The resistance of the blade entering flesh was clearly transmitted from her palm.
Warm blood splattered onto her cheek.
Pei Changqing's eyes widened in shock, filled with disbelief.
No matter what, he couldn't understand why the young girl before him would attack him.
"You..."
A word stuck in his throat, never to be spoken.
The light in his eyes quickly dimmed.
Jiang Yuechu's hand, gripping the hilt, trembled violently.
Her nostrils were filled with the thick scent of blood, and her stomach churned.
She had killed someone.
She had personally taken a life.
Even though in her previous life she was accustomed to life and death on the internet, typing louder than anyone else.
But when a life was truly ended by her own hands.
The weight of morality, the spurting blood.
All of it crushed her modern psyche.
"Tsk."
The tiger demon was also stunned, tilting its head to scrutinize Jiang Yuechu.
"I thought you humans, though mere blood food, had some sense of camaraderie and kinship, but it seems you're this cold-hearted."
It shook its head, its tone full of disdain, seemingly losing the interest to act immediately.
It also couldn't understand what benefit this girl could gain from killing a dying man in the current situation.
Did she think that by doing so, it would show mercy?
At that moment.
In Jiang Yuechu's mind, the writing on the ancient scroll suddenly changed.
[Killed a String-Attuned Stage creature, gained twenty years of cultivation.]
Her mind was forcibly pulled back to this corpse-strewn wilderness.
That's right.
Now was not the time to think about these things.
Right and wrong, morality, conscience...
Before survival, they were all empty talk.
She indifferently released one hand.
With the other, she forcefully pulled the horizontal blade from Pei Changqing's chest.
Splat.
Blood splattered again, staining her clothes red.
No matter what.
This was her only chance at life!
In the next moment, she no longer hesitated.
She didn't know how much cultivation she needed to grasp a sliver of hope.
Twenty years?
Thirty years?
Or even with a hundred years of cultivation.
In front of this mysterious and powerful tiger demon, was she just a slightly stronger ant?
Countless thoughts flashed in an instant.
At this moment, the newly acquired twenty years of cultivation poured entirely into her body.
On the wilderness, the afterglow of the setting sun cast a cold, bloody hue over the withered grass and corpses.
The running girl's figure was thin, the horizontal blade in her hand reflecting the sunset.
As if it were ablaze.
Seeing this, the tiger demon no longer hesitated, suddenly opening its bloody maw.
"Roar—"
A roar swept up the sand and withered grass on the ground.
Though it seemed fierce now, in truth, it had suffered significant injuries during the initial battle with the Demon Suppression Guard.
If not for its innate abilities allowing it to escape, it would have long been a corpse under the blade.
But even so, it wasn't something a powerless little girl could challenge.
The tiger demon raised its sharp claws, bringing a gust of foul wind, and struck fiercely at the approaching figure.
Jiang Yuechu's eyes were fixed on the descending giant claw.
The horizontal blade in her hand suddenly felt incredibly heavy.
Twenty years of cultivation.
All in one strike.
She didn't understand bladesmanship; she just poured all that brute force into the blade.
Following a survival instinct, she slashed horizontally.
A flash of the blade.
A line of blood appeared.
The figures of human and demon crossed paths.
Jiang Yuechu staggered a few steps, dropping to one knee.
The horizontal blade flew from her hand, embedding itself in the distant mud.
She suddenly opened her mouth, spitting out a mouthful of blood, with blood seeping from her seven orifices.
The twenty years of cultivation came quickly and was consumed just as fast, completely depleted in an instant.
The tiger demon remained in its claw-striking posture, frozen in place.
The wind blew, the wild grass swayed.
As if spectators to this deadly battle, they too were shocked by the silence.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Thud.
The massive tiger head rolled to the ground.
...
"Gasp... gasp..."
Jiang Yuechu gasped for air.
She survived.
The thought had just arisen when the feeling of exhaustion surged like a tide.
[Killed a String-Attuned Stage creature, gained a hundred years of cultivation.]
[Detected unrecorded demon, consume cultivation to record?]
The ancient scroll's writing appeared in her mind again, but she no longer had the strength to examine it closely.
Forcing herself to stand.
But her body felt drained of all energy, unable to move even a fingertip.
Record?
What does it mean?
Lying on the ground, her cheek pressed against the dirt, she had no mind to ponder further.
Enough.
At this point, there's no time to study these things.
It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
"Record."
As the thought settled, the ancient scroll before her moved without wind, floating in mid-air.
Sketching its shadow, defining its demon form.
In the next moment, the cultivation on the panel rapidly drained.
In the blink of an eye, more than half was consumed.
On the scroll, the brush strokes outlined a lifelike white-fronted tiger with hanging eyes.
As the final stroke fell, the tiger on the scroll seemed to come alive, its eyes glowing with a faint red light.
[Successfully recorded Tiger Mountain God, received demon's gift.]
[Fierce Tiger Quick Blade (Perfected)]
Boom—
A surge of power flooded back from the scroll, instantly filling her body.
The previous exhaustion and injuries vanished.
She even felt an unprecedented comfort in her body.
At the same time, countless insights, techniques, and force application methods about bladesmanship appeared in her mind out of nowhere.
A stick of incense later.
Jiang Yuechu, full of disbelief, slowly stood up.
Her slender fingers now contained inexhaustible strength.
She walked to the horizontal blade embedded in the distance, reaching out to grasp the hilt.
It fit perfectly in her hand.
As if her hands were born to wield a blade.
So this is the true use of cultivation.
Directly consuming cultivation only exchanged for a momentary burst, with low efficiency.
Only by recording demons was there a long-term strategy.
With a thought, the panel unfolded again.
[Host: Jiang Yuechu]
[Realm: String-Attuned Initial Realm]
[Martial Arts: Fierce Tiger Quick Blade (Perfected)]
[Cultivation: Twenty-five years]
[Recorded Demons: Tiger Mountain God (Imprint)]
"String-Attuned Initial Realm?"
"Imprint... what does it mean?"
Jiang Yuechu pondered.
String-Attuned Initial Realm... could it be the cultivation system of this world?
And Imprint...
Does it mean that what she gained now is just the tip of the iceberg of the tiger demon's abilities?
If she continued to consume cultivation, could this record advance further?
Looking at the mere twenty-five years of cultivation left.
Just recording consumed a full seventy-five years.
Heaven knows what kind of extravagant consumption the next stage would require.
Enough.
For now, it's best to keep these twenty-five years of cultivation for emergencies.
Having figured this out, Jiang Yuechu calmed her mind.
She turned around, walked to the still warm corpse, and silently crouched down.
Reaching out, she gently closed his open eyes.
"Sorry."
"If there's a future, and I've killed enough demons and gathered enough cultivation, maybe I can find a way to restore your body and give you back a life."
"Of course, don't get your hopes up too high."
"After all, in this world, I don't even know how long I can survive."
"Maybe one day I'll come down to accompany you, and if we meet in the underworld, don't hit me..."
But in this world overrun by demons.
When a person reaches a point of no return, it no longer matters whether they have the heart or not.
Proofreader: Peter Pan