Put away your magical powers now!.

Chapter 188 [The Side Effects of the Divine Tree Sap]

Chapter 182 [The Side Effects of the Divine Tree Sap]

“Well, I didn’t want to go to school before.” Lu Sisi sighed. “Chen Yan, I know you persuaded me to go to school before because you cared about me.”

But that was in the past.

Have you ever thought about it? Now that I've embarked on the path of spiritual cultivation, what use do I have for that piece of paper—a diploma?

Chen Yan looked at Lu Sisi and smiled with relief.

too.

He had indeed advised Lu Sisi not to give up her studies before, but at that time Lu Sisi had not yet come into contact with cultivation. Moreover, Chen Yan felt that Lu Sisi had become somewhat love-struck since they got together, and he did not want to delay this girl's life and career.

But now, the situation is different.

Lu Sisi has already begun practicing cultivation.

He has taken the Bone Forging Pill and is practicing the cultivation technique.

As a cultivator, do you expect to graduate from university and then find a job as a beast of burden with a diploma from a second-rate university?
Chen Yan thought for a moment, gently patted Lu Sisi's hand, and got up to leave.

A few minutes later, Chen Yan came over carrying a cardboard box in both hands and placed it on the bed sheet.

In front of Lu Sisi, Chen Yan slowly opened the cardboard box.

After taking one look, Lu Sisi's eyes widened instantly, and she exclaimed in a low voice, "These, are all, are houses...??"

"Hmm." Chen Yan smiled and picked up one of the property deeds with a bright red cover: "This whole box contains them."

As he spoke, he pushed the box toward Lu Sisi: "I told your dad I'm richer than him. You don't think I'm just talking nonsense, do you?"

Lu Sisi took a breath and reached out to touch the box of property deeds: "That's...that's too much."

“They’re all shops on the edge of the city. I practically own a whole street in the university town.” Chen Yan thought for a moment. “The shops are all rented out anyway, so I won’t bother managing them anymore. You can handle all the rent collection and everything. These businesses can support the two of us.”

Lu Sisi covered her mouth and chuckled: "Then, will I follow you from now on and be a little worm?"

"If you want, you can be a freeloader, it doesn't matter." Chen Yan seemed quite indifferent.

Lu Sisi pondered for a moment.

She was only eighteen, and her thoughts weren't complicated. She wasn't even opposed to being supported by Chen Yan—she couldn't rely on a man, which would make her lose her independence, and she worried about what would happen if he changed his mind later…

Eighteen-year-old Lu Sisi hasn't even thought about these things yet.

She doesn't even care what other people think.

She simply thought that Chen Yan had saved her life anyway! Without Chen Yan, with her terrible fate, she wouldn't have lived for more than a few years—even if she managed to survive by sheer luck, what would be the point of such a life?
It's simply a matter of giving your whole heart and soul to Chen Yan; your life is his.

If Lu Sisi weren't only eighteen years old, and if the legal marriage age in China wasn't twenty for women—if Chen Yan had just beckoned her to get their marriage certificate, Lu Sisi would have followed him to the Civil Affairs Bureau without even blinking.

·
During the day, Chen Yan was busy cutting wood in the yard.

He piled the batch of Evil Spirit Tree timber he bought from Snow Cliff Pass in the yard, cut it out with a cutting machine, and then used a machine to carve runes.

When he was busy, Lu Sisi would mostly sit on a small stool next to him, resting her chin on her hands, quietly watching her husband work.

When Chen Yan was resting, the girl took a towel and went up to him to wipe his sweat and bring him a glass of water.

It wasn't that the girl didn't want to help with the work, but rather that she couldn't get involved in carving runes—she didn't understand runes.

However, Lu Sisi could roughly sense that the batch of wood that Chen Yan had cut was quite unusual.

After the yard was filled with these logs, the temperature in the surrounding area seemed to drop a bit.

The wood from the Evil Spirit Tree is a rather good material for array formations, but its energy is yin. It was already June, and the daytime temperature in Jinling Prefecture would normally be in the thirties, but the courtyard seemed much cooler because of the piles of wood.

Even in temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius, there's no need to turn on the air conditioning at home, and you can sleep under a blanket at night because of the presence of these woods.

For example, today, even though it was a little past 2 pm, the hottest time of the day, and the weather forecast said it should be 34 degrees Celsius, Lu Sisi felt that the temperature in the courtyard was only a little over 20 degrees Celsius at most.

