Douluo Continent: I am a biologist, and I have awakened a weapon spirit?

Chen Feng noticed Ning Fengzhi's gesture and nodded slightly in response, which immediately put Ning Fengzhi at ease.

This means that things have been settled, and once the location of the land is determined, construction of the new campus can begin.

Minazuki, who was standing nearby, saw this scene and smiled:

"It seems the empire will soon have a few more noble colleagues."

“This is a blessing for the empire,” Ning Fengzhi said with a smile.

"I wonder if that gentleman has any new research findings. I'm very curious about that." Mizuki raised his glass to Ning Fengzhi.

"Hehe, maybe yes, maybe no. This child has his own ideas, and I haven't interfered too much in this regard." Ning Fengzhi brushed the topic aside.

Mizuki didn't press the matter. He looked at the Hydra Academy students who had gathered together again, and for some reason, he had a feeling that these people were going to make headlines someday.

However, this has nothing to do with him for the time being. What really troubles him is his daughter, Shui Bing'er.

Ever since the child went to the far north, he has become somewhat mysterious and no longer tells his old father anything.

Asking the strong individuals who accompanied them back then yielded no results; they all stated that no unusual situations arose along the way.

This feeling of knowing something is wrong but not knowing what it is made Minazuki feel somewhat helpless.

Besides Shui Bing'er, his youngest daughter, Shui Yue'er, was also a handful. As a descendant of a noble family in the Tian Dou Empire, she actually found a prince from the Xing Luo Empire as her boyfriend.

Looking at the two people chatting happily in the corner, Mizuki could only sigh inwardly.

"Hey......"

......

After the banquet at Tianchen Palace, Chen Feng and his companions were successfully granted the title of Earl.

Dai Mubai also returned to Xingluo and obtained a dukedom from his father and brother, while Zhu Zhuqing was granted a marquisate. Both of them had considerable fiefdoms.

With everyone having their own fiefdoms, the new academy also gained territory, and in the following six months, the construction of the new academy began to proceed in an orderly manner.

At the same time, everyone also did their own thing, such as diligently cultivating, hoping to improve their cultivation level when the new academy opened.

In this way, they will at least not be at the same level as the new students entering the school.

After all, Chen Feng can become the principal based on his knowledge, and no one will object to it, but others cannot.

It would be somewhat embarrassing if, when new students enrolled, the cultivation levels of others were not as high as those of the new students.

Chen Feng was not idle either. In addition to his cultivation, he also diligently studied the Suifeng Sword Technique with his master Chen Xin, savoring the essence of this sword technique and trying to integrate it into his own swordsmanship.

But this is not an easy task. On the one hand, his cultivation level is insufficient, and on the other hand, Chen Feng's comprehension of swordsmanship is not yet at the point where he can master it with just a little thought. Therefore, this is destined to be a long and arduous process.

After confirming that his disciple had fully understood the Suifeng Sword Technique, Chen Xin did not forget what his disciple had told him when he returned: there might be traces of the Chen family in the Death Desert.

Therefore, he left Chen Feng at the academy to practice swordsmanship, while he himself went to the Death Desert to search for something there.

Tang San did not neglect his research work outside of cultivation. He was still practicing disassembling the soul tools and did not plan to touch those soul tools directly in the short term. It was a delicate task and he could not start easily.

However, the analysis of the soul power circuits yielded results. On the one hand, Tang San could directly observe the circuits through the Purple Demon Eye, and on the other hand, he could use Blue Silver Grass to create circuit models. These two advantages enabled him to successfully analyze the basic structure of the circuits in the past six months.

"Is this it?" In the woods, Chen Feng looked at the Blue Silver Grass model in Tang San's hand and asked curiously.

"Yes, this is what I disassembled from the soul power circuit in the Fire Cloud Rock. After experimentation, I was able to reconstruct that soul power circuit using many of these structures. Moreover, the soul power circuits in other fire-type foundation-building artifacts can also be pieced together using it, although the required basic structures are fewer than those in the Fire Cloud Rock," Tang San nodded and said.

Chen Feng carefully observed the Blue Silver Grass model. After being disassembled, its basic structure became much simpler, no longer as chaotic as the Soul Power Circuit. It looked like a winding line, giving people a unique sense of beauty, as if it was meant to be this way.

