The mountain stood like a monolith in the middle of the jungle, its shadow looming over Ye Mo.
This mountain had two facets, on the back where was supposed to be located the secret cave was only stark rocks and steep cliffs devoid of any vegetation until its peak.
With his abilities Ye Mo could still climb on this side until he reached the secret cave, his strength and endurance was more than enough for this kind of task, however, he chose to take the path that faced him.
On the other side of the mountain where he stood, it was full of verdant greenery, with trees tenaciously clinging to the inclined earth and plants of various colors swaying with the mountain breeze.
Ye Mo walked on a sinuous pathway that climbed all the way towards the peak, making turns around the mountain.
Through this, he could also attain the cave of pure iridescent iron, although the path was much longer, between climbing and running here on the ground, he would arrive at destination at the same time and this way, he wasn't put in a precarious situation.
After all, it was the wilderness, what if he was suddenly attacked by some flying blood beast while climbing? Advancing on the earth was much safer.
Ye Mo advanced and met some animals on his way, sometimes they were ordinary deers or bears and others they were low level blood beasts.
Standing at rank 1 low and mid tier at most, they didn't pose any danger to him.
Even well trained mortals could lay traps and deal with them or escape much less himself.
Ye Mo kept moving and arrived at the back of the mountain.
There, the road was narrow and standing at hundreds of meters high, he had to stick his back against the mountain wall and walk sideways to not fall, progressing with a great view of a large part of the jungle as a precipice welcomed him.
After ascending nearly three quarters of the mountain, Ye Mo arrived beside two boulders separated by a cavern.
"There is no mistake, i am on the backside of the mountain close to the area marked by the map, it must be this cave Wei Leng talked about." Ye Mo's heart fluttered slightly, but he contained his enthusiasm.
Only after retrieving the pure iridescent iron can he claim success.
Actually, he raised his guard even more as he walked inside.
The interior grew darker the more he progressed in the cavern, with his sight growing increasingly useless, he focused on his heightened senses to distinct any movement in his surroundings.
He kept advancing, one step after the other, to the point he couldn't perceive the bright entrance he came from anymore.
Only black darkness surrounded him.
Ye Mo continued forward, slowly edging into the darkness.
In this space, he couldn't distinguish the time passing or the distance covered, he just kept moving, driven by his goal.
At some point, he started to discern some light far ahead.
The light was faint but it grew clearer as he approached.
After a few seconds, Ye Mo arrived in a large enclosure.
"I don't know how long i have walked, but i should be around the heart of the mountain now." Ye Mo thought taking a look at the area.
On the walls and the ceiling were many chunks of iron scintillating faintly and lightening the place.
This iron seemed like an illusion, changing colors depending on the perspective from which you looked at it.
"Finally, the pure iridescent iron, but..." Ye Mo frowned, "Wei Leng clearly exaggerated the tale to save his life, he told me the cave was full of it while here, only the left wall and the ceiling contains a few chunks or iron fused with the rock of the cave."
"Well, it's still enough for what i intend to do." Ye Mo didn't mind it.
As long as it could serves his purpose, it wasn't a big deal.
To extract the iron from the rocks, there wasn't a thousand ways, Ye Mo grabbed a pickaxe from his pouch and began carefully beating the rocks connected to the pure iridescent iron on the left wall.
After a few hits, the rock would break and the extremity of iron fell down before Ye Mo picked it up and stored it in his pouch.
He did this until he collected all the chunks on the left wall then started attacking the ceiling, jumping up to reach its level then he would deliver one blow before landing down.
The ceiling contained more pure iridescent iron than the left wall most probably due to the height where it stood making Wei Leng unable to retrieve it.
As for Ye Mo, he could still jump this high and deliver one hit at a time, slowly collecting the iron that fell down.
After the time for an incense stick to burn, Ye Mo retrieved all the pure iridescent iron left.
"With this maybe i have a chance to fare well in the year end competition." Ye Mo thought clenching his fist.
This competition will see the apparition of not only the genius of the tiger martial institute, but also the sky and golden institute.
If it was only so, why not, but this competition also didn't make any distinction between junior and senior disciples.
For he, who was only a 7th layer cultivator without even a complete battle system, beating them was a matter of the weak defeating the strong.
