"Did you bring me to this crappy cave?"
Little White Tiger had never imagined he would be kidnapped by a tiger.
"This is my sea of consciousness. You absorbed my blood, which lets our minds communicate." A trace of sorrow flashed through Silver-Patterned Tiger's eyes. "My physical body died in battle. This was the only way I could summon you."
Little White Tiger watched Silver-Patterned Tiger warily. A Demon Ancestor was still a transformed beast, after all.
If she wanted to eat him, he would be screwed.
Demon Ancestors were beings who could stand alongside the Ancestors and the human race's nine-awakening powerhouses.
"What do you want with me?"
"I need your body."
Silver-Patterned Tiger spoke quietly, but her tone was utterly domineering. She was not asking Little White Tiger's permission.
"Stop right there."
Little White Tiger stiffened his neck, forcing down his fear. "I'll even sleep with you if you want, but forget about taking over my body. I'd rather die."
Silver-Patterned Tiger rolled her eyes at him in disgust.
If she had not needed something from Little White Tiger, that remark alone would have been enough to get him killed a hundred times over.
"Young man, I suggest you watch your mouth."
Boom!
The Demon Ancestor stepped forward, and the ground instantly shook.
Countless rocks fell from the cave ceiling, and an immense, invisible pressure slammed Little White Tiger flat against the ground.
"My soul is about to dissipate. Otherwise, how could an opportunity like this ever fall to a mortal like you?" Silver-Patterned Tiger revealed her purpose. "Agree to my terms, and I will help you become a Human Strongman who is no weaker than a nine-awakening Awakened."
Nine-awakening Awakened were the human race's strongest beings.
Nine awakenings meant being practically a demigod.
An Awakened could awaken nine times in a lifetime. The first awakening granted a special ability, and each subsequent awakening strengthened that ability. Thus, the more awakenings they underwent, the stronger they became.
For the first awakening, one only needed to attend the human race's annual awakening ceremony before reaching adulthood to have a chance of becoming an Awakened. That chance was roughly one percent.
"This remnant of my soul has waited for decades and is about to dissipate. My daughter is my only remaining concern. You absorbed my blood, so I need to use your body to nurture her."
"You want me to give birth? Just fucking kill me now. Go on, I won't even resist." The moment Little White Tiger heard he would have to nurture the Demon Ancestor's daughter, he balked.
He simply gave up. If Old Ninth found out he had given birth to a little white tiger, he would laugh at him for the rest of his life.
The Demon Ancestor opened her enormous jaws, but did not bite Little White Tiger.
Her throat shifted, and a little kitten crawled out of her mouth.
Her dark eyes studied Little White Tiger on the ground, brimming with curiosity.
"Go on, my child."
Silver-Patterned Tiger's weary voice rang out.
Reluctantly, the kitten rubbed her little head against the Demon Ancestor's paw, then waddled toward Little White Tiger on her chubby legs.
"Young man, your friends are about to be in danger. If you want to leave, accept my daughter sharing your body. Once you reach Nine Awakenings Peak, she will be able to draw on your power to rebuild her physical body."
The Demon Ancestor stared at Little White Tiger, who lay pinned to the ground by an invisible force, unable to move.
The kitten approached and sniffed Little White Tiger's face. Once she confirmed he was just an ordinary human, she lifted a leg in disdain and peed on his face.
"You little fucker, just you wait. Once I get out, I'm turning you into stew."
"Rawr!"
The kitten smacked Little White Tiger across the face with a paw, sending him flying several meters.
Before Little White Tiger could keep cursing, the kitten turned into a streak of white light and slipped into his body.
"Young man, protect her. From now on, your lives are linked, and your minds are connected. If she dies, you die."
Silver-Patterned Tiger's form slowly faded, dissolving into endless starlight.
"Beware of Sword Crane."
After the Demon Ancestor left those final words, a suction force surged from the cave entrance.
The overpowering suction pulled Little White Tiger out of the Demon Ancestor's sea of consciousness.
"Boss, fifth floor. We don't know how many are inside, but Old Ninth is definitely there."
Below the apartment building housing the Black Market Clinic, the doors of over a dozen vans slid open. Underlings carrying guns and blades climbed out without a sound.
