The Neighborhood Tough of Mount Tianyun
A herb garden was not something you could slap down just anywhere. Ample sunlight was the baseline, and the soil had to hold enough moisture besides.
The trouble was, places like that were paradise for wild beasts. If anything worth eating had been growing there, the beasts would already have chewed it down to the roots.
So Yeop Pung laid his plans with his usual meticulous care.
The two spiritual herbs he had chosen did not need much water — rain from the sky would be plenty. Nakryeong Root, in particular, stored its nutrients in underground stems, so unless a mole came sniffing around, nothing was going to dig it up and eat it.
Green Root Fruit was the fussy one. The berries gave off a fragrance that lured beasts in, which made them a genuine headache. Fortunately the plant preferred the shade, so Yeop Pung decided to find a secluded cave and grow them inside. If he carved a water channel to draw rainwater into the cave, the Green Root Fruit would thrive.
He wandered and searched until at last he found a spot that pleased him: a tucked-away ravine deep in Mount Tianyun, so remote that not even a bird's dropping had ever found it.
The place lay dozens of miles from the seven main peaks of the Cheonun Sect, and a good ten or fifteen from the nearest spring. Beasts did not pass through, and Cheonun Sect disciples would never wander this far. On top of that, the ravine floor was carpeted in rich black earth, weeds grew in lush abundance, high rock walls closed it in on every side, and a natural cave sat ready and waiting. Everything was perfect.
Yeop Pung had spent five years working the herb fields, and he knew exactly how to plant. In half a day he had turned the soil, cut a water channel, and packed earth into the cave, finishing the whole sequence of work.
The next day he went into the forest, felled several thick trees, and hollowed the trunks into enormous wooden barrels. He did all of it with ease, putting his signature killing art — the Raging Thunder Palm — to work as a tool. He hauled water in those barrels again and again, soaking the ground, until two distinct herb plots took clear shape, one inside the cave and one without.
Then he sowed the seeds of both spiritual herbs with painstaking care. He had a generous store of Nakryeong Root seeds, enough to cover a plot of about a quarter acre. The Green Root Fruit seeds he planted sparingly. From the start, Yeop Pung had never intended those berries for himself.
Once the planting was done, it was time for fertilizer. Wild spiritual herbs were ordinarily difficult to feed; the Cheonun Sect used the droppings of spiritual beasts, a fertilizer prized as the finest grade because traces of Profound Qi still lingered in it from the beasts' own bodies.
Yeop Pung had already prepared for that problem too. The following night he planted three Fire Spirit Flowers in a windy stretch of the ravine. After a single day's watering, the already mature blooms unfurled wide and poured out a dense, intoxicating fragrance.
Yeop Pung settled in beside the flowers and waited for the bait to draw a catch.
"I wonder who my first guest will be."
He was brimming with anticipation. And that day, in the peaceful depths of the Tianyun range, a terrifying demon king appeared — one that would set every animal trembling with fear.
Tigers are ferocious creatures. Legend has it that a tigress bears two cubs at most in a single litter, though on the rarest of occasions she will bear three.
The third cub is a congenital runt, starved of nutrition in the womb — a misshapen thing, its whole body a dull gray-yellow, unmarked by stripes, tiny and frail. The moment it is born, its mother abandons it, or it becomes a meal for its siblings.
But if one of these wretched creatures manages to survive, it is said to become a monster crawled up out of hell itself.
Such a tiger grows from infancy in an environment that is hell on earth. When it hungers, it chews dry leaves and grass, animal carcasses, clods of dirt and stones, and it drinks filthy water to stay alive. Its body is a map of scars, but to live it learns to fight beasts larger and more savage than itself.
A tiger that comes of age through that kind of suffering overcomes every hardship and every reversal, and becomes the most terrifying king of the forest. And once it begins to absorb Profound Qi and awaken a spiritual mind, it becomes the most powerful existence among spiritual beasts.
One such tiger lived on the back slopes of Mount Tianyun. Every beast in the vicinity — even the spiritual beasts — packed their voices with respect and called him Brother Tiger.
Brother Tiger, like every tiger, was savage and rough by nature.
His favorite pastime was killing other males and forcing himself on the females. His favorite food was newborn cubs. When a monster like that walked the woods, the killing intent rolling off his body alone sent every animal within five miles bolting for their lives.
Today, Brother Tiger was in an excellent mood. Not long ago he had caught a fresh, lively tigress on the front slopes and enjoyed himself thoroughly. Now he was strolling at his leisure, turning over the question of what to have for dinner.
That was when a faint floral scent drifted in from somewhere and pricked his keen nose.
"This smell…?"
Brother Tiger's eyes flashed. It was the fragrance of the Fire Spirit Flower, the spiritual bloom every spiritual beast loved most. He knew perfectly well that eating those petals would greatly accelerate the absorption of Profound Qi.
In an instant he shot toward the ravine with the speed of lightning. In a little over ten minutes he found them: three Fire Spirit Flowers swaying in the wind in the clearing at the mouth of the ravine.
"Hahaha! I knew it — ever since I caught that tigress this morning, the day's had a lucky feel to it! Three Fire Spirit Flowers! This is a jackpot!"
Brother Tiger was a veteran who had survived every trial the mountains could throw at him, and he knew better than to hesitate when he found something this precious. He had to swallow the flowers before some other bastard snatched them away.
