Chapter 209: This Is a Licking Tiger

Ning Fei picked up his pace and headed toward the cave.

"Tigers are highly particular about their environment," he explained to his viewers. "Most of them live deep in the forested mountains. When the weather turns cold, they seek out caves or rocky outcrops to shelter from the wind."

"Since Little Falcon didn't spot Little Qun and the others from the air, there's a very good chance they're resting inside a cave."

After giving his brief explanation, it wasn't long before Ning Fei arrived at the cave indicated by the System.

The cave sat carved into the mountain's rocky face. Its jagged, irregular entrance stood a little over two meters high—just tall enough for a person to walk through.

From the outside, the interior was pitch black.

Just looking into that gaping maw was enough to make the hairs on the back of anyone's neck stand up.

"This cave looks terrifying."

Humanity had an instinctual fear of the dark and the unknown. Staring at the ominous opening, a collective chill washed over the viewers.

"Temple Master Ning isn't trying to tell us there are massive tigers hiding in there, is he?"

"Is it really this scary?"

"This streamer has a death wish!"

"He knows there are tigers inside, yet he still dares to go in?"

"Knowing there are tigers in the mountain, yet heading towards the tiger mountain?"

"Temple Master Ning, don't go in. Why don't you just shout a few times from out here?"

"I'm too scared to look."

The netizens all clenched their fists, their nerves pulled taut.

Unhurried, Ning Fei stepped directly into the gloom.

The drone followed close behind. Since his upgraded model came equipped with a flashlight, Ning Fei had it switch on the beam the moment he crossed the threshold.

On the stream's broadcast, a harsh beam of white light sliced through the pitch-black cavern. Even so, the stark illumination only made the atmosphere feel more eerie.

"Brothers, type 'scared' in the chat," one viewer suggested.

Immediately, the screen was swamped by a dense wave of the word "scared."

Any normal person would be terrified.

Wandering into a pitch-black cave that potentially housed two fully-grown tigers? Who wouldn't be scared?

Ning Fei, however, remained completely calm.

Though outwardly relaxed, he still kept his guard up.

Part of him worried that the Animal Friendship Card might expire. He also had to consider the very real possibility that the cave harbored strange tigers who didn't know him—stumbling blindly into a stranger's den would end disastrously.

A moment later, Ning Fei caught the sound of movement echoing from deeper inside the cavern.

The microphone picked it up, broadcasting the noise to the netizens.

The tension spiked. The newcomers to the stream, in particular, were practically jumping out of their skin.

There was a sharp bend in the tunnel just ahead.

As Ning Fei rounded the corner, the drone instantly tracked his movement.

And then, the viewers witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Through the camera lens, an enormous tiger lunged straight at Ning Fei, its heavy paws outstretched, accompanied by a deafening, majestic roar:

"Roar!"

People often watched short videos taken from a mouse's perspective, cowering in a little hole while a cat stalked just outside. That kind of first-person footage carried an intense, suffocating sense of dread.

But right now, the netizens were face-to-face with an adult South China tiger.

It was the ultimate, terrifying perspective of prey.

In that split second, the collective minds of the viewers practically blue-screened.

Netizens who had been drinking water violently flinched, hurling their cups across the room.

Countless others simply threw their phones.

And more than a few let out bloodcurdling screams.

The vast majority just stared blankly in sheer horror, frozen by the sight blazing across their screens.

In everyone's eyes, Ning Fei was dead meat.

With a tiger that massive bearing down on him, how could he possibly survive?

But then, an absolute jaw-dropping twist unfolded.

In the dim light, the South China tiger hadn't recognized Ning Fei at first, instinctually dropping into an attack pounce. The moment it clearly saw his face, however, it slammed on the brakes.

Ning Fei had already braced himself, fully prepared to counterattack. But sensing the sudden shift and lack of malice from the beast, he relaxed his stance.

The South China tiger rested its heavy front paws squarely on Ning Fei's shoulders.

Ning Fei felt the impact—it wasn't heavy. The tiger was holding back its crushing strength.

That wasn't what it looked like to the viewers, though. To them, the tiger was pinning its prey down to rip his throat out.

"It's over! He's dead!"

"Run, Temple Master Ning, run!"

"Ah! I can't watch this! Hubby, get out of there!"

"Call the cops! Someone call the cops right now!"

