"Is this the best trap you can come up with to try to hold me?"
After confirming that it was merely a pit, the ghost's laughter echoed again, filled with mockery towards Xu Taiping.
"What if you trap this body, so what? I am a ghost cultivator, capable of leaving my body as a spirit!"
Amidst the ghost's mocking words, Xu Taiping silently drew the long sword from his waist and stood quietly beside a taut rope, as if waiting for something.
At that moment, a gust of cold wind surged out from the pit.
Without hesitation, Xu Taiping slashed the rope with his sword.
Several jars of strong liquor, suspended by the rope, plummeted and landed precisely in the deep pit.
A strong aroma of alcohol instantly spread.
"Trying to crush me with stones, wait! Alcohol! This is alcohol! Ah!..."
The ghost, already out of its body, suddenly saw several heavy objects fall. It thought Xu Taiping was trying to crush it in the trap. By the time the alcohol began to spread in the pit, it was too late to escape.
"Who? Who told you that my life essence is alcohol? Ah!... That wench! It must be that wench!"
Painful wails and curses echoed incessantly from the pit.
The ghost's spirit, upon coming into contact with the alcohol, seemed to have encountered a deadly poison with no antidote. It transformed into a stream of black mist, darting around the pit in a frenzy.
Standing by the trap, Xu Taiping let out a long sigh.
"If I didn't know that this ghost's weakness is alcohol, I probably wouldn't have had any chance of winning this time."
Recalling the scene, Xu Taiping felt a wave of fear.
Without taking repeated risks, the ghost might have let its guard down; without the intense cultivation to break through the ice period; without these jars of strong liquor, his cultivation path might have truly come to a halt.
"Hero... save me... just let me possess you... I... can... can tell you the location... of the treasures... I've collected... over the years!..."
At that moment, a ghostly face formed from the black mist struggled to emerge from the trap, pleading with Xu Taiping in great difficulty.
"I have one question for you." Xu Taiping ignored the ghost's pleas, "Besides you, who else knows the location of the water source of the Green Bamboo Residence?"
"Pull me out, and I'll tell you!"
The ghost tried to make a deal with Xu Taiping.
"Will you tell me or not?"
Xu Taiping shook the jar of liquor in his hand.
Seeing the jar of liquor, the ghost let out a piercing scream, its spirit hands flailing wildly.
"Besides me, no one else knows. I only found out by chance after killing the previous owner of the Green Bamboo Residence!"
The ghost explained rapidly.
"You're not telling the truth."
"No, I'm telling the truth, please, please take away the jar of liquor!"
Xu Taiping tested the ghost again and found that it seemed to be telling the truth.
However, he did not put down the jar of liquor but instead opened the mud seal on it.
"Boy, what are you doing? I'm not lying to you!"
Thinking that Xu Taiping was about to pour the alcohol on it, the ghost screamed in terror, its voice trembling.
"I have one more question for you." Xu Taiping leaned his head to the jar and sniffed, then looked up at the ghost's spirit, "How strong is the tiger demon you call the Great King, and does it have any weaknesses?"
Hearing Xu Taiping's question about the tiger demon, the ghost immediately became cautious, hesitating to speak.
"If I tell you about the Great King, I will really, really be doomed!"
The ghost looked at Xu Taiping with a pleading tone.
"If you don't tell me, I'll make you dissipate into nothingness."
Xu Taiping dipped his hand into the jar of liquor, showing an innocent smile to the ghost, and then splashed the alcohol all over it.
The ghost's screams echoed through the mountains.
However, within a hundred miles, it was all desolate mountains, and no one could hear its cries, no matter how loud they were.
"Have you made up your mind?"
After the screams subsided, Xu Taiping dipped his hand into the liquor again and showed the ghost his innocent smile once more.
"The Great King is the king of all beasts, a spirit tiger, different from us ghosts, and has no weaknesses. However, half a month ago, it was severely injured by several disciples of the Seven Peaks. It will take at least three months to recover, which is why it has sent us ghosts to find it food." The ghost paused, looking at Xu Taiping with a hint of disdain, "To be frank, even in its injured state, my Great King can easily kill you."
"It will take three months to recover, which coincides with the time I need to break through to the Open Gate realm..."
Xu Taiping frowned, deep in thought.
The ghost, seeing this, thought Xu Taiping was afraid of the tiger demon and felt a surge of joy. Despite the intense pain from the alcohol, it warned Xu Taiping with a threatening tone:
"So I advise you to let me go. If I dissipate, the Great King will surely know!"
Xu Taiping, hearing this, looked at the ghost seriously and suddenly threw a jar of liquor high into the air, using his true qi to strike it with a palm.
The jar shattered under Xu Taiping's palm, and the alcohol rained down into the pit.
"Ah!... Shameless scoundrel! You'll pay for this, the Great King will come to avenge me!"
The ghost's screams echoed through the mountains.
Xu Taiping ignored it and threw a torch he had prepared into the pit.
"Grandfather said, 'Fight evil with evil, repay kindness with kindness. Never conspire with tigers or collude with scoundrels.'"
Listening to the ghost's screams from the pit, Xu Taiping muttered to himself without changing his expression.
The torch ignited the dry wood at the bottom of the pit, and the wood, fueled by the alcohol, burst into flames, rising over ten feet high.
As the flames rose, a tiger's roar suddenly echoed from within, and the flames transformed into a massive tiger's head.
"How dare you kill my servant?"
The tiger roared at Xu Taiping.
"I heard you were severely injured by several disciples of the Seven Peaks and need three to five years to recover. Is that true?"
Due to the ghost's earlier words, Xu Taiping was not too surprised by the appearance of the tiger demon's shadow. Instead, he smiled and asked the tiger demon.
"Nonsense, my injuries will heal in no more than three months!"
The Tiger King almost blurted out the answer.
However, as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized something was wrong and immediately roared in anger: