Shrek Academy, Sea God Pavilion.
Bei Bei found Xuan Zi and reported everything he had encountered on his journey.
"You're saying that while you and Tang Ya's group were Soul Hunting, you encountered an orange lizard with a burning tail that could talk, and it ended up robbing you of a Soul Tool?"
Xuan Zi gnawed on a chicken leg as he looked at Bei Bei as though he were an idiot.
Bei Bei, however, nodded firmly. "That's right. For a moment, I even thought he was a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, but thinking back on it now, he probably wasn't."
"He certainly wasn't. There aren't that many hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. Most likely, he was just a lucky thousand-year soul beast who ate some heavenly treasure, developed intelligence ahead of time, and underwent a mutation."
Xuan Zi shook his head and spoke with certainty.
Mutated soul beasts were rare, but with such vast numbers, a few were bound to appear. Ultimately, this was only a thousand-year soul beast, nothing worth worrying about.
"You, on the other hand..." Xuan Zi suddenly changed tack, turning his criticism on Bei Bei. "If you ask me, you should spend less time fooling around with that little girl Tang Ya. A mere mutated thousand-year soul beast scared you out of fighting, and you even had to hand over your Storage Soul Tool. If word gets out, you'll disgrace Shrek."
"Yes. I will certainly take this lesson to heart."
Listening to Xuan Zi's endless lecture, Bei Bei replied with a touch of helplessness.
Who was it who took people out and brought them back crippled? At least I brought everyone back safely.
"All right, off you go."
Xuan Zi waved him away.
"Why haven't I evolved into Charmeleon yet?"
Zeng Tian frowned as he looked at his completely unchanged body.
A week had passed since his encounter with Huo Yuhao and the others, and during that time, Zeng Tian had successfully reached level sixteen.
Yet the evolution he had expected never happened.
After a while, Zeng Tian calmed himself. "I took too much for granted. Learning those moves earlier led me to the wrong conclusion. The game's rules can't be applied wholesale to reality."
Evolution at level sixteen was a rule from the games. It was not necessarily accurate even in the anime, let alone in reality.
"Since I can't evolve for now, I'll keep practicing my moves. As their proficiency increases, I'll grow stronger all the same."
With that thought, Zeng Tian left the cave and began his training for the day.
Of all the moves Zeng Tian knew, Fire Fang was undoubtedly the most powerful. Though Fire Claw was strong, it still fell slightly short of his level-seven Fire Fang.
But the focus of Zeng Tian's training was neither his strongest move, Fire Fang, nor his newly created Fire Claw. It was the unassuming Ember.
After these days of training, Ember was only one final step away from reaching its maximum level.
And Zeng Tian had a feeling that the improvement he gained once Ember reached its maximum level might exceed his expectations.
Several days later.
In the midst of training, inspiration suddenly struck Zeng Tian. The ping-pong-ball-sized fireball in his mouth abruptly swelled to the size of a fist. Its extreme heat instantly melted part of the boulder he used as a target, and reddish-black lava slowly flowed onto the ground.
"Hahaha! All those days of hard training paid off. This is almost twice as powerful as before!"
Zeng Tian laughed heartily, thoroughly satisfied with the power of his max-level Ember.
Just then, a stream of information, both familiar and unfamiliar, flooded his mind.
Zeng Tian's laughter stopped. Once he understood the information in his mind, he was instantly overwhelmed with delighted surprise.
The next moment, Zeng Tian drew a deep breath. His throat shifted slightly, and a torrent of orange-red flames surged from his mouth, forming a pillar of fire thirty to forty centimeters across.
Zeng Tian stood only sixty centimeters tall, and the pillar of fire obscured more than half his body.
This burst lasted several breaths. Only when the test boulder had completely melted into lava did Zeng Tian stop.
"Flamethrower is incredible. I've only just learned it, and it's already far stronger than every move I had before."
Zeng Tian stared, dumbfounded, at the stone target that had been reduced to lava in such a short time.
Indeed, what had just appeared in Zeng Tian's mind was the inherited memory of Flamethrower.
A while later, Zeng Tian came back to his senses and chuckled. "What an unexpected bonus. I never imagined that getting Ember's proficiency to its maximum would automatically teach me how to use Flamethrower."
"But..." Zeng Tian changed tack, looking again at the test boulder that had melted into lava. "If Flamethrower is already this powerful at lv1, just how powerful will it be at lv10?"
"And what will moves like Flare Blitz, Fire Blast, and Eruption look like?"
Learning Flamethrower had more than doubled Zeng Tian's strength, making him even more eager for the moves to come.
Over the next stretch of time, Zeng Tian used Flamethrower several more times and discovered a problem.
Flamethrower was powerful, but its energy consumption was equally high.
At his current level, Zeng Tian could use Flamethrower only four or five times before his energy reserves approached depletion.
No wonder you have to reach the thirties to learn Flamethrower in the games. This energy cost really isn't something a Charmander can handle.
Zeng Tian thought this to himself after finishing his tests.
Looking at it that way, Ash's Charizard truly had exceptional talent, having learned Flamethrower while still a Charmander.
"No matter what, my strength has improved enormously. Maybe it's time to find a soul beast strong enough to test the results."
For Pokémon, battling was the fastest way to improve their strength. Only through battle could he grow quickly.
He was already fairly strong now, and he probably would not make another enormous improvement anytime soon. He could no longer shut himself away and train.
With that thought in mind, Zeng Tian left his cave and headed deeper into the forest.
Zeng Tian was currently in the outer region of the Star Dou Great Forest, where ten-year and hundred-year soul beasts predominated. Even the strongest were only one or two thousand years old, and they could no longer meet his current needs.
Only the Mixed Zone, where thousand-year soul beasts were numerous and ten-thousand-year soul beasts might occasionally appear, suited Zeng Tian now.
As for the Core Circle, that was still somewhere Zeng Tian could not venture. There were far too many ten-thousand-year soul beasts there.
Zeng Tian's current situation was a textbook case of strong offense and weak defense. His various moves gave him killing power far beyond his current level, but he still lacked moves that could keep him alive.
Protect, Endure, Substitute-Zeng Tian did not know a single one of these top-tier defensive moves.
He did not even have a speed-boosting move like Flame Charge.
If Zeng Tian were a Charizard, things would be easier. After all, flight could help him avoid many dangers. But right now, Zeng Tian was only a Charmander.
[Name: Zeng Tian Species: Charmander Ability: Blaze Level: 16 Known moves: Ember lv10, Scratch lv8, Fire Fang lv8, Smokescreen lv6, Dragon Breath lv6, Dragon Tail lv4, Flamethrower lv1 Self-created moves: Fire Claw lv4]