In the span of a single hour, Chen Ming had memorized six medical texts and two poison manuals—over one hundred and fifty thousand words in total—without the slightest mistake. Not only that, but as he recited them, he could effortlessly draw connections to similar passages in other books, pointing out omissions, errors, and even contradictions between different sources.
Was he even human?
Even printing text onto paper with wooden blocks wouldn't be this fast.
At this point, Dugu Bo no longer suspected that Chen Ming might be a transformed hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast—he was beginning to wonder if the boy was something even more absurd, perhaps a being born from a mythical million-year Spirit Beast that didn't even exist in legends.
But regardless of the truth, one thing was certain: Chen Ming was no ordinary person. Perhaps… not even human at all.
Over the next few days, Chen Ming first asked Dugu Bo for some wood, which he used with remarkable craftsmanship to build a small wooden house and basic living facilities within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. After that, he began formally studying under Dugu Bo, learning his methods of medicine and poison.
Roughly ten days later, Dugu Bo felt utterly drained.
Everything he had accumulated over the years—knowledge from books, insights from practice, even the subtle tricks he had developed through experience—had all been absorbed by Chen Ming.
If not for the fact that Chen Ming's Martial Soul wasn't the Jade Phosphor Serpent, Dugu Bo might have believed the boy could follow his exact cultivation path all the way to the level of a Spirit Douluo in one breath.
As for reaching Titled Douluo… well, even Dugu Bo himself knew better than to claim his path could reliably produce another like him.
By this point, Chen Ming had already learned sixty to seventy percent of Dugu Bo's poison arts. The reason it wasn't complete mastery was twofold: first, much of what Chen Ming understood remained theoretical, lacking hands-on practice; second, Dugu Bo's techniques were heavily dependent on his own Martial Soul.
Even so, if Chen Ming were to go out into the world, he would appear far more like Dugu Bo's true successor than even Dugu Yan herself.
Throughout these days, Chen Ming had also been meticulously recording Dugu Bo's condition—his heart rate, pupil changes, breathing rhythm, the flow speed of his Spirit Power, muscle stiffness, tongue coating, and the stability of his aura.
After ten days of observation and study, Chen Ming compiled a small chart summarizing Dugu Bo's overall state.
And from that chart, the conclusion was blunt:
Dugu Bo looked like a man on the verge of death.
Despite being a Titled Douluo with a powerful physique and immense reserves of Spirit Power, his condition fluctuated drastically. Worse still, every time he used his Spirit Power, his state would become even more unstable afterward.
In fact, some of his basic physical indicators were inferior to those of an ordinary adult in their prime. The only reason he had survived this long was due to the foundational strength of a Titled Douluo—and the supportive effects of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Yet after analyzing everything, Chen Ming realized something unexpected.
Stabilizing Dugu Bo's condition might actually be easier than he had initially thought.
Because Dugu Bo had no control over his own state, even the most fundamental methods could bring about significant improvement.
Chen Ming's unique ability allowed him to enter a state of absolute calm, maximizing his cognitive processing power to near its limits. In this "AI-like" mode of thinking, he could perform multiple layers of analysis simultaneously, achieving extraordinary memory and reasoning capabilities.
To outsiders, this ability might as well have been a system—one that allowed him to "grind experience" and continuously improve his skills. But in truth, Chen Ming couldn't see any sort of progress bar; he could only estimate his advancement.
He divided the process of treating Dugu Bo into five stages, each representing twenty-five percent.
The first four stages were highly reliable in theory and aimed at stabilizing Dugu Bo's condition, forming the core 100% of the treatment plan. The final twenty-five percent was an optional extension—an attempt to further strengthen Dugu Bo, something that could be pursued but wasn't strictly necessary.
The first stage: alleviation.
Based on Dugu Bo's condition, Chen Ming modified his own cultivation method. He simplified and slowed the flow structure of internal energy, transforming what had originally been a fast-paced cultivation technique into one focused on stabilization—reducing metabolic activity and calming the body.
Under Chen Ming's guidance, Dugu Bo began practicing this newly adapted technique daily. When he was on the verge of experiencing a backlash for the first time, he followed Chen Ming's instructions and entered a state of deep, slow meditation.
By mimicking the state of a hibernating snake—reducing his metabolism to the bare minimum—he managed to calm the violent toxins within his body.
This method wasn't only useful during impending backlash. Even after heavy use of Spirit Power, Dugu Bo could use it to suppress the surging toxins and restore internal balance.
When he successfully endured what should have been a full-blown backlash, Dugu Bo's trust in Chen Ming increased dramatically.
After informing Dugu Bo, Chen Ming began collecting rare herbs from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, using them for cultivation while experimenting with alchemy. At the same time, he continued refining the next stages of his treatment plan.
He even devised a set of martial movements—a hybrid based on Tai Chi and simplified calisthenics—designed to regulate the flow of blood and energy within the body, gradually restoring balance between yin and yang.
