Chapter 153: Forced Abduction

"Manman!" Seeing a slave soldier sent flying through the air, Ji Hao roared. A burst of flames erupted from his back, and twin wings of flowing light propelled him forward, leaving hundreds of afterimages in his wake as he flashed into the city like lightning.

Ji Hao and Manman had shared life-and-death experiences; Manman held an extraordinary place in his heart. These Jiazu fellows actually wanted to collect Manman as a "tax"? Were they simply courting death?

Inside the city, dozens of slave soldiers, holding shields in their left hands and swords in their right, formed a tight, coordinated formation and surrounded Manman in the center.

Nearby, a watchtower had been violently smashed to pieces. The slave soldiers holding heavy crossbows on the tower were crushed into bloody pulps, and fresh blood continuously trickled from their shattered limbs.

Manman brandished a pair of massive hammers, flames surging all over her body and blazing fire spewing from her eyes. She glared angrily at the solemn-faced slave soldiers surrounding her. From time to time, she smashed her heavy hammers together, producing thunderous explosions that gently shook the buildings across the entire city.

"You alien demons, every single one of you deserves to die!" Manman rebuked loudly, her anger soaring to the heavens and her pride reaching the clouds. "Big Brother said that sooner or time, you will all be tied to the stake and slowly, inch by inch, refined into ashes!"

"Hmph, ignorant little girl, courting your own death!" A slave soldier officer, standing well over two meters tall and exceptionally muscular, let out a loud shout. His figure darted forward like lightning, and the shield in his left hand slammed fiercely toward Manman's face.

This Shaman-grade slave soldier officer did not use his sword, opting for a shield bash instead. Clearly, he wanted to stun Manman and capture her alive rather than kill her.

However, he severely underestimated the terrifying destructive power of Manman, whose delicate and petite frame concealed an adorable yet terrifying might.

Flames surged in Manman's eyes. Having already activated a portion of the Zhurong divine bloodline, her eyes possessed a certain wondrous mystical power, one even more formidable than Ji Hao's Golden Crow divine eyes. To the slave soldier officer, his movements were swift and fluid, but in Manman's eyes, his actions moved in agonizing, frame-by-frame slow motion, riddled with flaws everywhere.

Of course, flaws mattered very little to Manman.

She raised her right heavy hammer, locked onto the slave soldier officer's body, and casually brought it down with a single strike.

Countless flame patterns on the Mountain-Suppressing Hammer erupted simultaneously, and tens of thousands of red runes flashed across the hammerhead and vanished. The entire city shuddered violently. Within a radius of a thousand miles, every single flame-related energy element in the void and primordial energy of heaven and earth was instantly swallowed whole by this Mountain-Suppressing Hammer.

Amid a roaring sound, the hammerhead spewed out massive billows of flames, striking the slave soldier officer squarely on the crown of his head. Following a deafening blast, the slave soldier officer, along with his armor, shield, and weapons, was reduced to ashes in a ball of fire, not a single speck of residue left behind.

"Haha! You bunch of trash, not even worth the dogs that eat rotting meat!" Manman laughed wildly. Carrying two heavy hammers that, combined, were almost as large as her own body, she charged out like a red whirlwind.

A rapid series of terrifying thuds echoed out. Nearly a hundred slave soldier warriors didn't even have time to raise a defense—of course, even if they had raised their pitiful little shields, it would have meant nothing. With a single swing of the Mountain-Suppressing Hammer, a slave soldier warrior would explode into clouds of dust across the sky. Manman effortlessly swung her hammers dozens of times, and the slave soldier warriors surrounding her were completely wiped out.

By the time Ji Hao rushed over in great anxiety, Manman had already ended the battle.

However, more slave soldier warriors came roaring in from all directions, quickly sealing off this entire sector of the city. Shrill alarm sirens wailed from the distant metal warships, and a torrent of elite slave soldiers poured out of the cabins, swarming up the metal boarding ramps onto the Turtle Spirit Caravan's city.

A Jiazu warrior roared in fury, "Turtle Spirit Caravan! You dare to slaughter the warriors of our Cangyue Legion? Do you wish to die?"

Old Gui's face turned ashen white. His body stiffened as he stood atop the roof of a small building, unable to utter a word for a long time.

Looking at Old Gui's rigid body and pale face, Ji Hao suddenly gathered his breath and shouted sternly, "Idiots! Do we look like people from the caravan to you? You collect taxes from the caravan, that has nothing to do with us. But if you want to bully Manman, just wait for your death!"

The Jiazu warrior who had just shouted glanced at Old Gui and immediately bellowed, "Turtle Spirit Caravan! Since this has nothing to do with you, keep your guards in line and forbid them from making any rash moves, or else your Turtle Spirit Caravan can forget about ever setting foot in the Southern Wasteland again!"

Dozens of Jiazu warriors swarmed toward Ji Hao and Manman from all directions. One of the Jiazu warriors, holding the highest status among them, barked harshly, "Surround them! Tear that little brat straight into pieces to feed the dogs. As for this little girl, she really is delicate and pretty... The general has been looking for a few tender lasses these past few days... Heh heh, not a single hair of hers is to be harmed!"

Hearing the Jiazu warrior's scolding, Ji Hao sneered and hurriedly glanced around.

Si Wenming was nowhere to be seen; his figure was entirely absent. Ji Hao was momentarily stunned, then smiled and patted Manman heavily on the shoulder. "Manman, use all your strength and beat them to death! They said so themselves—not a single hair on your head can be harmed."

Manman nodded heavily, smashed her Mountain-Suppressing Hammers together with a vicious impact, and stamped her feet hard against the ground. The metal earth within a radius of half a mile suddenly collapsed. Manman's petite figure kicked up a fierce gale as she swung her twin heavy hammers and ruthlessly smashed toward the nearest Jiazu warrior.

The Jiazu warrior bearing the brunt of the attack remained expressionless as he flicked his left hand. A square heavy shield materialized out of thin air, and with a slight flick of his left hand, Manman's twin heavy hammers crashed fiercely against it. A deafening explosion rang out, a vast sheet of flames erupted, and neither Manman nor the Jiazu warrior budged even an inch.

Before Manman could even retract her hammers, however, the Jiazu warrior's right hand miraculously broke through the defensive circle of the twin heavy hammers and lunged directly before Manman. Manman's eyes widened in shock as she stared in horror at the ghostly hand, watching helplessly as the opponent's massive grip clamped tightly around her neck.

The Jiazu warriors burst into laughter simultaneously, laughing with peerless arrogance and triumph.

Manman's attacks were wide open and unrestrained. Though her brute strength was astonishing, her flaws were indeed far too glaring. Dealing with slave soldiers whose strength fell far short of hers naturally proved immensely sharp, but facing these Jiazu warriors, she had been subdued at her vital weakness in a single move.

"Surrender, or else..." roared the Jiazu warrior who had grabbed Manman's neck.

Before he could finish his sentence, however, Ji Hao had already drawn a strangely shaped long saber forged from black jade. With a swift flash of his hand, he brought the blade down, tracing an arc that was profoundly mysterious yet primal and robust.

Blood splattered everywhere. The very arm that was gripping Manman's neck was effortlessly sliced off right at the shoulder by Ji Hao in a single stroke. Even the thick shoulder armor failed to block this strike, which embodied the profound mysteries of Ji Hao's Heaven-Opening Strike.

The Jiazu warrior shrieked in agony and stumbled back wildly, while the surrounding Jiazu warriors roared and lunged forward together.

"Capture this little girl! Tear this brat to pieces!"

Dozen of arms scrambled to grab Manman, while only three or four Jiazu warriors launched their attack on Ji Hao.