“Can this thing actually walk on land?! Is this even a fish?! The venom it spits can melt straight through iron!”
Ma Lanhua cried out, her eyes wide. She dashed out of the tent and climbed to higher ground for a better view.
“Good lord, there’s no way you’re taking this thing alive! That’s no catfish—that’s the offspring of a dragon and a catfish! I heard from the immortals that dragons can mate with anything, and their offspring are born with divine powers! You need to blast this thing with heavy artillery!”
“It’s not time to open fire yet. Backup plan—fire the anesthetic darts immediately!”
Yu Lan gripped the screen, wishing she could dive into the monitor to command in person.
“Team Three, fall back! Team Four, fall back! Do not engage in close quarters! Maintain remote control!”
The river churned violently. Someone was drenched in the acid spewed by the monster catfish, their goggles scorched pitch-black. The stench of blood, mud, rust, and foul river water swirled into a nauseating reek strong enough to knock someone unconscious.
Yet every soldier held their post, refusing to yield a single inch.
The anesthetic darts were specially designed for whales, with needles two centimeters thick and a meter long. Yet before they could even pierce the catfish’s skin, the venom coating its body dissolved them into nothing.
Mockery flickered in the giant catfish’s big yellow eyes. Opening its gaping mouth, it let out a humanlike chortle—“Hehehe, hahaha.” Wedged between its dense, snow-white teeth were a few strands of crimson meat.
This wouldn't work.
If they didn't open fire, there would be casualties.
Yu Lan’s brow furrowed tightly as she gritted her teeth. Finally, after the giant catfish flipped another crane, she slowly raised her walkie-talkie:
“All teams fall back. Prepare to...”
Before she could utter the words for a firepower strike, earth-shattering artillery fire erupted in the distance:
“Dada-dada-dada-dada...”
“Roar!”
“Boom! Kaboom!”
“Roar! Awoo!”
“Dada-dada-dada...”
Over the headset, the low growl of a giant tiger rose distinctly above the gunfire and explosions. Everyone’s expressions shifted dramatically as they turned to look toward the commotion—
Over the radio, someone screamed at the top of their lungs:
[Qingmeng Mountain Number One is out of control!]
[Qingmeng Mountain Number One has left her designated position! We were forced to open fire!]
[Qingmeng Mountain Number One is breaking through the isolation zone!]
[Her speed is too fast! We can’t track her!! Repeat, her speed is too fast, we cannot track—wait!]
The voice cut out for a split second before erupting again:
[Qingmeng Mountain Number One... Qingmeng Mountain Number One is flying!!]
[Qingmeng Mountain Number One is heading straight toward you!!]
[Repeat, Qingmeng Mountain Number One is flying toward your position!!! ...]
“I see her.”
Yu Lan removed her headset and calmly watched the white silhouette appearing in the sky.
“She’s here.”
...
Clouds follow the dragon; wind follows the tiger.
The first thing to strike their eyes was a dense plume of white mist that looked almost like burning flames. It approached at incredible speed, coming with ferocious momentum.
Within the mist ran a terrifyingly imposing white tiger. Moving with mind-boggling speed, it materialized above the riverbed in the blink of an eye!
“Awoo—”
A long, reverberating roar resounded. The giant catfish, which had been spraying venom everywhere, shuddered violently and froze in place, as if all its strength had been drained at once.
The roar was not particularly loud, yet it echoed clearly in everyone’s ears.
Instinctively, everyone raised their heads just in time to see the mythically beautiful creature leap down from the clouds.
It was a—no, rather, she was a tall, naked, humanoid white tiger with distinctly female characteristics.
Her limbs were exceptionally long and agile, her body covered in snow-white fur interwoven with bold black-and-white stripes, looking as though the purest ink had collided with the snow of Mount Dongshan, intricately blended yet starkly defined.
She possessed a human face with large, round, golden-brown pupils, and a faint mark resembling the character for "King" (王) floated on her forehead.
Round ears stood atop her head amidst long, ink-black hair, the tips glistening with specks of silver light. Under the sunlight, these specks shimmered and danced as if alive.
She seemed like a perfectly crafted organism, beautiful to the point of feeling unreal.
