The Mysterious Valley
Tigers are one of the strongest of animals, and at night, they become even more dangerous.
As he listened to the tiger hiss, Bi Fan estimated that the tiger was already as strong as the ‘inner breath’ layer, and was soon about to become even more strong.
Bi Fan gently leaped off the tree and quickly rushed in the direction from which the sound was coming.
It wasn’t easy to come across such strong demons in the devil’s territory, and he didn’t want to miss such a good opportunity to hone his skills.
Bi Fan quickened his pace. His pace matched that off a leopard as he leaped through the forest looking for his next game.
After a few moments, Bi Fan finally spotted the tiger.
The tiger stood about two meters in height and his body was about four meters in length. The tiger had white fur, his four powerful limbs made no noise whatsoever, as he quickly moved through the forest looking for food.
“Now that’s one good tiger! If only I could turn him into my ride! He could probably move as fast as the wind.” Bi Fan praised the tiger.
It was such a pity that this thought could not be turned into reality. It was incredibly difficult to tame the wild animals inside the territory and a lot easier to kill them, but only in comparison to the former.
The tiger’s body was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with energy due to the change in the atmosphere.
Bi Fan spent some time, slyly comparing himself to the tiger and figured that he might not be able to match this one, and certainly not in these conditions.
Due to his proximity to the tiger, Bi Fan wouldn’t even dare breathe heavily, and kept his breathing to a bare minimum, while maintaining his distance with the beast.
Soon, the tiger spotted a wild boar he could hunt. The boar seemed to be about two hundred pounds in weight, but even then, soon enough found its dead body dangling from the tiger’s mouth.
The tiger hunted the boar down with an alarming efficiency; he threw himself at the boar and finished it off in a single strike. This tiger was going to be a lot more difficult to deal with when compared to the wolves Bi Fan had managed to kill earlier.
At present, Bi Fan wouldn’t dare to take any action against the tiger, for he was far too scared. So he followed the tiger, as he made his way back to his cave. Bi Fan waited and tried to examine the situation at hand before deciding the course of his actions.
The tiger’s cave was very large in size, about three meters high and four meters wide. It appeared very deep, although it wasn’t possible to make out its exact depth from Bi Fan’s current location.
As he saw the tiger enter the cave, Bi Fan loosened up a bit.
He found a tree that directly overlooked the cave, climbed up and decided to just stay and observe his intended target for a while.
While the tiger was going to enjoy his meal, Bi Fan was only going to sit on top of a branch and wait, patiently.
Suddenly, the Long Diao popped his head out and made a creaking sound, while his eyes remained fixed at the cave.
Bi Fan quickly covered the Long Diao’s mouth as he was too scared of disturbing the tiger.
“Don’t make loud noises, Greedy. There is a very powerful tiger inside that cave.” Bi Fan whispered.
As the Long Diao understood what Bi Fan was trying to say, he didn’t make any further sounds, in fact he didn’t even jump chaotically on his shoulder, but continued to look at the cave eagerly.
It took Bi Fan a few seconds to understand: “There must be something very good inside the cave, otherwise Greedy wouldn’t be so excited.”
But the thought of the demonly ferocious tiger that resided inside the cave, made Bi Fan think of giving up and turn around.
This tiger wasn’t an ordinary one, and had become even stronger at night. Bi Fan couldn’t find the confidence to go up against a beast like this one.
Greedy’s animated look appeared to indicating that there could be some very precious herbs inside the cave, giving up on which wasn’t that easy for Bi Fan.
Bi Fan was hesitating from going into the cave, but he didn’t want to turn his back on this opportunity either, so he stayed on the tree and waited.
He waited till dawn, but as soon as he saw the light, he decided to take action.
He burst towards the cave, unaware of the situation inside, but knew that it was certainly very dangerous for him.
As he stood at the entrance of the cave, he had no plan in his mind, and had no idea what he was going to do next.
