Su Cheng was originally puzzled as to why all those underlings of his were marked with the central area of the Sunset Forest, along with the mountains as a landmark. How come, after several years, they still couldn't find the place?
But when he arrived, he realized he had been thinking too simplistically.
Over the years, although he had read plenty of books, he found that practical experience in the vast forest where soul beasts roamed was far more complex than he had imagined.
Five hundred meters might not be short, but in the expansive Sunset Forest, hills of such height were everywhere.
If they were to conduct a carpet search here, it would indeed require quite a bit of effort.
After all, this place was far from safe for ordinary soul masters. High-level soul beasts and dangerous plants could potentially turn into deadly crises.
"It seems like I'll have to visit the Soul Hunting Forest near the vicinity of Norden City in the future, to scout ahead. Otherwise, when I return to the real world, finding suitable soul beasts to acquire my first two soul rings might prove to be quite a challenge," Sue Cheng thought to himself.
"Mr. Sue, we're here," said Dugu Bo, standing at the foot of the mountain, looking at the hill in front of them.
Then, the two of them quickly climbed to the mountaintop, one after the other.
Standing beside the precipice, a inverted conical depression appeared in front of Sue Cheng, emitting thick heat and carrying a hint of the distinctive smell of sulfur.
Obviously, there was a hot spring below.
Dugu Bo looked at Sue Cheng and said, "I'll protect you with my soul power later, and we'll go down together to reach the place."
Su Cheng didn't object and nodded, letting him take the lead.
With Dugu Bo's strength as a Title Douluo, it was very easy for him to bring the two of them down to the valley.
Looking at the amazing sight in front of him, even Sue Cheng, with all his knowledge, couldn't help but be amazed.
"So, this is the so-called Ice and Fire Duo Eyes."
In the oval-shaped hot spring in the center of the valley, two distinctly different colors of water, milky white and vermilion, flowed separately on both sides. At the intersection in the middle, steam constantly rose, all the way to the mountaintop.
Rich ice and fire spiritual energy intertwined within, nurturing a garden of rare and exotic plants.
With just one glance, he easily found many of the rare herbs he had set out to find on this trip.
"I need some of your place's spiritual herbs and treasures," Su Cheng bluntly stated to Dugu Bo beside him after glancing around for a bit.
"Don't worry, I'll only take four out of the more than ten precious Fairy Grasses you have here, and I'll leave the rest for you. Plus, I'll teach you how to use these herbs," he added.
After several encounters, he actually quite liked Dugu Bo. Although he was ruthless, he also had principles and emotions.
Sue Cheng couldn't exactly be considered a moral role model himself, so he didn't mind the flaws in Dugu Bo's actions.
Perhaps underestimating the value of these Fairy Grasses, Dugu Bo seemed quite relaxed, waving his hand and saying, "Mr. Su, you're too kind. How can these mere herbs repay the debt of saving our family?"
Though not a member of the Martial Soul Hall, he roughly understood the other party's transcendent status in the Martial Soul Hall and never intended to let Su Cheng leave empty-handed.
As a semi-grassroots Title Douluo, Dugu Bo didn't make mistakes in his dealings with people.
"Let's go, let's first go treat your son's illness," Su Cheng nodded. Dealing with the herbs could wait.
Medicine was Su Cheng's innate talent and foundation in this life, and it was also his most confident ability. Dealing with the Martial Soul Snake Poison of the Dugu family was not a big problem for him.
Even if he only wanted to suppress the toxicity for decades without an outbreak, it would be very easy for him to do so.
The only difficulty for him lay in completely curing the toxicity's harm to the body.
The Martial Soul poison of Dugu Bo and his son was a mixture of highly toxic substances, which made detoxification much more complicated than dealing with ordinary poisons.
To identify the types of toxins contained within, and to calculate the properties of the toxins after stacking, the workload required was multiplied several times over.
However, with the natural environment of the Ice and Fire Duo Eyes suppressing it, and with a variety of herbs readily available here, the difficulty wasn't particularly high.
As for methods like Tang San's, first taking two Fairy Grasses to forge an invulnerable body to all poisons, and then using his own blood to detoxify others, Su Cheng had no intention of using them.
He never considered taking Octagonal Ice Grass and Fiery Apricot, and then entering the Ice and Fire Duo Eyes to temper his body.
To be honest, forging a body invulnerable to water and fire in this way is indeed excellent, and the foundation is exceptionally profound. But alas, it's not aligned with his path, so there's no need to force it for the sake of temporary gains.
If it were martial souls or soul bones, it would be okay, but directly imbuing the body with such extreme ice and fire attributes would be too troublesome to remove later on.
In fact, not only these two Fairy Grasses, he wasn't planning to use any Fairy Grass at all. Fairy Grass's medicinal power is too ferocious and extreme, which would disrupt the balance of his physical body.
If this had been a year ago, he would have been willing to give it a try and see how much improvement it could bring to his martial soul. But since absorbing the third soul ring and confirming the ability to harmonize the extreme earth attribute with the fire and metal attributes in his martial soul, he abandoned his previous thoughts.
Now, what he's thinking about is going further, completing the five elements, and seeing what changes will occur.
Su Cheng has a premonition that if he wants to escape the scrutiny and manipulation of certain high-level entities in the Douluo world in the future, finding another path is the best choice.
Actually, he has another idea in mind, which is to fully stack the metal attribute to purify his martial soul and take a pure offensive route. But for now, he's made good progress on the path of attribute harmonization, and there's a better candidate to try for purifying the martial soul. And to complete this experiment, he can't do without the help of this medicinal garden.
Normal herbal concoctions can improve the physical body but cannot penetrate into the bloodstream, and naturally, they are ineffective for martial souls.
But high-level spiritual herbs and treasures are different.
Under the nourishment of spiritual energy, any ordinary plant will produce miraculous medicinal effects, let alone these high-level treasures grown in such a rare and precious land.
...
For the next month, Su Cheng spent most of his time soaking in this valley, studying how to detoxify Dugu Bo and his son with the detoxification effect of the Fragrant and Beautiful Fairy Brand, and picking various spiritual herbs and treasures to concoct potions that could improve martial soul attributes.
Occasionally, he would leave here to alleviate the pressure on his body caused by the dense ice and fire spiritual energy in the valley.
After a month, Su Cheng not only cured the snake poison for Dugu Bo and his son but also finally completed his dozen or so attribute potions.
Among them, the most abundant attribute wasn't his martial soul's primary metal attribute, but rather earth.
Since he decided to complete the five elements, he couldn't be confined to the characteristics of his sword spirit alone.
Among the five elements, the earth attribute supports and nurtures all things, making it far more suitable as the foundation for the initial stage than any other attribute.