Tiger Demon Bestows a Divine Ability

Jiang Yuechu's consciousness sank into boundless darkness.

[Year One: You were born. You were a tiger cub of South Mountain, frail from birth and abandoned by your mother in a mountain ravine. Had a flash flood not swept you downstream, you would have become food for other wild beasts.]

[Year Two: You had learned to hunt skillfully and gradually managed to survive on South Mountain.]

[Year Five: You encountered a monster covered in long white fur. He sat beneath a waterfall with a scroll in his hands. You were hungry and wanted to eat him, only to get beaten up instead.]

[Year Six: You lay beside the monster and watched him read. He did not chase you away and occasionally tossed you leftover peaches. You learned his name: White Ape Lord.]

[Year Seven: You followed the White Ape to learn how to read. Your claws were too large to hold a brush, and you often poked holes through the bamboo slips. The White Ape was very patient. He said that all things could serve as brushes, and heaven and earth themselves were compositions.]

[Year Eight: You learned three hundred characters. The White Ape was very Gao and told you stories. He said that when heaven and earth first opened, the clear qi rose and the turbid qi sank. Humans were the spirits of all things, while demons were the filth of heaven and earth.]

[Year Ten: You could already read on your own. You loved those martial-hero storybooks most, especially the blades described within them—one slash severing a river, one slash splitting a mountain.]

[Year Fifteen: White Ape Lord began teaching you other things. He said, "Demons cannot understand only slaughter. Otherwise, how are they any different from beasts? The reason humans are human lies in knowing propriety and righteousness, in understanding honor and shame." You thought he was talking nonsense. White Ape Lord got so angry that he smacked your forehead with a scroll for three days.]

[Year Twenty: With a single slash, you severed the flow of South Mountain's waterfall. White Ape Lord stood on the bank, clapping and laughing. You sheathed your blade and stood tall, watching the rushing waterfall break apart beneath your slash. For the first time, exhilaration rose in your heart.]

[Year Twenty-Five: You began to feel restless. Every day, you practiced the blade, read books, and listened to the old ape lecture about those principles. You felt this mountain was too small.]

[Year Thirty: Your blade arts reached great mastery. White Ape Lord asked you whether there was anything that such a domineering blade could not cut. You shook your head with confidence.]

[Year Thirty-Five: You met a young woman gathering herbs in the mountains. She did not run from you and even shared half a flatbread with you. You found it strange and did not eat the bread.]

[Year Thirty-Nine: The young woman never came up the mountain again. You heard from the demons below that she had been married off to a wealthy man and beaten to death within half a year. You carried your blade down the mountain.]

[Year Forty-Five: White Ape Lord was leaving. He sat beside you and rambled on about many things. You asked what he was going to do. He merely smiled without answering.]

[Year Fifty: You stood atop South Mountain and looked down upon the mortal world. The wind blew past, and you felt that it was time for you to descend the mountain as well.]

Her consciousness drew back together.

A dot of vermilion appeared from thin air.

Like blood dripping into water, it burst outward from the tiger's eye!

[Consumed one hundred and two years of Dao Cultivation. Tiger Mountain God's progress has reached Vermilion Staining.]

[With cinnabar entering the painting, flesh and blood are reborn.]

[Upon the painted scroll, the outline of that fierce tiger was swiftly filled in once more.]

[Successfully Vermilion Stained Tiger Mountain God. Obtained a demon's gift.]

[Fierce Tiger Swift Blade (Supreme Realm)]

[Talent: Yin Law Granted by Heaven (Tiger Mountain God favored the blade. Everything he learned in his lifetime lay within it. Blade-art cultivation speed and power have both increased.)]

[Divine Ability: Tiger Baleful Blood Boil (One of Tiger Mountain God's innate divine abilities. It may consume one's own qi and blood to restore injuries in an instant.)]

The words slowly faded away.

Jiang Yuechu lowered her head and looked at the three claw wounds on her abdomen, so deep that bone could be seen.

Her flesh had curled outward, blood streaming down.

