CHAPTER 444: PAT, PAT!

Torches lit the area around the Giant Spirit and Tiger Pass Keeps' combined camp, illuminating it as if it were daytime.

"Report any intruders to the higher-ups immediately!"

"Bear this in mind. If what happened earlier happens again, we're all gonna die."

Bandits stood guard in shifts, each scanning their surroundings with wide, sharp eyes. Maeng Ryonghwi's attack earlier that day had put them on edge.

"Grr..." The Giant Spirit Keep's beasts had also been mobilized for additional security. The ferocious animals, whose senses were dozens of times sharper than a human's, patrolled every corner of the perimeter.

There were no openings. Even a skilled assassin would have a hard time getting close, let alone infiltrating the camp.

"Nyaa..." Silver Tiger hid in a bush and sullenly eyed the enemy camp. He saw no opening to sneak inside, so he had been licking his paws for nearly two hours.

Suddenly, a bandit emerged from the camp and relieved himself in a bush, grumbling, "Damn it! The meeting is tomorrow. Why come up with this bullshit about an attack now?"

He was a mid-ranking bandit from the Giant Spirit Keep. Normally, he would have left guard duty to the grunts and slept soundly, but his boss had ordered him to take the night watch.

"Ugh! So cold!" The bandit finished his business, pulled up his pants, and shivered.

Observing him, Silver Tiger had an idea. He immediately began tailing the bandit back to the camp, following him stealthily and carefully.

When he judged that the time was right, he made his move, revealing his presence with a cry slightly different from his usual one.

"Meow?"

The bandit turned at the innocent, harmless sound. "Huh? What's this? A wildcat?"

His eyes widened. An adorable kitten with sparkling eyes was staring up at him. At first, he hesitated when he saw its stripes, wondering if it was a tiger cub, but its cry sounded just like a cat's.

Silver Tiger rubbed himself against the bandit's legs. "Purrrr..."

The bandit was initially flustered, but his expression quickly softened at the feel of the soft fur. "Heh, adorable little fella..."

Silver Tiger's heart swelled with joy. This was his ultimate technique, which he had honed against the students at the Azure Dragon Academy. It seemed that even a seasoned bandit was no match for the trick that had earned him countless snacks.

"Fufu! You're a friendly one, aren't you? I don't have anything to eat right now, so... wanna come with me?"

"Meow!" Silver Tiger leaped into the bandit's open arms.

The bandit's demeanor softened completely as he cradled Silver Tiger like a precious treasure. "You little rascal! You understand me perfectly. Are you a spirit beast?"

"Meow?"

"Ehehe!" Grinning from ear to ear, the bandit returned to the camp with Silver Tiger in his arms.

It didn't take long for the rugged souls of the Viridian Forest to warm up to the cute creature. Since they usually only ever saw large, ferocious beasts, the chance to interact with a small, cute animal was especially precious to the Giant Spirit bandits.

"What's that, Hyung-nim?"

"Aww, where'd you pick up that kitten?"

The other bandits showed great interest in Silver Tiger. Initially, the Giant Spirit's beasts glanced in their direction, but when they saw it was just a little cub nestled in the bandit's arms, they relaxed their guard and turned away.

"I found him when I went out to take a piss. I'm thinking of giving him some food and raising him."

"That's weird. Animals don't usually come near us because of how we smell."

"Fufu! I guess this is a fate bestowed upon me by the gods."

Everyone came over to marvel at Silver Tiger and gently stroke his fur.

Suddenly, one ill-tempered fellow remarked sarcastically, "Hey, be careful not to let the Boss's pets see him. That tiny thing's just a bite-sized snack to them."

"What? Did you just run your mouth, you bastard?"

"Is it wrong to tell you to be careful?"

The trivial argument quickly escalated into a fistfight.

While the bandits rolled on the ground, fighting, Silver Tiger slipped away from the chaos.

"Huh? Nabi! Where did my Nabi go?"

After the brawl, the dirt-covered bandit frantically scoured the area for Silver Tiger, but it was nowhere to be found.

After successfully infiltrating the enemy camp, Silver Tiger climbed onto a nearby tent. The entire landscape of the Giant Spirit Keep and the Tiger Pass Keep spread out below him.

SNIFF, SNIFF...

He searched for a familiar smell amidst the foul odors and the scent of blood. Sure enough, he found it quickly.

He leaped down from the tent. The bandits from the Giant Spirit Keep and the Tiger Pass Keep were patrolling vigilantly, but no one would notice a little kitty.

The tamed beasts paid him no mind either. Because the bandit had hugged him earlier, he was heavily covered in their scent and didn't arouse suspicion.

At last, he slipped into his first target's tent. Inside, the hairy bandit who had crossed paths with Baek Suryong at the foot of the mountain was sound asleep, recovering from the most unfortunate day of his life.

Silver Tiger placed a paw on the hairy man's mouth, jolting him awake.

"......" The hairy man wanted to scream, but he couldn't move a muscle. A terrifying beast's eyes glowed with a faint blue light as they peered down at him, and the paw it placed on him, though tiny, concealed immense strength.

He froze in terror. P-Please, spare me! he pleaded with his eyes.

