Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

So it was thanks to my own good fortune that my mother was saved?

That must be the case. After all, if it weren't for him, his mother would have been taken hostage. But on the other hand, if he hadn't cried and made a fuss in the middle of the night, perhaps the tiger spirit wouldn't have been lured over at all.

You must bear the consequences of the seeds you sow.

Okay, okay, stop crying. You're still so young. Even if you lose one son, you can always have another.

The world is vast, but nothing is more important than your own life. The best thing is that you're safe and sound.

Zhuang Xing wanted to comfort his mother, but he could only watch her cry.

"My lord...please save my son...please...save my son..." The mother tugged at the heroine's raincoat.

Zhuang Xing certainly didn't want to die, but he knew he was unlikely to survive. The tiger demon was gripping him tightly, and the hand felt like a hydraulic clamp; with a gentle squeeze, he would probably turn into a lump of minced meat.

What happened next was exactly as he expected: the tiger spirit and Yan Huai'an began negotiating.

“Yan Huai’an, even before I gained wisdom, I understood a principle,” the tiger spirit said. “It is only natural that the strong eat the weak.”

“I used to eat rabbits, sheep, and deer. Later, I started eating people. Many people came to me, saying they wanted to rid the people of this scourge, but I ate them all because they were all weaker than me.”

“But you are different. You are stronger than me, so I will not eat you. But you should not eat me either. I do not want to fight you. If you let me go, I will not eat people on your turf again.”

"Put it down, child," Yan Huai'an said, enunciating each word clearly.

"Are you threatening me?" The tiger spirit sneered. "I'm not easily intimidated. Don't even think about getting any bad ideas. If you dare to make a move, I'll crush this guy to death."

“You humans are all wicked. Someone once offered to exchange his flesh for a child’s flesh, and I agreed. I told him I would release the child and fatten him up before eating him. But before I could even cut off his flesh, he went back on his word. He gathered a bunch of archers to attack me. I was furious and devoured them all alive.”

“From that moment on, I decided that I would never trust humans again, and I would eat anyone who came to me.”

"However, Yan Huai'an, you are different from them, and I am willing to believe in you."

"Let me give you a suggestion. If you want me to put this baby down, then today you can exchange your flesh for this baby's flesh. I'm not greedy. As long as you give me the hand with which you use the sword, I'll give you this baby. How about that? Pretty good deal, right?" The tiger spirit laughed mockingly.

It probably knows itself how absurd its suggestion is; it's just joking.

Zhuang Xing thought this guy's face was absolutely despicable. He didn't look like a tiger at all; he was a complete coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong.

The female warrior frowned, staring intently at the tiger spirit's head. The tiger spirit, not to be outdone, pressed Zhuang Xing against its front.

At that moment, a thud broke the silence.

Zhuang Xing's mother knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the tiger spirit.

"Tiger Immortal, let me change it..."

"Great Immortal, please eat my flesh...please don't eat my son..."

"Please, please, Master, he's only three months old, he doesn't taste good. Master, please eat me, I'll take his place..."

The mother bowed a few times, forced a smile at Zhuang Xing, and walked towards the tiger spirit.

No! What are you doing?!

Zhuang Xing thought she was really stupid. How could there be such a stupid person in the world?

Yan Huai'an exhaled a breath of white air, took off his raincoat, gripped his sword tightly, and closed his eyes.

She seemed to be planning to do nothing, perhaps she was waiting for the tiger demon to kill the mother and child so that she could act without any burden.

The tiger demon's smile gradually disappeared: "Woman, don't come any closer, or I'll eat your son!"

It knew it couldn't act here; once it killed the two, it would have no bargaining chips left.

It was facing Yan Huai'an and retreating, seemingly planning to make a runaway.

Zhuang Xing breathed a sigh of relief. It was bad enough that he was unlucky enough to die, but he didn't want to drag someone else down with him. They say fools are lucky, so someone as foolish as him should live to be a hundred.

The tiger spirit tentatively jumped back a few steps, but Yan Huai'an still didn't make a move.

It then suddenly turned around and started running.

Behind me came the sound of my mother crying, but even more so, the sound of the wind fading into the distance.

Zhuang Xing found that he was actually quite calm at this moment. He felt neither afraid nor sad. If he had to say something, he felt a little regretful. He regretted not being able to call her "Mother" in person and that he hadn't learned more about the world.

There are demons who have become spirits, and female warriors who wield swords. This must be a very interesting world, but unfortunately, none of that matters to him anymore.

Once the tiger demon runs far away, it will be eaten.

Even a mosquito is still meat, and this tiger spirit is like Hannibal Lecter reincarnated; it certainly won't let him go.

Love you, Mom, and goodbye.

I hope we can meet again.

Zhuang Xing closed his eyes and silently counted prime numbers in his mind.

His mother's cries faded into the distance, and the cold wind felt like knives cutting his face. He was preparing to face the last moment of his short life, but in an instant, he was struck by another dizzying sensation.

Thud! His forehead made intimate contact with the snow.

He fell into the snow, not because the tiger spirit let go of him; he was still being held by the tiger spirit's hand, but... the tiger spirit's hand fell down with him.

That guy's hand was cut off...

It was that female knight-errant; she stood before the tiger spirit, blood slowly dripping from the sword in her hand.

