The second night after Cai Junyang left, Tang Jie received a message from Yiyi.
Wei Tianchong had met with Cai Junyang.
With Cai Junyang’s protection and Wei Tianchong’s improved self, they were now much safer, and they were now working together to find Shi Meng, Liu Hongyan, and the others.
With this news, Tang Jie could finally focus entirely on the flock of Thunderbirds.
From this day forward, Tang Jie began to steal grass like a madman.
As the Thunderbirds were diurnal creatures, Tang Jie mostly stole grass at night. Late at night, Tang Jie would sneak over and seize large amounts of grass.
The Warning Mice caused Tang Jie to be discovered almost every time, but Tang Jie didn’t care. All he cared about was stealing as much grass as he could before the Thunderbirds attacked.
Starting with the second grass raid, Tang Jie stopped laying down illusion formations in the thunderspirit grass field. Instead, he laid down the illusion formation on his path of retreat, even using the Alarm Gate Banner. Although the Thunderbirds could break the illusion formation, each time they did, they would be slowed down, giving Tang Jie more time to escape.
Each night, he would raid three to five times.
Sometimes he was lucky and able to gather a lot before the Warning Mice noticed. Other times, he was unlucky and walked into the guard perimeter of the Warning Mice on his first step.
What followed was a frenzied flight and pursuit.
It went on and on.
After several incidents, the Thunderbirds began to realize that they had encountered a troublesome foe.
On Tang Jie’s fourth day trying to steal grass, they began to station large numbers of Warning Mice on the perimeter to prevent Tang Jie from approaching.
The warning cries resounded on that night, lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled. Tang Jie’s efforts that night were essentially fruitless.
But in the day, Tang Jie captured several Nightshade Cats.
Nightshade Cats were natural enemies of Warning Mice, and one of the few existences that Warning Mice couldn’t sense. Thus, the Warning Mice faced disaster, and there were always a few unfortunate ones who ended up being eaten by the Nightshade Cats. Tang Jie used the openings to rush in and take some grass before running off.
The Thunderbirds were forced to adjust their tactics and send out some Thunderbirds to keep guard at low altitudes.
Tang Jie had an even simpler method to deal with these low-altitude Thunderbirds.
He used a substitute spell to make a fake target for the Thunderbirds, who had low intelligence. Once the Thunderbirds chased after the substitute, Tang Jie used the opening to seize as much grass as he could, making for one of his most fruitful nights.
On the eighth night, the Thunderbird King personally took part in the pursuit of Tang Jie.
That was the most dangerous night for Tang Jie.
The Thunderbird King was at the upper grade of Spirit Sensing and was incredibly strong, and it also had twelve middle-grade Thunderbirds with it. They weren’t fooled by the substitute and chased after the main body, and the Darkice Barrier was incapable of blocking the attacks of all these powerful Thunderbirds, shattering before he was even halfway through. If Tang Jie hadn’t already gone through repeated refining to become much more resistant to electricity such that he wouldn’t be paralyzed, he would already be dead.
Even so, Tang Jie was still left battered all over by the lightning.
But after just one night, Tang Jie was back to being as lively as ever.
He became even more cautious and prudent, but he also began to more frenziedly gather the thunderspirit grass.
This was a competition of tactics and spells, a siege battle of Thunderbird Cliff pitting a cultivator against fiend beasts.
There was only one attacker, but through his tenacity, agility, and ever-persevering mindset, he gradually seized the initiative.
Tang Jie had even planned for the Thunderbirds to lay down ambushers to strike at him from behind, but in reality, the limit of the Thunderbirds’ intelligence was to not fall for feints.
Thus, they could only screech anxiously as they watched the thunderspirit grass fields dwindle, but they didn’t have the slightest clue as to how to deal with it.
Tang Jie used his actions to give the Thunderbirds a lesson, to let them know that victory didn’t always rest in the hands of the strong, but in the hands of the one with initiative.
Tang Jie didn’t waste the daytime either.
He would clear up the surroundings, searching for herbs that he could use and fiend beasts he could hunt.
