Chapter 436: Emperor Penguins: The World Is Full of Malice Toward Singles!

"Little Dog, stop!"

Ning Fei snapped the reins, and Little Dog immediately slowed to a halt.

"Wait for me here. Don't run off, and don't disturb the penguins."

Ning Fei stood up and issued the command to Little Dog and the rest of the team.

Sled dogs were an incredibly docile breed. With endless patience, they knew how to wait for their master.

Turning to the viewers in his live stream, Ning Fei explained, "Right now in Antarctica, a small number of stray dogs have become a hidden threat to the penguins' survival. While there aren't many of them, penguins have virtually no ability to defend themselves, making any threat completely lethal to them."

"International policies are currently being drafted to ban any Antarctic expeditions from keeping dogs. This will likely be enforced in the future, and when the time comes, everyone will have to comply."

With that, Ning Fei turned and walked toward the colony.

On screen, the sheer scale of the penguin colony was a spectacular sight.

As far as the eye could see, massive waddles of penguins hurried back and forth, looking absolutely adorable.

"These are Emperor Penguins. Look over there!"

Ning Fei pointed ahead, a note of pleasant surprise in his voice.

"Emperor Penguins are quite large, and they all look like they're wearing sharply tailored black-and-white tuxedos."

"Antarctic penguins are highly social. A single colony can number in the thousands or tens of thousands. At their peak, a group can even reach 200,000 birds."

"Food is incredibly abundant in the ocean for them, which is why every single one is wonderfully plump."

"Look at that group over there. Does anyone know what they're doing?"

The drone's camera zoomed in on the spot.

In the very center of the colony, the viewers saw a row of unusually large penguins standing completely motionless. Their eyes were squeezed shut, making them look like a line of statues.

"Are they reciting scripture?"

"Did they not hit their quotas? Didn't top up enough Q-Coins, so they're being punished by having to stand?"

"I suspect you're throwing shade at the great Penguin corporation."

"Yeah, why aren't they moving at all?"

"Don't talk nonsense. Only turtles stay completely still."

The live chat was as unserious as ever.

Ning Fei shook his head in amusement and explained.

"These are all male penguins. They're incubating eggs."

"After the females lay their eggs, they return to the sea to forage and replenish their weakened bodies."

"The males, meanwhile, place the eggs against their warm bellies to cover them. They stand there just like this, heads bowed and necks tucked, fasting for sixty days straight until the chicks hatch."

"Usually, they begin incubating in early April, and the chicks don't hatch until early June."

Hearing Ning Fei's explanation, the viewers' eyes went wide in disbelief.

"No food or water for 60 days?"

"That's way too hardcore. Do they not even go to the bathroom?"

"It's normal. It's the same principle as bears or snakes hibernating in the winter. Going a few months without anything is fine."

"Animal bodies are truly miraculous. If I go 60 minutes without food or drink, my mouth starts craving something."

"The issue is that these penguins aren't just fasting; they have to stand up for over 60 days."

"Hanging out with Temple Master Ning means a new piece of obscure trivia every day!"

At that moment, Ning Fei continued.

"After more than sixty days, when the females return, they can accurately pick out their husbands from the crowd. Then, they take over the duty of feeding the chicks."

"The little penguins grow extremely fast."

"Emperor Penguins also have another fascinating quirk."

"Once the chicks are independent enough, both parents will head into the sea to hunt. At that point, some of the single penguins will shoulder the responsibility of looking after the chicks."

"These bachelor penguins often have to watch over several babies at once, while the parents happily elope to the ocean to feast."

The viewers were completely engrossed in Ning Fei's storytelling.

"Good grief, single penguins have it that bad?"

"The world is full of malice toward singles."

"They didn't invite me when they were making the babies, but now that it's time to babysit, they suddenly remember me. Truly tragic."

"Hahaha, the only thing more terrifying than not finding a wife is having to babysit for someone else."

"Now that's the ultimate backup guy!"

"Wanna date? The kind where you act as a backup and watch the kids for me and my husband."

The audience always loved this kind of topic.

The moment the topic came up, everyone instantly perked up.

The viewers' imaginations ran wild.

