After answering that question, the fierce tiger outside the temple and the Ghost Servant beside it were filled with unease, while the people inside the temple were frightened stiff for quite a while. Thus, there was a moment of silence.
Ji Yuan steadied his emotions once more, racking his brains for how to communicate peacefully with a tiger demon that ate people without even blinking.
Just as the fierce tiger outside the temple began to grow impatient, a long, resonant voice finally drifted out from within.
"Lord Lu, you truly have courage. Were it another demon in your place, it would likely have lied to deceive a few people. You have not made me look down on you!"
Scholar Chang Ghost could not help clenching his fist within his sleeve cuff, while the tiger spirit, Lord Lu, secretly rejoiced.
"Humans are the wisest of all beings. Perhaps some demons believe that eating humans is the most nourishing thing of all. What does Lord Lu think?"
Without waiting for the tiger spirit to speak again, Ji Yuan directly asked another question.
Aside from making the things outside abandon their thoughts of eating people, he was fundamentally stalling for time, so that he could think of suitable words to deal with them. After all, if he failed to fool it in the end and it flew into a rage, everything would be over.
Yet this simple question made the tiger and Ghost Servant outside anxious again.
Lord Lu's enormous tiger head merely stared at the Ghost Servant. He himself had no idea how to answer. Saying "yes" felt absolutely wrong, while saying "no" was far too simple. What if the person inside the temple asked, "Why not?" afterward?
Scholar Chang Ghost anxiously paced back and forth, feeling as though he had returned to his days of study, with a stern teacher at his side testing his learning.
"Have you thought of it? Have you?"
"Mountain Lord, do not be anxious, do not be anxious... I have it!"
"Speak, quickly!"
The scholar instinctively raised his sleeve to wipe away sweat that did not exist as he answered in a low voice.
"The answer to this question naturally cannot agree with the previous statement. The key lies in how to explain the opposing view without refuting the Mountain Lord's earlier words. After all, the Mountain Lord has eaten fifty-three people... The Mountain Lord must put it like this..."
The expression on Lord Lu's tiger face shifted from vexation to a frown, then eased.
"You mean that no matter how we answer, we will surely be wrong, and only need to follow our hearts without contradicting ourselves?"
"Precisely, Mountain Lord! Trust me!"
The fierce tiger nodded slightly and spoke toward the temple.
"I have pondered the question for a long time, sir. Since gaining intelligence, I, Lord Lu, have long lived upon Niu Kui Mountain and rarely encountered other demons, so I do not know their thoughts. To me, eating humans truly is nourishing, yet your question has suddenly made me feel that something is amiss. I ask that you teach me!"
It had actually thrown the question back at him.
But this was exactly what Ji Yuan wanted. As a young person who had lived through the age of the internet's great explosion and seen a richness of information and knowledge beyond description, as long as he was not panicked senseless, it was not difficult to come up with something profound and reasonable. To say nothing of those chicken-soup aphorisms, which were quite a gimmick.
This time, Lord Lu and the Ghost Servant did not have to wait long. The person inside the temple directly answered the question.
"It is often said that humans are the Spirit of All Things, and the essences of grass, trees, birds, and beasts are drawn to humans. Yet humans are also the creatures with the most complex emotions in this world. Resentment, fury, karma, and consequence entwine without end. If demons consume humans for too long, they easily become addicted, believing it nourishes their cultivation while malice has already wrapped around their bodies. Over time, they may advance in cultivation yet be unable to break through. As days and months accumulate, their temperaments become savage and their spirituality clouded, until they descend into madness... This is the path of Self-Destruction."
The huge tiger, Lord Lu, listened as he kept swallowing saliva, the fur all over his body slightly standing on end.
No one had ever said such things before. Though Scholar Chang Ghost had told him that books often contained words urging people toward goodness, most of them had been laughable, pedantic nonsense. The Temple Person's words were enough to make cold sweat break out on him.
Because he, Lord Lu, really did feel an impulse to eat humans more and more the more he ate them, and he truly had been trapped in his cultivation for a long time. The person inside the temple should not have known this, so with both sides confirming each other, he naturally believed these principles deeply.
At this moment, Lord Lu had even forgotten the question he had originally asked. Instead, he urgently called into the temple.
"Sir, is there... is there a way to remedy this?"
Hearing this, Ji Yuan carefully let out a breath. The huge stone in his heart was more than half lifted. That bluff had been crucial!
