Chapter 139 : False Ferocious Beast
The dragon eyes on the throne were firmly inlaid, and although it might have been the system's imagination, it felt that each pair of eyes seemed alive with spirit. When the little white tiger reached out to pry loose a gemstone, the whiskers of the roaring dragon seemed to tremble slightly.
Jiang Mo sensed something and looked over, but discovered nothing unusual—the nine dragons on the throne remained exactly as they were.
The little white tiger tilted her head, her paws itching with desire to dig out all eighteen gemstone eyes from the nine dragons. She could show them to her senior sister later; if they proved useful, they could all be inlaid on her Fuxue Sword—though Senior Sister probably wouldn't appreciate such a gaudy style, they could always engrave a formation to conceal the gemstones, valuing function over form.
Having already decided the fate of these gemstones in her mind, the little white tiger hadn't completely lost her vigilance. Before extending her paw again, she asked the system in her consciousness: "System, did the dragons on the throne move earlier?"
The system, exhausted by its host's money-grubbing nature, replied without enthusiasm: "The system didn't see anything."
The little white tiger wasn't reassured and asked again: "You have a recording function, right? Can you replay the previous scene?"
This time the system responded promptly, turning to review the footage. Its findings were alarming—it truly had seen dragons move when its host was digging out the "dragon eyes." Not just the roaring dragon, but the flying and coiled dragons had all moved in various ways: some twitching their whiskers, some slightly turning their heads, one even raising a claw... Yet the moment its host looked up suspiciously, all the dragons became motionless again.
What did this signify? The system didn't know, but it realized its host might have stirred up trouble!
Just as the system was about to issue a warning, the nine dragons on the throne—either sensing the little white tiger's hesitation or growing impatient from waiting too long—suddenly emitted brilliant light from all eighteen eyes. This was the last image the system witnessed.
The next moment, the system's view went black, just as when its host had entered her innate space and blocked its perception. However, since this wasn't the host's doing, and the system itself wasn't part of the cultivation world's energy system, it recovered quickly. But the moment its vision restored, it saw an enormous blood-red maw lunging toward its host.
The system was terrified, but fortunately, the little white tiger hadn't lost consciousness during the disruption and saw the same scene.
Facing danger and trials upon entering this palace was something Jiang Mo had expected, so she felt neither surprised nor panicked. She only inwardly regretted not prying out all eighteen gemstone dragon eyes, while simultaneously executing a nimble dodge, effortlessly evading the gaping maw.
"What is this?!" The little white tiger dodged gracefully, but turned her head in shock at what she saw.
The creature lunging at her from behind was a strangely-formed ferocious beast, shaped like a goat with a human face, eyes beneath its armpits, tiger teeth, and human claws. Having missed its strike, the beast roared—a sound resembling an infant's cry.
The little white tiger had never seen such a bizarrely-formed ferocious beast and was momentarily repulsed by its ugliness. Its infant-like cry inspired no sense of endearment or cuteness, but rather grated harshly on the ears. Frowning, she swatted at it with a paw. As her spiritual energy circulated, an enormous golden tiger paw materialized in midair and struck the beast. Despite its apparently formidable nature, the beast staggered and fell to the ground from a single blow.
The system's voice finally responded, answering its host's earlier question: "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a Taotie."
Though newly manufactured, the system came equipped with the standard database all systems possessed. Beyond its inherent knowledge base, when initially binding with its host in the modern world, it had downloaded considerable information from the network.
Regarding creatures like the Taotie, many worlds had documented descriptions, and this specimen matched certain established profiles.
Jiang Mo had certainly heard of the Taotie, knowing it was an extremely greedy ferocious beast. Legend held that they were insatiable, consuming everything until eventually devouring themselves... But this was her first time seeing what one actually looked like.
The little white tiger's face showed disdain: "Isn't the Taotie supposed to be an ancient ferocious beast? Why is it so easily defeated?"
The system paused before answering: "But host, you're also an ancient divine beast. Besides, this probably isn't a real Taotie—perhaps just a wisp of energy, or maybe an artificially created false beast."
Such creations were quite common. For instance, when artifact refiners crafted magical tools—whether for aesthetic purposes or to borrow divine beasts' power—they would often engrave images of dragons, phoenixes, qilins, and other divine beasts. Though these images typically served merely as decoration, occasional anomalies occurred. A divine beast might chance upon its own image while searching for temporary lodging and decide to rest there.
Though the divine beast would eventually depart, the magical tool would retain traces of its divine nature. After thousands or millions of years, once the tool developed consciousness, it might take the form of the divine beast, inheriting its temperament and a small portion of its divine abilities.
Naturally, what applied to divine beasts also applied to ferocious beasts.
