In the Qi Blood Soaring Hall, the Grand Elder sat high on the right-hand seat, quietly listening to Gao Wen's report in front of him.
"More or less that's how it is. After we confirmed things, my big brother told me to come back first with the news, while he stayed outside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to keep observing."
Gao Wen reported to the Grand Elder the experiences he and his brother had gone through over the past year. From the time they first arrived in the Sunset Forest, they searched in the outer regions, and whenever they found a basin similar to their target, they would take the sect's detoxification pills and venture deeper in, investigating them one by one to determine whether it was the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well they were looking for.
After exploring a full fifteen basins, they finally found the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well in a mountain hollow southeast of Heaven Dou City.
"However, the poisonous miasma outside that Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well is incredibly vicious. Even with detox pills in hand, we could only get close enough to see the edge before having no choice but to turn back along the same path."
As the Grand Elder listened, a smile rose in his eyes.
Even the joints of his fingers tapped more lightly as he nodded again and again. He stood up, personally lifted the purple clay teapot, and steadily poured tea from the spout into a celadon cup, then set it in front of Gao Wen.
Seeing this, Gao Wen panicked at once. He hurriedly tried to spring up from his chair, waving both hands, his voice half a pitch higher than usual. "I can't, I can't, Elder, how could I dare trouble you to do this yourself!"
"Sit down. We're all one family, what are you being so polite for?" The Grand Elder pressed a hand onto Gao Wen's shoulder. The strength in his palm carried the gentle warmth unique to an elder, yet made it impossible for Gao Wen to stand.
"If you ask me, it's your brothers who should be thanked. If you two hadn't spent a full year wading through the Sunset Forest, eating wind and sleeping in the open as you searched, who knows how many more years that treasure land would have remained buried in there."
By the end, the Grand Elder's voice had softened somewhat. Looking at the few new strands of white at Gao Wen's temples, he thought of how the Gao brothers had wandered outside for more than ten years.
Within the sect, the younger generation had only heard their names mentioned in their elders' idle conversations; they didn't even know what they looked like.
This time, the brothers had finally managed to return. They had originally wanted to spend some time with their wives and children to make up for lost family time, yet because of this matter, they once again threw themselves headlong into that perilous land filled with poisonous miasma and roaming fierce beasts.
Thinking of this, a trace of guilt flashed through the Grand Elder's eyes.
The pressure of his fingertips on Gao Wen's shoulder grew a bit heavier, as if he wanted to melt all his gratitude and heartache into this silent gesture.
Seeing the guilt in the Grand Elder's gaze, Gao Wen shook his head and said in a deep voice, "No, Grand Elder. Back then, if not for the Second Elder and several senior brothers dragging us out of that bandit den, my brother and I would've been dead long ago. How would we be enjoying the glory of Soul Emperor experts today?"
Soul Emperor—the title didn't sound that lofty, but in some weaker principalities, such a person could already be a local tyrant. It wouldn't even be difficult to use that power to enter the nobility and complete a leap in social class.
The Grand Elder gave Gao Wen's shoulder a firm pat, then asked, "Gao Zhan is there alone keeping watch. Will that old poison notice anything?"
Gao Wen took a deep breath. Only after calming his emotions did he answer the Grand Elder's question.
"He won't. Big Brother and I have observed him several times. Though he's at Titled Douluo level, we estimate that his strength isn't particularly outstanding among Titled Douluo. For him to sense us from over ten km away is nearly impossible!
"And Big Brother is also well aware how powerful Titled Douluo are, so he's stayed even farther away than usual. That makes it even less likely he'll be discovered."
As he spoke, a proud smile appeared on Gao Wen's face. For someone at Soul Emperor level to spy on a Titled Douluo in a way that was hard for the latter to notice—there were very few people on the entire Douluo Continent who could pull that off. If he and his brother had even a single ability related to disguise, they would undoubtedly be the number one special agents on the continent.
"He's still a Titled Douluo. It's best to stay cautious." The Grand Elder didn't really think anything would happen to Gao Zhan, but basic vigilance was still necessary.
