Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-187

Wei Tianchong had finally come.

Compelled by Yiyi.

He was running for his life!

“Save me! Save me!”

Wei Tianchong hollered as he ran.

Alas, nobody paid any attention to him.

Actually, there was someone.

Yiyi was seated on Wei Tianchong’s puppet, running alongside Wei Tianchong and chuckling at him. No matter what commands Wei Tianchong gave, the puppet refused to throw off Yiyi. Tang Jie had helped him build this puppet, and it wouldn’t have made sense for him to not leave behind some backdoors that he could exploit.

Seeing that he couldn’t throw off Yiyi and the pack of wolves was continuing to chase him, Wei Tianchong angrily cursed, “Stubborn sprite! Foul sprite! Once I’m free of danger, I won’t spare you!”

Yiyi wasn’t angry at all. Tilting her head, she giggled, “What’s the point in telling me what I already am? Relax. If you go into Tiger Roar Peak, those wolves won’t dare to chase you.”

“Like hell I’m doing that. If it comes to it, I’ll just use my jade token and teleport out,” Wei Tianchong shouted.

He had already completely given up on the idea of entering Tiger Roar Peak. If he weren’t still sore about those 200 spirit coins, he would have already run off.

“Are you talking about this?” With a flourish, Yiyi revealed a jade token in her hand.

Wei Tianchong felt his body and, sure enough, he found that his jade token was not on him. Paling in fright, he frantically asked, “When did you steal my jade token?”

“Tsk!” Yiyi pouted. “I think you should run a little faster. The wolf pack has almost caught up.”

Wei Tianchong looked back and saw that the wolves had gotten closer. Yelping in fear, he pushed the Mistnet Step to the limit, mist appearing under his feet as he sprinted away.

Tang Jie couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.

“Is that your friend?” Wang Poguan asked upon seeing Yiyi on the puppet.

“My young master,” Tang Jie answered. “I had him come to Tiger Roar Peak to steal away your treasures.”

Wang Poguan understood. “You want to raise him?”

Tang Jie lightly said, “I owe a lot to the Wei Estate for being able to come this far. When I left the estate, I swore an oath that I would not stop being a servant until the young master shed his mortality, and I would only leave the register when the young master reached Celestial Heart.”

“I see. But he seems to have too weak of a personality. Training him up will be very difficult!” Wang Poguan said with a shake of his head.

Tang Jie chuckled. “Would it be any fun if it were easy? And isn’t it rather amusing for a servant student to instruct his young master?”

Wang Poguan was taken aback, and then he raised his head back and laughed. “It’s amusing, truly amusing!”

The laugh of a tiger was the roar of a tiger, and the roars soon resounded through the land, causing Wei Tianchong to shudder.

He was no ignorant fool. From this vigorous roar alone, he could tell how strong the tiger on the summit was. It appeared that it was even scarier than all the wolves behind him put together.

His heart filled with fear, he slowed down and quietly said, “My good sister, why don’t you let me go this one time…”

“Don’t even think about it! If you don’t go to Tiger Roar Peak, you can just die here.”

Wei Tianchong said in panic, “You’re sending me to my death! If you have the skill, why don’t you go up yourself?”

To his surprise, when Yiyi heard this, she jumped off the puppet and said, “You’re saying that you would go if I went? Then just watch me!”

She rushed up the mountain.

Seeing Yiyi fearlessly charge up the mountain, Wei Tianchong mentally trembled. It was as if something had been stuffed into his chest, causing him to freeze.

As he watched Yiyi run, he muttered, “She really did go… Am I really not even comparable to a little girl?”

In the end, he was still a man.

The fire in his heart had been stoked by Yiyi’s actions, and he shouted, “Shit, what’s the big deal? If you can go, then I can go!”

He began running toward the mountain.

Unlike the sorry state he was in when fleeing the wolf pack, Wei Tianchong now had a heroic air about him, as if he was a tiger intent on devouring the world. On the summit, Wang Poguan was taken aback. “Oh? This young master of yours seems to have changed?”

“He’s probably been motivated. Even the most timid person is hiding a beast inside them,” Tang Jie chuckled.

