The Tiger Demon came charging.
Director Liu gave the order to fire again.
At the same time, every kind of firearm poured bullets into the Tiger Demon's wounds as if ammunition cost nothing.
The wounds on the Tiger Demon grew worse.
But this time, the firearms were no longer useless.
Every hit made the Tiger Demon's body jerk.
Seeing this, Lu Jing'an gave no further orders.
At this rate, the Tiger Demon's death was only a matter of time.
It couldn't possibly make it to them.
But in the next moment—
Lu Jing'an felt as if an ice pick had been driven into the inside of his skull.
The Tiger Demon's mental attack came without warning,
like an avalanche erupting deep within his brain.
Roaring in its mindscape now
was a soul tiger formed entirely from savagery and murderous intent.
"Roar!"
The tiger's silent roar nearly scattered Lu Jing'an's consciousness.
He could still see the scene outside:
Director Liu was waving frantically thirty paces away, shouting himself hoarse,
while the soldiers reloaded the mortars, the metallic clatter ringing out.
Chen Xuan had stepped forward half a pace, ready to act at any moment.
He could even smell the faint soapberry fragrance on Wen Ling.
But he couldn't get a single word out.
On the battlefield of the mind, he stood alone.
The soul Tiger Demon, now shrunken to the size of a cat,
raced back and forth inside his head. Every snap and lunge tore away great swathes of his thoughts.
Lu Jing'an felt warm liquid welling up from deep inside his nose,
while a piercing shriek rang in his ears.
Snowflake-like blind spots began to spread across the edges of his vision.
Lu Jing'an could feel his mind on the verge of collapse.
Add points!
Lu Jing'an silently urged.
The instant the thought formed,
a clear, springlike force welled up from the depths of his consciousness.
His mental power, which had been a candle guttering in the wind, suddenly solidified.
An unseen force forcibly knit together the wounds that had been torn open.
The soul Tiger Demon in his mindscape faltered, then actually shrank back half a step.
Lu Jing'an looked at his mental points. All nine points of energy poured in, and his mental power jumped from 8 to 17.
A transformation took place in an instant.
When the soul Tiger Demon charged again,
Lu Jing'an could even make out every line of the 王-shaped marking on its forehead.
Lu Jing'an still didn't know how to attack with his mind,
but he stood his ground
like a reef facing a raging tide!
The Tiger Demon's assault slammed into his now more than twice as solid mental barrier, raising nothing but ripples.
The stalemate lasted no more than three seconds.
The soul Tiger Demon let out an unwilling screech,
then turned and dispersed into a skyful of light, vanishing from Lu Jing'an's mindscape.
"Hah—"
Lu Jing'an snapped his eyes open and exhaled a breath of stale air.
The breath brought the taste of blood from his throat,
along with the warm liquid that had finally begun to run from his nose.
He raised a hand to touch it, and his fingertips met something sticky.
"Young Master!"
Chen Xuan's cry rang out beside him.
The usually mountain-steady teacher had a tightness in his voice now,
and his robes snapped as he turned.
Lu Jing'an had never seen his master wear such an expression.
Those eyes, usually half-lidded, were wide open,
his pupils pinpricks as blood vessels instantly spread across the whites.
"Young Master Lu, you..."
Wen Ling's voice came from the other side.
In a panic, she felt around in her sleeve, then finally pulled out a plain white handkerchief embroidered with magnolias.
It carried the distinctive soap fragrance of a young woman, along with the faintest hint of medicinal herbs.
Lu Jing'an took it and pressed it to his nose. The cotton quickly soaked through with blood, blooming into dark flowers in the moonlight.
"I'll get you a new one next time." Lu Jing'an's voice sounded muffled, but he was smiling.
Wen Ling stared at him for a moment, then glared. "Who said I wanted you to replace it?"
Chen Xuan had already pressed his fingers to Lu Jing'an's pulse.
The old man's fingertips were icy. He checked the pulse for three breaths before letting go, his voice hoarse.
"Your soul was shaken, but your foundation is unharmed."
He looked toward the Tiger Demon, thirty paces away, its movements sluggish from the damage to its mind.
The trace of lingering fear in his eyes instantly flared into a cold killing intent.
"Was that beast's soul attack?"
"Mm."
Lu Jing'an wiped the blood from his face, carefully folded the bloodstained handkerchief, and tucked it into his inner pocket.
"The file left out a lot. That mental attack of its nearly turned me into an idiot."
"This was our oversight."
Wen Ling's voice was strained, each word seeming to scrape out between her teeth.
