It took Jin hours as he strained his eyes and body to prepare everything under cover of darkness. As he placed the traps, he already planned for the next trap should one failed or the other was skipped.
Jin did not rummage through the abandoned temple for fun, and with the experience of a Dungeon Maker, the generation and execution of ideas was smooth which lead him to believe that he was successful creating the traps to the best of his abilities. However, all this could not have been done if not for the partial moonlight shining through the forest to illuminate the place, else Jin doubted he could do anything until the next day.
He was not very sure if he was going to make it through this particular ‘life’, but at the very least, he had marked the locations from the entrance of the bamboo forest via the river and remembered specific landmarks to reach this particular temple again.
Though one thing was still uncertain. Jin had no idea, if his death would result in elements of the forest being reset through something like a Time Reversal or if things would continue as if he was going through Reincarnation. There were pros and cons for both possibilities and Jin would only learn this if he could somehow survive this particular round against the White Tiger.
The former would be a hassle since he would have to find the particular temple again. All his previous work with marking the route would be pointless. If Ming was extra mean, he could even make the temple move to a different place each time he died since this was his ‘dungeon instance’.
Jin hoped that at the very least, the items would not be shuffled around so that he could be more efficient in searching and preparing the traps again. Meanwhile, the latter of reincarnation meant that whatever damage he inflicted onto the White Tiger, stayed on the White Tiger. That way, the Tiger could potentially be worn out from all injuries, permitting Jin to go for a smooth final kill strike.
But that was assuming the White Tiger did not have any regeneration trait. The bad thing about reincarnation was also that the items and traps would have been used against the White Tiger and it might be hard for Jin to find those items again in this desolate bamboo forest. Even worse was the possibility if the White Tiger was intelligent enough to remember his tricks and forcing Jin to invent new traps every time he fought against the White Beast.
Therefore, Jin could only pray that he manages to kill the White Tiger without dying so that he would not need to worry any of those unnecessary random thoughts. Right now, all of those did not matter. Tired and hungry from all the preparation Jin, the only consolation he could give himself was that he was still ‘alive’ for so long and that the White Tiger had not found him yet.
“It will be stupid to fight in the darkness.” Jin thought to himself as he went back to the Temple’s bunk room and barricaded both the door and windows with bed frames before using the chance to sleep somewhat peacefully so he could recover from the fatigue he accrued.
When Jin woke up the next day, he slowly removed the bed frame and tactfully checked his surroundings before heading to the Temple backyard. He remembered seeing a well when he was scouting and required some water after being thirsty the entire night.
Along the way, Jin plucked a few leaves from the bamboo trees that contained droplets of morning dew so that he could suck on it to quench his thirst temporarily. After which, he reached the backyard only to find the well in poor shabby condition. The well’s handle was broken and the rope rotten with the passage of time. Jin sighed as he took a pebble and threw it down the well to check if there were any sounds of water since he was unable to determine the depth of the well.
If not, it would be a waste of effort trying to reach the bottom only to find out that there was nothing. Conservation of his strength was his utmost priority before the fight against the White Tiger of the West.
To his expectations, the pebble hit rock bottom without a single sound of water splashing as he heard the pebble rolled and echoed back loudly. No doubt, Jin cursed a little.
However, a part of him felt like exploring that well too since he now knew this temple was not an ordinary one at all. But on second thought, Jin should focus getting ready to fight the White Tiger before his body got any weaker. “Perhaps, I can escape into this well, if things take a turn for the worse.” Jin laughed at himself before surveying the area, desperate to quench his thirst.
Only then, it struck him. There was actually water all around him since he was after all in a BAMBOO forest. Jin had nearly forgotten about that as he quickly went towards a bunch of bamboo trees and cut them at the side.
Without question, water was slowly dripping down in abundance that Jin brought it up above his mouth and drank it greedily. After a tree or two, he saw a few ripe bamboo shoots for the picking. “Better to go in with a stomach filled than a hungry one,” Jin told himself again happily as he dug them out from the soil, rubbed the dirt away and proceeded to eat them raw.
It was a little hard to bite and chew through the raw, fresh shoots so he used his Wakizashi to cut them into smaller pieces and had an easier time eating while enjoying the scenery for the moment. Jin remembered how terribly busy he was for the past few weeks and appreciated this gentle pace even though he was still on a constant lookout for the White Tiger.
Upon finishing one last bamboo shoot, Jin grabbed another bamboo tree and drank it posthaste since he needed more water to clean his palate due to his eating habits. But if other people were to notice Jin’s way of eating in the forest, they might say that he was on his way to becoming a true ‘Panda’ cultivator.
Wiping his mouth from all the juicy bamboo water and crunchy bamboo shoots, Jin felt a lot more energised to fight against the White Tiger. Yet before that, he double checked the traps and familiarised himself with the temple grounds once more by practising where the traps were. (It would be a shame if Jin died by his very own trap.)
When he felt he was ready, the weather suddenly turned for the worse almost immediately, as if the forest itself wanted Jin to lose. Dark clouds covered the skies, and a heavy gale blew through the forest and the abandoned temple. Still, Jin did not hesitate as he went to the abandoned temple and took a small portable gong, whacking it as hard as he could in the open temple grounds.
