After two months, Shen Ling's status was updated to show:
'Perseverance and Hard Work 3.0.'
'Name: Shen Ling.'
'Age: 17.'
'Cultivation Technique: Longevity Technique [rank-seven upper-grade cultivation technique, Level 5, proficiency 8,000/100,000].'
'Cultivation Technique: Mountain-splitting Saber Technique [rank-six mid-grade saber technique, Level 6, proficiency 10,200/150,000].'
'Cultivation Technique: Iron Shirt [rank-eight mid-grade cultivation technique, Level 4, proficiency: 8,000/50,000].'
'Cultivation Technique: Treading on Air [rank-three low-grade cultivation technique, Level 3, proficiency 900/30,000].'
'Cultivation Technique: Regretful Mountain Fist [rank-seven low-grade cultivation technique, Level 4, proficiency: 19,900/50,000].'
'Status: Normal.'
Such wonderful information even gave Shen Ling an added boost of confidence to face the crazed martial artist.
However, upon facing an adult tiger, Shen Ling put up a lot of precautions to ensure he doesn't end up losing the battle.
Shen Ling had once looked up the information on the tiger because he had read about Wu Song fighting one in the classic novel named Water Margin. Shen Ling was curious to learn more.
Take the northeast tiger, which was also known as the Siberian tiger, as one example. It weighed about 3,000 kilograms, had a body length of about 2.6 meters, and a shoulder height of about 1.1 meters.
In the animal kingdom, this was already a very large animal!
However, the tiger that Shen Ling faced, whose species was unknown, had a body length of four meters and a shoulder height of 1.6 meters.
Shen Ling could just tell that this fellow was even heavier than the Siberian tiger.
Its strength was probably even greater also.
"Stop right there!"
On the other side, the old village chief could be seen standing on the wall of the camp. When he saw that Shen Ling was heading towards the tiger, he quickly raised his hand to stop the archers.
Actually, he didn't need to give this order because when they saw Shen Ling approaching the tiger, all the young and strong farmers on the wall had already silently lowered their crossbows.
"Phew."
Shen Ling breathed out.
He had no idea if his fourth level Iron Shirt had the ability to withstand the attack of this ferocious tiger.
He also had no clue how Wu Song managed to fight the tiger he faced with his own bare hands.
"Roar!"
As Shen Ling was hesitating to make a move, the tiger, who had been pacing under the wall, detected his scent.
Like a predator who had just discovered its prey, the tiger immediately started charging at Shen Ling. Its four limbs trod the ground, making the surrounding sand and dust billow up into the air.
"The tiger has such a strong aura."
Staring at the tiger before him, Shen Ling slowly reached for his black blade.
The intent of splitting the mountain!
He was getting ready to launch the regretless mountain stance!
Facing a tiger head-on, Shen Ling completely skipped the part where he checks his memory for information on how to defeat his foe.
After all, he must go about this differently. Only by using all his might and power from the start to finish could he avoid a painful death.
"Roar."
The moment it neared Shen Ling, the tiger lunged its whole body at him.
Its huge front paws were aimed straight at Shen Ling's head, and its sharp claws were glinting with a cold light.
Shen Ling stared straight at the tiger.
At this very moment in time, an unsteady hand on the blade would not only not stand in the tiger's way, it would also mean dying under the tiger's claws.
Shen Ling rolled on his side and then transitioned from the regretless mountain stance to the mountain-splitting stance.
His black blade slashed across the tiger's body, leaving a cut on the tiger's skin.
However, Shen Ling was quite shocked to find that his blade wasn't sharp enough to cut through the flesh under the tiger's skin.
"What the…"
Shen Ling shook his head back and forth, amazed at the might of this tiger.
He had just used the mountain-splitting stance combined with the sixth level of the Mountain-splitting Saber Technique along with the intent of splitting the mountain. A stronger warrior would have dropped dead from just one slash from this blend of moves.
However, his combination of moves only managed to scratch the tiger in front of him. It hardly caused a dent in its shiny and glossy coat.
"Roar!"
The tiger was hurt and it became even more bad-tempered.
It lunged at Shen Ling once again, in an attempt to press Shen Ling down with its body and bite him.
