Bear Gall and Tiger Cock

Si Chen had lost his way in the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences.

In the mountains, no one counted the passing years; winter ended without anyone knowing the date. He had never imagined that getting lost would cost him two whole years.

At first, he had diligently memorized the route, but he later realized it was all wasted effort.

In this damned place, every mountain looked the same, and fog rolled in whenever it pleased. His method of finding his way by "taking whichever path looked right" had failed him completely here.

He really couldn't get out!

Sometimes, he felt certain he was heading in one direction, only to walk in a great circle and return to a place he had marked before. Looking at the marks he himself had carved into the trees, Si Chen could only gaze silently at the sky.

Fortunately, two years wasn't all that long for a cultivator.

The twelve-year-old boy now looked fourteen or fifteen. His features had matured, shedding some of their childishness and gaining a touch of refined handsomeness. His blue cloth robes stirred gently in the mountain breeze, lending him something of a young cultivator's airy grace.

His Storage Ring held everything he needed, so food and clothing were no concern.

What delighted him even more was that the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences teemed with vegetation, allowing him to cultivate the Yi Wood Eternal Spring Art several times faster than he could outside.

Since he couldn't leave, he settled down and treated his time in the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences as a period of cultivation.

He wandered at will during the day, sensing the vitality around him, and found somewhere safe at night to meditate and regulate his breathing. His days were simple but fulfilling.

That day, Si Chen was sitting beside a stream, sensing the faint spiritual energy within its waters.

Suddenly, a terrifying, deafening roar rang out in the distance. The earth began shaking violently, whole swaths of distant forest toppled, and dust billowed into the sky.

Anyone else would have been frightened into fleeing a thousand miles by such a commotion.

Si Chen wasn't alarmed at all. Instead, delight stirred in his heart.

After wandering this damned place for two years, he had scarcely encountered a living creature capable of speech, only low-level demonic beasts whose intelligence had yet to awaken, which he had dealt with casually.

That sounded like some big creatures fighting. Maybe one of them knew the way out?

He concealed his aura and shot toward the source of the commotion.

The closer he got, the more frightening the disturbance became.

Booms, roars, and the crash of splintering trees mingled together. Violent fluctuations of demonic power filled the air, far exceeding those of any demonic beast he had encountered before-even that Lü Yan in Ancient Gaze City had been much weaker!

Si Chen concealed every trace of his aura, landed beside an enormous ancient tree, and looked ahead.

In a ravaged clearing below, two colossal creatures were locked in a fight to the death.

One was a giant bear that stood as tall as a tower when upright, with fur as black as ink and bulging, knotted muscles. Each strike of its paw shook the earth and mountains.

The other was a giant tiger with crimson pupils, dangerous wind blades dancing around its body. With each roar, the enormous trees around it were sliced into pieces.

What Si Chen found even more remarkable was that these two great demons spoke in human voices as they fought hard enough to split mountains and shatter the earth.

"Old mangy bastard! Steal my egg, will you? I'll crush your balls!" The Mountain-Shaking Bear forced the thunder tiger back with a swipe of its paw, its voice rumbling like thunder.

"Your mother's ass! You're the one trying to steal my egg! If I don't beat the shit out of you today, it'll only mean you already wiped yourself clean!" The Crimson-Eyed Giant Tiger leaped nimbly aside and retaliated with a wind blade from its mouth.

Their exchange of abuse was vicious, their vocabulary so rich and their language so steeped in street-market flavor that they could have rivaled any human marketplace. Si Chen listened in stunned bewilderment.

At the heart of their dispute was an enormous fiery-red egg, rolling back and forth on the ground without suffering so much as a scratch. Natural, mysterious patterns covered its shell.

Both demonic beasts had clearly worked themselves into a genuine fury. Fresh wounds kept appearing on their bodies, severed bear fur littered the ground, and bloody gashes tore through the tiger's hide. Yet neither would yield, and every collision unleashed a terrifying blast of energy.

Finally, after one brutal, straightforward collision, both enormous beasts exhausted their strength. With a tremendous crash, their massive bodies slammed to the ground together, making the earth shudder.

When the dust cleared, both formerly arrogant demonic beasts lay sprawled on the ground.

They were covered in wounds, their auras weakened to the extreme. Even standing was difficult. All they could do was glare and continue paying their respects to each other's eighteen generations of ancestors in the foulest language imaginable.

"Y-you... just you wait..."

"Wait... my ass. I'm getting up... and killing you right now..."

"I'll... cut off your bear paws..."

"I'll... chew off your tiger cock..."

They struggled, trying to muster the last of their strength to deliver a killing blow.

The bear demon suddenly raised its enormous paw and swung toward the tiger demon with all its remaining strength. But its strength failed it, sending the force of its strike off course and smashing into the edge of the clearing.

Boom!

Waves of air rolled outward and, by sheer coincidence, blasted the enormous fiery-red egg off the ground.

