Chapter 44 - 43: Besieging and Killing the Tiger Demon 3

Chapter 44: Chapter 43: Besieging and Killing the Tiger Demon 3

When Kui Shan heard that Lu Jing’an wanted to set fire to the mountain, his expression changed drastically. He angrily stepped forward, but Chen Xuan was faster. With a swift shift in position, Chen Xuan positioned himself between Kui Shan and Lu Jing’an. Facing Chen Xuan, Kui Shan couldn’t muster a single bit of temper. He was completely outmatched.

Sometimes, Kui Shan couldn’t help but wonder why a Great Martial Cultivator like Chen Xuan would willingly act as a lapdog for the Lu Family.

Kui Shan’s chest heaved violently. Glaring at Chen Xuan with clenched teeth, he snarled, "What you’re doing right now is worse than the Tiger Demon’s Chong Ghosts! Do you know how many families on this mountain rely on chopping wood and gathering herbs to survive? If you set this fire, how many people will freeze to death this winter? Have you lost your conscience to your own selfish greed?!"

Spittle almost splashed onto Lu Jing’an’s face. Chen Xuan’s brow didn’t even twitch as he calmly replied, "The Young Master knows what he is doing."

Hearing Lu Jing’an say he wanted to burn the mountain, Wen Ling also frowned. However, she wasn’t as rash as Kui Shan. Based on their few interactions, she knew that although Lu Jing’an might be a dandy, he was absolutely not a man devoid of conscience.

Lu Jing’an ignored Kui Shan’s furious roaring. He pulled a gilded pocket watch from his coat and snapped it open with a sharp CLICK. The dial reflected the somewhat pale midday sun. He looked up at the sky, his eyelashes casting faint shadows under his eyes.

"Fire a warning shot to signal the burning," Lu Jing’an instructed Director Liu beside him, his voice devoid of emotion.

Director Liu nodded in agreement. He drew his sidearm, aimed it diagonally at the sky, and fired three times.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The three gunshots tore through the silence of the mountain forest, startling a dense flock of birds in the distance. The sound of their frantically flapping wings washed over the treetops like a surging tide.

After a moment of dead silence, a wisp of gray smoke curled up through the gaps in the trees. It was followed by a second, then a third... In the blink of an eye, the eastern peak was shrouded in billowing thick smoke. The smoke turned from gray to black, rising straight up in the windless midday air and muddying half the sky.

Kui Shan’s eyes were bloodshot with rage, a low, cornered-beast-like growl tearing from his throat. But Chen Xuan’s qi locked him in place like iron chains, preventing him from lifting so much as a single finger.

As the thick smoke spread, visible flames began to appear in the forest. Seeing that the matter was already set in stone, Kui Shan’s voice nearly cracked as he shouted.

"Lu Jing’an! I originally thought you were different from them. You Noble Family scions, what else is in your eyes besides your own interests?! In your eyes, the lives of these commoners are worse than grass, aren’t they?!"

Before Kui Shan could finish yelling, Wen Ling said from the side, "Boss, look carefully. The trees haven’t caught fire."

Hearing Wen Ling’s words, Kui Shan calmed down a little. He whipped his head around. Sure enough, despite the pervasive smoke and dancing flames in the forest, the branches and trunks of the pines and cypresses remained dark and untouched. The flames were only spreading through the low shrubs and grass. Furthermore, their color possessed an eerie, pale yellow hue, unlike the blazing red of a typical wildfire.

"This is..." Kui Shan was stunned.

Wen Ling remained silent for a moment before saying, "It’s phosphorus."

Lu Jing’an smiled. "Sister Wen Ling is indeed knowledgeable and well-read."

Kui Shan clearly didn’t understand these things from the Void World. Seeing her boss’s confusion, Wen Ling explained it to him in layman’s terms. After explaining, she didn’t forget to throw in a sarcastic remark.

"Boss, this phosphorus is a product of the Void World, and it’s even more expensive than gold. To save this forest and the livelihoods of those ordinary people, Young Master Lu is burning pure gold."

Hearing Wen Ling’s words, Kui Shan’s face flushed bright red with embarrassment, though he still refused to completely swallow his pride. "What a waste. It would be much better to just distribute that gold directly to the poor."

"Giving them money won’t make the Tiger Demon leave," Lu Jing’an smiled, his gaze still fixed on the dancing phosphorus fires in the mountain forest.

Kui Shan choked on his words, his old face growing even redder.

