Is this NPC even playable if it's not nerfed?

Chapter 191 Chen Yiyi Breaks Through to the Sixth Rank, Treasure of Tree God Island

Chen family.

"Tell me, what kind of mess is this?"

"The descendants of the esteemed Lord Chen are all as cowardly as quails."

"Hu San Niang, I admit she is very beautiful and charming. Even I, an old man in my eighties, almost couldn't walk straight when I saw her."

"But you are women."

"You may not be as beautiful as her, but surely you have the courage to face her."

"Do you know how rare it is to have the opportunity to go on a blind date with Lu Yuan? For this opportunity, I shamelessly acted as a matchmaker for you and even had to withstand the pressure from the royal family."

"I've sacrificed everything for the sake of my family's reputation for the rest of our lives, and this is how you repay me?"

"Afraid to go? Giving up?"

"You think you can just waste all the efforts your family has made for you with a single, casual remark? How can you face your family, how can you face this old man?"

“Don’t look down, look at me and tell me.”

"You guys are talking."

The head of the Chen family shouted at the younger generation below.

The old man was trembling with anger. He never expected that after enduring so much pressure for so long, these younger people would give him such an answer.
So all the stress I've been under lately has been for nothing?
All the family's efforts have been in vain?

You bunch of little bastards, you've made me so angry!

……

Seeing the younger generation below bowing their heads, the head of the Chen family became even angrier.

"You're not going to talk, are you? Playing dead for me now?"

"Chen Jingru, stand up and speak. Tell me, where is your confidence? Before Lu Yuan came, you assured me that you would definitely win him over. And now? You're the first to back down? How can you face me like this?"

The head of the Chen family pointed at a woman sitting on the far side and loudly questioned her.

"Grandpa, I..."

"Shut up, don't call me grandpa. I don't have a cowardly granddaughter like you."

"I feel embarrassed when you call me grandpa."

It would have been better if she hadn't called him "Grandpa." But as soon as she did, the head of the Chen family flew into a rage and unleashed a torrent of abuse at Chen Jingru.

"Grandpa, you can't blame us. Blame it on Auntie being too beautiful. Although we are daughters of the Chen family, we know our place. Why did we have to go up there and suffer?"

Chen Jingru pouted, making excuses for herself.

Her words resonated with the other women in the tribe, who chimed in with their own words.

"Shut up, all of you shut up."

"What else can you do besides make excuses?"

“You’re just trash. You won’t seize any opportunities you get.”

"I had planned everything, but I never expected you cowards to be like this."

The head of the Chen family blushed with anger.

"Grandpa, this isn't our fault."

"Blame Chen Dong's cousin. Why did he call him Uncle Yuan out of the blue? He's suddenly a generation above us. How are we supposed to go on blind dates with him?"

Chen Jingru found an opportunity to shift the blame, and immediately pulled Chen Dong out to take the fall. Upon hearing this, the others' eyes lit up. That's right, how come they didn't think of this?

Soon, the room became a scene of shifting blame.

Chen Dong inexplicably became the "King of Pots".

"Chen Dong, is it? Very well, I'll go find him and settle the score right now."

The head of the Chen family stormed off, and the others in the room exchanged glances and took the opportunity to slip away.

As for his cousin Chen Dong, all he could do was apologize in his heart.

Anyway, Chen Dong is thick-skinned and tough, so taking another beating won't hurt him.

……

royal palace.

"Hahaha, that old guy Chen Lie must be furious. He's been planning this for so long and it's all gone wrong. Hahaha."

"I'm dying of laughter. The descendants of Lord Chen are getting more and more shameless. They're really disgracing Lord Chen."

"However, this Hu Sanniang is quite troublesome. I wonder if Meng Luo can handle her."

The emperor stroked his chin, pondering how to support his daughter.

However, after thinking it over and over, he still couldn't come up with a solution.

After all, he's a man and doesn't know how to pursue men.

He was powerless to help in this regard.

……

The Chen family's small courtyard.

Lu Yuan sat on the roof, gazing at the night sky.

"Hey, Lu Yuan, I've noticed you really like staying on the rooftop."

Hu San Niang transformed into a fox and landed on Lu Yuan's shoulder.

Do I really enjoy being on the rooftop?

"Actually, I prefer to lie on a chair, but unfortunately there isn't a chair like the one I want here."

Lu Yuan pulled Hu San Niang off his shoulder and held her in his arms. Her soft, squishy body felt wonderful.

It wasn't that he liked staying on the roof, but rather that the Chen family didn't have a recliner suitable for his size.

Even if a chair suitable for his size is found, the chair cannot support his weight.

"A chair? That long chair, the one that can rock back and forth?"

Hu San Niang scratched her head.

"Correct."

"The chair is still the most comfortable."

Lu Yuan squinted, enjoying the pleasure of ravaging Hu San Niang's fur.

"Lu Yuan, when are we going back?"

"I've been in the capital for half a month now, and I miss Little Peach Blossom."

Hu San Niang pushed away Lu Yuan's large hand with her paw, broke free from Lu Yuan's embrace, flicked her tail, and licked the fur that Lu Yuan had ruffled.

"It'll be soon, we'll be able to go home in a few days."

Lu Yuan lay down with his hands behind his head.

After being away for several months, he actually wanted to go home.

He really couldn't get used to staying in the capital.

There was no other reason; it was simply that I had been in Beijing for too long and was homesick.

