And so, over the past dozen or so years, the white tiger had grown addicted to eating humans. Not only did it devour passing travelers, but it also drove chang ghosts to hunt down prey for it.
What was more, it had even compiled an entire system of culinary expertise regarding human consumption.
The premier delicacy was undoubtedly newly born human infants.
A tiny bundle, as tender as tofu, easily swallowed in a single gulp.
Born straight from the mother's womb, an infant came with a mouthful of innate qi, untainted by earthly desires.
Consuming this breath of innate qi could grant the white tiger an additional year of lifespan.
—However, infants were rare in the deep mountains. It had only tasted one seven years ago, and ever since, it had been unable to forget this “delicacy.”
The second tier consisted of hunters and woodcutters who ventured into the mountains.
Such people bustled about the mountains year-round; their flesh was exceptionally firm and delightfully chewy, reminiscent of wild beef.
Moreover, hunters were rich in vitality and heavy with yang qi; consuming ten hunters was equivalent to eating a single infant.
Thus, the white tiger constantly dispatched its subordinate female ghost, Mei Niang, to seduce young, healthy men from the villages below and bring them back for its feast.
As for the third tier, it was ordinary folk.
Men, women, children, the elderly, scholars, fisherwomen, tailors, traveling physicians...
“Old people, taste bad. Like wood. Bah, bah, bah.”
The white tiger shook its head from side to side, gleefully sharing its “experience” with Nan Zhi:
“Women, delicate, delicious. Scholars, learned, pale and tender, fragrant and sweet...
“Eat more, more. Cultivate, cultivate fast.”
Listening to this, Nan Zhi felt her stomach churn violently.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could there ever be shortcuts on the path of cultivation?
“You white tiger are merely chasing temporary ease, completely oblivious that even if you hadn't crossed paths with me tonight, you would still meet a miserable end in the future.”
Suppressing the disgust in her heart, she spoke to the white tiger with grave solemnity:
“All living things possess spirits and are cherished by heaven and earth.
“In the past, there was a scion of an official family in Jingzhou who delighted in snapping the hind legs of cats and dogs for amusement, torturing and slaughtering countless animals.
“Later, every child his wife bore had backward-bent feet—monstrous deformities born of reincarnated cats and dogs. The Buddhists say this was that scion’s retribution.
“There was also a wealthy merchant in Huizhou who loved eating snakes above all else—the older the snake, the better. He often beat pregnant female snakes to death, cutting out their eggs to cook and eat.
“Later, this merchant contracted a bizarre ailment, his entire body covered in snake scales until he could only slither on the ground like a serpent, dying a wretched death.
“When humans eat animals to fill their bellies, there is no reason to blame them.
“Likewise, when a fierce tiger eats a human purely to stave off hunger, it is not in the wrong.
“But if one intentionally tortures, torments, or uses them for cultivation and amusement, then imminent disaster will strike before long, and retribution never fails.”
Her words were profound and obscure, and the white tiger truly could not understand them. It shot a glance at several chang ghosts, gesturing for them to gather.
The chang ghosts chattered and babbled amongst themselves, translating Nan Zhi’s words for the tiger.
“Humans, eat, tigers. Tigers can, eat humans. What is, wrong.”
The white tiger let out a massive yawn and licked its front paw with its bright red tongue, looking completely nonchalant:
“Humans, cheat and swindle, burn and pillage. Cultivators, skin beasts for clothes, take demon cores, cultivate. Don't see, retribution.”
It was actually a tiger that could think.
Nan Zhi did not panic in the slightest, forcefully steering the topic back on track:
“If one walks the righteous path, acts honorably, and follows the true Dao, their future journey will naturally be smooth and their cultivation unhindered.
“There are millions upon millions of mortals in this world, and while none can say when retribution will fall upon evildoers, I can assure you that those who ascend to immortality are without exception those with a clear conscience who uphold righteousness in their hearts.
“This is how everyone has their own destiny, and everyone has their own karmic fate.”
“Awoo—”
The white tiger could not bear to listen any longer, its expression turning increasingly impatient. Standing up with ill intent, it clawed at the tree bark:
“Your senior sister, why, hasn't come.”
Its sharp claws gouged several deep furrows into the tree. On the white tiger’s massive head, a bizarre, human-like smirk appeared:
“You, putting on airs. Hand over, the method. Spare, your life.”
The white tiger was no fool.