The egg spun through the air in an arc and, with a perfectly placed plop, landed squarely in the arms of Si Chen, who had been watching with great interest.

Si Chen gave a soft sound of surprise and instinctively caught the egg that had delivered itself to his doorstep.

The egg felt warm in his hands. He could sense that the life force within was exceptionally pure and powerful, and... it felt very pleasant to him.

He had barely secured his grip when both demonic beasts froze.

They had been so intent on killing each other that they hadn't even noticed a human nearby!

Seeing Si Chen holding the egg they had fought tooth and nail over, both beasts nearly passed out from rage. They struggled to rise, only to collapse helplessly again, leaving them nothing to do but shout abuse at the top of their lungs:

"Human! Put down my egg!"

"Brat! Picking up the spoils, are you? You're asking to die!"

Si Chen weighed the egg in his hands. He thought it was a fine thing, but he didn't want to take it for nothing.

Even if... it had delivered itself to him.

So he rummaged through his Storage Ring, took out two bottles of "household standby medicine," and tossed one to each beast.

"I won't take it for free. These, in exchange."

The two beasts instinctively caught the jade bottles. The impact loosened the stoppers slightly, and an indescribably rich medicinal fragrance immediately escaped, making the demonic power throughout their bodies leap with joy.

Just one sniff seemed to ease the burning agony of their wounds.

Both demonic beasts froze at once.

Wh-what was this human's deal?

Why did these pills smell... like they were worth more than both our lives put together?

The Mountain-Shaking Bear cautiously brought its nose close to the mouth of the bottle and took another deep breath. Its wounds began to stop bleeding at a visible rate. Its bear eyes widened as it looked at the crimson tiger beside it.

The crimson tiger did exactly the same thing, its eyes filled with identical shock and bewilderment.

Where had this sucker come from? No, he was practically a boy god scattering riches!

Seeing that they had accepted the pills, Si Chen considered the deal concluded. With a clear conscience, he carried the egg aside and found a clean rock to sit on.

He still wanted to ask them about the way out.

The two demonic beasts no longer had any interest in trading insults.

In their eyes, these bottles of pills were worth far more than that egg of unknown origin.

They each swallowed the pills, and in less than half a day, the injuries that had left them on the brink of death had healed by seventy or eighty percent!

They were members of the demon race, after all. Their bodies were immensely powerful and required enormous amounts of energy to recover. Ordinary pills barely worked on them. This was simply inconceivable!

Now the way they looked at Si Chen changed completely.

Even though they generally weren't fond of humans, they now found this young man handsome and exceedingly pleasing to the eye.

"Ahem... um, little brother!" The Mountain-Shaking Bear rubbed its enormous paws together and softened its voice considerably, afraid of frightening this "god of wealth."

"Earlier... your big brother here was a little loud earlier. Don't take it to heart!"

The crimson tiger came over too, swishing its tail and trying hard to look friendly. "Exactly, exactly! One glance tells me you're an honest fellow, little brother! This egg... this egg was destined for you. It belongs with you!"

Si Chen found that dealing with the demon race really was much easier than dealing with humans.

Their thoughts were straightforward. Whatever they wanted or were pleased with was written plainly on their faces, and they didn't seem to have any intention of killing him for his treasures.

His impression of the demon race improved tremendously.

He raised his head and asked the question that had troubled him for two years. "Do you know how to leave the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences?"

Both demons froze again.

Somewhat incredulous, the bear demon asked tentatively, "Little brother, you... you haven't been lost in these mountains, have you?"

Si Chen nodded frankly. "Yes. I've been walking for two years and still haven't found my way out."

The bear demon: "..."

The tiger demon: "..."

Lost on the outskirts of the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences for two years?!

The Mountain-Shaking Bear and the Crimson-Eyed Tiger exchanged looks, both rather speechless.

Although it was easy to lose one's bearings in the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences, a cultivator who could fly shouldn't have been trapped here for two years...

Just how hopeless was this kid's sense of direction?

"Such a little thing? Leave it to your big brother!" The Mountain-Shaking Bear thumped its chest. "Once our injuries have fully stabilized, we'll take you out!"

The Crimson-Eyed Tiger nodded repeatedly as well.

Relieved, Si Chen pointed to the enormous fiery-red egg in his arms. "Where did this come from?"

The bear demon scratched its head. "It fell out of the sky a few days ago. Old Cat and I both thought it was something good. We figured eating it might improve our cultivation, so we started fighting."

It spoke as though this were perfectly natural. Such was the law of survival in the demon world: heavenly materials and earthly treasures belonged to the strong, and competition was far more naked and direct than in the human world.

Si Chen stroked the warm eggshell. Anything that could make two great demons fight for their lives probably wasn't so simple.

Watching these two members of the demon race, who had just been fighting to the death but were now draping their limbs around each other's shoulders and discussing where to find something to eat, he felt that the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences... might not be so hateful after all.