The Dugu Family's Past
He was still somewhat shocked when he recalled the scene he had witnessed the previous night.
After protecting Dugu Yan, he sent her back to the academy to recuperate, as the girl had absorbed a three-thousand-year Soul Ring beyond her level. Worried about the two little ones who had wandered into the poisonous miasma, he followed their trail and stumbled upon Lin Chen sacrificing his Soul Ring.
Even this well-traveled, nearly 100-year-old man was stunned.
Soul Ring are the foundation of Soul Master's existence. They are connected to the Martial Soul and bloodline. Forcibly separating them is comparable to pulling out bones and tendons, and if one is not careful, one will become a cripple.
Let alone Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, even an ordinary Hundred-Year Soul Ring wouldn't be something anyone would dare to just peel off. But this kid is something else, he didn't even blink, peeling off two at once, even the most precious Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, just like that.
He didn't dare to interrupt them, fearing that disturbing the two of them would ruin everything. Only after Lin Chen had fainted did he dare to come out and give the medicine.
Xiao Wu listened intently, her tears flowing even more fiercely.
It turns out that the warmth and security she felt when she was in a daze last night were not an illusion.
It was Lin Chen who used his own Soul Ring and his own cultivation to ensure her safety.
He clearly valued his cultivation so much and meticulously planned for the future, yet he gave it all up so easily for her sake.
"Fool... How could you be so foolish..." She leaned down, pressing her face against Lin Chen's cold hand, her shoulders trembling. "What if something happened to you..."
After crying for a while, she wiped away her tears, stood up, knelt down deeply in front of Dugu Bo, and kowtowed earnestly.
"Thank you so much for saving me, senior. I will remember this kindness."
Dugu Bo was taken aback.
He had killed countless people and saved countless lives, but no junior had ever shown him such great respect.
He quickly raised his hand in a gesture of support, his tone stern but less cold. "Alright, alright, I was just giving you a pill on the spur of the moment. If you really want to thank someone, thank your own son. I've lived most of my life and never seen anyone so reckless."
As the sun rose higher, most of the morning mist dissipated.
The mist in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was tinged with golden-red by the sunlight, falling on Lin Chen's face and slightly warming his pale complexion. His breathing became steady and long; although he was still not awake, the danger of the previous night was gone.
Xiao Wu sat beside him, dipped a handkerchief in some spring water, and gently wiped his chapped lips. Her movements were very light, as if she were afraid of disturbing him.
Dugu Bo leaned against a rock not far away, his emerald eyes sweeping over the two of them. After a long silence, he suddenly spoke, "You are Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in human form, right?"
Xiao Wu paused slightly as she wiped her lips.
She looked up at Dugu Bo, her eyes showing no panic but rather calmness, and nodded gently. "Yes. The Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul. Not long after it took human form, I met Brother Lin Chen."
She had nothing to hide.
Lin Chen risked his life to help her wash away the aura of the Soul Beast, Dugu Bo saved Lin Chen again. In front of this senior, there was no need to hide anything anymore.
"Just as I suspected." Dugu Bo nodded, tapping the rock with his fingertip. "When I first saw you at the academy, I sensed something strange about your aura. There was a trace of a Soul Beast's aura, yet it was extremely faint, as if it were being concealed by something."
"Now it's all clean. The Lovesick Heartbreak Red has cleansed his marrow, the Crystal Snow Dragon Ginseng has replaced his blood, and with that kid's special Soul Power tempering, he's been completely transformed. Even I, Titled Douluo, can't see the slightest flaw. He's no different from a true human Soul Master."
"I never expected this kid to have such abilities. It's truly remarkable. I wonder where he learned all this pharmacological knowledge."
Xiao Wu looked down at Lin Chen's profile, a faint smile playing on her lips, "Brother Lin Chen has been afraid I'd be discovered for a long time, so he's been covering for me. He came to Sunset Forest specifically to find these two herbs."
She spoke softly about their past.
"He never says anything, but I know everything." Xiao Wu's voice was soft, with a nasal tone. "This time too, I thought it was just ordinary tonic, but I didn't expect... he even gave me Soul Ring."
Dugu Bo listened quietly without saying a word.
The figure in the green robe looked somewhat lonely in the morning light.
He lived for nearly a century and was accustomed to the unpredictability of human nature and the exchange of interests.
I've seen too many cases of fathers and sons turning against each other, brothers becoming enemies, and husbands and wives harboring their own secrets.
He stopped believing in pure loyalty and affection a long time ago.
Looking at the two children in front of me, one risking her life to protect the other, and the other filled with worry, I suddenly felt that I had lived a rather lonely life.
"You little rascals..." He chuckled self-deprecatingly, his voice hoarse and tinged with a hint of world-weariness, "You live more purely than adults."
Xiao Wu looked up at him.
Normally, this Poison Douluo always had a cold face, arrogant and fierce, like a block of ice that could never be warmed. But at this moment, when he spoke, there was an indescribable sense of loneliness in his voice.
"Senior..."
"It's nothing, just some old memories." Dugu Bo waved his hand, gazing at the distant dense forest, his voice as faint as the wind, "This old man is destined to be alone in this life."
He paused, his gaze falling on the bluish-green back of his hand. "My Dugu Family has inherited the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul for generations. Our poison is unparalleled, and we are virtually invincible among those of the same level. But this poison is etched into our bones and blood, and it backfires on us generation after generation."
This is the destiny of the Dugu Family.
"When I was thirty-five, I broke through to level fifty-nine, the Soul King." He closed his eyes, as if recalling events from many years ago. "That day, the poison in my body became uncontrollable, rushing through my meridians and spreading throughout my entire body. Overnight, my hair turned bluish-green, and my pupils transformed into the vertical pupils of Jade Phosphorous Serpent. The poison entered my bloodstream, affecting even those around me—my wife was pregnant at the time, and the poison entered her body through her bloodstream."
Xiao Wu held her breath.
"On the day she gave birth, she couldn't withstand the backlash from the Serpent King's venom and didn't make it." Dugu Bo's voice was calm, as if he were talking about someone else's affairs, but his fingertips tightened slightly. "When she passed away, she left me with a son."
This is the first major hurdle in his life.
He, a grown man, acted as both father and mother, raising his son alone.
His son was also a promising talent, inheriting the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul. His cultivation level rose rapidly, he got married, and had a daughter named Yanyan. He thought that after all these years, he could enjoy the rest of his life with his family.
But fate is inescapable.
"My son also inherited this poison. He was less talented than me, and only reached the Soul King at forty, when the poison also took effect."
Dugu Bo's voice deepened, "He and his daughter-in-law were unwilling to give up and wanted to leave Yanyan a way out, so they went deep into the Star Dou Great Forest to find a Grade Nine-Grade Purple Ganoderma to suppress the poison in Yanyan's body. As a result, they encountered a tide of Soul Beast and did not return."
He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"Throughout the generations of the Dugu Family, most of them did not live past sixty, all succumbing to the backlash of their Martial Soul. The collateral relatives either died or scattered, until in the end, only this old man and his granddaughter Yanyan remained."
Xiao Wu's nose tingled and her eyes reddened as she listened.