When there's too much to do and too many things to handle, time passes by quickly.
The moment when Lin Rong broke through to level 20, the weather was in the middle of summer.
But after finishing the tasks of hunting soul rings and traveling to Starfall, three months had already passed in the blink of an eye.
The summer heat was fading, and autumn had arrived.
In the northern part of the empire, Tiandou City had already taken on the appearance of autumn.
As the imperial capital, Tiandou City's streets remained bustling with people coming and going.
The autumn weather was dry and refreshing, with a cool breeze blowing through.
The pale yellow leaves were blown by the autumn wind, falling from the bare branches, dancing in the wind, not knowing where they would land.
In the southern district of Tiandou City, at the Dugu Manor.
The front and rear yards were filled with a large maple tree forest.
Since the beginning of autumn, the green leaves of the maple trees had turned red, eventually falling from the trees.
The red leaves were as fiery as flames, covering the entire yard, like brilliant fireworks falling, magnificent and beautiful.
Dugu Yan was strolling through the maple tree forest, lost in thought.
Ever since her grandfather, Dugu Bo, moved the family here years ago, he had planted maple trees in the yard, arranging them in the same way as their previous home, making Dugu Yan feel warm and at peace.
Every year, when the maple leaves turned red and fell, the sight of the fiery red leaves would always remind her of her childhood — a time that was the most blurry, yet the warmest memory.
Her grandfather, Dugu Bo, once told her that every generation of the Dugu family was born in the season when the maple leaves turned red in autumn, symbolizing the cycle of life and reincarnation.
Dugu Yan herself was born two months later, in the early days of late autumn.
In the sky, under the sunset.
A flock of wild geese flew overhead, migrating southward.
Her grandfather once said that wild geese always migrate in autumn, just as their family always seemed to be born in autumn.
Perhaps the color of life was the same.
This was the origin of Dugu Yan's name.
Outside the maple forest.
Dugu Bo stood silently in the yard, without a thought, without a sound.
The Green Phosphorus Snake was the martial spirit passed down through the generations of the Dugu family.
The poison of the Green Phosphorus Snake was not only harmful to others, but also to the person who possessed it.
Since the ancestor of the Dugu family awakened the Green Phosphorus Snake martial spirit, the poison from this snake's venom had become a curse that the family could never escape.
Moreover, anyone who cultivated the Green Phosphorus Snake martial spirit would suffer from the poison's erosion.
This poison could even be passed to their partners, causing their descendants to inherit the poison as well.
If a person did not cultivate the Green Phosphorus Snake martial spirit, they would not be able to endure the poison's erosion due to their frail body, and they would die young.
Only by cultivating the Green Phosphorus Snake martial spirit could they have a chance at living longer.
However, cultivating this martial spirit also meant that the poison inside would grow stronger.
At the early stages of cultivation, one could suppress the poison with one's soul power.
But once their soul power failed to keep up with the growing strength of the poison, the poison would erupt, and the person would die suddenly.
This was the reason why the Dugu family members' lifespans were always short.
Dugu Bo, the current head of the family, had a high enough talent and had cultivated his soul power to the level of Soul Douluo.
Reaching this level, Dugu Bo had managed to suppress the poison in his body to its limits.
But perhaps due to fate's favor, Dugu Bo discovered the Ice Fire Yin Yang Eye, an unparalleled treasure.
The extreme cold and heat of this place would usually cause ordinary people to perish quickly, as they could not withstand the dual forces of temperature.
But for Dugu Bo, who carried this poisonous blood, the extreme cold and heat worked to suppress the poison inside his body.
Thanks to this fortuitous encounter, even though Dugu Bo didn't recognize any of the celestial treasures in the Ice Fire Yin Yang Eye, he was able to cultivate to the level of Title Douluo.
Upon reaching the Title Douluo stage, Dugu Bo had achieved his lifelong goal, and his life was now without regret.
The only person he still cared for was his granddaughter, Dugu Yan.
