at the same time. There was only one path left for him.
"Forget it. Put yourself on death's ground and you may yet live. I refuse to believe I'm fated to die here!"
With that, the panic on Xiao Yan's face gradually gave way to resolve. He opened his mouth wide and swallowed both Immortal Herbs, beginning to absorb them in the crudest way possible.
"Xiao Yan, boy, you must survive. I don't want that madwoman Bibi Dong hunting me to the ends of the earth." Dugu Bo watched Xiao Yan gravely. Clearly, Xiao Yan's life now hung by a thread. If Spirit Hall's holy son died in Dugu Bo's herb garden, Spirit Hall would likely pursue him to the death for the rest of his life. That was also why Dugu Bo had been willing to give Xiao Yan the most precious Immortal Herbs in his entire garden to help him break through. After all, no matter how important Immortal Herbs were, they could never be more important than his life.
Xiao Yan seemed to be in even worse condition than before he absorbed the Immortal Herbs. That was hardly surprising. He had swallowed both herbs without any preparation. Although their medicinal power could still be absorbed, the two ingredients were as different as heaven and earth, as incompatible as fire and water. Now, the two violently opposing medicinal powers and poisons from the Immortal Herbs rampaged through Xiao Yan's body, using it as a battlefield as they attacked each other. Xiao Yan, assailed by both herbs at once, had a life force like a candle guttering in the wind. His blood was weak, and his body was riddled with wounds. Even the Bodhi Heart needed time to repair his body, and it seemed Xiao Yan could only die once first.
As Xiao Yan's body was ravaged and torn apart by the two Immortal Herbs, a fierce unwillingness to yield and a fighting spirit gradually became clear in his mind. They then sank into his brow, stirring countless tremors in his soul.
"Two mere weeds dare dream of taking my life?"
Xiao Yan acted decisively, drawing every Heavenly Flame he could summon into his body and directing them straight at the two Immortal Herbs.
Xiao Yan intended to use his battered body as a cauldron and refine the two Immortal Herbs within himself.
First, Xiao Yan used his soul power to keep his body from falling apart. Then he formed a formation with his hands, and four Heavenly Flames emerged at once as he employed the Controlling Fire to Form a Cauldron method. At the same time, countless drops of essence blood and other treasures of heaven and earth flew from his Storage Ring. Xiao Yan drew them all into his body to refine them together.
"Still not enough..." Xiao Yan's strength was failing, and his soul was listless. Though he could barely form a cauldron of fire thanks to the might of his Heavenly Flames, his memories were incomplete, and without a teacher to guide him in this method of pill refining, he ultimately fell a little short.
Xiao Yan clenched his teeth, clearly unwilling to give up. He kept throwing back his head and howling, not only because his body was about to fall apart, bringing pain that pierced his heart, but also because the stabbing pain in his soul was unbearable.
And at that moment, a miracle appeared.
Sweat poured from Xiao Yan like a spring, and the Heavenly Flames within him refined the medicinal ingredients more and more slowly. Clearly, he could no longer even maintain control of the flames. Just then, an exceedingly faint glimmer of bone-white light bloomed from his brow. His Emperor Flame Martial Soul appeared behind him, and amid the pulsing of its four brilliant flames, another appeared.
Within Xiao Yan's body, an extraordinarily vibrant Bone White Flame suddenly swelled and joined the four Heavenly Flames refining the ingredients. It then took their place, circulating through Xiao Yan's body twice as fast as they had and squeezing every bit of medicinal power from the ingredients. It then gathered into a lifelike medicinal cauldron.
"What...?" Xiao Yan was astonished. The Heavenly Flame clearly did not belong to him. Its bone-white appearance marked it as the Heavenly Flame he had been searching for so desperately. Yet although it had appeared, it seemed to have a mind of its own. Instead of obeying his control, it began refining pills by itself.
As the Bone White Flame pulsed, it reduced all the ingredients to a pure medicinal liquid. A soul thought then reached Xiao Yan, telling him that it intended to leave through his mouth.
Hearing this, Xiao Yan opened his mouth, his heart full of doubts. The Bone White Flame gradually shrank into a small pill-like shape, taking most of the medicinal liquid with it. It left the remainder inside Xiao Yan to repair his body.
After leaving Xiao Yan's body, the Bone White Flame began to expand. In an instant, it returned to the shape of a medicinal cauldron. Before it stood the bone-white figure of an elderly man, somewhat aged in appearance, his features indistinct.
Xiao Yan did not know who he was or what their relationship was. He knew only that a name had surfaced in his mind, carved there as if by blade and axe, never to be forgotten.
Yao Chen.
Xiao Yan's eyes filled with tears. He did not know when he had begun to cry, but the tears would not stop flowing.
