Chapter 54: Acting is Truly Tiring

"Lingling, no need to heal; your healing is useless. Yanzi, quickly deactivate your martial soul."

Shi Quan watched the scene before him with a headache. The Sword Douluo had just come and beaten him up; if this Poison Douluo found out that he had accidentally triggered the toxins in Dugu Yan's body, causing a backlash, he feared another sound beating would be inevitable.

Shi Quan himself had not expected the current situation to turn out this way.

Everything had been fine before, but now, after Dugu Yan activated her Martial Soul Avatar, the moment his Internal Energy entered her body, the soul power and martial soul within her unexpectedly produced a repulsive reaction against his Internal Energy. The toxins in her body seemed to have encountered some natural enemy; they were all stirred up, thereby triggering Dugu Yan's toxic backlash.

Hearing Shi Quan's voice, Dugu Yan immediately deactivated her martial soul. Her convulsing body gradually recovered, though her face remained pale.

"Tianheng, quickly use your soul power! Otherwise, you will be poisoned!" Qin Ming watched Yu Tianheng's face, which had begun to turn pale, and reminded him anxiously. At the same time, he turned to look at Shi Quan and said, "Xiao Quan, what exactly is going on with Dugu Yan?"

"I'm not entirely sure either. I still need to study it." Shi Quan looked at Dugu Yan with a complex expression; he did not expose the fact that Dugu Yan was poisoned in front of everyone.

Dugu Yan looked at Shi Quan, her expression filled with increased terror and panic.

When Shi Quan's Internal Energy first entered her body, she only felt it was somewhat scorching. Although it was a bit uncomfortable, she could still endure it. But that feeling just now was like magma; she could feel that both her martial soul and her body were rejecting Shi Quan's Internal Energy.

"Tianheng, I'm fine now." Dugu Yan clutched her head and slowly stood up with Yu Tianheng's support.

Yu Tianheng looked at Shi Quan with a gloomy expression and warned, "Xiao Quan, no matter what you did to Yan Yan just now, I don't want there to be a next time. Otherwise, don't blame me for not showing mercy."

"That was an accident just now." Shi Quan waved his hand helplessly.

"Impressive." Ning Rongrong giggled as she stepped forward and gave Shi Quan a thumbs up, while also gossiping, "Let me tell you a secret: Dugu Yan's grandfather is also a Title Douluo, just like Sword Douluo!"

"A Title Douluo?" Shi Quan frowned, wearing a thoughtful look. After a moment's pause, he asked, "Yanzi, is your grandfather's martial soul the same as yours? Is it also a Bilin Snake?"

"That's right." Dugu Yan nodded, gradually catching her breath from the pain she had just felt.

"Then why would this happen?" Shi Quan feigned a distressed look, raised his hand to scratch his hair, walked to the table, and took a large number of books from the Snow Jade Bracelet on his wrist, flipping through them in a showy manner as if looking for something.

Seeing this, the others were also full of confusion.

They only heard Shi Quan muttering to himself while flipping through the pages, saying things like "That's not right" and "It shouldn't be like this."

It was as if he were trapped in some kind of predicament.

"Teacher Qin, does the academy have any information on poison-attribute Beast Spirits? I want to take a look." Shi Quan put on the appearance of not having found an answer and looked at Qin Ming with an eager gaze.

Qin Ming was stunned for a moment, not knowing what exactly Shi Quan was looking for. Poison-attribute Beast Spirits were rare to begin with, and records regarding them were even scarcer. The academy library did have some information on poison-attribute Beast Spirits, but not much, and the recorded content was very simple. He only knew about it because of Dugu Yan; he had once gone to check information in this area.

"Thank you, Teacher Qin. I'm going to the library." Saying this, Shi Quan chose to slip away with lightning speed.

"Phew, acting is truly tiring." As soon as he left the dormitory, Shi Quan couldn't help but let out a long breath and ran quickly toward the library.

"What exactly happened?" Everyone stared at each other, not yet understanding what had just occurred before Shi Quan had already run off.

"Yan Yan, are you really okay now?" Yu Tianheng looked at Dugu Yan in his arms with concern.

Dugu Yan looked at Yu Tianheng, who was holding her tightly in his arms, and her face couldn't help but flush a little. She whispered, "I'm fine, Tianheng. There are so many people here, let go."

Yu Tianheng only then realized and hurriedly released Dugu Yan.

Yu Feng said with a grin, "Yo, Boss, if you can't bear to let go, you can just pretend we don't exist."

Yu Tianheng gave a low cough, turned his head away, and did not respond.

"Dugu Yan, what happened just now?" With Shi Quan gone, Qin Ming could only ask Dugu Yan.

Dugu Yan then recounted the sequence of events, though she did not tell everyone that Shi Quan suspected she was poisoned.

"Soul power entering your body caused a repulsive reaction? How could that be? His martial soul is Blue Silver Grass and yours is Bilin Snake; what kind of conflict could there be?" Qin Ming looked puzzled and confused.

"I don't know either." Dugu Yan shook her head, but deep down, she began to doubt the things Shi Quan had said.

Because her reactions just now were exactly like the symptoms of being poisoned.

