The West Courtyard
Teacher Qin Ming stood before the Royal Team. He looked pleased.
"Due to the upcoming Imperial Academy Exchange Event," Qin Ming announced,
"the Academy has granted a three-day study break. Use this time to rest, calibrate your equipment, and mentally prepare."
"Yes!" Osler cheered, pumping his fist.
"Sleep! I am going to sleep for seventy-two hours."
"I am going to the city," Yu Feng said, smoothing his hair.
"I need to buy a mirror. My current one is cracked from the sonic boom."
"We are going to eat," Shi Mo declared.
"The new noodle shop has a challenge: ' The Bowl of Eternity'. If you finish it, it's free."
Everyone had plans.
Arthev walked over to Dugu Yan. She was packing her bag, humming a tune.
"Vice-Captain," Arthev said.
Dugu Yan turned. She looked healthy. Her skin smooth, her eyes bright. The water treatment Arthev had given her weeks ago had cleared the immediate toxins, but Arthev knew it was a temporary fix.
"What is it?" she asked, smiling.
"Want to carry my bag?"
Arthev ignored her teasing.
"I want to take you on a trip," Arthev said calmly.
The courtyard went silent.
Osler dropped his water bottle.
Yu Tianheng looked up from his lead chopsticks.
Ye Lingling blinked.
Dugu Yan froze. A faint blush crept up her neck.
"A... trip?" she stammered.
"Like... a date?"
"A medical excursion," Arthev corrected instantly, killing the romance with surgical precision.
"To your grandfather's garden. The filtration I did was a patch. The dam is holding, but the water is rising. We need a permanent solution before the tournament strains your meridians."
Dugu Yan's blush vanished, replaced by a serious look. She touched her chest. She felt fine, but she trusted Arthev.
"Grandpa mentioned you might come," she said softly.
"He said you had a theory about... evolution."
"Yes," Arthev nodded.
"Pack light. No silk pillows this time."
"I hate you," she sighed, but she grabbed her gear.
--------
The Kitchens
Spark was scrubbing a pot (again). He was wearing a new apron that said Kiss the Cook.
"Whisper," Spark hissed.
"Code Pink. Code Pink."
"Code Pink is not a real code," Whisper's voice sighed in his ear.
"What is happening?"
"The Target is making a move on the Snake Girl," Spark giggled.
"He invited her to a 'private trip'. He called it a medical excursion. Smooth."
"Destination?"
"The Sunset Forest. Dugu Bo's lair."
Whisper paused.
"The Poison Douluo's territory. That is a fortress. A Level 92 Titled Douluo surrounds that mountain with a poison array that melts flesh."
"So... we can't follow?"
"Not closely," Whisper admitted.
"If we trigger the array, Dugu Bo will hunt us. And fighting a Titled Douluo blows our cover. We'll just stay back."
"Boring," Spark kicked the stove.
"So they just get a holiday while I scrub grease?"
"Let them go," Whisper decided.
"If Arthev can enter Dugu Bo's lair freely, it confirms he has the old monster's favor. That is... problematic. A Titled Douluo ally makes kidnapping him difficult."
"I can take Dugu Bo," Spark bragged.
"I have a bomb for that."
"You are Level 76, Soul Saint. He would melt you before you pulled the pin. Stay in the kitchen, Spark. Make a soufflé."
--------
Arthev and Dugu Yan traveled by carriage to the edge of the forest, then walked.
It was different this time. No team to manage. Just the two of them.
"So," Dugu Yan asked, leaping over a fallen log.
"What is this 'Evolution'? My grandfather said it sounds like madness."
"It is biology," Arthev said, walking beside her.
"Your martial soul, the Jade Phosphor Serpent, is a top-tier beast spirit. But it is... incomplete."
"Incomplete?" Dugu Yan frowned.
"It is the pride of my clan!"
"It is a snake that dreams of being a dragon," Arthev said poetically.
"It has the potency, but not the body. The venom is too strong for the vessel. So, instead of suppressing the venom, we need to upgrade the vessel."
"Upgrade the snake?"
"Into a Dragon," Arthev confirmed.
"Or at least, a Wyrm. If your spirit evolves, its resistance to its own toxin increases exponentially. You won't just be immune, you will feed on it."
Dugu Yan stopped. She looked at him.
"You speak of changing a martial soul like changing clothes. It's unheard of."
"So was a Black Ring at Level 40," Arthev reminded her.
Dugu Yan smirked.
"Fair point. You are a breaker of rules."
They reached the poison array. The green fog was thick, rolling like a deadly ocean.
Dugu Yan took out a pill.
"Antidote?"
"No need," Arthev said. He stepped into the fog. The Tailed Beast soul power coated his skin. The poison touched him and fizzled away.
"Show-off," Dugu Yan muttered, popping her pill and following him.
-------
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well
They descended into the crater. The temperature fluctuated wildly between freezing and boiling, but near the center of the garden, a tranquil pocket of air remained undisturbed.
Dugu Bo was waiting for them.
The old monster looked better. His hair was still green, but his skin was less pale. He stood straighter. The pain in his ribs was gone thanks to Arthev's earlier surgery.
"You're late," Dugu Bo grunted, sitting on his stone chair.
"I expected you an hour ago."
"We stopped for lunch," Arthev said, setting his bag on a flat stone.
"She wanted spicy strips."
"I did not!" Yan protested.
"You bought them!"
Dugu Bo looked at his granddaughter. His eyes softened.
"Yan-yan. You look healthy."
"I feel great, Grandpa," she said, hugging him.
"But Arthev says it's a patch."
"He is right," Dugu Bo looked at Arthev, the old intimidation replaced by a grudging respect.
"The pain is gone, but the venom will accumulate again. It will return in five years."