Wen Ling looked at the burning phosphorus fires in the forest and asked curiously, "Young Master Lu, I’ve read in books that burning phosphorus should look like will-o’-the-wisps. Why does your phosphorus fire burn with the same color as regular flames?"

Lu Jing’an replied, "I had someone add a bit of salt to it. This lowers the burning temperature and makes the color closely resemble common flames."

Listening to his explanation, Wen Ling nodded while taking out the pen and notebook she carried with her to jot it down. For a Literature Cultivator, the more knowledge she possessed, the stronger her power became. After finishing her notes, Wen Ling offered a charming smile. "I didn’t expect that you, Young Master Lu, would also be quite familiar with these clever gadgets from the Void World."

"Just a little," Lu Jing’an replied humbly. Looking at the burning phosphorus and thick smoke at the mountain’s peak, he murmured to himself, "I hope this will be enough to trick that beast. If not, setting a real fire to the mountain will be our only option."

Wen Ling closed her notebook and assured him, "Don’t worry, Young Master Lu. This trick works. That beast is extremely afraid of fire. It’ll run as soon as it sees it."

"I hope so."

The moment Lu Jing’an finished speaking, a heaven-shaking tiger roar erupted from the depths of the mountain forest.

ROAR!!!

The sound was entirely unlike anything a normal tiger could produce. It was as deep as muffled thunder rolling across the valley, yet it carried the sharp, piercing quality of scraping metal. Everyone’s eardrums stung with pain. Leaves rustled down from the trees, and even the sand and gravel on the ground faintly trembled.

Lu Jing’an narrowed his eyes and looked over. He saw the distant tree canopy collapsing layer by layer like waves as a vague, massive yellow and black silhouette sprinted toward the eastern high ground. "It really went east," he muttered.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

A dense barrage of gunfire abruptly erupted from the east, interspersed with several thunderous explosions—hand grenades. More thick smoke billowed into the air as the pre-dug firebreaks were ignited. The true flames finally began Devouring the dry grass, shooting crimson tongues of fire over ten feet high.

The gunfire lasted for about fifteen minutes. Suddenly, Lu Jing’an’s eyes turned sharp. Abnormal movements were coming from the western forest. The direction of the collapsing trees had changed.

"Everyone, get ready," Lu Jing’an’s voice abruptly turned icy as he issued the order to Director Liu.

"Yes, sir!" Director Liu answered sternly, immediately heading down to make preparations.

As the Tiger Demon drew closer, the commotion grew louder. Everyone held their breath, their nerves pulled taut. Soon, things began darting out from the woods.

The first figure rushed out of the forest. It was a man. Or rather, it had once been a man. The coarse cloth clothes on his body were in tatters. His exposed skin was a deathly gray, and his eye sockets were completely hollow. The corners of his mouth were split open all the way to his ears, revealing ghastly white teeth. The most terrifying detail was the several specks of unextinguished phosphorus fire clinging to his shoulders and back. The pale yellow flames licked at his rotting flesh, but there was no smell of burnt meat, only a faint SIZZLING sound.

Immediately following him were the second, the third... They surged out of the forest, their postures as twisted as marionettes. Yet, their pale, ashen faces bore the Solidification of the terror and agony they had experienced in their final moments. Some had twisted necks, some had gaping holes in their abdomens, and others had limbs bent backward.

Ten, thirty, fifty... A hundred, a hundred and thirty...

When the one hundred and fifty-seventh Chong Ghost stumbled out, the entire mountain valley plunged into a deathly silence. Only the faint crackling of the burning phosphorus and the dragging footsteps of those ’things’ could be heard.

One hundred and fifty-seven lives. And all of them were recent deaths from within the past year. The Flesh Body of a Chong Ghost could only last a maximum of one year before completely decaying into white bone. Yet, this Tiger Demon had been entrenched here for forty years. Yin Mountain County only reported around two hundred unsolved missing person cases a year. With over one hundred and fifty appearing right here, it meant that more than eighty percent of the missing population had likely been turned into the Tiger Demon’s Chong Ghosts.

Such an astonishing sight exceeded everyone’s expectations. At this moment, Kui Shan felt that they should have burned the mountain down a long time ago. This Tiger Demon truly deserved to die!

"Young... Young Master..." Director Liu’s voice was hoarse, his eyes bloodshot. "Do we shoot?"

Lu Jing’an quietly watched the walking corpses, his face devoid of emotion. Only a gleam of extreme coldness flashed in the depths of his pupils as he slowly said, "You are the on-site commander. Act according to your judgment."

