Hearing Lin Mo's words, Xiao Wu, standing beside him, looked puzzled and asked, "Aren't you an orphan? Where did this great-grandma come from? Did you find your relatives?"
Lin Mo expressionlessly moved the plate in front of him to the side. "You did great. Just don't do it again."
Xiao Wu really wasn't suited to the kitchen. She was a menace to it.
Turning a plate of vegetables into something like that took a certain kind of talent.
"Is it really that bad?"
Xiao Wu's pretty eyebrows furrowed at once. She took the chopsticks Lin Mo handed her without thinking, picked up a bite, and put it in her mouth.
"Ugh..."
A dry heave escaped her.
True to her principle of not wasting food, Xiao Wu still swallowed the bite she'd put in her mouth.
"We'd better throw it out... This dish isn't suitable for those little kids," Xiao Wu said regretfully.
Before Lin Mo could reply, Xiao Wu quickly dumped the food—which looked no different from some dark culinary concoction—into the trash.
Once she'd confirmed she wasn't suited to cooking, Xiao Wu never brought it up again.
She simply watched quietly from the side as Lin Mo prepared a whole table full of dishes.
Lin Mo cooked quickly. In less than half an hour, seven or eight dishes were laid out across the table.
They looked ordinary, but gave off an enticing aroma.
Xiao Wu sniffed, and her stomach betrayed her with a growl.
Lin Mo set the last pot of soup on the table and glanced at her. "Go call the kids over to eat."
Xiao Wu nodded and turned to leave the kitchen.
The children's chatter soon rang out in the courtyard.
When Lin Mo carried the food into another room that usually served as the dining hall, the children immediately crowded in.
Seeing a spread like this, rare on an ordinary day, their eyes lit up. "Brother Lin Mo's cooking is still as good as ever."
The children ate with relish, and Xiao Wu was no less enthusiastic.
She quickly picked up a piece of braised pork. The moment it entered her mouth, her eyes narrowed into crescents.
After swallowing it, Xiao Wu hurriedly reached for another dish. From then on, her chopsticks danced over the table without pause.
Seeing Xiao Wu wolf down the food like that, Lin Mo shook his head helplessly.
After dinner, Lin Mo began telling the children stories, as he usually did.
This time, though, he was the protagonist, and the tale was about what had happened after he became a Soul Master.
Lin Mo left out the more gruesome parts.
The children listened with rapt attention, thoroughly absorbed in the story.
They had always been interested in Soul Masters. And since Lin Mo was telling them himself about what had happened after he became one, they were even more captivated.
Watching Lin Mo surrounded by the children, Xiao Wu found it amusing, but also felt a little sorry for him.
There had been a time when Lin Mo was one of these children himself.
And this was the first time she'd seen him show so much patience.
Lin Mo usually spoke very little at the academy, but around these little kids, he seemed especially patient.
When the story was over, Lin Mo stood up and looked over every child present.
"From now on, you need to listen to the old dean. Eat when it's time to eat, and take your medicine on time."
"Whether or not you can become Soul Masters in the future, you need to get your bodies healthy first."
"Your body is the capital you need to make a revolution."
"Once you grow up, a healthy body will let you do the things you want to do, just like me."
Hearing Lin Mo's words, the children all nodded vigorously.
For Lin Mo, this holiday had been a truly pleasant one.
Aside from helping the dean at the orphanage, he spent the rest of his time taking Xiao Wu around Notting City.
His own knowledge of Notting City was limited, actually.
Of course, he'd usually stayed near the orphanage before, and rarely went anywhere farther afield.
Unlike Lin Mo, Xiao Wu found everything new and interesting.
Like a headless fly, she dragged Lin Mo all over Notting City.
Whenever they came across a snack stall, she had to stop and buy something before moving on.
In less than two days, Lin Mo and Xiao Wu had toured all of Notting City.
At an herbal medicine shop in the east of the city, beneath a shabby sign, the shopkeeper was a little old man with a goatee.
When Lin Mo arrived, he asked, "Young man, what kind of herbs are you looking for?"
"Do you have any Whale Rubber?" Lin Mo asked directly.
At that, the old man's expression turned strange. "Whale Rubber? What do you want that stuff for?"
Lin Mo didn't answer. He just looked at him.
The little old man saw his expression and shook his head. "I don't have that sort of thing here.
"Notting City is such a small place. There's no way you'd find something like that here.
"If you really want it, you'll probably have to try your luck in a big city."
After getting his answer, Lin Mo turned and left the herbal medicine shop, heading to another pharmacy on the street.
This shop was a little bigger than the previous ones. A middle-aged man sat behind the counter.
"Boss, do you have any Whale Rubber?"
Only then did the middle-aged man look up. Seeing that Lin Mo was just a child, he froze.
Then he glanced at Xiao Wu, who was following behind Lin Mo, and gave a meaningful smile.
"Whale Rubber? You look pretty young, kid, but you sure know how to have fun."
Xiao Wu blinked, confused, while Lin Mo furrowed his brows.
"No."
The middle-aged man waved his hand. "You won't find that stuff in Notting City. And even if you did, it's not something a little kid like you could afford.
"A hundred-year-old piece of Whale Rubber costs at least three digits in Gold Soul Coins. A thousand-year-old one costs even more..."
Lin Mo said nothing more and turned to leave the shop.
After that, Lin Mo took Xiao Wu to several more pharmacies and street stalls. The result was always the same.
As its name suggested, Notting City was just an obscure little border town. There wasn't much of value in the city.
Even when they occasionally came across something that could help with cultivation, the markup was outrageous and the value for money was terrible.
After looking around, Lin Mo could only conclude with regret:
In Notting City, he was most likely not going to find the Whale Rubber he'd been longing for.
Lin Mo wasn't discouraged by the result.
He'd already anticipated it before he started looking.
Whale Rubber was a special substance produced in the brains of whale-type Soul Beasts.
At this stage, Whale Rubber was merely an aphrodisiac used by a handful of nobles, and it was extremely expensive.
After all, it was a special product of whale-type Soul Beasts. Even a Soul Master with the cultivation of a Soul King wouldn't dare claim they could reliably kill a thousand-year whale Soul Beast in the ocean.
That was why Lin Mo hadn't had high hopes from the start.
He'd only been trying his luck, seeing if he could stumble across a bargain.