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for Advance Chapter
Deep within the Sunset Forest, it was quieter than the Great Star Dou Forest, yet more dangerous.
There weren't many soul beasts here because the land itself was toxic. The trees were twisted and blackened, the ground seeped with dark green sap, and the air was thick with a mixture of sulfur and humus.
Dugu Bo led the way, his Martial Soul Avatar already released—a massive phantom of the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor coiled behind him. Wherever it passed, the poison mist parted automatically, revealing a safe path.
Mo Bai followed behind, with Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing on either side. Dugu Yan was protected by Dugu Bo's soul power, walking in the middle.
The further they went into the depths, the more violent the temperature changes became. One moment it was as hot as a steamer, the next it was as cold as an ice cellar. Two extreme auras clashed in the air, forming eerie turbulence.
"We're almost there," Dugu Bo said.
Passing through the final patch of dark green poisonous miasma, the scene before them suddenly opened up.
It was a mountain valley, and at the center of the valley floor was a spring about fifty meters in diameter. The spring water was clearly divided into two halves—one half was crimson like lava, steaming with scorching white vapor; the other half was milky white like cold ice, its surface frosted with light rime. The two spring waters met at the center of the pool, forming a rotating Taiji pattern, yet they did not merge, instead maintaining an eerie balance.
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Surrounding the pool grew countless exotic flowers and herbs. There were plants as red as blood with leaves like blades; there were translucent vines with stems like crystal; there were flowers that breathed out cold mist with petals like ice crystals... Each one radiated a startling energy fluctuation.
Xiao Wu's eyes lit up. She instinctively felt that every herb here was more precious than any heavenly treasure she had seen in the Great Star Dou Forest. Her fluffy rabbit ears perked up cutely, her soft dark hair framing her large pink eyes, and her perky breasts rose and fell excitedly beneath her clothes.
"This is it." Dugu Bo stopped his pace and turned to look at Mo Bai. "I've given you what you wanted. Now, tell me what you're going to do."
Mo Bai did not answer immediately. He walked to the edge of the pool, crouched down, and reached his hand toward the crimson half of the water.
"Teacher!" Xiao Wu cried out.
But Mo Bai's hand had already submerged into the water. A sizzling burning sound echoed, and his skin turned red, blistered, and carbonized at a visible rate.
Without changing his expression, he withdrew his hand and reached into the milky white half. This time it was freezing; his skin was instantly covered in a layer of ice crystals, cracking with fine bloody fissures.
"As expected." Mo Bai shook his hands, and the charred and frostbitten areas healed rapidly under the surge of soul power. "Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Fire. Anyone below a Titled Douluo dies upon contact."
He stood up and looked at Dugu Bo: "I need to strengthen myself first before I can act here. Please protect me for three days, senior."
"What are you going to do?"
"Use the Yin and Yang energy of this place to temper my physical body." As Mo Bai spoke, he took out two herbs from his soul tool.
One was entirely crimson, its leaves flickering like flames, with a golden-red fruit at its center—the Infernal Apricot.
The other was crystal clear, its stem carved like ice crystal, with an octagonal silver-white flower blooming at the top—the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass.
The moment these two immortal herbs appeared, the surrounding temperature fluctuated violently. Heatwaves and cold currents clashed, whipping up a whirlwind.
"You're going to eat both of these at the same time?" Dugu Bo's brow knitted into a knot. "Are you seeking death? These two herbs have conflicting medicinal properties; with Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Ice clashing in your body, even if you were a Titled Douluo, you'd explode and die!"
"That's why I need to use this Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well," Mo Bai said. "The intersection of Yin and Yang here is the best place to balance the medicinal power."
He explained no further and walked to the exact center of the pool—the heart of the Taiji pattern where ice and fire met. He sat cross-legged, holding the Infernal Apricot in his left hand and the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass in his right.
"Xiao Wu, Zhuqing, retreat a hundred paces," he said.
The two girls retreated quickly. Dugu Bo also pulled Dugu Yan back to a safe distance, his Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor phantom coiling, ready to move at any moment to save him.
Mo Bai took a deep breath and placed both immortal herbs into his mouth simultaneously.
He bit down.
The fruit of the Infernal Apricot exploded in his mouth, like swallowing a mouthful of lava. Energy hot to the extreme burned from his throat to his stomach, then surged through his meridians toward his four limbs and hundred bones. His skin instantly turned crimson, steam vented from his pores, and his hair and eyebrows began to curl and turn scorched yellow.
Almost simultaneously, the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass dissolved on the other side. Extreme cold energy, like ten-thousand-year mysterious ice, froze his blood and solidified his soul power. A layer of frost quickly covered his skin, his lips turned purple, and his exhaled breath turned into ice shards.
Ice and fire clashed within him.
Mo Bai's body became a battlefield. The left half was crimson and scorching, while the right half was bluish-white and icy cold; at the boundary, flesh turned over and blood vessels burst then froze. He let out a muffled groan, and blood began to seep from his seven orifices—half of the blood vaporized as soon as it flowed out, while the other half turned to ice.
"Hold steady!" Dugu Bo barked, a dark green soul power barrier protecting the surroundings to prevent the energy from leaking and harming others.
Mo Bai did not respond. He could no longer hear the outside world.
His consciousness sank to the deepest part of his body. There, ice and fire were fighting madly; every collision was like ten thousand knives scraping his marrow. The pain had transcended the realm of language; it was a primal wail coming from every single cell.
But he did not collapse.
His mental strength was like a needle, piercing into the center of the chaotic energy storm. Then, he began to "weave."
It wasn't confrontation, nor suppression, but guidance.
Just as he had guided Zhu Zhuqing's soul power, and just as he had guided Dugu Yan's toxin. He treated the extreme ice and extreme fire as two energies that could be harnessed, rather than enemies.
The water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well began to boil.
No, not boiling. It was resonating.
The crimson spring water surged with heatwaves, the milky white spring water rose with cold mist; the two energies rose into the sky like flood dragons, intertwining in mid-air, then dove down, pouring into Mo Bai's crown.
His body trembled violently.
His skin cracked inch by inch, then healed rapidly. His bones emitted groans of being overburdened, and soul power crashed through his meridians. But he sat very steadily, like a reef rooted in the center of the pool.