Chương 119: Primary Nature Dispelled
The onlookers gazing at the banner the past days thought they already witnessed the greatest surprise of the competition when Ye Mo suddenly rose to the third place and Li Qiang vanished, but now they couldn't be any more shocked.
"This can't be, even Shen Xue fell to this guy? I can't believe it!"
"Something is fishy about this, there is no way the little runt could achieve first place otherwise."
"Shen Xue would not fall against any one, even Qiong Lieyu would be hard-pressed against him, some instructors must be in cahoots with Ye Mo."
"There might be a hidden expert supporting him in the dark who helped the kid supress his opponents, that's the only way."
Many thoughts out loud, incredulous, but the crowd was mostly speechless in front of this display.
Suddenly, cheers erupted in the surroundings, "He really did it... Way to go Ye Mo!"
"Even Shen Xue was demoted, we mortals can't be underestimated once we start cultivating."
"One day, I will also become a cultivator and achieve no less!"
Several mortals praised loudly, filled with aspirations, hope, longing, excitement and all kinds of intense emotions mixed together.
They felt prideful and vindicative, using Ye Mo to prove themselves that contrary to what cultivators made them believe, mortals like them aren't worthless and can also become successful with the right resources. This was accompanied by a bittersweet yearning to be at his place along a tint of jealousy.
It was a different proximity they had for Ye Mo compared to Qiong Lieyu, who, although doesn't hail from any clan or big family, inherited a colossal sum of gold from his father and enrolled in the Golden Martial Institute immediately after coming to age.
He spent less than three years in the streets, before that he had his mother and after that he became a cultivator. Ye Mo instead went through the major part of his life coping in the slums and trying to survive, they felt only he could understand them and shared similar life experiences despite the fact most mortals in truth never had it as rough as him.
One of the cultivators present was already in a bad mood and when he heard the shouts, his face darkened. He took a sword out of his spatial pouch and turned around lightning fast, piercing the skull of the mortal behind him with the blade penetrating right between his eyes.
The tip of the blade came out from the back of his head, the person murdered still had a rictus on his face, but his eyes were vacant and morbidly fixing the sword before he slumped down like a puppet that lost its strings.
The cultivators didn't react at all to this common scene, but the multiple mortals present instantly shut their mouths tightly in dread and walked away soundlessly, leaving only people of power spectating the banner for a time.
"These dogs shouldn't forget their place, next time I am taking down all of them myself." Another cultivator exclaimed sharply before they all returned their attention to the leaderboard.
In the cultivation world, mortals were only slaves, no more than sheeps while cultivators were their master. No one cared if one, two or a dozen were killed, at most you would only pay a small compensation to the owner if they were servants from a family of cultivators but not much.
It was already good that their presence was tolerated around the banner by the cultivators, but now these slaves dare shout and give preposterous opinions about their masters, unforgivable!
Ye Mo was oblivious to the agitation in the city as he sat between two big rocks, hiding near the border of the Jade Forest, the last trees standing before one would leave the woods being in his view.
"The encounter with Shen Xue back then was pretty dangerous, clearly, only Qiong Lieyu could have given him a fight among the students." Ye Mo thought, recalling the injuries on Shen Xue's body when he ambushed him.
At this moment, even he might have a shot to kill him, but he seized his hand and didn't consider it an instant.
Ye Mo wasn't a muddled bloodthirsty killer, when he acted, it was always with a certain goal in mind and this time wasn't different. Killing was just a tool to achieve his aim, the most important has always been to support his cultivation and increase his strength and taking the first place of this competition was a way for him to do it so gaining Shen Xue's token and stealing the points was what truly mattered, taking his life or anyone else was of no importance as long as they didn't stand on his path.
Quickly, night fell then was soon cleared up by a golden ball scintillating in the horizon.
At dawn, Ye Mo prepared to set out, but he wasn't in a hurry and patiented a bit, watching the earliest participants leaving the forest first before he returned to the Rallying Stone Plateau himself.
It wasn't a long way from the Jade Forest to the Rallying Stone Plateau and in no time it stood in his sight.
He could see there were a lot of people from the city that gathered around to look at the final students who came out of this competition in one piece and hear the deans announcement.
Ye Mo also discerned the Li clan's camp near the Rallying Stone Plateau, a knowing smile on his face.
Without further ado, Ye Mo walked forward, nearing the gathered students that arrived before him.
