Douluo: I am a biologist, awakening the weapon spirit?

Chapter 146 Counterintuitive Viewpoints
Binding the acquisition of soul bones to the new soul ring method, so that one must absorb soul rings using the new soul ring method to obtain soul bones, seems like a very good idea.

On the one hand, it can make the new Soul Ring method quickly accepted by people, and on the other hand, it can reduce the killing of Soul Beasts by Soul Masters to a certain extent.

But if you think about it more deeply, you'll find that this can lead to very bad results.

The impact of an event needs to be viewed dialectically.

It is an obvious fact that different groups of people have different levels of demand for spirit rings and spirit bones.

For example, lower-level Soul Masters definitely have a greater need for Soul Rings because their Soul Power increases relatively quickly, making it easier for them to reach the level bottleneck every ten levels.

This gives them more opportunities to use the new Soul Ring method to obtain Soul Bones.

However, the situation is completely opposite for high-level Soul Masters and mid-level Soul Masters whose potential has been exhausted. On the one hand, they have few Soul Ring slots left, which means they have few opportunities to obtain Soul Bones through the new Soul Ring method.

On the other hand, their soul power increases relatively slowly, and it may take many years before they reach the bottleneck of their realm and get the opportunity to acquire a soul ring.

In this situation, the low-level soul masters who can increase their soul power quickly can absorb soul bones rapidly. What would these high-level soul masters and mid-level soul masters who have exhausted their potential think?

Will I feel resentful? Will I have any dark thoughts?
This is almost inevitable, and thus the contradiction arises.

The imbalance between the power one wields and the benefits one gains inevitably leads to conflict—a lesson learned from history.

A typical example is the aristocratic families in Chinese history, who controlled the channels of advancement and the right to acquire and interpret knowledge.

Although they possessed a certain level of military strength, it was insignificant compared to the vast majority of poor families and even ordinary people.

So in the end, "the imperial treasury was burned to ashes, and the bones of officials were trampled all over the streets."

In the Douluo Continent, martial power is mainly in the hands of Soul Masters, and the higher the level of the Soul Master, the stronger they are.

Even considering the number of people, mid-level Soul Masters who have exhausted their potential still constitute a large group.

It should be noted that most people in the Soul Master community have relatively average talent, and they may never be able to break through to become high-level Soul Masters in their lifetime, only remaining at the mid-level.

Furthermore, the power they wield is quite considerable, at least not as good as the best but not as bad as the worst. The group they form with high-level soul masters far surpasses the strength of the low-level soul master group.

Once the acquisition of soul bones is linked to the new soul ring technique, the damage that the former can cause will be enormous.

By then, acts of murder and theft of bones will likely become rampant.

You don't even need to carefully select your target. Just find a young person with multiple spirit rings and kill them. You'll likely get at least one spirit bone.

Just like opening a blind box, there's a high probability that you'll find a Soul Bone inside; the only difference is how many there are.

If this situation occurs, the Douluo world will inevitably fall into large-scale chaos, even entering an era of war.

Moreover, such times of war are very difficult to manage, and even a powerful figure might not be able to handle them well.

If we were to alert the soul beast forces and get them involved, things would probably get even more chaotic.

By then, the Spirit Hall, the three upper sects, and the four lower sects will definitely have to be reshuffled.

What Bibi Dong struggled with her entire life until she became a god and still couldn't fully accomplish, Chen Feng can do now.

Of course, if he did such a thing, Chen Feng's reputation as a genius scholar would most likely be completely ruined, and he might end up like the shampoo boy, being branded a devil.

However, due to the reckless behavior of a certain race, the reputation of shampoomens on Earth has gone from overwhelmingly negative to a mix of praise and criticism.

Whether it will continue to rise to "Very Positive" or even "Overwhelmingly Positive" in the future is beyond Chen Feng's knowledge.

However, in any case, binding the acquisition of soul bones with the new soul ring technique is not a good choice.

If Chen Feng wanted to take revenge on the world, he could have used this move to create chaos, but unfortunately, he is mentally healthy and has not experienced painful things like Bibi Dong, so he naturally wouldn't do that.

Since this is not possible, we need to find a way to create physical soul bones, and the prerequisite for this method is to be able to depict the circuits inside the soul beast's body.

