20: C20 Granddaughter Seems Even Sicker,
Fang Yuan needed a soul ring.
The Radiant Hou needed a post-meal dessert.
Both sides were in perfect agreement.
Fang Yuan didn’t give the Radiant Hou any chance to regret it.
Martial soul possessed, he spread his golden wings and shot toward the Radiant Hou like a streak of light.
He activated his first soul skill—hundreds of golden feather arrows flew toward the Radiant Hou.
Although the beast diminished their force mid-flight, they continued striking their target, piercing into its body.
The golden feathers penetrated the Radiant Hou’s external scales and embedded themselves in its flesh.
Blood immediately gushed forth, and the once-majestic, imposing beast was now covered in countless bloody holes.
Enraged by the pain, the Radiant Hou roared again, its massive sound waves shaking leaves from the surrounding trees.
It tried to attack Fang Yuan, but Fang Yuan was airborne, maintaining distance.
The Radiant Hou simply couldn’t reach him.
Frustrated, it clawed at the ground incessantly, pacing back and forth.
Its thick tail lashed against a nearby tree, sending wood chips flying.
A tree three or four times thicker than Fang Yuan was snapped clean in half.
Fang Yuan, however, was only slightly deafened by the roar—it had little effect on his combat ability.
He calmly continued using his first soul skill.
Seeing the golden feathers gathering once more, the Radiant Hou began to retreat, fear creeping into its eyes.
It had a modicum of intelligence and understood that it couldn’t hurt its opponent.
With a reluctant glance at Fang Yuan, it prepared to flee.
But Fang Yuan wasn’t giving it that option.
The golden feathers shot forward at a blinding speed, even leaving afterimages as they expanded their attack range, cutting off the Radiant Hou’s escape routes.
Once again, the beast was riddled with wounds.
After kiting it for some time, the Radiant Hou finally breathed its last, unwilling to the very end.
Fang Yuan quickly cleaned up the scent of blood and scattered a circle of poison powder around himself before absorbing the soul ring.
Though the kiting strategy was safe and allowed for injury-free hunting, it dragged on for a long time and made too much noise, easily attracting other soul beasts.
A top-tier beast martial soul provided a massive boost to a soul master’s physique, allowing for easier absorption of soul rings and giving an advantage in combat against tool martial soul masters.
Before the Body Sect rose to prominence, beast martial souls were the true meta of this era.
Fang Yuan absorbed the soul ring quickly.
Xiao Wu was tied up and tossed aside.
She watched the cold, sacred-looking little boy under the moonlight, grinding her teeth in frustration.
She couldn’t understand how such a beautiful child could be her kidnapper—and that he had ventured alone into the dangerous Sunset Forest to hunt for soul rings.
By the time Fang Yuan finished absorbing the soul ring, the sky was beginning to lighten—it was already early morning of the next day.
Around the poison perimeter, there were many soul beast tracks and some carcasses of weaker soul beasts.
This poison powder was specifically used in soul beast forests to repel beasts.
Its toxicity was mild, only capable of killing weaker soul beasts.
More importantly, it contained secretions from powerful, high-level soul beasts, and the scent would drive away any beasts weaker than that.
However, wild forests were still extremely dangerous.
Even with this poison powder, it wasn’t foolproof—if they encountered an exceptionally powerful soul beast, the powder might even be seen as a provocation and enrage it.
Xiao Wu looked at the poison powder Fang Yuan had put away with some disdain.
Humans actually used things like this to drive away soul beasts.
“Hmph!” Xiao Wu turned her face away.
Fang Yuan shot her a similarly disdainful glance.
Having taken human form, Xiao Wu’s scent was also perceived as human by soul beasts.
They weren’t afraid of her at all—otherwise, he could have saved some money.
Fang Yuan’s second soul skill was called Soul Roar.
It could emit a roar like the Radiant Hou’s, the sound capable of shaking an enemy’s soul.
Its effectiveness depended on the distance and power gap between both sides—the closer the distance and the greater the number of enemies, the stronger the effect.
It was a mental control-type soul skill.
Fang Yuan was quite surprised, and also somewhat shaken.
There wasn’t much recorded information about rare soul beasts like the Radiant Hou—only that its roar was incredibly loud, its body powerful, and it possessed light attributes.
If he hadn’t been extremely cautious and maintained a large distance, rendering the mental attack ineffective, he might have been done for.
Without delay, Fang Yuan picked up Xiao Wu again and hurried toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
This time, no longer needing to search for suitable soul beasts to hunt, he made much faster progress.
A day later, Fang Yuan stopped.
