Star Instructor, Master Baek

TL: FoodieMonster007

"MRREEEEOW!" The furball squirmed and lashed out with its front paws in a desperate attempt to scratch Ya Suhyeok.

Unfortunately, the boy's external arts-reinforced arms were completely impenetrable to the tiny claws.

"Hold still, little guy… Hey!" Ya Suhyeok scowled threateningly, but the furball was a wild animal and resisted fiercely. Still, it's desperate squirming only felt ticklish to him.

Baek Suryong studied the struggling furball more closely. "On second thought… I don't think this is a cat. It's probably a tiger cub," he mused.

Upon hearing the word 'tiger', Ya Suhyeok flinched and glared intensely at the furball, a hint of killing intent in his eyes.

What's wrong with this guy? Baek Suryong wondered, confused, when he suddenly recalled the boy's past. Right, he said his father was killed by a tiger when he was little.

According to Ya Suhyeok, he had already avenged his father, but it seemed that his hatred for tigers still lingered.

"Wait," Ya Suhyeok muttered, furrowing his brows. "Can tigers be pure white? With no stripes?"

"Hmm… It might be a Silver Tiger, which is even rarer than the White Tiger. This is my first time seeing one in person, so I can't be certain," Baek Suryong replied.

The Silver Tiger was an extremely rare type of spirit beast, known for its gentle nature, acute qi senses, and high intelligence. Unlike ordinary tigers, they rarely attacked humans, and legend had it that they were once the companions of deities.

Why is this little cub all alone?

There was only one possible reason for a tiger cub this small to be wandering around alone. Either the mother was dead, or she was unable to protect her cub.

"…Should we kill it?" Ya Suhyeok whispered.

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"Why?"

"It's bound to start hunting people when it grows up."

"Silver Tigers don't eat people. Anyway, give it to me for now."

Sighing, Baek Suryong took the tiger cub from Ya Suhyeok. He had a feeling that if he left it with the boy, he might crush it with his bare hands.

Interestingly, the moment Baek Suryong held the Silver Tiger in his arms, it stopped squirming and became strangely docile.

"Purr…" the Silver Tiger purred happily.

Feeling slightly annoyed, Ya Suhyeok grumbled, "It's just an animal, and it's already choosing who to befriend."

"The mother must be somewhere close by," Baek Suryong surmised. "We should go look for her."

"Ah, I see. Are you leaving it alive so that you can kill the mother too?"

"……" Baek Suryong didn't bother to answer the prejudiced question. He was more curious to know why a powerful spirit beast like the Silver Tiger had died or gotten critically injured.

Was it killed by a martial artist after its inner pearl? Or was there another reason?

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Regardless, he would decide whether to kill or spare this little guy after finding out what happened to its mother.

"Let's go out," he instructed.

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Ya Suhyeok nodded. "Okay."

Baek Suryong cuddled the now submissive Silver Tiger cub and walked past Ya Suhyeok. For a moment, the Silver Tiger's eyes met Ya Suhyeok's again.

"NYAAAAH!"

"What? You little…!"

"Shut up, both of you," Baek Suryong commanded.

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The two kids immediately turned their heads in opposite directions.

Hidden in the bushes, two men stealthily observed the Silver Tiger.

"Mr. Baek," Ya Suhyeok whispered, his tone disgruntled. "Do we really have to go this far?"

"Shh!" Baek Suryong hissed.

After exiting the cave, he had released the Silver Tiger. Of course, he hadn't actually let it go. He was just pretending, waiting for it to lead him to its mother.

"Meow…" The Silver Tiger glanced around, seeming a little uneasy, before starting to move.

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The two men quietly followed.

Even though it was still a cub, a spirit beast was still a spirit beast. Once it started running seriously, it was much faster than humans. However, it seemed that this cub hadn't traversed the mountains much on its own…

SPLAT!

The Silver Tiger tripped over a tree root and tumbled over.

"Whimper…" Blinking back tears, it struggled back to its feet and licked the wound on its paw.

Ya Suhyeok clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "What a dumb kitty."

After an hour of pursuit, the Silver Tiger finally slowed down, entered a deep mountain valley, and squeezed through a wooden barricade into what appeared to be a mountain fortress.

Ya Suhyeok furrowed his brows. "That's a bandit keep."

A signboard marked the bandit keep as belonging to the Viridian Forest Bandits. It was cleverly hidden deep within the valley, probably to avoid the eyes of the authorities.

Baek Suryong's expression hardened. "I smell blood from inside."

"What?" Ya Suhyeok gasped. "Don't tell me…that little bastard!"

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BOOM!

Like a cannonball, Ya Suhyeok shot forth, jumping cleanly over the barricade that surrounded the mountain keep.

Baek Suryong immediately chased after him. Upon scanning the interior of the keep, however, his face crumpled.

Fuck, this is terrible.

More than half of the keep was destroyed, and dozens of mutilated corpses lay scattered inside, most of them seemingly crushed by huge boulders.

Ya Suhyeok's eyes turned wild at the sight. "Those filthy beasts…!"

He directed his wrath at the little Silver Tiger, who was huddled among the corpses. The dozens of brutally murdered corpses and his father's mangled body overlapped in his mind.

Despite trembling in fear, the furball bared its teeth. "Hiss…"

"I'll kill you!" Ya Suhyeok roared, releasing his killing intent and moving to attack.

However, Baek Suryong blocked his path. "Calm down, Suhyeok. That little one didn't do this."

"Then it must have been its mother!"

"Take a closer look at the corpses."

