Chapter 33 (Part A) – The Mysterious Valley

(Mustang: This is Monday’s regular release, delayed a bit, as I was travelling.)

Tigers are one of the strongest of animals, and at night, they become even more dangerous.

As he listened to the tiger hiss, Bi Fan estimated that the tiger was already as strong as the ‘inner breath’ layer, and was soon about to become even more strong.

Bi Fan gently leaped off the tree and quickly rushed in the direction from which the sound was coming.

It wasn’t easy to come across such strong demons in the devil’s territory, and he didn’t want to miss such a good opportunity to hone his skills.

Bi Fan quickened his pace. His pace matched that off a leopard as he leaped through the forest looking for his next game.

After a few moments, Bi Fan finally spotted the tiger.

The tiger stood about two meters in height and his body was about four meters in length. The tiger had white fur, his four powerful limbs made no noise whatsoever, as he quickly moved through the forest looking for food.

“Now that’s one good tiger! If only I could turn him into my ride! He could probably move as fast as the wind.” Bi Fan praised the tiger.

It was such a pity that this thought could not be turned into reality. It was incredibly difficult to tame the wild animals inside the territory and a lot easier to kill them, but only in comparison to the former.

The tiger’s body was brimming with energy due to the change in the atmosphere.

Bi Fan spent some time, slyly comparing himself to the tiger and figured that he might not be able to match this one, and certainly not in these conditions.

Due to his proximity to the tiger, Bi Fan wouldn’t even dare breathe heavily, and kept his breathing to a bare minimum, while maintaining his distance with the beast.

Soon, the tiger spotted a wild boar he could hunt. The boar seemed to be about two hundred pounds in weight, but even then, soon enough found its dead body dangling from the tiger’s mouth.

The tiger hunted the boar down with an alarming efficiency; he threw himself at the boar and finished it off in a single strike. This tiger was going to be a lot more difficult to deal with when compared to the wolves Bi Fan had managed to kill earlier.

At present, Bi Fan wouldn’t dare to take any action against the tiger, for he was far too scared. So he followed the tiger, as he made his way back to his cave. Bi Fan waited and tried to examine the situation at hand before deciding the course of his actions.

The tiger’s cave was very large in size, about three meters high and four meters wide. It appeared very deep, although it wasn’t possible to make out its exact depth from Bi Fan’s current location.

As he saw the tiger enter the cave, Bi Fan loosened up a bit.

He found a tree that directly overlooked the cave, climbed up and decided to just stay and observe his intended target for a while.

While the tiger was going to enjoy his meal, Bi Fan was only going to sit on top of a branch and wait, patiently.

Suddenly, the Long Diao popped his head out and made a creaking sound, while his eyes remained fixed at the cave.

Bi Fan quickly covered the Long Diao’s mouth as he was too scared of disturbing the tiger.

“Don’t make loud noises, Greedy. There is a very powerful tiger inside that cave.” Bi Fan whispered.

As the Long Diao understood what Bi Fan was trying to say, he didn’t make any further sounds, in fact he didn’t even jump chaotically on his shoulder, but continued to look at the cave eagerly.

It took Bi Fan a few seconds to understand: “There must be something very good inside the cave, otherwise Greedy wouldn’t be so excited.”

But the thought of the demonly ferocious tiger that resided inside the cave, made Bi Fan think of giving up and turn around.

This tiger wasn’t an ordinary one, and had become even stronger at night. Bi Fan couldn’t find the confidence to go up against a beast like this one.

Greedy’s animated look appeared to indicating that there could be some very precious herbs inside the cave, giving up on which wasn’t that easy for Bi Fan.

Bi Fan was hesitating from going into the cave, but he didn’t want to turn his back on this opportunity either, so he stayed on the tree and waited.

He waited till dawn, but as soon as he saw the light, he decided to take action.

He burst towards the cave, unaware of the situation inside, but knew that it was certainly very dangerous for him.

As he stood at the entrance of the cave, he had no plan in his mind, and had no idea what he was going to do next.

Greedy was becoming increasingly impatient, so it was evident that whatever he was sensing inside this cave was going to be of great value.

“You’re going to have to stay calm for a while, at least till the time I can assess the actual situation.” Bi Fan grudgingly explained.

Greedy immediately calmed down, but his eyes looked full of expectation, which made him look even more adorable than usual.

Bi Fan stood at the entrance of the cave, and peeked inside. The cave was very dark on the inside and felt very gloomy, on top of that, Bi Fan couldn’t see very far into the cave, and hence had no idea what he was walking into.

Bi Fan bent down, picked up a stone and threw it inside the cave.

“Bang!” he heard a loud sound.

The tiger was still having his delicious meal, and upon being interrupted, became very furious all of a sudden.

“Roar!!!” a deafening one at that. Bi Fan’s ear ached with the pain from the sound.

Bi Fan could see the shadow of the white furred tiger emerging from the cave, and at a pretty alarming rate at that.

Bi Fan reflexively retreated and hastened back, but the tiger was quicker and soon emerged out of the cave.

The tiger with his eyes fixed at Bi Fan, issued a low pitched roar, as he prepared himself to launch an attack.

Goosebumps all over his body, Bi Fan quickly drew out his light-ray sword, ready to defend.

“Roar!” With another roar, the tiger charged towards Bi Fan.

The tiger’s bloody, angry mouth was wide open was ready to tear Bi Fan apart.

Bi Fan calmed down, and with a cool head, pointed his finger straight at the tiger’s mouth, ready to use the ‘immortal finger’.

He had used this trick to slay an ‘inner organs’ wolf previously, so he naturally felt like giving it a try again.

Unfortunately, the tiger was a lot stronger, and had a lot more energy flowing inside his body; he made a turn in mid leap and got out of the way of Bi Fan’s attack, while his long tail swept in Bi Fan’s direction.

His tail issued a gushing sound as it swung through the air.

Bi Fan’s body retreated as he brought his sword to the front.

“Bang!” Bi Fan felt that he might have been able to cut open the tiger’s mouth had he been able to connect with the tiger’s mouth with such force. The force was so great that Bi Fan almost dropped the sword.

The tiger’s eyes were set on Bi Fan, his tail was barely scratched, and Bi Fan had only managed to shave off a few hairs from his tail.

“Outstanding energy! Amazing physical strength!” Bi Fan said, shocked.

This tiger was far too strong, this was a bad deal.

Up against such a powerful opponent, Bi Fan needed to focus his entire attention at the task in hand; he couldn’t afford any distractions here.

The tiger seemed even more provoked now, and threw his flexible body at Bi Fan once again.

‘Fufeng Double-edged Sword!’

Bi Fan managed to connect a few strikes in quick succession, but his hits didn’t go past the tiger’s skin, and it didn’t seem like he had managed to seriously injure the tiger, maybe not at all.

It was obvious now that this tiger was in the ‘brave’ layer, and accompanied by his strong and flexible body, he was going to be a lot more difficult to deal with as compared to a ‘brave’ layer human opponent.

Suddenly, the Long Diao jumped off the tree he was hiding on, dashed sideways, and sneakily dodged his way into the cave. Fortunately, Bi Fan saw this, as he was standing directly opposite to the cave, facing its entrance.