Ye Mo was pleased.

Shadow Walk worked as intended. The truth was, during these 2 months most of his time was dedicated to it's comprehension.

After all this time of hard work he barely reached the first phase of the battle skill. It was the easiest of the three to learn but Ye Mo was satisfied.

He knew the Liu clan would certainly wait for him outside.

With this, his presence was undetectable and even his Qi emanations were hidden, passing for either a powerful expert or a mortal.

The effect of the first phase was concealment, not invisibility so as long as someone focused his gaze on you, you would be seen.

But if it's not the case then approaching someone stealthily would be as easy as breathing.

That's what happened to Liu Zhan Lie, once he lost sight of Ye Mo it was already the end for him.

Turning in the corner Ye Mo just had to jump and hold a cornice, when Liu Zhan Lie passed below he could draw close and deal the death blow efficiently.

With no aura leakage and silent steps, Liu Zhan Lie didn't even know who killed him when his heart was crushed and life left his eyes.

When his teamates started worrying about him Ye Mo was far already.

Nonetheless, Shadow Walk wasn't all encompassing. There were all kinds of battle skills for all kinds of situations, if someone used one unabling the user to see through all sorts of cloaking, he would be able to see Ye Mo's face and cultivation, Shadow Walk or not, hooded or not.

If a cultivator used an investigative battle skill which detected heat he would easily discover Ye Mo's position even without sight as well.

"At best, the first phase can be used as a trump card but it can't be counted on in a life and death situation."

This situation also displayed why discretion and acting in secrecy was so important.

If people knew Ye Mo had Shadow Walk in hand or he revealed his progress in the first phase, the Liu clan assuredly would have sent experts that countered this ability.

At this point Ye Mo would have no choice but to face the Liu clan ambush head-on or stay inside the institute indefinitely.

Now he was outside the city already and no one even understood what happenned.

It was easy to act secretly but hard to move openly!

The immediate surroundings of Azure Water City were completely barren. There were no trees, flowers or vegetation of any kind, the earth was dry and cracked and only the roads leading to the entrances were even.

Only after walking for dozens of li would you face wildernesss. This scenery didn't reflect the wealth of the city, it was just the true nature of the landscape.

"If what the map show is true, at the south-east there should be many mountains surrounded by a dense jungle. Once at place, if i don't deviate from the path the fourth mountain i meet should be my destination."

Ye Mo looked at the map then moved like a furious gale using the Wind Flow battle skill.

Once his Qi was lowered to 30% he would stop and continue steps by steps.

Dangers lurked everywhere when cultivators journeyed outside. It was vital to always keep a certain amount of Qi in reserve for any unexpected situations that might arise.

Once their Qi is completely depleted, the strenght of cultivators would hit rock bottom.

It was different for a body cultivator like Ye Mo but he would still keep a minimum amount of Qi at all time.

When he reached the jungle, the sun had already completely disappeared into the horizon and the night fell.

Numerous stars could be vaguely seen in the sky.

Inwardly, he was surprised.

Although the jungle wasn't that far, it still took him half a day to arrive with his speed which means ordinary mortals on a cart would take 2 or 3 days to make it.

Would Wei Leng go this far for hunting?

But when he thought about it, it made sense.

"For mortals, life is very hard. To a hunter, all that matters is the size, the number and the quality of the gains, that's how they make a living. But if their usual spot isn't enough to sustain themselves or feed their family anymore it's not uncommon for them to change place."

"Traveling two days to hunt might seem a waste but as long as the spot is first-rate and you can catch many more animals than usual then it's all worth it. Going there once in a while wouldn't be a problem."

Ye Mo went in the woods carefully.

The jungle seemed to continue on and on, touching the shadows of the faraway mountains. Furthermore the depths of the jungle were covered in deep darkness, concealing unknown perils and beasts.

He could hear screeching noises and the rustling of bushes around him.

At night, the jungle became more dangerous but Ye Mo kept advancing. He had no choice, time was in essence here.

The further he went, the quieter the surroundings became to the point he could hear himself breathing.

