Urban Martial Saint

After experiencing the leopard attack, people became much more cautious of Xiliang Mountain. Everyone pulled out their weapons, not daring to let their guard down for a moment. As before, they grouped into pairs for mutual defense and increased their pace, hoping to leave the area as quickly as possible.

”Hey, Young Ye, we’re still partners, yeah?” Old Chen hurried over to Ye Qing’s side, not daring to stray even a step away from him, fearing any sudden attack. This guy, with such a small courage, really made people curious. With his guts, you wonder how he dares to be so talkative?

Ye Qing didn’t pay attention to Old Chen, instead walking while sniffing the air around him. His intuition told him that the beast they encountered this time might be even more dangerous than the previous leopards. The smell in the air was very intense, and the area was quite large, indicating that the beast’s range of activity was also massive. Large beasts like this are typically solitary; the larger their activity range, the stronger they usually are.

The forest covered a considerable area with alternating broadleaf and needle-leaf trees, located at the junction of two temperature zones. There were no paths through the mountain, so the group was forging their own through the woods. After about ten minutes of walking, Ye Qing suddenly raised his hand and quietly said, ”Everyone, let’s pause.”

”What’s wrong?” The crowd stopped, all looking cautiously at Ye Qing, uncertain why he called for a halt.

Ye Qing didn’t speak but instead took several deep breaths, furrowing his brows even deeper.

”The smell in the forest is even stronger...” Ye Qing looked at Fat Wang and the others, lowering his voice, ”It means we haven’t moved away from this beast; we’re actually heading towards it!”

”What?” The crowd was startled. If that was the case, wouldn’t it mean that they were actually moving farther away from the beast, thus increasingly putting themselves in danger?

”This...” Fat Wang opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly, a massive roar echoed through the forest, shaking the whole mountain.

”Damn!” The words Fat Wang intended to say immediately changed; he widened his eyes and said, ”Is it a damn tiger?”

Everyone had heard it—the roaring sound was indeed a tiger’s roar. This meant they were now in tiger territory.

Tigers are far more dangerous than leopards. Though leopards are agile, Ye Qing and his group had the advantage of numbers; leopards are small and less powerful, making them relatively easier to deal with. But tigers are different; they are the kings of beasts and cannot be dealt with so casually. Moreover, tigers don’t hesitate like leopards; when they see humans, they charge to bite. Previously, they could slowly retreat from the leopard’s territory, but would a tiger watch them without attacking?

”The sound came from that direction; let’s quickly go over there!” a man shouted urgently.

Big Beard immediately rebuked, ”Nonsense, if you run that way, aren’t we just heading downhill? Don’t forget why we’re here!”

The man hurriedly replied, ”Then are we supposed to keep going up the mountain? This tiger isn’t like the other beasts we’ve faced!”

Big Beard didn’t respond but instead pulled out a handgun from his belt and said, ”Hmph, so what if it’s a tiger? Watch me blow its brains out!”

Seeing Big Beard’s firearm, the group finally felt slightly more confident. Just then, the tiger’s roar echoed again, but this time it was closer, indicating the tiger was coming towards them, likely attracted by their noise.

Fat Wang gulped, tightened his grip on his dagger, and whispered, ”Hide first!”

At this point, the group was certainly not going to face the tiger head-on. Even without Fat Wang’s suggestion, they were already looking for hiding spots. With Fat Wang’s instruction, they turned and started searching for places to hide.

Actually, the hiding spots they chose were quite similar. Against a fierce beast like a tiger, the best way was to climb up a tree to hide.

Ye Qing found a relatively thick tree and climbed up. Old Chen followed, repeatedly yelling, but after climbing just over three meters, he couldn’t climb any higher.

Seeing the precarious height, Old Chen grimaced and said, ”Hey, Young Ye, how about giving me a hand?”

By then, Ye Qing had climbed six or seven meters high and extended one hand downwards, saying, ”Come on, grab my hand, I’ll pull you up!”

Old Chen looked at the hand three meters above his head and cursed, ”Damn, if I could climb to that place, would I still need you to pull me? Can’t you show a bit of sincerity? Don’t you understand the need to respect the old and love the young?”

Ye Qing cut off Old Chen directly: ”If you want to come up, come up. If not, forget it. I’m not going to waste words with you!”

Old Chen immediately angrily said, ”What kind of nonsense is this? Are you planning to watch me die without helping? Oh, I see how it is; you’re nothing but a thankless bastard. I risked life and limb with you, climbed mountains and crossed seas of fire, and this is how you repay me?”

Ye Qing completely ignored him. Old Chen’s nagging could go on forever, and there was no need to argue with him. Actually, Ye Qing had intentionally left him below, wanting to use this opportunity to see if Old Chen had any other skills, to probe his true situation.

After nagging for a while, Old Chen seemed to realize that Ye Qing was definitely not coming down to help him, so he closed his mouth. After a few attempts, he couldn’t climb that smooth trunk and eventually gave up. Turning his head to search for another place to hide, the tiger’s roar sounded again, as if it was right next to everyone’s ears, causing their eardrums to buzz.

Looking in the direction of the roar, everyone saw a striped tiger staring at them from a distance. The tiger was large, nearly two meters long, with a tail like a stick, weighing about two to three hundred pounds, looking like a young bull and exuding an intimidating presence. It moved its body slowly, continuously surveying the few of them, indicating it wasn’t the type to attack rashly; it understood looking at the terrain too.

Seeing the tiger approaching, Old Chen immediately lost his spirit and no longer dared to find another hiding place, using both hands and feet to climb up. The result was predictable; his old bones couldn’t get him up there.

”Young Ye, help, help!” Old Chen hurriedly called to Ye Qing.

”Climb up, and I’ll pull you!” Ye Qing replied.

”Damn, are you deliberately trying to get me killed?” Old Chen panicked: ”Do you think I can climb up?”

Ye Qing: ”If you can’t climb, there’s nothing I can do.”

”You...” Old Chen still wanted to speak when the tiger seemed to lose patience, suddenly roaring and speeding towards him. Its direction was clear, heading straight for Old Chen.

It’s no wonder, as Old Chen couldn’t climb high, so the tiger could reach him. The others were six or seven meters high, and no matter how strong the tiger’s jumping ability was, it couldn’t reach them.

”Oh no, oh no...” Old Chen shouted in fright, seeing the tiger lunging at him, he immediately jumped off the tree, yelling, ”Ye, you bastard, if you don’t help, not even as a ghost will I let you go!”

Old Chen jumped off the tree just in time to dodge the tiger’s pounce. However, the tiger was too fast, and before he could stand up, it pounced again from behind, pinning Old Chen to the ground.

At this moment, a sudden crack sounded from the tree, it was Beard firing a shot. A bullet hit the tiger, pushing it back a few steps, leaving a bloody spot on its shoulder, but it clearly didn’t cause much harm and instead enraged the tiger’s ferocity.

”Roar!” The tiger roared again, leaving Old Chen, and charged at Beard’s tree, slamming into it forcefully.

Beard’s gun ***** one bullet at a time and reloading was slow. Seeing the tiger charging, Beard was terrified, quickly pulling out gunpowder to load another bullet. But just then, the tiger hit the tree, shaking it violently, and Beard, not holding on, fell down. Fortunately, the ground was covered in leaves, and Beard rolled to disperse the impact. But before he could stand, the tiger pounced again, tearing a piece of flesh from Beard’s shoulder.

”Ah!” Beard screamed in pain, but there was no time to dwell; he immediately rolled to dodge the attacking tiger. But the tiger, having been shot, was already enraged and wouldn’t let him go. It turned and lunged at him again, clearly intent on killing him first!

Beard was chased around like a lost dog, rolling everywhere, but the tiger was getting closer. With such a crazed tiger, roaring and with terrifying combat power, who dared to intercept it? Beard was filled with despair; was he really going to die here this time?

After dodging a few more times, the tiger finally caught up to Beard, pinning him down and going for his neck. With the tiger’s gaping mouth, if it bit down, Beard’s life would surely be over.

Everyone gasped, but it wasn’t just a matter of courage to save him; even if they wanted to, there wasn’t enough time. As Beard was about to be bitten, suddenly, a dark shadow flew over, knocking the tiger aside.