"Favors and kindness, interesting."
The fat man sneered a few times and then said quietly.
Several big men turned the dying ghost tiger over, exposing its belly, and Ling Qian skillfully cut open the ghost tiger's chest, then pulled out a still-beating heart. Her hands were covered in blood, and one could clearly see the blood vessels protruding from the heart, giving it a slightly frightening look. But upon closer inspection, this heart was not quite like a normal one; it was covered in thick, black bloodstains, and even in the sunlight, you could see faint black energy surrounding it. This black energy couldn’t endure the sunlight and dissipated after a while.
"Is it resentment?"
The fat man asked behind me. I nodded, thinking it probably was.
"Seal it!"
Ling Qian put the ghost tiger's heart in a square box that was thirty centimeters long and wide, and the surface of the box was carved with strange patterns. After closing the box, a man next to her wrapped a seal around it and then stuck a few sheets of yellow talisman paper on top of the box.
"This set of items must be expensive, and that box might be an antique. They’re truly professionals, unlike us, who look like amateurs."
The fat man hit a nerve with those words, and encountering Qin Qianqiu and Ling Xu in the Great Black Mountain this time made me realize that they were far more professional than us. Originally, I thought that selling ghosts and demons was just a matter of doing a little business and relying on luck, but now it seemed that I was too young and naive. As the saying goes, without the diamond, don’t pick up porcelain. Right now, the fat man and I probably couldn't even keep ourselves alive, let alone complete this job.
The ghost tiger's heart was sealed in the box, and Ling Qian went to talk to Ling Xu while my fingers played with the tiger's tooth.
With my current eyesight, I couldn't really see anything special about this tiger tooth at first glance. It didn’t look much like a tooth and was more like jade, but ordinary teeth were a milky yellow color, while this tiger tooth had black ends at the top and bottom, taking the shape of a crescent.
"Is this from my older brother?"
I hadn't expected to hear Ling Qian's voice behind me while I was examining the tiger's fang. I looked up at her and nodded, "Yes."
"Even if you didn't save me just now, I could have dodged it on my own. You are being unnecessary."
Ling Qian's expression seemed to tell me that her pride had been shattered by my meddling.
"I've noted it, I won't interfere next time."
I didn't have much more to say to this girl, so I retorted before continuing to examine my tiger's fang.
"Among the tiger fangs of the ghost tiger, the one in your hand is the most precious. It has been soaked in resentment; you can carry it with you, and ordinary wandering ghosts will not dare to approach. If you can get some powerful treasures in the future, embedding this tiger's fang will have great effects. This single tiger fang is worth over a thousand yuan in the market, and it's also priceless."
After Ling Qian finished speaking, she left. The fatty chuckled as he watched her leave and patted me on the back, "It seems like she came to say thank you."
"Really? Bullshit. If she really wants to thank us, then she should remove the poison from both of us. Besides, do I need her to tell me the use of this tiger's fang?"
I was also stubborn, waving my hand and muttering.
"Hehe, you two are quite a match, both stubborn as mules..."
As the fatty and I were talking, one of Ling Xu's subordinates ahead suddenly turned back and shouted, "I've spotted unusual activity. There's heavy fog about thirty meters ahead, and it's moving toward us."
Ling Xu nodded and replied, "Proceed according to the previous plan."
Seeing the dense fog can be considered as finding the trace of the mysterious giant to some extent. After the first two encounters with the mysterious giant, I was clear in my heart that it was not on the same level as the ghost tiger and Blackhorn ox. I didn't know what methods Ling Xu and his team would use to capture this mysterious giant.
A few minutes later, the thick fog arrived. The subordinates of Ling Xu ignited torches among the trees to ensure that they could see each other's positions.
The silent giant drifted in from outside the woods. I tugged the fatty and whispered, "It's here…"
The massive figure quietly moved closer from a distance, with the thick fog providing its best cover. Its powerful arms, even someone as skilled as Qin Qianqiu would not be its match.
We soon couldn't see Ling Qian and her team's figures in the thick fog, but we could vaguely make out the flames within the fog.
"Phew..."
Someone whistled, and then a sound came from within the fog. I squinted and saw that they had slowly lowered the ghost tiger's body in a net, and the motionless, blood-stained body of the ghost tiger dropped to the ground. The giant quietly floated over to the ghost tiger, and it had already discovered that the ghost tiger's body had been torn to pieces. After a few seconds of quiet, a huge roar resounded throughout the forest. The giant's roar was filled with pain, and it pounded the ground with its fists. The "rumbling" sound was incessant.
"Phew..."
Another whistle, and two large nets came down from the fog. Obviously, the ghost tiger's body was just a bait. The large net fell and ensnared the giant, which then began to frenziedly howl as it easily tore the net apart with its arms.
"Ah..."
Two of the men holding the net were thrown out, and the giant's anger grew stronger. Ling Qian drew a short dagger and charged forward; she was extremely fast, and combined with the thick fog, all I saw was a flash of her figure.
"Can you see clearly?"
The fat man patted me and asked.
I shook my head, pursed my lips, and said, "Fat man, you stay here to take care of Luoqiong. I'll go up and take a closer look."
"You're crazy. It's none of our business if they fight to the death. Hey, don't go..."
The fat man couldn't hold me back. At that moment, I had already started running towards the direction where the flames were concentrated in the dense fog. Naturally, I had my own considerations. Firstly, this was a rare learning opportunity. Lingyou was definitely stronger than Qin Qianqiu. Just the few people with Lingqian couldn't deal with that giant. Lingyou would definitely make a move. I was also curious to understand the methods of this Three Mountain Lord. Secondly, I had always had questions about the mysterious giant beast. Why did it have magnetic properties? Why did it move silently? Why could it control the dense fog?
When I ran closer, I could see the battle clearly. Lingyou still hadn't made a move. He was leaning against a big tree in his Zhongshan suit, looking calm and composed. Lingqian was holding a dagger and was with a few men with hunting rifles surrounding the mysterious giant.
The rifles were useless against the giant. The bullets immediately bounced off, and even Lingqian's close combat was ineffective. As I observed from the side, I quickly realized that their attacks were not ineffective because of the giant, but because of the troublesome circle of magnetic stones surrounding the giant. These magnetic stones not only had very high magnetic force but were also extremely sturdy, like they were wearing armor for the giant.
"Armor..."
The moment I thought of this word, I blurted it out for no reason, as if I understood something. I shouted, "Perhaps this giant is not its real form, and the magnetic stones are trapping some earth creature. The earth creature is using this circle of magnetic stones as armor, and its real body should be inside the magnetic stones. Find a way to remove the outer circle of magnetic stones! Otherwise, even if you exhaust all your bullets, it will be useless!"
"Nonsense, if we could remove it, we would have done so long ago!"
Lingqian took a few steps back and shouted back. I pursed my lips, thinking of a solution, when suddenly Lingyou beside me started to smile.
"Sister, you still need more experience."
After saying this, he walked towards the giant. Lingqian looked back in shock, realizing that Lingyou was finally going to make a move. To me at that moment, this mysterious and unpredictable master was about to demonstrate his skills.
"Ba Xiaoshan, retreat!"
Lingqian actually rushed to my side, grabbed my hand, and pulled me back. I asked curiously, "What's going on?"
"My brother is about to make a move. If you don't want to die, retreat with me. Quickly!"
Her face was full of panic, even more so than when facing the mysterious giant.
Her face seemed to tell me that her brother was more terrifying than the giant...