Reverse Feathers

Tang San looked at the money pouch Ning Rongrong handed him with a helpless expression.

"We really don't need that many."

"How about we give the extra ones to these Onix? Gold Soul Coin are metal, right?" Xiao Wu suddenly suggested.

"Huh? Would they be interested in Gold Soul Coin?" Tang San asked in surprise.

"You'll know once you try." Ning Rongrong took out a Gold Soul Coin from her money pouch and approached the Thousand-Year Great Steel Snake she was cooperating with.

Instantly, the Thousand-Year Great Steel Snake stared intently at the Gold Soul Coin in front of it.

Ning Rongrong tentatively fed it a gold Gold Soul Coin Gold Soul Coin, which it swallowed whole without hesitation.

The other Onix also looked over, but they didn't make a move, perhaps because Great Steel Snake holds a special position in the group.

Seeing that the Great Steel Snake had eaten the Gold Soul Coin, Ning Rongrong became happy.

She was wondering how to thank the Great Steel Snake, but now she finally found a way.

Ning Rongrong took out bags of Gold Soul Coin from her Purple Star River and poured them all onto a large rock. In no time, the rock was piled high with gold coins.

A rough estimate suggests there are approximately over a thousand.

It's not that Ning Rongrong only has this much money, but rather that this is all the Gold Soul Coin she has; the rest of her money is in her card.

Upon seeing this small pile of gold, the Thousand-Year Great Steel Snake first gently touched Ning Rongrong's hand with its forehead to express its gratitude, and then began to feast on the gold beside it.

"To be honest, this is the first time I've ever seen Soul Beast that eats Gold Soul Coin," Zhao Wuji said with a strange expression, arms crossed.

Flender, standing nearby, looked utterly heartbroken. "Using Gold Soul Coin as food is far too extravagant."

Although he was greedy for money only to facilitate the establishment of schools, he was not truly a miser.

But seeing so many gold coins being eaten by the Great Steel Snake, he still felt as if his heart was bleeding.

But Chen Feng was thinking about something else entirely: the Pokémon with the same name as these Great Steel Snake had a Shiny variant, and this Shiny variant seemed to be gold.

Furthermore, the variants of Onix also appear to be golden.

If this Great Steel Snake continues to feed on Gold Soul Coin, will it really slowly turn into a golden, shiny Great Steel Snake?

After thinking about it, Chen Feng felt that this possibility was not high. It wasn't that he thought the Great Steel Snake would definitely not mutate, but that there simply wasn't enough gold to serve as its food.

This time, it was because they met Ning Rongrong, a wealthy young woman, who gave them so many gold coins to thank Great Steel Snake for its willingness to cooperate.

Who would dare to make such a large-scale project in the future? Unless these Onix find a wild gold mine, there might be a slight chance that they will evolve into Xenomorphs.

After Ning Rongrong and Tang San rewarded the Great Rock Snake Tribe with gold coins and Iron Essence respectively, Chen Feng and his group continued their journey.

As Life Forbidden Zone, the Soul Beast in the Death Desert each have their own territory.

The Great Rock Snake Tribe is considered to be among the upper-middle level in the Death Desert, and their territory is naturally quite large.

Therefore, Chen Feng wondered if the Onix could give them a ride, which would save them a lot of time.

The Steelix Chief did not refuse the request. It led several Onix to take Chen Feng and his group, successfully delivering them to a place not far from their target mountain.

This is already the edge of the Onix's territory; they can only take us this far, otherwise it will be crossing the line.

After bidding farewell to their leader, Great Steel Snake, Chen Feng and his group embarked on their mountain climbing journey.

Along the way, they encountered attacks from some aggressive Soul Beast, as well as some relatively docile Soul Beast.

As they approached the foot of the mountain, most of the Soul Beast they encountered were Fire Attribute.

As they got closer to the summit, other types of Soul Beast began to occasionally appear.

"Huh? What are those things flying over the cliff edge?" Bai Chenxiang suddenly asked, pointing to a spot.

Following her gaze, everyone saw several white, clump-like objects floating in the sky above the cliff.

"That's Wind Slime," the Grandmaster said.

"What is Wind Slime?" Bai Chenxiang, somewhat puzzled.

The answer to her question came from Chen Feng: "Slime are a very unique type of Soul Beast. They have jelly-like bodies and can mutate into Slime of corresponding attributes under the influence of external elemental energy. These Wind Slime should have mutated from ordinary Slime under the influence of Wind Attribute."

