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

Chapter 205 Gu Yueling's Strange Behavior

According to Titan Snow Demon King, the Ice Rock Monster's habitat is also a snow mountain.

And it's some distance from here.

However, it was already getting dark, so it was obviously not a good time to set off immediately. Traveling in a no-man's-land at night was not a wise thing to do.

Therefore, Tang Hao and the others planned to rest here for the night as previously planned, and then go to the Ice Rock Monster's habitat the next morning.

The Ice Rock Monster is an elemental creature that roughly resembles a human in appearance.

However, when it is dormant, it curls itself up and turns into a block of ice rock.

If it were covered by snowflakes, it would be indistinguishable from its surroundings, and one would not sense any signs of life, just like a real rock.

This is also a major challenge in finding them.

Although everyone thought that the Ice Rock Monster's abilities were a good fit for Oscar, they did not actually target him because the Ice Rock Monster was too difficult to find.

In the icy environment of the far north, you might walk right over a dormant ice monster without even realizing you've stepped on a soul beast.

Ice Rock Monsters are a type of Soul Beast that particularly enjoys hibernation, making it extremely difficult to obtain their Soul Rings.

Fortunately, with the guidance of the Titan Snow Demon King, Oscar now has the possibility of obtaining the Ice Rock Monster Soul Ring, which makes him very excited and makes him wonder what kind of food his fourth Soul Ring will be.

Tang Hao's team stayed behind to rest, while Chen Feng and his apprentice Chen Xin left.

Since they were personally invited by the Titan Snow Demon King, they didn't need to worry about day or night and went directly to the core area with him.

Because the Titan Snow Demon King was so fast, with one step equivalent to dozens of human steps, it simply placed Chen Xin and his disciple on its palm and brought them to a palace located in the snow-capped mountains.

The palace appears to be sculpted from ice and snow, and is adorned with luminous crystals, giving it a magnificent and beautiful appearance.

When the Titan Snow Demon King arrived at the palace, a snow maiden floated in. She had the appearance of a human woman, but her body was pure white and her lower body was slightly ethereal, making her look like a snow fairy.

The snow woman bowed to the Titan Snow Demon King and then said:

"Greetings, Snow Demon King. Her Majesty the Snow Empress is waiting in the palace."

"Hmm." Titan Snow Demon King nodded to the snow maiden, then put Chen Xin and Chen Feng down and said to them:

"This is the Snow Emperor's palace. I've only brought you this far. What happens after that is up to you."

"Thank you, Lord Snow Demon King," Chen Xin said, and Chen Feng also expressed his gratitude to Titan Snow Demon King.

After the Titan Snow Demon King left, the snow woman gestured for him to leave.

"Please come in, both of you."

The master and apprentice exchanged a glance and followed the snow woman into the palace.

Meanwhile, inside the Barioth's lair, Gu Yueling sat by the campfire, watching the entrance and keeping an eye on the activity outside.

She is on night watch now, which she requested herself.

Similarly, Tang San and Oscar also volunteered to take on the task of keeping watch at night, with the three of them each responsible for three different time slots during the night.

Although Oscar isn't particularly strong in combat, this is the lair of the Barioth Dragon, and everyone else is nearby. If anything happens, he can just shout loudly; he doesn't need to be a great fighter.

It's the first half of the night, and Gu Yueling is on night watch. Behind her, the others have already set up their tents and started to rest.

Further inside, the Barioth lay quietly in its den, its eyes open.

It wasn't that it didn't want to sleep, but rather that it dared not, because the imperial auspicious beast was on night watch, how could it possibly sleep?

In other words, it can't talk, otherwise when everyone mentioned the night watch mission earlier, the Barioth would have patted its chest and said it would take care of tonight's night watch mission.

Unfortunately, it can't speak, so for now it can only lie here with its eyes open.

As night deepened, Gu Yueling's night watch was completed, and Tang San came out of the tent to take over.

"take a break."

"Okay." Gu Yueling took two steps toward the tent, then turned and walked out. "I have something to do outside, I'll be back later."

Tang San paused for a moment, then nodded and said:

"Then be careful, the wind and snow outside are very strong."

He assumed Gu Yueling needed to use the restroom and didn't think much of it.

"I'll be careful," Gu Yueling nodded and said, then walked out of the cave. Soon, her footsteps disappeared into the howling wind and snow.

