Whoosh!
“Aaaaargh—”
“Mountain Lord, save me!”
“Aaaaargh!! It burns!”
“Aaaaargh!”
Flames shot into the sky throughout the woods. Countless chang ghosts hiding within wailed and shrieked as they melted into heaps of black mud.
For a time, the howl of the wind, curses, screams, and ghostly weeping intermingled in a mournful cacophony as ghostly energy soared into the heavens—
Setting fire to those corpses had truly worked!
Delight stirred in Nan Zhi’s heart.
Fearing that the fierce tiger would notice something earlier, she had simply ignited the entire corpse forest with the Five Thunder Curse.
Thunder curses held a natural restraint against such Yin-corrupted, evil things. Once ignited, the corpses hanging from the trees blazed as if drenched in lamp oil, turning into rolling balls of fire—
In the previous reload, Mei Niang had taken a blow from her yet still retained enough strength to cry out to the white tiger for help, ultimately getting whisked away by the tiger’s secret art.
This time, however, before Mei Niang could even plead for mercy, her chest was punched through, killing her instantly and melting her into black mud!
The mist around Nan Zhi dispersed, revealing her true form that had been veiled within, allowing everyone to see her clearly.
“Eldest Daughter of the Nan family!”
“Sister Zhi of the Nan family! We’re saved!”
“Hurry, use your divine ability to slay this ghost!”
The yamen runners were overjoyed, hastily supporting the unlucky bastard who had refused to believe the warning and backing away.
“What have you done?! What have you done?!”
Seeing Nan Zhi appear, Chunsheng seethed with bitter rage. Whipping up a gust of Yin wind, he lunged straight at her:
“You killed Mei Niang! The Mountain Lord won’t spare you! You deserve to die! Give me your life!”
As he spoke, he rolled on the ground. Whiskers sprouted from his muzzle, his teeth sharpened, and his eyebrows bristled upward. He actually transformed into a yellow fierce tiger and pounced straight at Nan Zhi!
“Bring it on!”
Nan Zhi leaped back a zhang, slipping into the mist once more. A second later, she appeared behind tiger Chunsheng like a phantom. Raising the slaughtering knife high, she struck down with immense force while he was caught unprepared!
Crack!
The clash of metal and bone gave off a teeth-grating crunch.
Splurt—
The forearm-length slaughtering knife sank to the hilt into the back of tiger Chunsheng’s skull. Blood sprayed everywhere, splattering droplets of unknown liquid across Nan Zhi’s face—
She did not even blink.
“Mountain Lord! Mountain Lord! Mountain Lord!!”
Having suffered a fatal strike, tiger Chunsheng collapsed completely to the ground.
He slowly reverted to human form, though the tiger whiskers and tiger muzzle remained on his face, leaving him a monster with a human body and a tiger’s visage.
On the verge of death, Chunsheng still wriggled frantically on the ground, a strange fervor gleaming in his eyes. Reaching out toward the distance, he muttered incessantly:
“Mountain Lord, Mountain Lord, Mountain Lord...”
“I don’t want to die... Mountain Lord...”
“Save me... Save me...”
“I can still help you... Don’t... Don’t... I don’t want to die...”
Muttering and whimpering, his pupils gradually dilated, glazed over by an ashen gloom.
In the end, he also dissolved into a puddle of black water, leaving behind only a dusty suit of coarse cloth garments on the ground.
Nan Zhi stood by the puddle of black water and silently picked up the slaughtering knife from the ground.
In truth, Chunsheng had died over a decade ago.
The present tiger Chunsheng had completely forgotten that he was once human.
Not only was he fiercely loyal to the white tiger that had devoured his loved ones, but he had also forgotten his past as a man.
Whether in mind or body, the Chunsheng before her had thoroughly fallen into slavery under the fierce tiger.
Only then did the nearby yamen runners dare to step forward. Peering at the three puddles of black water on the ground, they chattered with gratitude:
“Great! The beast is dead!”
“The Eldest Daughter of the Nan family killed the fierce tiger!!”
“Scared the life out of me... Truly, we barely got out alive...”
“Who would have thought this tiger had become a spirit, able to turn into a human to trick us?”
“The one the Eldest Daughter of the Nan family killed was the very tiger that dragged Chunsheng away yesterday! Turns out Chunsheng was the tiger all along! It was a glamour!”
