First Soul Skill, Blaze

The telepathic connection lasted only a few seconds; before Ye Chen could recover from his surprise, the link between his Body Martial Soul and his Torchic Martial Soul snapped.

As the sensation of mental unity and shared consciousness faded, Ye Chen realized that the resonance between himself and the Torchic had also vanished.

Only then did it dawn on him: his Body Martial Soul was his own physical form, so when the soul ring energy poured into his body, it was effectively pouring into his Body Martial Soul.

Since the Torchic was the one absorbing that energy, the flow of power created a bridge, causing his body and the Torchic to resonate and form a telepathic link.

Although he didn't know how to manually bridge the two, after experiencing that resonance, Ye Chen was certain that his Body Martial Soul and Torchic Martial Soul could execute a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Furthermore, because both his Body Martial Soul and his Torchic Martial Soul possessed self-awareness, it was highly likely that any future fusion skill could take two distinct forms.

One form would be a fusion skill led by his Body Martial Soul—that is, himself.

The other would be a fusion skill led by the Torchic.

Setting aside his thoughts on the fusion skill for the moment, Ye Chen focused all his attention on absorbing the soul ring energy.

This energy came from a Blazing Bird with over five hundred years of cultivation, exceeding the absorption limit for a first soul ring.

If he didn't commit himself entirely to the process, a single moment of carelessness could lead to his body rupturing and death.

About half an hour passed.

As the massive energy flowed through his entire body along with his soul power, Ye Chen could clearly feel the yellow ring rotating around him. It first clashed violently with the Torchic, then slowly began to merge with the essence of the martial soul.

This meant the energy had been tamed; the danger of his body rupturing was gone.

Seeing this, not only did Ye Chen feel relieved, but Dean Ding, standing to the side, also let out a quiet sigh of relief.

As an outsider, Dean Ding did not know that Ye Chen dared to use a Blazing Bird with over five hundred years of cultivation as his first soul ring only because he possessed a Body Martial Soul in addition to his Torchic.

Through months of persistent physical training, his Body Martial Soul had grown stronger alongside his physical fitness.

Coupled with the combat experience gained from defeating the Blazing Bird, his soul power had risen to level 19.

In other words, he was absorbing his first soul ring with the soul power of a level 19 master. With his body—strengthened by level 19 soul power—acting as his Body Martial Soul, he could naturally absorb a first soul ring exceeding five hundred years safely.

Facts proved Ye Chen's theory correct; an hour later, the yellow ring spinning wildly around him finally settled down.

Seeing this, a look of pleasant surprise appeared on Dean Ding's face. During the absorption process, if the interaction between the ring and the body remained calm, it indicated that the energy had been completely claimed by the soul master.

Now, he only needed to wait for the body and the martial soul to fully absorb the energy and comprehend the soul skill attached to the ring.

After the initial surprise, Dean Ding smiled in relief. Although he and Ye Chen had only known each other for a few days, they were both fire-attribute soul masters, and the boy was a genius with excellent character and talent.

If he had died from over-absorbing a five-hundred-year first soul ring, he would have felt a deep sense of regret.

Fortunately, everything had gone smoothly.

Now, his academy hadn't lost a genius; instead, they had gained a monster.

Thinking of this, Dean Ding couldn't help but find it amusing. A soul master absorbing a five-hundred-year first soul ring beyond his limit—if his old friend Yu Xiaogang knew about this, his expression would surely be hilarious.

However, putting Yu Xiaogang aside, even he, a fire-attribute master, hadn't expected that the secret to the Torchic absorbing such a ring lay in its innate, extremely high affinity for the fire element.

According to Ye Chen, with the help of this fire affinity, it was relatively easy for the Torchic to absorb fire-attribute soul rings.

It was also because of this high affinity that the Torchic possessed the Ember skill.

However, what Dean Ding didn't know was that the talk about fire affinity was actually just Ye Chen making things up.

To have a plausible excuse for exceeding his limit and to hide his Body Martial Soul and level 19 soul power, he had no choice but to lie.

As the energy was fully absorbed by his body and the Torchic, Ye Chen felt his soul power surging wildly. His muscles, bones, meridians, and every other part of his body, along with his physical attributes, underwent a massive improvement.

These were the benefits brought by the increase in soul power.

The rise in soul power meant that the level bottleneck had been broken.

The first soul ring had been successfully absorbed!

Ye Chen suppressed the excitement and agitation in his heart and carefully checked the state of his soul power.

Before absorbing the ring, he had already accumulated level 19 soul power.

Absorbing the ring beyond his limit had granted him another three levels.

Added together, he now possessed the equivalent of level 22 soul power, meaning he was already ready to obtain a second soul ring.

As for the first soul skill attached to the ring, it was called Blaze.

From the insights gained during absorption, he learned that Blaze was born from the Blazing Bird's fire-amplification ability combined with the unique nature of the Torchic.

For the half-hour duration of this skill, the Torchic would enter a "Blaze" state, increasing the power of fire-attribute skills by 70%.

Because the first soul ring carried not only the fire attribute of the Blazing Bird but also its exceptional speed, and the Torchic possessed a Speed Boost Ability, the speed attribute of the ring and the martial soul's ability created a linked effect.

This linkage manifested such that while in the Blaze state, the Torchic's fire-attribute skills were boosted by 70%.

Furthermore, after each round of combat, if the speed attribute increased, the power of the Torchic's fire-attribute skills would increase by an additional 10% on top of the original, until no further speed increases could be achieved.

In short, Blaze was a continuous amplification skill; the faster the speed stacked, the higher the fire damage.

That was, unless the opponent was immune to fire damage, or prevented the Torchic from stacking its speed.

Otherwise, with the dual amplification of the Blaze ability and the Speed Boost Ability, the Torchic could be said to be invincible among its peers, capable of challenging those at higher ranks.

What surprised Ye Chen the most was that after the transformation brought by the First Soul Ring, the Torchic's martial soul essence had not only accumulated the high-grade fire-attribute bloodline of the Blazing Bird, but as a common chicken, it had also gained the running speed of an ostrich and powerful, well-developed leg muscles.

Just as Ye Chen was marveling at this, a red light shot up from the top of his head, piercing the sky and instantly manifesting as the Torchic, which hovered in mid-air.

"Chamo-chamo, chamo—"

The Torchic let out a youthful yet exceptionally excited cry, its voice clear and powerful, carrying an irrepressible joy and restlessness.

The next second, a soft yet dazzling white light suddenly erupted from within the Torchic's body, enveloping it completely.

This scene left Dean Ding, who was standing to the side, instantly stunned, his eyes filled with shock.

Ye Chen, who had just finished meditating and looked up at the sky, was also taken aback, his heart rate suddenly quickening.

Because the Torchic was shrouded in white light in the sky, its specific appearance could not be seen; one could only make out a constantly twisting and stretching silhouette of the Torchic.

A strange scene unfolded.

The originally small figure of the Torchic's silhouette began to lengthen, stretch, and grow taller within the white light, while its two short wings also elongated, transforming into two long, agile wing-arms, and its two chicken feet grew larger and stronger.

Ye Chen realized in an instant that this state of expanding aura, physical reshaping, and light-enveloped transformation was clearly a sign that the Torchic was undergoing evolution!