There was no road through these desolate, rugged wilds. The mountains were choked with tall grass and jagged rocks, leaving no room for a horse to gallop. The steed could only pick its way forward at a slow walk, moving scarcely faster than He Lingchuan could on foot.
Leading the horse over a low slope, a sudden pang of warning flared in his heart, as tangible as if danger were pressing against his skin.
He had been targeted.
Keeping his composure, He Lingchuan continued leading the horse forward. The heart-protecting mirror in his breast pocket murmured, "Hey, we've got company."
He hushed it with a soft shush.
Right then, a rustle stirred the grass to his right rear—soft as wind brushing through brambles or a rabbit skimming over the tips of the blades.
*Here it comes,* He Lingchuan thought. Flicking something from his backhand, he dropped into a roll and slipped directly beneath his horse's belly.
Pouncing from the undergrowth came a striped tiger weighing at least six hundred jin. Such a massive beast, yet launching itself through the leaves had produced barely a whisper.
*Tigers bring the wind with them*—the old saying truly held merit.
Yet just as it lunged toward He Lingchuan's rear, an object hurtled straight for its nose. The tiger swiped out a paw, and sharp claws tore the thing apart.
With a dull pop, it detonated, sending yellow smoke billowing into the air.
Immediately after, an indescribably foul stench erupted, blasting the beast right in the face.
A tiger's sense of smell was more than ten times keener than a human's. A stench intolerable even to people struck it like a heavy club upside the head.
Oblivious to everything else, the tiger lunged several paces forward to escape the reek, dropping its head and violently dry-heaving.
Such a visceral physical reaction was impossible to suppress.
A figure flashed through the yellow mist. He Lingchuan burst forward, holding his breath as Fusheng slashed down toward its neck.
Just as the tiger was about to lose its head, an earth-shattering roar blasted from the bushes. Another striped shape leapt out, crashing squarely into He Lingchuan.
The two tumbled outward together.
There were actually two tigers, lying in ambush one behind the other!
The roar was soul-shaking, detonating at point-blank range. To He Lingchuan, it sounded as if thunder had struck right beside his ear. His heart and guts violently shuddered, and his body stiffened in an unavoidable freeze.
This was the innate talent of a tiger demon: Terror. Fainthearted prey would be frightened into fatal shock on the spot.
In a split second, man and beast rolled across the ground.
A massive feline head snarled scarcely a foot away, its jaws gaping wide enough to swallow two human heads at once. Ten claws, sharp as switchblades and each a foot long, snapped out with a hiss to rake across him.
If that strike landed, it would disfigure him at best and tear open his belly at worst.
Yet right at that moment, a crimson gleam flashed across He Lingchuan's body. The tiger's claws struck him as though raking across solid metal, screeching with a harsh, grating shriek.
At the same time, the heart-protecting mirror over his chest trembled slightly.
Its master-protecting enchantment had triggered automatically.
He Lingchuan's paralysis lasted only an instant. Having traversed the Azure Skies in soul form for so long, his spirit was far more resilient than that of ordinary cultivators. Though taken squarely by surprise, the Terror effect was dispelled in less than a second, and agility flooded back into his limbs.
Seeing another claw swipe toward him, He Lingchuan brought up his saber to block, barely parrying before wrenching it back.
The tiger's paw took a slash.
Had the beast not jerked its paw back quickly, half of its foreleg would have been severed.
They parted the instant they clashed. Borrowing the momentum, He Lingchuan flipped backward and flung a throwing dagger.
With keen eyes and swift reflexes, the tiger batted the dagger away, moving fast enough to leave afterimages.
Taking advantage of that opening, He Lingchuan raised his arm and fired a grappling cord.
By the time the tiger pounced again, he had already used the cord to vault upward, planting two steps on the tree trunk and springing onto a high branch above.
The other tiger, stricken by the scent bun, was now shaking off the adverse effects, though it still tossed its head from time to time.