Everyone present lost their speech, staring spellbound at this beautiful, dangerous, non-human creature, as if their very souls had been stolen.
A white tiger stepping on the wind, shrouded in clouds and mist.
This was a scene straight out of ancient mythology.
Yet now, it was unfolding right before their eyes.
Yu Lan gave no order to shoot.
She was waiting to see how the entity would react.
—The personnel stationed at the isolation zone had used heavy artillery, yet this unknown creature was entirely unharmed.
She had strolled away untouched from a barrage of heavy firepower, without harming a single person.
The creature before them seemed to have come specifically for the giant catfish.
“Awoo...”
The white tiger woman gracefully licked her paw, completely ignoring the surrounding humans. Her long tail swayed behind her as she let out another soft call:
“Awoo.”
The giant catfish lay belly-up, trembling uncontrollably. As if frightened out of its wits by her voice, its entire body began secreting copious amounts of slime while making strange, squelching sounds.
The white tiger woman was exceptionally tall, standing around two meters high when erect. As she moved, her sharp tiger eyes scanned her surroundings with the lazy, casual demeanor unique to apex predators.
She still seemed to retain certain beastly habits, instinctively dropping onto all fours as her long tail swished back and forth.
After circling the grounded catfish for a moment, a faint expression of disgust crossed her face:
“Woo.”
Sensing danger, the giant catfish flipped its body over in panic and tried to flee to the side, but it was already too late.
The white tiger was far too fast.
Before anyone could blink, her figure blurred—no one could even see how she moved—as a flash of cold light gleamed, followed by the sound of sharp claws ripping through flesh and scattering drops of blood—
Riiip!
The fish skin that had been as impenetrable as iron just moments ago was sliced open effortlessly beneath the white tiger woman’s claws like soft tofu, exposing several huge, gleaming white fish bones within.
“Gurgle-gurgle-gurgle!!”
Wracked with excruciating pain, the giant catfish arched its body and spat a blob of slime at the white tiger woman, attempting to use its old trick!
The latter was immensely agile, dodging deftly with a swift twist of her body.
However, a stray glob of venom splashed outward, heading straight for the nearest soldiers. The white tiger woman’s pupils narrowed into slits, her golden eyes dilating instantly. Raising her thick tail, she barely managed to block the incoming slime:
Sizzle!
Having narrowly escaped death, the soldier threw a grateful look at the white tiger woman before immediately retreating to safety.
The slime posed little threat to the white tiger woman, merely singeing the tip of her tiger tail. Yet she seemed thoroughly enraged. Her fur standing on end, she lunged forward and slammed her massive paw down with crushing force:
Boom!
Before the giant catfish could even struggle, its entire head exploded. Like a falling meteor, the strike cratered the ground beneath its crushed skull, leaving the deep pit filled with a crimson-and-white mess of brain matter.
Was that it?
Everyone stood in utter disbelief.
The giant catfish that had been wreaking havoc just moments ago was dead... just like that?
The whole process was as effortless as a cat catching a fish.
—Except the sizes of both the cat and the fish were absurdly exaggerated.
Before anyone could react, the white tiger woman fondly licked the fur on the back of her paw before sparing a casual glance at the surrounding humans.
“Awoo.”
She lazily nudged the dead fish carcass and let out a soft call. Then, with a few leaps into the air, she rode the mist back into Qingmeng Mountain, just as she had arrived.
Only then did Yu Lan snap out of her stupor.
Zhang Jin’s screech echoed across the entire camp:
“What are you all standing around for?! Where are the divers?! Get into the water and save those people!!!”
Zhuang Sinan, who hadn't contributed much throughout the entire ordeal, looked at Ma Lanhua with a complex expression:
“Auntie Ma, the fish ended up dead anyway. None of our preparations were used.”
“What else did you expect? We're lucky she didn't drag the fish away—cats eating fish is just nature taking its course!”
Ma Lanhua patted his shoulder nonchalantly. “Either way, did the problem get solved or not? As for those goats we tossed in earlier, just consider it chumming the water for fishing!”
Zhuang Sinan: “...”
The humor of people from the Northeast truly never goes out of style.
Rate on N.U.