Tang San first proposed a clumsy solution to this problem.

That is rote memorization, where the circuits within a soul beast's body are gradually memorized and drawn down through the fusion of soul power.

After hearing his suggestion, Chen Feng nodded and said:

"This is indeed a feasible approach, but it takes a long time and involves a lot of work."

With a few decades of time and a sufficient number of people, this task certainly has a chance of being completed.

At the very least, we could compile a list of the most common and useful circuits found in soul beasts, and create something like a comprehensive encyclopedia of soul beast circuits.

However, Chen Feng was still somewhat unwilling to give up, as he always felt that there were other solutions to this problem.

At this moment, Xiao Wu asked:
"If the elements that form a soul bone include the soul power, flesh and blood, and soul power circuits of a soul beast, then what is the difference between these three combined and a complete soul beast?"

Chen Feng paused for a moment, then looked at her and said:
"You mean... to directly use a complete soul beast as one of the experimental elements, and then add other experimental elements to complete this soul bone experiment?"

"Uh, I... I don't know if this will work," Xiao Wu said hesitantly.

“Using a complete soul beast to obtain a soul bone is just hunting soul beasts, isn’t it?” Dugu Bo said from the side.

“But the probability of obtaining soul bones by hunting soul beasts is very low, and the probability of obtaining soul bones from living soul beasts is… uh…” Xiao Wu paused mid-sentence.

To this day, there has only been one instance of obtaining a soul bone from a living soul beast.

The success rate is 100%, but that success rate is hardly convincing.

“Actually, I’ve thought about a question before,” Chen Feng said slowly.

"What's the problem?" Dugu Bo asked.

"One theory is that if a soul beast experiences strong emotional fluctuations when it is about to die, such as resentment or hatred, then it is more likely to produce a soul bone."

Upon hearing Chen Feng's words, Xiao Wu's expression darkened.

Chen Feng continued:

"What I'm pondering is whether the key to this condition is the intensity of the emotion, or the resentment or hatred it evokes?"

He paused and said:
"If the key lies in resentment or hatred, then I have nothing to say. But if the key lies in intensity, then the death of a soul beast is not a necessary condition for the formation of a soul bone. In fact, I think the probability of a living soul beast forming a soul bone is even greater!"

"Because living soul beasts are more likely to experience strong emotions," Xiao Wu continued.

“That’s right.” Chen Feng nodded. “That’s a bit counterintuitive.” Dugu Bo scratched his chin and said, “Just because you succeeded once on a living soul beast?”

Chen Feng shook his head. "No, there is actually another excellent example."

"What example?"

"A 100,000-year-old soul beast."

Tang Hao raised an eyebrow. "Tell me in detail."

"As we all know, a 100,000-year-old soul beast will inevitably produce a soul bone, and its soul can remain intact after death. Is there a causal relationship between the two?" Chen Feng raised a thought-provoking question.

"Are you trying to say that a complete soul is the reason why a 100,000-year-old soul beast will inevitably produce a soul bone?" Dugu Bo understood what Chen Feng meant.

"Isn't that very possible? The patterns we know about the formation of soul bones don't contradict this statement." Chen Feng shrugged.

"Whether it is a 100,000-year-old soul beast, a living soul beast, or a soul beast with strong emotions at the time of death, their will is more complete than that of other soul beasts after death."

Dugu Bo pondered for a moment and said:

"It seems... that's indeed the case. Those soul beasts that are too young and lack intelligence have almost never been seen to have soul bones."

After recalling for a moment, Tang Hao nodded and said:
"Makes sense."

"So, Xiaofeng, you believe that the soul and will are the key to forming a soul bone?" Tang San asked.

Chen Feng nodded. "That's right. The probability of a thousand-year-old soul beast producing a soul bone is not high, the probability of a hundred-year-old soul beast producing a soul bone is extremely low, and a ten-year-old soul beast will not produce a soul bone at all. This pattern is completely consistent with the soul strength of soul beasts at different age levels."

In fact, the occurrence of soul bones from century-old soul beasts has not broken this pattern, because the only century-old soul bone that Chen Feng knows of is the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear Soul Bone from Dou Er.

