The basement’s main doors stood wide open, revealing a middle-aged man seething with anger.
He appeared to be in his thirties or forties, with silver-white hair, a square face, and round eyes — indeed a rather dignified look.
As soon as he opened the door and saw three figures standing outside, two unfamiliar young men and one of his own men, he demanded in a deep voice, "Old Six, what are you doing here?"
"Brother Tiger," the burly man immediately stood at attention. "I… I’m here to pick up takeout."
Zhao Xing’er cut straight to the chase. "Where is the child?"
"What child?" Brother Tiger looked at her strangely, his expression still bewildered.
He had just been berated by a delivery rider, and the moment he stepped out, someone came looking for a child — who could switch gears that fast? What went through his mind was whether this was yet another child from his fooling around outside.
This wasn’t the first time something like that had happened.
But such a pretty girl — how could he possibly forget if anything had happened between them?
Had he been drinking too much?
"Hah—"
In that one second of Brother Tiger’s mental freeze, Zhao Xing’er leapt into the air and slammed a fist into his face!
Bang!
The punch sent him flying backward, plunging down the basement steps into the darkness below.
Yue Wen and the burly man standing nearby both winced. Who would have thought this delicate-looking girl was nothing but heavy artillery?
Seeing Brother Tiger sent flying back inside, Yue Wen and Zhao Xing’er followed after him. The basement staircase was steep, so they didn’t bother stepping down — each leapt in a single bound and landed on the floor below.
The big boss of the Tiger Head Gang lay on the floor in utter disarray, half-conscious.
Yue Wen was about to step forward and grab him when he suddenly sensed the atmosphere was wrong.
Old Six on the stairs above didn’t dare follow them down. After hesitating for a second, he turned around and closed the basement door from the outside.
What happened inside was none of his business.
Inside the basement, a fishy wind swept across the flat ground.
"You…" a voice like rolling thunder boomed from straight ahead, "who are you?"
The light here was dimmer than outside, but after a moment of adjustment, they could make out the surroundings. It was indeed an expansive space — over a thousand square meters at a glance.
The area was furnished with sofas, televisions, exercise equipment, and more, with numerous independent rooms — it was actually a very comfortable living area.
At that moment, in the central hall, four massive figures sat cross-legged on the floor.
Each had the outline of a human form, some wearing athletic tank tops, others in proper suits. But their exposed parts were all covered in mottled fur — red-gold with black stripes — three or four meters tall, muscles thick and knotted, topped with a huge tiger head!
A black "king" character mark stood out prominently on their foreheads.
The one who had spoken was a tiger demon right in front, wearing an oversized suit, sitting with the most domineering posture — one elbow propped on his knee, the other hand still holding several oversized playing cards.
That’s right — these four tiger demons were sitting in a circle playing cards.
In a distant corner, a large black tiger barely visible in the darkness lay on the ground in beast form, eyes closed in meditation. Now it slowly opened its eyes, revealing two pupils like glaring red lamps.
With the uninvited guests bursting in, ten pairs of scarlet eyes turned to look at them all at once.
Beneath the Tiger Head Gang’s headquarters was truly a den of demons!
Yue Wen and Zhao Xing’er, seeing this, made no move but cautiously observed their surroundings, sensing the tiger demons’ qi auras.
Before cultivators cross blows, their true qi runs at full speed, allowing them to sense qi auras to judge the opponent’s true cultivation level. But this could only serve as a reference — qi auras could be restrained and disguised, and until they actually exchanged blows, one couldn’t fully determine relative strength.
These few tiger demons simply stood motionless, yet the pressure radiating from their qi and blood circulation was already formidable. Their strength was absolutely terrifying.
After a brief standoff, Yue Wen, right in front of the tiger demons, reached his hand into his pocket.
The atmosphere instantly grew tense. The tiger demons’ gazes turned grave, thinking he was about to draw a weapon and attack. Just as the situation hung by a thread, Yue Wen pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on.
"Damn," a tiger demon in a black tight tank top couldn’t help but curse. "So he’s a nutcase."
"I know," another tiger demon wearing a gold chain stood up, a sinister grin on his face. "It’s so dark and he’s wearing sunglasses — he must be a rapper!"
"Who’s a rapper?" The tiger demon with his back to Yue Wen and Zhao Xing’er turned around at those words. He was the burliest, with a pair of specially modified headphones on his head that fit right over his pointed ears.
"Enough," the suit-wearing tiger demon said heavily, pressing down a hand. "No matter who they are, intruding here, seeing what we look like…"
"They all must die."