Not far ahead lay a patch of purple poisonous miasma.
There were no soul beasts around, not even any vegetation.
But Fang Yuan didn’t rush to enter the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
He wasn’t sure if anyone was there.
What if he ran straight into Dugu Bo?
In this life, he wasn’t Dugu Bo’s prospective grandson-in-law—he was a complete stranger.
If he was caught sneaking into the medicine garden, he’d probably be beaten to death on the spot without a chance to explain.
As for seeking cooperation with Dugu Bo, offering solutions for the Azure Phosphorus Serpent poison in exchange for immortal herbs?
As a mere child, Fang Yuan had no standing to propose cooperation to Dugu Bo.
He’d just be chased away by the Soul Ancestor guard at the door.
Fang Yuan cautiously hid in the shadows and staked out the place for half a month.
He saw no one enter and no one leave.
He was a bit puzzled.
He had originally planned to wait for Dugu Bo to leave the medicine garden before going in, but after all this time, he hadn’t seen a single trace of Dugu Bo.
“Could it be that Dugu Bo hasn’t had a poison flare-up this entire month and didn’t need to come to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to suppress it?”
He knew that because of Dugu Yan and the Azure Phosphorus Serpent poison, Dugu Bo frequently traveled between Heaven Dou City and the Sunset Forest.
Xiao Wu squirmed into a more comfortable position and lay there.
“Hey, what exactly are you trying to do?
You’ve been squatting here for half a month.”
Fang Yuan didn’t reply.
He stuffed a cloth into her talkative mouth.
All that was left for Xiao Wu was to glare furiously at his back while making muffled sounds.
He staked out for another half month.
Finally, a figure flew out from within the poisonous miasma—tall and lean, standing straight, with dark green hair and beard, eyes gleaming like emeralds, wearing a simple gray robe.
That figure was Dugu Bo.
He shot across the sky at high speed, leaving the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
As if he was in a great hurry.
Having successfully waited for Dugu Bo to leave, Fang Yuan breathed another sigh of relief.
“Good thing I didn’t let my guard down and go in earlier.”
Otherwise, running straight into Dugu Bo would have been not only awkward but fatal.
As for Xiao Wu, who had been squirming around, she was now trembling and curled up in a ball again.
She just couldn’t understand it.
Weren’t Titled Douluo supposed to be rare in the human world?
Why did she keep running into them?
After confirming that Dugu Bo had truly left, Fang Yuan emerged from his hiding spot, brushed off the dust and fallen leaves, summoned his martial soul, spread his golden wings, and lifted the trembling Xiao Wu as he ascended higher and higher.
Finally, he rose above the poisonous fog and flew across.
Entering the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he was met with a field of rare and exotic herbs, each one growing in an incredibly mystical manner, unlike anything ordinary.
The closer to the center, the more breathtaking these immortal herbs became.
You headed straight for the central area, searching for the immortal herbs you needed.
The spring at the very center seemed to constantly emit mist from the interplay of ice and fire, a vast white haze obscuring the water’s surface.
After searching for a long time, Fang Yuan only found the Gazing Through Autumn Dew, the Blood Swan Kiss, and the Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower.
As for the Oddity Cotton Chrysanthemum, the Qiluo Tulip, the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid, the Yearning Heartbroken Red, the Fragrant Qiluo Immortal Herb, the Octagonal Ice Grass, and the Fiery Apricot—none of them were to be found.
At first, Fang Yuan thought he had been searching too hastily and missed them.
Just as he was about to search again, suddenly…
A sound of water came from the spring.
“Splash!” The sound was especially clear in the silent medicine garden.
Fang Yuan stiffly turned his head toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Through the mist, a graceful, naked figure rose from the water.
In the white haze, she appeared ethereal and indistinct—but her short purple hair and luminous skin were especially striking.
She turned back, revealing a face with green eyes like emeralds, and a diamond-shaped jade-green scale at the center of her brow.
It gave her an eerie, strange beauty—making her otherwise not-quite-stunning face carry a bewitching, lazy, and seductive quality.
At this moment, she was staring fixedly at Fang Yuan, making him feel as if he had been locked onto by a wild beast.
Suddenly…
“Splash!” An even louder sound of water erupted.
Ripples spread across the surface.
Through the white mist, a massive jade-green serpent tail loomed faintly.
Under the sunlight, some of its scales refracted colorful light like gems.
Dugu Yan?!?
Why was she soaking in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well?
In an instant, many thoughts flashed through Fang Yuan’s mind.
He instinctively retreated, trying to spread his wings and fly away.
