Douluo: Emerald Poison Emperor-Chapter 345: Douluo: Emerald Poison Emperor []

After completing their soul hunt, the group returned to Shrek Academy, where Yu Xiaogang, who styled himself as the Grandmaster, had been waiting for them for quite some time. Despite having been taught a lesson by Dugu Bo, Flender's personality had grown increasingly extreme and irritable in recent years. He would often lose his temper over trivial matters and even resort to physical altercations.

However, there seemed to be something about Yu Xiaogang's charm. Even though he had clashed with Flender multiple times after arriving at Shrek, Flender, who was now far more short-tempered than before, never lost his temper with him. Flender would rather suppress his anger than confront Yu Xiaogang directly.

Back at the academy, Tang San met with his teacher, Yu Xiaogang, and informed him about the Beast King's rampage in the Star Dou Forest, his acquisition of the Venomous Spike Beast as a soul ring, and the fact that he had also obtained an external soul bone.

Although Yu Xiaogang didn't think much of the Venomous Spike Beast, a mid-level soul beast that had mutated from the low-level Spikefur Rat, he naturally took credit for Tang San's success in obtaining the external soul bone. He believed that it was his guidance that had enabled Tang San to grow into such an outstanding soul master.

It was in front of Yu Xiaogang that Tang San demonstrated his third spirit ability for the first time.

"Third Spirit Ability: Blue Silver Poison Thorn!"

With a low shout from Tang San, Blue Silver Grass surged out of his hands. The smooth leaves quickly contracted, transforming into sharp needles resembling cactus thorns. Under Tang San's control, the purple-black Blue Silver Grass lashed out like a whip, leaving numerous wounds on a tree that was being used as a target.

The Blue Silver Poison Thorn was created by altering the leaves of the Blue Silver Grass. While sharp, it lost the original toughness of Blue Silver Grass and became fragile and brittle.

When the Blue Silver Grass struck, most of the poison thorns shattered, lodging themselves into the tree while scattering fragments in all directions.

Seeing this, both Yu Xiaogang and Tang San nodded in satisfaction.

Yu Xiaogang was pleased because the Blue Silver Grass, with this spirit ability, now had sharp thorns that could pierce an enemy's defense. The broken thorns could remain embedded in the enemy's body, delivering poison and causing additional damage.

Tang San, on the other hand, was satisfied with the sharp yet brittle nature of the thorns. He felt this trait could complement his Tang Sect's hidden weapon techniques.

However, both of them overlooked one very important issue.

This ability might not be suitable for the Blue Silver Grass as a martial soul.

The Blue Silver Grass' innate characteristics of vitality and resilience were becoming increasingly diminished due to this strange developmental path. This spirit ability even diluted the shared trait of toughness that plant-based martial souls typically possessed.

While this flaw wasn't obvious yet and could be justified by the resemblance to spiny plants, in future development, this ability—like Tang San's first two spirit abilities—would likely become completely useless in later battles.

As for the external soul bone...

Unfortunately, it had been broken by Zhao Wuji shortly after its absorption, rendering it unusable for now. It was currently in a state of repair.

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While in this repair state, the external soul bone continuously consumed Tang San's soul power and life force, forcing him to practice the Mysterious Heaven Technique more diligently and eat additional food just to barely sustain the repair process.

Fortunately, although Yu Xiaogang had many flaws—such as being overly arrogant and having some questionable ideas—his knowledge base was substantial.

Faced with this situation, Yu Xiaogang proposed a solution. First, he borrowed a large sum of gold soul coins from Flender to prepare a medicinal bath using a formula from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, designed to enhance the condition of soul masters. He also pushed Tang San to train harder, forcing him to eat and drink more while undergoing intense physical training. Yu Xiaogang's idea was to use this opportunity to strengthen Tang San's body, accelerate the repair of the external soul bone, and stimulate its fusion with Tang San.

This method was something Yu Xiaogang had learned from studying records in the Spirit Hall. He simply applied it in this situation.

While the idea itself wasn't flawed, the problem was that Yu Xiaogang applied it rigidly without considering the differences in circumstances.

The soul master in the example Yu Xiaogang referenced had a beast martial soul, while Tang San had a tool martial soul. Additionally, the soul master in the example was nurtured by the Spirit Hall, with a custom medicinal bath, daily healing sessions by support-type soul masters, and a diet consisting of rare, highly nutritious soul beast ingredients.

In contrast, Tang San's martial soul was unsuitable, the medicinal bath wasn't a good match, and he didn't have a healing soul master to restore his body daily. His diet consisted mostly of ordinary buns and steamed rolls, with the occasional piece of soul beast meat.

After half a month of this harsh regimen, Tang San felt that his physical strength had indeed improved, but for some reason, he also felt increasingly weak. However, out of trust in Yu Xiaogang, he didn't voice his concerns, believing this to be a normal part of the process.

In reality, under Yu Xiaogang's intense training regimen, although Tang San's body and the external soul bone appeared stronger on the surface, his core vitality was steadily drained.

It wasn't until Tang Hao, who had been secretly observing Tang San for some time, could no longer stand by and intervened.

Late at night, Tang Hao confronted Yu Xiaogang. First, he handed Yu Xiaogang a prescription for a medicinal bath specifically designed for Clear Sky Hammer soul masters. Then, he ventured into the Star Dou Forest to hunt several large thousand-year-old soul beasts, bringing them back so that Yu Xiaogang could replace Tang San's nutrient-deficient meals. Tang Hao insisted that Tang San eat his fill of soul beast meat every day and break the bad habit of relying on starchy staple foods to feel full.

After these adjustments, another month passed before Tang San's external soul bone was finally fully repaired.

However, due to the delays and poor management, even though Tang San's physical strength had improved somewhat during this time, his soul power level not only failed to progress but also seemed weaker than when he had just absorbed his third soul ring.

Although Tang San hadn't lost a level, his soul power's quality and recovery speed, among other aspects, had noticeably declined.

This wasn't a serious issue. Even for ordinary soul masters, such problems could be resolved through persistent cultivation over time. For Tang San, with his Mysterious Heaven Technique, it was even less of a problem. The only thing he needed was time.

At most, it would take him two months to fully recover and resume improving his soul power.

However, however...

How could Chen Ming, who had been secretly observing Tang San all this time, allow him to recover so quickly?

Targeting Tang San's external soul bone, Chen Ming devised a special cultivation technique. The main function of this technique was to enhance the strength and age of the external soul bone by consuming Tang San's soul power and life force.