The sizzling cutting machine finally stopped. Chen Yan stood in front of Lu Sisi's workbench, holding a piece of wood. After carving the last rune, he let out a long breath.

With a combination of machine processing and manual labor, it took two days to finish all the work.

As Chen Yan placed the last piece of wood into the formation...

Almost instantly, Lu Sisi felt that the trees around the courtyard wall seemed to move without any wind!

Chen Yan stood there, completely relaxed, and took a deep breath with his eyes closed...

vitality!

Abundant spiritual energy converged from all directions under the influence of the Spirit Gathering Array!

The speed and density of this spiritual energy flow are several times greater than the previous version of the spirit-gathering array on the bluestone slab!
The concentration of this vital energy is almost comparable to the top-tier rooms in the paid training rooms at Xueya Pass.

After finishing his work, Chen Yan threw down the carving tools in his hand. He was covered in sweat and too lazy to clean up. He gave Gui Geng, who was lying in the swimming pool in the yard, a look that meant, "You clean up the mess."

Then, Chen Yan pulled Lu Sisi back to the house, went upstairs to the bathroom to take a shower.

After washing up, Lu Sisi walked lightly over with two clean changes of clothes in her arms. She was about to hang them on the doorknob outside when, unexpectedly, the bathroom door was pulled open, a hand reached out, grabbed the girl's arm, and dragged her inside.

Thick steam escaped from the crack in the bathroom door, mixed with a few giggles and coquettish whimpers from a girl, but the sounds quickly changed...

·
In the evening, Chen Yan lay sprawled on the bed, and Lu Sisi lay beside him, her long hair gently pinned up with a hair clip.

The girl nestled against Chen Yan's chest, gently playing with a strand of his hair with one hand, while holding her phone in the other, scanning a food delivery platform.

"Are we having crayfish tonight?"

"No, the crayfish from the delivery are all too small." Chen Yan pouted. "How about a pizza, with a cheese crust?"

"Okay." Lu Sisi smiled sweetly and pressed a few buttons on her phone.

Actually, Lu Sisi doesn't like pizza or cheese. But... it doesn't matter, Chen Yan likes it, so she's willing to eat with him.

It seems that she is willing to accompany Chen Yan on anything he likes or wants to do.

Just like that silly thing that happened in the bathroom that afternoon, Lu Sisi didn't like it, but Chen Yan was willing to do it, so Lu Sisi was willing to go along with his silly antics.

These past two days, Lu Sisi's mood and state of mind have been better than ever before! The girl looks radiant, with light and lively eyes.

The oppressive family has left!
If you don't want to go to school, then don't go!
I want to stay with Chen Yan for a long time, so I'm going to cultivate myself!

And right now he's with the person who has his heart and soul completely devoted to him, spending every day together.

Lu Sisi felt that this was probably the best and most ideal state of life she could ever imagine.

"After dinner, do your evening practice, meditate and contemplate the vital energy for two hours." Chen Yan suddenly patted the girl's pert bottom lightly: "Only when you can experience the sensation of energy can you be considered to have entered the path."

"Okay," Lu Sisi replied with a smile.

Actually... she didn't have much energy left for cultivation. The Bone Forging Pill already had the effect of extending her lifespan—it was enough to satisfy her desires.

But it would be even better if she could develop some skills, so that she could stay with Chen Yan for a longer time. Therefore, Lu Sisi did not slack off in her cultivation every day.

After dinner, Lu Sisi cleaned up the table and the kitchen waste, and the girl skipped and hopped out the door with the trash bag.

There is a garbage station in the community that is not too far from Chen Yan's house, only about 100 meters away.

Lu Sisi carried two black garbage bags out of the courtyard gate. She threw them away at the garbage station, clapped her hands, and was about to turn back when she saw an old man standing by the roadside, squinting and swaying as he walked toward her.

What made Lu Sisi frown was that the old man's squinting eyes seemed to be subtly scrutinizing her. His gaze held a look that she couldn't decipher.

He wasn't the kind of unkempt, lecherous old man; rather, his eyes held a certain scrutiny.

Lu Sisi was introverted, so she didn't glare back. Instead, she turned around and quickened her pace to go home. She soon reached her front door, opened it, and went back into her own yard.