The Taotie before them likely originated this way. When a false ferocious beast encountered a genuine divine beast, its inherent presence was immediately overpowered. What would normally be its full strength could not manifest even half its potential before the little white tiger. Nevertheless, this false Taotie's greed remained undisguised—flipping over and rising to its feet, it lunged at the little white tiger again, its eyes filled with ravenous desire.
Never before had the little white tiger been regarded as food, causing the fur on her back to stand on end. Growing increasingly repulsed by the approaching false Taotie, she struck fiercely with another paw, not only knocking the lunging Taotie back again but also leaping onto its back to pummel it mercilessly.
After an extended beating, as she delivered another blow, the false Taotie suddenly burst like a balloon.
With a "bang," points of golden light scattered in all directions.
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After defeating the false Taotie, the little white tiger's vision momentarily darkened before brightening again as she arrived in a new space.
Before her stood two imposing palace doors, matching the nouveau riche style of the previously seen hall. Beyond the basic gold inlays and jade embellishments, various gemstones were embedded in the doors, almost blindingly brilliant. However, this time the little white tiger showed no eager interest in prying gemstones from the doors, instead regarding them with disdain.
Though an inexperienced, impoverished tiger, her year-plus in the cultivation world had given her a basic standard for judging an item's value: regardless of recognition, the richer in spiritual energy, the more valuable the object!
Compared to the dragon eyes on the throne earlier, which, though equally translucent and beautiful, contained a thousandfold more spiritual energy than these palace door gemstones, these were the only standards worthy of her condescending attention. The worthless items before her didn't even merit a glance.
The little white tiger sniffed lightly, then pushed open the palace doors with her paw.
Beyond the doors stretched a long corridor, with tightly closed chamber doors along the left side and a lotus pond on the right. The lotus petals were delicately pink, the leaves emerald green, swaying gracefully in the breeze—extraordinarily beautiful. Yet however lovely, their beauty was merely mundane, incomparable to the ice lotuses in Peak Master Qingyu's private courtyard, as these pink lotuses contained not a trace of spiritual energy.
The little white tiger gave them only a cursory glance before turning her attention to the tightly closed chamber doors, her tiger eyes brightening—could these be the chambers mentioned in the system mission? Counting them, she found nine in total.
Nine chambers must contain plenty of valuable items, and perhaps the false Taotie had been guarding the entrance?
With this thought, the little white tiger approached the first chamber door with measured tiger steps. Just before raising her paw to push it open, she remembered something and instructed the system: "System, scan first to see if you can detect what's inside."
The system obediently complied but quickly reported back: "It's impossible, host. The door has a special energy field that blocks the system's scan."
Though slightly disappointed, the little white tiger realized this was logical—otherwise, the system could simply scan everything and reveal all secrets, eliminating the need for an exploration mission. She took a deep breath, preparing herself to face any crisis, even a creature uglier than the false Taotie, then decisively kicked open the first chamber door.
Simultaneously, the little white tiger cautiously jumped back a step. But the chamber contained no danger—no sudden attack, no ambush waiting for someone opening the door, only the tremendous echo of the kicked door reverberating through the deathly silent space.
The atmosphere was somewhat awkward, but it didn't matter since only she and her system knew.
The little white tiger returned without changing expression, still not rushing to enter but peering inside from the threshold. What she saw surprised her again—the chamber was completely empty except for a long table in the center with a sizeable box placed upon it.
What could be inside that box?
With three parts hesitation and two parts curiosity, the little white tiger finally stepped into the chamber. Her divine beast intuition gave no warning of danger, so her courage grew threefold. After entering, she circled the entire room, confirming it was indeed empty with nothing special, before returning her attention to the box.
From a distance, the little white tiger sent a beam of spiritual energy toward it, but the seemingly ordinary wooden box remained motionless, showing not the slightest damage. Her curiosity intensified, and this time she controlled her spiritual energy to slowly lift the box's lid.
A ray of precious light escaped, followed by extremely pure spiritual energy...
With a "clang," the little white tiger completely overturned the lid, revealing the box's contents—a box packed full of spirit stones. Though the box lacked a spatial formation and couldn't hold much, these weren't ordinary spirit stones. They were premium-grade spirit stones, half perfectly suited for her metal attribute and half for her senior sister's ice attribute.
As everyone knows, spirit stones serve as the cultivation world's universal currency, and few people are willing to directly absorb them for cultivation—though such practice accelerates cultivation, it literally burns money.
But premium-grade spirit stones differ, transcending mere currency to become genuine cultivation resources, and not single-use ones at that. After their spiritual energy is fully absorbed, these spirit stones naturally replenish by drawing energy from the surrounding air, functioning like rechargeable batteries that can be used repeatedly.
The little white tiger drew in a sharp breath... Could this—could this possibly be her reward for defeating the false Taotie?!