The lingering shock of that awful stench refused to dissipate, leaving a lingering shudder deep in its gut.
The two tigers regrouped. The tigress snarled repeatedly at her mate, barking abuse and calling him useless, while the male tiger could only flatten his ears and endure the scolding.
It circled beneath the tree twice, then glared up at He Lingchuan and suddenly spoke: "Surrender the Emperor's Flowing Dew, and I'll spare your life."
He Lingchuan spread his hands. "I drank it all."
"Nonsense! You don't have the scent of having consumed it!"
The tigress roared, "Eat him right now, and it won't be too late!" Dawn had just broken; every creature that had just consumed Emperor's Flowing Dew would serve as an immense tonic if caught and eaten.
He Lingchuan replied placidly, "And here I thought the demons of Beijia were reasonable."
The tiger laughed aloud. "Look at what's beneath your feet first! If you want to be reasonable, go back to a city!"
In desolate mountain wilds like this, right after an eruption of Emperor's Flowing Dew, sharp fangs and claws were the only truth that mattered!
It clutched the trunk and scrambled upward, moving every bit as swiftly as it ran across flat ground.
Short of a pair of wings, the great cat was an all-around predator.
He Lingchuan launched another pair of throwing darts. The tiger didn't even bother dodging, and the darts failed to pierce its hide.
He Lingchuan frowned.
These two beasts hadn't unleashed any mystical arts; He Lingchuan had assumed they were holding back, but it turned out all their points were invested in brute physique.
Demons of the strength type favored strengthening their physical vessels above all else.
The greatest truth was simplicity itself. So long as a creature's hide was thick enough, its claws sharp enough, and its speed fast enough, the myriad bizarre arts of cultivators were like flimsy paper before them.
Fortunately, He Lingchuan had already retrieved the heart-protecting mirror from his breast, flashing it several times toward the climbing tiger.
The distance was very close now, and with the daylight bright, the tiger immediately saw its own massive head reflected in the bronze surface.
Looking into a mirror was nothing extraordinary for a tiger demon, yet the tiger in the mirror suddenly gave it a coquettish wink, leaning its muzzle forward to sniff at it.
The tiger froze. *Wait... that doesn't look like me.*
It looked like another tigress—round-faced, wide-eyed, with admirably sharp fangs.
Most importantly, she looked far younger and prettier than the rough old wife behind him.
It was instantly struck dumb.
The tigress darted past it, and seeing her mate drop the ball yet again, she angrily swiped a claw across his hind leg. Had this idiot not fallen into the enemy's trap earlier, the two of them would already be splitting the Emperor's Flowing Dew!
She didn't bother wondering why her mate was standing frozen in place, lunging with open jaws to bite He Lingchuan's heels.
Right at that moment, two silhouettes leaped violently from another large tree, slamming straight into the tigress.
The two shanxiao possessed by evil spirits had sprung their ambush!
Both creatures were heavier than adult men, crashing like cannonballs right into the tigress's flanks. Caught off guard, she tumbled down to the ground along with the two shanxiao.
The trio tangled together in a vicious brawl, tiger roars and monkey shrieks echoing thunderously as snapped branches and mud went flying.
The shanxiao were no match for a true tiger after all. After a mere three exchanges, one had its neck snapped. The evil spirit possessing it instantly flew out and darted back into the mirror.
Meanwhile, He Lingchuan fired two sleeve arrows down at the tigress from the tree. Magic artifacts crafted by Master Li Fubo possessed remarkable armor-piercing power, and this time they were not deflected by the tiger hide.
The tigress took an arrow in the back and another in the foreleg. Quite apart from the physical puncture, the wounds burned as if seared by blazing fire, drawing agonizing howls from the beast.
He Lingchuan watched as a row of large blisters quickly sprouted around the wounds, resembling mushrooms clustered on a tree stump. He nodded in great satisfaction.
