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

Chapter 207 Gains and Losses

When Chen Feng woke up again, he found that the pain in his body had disappeared.

Moreover, his physical condition seemed to be even better than before he fell into a coma.

"Xiao Feng, how are you feeling?" Chen Xin asked with concern as she saw Chen Feng wake up.

"It feels pretty good." Chen Feng sat up by himself, moved his arms, and twisted his body.

"Master, did someone treat me? And how long was I unconscious?"

"Shortly after you fell into a coma, Her Majesty the Snow Emperor sent someone to deliver a snow lotus. After she managed to give it to you, your condition stabilized, but you still slept for three days afterward," Chen Xin said.

"Snow lotus?" Chen Feng suddenly realized.

Snow lotus is a herb unique to the far north, containing the pure essence of heaven and earth, and can indeed be used for treatment.

For example, Vina from Douluo Continent II possesses the Snow Lotus Martial Soul, which allows her to take on the role of healer in the team.

The most exquisite 100,000-year-old snow lotus is even more miraculous, capable of allowing the Snow Emperor, who already possessed 700,000 years of cultivation, to use it as a catalyst to successfully seal her original essence and transform into a human.

The snow lotus sent by the Snow Emperor was certainly not a 100,000-year-old plant, but it was still a very precious herb, which could be considered a favor to Chen Feng.

After confirming that he was alright, Chen Feng got out of bed and began to move around.

Chen Xin then asked curiously:
"Xiao Feng, why did you do that before?"

Chen Feng hesitated for a moment, then instead of revealing the true origin of the spirit ring, he said:

"It was my own greed that led me to fail to know when to stop, and in the end, I was overwhelmed by energy that exceeded my own limits."

Chen Xin nodded, this was roughly what he had guessed. "I see. How high is the cultivation level of the Snow Maiden that Her Majesty the Snow Emperor found for you?"

"It is said to be 50,000 years old."

“No wonder. By the way, Xiao Feng, Her Majesty the Snow Empress said that you should go see her after you wake up, but she didn’t say what it was about.” Chen Xin suddenly said, as if she remembered something.

Chen Feng paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go right away."

He needed to thank Xue Di and ask her for a favor.

As they approached the entrance to the side hall, a snow maiden was waiting outside. Upon seeing Chen Feng emerge, she gestured for him to enter.

"plz follow me."

Chen Feng followed the snow maiden to the main hall they had visited before, and saw the Snow Emperor once again.

This should be a main hall. Receiving guests here shows the Snow Emperor's respect, and Chen Feng guesses that the source of this respect is most likely because of Gu Yueling.

It's not surprising that the friends of the Imperial Beasts can have some face here, which is why the Snow Empress chose the main hall when she first met Chen Feng.

However, the second audience was still held in the main hall. This might be because the Snow Emperor was too lazy to change the location, or it could be because Chen Feng had won the Snow Emperor's attention.

These thoughts flashed through his mind, and Chen Feng clasped his hands in a salute, saying:

"Greetings, Your Majesty the Snow Emperor."

"No need for formalities. How is your recovery going?" Xue Di asked.

"There are no problems now. Thank you, Snow Empress, for the snow lotus." Chen Feng said.

"After all, you were invited here as a guest, so it wouldn't be right for you to leave bleeding from all seven orifices," Xue Di said calmly.

"It was my own greed that led to this predicament," Chen Feng sighed softly, then asked curiously:
"During the ring-forming ceremony, did you have any feelings? Did you lose anything or gain anything?"

This was a question that had been lingering in his mind ever since his first successful ring tracing.

When Chen Feng first encountered Wu Xiang, he wanted to ask him this question, but Wu Xiang's language skills were really terrible. Later, he needed to go into a deep sleep to recover his condition because of moving, so Chen Feng's question was not answered.

Now there's finally a possibility of getting an answer.

"I have lost a little bit of my cultivation," said the Snow Empress.

“Well, that’s not surprising. The energy in a spirit ring can’t be created out of thin air,” Chen Feng nodded and said.

As for Xue Di's comment about "a little bit," he guessed that the energy of his own condensed soul ring was insignificant compared to what Xue Di possessed, which was why she said it was just a little bit.

"No, you misunderstood me." Xue Di seemed to see through Chen Feng's thoughts and denied his guess:

"When I said that the loss of cultivation was only a little bit, I was not comparing it to my own power, but to the power possessed by a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast."

