Tan Tianxin murmured: “Golden Flower Tiger… How could there be a Golden Flower Tiger here?”
Golden Flower Tiger?
Zanxing’s heart stirred. Back when she was trying to figure out Mimi the Yinlang Shi’s identity, she had flipped through all the texts recording rare and precious spirit beasts. She vaguely remembered having read the chapter on Golden Flower Tigers. Golden Flower Tigers were fire-attributed, commonly living in extremely scorching places. As the name suggested, this tiger had a beautiful golden tail, with the tail tip being a gorgeous flower that emitted a pale golden glow. Golden Flower Tigers usually hid in dark places during the day, only exposing their tails to attract other cultivators or spirit beasts to come and feed, then, when the prey approached, they would pounce and kill them.
In some ways, it was no different from that insect-tailed snake.
Zanxing was thinking that Mimi at least had the bloodline of a Yinlang Shi; maybe she could roar and scare this Golden Flower Tiger away. But unexpectedly, this fat cat was so frightened by the Golden Flower Tiger that she immediately burrowed into Zanxing’s Qiankun Bag and refused to come out no matter what.
The Golden Flower Tiger roared and charged toward Tan Tianxin.
Tan Tianxin hadn’t sheathed the sword in his hand. Seeing this situation, he couldn’t care about anything else and met it with his sword. But how could this spirit beast compare to ordinary demon beasts in power? The Golden Flower Tiger swatted Tan Tianxin’s sword aside with one claw, and Tan Tianxin hurriedly retreated. Seeing the Golden Flower Tiger getting closer and closer, his eyes rolled, and he directly threw Mendong, who was frantically crawling back, toward the Golden Flower Tiger.
“Mendong—” Zanxing’s face changed drastically.
Although Mendong had spiritual apertures, in terms of cultivation, he was as ordinary as they come. After all, he was just an eight or nine-year-old child, so he couldn’t be that powerful. Usually, following Zhao Mayi and Gu Baiying, there was no place for him to take action. Who knew that today he would encounter this shameless person from Chihua Gate?
Seeing the Golden Flower Tiger’s maw about to open toward Mendong, Zanxing became anxious. The long staff in her hand swung out, the staff arriving before the person, viciously chopping toward the Golden Flower Tiger’s rear end.
The Golden Flower Tiger immediately let out an earth-shaking roar of anger.
Zanxing rolled and crawled over to scoop up Mendong in her arms. Mendong was nearly breaking down: “You can’t touch a tiger’s rear end. Why did you hit it?”
“Wasn’t that to save you?” Zanxing said, “Let’s run quickly!”
Before she finished speaking, the Golden Flower Tiger’s gaze locked tightly onto Zanxing. It sharpened its claws and suddenly pounced toward Zanxing.
“Ahhhhhh,” Mendong was so scared his face turned pale: “It’s targeting you, it hates you now!”
“I know that without you telling me.” Zanxing pushed him toward the depths of the Dragon Tooth Tree’s canopy with one palm: “I’ll lead it away, you go call Gu Baiying and the others!”
Mendong was suddenly pushed and landed in the dense branches of Dragon Tooth Trees more than ten meters away. He didn’t dare delay and immediately took out a large handful of sound amplification talismans from his Qiankun Bag, shouting: “Help! Master Uncle, Senior Sister, Yang Zanxing is about to be eaten by a tiger, help—”
He was quite wealthy, using sound amplification talismans as if they cost no spirit stones. In an instant, the child’s panicked cries for help echoed throughout the entire Wudong Mountain.
It’s just that with this shouting content, Zanxing couldn’t help but suspect whether Mendong did it on purpose.
Mimi had long been scared into hiding in the Qiankun Bag and refused to come out no matter what. On the other side, the Golden Flower Tiger was still relentlessly pursuing Zanxing. Getting closer, Zanxing could see clearly that this tiger was more than twice the size of ordinary tigers, with shiny fur all over its body, seeming to emit heat. Getting close, there was a wave of scorching heat attacking. This tiger was also very fierce; wherever its claws passed, several holes were left in the stone walls, a sight that was shocking to behold.
