White Tiger

Yan Heqing sat in the back seat of the car, instructing Cuihong to stay calmly inside. Once he felt the car stop, he planned to open the door and get out.

“Wait.” Wen Chu stopped his movement.

Wen Chu handed him the eye mask that he had just received from Wen He. “Put on the eye mask and hold the golf club. I’ll lead you.”

“Why?”

Wen Chu answered simply, “No reason. It’s my request. Please understand.”

With no explanation given, Yan Heqing didn’t pursue it. He chose to respect the other person’s wishes and not dwell on unnecessary details.

“Okay,” Yan Heqing said, taking the eye mask and putting it on. In the dark, he fumbled to grasp the golf club and, after confirming his grip, nodded and added, “Hmm, done.”

The car door opened, and under Wen Chu’s guidance, Yan Heqing carefully stepped out of the car. Although he couldn’t see the road ahead, he didn’t feel the discomfort he had when rescuing Cuihong.

He couldn’t see, but could only rely on the golf club. His heart was a little uncertain. “Um, can I ask where we’re going?”

Ahead, Wen Chu’s voice rang out, “Let’s go check the surroundings. Do you want to come? If not, you can wait here.”

“I want to go!”

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Wearing the eye mask made it impossible for Yan Heqing to see. The road was long and winding, and even though it wasn’t a very long path, it took him over half an hour to reach the destination.

Perhaps Wen Chu had chosen a rather popular shop. Yan Heqing could hear the sound of the crowd’s slow movements, occasionally bumping into people as he was led forward.

After a while, while one hand gripped the golf club, his other hand encountered something like a table. They stopped.

Wen Chu said, “Wait here for a moment. Let me ask these people.”

“Okay.”

As soon as he replied, a mild breeze reached his ears. Then, he heard the voice of an unfamiliar woman at a normal speaking speed: “Hello, may I help you?”

After she finished speaking, as though realizing something, her tone became panicked, no longer calm. “Master! You’re a master, right? I… I… I was…”

Wen Chu interrupted her, “As you can see, the flow rate here has indeed slowed down a lot. It’s not your imagination.”

The girl looked around at the people and things moving slowly, disbelief and fear filling her eyes, causing tears to spill. She spoke with difficulty.

Many people around them also noticed, trying hard to look in their direction, but it took them quite a while before they could turn their heads.

Wen Chu had no intention of beating around the bush. He asked directly, “How long has this been happening?”

The woman took a moment to calm down and then said, “I don’t know exactly when it started. Last night everything was normal. This morning, when I heard the alarm and tried to get up, I noticed something was wrong.”

“I tried to turn off the alarm, but my hand wouldn’t cooperate. It took a while to get up and start working, and I realized that I was even speaking slower. The customers who came to my store had the same issue, but other inanimate objects moved at a normal speed.”

Wen Chu nodded, seemingly understanding the situation. “Thank you for telling us. We came here to solve these problems. You don’t need to worry too much.”

The woman nodded and glanced at the slightly shorter man next to him, who wore a pure black eye mask, his eyes hidden. The lower half of his face was calm and handsome, listening quietly to their conversation. It should have been a normal scene, but the woman couldn’t ignore the thick layer of black and gold light surrounding him. However, out of fear, she didn’t dare to ask why.

After asking the questions, the two returned along the same route.

On the way back, Yan Heqing finally “exploded.” He angrily complained, “When can I take off this damn eye mask? My eyes are itching so much.”

Wen Chu didn’t respond to his complaint, just silently walking with him. Only when they got back to the car did Yan Heqing take off the eye mask, feeling a huge sense of relief.

Even after this trip, he still couldn’t understand Wen Chu’s intention.

Wen Chu turned on all the lights in the car, the brightness momentarily blinding him. Yan Heqing silently glanced at him, feeling frustrated but unable to express it.

Finally, Wen Chu spoke: “It’s obvious that this place is being controlled by something. I didn’t let you see for my own reasons. It’s unrelated to this, so you can rest assured.”

Yan Heqing: “So we went out just to ask a few questions? Isn’t this a little too costly? Plus, you’re just an ordinary person. The most you can do are some tricks, but they’re not very useful.”

His words clearly had a derogatory tone, but Wen Chu didn’t lose his composure. Instead, he calmly responded, “I may only know a bit, but then I’ll have to trouble Master Yan to show me your true skills so I can witness some big scenes.”

“Hey, alright, alright! I’ll show you my skills.” Yan Heqing said, bringing his hands together again, chanting some words that sounded like a prayer, and countless tiny golden lights began pouring from his palms, soon surrounding his entire body.

