Chapter 34: 34: Yin-Yang Eyes of Ice and Fire
Yang Xiong only took a brief glance around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well before leaving without any hesitation whatsoever.
With Dugu Bo's current overwhelming strength, killing him would be as effortless as crushing a small ant. If he truly encountered Dugu Bo in this location, he probably wouldn't have even the slightest hope of survival.
This area represented Dugu Bo's personal lair and territory. Perhaps Dugu Bo was already watching him from the shadows at this very moment. If Yang Xiong showed even the slightest sign of interest in the location, he might be permanently silenced. Even if he managed to avoid being killed outright, such behavior would certainly arouse Dugu Bo's suspicion and could cause serious trouble for him in the future.
With his current level of strength, he simply couldn't break into the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well through force. Only powerhouses like Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo would have a realistic chance of success, but unfortunately, they remained completely unaware of the true value of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and wouldn't risk offending Dugu Bo for something they considered unknown and potentially worthless. Yang Xiong also had no intention of revealing the incredible value of the immortal herbs to anyone else.
However, after leaving this dangerous location, Yang Xiong headed toward Heaven Dou City without leaving any obvious traces, intending to continue his training regimen on one hand while waiting patiently for the right opportunity on the other.
In fact, Yang Xiong had already calculated the timing very carefully. In approximately one month, it would be Emperor Xue Ye's eightieth birthday celebration, which represented the biggest and most significant event in the entire Heaven Dou Empire in nearly half a year.
It was widely reported that in order to properly prepare for Emperor Xue Ye's milestone eightieth birthday, the Heaven Dou royal family had made extensive and elaborate preparations. The birthday banquet would probably be unprecedentedly grand and magnificent in scale.
Especially since Emperor Xue Ye had invited people from all corners of the continent to participate in order to demonstrate the prosperous and stable situation of his empire. Not only were the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan formally invited, but even the large and small sects throughout the entire Heaven Dou Empire had received invitations.
According to Yang Xiong's careful estimation, this kind of grand celebration would probably attract not only domestic sects and organizations, but even the Spirit Hall and the Star Luo Empire would undoubtedly send representatives to participate. After all, the Heaven Dou Empire remained one of the two major empires dominating the continent, and on the surface, it served as the legitimate ruler of the region.
At this crucial moment, the only Titled Douluo of the Heaven Dou royal family—Dugu Bo, who served as an honored guest of the royal household—would definitely be required to participate. Otherwise, the royal family wouldn't be able to properly cope with the powerful experts from various forces, especially considering that the Spirit Hall was estimated to send Chrysanthemum Douluo to represent their interests.
Yang Xiong had been carefully keeping track of time during his stay in Sunset Forest, specifically wanting to locate the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well before this critical period arrived.
As for the ownership of the immortal herbs growing inside the well, those precious plants hadn't been cultivated by Dugu Bo anyway. At most, he was only occupying the location temporarily, and he didn't even recognize the true value of most herbs himself. The situation could purely be described as dealing with unowned treasures.
As for whether Tang San and the Shrek Seven Devils would have access to immortal herbs in the future, that wasn't something Yang Xiong could afford to worry about at this point.
In a certain sense, the Clear Sky School and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School maintained an alliance relationship, but from beginning to end, Tang San—aside from selling hidden weapons to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School at inflated prices—didn't seem to have accomplished anything truly beneficial for the sect. Even in the end, Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo were sacrificed to save him, which could honestly be called the most financially and strategically losing deal in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's history.
In the following period, Yang Xiong continued his training regimen along the route, but he deliberately avoided straying too far from this particular path. Recently, he occasionally engaged in combat with some lower-level spirit beasts, but he maintained very high efficiency in these encounters. If he couldn't defeat a spirit beast within a short timeframe, he would immediately teleport away to avoid prolonged engagement.
On this particular day, while Yang Xiong was fighting a thousand-year-old Thousand Jun Ant, a terrifying aura suddenly flashed across the sky, as if an incredibly powerful individual was approaching from above.
Yang Xiong felt that this aura was distinctly unusual, completely different from the powerful presence of Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo that he had experienced before. This new aura carried a distinctly fishy and unpleasant smell.
Over the years, Yang Xiong had dedicated considerable time to studying various toxins and their properties. Obviously, this particular aura contained concentrated poison elements. The pressure he felt definitely originated from a Titled Douluo-level expert. If Dugu Bo hadn't been deliberately avoiding targeting him, Yang Xiong suspected that the toxic aura alone would have been completely unbearable.
