Thunder Half-Moon Slash Brown Bear, Brown Bear zip, Bear Meatballs... The Arrogant Big Yellow Relying on Its Master's Power

Sparse rustles echoed through the woods as the group hacked their way through the undergrowth.

"Hey, your highness, how about... we go grab some weapons or something?" Old Li glanced at the increasingly thick jungle surrounding them, a nervous knot forming in his stomach. There wasn't a single sign of human life anywhere out here. Who knew what kind of wild beasts might pop out of nowhere?

Bears, for example... If that happened, they'd be in for a world of hurt.

"Why do you always have to run your mouth nonstop?" Du Wanyi stopped short, her face twisted into an annoyed scowl. Old Li jumped in fright, stammering to explain right away.

"It's not just me, your highness! Everyone here feels the same way!"

"Everyone feels the same way? Oh, really? Do you all think that too?" Du Wanyi raised a sharp eyebrow, looking over the crowd of trembling Ginseng Fruit huddled behind her.

The group of Ginseng Fruit: "..."

Their legs were already shaking like leaves, but they knew they couldn't back down now. If they did, they'd be done for. This whole forest felt wrong no matter how you looked at it. They knew Du Wanyi was dead set on finding someone, and there was no way to talk her out of it. If they refused to follow, she'd probably stick them in the ground to grow as ginseng. And then if some "friendly" little forest creatures happened to wander by, they'd be even worse off.

At least sticking close to Du Wanyi meant they had a powerful fighter to keep them safe. That said, they still should get something to defend themselves with!

The whole group nodded in unison, and Old Li finally breathed a sigh of relief, terrified that his old buddies would throw him under the bus.

If that happened... he'd be the one left holding the bag.

"Fine, fine, I'm not an unreasonable person," Du Wanyi suddenly said, acting all "understanding". Everyone froze, a big question mark popping up over their heads. Wait a minute... did this famous female demon king suddenly have a change of heart?

A few minutes later.

Every single person in the group was holding their hands over their heads, hefting a massive giant tree on their shoulders. Their faces were bright red with strain, their legs trembling nonstop, but none of them dared to stop.

Du Wanyi stood right on top of the log, balancing like she was on a leisurely boat ride. "Hold it steady, all of you! If I catch anyone slacking off, don't say I didn't warn you!"

The crowd: "..."

What the hell, that's so messed up, ugh...

Painful masks were plastered all over their faces, and underneath those masks was the exact same tortured, meme-worthy expression from the famous "Flame Punch" panel. Sure enough, the female fiend was still the same old female fiend. Reasoning with her never worked, and that sudden show of kindness was nothing but a trick.

Once the facade fell away, all they got was her overwhelming, unbeatable brand of justice!

Oh, and by the way, the huge tree they were all carrying was just ripped straight out of the ground by Du Wanyi a second ago. The sight of that made all their eyes go wide and clear with shock.

Holy shit, is that even human?!

In the face of absolute, overwhelming strength, any voice of opposition looks utterly ridiculous. She respects everyone else's opinions, but she holds the absolute veto power. That makes total sense, right?

Da Huang was leading the way at the front, sniffing the ground nonstop to track down Ye Cheng's scent. Their progress had slowed down a lot, because all the different wild animal smells in the forest were messing with his tracking.

He had to pick out Ye Cheng's exact unique scent from dozens of different overlapping smells, and that was no easy task at all...

The group kept moving in formation through the woods for about half an hour, when Da Huang suddenly seemed to catch a whiff of something. Its ears perked straight up, and it immediately darted off in a specific direction.

"Hurry up, pick up the pace, you lot of lazybones!" Du Wanyi yelled the second she saw Da Huang speed ahead, starting to urge everyone on.

If only she had a whip on her right now, she would have already been cracking it, slap slap slap, right across the backs of all those Ginseng Fruit hauling tree trunks below... Oh, for crying out loud!

The rest of the group: "......"

All of them wore faces of utter misery, and under Du Wanyi's prodding, they had no choice but to move faster. Old Li, leading the pack, tracked Da Huang's position and steered the whole group rushing right after it.

Full steam ahead!

Thud!

They hadn't run more than a couple steps when the whole team jolted to a messy, stumbling halt—they seemed to have crashed straight into something?