Dugu Bo's biological father had passed away early, and his son had also died young. Even his daughter-in-law had succumbed to the poison passed on by his son, dying after giving birth to Dugu Yan.
For his granddaughter to live a happy and carefree life, Dugu Bo had kept the secrets of the family's martial spirit hidden from her.
But no matter how much one tries to hide the truth, there will always come a time when the truth is revealed. Dugu Yan would eventually discover the secret of her martial spirit.
But this was not what Dugu Bo worried about the most. There was something else that weighed on his mind.
Dugu Yan's talent for cultivation was not particularly exceptional, and because of Dugu Bo's doting on her, she hadn't been very serious about her cultivation.
In two months, Dugu Yan would turn fifteen.
However, her soul power was only at level 29, barely approaching level 30.
At this rate of cultivation, Dugu Yan would never be able to raise her soul power enough to enter the Ice Fire Yin Yang Eye.
The environment there was so extreme that even Dugu Bo could only stay for a limited time, and to use the environment to suppress her poison, Dugu Yan would need at least the cultivation of a Soul Saint.
Because of the powerful poison that Dugu Bo had passed on, it was even more difficult for his descendants to withstand the poison.
Given Dugu Yan's current state, she could at most cultivate to the age of twenty-five before her soul power would no longer be able to suppress the poison.
As for a Soul Saint at the age of twenty-five, Dugu Bo didn't even dare to imagine it.
Thus, Dugu Bo only hoped that his granddaughter could live a happy life in her limited time. Everything else no longer mattered.
In two months, on her birthday, he would make sure to celebrate it beautifully and prepare the best birthday gifts.
Perhaps by then, his granddaughter's soul power would have reached level 30, and they would have a double celebration.
With that possibility, Dugu Bo planned to go to the Sunset Forest to capture a suitable snake-type soul beast for his granddaughter's third soul ring.
If his granddaughter were to indeed break through to level 30 on her birthday, he would present the captured snake-type soul beast as an additional surprise.
Time passed quickly, and the weather reached the Mid-Autumn Festival.
As usual, the "autumn tiger" had arrived on time.
The temperature had risen, and the days were hot and dry, but once night fell, the temperature dropped sharply, even colder than the previous days.
At Duke Lin's estate, in the grove of trees.
By mid-autumn, the grove remained lush and green, with no yellow leaves in sight.
The branches and leaves in the forest were so dense that they blocked out the bright sun above, creating a cool and pleasant climate in the grove.
"Little Young Master, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School has sent two items."
Upon hearing this, Lin Rong looked up, following the old butler's hand.
In the tray held by the butler, there was a fan and two golden cards.
"Two golden soul coin cards, each worth one million gold soul coins."
"As for this fan, the fan blades are made from kingfisher feathers, and the fan handle is made of diamond."
Kingfisher feathers for the fan blades? Diamond for the handle?
Lin Rong picked up the fan, carefully examining it.
"I've never seen such splendid kingfisher feathers before. The diamond, though of average quality, seems to be from a century-old mammoth diamond."
"Together, these kingfisher feathers must have come from the Emerald Demon Bird, right?"
Lin Rong's mind raced, quickly understanding the connection.
"Ning Fengzhi is really in a hurry. To test the effect, he used a soul bone to raise Ning Rongrong's soul power to level 20."
"And the second soul ring that Ning Rongrong absorbed came from an Emerald Demon Bird, with its green feathers and the mammoth diamond's natural diamond being used to make this fan."
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School doesn't have inherited soul bones, but who knows how many tens of thousands of year-old soul beasts died at the hands of Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo to get that soul bone."
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School didn't have inherited soul bones, but that didn't mean they didn't have any soul bones.
For the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, the so-called inherited soul bone had to not only be compatible with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, but also have a year of at least ten thousand years.
How many years exactly?
To give an example, the Haotian Sect's three inherited soul bones each had a history of over fifty thousand years.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School was not as good as the Haotian Sect, but their inherited soul bones were expected to be at least thirty thousand years old.