Tiger Demon

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Tiger Wraith Servants and the Green Bamboo Abode

The Tiger Demon commanded Tiger Wraiths who harmed people on his behalf. When Fairy Lingyue caught one spying on Xu Taiping’s courtyard, she erased its memory rather than kill it: her strength had not recovered, and she feared provoking its master. She intended to leave the Tiger Demon as a future trial for Xu Taiping 11.

Liu Qingmei, who had become a Tiger Wraith's ghost servant, warned Xu Taiping before her soul dispersed that a formidable Tiger Essence stood behind the wraith. She urged him to avoid making an enemy of it if possible 21 22.

After suffering serious wounds in a Seven Peaks ambush, the Tiger Demon sent his servants to find blood offerings. Xu Taiping learned of those injuries while interrogating a trapped Tiger Wraith. When he destroyed the servant, an enormous tiger head appeared in the flames and demanded an explanation. Xu Taiping baited the apparition into confirming its recovery deadline, provoking threats of mutilation and prolonged soul torment 27 28.

After hearing Xu Taiping's account, Fairy Lingyue assured him that, although she could not act personally, she had ways to deal with the injured Tiger Demon. Her intended strategy was for Xu Taiping to master the Ice Breath Art and hold out with the Green Bamboo Abode's barrier until she awakened to help kill it 33 47.

As his recovery progressed, the Tiger Demon vowed to enslave Xu Taiping as a Tiger Wraith. He also prepared to retaliate against Mo Jun, who wanted to capture him as a mount. Fairy Lingyue helped Xu Taiping prepare an ice-breath technique to resist the demon, but an encounter with an otherworldly heavenly demon forced her back into recuperative sleep before the confrontation 35 37.

Red Maple Forest Ambush

Mo Jun organized a hunt with Lu Chen and Fairy Ziyan, intending to take the Tiger Demon alive. Liu Zijin and Lin Buyu accompanied them but were initially instructed to remain out of the fighting. Lu Chen lured the demon and two Tiger Wraiths toward the ambush 40 41.

Liu Zijin also hoped to ask whether the Tiger Demon had seen her missing sister, Liu Qingmei, but Lu Chen interrupted her before she could make the request to Mo Jun 40.

The Tiger Demon turned the attack against his hunters by deploying his demonic pearl, wounding Mo Jun and trapping him and Ziyan in a tornado. He then pursued Lu Chen toward Liu Zijin and Lin Buyu. After Lu Chen abandoned them, the two women fought back, but the demon enclosed them inside a wind barrier and attempted to devour them 42 43 44.

Xu Taiping descended from above and joined the fight. His ice breath froze the Tiger Demon long enough for repeated saber strikes to nearly sever its neck. The demon escaped by burning its vital blood essence, leaving the Northwind Pearl behind 44 45.

Before fleeing, the Tiger Demon declared that he now knew Xu Taiping's identity and threatened revenge. Xu Taiping recovered the abandoned pearl and immediately pursued him. Mo Jun ultimately abandoned a separate pursuit after Ziyan prioritized taking Lin Buyu home and Lu Chen warned against chasing a cornered demonic beast 45.

Pursuit and Death

Xu Taiping pursued the wounded Tiger Demon for seven days and nights, fighting it repeatedly before cornering it in a valley. The demon acknowledged the boy’s extraordinary resolve, yet still promised to eat him and make his soul an eternal slave if he won 46.

During their final clash, the Tiger Demon endured the Green Ox Fist’s hundred-and-eight-punch barrage and counterattacked when it ended. Xu Taiping answered with a headbutt that broke its already damaged neck, then decapitated it with his Fine Steel Saber. He kept the head and stolen treasures, while Bai Yu received the body in exchange for carrying him home 46.

The recovered hoard helped fund the True Fire Talisman used for the Earth Treasury Fruit’s second transformation. It also supplied Xu Taiping with the Wind Shadow Step manual and a map to a three-hundred-year-old Fire Spirit Mushroom 47 48 49.

Fairy Lingyue suspected that the Tiger Demon had reserved the mushroom for his own breakthrough. Xu Taiping recognized the location on the crude map as resembling the valley where he had cornered the demon and wondered whether it had fled there to obtain the mushroom; neither suspicion was confirmed 47.

Xu Taiping subsequently obtained the Fire Spirit Mushroom from Bamboo Creek Valley, where he helped the dying Mountain-Lifting Ape kill its Fire-Patterned Python guardian 49 51.

Later References

The battle remained a benchmark for Xu Taiping's subsequent growth. When facing Tian Qi, he regarded his opponent's murderous intent as less intimidating than that of the Tiger Demon or the Fire-Patterned Python. During the concluding exchange, he felt that his perfected Green Ox Fist could bring down even the fully recovered Tiger Demon with a single punch; this was Xu Taiping's assessment rather than a demonstrated rematch 81 84.

Liu Zijin later recognized Xu Taiping as the young man who had fought the Tiger Demon in Red Maple Forest, and he confirmed his identity. Their conversation then turned to Liu Qingmei's enslavement by the Tiger Wraith and the Dust-Seeking Incense that could expose Lu Chen's crimes 117.

Appearance

• Enormous tiger body: His bulk crushes maple trees during combat and dwarfs Xu Taiping beside his corpse 41 46.
• Facial scar: A long blade scar remains on his face during his recovery 37.
• Fist-sized eyes: Noted during his final confrontation with Xu Taiping 46.
• Long, powerful tail: Used like a great saber before Lin Buyu severs it 42 43.
• Spectral manifestation: Appears as an enormous tiger head formed from flames after his servant’s destruction 27.

