Evil Tiger

"Sir! Teach me!"

To Lin Chan's surprise, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger did not fly into a rage from humiliation and carry its evil through to the end. Instead, it knelt directly before Lin Chan, as though performing the rites of taking a master.

Seeing the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger kneel, Lin Chan realized that this tiger could already perform many human gestures. Its cultivation was quite deep.

Naturally, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger's action also left Lin Chan utterly baffled.

Had it been won over by his philosophical wisdom?

"Tiger King! You are honoring me far too greatly. I am merely a child with a yellow mouth. What could I possibly teach you?"

Lin Chan said modestly.

He had merely lived a few extra years in the information age of his previous life and accumulated a little more experience.

Lin Chan had only casually spun a few words. Wang Yunji had been able to understand because he had already seen things clearly; he had merely been a Grief Ghost for too long, trapped in one place and bound by his own restraints. He needed the excuse Lin Chan gave him in order to transcend them.

"One who has attained may be a teacher. Sir's single remark awakened Wang Yunji, proving your great talent. I too have doubts, and I ask that you enlighten me."

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger spoke respectfully, showing no concern whatsoever that Lin Chan possessed no cultivation. It had grasped the essence of "when three walk together, one among them must be my teacher." Clearly, it had some learning, though its studies were rather miscellaneous.

Lin Chan sat facing the fierce tiger, rubbing his chin as he looked at it with interest and seriously considered how to deal with this fellow.

"Tiger King, do you still wish to invite me into your belly as a guest?"

Lin Chan asked calmly, revealing not a trace of emotion.

"I would not dare, I would not dare."

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger shook its head repeatedly and said:

"Sir, I have my reasons for eating evil people. Decades ago, before I had awakened my intelligence, I was merely a foolish tiger in the nearby mountains. I did not eat people. Then one winter, I went a long time without catching any prey. On the verge of death, I found this temple. There was only an Old Monk keeping watch in this Broken Temple, with no other meat to fill my belly. So I devoured the Old Monk and survived."

"Looking back now, I had no strength left to hunt. I lay limp on the ground, unable to move. The Old Monk brought me vegetarian food, but I could not eat it. Just as I was about to starve to death, the Old Monk cut flesh from his own body to feed me—yet I swallowed him whole in a single bite."

"After devouring the Old Monk, I awakened my intelligence and swiftly gained cultivation. Having tasted the sweetness of eating humans and learned that it could improve my cultivation, I still did not dare go where many people gathered. So I never descended the mountain to eat a second person."

"Turning victims into Grief Ghosts was a divine ability I possessed from the moment I awakened my intelligence. The Old Monk was my first Grief Ghost. After becoming one, he did not resent me. Instead, he taught me about good and evil every day and guided my cultivation. At the time, I had only just awakened my intelligence and knew nothing. There was no second demon or human with intelligence in the mountains with whom I could speak, so I regarded the Old Monk as both master and friend. I listened to his earnest teachings: be kind to others, restrain myself, and cultivate diligently."

"But cultivating on my own was truly too slow. After devouring people, however, my cultivation would surge greatly. The desires in my heart drove me to eat humans. The Old Monk taught me patience, but I could not endure it. In the end, with no other choice, the Old Monk made an agreement with me: if I wished to eat humans, I could only eat evil people. I have upheld that agreement to this day."

"Unfortunately, my cultivation was weak then, and my Grief Ghost arts were unrefined. The Old Monk also refused to devour other spiritual entities. He only helped me identify two evil people before he completely dissipated. I do not know whether he entered reincarnation again. If he were still here, I would not be as I am now, indiscriminate of good and evil."

As the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger spoke, a trace of nostalgia surfaced in its eyes.

"So you want me to help you distinguish good from evil in the future? Tiger King, then you are gravely mistaken. People are complicated. How can they be divided simply into good and evil?"

Lin Chan shook his head. He was going to Shu Mountain; he could not follow the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger around this area committing evil, acting as this fierce tiger's adviser.

"Sir is right. I know my mistake."

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger admitted its error generously.

In truth, even when it had eaten good people by mistake, it had not caused much of a ripple in the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger's heart. It had merely violated the agreement it once made with the Old Monk.

What truly troubled the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger was still its cultivation.

In recent years, it had eaten more and more "evil people," yet its cultivation had instead reached a bottleneck and even regressed.

At first, it had thought that it had eaten too many "evil people," allowing ten thousand evils to accumulate and clog its path. Perhaps eating some "good people" would make everything suddenly clear. Yet bound by its old agreement, it had always been tied hand and foot.

But now it knew that among the "evil people" it had once eaten were people like Wang Yunji, who could be called great good men. Thus, the problem was not that it had eaten too many "evil people."

"Sir! What I truly wish to ask you about is cultivation."

"Tiger King, you have probably already seen that I possess no cultivation. How could I guide your cultivation?"

Lin Chan had not expected to hide the fact that he had no cultivation from the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger before him.

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger was foolish and wicked, but its strength was beyond doubt.

"Sir, you are a man of knowledge, while I am an ignorant demon. You will surely have insights that I cannot see."

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger kept its posture exceedingly humble.

From the moment Lin Chan had seen through the illusion arts of the four Grief Ghosts, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger had known that Lin Chan harbored secrets.

It could not see through those secrets, either, so it had not acted rashly, lest it set fire to itself.

Afterward, Lin Chan had casually guided Wang Yunji to salvation, which further convinced the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger of his ability.

Moreover, even if it devoured Lin Chan and transformed him into a Grief Ghost, it might not obtain the answers it wanted.

It might not succeed. Even if it did, Lin Chan might be like Wang Yunji and refuse to cooperate.

Besides, Grief Ghosts mostly accumulated resentment and were completely different from how they had been before.

If he became a Grief Ghost, Grief Ghost Lin Chan might not be able to give it good answers.

"Then speak, Tiger King. I too seek immortality, so let us exchange our insights together."

Seeing how respectful the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger had become, and knowing that he was not completely safe, Lin Chan went along with its wishes.

"Thank you, Sir!"

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger was overjoyed, then revealed its troubles.

"At first, whenever I ate evil people, I made great progress. Now, the more evil people I eat, the more lost I become. I feel ever farther from Form Transformation. Sir, what do you think has gone wrong? Could it truly be that I should not eat humans? That even evil people cannot be eaten?"

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger roughly understood that eating humans was likely the problem, but it had embarked upon the path of cultivation because of this. Changing was difficult.

And after changing, it did not know what it should do.

The Old Monk's cultivation had been low as well, and he knew even less about demons undergoing Form Transformation.

Within several hundred li of this place, its cultivation was the deepest. There were no elders it could consult.

If Lin Chan could provide a reasonable explanation, it would be willing to believe him.

"Form Transformation?"

Lin Chan pondered those two words.

They reminded him of a theory.

Ever since he had obtained the [Eidetic Memory] talent, many memories from his previous life had been arranged in his mind like a Palace of Memories, appearing whenever he needed them.