The couple assigned to keep watch hurried over to a man in one of the vans, bowed, and reported the situation.
The man had very dark skin. He was in his forties, but looked well over sixty.
"Fuck, those ungrateful little bastards. I raised them, and they dared to shoot me."
The man glanced down at his bandaged left hand, his eyes gleaming viciously.
Yesterday, Old Ninth had stormed into his home with a crew and nearly finished him off.
Worst of all, having Old Ninth targeting him was genuinely unnerving. A few fucking drinks might go to his head, and he could come charging back to kill him again.
"Brother Ren, take the men upstairs. Leave no one alive."
Old Xie glanced up at the apartment building apprehensively.
"Got it."
Brother Ren took a dagger from the van. With a gun in one hand and a blade in the other, he bowed to Old Xie, then led several dozen men charging upstairs.
These were all Old Xie's trusted underlings, who had been carrying out petty crimes under him since childhood.
Watching his men advance so aggressively, Old Xie confidently lit a cigarette.
With numbers on their side, the group had no fear of Old Ninth's dozen or so men and charged up to the Black Market Clinic's door.
Brother Ren pushed through the crowd and kicked the door open.
"Old Ninth, motherfucker! Come out and die!"
As Old Xie's chief enforcer, Brother Ren considered himself entirely unafraid of Old Ninth. Although he was not an Awakened, he had reached the limits of an ordinary human.
"Old Ninth!"
Brother Ren led the mob surging into the apartment.
The apartment, less than a hundred square meters in size, was packed with people.
"Brother Ren, nobody here."
"Brother Ren, found nothing."
"Brother Ren..."
His men moved quickly, rushing straight into the bedrooms as soon as they entered. Apart from bloodstains in the operating room, they found nothing.
"They slipped away? What the hell were the lookouts doing?" Furious, Brother Ren kicked the living room's coffee table across the room.
"Find them! They must still be nearby!"
Brother Ren turned to leave, only for the kitchen door to swing open. Hi Dog, sporting instant-noodle curls, walked into the living room with a steaming bowl of noodles.
Old Xie's underlings exchanged looks.
Dozens of them had stormed in for revenge, and Hi Dog still dared to show his face?
"Oh, Brother Ren. Eaten yet?"
Facing several dozen men without a flicker of concern, Hi Dog righted the overturned coffee table and plopped onto the sofa.
Brother Ren's face darkened. He had failed to find Old Ninth, and now one of Old Ninth's underlings was treating him like he was nothing.
"Where's Old Ninth?"
Brother Ren pressed his gun barrel against Hi Dog's forehead.
Hi Dog glanced at Old Xie's men glaring menacingly at him, curled his lip in disdain, and pushed Brother Ren's muzzle aside with his chopsticks.
"I call you Brother Ren, and you think you're somebody? Pointing a gun at me? Come on, fucking shoot if you've got the balls."
Hi Dog slapped down his chopsticks and pulled a remote from behind the sofa.
"Everyone, look the fuck up!"
Hi Dog shouted, and everyone instinctively looked up.
Several square objects were taped to the ceiling.
Brother Ren recognized them at a glance. Those were fucking explosives.
All the explosives were wired to the remote, and Hi Dog's thumb was already resting on the button.
"Just five fucking kilos of explosives. If you're lucky, you'll get hurt. If you're unlucky, you'll die. We gave up our lives the day we entered this business, right, Brother Ren?" Holding the remote in one hand, Hi Dog picked up his chopsticks with the other and calmly ate his noodles.
"Brother Nine said if even one of you walks out that door today, I'm setting them off."
Hi Dog's voice was quiet, but not a single person present dared to doubt him.
The underlings trying to sneak away froze in place, while those at the doorway who had not squeezed inside wished they had two extra legs as they fled downstairs.
Old Ninth was notoriously crazy, and his men were just like him.
Hi Dog had another name: fucking Mad Dog.
This bastard really would take everyone down with him.
"Where's Old Ninth?"
Brother Ren's face was ashen, his palms slick with sweat.
The vicious feared the ruthless, and the ruthless feared those who had no regard for their own lives.
Old Ninth's crew belonged to that last category.
Before you continue