Scouting

The jungle was boundless, and Ye Mo moved through it with outstanding speed.

He was fast enough to be comparable to a mid-tier Yellow class battle skill at present and the most amazing was that more than half was due to his physical abilities rather than wind flow battle skill.

The sunlight permeated through the huge and tall woods, shining and creating a ground of mottled and fragmentary tree shadows.

The green grass beside his feet was like a mattress, and the wild flowers bloomed with bright colours.

His ears picked up the sound of birds chirping, or the buzzing of various insects.

"I have been away for five days already, i can only forget about the cave of pure iridescent iron for now and find an opportunity to return at a later time." Ye Mo took the decision to cast aside the cave for the time being.

He struggled so much before he could reach the second mountain and his life was at risk more than once. Who knew what awaited him further?

Circumstances were stronger than men, if he persisted in trying to reach the cave not only he would not be able to return before the end of the tiger martial institute's competition but he might not necessarily find it.

Yet internally he was happy.

The breakthrough of the Nine Revolutions Fiend Body healed all the internal injuries his body sustained from his confrontation with the wrathful black ape as he has been concerned about losing all the gold coins remaining from the recruitment tournament for a treatment.

Now not only his injuries were healed but he has never felt better in his life. 

Although the initial goal wasn't reached, he still benefited greatly from his venture outside.

However he still canceled the wind flow battle skill and moved by foot instead, deciding to conserve his qi.

After twenty minutes Ye Mo reached the base of the second mountain.

Although he didn't have enough time to reach the cave, extract the iron, and return, he still intended to do some scouting to prepare for the next time he would attempt it and make sure there would not be any bad surprises like previously.

On Wei Leng's map, starting at the second mountain appeared all kinds of markings like red crosses, red circles and green highlighted routes.

Ye Mo spent the day moving around, at first he proceeded in an unmarked area in the map but was attacked several times by various blood beasts like a small group of white eye lycans, a crying desolate bat or three-tailed monkeys.

Although they were rank 1 beasts they were all very dangerous to a Qi Gathering realm cultivator and Ye Mo chose to escape each time, resorting to shadow walk in many occasions.

After that he approached one of the red crosses with his stealth abilities.

There he saw in the distance an armored scorpion, a genuine rank 2 blood beast! Because Ye Mo was pretty far away and hiding behind a tree under shadow walk, the armored scorpion didn't notice him and gradually moved away.

When the armored scorpion couldn't be seen anymore, Ye Mo quickly distanced himself from the red cross and neared one of the red circle.

Wether it is a rank 2 or 3 beast, for Ye Mo it made no difference. He could either escape or die.

When he got close he met a rank 1 high tier frenzy charging boar, it was as large as a calf and as Ye Mo saw the beast, it noticed him as well.

The boar immediately rushed towards him, threathening to impale him with its tusks. Ye Mo grabbed the tusks and firmly pressed the ground with his feets, gradually stopping the boar charge but while they fought two other boars appeared and Ye Mo definity took a run for his life.

He had to flee for more than an hour to finally lose them.

Afterwards he got close to the red circle once again but from another direction this time, trying to understand their meaning for himself.

Under the shadow of the trees, Ye Mo's gaze moved as he slowly progressed towards the center until he froze.

Near half a kilometer away, on a hill and its surroundings was a pack of several hundreds frenzy lightning boars from rank 1 mid to peak tier level.

On its top was a boar more than thrice the size of the others with grey fur and multiple scars on its body eating the corpse of a wild deer by itself.

The leader of the pack, Rank 2 iron charging boar!

His purpose completed, Ye Mo immediately left the most silently possible.

When he was far enough, he breathed out a sigh of relief and went on the green highlighted route instead.

Marching there was relatively peaceful, beside a few ordinary beasts or insects that would come your way, there was nothing truly threatening to someone well prepared.

As the sunset neared, Ye Mo resumed his findings.

