Chapter 39: Great Tiger (2)
The notion of multiple tigers roaming around was, in fact, hard to believe.
Tigers were not pack animals. They were unforgiving when someone, especially a fellow tiger, intruded on their territory.
It was rare to see tigers together unless it was for mating. That was why the hunters probably realized there were multiple tigers only later on. It also explained the severe damage in Zhangjia Village.
Yi-gang’s group had taken precautions, thus minimizing the damage.
Other than severe scratches on the carriage’s exterior, there were no casualties. The horses of the carriage and the Biyeon Squad members were unharmed.
“Wow, they’re really big,” Yi-gang remarked.
At his feet lay two tigers, massive as befits predators of the mountains.
“Squad Leader Neung’s skills are impressive. You precisely targeted the eyes.”
Especially astounding was the condition of the tiger Neung Ji-pyeong had taken down. He killed the tiger with a single strike. With this skill, one would not need to fear tigers.
“Young Master, with more training, you could do it too.”
“Do you think so?”
Yi-gang lost his appetite.
He thought about skinning them and selling the pelts, but Yi-gang put that thought aside. It would be a waste of time. There might be more tigers around.
“I wonder if it has an internal elixir.”
The tiger that Yi-gang and Jin Ri-yeon caught inside the carriage was even bigger. It was unlikely for a regular tiger, but a Great Tiger might have one.
However, Yi-gang, holding his short sword and wondering where to go, heard Jin Ri-yeon speak.
“This isn’t a Great Tiger.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s just a regular tiger.”
At those words, Yi-gang felt a chill run down his spine.
This enormous tiger was twice the length of Yi-gang’s height. The size of its front paw was, without exaggeration, like a child’s head.
“So the Great Tiger would be… even bigger.”
“Exactly.”
The Great Tiger roaming this mountain was a spiritual creature that even possessed tiger ghosts. If Jin Ri-yeon says it was not the one, it was not.
Yi-gang pondered for a moment. He weighed the worth of the Great Tiger’s internal elixir against the risks in his mind.
Then, as if he had made a decision, he nodded.
“Let’s move quickly, before the Great Tiger appears.”
Though it was a shame, safety seemed to be the better option.
Jin Ri-yeon, who had captured the tiger ghost, saying it was the Azure Forest’s duty, did not insist on capturing the Great Tiger either.
“A wise choice. Let’s depart.”
Neung Ji-pyeong nodded, urging them to go.
「See? Didn’t I say trying to get the internal elixir would get you killed?」
‘You’re right.’
Yi-gang agreed as well.
And there was the Tiger Killer Gang, preparing for the Great Tiger hunt.
Inside the Tiger Killer Gang, an irreconcilable conflict was unfolding.
“Leader Kang Myung-ho, we will depart.”
“Hey, Hunter Gwak, aren’t you getting a bit too arrogant just because we’ve treated you with respect due to your age?”
A proper sect should have a strong hierarchy and order. In that respect, the Tiger Killer Gang was not a proper sect.
“It’s you, Gang Leader, who didn’t keep the promise. You accepted the request from the county magistrate without any discussion. Moreover, a Great Tiger that wanders with several tigers? We don’t want to die.”
The Gang Leader was Kang Myung-ho, but there were older hunters with more experience than him.
Their martial arts might be weak, but they had influence and had always been in opposition.
“Huh, really. So, you spilled that information to the Baek Clan’s cowards?”
“It’s no big secret.”
“It’s a crucial strategic matter. I was thinking of using those guys as bait to catch the Great Tiger.”
“It was the Baek Clan’s kid who saved Sang-chil.”
“Are you talking about your incompetent son?”
Gwak Sang-chil, who was in a relationship with Wang Hee-ran, wore an awkward expression.
“Get your senses together, old man. Those bastards killed three of our gang members. All because they tried to meddle with one filthy girl from the village.”
“They were expendable anyway.”