“…A sealed spirit body isn’t so easily unsealed.” Lin Qingquan looked at Lu Sisi’s disappearing figure, shook his head and sighed: “Using Bone Forging Pills to strengthen the body is fine…sigh, it’s just a bit too eager for quick success.”

·
That evening, Chen Yan arranged for Lu Sisi to meditate in the training room and sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Meanwhile, Chen Yan was in another room at home, preparing the divine tree sap he had brought back from the realm.

In front of him were several jars of strong liquor, which Chen Yan had bought directly from a distillery.

He has tried several things in the past few days.

At this moment, seven or eight glass jars were placed in front of Chen Yan, each containing some of the divine tree juice according to different dilution concentrations.

After these days of testing, he roughly figured out why Gu Jinjia had told him that the sap of the divine tree needed to be diluted with strong liquor. At the same time, he was also relieved that when he met Mu Wan, she had given him the sap of the divine tree that had been diluted many times over! If Mu Wan had given him the original sap, there would probably have been a big problem.

The sap of the divine tree is a sacred object of the ferocious beast race, that is, the tree-herding race before they betrayed the realm.

The miraculous effects of the sap of the sacred tree also have a special variation.

Before the Beast Clan betrayed the Realm and was still the Tree-Shepherd Clan, this race was able to cultivate divine trees and extract their sap.

But back then, the effects of the sap from the sacred tree were not as miraculous as they are today.

The sacred tree of the Shepherd Tree Tribe era produced sap that was considered a precious medicine for healing wounds. When ingested, it had excellent healing properties, promoting wound healing and physical recovery.

Its functionality isn't terrible, but it's only slightly better than the White Bone Elixir.

This level of therapeutic effect is valuable to the myriad cultivators in the realm, but that's about it.

After the Mu Tree Clan betrayed the realm and became the later Ferocious Beast Clan, large swaths of Evil Spirit Trees appeared on the east and west sides of the Evil Earth Mountain, forming a vast forest on both sides of the mountain range. Because of the Evil Spirit Trees, the surrounding天地元气 (heaven and earth energy) was completely drained, forming a rare "spiritless land" in the realm.

Strangely enough, the sacred tree of the ferocious beast tribe has also mutated.

The sap of the divine tree during the Shepherd Tree Clan era was merely a more potent version of the White Bone Pill. But the sap of the divine tree during the Ferocious Beast Clan era transformed into a sacred substance capable of significantly enhancing a cultivator's physical strength!
And it has become a treasure coveted by all cultivators in the realm.

If it weren't for the fact that the territory of the Ferocious Beast Clan is covered with vast areas of Evil Spirit Trees and large swaths of areas devoid of spiritual energy, countless cultivators would probably have already stormed into the Ferocious Beast Clan's territory to seize this sacred item.

However, perhaps due to the wonders of creation, the sap of the divine tree, which can greatly enhance physical strength, cannot be directly consumed by humans.

This sacred item seems to be best suited for the ferocious beast race. After drinking it, the monsters of the ferocious beast race can enhance their physical strength, combat power, and extend their lifespan, among other things.

However, if a human cultivator were to drink this, even just a small sip of the original liquid would cause their body to be invaded by the cold and yin energy, causing unbearable suffering. In severe cases, the cold and yin poison would damage their limbs, bones, and meridians, and might even cause their vital energy to stagnate.

Gu Jinjia had told Chen Yan that Sendai had carefully studied the sap of the divine tree and believed that its miraculous effects were related to the evil spirit trees that covered the mountains on both sides of the Badlands.

The Evil Spirit Tree suppressed and drained the vital energy within a radius of tens of thousands of miles, while the Divine Tree grew in this area. It is very likely that all the vital energy drawn from the Evil Spirit Tree Forest was attracted to the Divine Tree and acted upon it. The Divine Tree sap was actually the vital energy from tens of thousands of miles that underwent some unknown process of mutation within the Divine Tree.

Finally, the sap of the divine tree came into being—concentrated from the vital energy of thousands of miles.

The evil spirit tree itself is something that exudes coldness.

The vital energy extracted from the evil spirit tree was gathered on the divine tree, so the sap of the divine tree actually contained a huge amount of cold and poisonous substances.

For some reason, this chilling poison did not cause much harm to the ferocious beast tribe.

But humans just can't do that.

After studying the sap from the captured sacred tree, Sendai came up with a solution—using alcohol!
Strong liquor! High-proof liquor to dilute the sap of the sacred tree!