Without a second's pause he launched himself at the blooms. He was enormous, and the sight of him springing into the air was almost elegant, as if he were taking flight. He crossed dozens of yards in a blink.
"Almost there! Almost—!"
The closer he came, the thicker the fragrance grew, and Brother Tiger, drunk on it, drooled without shame. But the instant he flicked his tongue in delight, a black shadow came charging in from the side with a massive club raised high.
"What the—?!"
"What is this?!"
A torrent of terrifying golden current erupted from the wooden club — and taught Brother Tiger, in no uncertain terms, that this was no way for a beast, let alone a spiritual beast, to go out.
Brother Tiger had no idea how long he had been unconscious. When he finally cracked his eyes open, still dazed and staggering, he found himself face-to-face with a visage he would never forget for the rest of his life.
It was Yeop Pung. He was squatting in front of Brother Tiger, grinning from ear to ear, holding a large wooden bowl brimming with water.
"You've been lying there a while — you must be thirsty. Please, have some water."
Like hell I'd drink water from the likes of you!
Brother Tiger snarled and lunged.
Don't you know who I am?! I'm Brother Tiger, the overlord of Mount Tianyun!
But before he could even get his body off the ground, lightning flashed from the club in the hand of the young man who had been grinning so cheerfully a moment before.
"NO!!!"
ZZZZZAP!
Brother Tiger blacked out again.
Who knew how much more time passed. Brother Tiger opened his eyes a second time.
"Hn?"
This time he could tell he was lying inside some kind of cave. And there, beside him, was a familiar face: a pangolin covered head to tail in purple scales. On Mount Tianyun they called him Old Man Armor.
"You've got to be kidding — they got Old Man Armor too?"
In the middle of his confusion, something clicked.
Don't tell me that damned human has been using Fire Spirit Flowers as bait to hunt right here?
But then why knock me out and not finish me off?
While Brother Tiger was tilting his head over that, the pangolin beside him gave a sudden sniff, startled, and heaved himself upright.
"Who the hell dares ambush me?!"
"Old Man Armor? Easy. It's me — Brother Tiger."
"Brother Tiger? How did you— wait. Don't tell me YOU were the one who jumped me!"
"The hell are you talking about?! Are you out of your mind?"
That was when Yeop Pung walked into the cave again, still grinning from ear to ear, a wooden bowl in each hand.
"Thirsty? Please, have some water."
"Like hell I'd drink water from the likes of you!"
Old Man Armor was every bit as hot-blooded as Brother Tiger. Just as Brother Tiger had done at first, he charged straight at Yeop Pung.
WHAM!
One hit. That was all it took. Old Man Armor went down in a heap, electricity crawling over his whole body, groaning on the floor.
Goosebumps raced across Brother Tiger's hide at the sight.
I'll be damned… getting knocked out yourself and watching someone else get knocked out are two completely different things.
Looking at the powerful pangolin who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with him, now sprawled on the ground like a corpse, Brother Tiger finally understood. This time he had run into someone truly terrifying. Someone he had no hope of beating.
"Come on now. Drink up."
Yeop Pung was still smiling that cheerful smile.
Brother Tiger lowered his tail.
Not every spiritual beast is the same kind of animal. I've got a brain — why the hell would I keep throwing myself at an electric club? If you're thirsty, you drink. No point being stubborn for stubbornness' sake.
Yeop Pung didn't say a word, but Brother Tiger arrived at the understanding all by himself.
Once Brother Tiger had drained the bowl, Yeop Pung set it down with a look of satisfaction and rose to his feet. Before he left, he patted Brother Tiger on the head.
"Good boy. You're a smart one."
Of course I am — you don't have to say it like that!
Brother Tiger was so incredulous he wanted to roll his eyes into the back of his skull. But he caught sight of the club in Yeop Pung's other hand and swallowed it.
"Stay put like a good boy, and don't even think about running. Got it?"
Yeop Pung gave the club a little swing. Brother Tiger nodded, meek as a lamb.
What followed completely rewrote Brother Tiger's values as a beast. In a single day, he figured out why the human had captured him.
Dammit. It was for the shit and the piss. Could anyone believe that?
Brother Tiger was not the only one who couldn't believe it. Old Man Armor, hauled in after him, a wild boar, and a whole wolf pack all wore the same stunned expression.
Does this human have nothing better to do? He rounded up spiritual beasts like us just to make us line up at a pit he'd dug and take a dump?
But they learned soon enough. That shit and piss was, damn it all, genuinely useful.
From the third day of their captivity, the old-timers — Brother Tiger, Old Man Armor, and the rest — were following Yeop Pung's orders, scooping dung from the manure pit and spreading it as fertilizer.
This is insane…
Brother Tiger genuinely wanted to die.
I'm a proper tiger. The fiercest king of all beasts. And now I'm supposed to farm? How is this happening?
But that rebellious spark vanished without a trace that evening, after Yeop Pung caught the entire wolf pack, roasted them, and ate them.
What's so bad about farming? It's just a new way of living, that's all.
"That's more like it. Don't you think, Old Man Armor?"
Beside him, Old Man Armor — who had been tearing into wolf meat with great wet chomps — nodded so hard his whole body shook.