Chapter 57: "The Elegant C Language"

Back in his own territory, Dugu Bo appeared noticeably much more relaxed. He casually pulled over two stools, tossed one in front of Chen Ming, sat down on the other, and waved a hand at Chen Ming.

"Don't go thinking I'm some unreasonable person. Sit down, and let's talk this through slowly."

"Thank you, Senior Dugu," Chen Ming replied politely before taking a seat.

"What's there to thank? If I were you, I'd be cursing up a storm in my head right now. But what can you do? Even if you're angry, you have to hold it in—who asked me to be a Titled Douluo?"

True to his publicly recognized eccentric personality, Dugu Bo suddenly uttered something so baffling after Chen Ming sat down that it left the young man utterly speechless.

Chen Ming couldn't figure out what Dugu Bo meant by that, nor why this man was so utterly lacking in social tact.

Setting aside whether he was actually cursing inwardly or not, even if you could genuinely read his mind, should you really just blurt it out and make everyone awkward?

Don't go thinking a Titled Douluo is all that great! You'd better watch out, or I'll bully your granddaughter in the future!

Believing he had cracked a fine joke that eased the tension in the young man before him, Dugu Bo changed the subject and turned to business.

"Kid, tell me everything that happened that day, exactly as it occurred, without leaving a single detail out. I am a Titled Douluo with eyes as sharp as blades, so don't even think about lying to me."

"Your old man's eyesight is truly a match for the blind God of Eyes. In the original story, Xiao Wu, a hundred-thousand-year beast in human form, was right in front of you, and you couldn't even tell. You had the entire Ice and Fire Yangshui with all its immortal herbs, yet you didn't know how to use a single one of them. That kind of vision is more earth-shattering than any peerless Douluo's."

Chen Ming rolled his eyes internally, but his outward expression remained unchanged. After gathering his thoughts for a moment, he slowly began to recount the events of that day.

Chen Ming did not embellish anything; he simply spoke up to the point where he had stabilized Dugu Yan's soul power and then stopped, omitting the rest.

At this very moment, Dugu Bo naturally assumed that whatever followed involved Chen Ming carrying his granddaughter to find someone for treatment, seamlessly skipping over a crucial event.

What currently caught his attention was Chen Ming's claim about stabilizing soul power.

"You're saying that all by yourself, you managed to stabilize the soul power inside Yanyan's body, and by the way, even suppressed the chaotic poisons raging within her?"

Dugu Bo's brow furrowed into deep wrinkles as he looked at Chen Ming, suddenly finding the young man somewhat displeasing.

As everyone knew, stabilizing soul power was something only those of higher ranks could typically do for those of lower ranks. For a lower rank dealing with a higher rank, the best one could hope for was merely maintaining a steady state.

At the level of a Great Soul Master, one could barely keep their own soul power sorted out. Trying to stabilize someone else's soul power—preventing yourself from making things worse was already considered impressive.

How could he possibly have stabilized his granddaughter's soul power all by himself?

This definitely smacked of concealment!

***

Dugu Bo nodded inwardly, firmly trusting his own discernment.

"That's right, that's exactly how it was," Chen Ming nodded and replied with a clear conscience.

"What rank are you?"

"At that time, I was at rank twenty-three, on the verge of breaking through to rank twenty-four. After stabilizing Dugu Yan's soul power, it gave my own soul power a push, and I broke through to rank twenty-four."

"You broke through after stabilizing someone else's soul power..." Dugu Bo frowned, pondering for a long time, until a certain possibility occurred to him.

Could it be a Martial Soul Fusion Skill? Or perhaps some possibility of a Martial Soul Fusion Skill existing between his granddaughter and this brat?

Could it be that this kid relied on a potential connection between his martial soul and Yanyan's, accidentally triggering the conditions for a Martial Soul Fusion Skill when Yanyan's soul power went berserk, and thereby stabilizing her soul power?

"Can you describe what you did at that time?" Thinking of this, Dugu Bo asked.

"It was just like this: combining soul power and spiritual power, and then guiding..."

"What on earth?"

Dugu Bo had expected Chen Ming to speak of compatibility, some mysterious resonance, or the like, and had already prepared himself for the possibility of a Martial Soul Fusion Skill between Chen Ming and his granddaughter. Yet, with Chen Ming's description, Dugu Bo was completely thrown for a loop.

"Combining soul power and spiritual power, and then..."

"Nonsense! This old man has been a Titled Douluo for so many years, and I've never heard of anyone being able to combine soul power and spiritual power! Although I am not proficient in spiritual power, I do know this much: soul power is soul power, and spiritual power is spiritual power. The two are fundamentally different; how could they possibly be combined?"

Dugu Bo glared at Chen Ming, soul power surging across his body as the entire basement grew oppressive.

Did this brat think he was too easygoing and therefore start spouting utter nonsense?

"Allow me to ask a bold question: what is Your Excellency Dugu's current soul power rank?" Hearing this shocking statement from Dugu Bo, Chen Ming fell silent for about half a minute before tentatively speaking up.

Soul power and spiritual power cannot fuse?!

Good grief, if word of this statement reached the ears of other Titled Douluos, it would probably leave a vast number of them in stitches. Qian Daoliu, Tang Chen, and Bo Saixi could all choke to death halfway from laughing at such a remark.

A low-level soul master who doesn't know any better might be excused for saying something like that. But how could someone who was already a Titled Douluo utter such foolish words?

"A rank ninety-one Titled Douluo, so what... so what of it?!" Dugu Bo didn't react at first, but once he understood Chen Ming's implication, he bristled with rage, his beard flying as his fists began to itch.

So what if he was a rank ninety-one Titled Douluo? Did a rank ninety-one Titled Douluo eat your family's rice?

***

Even though he was burning with anger inside, hearing Chen Ming put it this way, Dugu Bo also seemed to understand something.

Soul power and spiritual power—these two seemingly unrelated things—might perhaps, conceivably, probably, seemingly... actually be capable of fusion, only he had remained completely oblivious to it for all these years.

Could it be some sort of special secret technique?

"This old man doesn't believe your claim. If you've got the guts, demonstrate it for me."

Dugu Bo felt his old face losing some face, yet he was reluctant to let go of a method that might effectively solve his family's condition, leaving him no choice but to bite the bullet and say to Chen Ming.

He figured that such a method was either a secret art, some unfathomable heritage, or at the very least a special legacy requiring a certain innate talent to learn. Executing it shouldn't be all that easy; otherwise, there was no explaining how he, a Titled Douluo, had never even heard of such a trick.

"You're really putting this old man on the spot..." Chen Ming spread his hands, showing his helplessness.

"Forget it, there's no need to rush. Just rest up for a few days and demonstrate it then."

Dugu Bo was thinking this to himself when, before he could even speak, he saw strange energies gathering in Chen Ming's outstretched palms.

"This is soul power, very common." Chen Ming raised his left hand and placed it before Dugu Bo.

"This is spiritual power... Don't look at me like that, my realm isn't high enough yet, so I can't project my spiritual power outward; I'm just giving you the general idea."

"And then..."

Chen Ming brought his palms together and closed his eyes. A moment later, a power unlike anything Dugu Bo had ever witnessed emanated from Chen Ming's hands.

"Like this."

Chen Ming opened his palms, which were now wrapped in a layer of soul power. That layer of soul power was extremely peculiar, something Dugu Bo had never seen before.

Though faint, it truly contained a force belonging to spiritual will.