Upon the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, the entry for the seventh-rank demon golden toad appeared.
Only after confirming that the golden toad was truly dead did Zhou Wuji step forward to give its carcass a cursory examination.
The creature was essentially an oversized toad, differing only in its pale golden hide.
Even in death, it remained thoroughly venomous from head to toe.
Zhou Wuji was sorely tempted to cut its belly open in search of treasures, but the thing was revoltingly ugly, toxic to the touch, and quite large. Thoroughly searching it would be no easy feat.
He cast another glance toward the murky deep pool. Its black surface gave off a thick, nauseating aquatic stench.
He tossed a stone into the water, confirming it was exceedingly deep. He was no skilled swimmer, and diving in during the dead of night was out of the question—who knew what lurked beneath the depths? It was far too dangerous.
After working up his resolve for a moment by reminding himself that treasures might lie inside the ugly thing's belly, Zhou Wuji hardened his heart and used his sword to rummage through the golden toad's carcass.
After a bit of poking and prodding, he found nothing of value.
Just as disappointment began to set in, a faint sound stirred from the surrounding woods.
To aid his earlier search, he had already cast the Six Yang Dharma Eyes on himself.
Looking up, he spotted a spotted black leopard leaping down from the branches, hurtling straight toward him at high speed.
The beast's eyes glowed with an eerie greenish light. Its body was sleek and muscular, spanning a full six feet from head to tail. Sizable and bounding straight for him, it clearly viewed him as prey.
Zhou Wuji guessed it had feasted on human flesh before, which explained its total lack of fear.
Swirling around the leopard, he detected a faint wisp of blood-bane qi; it was unmistakably a mutated demon that gained power through slaughter.
Judging by its aura, it stood on roughly the same level as the boar demon—an eighth-rank creature.
Having assessed the beast in an instant, Zhou Wuji stood his ground. Only when the leopard closed to within ten paces did he flick his wrist, loosing two White Brow Needles.
His left hand was concealed beneath his coir raincoat, making the motion exceedingly stealthy and swift. Most importantly, he had infused both needles with a thread of Tianshu true qi.
In the night shadows, the White Brow Needles turned into two barely perceptible glints of icy light, whistling through the air with a soft yet piercing screech.
Before the black leopard could even spot them, both of its eyes burst.
His consummate-level Celestial Pivot Palm imparted immense force to the needles, enough to pierce through solid steel lamellar plates.
At such close range, a hit was guaranteed.
Agonized shrieks tore from the leopard's throat as its body convulsed and went limp in midair. Upon crashing down, its enfeebled limbs sent it rolling several times across the gravelly bank.
Zhou Wuji darted over and severed its throat with a single sword stroke, putting an end to its misery.
He was confident he could have slain the leopard in direct combat, but with the White Brow Needles granting him range superiority, why bother risking close-quarters melee?
The eighth-rank black leopard promptly manifested as a new entry on the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment.
Yet the scent of blood proved too pungent. In no time at all, it drew a giant black-scaled python.
Zhou Wuji repeated the same trick: blinding its eyes first, then severing its head with his sword.
The python was also an eighth-rank demon. Its scales were as tough as lamellar armor, and it possessed monstrous brute strength. Adept at climbing trees, burrowing underground, and swimming, it was far more formidable than the leopard, possessing virtually no natural predators in these woods.
Unfortunately for the beast, it had crossed paths with Zhou Wuji and died without ever realizing what had struck it.
Zhou Wuji waited until dawn broke, but no further demons appeared.
The hunting grounds of these three demons likely overlapped; once the golden toad fell, the other two had eagerly hurried over to scavenge.
A territory of this size could hardly sustain many formidable demons to begin with.
Zhou Wuji was quite satisfied with his gains. The Siming Mountains truly teemed with monsters.
He left all three carcasses untouched. The mountains were perilous, and there was no telling what dangers lay ahead.
Should he sustain an injury, the three demons could be converted into primordial profound spirit, which, combined with the Rejuvenation Technique, would swiftly heal his wounds.
Furthermore, cultivating the Five Yin Pouch required five yin spirits, and he needed to consider carefully which five to harvest.
Xiuming Peak harbored a seventh-rank tiger demon, while Lingming Peak was home to a troop of red-furred long-armed apes, whose chieftain was likely a seventh-rank demon as well.
Compared to a lone tiger demon, a pack of long-armed apes would be far harder to handle.
Zhou Wuji had accompanied his master to observe them once. Adult long-armed apes stood taller than normal men, and their floor-grazing arms possessed immense strength capable of tearing a person to shreds with ease.
They were also exceptionally frenzied and fiercely territorial. Any creature they deemed a threat would be ripped apart without mercy.
Only because Zhou Wuji had mastered the Tianshu Hand and possessed an ample supply of White Brow Needles did he dare risk venturing after them.
If all went smoothly, once he refined the Five Yin Pouch, he could rely on it to subdue the gold-ring poison bees and harvest their honey.
Whatever schemes Wu Di might be hatching, Zhou Wuji had formidable swordsmanship and magical arts at his disposal; he had little to fear.
By his count, only a single day had passed, leaving him plenty of time.
Advancing to the eighth rank and reinforcing his body with Primordial Profound Essence had elevated his physical constitution far beyond what it had once been.
Even wrapped in a heavy coir raincoat, navigating the rugged mountain paths felt effortless.
Toward dusk, Zhou Wuji arrived at Xiuming Peak.
While the undulating mountain ranges were bathed in splendid autumn colors, Xiuming Peak remained entirely verdant. It soared high above the surrounding peaks, flanked at its base by a winding, mighty river, truly embodying the spirit of a singular, solitary beauty.
