"Hmph." After giving a cold snort, Dugu Yan's displeasure vanished completely. She looked at Ye Chen and proposed, "I remember your name is Ye Chen, right? We look about the same age, and we're both three-ring Soul Elders. How about a spar?"
Ye Chen shook his head. "No. I'm not one for fighting."
"Tch, you're so useless," Dugu Yan said disdainfully.
"You've got it wrong. I'm not one for fighting, but my Blaziken is. If you want to spar, fight my Blaziken."
After hearing Ye Chen's suggestion, Dugu Yan glanced at Blaziken.
Blaziken nodded to show it was willing to spar.
"Fine. Your strength lies in your External Beast Martial Soul anyway, so fighting you would be pointless. I'd rather fight your Martial Soul. Come on, let's see whether my snake poison or its flames are stronger."
As she spoke, Dugu Yan walked toward the clearing ahead.
"Go on, Blaziken," Ye Chen instructed. "But remember to hold back during the spar. Don't hurt her."
"Cha-mo." With a cry of assent, Blaziken sprang into the air. One leap carried it thirty meters, and it reached the center of the clearing before Dugu Yan.
Seeing this, Dugu Yan felt that she had been taunted, and her expression immediately turned serious.
Although the Poison Mist Forest was full of dangers and home to large numbers of Poison-type Soul Beasts, there was no need to worry about anything happening with Dugu Bo, a Titled Douluo, there.
After all, the Poison Mist Forest was only part of the Sunset Forest. Even in the Core Zone, there were no Soul Beasts stronger than Dugu Bo. Otherwise, the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison Array would have been destroyed long ago.
Watching Blaziken and Dugu Yan face off in the center of the clearing, Ye Chen realized that Dugu Yan probably hadn't heard his conversation with Dugu Bo and therefore knew nothing about the Fire God Inheritor or anything of the sort.
That made sense. When Soul Masters absorbed Soul Rings, all their attention went to comprehending the Soul Skills granted by the rings. They had no attention left for anything happening around them. That was why they needed someone to protect them while absorbing Soul Rings.
"Senior, you still haven't told your granddaughter about the snake poison backlash?" Ye Chen asked quietly.
Dugu Bo shook his head. "I was afraid she'd let it slip, so I never told her outright. Kid, don't tell anyone about the snake poison backlash—not even my granddaughter. Once I've sent her back to the academy, I'll take you to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well to identify the Immortal Herbs."
"Okay."
By the time the two had reached an agreement, Dugu Yan had completed her Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul possession. The third Soul Ring on her body lit up, and her third Soul Skill, Jade Phosphorous Purple Poison, burst from her mouth, rapidly spreading into a vast cloud of purple poison that swept toward Blaziken.
Blaziken was about to use Flamethrower to burn away the purple mist, but suddenly remembered Ye Chen's instruction to hold back. Its powerful Flamethrower instantly weakened into an Ember attack.
Large, bean-sized sparks shot from Blaziken's mouth in a dense stream, slamming into the purple mist. At the same time, the mist broke apart amid a series of explosive cracks, and even the poison mixed into the air was burned away.
Seeing her purple mist so easily burned away, Dugu Yan couldn't help frowning. It was her newly acquired third Soul Skill, and the most powerful of her three.
There wasn't a single Soul Ring on Ye Chen, which meant Blaziken's Ember attack hadn't been a Soul Skill. Her strongest third Soul Skill had been effortlessly countered by an ordinary attack. Anyone would have found that humiliating.
"Again!" Dugu Yan called on even more Soul Power to activate her third Soul Skill, then spat out an even denser cloud of purple poison.
In the end, Blaziken defeated Dugu Yan without the slightest suspense. The difference in their strength was simply too great, so the battle experience gained from this victory was barely enough to feed back to Ye Chen.
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