The mutated tiger resembled a saber-toothed tiger. Its fangs were long and razor-sharp, and it stood nearly two meters tall. It bared its teeth at Su Yue, letting out a low, menacing growl.
Faced with such a massive beast, Su Yue’s scalp tingled with fear and her legs threatened to give out beneath her.
What terrible luck.
She had no time to wonder why a mutated tiger had appeared here.
She backed away, trying to create some distance.
But they were deep in a mountain forest, where the terrain was uneven and difficult. The mutated tiger was incredibly fast despite its enormous size—it could cover several meters in a single leap.
Compared to it, thirteen-year-old Su Yue was nothing more than a tiny shrimp hopping around.
She summoned all of her vines at once. Ten thorn-covered vines shot from her palms.
The tiger showed no fear and lunged forward.
The mutated vines held it back for only an instant before the force of its charge snapped them apart.
The tiger’s hide was thick and tough. The vines’ poisonous thorns couldn’t pierce its fur and skin, so the venom had no way to enter its body.
Her ability level was still too low. Her vines lacked the strength and resilience they needed.
Although Su Yue possessed a healing ability, she had no idea whether she could survive being reduced to nothing but bones by a tiger.
Her adrenaline surged. The pounding of her heartbeat, mixed with the tiger’s roars, echoed in her ears like thunder.
Forget it!
If I die whether I fight or not, then even if I end up in its stomach, I’ll take one of its eyes with me!
Gripping the chicken-beak knife tightly in her hand, she suddenly threw herself flat onto the ground. The tiger’s massive body sailed over her.
But before she could celebrate, the mutated tiger whipped its tail around, turned its head, and sank its jaws into her left ankle.
Too fast.
There was no way to dodge.
Crack!
A sharp snapping sound rang out as unbearable pain shot straight to her brain.
Su Yue screamed. Driven by pure survival instinct, she kicked upward with her right foot as hard as she could, aiming for the tiger’s eye.
The tiger shook its head from side to side, dragging her along the ground. It clearly didn’t regard her as a real threat.
Blood poured from her ankle. If the tiger shook her a few more times, her foot would likely be torn clean off.
Fighting through the agony, she activated her ability again, regrowing her vines and driving them toward the tiger’s eye.
In the blink of an eye, the thorned vine pierced its eyelid. The vine twisted inside the eye socket and gouged out one of the tiger’s eyes.
The sight was gruesome and nauseating.
But to Su Yue, it looked like hope.
The tiger roared in agony, startling flocks of birds and nearby animals into flight.
As it opened its jaws to howl, Su Yue yanked her mangled ankle free. But her injuries were too severe. Her healing ability could only mend them slowly; she couldn’t put weight on her foot yet and could barely stand.
The tiger’s roar shook the forest.
Even scavengers searching the northern slopes of South Cliff Mountain heard the distant cries of the mutated tiger and hurriedly moved elsewhere.
Blinded in one eye, the tiger became frenzied. It bared its fangs and charged wildly, slamming into several nearby trees.
The venom injected by the vines finally began to take effect.
Its movements noticeably slowed. It was no longer as agile as before.
But that was all.
Its body was simply too large. The poison wasn’t enough to bring it down.
Su Yue’s mind raced.
At this rate, she couldn’t kill it.
She just needed to make sure it couldn’t bite her again.
Within seconds, the mutated tiger launched its second attack.
Leaning against a giant tree, Su Yue stood on her injured leg. Having been wounded once already, the tiger had become more cautious. Its remaining eye stared fixedly at her as it advanced step by step.
Su Yue changed her strategy.
The moment the tiger sprang toward her again, she aimed for a low branch overhead. Her vines wrapped tightly around it several times and lifted her into the air.
Fortunately, she was light, and the vines had no trouble carrying her.
Using the momentum of the swing, she released the branch and dropped onto the tiger’s broad back.
At the same time, she bound herself to the tiger with several vines to keep from falling off.
The tiger twisted around to bite her, but she grabbed its head first.
Clutching the chicken-beak knife tightly, she drove it into the tiger’s remaining eye.
The tiger wasn’t stupid.
It slammed its back into the giant tree with all its might.
Su Yue wanted to dodge, but the vines had wrapped around them several times. There wasn’t enough time to untangle herself.
She had no choice but to endure the impact.
“Pfft!”
A mouthful of blood sprayed from her lips.
So much pain.
The tremendous force crushed her body against the tree. Su Yue felt as though one of her internal organs had ruptured. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.
But her hand never stopped moving.
She kept driving the chicken-beak knife deeper into the tiger’s eye socket, twisting the handle as she did.
It was a fight to the death.
There was no room to think about pain or injuries.
Her instinct to survive reached its peak, driving her to push harder—harder still.
Behind the eye lay the brain.
The tiger’s skull was too large for the knife to penetrate directly, but it could break through the soft cartilage protecting the back of the eye socket.
She twisted two vines together into a stronger, spiral shape and yanked out the knife.
The tiger was already staggering in agony and preparing to ram the tree a second time.
She had to get away.
One more impact would kill her.
The reinforced vines plunged through the opening the knife had created, driving straight into the tiger’s brain.
At the same time, the vines binding Su Yue to the tiger unraveled.
She leaped off the tiger’s back, jumping away from the tree.
The sudden movement jostled her already shattered insides, and she vomited another mouthful of blood.
The tiger was in even worse condition.
With its brain pierced by the vines, its body continued forward on sheer momentum and crashed into the tree.
It let out one final, agonized cry before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Within moments, it stopped breathing.
Su Yue’s injuries were so severe that she nearly failed to draw her next breath.
She wasn’t dead yet.
But she wasn’t far from it.
When she saw the tiger lying motionless, the last thread of tension in her mind snapped.
Her vision went black, and she lost consciousness.
When she awoke again, it was already two o’clock in the afternoon.
She had been unconscious for more than six hours.
Her healing ability had partially repaired the damage to her internal organs. Breathing was still difficult, but at least she wasn’t in immediate danger anymore.
Her left ankle had been nearly severed. Most of the bone had snapped apart, and it was healing slowly. She would need to manually set the broken bones back into place to speed up the recovery.
The blood at the corner of her mouth had already dried.
The mutated tiger’s corpse still lay beside her.
Fortunately, the tiger’s earlier roars had frightened away other mutated creatures from the area.
Supporting herself with one hand, she slowly sat up and painstakingly moved closer to the tiger.
Taking several deep breaths, she gripped her mangled foot and carefully forced the broken bones back into alignment.
Cold sweat covered her forehead, and her face was pale.
Yet her eyes burned with determination and stubborn resolve.
Combined with the blood and dirt smeared across her face, she looked like a wild hunter.
Leaning against the tiger’s soft fur, she rested for a while and gradually regained some strength.
Her mouth was unbearably dry. Her satchel and water bottle had been lost somewhere during the fight.
Even experienced hunting teams like Li Zheng’s, equipped with top-tier gear, wouldn’t dare hunt such a massive adult tiger casually.
But that also meant one thing:
The crystal core inside its head had to be enormous.
It might even be enough to upgrade Su Yue’s ability once again.