33: Chapter 33 Tiger Roar Kills

The lingering medicinal fragrance and the scorching heat from the steaming Qi and blood in the cave had not yet fully dissipated.

Jiang Hanzhou changed into a clean, dark gray cloth garment, carefully wrapped the intact tiger skin of the Red-Eyed Blood Tiger in oilcloth, and stored the tiger claws and spine in his bag.

He took one last look at the cave that had witnessed his Breakthrough and transformation, turned around, pushed aside the hanging vines at the entrance, and stepped into the forest in the faint morning light.

The sky cleared after the rain, and the air in the forest was crisp and clear. Crystal-clear dew clung to the leaves and branches, and birds chirped crisply, as if the fierce battle between man and tiger last night and the thrilling seven days of tempering in the cave were nothing more than a fleeting dream.

Jiang Hanzhou's steps were light, yet his footing was as steady as a mountain.

Having ascended to the Viscera Burning Realm, condensed a perfectly round blood pill, and forged the legendary Foundation of the "dao bone," his Qi and blood were now as vigorous as a rushing great river, and his internal breath as long and deep as a submarine current in the deep sea.

In every gesture, he possessed an air of profound stillness like an abyss or a mountain, though it was deliberately restrained, making him appear on the surface like a lean yet unremarkable young hunter.

He followed the direction in his memory, heading toward Shiling Village at the foot of the mountain.

As he reached a relatively open slope halfway up the mountain, noisy human voices and the clanging of weapons suddenly drifted from around the corner of the forest path ahead.

Jiang Hanzhou did not stop his pace, his gaze sweeping over calmly.

He saw about eighty people gathered in disarray in a clearing by the roadside.

The three leaders were all burly, fierce-looking men wearing mixed leather armor, wielding heavy weapons like ghost head sabers, iron rods, and spiked clubs. Their Qi and blood fluctuations were obvious, clearly at the Iron Bone Realm cultivation level, though it was messy and impure, with a floating Foundation, evidently forcibly elevated through external objects or tricky means.

Behind them followed seventy or eighty lackeys, dressed in rags, holding various crude weapons, their eyes flickering with greed.

"...Big Brother, we've scouted it out. Those mud-legged peasants in Shiling Village were scared witless by the Tiger Roar a while back; those who could run have already run. The remaining old, weak, sick, and disabled are reluctant to leave their belongings and are still holding on." A sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked lackey was reporting to the scar-faced leader in the center, "There are still thirty or forty households left in the village. Although the pickings aren't rich, if we ransack it, the grain, cured meat, and the copper coins and silver bits hidden by those old fogies will be enough for us brothers to enjoy ourselves for a while!"

The scar-faced leader weighed the ghost head saber in his hand, grinned to reveal yellow teeth, and sneered: "Good! Damn it, we've been hiding in the mountains for so long, my mouth has gone bland! Today, we'll use Shiling Village to whet our appetites! Tell the brothers, once we enter the village, be quick and efficient. Take anything valuable. Anyone who dares to hide anything or resist, just chop them up and feed them to the wolves!"

"Yes! Big Brother!" The bandits agreed with a roar, their eyes filled with fierce light, already viewing the village at the foot of the mountain as fish on a chopping block.

Jiang Hanzhou walked past them not far away, eyes looking straight ahead, as if he were just an ordinary passerby in the mountains.

The three bandit leaders glanced at him and, seeing he was alone, dressed plainly, and carrying a bulging pack and a roll of animal hide, simply took him for a lone hunter who had some good luck and picked up some mountain goods, paying him no mind.

The scar-faced leader even spat: "Pah, poor hunter, consider yourself lucky. We're in a good mood today and are in a rush to make a fortune, so we have no time to deal with you."

Jiang Hanzhou did not pause his steps and continued walking forward for more than ten paces.

Just as he passed by this group of bandits and was about to turn into the next section of the forest path.

He suddenly stopped.

It was not because of the bandits' words, but because he suddenly realized that he had just broken through, and that the auxiliary secret technique 【Dragons Roar and Tigers Howl】 obtained from the Dragon Subduing and Tiger Taming Skill, although he had already grasped the key points with his fourth-rank fate and reached the realm of "Minor Achievement," had never been tested on living people.

This mob of eighty-odd people before him, with three leaders who barely counted as Iron Bone Realm, was perfect.