"You mean...?" Chen Feng's eyes widened.

“The formation of a ten-thousand-year soul ring does not require consuming all the power of a ten-thousand-year soul beast. Your previous theory on energy utilization is correct,” Xue Di said, staring at Chen Feng.

Chen Feng took a deep breath. The energy utilization rate theory was his conjecture, which came from the later encounters of the Douluo plane in the original work and the logical analysis of the soul ring absorption process.

Take a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast as an example. The energy accumulated by a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast is enormous. However, the enhancement it provides to a soul master after being transformed into a soul ring is obviously incomparable to the energy it possesses.

A typical example is that a regular five-ring Soul Master with a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring cannot defeat a Soul Beast with ten thousand years of cultivation.

Moreover, regular Soul Masters at all stages are generally weaker than the Soul Beasts corresponding to their highest-level Soul Rings.

The "normal" Soul Masters here are referring to the optimal Soul Ring combination, which is something like yellow-yellow-purple-purple-black.

And this weakness isn't just slightly weak, it's a complete stomp.

This phenomenon suggests that the method of hunting soul beasts and absorbing their soul rings may not be very efficient in utilizing the energy within the soul beasts, and most of it is likely wasted.

Now, after Xue Di's personal confirmation, Chen Feng's speculation is correct.

In other words, the energy utilization rate of the Ring Expansion Method is higher than that of the Ring Hunting Method. Higher energy utilization rate means more advanced technology. A technology that is more advanced than the traditional Soul Ring production technology has emerged.

Based on Chen Feng's experience in his previous life, the process of advanced production technology replacing outdated technology has never been gentle.

In the Douluo Continent, the Ring-Turning Technique will likely have a long way to go before it can replace the Ring-Hunting Technique.

Chen Feng slowly exhaled and asked, "So, besides the loss of your cultivation, what else do you feel?"

Surely there can't be only losses and no gains? Otherwise, the prospects for this method of expansion would be rather bleak, as cooperation that only benefits one party cannot last.

"Yes, but before we get to that, I'd like to ask if you know about the cultivation barrier for a 100,000-year-old soul beast?" Xue Di asked. "You mean the difficulty that appears every 100,000 years after a soul beast breaks through to 100,000 years?"

“That’s right, after we performed the ring-opening ceremony, I felt it.”

The Snow Empress looked at Chen Feng with a subtle glint in her eyes, "It seems that the difficulty of breaking through to the next level has decreased slightly."

A surge of joy welled up in Chen Feng's heart. "Will this be of use to you?"

“It’s very useful. Even if the change isn’t huge, it’s still very meaningful to me,” Xue Di said with a smile.

She knew that her chances of breaking through the 700,000-year barrier were slim, so every reduction in difficulty at this point meant an increase in her future success rate.

Chen Feng was also very happy, because he knew that the Tuohuanfa was finally not a one-man show by humans.

Human Soul Masters can obtain Soul Rings through the Soul Ring Expansion Method, while Soul Beasts, although they will lose cultivation as a result, can reduce the difficulty of breaking through levels.

However, what is the underlying principle? This question arose in Chen Feng's mind.

He also asked the question, and Xue Di's answer was somewhat abstract.

"I can't describe it accurately, I can only say that my soul power is merging with your soul power, and after many soul power cycles, it has undergone some kind of special change. This change is extremely subtle, but it still makes me feel that breaking through the barriers in the future might become a little easier."

Chen Feng stroked his chin and began pacing back and forth in thought. Xue Di couldn't accurately describe the changes in her soul power, probably because the changes themselves were so mysterious and difficult to articulate.

However, Chen Feng quickly remembered the soul power model he had created, a figure-eight model where humans and soul beasts each followed a separate line.

In this model, Chen Feng believes that although both humans and soul beasts grow from weak to strong, their essence, namely their soul power frequency, is completely different.

These two lines will roughly form a figure eight, with the spirit beast and the human following the left and right strokes respectively.

Furthermore, when a soul beast reaches a certain position on the left side of the character "八" (eight), that is, when it reaches the 100,000-year realm, it will be closest to the bottom of the right side. At this point, it can jump over it using certain methods.

This is what it means for a soul beast to become human.

However, if one continues to break through after reaching the 100,000-year level, the location of the soul beast will be farther from the bottom of that stroke, making it much more difficult for it to transform into a human.

