Chapter 30: Dugu Yan: Man, You Have Piqued My Curiosity

Humiliation! Absolute, utter humiliation! It was an affront to her very dignity!

While a poison-type Soul Master naturally possesses significant resistance to toxins, it is rarely enough to completely ignore them unless there is a massive discrepancy in soul power. The only person Dugu Yan had ever seen treat her toxins with such total indifference was her grandfather, Dugu Bo.

Chen Ming walked through Dugu Yan's poison mist, then, as if in provocation, turned around and paced back and forth right in front of her before continuing on his way.

Witnessing this, Dugu Yan abandoned her cultivation and leapt up from the ground. Her tail, transformed from her legs, whipped across the floor as she rushed toward him, reaching out to touch his body. Just before her fingers could make contact, Chen Ming swatted her hand away with his tail.

"Are we that familiar? Getting handsy the moment you see me? Do that again and I’ll cry harassment!"

"You know exactly what I’m asking about."

Though she was furious and frustrated, Dugu Yan was, after all, a young woman of virtue. At his words, she didn't dare continue her advances. Instead, she circled him, reaching out to probe the toxic mist surrounding him.

"It’s so strange. Emerald Scorpions don't use poison mist as a means of concealment or offense, yet the quality of your mist is exceptionally high."

"If it were a trait gained from absorbing a spirit ring from a soul beast... that’s not right either. You are an Emerald Scorpion King. What kind of spirit ring could bring such a transformation to your martial soul? Your first ring was hundred-year, your second was thousand-year... could it be the second ring?"

"No, that’s not it either..."

Dugu Yan felt as if she were staring at a math exam; no matter how hard she tried, the contents remained an indecipherable language. Everything she looked at felt like something her grandfather had taught her, yet upon closer inspection, it all seemed completely foreign. She felt a twinge of doubt: had all her years of study under the world-renowned Poison Douluo been in vain? Why was it that when facing a mere two-ringed Great Soul Master, she couldn't understand anything, and her own pride-and-joy toxins were utterly useless?

Could it be that her grandfather had only been comforting her, that her talent was actually mediocre and her brain simply slow?

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Dugu Yan trailed behind Chen Ming like a woman obsessed, her eyes fixed on his every move. She would occasionally lower her head to inspect the ground where he had walked, or lean in close to take deep breaths of the air around him, a behavior that would have prompted anyone else to call for help.

Even though Chen Ming had intended to tease Dugu Yan to build a rapport and eventually scheme for Dugu Bo’s immortal herbs, her behavior began to make him feel uneasy.

"Men and women should keep their distance," Chen Ming said, walking a few paces ahead before turning to speak to her with righteous indignation.

"Hmph..." Realizing how she had been acting, Dugu Yan’s face flushed slightly. She huffed, turned away, and, refusing to meet his eyes, found a spot to sit and resume her cultivation.

Chen Ming shrugged, wandered around the simulated environment a few more times, and then settled into a spot he found suitable to begin his daily practice.

Dugu Yan chose a position not far from him—a spot quite favorable for a poison-type Soul Master.

Initially, her mind was too scattered with distracting thoughts to enter a meditative state. Just as she finally managed to clear her head and find her focus, she was suddenly struck by an unfamiliar sense of pressure. It wasn't overwhelming—it felt like the tightness of a sweater constricting her chest—but it was enough to disrupt her rhythm. Annoyed, she stopped her cultivation and opened her eyes to glare at Chen Ming.

As Chen Ming cultivated, his Emerald Scorpion King martial soul became active, and its inherent pressure manifested. While it hadn't yet reached the level of an Emperor, the Emerald Scorpion King was a powerful poison sovereign in its own right. It exerted pressure not only on other scorpion-type soul beasts and masters but also on other poison-attribute Soul Masters.

Although Dugu Bo’s martial soul was the Jade Phosphorus Serpent Emperor, that was an evolution achieved by chance upon breaking through to the Title Douluo rank. When he sired Dugu Yan’s father, his martial soul had only been at the Serpent King level, far from the status of an Emperor. Dugu Yan’s father had decent talent, but when Dugu Yan was born, his soul power wasn't high, and his martial soul was merely a strong Jade Phosphorus Serpent—still a significant step down from a Serpent King, let alone an Emperor.

Despite being accustomed to the pressure of superiors from spending years at Dugu Bo's side, Chen Ming was not Dugu Bo. His martial soul was different, and Dugu Yan found herself struggling to adapt.

She wanted to move further away, but felt that doing so would be an admission of fear. She wanted to leave entirely, but was loath to deal with the "flies" waiting outside, so she boredly pulled out the notebook her grandfather had given her and began to read in the dim light.

She flipped to the entry on the Jade Phosphorus Scorpion, one of the five great poisons, and began comparing it to Chen Ming’s martial soul. She scanned the illustrated guide for top-tier poison-attribute soul beasts, trying to determine which one he could have absorbed to gain such traits.

She didn't stay focused for long before giving up, deciding to simply ask her omniscient grandfather when he returned.

Spurred by a desire to prove herself, she pushed through the pressure of Chen Ming’s aura and returned to her cultivation. Driven by his subconscious influence and her own stubborn refusal to yield, she slipped into a state of meditation more effective than any she had experienced before.

As her meditation deepened, she felt as if the poison-attribute soul power within the cavern—usually indifferent to her—was consciously gravitating toward Chen Ming, forming a vortex centered around him.

In Dugu Yan’s understanding, this was bizarre. While high-level Soul Masters could trigger such phenomena, it was usually due to the sheer speed of their absorption causing a localized gathering of soul power. Chen Ming’s absorption speed was fast, but not to that hyperbolic degree; it was as if the soul power itself was actively seeking him out, desperate to be absorbed.

Within this circle of soul power near Chen Ming, even her own cultivation speed increased by ten to twenty percent. It was incredible; she had never experienced anything like it, even while training beside Dugu Bo.

Without her noticing, her body subconsciously drifted closer to Chen Ming in pursuit of the denser soul power, though the distance between them remained wide enough that the shift was not yet obvious.