Chapter 61: Fusion, The Primordial Venom of the Emerald Swan Serpent Emperor

The drop of soul power Chen Ming injected into Dugu Bo's body was a mere drop in the bucket. In fact, had Dugu Bo wished it, a single thought would have been enough to let the soul power within his own body backfire into Chen Ming's, wreaking havoc on Chen Ming's meridians.

However, Dugu Bo was truly worthy of being a Titled Douluo. Having struggled against agony for decades, even though he was on the verge of losing consciousness from the pain, the moment he noticed the foreign soul power entering his body to help him stabilize, he gritted his teeth and exerted absolute control over his own soul power and toxins, preventing them from violently colliding with Chen Ming's intrusion.

"Kid, I am fine, you don't need to..." Dugu Bo forced the words out through clenched teeth. At that moment, the hardness of his jaw approached that of the Clear Sky Hammer, renowned as the premier martial soul under heaven.

Having understood a portion of the true nature of the poison within him, Dugu Bo was confident that this toxic backlash wouldn't threaten his life. Yet, he was completely powerless to avoid the excruciating torment it brought.

Faced with Dugu Bo's words, Chen Ming acted as if he had heard nothing and pressed on with his actions.

The soul power stored within the dragon pearl for days was converted into vitality as if it were worthless, pouring endlessly into Dugu Bo's body to mend his damaged meridians. Chen Ming's vitality and spiritual power fused, wandering into the remote corners of Dugu Bo's meridians, guiding the soul power that was encroaching upon vital death points back onto the main paths, and stabilizing it as much as possible for Dugu Bo to manipulate.

Chen Ming's actions were subtle, and the amount of soul power he could influence was minimal. Yet, seizing this opportunity, Dugu Bo managed to regain control over this small fraction of soul power stabilized by Chen Ming, using it to gradually restore his condition.

At this very moment, Dugu Bo's internal state resembled a school of big fish eating small fish. Chen Ming stabilized scattered streams of soul power and supplied them to Dugu Bo, while Dugu Bo used this controllable portion of power to steady the rest. The only difference was that Chen Ming had to constantly monitor Dugu Bo's meridians, patching up the crumbling areas with his own vitality so that this internal battlefield could be sustained.

Finally, upon reaching a critical threshold, Dugu Bo regained the ability to control himself. Deep within Dugu Bo's lower dantian, a circular inner core came under his command and slowly began to spin.

The previously rampaging soul power was swiftly drawn back into the dantian by the gravitational pull of this inner core, and when it surged back out, it was entirely subjugated by Dugu Bo. In a remarkably short amount of time, the chaotic soul power rampaging through Dugu Bo's body had been thoroughly sorted out and tamed.

Yet, the greatest problem still remained: the core innate poison unique to Dugu Bo's body was still uncontrollably scattering into every corner of his physique, eroding his life force.

"My condition is under control now. You don't need to continue," Dugu Bo said softly to Chen Ming. Although his face remained flushed red, he had barely managed to return to a normal state. Despite the lingering, intense pain within his body, he forced himself to speak.

"I have an idea that can alleviate these toxins."

Chen Ming offered a brief explanation and said no more.

Chen Ming's soul power, guided by his spiritual force, gradually shifted into a mesh-like form. Then, mimicking the orbital trajectory of Dugu Bo's inner core within his own body, he slowly formed a faux vortex.

This vortex fell vastly short of a genuine soul core, possessing only a sliver of gravitational pull. Even so, it brought about a tremendous change in the perilous situation inside Dugu Bo's body.

Water flows downward, and soul power is no exception. With Chen Ming actively opening up his meridians and providing guidance, the venom within Dugu Bo naturally began to flow into Chen Ming's body.

Logically speaking, even though Chen Ming's martial soul was the Emerald Scorpion King and he had previously absorbed a supreme poison like the Seven-Jue Azure Phosphorus Flower, facing this core innate venom that had plagued Dugu Bo for decades should have, at best, allowed him to linger on the brink of death for a few days.

