Near the entrance of the arena, Ye Mo was approached by Lan Xue as he was leaving.
"The debt still holds, even if Liu Zhi is crippled, you both fought and you won. We will ensure you receive the five hundred gold coins in the next few days. You can go to the disciples' hall to retrieve them at the time."
"Many thanks to instructor for their hard work." Ye Mo bowed curtly then turned around and walked away, now was not the time to loiter around.
"Wait!" Lan Xue called out, stopping him in his tracks.
"How did you know Liu Zhi was attacking you, I was about to stop the fight when I saw your expression... You were smiling as he struck down."
This question was on her mind since the conclusion of their duel and she used the occasion to ask.
Ye Mo turned his head and looked at her with the side of his eye, "Sneak-attacking me was exactly what I wanted him to do since our first exchange. To avoid fighting me head-on, Liu Zhi resorted to One Soul Investitude battle skill but since I was destroying all his treemen, he also had to keep using Self Army repeatedly."
"His qi kept being spent and his treemen being broken, there was no other solution, if he wanted to act, he had to do it quickly. I knew this, so at some point, I purposefully offered my back and lowered the strength of my punch, making it lodge itself in one of his creatures. The occasion was too tempting and indeed, with desperation driving him, it paid off."
Without another word, Ye Mo left as he finished his explanation.
Others, Lan Xue included, could doubt in this situation because they weren't aware of the history between Ye Mo and the Liu clan, but he was sure Liu Zhi would rather try to kill him than surrender and lose the fight.
"So it was his plan all along, this kid fought like he was enraged but he was actually so meticulous." Lan Xue didn't show anything, but she was surprised inwardly.
She started to understand why the dean would pick an interest in him in the past.
Ye Mo left hurriedly and returned to his house, closing the door behind him.
"I have some time before I can retrieve the gold coins, after that, I will cultivate in the pagoda, and soon after will be the year-end competition between the martial institutes. This is my last chance if I want to find this secret cave, if I fail, I can only forsake it, wasting all my efforts seeking the pure iridescent iron."
Ye Mo had a use for the pure iridescent iron, if he couldn't retrieve it, then he would have taken unnecessary risks, put himself in danger and wasted his time all for nothing.
Yet, he wasn't obsessed.
Between reaching the 8th layer and leaving for a sect or the iron, he knew what was the most important.
Not everything could go according to your wishes; a wise man knows his own limits.
Now was the best moment to make another attempt and he was much stronger than before, he also knew clearly the terrain from the beginning of the jungle to the third mountain.
All these reasons gave Ye Mo the greatest chance of success right now.
However, if he still fails after this try then he will let go with a peaceful mind and focus on other objectives.
He did his best all along, there was nothing to mourn over.
Inside his stone house, Ye Mo made some preparations and then cultivated for a few hours. When night came, he left his house silently.
In the sky, the spring moon was shaped like a bow. Clouds obscured the moonlight, as if coating the crescent moon with a thin sheet of gossamer.
Ye Mo walked towards the southern gate and when he was near the entrance, he took cover behind a tree next to him and made sure no one was around before he expended his qi.
Shadow Walk.
Immediately, Ye Mo's body turned into a shapeless dark mass that blended with the shadows and left the institute unnoticed.
Thanks to the night, darkness enveloped the earth and although the roads in Azure Water City were lit well enough so that anyone could see the path ahead clearly, he could find shadows and gloomy places to travel through safely until he left the walls of the city.
Ye Mo became one with shadows and no one noticed him when he crossed the city and arrived outside.
"Those six months training to attain the second phase of Shadow Walk's mastery weren't for nothing, now it truly looks like a movement battle skill. Going as far as multitasking in the pagoda to keep progressing and reach this point was all worth it."
It is not easy to thoroughly understand and use Shadow Walk and not many could reach the second phase.
It wasn't just because the battle skill was too complicated to understand, it remains a mid-tier battle skill and with efforts and dedication, anyone could master the second phase at some point.
Yet, the time of martial artists was mostly spent in cultivation and only a part of it would be left to train battle skills. Cultivation was the foundation of power and no one would delay their progression just for one mid-tier battle skill.
