The Black Tiger was pressed down by the head, unable to even speak, but he could feel it—his newly acquired body of nine apertures seed to be pulled by so force, and everything he had was slipping away.
The thing he had dread of for so long had only just co into his grasp—how could he endure losing it?
He was resisting, he was struggling, he thought this was the price for breaking the agreent, and wanted to use the tactics he’d used against the Thirteenth Ancestor of Fuyu, just grinding it out.
Back then, not even the Thirteenth Ancestor of Fuyu Mountain could outlast him—he could last a hundred years, but the other side couldn’t, so they compromised.
But now, Wen Yan wasn’t even bothering to let him speak; he was simply depriving him.
The writhing mountains around, the rolling earth and stones, all gradually grew quiet, and the true form of the mountain’s demon—the mountain among the mountain range—also ceased to move.
The power of that mountain grew ever weaker; the mountain itself began to steadily shrink.
From struggling to despair, the Black Tiger wanted to beg for rcy, to imitate his surrender to the Thirteenth Ancestor of Fuyu back in the day and bargain for so agreent, but Wen Yan didn’t give him a chance at all.
Wen Yan held him down with one hand, and his consciousness couldn’t even leave the Black Tiger’s body to return to his true form.
He couldn’t even speak, couldn’t express a single thing—he could only stare, just stare.
"Stop wasting ti. I’m really hungry right now. I want to go ho and eat. There’s no point in you struggling anymore."
The Black Tiger could only watch helplessly as his body faded away; of course he understood—trying to borrow power from his true form to struggle had only dragged it in, and once in, there was no turning back.
As the true form disappeared, the Black Tiger’s body also shrank, eventually falling into Wen Yan’s hand.
Everything transford into a black mountain only a foot tall, and on its slope a black tiger lay crouched, tightly fused with the mountain body.
Wen Yan supported the black mountain in one hand and sighed.
He couldn’t tell if it was a loss or not—he’d dealt with the mountain’s demon, but lost a ton of Yang energy, and wasted a week’s bitter cultivation.
The Yang energy was easy to explain—it was borrowed from the Scorching Sun Jade, an external thing, so just chalk it up to being spent.
But a week’s worth of bitter cultivation—now that was no small thing. By his count, seventy Strengthening Bone Pills were wasted, and with all the Warm Jade consud, if you converted this to cash (not even counting the priceless Strengthening Bone Pills), at minimum, it added up to ten months’ salary plus a Scorching Sun Departnt stipend.
Fucking hell.
He held the stone mountain in one hand, slung the discarded Incense Candle Ballista over his back, and dashed through the mountains.
After running out of the range in one direction, he finally, faintly, sensed the direction of the lighthouse.
His own Yang energy—which had ford the lighthouses.
That stick of incense, and the paper servants imbued with Yang energy.
As he made his way back, he saw a great number of Nether Souls attacking the estate, but all of them were blocked outside by the Yang energy and incense aura from that thick stick of incense, and by the paper guards stationed within the estate.
Lin Jue held a small crossbow, driving back any that slipped through; Grave Walker road ceaselessly, searching for possible gaps.
When Wen Yan appeared, carrying the stone mountain and saw this scene, he imdiately infused Yang energy—an aurora of sunrise mixed with Yang, bursting with light to drive off the Nether Souls here.
Then he glanced at the stone mountain and called out to those Nether Souls:
"Co back."
Countless Nether Souls turned into streaks of light, streaking swiftly into the stone mountain.
Now he understood why total deprivation still wasn’t complete—it was still going on, because these Nether Souls actually all belonged to Black Mountain.
They had all died in battle on Helan Mountain, and their bodies and souls were devoured by the mountain’s demon, becoming part of Black Mountain.
With the sky full of Nether Souls dispersing, Wen Yan looked again at Black Mountain and saw a new prompt had appeared.
"Black Mountain Demon."
"The essence of the mountain, which has devoured countless warriors and creatures.
After purification, yields Mountain Essence—consuming it improves eyesight, dispels cold, and strengthens the body."
At the sa ti, Wen Yan’s Natural Enemy profession had a new hint, too.
"Purification complete—Mountain Nesis title may be obtained."
Now Wen Yan understood why the third temporary ability was just a scripture.
The tongue-twisting Supre Spiritual Cave Treasure Extinction Five Corpse Refinents Scripture was, in truth, a transcendence scripture.
And this, too, was a third way to resolve the mountain’s demon.
Directly transcend all the lost souls who’d died here, and the mountain’s demon would naturally lose its strength—solving the problem at its source.
Too bad that conditions at the ti didn’t allow for it, so the scripture was the first thing he’d given up on.
Honestly, first you had to beat the other guy down before you could reason with him.
He set the Black Mountain down on the courtyard table and asked a paper man to bring him sothing to eat—he really was getting hungry now.
The paper servant brought over mung bean cakes and so rice bars; Wen Yan didn’t mind, eating a little first.
He was only three cakes in when another paper man brought in a steaming hot bowl of sour soup noodles.
"Huh? You guys can cook over fire now?"
Before, Wen Yan always had to cook himself, because the paper servants didn’t dare get close to fire—the flas could easily burn them away.
Wen Yan looked at the paper man in surprise. Though it still wore its paper clothes, if you looked closely, its face and body already seed a bit changed—not so obviously fake anymore.
The paper man placed the sour soup noodles in front of Wen Yan, stepped back two paces, and gave a deep, respectful bow, then spoke in Mandarin tinged with a Guanzhong County accent:
"Many thanks for your Enlightennt, sir."
When Wen Yan left earlier, there hadn’t been any real change—he guessed it just needed ti. No wonder everything here had been so well arranged.
This Paper Man Butler had always been a little more spiritual than the others, and now was showing clear signs of reshaping his very essence.
Only then did Wen Yan recall that apart from the Eternal Sunrise and Sunless Travel passive effects, Scorching Sun actually had two specifically described abilities.
Blessing: Your Yang energy can bless almost anything, and you can channel more Yang than before. So special items, after being blessed, will reveal unique effects.
Enlighten: Your Yang energy has the effect of enlightening Ghosts, Zombies, and similar races; the outco depends on your current progression.
This Paper Man Butler’s elevated spiritual intelligence, gaining self-awareness and the sense of being enlightened—it must be the result of those two effects working together.
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