Put away your magical powers now!.

Chapter 170 [The Divine Tree] (6200 words)
Chapter 165 [The Divine Tree] (6200 words)
The Divine Tree!

The Divine Tree!!
Chen Yan's eyes lit up as he looked at the giant tree, and he swallowed hard.

If this giant tree is truly a divine tree...

He had once drunk diluted divine tree sap from a wooden bowl. That stuff had extraordinary effects and its ability to improve one's physique was nothing short of miraculous—and that was after it was diluted!
Most importantly, the sap from the sacred tree improves physical condition without any hidden dangers or side effects!
There are two paths for cultivators in the realm. Those who choose body cultivation must draw external evil energy into their bodies to improve their physique. For example, Gu Xiaoniang, Gu Qingyi, cultivates the path of slaughter through combat techniques in order to temper her physical body and enhance her strength.

Once external evil enters the body, the primordial spirit inevitably becomes impure, eventually leading to a situation where one can only walk on one leg, and one can only choose between physical cultivation and spiritual cultivation.

Chen Yanming had already obtained both physical cultivation techniques and spiritual cultivation techniques, but he had been hesitant to practice them because he didn't want to take that crippled path of cultivation.

After drinking the sap of the divine tree from the wooden bowl and learning about its origins from it intermittently, Chen Yan had already begun to have some fantasies and vague ideas.

And now, this legendary sacred tree may very well be right before our eyes!
Big White, lying on the ground beside him, gently nuzzled Chen Yan with its head. Chen Yan's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly reached out and pressed his hand on Big White's head, while covering Big White's mouth with his other hand. Looking at Big White, he slowly shook his head.

Big White was very intelligent and obediently lay there without making a sound.

Chen Yan lay on the ground, staring down at the giant tree inside the mountain for an unknown amount of time.

·
The clanging and hammering sounds continued incessantly; the ferocious beastmen below were probably mining minerals.

Minerals, on the other hand, are things derived from the roots and stems of giant trees.

Chen Yan observed for a long time. Nearby, there were ferocious beast monsters carrying weapons, walking around and patrolling. There were also ferocious beast miners pushing carts, loading up the minerals they had knocked off the mounds and then transporting them away.

With his sharp eyesight, he could tell that what was knocked off the mound were individual stones, black and shiny, seemingly containing some kind of crystalline inclusions.

It should be the kind of Yin Sha Spirit Crystal that I confiscated.

Chen Yan pondered for a moment, then gently patted Da Bai's body, turned around and crawled away. Da Bai also lay prone on the ground, carefully crawling along the ground, following Chen Yan away.

The man and the beast climbed out of the cave passage and away from the mountainside for several dozen meters before Chen Yan stood up and quickly left with Da Bai.

Several hours later, Chen Yan and Da Bai emerged from the cave and returned to the exit of the canyon cliff.

Chen Yan sat at the cave entrance inside the slightly protruding rock face, head down in quiet contemplation. Finally, he gently slapped his thigh.

"Done!"

Chen Yan's eyes flashed, and he gritted his teeth, muttering to himself, "Entering a treasure mountain and leaving empty-handed is not my style."

Now that we've come across such a treasure, how can we let it go?
But...

We should pull off this job, but we can't act rashly.

I didn't plan to do anything big on this trip, so I didn't bring much equipment and wasn't well prepared.

There are only two days left for this teleportation, which is quite rushed.

Why not wait until we get back this time, make thorough preparations, acquire a large amount of equipment, and come back next time!
Well, there are at least several hundred ferocious beastmen miners in the mountain's interior, plus the armed overseers—and this might just be the mining site; the total number of ferocious beastmen in the entire mining area could be even greater.

His magic was suppressed here, and now, if he wanted to charge down alone, he would have to transform into a Super Saiyan...

