Third Soul Skill, Sword Dance

But the long-tailed Three-Eyed Demon Fox that had mutated to gain the Fire Attribute was also known as Braixen. It was a top-tier Soul Beast possessing both the Mental and Fire Attributes, and was extremely rare.

With its powerful Mental Attribute and the support of its Fiery Golden Eyes, Braixen could always detect danger in advance and evade the hunts of Soul Masters and Soul Beasts. Even when it couldn't escape, it could still face its enemies with its Fire Attribute.

That made hunting Braixen for a Soul Ring extremely difficult. Even with a Soul Saint leading the team, the odds of capturing a thousand-year-old Braixen might not reach ten percent.

After putting the book on Soul Beasts into his Tri-Color Bracelet, Ye Chen glanced at Braixen once more, then shifted his gaze to the small theropod Soul Beast.

With its powerful mental perception, Braixen immediately Frisked the fluctuations in Soul Power from when Ye Chen had just used his Tri-Color Bracelet. It turned and ran, abandoning even the Fire Snake Soul Beast it had been about to kill.

Seeing this, Ye Chen didn't chase after it. Braixen was already close to ten thousand years of cultivation, and he and Combusken might not be able to defeat it.

Yet when faced with a Soul Master weaker than itself, Braixen had chosen to flee without hesitation. Its caution really was just as the book on Soul Beasts described.

What surprised Ye Chen even more was that after Braixen disappeared from view, he could no longer sense its presence. It seemed to have the ability to block Spiritual Detection.

Setting aside his thoughts about Braixen for the moment, Ye Chen looked at the small theropod Soul Beast that had been beaten to the brink of death. It was the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon he had been searching for.

In appearance, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon was six meters long and three meters tall. Its body was covered in fiery red scales, and a horn shaped like a sword's edge grew from its forehead. It was one of the few Soul Beasts on Douluo Continent based on a small theropod dinosaur, a subspecies of dragon.

According to the book on Soul Beasts, a Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon with ten years of cultivation was less than half a meter long and entirely white. The sword-horn on its head was only a sharp protrusion.

A Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon with a hundred years of cultivation reached one meter in length and was pale red all over. The sword-horn on its head had developed from a protrusion into a blade-like shape.

A Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon with a thousand years of cultivation was generally about two meters long and fiery red all over. A faint flame began to burn on its sword-horn.

Once its cultivation surpassed a thousand years, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon grew half a meter longer for every additional thousand years of cultivation. The flames burning on its sword-horn also gradually changed from pale red to dark red.

If the sword-horn turned completely black, that meant its cultivation had surpassed ten thousand years.

Judging by its physical features, this Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon had at least eight thousand years of cultivation. Its body and mind had both suffered severe injuries, and it was in a daze, unable to move.

"Combusken, now! Hurry and knock it out!" Ye Chen ordered from the bushes.

Strangely, Combusken didn't follow his order. Instead, it stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly, its eyes turned into pink hearts.

"Huh?" Ye Chen froze too. Judging by Combusken's expression, could it have been caught in Braixen's mental Control, just like the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon?

"Combusken!" Ye Chen shouted. Only then did Combusken snap out of its daze.

"Combusken!" Coming to its senses, Combusken immediately charged forward. The fiery crest atop its head and both its feet lit up with white light. It unleashed Explosive Eight-Stage Kick, delivering eight powerful kicks in succession to the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon's head, back, belly, and other spots.

Already gravely wounded, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon had now taken eight kicks to its vital points. It fell completely unconscious.

At the same time, Combusken suffered recoil from Explosive Eight-Stage Kick. It took out the Dragon Ganoderma Grass it had brought with it and ate it. The recoil vanished instantly, and not only did its body recover, but much of its depleted stamina and Soul Power returned as well.

"Let's go. We'll retreat to the Outer Zone before absorbing the Soul Ring." As he spoke, Ye Chen lifted the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon over his head with both hands, then used Agility to run toward the Outer Zone.

Combusken followed beside him, staying alert and ready to protect him.

About an hour later.

After they had retreated to the Outer Zone of Sunset Forest, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon suddenly woke up. Combusken used Slash to hit it on the head, knocking it out again.

Three more hours passed. It was now evening, with the sun setting and sunset clouds filling the sky.

Running at full speed with Agility, Ye Chen finally carried the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon out of Sunset Forest. He entered a small grove and, after making sure they were safe, stabbed the creature to death with a dagger.

As its scalding blood soaked into the grass, wisps of purple light slowly rose from its corpse, gathering into an illusory purple ring.

Ye Chen sat cross-legged on the ground and began drawing the purple ring toward him with his Soul Power.

As the purple ring settled around him, he immediately felt a wave of searing heat spread throughout his body.

With a large amount of Whale Rubber having strengthened his body to its utmost, and his Body Martial Soul and level-fifty Soul Power adding to that, the energy of the eight-thousand-year Soul Ring produced by the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon didn't put much strain on his body. Instead, it brought a soothing warmth that seemed to invigorate his meridians.

Amid that soothing sensation, Ye Chen focused on absorbing the Soul Ring's energy while carefully sensing the Soul Skill information it contained.

An hour later.

The Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon's Soul Ring energy had finally been fully absorbed.

Yellow, purple, purple—three Soul Rings revolved around Ye Chen's body.

Countless waves of Soul Power surged from within him. It was a sign that his Soul Power was increasing.

An increase in Soul Power meant he had broken through a level bottleneck.

He had successfully absorbed his third Soul Ring!

Before absorbing his third Soul Ring, he had already accumulated enough Soul Power to reach level fifty.

Then, absorbing an eight-thousand-year third Soul Ring beyond his level had granted him another four levels of Soul Power.

Together, these gains had pushed Ye Chen's Soul Power up twenty-four levels from the level-thirty bottleneck. He was now at level fifty-four, and could go acquire his fourth and fifth Soul Rings.

As for the third Soul Skill attached to his third Soul Ring, it was called Sword Dance.

From the insight he'd gained while absorbing the Soul Ring, Ye Chen learned that Sword Dance could gather the surrounding light and heat energy into countless light swords and draw them into his body, increasing the power and attack strength of his Fire Attribute Skills by one hundred percent.

Although they were all enhancement skills, Sword Dance was different from his first Soul Skill, Blaze, and his second Soul Skill, Flash Fire.

His first Soul Skill, Blaze, put Combusken into a Blaze state.

His second Soul Skill, Flash Fire, put Combusken into a Flash Fire state.

These two states couldn't be stacked. The latter would overwrite the effect of the former Soul Skill.

But his third Soul Skill, Sword Dance, could stack with his other Soul Skills.

In other words, while Sword Dance was active, he could not only increase the power and attack strength of his Fire Attribute Skills by one hundred percent, but also stack the Fire Attribute Skill power boosts from his first Soul Skill, Blaze, and his second Soul Skill, Flash Fire.