The flock of Thunderbirds meant that there weren’t any fiend beasts that were too strong around Thunderbird Cliff. Tang Jie could sweep through the area and take whatever he needed.
Such limited plunder couldn’t be underestimated. True profit often came from long-term accumulation. Those cultivators who imagined striking it rich from killing high-level fiend beasts were like people who deluded themselves into thinking that their business would experience explosive growth and profit. They were foreordained to have poor prospects.
Only by constantly accumulating resources and strength could one get the capital for the big deals.
Tang Jie spent ten days in this calm yet dangerous struggle against the Thunderbirds.
As he gathered more thunderspirit grass and the fields shrank, it also became more difficult for Tang Jie to gather grass. It was small enough that the flock of Thunderbirds could detect Tang Jie without the help of the Warning Mice.
But all the thunderspirit grass Tang Jie had gathered in that back-and-forth struggle meant that Tang Jie’s resistance to lightning grew stronger and stronger. Even while the battles and pursuits increased in frequency, Tang Jie became safer and safer.
Through these various battles, Tang Jie also began to activate the potential of all that spirit food Li Yu had given him, and he grew stronger and stronger.
As time went on, the Thunderbird flock stopped trying to chase Tang Jie. They simply drove him away before returning to their cliff, like humans chasing away sparrows trying to get at their rice.
The only difference was that this sparrow was getting stronger the more rice he stole.
The situation slowly began to shift.
On the eleventh day, Tang Jie came out in the day for the first time.
On this day, he went from theft to robbery.
He rushed up right under the eyes of the Thunderbirds, enduring the lightning to take the thunderspirit grass and run.
The pursuits went from happening at night to occurring throughout the day.
Tang Jie was like a tireless sparrow, constantly prowling around the perimeter, looking for a chance to steal, snatch, and rob.
The thunderspirit grass fields shrank once more.
The thirteenth day.
Tang Jie had been in the Valley of No Return for half a month.
He once more appeared today.
He smiled at the distant Thunderbirds and waved at them. “Hey! Good day! I’m back again.”
The Thunderbirds furiously stared at him, but they didn’t call, nor did they chase. They simply circled in the air.
After greeting them, Tang Jie strode over. As he approached the thunderspirit grass, the Thunderbirds cried out and swooped down.
Tang Jie threw out his golden thread, grabbing a large bundle of grass before turning and running.
The lightning cracked down, and several bolts struck Tang Jie. But Tang Jie only swayed a little before continuing forward.
A particularly large Thunderbird rushed forward and sent out an extremely thick lightning bolt. This was the Thunderbird King, the only upper-grade Thunderbird.
Tang Jie leaped, moving as quickly as lightning. After avoiding this bolt of lightning, he rushed up to the river and jumped in.
Everything was as if he was following a textbook.
Another robbery, and another escape.
The Thunderbird King could only angrily screech in the face of this vexing hoodlum and lead its flock away.
But as the flock was about to depart, a light shot out of the water.
Water gushed up as a sharp saber light whistled through the air and struck one of the departing Thunderbirds.
The saber light swept across the Thunderbird’s head, instantly cutting it off.
Cree! The flock instantly gathered together in anger, blasting lightning at Tang Jie. But in the dazzling light, Tang Jie simply trembled before grabbing the bird’s head and sinking back into the water, gone in the blink of an eye.
The Thunderbird King blasted the river bottom with lightning, and water splashed into the air and formed restless waves.
But no matter how it vented its rage, it could do nothing to Tang Jie within the water. On the contrary, a moment later, Tang Jie shot out of the water and killed another Thunderbird with his saber.
The Thunderbird was vigilant this time, and a steely claw came up and blocked the blade.
But a moment later, there was a flash of golden light, and the golden thread wrapped around the Thunderbird’s head. With a sharp tug, the thread cut through the head like tofu.
With two Thunderbirds slain, Tang Jie sank back into the water, shooting a playful glance at the Thunderbird King.
The Thunderbird King’s heart trembled. Even with its limited intelligence, it began to sense a new threat. This was the first time this annoying adversary had counterattacked.
The situation had changed again!