It seemed that the tiger footprints they saw on the mountain path earlier were left by this Golden Flower Tiger.
Being chased all over the mountains by a beast was probably somewhat embarrassing for a sect cultivator. It wasn’t that Zanxing didn’t want to turn around and fight back, but the Golden Flower Tiger was chasing too closely. She was afraid that if she paused even slightly, she would be pounced on from behind by this big tiger and have her head bitten off.
Just as she was cursing in her heart about that Tan Tianxin who fled from battle and diverted trouble eastward, suddenly there came a gust of foul wind from behind. Zanxing quickly dodged to the right. “Rip—” Half a sleeve was torn off. The Golden Flower Tiger’s huge head was already right in front of her. As the fierce beast opened its mouth, Zanxing could smell the foul wind coming from the tiger’s mouth, seemingly mixed with the smell of fresh blood.
The tiger’s fangs bit down fiercely at the woman—
“Clang.”
Mendong, in the distance, screamed: “Yang Zanxing!”
Large drops of sweat oozed from Zanxing’s forehead, and her back was already soaked with sweat.
Half of her body was already caught in the tiger’s mouth, with the Panhua Stick in her hand barely propping open the tiger’s jaws, preventing the Golden Flower Tiger from biting down. However, the Panhua Stick wasn’t a high-grade spirit artifact. Continuing like this, it would eventually be bitten into two pieces, along with her.
Was she going to die here, buried in a tiger’s belly? For a moment, Zanxing felt somewhat desperate.
Just as they were in a stalemate, suddenly a sharp whistle was heard from the sky. The next moment, a silver spear broke through the mountain wind, rushing toward the Golden Flower Tiger’s head like lightning.
It was exactly Xiugu.
Zanxing was delighted: “Master Uncle!”
The Golden Flower Tiger’s head was struck askew by the Xiugu spear, but it didn’t loosen its bite. It only looked back at the other end, letting out low growls. Gu Baiying came flying from the edge of the Dragon Tooth Tree, followed by Meng Ying and her group, as well as disciples from Xiangling Sect and Yinfeng Sect. It seemed that with Mendong’s sound amplification talisman shout, all the cultivators participating in the secret realm trial knew about it. All these cultivators came running, though it was unclear whether it was because of friendly mutual aid wanting to help, or wanting to get a share of the spoils.
After all, the Golden Flower Tiger’s inner core was also extremely helpful for cultivation.
Tian Fangfang waved her axe and strode forward: “Junior Sister, don’t be afraid, we’re here to save you!”
Zanxing felt somewhat relieved. Although this Golden Flower Tiger was powerful, it was still an unintelligent beast after all, and hadn’t become a demon. With so many people here, there should be no problem.
She thought this way, but didn’t expect that the Golden Flower Tiger, having lived in the secret realm for a long time, had also become somewhat cunning. Seeing so many cultivators charging over, it didn’t linger in battle. The tiger’s golden flower tail swished, shaking the Dragon Tooth Tree branches until they snapped and fell. This giant tiger then roared and, unwilling to let go of Zanxing in its mouth, directly leaped up and jumped onto a cave on the cliff wall.
“Tiger’s den?” Meng Ying was startled.
The Golden Flower Tiger lived in a tiger’s den, but this tiger’s den was covered by dense wild grass on the cliff wall and the Dragon Tooth Tree’s canopy, so no one had noticed it.
Gu Baiying’s face darkened: “Chase!”
Zanxing was carried into the tiger’s den in the tiger’s mouth, crying bitterly in her heart. The Panhua Stick was supporting the tiger’s mouth, and she couldn’t pull it out; otherwise, she would be bitten to pieces by the Golden Flower Tiger in one bite. She also couldn’t let go, because once she let go, the Panhua Stick would immediately break into two pieces without Yuanli’s support, and she would probably be chewed to bits by the Golden Flower Tiger before she could even roll out of the tiger’s mouth.
Either way was death, just the difference between dying in two pieces or dying completely crushed.
At this moment, Zanxing regretted why she had chosen a staff as her spirit artifact in the first place.