章 102: Damsel in Distress
Ye Mo walked in the forest, looking over his token. He currently possessed 9670 points and on the banner, his name was inscribed at the 311th place.
When he killed Bing Jia, unaware at the moment, he gained a whooping 4000 points and his score went from over 3000 to 7230 points while his name gained more than 600 places in the rankings.
After eliminating a few more participants before the end of the night, he settled with his current score and place.
Among those he targeted, there were some with several hundred points, two with over a thousand, but also a few who had less than two hundred.
Obviously they were robbed of their score, but their opponents spared their life while they didn't surrender either so they were still in the competition, until Ye Mo struck...
"If I had an investigative battle skill, I wouldn't need to run randomly in the jungle this long to find other participants, I could immediately locate all the students in the vicinity and eliminate them in a short time. My points would have increased much more quickly, this is the greatest optimization." Ye Mo thought, imagining the situation.
It would have been the best circumstances to use in support with Shadow Walk.
However, he didn't regret picking any of his battle skills.
Without Buddha Golden Bell or Endless Vitality, he would have died against Bing Jia, and he didn't count all the other times it helped him.
The most important is still to protect oneself over the rest, without these techniques, he wouldn't even have the confidence to face any of the top students of each institute.
At this moment, it was noon.
Ye Mo took a nap in the morning to recuperate, using bushes and leaves-covered branches to conceal his body, he only rose up a few minutes ago.
With their cultivation, sleep wasn't repleceable yet for students and it would take a toll on their body and mind over time.
Ye Mo was better off in this aspect, his body refining cultivation helping him staying energetic for a longer period of time, but after a few days without sleeping, even he would feel tired.
It was better to take your time and rest when you have the opportunity than pushing yourself too hard for several days and taking a loss because you were not in your best condition at a crucial moment.
Now his mind felt light and his thoughts sparked swiftly while his body had completely recovered, he felt he could face anyone without being on the receiving end.
He progressed nonchalantly in the woods.
The Jade Forest was enormous to the point it spanned over several regions of the Mountain Breeze Province, the Cloud Region being just one of them.
The outer edge where the competition took place was hundreds of miles deep alone and unimaginably large, if you tried to run in circle around the Jade Forest, you wouldn't see half of it even after a year.
As for the inner area, thats where much stronger blood beasts resided and even Foundation Establishment and Inner Core realm cultivators would avoid it.
After that was still the central area of the Jade Forest where no one ventured at all.
Ye Mo wasn't in a hurry, in the day, the progression of his score wasn't that great and he could only depend on his luck to encounter other students or powerful rank 1 blood beast.
The good thing was that many students possessed an investigative battle skill and when they weren't too far, they would find him and take the initiative to attack.
As he walked, Ye Mo suddenly heard muffled sounds in the distance.
He immediately stopped in his tracks to focus on it. Without the noise of his steps on dead leaves and small sticks, he could hear the sounds much better, it was similar to hard breathings mixed with low grunts.
"Someone injured?" Ye Mo thought at first, turning on his right and advancing towards the source of the disturbance.
Nearing the noise, he saw from afar, a girl facing a tree, supporting herself with her hands on the bark of the trunk. She was half-naked, her clothes ripped apart.
Behind her was a butt-naked man, his pants falling down his ankles, moving his hips back and forth rhythmically.
Ye Mo recognized the male, it was Zhao Da Xiong from the Golden Martial Institute.
"Oh, it seems we have a guest." Zhao Da Xiong remarked, smiling mischievously as he gazed at the approaching Ye Mo while he stepped back and pulled up his pants.
It seemed like he was only enjoying himself, but he also used Silent Sentry, an investigative battle skill that significantly enhanced hearing.
The truth is that Zhao Da Xiong was aware of Ye Mo's presence even before the latter was close enough to hear them, yet, he didn't bother to move.
When Zhao Da Xiong stepped aside, Ye Mo quickly noticed something was off with the girl.
She could barely stand up on her own and her face was flushed red as a cherry, it looked like she was suffering from a fever.
However, cultivators rarely fall ill, and mundane sickness are easily eradicated.
It was far more severe than what just exhaustion from their previous activity would cause.
Also, from the remainder of her clothes and torn pieces on the ground, she was a student of the Tiger Martial Institute.
"Please... Help me." She said weakly glancing at Ye Mo, noticing he was a fellow comrade while she slowly slide down and fell on her knees.
She was still breathing roughly and seemed to recover very slowly even though all actions had stopped already.
"Hey, hey, help you? What are you saying now, when you seemed to have so much fun a moment ago."
Zhao Da Xiong grabbed her hair as he jeered at her, before he pushed her to the ground.
The girl approached on all four at Ye Mo, visibly weakened, "He... He did something to my body with his smoke. It's like I was burning from inside, my head is dizzy and my limbs feels weak."
Ye Mo had no wish to involve himself in their conflict.
True to himself, he shared his will with very few words, being as straightforward as possible, "Your tokens."
Ye Mo looked at Zhao Da Xiong, but his words were also directed at the girl.
"Here, you can take my points." Surprisingly, Zhao Da Xiong didn't bicker at all and directly handed over two tokens, his and the one from the girl.
Even more confounding, he didn't steal the girl's points, her token possessed 460 points, actually, he didn't obtain any points at all since the start of the competition, his token remaining at a fixed 200 points.
However, Ye Mo couldn't care less about Zhao Da Xiong's motivations.
