Once again, the three of them slowly sat up, but even with the campfire blazing, they couldn't shake off the pallor on their faces. They exchanged glances once more, then shook their heads with bitter smiles, unsure of what to say. Damn it, the mission had failed three times.

"Sigh! Despite all our calculations, we never anticipated that the village chief would be so angered that he'd drop dead. Could it be that this was a countermeasure devised to prevent us from evading the rules and completing the mission out of order? That damned Countess, she's truly cunning!" Dao Lao sighed bitterly.

"What if we try to obtain the ticket through a different method? Like..." Haoyun began, making a 'stealing' gesture.

Dao Lao shook his head. "The problem is, who can guarantee that our deviation from the prescribed steps, such as directly stealing the ticket, won't trigger some other bizarre accident?"

The three fell into another brief silence. Then Dream Jia spoke up, "Time waits for no one! Since we can't waste too much time devising unconventional plans, we might as well follow the plotline step by step!"

In the blink of an eye, Haoyun and his companions had been in this nameless place for nearly twenty days. The experiences of three consecutive failed attempts at the mission had tested their patience, and Haoyun, who still retained much of his human mentality, began to feel impatient. His moral compass began to waver, leading him to entertain the idea of trying any means necessary to complete the mission quickly.

Unable to contain his impatience any longer, Haoyun spoke up again, "Sigh! This won't do! With our current strength, it's difficult to control Little Tiger while he's undergoing his beast transformation. Moreover, we're up against a highly vigilant Little Tiger who has set numerous traps in the Glowing Forest. In this situation, the likelihood of us successfully completing the mission is very slim."

"What's your idea then?" Dream Jia asked.

"Do you remember what the White Tiger said about using Little Tiger to refine the Tiger Pill? We must subdue him with poison mushrooms as soon as the Chosen One enters the Glowing Forest and begins his transformation. Then, we must quickly throw the Chosen One into the fire to refine the strange energy activated within him into the Tiger Pill." Haoyun took a deep breath as he spoke, his eyes filled with a hint of helplessness and apology.

Hearing this, Dao Lao and Dream Jia naturally understood what Haoyun was implying. At the same time, they were well aware that everything here, including Little Tiger, was merely an environment created by the Countess. They didn't really need to burden themselves with too much moral pressure for someone who was originally illusory and only felt relatively real when interacted with. However, as veteran priests who had served the spiritual world for countless ages, Dao Lao and Dream Jia were more deeply bound by the highest moral standards of the spiritual world. This made them hesitant to cross certain lines and resort to more extreme measures to deal with their current predicament. At this moment, both of them wore expressions of stubbornness and conflict, delaying their response to Haoyun's proposal.

But for Haoyun, the silence of Dao Lao and Dream Jia was enough. So, wearing an innocent expression, he hurriedly ran towards Little Tiger, determinedly saying, "My idea may not necessarily succeed, but let's treat it as another attempt! The two of you just need to cooperate with my actions. At worst, we'll start over!"

Everything went as usual after the fourth encounter with Little Tiger. However, this time, when providing food to Little Tiger, Haoyun didn't just offer a few roasted carrots. Instead, he proposed making a pot of hot carrot soup. Little Tiger naturally delighted in the idea, as carrot soup happened to be one of his three favorite foods.

So, Haoyun began fervently preparing the soup for Little Tiger, while Dao Lao and Dream Jia engaged Little Tiger in conversation, diverting his attention from the carrots boiling in the pot. Because, while cooking the soup, Haoyun also took the opportunity to stealthily add a small mushroom, previously prepared, into the pot, intending to turn the healthy carrot soup into a pot of poison.

Haoyun handed a bowl of freshly scooped carrot soup to Little Tiger, who, already ravenous, quickly gulped down the entire bowl after expressing his gratitude. Unsurprisingly, after drinking the hot soup, Little Tiger immediately collapsed from the moderate dose of poison.

Seeing his plan succeed, Haoyun quickly enlisted the help of Dao Lao and Dream Jia to make a makeshift stretcher out of dismantled tents. Then, the three of them hurriedly carried the paralyzed Little Tiger and rushed to the Glowing Forest overnight. To avoid trouble, this time they didn't enter the temporary camp set up by Little Tiger's family, nor did they bother with the possibility that Little Tiger's uncles might have returned to that camp and were awaiting rescue. With a concerted effort, they arrived at the mysterious Glowing Forest for the third time without encountering any disasters.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Thanks to Haoyun's precise calculations, the poison in Little Tiger's body had largely lost its effectiveness by the time they reached the Glowing Forest. So, they quickly placed Little Tiger, who was recovering from the effects of the poison, on the grass emitting the blue-green light. As expected, as soon as Little Tiger's body touched the Glowing Forest, his fur and skin began to transform into the same shimmering blue-green light. This indicated that Little Tiger had entered his beast transformation state.

