Chapter 31 (Part B) – The Black Tiger

(Mustang: This is Wednesday’s regular release. Enjoy ???? )

Bi Fan put all his skills to test against the tiger, using him as a target for his practice.

Back in Xi Guan, Jiang Sheng had circulated Bi Fan’s poster in the hope of finding someone who would be willing to kill Bi Fan.

Since Bi Fan had taken all the money that Jiang Sheng had, only ‘rising sun’ disciples were willing to trust Jiang Sheng’s word and were willing to try for the bounty on his head.

Jiang Sheng had promised that the person who manages to kill Bi Fan will get two thousand spars as a reward upon Jiang Sheng’s return to the ‘rising sun’ school.

So much so that, Jiang Sheng had even exaggerated the value of the items that Bi Fan had in his possession, in an attempt to the temp the people who were going into the devil’s territory, to kill Bi Fan. Some of the students had been scared off by the skill and power of Bi Fan, but those who hadn’t, were very willing to find and kill Bi Fan, for both the bounty on his head and the rewards that they would get from Bi Fan’s corpse.

Bi Fan hadn’t realized that Jiang Sheng and his friends were going to prove out to be such a menace in the future, or else, he would have extinguished their existence from the world there and then.

“Roar!!!!” The black tiger uttered a terrible roar. His body was bruised and battered from top to bottom, his skin defiled in more than dozen places.

Bi Fan was taking full advantage of his marvelous footwork and had been attacking the tiger nonstop at an amazing speed, literally making a sport out of the poor animal, giving him no room to breathe. In fact, Bi Fan was so quick, that the tiger seemed well aware that any attempt to flee Bi Fan would prove out to be null and void.

The black tiger had sustained some serious injuries and even though he had put up a fierce fight, he was clearly no match for Bi Fan’s skill, and was now torn up, from top to bottom.

“Thank you black tiger! You gave me an opportunity to practice my skills on you, so I’ll make this easy on you now.” Bi Fan smiled.

‘Rainy-fly sword!’

Bi Fan focused everything he had in this attack, and countless strikes befell the black tiger.

“OW!!” The black tiger uttered a terrible scream, as he fell to the ground. He twitched a few times, barely able to breathe anymore.

The black tiger’s body had sustained at least a dozen cuts and wounds on the places where Bi Fan’s sword had met his body.

The tiger’s skin was quite battered and damaged, but even then, his meat and bones would still fetch a pretty high price.

Bi Fan quickly incorporated the tiger’s body directly into the Tian Yuan ring and then left.

A lot of people in Xi Guan had told Bi Fan that sounds of intense fighting and the smell of blood often provoked other demons in the vicinity.

At present, Bi Fan had used up almost half of his strength to kill the black tiger, so he needed to rest, and wouldn’t be able to continue fighting for long.

Inside the devil’s territory, crisis could arise at any moment, and preserving one’s energy was critical. Roaming around injured could be very hazardous, especially if trouble found its way to someone in that condition.

Not long after Bi Fan’s departure from the scene of the fight, he started hearing sounds of various beasts coming from that direction. He could hear their roars again and again.

“It’s fortunate that I knew the circumstances here before coming in and left the scene in time, had I stayed behind to peel off the tiger’s skin there, I would have gotten into some serious trouble.” Bi Fan thought to himself.

Bi Fan found a tree he could climb, and then atop one of the tree’s branches, he started practicing to revive his body strength.

Time was passing quietly, but then suddenly, the Long Diao made a ‘creaking’ sound, as he tried to issue a warning.

Bi Fan had been restoring his strength at a leisurely pace, and had managed to restore almost ninety percent of his strength by now, as soon as he heard the warning, he quickened things up.

He opened his eyes and saw that the Long Diao was standing between him and almost a dozen snakes. Greedy seemed quite excited as poisonous foods were his favorite.

There were at least ten snakes in front of the lone Long Diao, who was ready for a battle of his own, considering himself in charge of Bi Fan’s protection in this case.

As he saw Bi Fan stand up, the Long Diao got even more excited and quickly shot out at an electric pace at the snakes and quickly returned to his spot, with a snake between his teeth.

Most of the snakes were afraid of the Long Diao and seemed to be shaking their heads.

Bi Fan on other hand, had no intention of attacking the snakes himself, and stood there on guard against any sneak attacks the snakes might attempt to catch him off guard.

