Sunset – Dugu Yan's Private Quarters
The evening light filtered through the emerald curtains of Dugu Yan's room.
Usually, this was the time of day when the burn began, a sensation like hot acid slowly leaking into her bone marrow. It was the price of inheriting the Jade Phosphor Serpent.
But tonight, there was no pain in her veins.
Dugu Yan sat at her vanity, staring at the small, empty glass vial Arthev had given her.
"Chemistry," she whispered, testing the strange word.
She took a deep breath. No stabbing pain in her ribs. No numbness in her fingertips. For the first time in years, she felt... clean.
"If he can do this with water," she murmured, her grip on the vial tightening, "then maybe Grandpa..."
She thought of Dugu Bo. The Titled Douluo. The man the world feared as a walking plague. To her, he was just her grandfather, a lonely old man who spent half his life in a cave to suppress the agony that was slowly eating him alive.
If Arthev was right, if their method was flawed, then Dugu Bo wasn't cultivating,he was committing slow suicide.
Suddenly, a green mist materialized in the corner of her room. The temperature dropped ten degrees instantly.
"Yan-yan."
The voice was rasping and deep, like dry leaves skittering over stone.
Dugu Yan spun around. Standing there was a tall, gaunt figure. His hair was emerald green, his eyes shone with a terrifying, serpentine light, and his aura was heavy with the scent of sulfur and death.
The Poison Douluo. Dugu Bo.
"Grandpa!" Yan stood up, rushing to him.
Dugu Bo's expression softened when he looked at her. "I came to check on you. I heard the Royal Team lost to a bunch of second-stringers. I wanted to see if you were injured."
He reached out, placing a cold, claw-like hand on her wrist to check her pulse.
His eyes widened.
"Yan-yan," Dugu Bo's voice turned sharp.
"Where is the toxin?"
"What?"
"The backlash," Dugu Bo said quickly, his eyes narrowing. "You used your Third Skill in the match. Your meridians should be inflamed with residual poison. But they are clear. Someone purified you."
He gripped her wrist tighter, protective anger flaring. "Who touched you? Did the Nine Heart Begonia girl do this?"
"No," Yan shook her head, holding up the empty vial. "It was... the transfer student. The one who beat us."
Dugu Bo took the vial. He sniffed it. To a normal person, it smelled like nothing, but to the Poison Douluo, it smelled of a strange, purity, like the deepest part of the ocean where sunlight never touches.
"He gave me this water," Yan explained quickly. "He called it chemistry. He said... he said our method is flawed, Grandpa. He said we are building a dam that will eventually break."
Dugu Bo's face went rigid. The air in the room grew heavy enough to crush furniture.
"Flawed?" Dugu Bo laughed, a low, menacing sound. "A child tells the Poison Douluo that his control over poison is flawed?"
"But the pain is gone!" Yan argued, pointing to her chest. "Look at me! It worked!"
Dugu Bo looked at his granddaughter. He couldn't deny the evidence. Her color was healthy. Her soul power was flowing smoothly.
His anger shifted from insult to cold, predatory curiosity.
"Who is he?" Dugu Bo asked.
"His name is Arthev. He calls himself a student of the Science Sect. He lives in Dormitory C."
Dugu Bo crushed the glass vial into dust in his hand. The dust didn't fall, it dissolved into green vapor.
"Science Sect," Dugu Bo mused. "I have never heard of it. And I know every sect in this continent."
He turned toward the balcony, his green robes swirling in the invisible wind.
"Stay here, Yan-yan. I am going to have a chat with this... scholar."
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Dormitory C – The Roof
Arthev sat cross-legged on the roof tiles under the moonlight.
'He is here,' Matatabi warned. 'High-speed approach. Vector: North-North-West. Soul Power levels are... significant. Level 91 or 92.'
'The Poison Douluo,' Arthev thought calmly.
He sensed another group approaching the mountain from the main road far below. A group of distinct, powerful auras led by an owl and a bear.
The air on the roof suddenly smelled of rotten eggs and sulfur. The crickets stopped chirping. The wind died.
Arthev opened his eyes.
Standing on the chimney, silhouetted against the moon, was Dugu Bo. The Titled Douluo didn't look like a hero. He looked like a demon. His hands were clasped behind his back, and his green eyes bored into Arthev with the weight of a mountain.
"You have sharp senses for a kid," Dugu Bo said. His voice bypassed Arthev's ears and vibrated directly in his skull.
