Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill

The next morning.

The sun blazed overhead beneath a cloudless sky.

Holy Soul Village, Old Jack's house.

"Grandpa Jack, I'm going to train."

As his childish voice faded, Ye Chen washed the dishes and hurried toward the hills behind the village.

During breakfast, Old Jack had said that since Tang Hao was the village blacksmith, the village's work-study student slot had to go to his son, Tang San.

To find another work-study student slot, he had made a special trip to visit the nearby villages.

In the end, a village called "Poultry Village" happened to have one available slot.

But they had a condition: the child who used the slot had to move to their village and become one of its residents.

According to Old Jack, when the village chief and villagers of Poultry Village heard that the child who would use the work-study slot had awakened a poultry Martial Soul and possessed Innate Full Soul Power, they all said that as long as the child moved there, he would not only get the village's work-study student slot, but could also rename the village himself.

Ye Chen was naturally willing. After all, Holy Soul Village's work-study student slot had already been reserved for Tang San. If he wanted to attend Nuoding Academy without paying tuition, he could only rely on another village's slot.

Besides, the village chief and villagers of Poultry Village were even willing to let him rename the village just to get him to move there. Such enthusiasm was truly rare.

In the end, Ye Chen agreed to Poultry Village's conditions and renamed it "Pallet Village."

The name "Pallet" symbolized the pure white color of a new beginning.

Naming it Pallet Village not only signified that Poultry Village was the starting point of a new village, but also marked the beginning of his journey through Douluo.

Although he had agreed to Poultry Village's conditions and had already renamed it Pallet Village, Ye Chen wasn't in a hurry to move there.

He wanted to stay in Holy Soul Village for another two months and see if he could spar with Tang San a few more times, gaining more battle experience in return.

Thinking of how beating Tang San yesterday had immediately raised his Soul Power by one level, Ye Chen couldn't help feeling a pang of regret.

With Tang Hao around, he could only wait for Tang San to come challenge him. He couldn't provoke Tang San himself, let alone hit him too hard.

It seemed that from now on, he would have to be careful when sparring with Tang San, letting him lose while always believing he had a chance to win. That way, he would keep coming back to challenge him.

If things went as he hoped, then by continually farming battle experience from Tang San, he might reach Soul Power Level 16 in just two short months!

Torchic underwent its first evolution at Level 16. He wondered whether reaching Level 16 without obtaining a First Soul Ring and advancing would still allow Torchic to evolve normally.

As Ye Chen pondered this, he had already reached the clearing at the foot of the hill and was ready to start another day of training.

"Come out, Torchic."

As soon as he spoke, a muffled thump rang out. Ye Chen tossed a red light into the air, and it fell to the ground, transforming into Torchic.

A golden light then circled Torchic, making it look as though it were sparkling.

"Tor-chic, Tor-chic!" Torchic flapped its two short wings and chirped energetically.

"Starting today, Torchic, you can look for animals around here to fight. Remember, don't kill them. Just chase them off. That way, we can keep finding them to fight, understand?"

The moment it heard the word "fight," Torchic took off up the hill before Ye Chen could finish speaking. As if it had been injected with chicken blood, it let out excited, strange cries of "Tor-chic, Tor-chic" while darting through the grass, searching for animals.

Seeing this, Ye Chen wasn't too worried. There were no Soul Beasts around these hills, and the animals living here—even the fierce wild beasts—couldn't beat Torchic.

He just didn't know how much battle experience he would get from Torchic over the course of a day.

"Remember, don't use your skills too much when you fight, or I'll run out of Soul Power!" After one last reminder, Ye Chen sat cross-legged and began cultivating his Soul Power using the Meditation Manual Su Yuntao had given him.

Over the next few days, Tang San didn't come to ask for a spar. Ye Chen felt disappointed, but still kept up his routine of letting Torchic roam while he meditated and cultivated his Soul Power.

Besides cultivating his Soul Power, he also made sure to complete various physical exercises every day.

The Body Martial Soul gave him far greater physical strength than an ordinary six-year-old, so he could naturally do more kinds of exercises and withstand a heavier training load.

These included one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and ten laps around the hill.

He also had to practice horse stance and dynamic visual acuity. These were all exercises he had to complete every day.

After sticking with it for a month, Ye Chen's stamina, endurance, willpower, physical resilience, and agility had all improved.

Torchic didn't take part in the various exercises, but it kept fighting wild beasts. While gaining battle experience in return, its fighting skills grew increasingly refined.

In just one short month, all of Ye Chen and Torchic's abilities had improved further, and his Soul Power had risen from Level 11 to Level 12.

With the advantage of Pokemon, Torchic had learned a skill called "Focus Energy" on its own once its Soul Power Level met the requirement.

Using the skill consumed some of Ye Chen's Soul Power, then concentrated Torchic's mental energy, increasing its chance of landing a critical hit.

Put simply, while Focus Energy was active, Torchic's every move was more likely to KO its opponent.

The next morning, just like usual, Ye Chen greeted Old Jack's family after breakfast, then headed for the hills behind the village with Torchic.

At the foot of the hill, he didn't rush to exercise. Instead, he sat cross-legged with Torchic in the middle of the clearing. They both closed their eyes and focused, carefully sensing each other's aura.

According to the original story, Martial Souls could resonate with one another.

With Martial Soul Resonance, two or more Soul Masters could perform a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, gaining a surge of strength greater than the sum of their individual powers.

In works derived from Douluo I, a concept called "Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill" had once been mentioned.

As the name suggested, a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill was when a Soul Master's own two Martial Souls fused, without another Soul Master's Martial Soul taking part.

From the original story, it was clear that when two Martial Souls shared the same origin, they could use their own power to perform a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

As it happened, Torchic's Martial Soul had split off from Ye Chen, while his Body Martial Soul was Ye Chen himself. They shared the same origin and met the conditions for self-fusion.

So every day, Ye Chen set aside an hour after meals to sense each other's aura with Torchic, laying the groundwork for a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill in the future.