With the proper breathing techniques and a carefully designed circulation pattern for Spirit Power, this set of movements gradually stirred the dormant vitality within the body, encouraging it to rise. As the exercises took effect, blood and energy began to flow more smoothly, growing stronger with each cycle.
After Dugu Bo finished his routine, Chen Ming would step in with the next phase of treatment. Using a scraping tool he had crafted himself, he performed Gua Sha across Dugu Bo's body, then followed it with bloodletting using Dugu Bo's own silver needles. By carefully releasing blood at the joints and beneath the ribs, he drew out the toxins that had accumulated over decades.
What flowed out was thick, black, and foul-smelling—nothing like the blood of a living person. It resembled stagnant fluid from a corpse more than anything else.
This process was repeated once a day, for an entire month, across different parts of Dugu Bo's body. Only then did the blood begin to show signs of improvement—at the very least, it started to resemble something human again.
Chen Ming didn't stop there. He also completely overhauled Dugu Bo's diet. Instead of relying on medicinal substances, he shifted the focus toward balanced nutrition—vegetables, fruits, meats, milk, and eggs—carefully planned into meals that were light, low in salt and oil, yet rich in essential nutrients and vitamins.
For most Spirit Masters, such a diet would offer little benefit to their cultivation. But Dugu Bo was different.
His body, while converting energy into Spirit Power, would also unconsciously divert part of that energy into producing toxins. Worse still, his capacity to handle Spirit Power had already reached its limit. No matter how much energy he consumed, very little of it could be further converted into Spirit Power. The excess, once partially expelled, would inevitably be absorbed by the toxins within his body—feeding them, strengthening them, and creating even more poison.
At this stage, consuming medicine was practically meaningless for him. The impurities within his body had been entrenched for far too long. Weak medicine would have no effect, while stronger medicine would only harm him further. The only viable approach was a slow, steady method—gradually improving his condition before making any deeper changes.
Even during the detoxification process, Chen Ming was carefully working to reduce the rate at which Dugu Bo's body generated new toxins.
Of course, the most fundamental principle remained simple:
Drink more hot water. Use the restroom frequently. Let the body metabolize and expel its impurities naturally.
At the same time, Dugu Bo captured several Spirit Beasts from the forest and brought them back for Chen Ming's research. While ten-thousand-year Jade Phosphor Serpents were difficult to obtain, he managed to capture a few thousand-year specimens instead, sealing them with his Spirit Power so Chen Ming could study them.
Through dissections of these Spirit Beasts, combined with his ongoing observations of Dugu Bo's treatment, Chen Ming gathered a wealth of new data. Although his cultivation level and raw processing ability didn't increase dramatically, the scope of what he could analyze and deduce expanded significantly.
He was already forming a clear vision for his future cultivation—and for further refining methods of Spirit Power manipulation. All that remained was the right opportunity to put those ideas into practice.
After one full month of the first treatment phase, Dugu Bo stood before a mirror, staring at his own reflection in disbelief.
Compared to how he had looked just a month and a half ago, he seemed at least five or six years younger. The dark, unhealthy aura that once lingered between his brows had faded considerably, and a faint but unmistakable redness had returned to his complexion, replacing the previous ashen pallor.
Even simple movements felt different. His joints no longer throbbed with constant pain, the toxins within his body no longer threatened his life at every moment, and for the first time in years, he could sleep through the night without being jolted awake by agony—no longer writhing in bed like a worm, trapped in endless suffering.
For someone who had endured decades of torment—and had long resigned himself to a lifetime of it—this change was nothing short of miraculous.
From Chen Ming's perspective, this wasn't even the completion of the first stage of treatment.
But to Dugu Bo… it already felt like his problem had been fundamentally solved.
Throughout the process, Chen Ming had explained every principle behind the detoxification, as well as the reasoning for each step. Dugu Bo was convinced that if he simply maintained this regimen, he could live for at least another twenty years—and for the next ten years, he likely wouldn't have to worry about a single toxic backlash.
More importantly, if his granddaughter followed the same method, then even into old age, her toxins could be kept under control at a mild level. Perhaps future generations of the Dugu family would no longer need to live in fear of this curse.
A deep, indescribable joy welled up within him.
When he looked at Chen Ming now, it was as though he were looking at a sworn brother. For a moment, he even felt the urge to drag the boy into a formal oath of brotherhood—not seeking to be born on the same day, but to die on the same day.
So when Chen Ming expressed his desire to venture deeper into the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to search for rare herbs to aid his cultivation, Dugu Bo agreed without hesitation.
Not only did he personally escort Chen Ming into the inner regions—areas that would have been impossible for him to enter safely at his current level—but he even emptied out his treasured Wishful Hundred Treasure Purse and handed it over.
"Take whatever you like," he said simply. "Any herb you see—just take it."
...
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