The tiger spirit looked bewildered, seemingly unable to comprehend when Yan Huai'an had chopped off its hand.

Zhuang Xing found it hard to describe his feelings at this moment. To give an analogy, it was like standing on a rooftop, ready to jump, only to find that his favorite anime from ten years ago had released a preview PV for the latest season, with all the original voice actors and production staff returning, and the quality looking as good as ever without any rehashing of old material.

It's like a dead life has come back to life, which is incredibly exciting.

Indeed, as long as you're alive, good things will happen to you.

Chapter 4 What a cool older sister!

The swordswoman stood amidst the falling snow under the moonlight, as beautiful as a painting. Zhuang Xing thought he would never forget this scene for the rest of his life.

He felt very fortunate to be able to witness this scene; his location was practically the best spectator seat, and although he was in the snow, he didn't feel cold at all.

The tiger spirit's paw was still warm. Because the tiger spirit gripped it so tightly, it was as if it had a natural tiger skin coat. The paw would stay warm until it lost its temperature.

Thank you, you spineless tiger monster who bullies the weak and fears the strong.

Zhuang Xing waved one of the fingers on the tiger's paw and thanked the disheveled tiger spirit.

It's a pity he can't speak. If he could shout it out, we could launch a mental attack on this guy.

But then I thought, if I did that, the tiger spirit might want to pull off a one-for-one trade before it dies.

Forget it. Nothing is more important than one's own life. Staying away from anything that poses a threat to one's life is one of Zhuang Xing's life principles.

It's not that he's a coward.

Zhuang Xing shrank further into Mr. Tiger Spirit's claws, lowered his little head, and only revealed his round eyes, secretly looking out into the snow.

As luck would have it, he landed right in a snow ditch, feeling like a soldier waiting for orders in a trench, which really gave him a bit of a battlefield feeling.

The heroine is currently locked in a stalemate with the tiger spirit. By the way, why has the heroine's hair turned white?

He remembered that just now, the heroine's hair was black, but now it had turned into a shiny silver-white.

"Yan Huai'an! How dare you!" the tiger spirit roared angrily.

It ran off to such a far place at some point.

This guy may not be good at anything else, but he's really good at running away.

Now it has run outside the village, surrounded by an endless snowfield with some bare trees standing there. It is a very open space, which is a good place to fight.

A deafening roar erupted from its gaping maw, shaking the trees so much that snow fell from the branches, a clump landing on Zhuang Xing's head and nearly startling him.

Now that thing finally looked a bit like a tiger. It gripped its severed paw with a ferocious expression, where a twitch appeared, and pink fleshy buds helped stop the bleeding.

It no longer used its two legs to touch the ground, but lay down on the ground, its body instantly expanding several times in size.

The trousers made for humans burst open, and in an instant, a white-browed tiger with piercing eyes appeared on the snow.

Its severed claws have healed, but there is no trace of human-like features left on its body.

The tiger in front of him was almost identical to the tigers Zhuang Xing knew, the only difference being its size.

This thing was huge, at least three or four times bigger than a normal tiger. Standing there, it looked like a small mountain, even more terrifying than the one from before.

However, Zhuang Xing was not afraid; on the contrary, he was a little excited. As an infant who was powerless to even kill a chicken, he should have felt scared, but in fact, he did not feel any fear at all.

The fear vanished from his heart the moment he was captured by the tiger demon.

After looking at the tiger demon, Zhuang Xing then looked at the female knight standing in front of him.

The female warrior remained calm in the face of danger, holding her sword in front of her, her bright eyes locking onto the tiger spirit.

"Die!" the female warrior coldly shouted.

The tiger spirit raised its head and roared at the moon, its muscles bulging as if about to explode, its entire body becoming a taut string.

Although it was forced to reveal its true form, and although its claws were severed by a sword before it could react, and although it had been hiding and trying to take the baby hostage when it heard the heroine's voice, it seems that it is finally ready to get serious and fight a melee.

Yes, that's it.

A tiger's life is incomplete without being burned!

However, just as Zhuang Xing was getting most excited, the tiger spirit turned around and ran away in the next second.

Without the slightest hesitation, it seemed to have made up its mind and never looked back.

Even Zhuang Xing was shocked by the tiger spirit's decisiveness. It had just made so many threats, making him think it was going to have a good fight, but it turned around and became a coward.

Could it have really gotten away?

This cannibalistic guy, if he gets out there, who knows how many more people he'll harm.

Zhuang Xing sighed and looked at the female knight again.

The female warrior swung her sword and unleashed a slash!

Zhuang Xing's eyes immediately lit up. He saw the snow on the ground gushing out like blood from an artery, accompanied by a crack.

The origin of this crack is the sword in the heroine's hand; it is the sword energy she unleashed.

The sword energy was as swift as the wind, instantly catching up with the tiger spirit. This sword was originally meant to strike the tiger spirit, but the tiger spirit reacted quickly, jumping back a step to dodge the attack.

The gushing snow surrounded the tiger spirit, and it was clear that the snow was being cut into even finer pieces. Snowflakes bounced around wildly, cut into fragments by the chaotic sword energy, as if the heroine had cut out a fountain of surging snowflakes with a single sword stroke.