Personality

The Tiger Demon is proud, cruel, and vindictive. He rejects Mo Jun’s ambition to make him a mount and responds to Xu Taiping’s defiance with threats of torture and perpetual ghostly servitude. His pride also makes him susceptible to provocation: he blurts out his recovery deadline before realizing Xu Taiping has tricked him 27 28 37.

He nevertheless fights with caution and cunning. He conceals his pearl until the hunters commit to their attacks, delays using it against Liu Zijin and Lin Buyu to assess their remaining tricks, and studies the limit of Xu Taiping’s fist technique. At the end of the pursuit, he expresses genuine respect for Xu Taiping’s will without abandoning his intention to devour and enslave him 42 44 46.

Abilities & Skills

Demonic Physique and Close Combat

• Strength: A claw strike cuts three furrows a hundred meters long through the ground 42.
• Durability: His body is compared to refined iron; repeated true-qi-powered saber strikes cannot immediately sever his neck 45.
• Tail attacks: Sweeps his tail like a blade and uses it to strike from the side while an opponent defends against his wind 42 43.
• Limits: Thunder techniques temporarily numb him, while Xu Taiping’s ice breath immobilizes his entire body 43 44 45.
• Combat instincts: Evades a flying sword aimed at his skull by sharply turning his head, although the blade still wounds his shoulder. During the final battle, he attempts to trade wounds with Xu Taiping and times his counterattack for the end of the Green Ox Fist's barrage 44 46.

Wind Techniques

• Claw-Shadow Gang Wind: Projects three razor-sharp wind streaks with a paw strike 41.
• Wind blasts: Expels cannonball-like gusts and cyclones from his mouth; one blast sweeps away Lu Chen’s Sudden Rain Form 42 44.
• Demonic-power burst: Releases an air blast that throws Lin Buyu backward 44.
• Suction: Draws Liu Zijin and Lin Buyu into the air toward his mouth to swallow them 44.

Tiger Wraith Servitude

• Commands ghost servants and sends them to obtain blood offerings 11 27.
• Claims he can eat a victim and refine that person into a Tiger Wraith bound to serve him eternally 37 46.
• Treats talented prey as cultivation resources; believes consuming Lin Buyu could advance his realm and awaken bloodline power 43.
• Also declares that devouring Xu Taiping will allow him to break through to the Demon King Realm, immediately before Xu Taiping freezes him 44 45.

Spectral Projection and Roar

• Manifests through power hidden within his destroyed Tiger Wraith servant; the projection disperses after exhausting that power 27 28.
• His spectral roar shakes the Green Bamboo Abode and disrupts Xu Taiping’s blood and qi 28.
• His roar at Green Peak Gorge frightens beasts throughout the surrounding mountains into prostrating themselves 37.

Burning Vital Blood Essence

• Burns vital blood essence to generate heat, break free of the ice, and release a blood-mist-laced gale 45.
• This desperate escape leaves him grievously wounded; he fails to retrieve his pearl before fleeing 45.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

Northwind Pearl

• A demonic pearl condensed inside a savage Northwind Tiger. The pearl displayed during his recovery is called the Cloud-Devouring Pearl, a secret treasure of the Northwind Tiger clan 37 47.
• Generates cutting winds, redirects Ziyan’s flames, shatters Mo Jun’s sword attack, and creates a tornado that traps both senior disciples 37 42.
• Produces a wind barrier that the Tiger Demon claims would resist even a Nether Gazing Realm cultivator’s all-out strike 44.
• Shatters Lin Buyu’s talisman-created flying sword and holds Xu Taiping’s magical flying sword immobile 43 44.
• Abandoned during his escape and recovered by Xu Taiping. Fairy Lingyue warns that its baleful energy makes it harmful to human cultivators, but identifies it as possible nourishment for the transformed Earth Fruit 45 47.

Stolen Hoard

The Tiger Demon stores valuables taken from his victims in his mouth; they spill out after his decapitation 46.

The Fire Spirit Mushroom map is drawn on hide and contains only a few terrain features and an approximate location. Fairy Lingyue considers it likely that the Tiger Demon drew it himself 47.

The stolen Wind Shadow Step manual gives access to the first two steps of the Azure Profound Sect's Wind Shadow Seven Steps, the portion available to outer sect disciples. Xu Taiping learns it to address his lack of a movement technique 48.

Relationships

• Tiger Wraiths — Subordinates who procure victims and blood offerings; the death of one sparks his vendetta against Xu Taiping 11 27.
• Xu Taiping — Enemy and eventual killer. The demon’s revenge threats drive Xu Taiping to pursue him until neither can escape the confrontation 28 37 46.
• Fairy Lingyue — Initially avoids provoking him while weakened, then prepares Xu Taiping to face him and is astonished by his independent victory 11 35 47.
• Mo Jun — Hunter seeking to capture him as a mount; the Tiger Demon specifically prepares his pearl for their next encounter 37 40 42.
• Fairy Ziyan — Ambushes him with Burning Gold Finger before being trapped alongside Mo Jun 42.
• Lu Chen — Lures him into the ambush, then leads him toward the junior disciples while fleeing 41 42 43.
• Liu Zijin and Lin Buyu — Intended prey who resist him until Xu Taiping intervenes; Lin Buyu severs his tail 43 44.
• Liu Qingmei — Ghost servant of one of his Tiger Wraiths, rather than a documented direct servant of the Tiger Demon. She warns Xu Taiping of the powerful demon backing her tormentor 21 22.
• Bai Yu — Receives the Tiger Demon's headless body as payment for carrying Xu Taiping back to the Green Bamboo Abode after the final battle 46.

Notable Quotes

“Nonsense! This king’s wounds will heal in three months at most!” 27

“I’ve seen cultivators with exceptional talent, but I haven’t met someone with a will as unshakable as bedrock in who knows how many years. Dying at your hands wouldn’t be an indignity.” 46