However, those few days of buffer time were more than ample for Chen Ming.

"Blue, add points!"

Chen Ming let out an amused, whimsical cry in his heart, guiding the venom that was eroding his flesh to surge toward his dantian.

Chen Ming's dantian was currently pressed directly against the dragon pearl. Since he no longer needed to continuously infuse Dugu Bo with vitality, this pathway had temporarily cleared up.

Leveraging his connection with the dragon pearl, Chen Ming funneled this intense, innate core poison through his dantian and directly into the dragon pearl. With the influx of this vitality-laden toxin, the previously dormant dragon pearl began to gleam brilliantly.

The innate core poison—a mixture of vitality, venom, and soul power—was rapidly broken down within the dragon pearl the instant it entered, under Chen Ming's precise control.

Although synthesis and decomposition inevitably incurred some consumption, the trace amount of toxin still yielded an immensely vast reserve of soul power and vitality that was safe for Chen Ming to absorb.

Chen Ming kept a portion of this separated soul power and vitality to sustain his physical form, channeled another portion backward into Dugu Bo's body to help him stabilize, and then once again guided another batch of Dugu Bo's toxins into the dragon pearl.

The venom ravaged parts of Chen Ming's meridians, but under the influence of the surging vitality, the destroyed channels were rapidly repaired and even further expanded. A fraction of the poison invaded Chen Ming's physique, but under the constant scouring of endless vitality and soul power, this minuscule trace of venom was thoroughly suppressed, merging into Chen Ming's very origin as he cycled his soul power.

Though he was acting to purge the poison for Dugu Bo, Chen Ming's own condition was undergoing a monumental elevation.

The enhancement of his soul power was minor; the leaps in his vitality and the quality of his martial soul were the real prizes.

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Ming's martial soul suddenly underwent a drastic mutation. The deep green carapace of the Emerald Scorpion cracked inch by inch as if its life force had been sucked dry, replaced instantly by a brand-new layer of shell. The deep green hue, once symbolic of pure venom, transformed into a luster resembling genuine jade, upon which marvelous patterns bloomed, as if depicting the fundamental laws of heaven and earth.

Had Dugu Bo been able to closely observe at that moment, he would have easily noticed that the newly formed patterns on Chen Ming's martial soul bore a striking resemblance to those of his own Azure Phosphorus Serpent Emperor.

The slender scorpion tail behind Chen Ming extended further, growing from fourteen segments to fifteen, symbolizing that he had fully reached the caliber of a Scorpion King. The internal structure of the tail itself underwent subtle refinements, rendering it far more flexible without sacrificing an ounce of offensive or defensive power.

Under such intense stimulation, Chen Ming's external soul bone also began to evolve. A portion of the venom bypassed the dragon pearl's purification and was directly absorbed by the external soul bone, while the residual soul power and vitality remaining in Chen Ming's body rushed into the scorpion tail.

One thousand years, fifteen hundred years, three thousand years, five thousand years...

In the final stretch, Dugu Bo's venom completely flooded into Chen Ming's external scorpion-tail soul bone. The age of the external soul bone skyrocketed at a breathtaking pace, finally breaking through the ten-thousand-year barrier and triggering a massive surge in Chen Ming's overall physical strength.

Half an hour later, Dugu Bo's condition had completely settled, his entire demeanor vastly different from before.

His formerly aged cheeks unexpectedly regained a radiant glow, the tips of his deep green hair showed a faint trace of silver-white, and the wrinkles born of advanced age vanished by more than half, making him look several years younger.

Sensuing the state of his body, Dugu Bo raised a hand and stared blankly at his own palm, seemingly still unable to believe his senses.

"The poison that tormented me for decades... has actually been suppressed just like that? And on top of that, I accidentally broke through to the ninety-second rank?"