The grey tiger was big, and felt even bigger. Taller than Tian was at its shoulder, it filled the narrow cave. The animal stink of it sank its claws into its victims before the tiger was even visible. Of course, the tiger might not be visible until after you are dead. Its grey and black coloration dissolved into the darkness, aided by whatever Heavenly magics it had comprehended to hide its qi. An ambush predator, already the stuff of nightmares and fevered worship before its demonic corruption, now terror incarnate.
Nothing Tian had thrown at him could stop him. The only thing that had slowed the tiger down was a handful of needles burrowing into his ear, trying, and failing, to reach the tiger’s brian. Tian quickly ran through his options, and reached a grim conclusion. His needles were wedged in, no chance of recovering and attacking again with his limited qi. His palm arts were worthless, unable to overcome the qi and vital energy of the tiger. He had some things that could be used as poisons or blinding agents, but trying to use them against such a plainly demonic tiger was idiotic. He couldn’t run, because Liren was behind him and counting on him to win.
“Out of tricks. Out of ideas. Out of hope. Out of time.” The Tiger gathered itself to pounce. Swaying a bit. Tian could see it was having a hard time staying upright. But in the narrow cave, it wasn’t going to matter enough.
He could remember what it felt like, mastering the Thunderous Palms technique in the West Town Outer Court. It just disintegrated the wooden posts he practiced on. It seemed unstoppable. What could be more powerful, or more terrifying, than that?
This tiger. This tiger was scarier. He didn’t seem like he could be disintegrated at all. Tian’s palms couldn't even reach through the Tiger’s skin.
Several things happened in very short order. At the moment the Tiger began its explosive leap, Tian connected two seemingly unrelated memories. In the fraction of a second between leap and landing, the tiger spread out its paws, sealing off any room Tian might have had to dodge. Tian didn’t dodge. He used that same shattered instant to try merging two arts that were never intended to work together.
The tiger twisted in the air, its glowing eyes rolled up as its body lost coordination. The beast still slammed into Tian, knocking him down and pinning him under its bulk.
“Not enough. Not enough. Going to eat your soul. Eat your face.” The tiger’s words slurred, its stinking breath washing over Tian, drawing Tian in the stench of rotting meat. Then the stench of blood.There was a hissing noise, like something burning very hot and fast and Liren was there, the horn spear in her hands, ripping through the beast’s neck. A lingering line of fire hung in the air behind her, dimmer than the utter fury on her face.
“He is not yours to touch!”
The light left the tiger’s eyes, its heavy head collapsing onto Tian, pinning him even harder against the ground. Liren buried her fingers in the Tiger’s fur, ignoring the cold smoke that rose when she did. With a mighty heave, she shoved the corpse off Tian.
“Talk to me! How do I heal you?!”
“Easy, easy.” He smiled up at her. “I’m banged up, but nothing that won’t be mended with a good meal and some rest. How about you?” Tian asked.
“Less good.”
Tian took a closer look at her. The usual luster of her bronze skin had faded. There was an ashy residue on her, as though a whole layer of skin had died. In just the few seconds Tian was watching, he could see her mood plummeting and a killing depression taking hold of her.
“Severe Yang qi depletion. Eat this ginseng. It won’t taste nice, but it will hold you until I can fix you up properly.”
“Um. Immortals? Before I go?” The little voice yanked their head around. The boy they had rushed in to rescue was fading, dissipating into the darkness of the cave. “Thank you for freeing me. The tiger captured the souls of those it ate, and used them as lures. It enjoyed keeping me as a lure. It was nurturing a root in the back of the cave. I don’t know what for, but even I can tell it’s powerful. He hid the storage rings of the cultivators he hunted in a hole under the big rock opposite the root. If you get to Bamboo Crossing Village, please tell them-”
And he was gone. His body fading with every word, until the soul vanished into the afterlife. Tian clasped his hands and prayed the black and white impermanences would treat the ghost gently. He’d had a hard afterlife so far.
Despite his aching body, Tian started to laugh. Liren glared at him as she munched the ginseng.
“What’s so funny?”
“We got lured into a trap, fought a monster, and now we are getting some natural treasures and whatever good things remain in those storage rings. Killing, looting and eating strange roots. Now that’s what I call being a proper cultivator!
Liren couldn’t hold the glare. She started laughing too. The cavern seemed a little less dark afterward.
Tian decided that the easiest treatment was dual cultivation. He laced his fingers between Lirens, as they sat facing each other on the floor of the cave. “I love touching you. Which sounds a little gross, now that I say it out loud, but your skin is so warm in a way I never find myself to be. Like I’m nestling my fingers in the feeling that everything is going to be beautiful, and nothing will hurt. I can’t understand why you worry about the eyes of blind people looking at you. I see you. And you are beautiful. And I love holding your hands.” Tian murmured. He knew she would blush and sputter, but he didn’t care. Every word was true, after all.
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He circulated the Hell Suppressing Sutra, draining away the excess yin qi from Liren, letting some of his yang vital energy warm her. The corrupt black fire had been unable to penetrate her skin or taint her, but it had drained her badly. Using the supremely yang spear art, and the powerful spear, compounded the exhaustion. It was fine. No harm done. The tiger had been an old monster, but had met his match in the two of them. Each of them its counter, in their own ways.
When they finished cultivating, Liren asked “How did you make the tiger collapse? I didn’t see what you did. Poison?”
“Nothing I have would work on such a strange creature.” Tian wiggled his fingers. “I used a palm art. Thunderous Palms, in fact.”
“Eh?” Tian got a perverse satisfaction from seeing someone else stumped to the point of monosyllables. He smiled and explained.
“The power of Thunderous Palms lies in the penetrating power. Threads of vital energy that burrow into the opponent’s body, then start vibrating. Think of them as razor sharp wires that jitter in place very, very quickly, turning whatever they are touching into mush.”
“But you were feet away.” She leaned in.
“I was. But my Heavenly Swallows were buried in its ear, not too far from the Tiger’s brain. My qi wasn’t strong enough to punch through its hide and muscle, but I thought “What if I send it through its inner ear and into its brain?”
“So? You were still feet away.”
“Yes, but those Heavenly Swallows are linked to me. They are, to a degree, part of me. And I was very, very desperate. So I just tried it. I flushed my remaining qi into the darts, and… recreated what Heavenly Palms does with vital energy. It didn’t work perfectly, but it kind of worked. Under the circumstances, I’m calling it a win.”
“We have got to get you a Heavenly Realm weapon. We need one for me too, for that matter. One I can actually use more than once a day.” Liren rolled her neck, stretching after sitting still for so long.
“With time, the Heavenly Swallows darts will become true immortal weapons, I believe. But yes. This is unacceptable. I have a whole new appreciation for how my Senior Brothers looked out for me when I was starting out in the Earthly Realm, and I thought I appreciated it plenty at the time.”
The root was an unsettling mass on the ground, just cresting out of the dirt.
“Would you say that looked more like a bloated pancake, or a squashed snake that just ate something?” Liren asked.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know. These are the sorts of questions that haunt me. I think that’s a mushroom, not a root.” Tian squatted next to it, carefully examining it for signs of poison, hidden parasites and other unpleasantness.
It practically reeked of metal and earth qi. Not particularly useful for either of them, but it was so staggeringly qi dense, they would be insane to leave it unharvested.
“Any idea of what it is?”
Tian shook his head. “It’s not one of the mushrooms Teacher had growing in his garden. I’d say it was related to Blue Ichor Stonestep Mushroom, but that’s an Earthly Realm herb. Which, despite the name, is the basis for quite a few medicines, and remarkably good for you despite the taste. I know how to harvest it, anyway. Let’s leave it for the moment, and check out the buried loot.”
The goods were right where the ghost had pointed. It seemed to be the tiger’s midden, where the shattered bones of his victims were swept along with their ruined robes and frequently ruined weapons.
“I want it known that I object to the spear being shattered in four places, but the stick is fine.” Liren announced.
“Did you have to say that you wanted it known? Would I not have known if you just said that you objected to the pointy stick being broken more than the treasured staff made of burnished heavenly ash heartwood and capped with what I believe is coldwater iron?”
“Not like it does you any good either, mister noodle-pokey enthusiast.”
“Yes, but I don’t have to announce my frustration.” They hardly noticed they were bickering. There were a lot of rings to go through. No spirit crystals. Tian assumed that they were consumed by the tiger. Same for the pills. There was, however, a delightful selection of teas, teawares, and, less interesting, wine. Jug after jug of wine. Some were nearly as big as he was.
“Did the tiger prey exclusively on alcoholics? Why is there so much more wine than tea?” Tian held up a clay jar sealed with paper talismans. “Hundred year old hundred flower wine. I’m assuming that’s good stuff. It’s got enough qi in it to make me curious, at least.”
Liren grunted and shrugged. “Food selection is decent. Lots of good camping supplies. And I know you will love this, a folding boat.”
Tian shook his head, not sure he had heard that correctly. “A folding boat? Like what the Dawnlight Lark had?”
“It’s not as nice looking, or as powerful feeling, but yes.”
“Praise the heavens and the earth, our days of flying around on a sword like idiots are done after only one day!” Tian threw his hands in the air, only to lower them when Liren shook her head.
“We don’t have the art to drive it, and what’s the use of pushing it around like a regular boat?”
“Ah.” Tian deflated. “What kind of manuals did we get?”
“A whole stack of ‘em, and without even cracking a cover, I can confidently say my expectations are low. It seems the tiger was picking its targets carefully. If any of these rings belonged to someone in a major sect, I can’t tell. Certainly no one from the Ancient Crane Monastery.”
“Well, hand them over. I’m enjoying looking through them, and there may be something useful in all the trash.”
She did. “Couple of swords and a saber that look sellable. No intact armor, damn it all. Nor talismans. You?”
“Same on the swords and sabers. There is a bow, but only four arrows. Quiver looks nice, though. A belt. It feels enchanted, but enchanted to do what, I don’t know. Not stop its owner from getting eaten by a tiger, I guess. Some boots. These your size?”
“Not remotely. Yours?”
“Nope.” They exchanged a long look, sighed, and finished up their sorting. Tian added some new rings to his string, then flexed his fingers, aiming for a satisfying crack.
“No matter how often you try, they won’t crack. You have uncrackable fingers.”
“They might one day, you don’t know!”
Liren’s grin turned speculative as Tian drew a long knife from his storage ring. “I don’t think surgery’s the answer.”
“Ho ho. No, this is for revenge. Get out a rope and find a place to nail a pulley to the ceiling. We are taking this tiger apart.”
Liren looked blank, then savage. “We do have a lot of wine. Tiger bone wine is very nutritious.”
Tian nodded. “Every part of it is a treasure. Waste not, want not. I’m going to be very thorough.”