Bab 106: For The First Place, Only One Way.
There wasn't much to say of this night.
During the day, few participants could match Ye Mo in battle and in the night, with the element of surprise in the form of Shadow Walk, those he met were all eliminated in an instant.
Zhao Da Xiong wasn't allowed to follow him as usual, only indicating where was situated the target before hiding.
Due to Ye Mo's cautiousness, Zhao Da Xiong wasn't able to discover how he escaped his hearing during the night at all.
Before long, the eastern sky grew lighter.
"Look at what I got here."
As a new day started, Zhao Da Xiong who was waiting in place, saw Ye Mo pushing bushes aside while returning from his hunt with a body on his shoulders.
It was a woman from the Sky Martial Institute in her early twenties, with long brown hair and small red lips, noticeably unconscious.
Ye Mo knocked her down and took her points, but didn't kill her.
Zhao Da Xiong immediately grew excited.
"You helped me well these last two days so I brought her here for you." Ye Mo approached Zhao Da Xiong before suddenly throwing the girl towards him, shouting, "Catch!"
This one hurriedly stepped forward with an expression of desire and caught the girl in his arms.
At this moment Ye Mo's lips curved upwards, a pale blue blade emerging from his wrist guard and with a wave of his hand, both Zhao Da Xiong and the woman were skewered on the Qi blade like a thread of meat just as the latter seized her.
When the woman's body was tossed, it stood between our protagonists, covering the view of each other and with everything happening in an instant, Zhao Da Xiong didn't even realize a blade of Qi pierced his chest.
When he tried to say something, blood rushed up his mouth with a gurgling sound and escaped in the form of droplets. Only then did he look down and noticed something perforated his body.
"What the... What is this? Why?" Zhao Da Xiong spoke with difficulty, completely stunned and confused.
He couldn't understand, why kill him now? It has been only two days since they started collaborating and barely three nights passed since the start of the competition, they didn't go through half of it yet.
In his view, killing him now was nonsensical, Ye Mo needs him and his investigative battle skill to locate surrounding students, he should have been waiting for the end of the competition to reap the most benefits out of him before trying something.
How is he supposed to reach the first place without his help?
He was completely caught by surprise with this sudden assassination attempt.
Another point was that Zhao Da Xiong never witnessed Ye Mo using his Qi blades, he couldn't predict to be attacked this way.
The woman who was sacrificed along Zhao Da Xiong immediately woke up when Ye Mo's blade penetrated her and violently coughed out blood, she was even more muddled than Zhao Da Xiong and seeing his ill-favored face, she grimaced and tried to leave his grasp only to find she was resting on a blade while her forces gradually left her.
Zhao Da Xiong looked over her shoulder at Ye Mo with hatred, "You need me to catch students, why kill me now? You will never rack enough points to obtain the battle skill without me."
Ye Mo smiled lightly, "Why, why, always asking questions. In the first place, at the moment I accepted your offer, I planned to exploit you for only two or three days at best before getting rid of you. Give your greetings to king yama and ask him anything you want."
Saying so, Ye Mo retracted his Qi from the spiritual weapon, the blade of Qi quickly dissipating as Zhao Da Xiong and the girl both fell on the ground, unable to support themselves anymore.
Ye Mo stayed still and watched until all life left them before he went away, leaving the corpses hugging themselves in a pool of blood.
"Dying doing what he enjoyed the most in life, what is there to be uncontented for?"
Usually, when he left Zhao Da Xiong behind and traveled by himself in the night to attack students, he would quickly kill them no matter their genders and wouldn't bother to bring women back alive for him to enjoy.
If he did this time, it was because he was sure Zhao Da Xiong couldn't control his emotions faced with a pretty woman, and would assuredly lower his guard, it was the best moment to attack.
As the girl said when Ye Mo first met Zhao Da Xiong, there couldn't be any trust between them and they worked purely for mutual benefits.
In these conditions, betrayal was bound to happen at some point.
If eating each other was inevitable, Ye Mo had to strike first. He liked to take control and for everything to go according to his will, he wouldn't let Zhao Da Xiong serenely plot against him without having self-assurance.
Only after thinking through all this did Ye Mo accept Zhao Da Xiong's proposition.
They had seen too much from each other and even if Zhao Da Xiong didn't act, Ye Mo wouldn't relent.
Fearing this outcome, the first began scheming against Ye Mo, but he was still caught off-guard by how quickly the latter decided to execute him.
Ye Mo took Zhao Da Xiong's points. It was free 200 points, no matter how small the amount was, there was no reason to let them rot with his corpse.
What was the most determinent in this incident was that Zhao Da Xiong was persuaded that Ye Mo would need him until the end of the competition, hence, he couldn't kill him before they reached it, however Ye Mo of course thought about it and if he decided to get rid of him nonetheless, it meant he came to the conclusion he wasn't necessary anymore.
"The more time pass, the fewer the students there is in this forest, the same as blood beasts. Even with an investigative battle skill, we meet much less participants than before and the interval keeps growing between each encounter. Towards the later phase of the competition, we will be mostly dependant on luck to come into contact with someone else."