The atmosphere turned ominous. Hunter Gwak and the elders following him were met with hostile gazes.
“Anyway, now that even the tiger ghost has appeared, we have no intention of joining this ominous hunt. We don’t need the money, so we will leave.”
Hunter Gwak said so, turning away with his entourage. They were all experienced and had encountered or heard about the tiger ghost.
As they left, Kang Myung-ho spat a long trail of saliva and grumbled.
“Senile old men. What about the tiger ghost? Even if it does exist, it’s over once we catch and kill it.”
They were utterly incomprehensible to him.
Were they saying they were so afraid of ghosts that they would miss such a huge opportunity?
Catching the Great Tiger would lead the county magistrate to pay a hefty reward. Then the Tiger Killer Gang could afford to build and stay in a warm building in the city, not in the cold and filthy mountains.
“Isn’t that right, guys?”
“Yes, Gang Leader!”
“It feels refreshing with the cowardly old folks gone.”
The hunters following Kang Myung-ho said so.
They were carrying various weapons. Nets with hooks, light and sharp harpoons, and even arrows with serrated edges. All were suitable for catching a tiger.
Today, they were intent on catching the Great Tiger.
Soon, a scout who had been out returned.
“Gang Leader, we’ve found it!”
“Oh!”
It was a hunter, his body draped in wild boar skin and his face smeared with dirt. He had been on reconnaissance, tracking the Great Tiger and the party of the Baek Clan.
“Found it, did you?”
“Yes, its movements are suspicious. It seems like the Great Tiger is targeting those people from the Baek Clan’s group.”
“What? That’s fortunate! It never showed its face before, wonder what’s gotten into it.”
For two months, they had not even seen as much as a hair from its tail, although it was not for lack of trying.
Well, there was one hunter who did see it, but he got caught and eaten before he could even gather his bones.
“Let’s head this way!”
Following the lead of the returned scout, the members of the Tiger Killer Gang began to ascend the mountain.
Even though there were more than ten experienced hunters moving, they made no sound.
“You, Du-sam, have been very diligent these days.”
With a sly smile, Kang Myung-ho complimented his subordinate.
Du-sam, wearing the reversed wild boar skin, smiled, revealing his yellowish teeth.
“We need to catch that creature and avenge Seok.”
“Ah, right, that’s true. Yes, we must seek revenge.”
Come to think of it, there originally were two people on the scout team.
The one currently beside him, Go Du-sam, and his hometown friend, Baek Seok. The latter was the only hunter who had seen the Great Tiger and ended up getting killed by it.
Since then, Du-sam had been adamant about catching and killing the Great Tiger.
‘What a fool, what good does it do if he dies trying to take revenge?’
Kang Myung-ho secretly scoffed at the idea but never showed it. Thanks to that, was it not Du-sam who took on the most dangerous reconnaissance missions?
“They’ve probably caught up with that carriage by now.”
And not surprisingly, a roar was heard from a distance.
Kuheung- Kheung!
“Exactly!”
The expressions of the Tiger Killer Gang hunters brightened.
Tigers did not roar indiscriminately.
Born as stealthy predators, they made no sound.
When you suspected the pungent smell of them nearby, they were already crouching close at hand.
And they roared at the moment they pounced on their prey.
The continuous roaring meant that the Baek Clan’s men were already fighting with the tiger.
“Hmm, but…”
Kang Myung-ho suddenly had a doubt.
“What if they catch and kill the Great Tiger?”
“Heh heh, that would be even more beneficial for us. We’d just have to pick up the skin,” Du-sam said.
Kang Myung-ho also wore a pleased smile. It was a perfect plan, though he was the one who worried about it. Those wealthy folks would not dissect a tiger’s skin on the streets, after all.
And the Great Tiger was not small enough to be carried away on a carriage.
“It won’t matter as long as they don’t damage the skin. Euhaha.”
