Half the students present came from wealthy families. This was a chance to make a fortune!
Lin Mo hurriedly rummaged through his soul tool storage ring.
Then...
"Uh, I'll bet ten gold soul coins."
Everyone: ?
Wang Dong'er and Xiao Xiao both looked at Lin Mo in surprise. From their everyday interactions, they had clearly felt that Lin Mo shouldn't be short of money. The bearing in his every movement simply wasn't something a poor family could cultivate.
How could he not even scrape together fifty gold soul coins?
"Uh..."
Lin Mo scratched his head awkwardly too.
Well, that was a long story.
In his first life, on Blue Star, once his meager monthly salary had covered rent, utilities, and living expenses, it was all gone, without a penny to spare.
In his second life, he had followed Xu Yuwan around, with food and lodging provided outright. He basically never needed to pay for anything himself.
So he had never developed any money-management habits. It basically always went like this:
He wanted it, he got it!
It wasn't until today that Lin Mo belatedly realized: ninety gold soul coins from three months of part-time work at the library, plus the fifty he originally had, made a total of one hundred and forty.
Now, somehow, only ten remained.
Ten!
"Don't look at me like that." Lin Mo spread his hands helplessly. "I might count as half a noble, but my family's fallen on hard times. Pretty much everyone's kicked the bucket, and this is all I have left in my pockets."
At those words, everyone's gazes changed again, especially Wang Dong'er's and Xiao Xiao's. They positively ached for him.
Xiao Xiao immediately stepped forward, reached back to pull out another banknote, and stuffed it into Lin Mo's arms without another word:
"I'm sorry, Lin Mo. I didn't know before... Anyway, take these thousand gold soul coins for now. You can pay me back when you have money."
He had to admit, this girl was quite thoughtful.
To protect Lin Mo's dignity in front of everyone, she had called it a loan rather than an outright gift.
Unfortunately, her concerns were unnecessary.
After the triple beating dealt to him by society, the Holy Spirit Church, and the Sun Moon Empire, Lin Mo had long since grasped one truth:
A tree without bark was certain to die.
But a man without shame was invincible under heaven!
So the moment Xiao Xiao stuffed the banknote into his arms, his eyes went wide. He couldn't find a single reason to refuse.
As the young sect master of the Clear Sky Sect, Wang Dong'er naturally had no shortage of money. But Lin Mo really hadn't expected Xiao Xiao to be so rich too. Usually so quiet and unassuming, she had whipped out two banknotes without so much as blinking.
Then, considering that Martial Soul of hers, which could be called a State's Mighty Weapon...
Lin Mo strongly suspected that Xiao Xiao wasn't merely an ordinary noble. She might even be a noble with royal blood!
At that thought, Lin Mo suddenly felt even more miserable.
A transmigrator like him had ended up in this sorry state, his pockets cleaner than his face. Truly unmatched.
Sure enough.
This damned world owed him!!
While they were busily placing their bets in the stands, Huo Yuhao and Wu Feng had already entered the Soul Dueling Arena. To be safe, Wang Yan personally acted as their referee.
Soon, Wang Yan stepped off the competition platform, and their match officially began.
And their fight played out exactly as Lin Mo had predicted.
If Wu Feng had simply gone all out, she could have taken Huo Yuhao down within ten moves even with his Spiritual Detection Sharing. Yet she stubbornly refused to use soul skills, giving Huo Yuhao a chance to gather his strength.
As a result, although Wu Feng later sent Huo Yuhao flying, she also took a Soul Shock head-on, and blood began seeping from all seven of her facial orifices.
As for Huo Yuhao, after she sent him flying, he fell to the ground and lay motionless.
In the spectator stands, everyone thought the match was over. Wang Yan had already stepped onto the competition platform too.
Yet Lin Mo remained perfectly composed, one hand resting on the railing and the other propping up his chin, murmuring, "Three, two, one..."
"I haven't lost yet!!"
Just as he had expected, Huo Yuhao stood up again.
He simply hadn't read the novel Douluo 2. That didn't mean he hadn't read other novels. Webnovel tropes were all more or less the same anyway; he could guess how things would go.
Sure enough, Huo Yuhao unleashed a sudden burst of power, his eyes turning a lifeless gray.
However, the moment the phantom of a death god unfolded behind Huo Yuhao, Lin Mo could no longer remain calm in the stands. His lazy gaze instantly sharpened.
A tremor from deep within his Martial Soul was frantically warning him!
The instant he saw that phantom of a death god, a name in grayish gold suddenly began to emerge slowly in his mind-
Electrolux, Holy Necromancer God!
In that instant, Lin Mo understood everything.
That fucker Huo Yuhao had straight-up summoned a god to possess him and fight for him!!
He knew it! How could a protagonist not have some cheat-granting grandpa tagging along? And here he was!
And he was a fucking god, at that!!
Lin Mo silently swallowed, cold sweat breaking out across his back in a rush.
At that moment, he actually felt the relief of someone who had narrowly escaped death. Thankfully, he had restrained himself from attacking Huo Yuhao for the past three months. Otherwise, the grass on his grave would probably have been three meters tall by now.
That little trace of killing intent Lin Mo harbored toward Huo Yuhao was thoroughly extinguished too.
He was supposed to fight a god?
How was that any different from courting death??
The same old saying still applied: if he couldn't afford to provoke him, couldn't he at least hide? At worst, he would lie low in Shrek until the war was over, then get as far away as possible!
After summoning the god to possess him, Huo Yuhao easily finished Wu Feng off with a single Soul Shock.
The battle was over.
Everyone in the spectator stands froze in place. Wang Dong'er and Xiao Xiao rushed straight down to meet Huo Yuhao.
Lin Mo wore a sour little cat face.
He held two fingers by his lips, took a drag of a nonexistent cigarette, and only then followed them down.
The Soul Dueling Area, lounge.
Huo Yuhao sat stiffly on the sofa, his back perfectly straight, his expression still cold and stern. Wang Dong'er and Xiao Xiao crowded around him, both brimming with excitement. Neither had expected him to actually defeat Wu Feng!
The lounge door was pushed open again, and Lin Mo finally appeared in the doorway.
Huo Yuhao's cold expression finally softened somewhat.
He slowly stood up, stumbling a few times as he moved, then walked toward Lin Mo step by step.
Watching this fellow approach him, Lin Mo froze on the spot.
Wait, what?
The way you're acting...
You're not seriously coming to fuck me up, are you?!
Shit, shit! Had he discovered that I'd been thinking about killing him for the past three months? Was this bastard going to silence me now?!
As Huo Yuhao came to a stop before him, every muscle in Lin Mo's body tensed, ready to bolt through the door at any moment. Unexpectedly, the coldness and killing intent in Huo Yuhao's eyes rapidly melted away, replaced by a spreading smile:
"I won."
Lin Mo breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on his face too. "Nice, nice. Those ten gold soul coins I bet weren't for noth-"
But before he could finish-
"Pfft-!"
Huo Yuhao suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
And every last drop landed squarely on the pristine white school uniform over Lin Mo's chest.
Lin Mo's smile instantly froze.