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That might not be so bad if he only had to obtain a defensive and investigative battle skill, however, even his other techniques were lagging behind.
Wind flow was only low-tier and couldn't support him much in a battle between experts.
"Even the stone breaking punch becomes less effective as i grow stronger, and cyclone kick has scarcely been useful. The problem lies in the way cyclone kicks are extremely fast but lacks power, if my opponent use a good defensive technique he can protect himself from all the kicks even against me who is a body refining cultivator."
Ye Mo knew his battle skills weren't up to his needs but he couldn't ask for too much. Considering he entered the institute less than a year ago, his growth was still incredible.
That's why he needed to compensate for his battle skills with other things to have a chance and reach first place in the competition.
All this made him desire even more the prize of a peak tier Yellow Class battle skill.
After his reflection, Ye Mo took a chunk of pure iridescent iron in his hand then walked near the center of the enclosure before he stopped.
On the ground before him was a hole with unknown depths as he stood at its edge.
This bottomless pit, he noticed it first when reaching the place, but the pure iridescent iron quickly took all his attention.
Now that he retrieved all of it already, he could focus on this peculiarity.
The hole was large enough for two adult men to jump inside together, however the pure iridescent iron was only barely enough to give view to the surroundings much less the depth of this hole and now that they were all taken, the place was plunged in darkness once again.
The chunk he took in his hand was just enough for him to see the edge of the hole so he wouldn't fall.
Ye Mo took a stone from his pouch and threw it in the hole.
The stone was immediately devored by the darkness while he patiented.
After half a minute, there was still no sound echoing as the stone seemed to never reach the ground.
"This hole is so strange, what could there be below?" As soon as this thought emerged, it was impossible to repel it.
"Wei Leng couldn't have explored its depths, he would just die from the fall. He probably took a bit of iron and left satisfied, but with my abilities, i should be able to go see what's inside."
Since he already completed his objective in coming here, he could as well explore further.
Ye Mo grabbed the blood tracking fly in the palm of his hand then jumped down.
Quickly, he reached great speed as he dropped down towards the unknown.
He kept falling, falling and falling!
He thought he would reach the end pretty quickly, but seconds passed slowly without any change.
The abyss seemed interminable.
He dropped down for so long he started to think he might have been trapped in an endless fall when he suddenly noticed the ground in the distance!
In this deep darkness, the surface of the walls surrounding the landing site were covered in luminescent stones giving a clear view of what has been nothing but gloomy blackness till now.
To slow down his fall and come down relatively unscathed, Ye Mo had may ways, but he didn't chose any as he directly plummeted on the ground like a falling meteor, raising the soil, dust and broken rock framents in the air in a crash!
When the dust subsided, Ye Mo was found in a pitiful state, his legs completely shattered at various points in a gruesome, bloody sight and even his waist was broken, his left arm that supported his body next during the crash was bended in a way it seemed to give someone directions.
Enduring the discharge of pain sent to his brain and relying on his willpower to keep conscious, Ye Mo used the Endless Vitality battle skill.
The injuries he sustained were so serious that the healing battle skill had an immediate effect as the limbs could be seen turning straight again and the wounds on his body closing up.
The reason he didn't mitigate the fall was precisely due to Endless Vitality.
Even if he reduced the speed at which he dropped down, he would still suffer minor wounds, these injuries would become bothersome in the long run, being slow to heal, and he wouldn't have been in optimal condition to explore the rest of the cave.
Directly enduring the fall head-on and suffering such cruel injuries to heal quickly with an healing battle skill was the most effective method.
In a bit more than a minute, Ye Mo stood up in top condition.
His clothes were drenched in his own blood but no injuries remained on his body.
Of course, few would come up with this kind of barbaric way to sort out this situation and even if they did, they still needed to be a body refining cultivator to survive the fall then not losing consciousness and dealing with the injuries was again another story.
Treating one self and other like objects, pursuing maximum efficacy, demonic resolution!
Ye Mo opened his right hand and the blood tracking fly came out flapping its wings and flying around, it was protected during the crash and came out unharmed.
The human treaded in the long cave followed by a bug, with the firm intention to see it through, as he felt it was all the more mysterious.