“Right? But, there won’t be such a thing. Uhum.”
“What do you mean there won’t be such a thing? …Anyway, what are you eating?”
He asked because he was bothered by Du-sam’s words, but he did not answer and was just eating something. He was munching enthusiastically on whatever it was.
“Uhum, what do you mean what? It’s wild strawberries.”
There was a lot of red wild strawberry juice around Du-sam’s mouth.
He kept taking out wild strawberries from his pocket and chewing them. They seemed not yet fully ripe.
“Are you eating those unripe ones… Are you hungry?”
“They taste better when they’re a bit unripe because they’re sour.”
“I’ve heard all sorts of nonsense.”
However, Du-sam ate so sloppily. Kang Myung-ho’s mouth watered.
“Give me some.”
“No way.”
“What? I said give me some.”
“…No, I said no!”
Du-sam suddenly got very angry, startling Kang Myung-ho. His face quickly turned red.
“You little!”
However, he could not get mad at Du-sam. It was because Du-sam’s glare at Kang Myung-ho was so fierce.
“…Fine, you stubborn mule.”
“We’re almost there, please endure a bit longer,” Du-sam said as he quickened his steps.
Kang Myung-ho followed him, feeling uneasy.
Du-sam had said there was a high ground where they could see the Great Tiger. He would feel better after hitting him a few times once this was over.
“Here we are.”
“What?”
However, the place Du-sam led the soldiers to was not the high ground.
They were at a dead-end cliff. The steep rock face looked too difficult to climb. There was no side path in sight, either.
Kang Myung-ho was more flabbergasted than angry.
“Do we have to climb this cliff?”
“No. This is the place.”
“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden! Did you eat some poisonous strawberries or something?”
The other soldiers were also dumbfounded, just glaring at Du-sam.
Du-sam shrugged his shoulders and instead asked Kang Myung-ho.
“What did the Gang Leader tell me to do?”
“What? Well, of course…”
“Right?”
Kang Myung-ho also felt something was off.
A sour smell of wild strawberries came from Du-sam’s mouth as he came closer. And beyond that, there was a faint stench of decay from somewhere.
“…To bring you to where the Great Tiger is.”
The moment Du-sam whispered, Kang Myung-ho felt a burning sensation in his stomach.
He reflexively drew his sword and swung it.
Swish—
Du-sam’s abdomen was slashed open horizontally. His intestines spilled out. It was a fatal wound.
Kang Myung-ho looked down at his own stomach. A short sword was embedded in it.
“This…”
He quickly understood why Du-sam had done this.
Even as his intestines spilled, Du-sam stood upright.
“Crazy, hiiik!”
Du-sam, lifting his head, had skin that was bubbling and turning brown.
His mouth stretched wide horizontally, revealing teeth like saw blades.
Someone immediately recognized that horrific figure. Naturally, it was the very thing that had unsettled the hunters’ minds just last night.
“A-a tiger ghost!”
Kang Myung-ho swung his sword, severing the neck of Du-sam, or rather, the tiger ghost.
Even then, his face was distorted with shock and confusion.
‘Why on earth…’
Even if the Great Tiger had controlled the tiger ghost, had it not been captured and killed recently? Was there not only one Great Tiger?
And after all, the fact that the tiger ghost had brought the Tiger Killer Gang all the way here meant…
“Kheung!”
With a resonant roar, a tiger snatched up one of the hunters on the outermost edge.
It was an instant death as his neck was twisted.
“Shit! Throw the nets!”
“No, there’s not just one. Two, three. Aaah!”
Then, roars sounded in unison.
They were not from one direction but echoed from all around.
The hunters resisted, shooting arrows and hurling harpoons, but terror was etched on their faces.
And then, a more vicious roar pierced through everyone’s dread.
“Kheuheuheung”
It was a scream filled with a ghostly aura.
The sound came from above the rocky cliffs.
Kang Myung-ho, looking up, lost his combat readiness.
