CHAPTER 424: CHAPTER 178 PROBABILITY, BLACK MOUNTAIN DEMON (5K)

The Mountain’s Demon’s choice was even more extreme than Wen Yan had anticipated. He felt he’d undergone professional training, considered himself well-informed, but this time, he almost burst out laughing.

The preset conditions were: mountain-dwelling, ferocious, and powerful.

Among the creatures of the Divine Land’s mountains, many inherently possessed nine orifices. To align with the Mountain’s Demon and meet the preset conditions, herbivores were immediately ruled out—the Mountain’s Demon was not vegetarian.

Creatures with scarce populations, or those already extinct, were also out of consideration. Advancing them later would be too difficult without any reference, and besides, anything that could go extinct must have had its own inherent problems.

In the end, the choices boiled down to the likes of tigers, leopards, bears, wolves, and pigs.

Given the Mountain’s Demon’s character, if allowed to choose, there was only one option: Tiger. Ferocious, powerful, the natural king of the mountains.

The most wonderful part was that a powerful Tiger Demon might possess the ability to control Ghost Servants, which also aligned well with certain aspects of the Mountain’s Demon.

Even more wonderfully, the upper limit for tigers was indeed high, and precedents existed.

Mountain Lord Hu Yuan, a fierce and terrifying figure with the Technique of Slaughter at his disposal, was capable of resurrection even after death—a far too well-known entity for the Mountain’s Demon to be unaware of.

Following Wen Yan’s preset condition that it couldn’t be a human, there really was no second choice.

Letting the Mountain’s Demon choose for itself would make it lower its guard. The more it pondered, the more carefully it considered, the more inevitable this single outcome became.

But Wen Yan truly hadn’t expected this creature to be so greedy. Unsatisfied with an ordinary tiger, it aimed straight for the fiercest of its kind. Well then, Wen Yan would grant its wish.

As Wen Yan agreed, the change began to manifest.

Wen Yan felt the Yang Energy Blessing within him rapidly convert into the price and vanish. He even lost some of his strength. He sensed this loss was roughly equivalent to a week of his arduous cultivation while drug-enhanced—a considerable amount.

By using the enhanced Yang Energy to cover a larger part of the cost, Wen Yan slumped directly to the ground, as if utterly drained of strength.

Meanwhile, rocks within the mountain gathered, empowered by Wen Yan’s strength through the effect of an Imperial Decree. The stones gradually rose, forming the image of a fierce tiger. This stone tiger slowly gained color and vitality.

After a dozen breaths, a pure black tiger threw its head back and roared at the sky. Its cry thundered through the mountain forest. Chilly yin winds began to swirl as a ferocious, baleful aura spiraled into a vortex, forming a howling black tornado within the mountains. Sand and stones flew, and the baleful aura, like steel blades, instantly ground any rocks caught within it to dust.

The Mountain’s Demon joyfully darted about the mountains, running wildly from one peak to another, roaring incessantly as it vented its elation.

As a Mountain’s Demon, its original body was far too massive—so large it could never have hoped to shapeshift in this lifetime. Its only prior method of moving about had been through possession.

To be precise, ’possession’ wasn’t entirely accurate for its situation; it should be called ’attachment,’ not possession in the traditional sense.

Now, it finally had its own body. Whether it was humanoid or not was of little concern; as long as it possessed the nine natural orifices, it could cultivate, and perhaps even become stronger than it would in a human form.

With its original body as its foundation, it felt as if it had opened a new Chapter, stepping into an entirely new world.

Even if it was a shortcut, it was equivalent to having transformed and emerged.

For a Demon Ghost like it, the significance far exceeded that of an ordinary Great Demon undergoing transformation.

The Mountain’s Demon leaped and dashed between the mountains. Amidst the howling yin winds, its speed increased, its form flickering between substantial and illusory. A single swipe of its paw seemed to make the mountainside explode; a little force was enough to imprint a clear tiger paw mark on solid rock.

The power it could now wield far exceeded the limits of any creature it had previously possessed. This was the first time it had truly felt just how powerful it could be, moving freely in its own body.

It even felt that if it had possessed this body back then, cultivated diligently for another hundred years with its original body as a bulwark, it might have been able to contend with Fuyu’s Patriarch of old, trading blows evenly.

The elation in its heart gradually subsided. It calmed down and returned to stand beside its original body. With a mere thought, it sensed Wen Yan deep within the mountain’s belly, in that small space, sprawled out as if all his strength had been wrung from him.

The Black Tiger bared its fangs, its eyes flickering. It wanted to crush Wen Yan to death right there within the mountain’s belly, but it also feared the potential repercussions from the Imperial Decree if Wen Yan hadn’t truly upheld his promise.

After a moment of deliberation, with a mere mental command, the interior of the mountain stirred. Rocks undulated, lifting Wen Yan and carrying him out from the mountain’s belly.

Looking at Wen Yan lying on the ground, his Yang Energy almost entirely depleted, the Black Tiger grinned.

"In accordance with our agreement, I have now let you go. Our deal is complete, isn’t it? No problems, right?"

"Yes, no problem. Granting you the Imperial Decree consumed too much of my power. I need to rest for a bit."

"Good."

The Black Tiger grinned widely, a savage light glinting in its eyes. It approached Wen Yan step by step. When it drew close enough, it suddenly swung its paw, viciously striking at Wen Yan.

Wen Yan, lying on the ground with drooping eyelids, casually slapped a palm, landing precisely on the side of the tiger’s paw.

CRACK! The tiger’s paw twisted unnaturally to the side, as if an immense force pulled the entire giant tiger, sending it flying sideways.

The Black Tiger tumbled and crashed onto the hillside. It let out a muffled grunt as it scrambled back to its feet. Only then did it realize, with shock, that its right paw was broken. The terrifying force had nearly dislocated its entire foreleg.