Charmander blinked its large blue eyes, looking around in some confusion before finally fixing its gaze on Lin Mo's face.
It tilted its head, as though trying hard to make something out.
Lin Mo's heart pounded wildly. His throat felt as though something had blocked it, and his eyes instantly reddened.
He reached out a trembling hand to touch Charmander, yet hardly dared, terrified that this was only an illusory dream.
Charmander looked at Lin Mo's outstretched hand. Without hesitation, it took a few steps over on its short hind legs and rubbed its cheek against his fingers of its own accord.
The warmth against his fingertips shattered the last trace of uncertainty in Lin Mo's heart in an instant.
"You're back... you're really back..." His voice was terribly hoarse.
The worry and longing he had accumulated over more than three years... were no longer restrained at that moment.
He abruptly bent down and carefully gathered Charmander into his arms, burying his face against its side as his shoulders began trembling slightly beyond his control.
Charmander also stretched out its short forelegs, trying its best to hug Lin Mo back while making comforting "woo, woo" sounds tinged with tears.
Even the flame on its tail flickered more fiercely with its surging emotions.
Only after quite some time did Lin Mo barely manage to calm his turbulent feelings.
He straightened up, haphazardly wiped his face with the back of his hand, and revealed an incomparably radiant smile despite the tear tracks.
He gently stroked Charmander's head. "All right, all right. Everything's fine..." he comforted Charmander softly, speaking both to it and to himself.
"This time, we won't be separated again. I'll definitely protect you. We both have to live well, and keep living for a long, long time!"
Charmander nodded vigorously. The flame on its tail shot a little higher with a whoosh, making it look full of vigor.
Once his emotions had settled, Lin Mo finally had time to examine his partner's condition closely.
He concentrated, directing his attention toward Charmander in his arms just as he did when checking his own panel.
Soon, a transparent panel with a style similar to his own, but entirely different contents, slowly appeared in his vision.
[Martial soul: Charmander] [Talent: Entei] [Soul Power: lv10] [Mastered soul skills: Scratch, Growl, Ember, Smokescreen, Dragon Pulse, Dragon Rush, Flare Blitz, Metal Claw]
Looking at the information on the panel, Lin Mo understood.
Sure enough, just as he had suspected, after Charmander had followed him to Douluo Star, it had been affected by this world's rules and transformed into his martial soul.
Perhaps because of its sudden demise in their previous life, Charmander could only exist in egg form when Lin Mo first awakened his martial soul, and he had to reach soul power level ten before he could hatch it.
In terms of its form of existence alone, it was somewhat similar to Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao martial soul. Both were extremely unusual external beast martial souls.
Its soul power level was ten, just like his.
This did not surprise Lin Mo. After all, he and Charmander shared their soul power.
It was the name "Entei" in the talent field that made his heart skip a beat.
The name sounded rather grand, but after taking in the information conveyed by the panel, Lin Mo quickly understood the talent's specific effect.
Simply put, it could fuse different kinds of flames and turn their power to its own use.
At present, Charmander possessed only one kind of flame within its body: its innate "Blaze." In the original Pokémon world, this Blaze would have been called an ability.
Lin Mo was very familiar with this Blaze state. When Charmander's stamina fell to a certain point, the power of its Fire-type moves would increase significantly.
It seemed that in this world, this ability had been incorporated into the "Entei" talent as its initial flame.
If the Entei talent could incorporate more flames in the future, did that mean Charmander could receive the benefits of multiple abilities?
"Entei... able to fuse myriad flames..." Lin Mo murmured to himself, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
This talent's potential was beyond question. It could be called terrifyingly vast.
There were plenty of Fire-type soul beasts with powerful flames on the Douluo Continent. If he could obtain their soul rings or absorb other special flames in the future, just how far could Charmander's Entei talent grow?
Then, Lin Mo turned his gaze to the long list of mastered soul skills.
Scratch, Growl, Ember, Smokescreen, Dragon Pulse, Dragon Rush, Flare Blitz, Metal Claw...
Looking at the row of skill names, the corners of Lin Mo's mouth twitched, and he could not help commenting:
"Good grief, eight skills mastered right off the bat? The Douluo Continent isn't like official Pokémon matches. There's no four-move limit here..."
This was undoubtedly an enormous boon!
Right from the initial stage, Charmander possessed a diverse pool of skills far beyond that of an ordinary soul master.
From the close-range "Scratch" and "Metal Claw" to the long-range "Ember" and "Dragon Pulse," then the disruptive "Growl" and "Smokescreen," it even had powerful charging skills in "Dragon Rush" and "Flare Blitz."
Range, charging, disruption, burst damage-it covered almost every aspect.
Moreover, Charmander could still awaken new soul skills as it acquired soul rings in the future.
Judging by the knowledge about the classification of the Douluo Continent's soul beasts he had read in Nuoding Academy's library over the past six months,
Charmander's appearance and abilities would roughly place it in the "earth dragon" category, similar to earth dragon species such as the White Armored Earth Dragon.
But Lin Mo knew perfectly well that Charmander's bloodline potential and actual combat strength far surpassed those ordinary earth dragon soul beasts.
Even setting everything else aside, its "Entei" talent and that long list of initial soul skills alone were enough to crush the vast majority of soul beasts at the same level.
Words could not describe Lin Mo's excitement at Charmander's successful hatching.
He had not merely recovered the partner who had shared life and death with him and filled that empty place in his heart; his own strength had also undergone a qualitative leap!
His body martial soul was his trump card. Unless he had absolutely no other choice, he would never reveal it lightly.
Before finding the proper cultivation method for his body martial soul and a path to its second awakening, revealing his twin martial souls-especially such a top-tier body martial soul-would be far too risky.
But now, things were different!
With Charmander successfully hatched, he could openly display his powerful talent and combat strength!
Innate rank-six soul power, coupled with an "egg" that had seemingly been a trash martial soul, yet had hatched into such a powerful beast martial soul.
These alone were enough to explain why he possessed considerable innate soul power, and were enough to take him far along his future path as a soul master!
People would marvel at how unusual and powerful his martial soul was, focusing all their attention on Charmander.
Who would imagine that he had an even stronger second martial soul hidden within him?
Charmander's appearance provided a perfect explanation for his previous awkward situation of having "decent talent but a trash martial soul."
"Partner..." Lin Mo gently patted Charmander's head, a heartfelt smile appearing on his face. "From now on, I'll be counting on you to hold up appearances."
Charmander raised its head and looked at Lin Mo, seemingly understanding his words. It gave a forceful "Woaah!" as the flame on its tail blazed, looking brimming with confidence.
It raised one foreclaw, a faint metallic sheen flashing over it, as though saying: Leave it to me!
Feeling the soaring fighting spirit Charmander conveyed to him, Lin Mo felt his heart burn.
Only now was his third life truly in his own hands, and the goal of becoming a god and living forever no longer seemed quite so far beyond reach.