"It... seems to be a planar structure?" After observing it for a while, Chen Feng quickly discovered its peculiarity.

"Yes, at first I thought I was mistaken, but then I found out that was indeed the case," Tang San replied.

"I see..." Chen Feng took out paper and pen and traced the lines shown by the Blue Silver Grass model.

Looking at the line on the paper, something inexplicably came to mind:

Runes!

Fire Cloud Rock has the ability to absorb and store free fire element energy. Compared with other fire-type foundation materials, its advantages lie in its fast absorption speed and strong storage capacity.

According to Tang San's comparison of the Fire Cloud Rock with other fire-type foundation-building materials, he discovered that the Fire Cloud Rock requires more basic structures for its soul power circuit.

Furthermore, according to Huo Wu, the Foundation Establishment Item and the Foundation Establishment Ring have a strong similarity.

Is there some connection between these three?

Could it be that the key to absorbing and storing elemental energy lies in this basic structure before us?

So, could we give this basic structure a name, such as fire element runes? And what about the basic structures dismantled from other elemental foundations?

Chen Feng shared his thoughts, and Tang San pondered for a moment before saying:

“These inferences are reasonable. Perhaps we can try engraving this rune onto some items and see if any changes occur.”

"Using soul-guided metal might be more effective."

"I think so too."

Without hesitation, Tang San took out the soul guide metal and began to inscribe it.

To make the experimental results more obvious, he also planned to inscribe many runes and connect them end to end.

However, while Tang San was focused on inscribing the runes, he did not notice that the runes he was inscribing were gradually emitting a faint red light.

Chen Feng, who was standing to the side, noticed this scene and frowned slightly, sensing that something was amiss.

He came to Tang San's side, summoned his martial soul, and stared intently at the soul guide metal plate. He noticed that the red light on it was gradually getting stronger, and the speed at which it was getting stronger was getting faster and faster.

At this moment, Tang San also noticed the abnormality on the metal plate. Before he could react, he felt Chen Feng snatch the metal plate from his hand and throw it away without hesitation.

boom!

With a loud bang in mid-air, the soul-guided metal plate shattered into countless fragments that flew out.

Some fragments from other directions embedded themselves in trees, while others sank into the soil. However, the fragments that shot towards Chen Feng and Tang San were all blocked by a light barrier, causing no damage to the two.

Looking at the mess around them, Chen Feng and Tang San exchanged a glance and swallowed hard.

"Is this considered a success?" Tang San asked, secretly relieved.

If Chen Feng hadn't reacted in time, he would have been the one to be hit by the "scattering of metal fragments" at close range. Even if he hadn't died, the thought of being shot into his body by countless metal shards was enough to send chills down one's spine.

As a master of concealed weapons, he knew all too well what that feeling was like.

"It should be considered a success. At least the rune is effective, but the effect is somewhat different from what we expected," Chen Feng sighed.

He thought he could create a monkey-like version of the Foundation Establishment artifact, and he would accept it even if the effect was not good. Who knew that he would make a bomb instead? Luckily, he reacted quickly, or he would have become a Nobel Prize winner.

"Why did it explode?" Tang San asked, puzzled.

Chen Feng thought for a moment and speculated:

"It's probably still a problem with the circuit structure. Only a specific rune composition method can have the effect of absorbing and storing elemental energy like a foundational artifact. Other rune composition methods will have all sorts of problems."

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Feng continued:

"Or you could say the other way around: only stable rune compositions can survive, which is what we now see as the various foundation-building items. Other unstable ones would have been destroyed long ago, just like that metal plate."

This is actually a kind of "survival of the fittest," only it's the inorganic version.

“That makes sense. I think that’s very likely.” Tang San stroked his chin, then suddenly thought of another question, “If the fire element runes are destroyed because of a problem with their composition, what about the other elements?”

"Perhaps it's weathering? Perhaps it's ionization? Or perhaps it's hydrolysis. Once we figure out what the other elemental runes are, we should be able to answer this question," Chen Feng pondered.

“That’s right. From now on, we’ll call these things elemental runes. I’ll try to figure out the other elemental runes as well.” Tang San had developed a great interest in runes.

Chen Feng then had an idea: "Before that, we can do some other experiments."

"What kind of experiment?" Tang San asked curiously.

“Let’s inscribe elemental runes onto ordinary matter and see what happens,” Chen Feng said, looking at the scattered metal fragments in the forest.