Why not go back and make thorough preparations, get a bunch of heavy weapons, stand at the cave entrance, look down from above, throw dozens of grenades down, blow them to smithereens, then jump down with a Gatling gun, and sweep anyone who gets in your way to pieces!
Oh right, and we also need to figure out how the sap from the sacred tree is extracted.

After thinking it over, Chen Yan suppressed the turmoil in his mind and tried to calm himself down.

He hugged Big White's neck: "You wait here, don't come in with me! Keep watch at the cave entrance for me. If anyone finds this place, go in and let me know."

After saying that, he grabbed his backpack, selected some supplies and stuffed them into his pocket, picked up his recurve bow again, and walked into the depths of the cave.

·
For the next two days, Chen Yan did nothing but lie at the entrance of the cave in the mountain's interior, quietly observing and trying to glean as much useful information as possible.

In particular, how the sap of the divine tree is extracted is of utmost importance to Chen Yan—he can't possibly rush down, dig out a giant tree that's a hundred meters tall, and carry it away, can he?

Perhaps it was just good luck, or perhaps it was a case of heaven rewarding those who persevere, but after waiting for two days, Chen Yan actually got his wish!
Just a few hours before his teleportation countdown ended, Chen Yan was lying at the cave entrance with a piece of chocolate in his mouth. He didn't chew it, but let his saliva slowly melt the chocolate before swallowing it bit by bit.

This minimizes disturbance and conserves energy, allowing for a longer period of covert operation.

Suddenly, Chen Yan heard a mournful horn sound coming from below!
Then, the clanging and hammering sounds stopped abruptly!
He immediately perked up, stretched his neck slightly, and looked closely.

On the ground inside the mountain, several fierce beast warriors carrying long knives emerged from a cave at the bottom of the mountain. The two leading fierce beast warriors held up horns and blew them, while the fierce beast warriors behind them pointed their long knives to the sky.

The monster overseer at the construction site simply brandished his whip and made a few feints before scattering the craftsmen and clearing a path for them.

Then, after the beastman warrior with the knife came out, the last one to walk was a guy covered in snow-white fur.

This guy is also a member of the ferocious beast race, only he is much more robust and muscular.

He was wearing a snow-white fur coat and a tiger-head hat on his head!

Chen Yan's heart skipped a beat when he saw it.

The fur this guy was wearing looked as if it had been peeled off from Big White.

When this ferocious beastman dressed in white tiger skin came out, all the miners and overseers in the entire mountainside, except for the guards with knives, knelt on the ground with their heads and foreheads touching the ground, and did not get up.

This guy is a leader! Maybe a chieftain or a priest or something?
Chen Yan secretly pondered this.

·
The leader was holding a huge jar in his arms, covered with patterns and smeared with some unknown substance; it just looked colorful from a distance.

The leader, head held high and chest out, carrying the jar, strode towards the giant tree in the center amidst the kneeling worship of the crowd.

Upon arriving at the giant tree, the leader stood beneath it and began to chant.

The voice was deep and rough, and it was impossible to tell what the singer was chanting, but the pronunciation was varied and rhythmic.

Chen Yan squinted at it, then his eyes lit up.

At the base of the large tree, the thick bark slowly opened up, and several roots stretched out, twisting together like a braid, eventually forming a long strand hanging there.

The leader knelt down respectfully, slowly lifted the large jar he was holding, and moved forward slowly on his knees until he finally placed the jar under the giant tree.

The roots extended to the rim of the jar, their surface shimmering faintly, gradually becoming damp...

The entire arena was silent; all the ferocious beastmen seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation.

A full half hour later, a drop of liquid finally condensed at the end of the root.

With a drip, it fell into the jar.

The leader raised his head, his face beaming with ecstasy, then raised his hands high and cheered loudly.

"The divine tree has matured!!"

He shouted three times at the top of his lungs, then kowtowed repeatedly on the ground.

Suddenly, the guards with knives came up and circled around the big tree. Each guard chose a spot to stand and then sat down cross-legged in unison!
The long knife in his hand rested flat on his knee.

