Bab 105: Through Experience Comes Competence
Ye Mo and Zhao Da Xiong monotonically wandered in the forest in the afternoon.
After every little downtime, Ye Mo's place would fall back in the rankings and this time didn't miss. When he woke up, he stood at the 281th position, losing twelve place in a row.
Although he couldn't see the leaderboard, Ye Mo knew it couldn't be any other than this way so he set out again at the search of other participants, accompanied by the student of the Golden Martial Institute.
The sun was high in the sky, casting a harsh glare over the Jade Forest, but this one was shielded by a dense vegetation, a large natural barrier protecting the fauna and flora from excessive heat and light, the land covered in tree shadows.
In the third day, the rhythm of battles didn't lower for our two friends.
After some time, Ye Mo faced another opponent, his face a mix of fear and determination.
The student used a battle skill to punch, but with a well-placed spinning back fist, Ye Mo mixed both attack and defense in his offense, evading the strike while turning around and striking right back at the opponent with one movement, sending him sprawling into the dirt.
After taking such a hit from a body refining cultivator like Ye Mo, the student was in no state to defend himself anymore and the first quickly finished him off, took the token, then tossed it back before leaving for another battle as soon as this one ended.
His mind was still like a lake as he eliminated participants one after another, emphasizing minimum efforts for maximum results as he focused on the task at hand.
To not overexert himself and increase his proficiency, he seeked to erase any superfluous movements he could make in his confrontations with students and beasts alike, deepening his fighting style, every little action taken having meaning behind them.
A sword cut through the air flashing right beside his face, a few black strands of hair glidind in the air.
Cyclone Kick was quickly used in opposition, the opponent used a defensive battle skill to protect himself, but it wasn't enough as he was hit by kicks till blood burst out of his mouth and he fell down barely hanging on his life.
Ye Mo stomped on the hand that scurried towards the pouch to take hold of an healing pill and killed the student then left again.
With every fight, he gauged his strength, the one from his opponent, what mistakes he made, what could be done better, what sealed the victory, why his opposant lost, all in a fervent desire to continually improve himself in every aspect, no matter how small this improvement could be.
A girl hidden in the bushes attacked, unaware that her position was known to her targets. Initially, she wanted to eliminate Ye Mo first, seemingly the strongest of the two, but when she recognized Zhao Da Xiong, she decisively changed her course of action, aiming her first strike at him.
Zhao Da Xiong smiled lecherously as a small translucent ribbon of Qi, glowing of multiple interchanging colors, appeared floating beside him, then coiled around his neck.
It seemed soft and supple at first, but when the blade of the dagger in the girl's hand tried to penetrate, the ribbon quickly compressed and hardened, the blade coming to a still after only two inches in.
Quickly enough, Zhao Da Xiong raised his hand and blue-purple smoke hissed out from under his fingernails, swirled around and covered the surroundings in a thick violet mist.
As she inhaled the mist, the girl's body reacted almost immediately, a feverish warmth spread from her core, flooding her veins with molten heat. Her breathing quickened, each shallow inhale bringing with it a sharp sense of need that she couldn't shake. Her skin tingled as if charged by electricity.
Her pulse raced, pounding loudly in her ears as a flush of red crept up her neck to her face. It felt like a fire burned just beneath her skin while her limbs felt weak, trembling as if they would no longer bear the weight of her body.
With her unsuccessful assassination attempt and realizing she fell prey to Zhao Da Xiong's battle skill, the girl tried to escape using her movement battle skill and quickly left the zone plunged in Violet Stimulant Fumes.
In her state, she could barely move at half her usual speed, but she barely got away from the mist when she felt a strong force pull her up and slam her body on the ground.
The girl choked, unable to breath anymore, her eyes, wide-open, moved to the side and saw Ye Mo squatting down and taking hold of her token.
He has been waiting outside the mist in ambush, when he saw the girl leave, he immediately neutralized her and obtained her points.
1120 was added to his score.
"Haha, Ye Mo my friend, I really am making you work too hard. Why don't you go find a place to rest in peace while I take care of her, I should be back in no time." Zhao Da Xiong soon left the mist as well and said, raising his hand in promise with a playful smile.
Ye Mo didn't wish to witness the scene that would unfold and left without a word. If Zhao Da Xiong took too much time, he would return and drag him away.
While he moved further in the forest, he heard the girl on the ground breathe loudly, hurriedly filling her lungs with oxygen before coughing several times, only to see Zhao Da Xiong approach her with squinted lustful eyes.
Later in the forest, Ye Mo was locked in battle with a stout and heavily built student of the Tiger Martial Institute.
He used a spiritual weapon in the form of a mace to fight and was particularly skillful with it, especially combining his attacks with his battle skills. His strikes which were already powerful from the start, suddenly became twice faster at times or twice heavier alternatively, confounding his enemies and crushing their flesh even under the protection of defensive battle skills.
But to his surprise, not only Ye Mo could block his mace with his wrist guards without suffering of any recoil, but he also fiercely retaliated!
The two exchanged several moves when Ye Mo grew more and more tyrannical as the fight progressed, the student quickly turning passive.
No matter how fast or how much heavier his strikes became, Ye Mo parried them all without so much as flinching and when he fought back, his fists felt like a thousand pound rock boulder crashed on him repeatedly.
"No matter how strong his strikes grow, they are nothing compared to the power Bing Jia's arrows carried and however much their speed increase, they can't rival how fast the darts traveled, crossing half a hundred meter in an instant before hitting me."
Ye Mo blocked the mace repeatedly without flinching, but when his fists reached the cultivator, he staggered several steps back each time before bracing himself for the next attack, holding his mace in opposition to protect himself.
Quickly, a barrage of punches rained down on the Tiger Martial Institute's student, sending him in harrowing inactivity, pulling all his being into defense while cold sweat ran down his back as several strikes nearly hit him.