“‘Even the most timid person is hiding a beast inside them’…” Wang Poguan pondered these words, his eyes brightening. “It seems like this young master of yours isn’t completely hopeless.”

“Big Brother Wang is interested in trying your hand?”

“There’s no harm in playing around with him for a little,” Wang Poguan laughed.

The wolf pack retreated before it had gotten even halfway up the mountain.

But there was no going back for Wei Tianchong.

This wasn’t about fleeing the pursuit of the wolf pack. It was all about his dignity as a man.

Standing in front of the boundary stele of Tiger Roar Peak, Wei Tianchong shivered.

He saw Yiyi’s nimble form ahead of him and clenched his teeth, finally stepping over that line of life and death to stand on the blood-colored paving stones.

He gathered his courage and advanced step after step.

There was no noise at all.

Was Tang Jie right? Was the tiger really sleeping at this time?

He could just rush in and steal everything?

Wei Tianchong’s heart began to sing.

Yiyi appeared in front of him. She made a “shush” gesture and waved at him, indicating he should follow her.

Wei Tianchong hastily went up, following Yiyi and soon arriving at a cave.

A large pile of pelts had been left in the cave—clearly the remainder of the fiend tiger’s meals.

Moreover, the pelts were well preserved, and some of them even had complete skeletons with horns. These were all excellent items to be used in medicines, and they were all neatly piled up on the ground, easily within reach. Even Wei Tianchong started to get excited. He scanned the area and instantly felt his heart freeze, his breath almost stopping.

Unable to restrain himself, he blurted out, “Fiend pellet!”

A red pearl lay atop the skin of a giant grass python, shining with a bloody luster and overflowing with fiend energy. What else could it be besides a fiend pellet?

Fiend pellets were where the life and essence of a fiend beast aggregated. In the eyes of high-realm cultivators, only fiend beasts with fiend pellets could be considered true fiend beasts. Ordinary fiend beasts just had some fiend energy and could use a few spells.

But while fiend pellets were a nexus of life and essence, any fiend beast with a fiend pellet was bound to be very strong regardless of its level. Students would find it very hard to kill such beasts.

It was completely unexpected for there to be a fiend pellet on Tiger Roar Peak. How could Wei Tianchong not be excited?

He lunged forward, opening the Mustard Seed Bag that Tang Jie had given him and madly stuffing things inside, all the while muttering, “Rich… rich… I’m rich… hahahaha!”

A mad smile had appeared on his lips.

Yiyi covered her face. “This idiot…”

His laugh just now was enough to awaken even a pig.

Fortunately, Wei Tianchong quickly realized what he had done and shut his mouth. He looked around, and only when he saw that there was no danger did he get back to shoveling items into the bag.

It was only once he had taken everything in the cave and reluctantly looked around for a little longer that he finally decided to leave.

But he had only made it a few steps when he heard the roar of a tiger.

Scared out of his wits, Wei Tianchong turned his head and saw that a tiger had appeared in the distance, standing atop a rock and looking at him.

The tiger opened its maw and furiously roared.

“Oh gods!” Wei Tianchong yelled, and then he immediately turned and ran.

Raaaa!

The tiger lunged, fiendish gales rising around it as a tiger claw swiped at Wei Tianchong.

When Wei Tianchong realized that he couldn’t dodge, he heard a voice speak into his ear. “Mistnet Step, to the left.”

Wei Tianchong instinctively moved to the left, and the claw swept past him and struck the ground, sending up a shower of stone.

As the blow missed, Wei Tianchong recognized the voice and shouted, “Tang Jie! Tang Jie! Where are you?! Hurry and save me!”

“Block with the axe!” the voice said again.

Wei Tianchong instinctively raised his axe in front of him, just in time for the tiger’s tail to sweep into it. The Bonecrush Axe slammed into his body and made Wei Tianchong drop his jaw in pain.

Tang Jie swiftly said, “Use the puppet to block it!”

Wei Tianchong hastily let out the puppet to block as he tearfully cried out, “Hurry and save me!”

As he spoke, boom! The fiend tiger sent the puppet flying with a swat of its palm.

