Recorded: Tiger Mountain God

The resistance of blade biting into flesh traveled clearly up from her palm.

Warm blood splashed across her cheek.

Pei Changqing's eyes widened round, filled with disbelief.

No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand why the girl before him had attacked him.

"You..."

The single word caught in his throat, and then there was no sound at all.

The light in his eyes swiftly dimmed.

Jiang Yuechu's hand around the hilt trembled violently.

The thick stench of blood filled her nose, and her stomach churned violently.

She had killed someone.

She had killed someone with her own hands.

Even though, in her previous life, she had grown used to seeing life and death online, her fingers flying across the keyboard louder than anyone's.

When a life truly, tangibly ended in her own hands—

The crushing weight of morality, the spraying blood—

All of it ground against the psyche she had carried as a modern person.

"Tsk."

The Tiger Demon also stood frozen in place, tilting his tiger head as he studied Jiang Yuechu.

"I thought that while your human race may be blood food, you at least possessed some loyalty between comrades and affection between brothers. Who would have thought you were this cold-hearted?"

He shook his head, his tone brimming with disdain, as though even his interest in attacking immediately had faded.

He likewise could not understand what benefit this girl could gain from killing a man who was already about to die.

Could it be that she thought he would show mercy because of this?

Just then.

The writing on the Ancient Scroll in Jiang Yuechu's mind suddenly changed.

[Killed a String-Hearing Realm creature. Obtained twenty years of Dao Cultivation.]

Her mind was forcibly pulled back to this wilderness strewn with corpses.

That was right.

Now was not the time to think about such things.

Right and wrong, morality, conscience...

Before she could survive, they were all empty talk.

She coldly released one hand.

With her other hand, she exerted force and pulled the Horizontal Blade from Pei Changqing's chest.

Blood sprayed again, dyeing her clothes red.

No matter what.

This was her only chance to live!

The next instant, she no longer hesitated.

She did not know how much Dao Cultivation she would need to seize even a sliver of hope.

Twenty years?

Thirty years?

Or even with a hundred years of Dao Cultivation—

Would she still be nothing more than a slightly stronger ant before this Tiger Demon with its strange and unpredictable divine powers?

A myriad thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant.

At that moment, the twenty years of Dao Cultivation she had just acquired poured completely into her body.

Above the wilderness, the afterglow of the setting sun cast the withered grass and corpses in a bleak, bloody light.

The running girl was slender and frail, the Horizontal Blade in her hand reflecting the evening glow.

As though it had been set ablaze.

Seeing this, the Tiger Demon stopped thinking further and abruptly opened his blood-filled maw.

"Roar—"

The roar swept up sand, stones, and dead grass from the ground.

Though he looked imposing now, he had in fact suffered no small amount of injuries during his initial battle with that squad of Demon Suppression Guards.

If not for his innate divine power allowing him to escape disaster, he would already have become a dead soul beneath their blades.

But even so, he was not someone a little girl powerless enough to truss a chicken could provoke.

The Tiger Demon raised his sharp claw, carrying a fishy wind as it viciously swatted down at the charging figure.

Jiang Yuechu stared fixedly at the massive claw descending upon her.

Yet the Horizontal Blade in her hand had become incomparably heavy.

Twenty years of Dao Cultivation.

All entrusted to this single strike.

She did not understand blade techniques. She merely poured that tyrannical force into the blade.

Following an instinct to survive, she slashed horizontally.

A flash of blade light.

A line of blood burst forth.

Human and demon crossed paths.

Jiang Yuechu staggered several steps, then dropped to one knee.

The Horizontal Blade flew from her hand and embedded itself in the mud some distance away.

She suddenly opened her mouth and spat out blood, while bloody threads seeped from all seven of her orifices.

Those twenty years of Dao Cultivation had come swiftly and gone swiftly, consumed completely in an instant.

The Tiger Demon remained in his claw-swinging posture, frozen in place.

The wind blew past, and the wild grass swayed.

