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

Chapter 188 Hidden Worries Relieved
Gu Yueling's change went unnoticed by the others because she was at the end of the group.

But for some reason, the fleeing creature suddenly slowed down.

When the group caught up, they discovered that it was a cat-like creature about half a person's height, with a purplish-black body and two long tails.

"Dark Soul Cat?" Chen Feng raised an eyebrow. This is really good luck.

However, he quickly noticed that something was wrong with the Dark Soul Cat. Normally, soul beasts are hostile to humans unless they have a special martial soul or a very powerful being to protect them.

Meanwhile, the Dark Soul Cat was looking around at everyone, its eyes filled with a mixture of awe and barely concealed unease.

The Dark Soul Cat's appearance stirred something in Chen Feng's heart. He remembered the sudden decrease in the other party's speed earlier, and also thought of the two girls with special identities in the team. Suddenly, some connections came to mind.

But he didn't show any unusual expression, and didn't even look at the two girls, he simply said:
"Hello, Dark Soul Cat, we don't mean to hurt you, we just want to discuss something with you."

The Dark Soul Cat has two tails, somewhat like the cat demon in the legend of Chen Feng's previous life, and its age can be observed by the length of its tails.

Judging from the length of this Dark Soul Cat's tail, it must have recently advanced to a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast and possesses enough intelligence to understand human speech.

As expected, after Chen Feng spoke, the Dark Soul Cat looked at him with some confusion and meowed softly, as if asking what they wanted to discuss.

At this moment, Zhu Zhuqing stepped forward and explained her needs to Dark Soul Cat, namely, she needed the other party to do something to help her condense a soul ring.

In return, Zhu Zhuqing took out a sealed metal jar from her storage ring. She pried the jar open with her claws, and everyone smelled an enticing aroma.

"Wow, this smells really good! Zhuqing, is this for us?" Ma Hongjun said, slurping his saliva.

"You wish! This is a reward for Senior Dark Soul Cat." Zhu Zhuqing placed the metal can not far from Dark Soul Cat. "This is fish canned food that I made myself. I hope Senior Cat will like it."

She has loved eating fish since she was a child, and both the Dai and Zhu families know about this preference, so there is never a shortage of various delicious fish dishes at banquets.

When she left home, Zhu Zhuqing specifically consulted with chefs in the palace and her own family about various ways to cook fish, so that she could enjoy delicious fish even when she was away from home.

However, the practice of canning fish did not originate from the chefs, but from the correspondence between He Chenfeng and Chenfeng.

During the master chef's special cooking training, Zhu Zhuqing tried to show off her skills, and the results were quite good. After that, she started making some fish snacks herself.

This canned fish is one example.

Before coming to Sunset Forest, Zhu Zhuqing had already learned about the target spirit beast from Chen Feng, and she was thinking of trying to attract its cooperation by offering it food.

After all, the other party is a cat, so using fish to win them over is quite reasonable.

Even if she fails, Zhu Zhuqing still has a shadow element item she can take out.

After Zhu Zhuqing took out the canned fish, Dark Soul Cat twitched its black nose, stepped forward, stuck out its tongue, and licked the can, showing an interested expression.

It picked up a piece of fish from the jar and tasted it. After swallowing the fish, it nodded to Zhu Zhuqing, clearly agreeing to the cooperation. But then it patted the jar in front of it with its paw and meowed softly.

Zhu Zhuqing had no idea what the meow meant, but at that moment, the beast language master Chen Feng stepped in.

He asked the Dark Soul Cat:
"You mean how many cans of this are left, right?"

Dark Soul Cat nodded. Now, not only Xiao Wu, but also Gu Yueling and the others looked at Chen Feng with strange expressions.

"How did you know what it meant, Xiao Feng?" Xiao Wu asked, completely puzzled.

Even she couldn't communicate with all the soul beasts without any problems. Only with some very familiar soul beasts, such as Da Ming and Er Ming, could Xiao Wu fully understand their calls.

As for the other soul beasts, Xiao Wu could only guess at their emotions through their cries.

However, even she didn't understand the meow the Dark Soul Cat made just now, yet Chen Feng actually knew what it meant.

Hmm...it's really amazing.