Silver Tiger eased the pressure from his paw and gestured toward the outside of the tent, as if to say, Follow me!

The hairy man understood immediately. Quickly scrambling to his feet, he stepped outside carefully, making sure not to wake the other bandits.

I can't believe it actually came...

With a face as pale as a corpse, he recalled his conversation with Maeng Ryonghwi earlier that day.

"You'd be killed by the Giant Spirit Keep Boss if he found out you were conducting business here on your own, right?"

"H-How did you know that?"

He remembered trembling before the man with the demonic smile.

"I can keep all of this between us, you know? If you're willing to work for me, that is."

"W-Work for you? What... do you want...?"

"It seems you'd rather choose death, huh?"

"...What do I have to do?"

"For now, just stay put and wait for my instructions."

Maeng Ryonghwi had instructed him to pretend that they had been attacked by the Viridian Scholar's party, instead of admitting that they had a attempted to do business. Surprisingly, the Viridian Scholar had readily played along with his subordinate's plan.

"By the way, are these men from the Giant Spirit Keep, or the Tiger Pass Keep? They wouldn't open their mouths no matter how much I asked, so I brought them here to confirm it myself."

The moment the Viridian Scholar said that, a wave of relief had overcome him. He'd thought that he was saved.

I never thought that decision would come back to bite me.

He only realized later that by turning a deaf ear to the Viridian Scholar's lie, he had become complicit in their scheme.

Fuck, I can't tell the truth now.

It was too late to turn back, not only for him, but also for all of his subordinates who had remained silent about the Viridian Scholar's lie out of fear of the Giant Spirit Boss.

I could go to the Boss and confess now, but he's definitely going to kill me... Sigh, all I did was keep quiet...

Well, it was too late to make excuses. He had already become a traitor, and Maeng Ryonghwi had sent his pet tiger cub to drag him back into the fray.

[I'll be in touch again soon.]

He recalled the telepathic message he had received from Maeng Ryonghwi at Zigai Peak.

Silver Tiger gently scratched the inside of his ear with his paw and pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper.

The hairy man accepted the note, opened it, and then paused. "Um, I can't read..."

Silver Tiger stared at the hairy man as if he were a pathetic worm.

The hairy man hung his head in shame. "One of my subordinates knows how to read. Can I wake him up and consult him?

Silver Tiger tilted his head for a moment, then let out a low growl as if granting permission.

The hairy man hurriedly woke up a subordinate who could read. It was one of the men who had gone out with him to do business earlier.

"Hyung-nim, this..."

"Even if we tried, do you think we could succeed at something like that? Thankfully, this isn't a difficult task," the subordinate said, before going on to describe what Baek Suryong wanted them to do.

"Hmm..." The hairy man pondered the contents of the message seriously.

Silver Tiger didn't give him much time to think. "Nyan!"

The hairy man flinched and nodded instinctively. "I-I'll do it. Of course I'll cooperate."

He didn't have a choice, and it wasn't just because he was scared of Silver Tiger.

Since things have come to this, I might as well switch sides, he reasoned.

Silver Tiger approached and tapped his shin with a paw, as if praising him for making the right decision.

The hairy man's face filled with dread. "T-Thank you."

To an onlooker, a man speaking formally to a small cat would have seemed strange. If they had seen the cute creature shatter a wolf's skull with that small paw, though, would they also have felt compelled to be polite?

Besides, he seems smarter than most people.

Silver Tiger successfully completed his first mission and left the hairy man. His second and final destination was the Giant Spirit and Tiger Pass Bosses' quarters, where he was to eavesdrop on their secret conversation.

Unfortunately, a large gatekeeper blocked his path.

"Grr..."

A massive shadow loomed over him, large enough to block out the moonlight.

Silver Tiger craned his neck to see the beast towering over him. It was a monstrous tiger that had been raised and trained using the Blood Cult's secret methods for handling demonic beasts.

DRIP, DRIP...

Saliva dripped from its fiercely bared fangs. The Giant Spirit Boss had taught it to prefer human flesh, followed by tiger flesh.

"Grr..."

The great tiger's eyes glinted with ferocious intent as it swung its foreleg like a whip at a speed comparable to a peak martial master.

Silver Tiger sprang high into the air to avoid the attack. Created from half of his thousand-year-old mother's inner core, his innate energy was as auspicious as starlight, making him the natural enemy of all wicked energies.

Besides, although they looked similar, he and this tiger were a different species entirely. This great tiger had only grown in size through unorthodox methods, while he was a spirit beast with a special and noble bloodline.

He pressed a small paw lightly against the great tiger's forehead and released a faint white light.

The result was shocking. The mighty tiger faltered from the apparently trivial impact, its legs faltering as it crumpled to the ground with a resounding thud.

Any martial artist would have gasped in astonishment at the sight.

Silver Tiger had used an internal energy infusion technique, a skill that only a peak master could execute properly.

"Whine..." Terrified, the great tiger shook its head violently, but to no avail.

PAT, PAT!

Silver Tiger smacked the great tiger's forehead several more times. With each blow, the great tiger whimpered, not knowing what to do.

"NYAAAAH!"

The furball lifted his head triumphantly, proud that he had clearly shown who was superior today.