Since they were scum harming the local area, killing them could be considered ridding the people of a scourge.

More importantly, he could test his new means.

Jiang Hanzhou slowly turned around, facing the group of bandits who were preparing to set off down the mountain.

His movements were natural; he did not even deliberately emit any Killing Intent, just looked over calmly.

A sharp-eyed lackey among the bandit crowd noticed him stop and turn back, and cackled: "Hey! You hunter, what are you looking at? Why haven't you scrammed yet? Be careful, or we might change our minds and slaughter you too!"

The scar-faced leader also frowned and impatiently waved his ghost head saber: "Kid, are you looking for death? Get lost!"

Jiang Hanzhou did not answer.

He just took a slight breath.

His chest swelled slightly, his abdomen sank, and the surging, mercury-like Qi throughout his body was instantly mobilized. Following the special path of the Dragon Subduing and Tiger Taming Skill, it resonated with the blood pill in his chest. A powerful, overbearing force containing the Dragon-Tiger True Intent rose from the Dantian blood pill, passed through his viscera, moved through his meridians, and rushed straight to his throat!

He opened his mouth.

There was no earth-shattering roar, no thunderous shout building up.

Just like normal speech, he softly spat out one word:

"Scram."

However—

The moment this word "Scram" left his mouth!

With Jiang Hanzhou as the center, the air within a radius of thirty zhang suddenly shook!

A visible pale golden sound wave, like ripples spreading from a boulder thrown into a calm lake, suddenly expanded!

Wherever the sound wave passed, grass and trees bowed, leaves shattered into dust, and the floating dust on the ground was violently scraped up by an invisible, immense force, forming a ring-shaped wave of dust!

The first to bear the brunt were those eighty-odd bandits.

In their ears, that plain word "Scram," the moment it sounded, transformed into—

The only sound in heaven and earth!

It was not heard, but exploded directly deep within their minds, at the core of their Soul!

Like Nine Heavens thunder exploding inside their skulls!

Like a primordial beast roaring in their ears!

Hum—!!!

Eighty-odd people, including those three Iron Bone Realm bandit leaders, instantly lost all expression on their faces.

Sneers, greed, ferocity, impatience... all froze, and were immediately replaced by boundless terror and blankness.

Their eyes suddenly widened to the limit, covered in bloodshot veins, while their pupils rapidly dilated.

Ear canals, nostrils, corners of eyes, corners of mouths... all simultaneously seeped crimson blood!

"Thump!" "Thump!" "Thump!"

Like wheat stalks cut down by an invisible sickle, eighty-odd bodies, almost at the same time, stiffened simultaneously, and then collapsed limply to the ground.

There were no screams, no wails, not even time to let out a grunt.

The forest clearing, which had been noisy and chaotic just a moment ago, instantly fell into dead silence.

More than eighty people, all without breath.

Only the mountain wind blew by, carrying a faint smell of blood, and the bodies covering the ground, bleeding from their seven orifices, their faces twisted in agony.

Jiang Hanzhou slowly retracted his stance, his throat feeling slightly hot, his Qi and blood slightly churning, but quickly calmed down.

【Dragons Roar and Tigers Howl · Tiger Roar】, in the Minor Achievement realm, the power was such.

He glanced at the corpses covering the ground, his eyes indifferent, as if he had just casually brushed dust off the corner of his garment.

He turned around and continued along the path down the mountain, leaving with calm, measured steps.

His figure soon merged into the depths of the forest and disappeared.

...

Almost at the same time Jiang Hanzhou left.

In Shiling Village at the foot of the mountain, a few villagers who were trembling and looking toward the mountain entrance vaguely heard a low yet terrifyingly muffled thunder coming from the mountain.

The sound was not like ordinary thunder; it was deeper, richer, and carried a majesty and ferocity that pierced straight to the marrow.

It was as if some ancient beast had awakened in the depths of the forest, emitting a roar to declare its territory.

"Oh, heavens! It's the Tiger Roar! That tiger is roaring again!" An old man was so scared he plopped onto the ground, his face deathly pale, "It's even scarier than what we heard before! It's right halfway up the mountain!"

"It's over, it's over... Is that beast going to come down the mountain?" Another middle-aged man's voice trembled, his legs shaking uncontrollably, "There are only us old and weak left in the village, how can we resist it!"

