Chapter 177: Entering the Tiger's Den, Obtaining the Tiger Cub

"We?" Li Suibian frowned, searching his memory for related information. After a while he replied, "I've never heard of it, not even a trace of impression."

"Then it seems they found Xiao Chu." Tang Luo said, briefly recounting what had just happened to him.

"The other two? I thought they were dead." Li Suibian's thought was no different from Tang Luo's.

After such a long absence, they had assumed the other two Divine Demon Walkers were dead.

Who would have thought that upon debut they'd be this flamboyant, quite impressive, and still some member of a mysterious organization never heard of before, more mysterious than the martial arts myths—indeed, among the Divine Demon Walkers, there are hidden tigers and dragons.

"Wait a moment, I'll give you the address. If you're interested, let's go check it out together in five days to see what kind of good place it is." Tang Luo said.

"Okay, got it." Li Suibian agreed.

What a perfectly fine survival mission—has it been ruined by a few big shots?

After ending the call, Tang Luo dialed Chu Zhongtian's number, but the other end was already switched off, temporarily unreachable.

Tang Luo wasn't in a hurry either; if nothing unexpected happened, they'd meet in five days.

Adding Li Suibian, whom they found, the six Divine Demon Walkers might actually gather for the first time.

On the fifteenth day after the survival mission began, half the time had passed, and not a single one had died.

The survival rate for this mission is quite high.

At night, Fei Huang arrived before a house that looked very ordinary, took out his key, opened the door, and entered.

It was just like returning to his own home, except judging from the dog corpse in the doghouse in the courtyard, this place wasn't even the original owner's home of Fei Huang.

"It's so dark—why aren't the lights on?" After entering the house, Fei Huang turned on the lights and said to the person in the living room.

"I'm getting used to the dark." The person in the living room said.

"Right, you're good at hidden weapons—you're that Liu… what fate pattern again?" Fei Huang plopped down onto the sofa.

"Liu Suifeng." The person named "Liu Suifeng" said, his voice somewhat helpless.

Liu Suifeng, from Wen Rui'an's wuxia novel *The Divine Heroes of the Divine Land*, skilled in swordsmanship, hidden weapons, lightness techniques, and also has a Hong Kong comics version.

"Oh, right, Liu Suifeng." Fei Huang said, "I say you fate-pattern holders are really troublesome—again, it's the original owner's name of the fate-pattern fragment, again you have nicknames, again you have real names—don't you fear mixing them up?"

"Call me however you want." Liu Suifeng said.

"You're not going to ask if I've invited anyone?" Fei Huang shifted the topic.

Liu Suifeng didn't even move his gaze: "Definitely invited."

"That certain?"

"Otherwise your mood wouldn't be this good." Liu Suifeng said, "If I didn't guess wrong, that Violent Arhat Tang Xuanzang should have agreed readily."

"Right." Fei Huang asked curiously, "How do you know?"

Liu Suifeng said, "I've analyzed this person's behavior and conduct."

"Haha." Fei Huang laughed, saying, "That guy isn't afraid of traps either—did your analysis conclude he's a brainless idiot?"

"No." Liu Suifeng shook his head, "On the contrary, I think he's quite 'clever'."

"Rare, Old Liu—you actually think someone else is clever." Fei Huang and Liu Suifeng weren't just acquainted in this mission; they barely count as old acquaintances.

Fei Huang believed he still understood Liu Suifeng to some extent—this is a very proud person.

Fei Huang's pride is the kind laid out on the table, obvious at a glance, while Liu Suifeng's pride is hidden beneath his seemingly calm exterior.

"Because he knows where his shortcomings and strengths lie, knows how to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses." Liu Suifeng said, "As a berserker, that's already quite clever."

"Ha, I also think he's a berserker." Fei Huang said, "But this clever—won't it affect our plans?"

"No." Liu Suifeng was very confident, "For berserkers, if fists can solve it, they absolutely won't use their brains."

"Once they repeatedly solve problems with force, they grow lazy to think again; their originally not-so-great wisdom will further 'degenerate'—you can treat it as a bad habit."

"The reason humans can stand at the top of the food chain has never been solely due to strength, but to the mind, to wisdom."

"Berserkers may be strong, but they can only become the swords in the hands of the wise, weapons, ultimately dying on the battlefield."

"What if he berserks his way through you—what then?" Fei Huang laughed.

"With you here." Liu Suifeng said, "You are the most talented, most promising, and simultaneously strongest 'new Divine Demon Walker' I've ever seen."

"Pfft." Fei Huang snorted, "Everyone's on the sixth mission—don't keep relying on your fate-pattern holder status, acting like an elder praising others like that."

"Sorry." Liu Suifeng said, "But precisely because I am a fate-pattern holder, I can realize how strong you are."

"I won't lose to that Violent Arhat." Fei Huang said, "The problem is, the place we're going to should be very dangerous—what if that guy turns hostile and refuses to recognize people?"

Liu Suifeng picked up the cooled tea in front of him and took a sip: "I said, he's quite 'clever'."

"What do you mean?" Fei Huang didn't dislike Liu Suifeng's mysterious, evasive way of speaking—it felt like listening to a story.

