Dugu Yan watched the harmonious scene before her with a soft smile on her face, then said, "Grandfather, you should quickly take the Creation Mending Heaven Pill too."
"Hahaha! Yan'er is right!"
"I'll take it now."
With that, Dugu Bo swallowed the Creation Mending Heaven Pill.
The next moment, as the vast medicinal power surged through his body, Dugu Bo's expression changed dramatically. He immediately sat cross-legged on the ground and began absorbing the energy within him.
Because Dugu Bo was a Titled Douluo, it took him only an hour to fully absorb the medicinal power of the pill.
Boom!
A surge of terrifying pressure exploded from within him. His dark green robes flared violently as a wave of energy spread in all directions, shaking the surrounding vegetation.
Behind him, a fearsome flood dragon let out a thunderous roar, its dark green pupils glowing with a blinding ghostly light.
Dugu Bo's original martial soul, the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor, was already the sovereign among serpents. Though the Creation Mending Heaven Pill was extraordinary, it wasn't enough to evolve the Serpent Emperor into a true Dragon Emperor.
Thus, after its evolution, his martial soul had become the Jade Phosphor Flood Dragon Emperor.
"Hahahaha!"
After fully absorbing the pill's power, Dugu Bo opened his eyes wide, laughing heartily.
"Rank 93!"
"I actually broke through to Rank 93!"
Excited, Dugu Bo stood up and looked at Qi Lin. "Little Lin, this is all thanks to your Creation Mending Heaven Pill! Not only did my martial soul evolve, but even that damned poison backlash was completely resolved."
"On top of that, my soul power reached Rank 93!"
Qi Lin smiled and said, "This is what you deserve, Senior Dugu."
Dugu Bo grinned. "Little Lin, the Dugu family owes you so much, I don't even know how to repay you. How about I marry Yan'er to you?"
At those words, Dugu Yan's pretty face instantly turned crimson. Flustered and annoyed, she snapped, "Grandfather! What nonsense are you spouting? Do you even realize how much older I am than Little Brother Qi Lin? How can you matchmake like that?!"
Despite her protest, her heart couldn't help but race when she heard her grandfather's words. She even stole a glance at Qi Lin.
Dugu Bo waved his hand indifferently. "Heh, what's the big deal?"
"Once you become a Titled Douluo, every rank adds a hundred years to your lifespan. What's a few years' difference in age between you?"
(Author's Note: This was the original setting in Douluo Dalu, though it seemed to change in later parts of the series. We'll stick to the original lore here.)
Hearing this, Dugu Yan's heart wavered once more. But another thought surfaced in her mind.
Although Yu Tianheng's image had faded from her memory, everyone in the Emperor Team—and even the entire Heaven Dou Academy—knew she had feelings for him.
If she were to fall for someone else now, how would others view her relationship with Qi Lin?
Sigh...
Thinking this, Dugu Yan sighed and quickly changed the subject. "Alright, Grandfather, let's stop talking about this."
"Qi Lin and I still need to absorb our spirit rings. Let's go hunt some spirit beasts first."
Seeing that his granddaughter didn't want to continue the topic, Dugu Bo didn't push it.
"Alright then, Grandfather will take you both to get your spirit rings."
…
In a circular Soul Arena, the air was filled with thunderous roars.
On the battlefield—
Two figures clashed repeatedly, their collisions ringing out like clashing metal.
Dai Mubai, having activated his first soul skill White Tiger Barrier and third soul skill White Tiger Vajra Transformation, unleashed his soul power without restraint with every punch and kick.
His explosive power left his opponent completely defenseless, rousing the spectators into a frenzy.
What excited the crowd most was that Dai Mubai's opponent was a Rank 42 Soul Ancestor.
Yet Dai Mubai, at only Rank 38, was able to challenge and completely dominate a higher-ranked opponent.
Such a thrilling battle naturally fired up the crowd.
In the stands, the Shrek group watched Dai Mubai's brilliant performance with smiles and banter.
Yu Xiaogang sat in the center of the group, calmly analyzing, "Just as I expected. Only those with top-tier beast martial souls like Mubai and Tianheng can fully unleash the power of this training method."
"No matter how we train, the soul power impact on the meridians has its limits."
"For example, support-type soul masters are born with weaker meridians. No matter how much Oscar trains, he can't match beast-soul battle masters of the same level."
"But look at Mubai and Tianheng. With special training, they can easily fight across levels."
The others nodded and clapped in agreement—especially Ma Hongjun, who shouted the loudest.
Yu Tianheng's smile couldn't be hidden either. Watching Dai Mubai shine in the arena, his eyes were filled with longing.
It was as if he could already see his own glorious future.
Oscar, on the other hand, looked gloomy. He couldn't help thinking over and over: If only I had a beast martial soul… or at least a tool-type battle soul…
Only Tang San, sitting quietly beside Yu Xiaogang, remained silent.
In fact, through the recent training, Tang San had already realized the huge flaws in Yu Xiaogang's methods.
This reckless and irregular way of allowing soul power to rampage through the meridians caused damage that wasn't easily repaired.
Although Teacher Shao Xin was a support-type Soul Sage, he was a hybrid support—not a pure healing-type like Ye Lingling.
Even knowing this, Tang San didn't speak up.
Once he sensed something was wrong, he decisively stopped using that training method.
He pretended to be studying new methods and got Dai Mubai to help him test a new way to guide soul power through specific meridians he knew of.
Tang San's real goal was to develop a truly harmless training method.
Of course, he wouldn't test it on himself.
After all, he was just a little Blue Silver Grass soul master—how could he compare to Dai Mubai's sturdy body?
Would Tang San feel guilty for using a brother as a test subject?
Definitely not.
In his eyes, if one lacked the courage to take risks, they weren't worthy of being a soul master—
Let alone one of Shrek's monsters!
After all, Tang San had been used as a test subject by his teacher since he was young and had turned out just fine.
More importantly, he was doing this for the greater good.
If he could develop a new soul power training method, everyone could benefit.
Tang San believed that even if Dai Mubai knew the truth, he'd gladly offer himself up for the cause.