Mysterious Power

While practicing changes in the form of his Soul Power, Ye Chen had failed to find a way to detonate it. However, he had discovered that his Soul Power was very unusual.

What made it unusual was that sometimes he didn't need to call upon his mental power at all. His Soul Power alone could sense his surroundings, as well as the auras of nearby Soul Masters and Soul Beasts.

When he used his mental power and Soul Power together, he could even gain an ability similar to mind reading, allowing him to sense the emotions of nearby Soul Masters or Soul Beasts.

However, this mind-reading ability came and went, and he couldn't fully control it. The same was true of his ability to sense other things with his Soul Power.

Blaziken didn't have the Psychic type, so neither the mind-reading ability nor the power to sense other things with Soul Power could have come from Blaziken's Martial Soul. They could only have come from his Body Martial Soul.

Even now, Ye Chen still couldn't figure out why his Body Martial Soul made his Soul Power so unusual.

For the time being, he called this special Soul Power the Mysterious Power.

Over the next half a month, Ye Chen deliberately tried to call upon the Mysterious Power while fighting Soul Beasts. He found that the more deliberately he tried, the less he could use it.

After countless attempts and experiments, Ye Chen finally gave up. He decided to set the Mysterious Power aside for now and focus on planning how to obtain the Immortal Herbs.

Only by consuming Immortal Herbs and raising his mental power would he dare to absorb a Ten-Thousand-Year Fourth Soul Ring. So obtaining the Immortal Herbs was his main task at the moment.

In truth, there were only two ways to obtain the Immortal Herbs: either befriend Dugu Bo and get them as a friend, or steal them behind his back.

If he befriended Dugu Bo, he would gain not only the chance to obtain the Immortal Herbs, but also a Titled Douluo as a patron. The benefits in the future would be endless.

But if he made an enemy of Dugu Bo and stole the herbs behind his back, then once he was discovered, he would surely be hunted down.

By comparison, befriending Dugu Bo was undoubtedly the wisest choice.

Therefore, Ye Chen had spent this period looking for an opportunity to meet Dugu Bo.

Before, when he'd had Blaziken burn the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison Array with Flamethrower, he'd been terrified that Dugu Bo would find out.

Now, he wasn't afraid anymore.

That was because Dugu Bo's first reaction upon seeing a thousand-year Second Soul Ring would surely be to force him to reveal how he'd absorbed it, not to kill him on the spot.

While being interrogated, Ye Chen could honestly tell Dugu Bo the secret that Whale Rubber helped one absorb Soul Rings beyond one's limit. Then he could deliberately let slip that he knew about Immortal Herbs.

There was a very good chance Dugu Bo would make use of him to identify the Immortal Herbs. With his advantage of knowing the original story, and a way to resolve the backlash from the snake poison, Ye Chen had a good chance of turning Dugu Bo from an enemy into an ally.

To achieve this, Ye Chen loitered near the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison Array every day. Now and then, he had Blaziken burn away the poisonous mist inside it to draw Dugu Bo's attention.

But things didn't go as planned. A month passed, and Dugu Bo never showed himself.

Ye Chen had two theories: either Dugu Bo wasn't inside the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison Array, or he couldn't be bothered with him.

Regardless, Ye Chen continued to follow his plan while grinding monsters and leveling up.

Another month passed in the blink of an eye. After all those battles, Blaziken had gradually developed a fighting style that used Flamethrower for ranged attacks, then Fire Punch and Blaze Kick combined with various footwork techniques in close combat.

Even against enemies adept at flying, Blaziken could defeat them with Air Walk. And its Fire-type Explosive Eight-Stage Kick, unleashed in midair, was astonishingly powerful. Almost every time it used the move, the battle was decided on the spot.

It could be said that Blaziken was now exceptionally skilled at ranged combat, close combat, aerial combat, and even battles of attrition. In terms of strength alone, it was already capable of defeating top-tier Soul Beasts with twenty thousand years of cultivation.

After Blaziken had won several fights against Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, Ye Chen had gained a tremendous amount of combat experience in return. This had allowed his Soul Power to rise from level fifty-six to level fifty-seven in just one month.

It was night.

The full moon hung overhead.

In the Poison Mist Forest, the rustling of leaves and the chirping of insects rose and fell through the dark, damp surroundings.

Near a certain poisonous swamp.

Watching the five-meter-long Poison King Scorpion Soul Beast lying motionless on the ground, Ye Chen quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Blaziken kept a wary eye on their surroundings to guard against other Soul Beasts sneaking up on them.

The fallen Poison King Scorpion had four thousand years of cultivation. It was a high-grade Poison-type Soul Beast with a terrifying neurotoxin. In a fight, the slightest misstep could leave someone pierced by its poisonous tail stinger and dead on the spot.

At first, Ye Chen had been afraid while fighting the Poison King Scorpion. But as he dodged its stinger again and again, he gradually grew less fearful. He even began to enjoy the heightened focus and rush of excitement.

Without realizing it, Ye Chen had discovered that he'd come to love the feeling of battle. With only his level-fifty-seven Soul Power and Body Martial Soul, he was strong enough to defeat a high-grade Soul Beast with four thousand years of cultivation—even without Soul Rings or Soul Skills, and even without Blaziken's help.

Generally speaking, Soul Beasts were far stronger than Soul Masters.

Being able to defeat a high-grade Soul Beast with four thousand years of cultivation meant his strength had reached at least the level of a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor.

"Come on, Blaziken. Let's go take a look at the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison Array." As he spoke, Ye Chen turned and headed for the exit of the Poison Mist Forest.

Blaziken followed close behind.

The Poison King Scorpion wasn't dead. It had only been gravely wounded. As it watched Ye Chen and Blaziken walk away, it was about to flee when a rapidly approaching enormous green snake suddenly seized its body in its jaws.

Crack, snap—

With a violent crunch, the green snake crushed the Poison King Scorpion's shell. Streams of purple venom and blood spilled from its body and were swallowed down by the green snake like soup.

Hearing the commotion behind them, Ye Chen and Blaziken turned around. They saw that the five-meter-long Poison King Scorpion had already been eaten clean by the green snake. Only its tail remained on the ground, twitching.

"Is that a Jade-Eyed Three-Flower Serpent?" Ye Chen quickly recognized it. This green snake was a pure-blooded serpent-type Soul Beast, the Jade-Eyed Three-Flower Serpent. Of all poisons, it possessed the deadliest corrosive venom.

That was why the Poison King Scorpion had dissolved and rotted away in an instant, without even leaving behind a scrap.

It was said that the Jade-Eyed Three-Flower Serpent and the Jade Phosphorous Serpent had originally shared the same bloodline. Later, it had shed its draconic bloodline and become a pure-blooded serpent.

Although it had lost the possibility of transforming into a dragon, the Jade-Eyed Three-Flower Serpent had gained venom purer and more overbearing than the Jade Phosphorous Serpent's, as well as a wider range for its poisonous mist.

Judging by its features, the Jade-Eyed Three-Flower Serpent before them was a full ten meters long. The three flower-shaped markings in its pupils were pale green, and it seemed to have around fifteen hundred years of cultivation.

Meeting Ye Chen's gaze, the Jade-Eyed Three-Flower Serpent suddenly spewed out a vast cloud of purple poisonous mist, then turned and fled.