Mountain God Temple

Ah Hua had waited at the entrance of Mountain God Temple for a long time, but Jiang You still had not returned.

Unable to resist, she yawned and lazily leaned against the stone beside the temple entrance.

When she was little, she had once been led into Mountain God Temple by several older children from the village.

That was her first visit to Mountain God Temple.

The temple was tiny, no bigger than the thatched hut at home.

Inside the plain, square temple, there was nothing except a clay statue of the Mountain God.

The earthen walls let in the wind, the roof leaked rain, and the door was on the verge of collapse.

The plates before the temple always held clay chickens and suckling pigs, while only the fresh flowers beside them were real, since flowers could be found everywhere in the mountains.

Even then, she had not understood. Everyone in the village said the Mountain God was the deity of the entire Hundred Thousand Mountains, so why was the deity's house even more dilapidated than her own?

If even a deity lived so miserably, how could she protect us?

Several ignorant children smashed the Mountain God's clay offerings, then urinated and smeared mud around inside the temple.

They even used purple-red berry juice to turn the Mountain God's face into a monkey's backside.

They stuffed the offering flowers into the Mountain God's nostrils. Because Ah Hua had used too much force, she even punched through half of one nostril.

That night, after they returned, one of the children accidentally let the secret slip.

That very night, the girl who had been praised by the entire village since childhood for her innate divine strength received her first savage beating.

Among the other children were Ah Dong, Ah Mu, and