Tang San thought Gu Yueling would return soon, but after a while he still hadn't seen her, he felt something was wrong.

Recalling Gu Yueling's words as she left, Tang San frowned and murmured:

"Did she run off to the core area?"

The problem is that even titled Douluo wouldn't dare to run around in the far north, so how could Gu Yueling dare to?
Where does she get her confidence?
Or did she actually have an accident? But there wasn't any noise around just now.

Thinking of this, Tang San got up and was about to walk towards the tent, but his steps suddenly stopped.

He suddenly remembered something: after returning from Sunset Forest, Xiao Wu had talked to him about Gu Yue Ling.

What Xiao Wu said at that time was:

"Ling'er has such a deep understanding of soul beasts. I don't even know anything about the Serpent, and I don't know what kind of background she has."

Tang San didn't take those words to heart when he heard them, because he didn't care much about his companions' backgrounds.

Later, when he was cultivating in the forest, he could sense through the trees that Gu Yueling was taking care of the pregnant Ironclad Earth Dragon. The Ironclad Earth Dragon was also very obedient in front of her, and this matter did not make Tang San think much about it.

After all, they rescued the Ironclad Earth Dragon together, so it's understandable that it behaves obediently in front of them. Gu Yueling even made the Steelix submit to them before.

However, considering what is happening now, Tang San can't help but think more deeply about it.

Is it possible that Gu Yueling is a being like Xiao Wu?

When this thought came to him, Tang San suddenly felt that everything that had happened before had a reasonable explanation.

If Gu Yueling is not simply a Dragon Vein Soul Master, but rather a powerful Dragon-type Soul Beast, or even a humanoid dragon, then what happened in the past would be perfectly normal.

Thinking about this, Tang San suddenly became unsure whether he should wake up the others.

When Xiao Wu was captured by Er Ming, he was extremely anxious, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding. If Gu Yueling left this time because she had important business to attend to, would sending everyone to search for her inadvertently expose her identity?

Just like what happened to Xiao Wu back then.

There wasn't anyone in the team who couldn't be trusted. Even Dugu Bo, who was relatively distant from Tang San, knew that Tang San's mother was a soul beast.

However, the existence of soul beasts transformed into humans is of utmost importance and should not be easily revealed. Even when chatting with others who also know the truth, one must be careful with one's words and phrases—something Tang San learned from Chen Feng. The key is to be cautious and absolutely not reveal any flaws.

Tang San's parents' experience was a lesson learned in blood. If it wasn't a betrayal by someone in the know, then it must have been because his parents weren't paying attention when they spoke, and outsiders overheard them.

Therefore, the existence of soul beasts transformed into humans must be kept strictly secret, otherwise a tragedy could occur if we are not careful.

However, Tang San couldn't be completely certain that Gu Yueling was a soul beast transformed into a human. He was afraid that something had happened to Gu Yueling, and his current silence would delay the rescue time.

"Tsk, if only Xiao Feng were here, he might already know something," Tang San thought with a headache.

There is precedent for this. Back then, Chen Feng knew Xiao Wu's identity long ago, but he kept it a secret from Tang San for six whole years, without letting him notice anything amiss.

If Gu Yueling is a soul beast transformed into a human, Tang San thinks Chen Feng should be able to discover something and then give him a definite answer.

It seems that there are no problems in front of his friend.

Just as Tang San was in a state of great distress, a figure appeared at the cave entrance.

Tang San sensed the movement and turned around to see Gu Yueling.

She was brushing the snow off her head and body when Tang San walked over and asked in a low voice:

Why were you gone for so long?

The timing of Gu Yueling's departure is very strange. If she went to the core area, then this period of time seems rather short, not even enough for a round trip.

Unless she can fly, and fly very fast.

But if she didn't go to the core area, then this period of time seemed rather long. In short, she was stuck in a limbo, making Tang San somewhat unsure of his guess.

"Oh, the snow outside was too heavy, and I accidentally got lost. It took me a while to find my way back," Gu Yueling said quietly, her expression unchanged.

Lost? Tang San was somewhat skeptical, but the timing was definitely wrong, so he had no choice but to accept this explanation.

After brushing the snow off her body, Gu Yueling warmed herself by the campfire for a while before going to sleep.

