After completing his breakthrough, Lin Mo returned to Dorm Seven, filled with excitement.
He gently pushed open the dormitory door and walked inside.
It was already past the time to get up, and Dorm Seven was fairly lively.
Quite a few work-study students were in the dormitory, either tidying their belongings or chatting in groups of two or three.
Sharp-eyed Wang Sheng was the first to notice Lin Mo. Out of habit, he glanced at Lin Mo's arms, then a puzzled expression appeared on his face.
"Lin Mo, why aren't you carrying that egg of yours today?" Wang Sheng scratched his head and asked in confusion,
"You and that egg are usually practically inseparable, aren't you? What's up? How come you aren't carrying it today?"
Hearing Wang Sheng's words, the others in the dormitory also turned curious gazes toward Lin Mo.
Indeed, they had all grown used to seeing Lin Mo walking around the academy all day with that strangely patterned egg in his arms.
Now that Lin Mo had suddenly stopped carrying the egg around, they found it a little strange.
At this, a smile appeared on Lin Mo's face. He walked over to his bed and sat down before speaking unhurriedly:
"I don't need to carry it anymore..."
He paused, then continued under everyone's increasingly curious gazes, "I've made some progress in my cultivation recently. That egg... has hatched."
"H-hatched?" Wang Sheng's eyes abruptly widened, and his voice unconsciously rose an octave.
The dormitory instantly fell silent. Everyone stared straight at Lin Mo as though they had been struck by an immobilization spell.
Of course they knew eggs could hatch. Didn't all the chickens and ducks people raised in their villages hatch from eggs?
But an egg martial soul obtained through martial soul awakening could hatch too?
This simply challenged everything they had always known about martial souls!
Once someone obtained their own martial soul through the martial soul awakening ceremony, wasn't its form supposed to remain unchanged?
A sickle was a sickle, a hoe was a hoe, and if your martial soul was Blue Silver Grass one day, it could only be Blue Silver Grass for the rest of your life!
An egg martial soul could only be an egg too. How could it hatch like an ordinary egg?
"Martial souls... can hatch?" one work-study student couldn't help murmuring, disbelief written all over his face.
"Yeah, I've never heard of that!" another work-study student chimed in.
Wang Sheng recovered from his initial shock, intense interest immediately appearing on his face. He hurried over to Lin Mo's bedside in a few strides and said eagerly:
"It hatched? Then what hatched out of it? Come on, Lin Mo, bring it out and let us see! We're dying of curiosity!"
Looking at Wang Sheng's impatient expression and the inquisitive gazes of his other roommates around him.
A hesitant look appeared on Lin Mo's face. He lowered his head, pretending to ponder something.
After a moment, Lin Mo raised his head, met everyone's expectant gazes, and slowly said, "I can... let everyone see. But I hope you'll all promise me one thing."
"What is it? Tell us!" Wang Sheng thumped his chest. "As long as you let us see this newly hatched martial soul of yours, anything's open for discussion!"
Lin Mo's gaze slowly swept over everyone in the dormitory, and his tone grew serious:
"I hope everyone can keep this secret for me and not tell anyone about my martial soul hatching for now."
"I want to use my newly hatched martial soul to get a good result in the final exams at the end of the school year."
"That way, I might receive more attention and favor from the teachers during the soul hunting trip the academy organizes at the end of the school year.
"When the time comes, perhaps I'll have a chance to obtain a soul ring that suits me better and is of better quality."
As soon as Lin Mo finished speaking, Xiao Wu was the first to jump off her bed. She planted her hands on her hips and stood in the middle of the dormitory.
"I thought it was something serious! That's all?" Xiao Wu swept her large eyes over everyone in the dormitory and said with the air of a big sister boss,
"Then we'll keep it secret! Leave this to your Sister Xiao Wu!"
She then waved her little fist, deliberately putting on a stern face as she addressed the others in a "threatening" tone:
"You all heard him! If anyone dares tell others about Lin Mo's martial soul hatching and ruins his plan to get a good result in the finals and obtain a good soul ring,
"Don't blame Sister Xiao Wu's fists for showing no mercy!"
"We're all work-study students living in Dorm Seven. We should be working together and sticking together in the first place! Got it?"
Under Xiao Wu's "authority," the others exchanged glances, then nodded and voiced their agreement one after another.
"Don't worry, Sister Xiao Wu, Lin Mo. We definitely won't tell anyone!"
"Exactly! We in Dorm Seven stick together!"
"I still want to see just how powerful Lin Mo's new martial soul is. Why would I tell anyone and spoil things for him?"
Even Tang San, who stood in a corner, hesitated for a moment before meeting Lin Mo's gaze and nodding gently. His voice was quiet but clear as he said:
"I won't tell anyone either."
Seeing that everyone had promised, Lin Mo gave a grateful smile. "Thank you, everyone."
Just then, Wang Sheng keenly picked up on a key detail in what Lin Mo had said earlier. With some surprise and uncertainty in his voice, he asked:
"Wait, Lin Mo, you just said... you wanted to get a good soul ring during the soul hunting trip at the end of the school year?
"Does that mean... you're confident you can raise your soul power level to ten before the school year ends?"
The prerequisite for obtaining a soul ring was reaching the bottleneck at rank ten in soul power. Without reaching that soul power level, any talk of hunting for a soul ring was empty talk.
As soon as Wang Sheng asked this, the others in the dormitory once again focused their gazes on Lin Mo.
That was right. What Lin Mo had just said sounded as though he was certain he could reach rank ten before the term ended.
But he only had innate rank-six soul power, and even counting every day, it had only been a little over half a year since his martial soul awakening. Could he really cultivate that quickly?
However, before Lin Mo could answer, a calm voice rang out from beside him.
"He probably won't need to wait until the end of the year." It was Tang San who spoke. He looked at Lin Mo, his tone even but certain,
"If I'm not sensing things incorrectly, Lin Mo, your soul power should have already broken through to rank ten, right?"
Hearing this, a flicker of surprise crossed Lin Mo's face. He turned to look at Tang San, then nodded and frankly admitted, "Yes, Tang San is right. I did just break through to rank ten."
They were all Soul Masters and Soul Scholars who possessed soul power, so they could sense something of it to varying degrees.
That was all the more true of Tang San. Not only had he lived two lives, with senses already keener than those of ordinary people, but he also primarily practiced the Purple Demon Eye, which greatly benefited the improvement of mental power.
On top of that, although Lin Mo usually kept a low profile while cultivating in the dormitory, he had never deliberately concealed the fluctuations of his soul power.
So he was not surprised that Tang San could detect his breakthrough.