Slaying the White Tiger!
Feng Zhuo's figure flickered as he dodged the attack from behind.
A red light flashed at his waist, and he said calmly, "Yanba."
In an instant, the seventh-tier Calamity Beast with a lion's head and a dragon's body burst through the air. The demonic fire coiling around him made the already active Green Vine Heart Flame burn even more fiercely.
Feng Zhuo raised an eyebrow at his attacker-it was a second-tier tiger, snow-white from head to toe.
His voice was teasing. "Heh... a little... second-tier kitty?"
"Roar-!"
The White Tiger flew into a rage at those words, his eyes turning scarlet.
His form shifted, and he tore straight through space to appear on Feng Zhuo's other side. His gaping maw, accompanied by a foul wind, lunged for Feng Zhuo's throat!
How could Yanba allow a mere second-tier Demon Beast to run wild before him?
Not even the Divine Beast White Tiger could do so!
His nine tails instantly intertwined into a net, precisely intercepting the White Tiger's pounce.
At the same time, he opened his mouth and spewed out the Heart-Scorching Flame. The scorching fire warped the space within several zhang, completely sealing off the White Tiger's ability to travel through space.
As the two exotic beasts faced off, their bloodline pressures clashed.
The thin Nüba bloodline in Yanba's body was unexpectedly on par in rank with the White Tiger's mixed Divine Beast bloodline.
But the White Tiger's bloodline was purer. Though Yanba was already a seventh-tier Calamity Beast, the effect of his pressure was greatly diminished against this second-tier White Tiger.
In terms of cultivation realm, however, the White Tiger could forget about matching Yanba.
Feng Zhuo couldn't even be bothered to glance at the White Tiger. His gaze fell directly on Yun Li as she walked out with one arm.
Yun Li's gaze swept back and forth between the White Tiger and Su Ruanruan. The hatred churning in her eyes was almost tangible.
Feng Zhuo understood and raised a hand to gesture for silence.
"Where did this wildcat come from?"
He examined the White Tiger with a light chuckle. "That coat is fine stuff, though. Yanba, be careful when you kill him later."
His tone was exceedingly cheerful, yet Su Ruanruan felt as though she had plunged into an ice cavern, a chill seeping into every bone in her body.
"Grr-!"
The White Tiger struggled desperately beneath Yanba's claws, his scarlet eyes filled with disbelief.
He couldn't understand why this human, who should have been torn to pieces by him, had been able to dodge his sneak attack so easily.
And why had that mongrel Calamity Beast, whose bloodline was less pure than his own, suddenly transformed into a seventh-tier Demon Beast?!
"Mmph-! Mmph mmph mmph-!!!"
Hatred surged in Su Ruanruan's heart.
Why was this happening?!
Why had Feng Zhuo been able to dodge the White Tiger's attack?!
"Pfft-"
She spat out a mouthful of blood.
Feng Zhuo!!
Feng Zhuo!!!
Feng Zhuo had guessed correctly.
After the White Tiger hatched, he had refused to form a life-bound contract with Yun Li, reluctantly agreeing only to an equal contract.
Mindful of his Divine Beast bloodline, Yun Li had cared for him attentively despite his unruly temperament, pouring enough resources into him to raise him to the second tier.
Who would have thought that once they entered the secret realm, the beast would have a change of heart the moment he saw Su Ruanruan?
Not long ago, he had forcibly torn apart the contract, causing Yun Li to suffer a backlash that knocked her unconscious. He had even taken advantage of her unconscious state to bite off her sword-wielding right arm!
If Liu Yiyi had not protected her at the risk of her life, Yun Li would have long since died in the tiger's jaws.
By the time Yun Li woke a few days ago, the White Tiger had become Su Ruanruan's life-bound spirit beast.
She knew something was amiss, but Xuan Mo and the other two defended Su Ruanruan at every turn. Severely injured and out of pills, she could only knock out her own teeth and swallow them with her blood.
Now, watching the White Tiger struggle in his death throes beneath Yanba's claws, Yun Li felt the resentment in her chest swept clean away.
That was right.
Senior Brother Feng was right, Yun Li thought.
He was only a second-tier beast. How had she allowed him to throw his weight around for so long?
If he wouldn't obey, she could simply kill him.
But her right arm-!