Aghast, Wei Tianchong began to run away.

“Keep using the puppet to block and use the Evilhook Shadow Soldier to slow it down!”

“No! I can’t do it!” Wei Tianchong desperately shouted.

The spells that he was so proficient in normally now came slowly and clumsily.

“You can’t panic in battle. Control your breathing and calm down. You have to believe in yourself!”

“Believe in myself… believe in myself…” Wei Tianchong muttered.

But he found it impossible to calm down in the face of such a terrifying threat. His mind was empty and his limbs were so soft that he could barely stand.

As the fiend tiger swatted away the puppet and was about to lunge again, another figure appeared. It was Yiyi, raising her small hand and conjuring a bunch of thorny flowers to hold down the fiend tiger.

The fiend tiger struggled against the flowers, but it couldn’t break free and furiously roared.

Wei Tianchong was dumbfounded.

The image of the little fox scorning him appeared in his mind. When he saw how bravely Yiyi was acting, he was momentarily stupefied.

Purely through instinct, Wei Tianchong circulated the spiritual energy in his body and gathered the power for a spell. The form of a shadow soldier began to appear.

The highest level of proficiency in a spell was when one could cast it purely through instinct.

Wei Tianchong hadn’t reached this level yet, but after more than a year of practicing only a small number of spells, he was so proficient with the casting process that once he got started, the rest could go smoothly.

The first shadow soldier soon appeared and lunged at the fiend tiger.

This was followed by a second, a third…

His blank mind finally began to regain some of his senses. Wei Tianchong seemed to realize something and shouted, “Yiyi, hurry and get back. This is an upper-grade fiend tiger. Your flower formation can’t hold it for long!”

Yiyi seemed to not get it, glancing at Wei Tianchong and curiously tilting her head.

Panicking, Wei Tianchong ran over, grabbed Yiyi, and turned to flee.

The fiend tiger vigorously struggled. Snap! Snap! Snap! The flowers began to break.

Alarmed, Wei Tianchong ran even faster, at the same time pointing at his puppet and shouting, “Lunge!”

The puppet lunged forward and grabbed the fiend tiger’s legs.

Wei Tianchong raised his hands. “Lift!”

The puppet raised the fiend tiger up high.

“Throw!” Wei Tianchong made a throwing movement with all the strength in his body, and the puppet vigorously threw the fiend tiger.

The fiend tiger hadn’t expected this attack at all, and it furiously roared as it tumbled through the air. The puppet had thrown the tiger several dozen meters, creating a lot of distance for Wei Tianchong.

The moment the fiend tiger landed, it made a jump of several dozen meters, hurtling toward Wei Tianchong.

“Block!” At this dangerous moment, Wei Tianchong pointed at the fiend tiger, and the puppet jumped up and punched the tiger, altering its trajectory.

Meanwhile, Wei Tianchong ran off while holding Yiyi. As the boundary stele grew closer and closer, the fiend tiger angrily roared and clawed at the air in front of it.

Whoosh!

Spikes jutted out of the ground, several of them stabbing through the sole of Wei Tianchong’s foot.

Caught unawares, Wei Tianchong howled in pain.

He didn’t have the time to use the Fearless spell. He could only hobble forward. At the same time, he grabbed several brightly-colored fruits from the Mustard Seed Bag and threw them out. “For you!”

These were dogwood fruits, the favorite of fiend beasts.

Wei Tianchong had thrown them out to distract the fiend tiger.

As expected, the fiend tiger rushed at a dogwood fruit. Wei Tianchong used the chance to roll all the way down to the bottom of the mountain.

The sole of his foot had been injured, so rolling was faster than running.

He also didn’t forget about his puppet. As he left the domain, he extended a hand and summoned back the puppet.

As the puppet flew back, the fiend tiger swiped a claw, striking it.

Bang! The puppet trembled as the sharp claws swept over it, damaging its exterior.

Still, the puppet managed to return to Wei Tianchong’s side.

Wei Tianchong grabbed the puppet and rolled out of the domain, shouting, “Yiyi!”

Yiyi handed over the jade token, and Wei Tianchong activated it, upon which he was instantly whisked away.