The spectators were still immersed in the fights and didn't react right away. Ye Mo was only a nobody with no cultivation and his opponent, a small character of the Tie family with a cultivation of the 3rd layer Qi Gathering Realm.
For the onlookers, this match didn't have any appeal, so they focused on the others where stronger and more famous experts were battling, but gradually, people noticed the incident.
"Hey, what's going on over this stage, didn't the fight just start? Why is no one moving?"
"Look, there is someone below the stage. What happened, did he lose already?"
"He's not moving anymore, is he dead?"
As more people mentioned it, spectators placed their attention on Ye Mo's battle stage and little by little, angry shouts erupted in the surroundings.
"I saw it all, this kid sneak-attacked his opponent and killed him!"
"How shameless at such a young age, this boy is tarnishing the Tiger Martial Institute's name."
"This little runt dares act this way in this grand competition, his guts know no bounds. Quickly disqualify him!"
Ye Mo was standing in the middle of the stage, a cold indifference carved on his face, as if the public's shouts weren't directed at him.
It was like he was just an onlooker witnessing the scene from a distant place.
The instructor overseeing the battles quickly went over Tie Tao's body. He squinted his eyes as he examined the corpse.
The chest caved in and a deep imprint of a foot remained on his torso, but the instructor realised it wasn't the kick that killed him but the fall. He was projected with such force that upon contact with the hard ground, his spine broke and his organs suffered heavy damage, ending his life.
The middle-aged man turned around and spoke to Ye Mo, "Young man, you have gone too far. Didn't we tell you killing wasn't allowed?"
One of the reasons the instructor was watching over the stages was to prevent such incidents from happening. The truth was that even he was taken off guard by Ye Mo's sudden attack, and with the match ending in one hit, he didn't have the time to react at all.
How could he expect this kid to have no care about his image and to viciously strike his opponent when this one was greeting him? Many spectators were present, from the powerful to the wealthy and influential, and even students from the institute observed the fights. Such scenes never happened ordinarily, participants usually tried to act honorably and principled, displaying all their qualities to the crowd and making the onlookers look at them favorably.
Now that a death had occurred, his evaluation would drop and he would only get half the rewards as the hosting instructor. As such, he couldn't help but gain a little sense of loathing towards Ye Mo.
"Senior must be joking. How could I know my opponent would fall in one hit, I only tried to win, or are you blaming me for doing my best?" Ye Mo replied apathetically.
The battle overseeing instructor snorted, "Go back with the others, but heed my words. If you kill your opponent with a surprise attack like that once again, I will disqualify you, then you will face the consequences."
The instructor wished to straightforwardly eliminate Ye Mo, but he couldn't find fault with him, after all, being a shameless scum wasn't against the rules. He could only give him a warning for the next matches.
Ye Mo left under the public's indignant shouts.
"What, he's not getting eliminated?!"
"Since the host checked the body and didn't do anything, it means he didn't break any rules."
"What can he do, it's not against the rules to sneak attack, but who would have thought this kind of person would enter the competition, attacking during his opponent's greeting..."
Ye Mo treated these words as thin air. Only his objectives and the way to attain them mattered, the weak-willed who only lived through people's eyes weren't worth anything.
The fights resumed, and soon the top 50 appeared.
The four young masters ended all their matches in one hit. Ma Shinfei displayed amazing battle strength and would have burned his foe to death without the intervention of the instructor.
Ye Mo, who witnessed everything with the waiting contestants, closed his eyes. "Fortunately, my instincts didn't betray me. If I had confronted him back in the Jade Forest, I don't know what would have happened."
For his first fight, Shen Xue severed one of his opponent's arms right off the bat. His opponent didn't even see anything, as his arm was already flying as soon as the bells rang. After this display of strength, every youth matched with him gave up before the fight started.
Ye Mo was now the only contestant without any qi and also one of the youngest among the top 50, with Li Qiang's little brother, Li Cheng, both being twelve years old.
Ye Mo pretended to struggle in his fights, matching his strength with his opponent's. Many times, he willingly took a hit, groaning and falling on the ground even though his body could easily handle it. Then, he would quickly rise up and attack, finishing his opponent after more than a hundred blows each time.
His acting skills were top-notch, and the public who had already attributed his first win to the sneak attack quickly lost interest. The remaining ones only looked at his matches to cheer his opponents and hope they would beat him up.
Besides a few keen eyes, barely anyone noticed that he entered the top 50.
Apart from these famous geniuses, there was another contestant who caught everyone's eye. It was a boy with long blue hair and a spear that was longer than him hanging diagonally on his back.
