" This place was your real target, wasn't it?"
Guang Ling had barely finished speaking.
Dugu Bo abruptly raised his head from the ground.
He followed their gazes toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, his expression instantly darkening to the extreme.
"So that's it!"
"All that talk of visiting me, of having something to discuss..."
Dugu Bo gritted his teeth and stood.
Dark green Soul Power surged from his body once more.
"What your Spirit Hall has its eyes on is my medicinal garden!"
"Guang Ling!"
"Let me tell you!"
"These things are mine!"
"Even if I die here today, I'll never let your Spirit Hall have its way!"
Guang Ling raised an eyebrow.
He was just about to sneer.
But Lin Yuan laughed first.
"Die?"
Dugu Bo whipped his gaze toward him.
Lin Yuan looked him up and down.
"Indeed."
"You aren't all that far from death."
Dugu Bo's gaze turned cold.
"Brat, what do you mean?"
"Nothing much."
Lin Yuan walked to the edge of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"I just think it's a bit of a pity."
"The great Poison Douluo."
"You've dominated the Soul Master World with poison for decades."
"Yet in the end..."
Lin Yuan turned around.
"You've ended up poisoned into this sorry state yourself."
Dugu Bo's pupils contracted sharply.
Guang Ling also turned to look over.
Lin Yuan continued:
"Whenever it's overcast or raining."
"You feel numbness and itching along both sides of your ribs."
"And as time passes, it gets worse and worse."
The anger froze on Dugu Bo's face.
"Late at night."
"You feel stabbing pain at the crown of your head and the soles of your feet, like needles piercing them."
"When it's severe, your entire body convulses."
"The stronger your Soul Power."
"The worse the attacks become."
One sentence.
Then another.
Dugu Bo's already gloomy expression finally changed completely.
"Brat!"
"How do you know?!"
Lin Yuan did not let him finish.
"What's the hurry?"
"There's more."
Dugu Bo stared fixedly at him.
Lin Yuan said calmly:
"A reeking old poison monster like you can die, and that would be that."
"You're getting on in years anyway."
"You've had your fill of life."
Veins throbbed on Dugu Bo's forehead.
Guang Ling could barely keep the corners of his mouth down.
But the next sentence.
Made the anger on Dugu Bo's face vanish instantly.
"It's just a pity about that delicate granddaughter of yours."
Lin Yuan looked at him.
"Dugu Yan."
Boom!
The Soul Power around Dugu Bo abruptly fell into disarray.
"Brat!"
"You dare lay a hand on Yanyan?!"
Killing intent erupted instantly.
Yet Lin Yuan did not even lift an eyelid.
Guang Ling had already stepped forward.
Ice-blue Soul Power directly suppressed Dugu Bo.
"Old poison monster."
"Think before you speak."
Dugu Bo clenched his teeth.
"If this continues."
"I'm afraid she won't have long to live either."
The anger on Dugu Bo's face vanished instantly.
Guang Ling also abruptly turned to look at Lin Yuan.
"Yanyan?"
Dugu Bo's voice suddenly grew low.
"You know about Yanyan's condition?"
"Haven't you known about it yourself for a long time?"
Lin Yuan said calmly:
"The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul's poison keeps accumulating as you cultivate."
"Your poison has already seeped deep into all your internal organs."
"Although Dugu Yan is still young, poison has already begun accumulating in her body too."
"Haven't you spent all these years trying to find ways to suppress it for her?"
Dugu Bo did not refute him.
Because not a single word Lin Yuan had said was wrong.
He had long since accepted his own condition.
He had lived like this for decades.
But Dugu Yan was different.
She was his only granddaughter.
And the last of the Dugu Family's bloodline.
He would never allow Dugu Yan to follow his old path.
Yet all these years.
Whether he used poison to suppress poison or searched for all kinds of medicines.
He could only delay it.
He could not cure it at the root.
Guang Ling stood beside them, his gaze growing somewhat peculiar as he looked at Lin Yuan.
He had originally thought that this disciple of his merely knew about the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Now it seemed.
This brat knew even more than he had imagined.
Lin Yuan did not give Dugu Bo much time.
"Now."
"I'll give you two choices."
Dugu Bo raised his head.
"First."
Lin Yuan held up one finger.
"You keep resisting."
"And then my teacher kills you."
Guang Ling obligingly raised his longbow.
Dugu Bo's expression immediately darkened further.
"After you die."
"This place belongs to Spirit Hall."
Lin Yuan held up a second finger.
"Second."
"You submit to Spirit Hall."
"This place-"
He swept his gaze over the medicinal herbs covering the ground.
"Still belongs to Spirit Hall."
Dugu Bo: "..."
Guang Ling froze for a moment.
Then he burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha!"
"You little brat."
"Is there any difference between those two choices?"
"Yes."
Lin Yuan's expression was calm.
"One dead man."
"One living man."
Dugu Bo's face nearly turned green with rage.
"You've gone too far!"
"So you're choosing the first?"
Guang Ling had already drawn his bowstring.
Dugu Bo: "..."
He really wanted to say he was.
But looking at the bow in Guang Ling's hands.
Then thinking back to that almost entirely one-sided beating.
He simply could not force the words out.
Besides-
Lin Yuan had just mentioned Yanyan.
That was what he truly could not ignore.
Dugu Bo took a deep breath.
He fixed his eyes on Lin Yuan.
"Brat."
"Do you really have a way to save Yanyan?"
Lin Yuan did not answer.
Dugu Bo took a step forward.
For the first time, his voice lacked its earlier arrogance.
"So long as you can save Yanyan."
"This old man's life-"
"Is yours."
The smile on Guang Ling's face faded a little.
He knew all too well what it meant for a Titled Douluo to say those words.
Lin Yuan remained calm.
"Dugu Yan's problem isn't difficult."
Dugu Bo's breath immediately caught.
"Not difficult?"
"Find her a suitable Soul Bone."
Lin Yuan said:
"Then gradually transfer the poison accumulated in her body into the Soul Bone."
"Let the Soul Bone become a vessel for the toxins."
"That will keep the toxins from continuing to eat away at her body."
Dugu Bo's eyes suddenly lit up.
"A Soul Bone..."
He murmured to himself.
He seemed to have already begun working through the method.
A moment later.
His gaze abruptly changed.
"It'll work!"
"It really will work!"
With his attainments in the Dao of Poison.
Lin Yuan only needed to offer a single pointer.
He could figure out the rest himself.
Dugu Bo suddenly raised his head.
"Then can this old man use a Soul Bone too?"
"Yes."
Lin Yuan said:
"But for you, it would treat the symptoms, not the root."
Dugu Bo frowned.
"Why?"
"There's too much poison in your body."
"And you're already a Titled Douluo."
"If you rely solely on a Soul Bone to hold it, sooner or later it'll fill up again."
Dugu Bo fell silent.
Indeed.
His condition was far more serious than Dugu Yan's.
"Then what should this old man do?"
Lin Yuan looked at him.
"Condense a core."
Dugu Bo froze.
"What?"
"Condense a poison core inside your body."
"Gather all the toxins produced by your Martial Soul into it."
"Use poison to form the core."
"Use the core to store the poison."
"From then on, the poison produced by your cultivation will no longer eat away at your internal organs."
"It will all enter the poison core."
Dugu Bo's breathing stopped abruptly.
Lin Yuan continued:
"Once the poison core has truly stabilized."
"The deadly poison throughout your body will no longer be a talisman hastening your death."
"But rather-"
"Power that truly belongs to you."