The jungle was boundless, and Ye Mo moved through it with outstanding speed.
He was fast enough to be comparable to the use of 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 wildflowers bloomed with bright colors.
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 would he 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 are his injuries 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 this time.
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, deciphering their meaning. At first he proceeded in an unmarked area on 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 on 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 circles.
Whether it was 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, threatening to impale him with its tusks. Ye Mo grabbed the tusks and firmly pressed the ground with his feet, gradually stopping the boar's charge but while they fought, two other boars appeared, and Ye Mo definitely 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, but suddenly, he froze.
Nearly half a kilometer away, on a hill and its surroundings, was a pack of several hundred frenzy charging 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 routes 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 are no markings is full of various rank 1 blood beasts wandering around. This seems feasible."
If Ye Mo used 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, but Ye Mo chose to not go there as it was pretty evident this was an extremely dangerous place. From what he saw, if it's 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 its 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 one grows, the larger is the gap between each realm of cultivation. A pack generally required the teamwork of dozens of cultivators of a higher level to gradually reduce their size day in and day out until their numbers became too small to retain this appellation and the rest were exterminated.
"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 you were a hunter whose living was made by risking his life against beasts.
Chasing beasts was dangerous, often leading to death or crippling injuries. Few would be able to die of old age, and without the right information, you had more chances to either return empty-handed or get devoured.
But hunters were a small community, and to prevent this, they would rather share their information 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's end."
Once the examination ends and the rewards are handed out, the Tiger Martial Institute's 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 happened to him if he were missing, and even if he returned, he would be questioned. The institute nurtured young talents to send to the Raging Saber Sect, to avoid any mishap, they monitored and classified information on all their students.
First to protect them and make sure they could continue cultivating until they were sent out and the institute could profit from the sect's rewards. Secondly, to enact revenge on the perpetrators if any harm came to them this way, affirming their reputation.
More so, if an investigation were started, the Liu clan who kept a tight watch over the institute would hear about 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's surroundings.
There, he dipped himself in his dark brown, hooded robe he took out of his pouch and marched toward 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 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. Yet, he didn't rest but proceeded to sit on his red mat and cultivated for two hours, increasing the number of wisps of qi in his dantian.
Only when the sun showed itself on the horizon did he stop and went to his bed, immediately falling asleep.
Besides 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.