As though they were spectators to this battle, even they seemed terrified by the deathly stillness.

One breath.

Two breaths.

The enormous tiger head rolled to the ground.

"Hah... hah..."

Jiang Yuechu panted heavily.

She had survived.

The moment that thought arose, exhaustion crashed over her like a tide.

[Killed a String-Hearing Realm creature. Obtained one hundred years of Dao Cultivation.]

[Unrecorded demon creature detected. Consume Dao Cultivation to record it?]

The writing on the Ancient Scroll appeared in her mind again, but she no longer had the strength to inspect it closely.

She forced herself to try to stand.

But it felt as though every bit of strength had been drained from her body; she could not even move her fingertips.

Record it?

What did that mean?

She lay prone on the ground, her cheek pressed against the dirt, truly in no mood to think too much.

Forget it.

She had already come this far.

Where was the time to study these things?

"Record it."

As the thought fell, the Ancient Scroll before her turned by itself without wind, actually floating in midair.

Copy its shadow, fix its demon form.

The next moment, the Dao Cultivation on the panel rapidly drained away.

In no more than the blink of an eye, more than half of it had been consumed.

Upon the scroll, strokes raced like dragons and serpents, sketching a lifelike fierce tiger with hanging eyes and a white brow.

When the final stroke fell, the fierce tiger on the scroll seemed to come alive, its eyes lighting with a dim red glow.

[Successfully created a Shadow Copy of Tiger Mountain God. Received a demon creature's gift.]

[Fierce Tiger Quickblade (Mastery)]

Boom—

A surge of power flowed back from the scroll, instantly filling her body.

Her exhaustion and injuries from before were swept away.

She even felt more comfortable than she ever had before.

At the same time, countless insights into blade techniques, moves, and methods of exerting force appeared out of thin air in her mind.

One incense stick later.

Jiang Yuechu slowly rose to her feet, her face full of disbelief.

Her long, slender fingers now contained inexhaustible strength.

She walked to the Horizontal Blade embedded in the mud some distance away and reached out to grip its hilt.

It fit her hand perfectly.

As though these hands of hers had been born to hold a blade.

So this was the true use of Dao Cultivation.

Directly consuming Dao Cultivation merely exchanged it for a momentary burst of power, making it highly inefficient.

Only recording demon creatures was the long-term path.

With a thought, the panel unfolded again.

[Host: Jiang Yuechu]

[Realm: Initial Realm of Hearing the String]

[Martial Art: Fierce Tiger Quickblade (Mastery)]

[Dao Cultivation: Twenty-five years]

[Recorded Demon Creatures: Tiger Mountain God (Shadow Copy)]

"Initial Realm of Hearing the String?"

"What exactly does Shadow Copy... mean?"

Jiang Yuechu fell into thought.

The Initial Realm of Hearing the String... could it be the cultivation system of this world?

And Shadow Copy...

Did it mean that what she had gained so far was merely the tip of the iceberg of that Tiger Demon's divine powers?

If she continued consuming Dao Cultivation, could this Shadow Copy advance further?

She glanced at the mere twenty-five years of Dao Cultivation she had left.

Creating the Shadow Copy alone had consumed a full seventy-five years.

Who knew how absurd the cost of the next stage would be.

Forget it.

For now, it was better to save these twenty-five years of Dao Cultivation for an emergency.

Having understood this, Jiang Yuechu gathered her thoughts.

She turned and walked toward the corpse that still retained some warmth, silently crouching beside it.

She reached out and gently brushed over his open eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"If there comes a day when I have killed enough demons and devils and gathered enough Dao Cultivation, perhaps I can find a way to reshape your body and return your life to you."

"Of course, don't place too much hope in it."

"After all, in times like these, I don't even know how long I can survive."

"Maybe one day I'll come down to keep you company. When we meet in the underworld, don't beat me up..."

But in this world where demons and devils ran rampant.

When a person reached the point where they could no longer control their own fate, whether their heart could bear it no longer mattered.

Tiger Mountain God