Chapter 425: A New Market

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

At that moment, the only thing the Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin could feel was a sharp biting cold penetrating its entire body. As an Ice-type monster, it had never known what ‘cold’ felt like for as long as it had lived, the first time it came into this world as a baby penguin notwithstanding.

So this is what ‘cold’ feels like… The Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin’s eyes were glazed. Its consciousness was slowly fading away…

Suddenly, dazzling light flashed out from the icy blue crown on its head.

In the next instant, its eyes regained focus, then it let out a roar. A rush of energy surged through its body. Cracks began snaking across the layer of frost that was holding it in place.

“Icy Hell!” The enraged Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin activated its monster ability, causing both earth and sky to tremble around it. A cold wind howled across the land. Ice spikes surged out from the ground at a frightening speed.

In the span of a mere second, more ice spikes exploded from the ground before converging into a single icy pillar that pierced both heaven and earth. Fog spread through the gaps between the ice spikes. With a resounding crack, the fog solidified around the spikes into an icy chain that wrapped the whole thing up like a bow.

“What a cool ability,” exclaimed Gao Peng as he marveled at the scene before him.

“Nothing I haven’t seen before; this is the North Pole, after all. I would be quite impressed if the penguin was able to pull this off in Yuzhou.” The Desolate Frost Lion’s voice echoed in Gao Peng’s head.

After saying this, it began glancing warily at its surroundings. Even though its tone implied that it didn’t think much of this Lord-tier emperor penguin, the lion still had its eyes fixed on the penguin’s every move, in case the latter had any more tricks up its sleeve.

The Desolate Frost Lion grimaced at the icy hellscape that had formed around the penguin. A savage look appeared on its face.

The lion opened its mouth wide. Copious amounts of icy blue fog began issuing from the ice pillar before rushing into the lion’s maw. As it swallowed more of the icy fog, the icy hellscape around it began crumbling. It was gradually losing its ethereal luster…

With one last deep breath, the Desolate Frost Lion brought the whole thing down. The ice pillar too had collapsed, along with the ice chain around it. Upon seeing this, the Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin immediately turned around and fled the place.

Not one to show mercy, the Desolate Frost Lion lunged forth with a roar, striking the back of the penguin’s head with a claw. Bang—

The penguin’s body shook for a moment. Then it fell to the ground, devoid of all life.

When the deed was finally done, the Desolate Frost Lion licked its claws clean of the penguin’s blood. Narrowing its eyes, it shook its mane free of dust and frost and walked back to Gao Peng, its gait pompous. Its body began shrinking with each step until finally, it returned to the smallest size possible.

This was the new ability that the Desolate Frost Lion had gained after returning to King-tier. This ability had only appeared to Gao Peng as a bunch of question marks when he first met the lion, implying that it had yet to be awakened.

[Monster Traits]: Frost Consumption (Born by the frost, die by the frost. The Desolate Frost Lion is capable of absorbing and converting external ice energy into its own power.

Active Effect 1: All the ice energy that the Desolate Frost Lion has absorbed will be stored in its abdomen. Caution: absorbing too much ice energy from its environment could have a negative effect on its body.

Active Effect 2: It can release all the ice energy that it has absorbed as its own attack.)

This was an extremely situational ability. However, its effect served to counter Ice-type monsters in particular. This was one of the reasons why Gao Peng wasn’t worried at all about Desolion’s confrontation with the Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin.

Not only was the lion’s level higher than its opponent, it now had the ability to weaken any Ice-type monster considerably.

While Silly still couldn’t hold anything with a pulse in its portable space, monster corpses weren’t a problem for it. Gao Peng proceeded to drag the Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin into Silly’s portable space.

This monster must have mutated after the experiments it had gone through. Gao Peng figured that its body could still be dissected for research purposes. The fusion of genes from two completely different monsters must have been what the Arctic region was working on.

Before the regions of the world came together to form the World Allied Government, the larger regions were the world’s powerhouses, constantly pushing around the smaller regions.

Even after the formation of the World Allied Government, wars still persisted between the founding members of the government, be they on the surface or behind closed doors.

The Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin was the result of the Arctic region’s research.

“There’s a downside to this method of combining the genes of two monsters,” said the Desolate Frost Lion, shaking its head.

“What downside?” asked Gao Peng, raising an eyebrow.

“No idea. It could probably cause the monster being experimented on to lose one of its innate abilities or simply perish in the worst case scenario,” said the lion, somewhat annoyed by Gao Peng’s cluelessness. I’m not a human being; how the hell would I know what’s supposed to happen every time you sick b*stards play God?

To the Desolate Frost Lion, what these humans had done to the Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin was nothing short of blasphemous.

“Awww…” The White-Steel Bladed Beast lay splayed across the ground, gazing at Desolion with eyes full of hatred.

Deceiver! You’re already so big; why do you still feel the need to pretend that you’re small and weak? I’ve never seen a more deceitful lion in my life! The White-Steel Bladed Beast would remember this act of treachery for as long as it lived.

Once they were done with the Yellow-Browed Emperor Monster Penguin, Gao Peng continued heading south. Along the way, they encountered various kinds of monsters native to the northern wilderness, such as the Icefall Bear, the Auroric Polar Wolf, the Blue Spirit Narwhal, and the Black-Blooded Albatross.

Most of these monsters had ice, water, and Yin attributes. Creatures of other elemental attributes would find it difficult to live in the North Pole’s extreme conditions. This didn’t mean that no other types of monsters existed here, only that they probably wouldn’t last longer than a day or two in this frozen wasteland.

As these creatures were less suited to finding food and shelter in the North Pole’s harsh conditions, they were gradually eliminated from the competition here in favor of ice, water, and Yin-type monsters.

The same thing could be observed in other ecosystems. Nature was impartial to all the lifeforms it had given birth to. However, it was also a harsh and cruel mistress that wouldn’t hesitate to weed out those it deemed unfit to live on as a species.

Those who lost the struggle for survival had two options: either leave the region or become food for other monsters. The general rule among trainers and monster hunters was that if one wanted to hunt for monsters of a certain elemental attribute, one should do so in a place that was rich in said element.

As they continued flying south, Gao Peng tried to get a glimpse of the familiars used in the Arctic region’s military. He noticed something.

Some of these familiars possessed traits that belonged to two completely different monsters. A number of military and government officials even owned familiars that had unmistakable signs of genetic tampering.

For instance, Gao Peng saw an Icefall Bear that was wearing a thick steel helmet on its head. There were a couple of sharp horns on said helmet. The rest of its body was equipped with an equally thick armor, which glinted with a cold light, looking positively intimidating.

Most of the familiars passing through the streets seemed to be equipped with man-made accessories. Gao Peng thought the whole thing looked like something out of a movie set of the future.

Equipping familiars with all kinds of weapons and armor seemed to be the Arctic region’s way of life. However, this didn’t mean that the people of the Arctic region loved conflict. These were nothing more than status symbols.

This could very well be a new market for our company to expand into…

Inspiration dawned on Gao Peng at that moment. He could make a killing by selling familiars here to the people of the Arctic region, as long as said familiars were strong enough to entice them!

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