Chapter 45: Three Men Make a Tiger

“I truly am very sorry. How about this? I wonder if you big brothers have any wine. I will toast you all to express my apology.” When Li Si saw the two of them walk over, his stern face relaxed, and he spoke apologetically.

When the others saw Li Si like this, they were immediately stunned. Then they exchanged glances, and Tu Feng was the first to step out, smiling as he said, “There is nothing to apologize for. After all, when travelling outside, being cautious is normal. But I do indeed have wine here. We can have a few cups.”

As he spoke, he took out a gourd from the medicine basket beside him and smiled at Li Si. “Come, I toast you.”

When Li Si saw him say this, he stepped forward, knocked his gourd against Tu Feng’s gourd, and said with a smile, “I was the one in the wrong earlier. I should be the one to toast you.”

Seeing Li Si act so straightforwardly, Tu Feng was immediately stunned. Then he laughed loudly, raised his chin, and took a hearty drink. After drinking, he deliberately acted bold and said, “Young Hero Li is truly a straightforward man.”

Afterward, Li Si looked toward Xu Dayuan and Miao Qing’an, who had not moved much at all.

When Tu Feng saw the two of them standing motionless, he laughed and scolded, “Toast him. What are you still standing there for?”

After hearing Tu Feng’s words, the two helplessly took wine gourds from their respective medicine baskets and walked toward Li Si.

Li Si also knocked his wine gourd against theirs, which counted as an apology, and the two of them accepted it reluctantly.

Only, Li Si’s purpose was not to apologize. He also felt there was nothing to apologize for.

His purpose was to confirm whether there were any ghost creatures among these people. Just now, when he had knocked wine gourds with them, he had deliberately touched each of their bodies, yet no information had come through.

With this, Li Si had already confirmed that all three of them were human.

Compared with the Eight Trigrams Mirror’s detection ability, he trusted this probing ability of his more.

Li Si guessed that this probing ability had no restrictions. Even if the other party were a thousand-year-old demon, he would still be able to detect information easily.

This could also be considered one of his golden fingers after rebirth.

However, this probing ability was somewhat useless, because every time, he had to touch the other party’s body before he could probe them.

This ability really had no use when fighting ghost creatures, because ghost creatures had Intangibility. He could not touch ghost creatures at all, let alone obtain information.

After drinking, Li Si walked back to the tree, sat down in his original position, and began closing his eyes to rest.

Of course, just like before, his eyes still left a narrow slit.

The three people on the other side were drinking fragrant pork bone soup. The aroma drifted over from there, making even Li Si feel somewhat hungry.

However, he did not regret it. One must not be without a guard against others. If a person travelled outside and casually trusted strangers, that would be dangerous.

Only, from an angle Li Si could not see, the expressions of those people in the darkness became slightly ugly.

“I’m going to relieve myself.” Xu Dayuan felt that he could not keep eating. Even with the antidote pills, the poison would still leave some residue.

This was practically feeding himself poison.

Moreover, this poison had been placed by one of their own, and he himself knew there was poison inside, yet he still had to swallow it.

That feeling really could not be called pleasant.

So he used relieving himself as an excuse to avoid it.

When Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an saw Xu Dayuan say this, their expressions became even uglier. At the same time, they both regretted in their hearts why they had not spoken up earlier.

At the same time, they both slowed the speed at which they drank the soup, as though waiting for Xu Dayuan to return before finishing the pot of bone soup together.

Xu Dayuan took especially long to relieve himself this time. This was also within Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an’s expectations. However, when he returned, he had become somewhat mysterious. While gulping down soup, he kept signalling with his eyes to Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an.

This drew the attention of Li Si, who had been secretly observing the three of them. Afterward, he saw Xu Dayuan quietly take something out from his chest and show it to the other two. It was a small golden lump about the size of a quail egg.

Although Xu Dayuan’s angle was very concealed, from Li Si’s angle, he happened to see it perfectly.

Was that gold? A piece that large was probably around 110 to 150 g (~4 to 5.3 oz).

Around 110 to 150 g (~4 to 5.3 oz) of gold in this world had purchasing power roughly equivalent to twenty thousand yuan in Li Si’s previous life. Had this Xu Dayuan made an unexpected fortune?

At the same time, when Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an saw this small lump of gold, excited expressions immediately appeared on their faces. However, they were probably mindful that Li Si was nearby, so they forcibly suppressed their excitement.

Not long afterward, once the three finished the soup, they began packing up.

“Sorry, Young Hero Li. We suddenly realized we still have business, so we will not keep you company for long. We can chat again when there is time in the future.” After packing up, Tu Feng walked up to Li Si and spoke apologetically.

“All right. You may go.” Li Si opened his eyes and spoke in a calm tone.

“All right. Many thanks for Young Hero Li’s care.” After Tu Feng said this, he led Xu Dayuan and Miao Qing’an away in a great hurry.

Li Si felt somewhat strange in his heart. Were these people really leaving just like that?

His heart stirred. Could it be that Xu Dayuan found even more gold? Looking at their hurried appearance and combining it with the gold Xu Dayuan had taken out, it was not impossible.

But would this not be too much of a coincidence? After all, they had not stayed with him for long, yet they had found gold?

Suspicion rose in Li Si’s heart. He once again took out the Eight Trigrams Mirror and shone it toward the backs of the three people. This time, however, in the mirror, he only discovered the figures of Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an. Beside the figures of those two people, there was also an enormous figure.

It was a great beast with orange-yellow fur covered in black stripes, eyes like hanging bells, and a white forehead. It was nearly 2 m (~6.6 ft) tall and around 5 to 6 m (~16.4 to 19.7 ft) long. Before this tiger, Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an were simply tiny little things.

When Li Si saw this great beast with eyes like hanging bells and a white forehead, his breathing involuntarily caught. He had never seen such an enormous tiger before, and his heart also felt somewhat chilled.

The tigers of his previous life were at most around 1.2 m (~3.9 ft) tall and 3 m (~9.8 ft) long. Compared with this great beast with eyes like hanging bells and a white forehead, the tigers he had seen before were simply tiger cubs.

Moreover, this tiger had clearly already become a spirit and could transform into human form to deceive others. Xu Dayuan had probably already been eaten by it.

And from the fact that it had immediately blended into Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an’s group, one could tell that this tiger had been observing them nearby all along and understood the relationships among the people in the camp very well.

Li Si even suspected that this tiger had long since set its eyes on him. It might have been watching from afar when he and the original owner were fighting.

So this tiger knew that he possessed the ability to detect demons, monsters, and ghosts. It had been waiting nearby all along, waiting until he had already detected that these three people were human. Then it ate Xu Dayuan and blended into the group of three to gain his trust.

Thinking this, Li Si suddenly felt that the Xu Dayuan transformed from that tiger earlier had seemed somewhat deliberate. When it took out the small lump of gold, it was as if it had intentionally shown it to him, wanting to lure him in.

This tiger’s target had very likely been him from the beginning!

Li Si watched the two people leave with the tiger demon, and there was no fluctuation in his heart. He did not plan to save those two people, because judging from their earlier behaviour and actions, those three had harboured ill intentions toward him all along.

Moreover, Li Si did not want to face this tiger demon right now either, because he had no confidence in his heart. His information about this tiger had only come from Cao Qing and some conversations among neighbours.

And Cao Qing? He had known this information and still died.

So this information was certainly already outdated. He was not prepared to act rashly right now.

At the same time, there was another reason. Because of the original owner, his Protective Talisman only had three days left now.

Whether the Protective Talisman with three days remaining could protect him was still another question.

He planned to delay slightly and wait for the mall to update, to see whether he could find any effective method against this tiger demon in the mall.

Of course, it would be best if he did not have to face the tiger demon. His urgent priority right now was to bring Cao Qing’s corpse back.