"Kid, if you dare run your mouth at me one more time, even though your poison interests me, I'll kill you right now. My poison is trash? I can annihilate every living thing within a kilometer and leave not a single blade of grass standing in the blink of an eye. Killing you wouldn't even require me to lift a finger — I could just let the poison take you. In this world, among all poison-attribute Soul Masters, no one has ever surpassed me. And you dare question my poison?"
Under the glow of the green fire, Tang San finally saw his surroundings clearly. He was inside a cave roughly a thousand square meters in area. Dugu Bo still wore the same attire from the daytime, standing just over ten meters away.
"What an absurd notion. My own poison poisoning me? I am seventy-eight years old this year. In all my life, I have only ever poisoned others — no one has ever poisoned me." Dugu Bo stared at Tang San coldly. Strangely, this time he did not strike again.
Tang San let out a disdainful snort. "Is that really so? Then let me ask you this. Whenever the sky clouds over or it rains, do you not feel a numb, itching sensation along both sides of your ribs that grows progressively worse? It flares once at noon and once at the hour of Zi. Given your current condition, each episode should last a full two hours or more. And every night, around the third watch, you feel a stabbing, needle-like pain at the crown of your head and in the pit of your stomach. Your entire body seizes up for at least an hour. That excruciating ordeal — shall I bother describing it? If that isn't caused by poisoning, what else could it be? Not only have you been poisoned, the toxin has already seeped into your bones. What I find truly puzzling is how you haven't died yet. The poison inside you is not something that Soul Power can suppress."
"You — how do you know that?" Dugu Bo could no longer contain his shock, blurting the words out instinctively.
Tang San's description was so precise it might as well have been firsthand observation. This was Dugu Bo's deepest secret — one even his own beloved granddaughter did not know. Hearing it come from this boy's lips, how could he not be alarmed? Killing intent surged in his eyes, cold and murderous, as though it could pierce straight through Tang San.
The strength of a Titled Douluo was simply too overwhelming. The killing aura released from Dugu Bo's body crashed against Tang San's chest like a physical force. Tang San let out a cry and spat out a mouthful of blood, stumbling back three full steps before barely steadying himself. His
"So there is some substance to you after all." Dugu Bo had already calmed down. He had assumed that with his killing aura now dense enough to take physical form, killing a mere Soul Master barely past the thirtieth rank would be trivially easy. He had silenced people more times in his life than he could count. Yet Tang San had withstood his killing aura. The boy had coughed up blood, sure, but he did not appear seriously wounded. Such physical resilience was far beyond what a thirtieth-rank Soul Master should possess.
"Let me have a look. So this is the Martial Soul that hurt my granddaughter?" Dugu Bo's figure flickered, and he appeared before Tang San in an instant, reaching out to grab him.
Blue Silver Grass moved on its own. Tang San's first Soul Ring flared brilliantly — First Soul Ring skill, Binding, activated.
The tough strands of Blue Silver Grass, driven to their utmost by Tang San, lashed out wildly at Dugu Bo, wrapping around his body almost instantaneously in a tight bind.
But then a terrifying sight appeared. The moment the Blue Silver Grass touched Dugu Bo's body, it dissolved — melted away like snow falling on a hot stove. There was no pause, no resistance, not even enough to slow Dugu Bo's reaching hand for a fraction of a second. In the next instant, Dugu Bo's massive hand had clamped down on Tang San's shoulder.
Dugu Bo's grip was ironclad, locking onto his shoulder like a vise. Tang San's Eight Spider Lances nearly shot out on reflex, lancing toward Dugu Bo with a shrill whistle through the air. Purple light blazed as the deadly venom fully activated.
"Oh?" Dugu Bo showed a flicker of surprise. With his level of power, he did not even need to make contact — the sensitivity of his body's energy already told him that the Eight Spider Lances carried far more force than the Blue Silver Grass had before. Green light instantly radiated from Dugu Bo's body. He did not even summon his Martial Soul. The Eight Spider Lances struck the green barrier and only raised eight ripples of emerald light upon its surface, unable to penetrate in the slightest.
