The Same Type of Stand-In

"So that was how it happened..."

After returning to the dormitory, Chen Yumo collapsed onto his bed, utterly exhausted.

So this was how the louse swarm battle from the original story came about. It seemed that whether Chen Yumo existed or not, it would not change the fact that Xiao Chenyu, the City Lord's son, was destined to become a backdrop for Tang San to show off against.

The dignified son of the City Lord had cultivated for years, yet he could not even beat Tang San, who had only just become a Soul Master. The Spirit Ring Yu Dash chose for Tang San was simply too suitable—too damn powerful!

Chen Yumo was at peace with it.

So it had all been Yu Dash's Evil plan. Now he understood.

The only frustrating thing was that Chen Yumo probably could not avoid becoming a Work-Study Student. Once Xiao Chenyu got his head stomped on repeatedly by Tang San and Xiao Wu tomorrow, he and the louse swarm under his command would be working for the Work-Study Students for free.

He had enrolled as a self-funded student in the first place because he did not want to waste time working. Yet in the end, he still had not escaped Boss Xiao's layered schemes.

The Meditation Method Boss Xiao had given him was Chen Yumo's only consolation.

Thinking of that Meditation Method, Chen Yumo hurriedly sat up despite his sleepiness, took out the little notebook, and opened it to read.

He had not cultivated at all over the past three months because he lacked a proper method. The explanations in novels had ultimately been vague and hazy, though it was not as if Chen Yumo had never tried on his own.

But simply emptying his mind and relying on his Martial Soul to absorb the energy of heaven and earth was terribly inefficient.

With innate rank-one talent and an Ice Silkworm Martial Soul weak as hell, cultivating through methods he had figured out himself was slower than a turtle crawl. With that time, he might as well sleep properly, restore his energy, and finish reading the Encyclopedia first.

Thus, three months had already passed since his Martial Soul awakened, yet his Soul Power had barely increased at all.

It was a double limitation of hardware and software.

Now that the great Boss Xiao had generously sponsored him with a Meditation Method, allowing Chen Yumo to break free from the software limitation, how could he not give meditation cultivation a proper try?

The notebook was not thick. Having spent three months reading books and developed a feel for it, Chen Yumo quickly finished the Meditation Method. His newly produced brain really was useful; after reading it only two more times, he had memorized every sentence in it.

After finishing it, Chen Yumo could only say that the experience summarized by those before him truly could not compare to his own blind fumbling.

Meditation was not merely emptying one's mind.

Besides the most basic meditation cultivation and breathing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the Meditation Method Xiao Chenyu had given him also contained a technique for stimulating the Martial Soul's vitality, making it more active during meditation and accelerating cultivation.

The improvement was not huge, but this was a Meditation Method. Over time, it would naturally be noticeably faster than those wild methods without such meditation techniques.

Boss Xiao was too righteous.

After sighing inwardly, Chen Yumo eagerly began cultivating according to the method described in the Meditation Method.

Empty his mind, sense the energy between heaven and earth, then use the Soul Power within his body to stimulate his Martial Soul, making it more active and increasing cultivation efficiency...

Stimulate the Martial Soul, stimulate the Martial Soul...

Stimulate...

Wait?

Chen Yumo abruptly opened his eyes. Looking down at the Ice Silkworm Martial Soul in his palm, which was wriggling slightly faster, his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

Masaka...?!

He cautiously reached out and poked the Ice Silkworm with a finger. It actually responded, wriggling its body as if interacting with Chen Yumo.

Was that normal behavior for a Martial Soul?

Thinking back to the day his Martial Soul awakened, Brother Tao had said his Martial Soul seemed a little off. At the time, Chen Yumo had not taken it seriously and had even complained inwardly that Brother Tao was unreliable.

Now, he only wanted to slap himself hard.

An External Martial Soul!

The same kind of External Martial Soul as Gangzi's Luo Sanpao!

"So it was the same type of stand-in?" Chen Yumo muttered, at a loss for words.

"Brother Tao, you were right!"

Looking back now, the reason Su Yuntao had vaguely sensed that Chen Yumo's Ice Silkworm was somewhat unusual was probably because of the characteristics of an External Martial Soul. And Nuoding City just so happened to be home to the only other owner of an External Martial Soul on the entire Douluo Continent besides Chen Yumo.

More specifically, an External Martial Soul should be called an Independent Beast Martial Soul!

There were countless Martial Souls that could be released outside the body and exist independently. Such Martial Souls were generally known as Weapon Martial Souls—objects that Soul Masters could summon.

Beast Martial Souls, on the other hand, invariably possessed and enhanced the Soul Master, altering the Soul Master's form.

As for External Beast Martial Souls whose separated Martial Souls possessed independent consciousness, Chen Yumo had looked through every series set in Douluo Continent, and Yu Xiaogang was the only one!

As for why Chen Yumo had initially failed to realize that his Ice Silkworm Martial Soul, like Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao, was an External Beast Martial Soul, the reason was simple: his Ice Silkworm was too weak. That weakness did not merely refer to its strength and origin, but also its intelligence.

How much consciousness could one expect from a bug smaller than a little finger?

At first, it had been completely under Chen Yumo's control and displayed no sign of possessing its own consciousness. How was Chen Yumo supposed to determine what sort of Martial Soul it was?

Only just now, when he cultivated using the Meditation Method Xiao Chenyu had given him and used Soul Power to stimulate his Martial Soul according to its techniques, had he sensed that faint, nearly imperceptible consciousness within the Ice Silkworm Martial Soul.

There was truly only the tiniest trace.

It did not even possess the most basic emotions. It lived only to eat.

Yet it really did count as an independent consciousness.

Then did that not make it an External Beast Martial Soul just like Luo Sanpao?

Chen Yumo sat on the bed in silence for a long time.

During his studies over the past three months, he had imagined countless ways for his Ice Silkworm Martial Soul to evolve. But at this moment, every evolution plan he had been uncertain about was completely overturned.

The method of nurturing an External Martial Soul was absolutely different from that of nurturing an ordinary Martial Soul.

Gangzi was the best example.

He clearly possessed a powerful Martial Soul with the bloodline of the Golden Sacred Dragon, clearly possessed the one and only External Beast Martial Soul in all history, yet in his hands, it had become a complete worthless failure that could not even break through rank thirty and whose only Soul Skill was farting.

Now that Chen Yumo knew his Martial Soul was an External Beast Martial Soul, he had to plan his evolutionary path even more carefully!

First—food!

One of the most special aspects of an External Beast Martial Soul was that it could eat on its own initiative!

Just yesterday, Yu Xiaogang had Tang San buy a large amount of white radishes to feed Luo Sanpao and force out farts, so it could release bigger and smellier farts while hunting Spirit Beasts.

Chen Yumo would never be as shortsighted as him, using such a heaven-defying ability merely to force out farts!

"As a holometabolous insect, the most important part of a silkworm's evolution is eating—constantly accumulating the energy needed to pupate, then finally breaking out of the cocoon!"

A silkworm was merely in its larval stage!