Something squishy and fleshy?

"ROAR!"

Old Li looked up, and found a massive brown bear baring its fangs and snarling right at him. They were so close he could feel the beast's hot breath on his face, and... catch a faint whiff of burnt fur?

The group: "!!!"

"AAAHHHH—"

Screams erupted from everyone. No wonder they'd stumbled—they'd run straight into this thing!

What the hell!

Spooked out of their wits, the whole formation fell apart instantly. Everyone dropped the logs they were carrying and tried to run for their lives. In the chaos, Du Wanyi, who had been perched on top of the pile of logs enjoying the scenery, got thrown right off.

She hit the ground with a solid thud, and by the time she collected her wits, everyone else was already gone... Well, almost everyone—there was no one left but her, except the brown bear in front of her, which definitely didn't count as a person.

A giant brown bear nearly three meters tall when standing on its hind legs loomed right before Du Wanyi, drooling nonstop. A closer look revealed a patch of badly burnt fur on its rear end.

Yep, this was the very same brown bear that had tried to sneak up on Ye Cheng late one night. That little escapade had backfired horribly, and it had almost gotten roasted alive by Ye Cheng, nearly ending its entire bear career right then and there.

It had been so terrified the night before it had practically cried, and only got away when the border patrol showed up. Ye Cheng, seeing the situation turn bad, had hightailed it out of there without a second thought.

By the time the patrol got to the scene, all they found were two "poor little creatures" tied up over a fire. That was how the bear and a wolf had barely escaped with their lives.

Naturally, the moment the two animals were untied by the patrol, they didn't dare lash out—they scrambled off as fast as they could. Why? Well, anyone that didn't learn what "firepower" means never lived to tell the tale.

One patrol member had freed them, while the other stood by with his rifle aimed. The second either of the two showed any sign of aggression, they would have been shot dead on the spot.

After all, people come first. Protecting wild animals is important, but not when they're attacking humans.

With that traumatic lesson etched into its brain, the brown bear had gotten smart. It stopped sneaking up on people with short hair—aka men—and decided to only go after people with long hair. As luck would have it, Du Wanyi was the only person around with long hair right now.

If Old Li and the rest had stuck around even a second longer when they ran, the bear would have tackled several of them already.

It's not exaggerating to say the bear had developed a full-blown phobia from its run-in with Ye Cheng—he was just too terrifying. If any of the guys in the group had worked up the nerve to charge at the bear right now, it would have turned tail and run without a single moment of hesitation.

Du Wanyi calmly got back to her feet, silently memorizing every last one of those Ginseng Fruit that had just bailed on her. Then she reached down, lifted the several-hundred-pound tree trunk off the ground, and roared.

"So you think you can eat me, huh? I'll show you who eats who! Take this! And this!!!"

Du Wanyi hefted a huge tree in her arms and unleashed a Thunder Half-Moon Slash!

"Boom!"

The ground shook, and the brown bear was smashed straight into a brown bear zip... its eyes rolled back, its legs went stiff, and its whole life flashed before its eyes!

Even Ye Cheng couldn't take a single blow from this move with a hoe yesterday, let alone with the hundreds of pounds of strength Du Wanyi was putting into it right now. In an instant, the bear's entire life replayed in its mind before its massive body thudded to the ground, completely knocked out.

The loud commotion caught the attention of Old Li and the rest of the group who had just started running away. They stopped in their tracks, turned around, and saw a huge tree "suddenly uprooted" before being swung down hard and smashing into the earth.

"Rumble!"

Another dull thud echoed across the clearing.

The whole group: "???"

Holy shit!

The bunch who had been ready to make a run for it while they still had the chance suddenly had a full change of heart. They all scurried right back, not daring to run an inch further.

"Thump!"

"I told you to eat, I told you to eat, you just had to eat!"

"Thump thump thump——"

The whole group: "......"

For the next half minute, Old Li and the others watched the entire process of making hand-pounded beef balls—wait no, bear meat balls—right before their eyes.

The brown bear zip they'd seen a moment ago was now a flattened bear meat paste. The thick, cloying stench of blood hung heavy in the air, so nauseating that everyone's stomachs churned.

