Ye Mo contemplated the issue.
He had no way to know if what Wei Leng said was true or not, but if the matter of the pure iridescent iron was real he couldn't let this chance slip by.
"What's your name?" Ye Mo asked after he had made his decision.
"My name is Wei, my first name is Leng" Responded Wei Leng with a smile, showing his white teeth.
From the question, he understood what decision Ye Mo took and was delighted, at least he would live.
"Fine. I, Ye Mo take an oath with the heavens as a witness that I won't kill Wei Leng. If I break my word, may I suffer a thousand deaths."
After his announcement, Ye Mo instantly felt a mysterious pain, like some kind of shackles bound his heart, squeezing it tightly.
"I knew brother was a sensible man, here take the map and you can keep the gold coins as well. Then let's never meet each other again." Wei Leng handed over the map and was going to depart.
He was truly relieved, his teammates met such a gruesome death, just thinking about it made his legs grow weak. But using his wits, he was able to avoid this fate and become the sole survivor of their group!
As long as there is life, there is hope! Wei Leng still had an additional token and a few blood cores on himself, he could live another day and keep advancing in this competition, ultimately joining the Tiger Martial Institute!
"We won't indeed." Ye Mo suddenly said with a grin.
"What?" Wei Leng didn't understand.
But there was no need for his understanding as Ye Mo had already struck at lightning speed, his phalanx lightly hitting Wei Leng's temple! He fainted immediately.
Wei Leng fell helplessly as Ye Mo's hand quickly moved seizing his pouch. Then he stomped with his foot breaking Wei Leng's limbs one by one until he could not move anymore, and went to steal his comrades' pouches as well.
"I said I won't kill you, but I didn't say I won't injure you." Ye Mo mentioned.
He wouldn't bargain, when he struck, he never planned to leave a survivor in the first place.
The fight has been a one-sided massacre and the place was filled with blood, it was bound to attract packs of beasts. Wei Leng and his comrades' corpses would be devoured soon enough by the wild lives that would soon swarm around.
Since he wasn't the one to kill him, he wouldn't break his oath.
Wei Leng in the spur of the moment didn't notice this loophole in Ye Mo's oath, but most of all, he underestimated Ye Mo's viciousness.
If he had realized the double meaning in Ye Mo's oath, he would have just asked this one to swear he wouldn't harm him, but it was too late.
Ye Mo swiftly collected their belongings, but when he approached the boy he had kicked previously, he noticed his chest slightly heaving and sinking.
Fellow has been faking his death all this time and was taking quick breaths from time to time as he remained motionless. He tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible in order not to draw Ye Mo's attention until he left, but the latter went after each corpse to loot everything, when he approached the boy, he quickly realized the simulation.
Ye Mo chopped down with his hand, bending the young man's neck at an odd angle, his shock and unwillingness apparent on his face.
Even if left alone, the boy might still have died from the beasts, but Ye Mo couldn't let him go. If by chance he survived and heard everything about the pure iridescent iron, the map would become a curse more than an opportunity to him. At this time Ye Mo would only be able to separate from it if he wanted to live.
When he departed, Ye Mo could hear wolf howls in the vicinity as shadows were seen moving in the surroundings.
"A pity Ren Xue Tu's belongings burned completely." Ye Mo thought without dwelling much on it.
He was satisfied with his first assault. The reason he decided to hunt candidates wasn't solely because of resources.
When he fought with Liu Huan, he noticed something fundamental.
He lacked experience.
Exchanging blows in close combat against Ye Mo with a broken arm, he shouldn't have been able to last this long, but Liu Huan knew exactly when to attack and retreat, he used the environment to his advantage and imposed his own pace in the fight.
Ye Mo had a hard time following him and landing hits.
Fortunately, this trial in the jade forest was the best battleground to sharpen himself and fill his pockets.
As he engaged Wei Leng's band, only Ren Xue Tu gave him a threatening feeling, and when he analysed the situation, not only did he look like the leader positioned in the front, the others also regularly threw quick glances at him, displaying some kind of dependence.
This made Ye Mo the most expectant towards this person's possessions, but he couldn't risk himself just for some gold coins or blood cores and went at full strength from the start, sending Ren Xue Tu flying through Wei Leng's fire wall.
