After finishing her "threat" to Wang Sheng, Xiao Wu instinctively glanced in Lin Mo's direction.
However, after Wang Sheng's question just now, she could not help turning the matter over in her mind.
Lin Mo really isn't weak now, Xiao Wu thought. The flames his Charmander breathes are extremely hot, and very troublesome to deal with.
Even among the Soul Beast cubs in the Star Dou Great Forest, few fire-attribute cubs have flames that hot.
As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast cultivating anew, she had exceptional discernment and could clearly sense the terrifying heat contained in Charmander's flames.
If we really fought head-on, I probably wouldn't gain any advantage. I might even come off worse.
Yet even after realizing this, Xiao Wu remained quite confident in her own strength, and the source of that confidence was Lin Mo himself.
At this thought, Xiao Wu's gaze instinctively drifted toward Lin Mo, and she could not help muttering inwardly,
No matter how powerful Charmander is, it's only an external beast martial soul, and Lin Mo himself doesn't look like he has much fighting ability.
As long as I find a chance to get close, my soft techniques and strength should let me subdue him instantly without any trouble.
In her view, Lin Mo's situation should be much like Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang's.
Although Luo Sanpao was also an external beast martial soul, Yu Xiaogang himself lacked even the strength to truss a chicken. Once someone closed in on him, he was utterly incapable of fighting back.
Sensing Xiao Wu's gaze, Lin Mo instinctively turned to look at her.
Their eyes met, and Lin Mo immediately read the thoughts all but written across her face.
Heh... Lin Mo could not help muttering inwardly. This little rabbit really is thinking along those lines.
My Charmander and Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao are both external beast martial souls, so I should be just like Yu Xiaogang, with a pathetically fragile body that needs protecting.
If that's really what you think, you couldn't be more wrong. A barely perceptible gleam flashed deep in Lin Mo's eyes.
Without Luo Sanpao, Yu Xiaogang could indeed be called too weak to truss a chicken, but Lin Mo was entirely different.
Although his second martial soul did not yet have a Soul Ring, the substantial boost from his body martial soul had already made his body far stronger than those of Soul Masters at the same rank.
Moreover, he had long since worked out a unique technique belonging solely to his body martial soul: his self-created soul skill, Blood Burst, which he had now refined into a preliminary form.
Although it was currently only at First-Stage Boiling Blood, the stat boosts provided by Blood Burst were more than enough for him to protect himself against Soul Masters at the same rank.
If Xiao Wu truly treated him as an ordinary person too weak to truss a chicken, she could not be more wrong.
In terms of physical attributes alone, neither Xiao Wu nor Tang San could match him.
Both of Tang San's martial souls were tool martial souls, which were inherently inferior to beast martial souls when it came to improving physical attributes.
Meanwhile, Xiao Wu's Soft Bone Rabbit martial soul was not a strength-type martial soul at all. Among all beast martial souls, its boost to physical attributes could only rank in the lower-middle range.
If someone really tried to slip past Charmander and ambush his body, Lin Mo would let them witness the terror of a stat monster.
He would give them a good look at what it meant to have high damage in the left fist and damage that was high in the right!
Looking at Lin Mo's calm, unruffled expression, Xiao Wu gradually lost her inclination to compare herself with him.
She pursed her lips, picked up the meaty bone she had not finished gnawing, and continued her "battle" with it.
After that little interlude with Wang Sheng, the atmosphere at the table soon returned to cheerful harmony.
Lin Mo continued looking after Charmander, watching it sweep through the chunks of meat on its plate before gazing longingly at the other dishes on the table, especially the plate of sauce-braised bones.
"You little fellow, you've certainly got an appetite." Smiling, Lin Mo gave it a few more pieces of meat while turning over his earlier thoughts about Gold Soul Coins.
Gold Soul Coins... they really are a problem. As Lin Mo fed Charmander, he could not help beginning to ponder the matter.
The soul coins he currently had were more than sufficient to cover his own living expenses, but if he wanted to set his sights on precious items, his funds would immediately prove stretched thin.
For example, the external aids that might allow his second martial soul to evolve, whether Soul Bones or immortal medicinal herbs like Aromatic Silk Beauty, were all treasures that could only be encountered by chance, never sought at will.
Leaving aside whether he could find them, even if he was lucky enough to encounter one, he simply did not have enough Gold Soul Coins to buy it.
Not to mention, treasures of that caliber were rarely traded for Gold Soul Coins. More often, they changed hands through barter.
To obtain the resources I need for cultivation, I'll need a great many Gold Soul Coins... Lin Mo silently chewed his food.
Relying solely on Spirit Hall's little subsidy and my work-study wages will never be enough.
However, Lin Mo actually already had a preliminary plan and direction for addressing his shortage of Gold Soul Coins.
It was simply impossible to put it into practice in a small place like Nuoding City for the time being.
The Great Soul Arena... The name surfaced in Lin Mo's mind.
Soul Masters could register for soul fighting matches there and earn generous Gold Soul Coin rewards by winning.
That was a place where he could truly earn large quantities of Gold Soul Coins quickly while also honing his practical combat skills.
Once I leave Nuoding Academy and go to a big city, there's bound to be a Great Soul Arena near an intermediate Soul Master Academy.
Lin Mo already had a plan in mind. When the time comes, with Charmander's strength and mine, earning the Gold Soul Coins I need for cultivation there should be no problem at all.
Of course, all that lay in the future.
For now, he still needed to settle down and finish his final half-year of study at Nuoding Academy while working hard to raise his Soul Power Level.
Dinner lasted a long time. Only when the dining hall's second floor was about to close did everyone leave, thoroughly satisfied.
Holding Charmander, whose belly was likewise round from eating and whose tail flame even seemed to burn a little brighter, Lin Mo returned to Dorm Seven with the others.
After they returned to the dormitory, Charmander seemed a little sleepy from its full meal and took the initiative to turn into a streak of red light and return to Lin Mo's body.
Lin Mo could feel an exceedingly faint warm current merge into his Soul Power as Charmander returned.
Although the improvement was almost negligible, it was undeniably there.
Using ordinary food to supplement cultivation is still far too inefficient, Lin Mo muttered silently as he lay on his bed.
It could only be called better than nothing. Ultimately, improving his Soul Power still had to center on daily cultivation and obtaining Soul Rings.
He glanced around the dormitory. Most of the others had already washed up and gone to bed, but Tang San's bunk alone remained empty.
He did not know whether Tang San had yet to return or had stayed at Grandmaster's place to cultivate.