The balcony of the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace was a windswept, lonely place, a stage of cold marble set against the vast, indifferent blue of the sky. Dugu Bo's poison mist swirled around them, a sickly green bubble that cut them off from the world, trapping them in a private, suffocating sphere of tension.
His voice, when he spoke, was a low, dangerous whisper, the sound of dry leaves skittering across a tombstone. "What… did you just say, boy?"
Zhang Tian did not flinch. He met the Titled Douluo's murderous, serpentine gaze with an unnerving calm. The immense pressure radiating from the old man was a physical weight, but it could not touch the placid lake of his mind.
"I am not threatened by you, Senior Dugu Bo," he said, his voice even. "Your anger is a mask for your fear. A fear I understand completely."
He continued, his words a calm, clinical dissection. "I have had the privilege of studying the complete alchemical texts of the Breaking Clan, among many other sources. It is not difficult for me to recognize the signs. Your entire body is saturated with a poison so potent it has become a part of you."
"The green of your hair, the strange light in your eyes… it is not a natural color. It is a physical manifestation of the venom that courses through your veins," he stated, his voice devoid of judgment, speaking a simple, irrefutable truth.
"And your vitality," Zhang Tian added, his gaze softening with something that looked almost like pity. "For a Titled Douluo, a being who should be at the peak of their physical power, you look… withered. As though your life force is being constantly leeched away. It is clear to me that you do not have long to live."
"Insolent brat! How dare you speak to me with such lies?!" Dugu Bo snarled, a wave of furious, jade-green spirit power flaring from him. The mist around them thickened, churning with a venomous energy.
But the outburst was hollow, a desperate roar from a cornered animal.
Zhang Tian simply sighed, a sound of weary patience. "Must we play this game of denial, Senior? I am not here to mock you. I am here to offer a solution. Do you truly not wish to hear it?"
He paused, his next words a perfectly aimed dagger that pierced straight through Dugu Bo's fragile pride and into the terrified heart of the grandfather beneath. "This condition, this poison… it originates from your Jade Phosphor Serpent Martial Spirit, does it not? And that spirit is a hereditary one. Which means your granddaughter, Dugu Yan, carries the same poison. Her life is also in danger. Are you truly willing to sacrifice her future for the sake of your own pride?"
The green mist faltered. The furious pressure receded. Dugu Bo went completely still, his face a mask of stone. But Zhang Tian could see the flicker of pure, unadulterated terror in his serpentine eyes. He had lost.
'This boy…' Dugu Bo thought, his mind reeling. 'He saw it all. My pain, my weakness, my greatest fear. And those potential enhancing pills... Perhaps… perhaps he really has some methods...Perhaps he really can do it.'
"I have not spoken of your condition to Uncle Ning, or to Grandpa Sword and Bone," Zhang Tian said, his voice softening, offering an olive branch. "This is a matter between you and I. I simply wish for you to take me to your medicinal garden. My lovers, Rongrong and Zhuqing, will accompany me."
He saw the flicker of confusion in Dugu Bo's eyes. "There, I will begin your treatment. And I promise you, Senior, I will not only cure you. I will make you stronger than you have ever been before."
The promise of more power was a hollow temptation to the old man. "I do not care about getting stronger," Dugu Bo rasped, the words a quiet, desperate admission of defeat. "Just… cure the poison. For myself, and for my Yan Yan. That is all I ask."
He looked at the impossibly calm young man before him. "It is as you say. My own spirit… it is poisoning me."
Zhang Tian nodded, a comforting, professional calm settling over him. "You will not regret this decision, Senior. Pick us up from the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect tomorrow morning. We will be ready."
Dugu Bo gave a single, curt nod. A final warning flickered in his eyes. "My garden is not a peaceful place. The ambient energy is a poison in itself. The plants are treacherous. If you bring those two girls… you had better be prepared for the consequences if they are harmed."
"We will be," Zhang Tian replied simply.
The green mist dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. The two of them walked back into the grand audience hall, their expressions unreadable.
"We have reached an agreement," Dugu Bo announced, his voice once again the cold, dismissive rasp of the Poison Douluo. "I will be taking this boy to my personal domain tomorrow to assist him with his research."
Ning Fengzhi's gaze immediately shot to Zhang Tian, his eyes filled with a thousand unspoken questions. Zhang Tian just offered a faint, reassuring smile and a subtle, calming gesture with his hand. 'Do not worry,' the gesture seemed to say. 'This is exactly what I wanted.'
The next morning, as the first rays of dawn painted the sky in shades of rose and gold, three figures stood waiting before the grand, open gates of the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect. They were surrounded by a small, worried contingent.