"Five years is too soon," Arthev said. He walked into the garden and pointed to a single, radiant flower growing near the edge of the soil. It bloomed with nine distinct layers of jade-colored petals.
Dugu Bo frowned, staring at the plant.
"That weed? I've seen it grow, but I
don't touch it. The toxicity coming off it is incredibly volatile. If Yan eats that, she'll dissolve from the inside out."
"You don't know what this is, Senior?" Arthev asked.
"An incredibly toxic plant," Dugu Bo growled.
"What else would it be?"
"It is an immortal-grade herb," Arthev explained, his eyes scanning the flower.
"Specifically, the Elysian Jade Nine-Glory Lotus. To you, it looks like a lethal hazard. But to a poison or toxic martial soul users, it is a catalyst."
He looked at Dugu Yan.
"Pluck it and eat it. Just like any other medicinal herb. Sit, digest it, and let the energy flow."
Dugu Yan didn't hesitate. She stepped forward, carefully plucked the lotus, and swallowed it.
She immediately sat down in a cross-legged, meditative posture on the stone ground.
For a long moment, the crater was silent.
Then, the air pressure plummeted.
A massive phantom of her standard Jade Phosphor Serpent materialized behind her.
But as the immortal herb's pure medicinal energy flooded her meridians, it violently triggered the hidden "Emperor" factor in her bloodline.
The phantom serpent let out a piercing, hissing roar that rippled the waters of the Yin-Yang Well.
Before their eyes, the serpent began to shed its scales violently, casting off its old form. In its place, a majestic, crown-like jade crest sprouted upon its head. The new scales hardened into deep, obsidian-shaded jade crystalline plates.
Her martial soul had officially evolved into the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor.
But the transformation wasn't free.
The sheer, explosive power of her newly awakened Emperor bloodline acted like a
magnet. It violently dragged decades of ancestral toxins out of her bone marrow,
her organs, and even her hair.
Dugu Yan let out an agonizing, choked gasp. Her skin turned completely translucent, revealing glowing green toxic veins pulsing frantically beneath the surface. The accumulated poison was being forcefully condensed, rushing straight
toward her heart.
"Yan-yan!" Dugu Bo panicked, taking a step forward, his hands trembling with raw, green energy.
"The poison is suffocating her! It's going straight for her vitals, I have to suppress it!"
"Don't touch her," Arthev commanded, blocking Dugu Bo's path.
"If you inject your own poison-type
soul power now, you'll disrupt the natural flow and injure. her."
"She's about to burst!" Dugu Bo snarled, his heart pounding.
Arthev remained entirely relaxed. He reached into his bag, pulled out a slightly squashed tea egg, and offered it to the Titled Douluo.
"Relax, Senior. Have a tea egg. Trust her. Her martial soul is an Emperor now. It knows how to survive."
Dugu Bo stared at the egg, his face pale with worry, but he forced himself to stand still, his eyes locked on his granddaughter.
Deep within her meditative state, Dugu Yan wasn't listening to the outside world. She was fighting for survival. As the toxic energy threatened to overwhelm her heart, her newly evolved Emperor-grade martial soul instinctively took control.
Rather than letting the poison run rampant, her energy pathways began to naturally restructure. Just like a real venomous serpent isolating its venom, her soul power adapted. Right at her dantian, the pure energy of the lotus fused with her toxic soul power, weaving a dense, highly compressed Poison Core, a spiritual equivalent of a serpent's poison sac.
This newly formed core acted as a natural, specialized reservoir, automatically drawing every stray ounce of toxic soul power out of her meridians and locking it safely away.
The violent, translucent glow beneath her skin instantly receded, her body and soul finally shielded from the chaotic, overflowing toxicit.
The silence returned to the crater.
Dugu Yan slowly opened her eyes.
Her hair, once a sickly poison-green, had shifted to a vibrant, silk-like royal jade color. Her pupils carried a faint, hypnotic golden sheen, the mark of a true Emperor-tier beast.
As she stood up, a heavy, suffocating pressure naturally rolled outward from her feet, turning the nearby stones a dull, weathered grey.
"A Domain," Arthev said
"A Jade Emperor Domain. Within its range, your poison becomes stronger, your enemies will continuously weaken as the toxins invade them, and your own soul power will steadily recover. More importantly..."
He smiled.
"...your body has become completely immune to poison."
Dugu Yan stared at her hands, slowly clenching and unclenching her fingers.
The familiar ache that had haunted her body since childhood was gone.
Completely gone.
"I..."
A radiant smile bloomed across her face.
"I feel incredible."
Dugu Bo, however, stood frozen.
His breathing had stopped. His eyes remained fixed on the jade mist surrounding his granddaughter, then on the majestic phantom of the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor behind her.
"No..."
His voice trembled.
"Not only did she evolve..."
"...she awakened a domain."
He had lived for decades.
He had crossed countless battlefields, fought Titled Douluo, and witnessed geniuses rise and fall.
Yet never, not once, had he heard of someone awakening a domain so young.
His eyes slowly reddened.
"Our Dugu family..."
"...finally produced an Emperor."
A deep laugh escaped him before it broke into tears.
"The Jade Phosphor curse... is gone."
He strode forward without another word and pulled Dugu Yan into a fierce embrace.
After many years, the Poison Douluo cried without restraint.
The burden carried by generations of the Dugu Clan had vanished in a single afternoon.
Dugu Yan hugged him back, tears filling her own eyes as years of fear and pain simply melted away.
Arthev quietly looked away, giving the grandfather and granddaughter their moment.
Only after several moments did he sling his bag over his shoulder and start walking toward the edge of the crater.
"Happy holiday, Vice-Captain," he called without turning around.
"And now..."
"...let's find you a Fourth Spirit Ring worthy of an Emperor."
To be continued.....