The air was thick with the mingled smells of cheap tobacco and old wood.
A grease-stained hand suddenly slapped Chen Jin on the shoulder, its weight making him stagger.
"Hey, Chen Jin." A gruff voice came from behind him, carrying an unquestionable command. "Tiger Lord wants to see you."
Chen Jin didn't look back. He only swallowed, forcing down the wariness that had surged up in an instant.
"What is it?"
"Cut the crap." Someone else moved up beside him, like a wall blocking his retreat. "You'll find out when you get there."
Two invisible pressures closed in from either side. They practically dragged him, shoving him through the narrow, dimly lit corridor.
Their footsteps echoed through the empty passage, one ahead and one behind, like the beat of funeral drums.
Their destination was a half-open wooden door at the end of the corridor, with a wavering yellow light seeping through the gap.
The door was shoved open with a bang.
A heavier stench of smoke, mixed with the rank reek of some beast, rolled over them.
The room was small, like an abandoned storeroom. At its center, a high-backed chair draped in worn animal hide sat awkwardly atop a crude wooden platform.
Someone sat in the chair.
The man was exceptionally burly, nearly filling the entire seat. Light slanted down from above, casting deep shadows across his face and outlining features as rugged as if they'd been carved with an axe. His eyes gleamed terrifyingly in the shadows, fixed on Chen Jin.
He was Tiger Lord.
The men who'd escorted Chen Jin shoved him forward, then retreated to the doorway like two silent guardians.
Tiger Lord said nothing. He only looked Chen Jin up and down with those intimidating eyes, his gaze so tangible it seemed to scrape his skin raw. The only sounds in the room were heavy breathing and the soft crackle of the lamp's wick.
"Chen Jin," Tiger Lord finally said, his voice low and hoarse, like sandpaper scraping. "How long have you been with me?"
Chen Jin licked his dry lips. "About... a week, I guess." His voice sounded especially clear in the silence.
Tiger Lord gave an inscrutable snort through his nose. He leaned forward slightly, and the shadow shifted with him, intensifying the pressure. "A week..." He chewed over the words, each syllable edged with ice. "In a week, you figured out three of my secret shipping routes. You work fast!"
"That's thanks to your cultivation, Tiger Lord."
"Cultivation? I wanted to cultivate you properly, too. But when I went to pay your social insurance today, they told me your employer was already paying it!"
Tiger Lord's voice suddenly rose, exploding like muffled thunder in undisguised fury. "You're a fucking cop's plant!"
He slammed a hand against the armrest. Wood splinters flew. "The things I hate most are traitors and undercover cops! Today, I'll make it quick and clean house!"
Before the words had even left his mouth, a sudden change erupted!
The bones in Tiger Lord's burly body cracked with a teeth-grinding series of snaps. Thick yellow-and-black fur burst through his expensive silk shirt and sprouted wildly.
His vicious human face split apart and warped in an instant. His muzzle thrust forward, revealing gleaming white fangs—a gigantic striped tiger with white fur over its eyes took Tiger Lord's place and roared as it sprang from the high-backed chair!
A fetid wind rushed at Chen Jin. The tiger's gaping maw, powerful enough to tear through anything, lunged for his throat!
Crack!
The bone-splitting snap rang out, making the scalp crawl.
The tiger's terrifying bite severed Chen Jin's head in an instant. It rolled across the floor like a doll's head ripped off in a fit of rage, even bouncing once.
His headless body stood frozen in place as blood gushed from his severed neck like a fountain, splattering the mottled walls and filthy floor.
The two men at the door didn't even blink.
One of them strode forward expressionlessly, ready to drag away the headless corpse.
Just as his hand was about to touch the corpse's clothes—
A bloodstained hand shot up and seized his wrist! Cold and strong.
The man froze and looked down in disbelief.
The head that had rolled across the floor suddenly focused its once-empty eyes. The corner of its mouth even curled into a strange smile.
Meanwhile, the flesh at the stump of the headless body's neck churned violently as if boiling. Bones, blood vessels, nerves, and muscles intertwined and rebuilt themselves at a visible speed!
With a soft squelch, a whole new head—Chen Jin's head—grew from the severed neck in an instant!
His new skin still glistened with moisture, a bizarre contrast against the blood and filth around him.
