10099 - 3050 = 7049.
His wallet had taken a massive hit.
"This really is a world where scholars are poor and warriors are rich!"
More than three thousand Gold Soul Coins did not sound like much. Compared to the tens or hundreds of thousands mentioned at every turn in the original novel, three thousand Gold Soul Coins were hardly worth mentioning.
But Huo Yuhao only earned five Copper Soul Coins from selling one grilled fish. To make three thousand and fifty Gold Soul Coins, he would have to sell a full 6.1 million grilled fish.
Even RT-Mart could not slaughter fish as efficiently as he could.
Fortunately, the system had given him more than ten thousand Gold Soul Coins as starting capital. Otherwise, who knew how arduous Chen Yumo's path toward evolution would have been.
How could the resources required to evolve a Martial Soul possibly be few?
Even people had to eat more and eat meat if they wanted to grow taller and fatter. How could a Martial Soul evolve merely by breathing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth? Gangzi had cultivated to Rank 29—only he knew how many resources from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan he had consumed.
After returning to his dormitory at Nuoding Academy, Chen Yumo finally let out a breath of relief after shutting the door.
This was the first time he had revealed the wealth on his person. One could not afford to let down one's guard. As he had just concluded, three thousand Gold Soul Coins already counted as an enormous sum. It was entirely possible for it to draw greedy eyes.
He had deliberately kept alert to his surroundings on the way back. Although he had not noticed anyone following him, he did not consider himself truly safe until he returned to the dormitory.
After sensing the three medicinal herbs in the System Space, Chen Yumo pondered for a moment before putting aside the thought of consuming the Whale Rubber.
Whale Rubber's primary effect was to improve one's physical constitution, slightly increasing the age limit of the Spirit Rings a Spirit Master could endure.
But in Chen Yumo's view, a Spirit Ring's age limit was not determined merely by physical constitution.
The spiritual aspect aside, that was a problem one would only encounter after absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.
What he meant was the Martial Soul itself.
It was true that Spirit Rings were absorbed by Spirit Masters, but fundamentally, a Spirit Ring was part of a Martial Soul's power. How could one consider only the Spirit Master's physical constitution when absorbing a Spirit Ring, without considering the strength of the Martial Soul?
When carrying a bag by hand, did one only need to consider whether one's hand was strong enough to lift it, without considering whether the bag could bear the weight of whatever was inside after being lifted?
An ordinary plastic bag might be able to hold a large block of gold of equivalent volume, but could its material truly guarantee that it would not tear once someone lifted it?
In Chen Yumo's eyes, absorbing a Spirit Ring was like carrying a bag by hand.
Not only did one have to see whether the Spirit Master was strong enough to lift the bag, one also had to consider whether the bag would burst outright after holding something like a Spirit Ring because it was not strong enough.
He had no choice but to consider this factor, because the Ice Silkworm's foundation was simply too weak.
If this theory was correct, then Chen Yumo needed to think things through carefully.
If he really acted like some hotheaded fool, swallowed the Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber, assumed that meant he could absorb a Thousand-Year Spirit Ring, and then tried to absorb one beyond his level as his first Spirit Ring—only for his Martial Soul to be blown apart on the spot by the Spirit Ring's energy—that would be quite something.
With his Martial Soul shattered, even if he did not die, he would be crippled.
Whale Rubber was good stuff, but unfortunately, he most likely had no chance to enjoy it right now.
"Only after truly coming to Douluo Continent and beginning to cultivate a Martial Soul did I realize that cultivation isn't nearly as easy as it sounds." Chen Yumo sighed softly.
There were pitfalls everywhere.
Fortunately, he was cautious enough.
After burying those worries in his heart, Chen Yumo spread out his hands. He summoned the Ice Silkworm in one hand and pinched a Cold Mulberry Leaf in the other.
The Cold Mulberry Leaf looked almost no different from an ordinary Mulberry Leaf. Only the veins of the leaf were a faint blue-green, and it felt slightly cool to the touch.
After he placed the Mulberry Leaf before the Ice Silkworm, Chen Yumo did not even need to control it. It instinctively wriggled toward the leaf bit by bit, then opened its mouth and began gnawing along the edge.
Rustle, rustle...
Rustle, rustle...
This directly proved that Chen Yumo's Ice Silkworm possessed autonomous awareness. Though it was still weak, it could already act on instinct without control from him, its Master. Once it grew through a few more stages, perhaps it would become like a real living creature.
As he watched the Ice Silkworm continuously gnaw at the Mulberry Leaf, Chen Yumo's gaze gradually grew unfocused.
Watching a silkworm eat Mulberry Leaves was as addictive as watching an excavator at work.
The Ice Silkworm's tiny mouth was like a paper cutter, repeatedly carving arcs along the leaf's edge as it devoured the Mulberry Leaf.
Chen Yumo had raised silkworms before, though that had been when he was very young. Back then, after school, he had liked sneaking into the neighbor's yard to pick Mulberry Leaves for his silkworms, then watching them for an entire day.
Just like now.
The difference was that as Chen Yumo watched the Ice Silkworm eat the Mulberry Leaf, faint threads of coolness continuously surfaced in his abdomen, while the Soul Power in his body increased by an almost imperceptible amount.
Even as an External Martial Soul, it was still his Martial Soul. Fundamentally, it was one with him.
The Martial Soul was eating medicinal herbs, absorbing and digesting their medicinal power. As its Master, he could benefit as well.
This also confirmed Chen Yumo's earlier guess. When the Ice Silkworm ate something containing energy, his Soul Power would increase in tandem.
He had already discovered it during his cultivation last night. The Ice Silkworm Martial Soul truly had extraordinary potential in his vision, but at this stage, it was simply too weak. With only innate Rank 1 Soul Power, his talent was practically bottom-tier, and his cultivation speed was even slower than the rate at which his Ice Silkworm Martial Soul wriggled.
At this rate, even under ideal conditions, he would need more than half a year to advance one rank through ordinary meditation.
Cultivation speed had always been his greatest weakness.
But now, while the Ice Silkworm ate Mulberry Leaves, he as its Master would also gain Soul Power in tandem. This meant Chen Yumo could finally bid farewell to his previous snail-paced cultivation speed.
"Starting today, I'm taking off!" Chen Yumo sprang to his feet excitedly and raised the Ice Silkworm in his hand high overhead.
"..."
Ice Silkworm: Rustle, rustle...
Haah!
After feeding the Ice Silkworm for a while longer, Chen Yumo watched until he made himself hungry too. Seeing how deliciously the Ice Silkworm ate, his stomach began to growl on its own.
Since the Ice Silkworm could eat by itself and did not need him to control its feeding, Chen Yumo simply held it in his palm and continued feeding it as he left the dormitory for the cafeteria.
The Soul Power the Ice Silkworm brought him through eating exceeded what he gained from cultivating on his own. This meant that as long as he continuously fed Cold Mulberry Leaves to the Ice Silkworm, Chen Yumo was effectively meditating twenty-four hours a day.
And unlike actual cultivation, the process was not dull and tedious.
If the Ice Silkworm, as a Martial Soul, could have moved farther away from him, he would have wanted to find a box to put it in and let it eat around the clock, striving every second to help Chen Yumo grow stronger.
But then a problem arose.
What kind of Ice Silkworm only ate one meal a day, with that one meal lasting an entire day?
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