…
[Adult Tiger Demon: King of the mountains and forests, apex of the food chain, the fiercest of hunters taking form. Bloodthirsty and formidable, they detest human males who drink in the wild. Their combat power equals eight thousand healthy human grandmothers. Born with powerful innate supernatural abilities, but according to jianghu legend, there is a move called "Sliding Shovel" that can break them.]
Combat power equal to a division of grandmothers?
In all his years of cultivation, Yue Wen could say these were the strongest evil entities he had ever encountered.
And there were five such opponents. The one in front wearing the suit had combat power beyond the ten-thousand-grandmother level, exceeding what the demon-revealing mirror could precisely detect.
Through the demon-revealing mirror’s view, the entire basement was filled with a crimson tide of demonic aura, wave after wave. Mixed in was a pungent smell of blood — who knew how many lives these tiger demons had taken to carry such heavy blood energy.
Yue Wen now had no mind to think about how many evil-suppressing coins he could collect, because he had no certainty of victory.
"Looks like we can’t let this go easily today," Yue Wen said quietly to Zhao Xing’er. "In a moment, I’ll do my best to hold them off. You find a chance to take out your phone and call the Supernatural Management Bureau."
Neither side was moving right now, and that was what kept the standoff. Once the tiger demons’ qi auras locked onto them, if they tried to make a phone call for help, the tiger demons would attack immediately — it wouldn’t be so easy.
They had to wait until the melee began, then Yue Wen would hold the front line and let Zhao Xing’er find a chance to call for backup.
The situation was now clear: everyone in the Tiger Head Gang, from top to bottom, including that big boss, were puppets. The gang’s real reliance was these few tiger demons in the basement.
Why were the Tiger Head Gang’s enemies always killed in secret?
Because the tiger demons couldn’t act openly. Like those few small cat demons, they could only live in the shadows beneath the city. Except they were more powerful and more cunning, colluding with the underworld to rake in money.
Once discovered by the Supernatural Management Bureau, these tiger demons would inevitably be eradicated.
"Ah…"
At that moment, Brother Tiger, lying on the ground, slowly came to. He opened his eyes and climbed to his feet.
"Damn it, you dare hit me — you’re looking for death!" He twisted his neck and took a few steps to the suited tiger demon’s side. "Ah Da, the men you can kill and eat, but leave the woman — she might have something to do with me, I need to ask her clearly…"
Slap—
The suited tiger demon didn’t change his seated posture or move his body. He flicked the tip of his tail behind him, turning it into a blur that whipped Brother Tiger away. Brother Tiger, who had just woken up, became a meteor once more, slamming into the far wall with a bang.
From cosplaying a rug to cosplaying a mural.
"These two humans are both very powerful. You must be cautious." The suited tiger demon’s eyes were domineering and fierce. After a slight pause, he spat out a single word heavily: "Kill!"
"Roar—"
A tiger’s roar shook the mountains and forests, a heavenly sound that overawed the gods.
Several tiger demons howled at the same time, sound waves mixed with supernatural power rolling over. Zhao Xing’er and Yue Wen’s souls both flickered with daze, and a faint fear almost rose within them.
This was one of the tiger demons’ innate supernatural abilities — in the mountains and forests, weak demon beasts would have their souls shattered and die just from hearing this roar!
Yue Wen and Zhao Xing’er were certainly not that fragile. They were dazed for only an instant before regaining their focus. Already three tiger demons were killing their way from the left, center, and right.
The tank-top tiger demon, the gold-chain tiger demon, and the headphone tiger demon — all leapt through the air, blood shadows filling the sky. Each was faster than the last, each more murderous in aura, as if before their claws even landed, the force of their wind could tear the two young people before them to pieces!
Yue Wen dared not be careless. He immediately drew his sword and shouted, "Careful! I’ll meet the enemy first — you find an opportunity."
On the other side, Zhao Xing’er had already brandished a three-pointed double-edged blade taller than herself, fighting spirit surging, red glimmers flickering in her eyes. She shouted, "Bring it on!"
Then she rushed forward with an excited look on her face!
Her entire martial cultivation method was fully activated. Qi and blood circulated with red light rising, and sharp cold light played along the blade’s edge. Her silhouette was truly like a female Erlang Shen!
"Not…" Yue Wen watched her figure, his eyes shaking violently. "I didn’t tell you to take out your phone — where did you pull that three-pointed double-edged blade from? This weapon is way too exaggerated, isn’t it?!"",
Chapter 19