When Golden Finger Meets Salted Fish

The dragons’ eyes on the throne were firmly inlaid, yet the system couldn’t shake the feeling that each pair of eyes seemed alive. As the little white tiger reached to pry out a gemstone, the whiskers of the roaring dragon appeared to quiver.

Jiang Mo sensed something, but upon looking, found nothing amiss. The nine dragons remained unchanged.

The little white tiger tilted her head, paw itching to dig out all eighteen gemstone eyes. She imagined showing them to her senior sister, perhaps inlaying them in Fuxue Sword—though such a gaudy style would likely displease her senior sister, they could always be concealed with a formation array if practical.

Having mentally allocated the gemstones, the little white tiger hadn’t completely lost her caution. Before reaching out again, she asked the system, “System, did the dragons on the throne move earlier?”

The system, weary of its host’s greed, reluctantly replied, “The system didn’t see anything.”

Unconvinced, the little white tiger pressed, “Don’t you have a recording function? Can you replay the earlier footage?”

This time, the system promptly reviewed the footage. To its shock, it indeed saw dragons moving when the host tried to dig out the “dragon eyes.” Not just the roaring dragon, but the flying and coiled dragons also moved—whiskers twitching, heads slightly turning, one even raising a claw… But when the host looked up, all dragons froze again.

What did this mean? The system didn’t know, but it realized its host might be in trouble!

As the system was about to warn her, the nine dragons on the throne—either sensing the little white tiger’s hesitation or growing impatient—suddenly emitted light from their eighteen eyes. This was the last image the system saw.

The next moment, the system’s view went dark, similar to when the host had blocked its perception upon entering her innate space. However, since this wasn’t the host’s doing, and the system itself wasn’t part of the cultivation world’s energy system, it recovered quickly. As soon as its vision returned, it saw a massive, gaping maw lunging towards its host.

The system panicked, but fortunately, the little white tiger hadn’t lost consciousness during the change and saw the scene simultaneously.

Facing danger and trials upon entering this palace was something Jiang Mo had anticipated, so she felt neither surprised nor flustered. She only inwardly regretted not prying out the eighteen gemstone dragon eyes before nimbly dodging the huge, snapping jaws.

“What is that?!” The little white tiger evaded gracefully but was startled when she turned to look.

The creature lunging at her was a strange, ferocious beast with a sheep’s body and human face, eyes under its armpits, tiger teeth, and human claws. Having missed its attack, the beast roared, its cry like an infant’s wail.

The little white tiger had never seen such a bizarre beast. Its ugliness shocked her, and its infant-like cry was more jarring than endearing. Frowning, she swung a paw, channeling spiritual energy to manifest a massive golden tiger paw that struck the beast. Despite its apparent ferocity, the creature stumbled and fell from the blow.

The system finally spoke, answering the host’s earlier question: “If I’m not mistaken, this should be a Taotie.”

Though newly manufactured, the system came equipped with a database. Beyond its inherent knowledge, it had also downloaded considerable information from the modern world where it first bonded with its host.

Descriptions of beasts like the Taotie existed in many worlds, and this one matched certain depictions.

Jiang Mo had heard of Taotie, known as extremely greedy beasts. Legend said they were insatiable, eating everything until eventually consuming themselves… But she had never known Taotie looked like this.

The little white tiger’s face showed disgust: “Isn’t Taotie supposed to be an ancient ferocious beast? Why is it so weak?”

The system paused before answering: “But host, you’re also an ancient divine beast. Besides, this probably isn’t a real Taotie, perhaps just a wisp of its essence or a created false beast.”

Such creations were common. Artifact refiners often carved images of dragons, phoenixes, or qilins on their creations, either for aesthetics or to borrow divine beast power. While usually decorative, occasionally these images served as temporary resting places for passing divine beasts.

The divine beasts would leave, but their essence lingered. After millennia, when the artifacts gained sentience, they might take on divine beast forms, inheriting some of their nature and abilities.

The same applied to ferocious beasts.

