His Soul Power was currently at level fifty. Because he had been stuck at the level-thirty bottleneck and had not obtained a third Soul Ring to advance, Combusken had been unable to evolve when his Soul Power had once accumulated to level thirty-six, as if he were carrying an Everstone.
Once he absorbed a third Soul Ring and advanced to a three-ring Soul Elder, Combusken should be able to evolve into Blaziken.
By then, his attack, speed, defense, health, and other physical attributes would reach their peak, and his strength would undoubtedly rise to a whole new level.
"Come on, Combusken. Let's go get your third Soul Ring!" With that, Ye Chen ran toward the entrance to Sunset Forest.
Combusken, who had been flying through the air, immediately hurried down when he heard they were going to get a Soul Ring, brimming with excitement.
And so, the man and chicken chatted and laughed as they entered Sunset Forest, heading for the central area of the forest's Outer Zone.
Five days later.
Inside the Mixed Zone of Sunset Forest.
This so-called Mixed Zone was the boundary between the Outer Zone and the Core Zone.
The Soul Beasts living in Sunset Forest's Mixed Zone had generally cultivated for more than three thousand years.
Some Soul Beasts in the Mixed Zone had not only learned skills similar to Soul Skills, but also possessed innate abilities, making them extremely tricky to deal with.
What was more, many Soul Beasts lived in groups. If you ran into a pack, you would find yourself surrounded and attacked by the whole lot.
Thus, unless a Soul Master had absolute confidence in their own strength, they would not dare hunt Soul Beasts alone.
Fortunately, after obtaining his second Soul Skill, Flash Fire, Combusken could absorb light and heat energy while in the Flash Fire state, restoring his physical abilities. During the day, all he had to do was stay somewhere with strong sunlight to quickly recover to peak condition.
Combusken's Soul Power was linked to his host's. When his Soul Power recovered, that meant his host's Soul Power had recovered as well.
That was why Ye Chen dared to enter the Mixed Zone of Sunset Forest alone to hunt Soul Beasts.
From the descriptions in the original work, Sunset Forest was home to high-grade Fire-type Soul Beasts such as the Earth King, as well as top-tier Fire-type Soul Beasts like the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon. Clearly, the forest had an abundance of fire elements.
At first, Ye Chen had thought Sunset Forest concealed a volcano. Later, he realized that the high-grade and even top-tier Fire-type Soul Beasts found there were not the result of a volcano. Rather, the forest hid 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 beneath the abyss, ten thousand zhang deep, below the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. The Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well had come into being because the divine Ice-type and Fire-type powers emanating from the two Dragon Kings' bodies nourished it.
After ten thousand years of accumulation, the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well had formed spiritual energy that made plants grow hundreds or thousands of times faster.
The Ice and Fire spiritual energy was probably mixed into the air and carried by the wind, giving all of Sunset Forest a high concentration of Ice and Fire elements and giving rise to Ice-type and Fire-type Soul Beasts.
On the sixth day after entering Sunset Forest's Mixed Zone, Ye Chen discovered that the closer they got to the Core Zone, the higher the cultivation levels of the Fire-type Soul Beasts—and the more powerful their fire attributes.
Top-tier Fire-type sub-dragon Soul Beasts like the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon usually lived in parts of the Mixed Zone near the Core Zone.
After reaching the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon's territory, Ye Chen spent another two days searching the area, but still couldn't find one with a suitable cultivation level to serve as his third Soul Ring.
It was noon, and the sun blazed overhead.
Ye Chen and Combusken sat cross-legged in the middle of a clearing. The second Soul Ring on Ye Chen's body lit up as he activated his second Soul Skill, Flash Fire.
Like his first Soul Skill, Blaze, Flash Fire's enhancement did not affect the host. Instead, it allowed Combusken, as his Martial Soul, to absorb Fire-type attacks and reflect damage, while also absorbing light and heat to restore himself.
After entering the Flash Fire state granted by the second Soul Skill, Combusken continuously absorbed the light and heat generated by the sunlight around them, restoring his depleted stamina, Soul Power, and mental strength.
Ye Chen stayed alert, carefully observing their surroundings in case a Soul Beast tried to ambush them.
About ten minutes passed.
An explosion suddenly rang out in the distance. Flames surged, and the temperature of the surrounding air instantly rose.
From these signs, it was clear that the distant explosion had likely been caused by colliding Fire-type energy.
Besides the rising temperature, the air carried a faint sharpness. When the hot wind blew against his face, Ye Chen felt a distinct stinging sensation, as if his skin were being sliced.
He had fought a Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon before, so he quickly realized the sharpness in the air came from one of its horn attacks.
This was Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon territory. The explosion in the distance was probably from one of them battling a Soul Beast or Soul Master.
"Combusken, how much have you recovered?" Ye Chen asked.
"Chamo!" Combusken said he had recovered to two-thirds of his full strength.
"Two-thirds is enough. After that clash, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon must be in pretty bad shape. As long as it isn't a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, we'll have a good chance if we let it wear itself out first. Come on, let's go see what's happening."
As he spoke, Ye Chen quickly concealed his Soul Power aura and ran toward the source of the noise. Combusken followed close behind.
When the man and chicken slipped into some thick grass to watch the battle, they saw a fox Soul Beast fighting a small theropod dinosaur Soul Beast.
The fox Soul Beast had delicate features and was stunningly beautiful. If she cultivated to a hundred thousand years and took human form, she would undoubtedly be a great beauty.
Watching the battle ahead from the grass, Ye Chen could clearly see that the fox Soul Beast was not only beautiful but powerful, too.
Her fur was mostly yellow and white. She seemed to have activated a Blaze-like skill, and brownish-yellow flames burned across her body. Standing on all fours, she was over five meters long.
The most striking feature of the fox Soul Beast was her three-meter-long tail. At five meters long, with a fluffy tail alone taking up three, it was clear that the tail had to be special.
"Is that a Long-Tailed Fire Fox?" Ye Chen took a book about Soul Beasts from his Tri-Color Bracelet.
He had marked all the Soul Beast information related to Fire-type attributes, so he quickly found the page he wanted.
After looking at the illustration on the page and then at the fox Soul Beast ahead, Ye Chen was finally certain: it was indeed a Long-Tailed Fire Fox.
According to the book, the Long-Tailed Fire Fox had evolved from a Three-Eyed Demon Fox mutated by exposure to fire elements.
The Three-Eyed Demon Fox was a rare Mental Attribute Soul Beast during the Douluo I era. The Head Soul Bone Xiao Wu obtained in the original work had come from a Three-Eyed Demon Fox.
After mutating under the influence of fire elements, the third eye on the Three-Eyed Demon Fox's forehead became a Fiery Golden Eye, blazing with flames. Its fur also changed from its original purple to mostly yellow and white, and its tail grew longer, allowing it to badly injure enemies with its flame-wreathed tail.
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