Hunting the Tiger Demon (3) [Please Follow] [Please Vote]

Kui Shan heard Lu Jing'an say he was going to set the mountain on fire.

His expression changed at once, and he took an angry step forward.

But Chen Xuan was faster.

With a single shift of position, he moved between Kui Shan and Lu Jing'an.

Kui Shan didn't dare vent even a hint of his anger at Chen Xuan.

He couldn't beat him. Not even close.

Sometimes, Kui Shan wondered how a great Martial Cultivator like Chen Xuan could be willing to serve the Lu Family as a lackey.

Kui Shan's chest heaved. He glared at Chen Xuan, clenching his teeth.

"What you're doing now is worse than being the Tiger Demon's Chang Ghost!

How many families on this mountain survive by gathering firewood and herbs?

How many people will freeze to death this winter if you burn the mountain?

You've sold your conscience for your own selfish gain!"

Spittle nearly sprayed across Lu Jing'an's face.

Chen Xuan didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow. He simply replied, "The young master knows what he's doing."

Wen Ling had also heard Lu Jing'an say he was going to set the mountain on fire.

Her brow had furrowed too.

But she wasn't as rash as Kui Shan.

From the few times she'd met him, she'd gathered that Lu Jing'an might be a spoiled young master, but he wasn't someone who'd lost all conscience.

Lu Jing'an ignored Kui Shan's furious shouts.

He took a gold-plated pocket watch from his coat and snapped it open.

The face caught the midday sun, pale and wan.

He glanced up at the sky, his lashes casting faint shadows beneath his eyes.

"Fire the signal shots. Tell them to start the burn."

Lu Jing'an spoke to Director Liu beside him, his voice betraying no emotion.

Lu Jing'an gave Director Liu his orders.

Director Liu nodded, then drew his pistol and fired three times into the sky ahead and to the side.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The three shots tore through the mountain forest's stillness,

startling a dark mass of birds in the distance,

their flapping wings sweeping over the treetops like a tide.

After a brief silence, a wisp of gray smoke curled up between the trees.

Then came a second, a third...

In the blink of an eye,

the eastern ridge was blanketed in billowing smoke.

Gray turned to black,

rising straight up in the windless noon air,

clouding half the sky.

Kui Shan's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. A growl like that of a trapped beast rumbled in his throat.

But Chen Xuan's aura pinned him in place like iron chains.

He couldn't even lift a finger.

As the smoke spread,

flames became visible among the trees.

Seeing that the deed was done,

Kui Shan roared, "Lu Jing'an!"

His voice was nearly torn apart.

"I thought you were different from the rest of them.

You family scions—what do you care about besides your own interests?!

To you, the lives of ordinary people are worth less than grass, aren't they?!"

Before Kui Shan could finish shouting, Wen Ling said beside him, "Boss, look carefully. The trees aren't burning."

Wen Ling's words helped Kui Shan calm down a little.

He whipped his head around.

Sure enough, despite the thick smoke,

flames danced among the trees, but the pine and cypress trunks remained black and unscorched.

The fire was spreading only through the low shrubs and grass.

And its flames were a strange pale yellow, nothing like the blazing red of an ordinary wildfire.

"What's this..." Kui Shan froze.

Wen Ling was the one who answered, after a moment's silence. "Phosphorus."

Lu Jing'an smiled. "Sister Wen Ling, you really are well-read."

Kui Shan clearly knew nothing about these foreign inventions.

Seeing the look on her boss's face, Wen Ling explained it to him in plain language.

When she finished, she couldn't resist taking a jab at him.

"Boss, phosphorus is a foreign substance. It's more expensive than gold."

"Young Master Lu is burning gold to protect this forest and the livelihoods of ordinary people."

After hearing Wen Ling's explanation, Kui Shan's face flushed red with embarrassment.

Still, he refused to back down completely.

"What a waste. They could've just handed that gold to the poor."

"If we simply hand out money, the Tiger Demon won't leave."

Lu Jing'an smiled, his gaze still fixed on the phosphorus flames flickering among the trees.

Kui Shan was stumped, and his old face turned an even deeper shade of red.