"The divine tree has grown and can bring sweet rain! From today onwards, you will guard this place in shifts to watch over the divine tree. No one may leave your post for even a moment! All food will be delivered to you!! Anyone who dares to leave their post will be killed!!"

Several guards with knives let out a low growl in unison, then fell silent and stood guard quietly.

Chen Yan silently counted; there were eight armed guards protecting this place.

Each of them was dressed exactly like the leader monster in the camp that he had attacked with the golden armor.

Their strengths should be roughly the same.

The leader monster killed by the golden-armored warrior could emit red light and possessed considerable combat power. And currently, there are as many as eight such warriors guarding the divine tree…

There were also hundreds of miners and dozens of overseers in the surrounding area...

Chen Yan felt a chill run down his spine, but his gaze fell on the jar placed under the roots of the giant tree, and he gritted his teeth again.

The leader left quickly, and the clanging and banging of chisels echoed again from the mine site.

The area around the sacred tree, about ten meters in diameter, was guarded by knife-wielding guards, preventing miners and overseers from getting close.

Chen Yan waited a while longer, and after another half hour, the divine tree secreted another drop of sap, which flowed into the jar from the end of its roots.

This stuff is secreted very slowly...

Chen Yan sighed inwardly.

However, this is also good, as it gives me a lot of time to prepare.

One drop every half hour, even if it lasts a whole day and night, it's only forty-eight drops.

It would probably take at least a year and a half to fill that jar.

From this perspective, I have plenty of time to prepare.

·
Chen Yan peeked around in the shadows for a while longer, and then, calculating that there wasn't much time left, got up and went back.

When they returned to the cave entrance in the canyon, Big White lay inside the cave and gently licked his paws.

Chen Yan walked over, smiled, hugged Da Bai's neck, and whispered, "I'm going back now. I don't have any game meat left for you this time, but since you've managed to survive here on your own these past few days, I suppose you're not worried about food."

But be careful of this cave. Protect this place secretly; I'll appear here to find you next time! Remember to protect yourself, and wait for my return!

·
With the feeling of falling gone, Chen Yan opened his eyes in his basement training room and let out a long breath.

Only then did he feel a surge of emotion, and he could no longer suppress it, bursting into laughter.

I walked around the training room a few times, rubbing my hands together in anticipation, my heart filled with excitement and energy. I couldn't wait to get ready and give it my all!
After a moment, Chen Yan touched his head, took a few deep breaths, and regained his composure.

calm down!

Let's plan this out carefully first!
Fortunately, the jar containing the sap of the sacred tree wouldn't be full for several months, so I had plenty of time.

·
For the next ten days or so, Chen Yan stopped going to the realm and instead stayed at home, diligently making talismans using the spirit-sealing technique. In particular, he made dozens of talismans for the three strongest spells given to him by the little girl.

Among them, the most difficult Ten Thousand Swords Talisman, through his tireless practice, used up several boxes of talisman paper, and finally made more than ten of them.

He still spends several hours practicing every day—the Spirit Gathering Array is not yet complete, and he did not bring back enough wood from the strange tree this time, so he will temporarily suspend the process of transporting vital energy.

Without the Spirit Gathering Array, the concentration of vital energy in the villa suddenly decreased, and the speed of cultivating vital energy was reduced by more than ten times compared to before. Cultivating under these conditions was not cost-effective.

Chen Yan focused his cultivation efforts on tempering his primordial spirit, using the baleful energy to stimulate it little by little.

He gradually got used to the pain and torment of each "sharpening" session, and eventually, he even developed a sense of pleasure from it.

(Damn it, I'm not a masochist!!)
Ten days later, Chen Yan finally went out.

He didn't tell anyone about this trip, and he didn't even bring any luggage. He only carried the storage jade pendant from the patrol department in his arms, and left home in the middle of the night.

Three days later, in the middle of the night, Chen Yan reappeared at his doorstep, looking travel-worn. Once inside, he rushed into his room and stood under the shower for a long time.

