Spoils of War

"Tang San, don't you have a knife on you? Lend it to me for a second." Lin Mo shook his hands and spoke to Tang San without thinking, turning his head back.

However, when his gaze shifted to Luo Sanpao, who was standing beside Yu Xiaogang, he saw the creature hiding behind its master.

No matter how Lin Mo beckoned, Luo Sanpao refused to come forward.

It wore an expression of complete resistance.

Seeing this, Lin Mo shook his head helplessly.

"I have one," Tang San said instinctively.

Yet, it was easy to tell from his reaction that he had not yet recovered from the shock of what he had just witnessed.

He brushed his hand over the storage soul tool at his waist and produced the short sword that Yu Xiaogang had given him earlier.

He handed it to Lin Mo.

Lin Mo took it and flicked his finger against the blade, which let out a faint, ringing hum.

It was a sword of quite decent quality.

Unfortunately, it was merely a weapon, not a soul tool.

It would suffice for the current stage, but once his soul power level rose, this thing would be no different from a toy.

Grasping the short sword, Lin Mo turned and walked toward the Datura Snake lying limp on the ground.

The snake's carcass stretched across the grass, its head already mangled and reduced to a bloody mess.

Lin Mo knelt directly beside the body of the Datura Snake.

He pressed his left hand against the snake's body, gripped the short sword tightly in his right, and aimed the tip at the snake's belly.

The blade pierced the abdomen, emitting a soft sound of steel slicing through flesh.

Applying force, Lin Mo dragged the short sword downward, slitting the belly open.

Once the abdomen was fully laid open, Lin Mo reached inside and began to rummage through the sticky viscera.

"Teacher, Lin Mo, what is he doing?" Tang San asked, his gaze fixed on Lin Mo in the distance.

"He is collecting his spoils," Yu Xiaogang replied.

Before long, Lin Mo had found what he was looking for inside the Datura Snake's belly.

The Datura Snake Gallbladder.

After extracting the gallbladder and checking once more to ensure nothing else of value remained, Lin Mo stood up.

Just as Yu Xiaogang had said, Lin Mo was indeed collecting his spoils.

He did not possess a storage soul tool, so carrying an entire snake was impractical; it was far better to take only the small, high-value items like the gallbladder.

This was the daily routine for those soul beast hunters who made their living in the Soul Hunting Forest.

After finishing, Lin Mo walked slowly over to Tang San and returned the short sword.

Taking advantage of the earlier opportunity, Lin Mo had checked the Datura Snake's carcass and found no soul bone.

Lin Mo did not look particularly disappointed.

Soul bones were extremely rare, and the drop rate from ordinary soul beasts was naturally very low.

This Datura Snake had a cultivation of only four hundred years; it would have been strange if it had produced a soul bone.

Lin Mo pointed toward the Datura Snake not far away and said to Tang San, "We killed this snake together. The gallbladder is mine, but the Venom Fangs and Venom Glands on the carcass belong to you. I noticed you collected quite a few poisonous herbs while we were in the Soul Hunting Forest."

Tang San's eyes lit up at Lin Mo's words.

As a member of the Tang Sect, his greatest expertise, aside from hidden weapons, was the use of poison.

This Datura Snake clearly possessed formidable toxic capabilities.

If he could coat the toxins from its Venom Fangs and Venom Glands onto the Silent Sleeve Arrow he had crafted, the power of the weapon would reach a new level.

Yet, Tang San felt a slight pang of guilt: could this snake really be considered a joint kill?

During the battle, Lin Mo had single-handedly slaughtered the beast.

His own contribution had been truly negligible.

He hadn't even had the chance to use his trump card, the Silent Sleeve Arrow, before Lin Mo had finished the creature off.

Tang San's hand subconsciously touched his right wrist, where the Silent Sleeve Arrow he had painstakingly crafted was hidden.

It was the true ace he had prepared for himself before learning he would be heading to the Soul Hunting Forest.

From the moment he entered the forest until now, he hadn't used it even once.

This internal conflict left Tang San frozen in place, unable to step forward immediately.

Yu Xiaogang observed the changes in Tang San's expression, understanding exactly what his disciple was thinking.

He stepped forward and patted Tang San on the shoulder.

"Since Lin Mo has said as much, Tang San, go ahead and store the snake's carcass in your soul storage device. Rest assured, since this is Lin Mo's spoils of war, I will naturally ensure he receives a satisfactory price for it once we leave," Yu Xiaogang said with a smile.

"Yes, Teacher." Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Tang San trotted over to the side of the Datura Snake's corpse.

He crouched down before the snake and carefully examined the position of its head. Although the head was battered and broken, the two venom fangs in its mouth remained intact.

Tang San instinctively activated his Mysterious Jade Hand, his palms instantly turning the color of jade, before he carefully extracted the venom fangs from the snake's mouth. After stowing the fangs away, he set to work on the venom gland inside the head, peeling it out completely in just a few deft movements. Only after finishing these tasks did Tang San store the entire Datura Snake carcass into his storage soul tool.

While Tang San was busy processing the Datura Snake, Yu Xiaogang shifted his gaze back to Lin Mo. "What about you, Lin Mo? Do you not intend to absorb this snake's soul ring?"

"In this Soul Hunting Forest, the quality of the soul ring produced by this Datura Snake is quite exceptional. Judging by the length of its body, its cultivation should be just over four hundred years, which perfectly fits the requirements for your first soul ring. It does not exceed the limits of what you can withstand."

Lin Mo followed Yu Xiaogang's gaze toward the spot where the Datura Snake's body had been. A yellow soul ring hovered in mid-air. A four-hundred-year-old soul ring was an excellent choice for any soul master about to obtain their first one. Many soul masters settled for rings of just over a hundred years, and there were even plenty who ended up with ten-year white soul rings.

"I think not." Lin Mo glanced at the yellow soul ring produced by the Datura Snake and shook his head slightly. "I feel that if my martial soul is to seek a soul ring, it should be one produced by a power-type soul beast. While the quality of the ring produced by the Datura Snake is good, its strengths lie in speed, toughness, and poison, which do not align with my martial soul."

Upon hearing Lin Mo's words, the expression on Yu Xiaogang's face shifted from contemplation to gratification. "It is truly for the best that you possess such awareness at your young age."

If it were anyone else, having personally killed a soul beast with such a suitable age, they would likely have begun absorbing it immediately without considering whether it was compatible with their martial soul. Yu Xiaogang had seen too many such examples. Many soul masters, after hunting a soul beast, would not consider the compatibility between the soul ring and their own martial soul at all, thinking only of obtaining a ring as quickly as possible to increase their strength. The result was often that while they successfully attached a soul ring, the soul skill did not match their martial soul, failing to unleash the power it should have.