"You said this wasn't the only case?"
Frowning as she checked the man's body, Su Min found no injuries apart from bruises caused by a fall, likely from fear. There were no other wounds—an obvious sign he had encountered something unclean. She remembered hearing earlier that this wasn't the only incident. Since she didn't usually live in the village, she naturally hadn't heard about it before.
"Yes. Three or four so far."
"I see..."
Su Min narrowed her eyes upon hearing this. It was obvious that they were being targeted by some unclean creature.
"What do these people who died have in common?"
Silence.
Only a madwoman cackled from the crowd: "Hahaha! Retribution! It's Ah Cai coming for them!"
"Who's Ah Cai? The one who eloped with your daughter and got beaten to death?"
Others might fear ghosts, but Su Min couldn't care less. Her philosophy was straightforward—if vengeful spirits came, they came. Naturally, she ignored the madwoman's ramblings, turning instead to the village chief with a hint of gloating. In her mind, she quickly pieced together countless melodramatic scenarios.
"That's not it, young lady," the chieftain quickly explained after hearing her words. "People like Ah Cai are our most valuable resource here. I would never kill them lightly."
"Ah Cai was part of the herbal gathering team. Much of the medicine you use comes from them. But as you know, there are tigers and black bears in these mountains. That's why I made a rule: anyone going into the mountains must carry a spear and go in groups of no fewer than five."
"Hmm."
An accident, then. This world wasn't like her past life, where South China tigers neared extinction. Here, the wilds remained deadly.
"A few days ago, a group went to gather herbs. On their way back, a giant tiger appeared. It didn't even need to stand on its hind legs to be nearly two meters tall. It pounced and knocked down a man in a single move. They'd never seen a tiger that huge. With just one bite, half the man's head was gone—no chance of survival. Even you wouldn't have been able to save him."
"I see..."
Su Min nodded again. There wasn't much she could do when someone was killed instantly.
"The others were so terrified they ran straight back to the village. That madwoman is Ah Cai's mother. Unable to cope with the grief, she blamed them for Ah Cai's death. As for the ghost seeking revenge... we..."
"That's no ghost," Su Min interrupted coldly. "This corpse has a thick aura of demon energy. You just can't sense it. True vengeful spirits don't have this."
"Huh?"
"I know what's going on. As the saying goes, 'acting as a ghost for the tiger.' There's a type of ghost called a Chang Ghost. If a tiger has certain talents, it can bind the soul of those it kills and use them as its servants."
"Then the people who died..."
"Exactly," Su Min said. "That beast clearly has some intelligence. It deliberately targeted a few people, creating the illusion of vengeful spirits to confuse you. But it's only mildly intelligent—it didn't realize how thick a trail of demon energy it left behind. As for the Chang Ghosts, since they no longer have physical bodies, ordinary knives and fire won't hurt them."
Ghosts have a peculiar trait: they naturally target living beings. In games, you'd see their stats—low health, fragile defense—but extremely high immunity. Ordinary weapons and flames can't touch them. Only spirit-infused spells or items like peach wood swords can deal with them. For cultivators, they're just low-level mobs for grinding experience.
But for ordinary people, they're impossible to fight.
"Master, please help us!"
At Su Min's explanation, the once-terrified crowd calmed down. Then, one after another, they all knelt before her, begging for her help.
If it had just been vengeful spirits, many would have simply waited for others to die first, treating it as a spectacle. But now, realizing the tiger demon's cunning, they understood how dangerous the situation was. Without Su Min's intervention, they might all be killed one by one. Plus, many of them had already seen the Chang Ghosts firsthand and knew they were powerless against them.
~Edit and rewritten by Rikhi, Reiya_Alberich, ReiNyam~
At that moment, Su Min became their only hope. Hundreds of people knelt together, creating a rather spectacular scene.
"Everyone, get up first," Su Min said. "This matter needs to be handled carefully. Bring the survivors from the herbal gathering team to a secluded place. The fewer who know about this, the better. We don't know what other tricks the tiger demon might have."
"Bring Ah Yang and come with me," the chief ordered without hesitation, pulling the only survivor away.
"Oh, and burn this body."
"Huh?"
"Corpses drained of vital energy like this one are saturated with demonic energy. Over time, this energy can combine with lingering resentment and eventually produce future disasters."
"Huh?"
The villagers looked dumbfounded. According to their customs, the dead were placed in coffins and hung from cliff faces.
"Also, the other bodies from similar deaths need to be handled the same way. If you don't believe me, wait a month or two and open their coffins—you'll see the corpses look exactly the same as when they were buried. And don't even think about sending them to my place. I run a medicine house, not a mortuary."
With that, Su Min turned and left without looking back, saying all she needed to say. Whether they listened or not was their problem. From her experience with zombie movies, most disasters happened because people didn't listen.
In any case, it would take over a decade for a zombie like that to mature enough to be a real threat, and by then she'd be long gone—stronger, too, and far beyond such worries. She'd already given them fair warning. As the saying goes, "Kind words can't persuade a damned ghost."
As for the tiger demon—she was determined to take it down. According to her bestiary, a tiger that has cultivated spiritual energy is a treasure from head to tail. If it had behaved quietly, she might have left it alone. But since it dared stir up trouble right under her nose, there was no reason to let it go.
Besides, given the current state of the world, only a tiny fraction of humans had the ability to cultivate. Tigers, with their low natural intelligence, would be even rarer cases. Since the danger wasn't too great and the potential rewards were huge, there was nothing more to say.