Forging Immortality: The Undying Blacksmith

Chapter 61: Li Qing, the Tiger-Slayer

As the tiger limped back toward its den, Li Qing emerged from the dense shrubbery, broad-bladed knife in hand.

“ROAR!”

The wounded beast snarled, a low, guttural warning. It bared its fangs, its presence still immense despite the limp. Its ferocious spirit was far from broken.

But Li Qing had come specifically to hunt this creature. Fear was a luxury he couldn’t afford.

His steps were deliberate, each one a drumbeat on the forest floor. Inner Force coiled through his limbs, his entire body a compressed spring of lethal potential. The tiger watched him advance, its muscles tensing. With a final, menaging growl, it displayed its saber-like canines—a final warning.

In a matter of breaths, Li Qing closed the distance and stopped, facing the beast in a silent standoff. For a fleeting moment, his mind drifted. He never would have imagined he’d one day have the nerve to hunt a tiger alone, completely devoid of fear.

*An injured tiger, but a tiger nonetheless,* he thought with a cold smirk. *It seems I’ll be playing the hero today.*

His left hand blurred to his waist, plucking a Bone-Piercing Nail from its pouch. Inner Force spiraled around his fingertips, merging with the explosive power of his Outer Force.

*FWOOSH!*

With a flick of his wrist, the nail shot forward, tearing through the air with a sharp whistle. A heartbeat later, a gout of blood and fur erupted from the tiger’s shoulder.

A tiger’s hide was no mere fur; its defensive properties were astounding. A normal man struck by that nail would have been skewered through, but the beast merely bled.

“ROOOOAR!”

The new wound piled upon the old drove the tiger into a frenzy. It roared, and with a powerful lunge driven by its three good legs, it launched itself at Li Qing.

As the saying goes, dragons ride the clouds and tigers command the wind.

A gale seemed to whip through the forest. To Li Qing, the pouncing beast was no longer an animal but a living mountain of muscle and claw crashing down upon him, its presence utterly suffocating.

In that instant, his Inner Force surged, and his Outer Force vibrated in concert. He didn’t dodge. He met the attack head-on, his knife flashing in a deadly arc.

*SHING!*

The blade met the tiger’s swiping paw. The sickening crunch of bone and sinew echoed as the appendage was shorn clean off.

But the tiger’s other paw slammed into his chest with the force of a battering ram.

*CRUNCH!*

The impact shuddered through his spiked iron armor, a concussive blow that sent a shockwave through his organs. The air was driven from his lungs.

He stumbled back three steps before planting his feet, sinking into the unshakeable stance of the Gu Xuan Hammer Technique. His waist and legs became one, drawing strength from the solid earth beneath him.

“AWOOOO!” the tiger shrieked in agony. In a single exchange, it had lost one paw and had the other impaled. The razor-sharp spikes studding Li Qing’s armor had sunk deep into its flesh, skewering muscle and tendon.

Having regained his footing, Li Qing’s hand moved again. Three more Bone-Piercing Nails appeared between his fingers and he flung them with a vicious snap of his wrist.

*WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!*

Three more whistles cut through the air, and three more blossoms of blood erupted across the tiger’s back.

At this point, the outcome was certain. Li Qing, meticulously prepared, facing a beast bleeding from multiple wounds—victory was all but guaranteed.

Yet, he had no intention of ending it quickly. Instead, he did something that made Old Man Sun’s jaw drop.

*CLANG!*

Li Qing tossed his broad-bladed knife to the ground. The crisp sound of metal on stone echoed in the tense silence.

“What—” Old Man Sun started to cry out but clamped his mouth shut, terrified of distracting Li Qing.

Li Qing hadn’t discarded his weapon out of bravado. He wanted to use this dying beast as a whetstone, to sharpen the raw, brutal techniques of his Fierce Tiger True Intent Diagram.

“Come,” Li Qing growled, his eyes blazing with predatory focus. “No blades. Just you and me.”

The tiger, as if understanding his intent, shook its massive head and began to stalk toward him.

“ROAR!”

It didn’t pounce this time. It closed the distance slowly, then reared up on its hind legs, swiping with its remaining, mangled paw.

Li Qing stood his ground, rooted in the stance of the Gu Xuan Hammer Technique. But his arms moved with a different power, channeling the Fierce Tiger True Intent Diagram into a devastating tiger fist.

*BAM!*

Man and beast collided in a maelstrom of raw power.

Li Qing fought with cold precision, constantly guarding his head against a single swipe that could pulp his skull. He became a whirlwind of destruction. Fists, elbows, knees—every part of his body, supercharged with both Inner and Outer Force, became a weapon designed to shatter bone and pulp flesh.

He was testing the limits of his Golden Body Art, gauging just how much punishment his body could endure. Unfortunately, while the Turtle Breath Technique complemented the Golden Body Art, the latter’s progress remained slow. He was still far from reaching the Novice level. Without external aids, mastering the first layer of this talent-agnostic art required three years of grueling practice. Li Qing had been at it for less than six months.

But his physical prowess wasn’t solely from the Golden Body Art. It was a fusion—the crushing power of the Gu Xuan Hammer Technique, the ferocity of the Fierce Tiger True Intent Diagram, and the speed of the Qingluo Leg Technique. Forged by these disciplines, he was a walking steel cannon even among other Outer Force martial artists.

The brutal exchange continued until, finally, the tiger’s strength began to fail. It was too grievously wounded. It had just survived a battle with a python only to run into Li Qing. There was no escape.

“Awooo…” The injured tiger let out a final, unwilling roar. It was a mournful sound, the cry of a creature that knew its life was over.

Li Qing was no sentimentalist. Releasing a tiger back into the mountains was an act of foolishness he would never commit. His sole purpose for this trip was the beast’s bones.

“Die!”

His Inner and Outer Force erupted, all of it converging into his fist.

*BOOM!*

A gale seemed to erupt from his stance. He channeled every ounce of his power into a single, devastating punch that connected with the tiger’s skull.

There was a wet, sickening *CRACK*.

The massive beast crumpled, its life extinguished in an instant.

To hunt a tiger alone was the mark of a true hero. Anywhere in the world, a man who could slay such a beast single-handedly would be hailed as a champion.

Li Qing stood over the corpse, breathing heavily. The fight had drained him far more than his raid on the Yan family back in the Extreme Night World.

“A wild beast, indeed,” he muttered, a cold assessment. “Ferocious to the last, even when crippled.”

But despite his words, the joy in his eyes was undeniable.

The tiger bones were his.

After so long in Sheng Tian, he had finally gathered all the ingredients for both medicinal wine recipes. This was a monumental victory. Once the wine was brewed, his martial cultivation would skyrocket. He would no longer have to grind away, waiting for time to do its work.

Nearby, Old Man Sun, who had witnessed the entire spectacle, was frozen in place. The young man before him had actually beaten a full-grown tiger to death with his bare hands. Even if the beast was already injured, the sight was both horrifying and awe-inspiring.

After catching his breath, Li Qing felt his strength return. He picked up his knife, sheathed it at his waist, then bent down. He grabbed the tiger’s carcass—a mass of muscle and bone that had to weigh well over three hundred pounds—and heaved it onto his shoulders with a single, fluid motion.

The saying that an Outer Force martial artist could lift a cauldron was no mere legend. It was a terrifying reality.

“Let’s go, old man.”

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