He just obtained their points and it was very simple, it happened in an instant and he didn't need to fight at all, preserving his strength. His objective in approaching them was met and he was still healthy and could go search and steal the points of other participants, everything was good so he had no reason to linger anymore than needed.
Others interests were of no concern to him.
"Wait, you can take my points, but you must seek justice for me. If you're not confident in facing him, at least break his token and he will immediately be disqualified and transported out of the Jade Forest." Sensing Ye Mo's unwillingness, on the verge of departing, the girl pleaded loudly in her favor.
"We're both fellow student of the Tiger Martial Institute, you have to help me. This guy is from the Golden Martial Institute, he is an enemy, a heinous dog in heat who will keep harming women if he remains here, quickly eliminate him!"
Zhao Da Xiong listened to everything silently with a smile on his face, completely unperturbed.
Ye Mo looked at the girl for an instant before gazing at him, playing with both their tokens in his hand.
At this moment, Zhao Da Xiong spread his voice, "My friend I have a suggestion for you. We should collaborate."
Ye Mo raised his eyebrows, not expecting this.
Everyone in this competition was ready to fight, kill and betray each other for points, many teams disbanded early on in anticipation to this global distrust so why asking for cooperation now?
He could sense the Golden Martial Institute's student had something in mind.
Slightly curious, Ye Mo tossed a token back to the girl and said a single word, "Go."
He didn't wish for her to hear the rest of their conversation or learn wether he accepted the proposition or not.
"Wait, you really plan to listen to him? There is no use, you really think you can let this bastard cover your back, you will just end up dead, your corpse never to be found. Please, you have to avenge me, if you want a partner, I will team up with you once he is dealt with, at least there will be much more trust between us than with someone from another institute."
The girl desperately tried to convince Ye Mo, yet he was impassive, ignoring her demands as he gazed straight at her eyes.
She could feel the annoyance in Ye Mo's stare and she understood none of what she said had any effect on him nor would he change decision.
A cold glint flashed in her eyes for an instant before she slowly stood up, covering her private parts with her hands as she passed by Ye Mo and walked away.
During their talk, she recovered a bit of her disposition, Zhao Da Xiong's battle skill hold on her dwindling with time.
"If you're not gonna help me, then die!" The girl feigned leaving, but when she was behind Ye Mo, she suddenly turned around and attacked, her fingernails a shade of dark green, poisonous green fog was exuded from them.
As she striked, her nails elongated to half a palm long, then fifty centimers, they were dangerously approaching Ye Mo's back, about to pierce his heart.
Nonetheless, the latter turned lightning-quick, as if he had eyes behind him and could perceive her sneak-attack, he placed his right arm in front of him, the wrist guard meeting the nails.
Without any resistance, the nails broke in pieces against the iron, falling on the ground.
The girl was shocked to see her attack failed, just a slight graze of her nails would be enough to kill a high-tier blood beast in a few seconds, yet Ye Mo reacted too fast, like he knew in advance she would act.
After this failure, she tried to escape using her movement battle skill, but she only thought about it that Ye Mo was already covered in circling wind currents, aiming his fist at her.
The female cultivator could not react quickly enough to so many changes at once. She was hit by the Stone Breaking Punch and screamed in agony.
Her slim body flew away like a broken bag; She was swept high into the sky, and then plopped down again.
She landed on the ground, her eyes wide open. She was dead on the spot.
Humans mind worked in mysterious ways.
Zhao Da Xiong stood right beside the girl, but even after he took advantage of her, she didn't dare oppose him by herself, afraid to fall prey to his battle skills another time.
Yet, after Ye Mo refused to avenge her, neither charmed nor willing to play the hero, she felt betrayed and he immediately became her number one mortal enemy even above Zhao Da Xiong.
Isn't he from the same Tiger Martial Institute I am part of? Aren't we both righteous cultivators? Isn't he a man? In this case he should act like one and be brave and fearless, confronting Zhao Da Xiong after witnessing such an odious crime, not cower in fear or being hesitant.
Even someone completely unrelated, seeing this scene, would take my side and help me deal with him, but not only this guy doesn't plan to do anything, he's even willing to cooperate with Zhao Da Xiong, stealing my points in the process before chasing me out.
If he doesn't plan to assist me, then I should as well kill him and take his points, at least gaining something out of this sickening situation I endured.
With such thoughts, she played along outside while circulating her Qi internally, planning to strike in the most opportun time.
However, at the moment Ye Mo ordered her to leave, he noticed the deep well of hatred in her eyes as she looked at him before she stood up.
It was but a fleeting moment, however, it was more than enough for Ye Mo to raise his guard at this point persuaded that, wether in the next second or the next year, this girl nursed a grievance and would try to settle the score with him.
In spite of the fact she attempted to take him by surprise, attacking from a blind spot, Ye Mo was ready to welcome any strike and timed his counter perfectly, eliminating this threat in the blink of an eye.
As the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.
"If I knew it would end this way, I would have just crushed her token and sent her out. Mercy really is useless in this world." Ye Mo looked at the corpse in the distance, criticizing her actions.
Everyone came in this place willingly, aware of the fate they could encounter. What she went through was simply due to her lack of strength, being defeated, you are at the victor's mercy.
Counting on another's rescue is but a pipe dream, yet she blamed Ye Mo for his lack of involvement, pushing her luck when he was lenient, she could only take responsibility for her own actions.
Observing everything unfolding up to the girl demise, Zhao Da Xiong's smile deepened in the back.
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