Chapter 46: Seeking a Tiger’s Skin

After the three left, Li Si remained sitting beside the campfire, eyes narrowed as he pretended to rest, but he did not fall asleep.

After seeing that tiger, his sleepiness had vanished completely, as if he could feel that tiger still hiding in the darkness, watching him, ready to tear him into minced flesh at any moment.

Yet throughout this night, aside from the crackle of burning firewood, the strange hisses of wild beasts, and the chirping of insects, there was no other sound.

This was the first time Li Si had spent the night in the wild. In his previous life, he had only discussed such things with a friend, and that friend happened to be someone who greatly enjoyed outdoor camping, often telling him some camping techniques.

Only, he had not expected that the techniques he had heard in his previous life but never used would be put to use in this life.

In the morning, a burst of chirping woke Li Si, who had been somewhat dazed. Only then did he discover that the sun had appeared slightly over the far side of the mountain at some unknown time, and the sky had already brightened somewhat.

Li Si rubbed his eyes, yawned, stretched lazily, and stood up from the ground.

He first moved his muscles and bones. Staying awake all night had made even his body somewhat unable to bear it. After all, this body had originally had a weak foundation and had never suffered much hardship. How could it withstand him tormenting it like this?

After moving his muscles and bones, Li Si picked up the earthenware jar, scooped water by the pool, walked to the campfire, and poured it down.

After pouring water several times, once there were no sparks left in the campfire, Li Si took his washing tools from the book chest and washed up by the pool.

After washing up, he began packing his luggage, preparing to head toward that cliff.

He estimated that it was not very far from there and would not take much time.

Originally, he could have reached there yesterday, but because of the matter with the original owner, time had been delayed. In addition, it had not been good to go over at night, so he had camped here.

Now, however, he planned to arrive there before noon today and retrieve Cao Qing’s corpse.

As for that tiger demon, it had very likely already seen the methods he used against the original owner, so it had reservations in its heart and had been using other means to test him, not daring to attack proactively.

Li Si estimated the possibility that the tiger demon would attack in the future. At most, it was only ten or twenty percent.

Then, as long as this demon tiger did not come, Li Si would be able to smoothly take Cao Qing’s corpse away. Perhaps he could even enter Fengcheng County before the city gates closed.

As for killing the tiger demon, he no longer held much hope. Before, he had thought it might still be possible, but after seeing the tiger demon’s enormous body, and adding the fact that his Protective Talisman only had three days remaining, if he faced this tiger demon, life and death would be hard to predict.

As for Xiaoduan and Xiaoyu, they were even less useful. Xiaoduan had a bonus in killing power against ghost creatures, but against demon creatures, he had no advantage.

There was even less need to mention Xiaoyu. Right now, to the tiger demon, he was just a baby.

After Li Si finished packing his luggage, he began walking toward the cliff where Cao Qing’s corpse was. Along the way, everything was calm and peaceful. Only some animals appeared occasionally, but when these animals saw Li Si, they ran far away.

However, there were still some rather dangerous encounters, namely snakes.

In this blazing summer season, snakes were active frequently. Along this route, he saw two of them.

One was a bamboo pit viper hanging from a branch. When this bamboo pit viper, about half a metre (~1.6 ft) long, saw Li Si, it remained completely still, disguising itself as a branch.

The other was a greyish-brown long snake lying on the road. Its head was large and triangular, and its body had grey-white patches. Li Si happened to recognize this snake too. In his previous life, there was a local name for it, chessboard snake, and its more famous name was hundred-pace viper. Like the bamboo pit viper from earlier, it was a highly venomous snake.

Fortunately, Li Si’s eyes had been enhanced. Otherwise, he might easily have entered these two snakes’ striking range, or even stepped on the hundred-pace viper.

Luckily, none of those things happened. These two snakes had no intention of attacking proactively, and when Li Si saw them from far away, he avoided them.

When the sun had become rather scorching, the sound of cicadas in the forest grew more urgent and louder.

At this moment, however, Li Si stopped, because he heard footsteps ahead, as well as the sound of leaves rubbing together.

Before long, a person in ragged clothes ran toward Li Si. This person was precisely Xu Dayuan.

But Li Si knew that this person was not Xu Dayuan, but that tiger demon. The real Xu Dayuan had probably already been eaten by it.

At this moment, after that Xu Dayuan saw Li Si, he ran toward him as if he had seen a life-saving straw.

“Young Hero Li, save my brothers!” Xu Dayuan shouted loudly. When he ran near Li Si, he knelt straight down and cried, “Young Hero Li, you must save my two brothers!”

“What happened? Get up and talk.” At this moment, seeing Xu Dayuan like this, even Li Si felt somewhat doubtful in his heart. Could this Xu Dayuan be the real Xu Dayuan after all? Had he not been eaten by the tiger, and had he discovered the tiger together with his two brothers, so he had come to ask Li Si for help?

As Li Si spoke, he made a gesture as if to help him up, but he did not touch this Xu Dayuan. He was afraid that if he touched him while helping him, he would feel fur. That would be awkward.

Seeing Li Si like this, Xu Dayuan stood up and cried, “It is all my fault for being greedy. Last night, when I was relieving myself, I discovered there was a lot of gold not far from the camp. I picked up one piece and came back to persuade my two brothers to go look for more gold with me.”

“But who would have known that there was actually a snake nest by that gold? Both of them were bitten. Now I need you to help me carry my brothers down the mountain.”

As he spoke, Xu Dayuan became increasingly urgent, as if Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an would die if they did not go save them right now. But Li Si already knew that Tu Feng and Miao Qing’an were dead, and even the Xu Dayuan standing before him was dead too.

At this time, Xu Dayuan seemed to lose his footing and fell, and several gold lumps of different sizes tumbled out from his chest.

Seeing the gold scattered, Xu Dayuan looked somewhat embarrassed. Then he stood up from the ground and said seriously to Li Si, “I have made Young Hero Li laugh. If you can save my brothers, I will give this gold to you.” As he spoke, he picked up the gold and handed it to Li Si.

At this moment, Li Si felt his scalp go somewhat numb. If he took this gold and touched a claw, that would be amusing. So he said, “No need. I don’t want this gold. Let’s go. We’ll save your brothers.”

Of course, Li Si did not care about this gold right now either. To him, gold was not even as useful as one soul point. This tiger demon was using gold to tempt Li Si, but it had miscalculated.