Wielding his sword with one hand, Lu Yang seized Qi Wu by the scruff of his neck with the other and hurled him backward. "There's a door in the back! Run, hurry!"
In the blink of an eye, Qi Wu was flung three or four meters away. Just as he was about to hit the ground, an invisible force welled up beneath him, buoying his body and bringing him to a steady landing.
"Many thanks for saving me, Immortal Master!"
The moment the words left his mouth, he rushed outside with A'yue and the others without the slightest hesitation.
They had no way of gauging the cultivation levels of Lu Yang and the tiger demon. All they knew was that when cultivators fought, win or lose, the surrounding area would inevitably be caught in the crossfire. With their fragile mortal bodies, taking even a single stray blow would leave them spending the rest of their lives either lying in bed or lying in the dirt.
The tiger demon's fur bristled, every strand standing on end, and the character for "King" on its forehead glowed faintly. Bent on tearing Lu Yang to shreds, its onslaught turned even more savage.
"I'll help you!"
Sounds rang out from the other two mountain god statues. One figure held a scripture, cultured and refined, while the other radiated brilliant light from head to toe, resembling an accomplished high monk forging an immeasurable golden body!
Man Gu hefted the scripture in his hands and found it far too light. Putting it away, he fished two copies of the *Great Xia Dictionary* out from his robes.
"Feels nice in the hand."
From childhood, Man Gu had been taught that the Barbarian race was a warrior race. Weapons were not confined to any fixed form; anything could become a weapon, and one should simply wield whatever felt handiest.
Right now, books felt the handiest.
"Knowledge is power!"
Holding the two dictionaries like a pair of bricks, he slammed them toward the tiger demon's forehead. The tiger demon was momentarily stunned, having never seen such a weapon before.
Meng Jingzhou needed no weapon at all; his body was his ultimate weapon. Turning into a golden man, he charged the tiger demon. The chang ghost standing behind the tiger demon let out a shrill shriek, its body sizzling and smoking.
The Pure Yang Spiritual Root had miraculous efficacy against ghosts and specters!
Overcome with sheer terror, the chang ghost no longer obeyed the tiger demon's commands and bolted from the temple, vanishing into the curtain of rain.
The tiger demon had never been as furious as it was today.
Just because it did not want to clash with cultivators did not mean it feared them. It could easily tear these insolent brats to shreds and flee somewhere else—let them try to find it then.
What a pity to lose such a geomantic treasure as Mount Song, though.
With that thought, the tiger demon held back no longer. Its tail whipped toward Lu Yang with a whistling howl. If Lu Yang pressed his attack, he would surely suffer severe injuries!
Lu Yang made a split-second decision, pulling back his sword and leaping away. The tiger's tail smashed into the floor, shaking the entire temple.
The three looked solemn. "It's already condensed the illusory image of a Golden Core!"
When a cultivator formed a core, they first had to condense a Golden Core phantom. Only when that Golden Core turned from illusory to solid did they formally step into the Golden Core stage.
The tiger demon before them was clearly in the middle of forming its core; its strength was extraordinary!
"This sovereign is a half-step Golden Core stage mighty expert! How dare a bunch of Foundation Establishment brats try to harm me?!"
"Half-step Golden Core?" Lu Yang looked at Meng Jingzhou. He had never heard Eldest Senior Sister mention such a term.
Ordinary person Meng Jingzhou explained, "It just means someone who hasn't formed a core yet, but thinks they're hot stuff and can't possibly be lumped together with the Foundation Establishment stage, so they desperately try to latch onto the Golden Core stage. Actual Golden Core cultivators won't even look them in the eye. Pretty pathetic, really."
Kindhearted person Man Gu added, "It's normal for Brother Lu not to know. The senior brothers and sisters in our sect sneer at phrasing like that. Why would anyone turn an illusory core into a solid one to form a core? Only mediocre folks do that. In our sect, they just form their cores directly."
Honest person Lu Yang looked at the tiger demon with pity. "Quite pathetic indeed."
The tiger demon grew even more enraged, its eyes bloodshot. The cultivation realm it took so much pride in had been dismissed as utterly worthless by these three brats.
Worst of all, those were their genuine thoughts!
They could have at least been faking it!
The tiger demon unleashed its pressure, seeking to suppress the three preemptively.
To its shock, none of them were affected in the least. Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou even sneered, "We've endured the pressure of a Nascent Soul stage great demon possessing ancient dragon blood! How could we be affected by yours?"