But Dugu Yan was faster.
Having consumed the Earth Dragon Golden Melon and the Oddity Cotton Chrysanthemum, completing her martial soul evolution, and then taking the Octagonal Ice Grass and the Fiery Apricot to temper her body in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well—and even having a Yearning Heartbroken Red inside her…
Dugu Yan’s current strength far surpassed her peers, let alone Fang Yuan, who had only just become a Great Soul Master.
Fang Yuan had barely lifted off when his vision blurred—something had ensnared him.
A massive serpent tail coiled around Fang Yuan, trapping his golden wings within its grip.
From a distance, it looked like a demonic, dangerous beauty-serpent hunting its prey.
Fang Yuan, the little bird with beautiful wings, was the captured quarry.
Dugu Yan’s serpent tail wrapped around him, her upper body circling him as her green eyes continuously scrutinized him, drawing closer…
Her crimson, slender forked tongue wet Fang Yuan’s face.
Finally…
Dugu Yan noticed the small, subconscious gesture of Fang Yuan biting his own tongue—and revealed a satisfied smile.
“Fang Yuan.”
Fang Yuan was now one hundred percent certain that this Dugu Yan also possessed memories from the simulations.
But before he could think about what to do next, Dugu Yan suddenly gripped his chin.
Her pale, slender fingers, with jade-green nails, pinched out his tongue, marked with teeth indentations.
His pink tongue had a thin layer of pale white coating, and the teeth marks were especially prominent.
And because his mouth was being held open, an uncontrollable strand of saliva dripped from the corner of his lips.
Thin and long, it never broke, finally landing on the jade-green serpent tail scales coiled around him.
At that very moment, a very familiar green figure flew into the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
It was Dugu Bo.
“Who dares trespass on my Azure Phosphorus Douluo’s territory?”
As soon as he entered and saw the figure of an outsider, he immediately shouted.
His Titled Douluo’s pressure carefully avoided his granddaughter…
and Fang Yuan, who was trapped by her, before landing fully on the already violently trembling Xiao Wu.
The overwhelming pressure and terror caused this timid rabbit to faint on the spot.
“Yan Yan, are you alright?” Having confirmed that Dugu Yan had already dealt with the intruder, Dugu Bo immediately asked with concern, worried that his granddaughter emerging from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well might cause problems.
But Dugu Yan still held Fang Yuan tightly, her lower body’s jade-green serpent tail wrapping around him completely.
She turned back to Dugu Bo with a joyful, infatuated smile.
“Grandfather, I found A Yuan.”
Dugu Bo’s heart sank.
His granddaughter seemed even sicker than before.
Inside Heaven Dou City,
Over the past few months, the eldest prince Xue Qinghe had not shown himself once.
Even when Emperor Xue Ye summoned him, he refused on the grounds of seclusion.
Previously, the eldest prince could be said to represent the imperial family, attending all kinds of banquets, elegant and affable, with flawless manners.
He had built extensive connections and assisted Emperor Xue Ye with political affairs—he was extremely active.
This obvious anomaly naturally aroused much suspicion.
Many nobles speculated whether something serious had happened to the eldest prince Xue Qinghe, causing him to hide away.
Those nobles who had already pledged their support to Xue Qinghe were especially anxious, desperately seeking an audience to understand what had happened.
Inside the Heavenly Dou Imperial Palace.
An expensive red velvet carpet covered the entire room, and the desk inlaid with gold, jade, and gems was exceptionally luxurious.
The master of this country, Emperor Xue Ye, sat at the head.
Below, a subordinate in silver armor bowed his head.
The room was so quiet that a dropped pin could be heard.
Finally, Emperor Xue Ye spoke, his tone unreadable, yet it made the Soul Sage below bow his head even lower.
“Still haven’t found the eldest prince Xue Qinghe?”
“This subordinate is incompetent.” With that, his head dipped even further.
Emperor Xue Ye said nothing more and closed his eyes.
Ever since discovering that Xue Qinghe was no longer appearing, Emperor Xue Ye had sent people to look for him several times.
At first, he thought it was just a minor issue and sent palace attendants to invite Xue Qinghe into the palace.
But he was politely declined.
The second time, the third time—eventually, Emperor Xue Ye nearly had Xue Qinghe dragged before him to see what this unfilial son was up to.
Yet they still couldn’t find him.
The eldest prince’s residence had been turned upside down several times, and Heaven Dou City had been secretly searched—but there was no trace.
Emperor Xue Ye guessed that Xue Qinghe was probably no longer inside Heaven Dou City.