Nan Zhi looked for Nan Yi among the crowd, only to find that just like last time, he had fainted once more.
“Brother Yi is a bit timid; he got scared unconscious just now.”
Zhang Long carried the unconscious Nan Yi over his shoulder like a slaughtered pig and let out a breath:
“It’s all thanks to you this time, Eldest Daughter of the Nan family. Otherwise, I’m afraid we would have been deceived by this beast’s glamour and swallowed alive without even knowing it.
“Once we return, I will definitely report your grand deed of slaying the tiger to the county magistrate.
“Who knows, the Demon Suppression Division might even credit you for this along with your merit from slaying the Painted Skin Ghost last time. When that happens, your Nan family might very well produce a demon suppressor!”
“Now is not the time for pleasantries.”
Glancing at several blazes in the forest, Nan Zhi urgently cut him off:
“Chunsheng was merely one chang ghost under the white tiger. It was only because I used a secret technique to burn their corpses just now that I gained the upper hand.
“Now that the chang ghosts are dead, the fierce white tiger will surely notice and arrive here within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
“With no chang ghosts left to blind you with glamours, hurry and take Brother Yi and the others down the mountain. Do not stop. If you run into any living chang ghosts on the way, just cut them down with your sabers!”
“The fierce tiger isn’t dead?!”
Zhang Long’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that someone as formidable as Chunsheng was merely a minor minion.
If just a chang ghost was this difficult to deal with, what about the white tiger itself?
“Slaying the tiger will definitely be perilous. Although this Zhang is not as capable at killing ghosts as you, Eldest Daughter, my martial skills are still of some use. If I stay behind, you’ll at least have a helping hand.”
Zhang Long wanted to lend a hand, but Nan Zhi was impatient to waste any more time with him.
Collecting large nets, bows, arrows, and other gear from the yamen runners, she urged them to leave:
“If you stay here, it will only keep me from freely casting my techniques. If the white tiger snatches you, it will only tie my hands during the fight.
“Hurry and take Brother Yi and the others down the mountain. My parents should be waiting in Wen County to receive you. Once I slay the fierce tiger, I will light wolf smoke as a signal, and you can come back up to assist.
“Remember, if you do not see the wolf smoke, you must not let anyone come up the mountain.
“This beast is cunning. If I fall to it and it takes my form to devour others...”
Nan Zhi did not finish the rest of her words, but it was enough for him to understand.
Realizing the gravity, Zhang Long let out a wry laugh.
He knew Nan Zhi was right.
They were just ordinary mortals of flesh and blood. They could handle ordinary beasts, but if they encountered a demon, staying here would only get in her way.
“Take care, Eldest Daughter of the Nan family.”
Zhang Long hoisted the unconscious Nan Yi onto his shoulder, turned around, and led the trembling yamen runners away.
They were finally gone.
Only then did Nan Zhi breathe a sigh of relief.
Gazing into the distance, she saw the faint morning light breaking. Stars still dotted the sky, while a patch of fish belly white drifted across the horizon.
Dawn was approaching; the white tiger should arrive any moment.
Nan Zhi surveyed her surroundings. After setting a few simple traps using the vine nets, she sat cross-legged where she was, closing her eyes in meditation as she waited for the white tiger’s arrival.
...
A moment later, birds in the distant mountains took flight in panic, forming a dense, dark cloud across the sky.
Small beasts scurried in all directions as something colossal rapidly approached through the forest.
A thunderous roar echoed from afar, brimming with furious rage, threatening to shatter one’s eardrums:
“Awooo—”
Wind rose with the tiger’s momentum. A white-browed fierce tiger leapt out from the woods, landing upon a high boulder:
“Roar! Who is it?! Who was it... that killed... this Mountain Lord’s... chang ghosts?!”
Behold, this fierce tiger was white-browed and slanting-eyed, with a pair of chisel-sharp fangs protruding from its jowls. Lustrous black stripes ran along its spine, its tail whipped like lightning, its head was as broad as a millstone, and its maw gaped like a bloody basin.
It was truly an imposing, magnificent giant tiger!
“Roar!!”
As it shook its head and lashed its tail, the tiger’s roar shook the mountain forest, enough to scare out one’s three souls and seven spirits.
The giant tiger before her was not only vastly larger than tiger Chunsheng, but it could also speak human words. It had likely already become demonized!
Nan Zhi opened her eyes.
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