At that moment, Cuihong, who had been quietly watching from the corner, looked at the two of them and then, shaking its head, turned its body, facing the car window, attempting to reduce its presence in the car.

The golden light soon enveloped the three of them.

Looking at the dazzling golden light surrounding him, Yan Heqing spoke, “Based on what I know about myself, this protective shield should last about two hours. We need to act quickly.”

He immediately got out of the car, and they began to inspect the surroundings for any suspicious activity.

Guangming Avenue was part of Ningcheng’s Area B commercial district, not very crowded, but the shops lining the street made it extremely busy. Everyone moved slowly, and they had to avoid the crowd and slip through the smaller alleys.

Following Wen Chu, Yan Heqing chose a path with many trees, as places with dense foliage were more likely to conceal things. Whenever he was searching for something shady, he always found that heading in this direction was the right choice.

At the edge of Guangming Avenue was a large plaza, which should have been packed with people, but oddly, there was hardly anyone at one end of the plaza.

The forest he was heading to was on the side with no people.

Without hesitation, Yan Heqing rushed toward the plaza. As he ran, he could feel the shock from the people around him, and many slowly turned their heads to look at him.

He shouted as he ran, “Don’t look! Once this is all sorted out, everything will go back to normal!”

However, instead of reducing the attention, his words only attracted more attention. Soon, most of the people in the plaza were looking at him.

Yan Heqing: “…”

Well, never mind, if they want to watch, let them enjoy themselves.

Ignoring the curious gazes, Yan Heqing smoothly made it to the other side of the plaza, where he immediately noticed something was wrong.

The trees in the forest, like the Hainan Yellow Rosewood from Wen’s house, moved on their own without any wind, and the leaves flew around at an extremely fast pace, with only the sound of the leaves swaying in his ears.

No wonder there weren’t many people here. It would be strange if any normal person stuck around after seeing such a weird forest.

Yan Heqing extended his right hand, made a gesture, and chanted a simple incantation. Once golden light formed at his fingertips, he sent it toward the forest.

The tree he hit visibly stopped for a moment, then started shaking its leaves even faster, almost as if it were challenging him.

Having an extreme competitive nature, Yan Heqing couldn’t let this rebellious tree go unchallenged. He immediately gathered the golden light into a golden orb and struck the tree hard.

In an instant, the tree bent over.

But immediately after, the tree returned to its original state and continued to provoke him with its leaves.

Yan Heqing didn’t take action again. He had added some sulfuric acid to the golden orb earlier, so the tree was probably going to have a rough time.

For now, the most important thing was to find the culprit behind all of this.

One side of the plaza had extremely slow flow, while the other was fast.

Yan Heqing closed his eyes, and everything around him instantly became calm.

In the dark world, he, Wen Chu, and Cuihong were surrounded by golden light. His task now was to find a living creature with the same flow rate as theirs.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes, his gaze now sharp and determined. The light in his palms condensed into a golden whip. Yan Heqing swung the whip at a void in front of the forest.

The void unexpectedly made a sound, and a low panting noise, almost like a tiger’s roar, echoed.

Yan Heqing didn’t think too much about it. He quickly added some fluorescent markers to the whip and struck again. The void in front of him began to glow with purple light.

Then, he watched as the purple glow rushed toward him. Yan Heqing immediately ran to the left, while still swinging his whip.

During the chase, he avoided its attacks and wondered what it could be. Remembering the sound he had heard earlier, he decided to treat this invisible creature as a divine beast, the White Tiger.

After running with the “White Tiger” around the plaza for a few minutes, the markings on his whip increased, and the image of the “White Tiger” became clearer. Yan Heqing felt considerable fatigue and decided to end this quickly.

He found a few spots he could step on, leapt a few steps up to the trees.

The forest sensed his presence and began shaking its branches wildly, trying to push him down.

Yan Heqing remained calm, stepping on the branches that tried to push him down, while continuing to lash the “White Tiger” with his whip.

The “White Tiger” let out a huge roar, angry at Yan Heqing’s position high above. The tree he was standing on wasn’t very tall, but if it tried hard enough, it could probably jump up. The tree took a few steps back and then accelerated forward, lunging at him!

This was the moment he had been waiting for!

Yan Heqing’s eyes narrowed, and in the air as the “White Tiger” lunged, he swung the golden whip, which instantly turned into a giant axe, and brought it down on the creature.

In that instant, the roar of the tiger filled the entire plaza.