After answering the question, the tiger outside the temple and the ghost by his side were quite nervous, while the people inside the temple were panicking, so there was a moment of silence.

Ji Yuan calmed himself down once more, and thought hard about how to communicate peacefully with this tiger demon, who apparently ate human beings without batting an eye.

Just as the tiger began to grow impatient, he finally heard the even voice from the inside of the temple.

“Lu Shan Jun is very brave. I was afraid that, as a demon,¹ you might try to deceive me, but I underestimated your character!”

The scholar ghost couldn’t help clenching a fist triumphantly in his sleeves, and the fierce tiger spirit Lu Shan Jun was overjoyed.

“Humans are the spiritual root of all beings.² Some demons believe eating men provides the most nourishment. What does Lu Shan Jun think?”

Ji Yuan didn’t wait for the tiger spirit to speak, and directly continued his words.

In addition to attempting to dispel the idea of eating people, he was also trying to delay the tiger as much as he could so that he could think of more suitable words to resolve the situation. After all, if his bluff failed and he angered the tiger, everything would be over.

But at such a simple question, the tiger and ghost outside became anxious once more.

Lu Shan Jun’s huge head stared at the ghost. He had no clue how to answer the question. He felt that simply responding “yes” was the wrong choice, and saying “no” was far too simple. What if the person inside the temple asked, “why?” He wouldn’t know what to say.

The scholar paced nervously, like a student with a strict teacher whose knowledge was being put to the test.

“Have you thought about it? Have you come up with an answer?”

“Don’t be hasty, Shan Jun, don’t worry… I got it!”

“Tell me, quickly!”

The scholar subconsciously raised his sleeves to wipe away non-existent sweat, and answered in a low voice.

“You naturally need to answer the question without agreeing with the first part of his statement. The key is how to explain your disagreement without refuting your previous thoughts.³ After all, Shan Jun has eaten fifty-three people… You should say the following words…”

Lu Shan Jun’s expression gradually changed from an annoyed face to a frown, then relaxed.

“Are you saying that, no matter how I answer, I will be wrong in some way, so I just need to be honest and speak my heart without refuting my previous words?”

“Of course, Shan Jun. Please believe me!”

The tiger nodded slightly, and opened his mouth to address the temple.

“Sir, I have been thinking hard about your question. I have lived in Niu Kui Mountain ever since I gained enlightenment.⁴ I have rarely encountered other monsters, so I could not tell you what they might believe. On my part, it is true that I find humans to be nourishing, but this question has made me doubt that it is appropriate. Please enlighten me, sir!”

He actually threw the question back.

But this was exactly what Ji Yuan had intended. As a young man who previously lived during the era of the Internet, he currently possessed a wealth of knowledge. As long as he didn’t panic, it would be fairly easy to come up with something that sounded reasonably profound. At the very least, all that chicken soup online could amuse him.⁵

This time, he didn’t make Lu Shanjun and the ghost wait for long, and directly answered.

“It is often said that mankind is the soul of the universe,⁶ and as such humans inherently spiritually attract all plants and animals. But humans are also creatures with some of the most complex emotions in this world, endlessly entangled by grudges and grievances. When he eats people, any monster can easily become addicted. Over time, the rate of consumption will only increase and you will become unable to break through in your cultivation. Your temperament will become fierce, your spirit blinded, and you will go mad… This is ultimately the path to self-destruction.”

The fierce tiger, Lu Shan Jun, gulped when he heard those words, and the hair all over his body stood up slightly.

He had never encountered this idea before. Although some of the books that the scholar ghost taught him often contained similar arguments, they were also rather pedantic and repetitive. The words of the man in the temple just now made him break out into a cold sweat.

Because it was true that Lu Shan Jun’s urge to eat humans truly did increase the more he ate, and he had long been stuck in a bottleneck in his cultivation. The man in the temple should not have known about this, so the tiger naturally believed his words to be the truth.

At this moment, Lu Shan Jun had even forgotten his original question, but rather urgently asked the man in the temple.