"The Tiger Demon commands Chang Ghosts, so its soul must be powerful.
We should have realized it might possess a direct soul attack."
"Sister Wen Ling."
Lu Jing'an interrupted her self-reproach, his voice calm.
"The battlefield changes in an instant. There's no way to plan for everything.
The fact that I'm standing here talking is already a blessing."
After hearing Lu Jing'an, Chen Xuan looked toward the Tiger Demon, his eyes brimming with killing intent.
"Young Master, I'll kill it."
Chen Xuan said this, then leaped straight into the battlefield.
Lu Jing'an had just started to call after him when he realized Chen Xuan was already gone.
All he could do was call for Director Liu and the others to stop.
The Tiger Demon had an instinctive sense of danger.
When it saw Chen Xuan,
it sensed the threat on instinct.
But it was already badly wounded and had no chance of escaping.
Truth be told, even without its injuries, it still couldn't have gotten away from Chen Xuan.
Though he hadn't managed to stop his master, at least he could see him in action.
When the Tiger Demon saw Chen Xuan approach, it raised a paw to block him.
Chen Xuan turned his clawed hand into a palm and chopped down on the joint of the Tiger Demon's paw.
The dull crack of breaking bone rang out with unusual clarity in the silent forest.
The Tiger Demon howled in pain, and Chen Xuan pressed in.
His left hand seized the Tiger Demon's jaw, while his right knee slammed hard into its throat.
In less than five minutes,
the Tiger Demon, which had been thrashing about moments earlier, was nothing but a dead tiger.
Watching Chen Xuan with blood on both hands,
Lu Jing'an thought that even Wu Song from the old tales couldn't match his master's fearsome presence.
[Detected a soul that can be refined/repaired. Collect?]
Seeing the prompt appear over the Tiger Demon,
Lu Jing'an chose to collect without hesitation.
He had come here for two reasons.
First, to draw in the Tiger Demon and then kill it.
Second, to get this soul.
The Tiger Demon was so powerful.
Lu Jing'an was already looking forward to seeing what its soul would yield.
After collecting the soul,
Lu Jing'an immediately chose to refine it.
[Refining... Estimated completion time: 12 hours]
Seeing the estimated completion time,
Lu Jing'an looked forward to it even more.
The longer the refining took,
the richer the reward was bound to be.
The longest refining time before this had been only six hours.
Now it was a full twice as long.
Lu Jing'an had every reason to be excited.
After dealing with the Tiger Demon, Chen Xuan returned to Lu Jing'an's side.
As for the rest of the cleanup,
there was no need for a powerhouse like Chen Xuan to handle it.
Director Liu and the people Lu Jing'an's third uncle had brought were more than enough.
"Master, wipe your hands."
Lu Jing'an took out the handkerchief he carried with him and handed it to Chen Xuan.
"Thank you, Young Master."
Chen Xuan took it and wiped his hands, though it could only remove some of the blood on the surface.
Just then,
the phosphorous flames in the forest burned out. Aside from a few trees scorched black, they had caused no fire.
Over by the Tiger Demon,
all the available manpower had gone to help.
The giant beast, weighing over a thousand jin, had more than a hundred men sweating buckets as they worked.
Shouts, ropes scraping, and the roar of truck engines all mingled together.
Lu Jing'an looked at the Tiger Demon's corpse, then turned to ask Wen Ling:
"Sister Wen Ling, the Peacekeeping Bureau has procedures for dealing with these demons, right? Could you share them with me?
Or I could ask someone from the Peacekeeping Bureau to help me handle it?"
Wen Ling nodded. "Of course. The Peacekeeping Bureau can't handle it for you, but we can share the procedures and our experience in dealing with it."
"Thank you."
Lu Jing'an cupped his hands in gratitude.
Wen Ling looked at the Tiger Demon's corpse being hauled away and said:
"Young Master Lu, you came up with such a clever way to deal with a demon.
Would you be interested in helping us deal with another one?"
After a pause, Wen Ling added, "This time, inviting you wouldn't break any rules. We can also pay you afterward."
Then she changed tack. "Our rate is rather low, though—only five hundred silver dollars. I imagine that's beneath you, Young Master Lu."
Lu Jing'an smiled. "Money isn't important. Sister Wen Ling, you can give me the file first, and I'll take a look."
"If I really can help you, Sister Wen Ling, it would be my honor."
Wen Ling giggled. "Then it's a deal."
Standing off to one side, Kui Shan suddenly wasn't sure which of them was the Peacekeeping Bureau's director.
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