Even after washing himself several times and changing into clean clothes, Chen Yan could still feel a chilling aura emanating from him as he stood in front of the mirror.
He went back to his room, sat on the bed, took out his phone, and opened the internet to search for news.

Much later, I saw an inconspicuous message on a news app.

In a small Southeast Asian country bordering China that has been embroiled in war, an anti-government armed force was destroyed, and the government army recaptured lost territory, and so on...

Chen Yan squinted and read the news twice before letting out a soft sigh.

I don't know whether what I did was a sin or a good deed.

The destroyed anti-government armed group has been entrenched in the border area and has even set up some industrial parks. The increasingly serious fraud cases in China in the past two years have gradually evolved into incidents of inducing and kidnapping people, which are the work of this anti-government armed group.

Many neighboring countries have suffered greatly from it.

For the past three days, Chen Yan has left home quietly and gone here.

The leader of an anti-government armed group was wiped out overnight, an arms depot in a military camp exploded, causing countless deaths and injuries. The surrounding area was subsequently thrown into turmoil, and government forces took the opportunity to advance...

Chen Yan, on the other hand, had already quietly returned to Jinling Prefecture.

In addition, there was an extra batch of weapons in the jade pendant's storage space.

Thinking back on his past actions, Chen Yan couldn't help but laugh at his former self.

If you want to get weapons, why bother asking Chu Keqing to find connections to buy them from abroad?

As a Chinese citizen, I adhere to certain principles that I hold dear when doing things in China.

However, in other countries, especially these small, war-torn nations, they can act with complete impunity.

Want weapons? Just rob them!

In this world, as long as cultivators don't take action, who can stop me?

After sleeping at home for a day and a night, Chen Yan finally recovered.

Afterwards, he stayed at home reading and writing, reading the "Zhuangzi" every day to calm his mind and dispel the evil aura around him.

Three days later, Chen Yan felt his mind return to peace. Standing in front of the mirror and looking at himself, the young man in the mirror seemed to have returned to his former gentle self.

Well, only occasionally, when his eyes darted around, would a hint of ruthlessness be revealed in his gaze.

However, generally speaking, the evil energy has been calmed down.

Chen Yan took out his phone again and went on a shopping spree for various wilderness survival supplies online. After searching for some information, Chen Yan packed some luggage, took his passport, and went out again.

The target this time is a shooting club.

The so-called shooting clubs in China that claim to operate with real guns and ammunition actually use low-powered rounds, which are quite expensive.

But none of that mattered to Chen Yan.

Because Chen Yan's target for this trip wasn't the shooting clubs in China, but rather...

Mao Country!

·
After the great upheaval decades ago, the original Mao Zedong split into dozens of smaller countries, and only the present-day Mao Zedong can be considered to have barely inherited the legacy of the original Mao Zedong.

The mess left behind was also considerable, especially the decades of corruption within the military and economic stagnation, which resulted in a severe loss of military equipment for Mao's country.

It's already an open secret.

Chen Yan's trip took him to a city in eastern Mao.

A hunting club that is said to have some connections.

It was called a hunting trip, but it was actually a combination of live-fire shooting training and military travel in the forest.

AKs and similar items are just toys, and Barrett rifles are only for beginners.

As long as you have the money, you can drive a so-called "retired" tank and chase bears in the forest!

After a burst of intense flashes, the Gatling gun barrel gradually stopped spinning.

In the woods ahead, a row of trees thicker than a Russian grandmother's waist had been swept into pieces of wood by the Gatling gun's metal storm!

Chen Yan patted the large toy in his hand with great satisfaction.

That's really awesome! This is the kind of toy a real man should have.

Chen Yan had been practicing his skills quite well these past two days, but he wasn't particularly interested in the item and had no intention of stealing it.

Because there are two similar ones in the jade pendant's storage space!
Chen Yan's recent trip to Southeast Asia had almost filled up all the storage space in his jade pendant.