Every time he fought, the instructor would stop the battle just before he unleashed his attack, announcing he was victorious. The pleading of the contestants didn't change anything, and the mysterious boy reached the top 50 without showing any skills. This peculiar event caused the indignation of a few spectators, but the experts among the public looked at this scene with a discerning light in their eyes.
No one recognized this boy or knew where he came from, adding to the incomprehension of the onlookers.
For the fourth round, Ye Mo was against a girl using a spear as well.
She didn't greet Ye Mo and used her best battle skill as soon as the match started. No one bothered with formalities facing him since his first fight against Tie Tao, everyone attacked directly.
"Sweeping Mad Thrust!" The girl shouted as the speed of her spear increased.
Instantly, a flurry of strikes advanced towards Ye Mo, like a wave of spear tips crashing against him.
Ye Mo tried to dodge, but it was so fast that the shadows of the spear remained in the air even after she pulled back, he couldn't avoid all of them.
He was grazed multiple times and blood dripped from his wounds, permeating the stage. The spear being a long-range weapon, Ye Mo was efficiently kept at a distance, and every time he tried to advance, he was met with dozens of thrusts and repelled.
The young girl attacked relentlessly, and injuries accumulated on Ye Mo's body, but after a while, the number of hits he received lessened.
The girl failed to realize that since the start of the match, Ye Mo's eyes had been completely open, focusing on the spear movements without blinking once.
The match continued, and as time passed, the spear tip could barely touch him anymore while Ye Mo crazily avoided everything like a snake slithering between the spear strikes.
He adapted to his opponent's onslaught and could now clearly see the spear movements. Ye Mo writhed, rolled and side-stepped in every direction with inhuman agility as he adapted to the girl's attack pattern.
At some point, he could feel where the spear would come from even before the attack was initiated.
Minutes passed, and the opponent couldn't land a hit anymore.
The girl sweated profusely and could feel she had reached her limits. Her qi was nearly exhausted and her right arm felt heavy, but she wasn't willing to give up.
Internally, she was shocked. Her opponent should have already fallen long ago. He was hit so many times his body was drenched in blood, yet he persisted for so long, and now, not only did she not win despite his injuries, she even lost her advantage as she couldn't land a hit anymore and her strength was depleted.
Feeling the end was near, she mustered everything left in her on one last thrust and attacked.
Wind billowed around the blade, this last attack seemed very powerful, but she didn't fully release her strike when Ye Mo, who felt the flow of the battle suddenly change, used this fraction of a second to draw closer and caught the shaft of the spear halfway in motion.
With his physical strength, he easily snatched the weapon from her hands.
The girl, exhausted and bare-handed, couldn't defend herself against Ye Mo, who smashed the handle of the spear against her face before she had the time to give up.
Her jaw broke, and teeth mixed with blood flew out of her mouth as her body spun around in the air before plopping on the stone tiles.
The instructor shook his head as he declared Ye Mo the victor. He didn't even need to check the girl's condition as he knew she wouldn't regain consciousness any time soon.
From this battle, Ye Mo could infer that his opponent was leading a good life. She had a cultivation of the 4th layer and good battle skills, but lacked experience. Her tempo never changed throughout the fight, and her strikes were predictable.
After a short time of adaptation, he could easily see through her and anticipate her movements.
"Only training but never fighting, how can you expect to reach your best potential?"
Ye Mo was sure this girl mostly cultivated and trained her battle skills, but rarely or never participated in any battles; this was a major defect that badly influenced her battle strength.
Ye Mo, who had his fair share of struggles, kept his calm and took his time to analyse her abilities. He clearly saw through her weaknesses, which led to his victory.
Although the wounds and the blood loss looked impressive, they were minor injuries, and only his skin was cut.
The injured participants would be healed between each match, so Ye Mo didn't need to worry about it.
"Damn it, this kid did it again!" The spectators who disliked Ye Mo already after the way he killed Tie Tao didn't miss this chance to criticize him.
"How could he hit her face like that, does he have no consideration for girls at all?!" A woman in the public covered her face with her hands, utterly revulsed, but she still looked at the scene through the gap between her fingers and winced as if she could feel the pain Ye Mo's opponent was going through.
"He better not meet me outside or I will beat him to a pulp."
"Then you should hope he loses his next match, one more win and he gets in the top 20."
In a cabin above the rows of spectators, Hong Li stroked his beard as he watched the fight, the corners of his mouth raised upwards.
"Dean, did you see something?" Han Zhen Jun witnessed this change and asked Hong Li.
It was unusual to see the dean display any emotion during the recruitment competition.
"It's nothing... I just feel this kid has some talent, but it's still too soon to talk about it. Let's keep watching."
"What did he notice that I missed?" Han Zhen Jun wondered as he lowered his head and gazed at Ye Mo leaving the stage.
Quickly, two other youths came on stage as the competition continued.