3 The Mountain
The New Year's Festival was in full swing from the early afternoon, with nearly thousands of people from all regions coming to enjoy various forms of entertainment.
Yao Tian was accompanying his younger brother along to participate in the many small games for small children and even couples by winning a prize with enough skills. Yao Tian and Yao Bao already participated in many ball-throwing and some rock climbing games. His younger brother claimed a large wooden toy sword which was larger than his height.
*Woosh! * *Woosh! * "Look Tian I am a strong immortal sword guy! I'm gonna beat the shit out of all the bad guys! "Shouted with enthusiasm, Yao Bao.
Yao Tao found it quite normal for him to act this way cause his little brother always looked up to immortals due to listening to those bedtime stories his father read to them. "Ha! Learn to stop wetting your pants before you start talking about beating people up, little Bao. "
"Hey, don't say it out loud you idiot! " Replied Yao Bao angrily to his big brother while trying to hit his brother with the toy sword. After several other exchanges between the brothers, the two Yao unknowingly wandered themselves in the red light district of the festival.
A few ladies noticed the pair and wandered towards them to tease the boys a bit.
"My~ my~ what cute boys you two are! Have you come to see Sister Yu? " Spoke the one who in the Yao Tians opinion was the most stunning of the group. This person called 'Sister Yu' had an alluring aura around her person, her movements were in a way gentle like a breeze, her red embroider qipao dress barely left anything to a man's imagination with how it tightly hugged her curvaceous figure. She wore heavy makeup with her being the most eye-catching feature being her hair, which cascaded down her back with many different sorts of flowers, gems, and small golden strings.
Sister Yu arrived face to face with Yao Tian and said "Why don't you accompany us girls back to our inn so that we~ can~ play~.
Yao Tian was only a 14-year-old boy, so he was extremely flustered and at a loss of what to do to escape this situation. Despite being fairly popular with the people of Red Mountain Village, it was only so with the seniors. He never interacted with kids his age let alone girls, even Song Shou was 4 years older than him. So in this situation, he did the only thing that he could think of in this situation. He grabbed his brother and ran away like the wind!
"Hahahaha! Oh, Sister Da Yu, I think you went too far at teasing that boy. " Said one of the girls in the group. Da Yu looked towards the direction where Yao Tian and his brother ran off to and smiled a little.
"It is not every day we get the opportunity to have some innocent fun, besides, they are still too young to be here so I had to chase them away in a fun way." Giggled Da Yu when saying that.
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After making sure they were far away from that dangerous group of women, Yao Tian and his brother both sat down against a tree trunk near the main village gate. "Hey, Yao Tian why did you run away from those nice ladies? They even invited us along to play with them. " Complained Yao Bao, he was too young and naive to understand the hidden intentions of those women.
"You are still very little Bao when you will grow up to be as mature as me. You will know where to spot unknown forms of dangers. Just trust and don't you ever go there when you are alone, get it? Besides, we better hurry up and arrive at the training group, father's fight will soon start!" He tried distracting his brother from what just happened.
It proved to work as his brother remembered something. "Oh yeah! Dad's gonna participate this year too. Come on, let's go!" Said Yao Bao excitedly.
Quickly leaving the red light area, they made their way towards the centre of the festival where the main event would soon take place.
The closer they went to the centre, the more people crowded the street. Many of whom were people from other villages and other foreign travellers.
Both the young and old held the same of anticipation in their eyes as they made bets on who would be the winner this year. 'Humpf! It's useless to make any kind of bets, father will be the winner this year as always!' Thought Yao Tian.
No matter how mature and intelligent he may seem to the outside world. Inside his heart, he was still a young kid who viewed his father as the strongest.
After a few moments, they finally made it, "Oi, you two, over here!" A voice shouted at them. To Yao Tian's surprise, it was actually old man Jing calling them over. "Come quick! I saved you both some space and the main event will soon start."
Barely arriving in time and at the same time thanking old man Jing, the boys heard the loud voice of the announcer.
"Brothers and Sisters from the neighbouring regions and villages, the annual battle tournament will finally BEGIN!!!!"
The announcement was followed by a roar from the crowd around the training field. The two brothers managed to squeeze through the people at the front where they saw 16 fighters standing in the middle of the field. One of them of course was their father Yao Tai, who stood out the most due to his enormous, almost two and a half meter height with big tanned muscles giving him the appearance of a bronze giant. There were even 6 young girls among them, which was a rare sight in such events, but a welcomed one. The other participant looked like normal fit men with one of them having his features entirely hidden with a straw hat.
"The first match of the day will be our local undefeated champion known as the mountain Yao Tai! Who will battle against the strongest fighter from the Green leaf Village, Ben Che! "
After the announcement, those two gathered in the middle, Yao Tai showed Ben Che a wide smile. "Hey brother, why don't you throw the towel for this one? I warn ya that I'm quite bad at holding back." Ben Che sneered at Yao Tai's arrogant words and countered, "It seems that being at the so-called top made you quite muddleheaded *snort* let me put an end to your reign old man! "
Ben Che kicked the ground hard leaving behind a dust cloud, landing right below Yao Tai. He then followed up with a jab towards the chin. But surprisingly, it didn't seem that Yao Tai planned to dodge the strike, but instead still wore his big smile.
