Chapter 1- A Birth of A Rising Star

Edited by: Watermelon

The jungle, a place beyond cruel where there are no rules that protect the weak and the weak is to be consumed as food for the strong. A place where there is only the relationship of prey and predator. The strong hunts the weak while the weak groups together to fight the strong. A law that is never to be broken.

The jungle is a place full of variety and vibrant colours. The greenery and the lush bush makes it a perfect environment for the animals to continue their daily life. Like every other day, the jungle is filled with liveliness of the sound of the animals. The high-pitched, hoarse cawing of the crows sound out as they happily find another carcass to feed on. The eagle flies in the sky like a death god deciding who’s life will be ending today. The jungle is all normal except for this family.

Somewhere deep in the jungle, lies a cave large enough to house 100 men, within it was this female tiger,with pure snow white-fur and black stripes. She was in her final days before she was ready to birth her children. By her side, was a tiger with an aura of dominance,a king guarding his beloved and future cubs.

Surprisingly, unlike any other tiger species, this tiger species acted more like a pack. A full 200 young and old tigers were together. A notable thing is that all of them had fur so white and pure that it looked like the untainted first snow that descended during the winter. All the tigers were happy that their queen was pregnant. The humans called these tigers the white tigers.

One of the traits of the white tigers was that they had an unparalleled whiteness in their fur. Due to that reason, the greed of humans caused them to hunt the white tigers for their pelt to make into high quality clothes. This had also led to the white tigers banding together to repel the humans.

Finally, the day had arrived, the female tiger was in labour. The female tiger gave her final push and a litter of cubs could be seen. At the same time, the tiger king was experiencing a mix of emotions. He had two sons, one perfectly normal while the other looked very weird. The tiger king had never seen a variation before. Along with two daughters, there were 3 white tigers and a variation.

The Variation POV (Bai Hou’s POV)

Urgh! I can finally see the light. A sudden contraction of the inner muscle wall pushed me out. Feeling a bit weak, dizzy and tired, I looked up. I saw this majestic tiger looking down on me in disgust. I wondered what was wrong. I compared myself with him only to find that my fur was vermillion red while his was pure white. I racked my tiny brain and found the answer. Surprisingly, I am quite intellectual but I did not care. Anyway, I was tired. I feel asleep.

The first two weeks were indeed boring and sad for me. My siblings always push me. Looks like they were banding together to bully the abnormal me. Luckily, there is mother to stop them. I feed on my mother’s milk and sleep most of the time. Quickly, a month has passed. Father quickly isolated me from my siblings as if I am like a plague. Despite all of the differences, my mother never failed in giving in all her love and attention to me. She taught me how to speak in the tiger’s language, her name, my father’s name and lastly my name. Since I am different, I was given a lot of free time. There was no need for me to train as I was not a white tiger so I would not be hunted. Therefore, most of the time, I roam the jungle myself.

Today is the first time, I am in the jungle by myself. As I walk through the jungle, I notice a weird-looking animal. It has six legs with a sleek black-coloured body. My interest gets the best of me. I eat it and it tastes funny and the body is crunchy. I spit it out wondering what is wrong with this animal. Bai Po, my mother who was watching from the bush snickers a bit. I am then told that the animal is called a spider.

The six months are a good time spent together with my mother. With her, I have learnt the art of the predator. I learnt what animals could be eaten and what could not. I can still recount my first prey that I had slain. It was a messy fight. I hid in the bush waiting for the rabbit. As it closed in, it probably noticed the vermillion colour of my fur. It shrieked and jumped away and the ambush ended up as a failure. With no other choice, I have to pounce onto the hare. Sadly, it ran faster than I expected. I nearly caught it with my paw by a small margin of difference. I sped up to it and used my powerful jaws to snap the neck of the hare. Never would I have thought that my jaw strength was that strong. The bite not only killed it, but tore its neck apart and the blood spread everywhere. My mother who was standing at the side just smiled at my hunting experience. Since then, I started to hunt stronger prey like deer, boar and even snakes.

Every now and then I return, I find no comfort in returning into my den. It has a sense of loneliness. No one seems to pay any heed to me nor has anyone treated me the way they have treated my siblings. Even other white tigers’ parents do not allow their cubs to go near me at all. And that is not all, Bai Ping, my elder brother bullies me and dad does not even say anything to stop his antics.As for my two sisters, Bai Jing and Bai Hei are neutral towards me. I was taking a nap when I was woken up by a commotion. I then headed off to my mother to find out what was the matter that was causing such a huge commotion.

It appeared that a huge number of humans were entering the forest with the intention of killing some of the animals to be kept as trophies. The humans also happened to have news about us, the white tigers. They came to this jungle prepared to kill some of our kind and tame some of us just for the furs. This truly infuriated my father, for the humans, our nemesis had come once again to hunt for our kind. The whole pack was called together for a meeting which seemed to exclude me. As for what they had discussed, I had no idea. After the discussion, we used our superior and keen sense of smell, we tracked them easily. We patiently waited like a professional hunter watching the unsuspecting preys having the time of their life. Slowly, the sun descended. Finally, it was show time. The fight and ambush starts. The sly humans had arranged traps at unsuspecting spots causing us to suffer some losses even before the fight has started. What’s worse is that the sound of the traps activating had alerted the humans about our incoming attack. The essence of surprise was gone.

Lei Yer’s POV

I am Lei Yer, a seasonal hunter. I have hunted for seven years as a source of income. When I was planning to travel to the main city to lead a safer life as a trader, I noticed that i was still in need of some gold to achieve this dream of mine. It was then that I saw this notice that caught my attention, 50 gold for a reward! What kind of job could it be? I read the itinerary and quickly understood the reason for the extravagant reward. A hunt for the white tigers! I quickly signed up for it. The reassurance for my safety was significantly boosted as I heard that there were two cultivators joining in on this hunt. What are cultivators? Cultivators are said to have power easily rivaling 10 men. They could easily decimate a city with their might if provoked. Basically, a cultivator was a being that had transcended the limits of a normal human being, whether it be speed ,strength or longevity. Although the cultivators may be lower leveled, they still had techniques that could be used to attack multiple targets at once.