High-proof liquor naturally has a warming effect, which can slightly neutralize the cold and toxic properties of the sacred tree sap. At the same time, drinking strong liquor can make people's blood boil, accelerate blood circulation and metabolism, and further reduce the effects of the cold and toxic properties on the body.

Once diluted to a sufficient ratio, the harm of the Yin-cold poison to the human body becomes negligible—although there is still some harm, the divine tree sap itself has miraculous effects that can repair the body and strengthen the physique, completely covering up that little bit of damage.

Following the approximate proportions that Gu Jinjia had mentioned to him, Chen Yan experimented several times and finally determined the optimal dilution method.

About 500 ml of spirits, with two drops of the original sap of the sacred tree added—that's about the size of a Coca-Cola can.

This concentration is more suitable for cultivators below the Celestial Realm.

The reason Chen Yan tried so many times was that he wanted to formulate a concentration suitable for ordinary people's physiques.

These past few days, he spent his days setting up the spirit-gathering array and his nights testing the concentration of the divine tree sap. Finally, he found the right ratio: about 1,500 milliliters of strong liquor, with a drop of divine tree sap added and thoroughly stirred, was enough for an ordinary person to drink.

Chen Yan ultimately prepared two versions: one for cultivators, for his own consumption, and another for mortals, which he intended to give to Lu Sisi.

Although Lu Sisi had already consumed a total of two-thirds of the Bone Forging Pills in two separate doses, her physique was still at the level of an ordinary person. Without vital energy to nourish her body, relying solely on such a small amount of Bone Forging Pills—which are not elixirs of immortality—was not an option.

After preparing the wine, Chen Yan took a sip of the "Cultivator Version of Diluted Divine Tree Juice" himself.

As the liquor went down my throat, the spiciness of the strong liquor felt like a line of fire running from my throat all the way to my stomach.

Chen Yan simply raised an eyebrow, slowly sat down, and soon had that familiar feeling—the same taste as when he first drank diluted divine tree sap from the wooden bowl!
The feeling of comfort was as if every pore on my body was cheering and every cell was reveling. Then my body temperature gradually rose—not in the sense of fever, but because my metabolism was starting to speed up.

My physical condition has begun to improve slowly!

Several hours later, the redness on Chen Yan's face, which had been slightly flushed due to fever, gradually faded, and the sweat on his forehead evaporated.

But when he looked down at his clothes, there were still some sweat stains on them—the sweat had dried, but a thin layer of white salt residue remained on the thin T-shirt.

This is the salt residue left behind after the sweat evaporates.

Chen Yan breathed a sigh of relief and felt as if his body was floating on air, exceptionally light and blissful.

He immediately grabbed a large bottle of electrolyte drink that he had prepared beside him, unscrewed it, and drank it all in one gulp.

Chen Yan silently moved the vital energy for a while, and then something even more surprising happened.

When he drank the sap of the divine tree from the wooden bowl before, he was unable to move the vital energy because there was no vital energy in the territory of the ferocious beast tribe.

At this moment, after drinking the divine tree juice he had prepared, he circulated his vital energy. As the vital energy entered his body, it was as if every cell in his body was frantically welcoming it, as if they were vying to get close to it!

Just like a sponge absorbing water, it fully absorbs the vital energy entering the body and then continues to improve the physical body!
This improvement is not an improvement in terms of strength or weakness, nor is it even in terms of physical strength or weakness.

But...

"It seems like my body's affinity for vital energy has increased!"

Chen Yan was filled with surprise and delight.

The sap of the sacred tree is truly a wonderful thing!!
A few hours later, Chen Yan finished packing his things and walked out of the room, where he saw Lu Sisi sitting in the living room waiting for him.

Lu Sisi looked up at Chen Yan, her face immediately showing a surprised expression: "Hey? Chen Yan, your hair..."

Chen Yan was taken aback, reached out and scratched his hair, looking equally puzzled.

In just a few hours, his hair grew a full three inches longer than it had before!

Judging from the feel of it when I picked it up, it's long enough to braid.

"Hmm, did it speed up my body's growth and metabolism?" Chen Yan pondered for a moment, then felt relieved—it's just that my hair is getting longer, so it's not a big deal; I can just get more haircuts in the future. Such a side effect isn't much.

But soon, the next morning, Chen Yan discovered that the side effects weren't just limited to his hair growing longer...

·
[This is for today; there will be more after midnight.]

·
(End of this chapter)