Arthev didn't stand up. He remained seated, looking up politely.
"It is hard to miss a presence that silences the insects, Senior."
"You have a sharp tongue, too," Dugu Bo stepped off the chimney, walking on the air as if it were solid ground. He landed softly in front of Arthev.
"You gave my granddaughter a drink. You told her that my family's cultivation is flawed."
"Was I wrong?" Arthev asked.
Dugu Bo's eyes flashed. A wave of green pressure slammed into Arthev. It was killing intent mixed with neurotoxic soul power.
"Boy," Dugu Bo hissed. "I am the Poison Douluo. I have forgotten more about poison than you will ever know. You think a little trick with purified water makes you an expert?"
Arthev didn't flinch. The Tailed Beast soul power within him flared passively, creating a barrier that kept the poison pressure off his skin.
"I think," Arthev said steadily, "that you are in pain right now. Your ribs felt sore when it rains. The tips of your fingers go numb at midnight. And you spend your nights in a cave because if you sleep near normal people, your breath might kill them."
Dugu Bo froze.
"You are not cultivating the poison, Senior," Arthev continued, his voice clinical and cold.
"You are enduring it. You are a container that is slowly leaking. And you are afraid that one day, the leak will kill your granddaughter."
Dugu Bo's face twisted. Rage? Fear? Shock?
"Who are you?" Dugu Bo demanded. "Who sent you? Spirit Hall?"
"I am a scholar," Arthev said. "I study problems. And you, Senior... you are a very interesting problem."
Dugu Bo stared at the boy. He wanted to kill him. It would be easy. One drop of Emerald Phosphor venom and the boy would melt.
But the boy knew the symptoms. Symptoms Dugu Bo had never told a living soul.
And Yan was pain-free.
"A scholar," Dugu Bo sneered. "Fine. If you like studying so much, let's see how you study in my place."
Dugu Bo moved. He was a blur of green shadow.
He grabbed Arthev by the shoulder. His grip was iron.
Arthev didn't resist. He let himself be taken.
"We are going for a ride, kid," Dugu Bo growled.
"I assume I don't need to pack a bag?" Arthev asked dryly.
Dugu Bo didn't answer. He kicked off the roof, launching them both into the night sky, flying rapidly toward the distant Sunset Forest.
---------
The Foot of the Mountain – Ten Minutes Later
A group of travel-worn people stood at the base of the massive stairs leading to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.
Flender, the Dean of Shrek Academy, looked up at the majestic gates.
"Well," Flender adjusted his glasses. "This is it. The Royal Academy. Qin Ming said they would welcome us."
Tang San, standing beside Xiao Wu, looked up at the mountain. He felt a strange shiver, a faint sense of something dangerous passing overhead high in the sky.
"Tang San?" Xiao Wu asked. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Tang San shook his head, looking at the dark sky where a faint green streak had just vanished.
"Just... felt a chill. Like a snake was watching."
"Probably just the wind," Dai Mubai grunted. "Let's go. I want to see if these Royal elites are as tough as they say."
They began to climb the stairs.
They had no idea that the Anomaly of the academy, the one person who could have changed their entire destiny here, had just been abducted moments before their arrival.
--------
The Sunset Forest
The wind roared in Arthev's ears. Dugu Bo moved with the speed of a Titled Douluo, crossing kilometers in seconds.
They descended into a dense, fog-covered forest. The trees here were twisted, black, and ominous. Soul beasts fled as Dugu Bo's aura approached.
They landed on a rocky outcropping halfway up a volcanic cone.
Dugu Bo threw Arthev onto the ground. It wasn't gentle, but it wasn't lethal.
"Welcome to my home," Dugu Bo sneered, standing over him.
"Since you claim my method is flawed, you will have plenty of time to prove it."
Arthev stood up, brushing dirt off his uniform. He looked around. The air here was thick with poisonous miasma.
"And if I can't prove it?" Arthev asked.
"Then you become fertilizer for my herbs," Dugu Bo said simply.
"I don't leave loose ends."
Arthev looked into the glowing green eyes of the old monster.
"Fair enough," Arthev said. "Where is the patient?"
Dugu Bo blinked. "You are the patient, boy. I'm going to test your Science against my venom. If you live, we talk. If you die... well, your theory was wrong."
Arthev smirked behind his cloth.
"I accept the test."
'Shukaku,' Arthev projected. 'Wake up. It's time to eat poison.'
'Finally!' the One-Tail roared.
To be continued....