Even though everyone there thought they had a pretty strong stomach, seeing this sight almost made them cry in fright, their legs turning as wobbly as overcooked noodles.

They now realized that Du Wanyi's earlier threat that she'd beat them to death if they tried to run wasn't an exaggeration at all—she really would do it, and none of them doubted for a second that she had the strength to pull it off.

After a while, the huge tree she'd been swinging finally stopped moving. Old Li was the first to snap out of it, quickly grabbing a bottle of fresh mineral water and hurrying over to her with a fawning look on his face.

"Goddess, here, have some water. Don't wear yourself out!"

Du Wanyi twisted her neck and tossed the massive tree she was holding to the side... "Boom!" The ground shook again slightly, and a cloud of dust kicked up as the tree landed.

"Cough cough..." The whole group coughed through the dust.

Before Du Wanyi could take the water bottle from Old Li, rustling sounds came from the nearby bushes, followed by Da Huang's barking!

"Woof!!!"

Da Huang darted out of the woods in a flash and hid right behind Du Wanyi. It looked like something was chasing after the dog.

"Awwww!"

A wolf howl rang out, and right after that, a pack of wolves emerged, surrounding the whole group. One of the wolves in the pack had its entire back fur scorched bald.

The scent Da Huang had picked up earlier that belonged to Ye Cheng was coming off that very wolf, and Da Huang had accidentally wandered straight into its territory without noticing.

Da Huang lifted its head and took a look... Whoa, so many wolves!

Da Huang: "......"

Da Huang yelped a whole string of complaints as it bolted off, its paws moving so fast they left afterimages. The wolves were so stunned by the blur that they didn't react for a second—what the heck was that thing that just zoomed past?

Once they snapped out of it, the alpha wolf let out a howl, and the whole pack gave chase right after. That was how they ended up here.

But... the wolves were totally confused. Why could a hunk of meat run that fast? That "fox" looked way too chubby, didn't it? How could something that fat move so quickly?

This is the vast Northwest China, a place rarely trodden by people, where even dogs are a rare sight. After preying for so many years, this pack of wolves had never come across a "fat fox" like Da Huang before...

It looks so delicious!

The whole pack swarmed after him, and very quickly, a dramatic scene unfolded. A whole group of wolves were going all out at full sprint, yet they still couldn't catch up to Da Huang as he fled for his life.

Not only did the gap between them not close, it kept widening. Some of the wolves in the pack were already starting to run out of steam, while Da Huang was picking up more and more speed the longer he ran...

The wolves: Oh hell, this damn chunk of fatty meat can run way too fast!

Soon, something that made the alpha wolf overjoyed happened. Da Huang, who was just about to vanish completely out of their chasing range, stopped. Not only did he stop, but a familiar scent of blood wafted over — an overwhelmingly strong smell of fresh prey!

This is... a bloody feast!

The entire pack grew frantic with excitement, forming their usual hunting encirclement as they crept closer little by little.

The rest of the group: "???"

"Holy shit!"

"So many wolves? We're totally doomed now!"

"It's over..."

"Woof, woof woof, woof woof woof..."

The rest of the group: "......"

Wait a second, did some weird random thing just slip in here?

Right as everyone was sinking into despair, Da Huang kept yapping nonstop at Du Wanyi, tattling on the wolves the whole time. None of the other people could make out what he was rambling about...

"So these guys are the ones bullying you, huh?"

Du Wanyi narrowed her eyes, and in an instant, she locked her gaze straight on the alpha wolf from where she stood in the group.

Da Huang wrapped his paws around Du Wanyi's calf and nodded furiously: "Woof woof woof..."

"Dammit, how dare you lay a paw on my little brother!"

Du Wanyi's tone turned cold with annoyance. She flipped her palm over so fast no one could see the movement, and when her hand stopped, four silver needles were already between her fingers.

Shoo —

A sharp sound cut through the air!

The wind settled, the noise died out!

Thud!

The ferocious-looking alpha wolf collapsed on the ground, its eyes glazed over as its life force drained away at a rapid pace. It twitched twice, didn't even have time to let out a yelp, and went completely still.

It was dead.

A whole crowd of Ginseng Fruit: "???"

What the actual fuck!!!

Everyone's fear level +999 +999 +999...