Someone suddenly thought of a question and asked in the chat:

"Temple Master Ning, quick question. Since penguins have such short legs, how exactly do they do that kind of thing?"

"Damn! What goes on inside your heads? ...Though now that you mention it, I'm kind of curious too!"

"You bunch of perverts, taking an interest in penguin positions. Are you even human?"

"It's over, I'm no longer pure. Now I want to know too."

"Filthy humans! Penguins are so adorable, how could you... so, Temple Master Ning, what's the actual answer?"

Ning Fei took a moment to glance at the barrage of comments.

Seeing everyone's questions, imaginary black lines slid down his face.

This batch of viewers was impossible to manage!

"Ahem. The mating behavior of birds is always a bit of a balancing act."

"To get the job done, the male has to balance himself while climbing onto the female's back, keeping his body perfectly stable for those few seconds."

"For birds, the duration is generally very short."

"Penguins build their nests between May and July. They dig a hole in the coastal hills, line it with grass and bark, and create their own little cozy home."

Hearing Ning Fei's explanation, realization finally dawned on the viewers.

"Oh! So that's how it is!"

"Temple Master Ning, I have this friend who wants to know: if this 'short duration' issue that birds have happens to a human, how do you cure it?"

"Bro, is this 'friend' actually just you?"

"What a coincidence, a friend of mine wants to ask the same thing."

"Shove a mic in their mouths and let them tell their stories."

"Just exercise more. If that doesn't work, go buy some medicine!"

The chat derailed into nonsense once again.

Ning Fei didn't comment further on the matter.

He happened to spot a male penguin looking after a group of chicks not too far away.

This male was likely the 'ultimate backup guy' the viewers were joking about, burdened with the duty of watching the kids for a penguin couple.

Ning Fei was standing very close to the waddle.

Being able to observe the penguins from this distance felt wonderful.

Penguins lacked athletic mobility. With their incredibly short legs, they waddled from side to side, looking exceptionally clumsy as they walked.

But heaven was fair. It had given them bodies utterly devoid of athletic grace, but it had also granted them a world of ice and snow—a place perfectly suited to their survival, with virtually no natural predators.

Ning Fei stood in front of the little chicks. When they saw him, their expressions carried a mix of confusion and caution.

Although penguins were birds, they were not native to Huaxia, so the affinity boost from the Phoenix jade pendant didn't work on them.

But Ning Fei had a solution.

He remembered the Disguise Card he had just drawn. It allowed him to disguise himself as a specific creature, tricking the target species into accepting him as one of their own.

With that in mind, Ning Fei activated the Disguise Card, taking on the persona of a baby penguin.

To the viewers in the live stream, Ning Fei still looked the same—an immortal clad in a white Daoist Robe, exuding an ethereal, otherworldly aura.

But in the eyes of the adult Emperor Penguin and its chicks, Ning Fei had transformed into a baby Emperor Penguin, entirely covered in a layer of fuzzy gray down!

The male Emperor Penguin waddled right up to Ning Fei, as if out of concern for why he had fallen behind the group.

The viewers were stunned by the scene.

"That group of penguins is approaching Temple Master Ning!"

"Emperor Penguins aren't afraid of strangers."

"They might not be afraid of humans, but they don't usually walk right up to them on their own!"

"Look, they've stopped!"

It was a magical sight.

The group of baby penguins crowded around Ning Fei, enthusiastically flapping their little wings as if they were playing.

The male Emperor Penguin barely reached Ning Fei's knees, yet it strutted over with the imposing air of an elder. Ning Fei could even sense genuine concern radiating from the bird.

"It looks like they consider me one of their own."

Ning Fei said with a laugh.

He crouched down and began waddling forward alongside the chicks.

The incredibly adorable baby penguins clustered around his feet, looking exceptionally cheerful and completely at ease.

At that exact moment, another camera was filming the area from a distance.

Seeing this unfold on their monitors, the people on the other end of that feed were left completely dumbfounded.

"My God, what's with that Asian guy?"

"Emperor Penguin chicks are notoriously shy around strangers. How on earth is he getting along with them so flawlessly?!"