A few days later, Dugu Bo came personally to bring Chen Ming back to the Ice and Fire Ying Yang Well. Once they returned, Chen Ming recounted everything that had happened recently, and immediately began preparing medicinal formulas tailored specifically to treat Dugu Bo's condition.
Strictly speaking, if Ye Renxin had been brought along, Chen Ming would have dared to employ even more advanced methods. But by the same token, he wasn't willing to let Ye Renxin learn of the existence of this place.
To any healer, the Ice and Fire Ying Yang Well was nothing short of a dreamlike sanctuary. Moreover, a Martial Soul like Nine Heart Begonia would experience an enormous boost in cultivation speed here. If Ye Renxin ever found out, he would likely refuse to leave—even if it meant shamelessly staying by force.
And in the end, this place belonged to Dugu Bo. While Chen Ming could make use of many of the herbs growing here, the final say still rested with its true master.
Chen Ming had no intention of becoming like Tang San—treating Dugu Bo as nothing more than a tool, stripping the Ice and Fire Ying Yang Well bare and turning it into his personal garden.
Even after all these years, he still vividly remembered the disgust that had surged within him when he first saw that scene—Dugu Bo allowing Tang San to freely gather herbs, only for Tang San to practically empty the entire place. The memory had left such a bad taste that he had stopped reading for quite a long time afterward.
After all, being told you could choose freely didn't mean you were invited to loot everything. "I merely chose all of it,"—what kind of justification was that? Such greed… wasn't he afraid of choking on it? Not a single herb left behind for the rightful owner?
Back then, Chen Ming had first encountered the story through a softened comic adaptation, and even that had been enough to shock him. Later, when he read the original novel, the issues only became more apparent.
Still, in the end, he had forced himself to finish the entire series.
...
After sharing his thoughts, Dugu Bo fell silent for a long while before finally shaking his head.
"I trust Ye Renxin," he said slowly, "but every additional person who knows about this place brings another layer of risk. Once I've passed through my weakest period, perhaps I'll speak with him about it."
"As you wish, Senior," Chen Ming replied, choosing not to press further as he began preparing the medicine.
The herbs within the Ice and Fire Ying Yang Well were generally of extremely high age and potency. Yet Chen Ming didn't simply use the oldest or strongest ones—he selected each ingredient based on what was most appropriate.
Using Nine-Grade Purple Ganoderma as the primary component, he combined it with dozens of other herbs, dividing them into powders, pills, and liquid formulations, each tailored to address different aspects of Dugu Bo's condition.
During the first few weeks, under Chen Ming's aggressive treatment, Dugu Bo lost nearly twenty pounds. The once-formidable Titled Douluo was reduced to something resembling a frail old man at death's door. Only through continuous supplementation—various tonics in powder, pill, and liquid form—did he gradually regain more than ten pounds in the weeks that followed.
Acupuncture, bloodletting, cupping, scraping, massage…
Oral medicines, topical applications, injections…
Within three months, Dugu Bo had cumulatively lost two hundred pounds—only to gain back two hundred and fifty.
As the stubborn, deeply embedded toxins within his body were steadily scraped away and expelled, he could clearly feel the contradiction within himself: even as his body grew weaker in the short term, his overall condition was improving with each passing day.
After three continuous months of treatment, nearly ninety percent of the toxins within Dugu Bo's body had finally been purged. The remaining ten percent proved far too stubborn to remove in one go, and could only be slowly released over time.
Under Chen Ming's constant guidance and the effects of carefully prepared medicines, Dugu Bo gradually developed an awareness of the chaotic movements of the toxins within his body. Though he didn't fully understand the underlying principles, he could now rely on instinct and control—suppressing the secretion of toxins when necessary, or allowing them to accumulate before expelling them in a single burst. In doing so, he could prevent the kind of uncontrolled buildup that had plagued him for years.
When the second phase of treatment came to an end, the change in Dugu Bo was nothing short of astonishing.
His Spirit Power had not merely increased by a single level—it had leapt forward by two, propelling him from Level 91 straight to Level 93 as a Titled Douluo.
With that breakthrough came a visible transformation. His entire bearing seemed rejuvenated; where he once looked to be in his sixties, he now appeared no older than a man in his forties or fifties.
His once-green hair had been completely shaved off during treatment, and what grew back in its place was a thick, lustrous jet black. His aura was steady, his vitality abundant, and a restrained brilliance gleamed within his eyes. The slight bulge at his temples hinted at the fullness of his Spirit Power.
The withered pallor that had once defined his face was gone, replaced by a healthy, almost infant-like rosiness. His previously gaunt and emaciated body had filled out, becoming robust and imposing once more. Standing there, he exuded a quiet steadiness—yet beneath it lay unmistakable strength.
At this moment, Dugu Bo felt that he alone could defeat three versions of his former self.
Even his Martial Soul, the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor—which had once seemed to have reached its natural limit—now showed signs of breaking through to a higher level.
If he were to release his Martial Soul True Body, he would notice four distinct bulges along its form, and two small horns beginning to sprout from the serpent's head. It was on the verge of evolving—from serpent into a flood dragon.
Given the foundation of Dugu Bo's Martial Soul, the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor had always been extremely close to a true dragon. Should it complete this transformation and undergo a qualitative leap, the power it would unleash would be beyond imagination.
And even now, merely approaching that state of transformation had already brought immense benefits. Combined with the healing of his body and the breakthrough in his cultivation, Dugu Bo's close-combat ability had improved drastically. He was no longer the fragile poison user who relied solely on toxins from afar.
If not for the incompatibility of his Spirit Abilities and the lack of specialized physical enhancements, he might very well have been able to switch to a pure assault-type fighting style.
At one point, Dugu Bo had even entertained the idea of taking Chen Ming as his grandson-in-law. But after these months of treatment, he had completely abandoned that notion.
In fact, if not for the concern that such a relationship might somehow hinder this prodigious genius who had freed him from his lifelong curse, Dugu Bo would have gladly performed a sworn brotherhood ceremony with Chen Ming—burning incense and making an oath. Not to be born on the same day, but to die on the same day.
Now, when it came to Chen Ming's requests, Dugu Bo would grant anything without hesitation. Even if Chen Ming were to ask for a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring or Spirit Bone, Dugu Bo would slap his chest and agree on the spot—first searching for a transformed hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast, and if none could be found, simply heading into the Star Dou Forest in the future to hunt one down personally.
And during these three months, Chen Ming himself had not been idle.
After absorbing his second Spirit Ring, his cultivation had reached Level 23, and during his period of studying medicine, he had advanced by another level. Upon returning to the Ice and Fire Ying Yang Well, he immediately began applying everything he had learned, experimenting with the formulation of new medicines.
Following a series of trials and failures, drawing upon his accumulated pharmaceutical knowledge as well as fragments of inspiration from novels he had read in his previous life, Chen Ming finally broke through the limits of medicinal arts in this era of the Douluo world—
and successfully refined something that could truly be called a pill.