Chapter 50: Yama Subdues the Tiger

Cheng Ruyi licked his dry lips and took a deep breath.

On the tree trunk was the strip of cloth he had tied there with his own hands just moments ago. Cheng Ruyi thought to himself, had he really circled back to the exact same spot? He wondered if perhaps it was because the light had been too dim earlier...

Just as he decided to find a place to sit down and rest, waiting for the sky to brighten before moving on... a sudden roar echoed in his ears!

Cheng Ruyi initially thought he was hallucinating... But then the roar sounded again, earth-shattering and like a golden bolt of lightning splitting a mountain...

It was unmistakably, truly... the roar of a tiger!

Cold sweat beaded instantly on Cheng Ruyi's forehead. He rose alertly, yet failing to determine the direction of the roar in that instant, he could only inch backward laboriously, limping. In the blink of an eye, however, the mighty roar stirred up a fierce wind, parting the forest trees and scattering the leaves!

Cheng Ruyi nearly collapsed to the ground.

Amidst the interweaving shadows of trees and weeds, a half-man-high, orange-furred giant tiger paced forward. Its steps appeared soft, yet its pitch-black eyes were locked entirely upon Cheng Ruyi. Even the very breath it exhaled made the surrounding grass and vegetation shiver with dread.

Run? Fight?

Cheng Ruyi's mind instantly shattered into a wasteland of chaotic thoughts. The moment that giant orange cat entered his field of vision, everything he had experienced in this life seemed to flash before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

He did not dare to look directly into the face of the beast king. The intricate patterns across the tiger's face resembled a web of steel wire; a single glance was enough to strangle his soul beforehand.

At that moment, the beast king slowly lowered its body, its front paws tucking inward while the muscular flesh of its entire body tensed and pulled back—unmistakably a hunting posture.

It's over. Cheng Ruyi thought, this time I probably won't even be left with a complete corpse.

In a split second, the tiger lunged forward like a collapsing mountain!

The instinct for survival prompted Cheng Ruyi to successfully dodge the initial strike, rolling clumsily through the grass several times before coming to a stop.

Seeing that its first attack missed, the ferocious tiger bared all its sharp teeth with an angry roar, its hind legs kicking off fiercely as its front paws lunged again! Cheng Ruyi scrambled and rolled to barely evade it, using both hands and feet to try and climb a tree, when a sharp claw viciously struck his lower back!

With just that single blow, he was sent flying a丈 (zhang) away, the clothing at his waist completely shredded and his flesh torn wide open.

Cheng Ruyi couldn't even manage a cry. Dizzied from the fall and gripped by an extreme sense of terror and urgency, he couldn't even feel the pain. As he struggled to get back up, the heavy breathing behind him grew steadily heavier, steadily closer...

And just as he turned around—a deafening crash!

The tremendous impact of colliding flesh, blood, and bone! In a flash of flint and steel, a dark shadow swept past his eyes, rolling together with the great beast toward the side. Before Cheng Ruyi could recover, a familiar voice reached his ears—

"Cheng Ruyi!"

Cheng Ruyi's lips parted and closed, but he found his throat hoarse from tension, unable to utter a single sound.

Yan Kuang, descending like a heavenly warrior, collided with the fierce beast. The dagger at his waist slipped from its sheath in one fluid motion, plunging straight into the tiger's neck!

Another ear-shattering tiger roar! Cheng Ruyi only saw Yan Kuang knocked flat to the ground by a swipe of the beast's paw, though fortunately, his agility allowed him to dodge in time, sparing him from looking as utterly battered as Cheng Ruyi himself.

Not daring to delay, Cheng Ruyi scrambled up and stumbled backward. The great cat, maddened by pain and completely out of control, roared continuously as it lunged and bit wildly! Yan Kuang vaulted into the air, caught a tree trunk to pivot his body, and as the beast lunged past and missed him, his longsword flashed from its sheath!

The previously intimidating tiger roar abruptly turned into an agony that shook the wilderness! The instant Yan Kuang landed, his longsword drove forward another foot deep!

Clinging to a tree trunk to steady himself, Cheng Ruyi looked up to see a blur of black and gold, the longsword inch by inch piercing right through the fierce beast.

Yet how could the desperate struggle of a trapped beast be underestimated? The moment the tiger whipped around, Yan Kuang was inadvertently sent flying several feet by the impact. Fearing that the beast might harm Cheng Ruyi, he leaped up instantly, vaulted onto the tiger's back to straddle it, gripped the sword hilt to force his wrist down, only to be violently shaken off!