The sound of the gong echoed throughout the forest and in no time, the White Tiger appeared with a hunger that only consuming Jin could satiate it. He gulped his saliva in as he moved towards the gong which was now attached in front of Jin’s chest, acting as an improvised armour. After which, Jin lighted up the stick he used to whack the gong. It was wrapped with straps of cloth and doused in oil in advance which startled the White Tiger a little.
*GONNGG* GONNGG* Jin hit the gong with his burning, hot wooden stick while holding his katana on the other hand. “Come! What are you waiting for, you oversized cat?! Let’s get this over and done with! At the end of this one of us will have a meal for the night… and I shall enjoy some juicy thigh meat!” Jin shouted, provoking the White Tiger to the best of his ability.
Needless to say, the White Tiger of the West took the bait and went forward. However, being the king of the forest, the White Tiger had no previous experience nor encountered the sort of traps that Jin made.
Multiple small depressions were dug around the temple grounds, similar to a porthole on the road which he spent all night creating with the tools he found in the temple hall. Within those depressions, he carved sharp bamboo stakes and stuck them in there. After which, he used the large prayer papers to cover the small depressions and masked it with some dirt and soil. Jin purposely left a small colourful edge of the prayer paper to remind and mark that there was a trap there.
Tigers did not have the colour vision like humans so he was betting on the same applying for the White Tiger of the West. True enough, as the tiger was charging forward, it accidentally stepped into a depression and the stakes pierced him. Jin who had seen this coming was already taking advantage of the White Tiger’s stumble to attack it.
However, unlike its paws, the fur of the White Tiger was similar to strands of metal. Bam in Katana form did not break nor slice the creature, causing it to only clash with the strands but hence Jin’s slash did not connect.
Despite that, Jin was quick to react as he had prepared for something like this to happen. After all the White Tiger of the West was infamous for possessing and wielding the element of Metal, one of the Five basic Elements noted in China. That was why the Demon Monk Exorcists’ manual recommended Fire as the overcoming element against the White Tiger.
Jin whacked the gong on his chest as hard as he could, momentarily stunning the White Tiger, allowing him a second try by piercing the tiger with his Katana. What’s more was that Jin had purposely heated his katana under the influence of oil and charcoal stones he had found in the Temple kitchen oven.
While he was checking on his traps, Jin began heated his katana in the combination of oil and charcoal stones so that it could potentially be able to inflict some damage with the element of fire (Heat) before it cooled back to normal room temperature.
The White Tiger growled in pain and used his body to perform a slight twirl to slam against Jin with it, spiralling him towards the temple doors which was more than tens of metres away. Instead of running towards his prey, the White Tiger removed his paw away from the trap and performed a very terrifying leap towards Jin in order to avoid the other possible traps on the ground.
Jin tried to recover as fast as he could, but the pain was almost paralysing him from doing anything. “Ah, if only I could just die, this would all be over…” Part of Jin felt that way, but the other half of him knew that it would never end unless he quit his state of meditation and never cultivate again. Fortunately, the tiger slammed him at towards a favourable place, where Jin was right beside a trap trigger. Hence, he took his wakizashi out and pointed at the direction of the leaping tiger.
The White Tiger did not care about a single blade edge pointed at it. It was after all the embodiment of metal. Its metallic steel fur would no doubt block the attack and the White Tiger would make sure that he chewed on the bones of this insolent prey till they break into many pieces.
“Heh, sucker. This is the hardest trap I have for you in store.” Jin smiled as his slammed his wakizashi down as hard as he could on the trigger rope, causing the trap to activate. With no time to run away from the impending pounce, Jin hoped that the trap would do the trick.
And it did.
A Buddhist prayer urn filled with incense ashes swung from within the temple and smashed onto the white tiger as it was about to strike Jin. The Urn broke into pieces upon contact which caused the tiger to be knocked down and the ashes created a cloud of billowing smoke, allowing the powdery residue of incense sticks to hide Jin’s next move as he took the chance… to run into the temple the moment he noticed the tiger fell to the ground.
The tiger tried to growl but it coughed from the inhalation of incense ash. Not to mention the foreign object that hit it gave it a very terrible headache in return. The White Tiger took some time to recover from the daze and naturally moved back to get away from the ash cloud that irritated its breathing and vision.
But what the tiger did not expect was that the wooden steps leading to the temple door were booby trapped too. Jin had noticed the shoddy condition of the wooden temple steps after years of abandonment but still decided to utilise the temple as much as he and time could permit.
He placed more of those sharpened bamboo stakes and stuck them deep to the ground with much difficulty. (as he had to ensure that the steps did not look like it was being meddled by him since Jin was not sure how smart the White Tiger was.)
In the attempt to tamper the wooden steps, Jin guessed that he did the trap to the point that it looked like a normal hand pressure was sufficient to break it. To make things even more complicated, he poured some oil on the wooden steps to make sure they were slippery enough. The trap was not designed to kill but to hinder the White Tiger’s movement while Jin prepared the next upcoming trap in the main temple. (But if it did kill the tiger, that would definitely be a bonus.)
Without question, the tiger who visually handicapped from the incense ashes and driven by instinct, made it fall into that trap which it could have normally avoided given its acute perception. The wooden platforms broke upon the White Tiger’s backward steps, and some of the bamboo stakes managed to partially pierce into the tibial muscles of the hind legs.
“Time for Phase 2…” Jin covered his face with a wrapped cloth that was hanging on his neck so he would not inhale the ashes and used all his strength to close the front temple doors and locked it with a large wooden security bar.