"Ahem, this is reasoning," Chen Feng said with a profound and enigmatic expression.

Actually, it was because he had just seen Dark Soul Cat's actions and felt that the question the other party most wanted to know was that one, so he asked it to verify, and unexpectedly, he guessed correctly.

Don't ask, it's all psychology.

"Impressive." Gu Yueling gave Chen Feng a thumbs up, and Chen Feng smiled modestly.

After learning of Dark Soul Cat's thoughts, Zhu Zhuqing took out a metal can from her storage ring and said to Dark Soul Cat:

“I have seven cans of this fish in total, you can have them all.”

The Dark Soul Cat meowed happily and buried its head in the can of food, beginning to devour it.

Before long, the Dark Soul Cat had devoured all the fish in the can.

Seeing this, Zhu Zhuqing placed the can of food in her hand in front of the Dark Soul Cat, but the Dark Soul Cat did not touch the can of food. Instead, it squatted down and meowed at Zhu Zhuqing.

Chen Feng gently nudged Zhu Zhuqing and said:
"Go ahead, Senior Cat probably wants to help you condense your soul ring now."

Zhu Zhuqing tentatively stepped forward and sat down cross-legged in front of the Dark Soul Cat.

Just before they were about to begin, Chen Feng gave them some words of advice, still a little worried:
"Zhu Qing, please don't push yourself too hard. If you can't manage it, it's okay to settle for something else. The fourth ring of the Ten Thousand Years Realm isn't that important."

"Yes, I know," Zhu Zhuqing nodded.

But what she was really thinking, no one knows.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Feng said to Dark Soul Cat:
"Senior Cat, Zhu Qing may not be able to easily withstand the soul power of the ten-thousand-year level right now. I hope you can take good care of her."

The Dark Soul Cat meowed softly, indicating that it would not let anything happen to the person who provided it with the food.

"Sigh, if only the Ring-Expanding Technique could allow a Soul Master to withstand power from weak to strong," Ma Hongjun suddenly said.

When he absorbed his fourth spirit ring, he was suddenly subjected to an excessively strong fire-attribute spirit power. The sudden burst of power was too much for him to withstand, and he was seriously injured.

If it weren't for the quick reaction of the soul beast he was working with, Ma Hongjun would probably be dead on the spot. So at this moment, he was thinking that if the energy returning to his body could gradually increase, then a soul master might be able to hold on for a while longer. From weak to strong? Ma Hongjun's casual remark gave Chen Feng an idea; he thought of the divinely bestowed soul rings in the original work.

The reason why a divinely bestowed soul ring can bring a person the soul ring of the most suitable age is because its energy is gradually increased and absorbed by the person little by little.

If the Ring-Turning Technique could also make such a change… Chen Feng quickly stopped Zhu Zhuqing from using the Ring-Turning Technique and stood there in deep thought.

A moment later, he said to Zhu Zhuqing:

"Zhu Qing, when you expand your soul ring this time, try not to wait until the soul power is completely assimilated before taking back all the soul power at once."

"Instead, during the process of soul power fusion, it is gradually withdrawn in batches, and the remaining soul power is kept under minimal control, temporarily remaining in Senior Cat's body."

Zhu Zhuqing understood what he meant and said:

"So you mean you're merging and regenerating simultaneously, allowing your body to gradually adapt to the strength of the new soul power, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll give it a try."

After Zhu Zhuqing finished speaking, she reached out and met the Dark Soul Cat's paws, beginning the process of circling the rings.

Knowing that the process would take a while, everyone found a place to sit down and wait.

Chen Feng also found a place to sit down, and he had high expectations for this ring-tracing process.

If his impromptu modification to the Ring-Raising Technique works, then the Ring-Raising Technique can truly be considered a youthful version of a divinely bestowed soul ring.

In this way, the value of the entire cyclic extension method can be greatly enhanced, and its scope of application can be greatly expanded.

If one has strong enough control over their soul power, they might be able to find a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast to help them expand their soul ring during the first soul ring stage.

Of course, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is quite possible to find a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast to acquire a soul ring when you are getting your third or fourth soul ring, or even your second or third soul ring.

All of this depends on the results of Zhu Zhuqing's practice.