Watching the phosphorus flames burn in the forest, Wen Ling asked curiously, "Young Master Lu, I read that phosphorus burns like ghost fire. Why do your phosphorus flames look like ordinary fire?"

"I had them add a little salt. That lowers the temperature of the flames and makes their color closer to that of ordinary fire."

As he listened, Wen Ling nodded and took out the notebook and pen she carried with her.

For a Literary Cultivator, the more knowledge she had, the stronger she became.

After writing it down, Wen Ling smiled brightly. "I didn't expect you to know so much about these foreign curiosities, Young Master Lu."

"I know a little."

Watching the phosphorus flames burning on the mountaintop and the smoke billowing above them, Lu Jing'an murmured, "I hope this is enough to fool that beast. If it isn't, we'll really have to burn down the mountain."

Wen Ling closed her notebook. "Don't worry, Young Master Lu. This trick works. That beast is terrified of fire. It'll run as soon as it sees flames."

"I hope so."

Lu Jing'an had barely finished speaking when—

"ROOOAR!"

A thunderous tiger's roar exploded from deep in the forest.

No ordinary tiger could have made a sound like that.

It rolled through the valley like muffled thunder,

yet carried the piercing shriek of metal scraping against stone.

Everyone's eardrums throbbed. Leaves shivered down from the trees, and even the gravel on the ground trembled.

Lu Jing'an narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.

The treetops were folding over in waves,

and a vast, indistinct yellow-and-black shape was racing toward the eastern high ground.

"Just as I thought. It's heading east," he murmured.

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—!"

A dense burst of gunfire erupted in the east,

punctuated by several thunderous explosions—

grenades.

More smoke rose, and the firebreaks they'd dug in advance were set alight.

At last, real flames devoured the dry grass, their red tongues leaping several yards high.

The gunfire continued for about the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

Suddenly, Lu Jing'an's gaze sharpened.

Something was stirring in the forest to the west.

The trees were falling in a different direction.

"Everyone, get ready." Lu Jing'an's voice turned abruptly cold.

Lu Jing'an gave Director Liu his orders.

"Yes, sir!"

Director Liu answered solemnly and went off to make preparations.

As the Tiger Demon's distance from them shrank,

the commotion grew louder and louder.

Everyone held their breath, tension mounting.

Soon, something burst out of the woods.

The first figure to emerge was a man.

Or rather, he had once been a man.

His coarse-cloth clothes were in tatters,

his exposed skin a deathly gray, his eye sockets hollow.

His mouth stretched all the way to his ears, revealing teeth as white as bones.

Most horrifying of all, several patches of phosphorus still clung to his shoulders and back.

Pale yellow flames licked at his rotting flesh, yet there was no stench of burning—only a faint sizzling sound.

Then a second appeared, followed by a third...

They poured from the woods, their twisted movements like those of marionettes.

Yet the fear and agony of their final moments remained frozen on their ashen faces.

Some had crooked necks, some gaping holes in their torsos, and some had limbs bent backward.

Ten, thirty, fifty...

A hundred, a hundred and thirty...

When the hundred and fifty-seventh Chang Ghost stumbled out,

the entire hollow fell deathly silent.

Only the faint crackle of burning phosphorus

and the dragging footsteps of those "things" could be heard.

One hundred and fifty-seven lives.

All of them had died within the past year.

A Chang Ghost's body could last no longer than a year before rotting completely into bones.

And the Tiger Demon had been squatting here for forty years.

Yinshan County received only about two hundred reports a year of people going missing and never being found.

More than a hundred and fifty were here.

That meant more than eighty percent of the missing people had likely become the Tiger Demon's Chang Ghosts.

It was a sight so horrifying

that no one had expected it.

Now, Kui Shan thought they should have burned the mountain long ago.

That Tiger Demon deserved to die!

"Y-Young Master..." Director Liu's voice was hoarse, his eyes bloodshot. "Do we open fire?"

Lu Jing'an tamped down his anger and calmly replied, "You're in command here. Make the call yourself."

Lu Jing'an watched the walking corpses in silence, his face expressionless.

Only a glint of icy light flashed deep in his eyes as he said slowly,

"You're in command here. Use your judgment."

Director Liu acknowledged the order, then instructed the others, "Fire with half our guns."

Gunfire erupted like a string of firecrackers.

Rifles and pistols, along with two ZB vz. 26 Light Machine Guns, spat streams of flame.

Bullets wove a net of death.

The Chang Ghosts' rotting bodies shuddered like rags beneath the hail of bullets.

The dull crunch of shattered skulls rang out in quick succession. Gray-black pulp splattered across the dead grass and broken stones.

In moments, every Chang Ghost that had charged out of the woods lay motionless on the ground.

But the Tiger Demon still hadn't shown itself.

Lu Jing'an stepped forward.

His boot ground a loose stone beneath its sole, crushing it with a faint crack.

Facing the deep woods and the mountain wind, he called out:

"Weren't you going to kill the Lu Family's descendants?

I, Lu Jing'an, am standing right here."

Lu Jing'an's clear voice echoed through the valley:

"The mountain paths on both sides are blocked, and the east is a sea of fire.

You can only get to me by coming through here. If you've got what it takes, come and take my life."

The woods fell deathly silent.

A moment later, a tiger's roar, more savage and frenzied than before, exploded through the air!

The boundless hatred in its roar seemed almost tangible, making everyone's blood surge.

Several young members of the team even stumbled backward, blood seeping from their ears and noses.

Lu Jing'an narrowed his eyes.

He couldn't understand what the Lu Family had ever done to this Tiger Demon to make it hate them so much.

"Boom!!"

The earth shook.

A massive black shadow smashed through several pine trees as thick as bowls,

then leaped out of the woods,

slamming into the ground and sending dust billowing into the air,

while broken stones burst outward like rain.

It was a tiger.

But no tiger in the world should have been that enormous.

It was nearly ten meters long,

and its shoulders rose half a body taller than a grown man's.

Its yellow-and-black striped fur gleamed in the sunlight with the cold sheen of metal.

Most terrifying of all were its enormous, blood-red eyes, round as bells, with pupils narrowed to thin slits.

Madness and venomous resentment roiled within them.

Its gaping maw dripped foul-smelling saliva from fangs like daggers.

A white "Wang" marking on its forehead twisted like a ghost's face.

At such close range,

the stench and Killing Intent of an apex predator hit them head-on.

Several young Security Officers' legs went weak,

and they could barely keep hold of their guns.

"Open fire!"

Director Liu shouted hoarsely.

Every gun muzzle spat flames at once!

Bullets poured over the Tiger Demon like a torrential downpour.

Pistol rounds clanged against its fur, spitting tiny sparks.

A few rifle bullets managed to pierce its flesh, bursting into small sprays of blood.

Only the machine-gun rounds from the ZB vz. 26 Light Machine Guns could truly tear through its defenses, punching bloody holes in its body.

The Tiger Demon growled and gave its massive body a violent shake.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

Dozens of warped bullets sprayed from its fur like iron sand, bouncing and rolling across the stone.

It shook them off as casually as dust, with utter contempt.

Director Liu's pupils contracted. He roared, "Fire the cannons!!"

"Boom! Boom!"

The two Mountain Guns roared in unison, their muzzles belching searing flames.

The Tiger Demon clearly didn't recognize the weapons. The deafening blast stunned it for a moment.

That momentary pause was all it took.

"Bang!!"

A shell struck it squarely in the left shoulder!

Blood and flesh flew everywhere.

The Tiger Demon shrieked as it was hurled backward, crashing through two pine trees before slamming heavily into the ground.

A basin-sized wound had been blasted open in its left shoulder, its flesh torn and mangled.

White bone showed through, and blood poured from the wound like a spring.

The other shell landed three feet away, blasting a scorched crater into the earth.

"We hit it!!" someone shouted excitedly.

Director Liu's face flushed with triumph. He waved again. "Reload! Again—"

Before he could finish, the Tiger Demon staggered to its feet.

Its blood-red eyes fixed on Lu Jing'an as a low growl rumbled from its throat.

Its muscles bulged, and blood gushed from the wound.

Yet it seemed not to feel a thing. It dug in all four paws and lunged forward!