Yang Xiong pretended not to notice the powerful presence and continued fighting the Thousand Jun Ant in front of him as if nothing had happened.
This time, after waiting a full half hour and confirming that Dugu Bo had definitely departed and wouldn't be returning anytime soon, Yang Xiong quickly headed toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
According to his current calculations, there were still three complete days remaining before Emperor Xue Ye's actual birthday celebration. This limited time period represented his only realistic chance to act. Otherwise, it would take an extremely long time to find another suitable opportunity to enter the restricted area.
In order to avoid arousing Dugu Bo's suspicion, Yang Xiong had deliberately chosen a training location twenty kilometers away from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. This distance allowed him to monitor Dugu Bo's movements while remaining far enough away to avoid detection.
When Yang Xiong approached the periphery of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well once again, his eyes were already filled with intense anticipation and excitement. What lay before him represented the greatest treasure in the entire Douluo world, especially when its powerful guardian was temporarily absent.
At this crucial moment, Yang Xiong suppressed the overwhelming excitement in his heart and carefully retrieved a very unusual set of specialized armor from his storage equipment.
This custom-made armor was designed in two halves divided at the chest level. Yang Xiong had commissioned this equipment at considerable expense, sparing no cost in its construction. The entire armor was crafted from rare deep-sea silver, with all joint connections made using specially treated hide from high-level spirit beasts. He had specifically selected the skin of a Ten Thousand Year Ice Crystal Toad for this purpose.
The Ice Crystal Toad was renowned throughout the spirit beast world as the natural nemesis of all snake-type spirit beasts. It possessed complete immunity to any form of snake venom, and its hide demonstrated special suppressive effects against highly poisonous serpentine spirit beasts.
The helmet portion of the armor, in addition to being forged from a single piece of deep-sea silver, was fitted with a piece of mysterious crystal stone—a rare treasure that remained unaffected by highly poisonous substances and could transmit light, though unfortunately the visibility through it remained relatively poor.
As an additional precautionary measure, Yang Xiong had applied concentrated poison from the Ice Crystal Toad to the exterior surface of the entire armor set long ago. This created what appeared to be a protective ice crystal coating that could definitely withstand the effects of Blue Phosphorus Serpent Poison.
Yang Xiong had already conducted thorough testing of this equipment at home. After putting on this complete armor set, he could walk normally even when completely submerged in water. Yang Xiong had once deliberately remained in a swimming pool while wearing this armor for a full half hour without experiencing even a trace of water seepage.
However, the significant disadvantage of this armor was that it severely limited mobility—he could only barely walk, and his fingers became completely immobilized. From the outside, it resembled something an Earth astronaut might wear, but with much higher protective capabilities and significantly worse flexibility.
After Yang Xiong donned the protective armor, he secured a steel cable across his back. This cable was remarkably thin yet extremely long, with a sharp barb attached to one end for anchoring purposes.
Once all preparations were completed, he slowly began walking into the center of the toxic mist surrounding the well.
Visibility within the poisonous fog proved extremely poor, and there was even a complex poison formation arranged by Dugu Bo throughout the area. However, the overall environment remained dominated by the natural ice and fire toxins emanating from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well itself.
As he gradually penetrated deeper into the poisonous mist, the ice crystal toad venom coating the exterior of his armor began to gradually dissolve under the intense toxic pressure. Even the armor constructed from premium deep-sea silver seemed unable to withstand prolonged erosion from Dugu Bo's poison formation.
Yang Xiong gritted his teeth with determination. He couldn't afford to worry about anything else at this point—he absolutely had to cross through the poison formation as quickly as possible. Once the protective armor completely dissolved, he would probably be reduced to nothing more than a pool of blood.
After walking steadily for dozens of tense minutes, he finally reached the edge of a steep cliff. Yang Xiong could clearly sense that much stronger ice and fire spiritual energy was emanating from somewhere below the cliff face.
At this moment, Yang Xiong felt overwhelming joy and relief. He quickly channeled his spirit power to grip the barbed end of the steel cable and forcefully drove it deep into the solid cliff face. Then he wrapped his arm several times around the steel cable for additional security before using his spirit power to control his descent, slowly rappelling down the cliff face toward the legendary treasure below.
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