Despite Yao Tai's odd action the crowd, especially those who knew and saw his previous fights, had a disdainful expression towards Ben Che. "Looks like another fool appeared this year."
"Isn't that a good thing? It makes the fight more fun to watch. " The crowd continued, seemingly already knowing the outcome of the fight.
Ben Che used all of his strength in his first punch
He needed to end this fight as soon as possible and take out this fake champion.
'Heh, this probably just used large size to win all his previous fights. But I have LEARNED the way of martial arts. My hands are as dangerous as real swords!'
The moment his hand hit Yao Tai's chin, a loud * BAM! * reverberated from the impact followed by a smug grin from Ben Che...
...only for it to be replaced by pure pain and a sickening sound of bones breaking was faintly heard by the surrounding people.
*CRACK! *
"AAAAAAAAaaarrrrgh!!" A guttural scream escaped Ben Che's throat while he held was seemed to be a shattered hand with bones sticking out. Blood flowed non-stop from his hand to the ground. Ben Che fell to the ground on his knees, he screamed "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?! Why is your face, though, like metal?!"
"Oh? Are your fists that weak? Guess it's gonna be another easy fight this time, " Said Yao Tai lamely.
Not wanting to be looked down upon, Ben Che approached Yao Tai with an elbow strike to Yao Tai's exposed stomach.
*Dang* This time, followed by a metal hitting sound.
"Aaargh!? Again!? What are you made out of? This is not a physique possible to achieve through normal means! " Shouted Ben Che for the first time feeling a bit hopeless towards this fight, he also could not believe how durable this guy's body was.
"You wanna know how I got this strong? " Asked Yao Tai casually. Seemingly surprised by Yao Tai's reply, Ben Che did not say anything, instead of waiting for him to continue on. "Well, it's quite simple, really strong only need to... drink MILK!"
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"You tell him, dad!" Shouted Yao Bao only to be shushed by his brother.
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Complete silence fell upon the crowd, some snickering and laughter were even starting to spread. With each passing second, Ben Che's face got increasingly red from anger and embarrassment. "Who would ever believe that! You are mocking me, is that it!? " Not containing his rage any longer, he dashed towards Yao Tai again. But this time he circled around him in a blink of an eye and performed a kick towards the knees.
*Bam*
Almost the same scenario occurred again like at the beginning of the fight, and Ben Che's strike did not even manage to bend Yao Tai's knees. "This fight is getting boring, your mosquito strikes are irritating, and I rather move on to fight against a worthy opponent. " Replied Yao Tai with a bored expression.
After uttering those words, his arms moved like lighting and clamped onto Ben Che's face. The poor guy couldn't even free himself no matter how hard he tried. Yao Tai lifted him up and with a mighty shout slammed him against the ground!
*BOOOM*
After the dust cloud dispersed the crowd, and the Yao siblings could see Ben She lying unconsciously on the floor, with a bloody head and a bloody hand.
*WAAAAAAHHHHH!!*
The crowd erupted in cheers of joy, they couldn't believe how incredibly strong this guy was. Even Yao Bao was screaming his father's name at the top of his lungs.
"Yeah, dad you're the strongest ever! "
"Hahaha, it's still amusing to see everyone's reaction to dad's strength, even though this is a yearly occurrence. " Mused Yao Tian.
Looking back in the ring with his father basking under the crowd's cheers, he couldn't help but feel the anticipation to participate in the tournament too. But he knew he couldn't, cause after all he's but a normal farm boy with no amazing physique like his father.
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On an elevated platform where the various village leaders from around the region were gathered. They watched the brutal sight without any surprises, especially the Green Leaf Village chief Lu Zhi, who let out a sigh of disappointment.
"That idiot Ben Che, I repeatedly reminded him to never confront Yao Tai in close combat without a weapon in hand."
The chief of the Blue River Village Lan Shi replied, "Don't berate yourself, brother Zhi, young men these days are too hot-blooded and they always are eager to prove themselves as the strongest. Unfortunately, he ended up going against 'The Mountain' himself."
"If I am not mistaken, the young man trained his fist and palm stricks to be as dangerous as real weapons in realm combat." Commented on the chiefs.
Another one shook his head, "The fool merely used a bastardised version of a technique he once saw an immortal using from afar. Maybe now he will finally gain common sense and forgo that technique." Truly, mortals bodies weren't meant to achieve such feats.
After a group of healers leads the disabled Ben Che out of the field, the crowd's noise grew louder while they yelled Yao Tai's name. They all knew why Yao Tai had the title of "The Mountain", below the realm of immortals Yao Tai truly was an immovable obstacle for any who dared challenge him. He was, without question, the strongest mortal alive!
'How strong would he have been if he wasn't born a mortal?' Was the same thing ever chief thought.