"The green routes are safe to move on while the red crosses have rank 2 beasts and the red circles are a nest regrouping a pack of blood beasts. Where there's no markings is full of various rank 1 blood beasts wandering around. This seems feasible."

If Ye Mo used the the green routes he should be able to reach the third mountain without too much trouble.

Recalling his goal was the cave on the fourth mountain, he wouldn't be too far from his destination after that.

There were also black skulls on the map, Ye Mo chose to not go there as its pretty evident this is an extremely dangerous place. From what he saw, if its not a rank 3 beast then they can only mean one thing.

"A pack of rank 2 blood beasts!"

Packs were very menacing, a pack of rank 1 beasts depending on the numbers could kill a rank 2 beast and a pack of rank 2 beasts could still threaten a rank 3 beast.

Remember that the stronger you grow, the larger is the gap between each realm of cultivation. A pack generally needed the teamwork of dozens of cultivators of a higher level to gradually reduce their size days in and out until their numbers became too small to retain this appellation.

"This map is well defined and lives up to Azure Water City hunters reputation." Ye Mo smirked.

The map was from Wei Leng but as mortals, life was very harsh and even more so when an hunter. 

Chasing beasts was dangerous, often leading to death or crippling injuries. Few would be able to die of old age and without the right informations you had more chances to either leave with empty hands or get devored.

But hunters were a small community and to prevent this they would rather share their informations among each other reducing the death rate and increasing their chances to have some gains, everyone was benefitting. 

This map wasn't the work of Wei Leng or his father alone but probably also held the insight of all the hunters who used to go in the jungle.

"This is good enough, i will be able to reach the third mountain the next time i enter the jungle. i will deal with the rest of the journey as it comes. The night is falling, i should go back to the institute before the mid-year examination end."

Once the examination ends and the rewards were handed out, the tiger martial institute activity would resume and Ye Mo's disappearance would be noticed at some point.

At this time, there would be an investigation to find what hapenned if he was missing and even if he returned he would be questioned. The institute nurtured young talents to send to the Raging Saber sect and till then they needed clear informations on their doings.

First to protect them and make sure they could continue cultivating until they were sent out and the institute could profit from the sect rewards. Secondly to exact revenge on the perpetrators if any harm came to them this way affirming their reputation.

More so, if an investigation was started the Liu clan who kept a tight watch over them would hear of it and both of their higher ups would learn that Ye Mo knew a concealment battle skill.

This was something he didn't want to see happen so he departed at full speed, using wind flow to leave the jungle in the shortest time.

As he stepped out of the woods, he was met with the dry cracked earth characteristic of Azure Water City surroundings.

There he dipped himself in his dark brown, hooded robe he took out of his pouch and marched towards the city.

When he arrived to the gate it was late in the night. The city housed hundreds of millions of inhabitants and even at night people would be seen moving here and there on the streets while all kinds of lights came out of shops and houses.

Near the entrance of the institute, a Liu clan's team posted was shocked to see the resurgence of the hooded figure unharmed while there has been no news of their elder since he departed.

Ye Mo directly went to the guard and showed his token, going inside. He could only imagine the Liu clan board of elders reaction as this would be reported.

When he reached his little stone house Ye Mo finally relaxed. He first sat on his red mat and cultivated for two hours, increasing the number of wisps of qi in his dantian.

When the sun showed itself on the horizon he stopped and went on his bed immediately falling asleep.

Beside the time he fainted, Ye Mo barely rested while he was outside. Being in constant danger he needed the maximum of his abilities to come out unscathed and while his body was in good shape he was mentally too exhausted.

He slept for the whole day and night, only waking up in the morning. 

Ye Mo opened his eyes and felt refreshed, his spirit having completely recovered.

When he left his house he discovered there was only one topic in everyone's mouth, how Shen Xue shockingly revealed his cultivation of the 9th layer of the Qi Gathering realm in the competition and defeated all his opponents, taking the first place.