“Sir, is there any way to remedy this?”

Hearing his words, Ji Yuan carefully let out a sigh of relief. Most of the heavy worry in his heart had been lifted, this was a crucial moment!

“I have heard what you, Lu Shan Jun, said before: a monster eating humans is much like humans eating birds or beasts, and your intention is not to kill indiscriminately. You do not continue eating when you are full, you do not hunt during the day, and you do not prey upon the elderly or children, sick or disabled, which shows a very rare moral character among demons. Hahaha! In retrospect, it was fortunate that Lu Shan Jun decided not to harm me, a sickly beggar, which I can accept as a favor I now owe!”

“I don’t dare accept! I, Lu Shan, Jun wouldn’t dare offend you!”

Lu Shan Jun panicked once more, and hurriedly explained that this was not his intention. He originally felt that this beggar might not be simple, but had previously only been a suspicion, which was confirmed today.

Ji Yuan didn’t dare to become overconfident, and continued in a slow voice.

“The solution to your problem is deceptively simple, but difficult to explain. It is not that you shouldn’t eat any humans whatsoever, but the underlying principles are not all that profound. The practice of cultivation is similar to the fundamentals of human morality: an upright mind and a healthy body are necessary for your foundation.”

Ji Yuan paused for a while, feeling that this sentence might not be enough to calm the tiger spirit, and immediately continued.

“The Way of Heaven is to diminish the excess to balance with what one lacks; the Way of Man is to instead supplement one’s deficiencies in order to accommodate for the excesses.⁷ First you asked me what I knew, then you requested a solution: so apply these principles… Lu Shan Jun, you and I were fated to meet today. Now I have said enough!”⁸

Ji Yuan finished his words and nervously waited for a reaction from the beings outside.

Outside the temple, the fierce tiger frowned and paced, then paced and frowned again. After meditating hard on his words, he seemed to receive some sudden enlightenment, and the tension in his heart eased.

The silence lasted a few minutes, both inside and outside the temple. These few minutes could have been torture for Ji Yuan, but he was surprisingly calm.

“Swish…Swish…”

“Whoo… Whoo…”

As the wind blew around him, Lu Shan Jun came to a conclusion in his thoughts, and slowly began to move towards the mountain temple.

Every footstep was like a claw tightening around Ji Yuan’s heart. Cold sweat began accumulating along his back again, and he cried out in his heart: I’m going to die, I’m really going to die! I really went too far, I’m going to be killed!

On the other hand, the mentality of Zhang Shilin and other merchants was much more stable. Although they were certainly nervous, they could not hear the sound of the tiger’s approaching footsteps, and had already been reassured by the presence of a supposed expert, so they were more or less at ease.

In the span of a few breaths, Lu Shan Jun arrived at the temple gate.

Under the horrified eyes of Ji Yuan and the merchants, an enormous tiger with a body nearly four meters in length slowly appeared in the doorway, followed by the ghost of Scholar Lu.

The beast had bright yellow⁹ fur and deep black stripes, the character “王”¹⁰ displayed on his forehead, and fierce tiger eyes. He did not seem angry, but instead somewhat frightened.

The merchants couldn’t keep a firm grip on the weapons in their hands, all paralyzed with fright, and Ji Yuan didn’t even dare to move.

The tiger’s eyes didn’t look around at other people in the group whatsoever, but focused solely on the the beggar sitting next to the broken statue of the mountain god. Though his hair and appearance was unkempt, his eyes were staring straight at the door.

“I, Lu Shan Jun, will not forget Sir’s generous guidance today!”

The tiger actually sat up on its haunches, his front legs crossed, made a cupping gesture with his paws, and bowed three times towards Ji Yuan.¹¹

Then he landed back on all fours, and his eyes turned to the ghost. With a breath, a piece of the ghost dissolved into white mist and was sucked into the tiger’s body.

“I promised you that if you would help me, I would let you go. You may now leave!”