"Are you absolutely certain about this, Zhang Tian?" Ning Fengzhi asked for the tenth time, his handsome face etched with a father's concern. "To go alone with him, to his private domain… it is a great risk."
"Uncle Ning, please do not worry," Zhang Tian said patiently. "I have taken all necessary precautions. Besides," he added, a confident glint in his eyes, "I believe this will be a very… fruitful partnership."
Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo stood beside their Sect Master, their expressions grim. They had reluctantly agreed to this venture, but their protective instincts were screaming.
A swirling vortex of jade-green mist suddenly materialized before them, coalescing into the tall, thin form of Dugu Bo. He gave a curt nod to the assembled masters, his snake-like eyes showing none of the vulnerability he had displayed on the balcony. He was once again the cold, unapproachable Poison Douluo.
His gaze fell upon the two girls who stood beside Zhang Tian. He had expected one of them to be Rongrong. The other… He looked at Zhu Zhuqing, at her stunning, curvaceous figure and her cold, defiant eyes. 'I didn't think that the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect's prospective son-in-law would have another lover other than the heiress of this sect.'
"Are you ready?" he rasped, his voice impatient.
"We are," Zhang Tian replied.
With a final, reassuring look to Ning Fengzhi, Zhang Tian and the two girls stepped forward. Dugu Bo raised a hand, and his Spirit Power enveloped them all, pulling them into a disorienting, high-speed vortex of green energy as they shot into the sky, streaking towards the distant Sunset Forest.
Ning Rongrong let out a small, excited gasp, while Zhu Zhuqing braced herself, her hand instinctively finding Zhang Tian's. The journey, which would have taken days by carriage, lasted only seven or eight hours.
When the swirling green energy finally dissipated, they found themselves in a place that defied description. They stood at the peak of a high, craggy mountain, looking down into a small, basin-like valley shrouded in a thick, multi-colored mist. The air was thick with a thousand different scents, some sweet and floral, others sharp and acrid, a potent, dizzying cocktail of life and death.
This was the Sunset Forest. And this hidden valley was Dugu Bo's most precious secret.
"Welcome," the Poison Douluo's dry voice echoed, "to my little garden."
He produced three small, black pills from a jade vial. "The mist below is a poison array of my own design. It is a combination of seven different deadly venoms. Even a Spirit Sage would perish within minutes. These are the antidotes. Do not lose them."
They swallowed the pills and followed him down a winding, treacherous path into the valley. As they descended, the mist parted, revealing a scene of breathtaking, terrifying beauty.
It was a garden, but a garden of monsters. Plants of every conceivable shape and color grew in a chaotic, vibrant profusion. But every beautiful flower, every lush leaf, seemed to hum with a latent, deadly energy.
At the very center of the valley lay a small, circular lake, and this was the true heart of the anomaly. The lake was perfectly divided down the middle. One half was a milky, steaming white, radiating a scorching heat that warped the very air. The other half was a deep, icy blue, a thin layer of frost clinging to the rocks at its edge. A constant, swirling mist rose from the point where the two halves met.
'The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well,' Zhang Tian's mind whispered, a thrill of pure, triumphant excitement shooting through him. 'I'm finally here. The greatest treasure trove in the world.'
He did not let his excitement show. His face remained a mask of calm, academic curiosity. First, business.
He led the Poison Douluo to a small, clear patch of ground near the well. "Your treatment will not be instantaneous, Senior," he began, his voice taking on the cool, clinical tone of a physician. "Your body has been ravaged by this poison for decades. Your meridians are damaged, brittle. We must first strengthen them."
He produced a vial of pills he had prepared, a special concoction designed to nourish and widen the energy channels of the body. "Take one of these each day for the next week. Meditate for at least eight hours a day. It will prepare your body for the second phase."
He then began to explain the core of the solution. "Your problem is that the poison from your spirit has no central reservoir. It circulates freely, damaging your entire system. We must create one."
He pointed to Dugu Bo's chest. "You possess a Jade Green Pearl, your spirit core, formed when you became a Titled Douluo. It is currently unanchored. You must use your spirit power to guide it, to move it until it rests in your Middle Dantian, directly behind your heart. This is the optimal location for a core of your attribute."
He continued, laying out the complex, arduous process. "Once it is in place, you must use your immense spirit power to gather every last trace of poison from your body and compress it into that pearl. Then, you will infuse the pearl with even more of your spirit power and begin to make it rotate. You will forge it into a Poison Spirit Core. It will be a long, painful process. It may take a month or more. But once it is complete, the core will form a symbiotic link with your Martial Spirit. It will begin to actively absorb the poison your spirit produces, refining it, storing it, turning your greatest weakness into your greatest strength."