Shen Ling ducked again…
Using the Iron Shirt was his last resort. He would rather dodge any sort of attack than use this move so rashly. The Iron Shirt would come into use at a critical moment when his life was in danger and he had nothing else to turn to. If worse comes to worst, this would be his emergency go-to move.
After ducking down, Shen Ling launched an attack, but he missed. This time around, he quickly set in motion a second attack.
Shen Ling was forced to dodge again.
He rolled around continuously, steering clear of the tiger's attack for several more times.
But Shen Ling never expected the tiger to anticipate a pattern in his moves and had been lying in wait expectantly for him all this time.
Staring at the tiger paw that was inching closer and closer to his face, Shen Ling was left with no other choice but to stop it with his saber.
A huge force came down onto his blade. Shen Ling's arms quivered, then he clenched his teeth and pushed with all his might.
The tiger swayed on its feet and fell straight to the ground.
At this moment in time, Shen Ling thrust his black blade into the ground and half-knelt there to catch his breath.
If it wasn't because he was only at the fourth level of his Iron Shirt, or for the fact that the quality of his black blade posed a problem, he would not have been tossed to the ground by the tiger's paws.
"Roar!"
The tiger lunged and launched another attack with its bare claws.
Once more, Shen Ling dodged again, then adjusted his body into a stance and used the intent of splitting the mountain again.
"Regretless mountain stance."
Once the stance was made, Shen Ling swung his blade with full force.
With the mountain-cleaving stance, he sent all the power to the upper of the blade while the regretless mountain stance placed all the power in the hilt. Together this force was unstoppable.
With just one slash, Shen Ling cut the waist of the tiger…
Even though the waist of a tiger was obviously tougher than a wolf's, when faced with the regretless mountain stance, it was no match for either.
The black blade cut an opening in the tiger's skin, and the remaining force of the regretless mountain stance allowed Shen Ling's blade to penetrate right into the tiger's body.
Although Shen Ling had no idea exactly how much damage his blade had done, the spine of the tiger seemed to be seriously hurt.
The battle raged on in this way.
When Shen Ling slashed the tiger's waist with the regretless mountain stance for the second time, he could see that the tiger's waist was collapsing.
The fallen tiger tried to get up again and again, but it failed each time.
Pretty soon, the tiger stopped moving.
Not only was its spine damaged, but Shen Ling had also opened up many wounds on its body. Its life was in critical condition.
"Young Master Shen beat the tiger!"
"He actually won!"
Seeing the tiger lying so still on the ground, one by one, the farmers got up and cheered.
Although they could pretty much drive the tiger away using their triple crossbows, beating the tiger in a one-on-one battle was obviously even more shocking and difficult.
"Roar."
The tiger let out a low roar from its position on the ground.
It watched Shen Ling as he came up to it. It tried to wave its claws at Shen Ling, but it was no use. It had long since lost all power of mobility in the lower regions of its body.
Shen Ling raised his knife and stared straight into the tiger's eyes.
As long as he executed the killing blow, the tiger would become his spoils of war.
However, Shen Ling hesitated at that moment.
In his previous lifetime, tigers were endangered animals; besides, he was a cat person himself. At this time, while looking down at the dying tiger, he felt that he would not execute it in this way.
After hesitating for some time, Shen Ling started to use his inner energy to heal the tiger's injuries.
He did not restore the tiger's body to its peak state but healed it so that it would not die.
Looking down at the tiger, Shen Ling said in a slow voice, "After I've healed you, stay away from here."
The tiger made no sound.
Shen Ling could care less if the tiger understood his words or not. He allowed the farmers to build a large cage and lock the tiger inside.
With the help of Shen Ling and a few young men, the tiger was locked up in its cage.
Only then did he have a change of heart towards the tiger.
"Bring it some raw meat so that it can recover faster."
Shen Ling looked at the tiger's state and said in a soft voice.
This tiger must be hungry which was why it came down from the mountain. Shen Ling decided to feed the tiger a full meal.
It was said that a full tiger would be less prone to attack. Although he had no idea if this was true or not, the tiger was already locked up in a cage so they pretty much had nothing to be afraid of.
Seeing the tiger eat his meal, Shen Ling once more put his palms over the tiger to heal its wounds.
The tiger kept quiet throughout this entire process.