As Little Tiger's form underwent a noticeable change, Haoyun and his companions immediately moved forward to restrain him, preparing to force-feed him a second bowl of poisonous soup. Although Little Tiger had now shaken off the effects of the paralysis, his body remained weakened after the paralysis wore off. With the strength they had regained earlier, Haoyun and his companions were able to temporarily subdue Little Tiger, even as he struggled fiercely. He couldn't break free from their control and could only be fed another bowl of poison amid his unwilling howls.

Seeing Little Tiger once again paralyzed and still undergoing transformation, Haoyun and his companions wasted no time in setting up the firewood they had gathered. Then, gritting their teeth, they threw the paralyzed Little Tiger into the bonfire. Shortly after being thrown into the fire, the toxins on Little Tiger's body seemed to disappear, allowing him to return to normal from the paralysis.

However, now Little Tiger seemed bound by the fire, unable to escape its grasp despite his feeble struggles within the raging flames. Sometimes he cried out for help to Haoyun and his companions, and other times he unleashed the most vicious curses upon them amidst his desperate howls. Faced with Little Tiger's increasingly desperate cries and curses, the three of them couldn't help but kneel before the fire, covering their ears and repeatedly apologizing to Little Tiger.

After what felt like an eternity, as the scent of burning charcoal and flesh permeated the forest, Little Tiger finally fell silent. Now, there was only the crackling of the fire, the rustle of leaves and grass in the gentle breeze, and the guilty sobs of Haoyun and his companions echoing through the forest.

Then, after some time had passed, the bonfire gradually died down. Facing the smoldering remains of the bonfire, Haoyun and his companions stared blankly for a long time before finally mustering the courage to approach. Haoyun carefully searched through the pile of black charcoal with a twig and quickly found an oval-shaped pill emitting a faint blue-green light. Without needing to guess, they knew it was the Tiger Pill. Haoyun picked up the still-hot Tiger Pill, wrapped it in a piece of fabric torn from the stretcher, and placed it carefully in his backpack.

After a long while, Haoyun and his companions hastily returned to the familiar campsite. After jumping into the pond and thoroughly washing themselves, they sat around the still-burning campfire once again. However, there was no joy on their faces after obtaining the pill. Instead, they stared blankly at the fire, unsure of what to say.

But after some time spent adjusting their mindset, under someone's suggestion, they quickly set off again. Carrying only a bucket of water and a backpack containing the Tiger Pill, they fled from the campsite, not out of fear of being pursued, but simply to escape the psychological shadow cast upon them by the heinous acts they had committed. It was as if they could leave behind the guilt of murdering innocents, as well as Little Tiger's desperate eyes and almost insane screams, if only they ran fast enough, abandoning all traces in the wilderness.

Now that they had the Tiger Pill in hand, Haoyun and his companions went straight to the door of the village chief's house upon reaching the Tiger Wood Village. After casually fabricating a lie about obtaining the Tiger Pill and being entrusted to bring it back to the village, they directly requested to see the village chief. Seeing Dao Lao holding the faintly glowing Tiger Pill, the servants naturally dared not delay any longer. So, without carefully scrutinizing the logical coherence of Haoyun's fabricated lie, the servant hastily led them to the large tiled house where the village chief lived.

Upon seeing the village chief, Haoyun and his companions didn't exchange pleasantries but straightforwardly stated their purpose and proposed to exchange the Tiger Pill for the legendary ticket to Nirvana Island. The village chief appeared somewhat indecisive upon hearing this. Obviously, he was reluctant to hand over his ticket to three strangers he had never met before. In his hesitation, he glanced intentionally or unintentionally at the crowd of servants surrounding Haoyun and his companions, as if there were an impulse to snatch the Tiger Pill from them.

Seeing this, Dao Lao sneered and said, "Humph! Mr. Village Chief, if you genuinely want to trade with us, then please hurry up and bring out the ticket for the exchange. If you're thinking of playing some tricks—humph! We're more than willing to accompany you to the end!"

With that, Dao Lao tossed the Tiger Pill to Haoyun. Haoyun, upon receiving the Tiger Pill, exerted force with three fingers holding it, causing the faint light emanating from the pill to distort. Seeing this, the village chief instinctively reached out to protect the Tiger Pill, fearing that Haoyun might accidentally crush it with too much force.

Finally, the village chief couldn't help but interrupt the hot-tempered individuals who were about to speak: "Stop! All of you, step back!"

Then, with an anxious tone, the village chief continued, "Alright! I agree to your terms! I'll exchange the Tiger Pill for the ticket!"

With that, the village chief reached behind him once again and pulled out the rough-textured ticket from the lower part of his body.

"Very well. Then hand over the ticket first! Once I've safely boarded the ship, I'll give you the Tiger Pill!" Seeing this, Dao Lao walked boldly into the house and said assertively.