Yun Li stared fixedly at the White Tiger's corpse, a dull ache at the stump of her right arm.
She was a sword cultivator!
A sword cultivator who wielded her sword with her right hand!
Now that she had lost her right arm, her Dao Path was all but severed.
If she, who had yet to reach Foundation Establishment, swallowed a third-tier pill capable of regrowing a severed limb, its medicinal effect could only cause her body to burst, killing her!
And going from Qi Refinement to Golden Core was no different from flowers in a mirror or the moon in water for her, who had lost her sword-wielding right arm and had not even reached Foundation Establishment.
"Beast..."
Yun Li ground her teeth, wishing she could eat his flesh raw.
Yanba obeyed his orders, binding the White Tiger with his nine tails and directing the Heart-Scorching Flame straight at his soul without damaging his fur in the slightest.
In the span of a moment, a perfectly intact White Tiger corpse lay before everyone.
Feng Zhuo surveyed Yanba's handiwork and nodded in satisfaction.
The White Tiger was a Divine Beast with the spatial attribute. Though his tier was a little low at only the second tier, his fur and bones were all rare materials for artifact refinement.
As for the Divine Beast White Tiger bloodline contained in his flesh and blood, it was an even greater tonic for tiger-type Demon Beasts.
The corners of Feng Zhuo's lips curved upward. "Well done."
In his previous life, the beast had stolen plenty of his spirit medicine. Seeing him meet this end eased the hatred in Feng Zhuo's heart.
Of course, depriving Su Ruanruan of a contracted Divine Beast White Tiger as a helper pleased Feng Zhuo even more!
He casually stowed the White Tiger's corpse in his storage ring. "This fur is pure white and flawless. I can take it back and ask Eldest Senior Brother to refine a few robes from it."
Yanba leisurely groomed his disheveled mane, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes.
Calamity Beasts and Divine Beasts were as incompatible as water and fire to begin with. Back at the stall, had he not been wary of the White Tiger's bloodline purity, he would have taught the beast a lesson long ago. How could he have let him strut and swagger in front of him?
Feng Zhuo said nothing about Yun Li's severed arm, nor did he ask where the White Tiger had come from. He simply treated him as an ordinary second-tier Demon Beast from the Green Wood Illusion Forest.
A Demon Beast had suddenly sprung out of the secret realm to ambush Feng Zhuo, and Feng Zhuo had killed him. That was perfectly reasonable, wasn't it?
He then turned to Yun Li and casually tossed her two bottles of pills. "There's nothing I can do about your right hand for now. But once you reach Foundation Establishment, you can come find me at Carefree Peak."
If the Purple Yang Pill Sect was the foremost sect in the Dao of Alchemy on the Profound Firmament Continent, then the Feng Household was the foremost Aristocratic Clan of alchemy cultivators.
As it happened, the Feng Household had done considerable research into regrowing severed arms and the like.
They had developed two second-tier pills specifically for that purpose. Used together, they could regrow a severed arm.
One was called the Broken Bone Pill, and the other the Meridian Mending Pill.
The former generated bone, and the latter generated meridians. As for the flesh and blood of the arm, an ordinary second-tier healing pill would suffice.
Feng Zhuo could now refine supreme-grade third-tier pills, so second-tier pills naturally came easily to him.
Yun Li froze.
As a legitimate daughter of the Yun Household, she knew all too well what losing her arm meant for her.
Even if her Lineage were willing to seek a third-tier pill for her, she would still have to wait until she broke through to Golden Core...
But how could a sword cultivator who had lost her right arm possibly cultivate to Golden Core with ease?
In that case, they would gain more by nurturing someone whose Spirit Root aptitude was slightly inferior to hers.
She could almost see a future in which her Lineage abandoned her and her sect gave her the cold shoulder.
She thought of her concubine-born younger brother at home, eyeing her like a tiger stalking its prey, and of her frail mother...
Yun Li bit her lip hard.
Her voice trembled, and tears glistened in her eyes. "Senior Brother Feng... do you mean it?"
"I never lie."
Feng Zhuo spoke calmly, but added in his heart, I never lie to good people.
Yun Li could no longer hold back. Tears spilled from her eyes. "Thank you, Senior Brother! Whatever you may ask of me in the future, I would not refuse even if I had to die ten thousand times!"