Sweet Scent Draws Soul Beasts

After obtaining his third Soul Ring, Qing Mu did not head straight to the Soul Master Academy. After all, he could go to the academy anytime; he might as well take this opportunity to grind more experience.

Atop a valley, Qing Mu looked down at the herd of Black Water Buffalo Soul Beasts and gave Bulbasaur beside him a meaningful glance.

Bulbasaur immediately understood. It sprayed a pale green powder from the bulb on its back, which drifted toward the Soul Beast herd below on the wind.

"Bang!" "Bang!" ...

A moment later, the Black Water Buffalos began falling in groups. Only a few elite ones nearing a thousand years old were still barely standing.

But what awaited those elites was the lash of Bulbasaur's Vine Whips!

"Crack!" "Crack!" "Crack!" ...

As Bulbasaur's Vine Whips swung rapidly, the herd of Black Water Buffalos was completely wiped out in Bulbasaur's hands within moments.

Yet despite such an outstanding result, Qing Mu frowned slightly. He was not pleased by Bulbasaur's defeat of the Black Water Buffalo herd.

"Is it because I leveled up? Even though I defeated so many Hundred-Year Black Water Buffalos this time, the increase in Soul Power was negligible."

Qing Mu lowered his head and pondered.

Back when he had been a Soul Grandmaster, although defeating Hundred-Year Soul Beasts was far less effective at increasing Soul Power than defeating Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, the gains still added up and provided decent experience.

But this time, Bulbasaur had defeated over a hundred Black Water Buffalos from a small herd, including quite a few at the hundred-year level. Yet the increase to his Soul Power had become almost imperceptible.

As for why this had happened, Qing Mu guessed it was because he had now broken through to Soul Elder. Soul Elders corresponded to Soul Beasts between one thousand and two thousand years old. The gap in level was simply too great, so defeating Hundred-Year Soul Beasts now naturally had very little effect.

With that in mind, Qing Mu immediately decided to find a Thousand-Year Soul Beast to verify his guess.

So Qing Mu cast Grassy Terrain at the scene before leaving with Bulbasaur.

After Qing Mu left, the Black Water Buffalo herd woke under the healing effects of Grassy Terrain. Most of them had no idea what had happened, and only the few elite Black Water Buffalos close to a thousand years old still felt lingering fear.

But just then, they lowered their heads and discovered that the grass beneath their feet was giving off an intensely sweet fragrance.

Unable to resist the sweet scent filling their nostrils, they took a bite.

Mm! Sweet and delicious!

Meanwhile, Qing Mu and Bulbasaur traveled through the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Mountain Range for more than half a day, yet they still did not catch sight of a single Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

"Where did all the Thousand-Year Soul Beasts go? Don't tell me they learned I was coming and hid away?"

After encountering another nine-hundred-year Soul Beast, Qing Mu could not help grumbling.

This was the Star Dou Great Mountain Range, not some enclosed Soul Hunting Forest. Thousand-Year Soul Beasts might be rare, but surely it was not possible for him to wander around for over half a day without encountering even one?

Qing Mu could not help sighing. "I kind of miss that Crimson Blood Battle Pig."

At that moment, Qing Mu deeply missed the days he had spent with the Crimson Blood Battle Pig a few days ago. Through Grassy Terrain's healing, he had farmed experience from the Crimson Blood Battle Pig dozens of times, forcefully grinding himself from level twenty-nine to level thirty.

"Looks like I can only head deeper inside. There may be some danger, but now that I've advanced to Soul Elder, as long as I don't run into a powerful Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, I should have more than enough ability to protect myself."

Qing Mu had this confidence because he had just acquired one of the core skills in the system he was building: Sunny Day!

With Sunny Day, Bulbasaur could unleash its strongest Combat Power at any time, day or night.

The doubled Growth and the speed boost provided by Chlorophyll, along with its hidden evolved form, Ivysaur, were enough to let Bulbasaur's peak Combat Power rival some weaker Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

In fact, if Bulbasaur had already learned the powerful Grass-type moves Solar Beam and Power Whip, even some powerful Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts might not have been Bulbasaur's match.

Of course, Qing Mu was not foolish enough to provoke a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast now.

Everything he had mentioned before was only Bulbasaur's theoretical peak Combat Power, but stacking Growth required time.

Even with Sunny Day's boost, that time could only be shortened, not eliminated.

If a sudden situation truly arose, fighting at its theoretical strongest was unrealistic—not to mention that Bulbasaur still had to protect him.

After all, even with Soul Power reinforcing his body, Qing Mu himself could at most withstand the attacks of Hundred-Year Soul Beasts.

As for Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts? He simply could not take their attacks!

Although the Wood Spirit Seed could protect him, it had a limited number of uses and could not be squandered without restraint.

So, Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could wait until he had mastered several more spirit skills and gained a certain level of self-preservation.

No matter what, Qing Mu could now use Grassy Terrain, Giga Drain, and Sunny Day—three spirit skills in total. Though only one was offensive, with the boosts from Grassy Terrain and Chlorophyll, an ordinary Soul Elder would not find it easy to take him down.

"Da Na~"

Just as Qing Mu was preparing to head into the Star Dou Great Mountain Range, Bulbasaur suddenly grabbed him.

Qing Mu immediately turned around and looked at Bulbasaur in confusion. "Bulbasaur, did you discover something?"

"Da Na, Da Na~"

Bulbasaur nodded, then released a stream of pink mist from the seed on its back. It looked somewhat like the pollen of a flower.

Qing Mu froze when he saw it. "This is... Sweet Scent?"

Sweet Scent was a new move Bulbasaur had comprehended after evolving. Its effect in the game was to greatly lower an opponent's evasion rate.

In reality, its effect was similar to Qing Mu's mother Xu Yao's Third Spirit Skill, Illusory Fragrance. Both used floral scents to affect an opponent's reactions, thereby weakening them.

At first, Qing Mu did not understand why Bulbasaur had suddenly used Sweet Scent. After all, they currently had no opponent to deal with.

But only moments later, as he watched Soul Beasts of all kinds continuously rush toward them, Qing Mu instantly understood.

"Bulbasaur, I nearly forgot Sweet Scent can lure monsters."

Qing Mu slapped his forehead in realization, unable to keep a trace of helplessness from appearing on his face.

It could not be helped. His memories of Pokémon were simply too distant, and he had only played some of the earlier versions, so he had already forgotten many details.

But as Qing Mu looked at the mixed assortment of Soul Beasts charging toward him, he frowned and suggested to Bulbasaur, "Bulbasaur, can you filter out the Soul Beasts below a thousand years? If you attract all of them, there are simply too many."