After that, we set off to the jungle following the lead of a jungle ranger. By dusk, we had almost covered all the trail to the white tigers. We settled down and set up our camp. A bonfire was created. The hunters drank their booze and made merry, after all, they would soon be rich. The party was ongoing when one of the traps was activated. Following that, more and more traps were activated in succession. An attack! Even when the hunters knew that there was an enemy attack, they could not fight back as the effect of the booze is kicked in. Sluggishly, they drew out their swords despite even having trouble standing still. Those people were bound to be killed in their drunken state. Even in a moment of crisis, they were still talking rubbish.

Luckily, these people were only the minority. Most of the others were in their conscious state. What shocked us was that the white tigers came to us rather than us going to them. Now, at this moment, a fight broke out. Men versus beast. The beast being superior in strength and speed obviously held an overwhelming advantage over us. One of their kind could take 3 of us at once but it was not like they were immortal. Our swords could still do some shallow cuts on their skin. One by one they were dying. I noticed that there was a vermillion coloured cub. It just stood there doing nothing. I noticed that this was a huge chance. Making minimal movement, I closed our gap to a mere one meter. I then climbed onto a tree and after reaching a considerable height. I concentrated all my energy into my leg and made a big leap. This is of course to make use of the gravity to deal a fatal blow to the tiger. It noticed my presence and jumped towards me. I failed to perform my lunge as he bit onto my sword the caused it to snap. The snapped blade propels towards my throats. The sharp ends pierces through my throats and it hurts. I am going unconscious. AARH! I know, so this is how I die. It is so uncool to die by my own blade.

One of the cultivators’ POV

“Martial brother, what are we going to do after this hunt?”

“We shall go to some sect or city for a few years and try to elevate our realm to elementary first” said the martial brother.

Attack!

“What is with this noise, let’s go out and see shall we,” said the martial brother

“I agree,” I said

What I saw outside was a total lost cause of a fight for the humans. Using what we have learned, we cut the air at a speed that a normal human is incapable of. This in turn sends out a projection of air sharper than a blade in the form of a crescent. The two crescents sent by us has altogether killed 50 white tigers or more. The white tigers upon noticing that we are a threat compared to those wimpy humans, spread out more as they are wary of our skill. However, that was our intention all along. One by one they come and attack us. What we did not expect Is that they are quite resilient and strong drawing more stamina than expected.

The Variation (Bai Hou’s POV)

There are two weird man who performed some technique and so many of our members died. The situation called for a drastic change in plan. More tigers engage on the two weird men. Of course, we are just ants in their eyes. The slaughter of my tribe goes on for a few minutes and I begin to see fatigue in them. In the end our superior numbers will prevail! That was where I was totally wrong. One of the men screamed like a mad man and unleashed a stronger crescent of air. Shit! I was unable to dodge it. Bai Po, my mom pushes me and takes the deadly blow. In the process of it, I was injured while mom gasped her last few breath and told me to stay healthy and try to understand my father. Enraged, my family killed that man. The other tigers are angered with the death of their queen and go berserk. All the human were killed except for the cultivator. All the tigers charge at him. Continuous crescents are unleashed killing all except me. Tears dripping down from my eyes. ROAR! The cultivator finally gave in to his fatigue and slumped down but I will not give compassion to a man who killed the whole white tiger pack.

I pounced on the tired cultivator and tore his neck apart. Then,i was at a loss of what to do. The whole pack just died. I had lost my sense of direction and goal. Hunger then took over my thoughts for the moment. I then tore into the cultivators and found these two odd beads in their body (dantian). I played with the beads for a while. Feeling that nothing was wrong, I eat them. My goodness, they were so hard that my teeth nearly shattered like glass. The pain deeply ingrained itself into my mind. While my mind was still receiving the shock of the pain, the beads found their way into my throat and went in. I choked for a while and then I felt my body being odd. I was burning in heat but there was no fire.

I collapsed as I could not withstand the heat. After hours, I woke up only to find myself covered with black liquid and it stank. Furthermore i discover that i was faster and stronger than before and i could feel this familiar energy within me which made me feel good and strong.

I was just about to move but I needed a new change, a new name. I named myself Rancer and I was pleased with that name. Whoosh! A human came. I braced myself even when my instinct told me that I could never win him. “Sigh! I did not expect to be that late but still, luckily you are fine. “that human said. He then changed himself into a shape of a tiger and his skin was so similar to mine.

About 6 months ago

Somewhere

Dugo’s POV

I was doing my usual job as an overseer. Then suddenly, my red globe shook violently. What did this mean? A descendant of my super, ultra powerful bloodline was born. I could not believe it as it was stated in the laws of the Heaven that the more powerful ta person was the harder it was to birth a child. This was to maintain the balance. Therefore, my children the half-breed were not as powerful as me and could never use my divine abilities. As usual, the purity of blood dwindled and suddenly this artifact of mine detected the birth of someone like me, the second kin member of my species which would be able use my divine abilities. With a flip of my hand, the dimension distorted and I went to the plane.

For 6 months, I searched and searched until I reached this forest and I could smell the stench of blood. Not good. I hastened myself and when I reached, I saw the one of my kind. “Sigh! I did not expect myself to be that late but still, luckily you are fine.” I said. I transformed myself and said, “You can call me your grandpa from now on.” That kid exclaimed “Ehhhhhhh!!!"