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"Move! This is the Viridian Forest Bandits' business! Even if it's you, I won't let you go if you interfere!" Ya Suhyeok bellowed, swinging his fist at Baek Suryong as if to prove he meant what he said.

WHOOSH!

Watching the huge fist zooming toward him with incredible speed, Baek Suryong sighed softly, "I get that you're angry, but first, you need to calm down."

SMACK!

In a flash, Baek Suryong slapped Ya Suhyeok's face, causing his head to snap to the side and his entire body to sway.

The sting of the slap seemed to break through Ya Suhyeok's rage, but he still glared at Baek Suryong resentfully. "Why… Why are you… protecting that… thing?" he growled.

"Because you're misdirecting your anger." Baek Suryong explained patiently, motioning toward the corpses. "Calm down and take a good, hard look at the state of the corpses."

Ya Suhyeok's gaze followed.

"Most of the bandits were crushed by something massive, and yet the bite marks are relatively tiny, with no sign of anything torn apart by sharp claws. Most importantly, there are traces of poison on the corpses. Does this look like the work of a tiger to you?"

Having finally regained his senses, Ya Suhyeok examined the corpses carefully and slowly shook his head, looking confused.

"You're right," he admitted. "This wasn't done by a tiger, but by a snake. Still, I've never seen a viper this big before."

"Then it must be a spirit beast," Baek Suryong remarked, nodding. From the bite marks and the blue poison smeared all over their bodies, as well as the marks on the ground where a huge body had slithered past, he too had concluded that the bandits had been killed by an unusually large viper.

"Let's ask someone for more details."

"Huh? What are you talking about? Everyone's dead. Who are we supposed to…"

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"You over there," Baek Suryong interrupted, staring at the collapsed barricade. "Come out."

Quivering with fear, a shabby-looking middle-aged man crawled out from behind the barricade. "Um, who are you?" he asked gingerly.

He was a survivor of the bandit gang.

The surviving bandits lined up in front of Baek Suryong and Ya Suhyeok, shuffling their feet nervously as the middle-aged man introduced himself as the Underboss of the bandit keep.

"Our Boss passed away recently, so I'm in charge now," he whimpered, seemingly intimidated by Ya Suhyeok's imposing physique. Martial artists who killed bandits like flies were common, so he had no choice but to submit obediently.

"What manner of creature did this to you guys?" Baek Suryong snapped, cutting to the chase.

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"It was a huge snake with a horn on its forehead."

"…A Horned Snake," Baek Suryong sighed softly. As expected, the attacker was a spirit beast.

Horned Snakes were highly venomous snakes with a horn on their foreheads. Most of them were small, but the one that attacked this place was said to be over fifteen meters long, with a body as thick as a man's thigh.

If the bandits' description wasn't exaggerated, then it was a true monster.

"Even our Boss, who was quite the expert, was killed without a chance to fight back. The rest of us were too scared to even move."

The bandits trembled, the terror of the Horned Snake still fresh in their minds.

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Gulping nervously, the Underboss continued, "Thankfully, a Silver Tiger showed up and fought the Horned Snake. If it hadn't, we would all be dead."

Ya Suhyeok's eyes widened in surprise. "Why would a Silver Tiger do such a thing?"

"Well…" The underboss's eyes fell on the Silver Tiger cub.

As if it understood that they were talking about it, the cub lifted its head smugly, but that only made it look cuter, like a puffed-up furball.

"We once saved that cub from a trap. Since then, the mother Silver Tiger would occasionally bring us wild boars or pheasants."

Listening to the story of a mother repaying the bandits for saving her cub, Ya Suhyeok's expression softened a bit.

"However, even the mother Silver Tiger struggled badly against the Horned Snake. They fought for over an hour, but eventually, she gave up and ran off, luring the Horned Snake away."

The furball diligently licked its body. On closer inspection, dozens of small wounds were hidden beneath its thick fur.

The Underboss looked at the Silver Tiger sadly. "This little guy tried to follow its mother, but I held it back. I thought that's what the mother would want."

Everyone's gazes fell on the Silver Tiger cub, their eyes filling with pity. The mother was probably killed by the Horned Snake. Otherwise, she would have come looking for her cub long ago.

"Purr…" The Silver Tiger suddenly scuttled over to Baek Suryong and rubbed itself against his leg.

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Baek Suryong picked it up, and the Silver Tiger curled up in his arms comfortably. Yawning widely, it closed its eyes.

"Huh!" the Underboss gasped, surprised. "The cub may be small, but it's quite prideful. Why is it so docile? Anyway, all this happened yesterday. That little guy probably ran into you two masters while searching for its mother."

Baek Suryong paused, piecing together the sequence of events.

Finally, he said, "One more question. What color was the Horned Snake's horn?"

"It was black, but…"

Baek Suryong narrowed his eyes. As far as he knew, the horns of the Horned Snake were either white or gold.

There was only one case where it was black.

It must be a demonic beast.

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Master Maeng's advice echoed in his mind.

"Oh! Sometimes though, the spirit beasts who suddenly lose their homes will transform into demonic beasts. Be careful with those, they're dangerous."

Unlike spirit beasts, demonic beasts killed and devoured everything in sight. Although he was aware of the possibility of demonic beasts on Mount Tianzhu, the Horned Serpent was a monster beyond his expectations.

"They especially love human flesh."

If we don't find it soon, it might go down the mountain and attack a village.

Baek Suryong's thoughts drifted to the students currently running through the forest. If they were to encounter the Horned Snake, they could be severely injured, or worse.

"Purr, purr…"

As Baek Suryong sank into deep thought, the furball curled up in his arms, purring contentedly.

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Translator's Note: Baek Suryong's new manhwa design: