At the time, Xiao Wu had spotted Tang San fiddling around with something.
Curious, she had pulled Su Mo over.
Then she had said just one thing.
"Su Mo, Su Mo, look! Tang San looks like he's doing acrobatics. Is this like those performances where they throw knives and stuff?"
Su Mo had almost burst out laughing, but he held it in.
"Yeah, it really does look like that."
He hadn't thought so before, but once Xiao Wu pointed it out, he really did see the resemblance.
"Tang San, you'd better work hard, then. Make sure your aim is good," Xiao Wu told Tang San with a grin.
Tang San, who had been a little angry, suddenly felt it wasn't such a big deal.
After all, Xiao Wu had smiled at him.
But soon, he grew dejected again.
He couldn't understand it. With abilities far beyond those of his peers, how could he lose to Su Mo?
Why did Xiao Wu always look right through him as though he were air?
What was so great about Su Mo's lousy Gashapon Machine? For the past two days, Xiao Wu had kept pestering Su Mo about Gacha Coins and whatnot.
Even without eavesdropping, Tang San occasionally overheard them.
That night, in Dorm Seven.
Tang San lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
Xiao Wu was simply talking a little too loudly, and her voice kept reaching his ears.
He swore he wasn't eavesdropping.
At that moment, Xiao Wu was pestering Su Mo. "Su Mo, how much longer until your Gacha Coin forms?"
Su Mo sounded helpless. "You've asked me more than a dozen times a day for the past two days. Don't you get tired?"
"I'm just impatient! I'm waiting to try my luck."
Su Mo sighed. "I never should've promised to let you draw."
He really had made trouble for himself.
For the past two days, Xiao Wu had asked him from morning to night without getting tired in the slightest.
"You promised you'd let me draw! You can't go back on your word, Su Mo!"
Xiao Wu rolled over and straddled Su Mo, pinning him beneath her.
She waved her delicate pink fist menacingly. "Otherwise, watch out! Sister Xiao Wu will beat you up."
Feeling the softness of Xiao Wu's rounded bottom against him, Su Mo fell silent for a moment.
"What? You're not actually thinking of backing out, are you?" Seeing that Su Mo wasn't answering, Xiao Wu waved her fist and tapped him on the chest.
Feeling rather helpless, Su Mo sat straight up.
"Ow! What are you doing, Su Mo? You hurt my nose!" Xiao Wu rubbed her slightly reddened nose and glared at him.
Looking at Xiao Wu so close to him, Su Mo rubbed his nose awkwardly.
She had been straddling him, so when he sat up, her head had bumped straight into his chest.
"Could you get off first?" he asked helplessly, looking at Xiao Wu sitting on his thighs.
Xiao Wu seemed to notice something was wrong too. Her ears reddened, and she hurriedly climbed off him.
Only then did Su Mo stretch his legs.
He summoned his martial soul, and just then, a Gacha Coin dropped into his hand.
"You're really lucky. It just finished forming."
Even Su Mo was a little surprised. He had only meant to check how much longer it would take.
Instead, the moment he summoned it, there was the Gacha Coin.
Xiao Wu's eyes instantly lit up. She was even more excited than when she went shopping.
She snatched the Gacha Coin straight out of Su Mo's hand.
She was afraid he might change his mind.
"Come on, come on! Let's go find somewhere outside."
Xiao Wu glanced around the dorm and decided there were too many people here. They needed somewhere deserted.
Although everyone in the dorm seemed to be asleep, she was worried that any noise might cause trouble.
And so.
The two of them tiptoed out of Dorm Seven.
Then they jogged all the way around to a secluded grove behind the academy.
What they didn't know was that someone was following them.
It was none other than Tang San.
He had already been unable to sleep, and then he saw Su Mo and Xiao Wu leave the dorm in the middle of the night.
Curiosity had driven him to follow.
He wanted to see whether Su Mo's so-called Gashapon Machine could actually produce anything.
Although Yu Xiaogang had told him not to focus his attention on Su Mo.
Spurred on by curiosity, he followed them anyway.
In the grove.
With an excited expression, Xiao Wu urged Su Mo to hurry up and summon his martial soul.
"Quick, Su Mo! Hurry!"
Helpless, Su Mo could only summon the Gashapon Machine.
Holding the Gacha Coin, Xiao Wu didn't rush to insert it this time. Instead, she pressed her palms together and muttered, "Something good. Please give me something good."
She repeated it more than a dozen times.
Su Mo didn't interrupt her, because he had done the same thing when drawing prizes in games in his previous life.
Even though he knew perfectly well that repeating it did no good.
When making a draw, he just couldn't feel at ease without saying something.
Soon.
Xiao Wu inserted the Gacha Coin into the Gashapon Machine. As the capsules inside began tumbling, she kept her eyes fixed on the machine and continued muttering, "It has to be something good."
Tang San hid in a tree some distance away, pushing his Purple Demon Eye to its limit.
"So that's the Gashapon Machine?" He shook his head, feeling that a thing like this was completely useless.
All it could do was spin the capsules inside. What use was that? It had no offensive power at all.
Still, he was puzzled. Where had Su Mo's lightning come from?
Could it be an innate ability of the Gashapon Machine?
That was possible.
With a mutated martial soul, anything could happen.
For example, his teacher Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao even possessed intelligence.
So he never considered the possibility that Su Mo had another martial soul.
After all, he was only the third person in a hundred years to possess twin martial souls. With only three appearing in a century, he didn't believe there could be a fourth.
That was how much faith he had in his teacher.
At that moment, as the Gashapon Machine's rotation slowed, Xiao Wu's heart rose into her throat.
Watching Xiao Wu, whose face was almost pressed against the Gashapon Machine, Su Mo couldn't help finding it funny. "I'm not even nervous. How come you're more nervous than I am?"
Xiao Wu glared at him. "I'm the one making the draw! How could I not be nervous?"
"Here it comes! Here it comes!"
Soon, a cyan capsule rolled out of the Gashapon Machine, and Xiao Wu hurriedly caught it.
A cyan light flashed and vanished, and a silver ring appeared in Xiao Wu's hand.
Xiao Wu looked bewildered. "What's this?"
She turned the ring this way and that, unable to see anything unusual about it.
"Could it just be an ordinary ring?"
Meanwhile, a piece of information appeared in Su Mo's mind.
[Lightning-patterned ring: Can automatically unleash one lightning strike when danger arises. Wearing it regularly calms the mind and conceals one's aura.]
Su Mo's eyes lit up. This thing seemed rather useful, though it might not be much use to him.
For Xiao Wu, however, that wasn't necessarily the case.
He wondered whether its aura-concealing effect could help hide Xiao Wu's soul beast aura.
"Su Mo, what does this do?" Xiao Wu asked, unable to figure out what use it had.
Su Mo smiled. "It's a ring that can release a bolt of lightning when you're in danger. It can also conceal your aura."
"You can have it."
He took Xiao Wu's hand and gently slipped the ring onto her slender, jade-like finger.
Xiao Wu went completely still. Looking at Su Mo's earnest expression, she felt a blush creep across her face without knowing why.
At the same time, for some inexplicable reason, her heart began beating much faster.
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