Chapter 29: Qi Stealing Mole

"Qi Stealing Mole?" Suddenly, Ye Tian Yun saw a strange beast popping its head out of the ground, staring at him.

It had a height of five inches with four sharp claws on each paw, entirely brown, and it was covered with a faint light. This was the low-rank Qi Stealing Mole

*puu*

But before even getting close, the Qi Stealing Mole contracted itself and started to escape.

*whoosh*

Seeing that, Ye Tian Yun made a sudden leap, but he was one step too slow. The Qi Stealing Mole had already burrowed into the ground when he arrived.

"These things are faster than I expected, let's see how long you can stay alive." Ye Tian Yun dryly laughed, but he was not impatient. He scanned around with his gaze.

He knew that the Qi Stealing Mole could escape underground, but after a certain distance they must return to the surface, and the escaping direction was usually straight. This was because of the side effects of eating too many spiritual plants. Too much spiritual plants had adverse effects on them, even numbing their sense of direction. In fact, even the special lustre on its body was also due to consuming too many spiritual plants.

Even after such harmful effects, these Qi Stealing Mole seemed to have become addicted to spiritual plants.

So, Ye Tian Yun felt that as long as he confirmed the escaping tracks of the Qi Stealing Mole, it was not going to be difficult to catch them with his speed.

*whoosh*

Just at that time, a light flashed, and a Qi Stealing Mole came out of the ground. It was obviously the same one that just escaped and was trying to get a sense of direction.

But just as the Qi Stealing Mole revealed itself, it suddenly burrowed back into the ground and continued escaping.

Ye Tian Yun smirked, and he strode over several steps, then leapt through the air like a sly rabbit. His hands formed into an eagle's claw, and he grabbed at the empty space in front of him.

*whoosh*

Just as Ye Tian Yun had thought, when he landed on the ground, the Qi Stealing Mole came out from the ground again to understand the direction.

But this time, Ye Tian Yun was faster than it. He did not give any chance for it to escape and caught it. Ye Tian Yun's big hands tightly grabbed onto its branches and pulled it out of the ground.

*jijiji*

It tried its best to escape and made an ear-piercing noise to get out of Ye Tian Yun's hold. However, all of it was futile. Its struggle only lasted for a second.

*slash*

Ye Tian Yun took out a small knife from his spatial ring and slashed it across the Qi Stealing Mole. It took its last breath and went still.

[Congratulations Host, you have successfully killed a low tier Qi Stealing Mole, and gained 1 Kill Points!]

Ye Tian Yun sighed as he looked at the notification and used his knife to pull out a sparkling beast core.

'This thing is really quite strange. This beast core has Qi concentration comparable to that of a peak mid-tier beast core. I can't even imagine just how many spiritual plants this single beast had eaten, and there are thousands like this one on the mountain. Gracious Sword Sect is facing a lot of losses due to these Qi Stealing Moles.' Ye Tian Yun couldn't help but sigh.

However, to him, this was not the thing he needed to be worried about. Gracious Sword Sect was only a temporary stop in his journey. Once he had finished his objective, he would move on to the next target.

Just when he was about to get up, he heard another prompt from the system,

[Host, would you like to consume the Qi Stealing Mole beast core?]

"How many kill points will I receive?"

[It will depend on the Qi concentration in the beast core. The one currently with you will grant six Kill Points.]

"Oh, it's better I use them for the exam. Let's hunt as many beast cores as possible in the next few hours."

The underground cave paths were very large and complicated. It was very rare to meet other disciples. So, Ye Tian Yun who already didn't care about other participants was now a bit more carefree. Though, he did guess that the Elders were keeping an eye on the participants.

The Spiritual Medicine Mountain was divided into the core-circle, inner-circle, and outer-circle.

The outer-circle had the low tier Qi Stealing Moles, the middle-circle had the mid-tier Qi Stealing Moles, and the core-circle had the high tier Qi Stealing Moles.

Though the high tier Qi Stealing Moles were very few in numbers but were comparable to a Qi Stabilization Realm cultivator. They didn't escape like the low tier ones, but proactively attacked anyone who trespassed 'their' territory.

This was also why many disciples didn't dare to head too deep into the underground cave paths in fear of encountering high tier Qi Stealing Mole spirit beast.

Ye Tian Yun kept going on, hunting down any Qi Stealing Mole which crossed his path, only caring about the pleasant sound of system prompts,

[Congratulations Host, you have successfully killed a low tier Qi Stealing Mole, and gained 1 Kill Points!]

[Congratulations Host, you have successfully killed a low tier Qi Stealing Mole, and gained 1 Kill Points!]

[Congratulations Host, you have successfully killed a low tier Qi Stealing Mole, and gained 1 Kill Points!]

…

This was the second stage of the total three stages of Inner Court Entrance Hunt. And would go on for about six hours. This hunt will also decide the pre-rankings, with the one who hunted most on the top and then so on in descending order of the total number of beast cores the disciples are able to acquire.

The third stage would be a head-on battle between top disciples. It would be a simple one round elimination match.

Disciples would challenge the pre-ranked disciples from round two and battle it out if they think they can get a higher rank. Each disciple had one chance to challenge anyone higher within twenty ranks than them. While the challenged disciple had three chances to deny the challenge. If a disciples challenge was denied, he still had the chance to challenge someone else.

Top ten disciples couldn't deny the challenges, however, the only advantage they had was they only needed to battle five times.

After the challenge, the one who wins will get sixty per cent of total points from the loser.