Chapter 279: An Old Acquaintance

The fight inside the room continued.

The fat cultivator had no intention of fleeing, nor of calling for help.

The tiger demon had been starved for a long time and had lost much blood; its strength was greatly diminished, and he had planned to subdue it using his own cultivation.

As a newcomer, if anyone found out he had made a mistake and allowed the tiger demon to break free, he would surely be held accountable and face harsh reprimands.

Therefore, subduing the tiger demon without alerting others was the best solution.

But as the fight went on, the fat cultivator realized that if he kept going, he wouldn't even subdue the tiger demon—he'd be lucky to avoid becoming its prey.

The tiger demon's strength was far greater than he had thought.

Doubt stirred in the fat cultivator's heart.

Why, after being starved so long, was its blood qi still so strong?

After several more rounds, the tiger demon showed no signs of fatigue; instead, it grew even fiercer. The fat cultivator suddenly realized:

"Wrong!"

"Someone has been feeding the tiger demon!"

A chill ran through the fat cultivator's heart—who had been feeding the tiger demon right under his nose?

After a moment's thought, the fat cultivator felt a wave of cold dread rise.

He remembered the missing pastries from the kitchen, and the vanished dried meat.

Someone had stolen the pastries, fed the tiger demon, and even unbound its chains.

And this person was invisible to him!

Was it an advanced concealment technique?

The fat cultivator glanced at the chains binding the demon, his heart pounding wildly.

When he entered the room, he had taken a quick look—the chains had been intact then. Yet in just a few moments, they had been undone.

And he had noticed nothing.

This proved that the invisible cultivator possessed extremely profound cultivation, an unfathomable spiritual sense, and unpredictable methods.

And right now, this terrifying cultivator was inside this very room!

Perhaps watching him battle the tiger demon with a mocking expression.

Cold sweat poured down the fat cultivator's body.

Run!

If he didn't run, he was dead!

The fat cultivator made an instant decision, dodged the tiger demon's claw, pulled back, and sprinted toward the door.

But it was already too late.

Mo Hua, in the corner, had already extended his wicked little hand and gently clenched it.

Spiritual energy instantly gathered, forming several chains that layered and bound him completely in place!

The fat cultivator felt as if plunged into an ice cellar, his face turning deathly pale.

What kind of technique is this?!

What the hell kind of technique is this?!

Before he could think further, the tiger demon lunged forward and bit down on his shoulder.

The fat cultivator struggled desperately, still trying to reach the door.

But a second Water Prison technique locked him again—he couldn't move at all.

The tiger demon opened its mouth again and bit straight through his neck.

The fat cultivator knew he was certain to die.

A powerful enemy lurked in the shadows, a ferocious tiger fought in the open, and now, at this very moment, he had stepped into Hukou.

He had spent his life tricking others—he had never been tricked himself until now.

But this one trick was enough to end his life.

He turned his stiff neck slowly, gazing toward the room's corner, wanting to see who had betrayed him.

But the corner was empty—not a single shadow to be seen.

He knew the person was there, yet he simply could not see them.

The fat cultivator spat out a mouthful of blood and died with eyes wide open.

Even in death, he did not know who had destroyed him, nor what his betrayer looked like.

The tiger demon killed the fat cultivator, then bit him a few more times to confirm he was truly dead, before tossing him aside, its expression almost disdainful.

The tiger demon did not eat the fat cultivator's flesh—even the blood in its mouth was spat out.

Mo Hua found this strange.

This giant tiger doesn't eat people?

Is it because the fat cultivator tastes bad, or because his heart is evil, making his flesh unclean?

Mo Hua thought for a moment, couldn't figure it out, and gave up—he had more important matters to attend to.

He concealed his form and walked up to the fat cultivator, opened his storage bag, and took out the jade pendant Kong Sheng had given him.

He left everything else behind, to avoid detection.

But this pendant was known only to Kong Sheng and the fat cultivator—if Mo Hua took it, no one would ever know.

Mo Hua slipped the pendant into his own storage bag.

According to Kong Sheng, this pendant was worth over five hundred spirit stones.

But Mo Hua had no intention of trading it for spirit stones.