"Oh~ So fire Slime can be created in Fire Element environments, and Water Slime can be created in Water Element environments?" Bai Chenxiang asked.

"That's right."

"It doesn't seem to be a very powerful Soul Beast."

"No, you're wrong about that. I think Wind Slime would be a very suitable Soul Beast for you," Chen Feng said, shaking his head.

"Huh? Why?" Bai Chenxiang asked, puzzled.

"Because Slime, as a type of Soul Beast, have a unique characteristic: even if part of their body is shattered, they can actively absorb the broken pieces back and slowly reassemble themselves to their original state," Chen Feng explained.

Seeing that Bai Chenxiang still seemed somewhat bewildered, Chen Feng reminded her:

Do you remember my advice regarding your Third Spirit Skill?

"Bro Feng, you mean... you're suggesting I acquire the Soul Skill to retrieve the Feather of Wind?" Bai Chenxiang seemed to understand.

"That's right, the characteristics of Wind Slime will most likely allow you to obtain this kind of Soul Skill." Chen Feng nodded.

Bai Chenxiang thought about it for a moment and decided that Chen Feng's idea was worth a try.

"But are there any Wind Slime that are the right age for me?" she asked, looking at the White Dumpling.

"Yes, the biggest one is Wind Slime that's about 1,600 years old," the Grandmaster said, pointing to one of the White Dumpling.

Slime are not powerful Soul Beast, so they can't grow to a very high age. It's practically impossible for Slime to grow to Ten-Thousand-Year old; a thousand years is already the maximum.

"Then I'll go and bring it back." Flender sprouted wings and flew towards the edge of the cliff.

A short while later, he returned, dragging a White Dumpling.

Everyone looked into his arms and saw that the White Dumpling had faint cloud patterns on it and a pair of semi-transparent eyes, making it look rather cute.

"So cute!" Bai Chenxiang's eyes seemed to sparkle.

Flender placed the Wind Slime on the ground, then asked Chen Feng:

"Can such a Soul Beast be used with the Ring Expansion Method?"

The Wind Slime, placed on the ground, stood there blankly, showing no intention of running away.

Bai Chenxiang was immediately reminded. She reached out and poked the soft Wind Slime, saying:

"Bro Feng, your Ring Expansion Method seems to require communication with Soul Beast, but it doesn't seem very intelligent."

"If the Ring Expansion Method doesn't work, we'll just use the Hunting Ring Method," Ma Hongjun said nonchalantly.

"No! How can you hurt something so cute?" Bai Chenxiang Wind Slime. "How can you bear to do that to it?"

Ma Hongjun looked at the Wind Slime on the ground, which looked like a big ball, and for a moment he really couldn't bring himself to be ruthless.

In the past, when people had no choice but to hunt for rings, they naturally had to harden their hearts.

For example, when Oscar acquired his Third Soul Ring.

But now that we have the new option of the Ring Expansion Method, there's no need to do things that make us feel conflicted.

So Ma Hongjun shrugged and said:

"I can't bring myself to do it, but you need Soul Ring. Are we going to have to find one again?"

Bai Chenxiang looked at Chen Feng with pleading eyes, hoping he could come up with a solution that would satisfy both sides.

Chen Feng did indeed have some ideas, and he looked at the Wind Slime and said:

"After learning about these Soul Beast that can mutate with their environment, I have been thinking about the reasons for their mutations. My initial guess is that their Soul Power is easily affected by external factors, and they themselves cannot resist this interference."

"The key to the Ring Expansion Method is to communicate with Soul Beast using their Soul Power. Communication is just a means to achieve this goal, not the result itself. So I think we can give it a try first. After all, Soul Power communication is also a kind of external influence."

In fact, after the Ring Expansion Method was officially perfected, he began to consider whether the application scope of the Ring Expansion Method could be expanded.

The prerequisite of mutual cooperation between the two parties is still too restrictive. Chen Feng wondered if he could also include those Soul Beast with relatively weak self-awareness within the scope of the Ring Expansion Method Technique.

At first, Tang San attempted to Soul Power Fusion with the Jade Bamboo but failed because the nearly eight-hundred-year-old Jade Bamboo had little self-awareness and could not mobilize its Soul Power to Soul Power Fusion with Tang San's.

