"Are you alright!"
Wang Zhong, who noticed the anomaly first, immediately came to Dugu Yan's side, held her shoulders with both hands, and asked with concern.
The delicate shoulders held by his hands trembled. Wang Zhong felt as if the little girl before him was enduring extreme pain.
Dugu Yan gritted her teeth tightly, her small fists clenched. Her whole body trembled as she forcibly endured the pain. Suppressed groans of pain escaped from between her pearly white teeth.
But even so, she remained stubborn.
"I, I... I'm fine."
"It will be fine if you endure it for a while... you can leave first..."
These few words almost exhausted all her strength. Her small face and forehead were soaked with sweat. Despite the intense pain in her body, Dugu Yan still forced a calm demeanor.
Wang Zhong merely frowned and said nothing.
He closed the distance between them, wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, and let her sweaty forehead lean against his own.
With his right hand, he took out a clean white cloth from his soul tool and carefully wiped away the sweat that streamed down her face like a small brook.
Even though the sweat would flow again after being wiped away, Wang Zhong repeated the action again and again, his movements gentle and peaceful, as if he were touching some fragile treasure.
Because, many years ago, when he was unconscious, someone had also taken care of him tirelessly like this.
Although Dugu Yan was not Hu Liena, the young girl before him was very similar to Wang Zhong in the past—lonely and friendless, and stubbornly enduring.
Even though they had only met by chance, Wang Zhong did not mind playing the role of a temporary friend and offering the care and concern that friends should provide.
Dugu Yan's emerald green eyes reflected Wang Zhong's serious and gentle expression. Even though her body felt as if it were being gnawed by ants, a different warmth surged in her heart. It flowed through her entire body, as if the pain had dulled considerably.
Besides her grandfather, there was someone else who treated her with gentleness and kindness.
Her eyes gently closed. Dugu Yan's lips curved into the most gentle smile.
She had thought it was the worst day, but it turned out to be a lucky day.
This must be what they called friendship!
Looking sideways at the person leaning on his shoulder with closed eyes, Wang Zhong reached out and grasped her slender wrist. He probed with his soul power, and suddenly, his brows furrowed deeply.
"Poisoned!"
"And you've been poisoned for a long time; the toxins have been in your body for a very long time! It's as if you were born with it."
"What's going on!"
Wang Zhong's mind raced, trying to find a possible explanation in his memory. Although Ying Yanyang wouldn't teach this in class, he had some knowledge that he possessed from the moment he opened his eyes.
"Bloodline inheritance!"
After much thought, Wang Zhong finally found a small piece of related information, but it wasn't much, only this one sentence.
After a long while, Dugu Yan's poisoning gradually subsided, and her strength slowly recovered. She slowly moved away from Wang Zhong's shoulder, feeling the warmth from his wrist, and gently struggled.
"You guy, what are you doing, let go of me!"
Her weak voice carried a hint of playful rebuke and dissatisfaction as she glared at Wang Zhong.
He released his hand. Wang Zhong stroked his chin, looked up and down at the slightly breathless Dugu Yan, and asked, "Did anyone in your ancestors practice poison techniques?"
Her emerald green eyes suddenly widened. Dugu Yan dared not meet Wang Zhong's gaze. She turned her head, her expression tinged with sadness. The word "poison" was feared, dreaded, and even loathed by everyone on the continent.
Because of this word, she had been alone since childhood. No one dared to be friends with her, nor dared to take food from her hand, nor accept food she offered.
The root cause was simply the word "poison"!
Dugu Yan, whose martial soul was the Jade Phosphorous Serpent, was born with poison. And her grandfather was the supreme master of poison, the titled Douluo, Poison Douluo, Dugu Bo!
Originally, she thought she would never make friends, but now she seemed to have made one. Even if they might never meet again, she wanted to cherish this beautiful moment.
If she admitted it, the person before her would also look at her with the same fear, dread, and apprehension as everyone else.
But Wang Zhong did not give her a chance to escape. He firmly turned Dugu Yan's face back to face him and said, in a serious and solemn tone:
"I'm asking you a question, how can you not respond!"
"This matter is very important!"
Her lips pursed slightly. Unable to escape his gaze, she suppressed the bitterness of losing something and nodded heavily.
Upon receiving this answer, Wang Zhong wore an "as expected" expression and immediately cursed.
"Your ancestor was a complete idiot!"
"He was incompetent himself and made his descendants suffer the same fate as him."
Dugu Yan was stunned. Her green eyes widened as she stared blankly at Wang Zhong. No one had dared to curse her grandfather like this since she could remember.
With her arms crossed, Wang Zhong sat beside Dugu Yan, looked up at the sky, and fell into thought.
After pondering for a while, Wang Zhong turned his head again, his gaze fixed on Dugu Yan, and asked again, still seriously, "Are you also practicing that poison technique! You must tell me the truth!"
Dugu Yan blinked. She found the question somewhat amusing. She was a soul master, and her martial soul, the Jade Phosphorous Serpent, inherited from Dugu Bo, was naturally the source of poison techniques.
With a sense of detached acceptance that what was meant to be lost would be lost, she calmly nodded. She expected to see fear and disgust in Wang Zhong's eyes, but instead, she heard a scoff.
"You are also an idiot!"
"Your ancestor was an old idiot, and you are a little idiot!"
Looking at the finger pointed directly at her nose and Wang Zhong's idiotic gaze, Dugu Yan was furious to the point of exploding.
She slapped Wang Zhong's hand away, stood up, put her hands on her hips, and looked like a ruffled cat.
"Nonsense, who is an idiot!"
"I am a soul master. If I don't practice, how can I become strong!"
"And don't you dare speak ill of my grandfather again!"
Hmph!
Wang Zhong abruptly shook his head and turned aside, saying indignantly, "It's true. If they weren't idiots, why would anyone practice poison techniques to the point where it seeped into their bones and blood, passed down through generations."
"If they weren't idiots, why would someone knowingly follow in the footsteps of their ancestors, despite their flaws, and practice until they themselves had to endure the pain of poisoning!"
"If it weren't for the idiocy of both the ancestors and the descendants, if even one of you had been intelligent, why would you be in this state now."
Dugu Yan's fair face turned red with anger from these few words. She wished she could pounce on Wang Zhong and bite him fiercely.