Chapter 1326: The Tiger in the Forest

"I can extract the memories of this land. The best position is right here."

Miss La Se Si stood within the sun, moon, and star pattern and gestured.

"When can the ritual be held? Is extra preparation needed?"

Xia De asked again, and the young girl thought for a moment:

"This place is truly too suitable for extracting the memories of the earth, as if someone deliberately left behind a segment of memory. I have the ritual materials with me. With a little preparation and having Vanessa assist me, it will probably..."

She turned her head to look at the sun, which was already slanting westward above the cedar forest:

"... be after dinner. The ritual is still somewhat complex, and I didn't expect to be able to conduct the ritual directly this time."

"Let us help, too."

Luweiya suggested:

"Although I don't know what Xia De is being so mysterious about, I think if this succeeds, it should be of great help to him."

Thus, the four of them got busy again. Miss La Se Si didn't mind sharing the Sect's knowledge with Xia De and Luweiya, but Luweiya didn't let Xia De help, instead telling him to continue looking for the statue of the Space Ancient God.

Xia De thought that made sense; if he couldn't find it this time, he would have to waste another whole morning riding a horse to come again.

So he temporarily bid farewell to the three ladies and returned to the dark cave with the cat, which had already woken up from its nap. But continuing to search seemed useless, so he simply left the cave, wondering if the entrance was somewhere outside the cave, such as in the hollow of an ancient tree or in the basement of a hunter's cabin.

The cat, having eaten and slept, seemed even more lively than usual. In the forest, Xia De tried to put it on the snow to let it run around, fulfilling a wish he'd had since he started keeping a cat—to chase after it and play outdoors. But Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya only walked two steps on the snow before immediately turning around and jumping onto Xia De's shoes, meowing to express her dissatisfaction.

So the cat continued to stand on Xia De's shoulder as he entered the cedar forest. Xia De first went to check on the three horses and fed them the fodder he had prepared in advance, then walked toward the direction of the Ailong River, planning to conduct a more careful search from the river toward the cave entrance.

The vast, white forest didn't actually have much scenery. Having grown accustomed to the view here, he began to miss life in the city. While stepping through the snow and looking around, Xia De actually had a tiny bit of expectation in his heart—expecting a cultist or someone similar to suddenly appear to prove that this place was truly very important.

But then he felt his own thoughts were silly; perhaps the relative smoothness of his first confrontation with a demon had truly made him a bit overly arrogant.

Xia De criticized his recent thoughts and actions in his heart, then his ears twitched, and he turned to look at the bushes behind him. He heard the faint sound of something stepping on the snow, and the sound was right near them.

"Meow~"

Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya also issued a deterrent cry, clearly having heard the sound as well. But just as Xia De was alert and preparing to draw his Moonlight Greatsword, what appeared from the snowy forest was actually a Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya that had been magnified in a certain sense.

Light yellow fur, covered in black horizontal stripes, round head, short ears, a very obvious white spot in the center, eyes bright and spirited; limbs strong and powerful, tail thick and long with black ring patterns, and the tip of the tail was black. No matter from which aspect it was judged, this should be judged as a tiger, and a tiger that was starving at the end of winter at that.

This animal was clearly here specifically for Xia De. Xia De hadn't lowered the sound of his footsteps, which was why it had discovered him. And just as Xia De had thought, one second after the two sides locked eyes, the tiger had already made a clear attack posture in the snow.

"Is the natural ecology around here this good? Last time I met a wild bear, this time I met a tiger."

Xia De thought in surprise, raising his hand to strike forward, but he didn't expect Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya to be even more excited than him.

This cat had never been afraid of things smaller than itself, and besides that, it was quite skilled at bullying and intimidating other cats—the cats at the Jia Lin Na manor, the Three Cats Inn, and downstairs at the Black Stone Security Company had all been "persecuted" by it. This time, the usually very smart cat clearly misjudged, recognizing the big tiger in front of it as a cat as well, so it actually jumped off Xia De's shoulder and stood in front of him, issuing a "roar" at the tiger:

"Meow-woo~"

Seeing it act like it was protecting him, Xia De was very moved. Also because he noticed Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya's actions, the Moonlight Wheel that had already formed in his hand wasn't thrown out immediately. And the tiger was even more embarrassing than Xia De had imagined; after hearing Little Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya's cry, it froze for a moment and actually turned around and bolted back into the cedar forest.

"You did very... Oh, Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, don't chase after it!"