Enormous unease drowned out the anger it felt over the loss of its companions, and the Thunderbird King threw its head back and screeched, after which it led its flock back to Thunderbird Cliff.
Tang Jie once more emerged from the water.
His scorched body let out a few sparks before returning to normal.
Glancing at the distant flock, Tang Jie removed the plumes from the two bird heads and then threw out the corpses. He whistled, and the little tiger came running out of the distance.
This little guy was quite the clever rascal now. When he saw a battle, he would run, and when there was no battle, he would come back. And when Tang Jie ran into a fiend beast he couldn’t kill, meaning that there would be no lunch, the tiger would even angrily roar at Tang Jie. He was the classic spoiled brat.
He rushed over like lightning and began to eat away at the two Thunderbirds. His body was clearly even bigger than before. Tang Jie saw that the little guy was happily eating and was just about to go and take one of his refinement baths when he suddenly noticed something strange and turned to look at the tiger.
He was happily eating away and had apparently not noticed Tang Jie’s gaze.
Tang Jie looked at him and suddenly grabbed the bird corpse.
The little tiger jumped up in panic, swatting his paw at the corpse. Tang Jie took a step back and threw the corpse away. The little tiger jumped into the air, twisted his body, bit down on the Thunderbird, and landed back on the ground, executing all of his movements with grace and elegance.
“The Wind God Step?” Tang Jie blurted out.
The little tiger had clearly used the Wind God Step that Wang Poguan had used before.
Tang Jie embraced the tiger and shouted, “You’ve finally awakened your fiend power!”
Grr… The little tiger stubbornly bit down on the Thunderbird flesh, growling in dissatisfaction.
I hate it when others disturb my feeding time!
“Don’t focus only on eating. What else do you know?” Tang Jie forcefully pulled the meat away from the tiger, and the tiger swept his paws at him and roared.
The roar shook Tang Jie’s soul. This was none other than the Tiger King Roar.
What followed was a wind blade, which sliced off a chunk of the Thunderbird meat that Tang Jie was holding. The little tiger jumped and caught the meat, swallowing it in a single gulp. This was none other than the Galetiger Blade.
The Gale Blade of the Basking Moon Sect had actually been obtained from the fiend tiger race.
But this Galetiger Blade used by the little tiger was much faster and stronger than Wu Xing’s Gale Blade.
Seeing this, Tang Jie knew that the little tiger had truly managed to awaken his fiend power.
The awakening of fiend power meant that the little tiger could use spell arts, meaning that he had become a real fiend beast and entered the lower grade. Now, he just needed enough time to mature.
Unlike the bloodline awakening, the fiend power awakening only meant that a fiend beast had the ability to cast spells.
Spells were just a method of circulating spiritual energy, so spells normally weren’t inherited. Fiend beasts normally developed spells based on their surrounding environment and their own bodies.
Sometimes, the influence of their bloodlines meant that some fiend beasts could obtain the abilities of their fathers, but this was because they were often taught them.
This was similar to how the children of an engineer could become engineers, but this was greatly influenced by the guidance and nurturing of the household, having little to do with bloodline. At the very least, bloodline did not play a decisive role.
Only fiend beasts with particularly powerful bloodlines could transfer spell arts intact through bloodlines, allowing their children to possess powerful spell arts from the start, and even without their fathers by their side, they could still develop these abilities.
Only these spell arts that were passed down through generations could be called true natural spell arts.
Very few fiend beasts possessed true natural spell arts, and only a small number of fiend beasts were capable of passing down one or two.
Tang Jie had long ago known that the fiend tiger lineage of Tiger Roar Peak wasn’t simple, but he hadn’t expected it to be this strong. This little tiger had inherited three natural spell arts.
In other words, only Wang Poguan’s earth-element spells, such as the Earth Spike, were spells that he had learned on his own later on, and the others were natural abilities.
This wasn’t a good thing!
Having a fiend tiger wasn’t a problem, but having a fiend tiger with the same natural abilities as the fiend tiger of Tiger Roar Peak was a serious problem.
At this thought, Tang Jie’s heart sank. “Shit, this is a predicament!”