At that time, Chen Feng did not think of the path of "giving before taking", and did not try to actively input Soul Power into the body of this Soul Beast that had no self-awareness.

Now he wants to fill in this gap and see if the Ring Expansion Method can be applied to Soul Beast with weak self-awareness.

If possible, there might be a way to deal with some of the lower-level Soul Ring.

Bai Chenxiang understood Chen Feng's meaning and immediately beamed with joy.

"I'll give it a try then, hopefully I'll succeed."

She really didn't want to hurt this adorable White Dumpling fluff. If the attempt failed, she would prefer to try searching for other Soul Beast.

"Well, don't be too anxious. The mutation of Slime is a relatively slow process. If you haven't succeeded by the time Old Ma's Soul Ring are all finished, then the experiment will be considered a failure," Chen Feng advised.

They had used up a lot of energy climbing the mountain, and it was getting dark, so they decided to rest for the night and climb to the summit again the next morning.

This will minimize the possibility of accidents.

Even under the most favorable circumstances, finding Soul Beast and Ma Hongjun absorbing Soul Ring tomorrow would probably take a whole day, so Bai Chenxiang still has plenty of time.

When night fell, everyone found a relatively flat spot to set up camp, and then, just like the night before, they went into their tents.

Bai Chenxiang sat on her bunk, facing a large, white Wind Slime. She was using both hands to channel her Soul Power into the Wind Slime, attempting to use the Ring Expansion Method to obtain Soul Ring from the Wind Slime's body.

The Wind Slime offered no resistance to Bai Chenxiang's actions, displaying a completely Zen-like indifference as it allowed Bai Chenxiang to do as it pleased.

This was Bai Chenxiang's first time using the Ring Expansion Method, and she initially struggled to find the right approach. However, since the Wind Slime and she both belonged to the Wind element, their Soul Power had a high compatibility. Gradually, Bai Chenxiang successfully channeled her Soul Power into the Wind Slime's body and participated in the Wind Slime's Soul Power circulation.

At this point, success is already a foregone conclusion.

Ma Hongjun was on night watch outside. He looked at the pitch black surroundings and didn't dare to light a fire. He just listened intently to the sounds around him.

After a while, a flash of light suddenly appeared on the horizon, which caught Ma Hongjun's attention.

He strained his eyes to see what was happening and noticed the streak of fire flying towards him, which immediately made him tense.

Fortunately, the flame was not heading towards the camp, but rather towards the summit of the mountain. It flew to a certain point on the summit and then disappeared.

As it flew closer, Ma Hongjun realized that the flame was actually a bird-shaped creature. This gave him a sudden inspiration, and he quickly noted down the last place where the bird-shaped creature disappeared.

Ma Hongjun's goal in coming to obtain his Third Soul Ring was to acquire Fire Attribute Soul Beast that could fly, in order to solve his problem of not being able to fly.

That bird-shaped Soul Beast just now seems to meet the criteria. Although I don't know if the age limit is suitable, it's always good to write it down.

Nothing happened that night, and the next day, good news came first from Bai Chenxiang.

She succeeded!

Looking at the three Soul Ring —two yellow and one purple—on Bai Chenxiang's body, and the still adorable Wind Slime beside her, Chen Feng felt a surge of joy.

Bai Chenxiang's success demonstrates that the Ring Expansion Method is applicable to Soul Beast that lack self-awareness or have a weak sense of self.

These types of Soul Beast are generally not very old, which means that the target of the Ring Expansion Method is no longer limited to intelligent Soul Beast.

Currently, there are two types of Soul Beast that can benefit from the Ring Expansion Method: one type has a weak enough self-awareness to resist, and the other type has enough intelligence to cooperate actively.

These are roughly two extremes, and those that fall somewhere in between, unable to communicate and instinctively resisting the Ring Expansion Method, represent the blind spot in the applicability of the Ring Expansion Method.

Addressing this blind spot is unlikely to be a simple matter.

Regardless, the expansion of the scope of application of the Ring Expansion Method is a good thing, giving human Soul Master more options.

"Xiangxiang, what is your Third Spirit Skill? Is it what I speculated before?" Chen Feng asked.

"That's exactly right," Bai Chenxiang said with a grin.

She first used her First Soul Skill, Feather of Wind, to throw several feathers towards the open space in the distance.

Then her Third Soul Ring lit up, and the feathers returned to Bai Chenxiang's body at an extremely fast speed.