"You're saying Xiao Xiao and I have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"
Wang Yan nodded. "That's right."
"And you're also saying Huo Yuhao and I have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"
Wang Yan nodded. "Also right."
This was the helper Zhou Yi had brought in, a senior teacher from the Martial Soul Department's theoretical school, whose store of knowledge ranked among the very best in all of Shrek Academy.
He had determined at a glance that Lin Mo and Xiao Xiao definitely possessed a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
Then Huo Yuhao, standing nearby, had suddenly jumped forward and announced that he and Lin Mo also had a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
After some testing, it turned out they really did!
Lin Mo was utterly numb. He distinctly remembered that Martial Soul Fusion required compatible martial souls and connected hearts, didn't it? But his martial soul was a bird! How was a bird supposed to fuse with eyes, a great cauldron, and a jade flute?
Those four things weren't even the same species. How, just how were they supposed to fuse, aaaaaah!!
Lin Mo was truly about to lose his mind.
He had read explanations of Martial Soul Fusion Skills in the outer court library, but the two people who possessed one were either siblings or spouses.
Huo Yuhao was an immediate pass.
Did that mean he really had to end up with Xiao Xiao in this life?
The moment that thought arose, the deeds of all sorts of love-brained figures on the continent in his previous life automatically began playing through Lin Mo's mind:
Mu En, who had willingly worn a cuckold's green hat for love and raised his romantic rival's grandson.
Long Xiaoyao, a purebred simp who had cast aside his dignity and pride for love, borne a mountain of infamy, and needed only a glance from Ye Xishui to feel satisfied.
Mu Beibei, who had "torn out his heart" for love.
Huo Yuhao, who had suffered nine stabs and eighteen holes for love.
These were only four classic examples. Beyond them, the various major factions and the four great empires had all sorts of love-brained characters who sacrificed for love, met miserable fates, and got bad endings.
What? You said some got happy endings?
Yes, there were indeed happy endings. It was just that "only the ending was happy."
At that moment, Lin Mo felt his head ache, his heart ache, his liver ache, his kidneys ache... everything ached!
The power of a love-addled brain was terrifying indeed.
Being blasted by a Class 9 soul cannon shell would at least only hurt for an instant, but a love-addled episode would torment you until you wished you were dead, and still make you willingly "tear out your heart and lungs."
As a representative of the theoretical school, Wang Yan naturally recognized the Mystic Bird. He pushed up his glasses and was just about to explain when he caught the discreet look Zhou Yi sent him from beside him.
"All right," Zhou Yi said. "Go back and rest up. Don't embarrass me in this afternoon's freshman assessment."
"Lin Mo, go back and rest too."
Unable to see a future, Lin Mo's eyes were hollow, and his whole body had turned black and white as he drifted unsteadily out like a wandering ghost.
Wang Dong'er wasn't smiling either.
Lin Mo had Martial Soul Fusion Skills with both Xiao Xiao and Huo Yuhao, so why didn't he have one with her?
At that thought, even the cowlick on Wang Dong'er's head drooped. Somehow, she felt shut out by the three of them, and on the way back, she lost her usual rowdiness.
That wasn't actually the case.
Right now, Lin Mo instead wanted to stay with Wang Dong'er even more.
After this business with the Martial Soul Fusion Skills, for the first time, he found this noisy young lady, who guarded her food and hissed, so pleasing to the eye.
After lunch, Huo Yuhao and the other two went to take their assessment, while Lin Mo headed straight for the library alone.
The outer court library normally had few visitors to begin with, and the occasional people who entered would borrow their books and leave at once.
As soon as Lin Mo entered, he plunged into the martial soul classification section.
As he wove between the shelves, he grumbled about Zhou Yi a hundred times in his heart.
Teacher Zhou had said his martial soul wasn't an Azure Flame Mystic Crow, but some extraordinary special martial soul, yet she absolutely refused to tell him exactly what it was. She had merely tossed out, "You'll know in the future," and sent him away.
With no other choice, he could only come and look for himself.
It was laughable, really. He was a rank-twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster, and after cultivating this far, he still couldn't even clearly say what his own martial soul actually was.
Only by figuring out his martial soul first could he understand why it could fuse with Huo Yuhao's and Xiao Xiao's martial souls.
But as the foremost innate martial soul, even if Shrek Academy had records of the Mystic Bird, they would surely be sealed away in top-secret archives. How could they be left casually in the outer court library?
The setting sun spilled in at an angle through the high windowpanes.
Lin Mo had already turned the martial soul classification section beyond recognition.
From beast martial souls to tool martial souls, then plant-type martial souls, he pulled out books of every kind, opened them, and casually stacked them aside after reading them.
Pile after pile, stack after stack.
They formed crooked little mountains that nearly filled the narrow gaps between the shelves.
And at the very center of these mountains of books, Lin Mo lay sprawled limply. He faced the ceiling with his limbs spread and an open book covering his face, its flyleaf gently rising and falling with his breath.
He had practically emptied the entire martial soul section without finding any record that matched his martial soul.
"Lin Mo, what's wrong?"
A clear, gentle voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
Then someone gently lifted the book off his face. Light flooded his vision again after its long absence, making him instinctively squint.
When his vision refocused, Lin Mo saw Zhang Lexuan's excessively beautiful face, just as he had expected.
Zhang Lexuan was leaning over him, a few strands of black hair slipping from her shoulders, while the sunset gilded her from behind with a soft, warm glow.
Lin Mo really couldn't understand it. Was the inner court's eldest senior sister truly this free? For the past three months, she had appeared in the outer court library almost every afternoon without fail, staying for half the day and refusing to leave until closing time.
He certainly didn't think Zhang Lexuan was coming to see him. After all, in this life, they had only known each other for three months.
Surely Zhang Lexuan couldn't have fallen in love with him at first sight?
If he really had that kind of charm, he would have won Xu Yuwan over in his previous life and enjoyed a comfortable life as her imperial consort. Who would still have toiled away as a guard at her beck and call?
While Lin Mo's thoughts wandered, Zhang Lexuan had already bent down and held out her hand to him.
There was a hint of helpless amusement in her eyes:
"The floor's cold. Aren't you getting up?"
Lin Mo hesitated for a few seconds, but ultimately raised his hand and took Zhang Lexuan's outstretched palm, using her support to stand up from the pile of books.
"Thank you, senior sister. I'll put these books back first." He let go, bent down, and picked up the books scattered across the floor one by one, sorting them according to the numbers on their spines and returning them to their places.
Lin Mo's hands moved extremely quickly, his motions flowing like clouds and running water.
That touch where warmth met coolness had been as fleeting as a startled swan's passing. Before Zhang Lexuan could even savor it, Lin Mo's hand had already slipped out of her palm.
Zhang Lexuan stood where she was, lowering her eyes to look at her own hand.
It was beautiful, with well-proportioned bones, elegant joints, and skin like congealed cream.
Yet at that moment, she inexplicably felt an emptiness in her palm, as though something were missing.