"An external spirit bone, I see. No wonder — no wonder Yanyan couldn't beat you." Dugu Bo's expression shifted to one of sudden understanding, and as he stared at the Eight Spider Lances, an unmistakable greed flickered in his eyes.
A wave of frigid Soul Power flowed from the hand on Tang San's shoulder into his body, and he instantly felt himself go numb from head to toe. All of his Soul Power became impossible to gather.
The freezing current swept through his entire body in an instant, as though he had been plunged into an ice cellar. Despite Tang San's extraordinary talent — not only was he an exceptional fighter among his peers, but he also possessed battle experience and a cool head — none of it mattered against such an absolute gap in strength. Against Dugu Bo's Soul Power, forget about resisting; he could not even move a single finger.
Dugu Bo clearly did not take Tang San the slightest bit seriously. He tossed the boy to the ground with a casual flick and said with a note of disappointment, "What a shame. It's already fused. Otherwise, this kid would have been quite the gift."
Dugu Bo's eyes blazed with green light as he stared down at Tang San like a man examining a priceless treasure, greed flashing in and out of his gaze. "I have to admit, you're stronger than my granddaughter — stronger even than that boy
Because the gap in strength was so vast, Dugu Bo had not bothered to seal Tang San's Soul Power. Tang San dragged himself up from the ground once more, his voice cold: "To think I would die at the hands of an old monster who uses nothing but trash poison. What a waste. Truly a waste."
Dugu Bo's eyes gleamed with the cold light of a venomous serpent. "Are you asking me to kill you right now? Ending your life would be no harder for me than crushing an ant. But I won't be in any hurry to do so. The spirit bone dropped by a Man-Faced Demon Spider — that's interesting. I'll extract every last drop of venom from your spirit bone first, and then I'll kill you nice and slowly."
A fierce look of defiance flickered in Tang San's eyes. He knew that even with his most recently crafted Hidden Weapons, he would stand no chance against this old monster. Against such an opponent, unless he had mastered the top three Hidden Weapons recorded in the Hundred Hidden Weapons Manual, the outcome would only be death.
He was not willing to accept this. He had not yet learned all the supreme arts of the
Since arriving in this world, he had finally experienced the world beyond — and it had given him far, far too much to hold on to.
Seeing the defiant light in Tang San's eyes, the old monster burst into hearty laughter. "Unwilling to accept it, are you? I've seen that look in countless people's eyes over the years. What I enjoy most is snuffing out that kind of defiance. Perhaps given a few decades, you truly might have surpassed me. But as things stand now, your chance is gone. You said my poison was trash, and yet you're still going to die at my hands."
Tang San replied mildly, "That is precisely my greatest unwillingness. Given enough time, I could kill you even without using a Martial Soul. Your pathetic poison technique is worse than dogshit. It doesn't just leave you looking half-human, half-ghost — it will poison your descendants too. Trash among trash."
"What did you say?" Dugu Bo's emotions suddenly erupted. His arm shot forward, elongating in an instant, and his hand seized Tang San by the throat, hauling him close.
This time, Tang San did not even attempt to resist. He simply stared at Dugu Bo with cold eyes. Though breathing was difficult, he forced the words out: "You think you'll meet a good end? Those symptoms of yours will only keep getting worse. I don't yet understand how you've been suppressing the toxin from flaring up — you must have consumed some rare heavenly treasure at some point. But no treasure can sustain you forever. In just a few more years, if the poison doesn't kill you, the backlash from the toxins will torture you to death. You'll die a far more miserable death than mine."
A flicker of uncertainty passed through Dugu Bo's eyes. Everything Tang San had said struck precisely at the deepest source of his suffering. Behind his formidable power lay torment beyond what any ordinary person could imagine. Every episode left him unable to live or die, trapped in pain that words simply could not describe.
(End of Chapter)