Tiger's injured tail was bound to leave a trail of blood.
Nameless and Mark told Chen Quanyong they were heading out, then left Jiaoshan Temple. Sure enough, they found drops of blood by the right-hand wall, and the two followed the trail.
The moonlight was hazy. After two or three minutes, the trail grew hard to find among the thick weeds.
Nameless's nose twitched. He narrowed his eyes and murmured, "Well, look at that. Even now, it's thinking of striking back with an ambush."
"Where?" Mark tensed at once, scanning their surroundings as he whispered the question.
Nameless suddenly charged to the right, straight through the brush without a care for what might be hiding there. A huge, white, striped tiger sprang from the dense woods, roaring as it lunged at him.
The instant they met, Nameless ducked and rolled. At the same time, his blade swept back from beneath his ribs and slashed across the tiger's belly.
That sounded impressive, but it was more or less a sliding tackle.
Nameless had simply rolled along the ground and given the tiger's soft belly a cut.
The tiger landed and promptly collapsed. Nameless got up and sheathed his blade. Mark hurried over, stared at the tiger, and said in surprise, "That's it?"
"Were you hoping for a three-hundred-round battle? It was just a beast with a little cunning," Nameless said.
Then hurried breathing came from the tiger's abdomen. Strangely, it sounded human.
Frowning, Nameless stepped forward and cut open the tiger's belly. Ordinary tigers had only one stomach, but this one had two, like a cow.
The breathing came from the stomach at the front.
Nameless drew his blade and carefully sliced open the front stomach. Inside was a living human head!
Countless tiny blood vessels connected the stump of the