Dugu Bo listened, his snake-like eyes wide with a mixture of shock, disbelief, and a dawning, desperate hope. The theory was so audacious, so revolutionary, yet it made a strange, profound sense.
"I… I will try it," he finally rasped, his voice thick with an emotion Zhang Tian couldn't quite name.
He looked around his garden, his gaze lingering on the most beautiful, most deadly of his prized specimens. "You may take whatever you need from this place, boy. It is a small price to pay for the hope you have given me. But be warned," he added, his voice a low hiss. "The most beautiful flowers are often the most deadly. Even I do not dare to touch some of them lightly. And that spring… the water itself is a paradox of ultimate heat and ultimate cold. Do not go near it."
With that, he took the pills and retreated to a nearby cave to begin his long, arduous healing process.
Zhang Tian turned to his two companions, a slow, predatory smile spreading across his face. "Alright, you two," he said, his voice a low, excited murmur. "Let's go shopping."
He led them carefully through the garden of horrors, his eyes scanning the legendary herbs, ticking them off a mental list he had known for a lifetime.
"Rongrong, Zhuqing," he said, his voice serious. "Stay within ten meters of me at all times. The ambient energy here is a potent poison. Any further, and it could seep into your bodies and cause permanent damage to your foundations."
The two girls nodded, their expressions solemn as they huddled closer to him.
He stopped before a magnificent, pale pink flower. It had no leaves, only a long, elegant stem, and its petals looked as though they were carved from crystal. "The Aromatic Silk Beauty," he murmured, a note of reverence in his voice.
He didn't touch it. He released a single, slender vine of his Blood Silver Grass, which snaked forward and gently plucked the flower from the ground. "This will protect us," he said, handing the flower to Ning Rongrong. "Its fragrance neutralizes all airborne poisons in its vicinity."
With their safety secured, the true harvest began. But he wasn't just picking flowers.
"Stay here," he commanded, his expression turning intense. He released his Blood Silver Grass, and a thousand crimson vines spread out from him like a living, sentient root system. They slithered across the ground, weaving between the deadly plants, their tips gently touching the base of each legendary herb.
The Beautiful Silk Tulip. The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass. The Infernal Delicate Apricot. The Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum. The Eight Petal Immortal Orchid. The Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower. The Star Luo Holy Pearl. The Daffodil Jade Flesh Bone. The Ninth Grade Dragon Ganoderma. The Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew. The Black Jade Divine Bamboo.
He touched them all.
And then, he activated his first spirit ability. "Devour."
He was not trying to consume them. He was doing something far more subtle, far more profound. He was siphoning a single, infinitesimal drop of their very origin, their core essence, a sliver of the divine energy that had allowed them to evolve into immortal herbs.
The moment the combined essences flowed into him, a cataclysmic transformation began.
A brilliant, multi-colored light erupted from his body, so intense it forced the two girls to shield their eyes. He felt a fire in his veins, a power so immense it threatened to tear him apart.
His Blood Silver Grass underwent a fundamental evolution. It was no longer just a mutated plant. It was becoming something… more.
'This feeling…' Ah Yin's voice was a gasp of pure shock in his spiritual sea. 'The poison immunity from the tulips, the control over fire and ice from the two extreme herbs, the mental fortitude from the Full Moon Dew, the unshakeable toughness from the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum… and the Dragon Ganoderma… it's infusing your spirit with a trace of a true dragon's bloodline!'
His vines, which had been tough, were now impossibly so, their crimson surfaces taking on a faint, scale-like pattern. His control over their properties was now absolute. He could make them as hot as the sun or as cold as the void.
The essence of the Star Luo Holy Pearl and the Beautiful Silk Tulip granted him a new, passive ability: the power to absorb the essence of the sun, the moon, and the stars, turning his very body into a cultivation engine that worked day and night.
And then came the final, most profound change. He felt a new, dense core of energy beginning to coalesce within his spirit, a nascent seed of power.
The ability to condense a Spirit Core. It was a power that only a Titled Douluo should possess. And he had just acquired it at Level 33.
He stood in the center of the garden, bathed in a halo of divine light, his body and his spirit reborn.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels like "Harem Master: Seduction System" and the "Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist" and I hope you like this story and those stories as well.
Check out more chapters on my P.atreon. The P.atreon will have 20+ Chapters ahead for this story. I hope you like it.
The link of p.atreon is: bit.ly/evildragon