“Ha, haha. Damn it, what in the world is that…”
That enormous beast, crouching on the rocky cliff, ready to leap.
“That’s no tiger.”
With the image of that yokai jumping towards him as his last—
The vision of Tiger Killer Gang Leader Kang Myung-ho went dark.
‘It hurts.’
Kang Myung-ho trembled in pain.
‘It hurts too much!’
He did not know since when, but Du-sam had been possessed by a tiger ghost.
Because of that, the Tiger Killer Gang met a very futile end in front of the rocky cliff.
It was a monster difficult to describe as a real tiger.
Yet, somehow, only Kang Myung-ho had survived. The Great Tiger, having killed all the other hunters, seemed to recognize that Kang Myung-ho was the leader.
It started to run, carrying Kang Myung-ho in its mouth.
His vision was dyed red. He could see other tigers running beside him. They, too, seemed to fear the Great Tiger.
Somehow, there was a reason why these tigers, which typically did not live in groups, followed the Great Tiger. The Great Tiger was an overwhelming tyrant.
Its gigantic maw was so large that it could run while holding Kang Myung-ho’s entire body.
The repulsive breath of the Great Tiger and its hot saliva streamed down Kang Myung-ho’s face.
If he could move his body, he would attempt to escape, but for some reason, he could not feel anything below his neck.
‘Has my spine been broken, am I paralyzed?’
The thought was despairing. He could not even make a sound.
The Great Tiger ran like the wind, dragging two tigers along.
“Something’s coming, protect the Young Master!”
From a distance, such a shout faintly reached his ears. Kang Myung-ho’s eyes snapped open. It was unmistakably the Baek Clan people.
If it was them, they might kill the Great Tiger and save him.
The Great Tiger made a huge leap, breaking through the bushes and landing.
The Baek Clan’s martial artists had drawn their swords.
“Crazy!”
“Young Master, please step back!”
They, too, were somewhat shocked like Kang Myung-ho upon seeing the Great Tiger. Kang Myung-ho opened his mouth, attempting to shout.
‘Please, please save me!’
But instead of a voice, only whistling wind came from his mouth.
Kang Myung-ho’s eyes met with Yi-gang’s, who was standing on the carriage. Yi-gang frowned as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
“Is that thing alive?”
He was referring to Kang Myung-ho. No matter what, it was not something to say to someone who was clearly wide-eyed and conscious.
Frustrated, Kang Myung-ho tried to shout, but only blood-mixed breath came out.
And then, Yi-gang said something unbelievable.
“His throat is cut, yet he’s gaping and looking this way. Do you know what that is, Miss Jin?”
“…That’s no ordinary Great Tiger. It’s a yokai. That’s why that person seems to be unable to die and is like that.”
A yokai? The Great Tiger was certainly not an ordinary tiger.
But more importantly, his throat was cut?
Kang Myung-ho’s pupils quivered. Only then did he remember.
“It’s a Twin-Headed Ghost Tiger.”
A gigantic tiger with two heads had torn apart his head and torso.
It was not that his neck was paralyzed; his head had been ripped off.
Tears streamed down Kang Myung-ho’s head.
“Shii, sssii.”
Only a bloody whistle leaked from his mouth.
Then, the right head of the Twin-Headed Ghost Tiger clenched its jaw.
Crack—
“Uh.”
Yi-gang frowned again.
The sight of the head, which had been alive until a moment ago, being crushed was cruel even for him to witness.
The Great Tiger, no, the Twin-Headed Ghost Tiger was a terrifying yokai that could not even be compared to the tiger ghost.
The thought of internal elixirs did not even occur to him.
Of course, the Immortal Divine Sword next to Yi-gang was not scared.
「If it has two heads, does it also have two internal elixirs?」
‘…’
Yi-gang was at a loss for words.
In any case, that monster did not seem like it would let Yi-gang and his companions go.
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