A few quick-witted viewers were already frantically dialing for emergency rescue.

"Slurp!"

In the very next second, the South China tiger gently licked Ning Fei's face.

A tiger's tongue is coated in sharp, flesh-stripping barbs, but it purposefully used only its soft tip, leaving the caress feeling entirely gentle.

The netizens short-circuited. Everyone turned to stone.

The chat went completely blank.

One second, the screen had been a chaotic blur of "scared," "run," and "it's over." The next, not a single new message scrolled past.

Nobody had any idea what to say.

What was happening?

A wild South China tiger was currently draped over Ning Fei's shoulders, affectionately licking his cheek?

Was this a licking tiger?

The silence dragged out for a solid five seconds. Then, the chat utterly exploded.

"Holy shit!"

As far as the eye could see, the screen was an endless wall of "Holy shit!"

Only after that initial shockwave did actual coherent sentences start appearing.

"That's Little Qun's parent, right? Scared the living daylights out of me."

"I strongly advise against watching Temple Master Ning's stream if you have a weak heart. It's too fucking terrifying."

"I genuinely almost died of fright just now. Can someone explain what's wrong with this tiger?"

"Give me a sec, I need to go change my underwear."

"The moment that tiger leaped out, I was truly, completely terrified."

"Thank god it's Da Qun. That's why he's fine."

"Thanks, Temple Master Ning, for letting me experience exactly what it feels like to be hunted by an apex predator. I nearly passed away on the spot!"

Now that everyone realized the South China tiger meant Ning Fei no harm, they finally let out long, shuddering sighs and began to relax.

Unknowingly, they were all drenched in cold sweat.

Ning Fei had been ready to defend himself. If the tiger had followed through on its attack, he would have met it with his full strength. His physical constitution was far beyond ordinary now; fending off a wild tiger wouldn't have been a huge issue.

But seeing Da Qun acting so docile, Ning Fei let out a light laugh.

"Long time no see, big guy."

He wrapped his arms around its massive head and vigorously rubbed the tiger's broad face, marveling at how exceptionally soft its fur felt.

Anyone witnessing this scene couldn't help but burn with envy.

"Why is that tiger so obedient?"

"Is that actually a tiger? It's clingier than my house cat."

"I'm so jealous."

"Just popped over from Yearning 6. The viewers in that chat have completely lost their minds."

Over at the Yearning 6 Production Crew...

Earlier in the day, Huang Sanshi had taken a trip to Qingfeng Temple, only to find the front doors firmly locked and Ning Fei nowhere to be seen. After he returned to camp, Peng Xiaochang informed him that he had tuned into the live stream, which showed Ning Fei heading deep into the mountains to track down tigers.

During lunch, Peng Xiaochang pulled the stream up on his phone, tuning in right as Ning Fei wandered into the dark cavern.

"Temple Master Ning is insane, running into a pitch-black cave just to find tigers."

Peng Xiaochang stared at his screen and marveled out loud.

Hearing his exclamation, the other cast members immediately crowded around him.

What followed was the terrifying leap of the South China tiger—a scare so intense that the Yearning 6 cast physically jumped back in fright.

Their terrified reaction instantly became a legendary, clipped moment for Yearning 6.

Following that, a massive wave of viewers flooded from the show straight into Ning Fei's Live-stream Room.

The viewership directly doubled!

Petting a wild South China tiger was simply an event everyone had to tune in for.

The sheer volume of people spamming the chat was immense, causing the stream to severely lag. While the viewers wailed in frustration, the technical staff back at Douniao Live were scrambling in an emergency panic.

They rapidly allocated wider network bandwidth specifically for his channel, barely keeping the stream from crashing under the crushing load of the current traffic.

Watching the numbers soar, the company executives began seriously discussing whether they needed to assign Ning Fei a dedicated secondary broadcast channel.

It was a tactic usually reserved for wildly popular events like professional LOL tournaments, where a single broadcast room simply couldn't handle the monumental viewer traffic and required auxiliary channels to split the load.

Unaware of the chaos he was causing online, Ning Fei was already following the tiger deeper into the dark.

The further he walked, the more he realized this wasn't an ordinary cave at all.

To be precise, it was more like a long, natural passageway.

When he finally emerged from the tunnel, he found an entirely hidden, breathtaking world waiting on the other side.