Greedy was becoming increasingly impatient, so it was evident that whatever he was sensing inside this cave was going to be of great value.
“You’re going to have to stay calm for a while, at least till the time I can a.s.sess the actual situation.” Bi Fan grudgingly explained.
Greedy immediately calmed down, but his eyes looked full of expectation, which made him look even more adorable than usual.
Bi Fan stood at the entrance of the cave, and peeked inside. The cave was very dark on the inside and felt very gloomy, on top of that, Bi Fan couldn’t see very far into the cave, and hence had no idea what he was walking into.
Bi Fan bent down, picked up a stone and threw it inside the cave.
“Bang!” he heard a loud sound.
The tiger was still having his delicious meal, and upon being interrupted, became very furious all of a sudden.
“Roar!!!” a deafening one at that. Bi Fan’s ear ached with the pain from the sound.
Bi Fan could see the shadow of the white furred tiger emerging from the cave, and at a pretty alarming rate at that.
Bi Fan reflexively retreated and hastened back, but the tiger was quicker and soon emerged out of the cave.
The tiger with his eyes fixed at Bi Fan, issued a low pitched roar, as he prepared himself to launch an attack.
Gooseb.u.mps all over his body, Bi Fan quickly drew out his light-ray sword, ready to defend.
“Roar!” With another roar, the tiger charged towards Bi Fan.
The tiger’s b.l.o.o.d.y, angry mouth was wide open was ready to tear Bi Fan apart.
Bi Fan calmed down, and with a cool head, pointed his finger straight at the tiger’s mouth, ready to use the ‘immortal finger’.
He had used this trick to slay an ‘inner organs’ wolf previously, so he naturally felt like giving it a try again.
Unfortunately, the tiger was a lot stronger, and had a lot more energy flowing inside his body; he made a turn in mid leap and got out of the way of Bi Fan’s attack, while his long tail swept in Bi Fan’s direction.
His tail issued a gushing sound as it swung through the air.
Bi Fan’s body retreated as he brought his sword to the front.
“Bang!” Bi Fan felt that he might have been able to cut open the tiger’s mouth had he been able to connect with the tiger’s mouth with such force. The force was so great that Bi Fan almost dropped the sword.
The tiger’s eyes were set on Bi Fan, his tail was barely scratched, and Bi Fan had only managed to shave off a few hairs from his tail.
“Outstanding energy! Amazing physical strength!” Bi Fan said, shocked.
This tiger was far too strong, this was a bad deal.
Up against such a powerful opponent, Bi Fan needed to focus his entire attention at the task in hand; he couldn’t afford any distractions here.
The tiger seemed even more provoked now, and threw his flexible body at Bi Fan once again.
‘Fufeng Double-edged Sword!’
Bi Fan managed to connect a few strikes in quick succession, but his. .h.i.ts didn’t go past the tiger’s skin, and it didn’t seem like he had managed to seriously injure the tiger, maybe not at all.
It was obvious now that this tiger was in the ‘brave’ layer, and accompanied by his strong and flexible body, he was going to be a lot more difficult to deal with as compared to a ‘brave’ layer human opponent.
Suddenly, the Long Diao jumped off the tree he was hiding on, dashed sideways, and sneakily dodged his way into the cave. Fortunately, Bi Fan saw this, as he was standing directly opposite to the cave, facing its entrance.
Bi Fan frowned; he had no idea what the Long Diao was trying to do, and also, he was a little worried for the Long Diao’s safety.
In order to distract the tiger’s attention, Bi Fan started attacking the tiger with full force. ‘Rainy-fly sword’, ‘the immortal finger’, ‘blood devil’ and ‘prancing tiger’, all put to use, as he launched a quick attack.
His strikes were not meant do any deed in terms of merit, but were merely there to buy the Long Diao some time.
Bi Fan’s agility was. .h.i.tting its peak, but even then, he was unable to hurt the tiger.
