"Roar~"
Pain tore through the tiger, and it let out a bloodcurdling scream. Fear filled its eyes as it looked at Lin Chen. Even when Lin Chen simply stood there and let it attack, the tiger couldn't hurt him in the slightest. Instead, it had broken one of its own claws.
"Can you talk properly now?" Lin Chen looked at the striped tiger in front of him, then glanced at its lower body. "I hear tiger penises are nourishing. You're so big—yours must be quite the tonic, right?"
"That's a rumor! It's all just a rumor! Tiger penises aren't nourishing!" The striped tiger shook its head frantically, then continued, "I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
Huang Qian, standing off to the side, was dumbfounded. She'd thought Lin Chen couldn't escape the tiger's clutches, but she hadn't expected his body to be so tough that even the tiger's claws broke against it.
"You only behave once I get physical!" Lin Chen said, looking at the striped tiger, now as docile as a house cat. He curled his lip. "What a masochist!"
"Talk. Where are you holding your gathering, and how many exotic beasts are there?"
The striped tiger didn't dare hide anything. It immediately replied, "We're meeting near a pool upstream from the stream. There are about twenty exotic beasts, and the strongest is Fourth Order."
More than twenty exotic beasts?
A glint flashed in Lin Chen's eyes. With a Fourth Order among them, that meant at least ten or twenty thousand source points. This trip had been worth it!
"Why are you gathering on Fire Forest Mountain?" Lin Chen asked the striped tiger.
There was nothing special about Fire Forest Mountain. The Demon Suppression Division couldn't understand why so many exotic beasts had chosen to gather there, and Lin Chen was just as curious.
"Well..." The striped tiger hesitated.
Lin Chen summoned his Blood Qi True Flame and fixed the tiger with a cold stare. "Don't want to tell me?"
"No, no!"
The striped tiger shook its head frantically. The Blood Qi True Flame made it feel the threat of death looming over it. It had no doubt that if the flame came down, it would instantly become a roasted tiger.
"Actually, I don't know the whole story myself. This gathering was organized by a Fourth Order wolf-type exotic beast." The striped tiger paused, then went on. "I heard through the grapevine that some other exotic beasts beat him up in Qingzhou. He called us together this time to get even."
Beaten up by an exotic beast?
Lin Chen was slightly taken aback. If the wolf had been beaten in Qingzhou, didn't that mean there was at least one Fifth Order exotic beast there?
"A Fifth Order exotic beast?" Lin Chen frowned. His mind instinctively flashed to the Orange Cat that had guided him to Tang Jiajia. That fellow was definitely no ordinary creature. It might well be Fifth Order, or even stronger.
"Take me to your gathering place," Lin Chen told the striped tiger.
"We've already broken up."
The striped tiger looked at Lin Chen, then continued, "Everyone's scattered now. I don't know where to find them."
Uh...
Lin Chen's mouth twitched. So you exotic beasts broke up and went to bed at night? Did you think you were farm animals, free to rest at night? Even farm animals had to work overtime!
Lin Chen's face darkened, but he knew that hunting down scattered exotic beasts in the middle of the night would be very inefficient. With no other choice, he had to give up on hunting them for now.
"When will you gather again?"
The striped tiger didn't dare hide anything and quickly replied, "Tomorrow morning, by the pool upstream from the stream. We'll meet there again."
Lin Chen nodded. Waiting one more night was no big deal.
"Looks like we'll have to spend the night nearby," Lin Chen said to Huang Qian. The tiger's den was clearly no place to rest; blood and remains still littered the ground.
Lin Chen found a vacant spot nearby for Huang Qian to rest. Seeing this, the striped tiger beside them cautiously asked, "Sir, can this little tiger leave now?"
"Planning to go warn the others?" Lin Chen looked at the striped tiger.
"No, absolutely not!" The striped tiger shook its head repeatedly.
Lin Chen shot it a glance and said coldly, "Stay right here. If you dare leave, I don't mind adding another eunuch tiger to the world!"
The striped tiger felt a chill in its lower body. It didn't dare say another word, and could only lie where it was, licking the wound on its broken claw.
Though they'd changed locations, Lin Chen could tell Huang Qian still couldn't sleep. Who could sleep after going through so much in a single day? Five out of their group of six had been devoured by exotic beasts. She'd have to be a monster to sleep.
Source: . Upgradeable martial arts: Phoenix Undying Body, First Layer (9/9); Dragon Roar Iron Shirt, First Layer (9/9).
The four ghosts had provided a total of two thousand source points. They were all the weakest kind, First-order Ghosts. Adding the thousand source points from the exotic beast at noon, Lin Chen's total had finally crossed the twenty-thousand mark.
"Upgrade Phoenix Undying Body!"
With a nervous heart, Lin Chen chose to upgrade Phoenix Undying Body again. This time, nothing went wrong. A warm current flowed from his dantian, and a strand of Blood Qi True Flame quickly solidified.
At the same time, the system panel changed.
Source: 1000. Upgradeable martial arts: Phoenix Undying Body, Second Layer (0/9); Dragon Roar Iron Shirt, First Layer (9/9).
Looking at the system panel, Lin Chen's face darkened. "Damn, what a rip-off! It needs to advance a whole level too?"
He'd thought this upgrade would take Phoenix Undying Body straight to the point where he could upgrade the Second Layer once. Instead, it had only advanced the technique to the Second Layer. He'd have to upgrade it again to improve it further.
Even though it had only advanced a layer, the extra strand of Blood Qi True Flame in his dantian had still made Lin Chen stronger. His recovery and stamina had also improved considerably.
"I'll have to find a way to get more source points!"
Lin Chen sighed to himself. The system required more and more source points to upgrade his techniques. The Second Layer alone would take hundreds of thousands. Unless he sped up his source-point gains, it would never be enough!
Night gave way to dawn. Early the next morning, Huang Qian packed up her sleeping bag. She hadn't slept a wink the entire night, and now had two dark circles under her eyes.
"Once we've dealt with these exotic beasts today, we'll head back," Lin Chen told Huang Qian.
Huang Qian nodded. She knew perfectly well that she was safest with Lin Chen. Even one stray beast could take her life, so no matter how little she'd slept or how exhausting the climb was, she had to stick with him.
The striped tiger beside them had already formed a scab over its broken claw and could hobble around. Lin Chen couldn't help marveling at how quickly exotic beasts recovered. In another two or three days, the tiger in front of him would probably be back to full strength.
After a simple breakfast, Lin Chen turned to the striped tiger beside him. "Lead the way!"
The striped tiger nodded and led Lin Chen and Huang Qian toward the pool upstream from the stream, where the exotic beasts were gathering.
The striped tiger was injured, so it took nearly an hour for the two of them and the tiger to reach the supposed gathering place. From a rise, they looked down and saw that more than ten exotic beasts had already gathered by the pool.
Lin Chen didn't hurry down to the pool. He planned to wait until all the exotic beasts had assembled before striking. That way, he could wipe out every exotic beast on Fire Forest Mountain!
Before you continue