Becoming a Stat Monster

Soul beasts only gained a certain degree of intelligence after reaching ten thousand years.

Otherwise, they either relied on instinct to hunt and feed while avoiding natural enemies.

Or they relied on the protection of stronger soul beasts within their clans to survive.

Because the Ice Dragon Domain released during the last Descent of the Ice God had raised the soul beasts' cultivation.

Some soul beasts that had only just reached ten thousand years gathered up their scattered clansmen.

As a result, there were noticeably more soul beasts this time.

Their numbers had risen from over ten thousand to as many as twenty or thirty thousand.

Quite a few soul beasts had even brought their cubs.

Together, they worshipped the Ice God.

And the thoughts of these soul beasts were very simple.

If your bloodline was superior to theirs, your strength exceeded theirs, and you could rapidly increase their cultivation, then they would believe in you.

There were none of those complicated twists and turns.

This also caused the originally unremarkable Ice Dragon Statue to gradually gain a few traces of divine charm.

"It seems that in just a few years, all the soul beasts scattered across the Far North will receive Lord Ice God's summons and come here to worship him."

Snow Empress and Gu Yuan stood in the palm held aloft by the Ice Dragon Statue, looking down at the enormous number of soul beasts below.

Snow Empress, who had always cherished familial affection, could not help revealing a heartfelt smile.

Gu Yuan smiled. "Seeking benefits and avoiding harm is the instinct of every living creature. Soul beasts are simply much more straightforward than humans."

"At the very least, after you give them benefits, they will sincerely believe in and thank you."

"If they were humans, there would be no shortage of those who repaid a small favor with gratitude but a great favor with resentment—eating from your bowl, then cursing you the moment they put it down."

Upon hearing this, surprise appeared on Snow Empress's face.

When she looked at Gu Yuan again, there seemed to be something more in her gaze.

Before all the soul beasts, Gu Yuan used Descent of the Ice Empress.

He raised the cultivation of those soul beasts.

It was still ten years becoming a hundred, a hundred becoming a thousand, and a thousand becoming ten thousand.

And this time, he had even created several Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

Afterward, Gu Yuan had Snow Empress keep them behind separately.

He had Snow Empress keep several of them by her side to guard the Ice Dragon Statue. As for the others, he assigned them territories.

They would restrain and manage the soul beasts within their respective regions.

That would prevent them from becoming arrogant due to their strength, attacking human towns, and forming beast tides.

Conversely, if human soul masters indiscriminately captured and slaughtered soul beasts when they did not need soul rings, those Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could organize the other soul beasts and besiege them.

Then Gu Yuan had them keep an eye out for ice-attributed soul beasts with powerful bloodlines.

He would need them in the future.

After settling all of this.

The Titan Snow Ape King sacrificed himself.

Before that, Gu Yuan had spent around four months advancing from Level 26 to Level 30.

That was roughly the cultivation speed he had anticipated.

Afterward, the Ice Bear King sacrificed himself, granting him a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring and a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Bone.

At the Ice Dragon King's request, this soul bone was once again a Torso Bone.

With her ultimate control over the ice element.

The Ice Dragon King completely fused it with the Ice Empress Torso Bone.

According to the Ice Dragon King.

The difficulty of fusing Gu Yuan's future left and right arm soul bones would surpass all imagination.

Without sufficiently powerful Torso and Head Soul Bones to balance the power of those two soul bones.

Even if Gu Yuan's cultivation reached Limit Douluo, theoretically, he still would not be able to absorb both soul bones at once.

So this time.

The Titan Snow Ape's soul bone was no exception.

The Titan Snow Ape King had long since been raised to two hundred and ninety thousand years by the Ice Dragon King.

This Descent of the Ice God.

Had brought his cultivation infinitely close to three hundred thousand years.

After the sacrifice, he directly bypassed the heavenly tribulation and became a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Ferocious Beast.

A three-hundred-thousand-year soul ring.

