"I have three thods," Chen Ming began calmly, eting Dugu Bo's gaze. "The first one treats neither the symptoms nor the root cause. It won't remove the poison in your body, nor will it stop it from accumulating."
Dugu Bo frowned, clearly puzzled. "Then what kind of thod is that supposed to be?"
"It can only suppress the poison temporarily," Chen Ming explained, his tone steady. "It reduces its impact on you—lessens the backlash. Judging by how exhausted you look, you've been suffering from a recent flare-up, haven't you? It couldn't have been pleasant."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"This thod can at least ease the severity when the poison acts up, slow down its accumulation, reduce how often it erupts, and delay its onset. In short… it can buy you so ti."
Dugu Bo smacked his lips thoughtfully. To him, this was clearly a stopgap solution—treating the symptoms but not the root. And yet… if pushed, it might as well count as both.
"…That's already quite good," he admitted.
But then his expression sharpened, and questions burst out like arrows released from a bow.
"You brat, do you really have a thod? Have you studied dicine? Who was your master? What do you know about poisons? What kind of treatnt is this—what dicine, what process, what cost?"
Chen Ming didn't flinch under the barrage.
"I haven't formally studied under anyone," he replied honestly. "I've just read a few dical texts. But I have a good mory and can draw inferences easily, so I understand a bit. As for poisons… I wouldn't say I have any deep insights."
He spread his hands slightly.
"But this first thod doesn't require dicine, injections, or any external force. You only need to adjust yourself."
"???" Dugu Bo felt as if he had just turned into a clueless recruit all over again.
"Senior, have you ever observed animals that hibernate? Snakes, turtles, frogs… even bears?"
Dugu Bo blinked, caught off guard. "…I've seen them before. What about it?"
In his younger days, lacking powerful backing, he had often hunted Spirit Beasts by taking advantage of their dormant or semi-dormant states—slipping in quietly, releasing his poison, and killing them before they could react. Naturally, he was quite familiar with such creatures, especially snakes.
"These animals differ in form, lifespan, and nature," Chen Ming said slowly, "but in winter, their behavior is remarkably similar. They reduce their consumption, enter a dormant state, and endure environntal changes through hibernation."
"When animals hibernate, their heart rate drops to an extre low, and all bodily tabolism slows dramatically. From my observations, the slower a creature's tabolism, the longer its lifespan tends to be—not because it has stronger vitality, but because it expends less of it."
Dugu Bo's eyes flickered with realization. "You want to hibernate like them?"
As the thought ford, he realized it wasn't entirely impossible. If his heartbeat slowed, his Spirit Power circulation weakened, and everything beca subdued, then the poison's backlash would naturally diminish.
But then another thought struck him—
He wasn't alone in this world. What if sothing happened to Yan Yan while he was in such a state?
As that concern surfaced, he noticed the faint look of disappointnt on Chen Ming's face, as though silently saying: You're missing the point.
"Not actual hibernation," Chen Ming corrected patiently. "It's about regulating your condition. When the poison shows signs of flaring up, you deliberately slow yourself down—stretch out ti, reduce the intensity of the backlash, and minimize the damage and pain. In the best case, you can even prevent the poison from fully erupting."
He began explaining more concretely.
"Senior, imagine sitting cross-legged in ditation. Rest your tongue against the roof of your mouth, focus on the tip of your nose, and observe your breathing and heartbeat. Then feel the flow of your Spirit Power in your abdon…"
"Relax your shoulders. Keep your head upright, the back of your head slightly drawn back, your chin slightly forward… clear your mind, and beco aware of your senses—sight, hearing, sll, taste, touch, and thought."
Chen Ming gave a rough but structured explanation, believing he had made things clear enough.
But just as he finished, Dugu Bo frowned and asked bluntly—
"I know how to sit cross-legged, but I don't really understand what you're describing."
"…Right." Chen Ming pressed a hand to his forehead, exhaling softly.
Without another word, he sat down on the ground, crossing his legs, and began demonstrating the posture step by step while explaining in detail.
In truth, this form of ditation originated from Buddhist practices—a thod of self-cultivation. Over ti, however, the traditions of Buddhism and Daoism had influenced and absorbed from one another, refining such techniques further.
What Chen Ming was teaching now leaned more toward the Buddhist style—but adapted, simplified, and made practical for Dugu Bo's situation.
The drawback of this thod was clear—there was no upper limit to how far it could go. After all, it lacked any supporting frawork: no cultivation manuals, no internal scriptures, no deeper comprehension or guiding principles.
But its advantages were just as obvious. The barrier to entry was extrely low, it was easy to grasp, and there was virtually no risk of deviation or backlash. Even if one failed to master it, there would be no harmful side effects.
Following Chen Ming's example, Dugu Bo adjusted his posture and breathing under careful guidance. After so ti, he slowly opened his eyes, a trace of surprise and faint joy appearing between his brows.
"It seems… my condition has stabilized a little? I don't feel as irritable as before."
Chen Ming shook his head lightly.
"Senior, you haven't even truly begun. At best, you've just regulated your breathing enough to feel a bit better. If you want to actually improve, I'd need to observe the flow of your Spirit Power and help you restructure its circulation and efficiency…"
He paused, then waved it off.
"But let's leave that for now. We'll move on."
In truth, what Dugu Bo had just achieved wasn't entirely useless—but its effects were limited. It might help him maintain a calr state in daily life, but when the poison truly flared up, the pain would still co just as fiercely.
"The second thod," Chen Ming continued, his tone steady, "treats the symptoms but not the root. It involves finding a way to release the poison from your body."
"Not continuously," he clarified, "but periodically. By venting it at intervals, you can keep the toxin at a stable level—low enough that it won't trigger a backlash."
Dugu Bo narrowed his eyes. "And the downside?"
"The benefit is imdiate results. The downside is that every release will temporarily weaken your condition. It doesn't solve the fundantal problem."
"…How do I release it?"
Chen Ming answered without hesitation.
"Use sothing of a similar nature as a bridge. Release a portion of your Spirit Power into it, circulate it slowly, and then strip away the impurities within that Spirit Power."
"Sothing of a similar nature?" Dugu Bo echoed, slightly taken aback.
"Your Martial Soul is the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor," Chen Ming explained. "You could capture a ten-thousand-year-level Jade Phosphor Serpent. I'll try to find a way to see if that serpent can withstand your Spirit Power. Then we can use a living Spirit Beast as a dium to refine and extract the toxic essence."
He spoke calmly, as if outlining a simple procedure.
"You'll lose so strength each ti, but the process will be direct and efficient."
"As for the connection dium…" Chen Ming frowned slightly. "I'll need to think about that. And I'll also need to figure out how to suppress the Spirit Beast so it won't resist. But all of this depends on one thing first—capturing a suitable ten-thousand-year Jade Phosphor Serpent for to study."
What Chen Ming had described earlier was a form of ditative regulation rooted in inner cultivation. This second thod, however, resembled an external alchemy approach—not to strengthen oneself with outside forces, but to transfer internal impurities outward.
In theory, if controlled well enough, this approach could even create the illusion of both treating the symptoms and addressing the root cause. But if anything went wrong—if the poison wasn't vented in ti, or an accident occurred—death would still be inevitable.
In essence, it wasn't so different from the thod once proposed by Tang San of storing poison within a Spirit Bone. The difference was that when a Spirit Bone reached its limit, it would explode, unleashing all the accumulated energy in a catastrophic backlash—unless one severed the limb, survival would be nearly impossible.
But with this external thod, if sothing went wrong…
You could always just replace the vessel.
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