Douluo: Emerald Poison Emperor

Chen Ming held Dugu Yan in his arms and quickly ran in the direction of the medical room. To avoid aggravating Dugu Yan's condition, he chose routes with fewer people as much as possible without wasting time. However, fewer people didn't mean no one at all.

On the way, Chen Ming saw a young man wearing the uniform of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect talking to two youths in Heaven Dou Imperial Academy uniforms by the roadside. He also encountered a group of drunken noble offspring staggering about and a few individuals who seemed to be academy staff.

Among them was an elderly man with a head full of white hair. It was unclear if he was responsible for discipline or something similar, but when he saw Chen Ming carrying Dugu Yan, he immediately stretched out a hand in an attempt to stop him. Chen Ming, however, deftly evaded him and left him behind.

To be fair, Chen Ming didn't think he had outrun the man purely because of his speed. While he was physically fit, carrying Dugu Yan limited him to the speed of an average agility-type Soul Grand Master. Even an older senior Soul Elder or an average Soul King wouldn't have much trouble catching up with him.

The real reason he wasn't pursued was likely that the old man didn't genuinely want to chase him.

Surely, it couldn't be because, at his age, he didn't even have the cultivation of a Soul Elder, right?

In Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, such a thing was almost impossible.

After running for a while, Chen Ming finally reached the general area of the medical room, guided by his memory of the map.

However, what Heaven Dou Imperial Academy referred to as the medical room wasn't just a simple room. While it appeared as a small dot on the map, in reality, it was a large complex of wooden corridor-style buildings.

The area around the buildings was filled with various medicinal herbs, leaving paths wide enough for three or four people to walk side by side. Butterflies fluttered among the flower beds, and rare and exotic flowers bloomed in abundance.

Rather than a typical school infirmary, this area seemed more like a healing garden designed for Healing Soul Masters to practice mimicry cultivation and conduct daily classes.

Reaching this point, Chen Ming felt lost.

He had only been enrolled for a few days and hadn't fully familiarized himself with the layout of the academy. While he knew this was the medical area, he had no idea where to find the medical staff or who was in charge.

With no other choice, Chen Ming gently pinched Dugu Yan's waist. She raised her head and gave him a reproachful glare.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The paralysis toxin had slowly begun to wear off during the journey, and Dugu Yan was starting to feel the pain in her body. To prevent the jolts of pain from worsening, she had clung tightly to Chen Ming, wrapping herself around him like a koala.

She had just started to adapt to the pain, thinking she'd soon receive treatment. But Chen Ming's sudden pinch made the pain so sharp that she nearly bared her teeth.

"I've never been here before. I don't know where the medical staff are. Do you?"

"I… I don't know either," Dugu Yan replied with a confused expression.

Whenever she needed something at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, the teachers would come to her. While she had met some of the staff in charge of medical treatments, she had never cared enough to find out where they usually were.

Although she had been enrolled a few days earlier than Chen Ming, the moment she entered the academy, she was surrounded by swarms of admirers. She didn't have the time or inclination to wander around the campus.

In terms of campus familiarity, Chen Ming, who had at least explored the academy during his free time, probably knew more than she did.

Moreover, whenever Dugu Yan couldn't find her way, she would simply ask someone for directions. Whenever she did, people were more than eager to escort her all the way, sometimes to the point of being impossible to shake off. Why would she ever need to remember the routes herself?

"How about we follow the small path and head toward the Mimicry Training Grounds? Don't those places usually have a teacher assigned to oversee them? If the teacher isn't a healing-type Soul Master, we can at least ask for directions," Dugu Yan suggested.

"That makes sense," Chen Ming nodded, carrying Dugu Yan as they headed further down the path.

Dugu Yan's condition, while not severe, was far from light. Without a healing-type Soul Master, she would need about a week of consuming medicinal soups just to get back on her feet and around two weeks before she could use her soul power again. Fully recovering would take at least three to five months of rest.

Though her injuries weren't minor, they wouldn't worsen, nor were they life-threatening. Therefore, there was no need for panicked shouting or drawing unnecessary attention.

If they could find a healing-type Soul Master, her recovery would be significantly faster. A healing-type Soul Master at the level of a Soul King could likely restore her to the point of using her soul power with just their fifth soul skill. However, her meridians and internal organs would still require a few days of rest since standard soul skills were less effective for such injuries.

As they followed the small path, Chen Ming and Dugu Yan arrived at a lush, vibrant area. With their sharp eyes, they could easily recognize that the surrounding flowers, grass, and trees were all materials rich in life attributes, and suitable for use in medicinal preparations.

Amid the flowerbeds, a carefree girl sat astride a large rock, clutching a handful of flowers and idly tearing off their petals. Sometimes she picked one or two petals, and other times she yanked off a whole bunch, completely absorbed in her world.

"Ahem, excuse me…" Chen Ming called out.

"Ah?" Startled by the unfamiliar voice, Ye Lingling, who was perched on the rock, slipped off in a panic, landing in an awkward sitting position on the ground.

As a support-type Soul Master, Ye Lingling didn't pay much attention to physical training. On top of that, being a woman, the sudden fall strained the muscles on the inside of her thigh, causing a sharp pain that twisted her previously gentle expression into one of anguish.

Despite this, Ye Lingling remembered her upbringing and quickly calmed her twitching face. With her feet turned inward, she supported herself on the rock to stand up, summoning her martial soul to cast two soul skills on herself. Only then did she regain the cold, indifferent expression she usually wore in front of strangers.

Looking at Chen Ming, who was carrying someone in his arms, Ye Lingling suppressed the emotions stirring within her and maintained her aloof demeanor.

"Who are you two? What are you doing in the Mimicry Training Grounds for healing-type Soul Masters?"

"Greetings, miss. My friend here ran into some trouble while cultivating and suffered internal injuries. I brought her here hoping to find a teacher for treatment. However, since we were both new students and didn't know where the teachers were, we decided to follow the path and ask anyone we came across for directions. Apologies for the disturbance."

"Someone has internal injuries? Let me take a look," Ye Lingling said, her expression turning serious at the mention of injuries.

She examined the figure in Chen Ming's arms, who was curled up like an ostrich, hiding her head. The more Ye Lingling looked, the more familiar this person seemed.

The figure's build and attire—no matter how she looked at it—resembled her roommate. But that didn't make sense. Given her roommate's personality, even if forced, she'd never show such a vulnerable posture, would she?

The more Ye Lingling observed, the more puzzled she became. After a moment of hesitation, she tentatively uttered a name.

"Dugu Yan?"