Without any extraordinary encounters, there is basically no longer a possibility of transforming into a human.

In the past, this soul power model was merely a hypothesis by Chen Feng, designed to help him understand various phenomena in the Douluo world.

And now, the changes that have occurred in Xue Di seem to be explained by this soul power model.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Feng said:

"As far as I know, after a 100,000-year-old soul beast transforms into a human, there are no bottlenecks in its early cultivation. Even after reaching level 70, the difficulty of the challenges it encounters in its cultivation is incomparable to that of a soul beast that is over 100,000 years old."

The Snow Empress's gaze sharpened slightly, and she said:
"You mean that after I merged my soul power with yours, my soul power gained a trace of human characteristics, so the difficulty of the subsequent levels will be lower as a result?"

“This is what I’m thinking,” Chen Feng nodded. “Humans can break through bottlenecks using the soul power of soul beasts, so why can’t soul beasts use human soul power to reduce the difficulty of their breakthroughs?”

If the original Snow Empress was moving upwards along that slant, now she has shifted slightly to the right, deviating from her original path, so the change in difficulty is a natural consequence.

"That makes sense. So, your Ring-Expanding Technique is also of great significance to soul beasts. Using the loss of cultivation to reduce the difficulty of breakthroughs, many soul beasts will surely be tempted," said the Snow Emperor.

Chen Feng smiled and said, "It's truly good when everyone is doing well."

When something is beneficial to both parties, it is much easier to get both parties to accept it.

"By the way, Your Majesty, I have a favor to ask of you." Chen Feng remembered the main reason he had come here.

"You said."

“My martial spirit has a special form, but based on my family’s past experiences, this special form may alter my mind and eventually drive me insane. I want to try to awaken this special form and would like you to protect me,” Chen Feng requested.

A look of realization dawned on Xue Di's eyes. "You wanted the ability of Cold Will to prevent yourself from going insane?"

"Yes." Chen Feng nodded.

His original plan was to have his master, Chen Xin, protect him, but now that he had a relationship with Xue Di, it would be more prudent to have Xue Di come instead.

"Okay, I'll keep an eye on it for you." Xue Di nodded and stepped back a few paces.

Chen Feng first summoned his martial spirit, then took out a small bottle from the Blood Sky and opened it, releasing a bloody smell.

This is Xiao Wu's blood. Chen Feng specifically asked her for it before coming here, so that he could awaken the Yin Sword as soon as possible after obtaining the fourth soul ring to confirm the situation.

If you can't get the fourth spirit ring in the far north, then head to the sea, since it's a place with few people anyway.

At that time, Chen Feng had already decided that if his fourth soul ring could not solve the problem, he would just end his own life. The sparsely populated area would be a good way to prevent him from harming others.

Of course, as long as there is hope, Chen Feng will not give up easily; he still values ​​his life.

Seeing Chen Feng pour the blood from the bottle onto his martial soul, Xue Di raised her eyebrows slightly. She smelled a peculiar scent in the blood.

"Is this human blood?" she asked.

“Yes, it’s the blood of a friend of mine. This is what makes my martial soul special; it requires various specific types of blood,” Chen Feng replied.

"It's a bit eerie." Xue Di frowned slightly.

At the same time, she was also a little surprised, because she sensed the aura of a soul beast in the blood, but Chen Feng said it was human blood, and the blood of one of his friends.

In other words, Chen Feng's friend is a soul beast transformed into a human.

However, there was no aura of the auspicious beast in the blood, which meant that either Chen Feng was not telling the truth, or there was another 100,000-year-old soul beast transformed into a human beside Chen Feng, in addition to the auspicious beast.

It's unlikely that Chen Feng is lying; Xue Di trusts her own eyes, so the latter possibility is more probable.

Thinking of this, Xue Di couldn't help but feel a little puzzled. Could it be that in this day and age, soul beasts turning into humans has become a trend?
Chen Feng had no idea what Xue Di was thinking; he was currently sensing the changes in his own martial soul.

Having already undergone the awakening of the Yang Sword, Chen Feng was no stranger to this change.

Based on his previous experience, he activated his martial spirit following that special feeling.

Starting from the Tai Chi diagram on the sword's edge, Chen Feng's martial spirit was gradually stained black.

(End of this chapter)