Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, Braixen

Currently at level fifty soul power, because he had been stuck at the level thirty bottleneck without obtaining a third Soul Ring to advance, Combusken had been unable to evolve, much like it was carrying an Everstone when his soul power accumulated to level thirty-six.

Once he absorbed a third Soul Ring and advanced to a three-ring Soul Elder, Combusken should be able to evolve into Blaziken.

At that time, its physical attributes—attack, speed, defense, and vitality—would reach their peak, and its strength would inevitably rise to a new level.

"Let's go, Combusken, we're going to obtain your third Soul Ring!" After saying this, Ye Chen ran toward the entrance of the Sunset Forest.

Combusken, who had been flying in the air, immediately descended in excitement upon hearing that they were going to obtain a Soul Ring.

Just like that, one man and one chicken walked into the Sunset Forest, chatting and laughing as they headed toward the central section of the forest's Outer Zone.

Five days later.

Sunset Forest, within the Mixed Zone.

This so-called Mixed Zone was the boundary between the Outer Zone and the Core Zone.

The Soul Beasts living in the Mixed Zone of the Sunset Forest generally had cultivation levels exceeding three thousand years.

Some Soul Beasts in the Mixed Zone had not only learned skills similar to soul skills but even possessed innate abilities, making them extremely tricky to deal with.

Furthermore, many Soul Beasts had the habit of living in groups; once one encountered a group of such beasts, one would face the situation of being besieged by a pack.

Therefore, unless a Soul Master had absolute confidence in their own strength, they would not dare to hunt Soul Beasts alone.

Fortunately, after obtaining the second soul skill Flash Fire, Combusken could absorb light and heat energy through the Flash Fire state to restore its various physical capabilities. This allowed it to quickly restore its body to its best state during the day simply by staying in a place with intense sunlight.

Since Combusken's soul power was connected to its host, when its soul power recovered, it meant that the host's soul power also recovered.

It was precisely because of this that Ye Chen dared to enter the Mixed Zone of the Sunset Forest alone to hunt Soul Beasts.

Judging from the descriptions in the original work, the Sunset Forest was home to high-grade fire-type Soul Beasts like the Earth King, and even top-tier fire-attribute Soul Beasts like the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, which showed that the fire element content in the Sunset Forest was very high.

At first, Ye Chen thought the Sunset Forest hid some kind of volcano, but later he realized that the reason the Sunset Forest produced high-grade and even top-tier fire-attribute Soul Beasts was not due to a volcano, but because the forest contained the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well mentioned in the original work.

According to the original setting, the corpses of the Ice Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King were buried deep within the abyss of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. It was precisely because of the nourishment from the ice-attribute and fire-attribute divine power emitted by these two great dragon kings' corpses that the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well was born.

With the accumulation of ten thousand years, the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well formed the Ice and Fire Spiritual Qi, which allowed plants to grow at a rate a thousand times faster than normal.

It was estimated that because the Ice and Fire Spiritual Qi was mixed into the air and flowed with the wind, the entire Sunset Forest had a very high content of ice and fire elements, thus giving birth to ice-attribute and fire-attribute Soul Beasts.

On the sixth day of entering the Mixed Zone of the Sunset Forest, Ye Chen discovered that the closer one got to the Core Zone, the higher the cultivation level of the fire-attribute Soul Beasts, and the stronger their fire-attribute power became.

Top-tier fire-attribute sub-dragon Soul Beasts like the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon generally lived in the sections of the Mixed Zone near the Core Zone.

After arriving in the activity area of the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, Ye Chen spent another two days wandering around the vicinity, yet he still could not find a Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon with a suitable cultivation level to serve as his third Soul Ring.

It was noon, and the sunlight was extremely intense.

Ye Chen and Combusken sat cross-legged in the middle of an open space, his second Soul Ring lit up, and his second soul skill, Flash Fire, was activated.

Like the first soul skill Blaze, the amplification effect of the second soul skill Flash Fire did not act on the host, but rather allowed Combusken, as the Martial Soul, to gain the ability to absorb fire-attribute attacks and reflect damage, while also being able to absorb light and heat energy to restore itself.

After entering the Flash Fire state granted by the second soul skill, Combusken continuously absorbed the light and heat energy generated by the surrounding sunlight to restore its depleted stamina, soul power, and mental energy.

Ye Chen, meanwhile, remained vigilant, carefully observing the surrounding environment to prevent any sneak attacks from Soul Beasts.

About ten minutes passed.

Suddenly, an explosion sounded in the distance, and as flames erupted, the temperature of the surrounding air rose instantly.

From these phenomena, it could be judged that the explosion in the distance was likely caused by a collision of fire-attribute energies.

In addition to the rising temperature, the surrounding air was faintly mixed with a sense of sharpness; when the hot wind blew against his face, there was a distinct stinging sensation as if being cut.

Having fought a Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon before, Ye Chen quickly realized that the sharpness in the air was caused by the sword-horn attacks of the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon.

This area was the activity zone of the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, and the explosion in the distance was presumably some Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon fighting against another Soul Beast or a Soul Master.

"Combusken, how is your body recovering?" Ye Chen asked.

"Combusken!" Combusken said it had only recovered two-thirds of its full state.

"Two-thirds is enough. After a round of consumption, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon's physical state must be very poor. As long as it isn't a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, we have a great chance of winning by waiting for the right moment. Let's go, let's go see what's happening."

As he spoke, Ye Chen quickly suppressed his soul power aura and ran toward the distance, with Combusken following closely behind.

When the man and the chicken hid in the lush grass to watch the battle, what met their eyes was a fox Soul Beast fighting a small theropod dinosaur Soul Beast.

The fox Soul Beast had an exquisite appearance and was very beautiful. If it cultivated to one hundred thousand years and transformed into a human, it would definitely be a great beauty.

Hiding in the grass and watching the battle ahead, Ye Chen could clearly see that this fox Soul Beast was not only beautiful but also quite powerful.

Its fur was primarily yellow and white, and it seemed to have activated a Blaze skill similar to that of a Blazing Bird; its entire body was burning with brownish-yellow flames, and when it stood on all fours, its body length exceeded five meters.

The most eye-catching part of this fox Soul Beast was its tail, which was three meters long. With a body length of five meters, the fluffy tail alone accounted for three meters, showing that it must have special properties.

"Is that a Braixen?" Ye Chen took a book on Soul Beasts out of his three-colored bracelet.

He had labeled all the information related to fire-attribute Soul Beasts, so he quickly flipped to the page he was looking for.

After looking at the illustration of the Soul Beast on the page and then glancing at the fox Soul Beast in front of him, Ye Chen finally confirmed that this fox Soul Beast was indeed a Braixen.

According to the description in the Soul Beast book, a Braixen was a mutation of a Three-Eyed Demon Fox influenced by fire elements.

The Three-Eyed Demon Fox was a rare mental-attribute Soul Beast during the era of the first Douluo; the head Soul Bone of Xiao Wu in the original work was dropped from a Three-Eyed Demon Fox.

After mutating due to the influence of fire elements, the third eye on the Three-Eyed Demon Fox's forehead turned into a Fiery Golden Eye burning with flames, its fur changed from the original purple to primarily yellow and white, and its tail grew longer, allowing it to use its flame-wrapped tail to severely injure enemies.