"The Violent Arhat's usual behavior is always flamboyant, right?"

"Yeah."

"Berserkers actually have nothing to do with being flamboyant; for Divine Demon Walkers, being flamboyant is never a good thing. Why do you think he's flamboyant?"

"Personality?" Fei Huang thought for a moment.

"No, it's necessity." Liu Suifeng's casual tone turned confident and firm, "He needs to be flamboyant to find suitable teammates, make up for his shortcomings—he's playing to his strengths, hoping to 'avoid weaknesses' through that."

"Oh." Fei Huang suddenly understood, "You mean he thinks he's stupid, so he wants to show his value and traits, seeking clever teammates."

"Hard to hear, but that's exactly it." Liu Suifeng said, "Don't forget, the Violent Arhat's skill enhancement is top-tier charge-type warrior, plus he has one hand of enlightened healing—can tank, can fight, can heal—who would refuse such a person as a teammate? Our interests are the same: to survive while growing stronger—why would he turn hostile?"

"Precisely because of this trait of his, we seek him for cooperation, right?"

"As long as there's no huge, undividable benefit there, our cooperation will be very solid."

Fei Huang asked, "Then is there really such a thing?"

"If that happens, even we might turn hostile—then why care about these? Everyone relies on their own abilities." Liu Suifeng said bluntly.

"Wow, you're so blunt—I'd feel embarrassed to turn hostile then." Fei Huang laughed.

"Pah." Liu Suifeng spat without hesitation.

"Hahahaha." Fei Huang burst out laughing.

……

This place looks strange at a glance, too bad we didn't discover it earlier. If we had discovered it, we wouldn't have wasted these few days.

The agreed midnight time, and the location.

Tang Luo and An An stood at the foot of the mountain, beside them was a stone staircase almost covered by weeds; going up a certain distance, one could see a torii hidden among the trees.

The shrine above seems to have been abandoned for a long time. An An said.

After obtaining the address, the two of course inquired about it.

The place Fei Huang agreed to meet them is exactly where they are standing now, and the true destination is most likely the abandoned shrine on the low mountain.

An abandoned shrine with no supernatural rumors at all; if one must say something, it's just that the shrine maiden died inside the shrine years ago, that's all.

Bai Tian Quan went ahead to scout the path during the day, came back panting, indicating nothing was found.

"Master! You really came! That guy didn't trick me!" Chu Zhongtian's excited voice came from afar, jogging all the way.

Behind him were two other figures, one was the Fei Huang I had seen before, the other was also a young man in his twenties.

"Martial Arts Fate, Liu Suifeng." Liu Suifeng bowed with clasped hands, directly announcing his name, without any concealment.

"Mythology Fate, Tang Xuanzang." Tang Luo also bowed with clasped hands.

"Yong Chun Fate, Ye Wen." Chu Zhongtian also chimed in.

……

No one laughed, the atmosphere instantly became awkward.

"Cough cough." Chu Zhongtian coughed twice, "Then let's hurry up and act?"

"Okay." Tang Luo looked around, didn't see Li Suibian, perhaps he had gone up the mountain early, or maybe he was delayed by something.

"I'll lead the way." Liu Suifeng said, taking the lead along the stone path.

"Is the place we're going to that shrine?" An An asked.

Liu Suifeng also didn't turn back: "Yes, and no, you'll know when the time comes."

The five went up the stone steps; compared to the quiet path in the daytime, now at midnight, the surroundings looked gloomy and strange.

Tonight there was no moonlight either, tree shadows overlapped, and the stone steps underfoot were a mass of darkness.

"It's so dark." Chu Zhongtian squinted his eyes to survey the surroundings.

"Yeah, it really is dark." Liu Suifeng said.

"Turn on the light." Tang Luo turned on the powerful flashlight he brought, a beam of light pierced the darkness, illuminating the path ahead.

An An also turned on her flashlight.

"……Master, you guys even brought flashlights! I'm really stupid, how come I didn't think of that!" Chu Zhongtian suddenly felt foolish.

Clearly it's a modernized mission world, yet we forgot to use technological tools.

We're not ancient people after all.

……

……

The atmosphere on the scene became awkward again, the two people who similarly didn't bring flashlights simultaneously quickened their pace.

They fundamentally don't need flashlight light, they can move freely in such darkness!

That's quite true, after speeding up, the two quickly arrived at the shrine, during which they also didn't stumble or fumble.

Tang Luo and the others arrived a bit slower, the two rather strong beams of light swayed a few times before slowly appearing.

"Come with me." Liu Suifeng explained while leading the way, "We discovered a dry well here at the shrine, related to the cursed videotape, have you encountered it?"

"Like the cursed videotape similar to Midnight Bell?" Chu Zhongtian asked, "I've heard of it, but never encountered it."

"Well, then I won't explain further, this dry well is the lair of that fierce ghost, today our purpose is to enter the tiger's den, get the tiger cub!"

Liu Suifeng's tone carried a hint of excitement, the strong are strong precisely because they naturally dare to do what ordinary people dare not do.