One Year Later

Life at Notting Academy was quite simple: classes in the morning, and self-cultivation in the afternoon.

The academy generally scheduled two classes for the morning: one for cultural knowledge and one for martial spirits.

For these newly enrolled students, the cultural knowledge classes were nothing more than basic literacy lessons.

As for the script and language of the Douluo Continent, Lin Mo had spent some time mastering them entirely shortly after awakening his past-life memories.

The day after returning from the Soul Hunting Forest, after finishing their morning studies, Lin Mo and the others ran into a group of senior students led by Xiao Chenyu in the cafeteria.

Faced with Xiao Chenyu's provocation, and with the addition of Lin Mo and a few other strong reinforcements, the work-study students naturally had no intention of taking it lying down.

The work-study students played the part of the weak to lure the strong, half-heartedly baiting them into following them to the playground.

A crowd had already gathered around the playground.

Xiao Chenyu's lackeys were the first to step forward.

Tang San stood before them, his feet slightly apart, assuming a basic starting stance.

In the span of only a few breaths, the senior students who had rushed up first were all sprawled on the ground.

The onlookers let out a low gasp of surprise.

As the son of the city lord, Xiao Chenyu could no longer maintain his composure.

He gritted his teeth, stepped forward, and a white ring of light lit up beneath his feet.

A soul ring, ten years.

"Kid, do you think you're something special just because you know a few moves?"

Xiao Chenyu let out a low roar. As his soul ring lit up, a faint cyan glow emerged on the surface of his body, and his palms transformed into wolf claws.

Martial spirit, Wolf.

Xiao Chenyu pushed off with his legs, lunging at Tang San like a starving tiger.

Tang San's response was simple to the extreme.

A soul ring's light shone beneath his feet as well, and clusters of Blue Silver Grass appeared out of thin air, swarming toward Xiao Chenyu like a hive of bees.

Caught off guard, Xiao Chenyu had no time to dodge.

In the blink of an eye, his legs, arms, and torso were tightly bound by the Blue Silver Grass.

He was trussed up like a giant silkworm cocoon, with only his head left exposed.

His lackeys behind him fared even worse; before they could react, they were dragged to the ground by the Blue Silver Grass and bound tight.

Xiao Chenyu's muscles were taut, and a cyan soul power glow flickered violently across his skin.

He struggled desperately.

The Blue Silver Grass showed no signs of snapping.

"How is this possible?!" Xiao Chenyu's face flushed red.

Even though he had already obtained a soul ring and become a true soul master, he was unable to break free from the restraints of this Blue Silver Grass while using his first soul skill.

The Blue Silver Grass was supposed to be the infamous trash martial spirit!

Seeing Xiao Chenyu looking like a silkworm cocoon, Tang San shook his head slightly.

To break free from the restraints of his Blue Silver Grass through brute force alone, only soul masters of the same rank who specialized in strength would be able to do it.

He subconsciously glanced at Lin Mo, thinking of a soul master like him.

Tang San had never thought of using Blue Silver Grass to try and restrain Lin Mo.

Based on what he had witnessed in the Soul Hunting Forest, let alone his current Blue Silver Grass, even if it were twice as thick, he feared it wouldn't be able to stop the incredibly violent Lin Mo.

Thanks to their joint operations in the Soul Hunting Forest and witnessing Lin Mo's fierce combat prowess firsthand, Tang San was now thoroughly convinced of his strength.

Not to mention that in the Soul Hunting Forest, Lin Mo had provided Tang San with quite a bit of help.

Tang San withdrew his gaze and retracted the Blue Silver Grass.

Xiao Chenyu and his lackeys tumbled to the ground, the arrogance on their faces replaced by deep wariness.

The watching work-study students cheered, and Wang Sheng excitedly threw his arms around Tang San's shoulders: "Tang San, you're too amazing!"

"Exactly, exactly!"

Another work-study student chimed in, "Let's see if they dare to bully us again!"

The reason the work-study students had to band together and choose a leader was primarily due to the oppression they faced from senior students like Xiao Chenyu.

Now, they had finally held their heads high!

However, just as the work-study students, led by Lin Mo, were preparing to leave, Xiao Chenyu spoke up to stop them.

"Wait."

The work-study students stopped in their tracks and turned around one after another.

Xiao Chenyu's gaze swept across the crowd of work-study students, finally landing on Lin Mo.

"Is Tang San the strongest among you lot?"

From the previous conversations of the work-study students, a few doubts had sprouted in his mind.

If Tang San were the strongest, why did these work-study students address Lin Mo as Brother Mo and Xiao Wu as Sister Xiao Wu?

"Let me tell you."

Wang Sheng puffed out his chest triumphantly. "Tang San's strength is already quite good among us work-study students, but he only ranks third." His tone was exceptionally smug.

Xiao Chenyu's pupils constricted.

Wang Sheng held up two fingers and shook them. "Sister Xiao Wu and Lin Mo are both stronger than Tang San.

Especially Brother Mo; Brother Mo doesn't even need to use his Martial Soul to beat you!"

Hearing Wang Sheng's boasting, Xiao Chenyu's lackeys were instantly gnashing their teeth in anger.

They couldn't very well deny Wang Sheng's words, after all, Xiao Chenyu had just lost to Tang San.

Xiao Chenyu remained silent for a few seconds, his gaze lingering on Lin Mo for a long time.

"Let's go." Xiao Chenyu waved at his lackeys and turned to walk off the playground.

The jeers of the work-study students erupted behind them.

After this little interlude, the senior students led by Xiao Chenyu took the initiative to take over the work-study students' chores.

From then on, they found others to complete the work-study students' tasks, leaving Lin Mo and the others to simply sit back and collect the pay.

Time flew by, and a year had passed.

During this year, Lin Mo lived an extremely disciplined life at Notting Academy.

Thanks to Tang San's previous performance, coupled with Lin Mo's astonishing feat of defeating a second-ring instructor during a practical class with his own strength as a one-ring Spirit Master, incidents like senior students coming to pick fights never happened again.

The story of that practical class circulated throughout the academy for a long time.

Incidentally, thanks to Lin Mo's outstanding performance, the academy's dean, who possessed a four-ring cultivation, gave Lin Mo the green light regarding his academy life.

Lin Mo considered the morning classes non-essential, so he simply skipped them all.

He spent his free time either reading in the library or focusing entirely on his cultivation.

The library didn't have a vast collection, but it was enough for Lin Mo to pass the time.

He flipped through books on the continent's geography, types of Spirit Beasts, and the history of Spirit Masters, occasionally reading research on Martial Soul theory.

However, most of the time, he was cultivating.

The dormitory, the cafeteria, the hill behind the academy, the playground—Lin Mo's figure could be seen almost everywhere.

This could be considered one of the advantages of a Body Spirit; it wasn't picky about the cultivation environment, unlike other Martial Souls that strictly required specialized mimicry environments.