"Report to the authorities! Go report it quickly!" The old man from before struggled to climb up, "Whether the officials care or not, we must let them know! If that tiger really comes down, our whole village will lose our lives!"

A few people hurriedly returned to the village, scraped together some copper coins, and begged for the only old donkey left in the village, letting the fastest young man ride it to rush to the county town thirty miles away to report to the authorities.

By the time the county office received the report, it was already afternoon.

The on-duty constable was surnamed Wang, who was unhappy because he had lost money gambling last night, and hearing that it was again "the tiger roaring especially loudly" over at Shiling Village, he was even more impatient.

"Poor mountains and treacherous waters, so many damn problems! A few old fogies are suspicious and paranoid; they hear the wind and think it's thunder!"

Constable Wang cursed and swore, but after all, it was his duty, so he gathered a dozen lazy yamen runners and constables, rode thin horses, and slowly meandered toward Shiling Village.

Upon arriving at Shiling Village and hearing the villagers' incoherent descriptions, Constable Wang felt even more that it was an exaggeration.

"What earth-shaking Tiger Roar? I think you all are just scaring yourselves!" He waved his hand impatiently, "Alright, alright, we'll go up and take a look. If there's nothing there, see how I'll deal with you all!"

The group cursed and swore as they pushed aside the thorns and climbed the slope.

When they turned past that forest clearing and saw the scene before them—

All complaints, impatience, and grumbling instantly stuck in their throats.

The fat on Constable Wang's face suddenly froze, his eyes widening like copper bells.

Behind him, a dozen yamen runners and constables also stopped in unison, their mouths wide open.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

The afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves, dappling the clearing.

It illuminated the bodies lying scattered and densely packed all over the ground.

More than eighty of them, covering a small half of the hillside.

Each one was bleeding from the seven orifices, their faces twisted and hideous, as if they had seen something incomparably terrifying before they died.

Weapons were scattered all over the ground, reflecting cold light under the sun.

The pungent smell of blood, mixed with the scent of the forest vegetation, drilled into their nostrils, making them nauseous.

At the very front, the three slightly better-dressed bandit leaders still maintained their slightly forward-leaning standing posture, but they were already without breath, their frozen faces still retaining the bewilderment and horror of their final moment.

Dead silence.

A suffocating dead silence.

"Gulp..."

It was unknown who it was that struggled to swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Constable Wang's legs began to tremble uncontrollably, his knees went weak, and a chill rushed straight from the soles of his feet to his crown.

He had been a constable for over a decade, had seen many murder cases, and had handled Jianghu vendettas and highway robberies.

But when had he ever seen such a bizarre, such a terrifying scene?

More than eighty people; looking at their clothing and weapons, they were clearly a fairly large group of fierce bandits!

Among them, the three leaders, judging by their residual Qi and blood and physique, were likely experts who had entered the Iron Bone Realm!

Yet they had just died like this.

Died so neatly, without a sound.

There were no obvious wounds on their bodies, only bleeding from the seven orifices.

It was as if they had been... been roared to death, shaken to death alive by a single shout!

What kind of existence could roar more than eighty people to death with one shout? Including three Iron Bone Realm experts?

Constable Wang dared not think, nor did he want to think.

He only felt his scalp tingling, his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.

"Thump!"

He finally could not support himself, his legs went soft, and he plopped down onto the damp, cold muddy ground, his teeth chattering, his face deathly pale as paper.

"Ghost... ghost..."

He trembled, squeezing out a few broken syllables from between his teeth.

The yamen runners behind him were no better off; some collapsed directly to the ground, some leaned against tree trunks and retched violently, and others were so scared they turned to run, but their legs were too weak to move.

In the forest clearing, the sunlight was still dappled.

But the warm rays, falling on the corpses covering the ground and the collapsed officials, appeared exceptionally cold and bizarre.

In the distance, the villagers of Shiling Village hid at the edge of the forest, peeking out, and seeing the state of the officials, were even more terrified, Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, crawling and scrambling back to the village, closing their doors tightly, never daring to come out again.

And the perpetrator of all this had long since gone down the mountain, along the official road, leisurely heading toward Flying Fish City.

It was as if that Tiger Roar just now, which had determined life and death, was truly just an insignificant breeze in the mountains.