With a thought from her—

Tiger Baleful Blood Boil.

A scorching sensation surged up from all four limbs and every bone in her body. Her qi and blood churned as though they were about to boil and burn.

The wounds on her abdomen squirmed shut at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In no more than a few breaths, those savage wounds had become nothing more than three faint red marks.

Jiang Yuechu tightened her grip around the blade.

An indescribable change welled up within her.

Those who understood, understood. There was no need to say more.

It sounded like a long tale, but it had happened in no more than an instant.

In Chen Qingyuan and the others' eyes, this Demon Suppression Office official had merely swayed after forcibly taking a killing blow.

But that wolf demon in blue robes saw it clearly.

That claw strike had used its full strength.

This woman had plainly suffered serious injuries!

Then why...

Why had her injuries healed after she merely closed and opened her eyes?!

"You..."

"Just what... are you, human or demon?!"

The blue-robed wolf demon's face was filled with terror. It was so frightened that it actually stumbled back a step.

The others had yet to understand what the wolf demon meant.

Then they saw a pair of small hands push aside Chen Qingyuan, who stood at the front.

Chen Qingyuan turned back in a daze. "My lord... you..."

This Demon Suppression Office official had clearly suffered grave injuries just moments ago.

But now...

Before anyone could react—

Jiang Yuechu raised her blade and charged at the already terrified wolf demon like the wind!

At that moment, Fierce Tiger Swift Blade erupted once more.

Before the blade arrived, the wind had already risen.

A tiger's roar seemed to descend from the ninth heaven, shaking the mountains and forest!

The blue-robed wolf demon's face turned green with fright.

Its legs trembled uncontrollably.

Even its tongue lolled out.

How was this possible?!

Why was this slash three parts fiercer than the last?!

If you had this kind of strength, I would've fucking run long ago?!

You had to put on an act, didn't you?!

What a vicious heart!!!

Terror instantly overwhelmed the hatred in its heart.

Without a second thought, it turned and fled!

But it had only just twisted around.

When a chill shot from its tailbone straight to the crown of its head.

The fierce blade wind behind it had already pressed against the back of its skull.

"Spare—"

A single word had barely squeezed out of its throat.

Before it could finish speaking, its world was split down the middle by a snow-bright white line.

The blue-robed wolf demon's body froze in place, still maintaining its forward-lunging posture. Then it split cleanly into two halves and toppled to either side.

Its organs spilled across the ground.

Steaming hot.

"..."

Jiang Yuechu slowly sheathed her blade, and the furrow between her brows gradually eased.

Not bad.

With blade arts at the Supreme Realm, coupled with Yin Law Granted by Heaven, she could now kill demons like this with effortless ease.

[Killed a String Hearing Realm creature. Obtained seventy-five years of its Dao Cultivation.]

[An unrecorded demon has been detected. Consume Dao Cultivation to record it?]

Jiang Yuechu ignored it. Her gaze shifted toward the distant end of the village road.

Those few lesser demons lucky enough to survive had long since been scared out of their wits and were about to flee with their tails tucked between their legs.

"Oh... I was so busy killing your king that I nearly forgot about you lot."

"Awwooo—"

The demons scattered in every direction.

Yet every one of them was caught by that figure.

Behind her.

Everyone had already gone dumb with shock.

This...

That pack of wolf demons which had been so ferocious moments ago, slaughtering the village.

Was simply gone?

Was it because this girl came from the Demon Suppression Office that she possessed such means?

Or was it because she possessed such means that she could join the Demon Suppression Office?

The sun climbed Gao.

The men of the Flying Eagle Sect took the mutilated corpses down from wooden racks one by one and covered them with torn cloth.

Others helped living people with hollow eyes out of the ancestral hall.

When they saw the demon corpses along the village road and the devastation littering the ground.

Some knelt and kowtowed toward the Flying Eagle Sect members.

Some clutched the remains of their loved ones and wept until they fainted.

Jiang Yuechu folded her arms and leaned against an earthen wall at the village entrance that had collapsed halfway.