Investigative battle skills were very effective to scan the surroundings and avoid being taken by surprise by a nearing assailant, however, their range was still limited. Ye Mo and Zhao Da Xiong used it as a radar to hunt other participants instead, but if no one was present inside, it didn't make any difference.
Deaths grew day by day and the violence escalated as the students neared the conclusion of the competition, franctic to increase their score.
Sometimes, Ye Mo and Zhao Da Xiong could go for two hours without encountering a single student, and this lapse would only increase with time, investigative battle skill or not.
"If it was all there is to it, that wouldn't be so bad, but..." Ye Mo thoughtful looked over his token.
He obtained over twenty two thousand points since the start of the competition, an impressive amount, and on the banner outside the forest, his name was ranked at the 241th place.
Yet, he knew that this much was far from enough to attain first place, without talking about others, the four young masters alone were sure to have at least this much.
Ma Shinfei and Jin Hao Tian were not any weaker than him and even when you forget the fearsome Foundation Establishment cultivators exceptionally participating, there were still Zhang Xuanhan the number one student of the Sky Martial Institute present.
All of them had a complete combat system and were bound to fight at least as much as him, gaining much more points.
Even if he was to use Zhao Da Xiong's battle skill a whole week to hunt and kill students in the forest to take their points, he understood he would never reach the first place this way.
That's why Ye Mo was persuaded, if he wanted to attain the top spot and obtain a peak-tier Yellow Class art, he had to defeat a well ranked participant and steal all his points. However, it was easier said than done, those well placed were all very powerful and in this vast forest, even with an investigative battle skill, you could only rely on your good fortune, or misfortune, to meet one of them.
"All in all, Zhao Da Xiong's presence wouldn't change the finality of this issue, moreover, most participants possess an investigative battle skill and when they pass in the surroundings, they would find and attack me of their own initiative so losing him is not much of an issue, I only need to make sure to never be caught unprepared."
"The only one I fought who was very powerful and with a lot of points was Bing Jia, such a shame we met during the first night, if I encountered and killed him today who knows by how much my score would have increased, thirty or fourty thousands?" Ye Mo recalled in disappointment.
He nearly died this night, but obtained over four thousand points, more than his score at the time by a thousand.
Back then, it was a huge mark however, only a few days later it became a pitiful amount.
"Even if I meet a well placed participant, it would be best to happen in the last days, so that his score doesn't become redundant until the end, that is, if I can defeat him." Ye Mo thought in humility.
He didn't take his opponents for granted, he believed he had as much chances to win and take their points than to be killed and become the one stolen.
However, nothing comes easy in life and no spoon will feed you by itself, when you want something, you have to brave the risk and proactively seek it.
Later that day, Ye Mo was encircled by over a thirty mid-tier Stonefang Wolves. These blood beasts possessed tough bodies and fangs and claws hard as rocks.
They growled at Ye Mo for a moment without attacking as a few latecomers caught up with the rest of the pack.
Ye Mo stood in the center, unmoving like a statue, gazing at them like he would look at the ceiling of his house, plain and unexpressive.
Suddenly, when they attained a number of fourty, the most restless and impatient Stonefang Wolves pounced at him.
Ye Mo waved his fists and feets, kicking and punching, sending them wailing in pain and blood on the ground in the surroundings.
Seeing this, the whole pack attacked at once, all rushing at him in a frenzy.
Ye Mo, still impassive, used Buddha Golden Bell battle skill as a bright dome of light covered his body.
The beasts clawed, bit, teared and climbed on the bell, yet, none of it had any effect as the barrier stood unchanged.
There were so much Stonefang Wolves around him that Ye Mo wasn't even visible anymore, all that could be seen from outside was a small mound of enraged wolves in the center surrounded by their companions.
After some time, Ye Mo poured his Qi in his wrist guards as two blades of Qi grew out of the curved base.
Ye Mo twirled around, his arms swung wildly as numerous blue flashes of light hit at all sides in extreme speed when the Buddha Golden Bell disappeared.
Heads, waists, tails and paws flew around in a bloody tapestry as a dozen of wolves were cut down in an instant.
Kill!
After all the blood beasts in his range were eradicated, Ye Mo retracted his blades and stepped forward, grabbing the tails of two Stonefang Wolves before thrashing them around, using them as battle axes to hit and crush their kins under their body.
With the reach and the size of his 'weapons', no wolves could approach without being battered and when he fought and killed long enough for the bodies of the wolves he held to turn into a bloody flat piece of meat, Ye Mo released them and caught two other wolves by the tail to continue his onslaught.
Sometimes the tail would rip off their body under the violence of his strikes so he would catch two other and continue rampaging among the ranks of the beasts.
In a short time, the high-tier Stonefang Wolf leading the pack was killed while the seven remaining survivors fled in horror, leaving the slowest one being pursued and eliminated by Ye Mo.
To make the distinction between human and beast at this instant wasn't easy.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone