Chapter 53: Thunder and Lightning

The night was hazy. Li Si looked at the starry sky, but he could not see even half a star.

His heart could not help lurching. With such dense dark clouds, could it be about to rain?

Just as the thought settled, a drop of rain struck his cheek.

It really was raining. Li Si inwardly cried that this was bad. At this moment, he had not even found a place to hide. Rain at this time was truly adding frost to snow.

Moreover, the tiger demon had still not been killed. If he left now, this tiger demon would very likely escape.

Suddenly, Li Si looked toward the large tree on the cliff. After pondering slightly for a while, a trace of joy immediately appeared on his face.

He picked up the Black Sword and walked to some nearby trees, cutting down some vines.

Afterward, he placed these vines together and tied them to the rope he had brought, making a long rope fully 50 to 60 m (~164 to 197 ft) long.

Next, Li Si used the Black Sword to cut some small holes in these vines and mixed some fine fragments of gold from the ground into them. Immediately after, he had Xiaoduan use the earthenware jar to get some water, then poured all the salt he had brought into the jar and stirred it.

After stirring until no salt grains could be seen, he poured the saltwater in the earthenware jar onto this strange rope, soaking the strange rope made from vines and hemp rope.

Immediately after, Li Si tied one end of the vine to the bottom of the large tree, wrapped it around several times, tied it firmly, and threw one end of the rope down the cliff.

As soon as this rope landed on the platform, the tiger demon was immediately startled. It looked at the rope with doubtful, unsettled eyes, then looked toward the cliff.

Li Si looked at this long rope scattered messily across the platform, stood on the cliff, and said to the tiger demon, “Come up. There is no need to waste time. Let us fight to the death.”

Hesitation appeared in the tiger demon’s eyes, but she immediately sneered and glanced at Li Si as if looking at an idiot, then lay down and quietly closed her eyes to recover from her injuries.

She was not stupid. If she went up now, this person would very likely take the opportunity to attack her. Right now, it would be better to wait beneath the platform for her injuries to improve.

Li Si looked at the tiger demon and raised his eyebrows slightly. Then he looked toward the woods behind him, lifted the Black Sword, and walked over.

Before long, crack sounds continuously came from the forest, and tree after tree kept falling.

Hearing these sounds, the tiger demon below the cliff quickly stood up, vigilance appearing in her eyes. She suddenly felt that something was not quite right.

Ever since this person had fought her, he had always acted extremely treacherously. Could it be that, seeing she had not gone up, this person was making some small move again?

Thinking of this, hesitation appeared in her eyes. She breathed out, and that breath transformed into a four or five-year-old child.

This child had a mournful face. His upper body exposed ribs so thin they looked like a rack of bones, while his lower body wore a pair of tattered trousers, making him seem extremely pitiful.

The tiger demon turned her head and used her eyes to signal toward the mountain. The child immediately understood, walked to the cliff wall, and began climbing upward.

Before long, he climbed onto the cliff. At this time, he saw Li Si, who was cutting down trees.

He looked around warily. Afterward, he carefully walked toward Li Si.

After he had not walked far, the child heard Li Si mutter a curse, “I’ll just burn you to death directly and see whether you come up or not.”

When the child heard this sentence, a thoughtful look immediately appeared on his face. He turned and ran down the cliff.

At this moment, Li Si put away the Eight Trigrams Mirror, the corner of his mouth curving into a trace of a smile, and continued cutting down large trees.

Although the Black Sword was sharp and chopping these trees was like cutting tofu, he still cut the trees very carefully. After all, it would be bad if he were struck by a tree while cutting it.

So his cutting speed was not very fast.

But fortunately, there were not as many trees here as imagined, so before long, Li Si had cut down all the trees in this area. Only the single large tree on the cliff remained standing alone in the night.

At this time, after the tiger demon below heard the child’s account, she ate the child in one bite. Then venomous hatred appeared in her eyes. This person truly intended to fight her to the bitter end, and had even wanted to burn her to death.

Immediately, she looked toward the rope beside her, hesitation appearing in her eyes. If she waited for that person to throw firewood down to burn her, perhaps she would not even have a chance to run.

Only, before she could make a decision, a silver-white bolt of lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, followed immediately by a deafening crash of thunder.

Crash.

Bean-sized raindrops fell. Before long, they joined into a sheet, enveloping the entire forest. From time to time, the rustle of rain striking leaves could also be heard.

The tiger demon laughed. The corners of her mouth split wide, and drool flowed from the corners of her mouth.

She got up and walked to the tiger corpse, bit the tiger corpse’s neck in one mouthful, and dragged it toward the bottom of the cliff. There, she could suffer less wind and rain.

At this time, Li Si was also crouching low as he dragged a corpse. The corpse he was dragging was Cao Qing’s.

The corpse left scrape marks on the ground. He was panting somewhat, coughing from time to time, and traces of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.

With Li Si’s current condition, he was actually not suited to dragging a corpse. After all, he had taken that tiger’s slap earlier, and his injuries had not yet healed.

But he knew that lightning might very well strike later. If the corpse were left beneath the tree, he feared it would be struck by lightning and turned into a charred corpse, leaving no remains.

Li Si descended from the cliff, walked for a while, and found a low-lying place to place the corpse inside. Afterward, he cut some branches from the trees and used them to cover the corpse.

After covering the corpse properly, Li Si found a rain cape in the book chest and draped it over himself. He looked toward the only large tree on the cliff, expectation appearing in his eyes.

Then, more than ten minutes passed. A bolt of lightning flashed, but it did not strike this tree. Instead, it tore open a horizontal silver crack in the sky, followed by a deafening sound. Li Si felt as if the entire mountain were shaking.

Hearing this thunder, even the tiger demon on the platform beneath the cliff pressed her ears against her head, her expression savage as she let out low growls.

Immediately afterward, silver snakes danced wildly across the sky, illuminating the entire forest until it was bright as day. From time to time, rumbling thunder sounded.

At this moment, Li Si also could not help crouching low, his heart trembling somewhat. He could not help feeling awe toward the power of nature.

And precisely at this moment, among the silver snakes in the sky, a bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket struck down from high above, directly striking the large tree on the cliff.

Li Si only saw firelight flare from that large tree. At the same time, an electric current followed the rope he had prepared earlier and was conducted down to the platform beneath the cliff.

Roar! A heaven-shaking roar came over, its sound filled with anger and terror.

Yet it was not over. Another bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket struck down, slamming fiercely into that tree. Immediately afterward, dazzling silver light flashed, making Li Si’s eyes close involuntarily.

Roar! A tiger roar filled with fury and resentment came from the platform.

“So tenacious?” Li Si was somewhat stunned. He had originally thought that lightning was the bane of demon creatures, but he had not expected this tiger demon to actually be able to hold on for so long.

Fortunately, he had added saltwater and broken gold into the vines earlier. Otherwise, because the electrical resistance of the vines was too great, they would certainly have snapped apart directly.

At the same time, because the vines had fallen messily onto the platform beneath the cliff, and because around 150 kg (~330 lb) of gold was scattered across the platform, this tiger demon was as good as dead today!