Normal, Tiger Yao!

At midnight, the silhouette of Black Stone City cast a heavy shadow under the moonlight.

The city walls were about five zhang high, built with the locally produced black stone.

The city gates had long been shut tight, with only a few watchtowers atop the walls lit by dim yellow lights, swaying slightly in the night wind.

Wang Lang stood under an old tree a hundred paces away.

"Langzi, look over there."

Little White Fox Su Yao raised a paw and pointed to an ancient bronze mirror hanging in the center of the city wall.

"With my cultivation at the late stage of this tier, if I were to be illuminated by that mirror, my tail wouldn't be able to hide, which would only cause trouble."

Wang Lang followed her gaze and nodded, "Then you can wait for me outside the city."

"Understood." Su Yao leaped lightly onto a branch, found a comfortable fork, and curled up.

Wang Lang said no more. His figure flickered, like a fallen leaf blown by the wind, and he drifted silently towards the city wall.

He avoided the city gate, found a blind spot in the watchtower's line of sight, and with a light tap of his foot, he flipped onto the wall like a phantom, the entire process creating not a whisper of sound.

The night wind on the city wall was biting. Wang Lang scanned the city within.

Black Stone City's layout was quite orderly, with a main road forming a cross, dividing the city into four sections.

It was already late at night, and there were few pedestrians on the street, only the sound of the night watchman's clappers echoing through the alleys.

It was completely different from the demonic lair he had expected; the city had neither eerie miasma nor the smell of blood.

Instead, from the direction of the west city, faint sounds of a bustling crowd could be heard.

Wang Lang followed the sound, sneaking like a cat across the rooftops. In a short while, he arrived at an open area in the west city.

The scene before him made his brow furrow.

Hundreds of ragged villagers were working under the torchlight, moving stones, building foundations, and erecting frameworks.

Overseeing them were several yamen runners in the City Lord's Mansion's attire, wielding whips as they patrolled back and forth, occasionally shouting to urge them on.

Simple sheds were erected at the edge of the construction site, presumably the temporary living quarters for these workers.

Wang Lang observed from the shadows of the eaves for a long time.

Although these villagers looked weary, there was no sign of coerced terror on their faces; they looked more like ordinary laborers.

He listened intently, piecing together information from fragmented conversations.

These were laborers conscripted from surrounding villages, supposedly to expand the West Market. They were paid daily wages and even provided with two meals!

Wang Lang's brow furrowed even tighter.

"Did I really guess wrong?"

When he came here, he was convinced that demons were at play, luring people into the city.

But this bustling construction site before him, the wages, and the meals provided...

Could this City Lord possibly be a decent person?

But the thought flashed by.

When something is too unusual, there's bound to be a demon behind it. He decided to investigate further.

Wang Lang prowled through the city again.

The granary, wells, market, and residential areas showed no abnormalities.

He even sneaked into the wealthy district in the east of the city, but from the late-night conversations of several prominent families, he heard nothing suspicious.

Finally, he made his way to the City Lord's Mansion.

The mansion covered a vast area, with a vermilion gate and high walls, exuding an extraordinary presence.

Wang Lang scaled the wall from a secluded spot in the backyard. Like a wisp of smoke, he easily bypassed two patrols of night guards and silently approached the study in the main residence.

Through the gaps in the window lattice, he could see that the room was brightly lit. A middle-aged man in brocade robes was poring over documents at his desk; he must be the City Lord of Black Stone City.

What made Wang Lang's gaze narrow was the guard force around the City Lord.

Five Body Tempering realm martial artists stood like iron towers around him.

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Moreover, two elderly men in green robes sat quietly in a corner, with unusual auras flowing around them. They were actually Qi Induction Realm mid-stage cultivators.

Wang Lang, already at the Spirit Condensation Realm, was far more powerful than anyone present. He deliberately concealed his aura, so no one could detect his prying.

And such a retinue for the City Lord's Mansion, guarding a border town's City Lord, seemed a bit over the top.

"Is this City Lord exceptionally cautious about his life, or... is there something else hidden in the mansion?"

Wang Lang investigated the mansion for a while longer but found no traces of demonic energy or evil arts, so he quietly withdrew.

Returning to the ancient tree outside the city, Su Yao poked her head out from between the leaves, "Langzi, how was it in the city?"

"Nothing," Wang Lang shook his head. "They are indeed conscripting labor to expand the West Market. The City Lord's Mansion is heavily guarded, but I found no sign of demons."

Su Yao leaped onto his shoulder and tilted her head, "Shall we go back?"

"Let's go."

As dawn broke, one person and one fox were already over fifty miles from Black Stone City, having reached a hilly area.

The mountain path wound, the trees on both sides grew denser, and morning mist flowed through the valleys, like milky white silk ribbons.

Although Wang Lang hadn't slept all night, he showed no signs of fatigue.

Let alone the fact that his Qi Refinement was now at the Spirit Condensation Realm, just his body tempering alone, his physical training was comparable to fine iron, his blood essence was abundant, and not sleeping for three to five days was nothing.

Su Yao, curled up in the collar of his clothes, only revealed half of her snow-white head, seemingly asleep yet not quite.

Just then, a piercing cry for help abruptly shattered the morning mist in the mountains!

"Help!"

"There's a tiger! It's going to eat me!!"

It was a woman's voice, filled with desperate sobs, coming from the depths of the dense forest ahead.

Wang Lang's steps halted.

A tiger? In the outer reaches of this mountain range, there hadn't been a tiger sighting in over ten years.

Moreover, the sky was already faintly lit, the time when nocturnal beasts return to their dens, so why would a tiger be out?

He remembered a few months ago, also walking in the mountains in the dead of night, being lured into Golden Cicada Temple by a golden cicada.

Once bitten, twice shy, Wang Lang immediately used his powerful spirit to spread his senses around.

The scent of grass, the bloody smell of the soil, the coolness of the morning dew... there was no evil aura, nor any illusionary fluctuations.

After a moment of thought, Wang Lang strode towards the source of the sound.

If someone were truly in danger, it was not his wish to stand by and do nothing.

Following the sound, he passed through a patch of bushes, and a small clearing appeared ahead.

Wang Lang didn't reveal himself directly. Instead, he leaped onto a thick zelkova tree, two people wide, and peered down from the cover of the branches.

In the center of the clearing, a young woman with a bamboo basket on her back and dressed in simple clothes was curled up on the branches of a cypress tree, trembling.

The cypress tree was about as thick as two people could embrace, more than two zhang off the ground. The woman clutched the trunk tightly with both hands, her face pale, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Beneath the tree, a giant tiger paced slowly.

The tiger was astonishing in size, nearly four meters long and standing five feet at the shoulder, its yellow and black fur gleaming with a lustrous sheen.

It didn't rush to attack, but instead looked up at the woman in the tree from time to time, its tiger eyes holding a playful glint, like a cat toying with a mouse.

Tigers were natural climbers, and this beast was clearly savoring its prey's fear.

"What a big tiger," Wang Lang murmured. "Ordinary mountain tigers are at most two meters. This one has likely become a spirit beast."

Su Yao poked her nose out from his collar, looked, and then sniffed gently, saying, "This big tiger has a faint demonic aura. It should be early stage first-tier, and it only recently gained sentience."

By now, the woman in the tree was in despair.

Her name was Xu Dongyue, an herb gatherer from Xu Family Village, ten miles away.

She had come up the mountain before dawn today to collect some herbs, never expecting to encounter this ferocious tiger.

She scrambled up the tree to escape, but the tiger didn't leave, guarding beneath the tree for half an hour.

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