Chapter Eighty-Three: Raw Force

It had been three days since Ji Hao had become the personal bodyguard responsible for carrying the heavy club for Manman, and during these three days he had finally come to truly understand her.

“She really is… a most extraordinary girl!” Ji Hao stared in astonishment at Manman, who was leaping and bounding through the mountains and forests like a monkey, the massive, deadweight wolf-tooth club hoisted over his shoulder.

Her once snow-white cheeks were now smeared with a thick layer of moss from who knows where; her glossy black hair, once neatly tied in a ponytail, had turned into a tangled mess, with a few slender twigs stuck in it; her exquisite, ornate armor was crooked and caked everywhere with mud.

Panting, Manman was straddling a thick tree branch, grinning as she fished out several fist-sized bird eggs from a huge nest. She waved cheerfully down at Ji Hao, who stood on the ground below.

“Look, Ji Hao, bird eggs! They’re still warm—do you want one?”

Ji Hao had just shaken his head when Manman, delighted, smashed a bird egg hard against her own forehead. The shell cracked open; she peeled it away and poured the clear egg liquid into her mouth, swallowing it down in a single gulp.

“Tastes great! You really don’t want one?” Manman’s wide eyes, dark as ink and pure as water, gazed at Ji Hao, innocence written all over her face.

“I prefer mine cooked,” Ji Hao replied, spreading his hands with a wry smile.

“Oh!” Manman cried out in disappointment, then suddenly turned and called out to Ying Yan, who stood behind Ji Hao, “Old Yan, take off your robe—hurry! Put all these bird eggs in it for me, they taste great!”

With a mournful face, Ying Yan took off his long robe, woven from golden threads, revealing a close-fitting short shirt beneath. Manman, meanwhile, was merrily scurrying up and down the hundred-zhang-tall tree, tossing down one bird egg after another.

Ying Yan scrambled beneath the tree, deftly catching the falling eggs and placing them in his robe spread out on the ground. All the while, he cried out, “Ah, young mistress, slow down, slow down—oh, that one almost dropped!”

Though his cries sounded pitiful, Ying Yan’s hands moved with the precision, speed, and decisiveness of a true master. No matter how Manman rained the eggs down, he didn’t miss a single one—each was caught and placed securely on the robe. More than once his movements left faint afterimages, and even when Ji Hao employed his divine Golden Crow eyes, he couldn’t follow them.

Ji Hao was secretly astounded; he surmised that Ying Yan’s strength far surpassed even that of Ji Zhuo, likely close to the level of a Witch King. Yet such a figure was nothing more than a groveling old servant in front of Manman, spending his days joking and playing with her. What kind of existence was Manman’s father, for his daughter to be served so?

“Look out, young mistress, we’ve attracted that big fellow!” A long howl echoed from several dozen miles away, carrying with it a fierce gale that sent branches and leaves flying through the forest. The torrential rain from above was whipped by the invisible sound waves, dissolving into a thick, white mist that engulfed the surroundings.

On a distant mountain, a dozen or so of Manman’s bodyguards were racing down a steep slope. The leader clutched a small beast, over three feet long, its furry body struggling frantically in his grasp, emitting sharp, piercing cries.

Behind them, dozens of giant trees were being ripped from the earth by a terrifying force, whistling through the air like javelins as they were hurled at the fleeing guards. Ji Hao could see clearly: the air in front of those giant trunks burst into visible white shockwaves from the speed of their flight—evidence of the unimaginable strength behind the throws.

The dozen guards moved through the forest with the agility of monkeys, darting and weaving through the trees. The massive trunks crashed into the earth, grazing them by mere inches, shattering with thunderous force, sending up showers of earth and stone. The ground collapsed, boulders exploded—an awe-inspiring spectacle.

A furious roar suddenly erupted. Even from afar, Ji Hao saw a giant, more than ten zhang tall, leap high into the air, swinging a boulder the size of a house and hurling it down at the fleeing guards.

With a deafening crash, the ground beneath Ji Hao’s feet trembled faintly. In the distance, a swath of forest spanning several miles was obliterated, the land split open, caving in to form a massive crater. The giant, his body knotted with muscle, his face fierce and tusked, had unleashed such power with a casual blow.

Ying Yan cried out in alarm, “Young mistress… you, you actually sent them to provoke a ‘Mountain God’?”

In the Southern Wilds, among the myriad strange beings like Ji Hao’s old friends Old Stone, Old Tree Demon, and Lord Hengluo, there was a special kind whose origins were the very essence of the mountains and rivers. Absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the essence of the stars, they condensed a true spirit and could command the power of the very mountains that birthed them. With every movement, their strength was immense, earning them the title of ‘Mountain God’ among the tribes of the wild.

Some tribes even worshipped these Mountain Gods as ancestral spirits, offering sacrifices to them. In return, the Mountain Gods would shield them, while the people provided food and other services.

“It’s just a big oaf, isn’t it?” Manman lifted her chin proudly, flexing her hands and feet. Suddenly, she leapt a hundred zhang into the air, just as a mountain wind howled by. Catching the current, she floated swiftly toward the Mountain God, crossing seven or eight miles in a few breaths.

“Old Yan, don’t interfere! I haven’t had a good stretch in ages—my whole body’s itching!” Manman shouted, “If you dare interfere, I’ll go back and spar with your sons and grandsons!”

Ying Yan’s old face was wrinkled with misery. Helpless, he stamped his foot and growled at Ji Hao, “Hurry and follow! If anything happens to the young mistress, we’re all dead! Quickly, quickly—don’t interfere, but don’t let her get hurt by that brute!”

Manman’s guards dodged the Mountain God’s mighty strike, gasping for breath as they scrambled from the flying rubble, fleeing as fast as they could.

The Mountain God, towering ten zhang high, roared again. Discarding the shattered boulder, he reached out and, with a horrifying crack, uprooted a towering hundred-zhang tree as easily as plucking a blade of grass.

With a bellow, the Mountain God swung the trunk down in a wild arc.

A small figure flashed forward—Manman shot toward the Mountain God like a whirlwind, shouted, and raised both hands to catch the trunk squarely.

With a tremendous boom, the ground for miles around her feet shook violently, fissures opening as a deep pit several zhang across yawned beneath her.

A cloud of fire bloomed beneath Manman’s feet; she hovered in the air, supported by the fiery cloud, her hands holding the trunk steady. With a shout, she spun around, lifted the tree—and the Mountain God at its end—and slammed both down hard upon the earth.

The ground trembled; the Mountain God’s massive body was driven halfway into the soil, struggling futilely to free himself.

Ji Hao stared dumbfounded at Manman. This strength…

Without using a hint of sorcery, she had suppressed the fearsome Mountain God by sheer brute force alone!

What savage, monstrous power! And this little girl was several months younger than Ji Hao himself!

***

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