Chapter 371

Ghosts of the Mine (XVII)

Long Tao's grandma must have been one skilled fox, as we easily walked past the other camp without anyone noticing us move. Unlike me, who still walked on the small number of pins and needles, the old monster practically sauntered forward without a care in the world.

Rather than running up the path, he walked directly into the forest, and I blindly followed. I could barely see a thing, and if he chose to just leave me here, there's a good chance I might get lost... okay, not really, my Divine Sense went out for about a mile at this point, but still. This is one scary-ass place.

Surprisingly, the path through the forest was... clear. There were no roots blocking the ground; no branches coming our way; no stray shrubberies; and, most importantly, neither critters nor insects, let alone demonic beasts, to stand in our way.

... yeah.

There's no way in hell this was natural. And Long Tao certainly wasn't clearing it in real time. Was it that tiger? Or something else?

Regardless, the journey that I thought would cost me yet another robe was preciously simple and even leisurely. We walked for about fifteen minutes in total before emerging onto a slight clearing pressed against the side of the mountain, with a massive cape opening embedded just to our side.

It was about thirty whole freakin' feet tall and about half as wide, and at its entrance leisurely lay that very same black tiger, seeming to bask in the moonlight.

I said nothing as Long Tao walked over, with me following. The beast rallied up when we got within ten feet, but rather than attacking us, it sat... like a cat would, on its hind legs. Its tail gently whipped back and forth behind it, and that ferocious expression that it used to stare down Qian Shuren was replaced by an extremely docile one. If it weren't for the fact the damn thing was as big as a truck, I wouldn't see a tiger... just a damn cat.

"My grandfather," Long Tao said as we stopped about ten feet away from the beast. "Once rescued the Divine Tiger Beast. He nursed him for a whole century, the story goes, before helping him reclaim his title as the King of the Divine Mountain. As a form of gratitude, the Tiger imprinted its scent directly into our bloodline, marking the entire lineage, so that all of his descendants would recognize grandfather's, and treat them with respect."

"..." Hey. That's actually a pretty clever explanation. No, wait--it really might be true. This thing here certainly wasn't a Divine Tiger, I don't think, but I was willing to buy into the premise that it was one of its distant descendants.

"Though it's faint, this little kitten really does have the Divine Tiger bloodline." Kitten? You call this fucking behemoth a kitten?

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Yeah, sure, whatever dude.

"Who wounded you?" Long Tao asked.

"... Mountain King," the voice yet again echoed in my mind. Though I was already aware that Demonic Beasts developed sentience and intellect as they 'learned Dao', experiencing it really was something else.

"Master, give him some healing pills."

"Oh, alright," I replied, quickly procuring a few dozen of them. With Lao Shun along for the journey, if there was one thing I was never in want of, it was healing pills. Not to mention the hundreds of leftovers that I had before him.

"Take this once you've healed up," Long Tao tossed a strange, disgusting-looking... thing? I can't call it an herb, as it was twisted and oozing strange, purple plumes. "If you survive it, you will reignite parts of your bloodline. If you don't, you will perish. We will handle the King in the meantime; all you have to do after is conquer the rest of the beast. Keep collecting tolls, but don't consume any; once you've awakened your bloodline, the quality of things coming through here will only serve to poison your purity. We'll find you something nice to snack on and will come here once after to see your progress. If you satisfy me, you can come with us. If not, you can remain here and reign as the undisputed King until the end of your life."

"Yes, M--descendant."

... yeah.

Alright.

Why am I here, though? Did you drag me here just to brag about how you have a cool tiger under your thumb?

"Let's go back, Master."

"Sure."

I glanced back at the tiger, who shot me a cursory glance back, but not much else; in his eyes, it was likely that I'm just a blurry figure next to that old monster, one that he will forget come dawn. If he ever bothered memorizing me in the first place.

We rethreaded the same path, in the exact same silence, with me just having a few extra questions. It was clear that the beast was about to call him 'Master'--but why? Was it really some tiger he knew back in the day that grew up? Or was the entire lineage, starting with that Divine Tiger, soulbound to recognize Long Tao as their Master?

"Mountain King, if I recall my sister's teachings," Long Tao broke the silence just as we entered the clearing by our camps. "Is a sixth-tier Demonic Beast, roughly equivalent to an Inner World Realm cultivator. We should probably make some preparations."

"I thought we came here to mine the, well, mine."

"And who do you think guards it, Master?"

"Inaccessibility?"

"Funny."

"I know I am."

"Maybe it'd be better to be accompanied by a reliable set of distractions--I mean, companions."

I looked at him oddly for a moment before sighing; sometimes, there are these moments of clarity between us, where he says something with unmasked honesty. Sometimes, our interactions run under layers upon layers of masks, and sometimes the lie is so thinly veiled it feels like he's mocking me.

We didn't speak anymore as we went into the tent and settled down.

The main reason why I silently agreed to go after the 'King' had nothing to do with either Long Tao or the tiger--but rather the quest, 'Demonic Shattering'. One of the rewards for completing it was a follow-up quest, Demonic Annihilation, and I had this sneaky suspicion that it was precisely about the so-called 'King'. I wasn't completely sure, but, knowing the system... yeah, no, it was about that.

The new day started similarly to every other, with a simple breakfast, some light sparring between the kids, and the packing of the tent.

There was just one change: I somehow had to convince Long Tao to 'guide' kids toward the larger 'gangs' of Demonic Beasts, as, otherwise, the quest would simply not be completed before we got to the King.

... it turned out, all I had to do was ask.

"I'll take them at night. For practice, you said?"

"For practice," I replied.

"For practice." Did he believe me?

Yeah.

Let's say he did.

For the peace of my mind.