"Sigh—"
Dugu Bo let out a deep breath and immediately flew up to lift Ignaz down. Ignaz was purposefully searching for medicinal herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, while Dugu Bo carefully followed behind, his eyes filled with anxiety.
"Most of these herbs are extremely poisonous—don't you dare touch them! If you get poisoned, there's nothing I can do to help you."
When he first claimed this treasure land, he had plucked one herb that immediately crumbled to powder upon contact. His right hand, which had touched the immortal grass, was stained with an unknown green poison. If he hadn't been a level 89 Spirit Douluo at the time, with poison cultivation that gave him some resistance—and hadn't received treatment from the Ye family's Nine-Star Begonia—Dugu Bo would have long since dissolved into a pool of toxic blood.
"Your Majesty can rest assured. While I don't understand pharmacology, I do know something about these medicinal materials."
At this moment, Ignaz's eyes were completely captivated by the sea of medicinal flowers, unable to look away.
"The Aromatic Silk Beauty that conquers all poisons, the Snow Swan Kiss that rules among toxins, the Yearning Heartbroken Red that reigns as king of flowers, and the ones I desperately want—the Beautiful Silk Tulip, the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, the Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower, the Eight Petal Immortal Orchid, the Daffodil Jade Flesh Bone, the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, the Black Jade Divine Bamboo, and the Origin Energy Immortal Grass…"
There were over twenty herbs of immortal grade, and beyond the immortal grasses, top-grade medicinal herbs were also abundant.
"Snow Silkworm, Cinnabar Lotus, Twin-Stem Lotus, Dragon Branch Leaves…"
Ignaz stopped before an extremely robust earth-yellow plant with two brown-patterned bulbs at its base—the Land Dragon Golden Melon.
"This is the Land Dragon Golden Melon. It would be most beneficial for Your Majesty and your granddaughter. Just like its name suggests, with 'Land Dragon,' after you consume it, your Jade Phosphor Snake spirit will undergo further transformation, with an excellent chance of completing spirit evolution."
"How is that possible?"
Dugu Bo was utterly shocked. He knew his Jade Phosphor Snake spirit had only evolved into the Jade Phosphor Snake Emperor after absorbing a snake empress among spirit beasts—Medusa. The spirit evolution process had been incredibly difficult.
Now, just by eating a single plant, could one complete the spirit evolution that Spirit Masters desperately pursued for years or even decades? Such a notion seemed absolutely absurd.
Ignaz had anticipated Dugu Bo's surprise. In his view, the spirit evolution gained from consuming immortal grass would only last for the current generation and a few subsequent ones—the family would still face spirit degradation issues later.
Spirits were bloodline inheritances from both parents, like dominant and recessive traits in biology. Even if a child didn't awaken either parent's spirit, it didn't truly mean the child wasn't their biological offspring—it was simply skip-generation inheritance of spirits.
Immortal grass could reduce the probability of recessive inheritance and allow powerful spirits to be stably passed down.
With this thought, seeing that Dugu Bo still had doubts, Ignaz explained further:
"Snakes belong to the dragon species and carry an extremely thin trace of dragon bloodline. Although the Land Dragon Golden Melon is an earth-attribute plant, it can allow snake-type spirit beasts or snake spirits to complete the transformation from serpent to dragon, becoming unprecedented sub-dragons or even pure-blood dragon spirit beasts or spirits."
"If the Jade Phosphor Snake evolves into a dragon, its spirit poison might undergo complete transformation, no longer harming the human body. It might even add an earth attribute to the Jade Phosphor Snake, better balancing the damage from poison."
"To prevent you from deceiving this old man, I'm going to plant something inside you!"
Instead of rushing to have Ignaz pick the Land Dragon Golden Melon, Dugu Bo circulated his spirit power and forcibly made Ignaz float up. Something stored in his abdomen began moving upward, accompanied by some saliva that appeared outside his mouth, then went down Ignaz's throat and into his body.
"Your Majesty, what are you doing? That's so disgusting!"
Ignaz clutched his chest, retching in extreme revulsion. He never imagined he'd be fed a poison pearl by Dugu Bo. If it had been a woman, he wouldn't have found it so revolting—but Dugu Bo was a man, and the pearl had come from his abdomen!
Hearing this, Dugu Bo also felt embarrassed and explained:
"Don't worry, this is a poison pearl I condensed with my lifetime's cultivation, temporarily stored in your body. As long as you don't try any funny business, the pearl will only benefit you, not harm you!"
"Fine then, but if there are any more disgusting things like this in the future, please give me a heads-up so I can prepare myself mentally."
Ignaz used a jade tool to cut along the vine, removing the two brown Land Dragon Golden Melons and handing them to Dugu Bo.
"Just eat the flesh inside!"
Just as Dugu Bo was about to test the medicine first, Ignaz suddenly thought of a better method and quickly stopped him:
"Your Majesty, I've thought of a better approach that could allow your spirit to complete evolution while achieving two qualitative leaps in overall strength."
"Oh? What's your suggestion? Speak up!"
At this point, Dugu Bo's impression of Ignaz had begun to change for the better, and he was quite willing to hear his suggestions.
"Your Majesty, you are the Poison Douluo! Poison is the foundation of your cultivation. To avoid shortchanging you, you could condense your body's toxins into the poison pearl. This way, you'd fully preserve your poison abilities while completing spirit evolution. The pearl might even transform directly into a Poison Dragon Pearl and step into the Super Douluo realm!"
Upon hearing "Super Douluo," Dugu Bo smiled with delight. He was currently only a level 92 Titled Douluo. If he could advance three levels in just a few days, he'd no longer fear his enemies' pursuit. A Super Douluo was among the rarest existences on the entire continent.
"Excellent!"
Dugu Bo stored the two Land Dragon Golden Melons in his Wishful Hundred Treasures Pouch and controlled the poison pearl to exit Ignaz's body. Unprepared, Ignaz's throat nearly got torn open.
"Your Majesty, couldn't you have given me some warning when taking it out?"
"Next time for sure. Since you've helped me so much, and you also have spirit defect issues, look around at these herbs and see which ones can solve your condition. Go ahead and pick them! Consider this fulfilling the condition I promised you!"
Faced with Dugu Bo's generous permission, Ignaz wasn't so easily fooled:
"Your Majesty, you brought this up yourself—I didn't ask for it. Let's keep things separate and not mix them up."
Dugu Bo pointed at Ignaz, quite helpless. He never expected that as a dignified Titled Douluo, he'd encounter someone who was practically a master swindler. Even with so many medicinal herbs here, it still couldn't offset the promise he'd made to Ignaz.
"Actually, I just want to take more herbs for future emergencies. What does Your Majesty think?"
"Fine by me—that suits me perfectly. You can take whatever herbs you fancy, but remember not to damage my medicinal garden!"
As Dugu Bo spoke, he tossed out a spirit tool from his waist that looked similar to the Wishful Hundred Treasures Pouch, except this one was adorned with deep blue gems instead of green ones.
"This is the Abyssal Hundred Treasures Pouch. I found it together with the Wishful Hundred Treasures Pouch—it's also a storage spirit tool that can preserve living things. Now it's yours, you lucky kid!"
Ignaz accepted the Abyssal Hundred Treasures Pouch, both grateful and quite surprised. According to the original story, shouldn't Dugu Bo only have had one Wishful Hundred Treasures Pouch? How could he have two such storage spirit tools?