Demonic Possession Through Illness [Seek Follow-up] [Seek Monthly Pass]

The origin of the Tiger Demon Memory Bead was from a very distant time.

That portion of the imagery was extremely blurry, as if veiled by a thick layer of dust.

The sounds were also intermittent and could not be heard clearly.

Back then, it was merely an ordinary tiger, not a demon.

Lu Jing'an's divine sense sank into the Memory Bead, like falling into a turbid lake.

He filtered out those useless fragments.

Day after day of hunting, sleeping, and staring blankly... caused time to advance rapidly within the consciousness.

How exactly did demon beasts come to be?

He had always been quite curious.

The materials in the academy were written very vaguely, only stating that some "heaven and earth sickness" entered the body, and ordinary animals became demons.

But what exactly was "sickness"?

No one explained it clearly.

Now, he might be able to see it with his own eyes.

Thirty years passed in a flash within the memory.

The tiger in the memory had grown old.

Its fur had lost its luster, balding in patches to reveal the pink skin beneath.

Its ribs were clearly defined, and its hind legs trembled when it walked.

It could no longer catch agile prey.

It was too hungry, so hungry its eyes turned green.

It began to eat the rotting carcasses of animals.

The smell was pungent, carrying a cloying scent of death.

But it could not care; hunger burned its stomach.

That day, it stumbled up a dirt slope.

The wind blew from below, bringing an indescribable odor.

The intense stench of blood and highly decomposed corpses.

And a deeper, more unsettling sensation.

It was as if countless people were weeping and screaming in its ears.

The tiger instinctively wanted to retreat.

But a violent cramp tore through its stomach again.

It panted heavily, moving down the slope step by step.

It was a village.

Or rather, what used to be a village.

The mud walls had collapsed, and the thatched cottages were burned down to charred frames.

Broken household items were scattered across the ground.

A child's tiger-head shoe lay there, the red pom-pom on it so dirty its color was unrecognizable.

Then, there were the dead.

Many dead people—men, women, the elderly, and children.

They lay on the ground in various twisted postures.

The blood had long since seeped into the blackened soil.

But the corpses were still rotting.

In the not-so-cool weather, they bloated, turned blue, and oozed yellow fluid.

White maggots crawled in and out of them.

Flies buzzed in a dense swarm.

There were no living creatures; even the crows would not land.

The tiger paced at the village entrance, a restless purr rumbling in its throat.

Instinct told it that this place was extremely dangerous and to leave quickly.

But hunger was like a hand, gripping its gut tightly and dragging it into the village.

It walked inside.

Its claws stepped onto the dried, blackened blood puddles, making a faint "crunching" sound.

The stench of corruption, a mixture of resentment and pestilence, was so thick it made it dizzy.

It stopped beside the corpse of a middle-aged man.

The man's chest had been ripped open, his internal organs were gone, and half his face had been gnawed away.

The tiger lowered its head and bit into a piece of flesh that had already turned gray-green.

Chew, swallow.

The sour, poisonous juices burst in its mouth.

It forced itself to swallow despite the nausea, its stomach churning violently.

It walked to the next corpse, and then the next.

It ate for an entire day.

When the sun went down, it was too full to move.

It collapsed on the threshing floor in the center of the village, its belly bulging like a broken gong.

It knew it was going to die.

The toxins burned within its body, its muscles began to twitch, and its vision flickered with darkness.

Whatever, better to die a full ghost than a hungry one.

It closed its eyes, waiting for death.

But an hour later, an unimaginable, searing pain tore it awake.

It wasn't just a normal stomachache.

It felt like fire burning in its veins, like its bones were being shattered and reformed.

It felt like countless needles were stabbing and churning beneath its skin!

The tiger rolled on the ground in agony, letting out a shrill howl.

Its claws gouged deep furrows into the hard earth.

Just as it was about to lose consciousness from the pain, it caught sight of half a child's corpse not far away.

Eat!

It was going to die anyway; might as well take one more bite before the end!

It crawled over and began to gnaw frantically.

As the rotten meat hit its stomach, that burning, excruciating pain...

Actually eased just a little.

It froze, its murky tiger eyes fixed on the flesh beneath its claws.

Then, as if it had grabbed onto a lifeline, it continued to eat like a madman!

One corpse, then another.

Those invisible wisps of resentment and pestilence mixed within the bodies.

They burrowed into its body along with the rotten meat.

Instead of destroying it, they began a twisted transformation.

The blood in its veins faintly shimmered with dark gold, and its bones cracked as they grew.

Beneath its withered skin, new, tougher muscles began to bulge.

When it swallowed the last piece of rotten meat in the village.

Standing under the pale moonlight, it tilted its head and let out a long roar.

The sound pierced through the mountain forest, carrying a terrifying demonic aura that startled countless birds into flight.

It lowered its head to look at its reflection in a puddle.

Deep within its amber pupils, two points of ghostly green fire burned eerily.

And beside it, several blurry, transparent, and pained human phantoms.

Were kneeling before it in silence.

Chang Ghost.

The tiger had become a Tiger Demon.

From then on, it began to feed exclusively on humans.

"Looking at it this way, the books were right; [Disease Qi] entering the body truly gives birth to demons."

"Chaos breeds monsters; that saying does not deceive me."

"In that case, the gold standard of 'animals are not allowed to become spirits after the founding of the nation' continues to rise."

Having witnessed the birth process of the Tiger Demon.

Lu Jing'an also allowed the memories to fast-forward rapidly.

Finally, he reached the segment involving the Li Family.

After a careful examination.

Lu Jing'an discovered that this plot was far more absurd than he had imagined.