It had spoken patiently with the person in the tree for this long precisely to stall for time.
Now, seeing that reinforcements had still not arrived, the white tiger felt completely at ease:
“Eat, you, no one knows. No, immortal cultivators will come, to make, trouble.”
With that, the white tiger reared up slightly on its hind legs. As if teasing its prey, it opened its bloody maw toward the person in the tree:
“Want to live, then, hand over method. Otherwise, eat, you.”
Its golden pupils stared at Nan Zhi with great amusement, seemingly relishing the joy of toying with its quarry.
—Just like a little mouse that had blundered straight into a predator's paw, struggling for ages only to find that it could never escape the hunter's grasp.
“Who said so?! My senior sister will be here any second!”
A look of panic surfaced on Nan Zhi’s face, as if she felt guilty after being exposed in public. She shouted back with loud, blustering bravado:
“Don't you come up!”
This reaction clearly delighted the white tiger. It planted both hind paws firmly on the ground, leaning the upper half of its body against the tree trunk as it poised to bite.
Its maw opened wide, revealing a bright red tongue lined with barbs and knife-sharp fangs gleaming with a cold glint. A foul, sickening stench blasted from its throat—
Nan Zhi had been waiting for this exact moment!
The pitch-black slaughtering knife slashed downward abruptly, hacking violently into the most vulnerable part of the feline beast’s mouth! Simultaneously, she curled her left hand into a fist, striking at the white tiger’s eyeball with all her might!
“Roar! Awoo-roar!!!”
The white tiger’s agonized roar echoed throughout the mountain forest, shaking the earth and causing the branch beneath Nan Zhi’s feet to tremble violently.
Nan Zhi gave it no chance to react and flipped down from the tree!
She straddled the fierce tiger's back firmly, clamping both arms tightly around its head, sticking to the tiger’s spine like a dog-skin plaster!
“Run!”
“Mountain Lord!”
“Quick, get away!”
The pack of chang ghosts scattered in terror, fleeing into the depths of the forest—
Having suffered a direct, defenseless blow straight to the head, the white tiger bore the full brunt of the strike. Blood gushed uncontrollably from its mouth, and a hideous, bloody laceration was carved into the right side of its jaw:
“Roar!! Human!! Liar!!! Eat you!!”
“Eat! You! Awoo-roar!!”
“Get down! Get down!!!”
In its berserk state, the fierce tiger was terrifying beyond measure. Like a wild horse beyond all restraint, it leaped around maniacally, attempting to shake Nan Zhi off its back.
“Want to eat me?! Try this!”
Nan Zhi reached out with her left hand to gouge the tiger’s eye while her right hand yanked at the slaughtering knife wedged inside its mouth!
The slaughtering knife was incomparably sharp, but when hacked into the tiger’s jaws, it could not advance an inch further, wedged as if trapped inside concrete crevices, utterly impossible to pull out!!
“Vile! Human! Get down!! Down!”
In excruciating agony and with its right eye jabbed, the white tiger thrashed its body frantically, desperate to throw Nan Zhi off:
“Roar, roar, roar!!! Roar—”
“Wind moves first, thunder follows; three thousand Five Thunders descend, a million soldiers of thunder and fire. Fire burns the world; demons—turn to dust!”
Seeing that one strike had failed, Nan Zhi chanted the Thunder Curse. Lightning crackled across her index finger as she jammed it ruthlessly straight into the white tiger’s right eye!
“Bang!!”
A muted explosion rang out beside Nan Zhi’s ear, and the white tiger’s bloodcurdling shriek nearly tore the sky apart.
Driven to pure madness, it risked its life to crunch and shatter the long blade trapped in its mouth, then rolled violently across the ground. Clawing with its right paw, it tore Nan Zhi forcefully off its back!
Nan Zhi’s vision went dark. Just as she was about to scramble up to fight again, the white tiger, with only one eye remaining after the blast, clamped down viciously onto her right arm.
Crunch!
—That was the sound of tiger fangs sinking deep into flesh and bone.
Riiip...
—That was the sound of Nan Zhi’s right arm being ripped clean off.
Her vision began to blur. Nan Zhi knew she was about to meet her end once more.
Fighting a Level 49 elite monster at Level 17 was a bit too much of a stretch after all.
Yet she did not lose heart. Straining with her very last breath, she squeezed out a smile at the blood-drenched white tiger:
“Wait... before I die, I still have one last wish.”
Rate on N.U.