The ghost scholar was pleasantly surprised and bowed to Lu Shan Jun, then knelt down, directly facing Ji Yuan, and kowtowed several times. He then bowed several times to the merchants, and said nothing more before dissolving into smoke and floating away. Before long, the smoke had completely disappeared as it left the temple gate.

After the ghost scholar departed, Lu Shan Jun looked around at the merchants. Under their fearful eyes, he directly exhaled the ghost of Wang Dong, and sent him on his way as well.

Ji Yuan smiled stiffly at the sight, but finally his fear abated.

“I don’t dare to disturb Sir’s rest. I, Lu Shan Jun, will retire!”

After his series of actions and leaving these final words, the terrifying tiger slowly left the mountain temple, and the howling of the surrounding wind gradually calmed.

T/n: This chapter took four. Entire. Hours. And two consultations with a friend who knows Chinese (thank you Cheri) T_T It’s so beautifully poetic but so stupidly hard to translate…

1. Demon and monster seem to be used interchangeably. In short, a supernatural, non-human, non-divine creature. ↩︎
2. 人乃万物灵长 “man is the root/’primate’/primordial/spiritual leader/wisest/spiritual authority of all beings” ↩︎
3. T/n: i.e., disagree with the idea that eating humans provides the most nourishment, but express it in a way that was consistent with the fact that he had previously eaten 53 people – if not because they were the best nourishment, then why eat them? ↩︎
4. Thank you, rabbit-hole research, for explaining why the MTL was adamant that this tiger was born from a mushroom (Lingzhi). Supposedly the lingzhi mushroom represents the essence of immortality, divine power, etc. If I had to make an educated guess, Lu Shan’s words are comparable to saying “since the dawn of time” – time has no dawn, it’s just an idiom; in this context, it would be something like “since my birth from the root of divine power,” and since cultivation leads to enlightenment, it would be “since I have gained enlightenment.” Other possible translation: “since I have gained awareness.” THANK YOU CHERI for your help on this one. *cries* ↩︎
5. 别的不说那些鸡汤就很有噱头。Lit “at the very least, chicken soup is amusing,” chicken soup refers to feel-good self-help advice ↩︎
6. Proverb. There are three elements in the universe according to Ancient Chinese philosophy (specifically, the Book of Rites): heaven, earth, and humanity, with humanity being the soul of the world, and therefore uniquely distinguished. ↩︎
7. This sentence refers to two methods of self-improvement. “The Way of Heaven” refers to the natural order/cosmic principles/innate wisdom of the universe shown though values of balance, harmony, and natural flow. “The Way of Humans” refers to how an individual conducts themselves in human society – personal behavior, ethics, actions, etc. The former is a natural balance or harmony, taking from one to give to the other, while the latter refers to a human-centric perspective where one works to fix their own deficiencies in order to accommodate for their excesses. ↩︎
8. T/n: He isn’t giving any explicit advice, which is part of what makes this section so difficult to interpret. JY is mostly sticking to the “chicken soup” idea, which is mostly vague self-help/feel-good advice rather than anything applicable. In this case, it works out for him, since he is misunderstood as a wise master giving vague but key advice. His insight is also novel in this world’s setting, which does make it more profound than it would otherwise be. TL;DR: Don’t worry if you didn’t understand what he’s saying, it’s intentional to sound deep. ↩︎
9. It was yellow in the original work, and I decided to keep it that way instead of changing it to orange because this work is very intentionally poetic, and a lot of colors have deeper meanings – in this case, the yellow tiger is the ruler of the other four colored tigers. Yellow is the color of the imperial family, representing power, royalty, and prosperity. Ancient Chinese emperors were crowned in yellow robes. ↩︎
10. Character for “King,” also resembles tiger stripes – the author REALLY, REALLY wants to hammer home that Lu Shan is Very Important and Very Powerful, to the point where it’s literally written on his forehead. ↩︎
11. Look up the fist and palm salute… then imagine a tiger doing that ↩︎

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read