Bi Fan had managed to connect his. .h.i.ts to the tiger’s body several times, but even then hadn’t hurt the tiger severely; however, he did manage to anger the tiger even further.
The tiger on the other hand was trying to bite, pounce, grab, swept his tail, roared and growled…..
The tiger was also using a great amount to strength and energy in the fight, but since Bi Fan was so agile, he was managing to slip through the tiger’s proverbial paws every time he was in a position of crisis, literally.
Bi Fan had been engaged in combat with the tiger for a long time now, and even though he was holding his own, he knew that being able to continue for much longer won’t be very good for his sake. Thankfully, soon, the Long Diao emerged out of the cave.
If this fight turned into a death match, then irrespective of the result, the fight would be a dangerous one, for both parties. It might be possible for Bi Fan to beat the tiger but even then, he would suffer severe injuries, a price not worth paying under the circ.u.mstances.
Taking such a risk would definitely mean severe injuries, no matter the end result, which was nothing short of suicidal inside the devil’s territory.
Bi Fan was tangling with the tiger when he saw the Long Diao coming out of the cave. He felt a wave of relief surge through him as he saw his friend return from the cave safe and sound.
As the tiger pounced at Bi Fan again, Bi Fan quickly got out of the way, and made a run for it, fleeing into the forest.
It was finally time to get out of this fight, a little later might be a little too late.
The Long Diao as smart as ever, was following Bi Fan in full speed, jumping from tree to tree, as he didn’t want to risk running on the ground for the fear of the tiger.
The enraged tiger obviously wasn’t going to let Bi Fan get away that easily, and he started after Bi Fan.
Bi Fan scuttled his way between trees, making sure that the path he picked was studded with obstacles. After all, this tiger was a fairly fast beast, and it wouldn’t be easy to out run him. But then again, Bi Fan was far more agile and on top of that, the tiger’s large body made it difficult for him to intertwine his way through such an obstacle-studded path, and soon Bi Fan was out of his fight.
Once he was safely away from the tiger, Bi Fan stopped to catch his breath, and the Long Diao jumped onto his shoulder.
“Greedy, did you find whatever it is that you were looking for?”
“Creek….” The Long Diao responded excitedly. But from the looks of it, it was obvious that Greedy had already eaten it, and Bi Fan still had no idea what this herb was.
Bi Fan wanted to ask more questions, but the Long Diao climbed into his arms and straight away, dozed off.
“Please don’t tell me that you’re about to evolve?!” Bi Fan said, completely astonished.
After all said and done, if all this leads to the evolution of the Long Diao, then it was all worth it.
“Roar! Roar!….” The tiger roared relentlessly, wildly, and as loudly as he could, making it obvious that the tiger had finally realized that the treasure he was guarding, was now gone.
“Tiger, I’ll come back for you in the end, and by that time, I’ll be strong enough, and I’ll get you then.” Bi Fan said, walking away from this fight, for now.
The devil’s territory was vast and borderless, and moreover, there was no shortage of shelter.
Bi Fan found a place he could rest for the night, and set off early next morning once again.
After entering the devil’s territory, it is vital that the pract.i.tioner should go looking for demons to fight in order to improve their strength and skills; otherwise the trip would be fruitless.
Bi Fan hadn’t entered the devil’s territory to simply be eligible to become a disciple; he needed to enhance his strength as quickly as he possibly could.
Under these heavens, strength was the most vital aspect of survival.
If he didn’t have the strength, then the others would continue to beat him up to the point where he wouldn’t even be able to recognize him own image.
As he continued to wander through the forest, he would stop and pick up any valuable herbs that he could get his hands on.
The devil’s territory was humongous in size, and even though there were many people inside the region, due to its sheer size, it wasn’t easy to come across other humans.
Bi Fan had been in the devil’s territory for three more days since, during which he had killed five demons and about a dozen animals but still hadn’t run into a single human being.
Bi Fan would spend the days hunting demons and he would rest at night. It was important to give his nerves a little rest as his days inside the devil’s territory were hectic and tense due to all the fighting.