Director Liu acknowledged the order and immediately commanded, "Use half our firepower!"

Gunfire erupted like a string of firecrackers. Rifles, handguns, and two Czech light machine guns simultaneously spat tongues of fire. The bullets wove together into a web of death. The rotting bodies of the Chong Ghosts shuddered like torn rags under the hail of bullets. The muffled sounds of shattering skulls rang out one after another, splashing grayish-black fluid onto the dry grass and crushed stones. In just a short moment, all the Chong Ghosts that had charged out of the forest collapsed to the ground, dead once more.

However, the Tiger Demon still had not revealed itself.

Lu Jing’an took a step forward. The sole of his boot crushed a piece of gravel, making a faint CRUNCH. Facing the mountain wind and looking toward the deep, dark forest, he called out loudly, "Didn’t you want to kill the children of the Lu Family? I, Lu Jing’an, am standing right here."

His clear voice echoed through the valley. "Both mountain paths have been sealed, and to the east lies a sea of fire. You can only get through me. If you have the skill, come and take my life."

The forest was dead silent. A moment later, a tiger roar even more brutal and deranged than before thunderously exploded! The monstrous hatred within that roar almost took physical form, shaking everyone’s blood and qi into turmoil. A few younger team members even stumbled backward, traces of blood seeping from their ears and noses.

Lu Jing’an narrowed his eyes. He honestly couldn’t fathom what the Lu Family had ever done to this Tiger Demon to make it hate them to such a degree.

BOOM!!

The Earth trembled. A massive black silhouette snapped several pine trees as thick as a man’s thigh, violently leaping out of the forest. When it landed, it kicked up a cloud of dust and sent crushed stones bursting outward like a shower of rain.

It was a tiger. But there absolutely should not be such a gigantic tiger in this world. It was nearly ten meters long, and its shoulder height was half a body taller than an adult man. Its yellow and black striped fur gleamed with a cold, hard, metallic luster in the sunlight. The most terrifying features were its huge, copper-bell-like eyes, which were as crimson as blood with pupils narrowed into vertical slits. Madness and resentment churned furiously within them. From its wide-open, gaping maw, foul-smelling saliva dripped from dagger-like fangs. The white ’King’ character on its forehead was twisted like a grimacing ghost face.

At such a close distance, the foul, bloody Evil Qi of an apex predator washed over them. Several young security officers felt their legs go soft, barely able to hold their guns.

"Open fire with everything!" Director Liu roared hoarsely.

All the gun muzzles spat fire at once! Bullets poured down on the Tiger Demon like a torrential rain. Handgun bullets struck its fur with a series of CLINKING sounds, sparking off it like metal. A few rifle bullets occasionally managed to drill into its flesh, bursting open tiny bloody blossoms. Only the bullets from the Czech light machine guns could truly tear through its Defense, carving bloody holes into the Tiger Demon’s body.

The Tiger Demon let out a low growl, and its massive body violently shook.

CLINK CLANG!

Dozens of deformed bullet casings shot out from its fur like iron sand, bouncing and rolling across the rocky ground. Its demeanor was as contemptuous as someone simply brushing off dust.

Director Liu’s pupils contracted, and he roared hoarsely, "Fire the cannons!"

BOOM! BOOM!

Two Mountain Cannons roared simultaneously, their muzzles spewing scorching tongues of flame. The Tiger Demon clearly didn’t recognize these weapons and was startled by the loud noise. In that fleeting moment of hesitation...

BOOM!!

An artillery shell landed right on its left shoulder blade! Flesh and blood went flying. The Tiger Demon was sent flying with a miserable howl, snapping two pine trees before crashing heavily to the ground. A wound the size of a washbasin had been blasted open on its left shoulder, the flesh completely torn apart. The ghastly white bone underneath was visible, and fresh blood gushed out like a fountain. The other shell landed three feet from its side, blasting open a scorched, blackened crater in the earth.

"We hit it!" someone shouted excitedly.

Director Liu’s face was flushed red with adrenaline, and he waved his hand again. "Reload! Fire a—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the Tiger Demon shockingly staggered back to its feet. Its crimson, beastly eyes locked onto Lu Jing’an, and a low, rumbling growl vibrated in its throat. Its muscles bulged, and blood poured from its wound in a steady stream. Yet, as if completely oblivious to the pain, it kicked off the ground with all four paws and ferociously lunged forward!