Greedy quickly gobbled up the snake’s head and gut, and tossed the rest of his corpse aside.

He against shot out at the snakes, and returned to his place quickly, catching another snake this time as well.

Long Diao’s are the bane of poisonous creatures like vipers, in addition to that, Greedy’s astonishing speed was too much for the these ordinary snakes to match up to.

Realizing that most of them were about to become a happy meal for their opponent, the snakes decided to withdraw from the tree, fearing for their lives. The tree leaves rustled as the snakes panicked and made a run for it, so much so that, some of them literally fell off the tree, and onto the ground below.

Anxiously, the Long Diao dropped the snake’s dead body and decided to pursue the other snakes before they got away.

Bi Fan knew that Greedy likes snakes for his meals, and decided to help out.

With the help of the ‘immortal finger’, Bi Fan was successfully able to kill a few on his own.

Soon, the ground was bloody with the dead bodies of several snakes, as Bi Fan and Greedy had each managed to kill a few, while some of the more fortunate snakes had managed to get away.

“Greedy, I’ll help you collect your food, but then, we need to leave this place as soon as possible.” Bi Fan expressed his desire to leave in a worried tone.

“Creek.” The Long Diao creaked in approval, meanwhile holding another snake in his mouth.

His main interest was in the snake’s head and their poisonous bile, which was stored in their gut. The rest of the snake’s body was useless to the Long Diao.

Bi Fan quickly incorporated all the remaining carcasses in the Yin Yang pouch and along with the Long Diao, quickly departed from the scene.

Originally, he had only restored his strength to about a ninety percent, and now, after the energy that he had just consumed, he felt that he must be around eighty percent of his total energy.

Bi Fan found another tree after travelling some distance, and climbed up again, this time cautious of any venomous presence in the vicinity.

Soon, he had restored his strength, and decided to look for more demons and decided that it was time to venture a little deeper into the devil’s territory.

On the way ahead, Bi Fan plucked a good amount of Panacea, but hadn’t come across any rare minerals or ores as of yet. Like veins of Spar ores (Crystal ores), or other kind of rare metallic ores. These ores were probably located somewhere a little deeper into this abyss, but Bi Fan’s current vicinity seemed devoid of these fortunes.

Bi Fan had travelled some distance but hadn’t come across a second beast till now.

“Well, if there are so many beasts everywhere inside the devil’s territory, why can’t I find some?” Bi Fan thought, a little depressed over his fortune.

After a while, Bi Fan heard the burst of howling, which appeared to be made by wolves.

“Finally, it appears we have found ourselves a pack of wolves.” Bi Fan forced a smile.

Most wolves inside the devil’s territory were only as strong as ‘martial strength’ layer, and even a pack full of such wolves wasn’t exactly a good bounty.

Only the wolves that were as strong as ‘inner breath’ were of good value for the outside world. Bi Fan was unaware of the fact, that most of the wolves in this pack were as strong as the ‘inner breath’, and their sheer numbers making them a dangerous opposition.

Bi Fan had initially decided to give this opportunity a pass, but as soon as he heard the sounds of close combat fighting coming from that direction, he decided to reverse his decision.

It didn’t matter much to him, as it didn’t seem like this was any danger to him, but if he could extend a helping hand to someone in need, he wouldn’t mind helping. He was many a things, but stingy, wasn’t one of them.

Bi Fan decided to stealthily examine the situation once before deciding on the course of his action.

There were at least a hundred wolves in the pack, and the strongest few of them seemed to around the ‘inner organs’ layer.

This pack was engaged in a fierce battle with a group of five people, who all seemed to be in the ‘inner organs’ layer.

Although the human segment involved in the battle was stronger than their counterparts, they all seemed to have sustained a good amount of wounds so far from the fight.

These five people were using a very strange kind of martial arts; their skills were unknown to Bi Fan. He had never seen such martial arts, and had no idea which school these five belonged to.

Bi Fan didn’t rushing to their aide straight away, and decided to hide in the trees nearby and began memorizing their style of fighting.

These five didn’t seem in any immediate danger for the time being, and on top of that, Bi Fan was a little uncertain as to whether they deserved his help or not, so he decided to wait a while and inspect the situation a little further.

Bi Fan would wait till these five had consumed most of their energy, just in case they turned hostile and decided to turn on Bi Fan later.