Tang San continued to keep watch.

Meanwhile, a hundred-meter-tall figure was disappearing into the distance, a kilometer away from here.

……

After arriving at the ice palace, the snow maiden who had led the way left.

Chen Feng surveyed the layout of the main hall and found that it looked like some kind of ancient site, giving people a sense of antiquity and solemnity.

This is not entirely incomprehensible. It is said that the Snow Empress lived for hundreds of thousands of years, so it is normal for her palace to give people this feeling.

However, Chen Feng was somewhat surprised that the Snow Emperor would build him a palace. Among a group of soul beasts that mostly used caves as their nests, this palace was still too conspicuous.

After surveying the layout of the main hall, Chen Feng turned his gaze to the throne directly in front of him, where a woman was sitting.

She had long, pure white hair that flowed over her shoulders to her feet, and her eyes were sky blue, giving her an ethereal and clear look, as if she could see through everything in the world.

In appearance, she is almost identical to a human woman, except that her looks and temperament are rare in the world.

"Greetings, Your Majesty the Snow Emperor." Chen Xin clasped his hands in greeting, and Chen Feng did the same.

We should treat a powerful being like the Snow Empress with courtesy, even if she is a soul beast.

"No need for formalities." The Snow Empress's clear, cold voice rang out in the hall. Her gaze first fell on Chen Xin. "Are you a swordsman?"

“Yes,” Chen Xin replied.

"Your sword intent is not bad," Xue Di commented calmly, then looked at Chen Feng and said:
"I'd like to learn more about that so-called cyclic topology method."

Chen Feng raised an eyebrow slightly. "How do you know about the Tuohuan Method?"

His mind raced, and he tentatively asked:

"Could it be that you've been watching us the whole time?"

"That's true." Xue Di readily admitted.

Chen Feng then understood that the reason why the Titan Snow Demon King had come earlier, and why it had suddenly changed its words at that time, was because the Snow Emperor had become interested in their group.

Whether this interest stems from the Tuohuan Method or from the existence of the Imperial Beast Guyueling remains unknown.

Chen Feng believes that there are probably two reasons.

Perhaps it was Gu Yueling who initially attracted Xue Di's attention, making her start to pay attention to their group.

Then, with the Ice Fang Dragon, Chen Feng and his group demonstrated the Soul Ring Acquisition Technique, a revolutionary method that allowed Soul Masters to obtain Soul Rings without harming the Soul Beast. This finally piqued Xue Di's interest.

Or perhaps Xue Di actually wanted to invite Gu Yue Ling over, but didn't have a good excuse, so she brought herself over first to satisfy her curiosity.

She might take other actions later to try and get in touch with Gu Yueling.

After all, the existence of the Emperor Beast is something that no soul beast can ignore.

Compared to him, Chen Feng felt that he was probably just an extra.

But he didn't care about that. Being able to come into contact with the Snow Empress was already an unexpected joy, which made it possible for him to obtain the Snow Maiden's soul ring.

In order to persuade Xue Di to agree to let him obtain Xue Nu's soul ring, Chen Feng explained in detail his research on the Soul Ring Technique, including some problems encountered during the research process and some gains he made as a result.

As he explained, Xue Di's expression gradually became serious. After Chen Feng finished speaking, she asked:
"You said you're unsure whether the soul beast lost or gained anything during the use of the Ring-Expanding Technique?"

“That’s right, that’s one of the issues I need to figure out next,” Chen Feng nodded and said.

"Oh? How do you plan to figure this out?" Xue Di asked with some curiosity.

"Naturally, we should seek out friendly 100,000-year-old soul beasts. Such beings have sufficiently keen senses and can communicate verbally," Chen Feng said.

Xue Di nodded noncommittally, then asked:

"You just said that the ring-carving ceremony is somewhat like a very simplified version of sacrifice. How did you come to know about sacrifice?"

“This…” Chen Feng glanced at his master subconsciously.

"I'll go outside and take a look," Chen Xin said knowingly.

He understood that the topic at hand might involve some sensitive matters that were not suitable for too many people to know, not even his master.

Chen Xin had no complaints about this. Sometimes Ning Fengzhi would keep things from her, which was a common practice among decision-makers.

Chen Xin is not responsible for making decisions, so he neither wants nor needs to know too much.

(End of this chapter)