"Could it be that I am really poisoned?" Dugu Yan couldn't help but doubt it in her heart, but she quickly shook her head. "If I were poisoned, how could Grandfather not know? With Grandfather here, it's impossible for me to be poisoned!"

"But then what was that just now?"

Recalling the pain she had just experienced, Dugu Yan couldn't help but shiver; she did not want to experience that feeling again.

"No, I must go find Grandfather to confirm it and see if there is really something wrong with my body."

Dugu Yan quickly made up her mind.

On the other side, Shi Quan was flipping through books in the library.

He flipped through them while deep in thought.

"I was still a bit too impatient." Shi Quan shook his head inwardly.

With this incident happening today, Dugu Yan would likely go to find Dugu Bo ahead of schedule. He had originally planned to wait a while and say that after repeated research, he had determined Dugu Yan was poisoned. As it turned out, plans could never keep up with changes.

If Dugu Bo knew that he knew Dugu Yan was poisoned, he would definitely worry that he might guess that he was poisoned as well.

In order to prevent the news of his poisoning from leaking out, there was no guarantee that Dugu Bo wouldn't take action against him. To be safe, he had to make some preparations.

Thinking of this, Shi Quan scratched his head in a headache.

Hide with Qian Renxue for a while?

Or go ask Ning Fengzhi for help?

Shi Quan quickly abandoned both methods because both choices had drawbacks. Moreover, if Dugu Bo suspected that he had told others about his poisoning and held a grudge against him, his situation would likely become even more difficult.

Compared to Tang Hao, the most dangerous person in the early stages was Dugu Bo. After all, Dugu Bo was someone who never cared about face; he was both righteous and evil, the type who would kill whenever he felt like it.

"It seems I still have to face it head-on so that it will be easier to find a reason to go to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well later. But before that, I must make preparations. The most important thing right now is to first gain Dugu Bo's trust and let him know that I am no threat to him. Once trust is established, everything that follows will be simple."

He made up his mind.

Shi Quan took out paper and a pen from the Snow Jade Bracelet and began to write continuously. He wasn't sure when Dugu Yan would go to find Dugu Bo, so he had to write a basic theory about poison-attribute Beast Spirits based on Dugu Yan's current condition as quickly as possible.

"No, I'll take the books back first and keep an eye on her. If she goes to find Dugu Bo today, it will be troublesome. I must at least stall her for a while; I can't let her go to Dugu Bo too early."

With a thought, Shi Quan immediately packed his things and hurried back toward the dormitory.

Although some accidents happened in the morning, their morning training proceeded as usual. After Dugu Yan's body had hurt for a while, she quickly returned to normal. Seeing that there were no problems, she joined the team to drill on the Training Ground.

Seeing Dugu Yan on the Training Ground, Shi Quan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He called her out from the training squad alone and had her demonstrate her soul skill again. Only then did Shi Quan whisper, "Yanzi, cooperate with my research during this time. This is my first time encountering a poison-attribute Beast Spirit. I'm not sure if I'm overthinking it or if there is really something wrong with your body."

Dugu Yan frowned as she looked at Shi Quan and nodded in response, "I understand."

Shi Quan didn't say much else. Everything on the Training Ground remained as usual, only Dugu Yan's individual training plan was temporarily postponed.

Over the next few days, Shi Quan created individual training plans for the two Shi brothers, Yu Feng, and Ye Lingling, but the only one left was Dugu Yan's, which remained undecided.

"Stinky Shi Quan, staring at that Dugu Yan all day long, not even bothering to look at me." On the third floor of the Dormitory, Ning Rongrong watched the two talking in the main hall and couldn't help but stomp her foot.

"Yo, what is the young lady of the Ning family muttering about?" Yu Tianheng's voice came from behind Ning Rongrong.

Ning Rongrong's figure stiffened, then she turned around indignantly and glared at Yu Tianheng, "Don't you know it's very impolite to eavesdrop on others?"

Yu Tianheng said playfully, "I wasn't eavesdropping; it's just that some people were so engrossed in watching others that they didn't notice someone had arrived."

Upon hearing this, Ning Rongrong didn't get angry but laughed instead, mocking him, "Aren't you here because you're worried about your own woman being snatched away by someone else?"

Yu Tianheng's face darkened, his fists clenched tightly, and his teeth ground together with a creak; he was already irritable, and if anyone else had said these things, he would have taught them a lesson long ago, but he truly dared not hit this Ning Rongrong.

Originally, his relationship with Dugu Yan had finally made substantial progress because of what happened that day, and Yu Tianheng had intended to take this opportunity to confess his feelings over these past few days.

But now, it was a mess; Shi Quan would pull Dugu Yan aside to ask this and that for no reason, and since training was already exhausting, their time together was already much less than before, and now most of it had been taken up by Shi Quan these past few days.

During training these past few days, Dugu Yan had also appeared to be preoccupied.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't annoyed; he had originally planned to strike while the iron was hot and break through that layer of their relationship, but now, it felt like the fire was about to go out.

Yu Tianheng responded coldly, "I'm not worried about Yan Yan; you'd better keep an eye on your own man."

"Who said he's my man?" Ning Rongrong's cheeks flushed red, and she turned her head away, "If you want to watch, watch for yourself; I'm going back to rest."

After saying this, Ning Rongrong immediately walked quickly toward her room.