He had coated the sleeve arrows with the burrow spider venom gifted by Zhu Erniang. Unless the blisters were punctured and drained within a few breaths, the venom would spread through the bloodstream, dissolving muscle and completely paralyzing the prey.
At that point, he dropped to the ground to join the fray.
The moment he engaged, the tempo of the fight accelerated sharply. The tigress had no leisure to draw the poison; her body quickly grew heavy, until she could scarcely lift her paws.
She could only howl for her mate's help.
The dazed male tiger leaped down from the tree and bounded toward He Lingchuan.
The tigress was just beginning to feel relieved when, as the male tiger ran past her, he suddenly spun around and pinned her down, tearing out her windpipe and snapping her neck in just two bites!
The tigress died with her eyes wide open.
She could not see the evil spirit that had possessed her mate.
The male tiger had been entranced by the mirror earlier, leaving its mind in turmoil and vastly increasing the spirit's odds of success.
He Lingchuan approached the tigress and let the heart-protecting mirror draw out her soul, shaking his head. "Looks like you two didn't have much affection between you."
Though driven by the evil spirit to slay his mate, the male tiger hadn't put up much resistance, and even now he was licking his chops as if savoring the taste of fresh blood.
Seeing He Lingchuan stand up, the mirror urged, "Search her, hey! Maybe she's got Emperor's Flowing Dew stashed away!"
The fangs of tiger and leopard demons often served as storage receptacles. Even if she had swallowed the dew the previous night, only a few hours had passed; using her carcass to brew medicine would be magnificent.
He Lingchuan glanced up at the sky. "No need. Leave it for—"
Several white cranes were already wheeling overhead, seemingly observing the scene below.
The spiritual rain had stopped.
If he waited until now to pack up and leave, there was no telling how much interference he would face.
When the tigers first pounced and he tossed out the scent bun, his mount had bolted and vanished without a trace.
The terrain was ill-suited for horses anyway, so losing it was no great loss. Leaving the tiger carcass behind, He Lingchuan deployed his movement technique and vanished into the dense forest.
Before departing, he didn't forget to toss an eyeball spider onto a nearby trunk, ordering it to lie low and watch the show.
The trees above were tall and the undergrowth below dense, thoroughly concealing the infiltrator's tracks.
The male tiger also ducked into the woods and vanished.
The crow perched nearby grew anxious. It wanted to pursue He Lingchuan but didn't dare draw too close, reduced to circling round and round in the air, trying to pinpoint his whereabouts.
With the fighting below coming to an end, the crane demons circled a few more times before gliding down to peck at the tigress's remains.
Any creature that had consumed Emperor's Flowing Dew the night before was now rich with spiritual energy in its flesh and blood. Under normal circumstances, when would these crane demons ever have had the chance to feed on a tiger?
Unfortunately, their dining manners were atrocious. Clamoring and squawking loudly, they had no concept of keeping quiet to enjoy their windfall, and their noise soon drew vultures to the feast.
Next, over twenty ape demons arrived, following the racket, each one every bit as massive as a shanxiao.
Their temperaments were thoroughly tyrannical; wanting the feast all to themselves, they clashed violently with the avian demons.
A quarter of an hour later, the clearing was strewn with corpses. Only a few birds survived, barely managing to flap away, while three violent apes lay dead and seven were wounded.
Yet as victors, in addition to gorging on the tiger carcass, they could feast upon the bodies of the birds.
Afterward, humans appeared.
No one knew just how many scuffles over food and bloody massacres unfolded around the usually deserted Three Hearts Lake that day.
In ordinary times, demons and humans might not have been so manic or ferocious. But inflamed by the Emperor's Flowing Dew, everyone's eyes were red with bloodlust today, heedless of advance or retreat, fighting until death.
He Lingchuan was glad he had slipped away early.
Had he stayed, he would have faced an endless gauntlet of battles—a burden too heavy for a lone stranger in a strange land.
By then, the youth in black and his entourage finally arrived at the shores of Three Hearts Lake.
Chapter 377