Starting from his vigorous old age, he began to conquer Liaozhai.

Upon hearing Cao Xiong's words, the giant pondered for a moment, then opened his mouth wide and stammered, "I...you."

The giant's face showed anxiety. Afraid that Cao Xiong would not understand, he knelt on the ground and made a gesture of prostration with his hands.

Cao Xiong watched the giant make a gesture of submission and asked uncertainly, "You want to follow me?"

The giant looked up, grinned, and nodded.

"Haha, okay, from now on you'll follow me, and I'll make sure you're well-fed and watered."

The giant stood up and danced with joy.

Cao Xiong was also pleasantly surprised, never expecting that this campaign against the bandits would yield such an unexpected reward.

Cao Xiong did not sense any martial arts aura from the giant, which means that the giant could fight several rounds with a wild dog demon in the mid-stage of the Qi Awakening Realm simply by relying on his innate physique.

Moreover, he had personally witnessed the giant being pinned to the ground and beaten to the brink of death by the wild dog demon, with many parts of his body torn and bleeding from bites.

Only an hour or two had passed, and he was back to his energetic self.

Do you have a name?

After the giant's excitement subsided, Cao Xiong continued speaking.

The giant shook his head, indicating that he had no name.

"Did you grow up in the mountains?"

This time, the giant nodded.

"From today onwards, you will take my surname and be called Cao Man."

"Cao Man".

After stammering out his name, the giant slapped his mouth with his right hand and made a whimpering sound.

"Be quiet."

Cao Xiong tried to give the order, and Cao Man immediately stood obediently in place, like a child who had done something wrong.

"Starting today, try to avoid eating raw meat."

Cao Man nodded and kicked the unfinished pork several meters away.

"Hehe, congratulations Uncle Cao, you've gained a fierce general."

Wang Er, who witnessed the whole thing, was dumbfounded.

After he came to his senses, he quickly went forward to congratulate him.

"Alright, arrange for someone to stew the rest of the pork."

"Okay!"

Cao Xiong then looked at Cao Man and said, "You can rest here. When we get back to the county town, I'll have someone make you some clothes and forge a weapon."

Cao Man's eyes gleamed with eagerness, and he instinctively wanted to jump up, but he immediately remembered that Cao Xiong didn't like him doing that, so his expression turned serious, and after nodding, he stood there with his hands clasped.

After making arrangements for Cao Man, Cao Xiong returned to the "Hall of Gathering Righteousness".

After returning to the county town, Cao Xiong planned to find a teacher to teach Cao Man to read and speak.

It wasn't until evening that the scouts Cao Xiong had sent out returned to Liwang Village.

There were also several small bandit strongholds nearby, and according to the scouts' reconnaissance, these bandits were not numerous.

Cao Xiong divided his troops into two groups, ordering Yu Tong, Qiu Ming, and Wang Er to lead their respective squads to clear out small groups of bandits near Li Wang Village.

Yu Tong and Qiu Ming are both skilled martial artists, and Wang Er's small flag has a musket; they are more than capable of eliminating these mountain bandits.

Subsequently, Cao Xiong, along with Li Cheng, two squad leaders, soldiers who had come with him to Liwangzhai, and Cao Man who had just joined him, ventured deeper into the mountains, their target being Erlong Mountain.

Erlong Mountain is much stronger than Liwang Village. It is said that Erlong Mountain has three leaders, each of whom is a master in the Skin Tempering Realm.

At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), Qiu Ming, Wang Er, and Yu Tong set off first to sweep the surrounding area.

The next morning, Cao Xiong led his men out of Liwang Village to wipe out Erlong Mountain.

The journey from Liwangzhai to Erlongshan involves crossing six mountain peaks and is quite long.

By the time Cao Xiong arrived near Erlong Mountain, it had been two days since he set off.

Cao Man was still shirtless, with a tiger-skin apron around his waist, and followed closely behind Cao Xiong's horse, walking barefoot.

Cao Xiong led his soldiers to hide in a relatively secluded mountain forest for most of the day.

He saw at least four or five groups of bandits entering and leaving Erlong Mountain.

The area in front of Erlongshan Village is flat and the gate is sturdy. The village walls are made of piled stones and are seven or eight meters high. Every ten meters along the walls, there is an arrow tower, making it heavily guarded.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it's a small town that's easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Cao Xiong's troops had been traversing mountains and valleys, so they decided to rest during the day and attack at night.

He waited until late at night and found that the bandits on Erlong Mountain were even more heavily guarded at night than during the day.

This shows that the chieftain of Erlong Mountain was far superior to the chieftain of Liwang Village.

The scouts also learned that the third leader of Erlong Mountain might be a former government soldier. After sensing the caution and defenses of Erlong Mountain, Cao Xiong was convinced.

Cao Xiong planned to first climb the city wall, enter the Erlong Mountain stronghold, open the city gate, and let the soldiers in.

However, bandits constantly patrolled the walls of Erlong Mountain with torches, and the walls were high with no footholds to gain leverage.

Cao Xiong couldn't do it without anyone noticing.

He gave orders to everyone to be ready to attack the city at any time, and then left the mountains alone.

After silently approaching the walls of Erlong Mountain, Cao Xiong drew his Evil-Sniffing Blade, used the Leaf-Picking Step, and began to scale the mountain.

Sure enough, Cao Xiong was discovered by patrolling bandits before he even reached Erlong Mountain Stronghold.

"Whoa~"

"Someone launched a sneak attack."

The bandits immediately blew their bone whistles and shouted loudly to warn their companions.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh~"

Meanwhile, the bandits on the city wall used their bows and arrows to prevent Cao Xiong from scaling the city.

Cao Xiong blocked most of the arrows with his sword.

Even if arrows landed on him, they could not cause him any real harm. However, the bandits obviously did not only use arrows. They threw stones the size of a head off the city wall, which successfully slowed down Cao Xiong's ascent.

"Roar~"

Cao Man arrived at the gate of Erlong Mountain stronghold at some unknown time.

Taking advantage of the fact that the bandits' attention was drawn to Cao Xiong, Cao Man ran towards the city gate.

He let out a roar like that of a wild beast.

"Bang!"

Cao Man charged with all his might, and although he failed to break the door open in one go, he did make it shake violently.

There were many bandits on the city wall, and they looked flustered when they saw Cao Man.

"Bang!"

Cao Man seemed oblivious to the pain, continuing to ram the gate.

After Cao Man's repeated ramming, the gate of Erlong Mountain Stronghold finally succumbed to the pressure and collapsed backward, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Behind the city gate, a number of bandits were already waiting.

Before Cao Man could even step into the city gate, he was met with a hail of arrows.

However, Cao Man had a special physique and spent most of his time like a wild man, roaming around the outskirts of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Not only are they tough and thick-skinned, but they also possess a ferocious, beast-like fighting instinct.

Cao Man waved his hand to swat away the arrows, then took two steps forward, bent down, lifted the fallen gate, and threw it straight at the gathered bandits.

The bandits' attack formation was instantly shattered, and Cao Man let out a beast-like roar, beginning a one-sided massacre of the bandits.

After the city gate was breached, Yu Tong and his soldiers rushed out of the woods. With Cao Man blocking their way, they entered Erlong Mountain Stronghold without any hindrance.

On the other side, Cao Xiong had already climbed the city wall, and one by one the bandits were killed by the Evil-Sniffing Longsword, turning into dried corpses.