The cat, which usually wasn't even willing to walk two steps on the snow, actually chased after it at a trot. Xia De hurriedly wanted to stop it, but later thought that it was just a tiger, and he was fully capable of protecting Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, so he might as well let the cat run around on the snow.

Of course, based on safety considerations, although Xia De had two fewer legs than Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, he still ran to the front of Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya at high speed, getting ahead of it to follow the tiger that seemed to be fleeing:

"Help me watch if Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya is following behind me."

【Okay.】

"She" said gently.

Thus, in the snow-covered forest, the tiger ran in front, Xia De chased behind, and Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, who was darting along very quickly, followed behind. One person, one cat, and one tiger chased each other in the cedar forest like this. The tiger didn't know what was going on, but once it started running, it had no intention of stopping at all. To let Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya get some more exercise, Xia De kept chasing forward.

It had only been five minutes of running, but Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya's continuous exercise time had already exceeded the maximum value since Xia De first saw it in the height of summer last year, but the cat looked like it was having a lot of fun running.

For Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya's health, Xia De hadn't intended to run for too long, to prevent sudden heavy exercise from harming the cat's health. But he didn't expect that it was the tiger that stopped first. It ran all the way south in the cedar forest, crossed the frozen Ailong River, and probably felt that there was no way to keep running like this, or perhaps it discovered that the one chasing it wasn't that cat but a human, so it stopped abruptly and turned around to pounce on Xia De.

A serious look appeared on Xia De's face, but he didn't use any strange arts. Instead, after confirming that Little Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya still needed half a minute to catch up, he also pounced on the tiger.

The man and the tiger collided like this. The tiger probably didn't have experience fighting a human with bare hands, and instead was pounced on by Xia De, who used the spell "Red Dragon Power." They tore at each other and rolled in the snow. Although fighting a tiger hand-to-hand was quite dangerous, for Xia De, as long as the opponent's claws didn't tear his chest and throat, it was no problem.

By the time Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya appeared, it happened to see Xia De wearing the "Mind Crystal Ring," riding on the tiger and smashing his fist toward the tiger's head. His strength was a small matter, but the strange art 【Mind Shock】 used at such a close distance—let alone a tiger, even a Ringed Shushi with powerful mental strength might not be able to withstand this blow.

"You see, Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, this isn't your kind."

After subduing the tiger with the goal of not killing it, Xia De stood up panting. His clothes had many scratches from the tiger's claws, and his body was covered in snow from rolling around on the ground:

"You see, this isn't something your little claws can compare to."

Xia De grabbed his cat with one hand, then grabbed the tiger's claw to show it. Afterward, he showed Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya the tiger's thick tail, powerful limbs, and terrifying, sharp teeth.

The tiger probably had indigestion recently, and the smell from its mouth was quite strong:

"You see, this isn't your kind. Even if you're bold, you can't provoke a tiger in the future, do you understand?"

The cat held by Xia De didn't make any indication, to the point that Xia De didn't understand whether it didn't understand or was playing dumb. But Xia De believed his "dangerous creature education" today should still be quite useful; at least the next time Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya saw a tiger, it would know that this wasn't an existence it could provoke.

Because he believed the cat's exercise for the day had met the standard, Xia De didn't let it touch the ground again. After letting the cat stand on his shoulder, he thought about how to deal with the tiger.

The wild bear he met last week was killed directly by him. But this time Xia De didn't take action again. Instead, he thought for a moment and took out his Luo De card deck from his pocket.

Of course, he hadn't lost his mind and wanted to play cards with a tiger, but was planning to try his luck:

"I'll draw one card at random; if it's greater than 7, I'll let you go."

Thinking in his heart, he flipped over the top card, seeing that it was actually Flower 12.

"Consider yourself lucky."

Xia De shook his head, moved the tiger under a tree, and fed it a few drops of holy water. He patted the tiger's face, and the tiger soon woke up, but this time it clearly showed a look of fear. Even if this kind of wild animal didn't have the intelligence of Little Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, it could still feel Xia De's terror.

Xia De stood up and took a step back:

"You can go."

The tiger rubbed against the tree trunk and stood up, staring at Xia De as it tentatively walked a few steps, confirming that he didn't intend to chase, before running away quickly.

"The clothes are ruined."

Xia De lowered his head to look at his clothes, thinking about finding a place to change them.

He turned and walked toward the direction he came from, thinking about what else he might encounter in the forest. He actually wanted to catch a few rabbits to let Little Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya try racing with them, but after walking for less than five minutes along the path he came from with his messy thoughts, he raised his eyebrows in surprise again, then turned to look behind him. ===== CHAPTER 1327 =====