It took Dugu Yan a full month to completely extract the poison from her body and fuse it into her soul bone.
Once the toxins were refined into the bone, her soul bone skill became far more powerful due to the merging of two deadly venoms.
Her first two soul skills had not been especially toxic, leaning more toward auxiliary control instead. As she had once explained to Oscar, this was because Dugu Bo worried about her health. He deliberately chose soul beasts for her rings that carried mild venom but whose effects leaned toward control rather than sheer poison.
This approach had two benefits:
The corrosion of her body by toxins would progress more slowly.
While her poison abilities would be weaker in the early stages, her overall strength and usefulness to a team would actually increase.
What Dugu Bo had not foreseen was that his granddaughter would grow up introverted and isolated, unable to make a single close friend because of her venomous nature.
But with Oscar now in her life, that loneliness had been dispelled. And since she would one day follow him to Shrek Academy, those early control-type soul skills would no longer be wasted.
Now that she had absorbed the Bone-Eroding Serpent Right Arm Bone, her new soul bone skill directly compensated for her previous lack of a strong offensive poison attack, causing her overall combat power to soar.
Having finally expelled all the toxins into the soul bone, Dugu Yan felt lighter than she ever had before, as though a heavy weight had been lifted. Even breathing the air seemed sweet. She was as joyful as a carefree little sparrow.
Oscar then handed her the Hundred-Treasure Detoxification Body-Purifying Pill he had refined. She needed to take one each day.
After about three months of use, not only would all remaining toxins be purged, but her body would also fully heal from the damage it had suffered over the years, allowing her to become completely normal again.
Of course, this method wasn't perfect. From then on, any poison produced through the use of her martial soul would still have to be expelled into her soul bone. If left within her body too long, it would corrode her again.
Thus, just like Ma Hongjun regularly venting his Evil Fire, Dugu Yan would need to periodically release excess poison through her soul bone skill—or else obtain an even higher quality soul bone to store it.
The only true one-and-done solution was either impossible or incredibly difficult:
Simple solution: Never use her martial soul again. But obviously, that was impossible.
Difficult solution: Acquire a 100,000-year soul bone. With the capacity of such a bone, even ten Dugu Bos could spend their whole lives filling it with poison without reaching its limit. With such a bone, Yan could live her entire life without ever worrying about overflow.
Meanwhile, Oscar divided his time between his own cultivation, refining pills, and helping Dugu Yan train.
As for Dugu Bo, he was shut in seclusion to refine his own poison, rarely disturbing the two youngsters. Thus, with mutual affection already budding, Oscar and Dugu Yan's relationship quickly grew intimate in their days of constant companionship.
One day, after training together, Oscar carried Dugu Yan into the skies on his jade sword. Embracing her, he soared high above the Icefire Yin Yang Well, gazing down at the mystical scene below.
Though they had seen it countless times, the sight never lost its beauty: the clear divide of icy blue and blazing red, their mists intermingling in the valley basin. Under the glow of the setting sun, the landscape was breathtaking.
Landing at the mountain peak, they sat side by side on the cliff's edge, leaning against one another as they whispered. And in an unguarded moment, their gazes met—and their lips brushed together.
At the first touch of their lips, both their bodies trembled. But neither pulled away.
Oscar slid an arm around Yan's slender waist, while she looped her arms around his neck. Their lips met again and again, clumsy and inexperienced.
After a few tentative touches, Oscar grew bolder. Yan froze for an instant at his sudden initiative, then shyly but earnestly responded.
The kiss was awkward at first, but time smoothed away the roughness. After all, everything could be learned with practice—and for both of them, this first taste only stirred a desire to explore more.
But just as they lost themselves in each other, a figure appeared silently behind them.
Dugu Bo.
The old poison master stood there dumbstruck, his fists tightening unconsciously as he watched the scene.
Yan suddenly sensed something and opened her eyes slightly—only to widen them in shock. She quickly tapped Oscar's shoulder. He opened his eyes, saw her flustered and crimson-faced expression, and immediately broke the kiss.
Dugu Bo's face was dark as thunder. He had tried so hard to convince himself to accept this boy, but this? He had been in seclusion for only one month, and already his granddaughter was kissing Oscar?
Back in his youth, he had never… never moved this fast!
He had thought, no matter how affectionate Yan and Oscar were, surely they wouldn't advance this quickly.
But seeing this scene today, Dugu Bo felt that if he truly stayed in seclusion for half a year, he might come out only to discover his granddaughter already pregnant!
Yan wiped the sparkle of moisture from the corner of her lips, blushing furiously.
"G–Grandpa… you, you came out already?"
Dugu Bo's expression was like iron. This time, he could not simply turn a blind eye out of love for Yan.
In a flash, he appeared before Oscar.
Towering at two meters tall, Dugu Bo loomed over the youth. Though Oscar already stood at 1.88 meters, in front of the Poison Douluo, he still seemed small.
The old man's sharp gaze bore down upon him. Oscar swallowed hard, lifting his head awkwardly to meet the elder's eyes.
He couldn't help feeling speechless. The last time, when he had been teaching Yan to refine poison, Dugu Bo had barged in at just the wrong moment. And now, when they shared their first kiss, he appeared again.
Was heaven itself conspiring against him? Did the gods simply refuse to allow him a woman at his age?