"Yao Chen" remained absorbed in refining the pill. By the time an incense stick had burned, the Bodhi Heart and the healing pills Xiao Yan carried had healed much of his body. Although his injuries were still severe, his life was no longer in danger. Perhaps Xiao Yan should have thanked the two Immortal Herbs. Although they had rampaged through his body, their medicinal powers had also worn each other down in their struggle and mingled within him, laying the initial foundation for a Body Immune to Ice and Fire. This had not only raised his physical strength to another level, but also given him resistance to the ravages of the two ingredients within him. After all, their attacks were only of the ice and fire attributes, and to a Body Immune to Ice and Fire, they were no more than minor injuries.
Once Xiao Yan's body was out of danger and his life force had begun to stabilize, though his injuries were still horrifying, "Yao Chen's" refining was also nearing its end. Xiao Yan saw that "Yao Chen's" pill-refining technique had reached the pinnacle of perfection. Every move was far superior to his own, giving him the air of a grandmaster alchemist. Then, before the stunned eyes of Xiao Yan and Dugu Bo, "Yao Chen" unleashed his soul power, and a radiant pill burst from the fire.
The pill was red and blue, shaped like a taiji diagram. Its rich fragrance carried two sensations as different as heaven and earth: extreme cold and extreme heat. With a flick of two fingers of his right hand, "Yao Chen" sent the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Pill into Xiao Yan's mouth. A pure, potent medicinal power surged through his limbs and bones, and the injuries throughout his body began to heal. His restored body was not only as though it had never been injured, but was even stronger than before. His wondrous Body Immune to Ice and Fire gradually approached completion as well.
Xiao Yan looked within himself. Most of his injuries had healed. Not only was his body flawless, but a boundless power coursed through his bones and blood. Xiao Yan believed that if he used his Ancient Void Dragon Phoenix Martial Soul again now, even a Soul Emperor-level expert would be no match for him.
"Yao Chen" watched this. Though he was merely a Heavenly Flame in human form, with neither voice nor expression, Xiao Yan could clearly feel that he was smiling.
Then "Yao Chen" embraced Xiao Yan.
Though the Bone White Flame was cold to the extreme, Xiao Yan knew it was a very warm embrace.
"Yao Chen's" figure gradually vanished with the wind, and the bone-white light at Xiao Yan's brow faded with it. The Bone White Flame lost its shape and flowed entirely into Xiao Yan's body, returning to the embrace of the Emperor Flame.
That bone-white light was probably Yao Lao's doing, Yan Xiao thought deep within Xiao Yan's soul.
Now that this Soul Imprint has been completely used up, Yao Lao in the other world will surely notice. I hope it puts their minds at ease. Yan Xiao sighed. Still, this was a good thing. Xiao Yan's loved ones, far away in another world, had probably been waiting a long time for this news.
"Xiao Yan" was still alive.
After the Bone Spirit Cold Flame entered his body, Xiao Yan gazed clear-eyed toward the place where "Yao Chen" had refined the ingredients. Every step the grandmaster alchemist had taken was imprinted on his mind, just as on some distant afternoon when, as a youth, he had studied pill refining under "Yao Chen's" personal guidance. He then closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, his gaze was utterly resolute.
Xiao Yan's Soul Power suddenly surged outward, and the Bone White Flame swept forth, blooming into a dazzling lotus. Even the water of the Yang Spring could not contain it: a thin sheet of ice formed on the surface beneath the lotus. Then Xiao Yan gave an angry shout and raised both hands. The white flame abruptly compressed to half its size, and within that half-lotus, a black flame suddenly appeared. It swelled to the same size as the white flame. One white, one black, they flowed like yin and yang, forming a single whole.
Xiao Yan then drew the black-and-white flames into his body, making them the second Heavenly Flame he had unsealed that day.
"If not for the trace of yin and yang in this Ice and Fire Yin Yang Pill that Teacher refined, I couldn't have used the fortune of heaven and earth here to unseal the Yin-Yang Twin Flames..." Xiao Yan murmured. He gazed toward the horizon, as though he could see the distant other world.
"Thank you, Teacher. Wait for me. Wait for Little Yanzi to come back..."
With that, he leaped back to Dugu Bo's side.
"Thank you for the treasures, Senior Dugu."
"You brat... A few days ago, you kept calling me Old Poison and Old Monster, and now it's Senior Dugu." Dugu Bo laughed and scolded him. "They were only two herbs, nothing to worry about. Since you've come here, of course I have to keep you alive. My Yanyan is still waiting for you to save her life."
With that, the two returned to the little wooden house to make ample preparations for the pill poison method the following day.
To Xiao Yan in this world, that distant other realm remained a remote and elusive place. If Xiao Yan wanted to return, he would have to wait a good while longer...
That night, above the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Two dragon figures hovered over the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. They carefully sniffed the lingering traces of ice and fire and the presence of the violet-gold Dragon Phoenix, studying the source of these things: the black-robed youth who had already fallen asleep.
These two dragon souls belonged to two of the former Nine Great Dragon Kings: the Water Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King. It was because their dragon souls and bones had fallen in Sunset Forest when they died that a treasured place like the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well had come into being.
Now, deep in the gazes of the two Dragon Kings' souls, a faint violet-white light flickered, revealing greed.
The exalted sovereign of the Soul Beasts had found her target.