The tiger's roars were endless. Yan Kuang narrowly escaped its sharp claws and fangs, but his back took a strike, instantly leaving a bloody expanse of shredded flesh and bare skin.

...

Yan Kuang's eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

"You... be careful!" Cheng Ruyi screamed at the top of his lungs until his voice cracked, simultaneously mustering his strength to hurl a boulder the size of a human head, which struck the lunging fierce beast squarely.

Cheng Ruyi thought to himself: Good thing I didn't miss!

Stung by the pain, the giant tiger roared to the heavens once more. Seizing the opportunity, Yan Kuang flew forward, gripped the sword hilt, and with a twist of his wrist, the blade carved deeper into the tiger's back inch by inch! With his other hand, he balled his fist and, using every ounce of strength he possessed, rained a flurry of fierce blows straight onto its belly!

Cheng Ruyi's legs went soft and he collapsed to the ground again, but he heard the tiger roars gradually subside into the rustling of the wind, accompanied by the dull, rhythmic thuds of heavy punches slamming into flesh.

With dark hair disheveled and blood spattered across his jade-like face, the man straddled the tiger's back, his fists battered, swollen, and stained with blood. Yet the murderous intent in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest, showing no sign of stopping.

Cheng Ruyi groped blindly as he tried to push himself up. Now that the tension had faded, the pain in his calves and lower back flared up fiercely, making it hard to move even an inch. Swallowing to moisten his throat, he rasped in a broken-bellied voice, frowning as he called out, "Yan Kuang, Official Yan, Lord Yan... You little puppy Yan!"

At the final name, Yan Kuang's gaze flickered abruptly, and he turned his head to look at Cheng Ruyi.

"Stop hitting... It's dead." Cheng Ruyi looked at the beast king, which ought to have been majestic, now looking utterly wretched beneath Yan Kuang, having been beaten by that barrage of underworld-style punches until blood seeped from all seven of its facial orifices.

Yan Kuang seemed to snap back to his senses at last. Gradually calming down, he withdrew his fists, dismounted, paused for a moment, and walked over to Cheng Ruyi.

"Are you alright?"

Yan Kuang's voice always seemed capable of bringing people a sense of peace. Hearing this, Cheng Ruyi nodded slightly, failing to abandon his habit of making snarky remarks even now as he forced himself to jest, "I won't die... I am, after all, a man belonging to the Underworld Judge of the Jade Face... Which other Yama would dare claim my soul?"

Yan Kuang's outstretched hand was right before his eyes. Cheng Ruyi raised a trembling hand, unable to quite reach, only to see that hand stretch forward and wrap firmly around his palm.

Cheng Ruyi managed to stand up, though his complexion was frighteningly pale. His legs went weak again, causing him to collapse against Yan Kuang.

"Lord Yan... My apologies."

After all this tossing and turning, the energy in Cheng Ruyi's body had long since been exhausted, leaving his limbs too weak and powerless to use. Yan Kuang supported him with one arm while removing his own heavy cloak with the other to drape over him, helping him sit down.

In a daze, Cheng Ruyi leaned against Yan Kuang. Just as Yan Kuang was about to pull his hand back, Cheng Ruyi suddenly squeezed it tightly.

He felt that if he couldn't solidly touch this "Yama," his heart would never feel at ease. Yan Kuang said nothing, simply allowing him to hold on.

After the two of them recovered for a while, it was Cheng Ruyi who first raised a hand to wipe the blood from Yan Kuang's face.

He said, "How is it that you always manage to arrive... just in time?" As he spoke, Cheng Ruyi smiled involuntarily, thinking to himself that this was no Yama at all; he was practically his guardian deity.

"If I had truly arrived in time, you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Yan Kuang followed his movement, wiping the blood from his own face as he asked in a low voice, "Can you walk?"

Biting his bullet, Cheng Ruyi tried kicking his legs to make a preliminary effort, then shook his head. He pulled aside the weeds on his leg, revealing the hastily bandaged wound.

Seeing this, Yan Kuang furrowed his brow instantly and reached out to tear open the fabric.

"There shouldn't be any poison..."

Cheng Ruyi sighed, "That young woman is truly persistent, chasing us all the way... But fortunately, she didn't follow us here." With that, Cheng Ruyi glanced toward the massive creature Yan Kuang had personally dispatched not far away, and added, "What about you? How did you shake off that group of girls, and how did you find your way here?"

"In a rush to find you, I had no choice but to injure them."

After checking the wound properly, Yan Kuang re-bandaged it and said, "Fortunately, it was still early, and few people pass by. You left quite a few traces as you rolled and scrambled all the way. I tracked you to the steep slope and spotted blood on the tips of the grass."