These three days had been very tiring for Bi Fan, he had managed to gather a good amount of resources and his strength had also seen a good, strong rise.
Bi Fan was both miserable and happy.
The Long Diao hadn’t woken up since, and as result, Bi Fan felt bored all the time, and so, he spent every waking minute hunting demons.
Just now, Bi Fan was chasing a wild leopard, and he followed the leopard in to a large canyon like valley.
The valley was kilometers wide, with cliffs on either side. The canyon was covered with tall and towering trees, and the trees on top of the cliffs were home to various precious herbs.
The leopard it seemed had nowhere else to run to, and he was too afraid to fight Bi Fan.
Bi Fan stood at the entrance of the ravine for a long time, speechlessly so.
The entrance to the valley was very well hidden, if he hadn’t followed the leopard here, he would have never been able to find it himself. In fact, even after finding it this once, he knew that finding it again wouldn’t be easy.
The pa.s.sage that led to the valley was very narrow, and the canyon wasn’t visible from the starting point. The channel was slanted slightly downwards, zigzag in nature, and had several side roads; it would take hours to find the right path.
But Bi Fan was here somehow, and he was really amazed at its grandeur.
This great valley was home to some magnificent flowers, birds, and a river stream, it was nothing short of paradise.
As he looked up, he couldn’t tell exactly how high the cliffs were, but he could make out that one would need to be at least in the ‘emerging from the womb’ category to climb up and down such steep cliffs.
But it was highly unlikely that a person in the ‘emerging from the womb’ category would ever be able to find their way here, which was a very shameful thing considering that they would benefit very greatly from the valuables that this place had to offer.
Generally, the stronger martial artists were sent deeper into the devil’s territory, so it was highly unlikely that he would b.u.mp into someone from the ‘emerging from womb’ category here.
As a proof of that, the herbs that were growing on the trees of cliffs were still unpicked.
As Bi Fan realized this obvious fact, he felt a surge of relief.
For the sake of insurance, Bi Fan didn’t start picking up the herbs that he could as he wanted to take a look around, to ensure that there was no danger.
He had no idea where the leopard had run off to, but he wanted to kill it, just to ensure that it doesn’t sneak up behind him later on.
He walked into the jungle, with his sword in his hand, very careful of any dangers that might await him.
The aura here was far too strong and it was difficult to tell if there was any evil presence like goblins lurking around. If that was the case, Bi Fan would gladly turn around and flee.
Along the way, Bi Fan spotted several precious herbs and Panacea, but he could only recognize a very few of them.
The aroma from some of the herbs was very intoxicating, which was lifting his spirits to some extent, and it felt like his internal energy was vibrating.
Some of these herbs were precious and were necessary ingredients in high grade Dans. However, Bi Fan had no idea exactly how much spar he could get for these precious herbs.
Bi Fan saw a rainbow colored fruit a little distance away and decided to pick it.
This rainbow colored fruit took a century to blossom and then another century to be ripe for picking. Moreover, it was a very important ingredient in a very expensive and divine Dan, which made it extremely valuable.
“Roar!” Bi Fan was still reaching out to pick the fruit when he heard a deafening roar, so loud that he thought that his ear drums would burst, and his mind was shook with fear.
Just listening to its roar, Bi Fan was certain that this demon was so powerful that he would not be able to fight it.
Bi Fan decided to abandon picking up the fruit and ran straight for the entrance of the valley.
As he dashed for the entrance, Bi Fan picked up a few herbs that he could get his hands on.
He could feel a tremendous force inside this valley, a force so powerful, that just being in its proximity was making it difficult for him to breathe.
Bi Fan couldn’t neglect such a presence, and he wouldn’t dare going back in. He ran out back into the pa.s.sage that had led to this valley. He could feel the pressure reduce as he made his way out.
He had no idea what was lurking inside this canyon, but he wouldn’t dare to find out either.