"Then, Grand Elder, when are we going to go wash that place clean?" When Gao Wen asked this, his eyes were shining.
Although he had no idea what exactly the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was, judging by the sect's attitude and that Poison Douluo's regard for it, it was absolutely a top-class treasure.
The Grand Elder smiled at his words. After learning that the news about the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was accurate, he too was itching to fly straight to the outskirts of Heaven Dou City. But right now, the sect needed him to preside over the bigger picture, and there were still arrangements to be made.
At this moment, the Second Elder, Jade-Skin Douluo, arrived outside the door.
"Xiao Wen, how have you been this period of time?"
Looking at the travel-worn Gao Wen before him, the Second Elder sighed as he spoke.
Gao Wen shook his head at this. Although he and his brother had stayed in the Sunset Forest for a full year, in terms of danger, it was still safer than being caught up with all those clans and sects.
The Second Elder fell silent, then turned to look at the Grand Elder. Since Gao Wen had already returned to the sect, the Grand Elder must have learned the details of this operation.
"You found it?"
"Mm." The Grand Elder nodded heavily at his question, then said to Gao Wen off to the side, "Xiao Wen, tell this story from the beginning again."
As the Second Elder listened to Gao Wen's account, he frowned. They had already speculated at the time that this Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well might already have an owner, but they hadn't expected that owner to be Dugu Bo, the Jade Phosphor Douluo whose poison dominated the world.
Dugu Bo's combat strength in itself was nothing remarkable, but his terrifying poison skills were truly impossible to guard against. For people like them—Titled Douluo—his methods were fancy tricks at best, but for ordinary soul masters, he was practically a walking natural disaster.
"Dugu Bo's strength isn't weak. Why don't we call Old Third as well, and I'll go with him. If that guy doesn't know what's good for him, we'll just take him out."
Listening from the side, Gao Wen broke into a cold sweat. No matter how weak Dugu Bo might be, he was still a bona fide Titled Douluo, a legendary figure in the soul master world. Faced with someone of that level, the Second Elder's first thought was actually to just kill him.
Then again, thinking it over, Gao Wen found it wasn't a bad approach. Dugu Bo was too big a threat. In a certain sense, he was even more dangerous than Qian Daoliu. If he wasn't their own person, they had to make sure the first strike would be fatal.
The Grand Elder pondered the Second Elder's words for a moment. With the Second and Third Elders' strength, dealing with a single Dugu Bo wasn't hard, but actually keeping him there would be no small feat.
Dugu Bo hadn't never faced two Titled Douluo at the same time. Once, he had fought two, one of whom was even an agility-attack Titled Douluo, and the two of them had a Martial Soul Fusion Skill. Their difficulty was far from what the Second and Third Elders could be compared to. If in the end Dugu Bo got away, what awaited the Body Sect would be ceaseless revenge.
Having thought this through, the Grand Elder no longer hesitated. He turned to the Second Elder and said, "To be safe, I'll go with Old Third for this trip, so we can avoid any incidents."
As the only spiritual-type Titled Douluo on the continent, the Grand Elder was only half a step away from becoming a Super Douluo. With him personally taking action, it wouldn't be hard to seize Dugu Bo at the right moment.
"As for sect affairs, I'll leave them in your hands. You've got the experience for it anyway."
Hearing that the Grand Elder intended to personally take the field, Gao Wen couldn't help being stunned. Two Titled Douluo going after just Dugu Bo felt a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Very soon, the Grand Elder's voice sounded again. "Don't underestimate Dugu Bo. Don't forget that back then, he survived being hunted down by Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo."
"If you don't kill a snake, it'll come back to bite you; if you let a tiger return to the mountain, it'll bring disaster in the end."
At these words, everyone's hearts tightened. Right—if they were going to make a move, they couldn't leave any future trouble.
"In that case, why don't I come along as well? With the three of us joining forces, there's absolutely no way Dugu Bo can escape." The Second Elder pondered briefly, then directly upped the stakes, planning for the three Grand Elders to take the field together.