It was understandable, as Ren Xue Tu was a 5th layer Qi Gathering Realm cultivator, he learned multiple fierce battle skills and had great offensive power. He was the pillar of the group and their main killing force.
When Ye Mo got rid of him, their end was already set in stone. The girl using a water-type battle skill and Wei Leng were at the 4th layer of the Qi Gathering Realm and only possessed support-type martial arts, while the rest were rank three and posed no danger to Ye Mo.
"If I hadn't caught him unprepared from the start, even though I wouldn't die, I might have been injured in the battle. In the worst case, I would need to kill Wei Leng or take someone hostage to escape." Ye Mo summarized his battle learnings.
He was confident that even if it became dangerous for him, at worst, he could still escape. There was a boy with a movement battle skill in their team who surpassed Ye Mo's speed, so if he made Wei Leng cancel his Ardent Flame Ring technique and ran away, this person could still follow him.
However, the boy was too weak and if he tried to hinder Ye Mo's path or got too close, Ye Mo would easily butcher him.
While speeding through the woods, his heart suddenly started racing as a sensation of freedom invaded him.
"Seems like he finally died." Ye Mo felt like he was breathing fresh air for the first time after a long sentence of imprisonment. His inner shackles shattered, which could only mean Wei Leng has disappeared from the face of the earth.
"Bursting with strength from the start to take my opponent by surprise worked a couple times already, but it is only due to my neglected appearance, my non-existent cultivation, and because I'm a nobody."
"Once I enter the Tiger Martial Institute, people won't be caught unprepared like before. No, even reaching the second phase of the examination without any qi cultivation will make me stand out. The participants there won't give me any chance." Ye Mo wasn't delusional.
A trick could work once or twice, but the real foundation of power was your battle strength. Relying on anything else could only lead to defeat one day.
On the afternoon of the same day, Ye Mo walked out of a small stream naked, his clothes hanging on a branch.
His face was plain and he could only be considered average in terms of looks but his scar-laden body and his powerful figure made him look like an experienced warrior who battled his way for his life more than once.
Ye Mo was formerly covered in blood after his battle against Ren Xue Tu's group so he took a halt near this stream to have a bath, but he just left the water and went past a tree when he felt wind behind his back.
A tall girl with two daggers suddenly appeared behind him and chopped down towards his back.
She obviously had a battle skill enabling her to blend with the environment.
However, Ye Mo was ready from the start. Hiding near a stream was a good idea since water could wash your traces but Ye Mo noticed the leaves on the ground beside the trees had been stomped.
He might have been doubtful and think a band passed by this place some time ago, but he had been ambushed this way a couple of times already on his way here.
In this fashion, he only waited for the rat to leave its nest to catch it.
Ye Mo used his speed and his incomplete Wind Flow battle skill to easily avoid the blades as he turned around and grabbed her neck.
The girl wasn't strong, around the same level as second layer Qi Gathering cultivator. Ye Mo just applied a bit of force and her neck broke.
He fixed her as life left her eyes. Her head fell to the side as a tear dripped from her eye.
Ye Mo felt no pity, it was the fate of the weak in this land. You could either beg the strong for their goodwill or lie low, bid your time and try your best.
This girl chose to come here so she should have expected it could end that way.
Ye Mo rummaged through her clothes and took her pouch, then dressed himself. He transferred its contents to his before leaving, tossing it back.
On the road, Ye Mo met multiple beings and as usual he left no survivors, ransacking what was possible on his way. Yet, even then he had only Liu Hualing, Liu Huan and Wei Leng's pouches tied to a rope relied to his waist.
Of course Ye Mo thought about putting spatial pouches inside other pouches, then putting these pouches inside pouches once again to have unlimited carrying abilities, but it was simply impossible.
Those little dimensional pockets contained spatial inscriptions, if you tried to put one in another, these small formations would react as a counter force and reject each other. If you tried too hard and the inscriptions broke, you would lose your loot forever. In some cases, your possessions would randomly appear somewhere else in the world.
Ye Mo made the experience firsthand. That's why he only kept those with the best quality he found.
He had room for around one more pouch before it would become cumbersome for him to move with.
Ye Mo set out, but he didn't move far when a blockhead suddenly jumped from the top of a tree. He held a huge axe in his hands and chopped down in his fall towards Ye Mo.
He even heard him yell "Die for me!" as he hacked down.