"From what Ji heard Lord Lu say earlier, eating humans is like humans eating birds and beasts. You harbor no intent of wanton slaughter: once full, you do not eat; you do not eat by day; you do not eat the old, the young, the sick, or the disabled. Among demons, that is already exceedingly rare. Hehehe, perhaps the fact that Lord Lu did not touch this wretched beggar back then was also due to that bit of mercy!"
"I would not dare! You are a Master, sir. Lord Lu would not dare offend you!"
Lord Lu's heart jolted in alarm again, and he hastily answered with an explanation. In truth, that had indeed been the case at first. Later, he had gradually begun to feel that this beggar might not be simple, though it had only been a suspicion. Today, however, it had been confirmed.
Ji Yuan did not dare press his advantage too far and merely continued slowly.
"The remedy is simple to speak of, yet difficult to accomplish. It is by no means merely a matter of not eating humans. But when one traces it to its root, the principles are not profound. Cultivation Is Like Being Human: Keep the body upright, the heart upright, and the path upright. This is the foundation."
Ji Yuan paused, feeling that these words might not have enough grandeur to subdue the tiger spirit, then immediately added another sentence.
"The Path of Heaven takes from those with surplus to make up for those without; the Path of Man takes from those without enough to serve those with surplus. Earlier, you asked what Ji had comprehended; now, you ask how to remedy this. Both are this principle... Lord Lu, your fate with Ji is no shallow one. Today, enough has already been said!"
After saying this, Ji Yuan nervously waited for the reaction outside.
Outside, the fierce tiger's brows furrowed, then relaxed; relaxed, then furrowed again. It pondered deeply, seeming to gain some understanding yet finding the profound meaning deep and long. Still, its heart felt much steadier.
The silence inside and outside the temple lasted for several minutes. Those minutes tormented Ji Yuan terribly, yet strangely, he was not overly panicked.
"Rustle, rustle... rustle, rustle..."
"Whoosh~~~ whoosh~~~"
As the wind swayed, after pondering deeply, Lord Lu began to move his four limbs slowly toward the Mountain God Temple.
Every footstep sounded as though claws were stepping upon Ji Yuan's heart. Cold sweat seeped from his back once again as he cried inwardly, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead! I think I fucking pretended too hard. This time I've courted death!
At this moment, Zhang Shilin and the other traveling merchants were actually in better spirits. Though they were also tense beyond measure, for one thing, they could not hear the tiger's footsteps; for another, they had already decided that there was a Master beside them, which calmed them greatly.
Within a few breaths, Lord Lu had reached the temple entrance.
Then, amid Ji Yuan's and the traveling merchants' astonishment, a huge, hanging-eyed Fierce Tiger with a head so massive that its body was estimated to be nearly four meters long slowly stepped through the temple gate. Scholar Lu followed beside it.
Yellow fur, black stripes, the character for king upon its brow, ferocious light in its tiger eyes—it inspired terror even without anger.
The traveling merchants could not even hold their weapons anymore and collapsed limply in fright. Ji Yuan did not dare move either.
The tiger's gaze ignored everyone else entirely, instead looking at the beggar seated beside the broken Deity Statue. Though disheveled and filthy, his pale eyes, half-open and half-closed, looked levelly toward the entrance.
"Lord Lu shall never forget the grace of your guidance, sir!"
The fierce tiger actually raised its body, crossed its forelimbs, and brought its two claws together in a gesture of salute, bowing three times to Ji Yuan.
Then it returned to all fours, its tiger eyes turning toward the Ghost Servant. With one inhalation, a stream of white vapor was sucked from the Ghost Servant's body into the tiger.
"I once promised you that if you could help me, I would let you go. Leave!"
Scholar Chang Ghost was overjoyed. He bowed to Lord Lu, then directly knelt before Ji Yuan and kowtowed several times. He then turned to the traveling merchants and kowtowed several more times. Without saying much, he transformed into Smoke Wisps and drifted away. Before the Smoke Wisps even left the temple gate, they had already dispersed from sight.
After Scholar Chang Ghost departed, Lord Lu looked toward the traveling merchants. Amid their terrified gazes, it spat out Wang Dong, the Ghost Servant, and likewise dismissed him.
Seeing this, Ji Yuan gave a somewhat stiff smile. At least he had not been scared to death.
"I dare not disturb your rest, sir. Lord Lu takes his leave!"
Having done all this and left those words behind, the terrifying fierce tiger slowly departed from the Mountain God Temple, and the wind around them gradually settled.
Before you continue