虎先锋 Tiger Vanguard
威凛凛，气堂堂，花身电目逞凶狂。
腥风血雨起杀意，铜头铁尾镇四方。
Majestic and grand, with a fierce display,
Striped coat, eyes like lightning's ray.
In the blood pool, its wrath does rise,
With a bronze head and iron tail, it terrifies.
数百年前，前任虎先锋因捉唐僧，丢了性命，他膝下所遗二子，只得靠自己过活。
虎兄虎弟领着残存的小妖，在毁坏殆尽的山中过得很辛苦，所幸，父亲教过他们些真本事，也让他们熬了过来。
随着风沙停息，石母与石精们将荒山重建出昔日样貌，虎兄就仿照父亲所做，管束起山中群怪，让他们各安其职，不得随意祸害生灵。
后来，有凡人在这山中建起了村庄，虎兄依照“啖尽迷路奸邪，护送过往好人”的风俗，为自己博了个“虎神”的名号。
村人为“虎神”建了座卧虎寺，常常供奉，这让虎弟心下越发不服，总觉兄长占尽了威风，只因比自己早生几年。
又过了百年，黄风大圣忽然带着一群鼠妖重回了黄风岭。虎弟不悦，说正因这黄毛鼠精坐视不理，才致父亲身亡。他怂恿虎兄赶走鼠妖，虎兄觉得有理，就应承了下来。
谁知这一战黄风大圣祭出个状似苦萨头颅的法器，呼风如刀，一个照面便重伤了虎弟。为保弟弟一命，虎兄只得扔掉兵器，跪下称臣。黄风大圣倒不计前嫌，得知虎兄弟身世后，还将虎兄命为麾下先锋。
虎弟救还醒转，得知兄长做了先锋，更不肯依。二虎大吵一番，虎弟负气出走，再也不肯与兄长往来。
对虎先锋而言，那黄毛貂鼠害得他两次家破人散，着实可恨。但他除了每天多吃些老鼠泄愤，他又能做些什么哩?
The tale began centuries past, when the journeyers crossed Yellow Wind Ridge. In those days, the old Tiger Vanguard lost his life seizing the Tang Monk. He left behind two sons who, once orphaned, had to fend for themselves.
The mountain groves lay in ruins. The tiger brothers led the remaining lesser guais in a bitter struggle for survival. Fortunately, their father had taught them enough to make a living. As the sandstorms ebbed, rock guais slowly restored the groves to their former state. The elder tiger, following his late father's ways, governed the yaoguais in the mountain. Each knew their place and dared not prowl forth to prey on the living. Later, mortals drawn by the lush peaks and clear springs built a village amid the slopes. The elder tiger gained renown as a deity in the mountain with the principle: "Devour the evil and shield the good."
The villagers built a Crouching Tiger Temple for the brothers, offering rich tributes that made their lives even more blissful. Yet long had the younger nursed a grievance; his elder brother reaped all the glory in people's words on the tigers in the mountain. He believed his brother earned this merely by dint of a few more years of life.
Another century turned and Yellow Wind Sage returned to Yellow Wind Ridge with a host of rat guais. The younger tiger declared that it was the Sage's negligence that had doomed their father. He clamored to slay the Sage in vengeance, urging his brother to drive off the rats. Deeming this just, the elder agreed. But in that fight, the Sage unleashed a vessel like a bodhisattva's severed head, with its gale sharp as an edge. In a single clash, the younger tiger fell grievously wounded. For the life of his little brother, the elder tiger at once cast down his arms and knelt in surrender. The Sage held no grudge, after learning the brothers' origin, he even bestowed upon the surrender the title of Vanguard.
When the younger tiger woke and learned his brother now served as the Vanguard, he seethed in disbelief. The brothers quarreled bitterly until the younger stormed off, severing all ties with the only family he had left.
In the Tiger Vanguard's eyes, that yellow-furred rat had twice destroyed his family and left them broken and scattered. He hated him for that, but he was no fool. As long as the rat had protection from the higher ones, what more could a tiger do beyond venting his rage by devouring a few lesser rats each day?
