Chapter 18: Weaklings Desperate Attempt
Unfortunately, although the blockhead's strike contained great power, it was too slow.
Ye Mo sidestepped avoiding it.
BAM!
In the next moment, the axe descended from the sky. With it's menacing aura, it struck the ground Ye Mo was at a moment ago.
Pebbles flew as a huge gash formed on the soil.
The blockhead wanted to charge once again but he realized his axe was embedded on the ground.
Ye Mo who was already beside him kicked his knee breaking the articulation. He was falling when Ye Mo followed with an explosive punch in the face as the opponent ended hammered in the earth.
Half of his face caved in as his eyes bulged out of their sockets.
The fight ended in an instant.
"I should find a spot to rest for now, the night is going to fall and there's still one day left." Ye Mo took what he could and left.
The sky had a red tint and the moon was slightly visible as the luminosity slowly decreased.
At night beasts were much more active and the strongest ones made their apparitions, it wasn't wise for humans to wander at this time.
Fourth day, Jade forest.
On a plain in the periphery of the jungle a dozen blood sucking hyenas surrounded Ye Mo.
They had red patches all over their body and very developed canines.
One hyena by itself isn't that strong, more in the low rung of low tier beasts. But a pack of blood sucking hyenas, even a mid tier beast would have to run.
If they bite you, they could completely swallow the blood of your body in less than a minute. They also had great hearing and smell being skilled in tracking. Their shrill laugh would attract the surrounding blood sucking hyenas and they could chase their prey for miles, rarely giving up.
An ordinary qi gathering cultivator would be desperate in this situation.
But Ye Mo was calm. He stood in a battle stance ready to strike anything that would come in his range.
The hyenas besieging him stood a distance away lowly growling. The surroundings were filled with their kin battered corpses, intimidating the rest of the pack.
One hyena felt her empty stomach rumbling and pounced on Ye Mo revealing her sharp fangs as she tried to bite him.
Ye Mo didn't budge and just swung his arm.
Bam!
The fist met the fangs as the hyena teeth broke under it's strenght. Her jaw was destroyed as it was left whimpering on the ground half dead.
Ye Mo sweeped with his leg sending three other ones flying. He punched and kicked in the melee as the hyenas were crushed under his enormous strenght. Some were left agonizing on the ground with broken bones all over their body.
Their claws were useless, it barely scratched Ye Mo's skin.
Their most dangerous weapon was their fangs but Ye Mo stayed in movement as much as possible to not get bitten, sometimes he would even grab the body of their comrades to protect himself.
He would still get gnawed at occasionally but he reacted fast and got rid of them. The blood loss was minimal and his body could handle it.
The hyenas numbers kept decreasing as Ye Mo slaughtered his way through the pack. Some blood sucking hyena in the vicinity, hearing their kin cries, would join the fight here and there but the rate at which they died was much higher.
At some point when the ground was littered with their blood, the few remaining beasts escaped in fear, howling their resentment.
They chose the wrong prey and lost almost two whole packs. If it was an ordinary cultivator he would have ran out of qi in the middle of the fight and would have been devoured which was exactly what they waited for.
Qi was the source of power, beside high level ones, a qi gathering cultivator without qi would only be slightly stronger than a mortal. Against a pack of hyenas they would quickly empty their reserves and get overwhelmed.
But Ye Mo was a body refining cultivator, as long as he doesn't sustain grave injuries he could keep going for hours.
Ye Mo was soaking wet as he took a deep breath. That you had the physical capabilities to do it didn't mean you would without a doubt.
The pressure it put and the focus required was high and he was mentally exhausted.
Ye Mo didn't sustain any serious injuries but from the outside, the bite marks and the multiple fangs engulfed in his flesh made a gruesome sight.
Ye Mo was recovering when he realized multiple kids came out of the jungle and rushed at the hyenas corpses. The fastest ones were already starting to dissect them.
