And afterward, as the price, all the work assigned to the working students was taken over by the entire group of students led by Xiao Chenyu.
The working students still received their wages as usual.
This counted as a small price Xiao Chenyu paid for losing to Tang San... and he paid it willingly.
Even as the city lord's son, he had no wish to offend Tang San and Xiao Wu, who already had hundred-year soul rings as their first soul rings.
Genius soul masters with innate full soul power who could obtain hundred-year soul rings for their very first soul rings were clearly not people he or his father could afford to offend.
This arrangement saved Lin Mo quite a bit of time, allowing him to devote more effort to cultivating soul power and immersing himself in the library.
After half a year of cultivation, his soul power level had already reached nine.
Though the basic meditation method's effects were only passable, with the passive boost from the Charmander egg added in, his cultivation speed with his innate level-six talent was already showing signs of surpassing that of an ordinary soul master with innate full soul power. Mm.
The first floor of the academy cafeteria.
"Lin Mo, are you and Tang San both skipping class again?"
Xiao Wu looked Lin Mo and Tang San over, a trace of envy flashing in her eyes as she spoke in a bored voice.
"No." Lin Mo shook his head gently. "I've long since been exempted from the academic classes, and what they teach in martial soul theory is too basic now. I'd be better off burying myself in the library and studying on my own."
"I just need to study under my teacher." Tang San paused for a moment before speaking quietly.
He was something of an oddity among Nuoding Academy's many students at present. Though nominally a student of Nuoding Academy, he was taught by Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang on a daily basis.
The headmaster of Nuoding Academy turned a blind eye to this situation, tacitly permitting what Tang San and Yu Xiaogang were doing.
Tang San remained a member of Nuoding Academy.
The headmaster had his own small selfish interest in this. After all, Tang San's talent was plain to see. Even without anyone teaching him, he would certainly be a genius whose name went down in Nuoding Academy's history.
Keeping Tang San at Nuoding Academy offered them a hundred benefits and not a single drawback. In the future, they might even use his admission to an intermediate academy as an opportunity to make Nuoding Academy's name known.
All they needed to pay was a working student's wage of ten copper soul coins a day. It could be called a deal that yielded ten thousand times the investment.
"I'm so jealous of you two..." Xiao Wu put the last mouthful of food into her mouth and spoke helplessly.
There were two theory classes in the morning. She had long since mastered the basic meditation method taught in martial soul theory, even mastering it a little earlier than Lin Mo.
Moreover, even without the help of a meditation method, the foundation she possessed from restarting her cultivation as a hundred-thousand-year soul beast meant her cultivation speed would never fall below that of the vast majority of geniuses with innate full soul power.
As for the other portion, the knowledge concerning soul beasts, that was even less of a problem for her.
If she had not been worried about exposing her identity, Xiao Wu would have dearly liked to correct those teachers' obvious mistakes when they taught about soul beasts.
What gave her a headache were the academic classes. Those were classes she could not skip even if she wanted to.
To her, listening to those classes was like listening to a heavenly scripture.
She did not understand. Why force a little bunny to learn to read?
"I'm finished, so I'll head off first..."
Lin Mo picked up his two stacked plates, stood, and looked at Xiao Wu and Tang San. "Sorry for the trouble, but could you two cover for me again tonight? I won't be coming back to the dorm tonight..."
"You're going to cultivate on the academy's back mountain again?" Tang San stopped his chopsticks and asked with a slight frown.
"Mm."
Lin Mo nodded. "The environment there suits me very well. I cultivate quite a bit faster there than in the dorm."
"Go on, go on. Who made me your Sister Xiao Wu?" Xiao Wu waved a hand and said indifferently.
"But you eat so much every day. Are you sure you'll be all right?" Xiao Wu glanced at the stacked plates in Lin Mo's hands.
"You alone eat enough for two or three people, and you finish all that food even faster than those of us who only eat a normal single serving. Aren't you afraid of indigestion?"
"Don't worry, don't worry. That definitely won't happen," Lin Mo said with a smile. "If I had enough money in my pocket, I could eat even more."
He was not exaggerating. After awakening his heart body martial soul, which included his blood, his heart had become much stronger than other people's.
Just like the body martial souls possessed by other body martial soul masters, once a body martial soul awakened, the corresponding part of the body would be strengthened.
Naturally, Lin Mo's heart and blood were no exception. And it was not just his heart; his other internal organs had also benefited considerably. The most obvious manifestation was a substantial improvement in his ability to digest and absorb food.
The village chief's generosity had helped him through that initial, most difficult period. After gaining the right to enter and leave the library freely, he had found another part-time job.
With Director Su's permission, he had obtained a new job organizing books in the library. It was much easier than the working students' work, but the pay was the same.
This allowed him to just barely balance his income and expenses.
These changes also made Lin Mo increasingly curious. Could the next stage in the evolution of his heart body martial soul be his internal organs?
However, this was merely Lin Mo's speculation, before his second martial soul had truly evolved.
At present, the only thing he could be certain of was that the final stage of his heart martial soul's evolution would definitely be his entire body.
But he was not very clear on exactly what steps it would follow.
After saying goodbye to the two of them, Lin Mo summoned the Charmander egg again, cradled it in his arms, and strode out of the cafeteria.
He set off toward the academy's back mountain. His soul power level had already reached the peak of level nine, and in two more days at most, he would be able to break through in one push.
For others, level-ten soul power was the prerequisite for obtaining their first soul ring. But for Lin Mo, hunting for a soul ring came second. What mattered most was hatching Charmander.
This was also why Lin Mo wanted to leave the dorm and cultivate on the secluded back mountain of the academy. Hatching Charmander was exceptionally important to him. He could not be disturbed by anyone!
The others in the cafeteria had long since grown accustomed to this sight.
They also knew that among Nuoding Academy's newly enrolled working students this year was an oddball named Lin Mo, who had awakened quite respectable innate level-six soul power, yet possessed such a trash martial soul.
They could not see what use this martial soul had. It could not be eaten or used to fight... and as for touching it? Lin Mo had never let anyone else touch his martial soul.
In fact, many people thought Lin Mo's martial soul was not even as good as the Blue Silver Grass Tang San had awakened. At least in Tang San's hands, Blue Silver Grass could display considerable fighting power.
Thanks to his habit of wandering around the academy with an egg in his arms, quite a few people had begun calling him the boy with the egg.
Whether those words were teasing or mockery, only they themselves knew.