After two more hours, the middle-aged men closed their stalls and left. Registrations ended and the late arrivals could only blame themselves. You could even see some teens crying on the street because they missed their last chance.
The gates of the institute slowly opened. Everyone quieted down while those who sat on the ground to wait quickly rose up. Four men and one woman appeared and stopped before the participants.
The man in front had long grey hair and a beard fluttering in the wind, his deep gaze analyzing the youths. He wore a large, dark brown robe with golden outlines and a lifelike tiger head on the back. His aged face contrasted with his fit and muscular body. Although the robe was soft and loose, it looked like heavy-duty armor on him.
His name was Hong Li, the dean of the Tiger Martial Institute. He was originally the second in command, but the ancient dean left on an adventure two decades ago after naming him for the post.
"Dean, what do you think of this batch?" A man at his side asked Hong Li.
His shoulder-length silky black hair and his handsome face attracted the attention of the young girls present. He was the one in charge of the recruitment competition, while the others had to assist him.
His name was Wang Fei, and he was an instructor in the Tiger Martial Institute.
Hong Li merely came to take a look, but he didn't have any obligation towards the participants.
"There are too many of them, let's cut their numbers first." The dean instructed.
There were nearly as many candidates here as the institute possessed students.
With a nod, Wang Fei stepped out and announced how the competition would unfold.
"This year, a total of more than three thousand eight hundred individuals are participating. The competition will be separated into two parts.
The first part is about the survival of the fittest. The second one is battles in the arena.
Only through the first part can you get access to the arena and have a chance to fight for the top twenty."
Wang Fei spoke softly, but everyone could hear him clearly as if he was just beside them.
"Now let me explain the rules for the first part. The venue where it will take place is the Jade Forest. Many dangerous blood beasts reside there, and no help will be provided; you have to fight if you want to gain anything! Your mission is to survive for four days and hunt enough blood beasts to gain a blood core. Fret not as level two blood beasts and higher have been cleared out in the outer parts so you won't be too outmatched, but level one high or peak tiers are still there and could kill most of you easily. To pass the test, you have to bring either the core of a blood beast or the token of another participant."
The youths were flustered by the rules and started talking about the test with each other.
"How are we meant to hunt all these blood beasts, although they have no wisdom, their body are too strong!"
"Under normal circumstances, you need three or more persons at the same level as the beast to kill it."
"The stronger the blood beast, the higher the chances it has a core, but there is no way we could go against high-tier ones. Without talking about killing them, just escaping with our lives would be great."
"It's obvious they want to make us fight each other, blood beasts are fierce and bloodthirsty, but faced against one another, there is much less misgivings to have and the allure of the token can't be avoided. We need to join groups if we want to survive and have a chance to pass the first phase."
Most of them started to team up or strike alliances with each other.
Ye Mo in a corner, was pondering.
"They want to eliminate the majority of the participants before proceeding to the battles. It seems easier to take the tokens of others, but now that they are forming groups, it's not really the case anymore, though it's not a problem for me. The most important point is that although they told us to hunt beasts, they didn't say we couldn't steal the cores from others the same way we can snatch their token."
Ye Mo had already started making his plans. He wanted to cultivate and break through the limits of humanity, but cultivation is costly and requires a lot of resources. He knew blood cores were worth a lot of money and could help him alleviate the burden in the future. He needed as much as he could to prepare for his needs in cultivation in the time to come.
He was expressionless, but killing intent was slowly building inside him.
He was still planning his next courses of action when a smiling blond boy approached him.
"Hey, I can see you're alone, you couldn't find anyone right? How about joining my group, it would be easier to pass the test this way and you won't have to fight by yourself. We will help each other to overcome the difficulties, even if you don't have any cultivation, I am sure you have your own talents, I won't treat you badly."
The boy patted his chest, stating uprightly.
He seemed very noble and fair-minded, although he was a cultivator, he took the initiative to approach Ye Mo and wasn't rude or forceful in his words.
Ye Mo took a look at the members of his team who themselves were staring at him from a distance away.
It was composed of four boys and two girls. Four of them were just common teens who trained their bodies a bit and thought they might have a chance of entering the top twenty. The other two, a boy and a girl, were both in the beginning ranks of the qi gathering realm.
The boy who invited him looked like the leader but he didn't even seem as strong as Liu Hualing.
He could easily determine that these people won't have a good fate in the Jade Forest.
"Piss off." Ye Mo didn't plan to join a team in the first place but even if he did, he would join one of the best, not these weaklings who would only die or depend on him for the whole trial.
Moreover, he has seen clear through this person's motive.
"Y-you, what did you say! Don't you know what kind of place the jade forest is? Don't be too full of yourself you really think you can survive there alone?!"
The boy was agitated.
Ordinarily, these miserable mortals who were left alone would throw themselves at the first opportunity to join a team. Now, a grand cultivator like him took the initiative to approach Ye Mo and even talked courteously, usually, these people wouldn't even need to think twice to accept in a flash.
There was no chance he could be rejected in this situation.
"I told you to piss off." Ye Mo repeated, emphasizing every single word.
"Hmph, fine I will wait for the instructors to bring your corpse out of the forest at the end of the test." With these words, the youth left red with anger.
His plan was comprehensible. By himself, the youth had little chance to join the Tiger Martial Institute, but he was not willing to give up this opportunity, instead, he chose to gather as most people as possible in his team.
Particularly mortals!
These weaklings were easily manipulated, they would ask nothing more than being able to walk by a cultivator's side in this dangerous forest filled with blood beasts. The blond boy wanted to rein in mortals and use them as meat shields during the battles so he could have an easier time snatching tokens and blood cores. At the same time, if they landed in a predicament, he could sacrifice them to escape, ensuring his survival.
This was a devious, but effective method, it would assuredly make his life easier during the recruitment competition. However, Ye Mo had seen through his intentions with a glance. Actually, the blond boy wasn't the only one, many other cultivators invited mortals in their group with the same intentions.
There were much more mortals registered than young cultivators, even if the latter invited a dozen of them, there were still a large part of them left on the square wondering what to do.
The youth felt humiliated, he couldn't sense any qi from Ye Mo, so he knew he was just an ordinary kid like the others yet he dared talk to him, a third layer Qi Gathering cultivator this way.
In his heart he had put a mark on him. If by chance they met during the test, he would make him regret refusing his offer.