Approaching the scene, Ye Mo saw Liu Huan on the ground next to the trunk of the tree that he broke in two in the collision. His eyes were wide open, and no breath came from him. He was dead on the spot.
His legs were broken and his belly was dented inwards, displaying an odd angle against his lower body. On the ground beside his mouth was blood mixed with pieces of organs.
To make sure he was dead, Ye Mo decided to wait a bit, he wasn't that knowledgeable about cultivators so he prefered to be cautious. Who knew if this guy wasn't just waiting for him to draw closer to make a last chance attack. After all an injured animal's last stand is the most dangerous.
Seconds passed in a deathly silence until Ye Mo recognized Liu Huan was truly dead so he began searching through his remains.
He struggled this much even though Liu Huan was fighting bare-handed. Fortunately, he injured him from the start or else he would only be able to escape for his life. However there was no doubt for him, this youth should be one of the strongest participants out there and would have good chances to join the Tiger Martial Institute, alas now the heir of the Liu clan was no more.
All he found on him was a spatial pouch and his sword. It was an ancient sword around a meter long. Nothing special could be found on it, there were only two characters engraved on the blade 'Soaring Leaf'.
In the pouch were 50 gold coins, 3 bottles of different pills each, and some water.
"He's much more mindful than his sister" Ye Mo remarked as he peered through the content of the pouch.
In this world, there are two kinds of spatial pouch owner.
A lot of them would keep most of their belongings inside but the risk was that if someone robbed them or they died they would lose everything. Even worse was if an opponent murdered them, it was akin to offering everything to their killer since the pouches had no protection and anyone could gain access to what they contained. Of course, the majority didn't even consider such a case as most of them would think of themselves as heroes who would rise above the masses and didn't even believe they could die so the best place where their possessions could be was with them.
The others, like Liu Huan, would only take the necessary with them and safeguard the rest somewhere else though if something happened and someone snatched all their belongings in their absence, they might regret it their whole life. That's why those who do that are generally from a clan or important sect members and can leave everything in security at home where no incident could occur.
Ye Mo wasn't disappointed as he took the habit of never expecting anything in the first place.
The pouch had eight cubic meters of space inside and was of much better quality than his sister's one. Liu Huan's furnitures occupied only a little part of the space so Ye Mo took it. With this he would be able to carry more things and he could still sell one later if needed.
Without forgetting the token, Ye Mo packed everything and left.
"I should find a place to recover, fighting in this state could be dangerous and I still have a lot of time left." Ye Mo was covered in burns some reaching his bones, hopefully his vitals weren't damaged and it would heal by itself with time.
The most troubling injury was a huge gash that threatened to slice his right hand in two and constantly sprinkled blood down on the grass. It came from his sneak attack at the start of the fight, when his opponent guarded himself with his sword. As he kept fighting, the injury worsened, but his body's healing capacity was astonishing, and the blood flow slowly decreased every moment. Ye Mo tore Liu Huan's clothes and used the strips to bandage his hand before leaving.
Today, he clearly saw the difference between a martial artist using battle skills and someone without any. Qi was the source of power and battle skills were the way to unleash it. One can't lack the other.
If Liu Huan fought Ye Mo without using any battle skills he would have been butchered in spite of the fact that he was a 6th layer Qi Gathering Realm cultivator. Even though qi cultivation reinforced the body as well, it was nothing comparable to body refining.
Whereas when using battle skills, Ye Mo was barely on par with his injured enemy fighting with one hand. If he didn't take a risk, Liu Huan could have escaped and he wouldn't have been able to stop him.
He couldn't cultivate the Nine Revolutions Fiend Body with Liu Huan's corpse since it was an official test from the Tiger Martial Institute. With their strength he wasn't able to know if they were watching or not.
Even if they weren't watching, it only takes one participant to witness everything and leave without him noticing for him to be doomed.
"A wise man doesn't pursue small gains for greater danger. Oh? I'm here." Ye Mo spoke lightly, stopping in front of a tree.
It was small next to the other gigantic trees of the forest, but compared to him it was still rather large.
For Ye Mo the best places to hide in the woods without anyone bothering him were holed up inside a tree or underground.
He chose both.
Grabbing the trunk, Ye Mo used his enormous strength to pull the tree out of the ground. The big roots extracted from the soil wrecked the ground which helped him dig a hole good enough to accommodate himself.
When he was done, he went inside and placed the tree back above his head blocking and hiding the entrance from others. The little cave he made was sufficient for him to sit and the size of the hole at the entrance was just enough for the trunk to fit in, this way, it wouldn't attract suspicions.
Easing up, Ye Mo sat cross-legged and closed his eyes. He started absorbing qi in his body, unaware that outside, as the instructors expected, a bloodbath was unfolding.