Under the cold breeze of the night, steam was released from his mouth with each exhalation.

After a moment Ye Mo made a step forward when suddenly, the earth was returned and a green giant maw closed itself on him.

Ye Mo immediately jumped avoiding the needle like teeths by a hair's breadth as he went in the air but the giant maw left the ground and followed him, the trunk being filled by vine like roots shooting towards him.

"A flesh devorer sleeping plant!" Ye Mo narrowed his eyes as he recognized the plant he learned about in the library.

His feets flashed quickly and in an instant dozens of vines were deflected. Taking support from a tree, he shot up again.

Ye Mo went through the thick foliage of the trees and left the darkness of the jungle to be faced with a sea of stars.

He could see the jungle extending infinitely and the outline of gigantic mountains in the horizon. The crescent shaped moon offered little luminosity.

But quickly the sound of snapping branches could be heard as the giant maw soon joined him, it's mouth opening wide to swallow him.

Ye Mo flexed the muscles of his arm as he clenched his fist hard.

One was falling down while the other was ascending.

When it was close enough, Ye Mo punched out with all his strenght as his fist cleaved down like an axe and connected with the flesh devorer sleeping plant.

The maw was immediately destroyed and multiple pieces flew down in all directions before the impact traveled all the way down to the trunk which broke down in several parts.

It fell on the side soaking the earth of sticky green fluid.

The flesh devorer sleeping plant was a rank 1 mid-tier plant.

It hides underground at a few centimeters from the surface. At this distance it would feel the slightest of tremor.

Once a beast passed by, it would immediately sense it and close it's maw on the prey. If the beast was fast, it would be punctured by the teeths on the edge of the mouth but most of the time they served as bars to prevent them to escape.

Then it would return in the ground and digest it for 5 to 10 days. They are dangerous if you pass right above them but if you walk around even by just a foot, they wouldn't attack.

Ye Mo looked at the corpse for a moment.

He was very vigilant but was still caught in the trap of the plant.

At the same time, it's also because he was this vigilant that he could escape becore it closed it's maw on him.

Ye Mo picked the pile of rocks he guarded in his pouch. They were the same he used during the recruitment competition of the Tiger Martial Institute. He kept going in a straight line while every few seconds, he would throw a rock in front of him.

In the surroundings many flesh devorer sleeping plant reacted, swallowing the rock then returning to the earth.

"Seems like their hunting area." In all, Ye Mo counted 8 of them.

He was startled once as a rank 1 high tier flesh devorer sleeping plant awakened. It's humongous maw was twice the size of mid tier ones and broke out many trees as it emerged to swallow this tiny rock before burying itself back underground.

Fortunately it didn't attack Ye Mo as he didn't step on his trap.

But the further he went, the less frequent they became until he could walk for hundreds of meters without encountering any of them.

Ye Mo retrieved every rock that weren't taken by the plants and kept going but at the same time, he couldn't help but have a strange feeling in his heart about this place.

"It's too calm."

He couldn't accurately place words on this sensation.

But he felt there was something unnatural about this jungle.

He has been walking for a long time but beside the flesh devorer sleeping plants, he only met ordinary animals like snakes, deer or birds.

Sometimes he would hear the hoots of owls.

In the sky, the stars shone dimly as the night grew thicker.

Ye Mo went deeper, bypassed the first mountain and arrived on a hill covered of grass and devoid of trees.

It gave him a clear view of the top of the trees hiding the path with their leaves all the way to the second mountain which showed it's peak further away.

Moving surrounded by trees and separated from the sky could easily be disorienting.

Ye Mo looked for an instant to make sure he was going the right way then started to go down.

"Roar!!!" At the next moment, an overwhelming beastly roar filled the jungle.

In the distance, hundreds of birds flapped their wings hurriedly as they flew away like they were trying to escape a disaster.

"This..." Ye Mo's pupils shrank.

Thousands of li away, he could see a dark mass surging, towering above the trees of the jungle and marching in his direction.

Ye Mo's hairs stood on end and a cold chill invaded him.

"This is a rank 3 beast!"