In a space the size of two shipping containers, he crammed more than twenty boxes of various ammunition and more than ten long and short firearms.

In addition, there's an armored vehicle! And over forty barrels of diesel fuel!
In fact, these things couldn't be taken out of the storage equipment when going to the Badlands Mountain in the Domain. Chen Yan was just taking them by chance.

Few men dislike these big guys.

Don't male passersby always stop to watch when they see an excavator working on the road?
Upon seeing this armored vehicle, Chen Yan would naturally take it with him.

Unfortunately, the anti-government force was too poor; they didn't even have a single proper tank.

In the past few days, Chen Yan has tried out a lot of firearms in this hunting ground in Mao Kingdom, especially the models he has in his storage equipment. He picked a few and practiced his marksmanship diligently, getting the feel for them and the feeling of shooting right.

When he first arrived, he could only shoot at stationary targets, but before he left, he had become quite adept at handling firearms.

They hunted in the forest and killed two stags and a bear!

As for whether it's illegal...

This is a Russian club that dares to turn active-duty tanks into "retired" equipment. As long as the money is right, the so-called laws are nothing but a joke.

The club's nominal owner was a middle-aged Maoist man named Vaner, who reeked of gunpowder and looked like a veteran who had experienced bloodshed. Whether he was a regular soldier or a mercenary was unknown—perhaps he had done both.

This guy named Vanell and Chen Yan hit it off immediately. It's unclear whether it was because Chen Yan spent a lot of money or simply because they got along well.

Anyway, on the third day of Chen Yan's arrival, he had vodka with him at the restaurant. With the superhuman physique of a cultivator, their resistance to alcohol is naturally incomparable to that of ordinary people.

After a drinking session, Vanell, who claimed to be the best drinker in the club, was so drunk that he was lying on the toilet bowl calling for his mother. The next day, Vanell became much more enthusiastic towards Chen Yan.

For men in Mao, there are only two criteria for judging whether a man is a real man.

Either you can fight!
Either you can drink it!
He'd had his fill of the drink, and Vanell was convinced.

If it were a fight... I witnessed Chen Yan take off his coat, grab an iron rod, and chase a 300-pound bear all over the forest...

Vanell was convinced once again.

As for the young man from the Dragon Kingdom having terrible marksmanship, it didn't matter. Vanier even turned down several important guests he needed to entertain and personally became Chen Yan's marksmanship instructor.

"Yang! Are you really not some legendary monster who escaped from a Siberian training camp?"

On the last day, during the farewell, in the club's restaurant, Vanner drank vodka and looked at Chen Yan with some reluctance.

Chen Yan was using a knife to fiercely cut a piece of roasted venison.

It was roasted until it was half-cooked, and when you cut it out, you could still see the remaining red deer blood—deer blood is a good thing.

Chen Yan tossed a piece of venison into his mouth, chewing as he chuckled, "Vanner, how many times have I told you, my name is Yan!"

"Understood, Yang!"

Damn it, these Russians can't pronounce things properly; they can't distinguish between "yan" and "yang".

After Chen Yan corrected Vanner a few times, he stopped paying attention to him.

He smiled at Vanner: "The Siberian training camp is just like the Area 52 super soldiers in the US; it's all made up in boring movies and novels. It does exist, but it's nowhere near as exaggerated as the legends make it out to be."

Vanel thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "That's right. I used to know a friend in the mercenary group, someone who came from a Siberian training camp. That guy was indeed skilled, but not as skilled as you."

I witnessed him strangle a Siberian gray wolf to death with his bare hands. But…”

He looked at Chen Yan with a questioning gaze: "I doubt you could strangle a polar bear with your bare hands."

"Be more confident, and get rid of the word 'doubt'." Chen Yan chewed on the venison.

`
(Wishing everyone a happy May Day holiday and a wonderful long break!)

·
(End of this chapter)