Simultaneously, as time passes and their cultivation increases, they would have more chances to obtain new and stronger battle skills.
At this time, a mid-tier Yellow Class battle skill like Shadow Walk would already be seen as an old and unnecessary thing that should be replaced for a better one. Like old clothes that seemed fine in the past would be thrown out and changed for something more fitting as one grows.
Now between practicing with stronger and more efficient high-tier battle skills or stubbornly clinging on to an old mid-tier battle skill, their choice was evident!
It was even worse when obtaining a new battle skill of better quality that was categorized in the same aspect as the precedent; frequently, the old one would be immediately discarded.
That's why students would rarely attain the second phase of Shadow Walk and quasi none for the third phase. The battle skill took too long to master completely and as time passed, it would be replaced by another one.
In their life, martial artists have to cultivate and train battle skills but also fight to gain experience and glean resources before cultivating again and training new battle skills, it was a never-ending cycle to constantly increase one's battle strength and attain new heights.
However, Ye Mo had a need for Shadow Walk and he picked it with the intent to fully master the battle skill, otherwise, he wouldn't have wasted his token on it.
While multitasking, Ye Mo could both cultivate and understand the movement battle skill at once, putting much time into its comprehension.
It was slow and difficult at first, but over the months he grew more proficient in multitasking and it made him extremely productive.
Moving south-east, Ye Mo reached the jungle after a few hours.
He quickly moved through the woods and reached the first mountain, then the second without encountering any danger.
He knew starting from here there would be many blood beasts and even hordes, so to be safe, he jumped up and took hold of one of the branches of a tall tree. He then climbed higher until he was far from the dangers on land and sat on a thick branch to cultivate and restore his qi.
After a dozen minutes revolving the Black Vortex cultivation technique, he regained the full capacity of his qi. Without bothering to climb down, Ye Mo leapt, landing and taking hold of the branches on his fall to control his speed, and in an instant, he was back on the ground, several leaves following him and dropping on the earth.
Anyone else would feel their muscles tear and their feet ringing in pain, recklessly landing and grabbing at the limbs of the tree, but Ye Mo was at the second revolution of a Star Class body refining technique. His body was both tough and strong and he could pull his body up as many times as he wanted with just the strength in his fingers.
Once on earth, he set out for the terrain between the second and the third mountain.
He still had Wei Leng's map to orient himself and at first, he walked on one of the green marked lines in the direction of the third mountain, but after some time, he deviated a bit towards the area of frenzy-charging boars.
He was still far from the core of the zone but in this place he didn't wait long before encountering one.
Ye Mo had a whim and wanted to test his abilities against a blood beast. Liu Zhi mostly avoided him during their battle so he wanted to see his progress in a head-on confrontation, but that was of course only if the boar was alone.
If another beast suddenly came to wreak havoc in the middle of their fight, he would immediately escape without any hesitation.
Ye Mo fused with the shadows and approached the boar stealthily, he could see its brownish black fur, rough and erect. Its body was tough and firm and the four limbs short but strong as it seemed to play with something on the soil.
As he got closer, Ye Mo could see more clearly and realized a white rabbit, lifeless, was lying on the ground in front of the boar, its stomach opened as it was slowly being devoured.
Ye Mo didn't hesitate and canceled Shadow Walk to rush at the boar.
The beast quickly sensed his odor when he appeared and turned around, raising its tusks menacingly as it groaned out in warning.
When Ye Mo kept getting nearer, the fur on the boar's neck rose up and it lowered its head before it charged forward with its four muscular limbs.
It was just a few steps before him when Ye Mo jumped in the air much above the beast's range of attack as it collided against a tree behind him.
The tree was only as thick as a human's waist so after getting knocked by the boar, it tore open and split into two.
Ye Mo landed on the ground then rushed again, reaching the side of the boar before it had the time to react and using his battle skill to punch, his fist tearing through the air.
Bam.
The fist crashed heavily in a straight line and the boar screamed in pain, its body wavering shortly.
If his fist had fallen on a human without any protection, it would have caused devastating damage, ending the life of the cultivator on the spot, but here it wasn't even enough to break the bones of the boar.