Needless to say, Man Gu's Ancient Barbarian blood made him fearless before any pressure. Back in ancient times, the Barbarian race had run rampant across the world precisely because they feared nothing under heaven.
They were the very definition of wild.
The tiger demon gave up mimicking humanity's bipedal stance. Dropping its forelegs, it crouched low to the ground, chin skimming the dirt, glaring murderously at the three.
*Boom!*
With a powerful kick of its hind legs, the tiger demon launched itself like a cannonball straight at them. Leveling the Green Blade Sword across his chest, Lu Yang barely blocked its sharp claws.
Spinning backward, Lu Yang finally deflected the tiger demon's momentum.
Unlike the painted-skin ghost before, whose advantage lay in its bizarre nature rather than offensive prowess—making it easy to defeat once its identity was exposed—the tiger demon was entirely different.
Demonkind was renowned for physical might to begin with, not to mention that the tiger demon's cultivation was nearly an entire major realm higher than theirs. For Lu Yang to parry that strike with his sword without getting injured was already an extraordinary feat.
Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu launched a pincer attack from left and right. Runes flickered within the tiger demon's bloodline as it transformed into a gust of wind, soaring above them and raking down viciously with its claws.
Clouds follow dragons; winds follow tigers. Tiger demons were born with the ability to control wind-attribute spells—an innate magic rooted in their very bloodline!
Unable to find purchase in midair, Meng Jingzhou clashed palms with the tiger demon, while Man Gu shielded his chest with a dictionary, half of which was shredded by the beast's claws.
Seizing the opening, Lu Yang drove his sword forward with unstoppable momentum. The blade flashed like lightning, reaching the tiger demon in the blink of an eye. He stabbed several times, but the beast's hide was far too thick; Lu Yang's sword couldn't pierce it at all.
The tiger demon was just about to laugh mockingly at Lu Yang's overestimation of his strength for failing to breach its defense, when suddenly, several bursts of sword qi erupted from inside its body, piercing through and making blood gush everywhere.
The points of eruption were precisely where Lu Yang had struck!
Hidden force sword qi!
Lu Yang had never needed to pierce the beast's hide; all he needed was to inject sword qi into its body!
This was where demonkind fell short of body cultivators. A demon's brutal physical toughness was merely on the outside; their internal organs and blood vessels were exceptionally fragile!
The tiger demon retreated, unwilling to clash head-on with Lu Yang's sword again.
Yet Lu Yang gave it no quarter. As the tiger demon dodged his raised sword, his left hand pulled out a youtiao and smacked the beast right across the head with it!
Originally, the tiger demon could have dodged, but seeing that its opponent had produced a youtiao, it let down its guard, inwardly scoffing that he truly was just a kid—flustered enough by the fight to pull out any random thing as a weapon.
And then it was clobbered senseless.
What kind of youtiao was this?!
Meng Jingzhou took on the weight of a towering mountain. Seizing the few seconds while the tiger demon's head was spinning, he aimed right at its waist and slammed into it. The tiger demon seemed crafty and experienced, but in truth it was riddled with flaws.
It adhered to a principle of non-conflict: if it could run, it would never fight. Throughout its cultivation up to this day, it had rarely ever crossed hands with anyone.
The tiger demon staggered from the impact. Man Gu moved in, hurling a strike straight at its eyeball. The tiger demon hastily jerked its face aside, and the blow landed on its cheek, tearing away a patch of fur and skin.
Instinctively, the tiger demon lashed out with its tail, catching Man Gu. Man Gu kicked off along the tail's direction, sustaining little injury.
In a flash, Lu Yang thrust his sword several times and followed up with a few whacks of the youtiao, beating the tiger demon back step after step.
After this exchange, the three had actually seized the upper hand.
The tiger demon realized that despite their young age and modest cultivation, these opponents demonstrated an immense foundation and surely had a colossal power backing them. A desire to retreat took root in its heart.
How could the three let the tiger demon escape? If they released the tiger back into the mountains today, who knew how many more people it would harm tomorrow?
It could not be allowed to get away!
"Don't push people too far!"
The tiger demon roared in furious indignation. Seeing that it intended to fight for its life, the three raised their guard in secret.
With eyes bulging, the tiger demon bellowed toward the outside of the temple, playing its trump card: "Wife! Someone's trying to kill me!"
Chapter 45