Furthermore, Zhu Zhuqing's act of using food to bribe the Dark Soul Cat also relieved Chen Feng of some of his inner worries.

In his past collaborations with soul beasts, whether it was condensing soul rings or creating soul bones, Chen Feng mostly used enticement, except for the time with the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, which could be considered coercion.

Chen Feng didn't think there was anything wrong with using bribery as a method; fair trade is a matter of course.

He simply realized one problem: not everyone is capable of using bribery as a method.

Chen Feng himself, along with most of the team members, were quite wealthy. Even Ma Hongjun and Oscar, who had little capital, had blood containing medicinal properties from consuming immortal herbs, which were also coveted by soul beasts.

However, most people in this world are just ordinary people. It is unrealistic to expect them to readily offer a bunch of Thunder Essence Stones, a piece of Fire Cloud Rock, or a large amount of Gold Soul Coins in exchange for cooperation opportunities with Soul Beasts.

Therefore, Chen Feng had some concerns that once the Tuohuan Method was released, it would become the exclusive domain of wealthy and powerful families, which would completely deviate from Chen Feng's original intention.

However, Zhu Zhuqing's incident today shows that although elemental items that can help soul beasts grow are loved by them, other things are not necessarily unable to arouse their interest.

Just like the human population, there are people who love money, people who love power, people who love food, and people who love women. There should be similar situations among spirit beasts, with different spirit beasts having different personalities and preferences.

In this way, forming a bond with a soul beast is no longer the exclusive domain of wealthy and powerful families, but has become something that depends on one's own abilities.

Perhaps in the future, there may be people who can attract soul beasts to follow them simply because of their personal charisma; who knows?

The older a soul beast is, the more human-like it becomes, and naturally, it will have no shortage of emotions. From this perspective, the relationship between humans and soul beasts may indeed gradually reach a new pattern under the impetus of the Ring-Expanding Method.

However, that may take an extremely long time, and there will inevitably be countless open and covert struggles along the way. Therefore, Chen Feng wants to take advantage of his life to push this world toward a new order.

As the originator of the toroidal method, he could not and should not have simply abandoned it after its invention.

He never believed in the wisdom of later generations; he only believed in the principle that ten thousand years is too long and one should seize the day.

At this moment, a new dynamic between humans and soul beasts was gradually taking shape in Chen Feng's mind. Perhaps some adjustments would be made later, but the basic framework had already been formed.

Just as Chen Feng was deep in thought, a surprising phenomenon occurred on Zhu Zhuqing's side: a shimmering yellow soul ring emerged from her body, causing everyone to be stunned.

Chen Feng was stunned for a moment, then immediately said to Tang San, who was supplying life force:

"Quickly, bring back the Blue Silver Grass!"

Although Tang San hadn't figured out why, he still did as instructed.

"Why is it a yellow spirit ring? Could this be Zhu Qing's original spirit ring?" Ning Rongrong asked uncertainly as the others gathered around.

“This isn’t Zhu Qing’s original spirit ring; it’s a new one,” Chen Feng said, shaking his head.

"Don't worry, Zhu Qing's spirit ring is still in a phantom state and hasn't fully taken shape yet, which is somewhat similar to Xiao Feng's situation back then." Tang San quickly discovered the problem with this yellow spirit ring.

After all, he was a participant in the first Soul Ring Expansion Experiment and the first person to discover that Chen Feng's Soul Ring was not right.

“That’s right, that’s why I had Xiao San take back the Blue Silver Grass. As long as the spirit ring hasn’t been finalized, there’s still a chance.” As soon as Chen Feng finished speaking, the yellow spirit ring on Zhu Zhuqing’s body was quietly tinged with purple.

Upon witnessing this, Flander gasped, "The quality of the spirit rings has changed!?"

This completely shattered his worldview, which had been shaped by most of his life, as well as the worldviews of three other adults.

In their view, once the quality of a spirit ring is determined, it cannot be changed.

The other teenagers, however, became excited. They were young and their views were not yet fixed. They only felt that this scene was magical and had no other thoughts.

After some time, the color of Zhu Zhuqing's spirit rings gradually deepened, and a look of pain began to appear on her face.

(End of this chapter)