"Damn it, god damn it! Where does he find all this strength, we had such a body refiner back in the institute?" The student thought anxious.
"Body refiner?" Suddenly, his eyes shrunk to pin-size as a long forgotten memory resurfaced.
Back in the third floor of the pagoda, when he just left his room after a good sessions of cultivation, he saw a man on his knees, holding his face while wailing loudly.
When he approached this student, he was startled, noticing he lost both eyes, replaced by two bloody cavities.
Not far from him, a man was prostated on the ground, silently holding his crotch with both hands and an expression of extreme pain.
Still further, a girl layed unconscious with several deep circular wounds on her back and a missing arm, the flesh being an horrible mess with a broken bone sticking out of it.
"What the hell happened here, did someone go berserk and tried to kill them?" The mace wielding student looked at them in stupor.
Multiple students were gathered around the wounded, exclaiming, "This Ye Mo is really not to be trifled with, I still get chills thinking back to his fights."
"He's too brutal, even the girl was not spared. Good thing he's not seen much, I don't want to be anywhere near him."
"He just entered the room so you will be okay for some time. Body refining really has its strong points, maybe I should give it another try in the future..."
"Don't even think about it, he's the only one to be so successful with body refining, you will only waste your time and money over nothing."
The stout student was shocked, although he was a long-established senior student, he rarely witnessed such barbarism in the pagoda before. What kind of demon was this Ye Mo?
He quickly left the third floor without turning back as several attendents arrived to take care of the wounded.
"It's him!" He realized at this moment as he was continuously being pushed back.
"He's too powerful, better luck next time." The student at this moment decided to escape, he turned back and ran away with all his strength using a movement battle skill.
Not far from them, Zhao Da Xiong looked at this situation and chose to finally give a helping hand to Ye Mo and show his importance.
Employing a metamorphosis battle skill, his arms turned into two disgusting tentacles that wriggled in the air and plunged them in the ground.
When they left the earth beside the escaping student, they were as thick as a human being and twice as tall.
They viciously lashed out at him, whipping and slowing him down for an instant, giving Ye Mo the opportunity to punch his head and kill him.
This was the only offensive battle skill Zhao Da Xiong possessed and used it to beat up girls when they resisted him or still had the strength to fight after being affected by Violet Stimulant Fumes.
"Hehe, fortunately, I was here to help you. No need to thank me, you're my precious partner after all, it's normal between us, big brother here won't let you suffer a loss." Zhao Da Xiong approached, boasting and proud of himself.
Ye Mo silently took the student's points, leaving him bragging on the side.
He didn't expect him to help, but even if it wasn't the case, he wouldn't let the Tiger Martial Institute's student escape.
He realized his movement battle skill was only comparable to mid-tier in terms of speed. If he followed him, Ye Mo wouldn't be distanced.
At this point it would all come to the first depleting his reserves of Qi, however, Ye Mo cultivated the Nine Revolutions Fiend Body art and one of the greatest advantage of body refiners was the low consumption of Qi, he had great chances to be successful in his chase and deal with him.
"Hey, Ye Mo, I thought of something, you are, what, fifteen or sixteen years old? It should be itchy in your pants at that age, how about I share the girls with you after I am done with them, I am sure you want to do it as well, you can treat this as your brother making you a favor." Zhao Da Xiong said enthusiastically.
Ye Mo listened and shook his head, rejecting outright, "No, it's already difficult enough to search and defeat other students, I don't even know my position in the rankings, I could be still be far from the top places so if it's not about gaining points, I am not interested. I have no time to waste in such things."
This was the difference between Ye Mo and a lustful dog like Zhao Da Xiong.
Zhao Da Xiong cultivated for the sake of girls while Ye Mo used girls for the sake of cultivation.
Women, if they couldn't help him produce the Love Miracle Immortal Pill, then the only purpose they served was to hand over their points so he could obtain the peak-tier Yellow Class battle skill and greatly increase his strength.
Men, beasts, plants, gold, in his perspective they were all cultivation tools. It is all for his cultivation needs. However, Zhao Da Xiong treated girls and the momentary pleasure he would gain spending a passionate time with them as his life goal, thus he cultivate in order to fuck more girls.
Seeing Ye Mo's rejection, Zhao Da Xiong didn't push it, he only proposed casually.
"Once again I distinguished myself, showing my utility to Ye Mo. He will need me till the end of the competition to find students and gain enough points so he won't do anything till the last day. I have until this time to eliminate him, I can't take his token and crush it, he's too careful and never lower his guard, I shall find a powerful student to fight him, so strong that even Ye Mo would struggle against him, then I will backstab him in the middle of the battle, giving his opponent the opportunity to kill him."
"Hehe, since I helped him kill Ye Mo and obtain his token, the student won't do anything to me, he might even be grateful and since I don't carry any point, he won't have any reason to attack me, this is the best plan!"
Zhao Da Xiong was impassive in front of Ye Mo, but in his mind, devious schemes were established to get rid of him.
The two kept tracking students as Ye Mo fought against them, all these battles turning into a deep well of experience.
On this side, he easily surpassed many of his peers, often fighting a dozen time a day before killing during the night as well.
In this competition, life and death was omnipresent, when two students met, only one would leave the place. In theses circumstances, most of them only fought twice or thrice a day at best, mostly hiding and recovering in usual times.
Only the top participants with complete confidence in their abilities would run around hunting students like him, fighting this much.
His fighting style was constantly refined in this environment and where others fought with rigid, practiced techniques, he adapted on the fly, weaving through various forms and styles with an ease born from constant battles and formidable instincts, evolving continuously.
The day was soon replaced by the night and after recovering their Qi, the pair set out once more.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone