Chapter 36: Dugu Yan Is the Color of Autumn
When things get busy, time flies by.
Lin Rong broke through level twenty during the peak of summer.
After finishing up with hunting Spirit Rings and traveling to Planet Luo, three months had already passed in the blink of an eye.
The fiery month of July passed, and summer gave way to autumn.
Heaven Dou City, located in the northern part of the empire, was now a scene of autumn.
As the imperial capital, the streets of Heaven Dou City were still bustling with people coming and going.
The air was dry and crisp with a cool breeze.
Pale yellow leaves, stirred by the autumn wind, fell from bare branches, dancing in the breeze, their destination unknown.
In the southern district of Heaven Dou City stood Dugu Manor.
The courtyard was filled with a large expanse of maple trees.
Since the arrival of autumn, the maple leaves had turned from green to red, finally falling from the trees.
The maple leaves were as red as fire. As they fell throughout the courtyard, it was like brilliant fireworks descending, spectacular and beautiful.
Dugu Yan strolled through the maple forest, lost in thought.
Ever since her grandfather, Dugu Bo, moved their home here, he had planted maple trees all around the courtyard, arranging it just like their old home, which made Dugu Yan feel warm and cozy.
Every year, when the maple leaves turned red and fell like a blanket.
The fiery red scene before her always brought back childhood memories, the vaguest yet warmest memories.
Her grandfather, Dugu Bo, said.
Every generation of the Dugu family was born during the season when the maple leaves turned red in autumn, symbolizing the cycle and reincarnation of life.
Dugu Yan herself was due to be born two months from now, at the beginning of the month at the very end of autumn.
In the sky, under the setting sun.
A flock of geese flew by, migrating south.
Her grandfather had said that geese always migrated in autumn, just as their family always seemed to be born in autumn.
Perhaps the colors of life were the same.
This was how Dugu Yan got her name.
Outside the maple forest.
Dugu Bo stood silently in the courtyard, his mind serene and still.
Azure Phosphorus Snake, the Martial Soul passed down through generations of the Dugu family.
The Azure Phosphorus Snake poison possessed by this Martial Soul not only harmed others but also oneself.
Ever since the ancestor of the Dugu family awakened the Azure Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul.
The inherent potent poison of the Azure Phosphorus Snake had become a curse that the Dugu family could never escape, for all eternity.
Moreover, once an owner of the Azure Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul began cultivating it, its inherent potent poison would invade their own body.
This potent poison could also be transmitted to their partner, and their offspring would also inherit this potent poison.
This potent poison would infect them from the womb. If they did not cultivate the Azure Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul.
The owner of the Martial Soul would die prematurely due to their body being too weak to withstand the invasion of the Azure Phosphorus Snake poison.
Only by cultivating the Azure Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul was there hope of living longer.
However, as they cultivated the Azure Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul, the inherent potent poison that invaded their body would also grow stronger.
In the early stages of cultivation, they could still suppress the potent poison within their body with their Soul Power.
But once their Soul Power cultivation could not keep up with the growth rate of the potent poison within their body, they would die suddenly from poisoning.
This was also why the successive heads of the Dugu family had short lifespans.
The current head of the Dugu family, Dugu Bo, possessed sufficient talent and cultivated all the way to the Soul Douluo realm.
Upon reaching this realm, Dugu Bo's suppression of the potent poison within his body had reached its limit.
But perhaps fate favored him, allowing Dugu Bo to discover such a rare treasure as the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.
The extreme cold and extreme heat environment there would cause anyone else to die from the invasion of the extreme cold and extreme heat energies if they stayed for too long.
But for Dugu Bo, who harbored potent poison, the extreme cold and extreme heat energies there actually suppressed the potent poison within him.
With this fortuitous encounter, even though Dugu Bo did not recognize any of the peerless immortal herbs within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye, he coincidentally cultivated to the Titled Douluo realm.
Upon reaching Titled Douluo, Dugu Bo had achieved his lifelong goal and had no regrets.
The only person he cared about was his granddaughter, Dugu Yan.
Dugu Bo's biological father died young, as did his only son. Even his daughter-in-law, eroded by the potent poison transmitted by his son, passed away after giving birth to Dugu Yan.
To ensure his granddaughter's happiness and freedom, Dugu Bo kept the secret of the family's Martial Soul from Dugu Yan.
However, paper cannot contain fire, and one day Dugu Yan will discover the secret of her Martial Soul.
But these were not Dugu Bo's greatest worries; there was another matter.
Dugu Yan's cultivation talent was not outstanding, and due to Dugu Bo's spoiling her since childhood, she wasn't very diligent in her cultivation.
In two months, Dugu Yan would turn fifteen.
Yet, Dugu Yan's Soul Power level was only twenty-nine, just on the verge of thirty.
At this rate of cultivation, Dugu Yan had no chance of reaching a Soul Power level sufficient to enter the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye.
Even Dugu Bo couldn't stay in that environment for long. For Dugu Yan to suppress the potent poison using the environment of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye, she would need at least the cultivation of a Soul Saint.
However, due to Dugu Bo's own cultivation, the poison inherited by his descendants was even stronger.
Given Dugu Yan's current situation, at most, she could cultivate until she was twenty-five before her Soul Power could no longer suppress the poison.
As for a twenty-five-year-old Soul Saint, Dugu Bo didn't even dare to imagine it.
Therefore, Dugu Bo only wished for his granddaughter to live happily within her limited lifespan; nothing else mattered anymore.
In two months, for his granddaughter's birthday, he had to make it a grand celebration and prepare the best birthday gift.
Perhaps by then, his granddaughter's Soul Power level would also break through to level thirty, bringing double happiness.
Since there was a possibility, he had to go to the Sunset Forest and capture a suitable snake-type Spirit Beast to be his granddaughter's third Spirit Ring.
If his granddaughter truly broke through to level thirty that day.
At that time, he could present the captured snake-type Spirit Beast to give his granddaughter an added joy.
Time flowed by in a blink, and the season turned to mid-autumn.
The autumn tiger, as in previous years, made its timely appearance.
When the temperature rose and there was no rain.
During the day, the cool autumn suddenly became sweltering; but at night, the temperature dropped rapidly, becoming much colder than in the preceding days.
Lin Clan Duke's Manor, Banyan Forest.
In late autumn, this place was still verdant, without a single yellow leaf.
The foliage in the forest was dense, completely blocking the rays of the cloudless high sun, keeping the climate within the forest pleasantly cool.
"Young Master, someone from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect has delivered two items."
Upon hearing this, Lin Rong's gaze followed the old butler's hand upwards.
He saw that on the tray held by the old butler, there was a fan and two golden cards.
"Two Gold Soul Coin cards, each with a face value of one million Gold Soul Coins."
"As for this fan, its body is made from the feathers of a kingfisher, and its handle is crafted from diamonds."
A fan body made from kingfisher feathers? A handle made of diamonds?
Lin Rong picked up the fan and held it in his hand, examining it carefully.
"I've never seen such radiant and luxurious kingfisher feathers before. As for the diamonds, while their quality is average, if I'm not mistaken, they should be natural diamonds originating from a hundred-year Diamond Mammoth."
"Considering this, could the kingfisher feathers be from an Emerald Bird?"
Lin Rong's mind worked rapidly, and he quickly understood the situation.
"Ning Fengzhi is truly impatient. To verify the effect, he actually used a Spirit Bone to raise Ning Rongrong's Soul Power to level twenty."
"Furthermore, the second Spirit Ring absorbed by Ning Rongrong came from an Emerald Bird. Its green feathers, along with the natural diamonds from the Diamond Mammoth, were used to make this fan."
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect doesn't have inherited Spirit Bones. I wonder how many ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts died under the hands of Sword and Bone Douluo to obtain the Spirit Bone that Ning Rongrong absorbed."
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect not having inherited Spirit Bones did not mean they had no Spirit Bones at all.
For the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, an inherited Spirit Bone not only had to be compatible with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda but also its age should not be less than ten thousand years.
As for the specific number of tens of thousands of years.
Taking the Clear Sky Sect as an example.
The Clear Sky Sect's three inherited Spirit Bones all exceeded fifty thousand years in age.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect might not compare to the Clear Sky Sect, but it should at least be thirty thousand years or more.
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