This pendant had been carried close to Kong Sheng's body and bore the character "Kong"—it was a member of the Kong family's direct line. Mo Hua intended to keep it; it might prove useful someday.

After pocketing the jade pendant, Mo Hua noticed that the tiger demon was staring at him.

Perhaps it wasn't really staring.

The tiger demon couldn't see through Mo Hua's concealment art either; it had only sensed Mo Hua's aura, so it was staring at his position.

And from the look of it, there was no malice.

Mo Hua found it a little strange.

Could it be that it knew he had given it something to eat, and was grateful?

That didn't seem like something a demon beast would do either.

According to the older demon-hunting cultivators, demon beasts are born with a hatred for humans—even if they don't eat people, they still want to kill them.

Mo Hua stared back at the demon beast's gaze for a moment, then suddenly froze.

"The way it's looking… it seems to recognize me?"

Mo Hua released his divine sense, saw no one around, and briefly revealed his figure.

The tiger demon saw him, its eyes lit up, and it let out a low snarl.

That snarl sounded both like a "roar" and like a "meow"—part tiger, part cat.

Cat?

Mo Hua was stunned. He looked the tiger demon over again, and the more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. Only then did realization dawn:

"It can't be that little cat demon, can it…"

Uncle Chu had once used a trap to catch a juvenile cat demon. Mo Hua fed it dried fish, used it as a sparring partner to practice body techniques, and finally released it back into Great Heishan, telling it, "Don't eat people."

He never expected that the cat demon from back then would turn out to be a tiger demon?

And it had actually grown this big—it looked like a full-grown great tiger now.

He just didn't know what breed of tiger demon it was; it looked strange, part tiger, part cat. Mo Hua had never seen one like it in Great Heishan before.

Mo Hua wanted to catch up, but suddenly remembered—this was a demon beast, and it probably couldn't understand what he was saying.

Besides, demon beasts were untameable by nature. It might look gentle now, but who knew when its temper might flare and it would swallow him in one bite.

Mo Hua sighed, thought for a moment, took out a few pieces of dried meat from his storage bag, and tossed them to the tiger demon as a "meeting gift."

The tiger demon held the dried meat in its paws and munched away, huffing and puffing.

Demon beasts shouldn't be able to understand human speech. That it didn't eat human flesh now—Mo Hua couldn't tell whether it was because it remembered his "advice," or because its nature was simply unusual to begin with.

Mo Hua was about to say something more when his expression suddenly shifted—he sensed someone approaching.

The fat cultivator was dead, but the commotion from his struggle with the tiger demon before dying seemed to have drawn the attention of the evil cultivators.

Several evil cultivators were heading this way.

Mo Hua hastily cast his concealment art, slipped along the wall, climbed up in a few steps, and then lay quietly on the roof beam.

The tiger demon also noticed the movement. In no time at all it swallowed the dried meat, padded back to its original spot, and even stuck its paw back into the chain.

Then it lowered its head, lay flat on the ground, looking utterly listless.

Mo Hua watched, stunned.

This tiger has become a spirit!

How is it so clever? Even better at acting than he is?

After a while, two evil cultivators—one tall, one short—walked in.

As soon as they entered, they saw the blood on the ground and the fat cultivator's corpse beside it.

The short evil cultivator said, "No problem, just one dead guy."

The tall evil cultivator walked over, kicked the fat cultivator's corpse, and said in confusion, "He got killed by a tiger? Just like that?"

"New recruit, probably let his guard down."

"What a useless piece of trash."

The tall evil cultivator looked around, puzzled. "That's not right. This tiger demon is chained up, can't move. How did this fatty die so far away?"

"Probably got bitten while feeding it, then crawled outward, smearing blood everywhere."

"Dammit, couldn't even die properly—made such a mess of blood, now we have to clean it up."

The tall evil cultivator cursed, then asked, "What do we do now? Slaughter this demon beast?"

The short evil cultivator scoffed, "You dare slaughter it?"

"What? This demon beast can't be slaughtered?" The tall evil cultivator was somewhat surprised.

The short evil cultivator glanced at him and said flatly:

"This demon beast has a special bloodline. The Fourth Master keeps it for blood-drinking. You dare slaughter it, and the Fourth Master will slaughter you."