As a soul beast with extremely high innate racial stats, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's soul and will are probably unmatched by ordinary thousand-year-old soul beasts, so it's not surprising that it can drop a soul bone.

“Alright, you’ve convinced me. The idea that living soul beasts are more likely to produce soul bones does make sense. So, how do you plan to use a whole soul beast as an experimental element?” Dugu Bo asked.

“Last time we successfully formed a soul bone, but it was absorbed. If we could repeat this process…” Chen Feng stroked his chin, deep in thought.

If it were a complete repetition, it would actually be a new type of soul ring technique, but what Chen Feng wanted was to create a physical soul bone.

"Then what if we cut off the last step?" Chen Feng narrowed his eyes slightly.

Or, to put it more directly, could we replace the Soul Master's position in the new Soul Ring Technique with something else?

With this in mind, Chen Feng immediately restarted the experiment.

He took out a large number of Thunder Element Stones from the Blood Sky, which made the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent, which had been lying obediently beside him, raise its head and stare intently at the pile of stones rich in lightning energy.

Seeing Chen Feng's actions, Tang San quickly understood his meaning and asked:

"What do you plan to use to replace the Soul Master?"

“I’m going to try it out.” Chen Feng took out a metal plate with a small corner missing.

"Star Soul Mithril?"

"That's right, this metal reacts to soul power and may be effective."

"Then let's give it a try," Tang San nodded and said.

Chen Feng began communicating with the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent once again. He wanted the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent to evoke strong emotions during the experiment, but it was unable to express them through body language.

However, he quickly came up with another solution: to arouse the greed of the Silver Lightning Serpent.

Chen Feng used body language to tell the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent that as long as it could make the small ball made of Star Soul Mithril bigger, Chen Feng would give it more Thunder Element Stones.

Greed is also an emotion, and it can naturally arouse the will of the Silver Lightning Serpent to a certain extent.

Chen Feng asked Tang Hao to cut off a small portion of the Star Soul Mithril and shape it into a small ball.

Actually, the shape isn't important, but Chenfeng still thinks a sphere looks better.

After creating the Star Soul Mithril Sphere, Chen Feng soaked it in the blood of the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent.

Although the Silver Electric Flying Serpent itself has already participated, the more complete the experimental preparations, the better.

After completing these preparations, Tang San suddenly asked a question.

"Should I channel life force into the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent, or into the Star Soul Mithril Orb?"

Chen Feng thought for a moment, "Let's try sending it to the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent first."

Although the object that initially received the life force was Chen Feng, the Star Soul Mithril Sphere was, after all, an inanimate object, unlike Chen Feng who would actively absorb life force.

Therefore, the life force should be allowed to enter the body of the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent, so that it, the energy of the Thunder Essence Stone, and the soul power of the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent can fully react within the body of the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent, and finally be transported into the Star Soul Mithril Sphere.

If that doesn't work, then change the recipient of the life force.

After the experimental procedure was determined, the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent began to absorb the energy from the Thunder Essence Stone under Chen Feng's instructions.

According to Chen Feng's idea, the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent needs to absorb the energy of the Thunder Essence Stone and circulate it several times within its body. Once its soul power and Tang San's life force are mixed in, it can then be output into the Star Soul Mithril.

Although the Silver Lightning Flying Serpent was reluctant to eat and then spit out the lightning elemental energy, it did as Chen Feng instructed because Dugu Bo was standing nearby and Chen Feng had promised to give it more lightning elemental stones later.

However, when it was being transferred into the Star Soul Mithril Sphere by the mixed energy that had been circulated several times within its body, it still felt a strong sense of reluctance.

At this moment, Chen Feng was closely monitoring the changes in the Star Soul Mithril sphere.

At first, the ball only partially lit up because the silver electric flying snake was supplying it with mixed energy.

This is a characteristic of Star Soul Mithril itself; the part that comes into contact with soul power will glow.

After a while, the entire surface of the ball began to light up.

This scene thrilled Chen Feng; what he feared most was that nothing would happen again, just like before.

After the small ball continued to glow for a while, the blood that had been soaking in the ball silently seeped into it.

The moment the blood completely seeped into the sphere, a burst of intense lightning erupted from it.

(End of this chapter)