Chapter 59: The Spring Goddess Man

Gaocun Town, the Earth God Temple.

"Is the old lady not here today?"

Watching Xiao'e, who was nearby at the temple keeper's altar interpreting fortunes for the villagers, a youth asked in a low voice with some curiosity.

Though this youth wore tattered clothes, his face was handsome.

One look made it clear he was no ordinary mountain dweller.

Especially that set of muscles, not rough but rugged, filled with a beauty that transcended this era.

"The old lady has gone off on business; if you have something to ask, you can speak to me."

She immediately recognized the identity of that youth.

Xiao'e hesitated for a moment, then finally gestured for the other party to sit before her.

Because Xiao'e remembered this youth; he had come to this Earth God Temple three years ago and they had met once.

Most importantly, the youth's appearance three years ago and three years later was exactly the same, without a single bit of change.

Still dressed in tattered rags...

Still wearing an appearance that clashed with ordinary mountain dwellers...

"If I recall correctly, your name is 'E'?"

Nodding calmly, the youth—or rather, E Tu—admitted his identity without any hesitation.

"She's not here?"

"Then that's troublesome."

Scratching his head with considerable distress, E Tu hadn't expected the old lady to actually be absent from the temple.

E Tu had known the old lady for decades, yet this was the first time he had seen her leave the Earth God Temple.

For some reason, a sense of ominous foreboding quietly arose in E Tu's heart.

The last time he felt this sensation was during the "Ghost and God Chaos" three years ago.

"Do you know where the old lady went?"

Facing E Tu's question, Xiao'e shook her head blankly.

"The old lady didn't tell me where she went..."

Opening her mouth as if to speak but stopping, Xiao'e looked at E Tu before her, and a bold thought suddenly popped into her mind.

"However, I can probably guess where she went."

Seeing the cunning look on Xiao'e's face, E Tu instinctively blinked his eyes.

His intuition told him that the scheming little girl opposite him seemed to have dug a pit and was waiting with ill intent for him to jump in.

"Your look... is exactly the same as when the old lady was about to trick me."

Mumbling quietly, E Tu finally couldn't hold back his worry and asked.

"Never mind, I'm used to being tricked anyway; where exactly is the old lady now?"

When E Tu spoke these words, a rare expression of seriousness appeared on his face.

"The slave-catching brigade of the Guifang State!"

"The old lady has been paying attention to the movements of the Guifang State for a long time and discovered they are capturing mountain dwellers on a massive scale."

"I don't know what the Guifang State plans to do; the old lady never told me..."

"But I can see that the old lady has been growing more and more worried day by day; recently she hasn't even been able to eat."

Pausing her tone slightly, Xiao'e continued speaking.

"So I think she is most likely gone to find that slave-catching brigade..."

"That slave-catching brigade has moved south; they should now be near the Jingyang Mountain Pass, a hundred li away."

Seeing Xiao'e, whose mouth used words like "most likely" and "should," yet whose face was filled with certainty, E Tu fell silent.

Hearing this now, E Tu could basically confirm that Xiao'e was digging a pit for him.

However, this concerned the whereabouts of the old lady.

Even knowing clearly that Xiao'e was digging a pit for him, E Tu chose to jump in without hesitation.

"The Jingyang Mountain Pass?"

After a brief moment of contemplation, E Tu turned and left the Earth God Temple.

E Tu planned to go to the Jingyang Mountain Pass himself, but before that, he still had to go to another place first.

The Hundred Earth Mountains, Jingyang Mountain Pass.

The battle between the old lady and the Gui Rong Clan was even more spectacular than imagined.

Continuous small-scale earthquakes destroyed the terrain around them, and various bizarre and terrifying plants grew out of the earth.

Fortunately, the members of the Gui Rong Clan were all elites.

After sacrificing one-third of their members, they quickly adapted to the method of fighting terrifying plants amidst the earthquakes.

Leaping across ravines, swinging blades to cut down man-eating plants...

The Gui Rong Clan, in groups of five, frantically tried to approach the old lady.

In this process, any slaves blocking their path became souls beneath their blades.

To speak the truth, five hundred people charging at a single person was a scene that could no longer be described by the word "shocking."

Even on a modern battlefield in the twenty-first century.

Soldiers equipped with drones and various advanced gear could not possibly achieve a one-versus-five-hundred feat.

Only in this world where supernatural powers truly exist could such an incredible thing happen.

Even so, the old lady's current performance far exceeded the common sense of this era.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Beneath the old woman's feet, upon the trembling ground.

A pitch-black great tree, its entire body scorched, as if it were nothing but bare branches, slowly grew.

And as this pitch-black great tree grew, terrifying thunderclouds gathered in the sky, and bolts of lightning, guided by it, struck down into the crowd.

"A Lightning-Drawing Tree!?"

"Such a thing as a Lightning-Drawing Tree actually exists in this world!?"

Stunned, they watched the pitch-black great tree transform a hundred-meter radius into a domain of Lei Ting.

Mu Zheng, who had narrowly escaped death, no longer cared to pull out the remaining blade fragments lodged in his body, and hurriedly retreated to a safe distance.

Mu Zheng was, after all, a former candidate for priest; he still knew the common-sense fact that metal conducts electricity.

"Retreat! Get out of the lightning range immediately!"

"Those who can't retreat, drop the ritual implements in your hands right now — the lightning will travel down through the iron!"

Although Mu Zheng had timely raised his voice to warn them.

Still, nearly several dozen of the charging Gui Rong Tribe died beneath the bombardment of lightning.

Especially those few Gui Rong Tribe warriors who held their long blades raised high — their deaths were too gruesome to look upon.

They didn't even have time to scream before they became a scorched-black, unidentifiable mass.

"Who exactly are you?"

"This is not a power any priest could possibly wield!"

Although priests are the gods' representatives in the mortal world, the power they can bear is limited.

The power the old woman now displayed had already far exceeded the limits of the identity of "priest."

Even those God-Blessed, dearly loved by the gods, could absolutely never wield such terrifying authority.

The old woman's display once again reminded Mu Zheng of the former High Priest of the Gui Fang Kingdom — this was simply not a power any mortal could possess.

"You are not human!"

At that very moment, Deep and Heavy, who had likewise been struck by the Lei Ting bombardment, suddenly widened his eyes.

Because the scene before him reminded Deep and Heavy of a legend widely circulated among the mountain folk — a deity who should have vanished a thousand years ago.

"You are the Spring God — Nü Man!"

Monthly votes / Recommendation votes

(End of chapter)