This Taotie likely originated similarly. A false beast facing a true divine beast was inherently at a disadvantage. Its full strength couldn’t even manifest half its power before the little white tiger. Yet, its greed remained unmasked. It scrambled up and lunged at the little white tiger again, eyes full of hunger.

The little white tiger had never been viewed as food before, her fur bristling. Growing more disgusted with the approaching false Taotie, she struck out again, not only knocking it down but pouncing on its back to pummel it.

After beating it for some time, her next strike caused the false Taotie to burst like a balloon.

With a loud “pop,” points of golden light scattered.

◆◇◆◇◆

After defeating the false Taotie, the little white tiger’s vision went dark then bright again, finding herself in a new space.

Before her stood two tall palace doors, matching the nouveau riche style of the previous hall. Beyond basic gold inlays and jade embellishments, various gemstones adorned them, almost blinding to behold. This time, however, the little white tiger showed no interest in prying off the gems, instead dismissing them with disdain.

Though an inexperienced, poor tiger, her year-plus in the cultivation world had given her a basic sense of value judgment: the more spiritual energy an item contained, the more valuable it was, regardless of recognition.

The dragon eyes on the throne, while similarly beautiful and transparent, harbored a thousandfold more spiritual energy than these palace door gems. Only those met her standards for deigning to take; these before her were mere trash in her eyes.

The little white tiger snorted lightly, raising a paw to push open the palace doors.

Beyond lay a long corridor, with tightly closed chamber doors on the left and a lotus pond on the right. The lotus petals were delicate pink, leaves vibrant green, swaying gracefully in the breeze—a beautiful sight. Yet this beauty belonged to the mortal realm, incomparable to the ice lotuses in Peak Lord Qingyu’s private garden, as these pink lotuses lacked any spiritual energy.

The little white tiger glanced briefly before focusing on the closed chamber doors, her eyes brightening—could these be the chambers mentioned in the system’s task? She counted nine in total.

Nine chambers, likely filled with treasures. Was the false Taotie a gatekeeper?

With these thoughts, she padded to the first chamber door. Just before raising her paw to push it open, she remembered something and instructed the system, “System, scan first and see if you can detect what’s inside.”

The system obeyed but quickly reported, “It’s no use, host. The door has a special energy field; I can’t scan through.”

The little white tiger felt a bit disappointed but realized it made sense. Otherwise, the system could simply scan everything, negating the need for an exploration task. She took a deep breath, preparing for any crisis, even facing a beast uglier than the false Taotie, then forcefully kicked open the first chamber door.

Simultaneously, she leaped back defensively. However, the chamber held no danger—no sudden attacks, no ambushes, only the echo of the door being kicked open resounding in the deathly quiet space.

The atmosphere felt slightly awkward, but it didn’t matter; only she and her system knew.

The little white tiger returned, unfazed, still not rushing to enter. She peered inside from the threshold. To her surprise, the chamber was empty save for a long table in the center, atop which sat a sizable chest.

What could be in that chest?

With three parts hesitation and two parts curiosity, the little white tiger finally stepped into the chamber. Her divine beast instincts didn’t warn of danger, emboldening her. She circled the room, confirming its emptiness, before returning her gaze to the chest.

From a distance, she sent a stream of spiritual energy towards it, but the seemingly ordinary wooden chest remained unmoved and undamaged. Her curiosity grew. This time, she carefully controlled her spiritual energy to slowly open the chest lid.

A glimmer of precious light escaped, followed by extremely pure spiritual energy…

With a loud “clang,” the little white tiger flung the lid open completely, revealing the chest’s contents: a full load of spirit stones. Though the chest lacked spatial arrays to hold much, these weren’t ordinary spirit stones—they were all premium-grade, half suited for her metal attribute and half for her senior sister’s ice attribute.

As is widely known, spirit stones serve as universal currency in the cultivation world, and few are willing to directly absorb them for cultivation—while efficient, it literally burns money.

Premium spirit stones, however, transcend currency, becoming genuine cultivation resources that aren’t single-use. Once depleted, they naturally replenish by absorbing ambient spiritual energy, functioning like rechargeable batteries for continuous use.

The little white tiger gasped… Could this be her reward for defeating the false Taotie?!