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.

"I feel 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 Empress sent someone to deliver a snow lotus. After she gave 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 Extreme North, containing the pure essence of heaven and earth, and can indeed be used for healing.

For example, Vina from Douluo Dalu 2 possesses the Snow Lotus Martial Soul, which allows her to take on the role of healer in the team.

The most exquisite Hundred-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus is even more miraculous, capable of allowing the Snow Empress, 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 Empress 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 end up like that?"

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

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

Chen Xin nodded; this was roughly what he had guessed. "I see. How powerful is the Snow Woman Maiden that Her Majesty the Snow Empress found for you?"

"They say it's 50,000 years old."

"No wonder. By the way, Xiao Feng, Her Majesty the Snow Empress said she would go see you after you woke up, but she didn't say what it was about," Chen Xin said suddenly, as if remembering something.

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

He needed to thank Snow Empress and ask her for a favor.

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

"Plz follow me."

Chen Feng followed the Snow Woman to the main hall they had visited before, where he met the Snow Empress once again.

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

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

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

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

"Greetings, Your Majesty the Snow Empress."

"No need for formalities. How is your recovery going?" Snow Empress asked.

"There are no problems now. 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," Snow Empress said calmly.

"It was my own greed that led to this predicament," Chen Feng sighed softly, then asked curiously:

"During the Ring Expansion Ritual, did you feel anything? Did you lose anything or gain anything?"

This was a question that had lingered in his mind ever since his first successful Ring Expansion.

When Chen Feng first encountered Wuxiang, he wanted to ask him this question, but Wuxiang's language skills were truly appalling. Later, he needed to go into a deep sleep to recover his condition due to moving, which prevented Chen Feng from getting an answer to his question.

Now, at least there's 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 Soul Ring can't just appear out of thin air," Chen Feng nodded and said.

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

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

"When I said the loss of cultivation was only a little bit, I wasn't comparing it to my own power, but rather to the power possessed by a ten- Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."

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

"The formation of a ten- Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring does not require consuming all the power of a ten- Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Your previous theory on energy utilization is correct," Snow Empress said, gazing at Chen Feng.

Chen Feng took a deep breath. The energy utilization rate theory was a conjecture he had made, based on 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 Soul Beast as an example. The energy accumulated by a ten- Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is enormous, but the enhancement it provides to Soul Master after being transformed into Soul Ring is obviously incomparable to the energy it possesses.

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

Moreover, regular Soul Master at all stages are generally weaker than the Soul Beast corresponding to their highest-level Soul Ring.

The "standard "Soul Master 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 Beast and absorbing their Soul Ring may not be very efficient in utilizing the energy within the Soul Beast, with most of it likely being wasted.

Now, after Snow Empress'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 Hunting Ring Method. Higher energy utilization rate means greater advancement, and a technology 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 World, the Ring Expansion Method will likely have a long way to go before it can replace the Hunting Ring Method.

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

We can't have only losses and no gains, can we? Otherwise, the future of this Ring Expansion Method would be rather bleak, and cooperation that only benefits one party cannot last.

"Yes, but before I say that, I'd like to ask if you know about the cultivation level of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?" Snow Empress asked.

"You mean the difficulty that Soul Beast encounter every 100,000 years after breaking through to the next level?"

"That's right, after we performed the Ring Expansion Ritual, I felt..."

The Snow Empress looked at Chen Feng with a subtle glint in her eyes, "It seems 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," Snow Empress said with a smile.

She knew 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 Ring Expansion Method was finally not a one-man show by humans.

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

However, what is the underlying principle? This question couldn't help but arise in Chen Feng's mind.

He also asked the question, and Snow Empress's answer was somewhat abstract.

"I can't describe it precisely, I can only say that my Soul Power Soul Power merging with yours, and after many cycles of Soul Power circulation, 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. Snow Empress couldn't accurately describe the changes in her Soul Power, perhaps because such changes were inherently mysterious and impossible to articulate.

However, Chen Feng quickly remembered the Soul Power model he had created, a figure-eight model where humans and Soul Beast each followed a separate path.

In this model, Chen Feng believes that although both humans and Soul Beast grow from weak to strong, their essence, namely their Soul Power Frequency, is completely different.

These two lines roughly form the shape of the number eight, with the Soul Beast and the human following the left and right strokes respectively.

And when the soul beast reaches a certain position on the "eight" character, that is, the one hundred thousand year realm, it will be closest to the bottom of the right knob, and at this time it can jump over by some means.

This is what it means for Soul Beast Transformation into Human.

However, if one continues to break through to the next level after reaching the 100,000-year mark, the location of the Soul Beast will become farther away 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 Snow Empress seem to be explained by this Soul Power model.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Feng said:

"As far as I know, after Hundred-Thousand-Year 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 Soul Beast that is over 100,000 years old."

Snow Empress's gaze narrowed slightly, and she said:

"You mean that after I merged my Soul Power with yours, my Soul Power gained a trace of human characteristics, which will make the subsequent levels easier?"

"This is what I'm thinking," Chen Feng nodded, "Humans can break through bottlenecks using the Soul Power of Soul Beast, so why can't Soul Beast 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, making the change in difficulty of the level a natural consequence.

"That makes sense. So, your Ring Expansion Method is also of great significance to Soul Beast. Trading the loss of cultivation for a reduction in the difficulty of breakthroughs, I imagine many Soul Beast would be tempted," said the Snow Empress.

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

When something is beneficial to both parties, it becomes much easier to get both 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 say."

"My Martial Soul has a special form, but according to my family's past experiences, this special form may change my mind and eventually drive me insane. I want to try to awaken this special form and ask you to protect me," Chen Feng requested.

A look of realization dawned on Snow Empress's eyes. "You wanted the ability of Icy Will to prevent yourself from going insane?"

"Yes." Chen Feng nodded.

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

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

Chen Feng first summoned his Martial Soul, then took out a small bottle from the Blood Sky Vault 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 your Fourth Soul Ring in the Extreme North, then head to the sea; it's a place with few people anyway.

At that time, Chen Feng had already decided that if his Fourth Soul Ring couldn't solve the problem, he would just end his own life. A sparsely populated place 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, Snow Empress 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." Snow Empress frowned slightly.

At the same time, she was also a little surprised, because she sensed the aura of 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 Soul Beast Transformation into 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 Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast transformed into a human beside Chen Feng, in addition to the Auspicious Beast.

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

Thinking about this, Snow Empress couldn't help but feel a little puzzled. Could it be that in this era, Soul Beast Transformation into Human has become a trend?

Chen Feng had no idea what Snow Empress 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 Soul following that special feeling.

Starting from the Tai Chi diagram on the Sword Guard, Chen Feng's Martial Soul was gradually stained black.