He rolled his neck with a crisp crack, then grinned at the horrified henchman, baring his white teeth.
"Don't rush, brother. I think... I can still pull through."
"You...!" The tiger on the platform shrank its pupils to pinpoints. Shock and fury rumbled in its throat. "You're a Walker?!"
Chen Jin didn't answer. He simply drew an unusually large-bore revolver from behind his waist.
With practiced ease, he swung out the cylinder. One by one, he pressed the golden bullets, etched with strange runes, into it, their metallic clinks ringing steadily through the room.
Click. The cylinder snapped back into place. Chen Jin raised the muzzle, its barrel gleaming with a cold blue light beneath the yellow lamp.
A hint of mockery touched his lips.
"What a surprise, Tiger Lord." His voice was terrifyingly calm. "You're one, too, aren't you?"
Before he'd finished speaking, muzzle flashes erupted!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The deafening gunfire tore through the little room's silence!
The rune-etched bullets screamed through the air and slammed into the tiger's enormous body, bursting into clouds of blood, yellow-and-black fur, flesh, and shattered bone!
The tremendous force drove the tiger backward again and again, until it crashed into the back of the chair with a dull thud.
"Roooar—!!!" The tiger flew into a full-blown rage, its pain awakening its most primal savagery.
It whipped its head around. The light in the entire room seemed to twist!
Several translucent tiger apparitions, formed from pure malevolent energy, appeared out of nowhere. With shrill howls of wind, they pounced on Chen Jin from different angles!
Rip! One apparition's claws raked across Chen Jin's chest, tearing open his skin and flesh down to the bone!
But no blood gushed from the wound. The torn flesh writhed and knit itself together at a visible speed. Within a few breaths, the wound that could have killed him had vanished, leaving only a tear in his clothes.
Bang! Chen Jin fired without changing expression, blasting apart the head of an apparition as it lunged toward him.
Rip! Another apparition left a long gash across his back. The next second, the wound had healed completely.
Gunfire and the apparitions' savage attacks interwove.
Chen Jin was like an unkillable monster. He let the apparitions inflict horrific wounds on his body, only for them to heal in an instant.
His steps remained steady as he pressed forward, his gun always trained on the tiger's true form. Every time he pulled the trigger, he tore away another piece of the tiger, weakening its malevolent energy.
The tide was turning!
The tiger's roars grew hoarse with exhaustion, and its apparitions grew thinner and thinner.
Its huge body was riddled with bullet holes and deep, bone-revealing gashes. Blood soaked its magnificent fur and dripped onto the floor.
At last!
Chen Jin seized the moment the tiger stumbled and closed in like a phantom! The cold barrel, reeking of gunpowder and carrying the weight of a thousand jun, slammed into the tiger's bloodied, gaping maw and pressed against its soft palate!
The room fell silent. Only the tiger's labored, painful panting and Chen Jin's steady breathing remained.
Chen Jin looked down at the ferocious beast that had once been so imperious, his gaze cold.
"Any last words?"
The tiger's huge, bloodshot eyes glared fixedly at Chen Jin. Its throat rumbled with its final resentment and overwhelming venom. Summoning the last of its strength, it forced a slurred but perfectly clear curse between its bloodied fangs.
"I... fuck... your... mother!"
There wasn't a flicker in Chen Jin's eyes, only a cold, empty indifference.
"Got it. I'll engrave those exact words on your gravestone." He answered calmly, his finger steady on the trigger.
Bang—!!!
A deafening blast exploded inside the room!
The force of the point-blank shot nearly blew the entire back of the tiger's head away!
Red and white, along with splintered bone, sprayed in a radial pattern across the high-backed chair and wall behind it, forming an intensely bloody, abstract painting.
The tiger's enormous body convulsed violently. The last glimmer of savagery in its eyes went out, and it crashed to the floor like a mountain collapsing, raising a cloud of dust.
The overpowering smells of blood and gunpowder filled the entire room.
Chen Jin slowly lowered the smoking gun. He didn't even glance at the tiger's corpse as it rapidly cooled on the floor.
He walked over to the worn animal-hide chair and casually nudged the scraps of Tiger Lord's torn silk shirt with his bloodied shoe.
Then he raised his head and looked at the two men in the doorway. They were already pale and trembling like leaves. His voice was as calm as if he were discussing the weather.
"Help me call the police."