With that, Yan Kuang wrapped an arm around Cheng Ruyi's shoulder, having him drape his arm over his own, and said softly, "I'll carry you."

Hearing this, Cheng Ruyi froze. Yan Kuang's wound on his back also looked terrifying, and it was still oozing blood at that moment. He quickly shook his head and said, "No..."

Yan Kuang directly pulled both of Cheng Ruyi's hands to loop around his neck, then reached down to hook the back of his knees. "No? What, should I leave you here as lunch for the other big cats?"

Leaning against his back, Cheng Ruyi was both worried about pressing against Yan Kuang's wound and lacking the strength to move away, so he could only wilt and say, "It's not that... But you're injured too. How about putting me down to rest for a bit? For a bit... perhaps I'll be able to walk then."

"Be quiet."

"Oh..."

Yan Kuang carried him over to the giant tiger, intending to retrieve his sword. To his surprise, the moment he pulled the hilt free, the tip of the sword flipped something out from the tiger's belly! With a soft *clack*, it dropped into the weeds.

Leaning on Yan Kuang's back, Cheng Ruyi peered over curiously. Yan Kuang stepped closer, flicked the object up with his longsword, and caught it with his palm. Though smeared with blood, it could be vaguely recognized as a square object.

"Lord Yan... Would you mind wiping it clean to take a look?" Cheng Ruyi suddenly found it looking familiar. Yan Kuang rubbed the object clean against his clothes and held it up against the morning light—

It turned out to be a light green jade plaque.

The jade plaque was rectangular, engraved with symbols whose meaning was unclear. Unable to make sense of it, Yan Kuang watched as Cheng Ruyi stared at the plaque, his eyes widening in shock as he cried out excitedly, "The other half! The other half!"

"…?"

Before Yan Kuang could understand, Cheng Ruyi pulled one hand free from his shoulder and began fumbling with something behind his back. A moment later, Cheng Ruyi thrust his hand right in front of Yan Kuang's eyes, shouting excitedly near his ear—

"Lord Yan! The other half!"

Yan Kuang looked closely and saw that Cheng Ruyi was indeed holding an identical jade plaque in his hand. But upon closer inspection, he realized that the two jade plaques were not entirely identical...

Rather, they were mirror images that fit together to form a single piece.

As Yan Kuang and Cheng Ruyi brought their hands together, the jade plaques slowly merged. At that moment, the two of them finally understood the true meaning of the symbols carved upon the plaques.

It was the character for "Righteousness" (义).

Cheng Ruyi said, "This piece of mine was shoved into my hands right before he died by that fellow who was being hunted by those women... I remember him saying something before he died: 'Listen to the Heavenly Whisper'? 'Listen to the Heavenly Whisper'?"

Yan Kuang nodded in acknowledgment. "Listen to the Heavenly Whisper is a Jianghu assassin organization based in Qizhou. They take in homeless, oppressed women in dire straits, teach them martial arts, and assassinate those guilty of heinous crimes."

"Oh... I remember now. You mentioned earlier that you wanted to entrust Ruoniang to them."

Cheng Ruyi instantly recalled his conversation with Yan Kuang in the cell. Whether judging by Yan Kuang's original tone or his description just now, this "Listen to the Heavenly Whisper" sounded like a "righteous organization," but...

Cheng Ruyi couldn't help muttering, "Guilty of heinous crimes... I am guilty of heinous crimes, and as for you, Lord Yan... well, that's debatable. But why do they start killing right off the bat? Even an underworld judge has to list charges and hold a trial before passing judgment. Is this really... righteous?"

"They might not necessarily be members of Listen to the Heavenly Whisper."

As he spoke, Yan Kuang tucked half of the jade plaque into his tunic. Seeing this, Cheng Ruyi put his own piece away as well, and mused, "That's true... People or things with overly distinct characteristics are easiest to imitate and frame. But could these... be related to the events at Ginkgo Village?"

"Hard to say." Yan Kuang carried him as they continued forward. "Shen Zhuoyan's matter will have to wait; I need to take you to get your wounds treated first."

"Shen Zhuoyan?" Cheng Ruyi asked doubtfully, "Lord Shen?"

"Shen Nian, courtesy name Zhuoyan," Yan Kuang replied.

Cheng Ruyi had guessed as much. How could a dignified fifth-rank prefect have only a given name and no courtesy name? In fact, he had always been curious about Yan Kuang's courtesy name as well, but before he could even ask, he heard Yan Kuang say in a deep voice, "I don't have a courtesy name. My parents died when I was young."