The Tiger Demon had indeed targeted the Li Family because of that cart of corpses.

However, the reason the Tiger Demon truly risked attacking the Li Family.

Was because it had a child.

Those corpses were the nourishment it had prepared for its offspring.

As for why the Tiger Demon targeted the Lu Family.

It was because the resurrected Li Zhaolin had killed its child.

And then, he had even impersonated a member of the Lu Family.

Actually, things were not that absurd up to this point.

What was truly absurd was this.

After the Tiger Demon devoured Li Zhaolin, it also gained access to Li Zhaolin's memories.

Therefore, the Tiger Demon actually knew that Li Zhaolin was not a member of the Lu Family.

It also knew what kind of relationship Li Zhaolin had with the Lu Family.

However, in the Tiger Demon's perception, the death of its child.

Was because the Lu Family had failed to kill Li Zhaolin, which led to everything that followed.

Thus, the Tiger Demon still held the Lu Family accountable for this debt.

Lu Jing'an could not comprehend the Tiger Demon's absurd train of thought.

But the Tiger Demon's memories still provided Lu Jing'an with some unexpected surprises.

Specifically, Li Zhaolin's memories.

The Tiger Demon's ability to read memories was certainly not as outrageous as the Striving Furnace.

But through those fragmented memories.

Lu Jing'an still obtained a great deal of useful information.

For instance, it was Li Zhaolin who proposed the activation of Nine-Fingered Yama.

The reason for this was that the Western deity they both worshipped belonged to the same faction.

Beyond that, there was another piece of information that was extremely important.

That was the three-step plan formulated by the Li Family to eliminate the Lu Family.

The first step was to assassinate him, striking at the spirit and morale of the Lu Family.

To make the Lu Family completely lose their qualifications to compete, and then proceed slowly.

The second step was, if the first step failed, to use a marriage alliance to break the Lu Family's spine.

The third step was, in the event that the previous two steps were unsuccessful, to turn to feigning goodwill and present the Lu Family with a gift sufficient to destroy them.

As for what this gift was.

Because the information was incomplete, Lu Jing'an did not see what it was.

After finishing his review of the Memory Bead from the Tiger Demon.

Lu Jing'an only felt slightly fatigued.

He did not experience the intense discomfort he had felt when viewing the one from Nine-Fingered Yama for the first time.

Clearly, this was the benefit brought about by the increase in his mental power.

Leaning against the bedpost for a while, he drank half a cup of cold tea.

He continued to examine the remaining four Memory Beads from the Li Family cultivators.

Lu Jing'an began to probe the Memory Beads of the remaining four members of the Li Family.

After a thorough inspection.

Lu Jing'an still did not discover what the grand gift prepared by the Li Family actually was.

This was not surprising; after all, those four cultivators were not considered core members of the Li Family.

It was a pity that the Li Family's mastermind, Li Jinglin, was not a cultivator.

He had not left behind a soul.

If he had also left behind a soul.

Then the secrets of the Li Family would definitely have been seen through by Lu Jing'an.

Although he did not see what the trap prepared by the Li Family for the Lu Family was.

There were some other discoveries, however.

Lu Jing'an had found some traces regarding the Li Family's backer in the provincial capital.

The Li Family's backer in the provincial capital had always been extremely mysterious.

Even Secretary Hu was unaware of their identity.

This time, however, Lu Jing'an had managed to uncover them.

Lu Jing'an did not intend to hide these findings.

He planned to tell his father and the others directly tomorrow.

Lu Jing'an had already prepared his reasoning.

The residual consciousness left behind by the Tiger Demon's divine sense impact.

This was the best and most reasonable excuse.

Lu Jing'an finished watching all the Memory Bead contents.

Exactly four hours had passed.

The previously upgrading Affix also sent a notification:

[Upgrade Complete].

Seeing the prompt, Lu Jing'an looked toward the Striving Furnace.

He saw a brand-new Affix floating within the Striving Furnace.

[Vajra Tiger Aspect](Orange)

[Note]: By merging the Affix brought by the Tiger Demon, your physical foundation has greatly increased.

All attributes gained from practicing body-refining techniques will be increased by 300% on your body.

Body-refining speed increased by 150%, body-refining success rate 100%.

A profound foundation allows your body to make adaptive adjustments according to body-refining techniques.

After reading the Affix's notes, Lu Jing'an was quite satisfied with its effects.

Especially the final note.

It couldn't help but spark some associations in Lu Jing'an's mind.

Associations regarding the Six Harmonies Fist.

The true difficulty of the Six Harmonies Fist was the conflict of true energy.

The process of true energy conflict could only rely on the body adapting to it itself.

And the last line of the Affix mentioned self-adaptation.

That meant Lu Jing'an wouldn't need to find a way to adapt himself; his body would make adjustments and changes on its own.

In this way, it would not only greatly reduce the pain of cultivation but also significantly increase the speed of cultivation.

As for whether it was as Lu Jing'an thought, he would only know once he tried practicing the Six Harmonies Fist.

He used his intent to take the Affix out of the Striving Furnace and equipped it.

Immediately, Lu Jing'an felt a distinct change in his body.

Lu Jing'an clearly sensed that the density of his body had increased.

He was still the same person, but his bones and flesh had become noticeably heavier.

"This must be what they call a foundation."

Since there was nothing unusual, Lu Jing'an simply lay down to sleep.

The next morning.

Lu Jing'an rose early.

He stretched his muscles and bones.

As he stretched, his joints emitted a faint crackling sound, like a bowstring being slowly drawn to its limit.

He could clearly feel the changes brought about by the increase in his physical foundation.