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"Hmph, what are you looking at? Did you think a Titled Douluo just gets there by pure cultivation?"
Any Titled Douluo, if they were interested in theory, would have a research efficiency several times higher than an average scholar.
This was simply because they had personally experienced the vast majority of things described in those theories.
A Titled Douluo would have gone through all the details of spirit cultivation themselves.
Besides that, a Titled Douluo's innate high degree of fusion with their spirit also made their research into their own state and their spirit's state much easier.
"How is it? What's the effect?"
Su Wen used the Fire Demon Style's body tempering technique, drawing in the surrounding heaven-and-earth energy to refine himself.
Dugu Bo was also curious about the results.
"The effect is very good. I feel my fire resistance increasing much faster. As for my ice resistance... it's a bit less."
Su Wen's control over his body was extremely high. He could sense any minute change as long as he perceived it carefully, so his grasp of his own transformation was very precise.
Xiao Zhan's Fire Demon Style tempering technique was, in essence, a technique to help a Spirit Master adapt to the burning of flames and train their fire resistance.
Now, using the heaven-and-earth energy that was "infected" with the aura of extreme fire to temper himself, the effect was predictable.
Su Wen first cultivated on the outer perimeter, using the ambient energy that contained the auras of extreme ice and fire to temper himself and train his resistances.
As time passed, he gradually moved closer to the spring.
During this process, Su Wen's advancement speed was astonishing.
Dugu Bo had to repeatedly confirm that Su Wen could truly resist the erosion before he would relax and let him cultivate in a closer spot.
"Kid, you're way too fast."
After three months, Su Wen could already cultivate right next to the spring.
Of course, it was only for short periods. For true, sustained, long-term cultivation, he still had to be about thirty meters away.
But even this was already incredibly shocking.
Su Wen, however, was very calm.
He knew exactly why he had such efficiency.
The high fusion degree was just one part.
There was also his development of his book's 'all-encompassing' nature. He was gradually developing it in the direction of 'engraving' and 'internalizing'—that is, by personally experiencing the tempering of the two forces, he would then 'record' them onto his spirit, bit by bit internalizing them in a form similar to knowledge, which allowed his body to rapidly adapt to the two forces.
At this moment, he was truly developing his Book Spirit in the direction of a conceptual weapon.
Besides these two points, there was also his visualization method.
The library in Su Wen's Sea of Consciousness had now changed its appearance. It had become a scene of a massive number of books floating around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Although it was highly irrational, Su Wen had imagined and visualized it, and the effect was surprisingly good.
"Grandpa Dugu, I want to try for those two treasures," Su Wen said.
Dugu Bo still wore a very hesitant expression.
In these three months, aside from cultivating the 'Spirit Fusion Art' Su Wen had given him and exploring techniques to resolve his own poison problem, he had been focusing on researching the medicinal properties of these two herbs.
After his further, detailed research, he'd found it was indeed highly likely that the toxicity of these two herbs was purely 'ice poison' and 'fire poison'.
Even more bizarrely, when Dugu Bo, from Su Wen's perspective, specifically went to compare the strength of the two toxins, he discovered that the ice and fire poisons within the two herbs seemed to be highly identical in intensity. It was entirely possible they could neutralize and offset each other!
Of course, with good news came bad news.
"Little Wen, I've studied these two poisonous herbs in detail. They are different from the ones on the outer perimeter. Their ice and fire poisons aren't just from being tainted by the energy here. They themselves are the 'ultimate' attributes."
The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Fiery Apricot Delicate Vegetable were, themselves, the Ultimate Ice and the Ultimate Fire.
Their internal ice and fire poisons weren't born from the influence of the external energy; rather, it was more like the toxins were a by-product derived from their own ultimate power.
Su Wen, in fact, already knew this.
Theoretically, the two herbs themselves shouldn't have been able to reach the "ultimate" standard.
This was because a similar spirit beast existed in the Douluo Continent: the 'Scarlet-Eyed Ice Toad'. It possessed near-ultimate ice and fire attributes, but precisely because it walked the path of poison, it had trapped itself and was never able to truly transform and produce Ultimate Ice or Ultimate Fire.
The 'Ice Jade Scorpion', on the other hand, abandoned the poison attribute and achieved Ultimate Ice.
At the same time, the Ultimate Ice spirit beasts Su Wen knew of did not have any poison derivatives.
The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Fiery Apricot Delicate Vegetable should have been similar to the Ice Toad. But because they grew right next to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, they had been absorbing the ultimate ice and fire energy for eons, and thus had transformed into the true Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Fire.
"I still want to try."
"You must understand, the failure rate for this is extremely high. And if you fail, you will die!"
"I've already made the best possible contingency plan. I'll use the medicinal power of other treasures to maintain my vitality. As the two ultimate forces clash, I will jump into that spring. The internal and external tempering will work in tandem to achieve a balance, to prevent my body from being destroyed by the impact."
Dugu Bo's eyelids twitched as he listened to Su Wen's plan.
"Little Wen, I cannot allow you to take such a risk."
"Grandpa Dugu, when has a Spirit Master's cultivation ever been a smooth road? If you encounter a great opportunity and don't even have the courage to grasp it, how can you ever achieve greatness?" Su Wen said, his face firm.
"Besides, Grandpa Dugu, honestly... in the eyes of you Titled Douluo, is it really that amazing for me to have a thousand-year ring as my second one?"
Hearing this question, Dugu Bo fell silent.
When you reach the Titled Douluo level, having one less hundred-year ring and one more thousand-year ring... the impact truly wasn't that big.
At best, it meant you were ahead of your peers at the same stage. But as your cultivation increased, by the time you reached the Spirit Emperor or Spirit Saint stage, this advantage would be gradually diluted.
...Unless one could maintain this advantage all the way through.
"You kid... you're planning to get a ten-thousand-year ring for your fourth?" Dugu Bo asked, shocked.
If he really got a ten-thousand-year fourth ring, then Su Wen's advantage could be maintained all the way to Titled Douluo.
There was still a difference between five ten-thousand-year rings and six.
Moreover, if he maintained this lead with every ring, then one day, when he reached his eighth ring, he might be able to attempt to absorb a 100,000-year ring.
Even if the eighth ring was a bit lacking and he couldn't find a 100,000-year one, he would still have another chance with his ninth ring!
Two chances.
This way, his opportunity to obtain a 100,000-year spirit ring was indeed double that of others.
"In that case... go ahead and risk it." Dugu Bo said. "If you... have an accident, I will help you pass that Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower to Xiao Zhan. And the Earth Dragon Golden Melon, I'll send it to that 'Grandpa Jack' of yours."
Su Wen rolled his eyes.
"Can't you wish me a little good luck?"
He turned and took out the equipment he had prepared.
He had forgotten exactly how to harvest these things, but he seemed to recall it was either with iron sheets or jade. So he had brought both.
Seeing the iron sheet and jade piece in Su Wen's hands, Dugu Bo pursed his lips. "You're even acting all professional."
In reality, you don't understand the first thing about poison.
(End of this chapter)