Tang San was slightly taken aback, and immediately took out an iron ingot and began to carve.

This time he became much more cautious, but unlike before, the fire element runes engraved on the iron ingot were completely normal, even though Tang San had drawn runes all over it.

"So it really won't work?" Chen Feng sighed.

"How about I try inputting soul power into it?" Tang San said, fiddling with the metal ingot.

Chen Feng thought it was a bit risky, "What if it explodes?"

"I shouldn't die, let's give it a try. At worst, I'll just throw it far away after I input my soul power."

"You're really reckless."

Seeing Tang San's eagerness, Chen Feng hesitated for a moment, but still agreed.

Since iron ingots don't have soul-guiding properties, inputting soul power into them shouldn't have any effect. So the experiment is still safe, at least better than before.

If all else fails, Chenfeng can open the Dustless Land; as long as he is careful, there shouldn't be any problems.

Just as Chen Feng had expected, nothing happened after Tang San poured his soul power into the iron ingot; the iron ingot remained the same iron ingot.

Regarding this phenomenon, Chen Feng made a reasonable conjecture:

“We experimented with this when we were at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. The soul power circuit in the foundation-building item doesn’t actually exist. Instead, it’s a special fluctuation formed by the interaction between the energy of heaven and earth or soul power and the foundation-building item. It’s the result of the Purple Demon Eye observing it. So, this circuit can’t be used just by drawing it. It has to interact with energy to produce an effect.”

Tang San understood what Chen Feng meant: "In other words, for the soul power circuit to be effective, it, the energy, and the soul guidance material are all indispensable."

“That’s right, three elements. Only when all three elements are present can all sorts of amazing effects be produced. Soul tools should work on a similar principle.” Chen Feng nodded.

"but......"

"What?" Tang San asked.

"The element of soul guidance materials doesn't necessarily mean that the entire structure needs to be made of soul guidance materials, does it?"

"what do you mean?"

"Powder, try using powder made from soul-guiding materials."

Tang San glanced at the metal fragments in the forest and decisively abandoned them, as he did not yet possess the ability to turn metal into metal powder with his bare hands.

But this problem was no challenge for him. The foundation-building materials were not metal, so producing some powder was a simple matter.

The Fire Cloud Rock was borrowed by Ma Hongjun, so it naturally couldn't be damaged. Fortunately, Tang San had also bought two fire-type foundation-building items for his experiment, so he scraped some powder off it and carefully filled it into the circuits carved on the iron ingot.

After doing all this, Tang San waited for a while, but no obvious abnormalities appeared on the iron ingot.

He winked at Chen Feng, poured some soul power into the powder, and then threw the iron ingot directly out.

This time, however, the iron ingot did not explode. Instead, it made a sharp sound and fell to the ground.

Chen Feng carefully stepped forward and found that the circuit engraved on the iron ingot was charred black, and the powder inside had disappeared.

This phenomenon made a connection to him: "If I'm not mistaken, that sound just now was probably the sound of the soul-guiding powder exploding under the influence of fire element energy."

"Is it because the soul guide material involved was just powder that it was not an explosion but a deflagration?" Tang San pondered.

"It could also be related to your soul power attribute. You are a life attribute, which is actually also a wood attribute."

"Wood-attribute soul power was input into the fire element rune, which caused the explosion?"

"That's possible. We'll find out by doing another experiment. This time, we'll use powdered Lei Yuan Stone."

The two began to divide the work: one cleaned the iron ingots, and the other made Thunderstone powder. Before long, the experiment started again.

"Be careful," Tang San warned Chen Feng as he stepped forward.

"Okay, you should stay away too." Chen Feng squatted down next to the iron ingot and poured his soul power into it.

The next instant, a dazzling light appeared in his eyes.

boom!!!

Chapter 270 Be open-minded and patient.

Chen Feng was not hit by the blast; he used the Reincarnation Abyss technique to dodge it in time.

When he emerged from the cycle of despair, he saw the crater beneath his feet caused by the explosion, and the crater and its surroundings were charred black.

"Wow." Chen Feng raised an eyebrow.

What is this? Is the missile overloaded?

Could the explosion just now have been the reaction of burning grass?

Holy crap! Original!?

"It seems that different combinations of soul guide materials and elemental energy will produce different phenomena," Tang San said as he stepped forward.