With a proud tiger roar, Wang Hu stepped hard and left the place where he had lived for three years.
Beneath the Five Elements Mountain, a massive tiger over one zhang long shot down the slope, causing a huge explosion. As dust filled the sky, Wang Hu turned back to look at the Five Elements Mountain once more. He knew Sun Wukong was surely still watching him, waiting for him to complete the tasks, waiting for him to change the course of this journey to the west.
Monkey Brother had truly treated him well. Wang Hu's eyes were firm, silently vowing that he would definitely save him from the schemes of the Western Heaven. But the most urgent task now was to increase his strength first.
Shaking his head, Wang Hu walked toward his old cave dwelling. Passing through a dense forest, he finally arrived at a small cave.
This cave was very deep. The previous tiger, before awakening intelligence, had been in a confused state and rarely explored deeper inside. But in the faint memories of that tiger, there was something deep inside this cave that it greatly desired. If not for Wang Hu's transmigration, it might eventually have gone inside on its own.
The cave was much deeper than Wang Hu had expected, but he could clearly feel the surrounding spiritual energy becoming denser, which made him slightly restless. As expected, there was a treasure inside.
The dark passage suddenly became bright. On the cave walls hung many night pearls of various sizes, and even on those night pearls there was a faint trace of spiritual energy. Wang Hu looked at them greedily, but for him now the unknown treasure ahead was even more attractive.
After running for about a quarter of an hour, Wang Hu finally reached a great hall. The ceiling here was filled with even more night pearls, especially the one in the center, as large as a human head — truly a treasure. Wang Hu looked at the entire room full of night pearls, his mouth wide open, almost drooling.
Suddenly he turned his tiger head and was immediately attracted by something else. It was a piece of translucent green jade shaped like a curled-up tiger. Under the light of countless night pearls it stood out even more, and especially the spiritual energy on it was so dense it was almost turning into mist.
This was the real treasure. Wang Hu's eyes widened, and this time he actually drooled. He kicked off with his hind legs and pounced straight toward the green jade.
Suddenly a streak of green light flashed from the jade, shooting toward Wang Hu's head.
"Not good!" Wang Hu cried out and immediately raised his tiger claw to strike the green light. The green light came and went quickly. In an instant it was knocked away and fell to the ground.
Wang Hu sighed in relief and wiped away a cold sweat. "Too dangerous."
He turned to look again. The green light that had struck the ground shook its head and stood up again. It was a small green snake, less than half a meter long, and its cultivation was even lower than his own — only around Qi Refining level five. But its strength was extremely great. If not for Wang Hu's Eighty-Nine Mystic Art, a top-tier Daoist body-refining technique, he might not have been able to block it just now.
A sharp hissing sound rang out. Clearly the little green snake was warning him, its body slightly coiled. If he made any move, it would strike again.
Wang Hu hurriedly said, "Fellow Daoist little green snake, this is my home. You've occupied my home for so long, and now that I've returned you are attacking me like this. Even demons can't be so unreasonable. Right?"
The little green snake froze, clearly understanding his meaning, and immediately became somewhat flustered. In its limited memories, everything was based on fighting to seize treasures. It had never seen someone reasoning like this upon meeting. Moreover, it had only developed intelligence for a few years, and its memories were almost a blank sheet.
Seeing Wang Hu trying to reason, it withdrew its attacking stance and hissed twice at him. Wang Hu perked up his ears and immediately understood its meaning. The little green snake said it had been here for three years, and this place had long since become its territory. It told Wang Hu to leave quickly.
Wang Hu secretly rejoiced. "In truth, I only left temporarily for some matters during these three years. Look at that green jade. It's clearly in the shape of a tiger, and I already have a connection with it. If you don't believe me, let me try and you'll know."
The little green snake fell into hesitation again, repeatedly looking between the green jade and Wang Hu, clearly trying to distinguish truth from lies.
"If there is no reaction, I will immediately leave and absolutely not disturb your cultivation," Wang Hu continued to coax it.
From the moment he entered the hall he had already felt a vague summoning force coming from the green jade. He believed that as long as he got closer, there would definitely be an unexpected change.
The little green snake was extremely conflicted at this moment. If it were a weaker demon, it would have long since rushed forward to bite it to death. But Wang Hu was stronger than it, and fighting would only end in mutual injury. It was better to let him try once. It believed that although the jade was shaped like a tiger, it did not belong to Wang Hu, because there was no aura of him on it at all. Moreover, what kind of demon would abandon such a good cultivation treasure for three years?
Thinking this, the little green snake hissed twice in warning again and slowly retreated out of the jade's range.
Wang Hu immediately became delighted and carefully approached. At the same time he began trying to connect with that vague summoning force. His massive tiger body slowly closed in on the green jade, and the closer he got, the more clearly he felt the intimacy coming from within. It was like an elder looking at him with a kind gaze.
Unconsciously, Wang Hu lowered his tiger head and let out a deep roar. This was a special ritual of the tiger race, used to show respect to their ancestors.
With that low roar, the entire green jade suddenly erupted with brilliant green light. With a crack, a tiger tooth on the jade suddenly broke off and flew straight toward Wang Hu. At the same time a stream of information flooded into his mind.
The Seven Kills Bone-Severing Art. A cultivation method of the ancient black tiger clan. It gathers endless killing intent into the body, condenses the seven kills divine weapon, and refines bones into indestructible diamond bones.
At the same time, blood-colored light suddenly burst out from the green jade, and strands of bloodline power mixed with massive heaven and earth spiritual energy poured directly into Wang Hu's tiger body. Immediately his entire body was enveloped in a layer of red spiritual light.
The little green snake nearby looked on with reddened eyes. If it had known the result would be like this, then even if it died it would not have allowed this damned tiger to approach the green jade. But at this moment the faint green light surrounding Wang Hu made it completely unable to act rashly. Its instinctive sense of danger told it that if it got any closer it would surely be utterly destroyed.
But now that the green jade was releasing massive spiritual energy, it was also unwilling to miss this opportunity. A streak of green light flashed as the little green snake wrapped itself around the jade, frantically absorbing the leaking heaven and earth spiritual energy.