Its effects were undoubtedly terrifying, as the Ice Bear King's previous soul ring skill had already proven.

Ice Dragon Comet Meteor alone had allowed the then-Level-40 Gu Yuan to blow up an entire canyon.

Also a three-hundred-thousand-year soul ring, the Titan Snow Ape King's fourth soul ring bestowed upon him was equally formidable.

"Ice God Possession!"

A purely enhancement-type skill that increased all attributes by three hundred percent.

"Fist of the Ice God!"

By using his control over ice and snow, he could instantly compress it into terrifying energy and unleash an overwhelmingly powerful strike.

Even if the enemy evaded it, the formidable Ultimate Ice would immediately invade their body and freeze them into an ice sculpture in an instant.

Then they would be shattered by the explosive shockwave.

In the Far North, the power of this move would surpass Ice Dragon Comet Meteor, which contained chained Ice Explosion Techniques.

"Are these the two skills A-Tai gave me?"

Gu Yuan was quite satisfied with the two skills.

He liked skills with raw stats like these.

Compared to this, turn-based combat where you slashed him once and he stabbed you once was simply pathetically weak.

As for the soul bone, Gu Yuan sensed that it still provided Domain of Eternal Freeze and Wrath of the Ice Emperor.

But their power had nearly doubled.

And compared to that, Gu Yuan's greatest improvement was still his physique.

Now, he felt that he could beat that Soul Emperor with the Mutated Fire Python martial soul to death with his bare hands.

Then he checked his Soul Power Level: Level 46.

This time, there was no Ice Empress like before, exhausting her origin to strengthen his body.

Yet even though he had reached the Soul Ancestor level, and even though the Titan Snow Ape King's cultivation was only three hundred thousand years.

With the Titan Snow Ape King retaining his spiritual origin, Gu Yuan had still gained six Soul Power Levels.

"It seems things are going even more smoothly than I imagined."

"Da Gu, these two soul skills of yours are both quite excellent. With your current strength, you can face a Soul Douluo head-on."

"If you encounter a Title Douluo whose attributes you counter, you will also have the power to fight."

"Your only weakness is that your cultivation is still too low..."

Within Gu Yuan's Divine Sea, the Ice Dragon King spoke with satisfaction.

Gu Yuan nodded. Even before breaking through to Soul Ancestor, he had possessed the strength to contend with, or even kill, a Spirit Sage.

Take that Soul Emperor assassin from before. Even with the Mutated Fire Python having tremendous resistance to ice-cold attributes.

Gu Yuan had been able to rely on Mysterious Ice Dragon Spear, that one soul skill unsealed to the ten-thousand-year level, to completely suppress his opponent.

Once the Ice Emperor Dragon Armor granted by the Ice Empress soul ring appeared.

Forget breaking through his defenses—his opponent did not even dare take a single hit from him.

Wherever he was hit, that part would be crippled.

He only dared fight from mid- to long-range using weapon-type bow and arrow soul skills and his sixth soul skill containing a special force field.

If Gu Yuan used his third soul skill, Eternal Frozen Prison, or Ice Dragon Comet Meteor, his opponent would not even be qualified to exchange blows with him.

"It was all thanks to Little Mother's nurturing."

"Without Little Mother, there would be no Gu Yuan today."

Gu Yuan was sincerely grateful to the Ice Dragon King.

Without the Ice Dragon King, he could not have become Snow Empress's elder brother.

If he had not become Snow Empress's elder brother, Snow Empress would not have gathered the soul beasts of the Far North for him.

Without the sacrifices of the Far North's three great ferocious beasts.

Then even with the Treasure Exchange System.

Within a single short year, he could at most have hovered around the Soul Elder level, or even the Soul Grandmaster level.

How could he possibly have his current strength?

"Shouldn't you be thanking this Empress instead?" the Ice Empress cut in.

"Little Bing'er, it seems your butt is itching again."

Gu Yuan issued a warning that he would spank her.