"Sigh, really can't catch a breath huh!" Since it was the last day of trial, the remaining weaklings holed up somewhere all this time to survive came out as a last attempt to qualify themselves for the second phase. Most of them were the so-called cannon fodder that didn't have any cultivation.
For Ye Mo it was a futile attempt as even if they qualified themselves, they wouldn't have any chance in the tournament but he could understand them. After all if they wanted to become something in this life, it was their last chance.
Ye Mo's fight took some time, a couple of them passing by saw the end and took this as an opportunity to obtain a blood core from the hyenas corpses.
Ye Mo would be too tired to fight anyway and even if he did they could all run in a different direction and only the first one targeted would die.
One of them in a corner was digging in a hyena's belly when suddenly he felt something hard.
He discreetly raised his head and took quick glances all around.
The others were busily taking care of the hyenas corpses.
"No one noticed me." Looking back to the hyenas insides he slowly pulled the hard object as he cut the surroundings with his knife.
When he almost took it out of the corpse, he nearly couldn't refrain from smiling. A blood red sphere the size of a baby fist was laying on his palm.
He swiftly enveloped it in a piece of cloth and was going to put it in his pocket when a firm hand grabbed his wrist halfway and squeezed a bit.
Crack!
The bones shattered as his arm took the form of Ye Mo's hand. The boy howled in pain as he released the blood core.
Ye Mo caught it mid air and put it in one of his pouch.
"You can leave now." Ye Mo had no interests in theses kids and there would be no benefits killing them either.
The commotion attracted the attention of the others as they looked at Ye Mo.
"When did he arrive there? An instant ago he was twenty steps away, unmoving." Most of them wondered when exactly did Ye Mo move but they didn't have time to think about it as a scene unfolded in front of them.
"Give it back!" The young boy stood up and continously slashed at Ye Mo with his knife.
Ye Mo easily dodged every strike.
"I gave you a chance, it's more than many dreamt of" Saying so he grabbed the boy's head and slammed it on the ground. His skull bursted as blood oozed out of Ye Mo's hand and spread on the grass.
Ye Mo let him live but since he refused to, he gave him the brutal death he asked so much for.
"A bo... body refining cultivator." One of the kid said with a trembling voice when everyone jolted.
"Run!" At once everyone fled away in every directions.
Ye Mo took a pile of rocks out of his pouch. When fighting with Wei Leng's band he realized one of his shortcomings. He didn't have any long range attacking method. If someone with a movement oriented battle skill tried to leave and his own speed wasn't sufficient, he could only watch him escape helplessly.
In the past he thought that as long as he was able to protect himself, people escaping was less important but in this trial he understood this could greatly infringe in his benefits.
He thought about it and picked up multiple rocks from the ground before putting them in his pouch. This kind of attack power wasn't great but against such weaklings it was enough.
Ye Mo took one in hand and throwed it with all his strenght. The wind whistled as one kid was hit in the back of the head. He fell on the ground like a puppet with broken strings, never to stand up again.
The others knew the same fate but a couple of them avoided a hit in the head and were left on the ground with a hole in their body.
Ye Mo accuracy wasn't perfect but theses youths made good practice target.
Ye Mo headed towards the surviving ones and finished them then he searched through each corpse clothes as these kids didn't have any pouch, before coming back to dissect the rest of the hyenas.
In total he collected three blood cores, two from the kids and one from the untouched hyenas corpses.
When Ye Mo was done he leaved, taking one of the hyenas body with him. He still had enough rations in Liu Huan's pouch but he wanted to see what a blood beast taste like.
Later that day, he went on a killing spree as he hunted, killed and looted everything in his way. Everyone he encountered met their demises.
He was still very careful to not face one of theses strong participants like Liu Huan. Actually when he was on the move, as long as he didn't attack he did his best to be as discreet as possible because even if he didn't want to face them, if they noticed and decided to engage him he wouldn't be able to avoid a fight.
But there weren't that many people that could threaten Ye Mo's life in this trial and meeting them in this vast forest would be pretty unlucky.
This way the day was replaced by the night as the first phase of the tiger martial institute recruitment took an end.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone