"I'm really lucky, i have been worrying about gold all these months but to think that as soon as i left the pagoda, i was presented with this opportunity, i can't miss this chance."

In life, often when people seek something urgently, they would search low and high without being able to find it.

In contrary they would get their hands on many things in their search they didn't ask for.

That's why acquiring something when you need it the most is called a fortuitous encounter.

Ye Mo didn't turn down this occasion because he needs gold coins the most, does this meant he wasn't aware of the Liu clan's scheme? Of course not, anyone in his situation would understand they tried to force him in a position where he would be defeated then become a pig sent to the butcher.

They didn't try to hide it because they couldn't, but after getting an understanding of Ye Mo's character, Liu Dan was persuaded he would accept.

In this world, nothing was free, risks and rewards often comes together. If he accepted, it's above all because he believes he has his own chances in this fight.

If the risk was greater than the rewards and he didn't think he could win then even if a million gold was offered he would still deny the proposition.

Life is the most important, without his life how can he carry his dream to fruition.

"Liu Zhi has been in the institute longer and is much more powerful than Liu Sen, he can't be taken lightly. However those two are the only Liu clan members they have inside currently, if i win, they won't be able to plot against me anymore and have no choice but to wait outside for a chance when i leave the institute." Ye Mo thought as he kept going.

On his way he passed by the body refining and the cultivation tower. There wasn't much to say on the cultivation tower however the body refining tower that was usually the less visited of the three was crowded this time and Ye Mo could see many students going in and out of the entrance.

"What is this sudden interest for body refining cultivation techniques? Could it be..." Ye Mo didn't realize it since he was cultivating in the pagoda but many were surprised by the fact he was able to successively cultivate on the first, then the second floor, defeating 8th layer cultivators on the spot to gain a room.

In their mind, it was just too sudden.

For everyone, Ye Mo was just a coward and a loser, not only his talent and cultivation was low, but he didn't even have the spirit to fight in competitions and try his best. He was seen as one of the worst student in the institute when asked about and many despised him.

So when he abruptly showed such prowesses, surpassing the abilities of the majority of students, it was evident they would be startled.

It was like mocking an ant for being small and weak before it suddenly turned into a tiger and ravaged the land, wouldn't you be shocked?

Contrary to the dean of the Tiger Martial Institute, what students were the most interested about was Ye Mo's battle strength, fighting two layers above himself.

They speculated a lot among themselves and didn't take long to reach a consensus. The most uncommon trait about Ye Mo was his body refining cultivation, it must be the secret for his strength!

So over days and weeks, more and more students started picking and dabbling in body refining arts, hopeful that their battle strength would be raised tremendously and they would defeat higher level cultivators in no time.

All these students, they were half-right and half-wrong.

It was true that Ye Mo's body refining cultivation was his greatest advantage currently but they were also wrong thinking they could reach the same effects after training for some time.

Because body refining took time, ressources and fortitude and Ye Mo could have such achievements this fast only because he cultivated a Star Class demonic art!

In Azure Water City, there were only Yellow Class martial arts no matter their classification and it was also the case for institutes.

Over the course of months, many started body refining with enthusiasm and determination but even the most obstinated of them gave up at some point.

The cultivation of body refining was too brutal and painful, many could not endure it to completion, at the same time, a lot of them needed extremely pricy ressources consumed on a daily basis to be cultivated.

Wether willingly or forcefully, they had to abandon at some point.

If at least the body refining technique gave great benefits, making their battle strength increase exponentially, why not, but the results were far from what Ye Mo demonstrated in his fights.

Nonetheless, after three months, there were still many that didn't try body refining yet and thought it would be different with themselves hence there were still a lot of people visiting the body refining tower, continuing this tendency.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

However, even more of them cried tears of blood over the token they wasted for a technique they couldn't even cultivate when they could have acquired a powerful battle skill in it's place.

This only testified of the desperation the students felt to increase their strength in the remaining time even by the smallest margin for the oncoming year-end competition, trying all kinds of ways to quickly grow in the last days, verified or not.

"What did you pick?"

"I used a token for the third floor to make sure to get something good and obtained the High-tier Frenzy Lightning body refining technique, and you?"

"Are you crazy, you need to be hit by lightnings repeatedly to cultivate this art, are you trying to kill yourself? As far as i'm concerned i took the Elephant Fortress art."

"Hmph, and i am the crazy one? You must consume Bone Densifying pills to cultivate this technique, where will you find the money, did you inherit a mountain of gold from your father the city gate guard?"

Disciples argued and mocked their choices while he passed by.

"Hehe, they are bound to be disappointed." Ye Mo snickered as he continued.

Those techniques would only give them benefits similar to Ha Jun and even after training them to completion through years, they would only be on par with the second or third revolution of the Fiend Body at best.

In just one or two months, the results would be small.

Every body refining techniques had their own difficulties to train in.

In Ye Mo's case, the ressources needed to progress in his art was human lives, for some it would be great as they didn't need to waste their wealth and could just kill to become stronger, but for others it was the most unnacceptable of method and they wouldn't train this art no matter what.

However, the truth was that many would actually betray their moralities when presented with such a clear opportunity to gain power.

In a few minutes, Ye Mo arrived at the battle skill tower and showed his token before going in and taking the stairs.

"With this new battle skill, i will be able to cover another aspect of my combat system, investigation wouldn't be very useful for a one on one fight in the arena so i will rule it out for now, leaving me with either defense or healing."

Ye Mo pondered as he reached the third floor and quickly made his choice.

He recalled when he went in search for the secret cave for the first time and how he have been hovering near death after being in the surroundings of the blast between the Wrathful Black Ape and the Firebird.

He had to continously take pills and cultivate for one day and two nights, almost completely emptying his stock, for him to be able to move again.

This would have been the perfect situation for an healing technique and he felt it was a pity he didn't have one at this time so he decided to go this way.

He browsed through several healing techniques, finding many interesting ones as he ingrained them in mind, his knowledge still growing.

High-tier Yellow Class Blood Flower Battle Skill: When cut or suffering an injury leaking blood, this technique creates a flower of blood that grows and blooms on the base of the wound before it would wilt and fall down in the span of a few seconds. When it drops, the injury would have been healed completely and nothing will remain on its place.

High consumption of Qi, most suited for high talent cultivators who can replenish their Qi quickly.

High-tier Yellow Class Poison Swallowing Battle Skill: When activated, the user can consume and digest any kind of harmful toxins and poison. Can also be used to spit the poison back, becoming both an healing and offensive technique.

"Hmm, Liu Han would probably have been saved with this battle skill in hand but who knows, if other clans dares poison him, they should have used a very powerful one that can't be healed by your average technique." Ye Mo's thoughts drifted as he kept reading about various battle skills.

Ye Mo began skimming through several manuals as time was limited here.

"That's it!" Ye Mo rejoiced, after dozens of minutes, he finally found a desirable healing battle skill.

After returning to the ground floor and unsealing the manual with the attendant, he placed it in his pouch and hurried back home.

He was excited and when he finally reached his familiar little stone house, he took it out and placed it on the desk.

On the cover could be read 'Endless Vitality' battle skill.

"After covering another aspect with this new art, my battle strength will at minimum double!" Ye Mo's eyes shined fervently.

Every new surge in strength was another small step towards his goal!