Her mind sank into her consciousness.

A brand-new panel slowly unfolded.

[Host: Jiang Yuechu]

[Realm: Late String-Hearing Realm]

[Martial Arts: Fierce Tiger Swift Blade (Supreme Realm), Azure Cliff Returning Shadow (Perfected)]

[Dao Cultivation: Two Hundred Years]

[Recorded Demons: Tiger Mountain God (Vermilion Staining), Azure-Faced Lord (Shadow Tracing)]

[Talent Divine Abilities: Yin Law Granted by Heaven, Tiger Baleful Blood Boil]

Late String-Hearing Realm...

Jiang Yuechu frowned.

Previously, when Tiger Mountain God advanced from Shadow Tracing to Vermilion Staining, her cultivation had already entered the middle realm.

Now that she had recorded this wolf demon, her realm had risen to Gao again.

But exactly how was this realm calculated?

Was it because she recorded demons, or because she obtained martial arts?

As for Shadow Tracing that Azure-Faced Lord, it had consumed only fifty years of Dao Cultivation—less than Tiger Mountain God had required. That was within expectations.

Only...

Those lesser demons she had casually slain had turned into Dao Cultivation and produced no other response at all.

Jiang Yuechu fell into thought.

Perhaps even the golden finger could not be bothered with such minor demons.

As for Azure Cliff Returning Shadow, it was a fist art.

It was utterly unlike Fierce Tiger Swift Blade's ferocious dominance and broad, sweeping style.

This fist art placed greater emphasis on movement and the changing variations of its techniques.

Like a wolf moving along an azure cliff—now left, now right, its trail impossible to pin down.

The crying in the village gradually subsided, leaving only suppressed sobs.

Footsteps approached from afar and stopped before her.

Jiang Yuechu opened her eyes.

It was Chen Qingyuan.

He walked up to Jiang Yuechu without speaking. He merely lifted his robe and prepared to kneel once again.

"No need."

Chen Qingyuan paused. In the end, he did not kneel. He only bowed deeply, clasping his hands in a formal salute.

"My lord, Chen Qingyuan and the people of Guangwu County shall never forget the grace of your giving us a second life."

Jiang Yuechu neither confirmed nor denied it.

Then.

She straightened up and dusted off her robe.

The matter was settled. It was time for her to get moving and find a way to resolve the issue of her identity.

Seeing that she seemed about to leave, Chen Qingyuan grew anxious and hurriedly said, "My lord! Are you leaving already? Why not return to Guangwu County town first to rest? Allow us to offer some modest hospitality as your hosts..."

Jiang Yuechu hesitated somewhat.

Going to the county town would naturally be a good thing.

Not only could she gather more information, but she could also rest and recover.

But her identity...

Seeing her hesitation, Chen Qingyuan continued, "Could it be that you bear an important case and cannot make a grand display? If so, we will absolutely not ask further. Rest assured, my lord. Even if the county magistrate asks about today's events, we will only say that our Flying Eagle Sect was fortunate. We will not reveal a trace of your whereabouts."

He paused, his gaze sweeping imperceptibly across her waist and abdomen.

"Besides... my lord has traveled through wind and dust. Your clothes... likely need changing and washing as well. Though Guangwu County town is small, we can surely prepare one or two sets for you."

Jiang Yuechu was slightly startled. Puzzled, she followed his gaze and looked down.

The black garment around her abdomen had long been torn open by the wolf's claws. Though Tiger Baleful Blood Boil had healed the wounds, those gashes remained.

Whenever the morning wind blew, glimpses of snow-white skin could be seen.

She had not noticed anything of the sort.

In her previous life, playing ball bare-chested had been commonplace, and she had never taken it to heart.

But now, she was a woman after all.

Walking the world like this was indeed inappropriate.

Jiang Yuechu raised her head and glanced at the utterly sincere Chen Qingyuan.

Forget it.

She now possessed two hundred years of Dao Cultivation and two martial arts techniques.

What could a mere county town possibly do to her?

In the end, she nodded.

"Lead the way."