Capítulo 15: The Hunt
Cultivating the Nine Revolutions Fiend Body with qi accelerated his healing process and the injuries could be seen slowly mending with a glance.
Outside Ye Mo's peaceful lair, rain poured heavily from above and snake-like lightning danced in the sky.
Sounds of thunder echoed constantly burying the shouts of the participants and the sound of their footsteps in the rain.
Everywhere fierce battles broke out and people were killed, whether it was against a beast or from the hands of a fellow contestant, every seconds the death count increased.
Ye Mo was completely immersed in his cultivation and didn't pay any attention to the exterior. Focused on recovering, he constantly absorbed qi from heaven and earth.
Time flies when cultivating and in the blink of an eye two days passed.
The third day the rays of the sun pierced through the clouds casting it's light upon the earth illuminating a young boy walking in the vicinity.
With each stride he made he would look all around him and seemed very nervous. His name was Shao Yong, he was the illegitimate child of a rich commercant with lots of relationships which helped him get his hands on some martial arts enabling him to enter the world of cultivators.
"Damn sword bastard, why did this have to happen to me." Mumbling to himself Shao Yong clenched his fists.
Being an illegitimate son, he couldn't inherit the family business and was given the cold shoulder by his siblings. This unfair treatment made him desire power, as such he begged his father day and night and finally obtained a low class battle skill and cultivation technique.
It was already the best his father could get his hands on as gold coins alone couldn't give you everything.
This way Shao Yong embarked himself on a journey to pursue strenght, he worked diligently and at 16 he reached the 4th rank of the qi gathering realm. He wanted to become a strong cultivator surpassing everyone's expectations and making his family recognize him so he decided to enroll in the tiger martial institute before it's too late.
It was his last chance before he turned seventeen thus he striked a friendship with some other teens his age and around the same level, building a solid team to face the dangers of the trial.
The first two days were going well, no one dared to attack them. They got a couple tokens beating others and even some blood cores from beasts they killed relying on group tactics.
Then on the night of the second day a young man suddenly appeared. He had silvery white long hairs a white robe and a long curved, single-edged blade on the back. Without a word he attacked, hacking left and right without restraint.
His cultivation was profound and each hits deadly as all his comrades were sliced apart in a single strike.
Shao Yong who had been sent to gather dry wood for the fire witnessed the scene from afar. Frightened, he laid down on the ground among the thick grasses, ignoring the cries of distress from his comrades. If you didn't particularly look his way you wouldn't even notice him. He was so terrified that even when no sound could be heard anymore he patiented for hours before sticking his head out taking a glance.
All that remained were the minced corpses of his teammates, the tokens and blood cores were taken by the assailant.
"I must be cursed to run into this kind of monster, it was supposed to be an easy test but now that im alone with no tokens or blood cores how can i succeed? I would be lucky to survive this ordeal already." Every time Shao Yong thought of this scene and the stolen goods, anger rushed through his mind but even more than that, he was scared out of his wits.
Nonetheless while he was walking in a relatively remote corner of the woods the ground suddenly shuddered, and then a hole exploded into being.
A young man leaped out of the hole, as agile as a cat. He appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen years of age and was covered in dirt from head to toe.
"Hahaha is this guy for real ? Don't tell me he has been hiding in a hole the whole time." Shao Yong who has been under pressure for hours now, anxious that he might be ambushed any time couldn't help but laugh out loud in front of this situation.
"The heavens really didn't forget me, sending this beggar in my hands. He's alone and doesn't even have any cultivation, it really is a godsend opportunity. With his token i can finally pass this test successfully, i just need to stay concealed and come out at the end of the time allotted." Shao Yong was over the moon, he felt like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
"Venomous Spirit Claw" Without wasting any time Shao Yong rushed at the young man his right hand taking the form of a claw enshrouded by poisonous dark green air.
He could already hear the man's cries of pain as the claw would puncture his body with the venom infiltrating his blood system killing him.
But just before his strike reached him, Shao Yong suddenly felt the world spinning before hitting the ground. His shoulder was dislocated and he was dizzy. His foe grabbed his arm at the last moment and using the force of his charge, throwed him the other way. His movements were so fast he couldn't react in time.
The last thing he saw was a giant foot nearing his face before being sent on his way to the afterlife. The skull burst like a watermelon soaking the lower body of his killer.
Crouching down he searched through Shao Yong's clothes but couldn't find anything beside his token.
"Poor bastard." Kicking the corpse away the boy stretched. The young man was Ye Mo and after 2 days of cultivation in a cramped space his limbs were sore.
Dusting himself revealed his muscular body, the vague shape of burn marks remained but looked more like old scars now. Only the injury on his right hand wasn't completely healed, the wound closed up but it was still fragile and he could feel it would open if he wasn't careful.
However Ye Mo couldn't wait anymore when walking money bags were scattered across the jade forest. Two days remained and as they kept dying not much would be left for him.
Ye Mo set out looking for a prey but as he kept wandering he couldn't find any.
"Looks like there's much more casualties than i thought." On his way he only got two encounters. One was a Green Maple Snake who sneak attacked him. The animal was a low-tier level one beast. The color of it's scales helped them camouflage and their poison could kill a grown man in a couple seconds.
Ye Mo who was vigilant caught him by the neck and ripped it apart but as expected the snake didn't contain a blood core.
The second encounter was a boy casually walking by himself. He had blazing red hair, wearing dark clothes and a thick staff layed on his back, a light smile rested on his juvenile face. Ye mo prefered to leave while he wasn't noticed yet.
"Someone alone being that laid back in this kind of situation mean nothing good. I better find someone else instead of facing him." He would rather keep searching than waste his time taking useless risks.
What Ye Mo was after was blood cores, gold coins and anything that could help his cultivation but he wouldn't fight to the death if it wasn't worth it. That's why he wouldn't confront those alone since it meant either they had the strenght to protect themselves or they are trash that no one wanted so he wouldn't gain anything from them anyways.
Some were alone because they are the sole survivor of their team but it was rather uncommon so Ye Mo didn't bother about it.
After another hour roaming, Ye Mo eventually found what he was looking for.
Behind the cover of bushes he watched a group of seven people eating and drinking together. Three girls and four boys sat in circles on logs of wood as they joyously discussed.
"Brother Wei Leng your Ardent Flame Ring technique is really marvelous, without you we wouldn't have been able to deal with this Violent Saber Bear." Complimented Ren Xue Tu.
"Haha, you praise me too much senior brother Ren, you were the one to give the fatal hit, all the merit belongs to you." Exclaimed Wei Leng.
"You both did great, if i was alone i don't know how i would have fared in this situation. Two hands can't beat four fists, with number comes strenght." One of the girl added happily.
The party members were in high spirits, the first day a huge fight erupted among the participants and in the chaos they attacked a lot of commoners with no cultivation. They were similar to lambs among tigers and lions, everyone pounced on them at once, some martial artists even fighting against each others to seize their tokens. In the end they obtained a good number of them and left before it became dangerous.
Later relying on their numbers and great coordinations they were able to kill mid-tier beasts and even obtained some blood cores. With the tokens they got plus the blood cores, all of them could pass the test already and gain access to the second phase of the competition.
They just had to take it easy and wait for the remaining time to end.
"Wait, senior brother Ren, someone is coming!" One of the boy that has been silent all this time suddenly alerted his friends.
Without delay everyone grabbed their weapons or began circulating their qi. Their movements were smooth and natural like a well executed choreography. From this, it was clear they were experienced.
In the distance, the silhouette of a young man walking in their direction could be seen.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder