Rather than live in constant fear and worry, he might as well take this Soul Bone to the Heaven Dou Auction House and sell it. The proceeds would not only let him buy a large quantity of Whale Rubber, but also purchase a top-tier Storage Soul Tool to hold all kinds of items.
With that in mind, Ye Chen left the Sunset Forest and made his way to Heaven Dou City.
Having lived in seclusion in the Sunset Forest for two years, he dressed like a wild man from the mountains. To avoid drawing attention, Ye Chen decided to spend his last fifty Gold Soul Coins at a shopping mall on a decent set of clothes and a little grooming.
It took him five hours. By the time he walked out of the mall, he no longer looked like a wild man from the mountains, but rather like a well-groomed, strikingly handsome young man.
Following directions from passersby, Ye Chen reached the Heaven Dou Auction House and told the staff that he had a Soul Bone to put up for auction.
The moment they heard the words "Soul Bone," the auction house staff welcomed him with the utmost respect. They then issued him a Gold Soul Coin deposit card required for bidding and took care of all the necessary formalities.
It was said that rare auction items like Soul Bones were always scheduled for the evening's premium auction.
When the premium auction began at eight that evening, every bidder saw a Soul Bone come up for sale and immediately raised their paddles in a frenzy.
The Soul Bone had started at one million Gold Soul Coins. In the end, Salas, the Platinum Bishop of Spirit Hall's Sacred Hall, bought it for four million.
After the transaction was complete, the Heaven Dou Auction House took one million Gold Soul Coins as the handling fee and platform service charge, while three million Gold Soul Coins were transferred to Ye Chen's deposit card.
He was glad that Ning Fengzhi, the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, hadn't attended the auction. If Ning Fengzhi had placed a bid, no one else would have dared compete with him. Ye Chen's Soul Bone would then have sold for only one million Gold Soul Coins, an enormous loss.
With money to spare, Ye Chen spent one million Gold Soul Coins at the Heaven Dou Auction House on a top-tier Storage Soul Tool called the Tri-Color Bracelet.
The Soul Tool was silver-black all over. Though it was called a bracelet, it looked more like a wristwatch. Its strap was highly elastic and fit anyone's wrist perfectly. The watch face was divided into three colors: red, green, and blue. Each color represented a separate storage space.
According to the host's introduction, its original owner had named the Soul Tool the Tri-Color Bracelet precisely because its face contained three separate storage spaces: red, green, and blue.
Each of the three spaces had a capacity of fifty cubic meters.
The red storage space could hold inanimate objects. The green storage space could hold living things. The blue storage space was even more remarkable: it could not only keep food fresh, but also store food-type Soul Skills for long periods.
It was precisely because the blue storage space could hold food-type Soul Skills for so long that the Tri-Color Bracelet had sparked a bidding frenzy. Its price had soared all the way to one million Gold Soul Coins.
Fortunately, even more sensational items were still to come. Wealthy, powerful figures like Platinum Bishop Salas, Prince Xue Xing, and the Elephant Armor Sect's sect master had chosen to hold back.
With the Tri-Color Bracelet as his Storage Soul Tool, Ye Chen left the Heaven Dou Auction House and went to the same pharmacy he had visited two years earlier to buy Whale Rubber.
As the saying went, money could make the devil turn millstones. For three hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins, he got the pharmacy owner to call in every favor he had. In just three days, the owner had gathered twenty pieces of thousand-year Whale Rubber and six pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue.
Afterward, Ye Chen went to a general store and bought plenty of books about Soul Masters and Soul Beasts. Then he stopped at the shopping mall for some daily necessities, including several sets of both noble and commoner's clothes, a sleeping bag, insect repellent powder, toiletries, and food—vegetables and fruit, as well as meat like goose, fish, and pork.
Once he had bought everything he needed, Ye Chen finally left Heaven Dou City, satisfied, and returned to his secluded life in the Sunset Forest.
He planned to finish eating the Whale Rubber first. Once he had pushed his physical strength to its limit, he would consider obtaining his third Soul Ring and advancing.
Ten days later.
A kilometer outside the entrance to the Sunset Forest.
In a secluded clearing amid a small grove, Combusken burned two head-sized pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue with Fire Spin.
About three minutes later, Ye Chen sat cross-legged on the ground, taking huge bites of a softened piece of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue as if he were eating a watermelon.
The other piece of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue had been left for Combusken.
For the past ten days, the man and chicken had been eating Whale Rubber, continuously refining its medicinal power to strengthen their bodies.
By now, all six pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue and all twenty pieces of thousand-year Whale Rubber had been eaten.
Ye Chen and Combusken had divided them evenly, each receiving the strengthening effects of three pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue and ten pieces of thousand-year Whale Rubber.
Two hours later, the sun sank in the west and night fell.
Ye Chen and Combusken sat cross-legged on the grass, finally absorbing every last bit of the Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue's medicinal power. The man and chicken ended their Calm Mind at the same time, opened their eyes, and looked each other over.
"How was it, Combusken? Did that Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue have any nourishing effect on you?" Ye Chen asked.
"Chamo." Combusken shook his head to show that it hadn't.
"Really? That last piece of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue had almost no nourishing effect on me, either. Looks like both our bodies have reached their limits. The medicinal power of Whale Rubber is no longer doing anything for us."
As he spoke, Ye Chen rose from the grass and stretched. Compared to before, his physical strength had undergone a veritable transformation.
He pushed off with both feet and leaped high into the air, soaring to a height of twenty meters in a single bound.
After landing safely, he reinforced his legs with Soul Power and jumped again. This time, he shot up to a height of fifty meters.
Comparing the two leaps, Ye Chen felt a surge of delight. With his current physical strength, combined with Soul Power and the combat power of his Body Martial Soul, he was nothing short of a human-shaped Soul Beast.
Since his jumping ability had improved so dramatically, his strength, defense, speed, and every other physical attribute must have risen tremendously as well.
After landing safely, Ye Chen suggested, "Your turn, Combusken. Let's see how high you can jump now."
"Chamo!" Combusken replied. His two thick, powerful legs suddenly drove into the ground, launching him straight up to a height of fifty meters.
"Use Air Walk!"
At Ye Chen's command, Combusken Stomped on the air with both feet, right there at fifty meters up, and ran toward the sky, climbing to a hundred meters. Then he suddenly struck a diving pose, arms spread wide, and briefly flew through the air like some monstrous bird.
Ye Chen looked up at Combusken gliding through the air a hundred meters above him and smiled with satisfaction.
It seemed that, just like him, after eating ten pieces of thousand-year Whale Rubber and three pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue, Combusken's physical strength had undergone a veritable transformation too.
Combusken could already leap fifty meters into the air. Just how astonishing would his jumping ability become once he evolved into the even stronger Blaziken? And how far would his overall strength improve?
With those thoughts in mind, Ye Chen began considering his third Soul Ring.
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