"Not a bad idea." The Grand Elder first nodded, then continued, "But you've been in seclusion this whole time, so you don't know. The Yun Tian Mountains has been a bit unsettled recently. We must have at least one Titled Douluo guarding the sect."
The Yun Tian Mountains was one of the famous lawless zones on the Douluo Continent, long inhabited by all sorts of desperate outlaws. Among them were hidden old Soul Douluo, and there might even be Titled Douluo-level experts that even a peak force like the Body Sect would have to take seriously. Under such circumstances, sending an experienced Titled Douluo to sit at the mountain gate was indeed the safest choice.
Even so, they all still had doubts in their hearts. The Yun Tian Mountains might be chaotic, but over many years of slaughter, an unspoken balance had formed. Each faction kept to itself—how had things suddenly gotten to the point where the Body Sect needed to be this vigilant?
The Grand Elder saw all their doubts and turned his gaze toward the direction of Skywater Academy, his tone tinged with a hint of teasing. "Isn't it all because of that brat? These past few months, he's gone on a killing spree in the mountains. Counting Soul Ancestors and Soul Kings alone, he's killed close to a hundred ruthless bandits and cutthroats. Those people who lick blood off the tip of the blade have sharper noses than hunting dogs—do you think they wouldn't notice something's going on?"
"So that's how it is."
Hearing this, smiles appeared on the faces of both the Second Elder and Gao Wen. Over the last few months, in order to temper his combat skills, Chen Yi really had been killing red-eyed. Any brigands blocking his way or factions that actively provoked him were almost never left alive. They truly hadn't considered that this would alarm all the outlaws across the mountain range.
"That's nothing more than a small matter."
The Second Elder waved his hand, his tone full of the unique arrogance belonging to a Body Sect Titled Douluo. "If most of the sect's upper echelon weren't currently in seclusion trying to break through to Titled Douluo, those trash—even if we penned them all up in the mountains as prey—they still wouldn't be able to stir up the slightest wave."
In the Second Elder's eyes, those people in the Yun Tian Mountains were either depraved soul masters who had betrayed humanity, or serious criminals wanted by the two great empires and the Spirit Hall. They deserved death to begin with. Killing them all might be a bit sweeping, but if you killed nine and let one go, there would still be fish that slipped through the net. You might as well keep them as consumables for the sect's juniors.
The Grand Elder agreed even more deeply in his heart. He had even already thought through these people's future use: once the Body Sect officially came out of hiding and announced to the entire continent that the God of War had returned, they could seize the opportunity to wipe out all the evildoers entrenched in the Yun Tian Mountains in one swoop, using their blood to build the Body Sect's prestige.
After all, waste utilization—that was the best ending for these desperate outlaws.
Seeing clearly that the Grand Elder had already made up his mind to leave, the others no longer tried to dissuade him. Looking at him, the Second Elder's eyes revealed a trace of excitement.
"In that case, when do we depart?"
"This matter is of great import; the sooner, the better. I plan to take Gao Wen and leave immediately."
With that said, he turned to face the south, pondered for a bit, then looked at Gao Wen at his side.
"Gao Wen, go to Skywater Academy and bring Third Elder and Chen Yi."
"Ah?"
The Second Elder and Gao Wen both froze. Bringing the Third Elder made sense—after all, the two elders working together would make the hunt more likely to succeed. But what were they bringing Chen Yi for?
The Second Elder said anxiously, "It doesn't seem appropriate to bring Xiao Yi along, does it?"
Battles at the Titled Douluo level affected a huge area. Lower-ranked soul masters could easily die if they weren't careful, never mind that Chen Yi was only a Soul Elder.
The Grand Elder didn't particularly want to take a Soul Elder into such a clash either. But some immortal herbs had to be eaten on the spot the moment they were picked. He wasn't sure whether the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well contained that type of immortal herb, but bringing Chen Yi along would ensure they were prepared for anything.
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