Chapter 119: Dugu Bo's Suspicion

Just as Ning Fengzhi thought he had found a clue to the legendary Master Xiao Yan, elsewhere, at the residence of Dugu Bo—

Like Ning Rongrong, Dugu Yan also returned to Heaven Dou City that night and sought out her grandfather, Dugu Bo.

"So, you're telling me that guy named Tang San used the Blue Silver King to defeat your Jade Phosphor Serpent King?"

Dugu Bo opened his emerald green eyes, a flash of sharp light glinting in them.

Like Ning Fengzhi, Dugu Bo didn't think much of Xiao Lin.

In such a vast world, there were few peers capable of defeating Yu Tianheng, but certainly not none.Even though Xiao Lin was much younger and had a soul power level far below Yu Tianheng's, that wasn't surprising.

What really caught Dugu Bo's attention was that his own granddaughter had been defeated by someone using the Blue Silver King—Tang San.

"Yanyan, this Tang San is definitely not ordinary."

Hearing that, Dugu Yan was momentarily stunned.

"Grandpa, of course I know Tang San is special. He beat me even though our attributes clashed."

"No, no, no. That's not what I meant."

Dugu Bo shook his head and said calmly:

"Yanyan, your talent is already exceptional. Your martial soul is the Jade Phosphor Serpent. Thanks to soul rings from highly compatible snake-type soul beasts, it evolved into the Jade Phosphor Serpent King."

"But even so, if you're the same age as Tang San, you're far inferior to him."

"What virtue or ability does Tang San have to wield the Blue Silver King? The King of Blue Silver Grass is still just the king of trash. Unless his martial soul is actually the Blue Silver Emperor, then it would make some sense."

As someone who successfully evolved his own martial soul into the Jade Scaled Snake Emperor, and also helped his granddaughter's martial soul evolve, Dugu Bo had deep insight into martial souls.

"Even disregarding the innate talent difference between soul masters, even if Tang San had the Blue Silver Emperor, defeating your snake venom should be extremely difficult—unless the soul rings he absorbed were even more compatible than yours."

After he finished, Dugu Yan furrowed her brows deeply.

"But Grandpa, couldn't Tang San just be exceptionally gifted? And didn't Xiao Lin and the others also have very well-suited and powerful soul rings?"

Dugu Yan asked curiously. This kind of thing didn't seem so rare to her.

Yu Tianheng, after all, had awakened the continent's strongest beast martial soul—Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon—but didn't even have innate level ten soul power.

Surely no one would say that the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon was on par with her Jade Phosphor Serpent.

"No, no, no. Yanyan, you still don't understand. What I mean is—if Tang San originally awakened the Blue Silver King, then after absorbing a few highly compatible soul rings, it's possible that he's already very close to something like the Blue Silver Emperor. Although I don't even know if such a martial soul exists."

"If Tang San had originally awakened Blue Silver Grass, and now evolved into the Blue Silver King after absorbing soul rings, that would actually fit the evolutionary pattern of martial souls."

As Dugu Bo said this, a slight smile crept onto his face. He had finally found the Blue Silver Grass soul master with innate soul power he had been seeking for years.

Ever since reading Master Xiao Yan's thesis, Dugu Bo had been searching for a way to resolve the poison within Dugu Yan's body.

Aside from evolving her martial soul, he never stopped looking for a Blue Silver Grass soul master with innate soul power.

Unfortunately, such soul masters were extremely rare—just as Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang had discovered in his data.

Even more rare were those who could sense the "life force" within the Blue Silver Grass martial soul—a lofty-sounding trait.

At that time, Dugu Bo was so interested in this theory that he made a promise to any Blue Silver Grass soul master:

"If any of you reach level ten, I'll personally help you hunt your first soul ring."

A 400-year-old soul ring, full of life force.

But six years passed, and not a single Blue Silver Grass soul master reached level ten.

Dugu Bo never once doubted Xiao Yan's theory.

He simply wondered:

"To reach that kind of potential described in the thesis… just how high would their innate soul power need to be?"

Eight, he once assumed. At least innate level eight—perhaps only then could they perceive life force.

Yet after searching for years, he hadn't found a single Blue Silver Grass soul master above level three.

That led him to believe the soul master mentioned in the thesis was truly one of a kind.

Only then did Dugu Bo begin to let go of that dream.

He thought:

"If that one-of-a-kind soul master keeps cultivating, I'll find him eventually."

And now—this unique soul master had appeared.

Dugu Bo instantly guessed: Tang San was the example mentioned by Xiao Yan.

Whether from his soul rings or his innate soul power, all the signs pointed to him.

Moreover, since Tang San had chosen soul rings filled with life force, and was still only a Blue Silver King, Dugu Bo even began to suspect that Tang San had twin martial souls.

But even he couldn't imagine what kind of martial soul could coexist with Blue Silver Grass—while also granting Tang San innate full soul power.

Dugu Bo formed a hypothesis:

"It's probably another plant-type martial soul like Blue Silver Grass—gentle, low-profile, and suited for symbiosis."

This was the insight of a Titled Douluo.

If not for the powerful, balanced Daoist technique Xuan Tian Gong, Tang San's martial soul development might have gone exactly as Dugu Bo predicted.

"But Grandpa, if Tang San originally only had Blue Silver Grass, how did he manage to defeat my Jade Phosphor Serpent?"

Dugu Yan thought for a long time, and now she was starting to lose confidence thanks to Dugu Bo's explanation.

Was she really just… too weak?

"Yanyan, after reading Master Xiao Yan's thesis, I realized something very important."

"That is—poison-type martial souls may be among the weakest types. That might be the very reason I've struggled to progress even after becoming a Titled Douluo."

"As far as I know, in the far north there's a dominant soul beast species—the Ice Jade Scorpion. They're distantly related to the Black Blood Scorpions in the Heaven Dou Empire, but unlike them, Ice Jade Scorpions are completely non-poisonous. I suspect they discarded their poison attribute and pursued extreme ice attributes instead—thus becoming dominant soul beasts in the far north."

Dugu Bo had nothing more to say about it. It was for this very reason that he helped Dugu Yan find extremely compatible soul beast rings—hoping to evolve her Jade Phosphor Serpent.

Unfortunately, even after evolving into the Jade Phosphor Serpent King, it still wasn't enough.

But now, someone who held a clue about Master Xiao Yan had finally appeared.

Tang San and his two companions must be Master Xiao Yan's disciples.

Otherwise, there was no way they'd have reached near-soul-ancestor strength at such a young age.

On this point, Dugu Bo was quite confident.

"Let's go, Yanyan. We'll head out now and meet those three kids!"

Dugu Bo felt that the solution to Dugu Yan's martial soul problem was finally in reach, and he was in a fantastic mood—so much so that he couldn't wait.

"Ah! Grandpa, why don't we wait until tomorrow? After all, they're already members of our Emperor Battle Team."

It was late at night, and Dugu Yan thought it would be more formal to visit Xiao Lin and the others in the morning.

"You're right. All three of those kids have extraordinary soul rings—likely backed by strong forces."

"Very well, we'll visit Xiao Lin and the others tomorrow."