The resistance of blade entering flesh came clearly through her palm.
Warm blood splashed across her cheeks.
Pei Changqing's eyes widened round with shock.
No matter what, he could not understand why the girl before him would attack him.
"You..."
The single word clogged in his throat, and then there was no more sound.
The light in his eyes swiftly dimmed.
Jiang Yuechu's hand gripping the hilt trembled violently.
Her nostrils were filled with the thick stench of blood, while her stomach churned like rivers and seas overturned.
She had killed someone.
She had killed someone with her own hands.
Even if, in her previous life, she had grown used to witnessing life and death online, her fingers flying across the keyboard louder than anyone else's.
When a life truly and tangibly ended at her own hands.
The crushing weight of morality, the spurting blood.
Every bit of it ground against the mind of the modern person she had once been.
"Tsk."
The Tiger Demon also stood frozen in place, tilting its tiger head as it studied Jiang Yuechu.
"I thought that though you humans are blood food, you still held some loyalty between comrades and affection between brothers. Who would have thought you would be so cold and heartless?"
It shook its head, its voice filled with contempt, as if it had even lost the interest to strike immediately.
It 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 it would show mercy because of that?
Just then.
The words upon 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 dragged 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 released one hand indifferently.
With her other hand, she exerted force and pulled the saber from Pei Changqing's chest.
Pfft.
Blood blossomed once more, staining her clothes red.
No matter what.
This was her only chance at life!
The next instant, she hesitated no longer.
She did not know how much Dao Cultivation she would need to seize a thread of survival.
Twenty years?
Thirty years?
Or even if she possessed 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 Ability?
A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant.
At this moment, the twenty years of Dao Cultivation she had just obtained poured entirely into her body.
Over the Wilderness, the afterglow of the setting sun dyed the withered grass and corpses with a bleak, blood-red hue.
The running girl was slight and frail, while the saber in her hand reflected the evening clouds.
As though it had been set ablaze.
Seeing this, the Tiger Demon stopped thinking any further and abruptly opened its blood-filled maw.
"Roar—"
The roar swept up sand, stones, and dead grass from the ground.
Though it looked so imposing now, it had in fact suffered no small injuries during its initial battle with that squad of Demon-Suppression Guards.
Had its innate Divine Ability not allowed it to escape disaster, it would already have become a dead soul beneath the blade.
But even so, it was not something a little girl without the strength to truss a chicken could provoke.
The Tiger Demon raised its sharp claw and, carrying a foul wind, fiercely slapped down at the charging figure.
Jiang Yuechu stared fixedly at the enormous claw descending upon her.
Yet the saber in her hand had become incomparably heavy.
Twenty years of Dao Cultivation.
All entrusted to a single blade.
She did not understand saber techniques. She merely poured that savage 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 before dropping to one knee.
The saber flew from her hand and embedded itself in the muddy ground some distance away.
She suddenly opened her mouth and spat out blood, while blood seeped from all seven of her apertures.
Those twenty years of Dao Cultivation had come quickly and gone quickly, exhausted completely in an instant.
The Tiger Demon remained in its claw-swinging posture, frozen in place.
The wind swept past, and the wild grass swayed.
As though they had become spectators to this battle, they too seemed horrified by the deathly silence.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Pfft.
The massive tiger head rolled to the ground.
"Huff... huff..."
Jiang Yuechu gasped for breath.
She had survived.
The instant that thought arose, the feeling of exhaustion surged over her like a tide.
[Killed a String Hearing Realm creature. Obtained one hundred years of Dao Cultivation.] [An unrecorded demon has been detected. Consume Dao Cultivation to record it?]
The words on the ancient scroll in her mind appeared once more, but she had no strength left to inspect them closely.
She forced herself to try to stand.
But it was as if every ounce of strength had been drained from her body; even her fingertips could not move.
Record it?
What did that mean?
She lay prone on the ground, her cheek pressed to the dirt, truly in no mood to think too much.
Forget it.
Things had already come to this.
Where was there time to study such matters?
"Record it."
As the thought fell, the ancient scroll before her moved without wind and actually floated into the air from nothing.
Trace its shadow, fix its demon form.
The next moment, the Dao Cultivation on the panel began to drain at a rapid pace.
In no more than the blink of an eye, more than half had been consumed.
Upon the scroll, the brush moved like dragons and serpents, sketching a lifelike fierce tiger with hanging eyes and a white brow.
When the final stroke fell, the tiger on the scroll seemed to come alive, its eyes lighting with a faint red glow.
[Successfully Shadow Traced Tiger Mountain God. Received a demon's gift.] [Fierce Tiger Swift Blade (Mastery)]
Boom—
A force poured back from the scroll, instantly filling her body.
The weakness and injuries from before were swept away completely.
She even felt more comfortable than she ever had before.
At the same time, countless insights into saber techniques, moves, and methods of exerting force appeared in her mind from nowhere.
One incense stick later.
Jiang Yuechu slowly rose to her feet, her face filled with disbelief.
Her slender fingers now contained inexhaustible strength.
She walked to the saber embedded in the mud some distance away and reached out to grasp its hilt.
It fit her hand perfectly.
As though these hands of hers had been born to wield a blade.
So this was the true use of Dao Cultivation.
Directly consuming Dao Cultivation only exchanged it for a momentary burst of power, making it terribly inefficient.
Only by recording demons could she make long-term plans.
With a thought, the panel unfolded once more.
[Host: Jiang Yuechu] [Realm: String-Hearing Initial Realm] [Martial Art: Fierce Tiger Swift Blade (Mastery)] [Dao Cultivation: Twenty-five years] [Recorded Demon: Tiger Mountain God (Shadow Tracing)]
"String-Hearing Initial Realm?"
"Shadow Tracing... what does that mean?"
Jiang Yuechu fell into thought.
String-Hearing Initial Realm... could that be the cultivation system of this world?
And Shadow Tracing...
Did it mean that what she had gained now was merely the tip of the iceberg of that Tiger Demon's Divine Ability?
If she continued to consume Dao Cultivation, could she advance this Shadow Tracing further?
She glanced at the mere twenty-five years of Dao Cultivation she had left.
Shadow Tracing alone had consumed a full seventy-five years.
Heaven knew how outrageous 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 emergencies.
Having thought it through, Jiang Yuechu steadied her mind.
She turned around, walked over to the corpse that still retained some warmth, and silently crouched down.
She reached out and gently brushed over his open eyes.
"I'm sorry."
"If there comes a day when I kill enough demons and save enough Dao Cultivation, perhaps I can find a way to rebuild a body for you and return your life."
"Of course, don't get your hopes up too high."
"After all, in a world like this, I don't even know how long I can live."
"Maybe one day I'll come down to keep you company. If we meet in the underworld then, don't beat me up..."
But in this world where demons ran rampant.
When someone had reached the point where they could no longer control their own fate, whether they could bear it no longer mattered.
Tiger Mountain God
Before you continue