Just a high-tier rank 1 beast was so strong, one could only imagine how dangerous the wilderness was in this world!
The beast quickly turned around and swiped with its tusks furiously.
Ye Mo retreated just on time, avoiding the snow-white tusks by a hair's breadth.
The boar didn't delay and charged again with overwhelming killing intent!
It was truly infuriated and used its anger to fuel its attacks.
Ye Mo didn't change his tactic and dived to the side this time, avoiding the charge and rolling to break his fall before he ran to the boar and kicked with all his strength.
He knew boars were ferocious but couldn't change direction easily when they charged and made use of it. Although they were fast, as long as he could react to it, Ye Mo could evade the beast.
The boar howled loudly, its injuries worsening as much as its anger grew, all of it directed at Ye Mo in a third charge.
Ye Mo rushed up head-on and growled as he collided with the boar, grasping its tusks before they could perforate his belly.
He planted his feet firmly in the ground and dug a long line as he was sent retreating for more than twenty steps before he could slowly stop the boar, the earth being turned on their way.
When Ye Mo finally came to a halt, he took a horse stance and exerted his muscles greatly, his face puffed red, as he used all his strength to slowly raise the boar in the air.
Huff!
His body was trembling, the beast was as heavy as a fallen oak, and with the remainder of his energy, he used the gravity and the weight of the boar to slam it against the ground.
Bam!
Its four limbs broke under impact with the earth, the sound of bones cracking resounding loudly in the surroundings as the beast screamed like a pig and struggled to stand up, to no avail.
Kill!
Ye Mo took huge strides as he arrived before the boar, then made strikes rain and blood flow.
Punches, kicks, elbows—he unleashed all his arsenal until, at some point, the beast's skull turned deformed and the cries came to a stop.
"Kill or be killed, the most ancient law in the world. For those who seek dominance, how many corpses are left on their path?" Ye Mo muttered, stepping on the red-colored grasses.
On his way back to the green-marked road, he took the time to use endless vitality.
During his fight with the boar he also got injured. His strength was too great and the boar's body too resistant, to kill the beast, he attacked like a madman for a prolonged period of time resulting in a few broken bones on his hands and one ruptured tendon.
It was the same as when he fought against Ha Jun, the defense of his opponent was durable and to shorten the fight, Ye Mo went over the limits of his body.
However, because he had an healing battle skill, this issue wasn't as serious as in the past.
If he could obtain a good defensive battle skill as well, it would be even better.
Nonetheless, he was satisfied with his abilities.
As he walked back, Ye Mo's ears suddenly picked the sound of steps and wood cracking.
Instantly, he turned into a shadow and blended with the darkness below bushes, waiting.
Quickly a group of seven members passed beside him.
Four men and three women, all with clothes of the same light green color.
This uniform, Ye Mo knew it all too well.
"Members of the Liu clan!"
Besides small differences here and there, it was the same uniform as Liu Zhi or Liu Sen.
There was no doubt about their identities.
"Are they here for me? But how did they find me, with the second phase of Shadow Walk they couldn't have seen me coming to this place, they shouldn't even know I left the institute. The only possibility is if I was seen before I used Shadow Walk, so a member of the Tiger Martial Institute that was specifically spying on me reported my departure to the Liu Clan."
Ye Mo's thoughts flew all over the place.
What were the odds the Liu clan would be in the middle of the night, this far in the jungle on the exact day he left?
Was this a coincidence? Ye Mo didn't believe in coincidences!
Even if they truly weren't here for him, he would still take it this way and pick the worst scenario because it was the best mentality to approach this situation and ensure his safety.
"If someone from the institute really spied on me and sided with the Liu clan then who could it be? There are a lot of people who dislike me but not many true enemies who would go as far as to deal with me this way. It's impossible for Li Qiang to do so, his every move creates a ruckus and attracts attention wherever he goes, I would know his intentions before he even tries spying on me and with his personality, he would never lower himself to such an act but would rather kill me with his own hands."
"Then what remains is..."
Ye Mo's eyes shone with brilliance as he bided his time in the shadows.