042. Who Ate It

At night, Lingyu went mad once again.

“Tiger meat, where’s the tiger meat?!” She turned her storage pouch upside down, yet the large bundle of tiger meat was nowhere to be found. If not for the bloodstained tiger pelt still present, she might have thought that slaying the tiger demon during the day had been nothing more than a hallucination.

No matter how she searched, she couldn't find a trace of the tiger meat. Lingyu sat inside her tent, staring blankly at the heap of miscellaneous items before her.

All she had done today was kill three tiger demons and gather a few spiritual herbs. The herbs were safely stored in the special pouch provided by her sect, and she had also obtained a pile of tiger bones. Since her usual storage pouch was full, she had placed the bones in another pouch—yes, her other pouch was perfectly fine, nothing was missing from it.

This puzzled her greatly. The storage pouch had never left her side; who could possibly steal something from it without her noticing?

Besides, she hadn't encountered anyone else today.

Lingyu sat cross-legged, arms folded, lost in thought for some time. Then she lifted the tent flap and called out, “Senior Sister Yu!”

Yu Xiyin was busy roasting meat by the fire. Hearing Lingyu’s call, she turned her head. “Hmm?”

“Did you lose anything?” Lingyu asked.

Yu Xiyin was baffled by the question, but she paused her roasting to open her own storage pouch for a look, then shook her head. “No, why?”

Lingyu didn’t answer, instead calling out to the others, “Senior Brother Qingshu, Senior Brother Dantai, Senior Brother Sheng, did any of you lose something?”

Sheng Yangqiu was keeping watch in a nearby tree, Dantai Yu was cleaning his sword, and Zhang Qingshu was cultivating. After a moment, the three responded in turn, “No!”

Zhang Qingshu even stopped cultivating to ask with concern, “Junior Sister Cheng, did you lose something?”

Lingyu pressed further, “Do you still have your tiger meat?”

All four replied, “Yes!”

Lingyu felt utterly defeated. Under their gazes, she muttered something about having misplaced it herself, then dropped the tent flap and buried her head in her hands, deep in thought.

No, something was definitely wrong!

She could accept the missing essence—who knew what strange properties it might have—but the disappearance of the tiger meat made no sense. And she was the only one affected.

Could the four of them be conspiring to play a trick on her? That didn’t seem right either. She was absolutely certain that no one had come near her, much less stolen from her storage pouch. After all, opening a pouch would cause a fluctuation in spiritual energy—how could she, its owner, fail to notice in such close quarters?

Lingyu cradled her head, for the first time feeling her mind was at a loss. In what circumstances could something vanish from a storage pouch without a trace? Especially in the middle of a remote forest!

It couldn't be an external cause—could it be something from within?

She tapped her head and began to tidy her belongings one by one.

First, dozens of spirit stones in a small bag; then several jade bottles containing pills; a few books—techniques, talisman manuals, and that so-called immortal book; a stack of talismans she had specially prepared for this journey; and miscellaneous items like firestones and rain gear. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

After pondering for a while with no result, Lingyu decided to conduct an experiment.

She opened her other storage pouch, pulled out a tiger bone with some meat still attached, wrapped it in tiger skin, and placed it inside. Then she put away her things and went to sleep, so distracted she even refused Yu Xiyin’s offer of roast meat.

She barely slept through the night. As dawn broke and birds chirped outside, Lingyu sprang up, eagerly opened her storage pouch, and pulled out the tiger skin.

The moment she touched it, her expression grew odd. Empty—there was no tiger bone inside.

The essence was gone, the tiger meat was gone, and now the tiger bone was gone, leaving only the skin... Lingyu tried to deduce a pattern; it seemed that only items containing essence disappeared.

The rest of the dead objects in her pouch were untouched. The difference between the tiger skin and the meat or bone was that the fur contained almost no essence.

How could this be? Was there something in her storage pouch that consumed essence?

The thought startled her, and she quickly withdrew her hand. If it was essence, then she, a living person, possessed the most.

But that couldn’t be right—she’d used this pouch for days without incident, and she herself hadn’t been eaten.

If anything in her pouch could consume essence, it would be the green pearl from Abi. Yet that had been the first thing to disappear.

When morning came, everyone packed up their tents and set out again.

Lingyu was distracted all day, but fortunately, nothing dangerous happened. They found some spiritual wood, and night soon fell.

“Senior Sister Yu, do you still have tiger meat?” Lingyu asked as they set up camp.

“Yes!” Yu Xiyin pulled out a large bundle of tiger meat from her pouch. “How would you like it? I’ll prepare it for you.”

“No, that’s all right.” Lingyu waved her off, cut a few pieces of tiger meat into small chunks and carefully wrapped them up. “I’ll do it myself.” Then she retreated into her tent.

“What’s with Junior Sister Cheng?” Yu Xiyin muttered after Lingyu disappeared. “Is she fixated on the tiger meat?”

Dantai Yu poked his head over. “She’s acting strange. Could she be related to the tiger demon?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Sheng Yangqiu glared at him.

Dantai Yu zipped his lips and gestured for silence.

Unaware of the speculation she’d stirred, Lingyu went about her experiment.

First, she took out all the miscellaneous items—firestones and the like—from her storage pouch and set them aside, then placed a wrapped piece of tiger meat inside.

After about half an hour, she opened the pouch. The tiger skin was once again empty; the meat was gone.

So, the essence-thief was among this batch of items.

She rummaged through the pouch and removed a stack of talisman paper and the jade bottles, then put in the tiger meat again.

Half an hour later, the tiger meat had vanished once more.

Good, it was still in there.

Next, she removed the spirit stone bag and the books, leaving only the treasures she’d picked out from Mr. Qi’s shop. These were the new additions over the past few days; if anything was odd, it would be among them.

Half an hour later, she checked the tiger skin and was stunned.

The meat was still there!

Had her hypothesis been wrong? She hadn’t removed anything but a bag of spirit stones and a few books. Surely the spirit stones or the books couldn’t have consumed the meat?

Though the idea was absurd, the evidence was right before her. She emptied her other storage pouch, separated the spirit stone bag and the books, and placed the tiger meat with each in turn.

After a while, she opened the pouches. The meat had disappeared from the one with the books.

“So now books can eat things, too?” Lingyu wondered if she was dreaming.

The ‘Supreme Purple Cloud Manual,’ the ‘Heart Yang True Explanation,’ the ‘Nine Heavens Clear Cloud Classic,’ a disciple’s notebook, the beginner’s handbook, and Master Xuanchenzi’s Talisman Book... Lingyu’s gaze settled on the last volume: an ancient cover, yellowed pages, and not a single word within—the immortal book.

It looked much the same as it had five years ago, yet something seemed off. Ah, the cover seemed newer, even slightly glossy.

Could it be the culprit?

Lingyu glanced at her last piece of tiger meat and, decisively, put the immortal book alone in a storage pouch, then fed it the tiger meat.

She couldn’t wait even half an hour before checking.

Gone.

Lingyu exhaled, feeling oddly relieved.

At last, the culprit had been found.