On the Rallying Stone Plateau stood the instructors, vice-deans and deans of the three institute. At the base on its right side was erected the Li clan's camp with several black tents and Li clan members talking and hurtling back and forth. The students stopped on the remaining area around the boulder, encircling it. Surrounding them were hundreds and thousands of inhabitants that came to cheer for the students, both cultivators and mortals made the way here.
When Ye Mo reached a side where stood the students, an instructor from the Tiger Martial Institute remarked him and precipitously jumped down then grabbed his shoulder and went back up with him.
Although Ye Mo didn't particularly try to be unconspicuous, no one among the onlookers paid attention to him, but when the instructor grabbed him, a few persons noticed the disruption and instantly recognized him.
"It's him, this is Ye Mo!" A mortal was the first to realize his identity and called out.
Many of them looked at him with wide, unblinking eyes, their gaze full of admiration.
"Now that I look at him, his face does seem familiar." One cultivator that assisted at the Tiger Martial Institute's tournament squinted his eyes as he focused his gaze on Ye Mo.
"He definitely cheated, he is dead for sure!"
"Calm down, if there truly is something wrong with his performance there is no way the instructors won't find out, at this point they will deal with him. I am rather more interested in how Li Zhen will react."
When Ye Mo landed on the Rallying Stone Plateau, he noticed Shen Xue was already here waiting by himself a distance from the instructors.
He was clean and fully recovered, wearing a new spotless white robe on himself.
When Ye Mo escaped with his points, Shen Xue had nothing more to lose and unlike Qiong Lieyu, the swordsman didn't show the extent of his power yet. Completely unrestrained, Shen Xue fought with all his strength, deeply injuring both Qiong Lieyu and Ma Shinfei before being sent away from the Jade Forest after exhausting more than half his Qi.
Following his elimination, several other students arrived at the precipice.
Considering his objective complete, Qiong Lieyu quickly fled the scene, refusing to fight injured and with nearly half his Qi spent.
Zhang Xuanhan, Jin Hao Tian and Ma Shinfei, surrounded, momentarily joined hands to push back the assailants but outnumbered and wounded against powerful students, they finally separated and ran away, each to one direction as to confuse the enemies.
Shen Xue's eyes fiercely locked on Ye Mo, but the latter ignored him.
Although Shen Xue wished to, he didn't budge from his place, knowing it wasn't the time to be anywhere near Ye Mo.
As soon as he and the instructor landed on the Rallying Stone Plateau, a shadow flashed from the Li camp and went over the platform with surreal speed.
The most courageous instructors of the Tiger Martial Institute tried to stop it, but it quickly moved past them and stopped right before Ye Mo.
The dark figure of the Li clan patriarch loomed ominously over him.
He was tall, nearly twice Ye Mo's size and the long sword he held in hand was longer than the latter's body. Li Zhen was lowering his head to look at him, his long black hair falling down and concealing his expression from anyone but Ye Mo.
This one raised his head and directly looked at him, the patriarch's gaze was sharp and cutting, promising unforgiving retribution yet, there was also a sense of detachment and apathy in his eyes, as if what he was looking at wasn't a human being, but a corpse already.
"So you are the one who killed my son?" Li Zhen dragged his words, emphasizing each one.
Any youth at his place would have been scared shitless faced with this scene, unable to look or utter a word, however, Ye Mo didn't show a shred of fear as he answered curtly, "If your son is Li Qiang, then that would be me."
"That is very courageous of you to admit it so openly, well then, farewell." Li Zhen raised his sword above Ye Mo's head.
He was about to cleave down when Han Zhen Jun interrupted him, separating the two as he placed himself between them, "What do you think you are doing, you believe you can come, kill our students, and go back as you please? Cease this nonsense at once!"
Li Zhen's expression stiffened, "You heard him, he killed Li Qiang, now move away."
He was about to strike again when Han Zhen Jun retorted, "So what if he killed him? Should we execute all the students that murdered someone in the forest, shall I bring every mother and father that lost a child in a competition to come enact revenge upon the killer? I am afraid not many junior will live past this day in the city. Enough of this, there is a risk of death in any competition, Li Qiang came in knowing this fact, since Ye Mo didn't commit any fault, return to your camp for now."
Li Zhen lowered his sword and looked at Han Zhen Jun saying, "But he did commit a fault, after all, didn't Hong Li told them to avoid killing members of their own institute, yet this bastard went straight for my son's throath. He has no consideration for the institute or the life of their members, in this case, I will do you a favor and get rid of this pest for you."
To this, Han Zhen Jun had nothing to say, actually, he was rather reluctant to defend Ye Mo and wouldn't have stepped forward if it wasn't a personal request from Hong Li, but he knew he couldn't let Li Zhen do as he please in front of all these people and tarnish the Tiger Martial Institute's reputation.
Ye Mo still unworried, replied," Actually, Li Qiang was the one to attack me. He held a grudge against me for a long time, everyone in the institute know it, when he found me, he had no hesitation. if I didn't defend myself with all my strength, I would be the one to die there."
Li Zhen looked around and saw many students and instructors nodding as they recalled incidents in the pagoda, feeling that what he said made sense.
The spectators listened intently, gloating and whispering among themselves.
Ignoring Ye Mo, the patriarch continued accusing him, "Moreover, he definitely broke the rules. You know Li Qiang's abilities as good as me, this kid with his puny cultivation would have never been able to take his life without cheating, he must have consumed some forbidden pill to quickly increase his power for a moment. In any case, he must be killed."
At this mention, Han Zhen Jun once again couldn't replicate, but Ye Mo didn't need it, "It is true that Li Qiang was very strong, it was very dangerous back then to the point I was forced to use my poisoned needles. If I didn't, who knows how the fight would have ended."
Ye Mo admitted plainly, there was nothing to hide, might as well say the things as they were.
Li Zhen snickered, "Your words have no value, since you can't prove anything, off you go now."
The Li clan patriarch raised his sword once more when Hong Li appeared beside them, walking with hands behind his back," I can vouch for him, it happened as he said. If you don't trust me, you can come view the fight in the tent anytime you want."
It wasn't for no reason he asked his second in command to protect Ye Mo rather than doing it himself, at the second when the sky cleared up east, Hong Li rushed in the Jade Forest and retrieved Li Qiang's token before he returned to watch what happened to him. He just finished watching when he came out to stop Li Zhen.
Ye Mo laughed coldly in his heart, it was exactly what he wanted.
He was just a rank 2 talent so if there really was something that could be said against him, Hong Li and Han Zhen Jun wouldn't have any remorse handing him over, but without any justification they had to defend him fiercely against Li Zhen.
How many competition they held since the Tiger Martial Institute was built, how much students fought and lost their lives participating? Numerous parents lost their child during such events, but even if they were were overcome by grief, never would they dare complain or be so bold as to come attempting to execute a student themselves.
The rules and the risks were clear to all, once you make a decision you can't take it back. If everyone acted like Li Zhen then martial institutions wouldn't exist because the streets would be filled with angry parents chasing and beheading kids because they killed someone in a contest.
Ye Mo looked at the pedestrians below, his heart clear, "Everyone follows their own convictions, pursuing one's desires and acting in your best interest is natural. The Tiger Martial Institute can't let the Li clan eliminate me because if they were allowed to do so once, everyone would act the same way from this moment on. In addition, I just won the first place in their year-end competition, what look would it give to the institute if they let their student get executed immediately after returning triumphantly from their greatest trial. Last of all, they just lost Li Qiang, one of their top junior member, how could they accept to give me up at the same time rather than taking advantage of me instead to take Li Qiang's place and go to the sect. There was only benefits in protecting me, slighting Li Zhen's pride in exchange was no problem at all."
"Actually, the Li clan has great influence, if they want to kill me, it is still possible, but they need a reasonable and righteous reason to do so, or they would break the rules and regulations in place. They are in a different position than the Liu clan who wouldn't hesitate slaughtering me the first chance they get. In reality, Li Zhen is afraid. He doesn't fear to break the rules, he is afraid others would follow in his footsteps. In a junior's scuffle, if the elders interfere, it would aggravate the situation. If it involved the higher ups, it'd pose a threat to the entire Azure Water City. Li Zhen's fear lies here. What if in future conflicts, others lay their hands on his second son Li Cheng? With his heir dead, all that remained to him and the Li clan was this last successor Li Cheng, so what would happen if he died? This kind of fear, maybe he doesn't realize it himself. He is only subconsciously protecting the rules."
Ye Mo's eyes were clear as he grasped the primary nature of this matter from start to end.
"Obviously, they won't stop attempting to eliminate me, they simply can't do it openly."
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