The tiger demon had chosen its lair well, dwelling in a cave halfway up Xiuming Peak that faced the sun and sat sheltered from wind, rain, and snow—a comfortable refuge indeed.
Zhou Wuji knew the way well. Slaying a tiger demon left no room for petty tricks, and reckless wandering would only invite an ambush; it was far better to take the fight straight to its doorstep.
Not far from the tiger demon's lair, Zhou Wuji paused beside several pine trees.
Their branches were lush and dense, their needles emerald green, exuding a faint fragrance of pine resin.
Deeming the spot suitable, Zhou Wuji retrieved lengths of ice silkworm silk and strung them between the trunks.
The silk was near-invisible and finer than a human hair, yet remarkably tough; even Zhou Wuji needed a sword to sever it.
With his simple trap prepared, he casually flicked a needle to kill a squirrel scurrying along the branches, then split it open with his blade, allowing the scent of blood to disperse.
Leaning back against a pine tree, Zhou Wuji waited quietly for the tiger demon to show.
Tigers possessed an even stronger sense of territory. At such close range, it would catch the scent and arrive before long.
Demons possessed little intellect and lacked any inherited wisdom; their actions were governed almost entirely by instinct.
Even such a rudimentary ruse could easily lure it out.
After waiting a while, Zhou Wuji sensed something amiss. His acute senses caught a faint rustling behind him, and more crucially, a subtle foul musk reached his nostrils.
While his nose might not rival a hound's, it was dozens of times sharper than that of an ordinary man.
*The tiger demon is here, but it circled around from behind...*
Somewhat surprised by the beast's cunning, Zhou Wuji immediately bolstered himself with the Six Yang Dharma Eyes and spun around.
The sun had already dipped below the horizon, leaving only a swath of crimson sunset glow across the sky.
The forest was already dim, yet Zhou Wuji instantly caught sight of the tiger demon crouching upon a bough, its golden eyes gleaming with feral malice.
It clutched the thick trunk with all four paws, its long tail hanging down limply. Its bent limbs displayed an exaggerated, rippling musculature.
By his estimation, its body measured eight feet long even excluding the tail. Despite its massive bulk, its physique had a magnificent, muscular contour, radiating a wild and terrifying power from every fiber.
Through the Six Yang Dharma Eyes, Zhou Wuji saw blood-bane qi boiling around it like fire.
Demons that slaughtered countlessly naturally amassed such baleful auras, far surpassing the boar demon.
In raw presence alone, the tiger demon seemed even more imposing than Zhang Xinhu.
Zhou Wuji's heart tightened. It was one thing to view the creature from afar; confronting it at such close quarters exerted immense pressure.
Realizing it had been spotted, the tiger opened its maw and unleashed a thunderous roar.
Countless pine needles rained down from the canopy like a storm as the beast kicked off the bough, lunging straight down at Zhou Wuji.
Zhou Wuji did not retreat. With a flick of his left hand, he discharged two White Brow Needles aimed straight for its pale golden eyes.
Yet the tiger demon seemed to sense danger mid-leap. With an abrupt twist of its head, one needle merely grazed its fur, shaving off a tuft of golden hair, while the other embedded itself in its cheek.
Zhou Wuji felt a jolt of alarm. His needle strikes were so stealthy and swift, yet the beast had still dodged them.
With no time left to back away, he immediately triggered the Northern Culmen Heavenly Dipper Divine Talisman.
The radiance of the Seven Stars flared, draping his body in a flowing cloak of deep azure light.
Over a thousand jin of beast slammed down upon Zhou Wuji from above, yet he remained rooted like a stone, the azure cloak over his body merely rippling once.
Surprise flickered in the tiger demon's pale golden eyes. Before touching the ground, it instinctively struck out with its paws in a rapid flurry.
Its claws curved like iron hooks, gouging watery ripples across the azure light, yet they failed to shatter the Northern Culmen Heavenly Dipper Divine Talisman.
Still, the relentless battering drained the talisman of most of its power. Four of the seven stars that represented its active barrier winked out.
Zhou Wuji was not idle either. Seizing the opening, he drew his sword and drove it ruthlessly into the tiger's exposed chest.
The beast's muscles instinctively tightened and clamped down, bolstered by its suppressing blood-bane qi. Though the blade managed to sink into its flesh, Zhou Wuji was unable to wrench and tear the wound wider. Sensing resistance, he instantly withdrew his sword and darted backward.
As he retreated, he leaned back to slip beneath the two strands of ice silkworm silk stretched across the trees.
Enraged by the blow, the tiger pounced after him in hot pursuit, only to crash bodily into the two strands of silk.
The ice silkworm silk did not snap. Instead, it bit deeply into the tiger's flesh.
Baffled by the invisible restraint, the beast widened its eyes in fury. Just then, two shimmering silver needles shot through the air, bursting both of its golden eyes in a shower of gore.
Robbed of its sight, the tiger panicked and opened its maw to roar. Before the sound could escape, Zhou Wuji thrust his sword upward through its lower jaw, driving the steel straight into its brain.
The vicious thrust impaled the tiger's roar in its throat and snuffed out its life.
Zhou Wuji swiftly pulled back his sword and retreated. Stretched to their absolute limit, the strands of ice silkworm silk finally snapped, and the tiger's colossal carcass crashed heavily to the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Standing aside, Zhou Wuji checked the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, only then letting out a long breath.
The clash had lasted mere breaths, yet it was a true struggle between life and death. Had it not been for the divine talisman's protection and his prior preparations, the outcome would have been perilous in the extreme.
Chapter 40