When they reached the second floor, the Li clan members looked around for a few moments before Li Qiang glared at one in particular.

"I swear, he was heading towards the second floor. Maybe he did it purposefully and left the pagoda afterwards." The Li clan member said, frigtened.

He was the one who left and reported the incident of Ye Mo leaving the room not too long ago.

"Separate in groups of two and ask them if they saw something." Li Qiang instructed, looking at the other students present in the surroundings.

His followers nodded as they formed four groups and left in different directions. They asked for informations to other cultivators but were careful to not approach those who were in the middle of fighting.

After a few minutes they all returned, solemn and despondent.

"Many of them saw him but from what they said, he has already entered a room in the second floor." Someone uttered in a low voice.

Another nodded as he continued, "Apparently he found a way near a stone door and defeated some 8th layer cultivators, they tried to stop him but couldn't do anything before he slipped inside."

As he listened, Li Qiang's fists clenched tightly until they turned pale from the lack of blood circulation.

"It's only been a few minutes since i have been told he left his room, how did he get one in the second floor this fast?"

"No, the real question is how did he get the strength to obtain one. He only cultivated for one month, his cultivation shouldn't have increased that much for him to defeat 8th layer cultivators!" Li Qiang raged inside.

Ye Mo was only an unknown youth that suddenly appeared in the institute recruitment competition. Even by now, he still was only at the 6th layer of the Qi Gathering realm while Li Qiang wasn't far from the 9th layer.

Not too long ago he could only barely get a room on the first floor after taking his cousin's hostage so although he was resolute in killing him, he never took him for a threat even as a joke.

But now he could go as far as defeat 8th layer cultivators and cultivate in the second floor in the span of one month?

Li Qiang was headstrong but he was no idiot as he began to reasses his enemy.

While he still didn't take Ye Mo for any danger, he was taking this affair seriously now.

On the stairs leading to the third floor, an ugly girl gracefully walked down by herself.

She was satisfied after a round of cultivation but when she noticed Li Qiang's group, she frowned as she turned around and went in their direction.

Li Qiang was still musing when he noticed her approaching and quickly cut his thoughts short as he watched her come.

When there was only one step apart from each other, she opened her mouth, "Li Qiang what is this gathering of Li clan members? Stop making them follow you everywhere, they can't be here if they don't have the strength to remain by themselves." The girl spoke, clearly annoyed as she looked at his underlings.

Among them were several 6th and 7th layer cultivators. Many that would come on the second floor with this cultivation would be attacked and injured, leaving the pagoda in a worse state than they came in but because they followed Li Qiang, no one dared approach them.

This was clearly Li Qiang using his power and authority to protect them when the pagoda was meant to be a place for battles where only the strong should prevail.

"What does it matter to you Yan Mei? Go on your way already!" Li Qiang said coldly.

Despite the fact Yan Mei always fared better than him in the competitions of the Tiger Martial Institute, he wasn't afraid of her. If it was necessary then he would fight her and show everyone who was truly the most powerful!

This was all the pride and confidence he built upon his abilities as he refused to be inferior to anyone.

"Im telling you, if you plan to defeat other students to make your people hog all the rooms for themselves like last time when you helped your cousin, i will directly intervene and stop you." The young miss of the Yan clan continued, not minding Li Qiang's tone.

A month and a half ago, Li Qiang went on the second floor with his cousin and defeated people in her stead, offering a room for her to cultivate.

The latter didn't battle but she still enjoyed the benefits of the pagoda, this was an unfair treatment that left a bitter taste in the heart of everyone present.

Among envy, the Tiger Martial institute turning a blind eye to the incident only served to increase the resentment students felt, partially towards Li Qiang but mostly against Li Xiurong who was seen as a scrounger that used others strength for her own interest.

Of course no one dared personally search trouble with her knowing her connections.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Yan Mei seemingly heard about it and now that she saw Li Qiang and his band she straightforwardly confronted him on this matter.

"Hmph, who do you take me for, i know that already. I don't plan to help them so if you're done nagging, you can leave." Li Qiang said irritated.

However Yan Mei stayed on her place looking straight in his eyes. Only when she was assured he wouldn't favour his people again in the pagoda did she walk away with a sigh.

If after that she still heard he was beating students to give rooms for his clan members, she will return and their next discussion would be with steel and Qi.

There were two places in the institute where students could fight, the pagoda and the arena.

Outside of official competitions, the arena could be used by disciples that wanted to test their abilities to fight each others and could also be used to settle a grudge between them the only condition being that both cultivators are consentent.

When the hatred and resentment was so big between them that they couldn't live under the same sky anymore, they could also fight to the death if both were willing but the institute would always try to dissuade them first, this was only happening as a last resort when the grievance was too big between them.

Students could also bet on the result of their fight and the institute would personally intervene to make sure the loser would meet the end of the deal.

Even outside of the pagoda, Yan Mei could still publicly challenge Li Qiang to a fight on the arena. With his personality, there was no chance he would refuse.

It was different to Ye Mo who had no care about fame and reputation, seeing only his benefits in priority.

That's also why Li Qiang was so determined to catch him when he was still inside and can't escape a fight.

"Annoying woman." Li Qiang snorted.

He felt she was a big hypocrite, coming to warn him about this when she had the biggest group of clan members passing the first phase of the Tiger Martial institute's recruitment competition.

Clearly she didn't skimp on helping her Yan clan either.

"Young master, what do we do now?" One Li clan member asked hesitant.

"Has it been seen how much gold Ye Mo used near the stone door?" Li Qiang asked as he returned to the previous matter.

"No, it happened too suddenly and people realized too late what hapenned but from the looks of it, it shouldn't be less than last time." One of his subordinates answered truthfully.

"Fine, you guys can leave for now, as for i..." Li Qiang looked at the stairs leading to the third floor.

When his band departed and he was by himself, he resolutely took the flight of stairs and walked up.

If Ye Mo could cultivate on the second floor, then he would take it up a notch and immediately cultivate on the third floor though it was also because he saw Yan Mei's descent.

Obviously she just cultivated there as well.

In a room of the second floor, Ye Mo marveled at the dense Qi floating inside. Compared to cultivation in his house, this was a difference between heaven and earth.

He could only imagine the benefits if he cultivated on the top floor of the pagoda, the Qi should be so concentrated it would be palpable.

However, the fifth to the seventh floor was accessible only to the higher-ups with a cultivation of the Foundation Establishment realm.

Even in the top floor there was an unspoken rule, the best room was reserved to Hong Li and no one shall use it for himself.

The pagoda was a place where you had to fight and defeat the contestants wanting your room to get inside, this rule was no different among instructors who had to continually improve themselves to keep using them.

If someone tried to use his room, Hong Li would indubitably take this as a challenge on himself and attack the cultivator without any delay.

With his powerful Inner Core realm cultivation no one could defeat him in the institute and the cultivator who took his room would end up in a really tough position, getting ruthlessly beaten up by the dean.

In the room, Ye Mo removed the needles piercing his palm without any reaction, the three holes releasing a small spurt of blood on the ground.

With the regenerative abilities of his body, he could already feel the wounds healing and after bandaging his hand, he didn't bother about it anymore as it gradually stopped bleeding.

The needles instead were placed in his pouch.

"With such concentrated Qi, i should be able to tackle the 7th layer of the Qi Gathering realm soon." Ye Mo thought as he picked four pieces of cloth from his spatial pouch.

Once again he covered the light crystals as he sat in darkness, motionless.

Practice makes perfect and Ye Mo returned to multitasking, both cultivating and training Shadow Walk at the same time.