Third Soul Skill, Sword Dance

The Three-Eyed Demon Fox that has mutated to possess the fire attribute, also known as the Braixen, is a top-tier Soul Beast possessing both mental and fire attributes, making it extremely rare.

Because it possesses a powerful mental attribute and the assistance of Fiery Golden Eyes, the Braixen can always detect danger in advance, thereby avoiding being hunted by Soul Masters or other Soul Beasts; even if it cannot avoid them, it can rely on its fire attribute to face the enemy.

Therefore, wanting to hunt a Braixen for a Soul Ring is extremely difficult; even if a team led by a Soul Saint encounters a Braixen with a thousand years of cultivation, they may not necessarily have a ten percent success rate in capturing it.

After putting the Soul Beast book back into his Tri-Color Bracelet, Ye Chen took one more look at the Braixen before shifting his gaze to the small theropod dinosaur Soul Beast.

Relying on its powerful mental perception, the Braixen immediately sensed the fluctuation of soul power when Ye Chen used his Tri-Color Bracelet just now; it turned and ran, abandoning even the Fire Snake Soul Beast it was about to kill.

Seeing this, Ye Chen did not give chase, because this Braixen already possessed nearly ten thousand years of cultivation, and neither he nor Combusken might be able to defeat it.

Yet, when facing a Soul Master weaker than itself, the Braixen chose to flee without hesitation, which shows its level of caution—it really is just as the Soul Beast book described.

What surprised Ye Chen even more was that after the Braixen disappeared from his field of vision, he could no longer sense its aura; it seems it possesses the ability to mask mental detection.

Temporarily setting aside his thoughts on the Braixen, Ye Chen looked at the small theropod dinosaur Soul Beast that had been beaten to a critical state; this Soul Beast was exactly the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon he was looking for.

Judging by its appearance, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon is six meters long and three meters tall, its entire body covered in a layer of fire-red scales, with a single horn on its forehead resembling a sword blade; it is a rare sub-dragon species Soul Beast in the Douluo Continent that uses a small theropod dinosaur as its prototype.

According to the records in the Soul Beast book, a Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon with ten years of cultivation is less than half a meter long, white all over, and the sword-horn on its head is merely a sharp protrusion.

A Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon with a hundred years of cultivation reaches a body length of one meter, is light red all over, and the sword-horn on its head has transformed from a protrusion into the shape of a sword blade.

A Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon with a thousand years of cultivation has a body length fixed at about two meters, is fire-red all over, and faint flames begin to burn on the sword-horn on its head.

Once its cultivation breaks through a thousand years, for every additional thousand years of cultivation, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon's body length increases by half a meter. The color of the flames burning on the sword-horn also gradually shifts from light red to dark red.

If the color of the sword-horn turns completely black, it indicates that its cultivation has already surpassed ten thousand years.

Judging by its physical characteristics, this Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon has at least eight thousand years of cultivation. Because both its body and mind have suffered heavy damage, it is currently in a state of mental daze and unable to move.

"Combusken, take this chance, knock it out quickly!" From the grass, Ye Chen issued an order to the Combusken beside him.

Strangely, Combusken did not act according to the order, but stood blankly on the spot, its eyes turning into the shape of pink hearts.

"Huh?" Ye Chen was also stunned on the spot; looking at Combusken's appearance, could it be that, like the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, it had been hit by the Braixen's mental control?

"Combusken!" Ye Chen shouted loudly, which finally jolted Combusken awake from its mental daze.

"Combusken!" After regaining its senses, Combusken immediately rushed out; the flame crest on its head and its feet lit up with white light, and it immediately unleashed the Explosive Eight-Stage Kick, landing eight consecutive heavy kicks on the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon's head, back, abdomen, and other vital parts.

The Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, which was already heavily injured, fell into a state of total unconsciousness after being hit by the eight-stage kick in its vital areas.

At this moment, Combusken suffered the recoil damage from the Explosive Eight-Stage Kick; it took out the Dragon Ganoderma Grass it carried and consumed it, and the recoil damage instantly faded away. Not only did its body recover to health, but even its depleted stamina and soul power were restored significantly.

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

Combusken followed by his side, providing protection at all times.

About an hour later.

After retreating to the Outer Zone of the Sunset Forest, the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon suddenly woke up, and Combusken used the Slash skill to strike its head, knocking it unconscious again.

Another three hours passed; it was now evening, the sun was setting, and the evening glow filled the sky.

Running at full speed with Agility, Ye Chen finally carried the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon out of the Sunset Forest. He entered a small thicket, and only after ensuring it was safe did he use a dagger to stab the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon to death.

As the scalding blood soaked the grass, wisps of purple light slowly rose from the corpse of the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, continuously condensing into an ethereal purple ring of light.

Ye Chen sat cross-legged on the ground and began to use his soul power to draw the purple ring of light toward him.

As the purple ring of light settled onto his body, he immediately felt a wave of scalding heat spreading throughout his entire body.

Because he had used a large amount of Whale Rubber to raise his physical strength to the limit, and with the added support of his Body Martial Soul and level fifty soul power, even though this purple ring was an eight-thousand-year Soul Ring produced by the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon, its energy did not place much of a burden on his body; instead, it brought a refreshing sensation of clearing his meridians.

Amidst this refreshing sensation, Ye Chen focused on absorbing the Soul Ring's energy while also carefully comprehending the information regarding the soul skill attached to the ring.

One hour later.

The energy of the Sword-Horned Fire-Explosive Dragon's Soul Ring was finally fully absorbed.

Three Soul Rings—yellow, purple, and purple—now circled up and down around Ye Chen's body.

Countless ripples of soul power erupted from his body; this was a sign of an increase in soul power.

An increase in soul power meant that the level bottleneck had been broken.

The third Soul Ring had been successfully absorbed!

Before absorbing the third Soul Ring, he had already accumulated level fifty soul power.

And by absorbing an eight-thousand-year third Soul Ring beyond his limit, he gained another four levels of soul power.

Adding these together, Ye Chen's soul power jumped from the level thirty bottleneck by twenty-four levels; he was now at level fifty-four soul power and could go to obtain his fourth and fifth Soul Rings.

As for the third soul skill attached to the third Soul Ring, it was called Sword Dance.

From the insights gained while absorbing the Soul Ring, he learned that the third soul skill, Sword Dance, could condense the surrounding light and heat energy into countless light swords and absorb them into the body, increasing the power of fire-attribute skills and attack attributes by one hundred percent.

Although both are augmentation-type skills, the third soul skill, Sword Dance, is different from the first soul skill, Blaze, and the second soul skill, Flash Fire.

The first soul skill, Blaze, allows Combusken to enter the Blaze state.

The second soul skill, Flash Fire, allows Combusken to enter the Flash Fire state.

These two states cannot be stacked; the latter will overwrite the effect of the former.

However, the third soul skill, Sword Dance, can be stacked with other soul skills for augmentation.

In other words, while the third soul skill, Sword Dance, is active, in addition to gaining a one-hundred-percent increase in fire-attribute skill power and attack attributes, it can also simultaneously stack the fire-attribute skill power increases from the first soul skill, Blaze, and the second soul skill, Flash Fire.