The Chen family in the capital provided them with the utmost hospitality, fulfilling all their needs in every way.

Lu Yuan didn't care about these external things; he only cared about food. There were many delicacies in the capital, especially after the players arrived, with all kinds of cuisines emerging one after another, and fancy cooking methods changing the entire food scene in the capital.

As for the price, it is naturally outrageously expensive.

However, with the Chen family footing the bill, Chen Yiyi was undoubtedly the happiest.

This gluttonous girl ate her way through the entire capital city during this period.

Wherever they go, someone will pay the bill, and they can enjoy all kinds of delicious food.

In particular, when the Chen family in the capital learned of Chen Yiyi's martial arts talent, they moved a large number of long-forgotten precious medicines from their family treasury overnight.

During this period, he fed Chen Yiyi the precious medicine every day.

Due to the cultivation technique and the abundance of precious medicines, Chen Yiyi's level rapidly broke through to level 49, reaching the peak of the sixth-grade martial artist realm.

He was just one step away from becoming a fifth-rank martial artist.

The three Chen brothers, obsessed with martial arts, broke down their defenses and cursed the injustice of Heaven.

A seven-year-old fifth-rank martial artist—the sheer talent is terrifying to even think about.

However, when they remembered Lu Yuan beside Chen Yiyi, all the shock subsided.

Like uncle, like niece.

With such an awesome uncle, it seems quite reasonable for the niece to be a little bit eccentric.

……

"The younger generation of the Chen family are all so timid."

"The younger generation you went on blind dates with were all incredibly shy."

"If I look at them a few more times, they'll faint from the shock. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Hu San Niang covered her mouth with her little paws and laughed out loud.

“They are just ordinary people, you don’t need to scare them.”

Lu Yuan said calmly, "What do you mean by 'scare'? Don't talk so rudely."

"This is the inherent charm of the Yin family."

"Your house is so beautiful."

Hu San Niang started admiring herself again.

……

a few days later.

Lu Yuan finished his blind date trip, and Chen Yu and the others packed their luggage early in the morning and set off before sunrise.

This time, the caravan had an extra horse-drawn carriage.

Zhang Hengyuan, his face filled with despair, drove his carriage behind him, with his family members inside.

He was originally happy to return to the capital to report back.

Unexpectedly, he was greeted with a decree from the imperial court transferring him to a new post.

He was appointed as the prefect of Black Mountain City.

That's right, Zhang Hengyuan became the prefect of Heishan City.

He was both lucky and unlucky.

Fortunately, he did not fall into the major crisis of the Ministry of Personnel; unfortunately, he became a local official sent to a remote area.

Because of the events in Black Mountain City, the city's superiors, and even the surrounding counties and cities, were investigated by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

A large number of local officials were arrested.

Officials from the surrounding areas of Black Mountain City could not be transferred to Black Mountain City, so they could only select officials from the capital who could be sent out. Unfortunately, Zhang Hengyuan was on the list.

Considering Zhang Hengyuan's relationship with Chen Nian, the imperial court sent him to Heishan City to become its prefect.

Zhang Hengyuan was very upset.

As a government official in Beijing, he was naturally unwilling to take up a post in the local area.

The treatment of officials in the capital is incomparable to that of local officials. It is easier for officials in the capital to be promoted than for local officials, especially those in Lingnan.

Please, that's Lingnan.

The climate was harsh, with miasma everywhere and swarms of mosquitoes, rodents, and ants. There was even a punishment called exile to Lingnan, which is enough to illustrate how harsh Lingnan was.

Who would be happy to be assigned to a post in Lingnan for no reason?

If we can avoid leaving, we definitely won't.

However, he could not refuse the imperial court's orders.

Even if he was unwilling, he had no choice but to take his family to Black Mountain City to take up his post.

"Don't make that face."

"There's nothing wrong with being a local official. Isn't a fourth-rank official better than a nobody like you in the Ministry of Personnel?"

"Smile, smile more, live longer."

Chen Ke stuck his head out and leaned back to comfort Zhang Hengyuan.

"Uncle, I'm suffering."

"Don't keep complaining about your hardships. You'll only make things worse. Smile more. There's no hurdle you can't overcome."

Chen Ke said with a smile.

"Ugh."

"Stop sighing and complaining. The environment in Lingnan isn't as difficult as you think. Do your job well and try to be transferred back as soon as possible."

"Uncle, do I still have a chance?"

"There are some."

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

……

Tree God Island.

The once barren island is now covered with vegetation, lush and vibrant.

In the center of the island grows a towering tree.

The tree's roots are lush and thick, like iron pillars hanging down and sinking deep into the ground, greedily absorbing the earth's nutrients.

What's even more striking is that a human face is growing on the trunk of this tree. The face has clear features, possesses a certain level of perception, can see the things around it, and can hear the thoughts of the surrounding plants. It can even speak human language and possesses extremely high intelligence.

The island was first discovered at the end of one month when fishermen who went out to sea found it.

At first, the tree's coverage area was not large, only one-tenth of the island's total area. However, in the following months, the tree grew rapidly, its branches and leaves covering most of the island, and its root system covering the entire island. You can see its steel-like root system anywhere on the island.

At first, the fishermen were terrified of the big tree, worried that some kind of spirit had come back to life.

Later, the fishermen discovered that the tree could talk and possessed great intelligence, able to communicate with them. Most importantly, the tree did not eat people or harm innocents, and it had a strange sense of trust in humans. When fishermen in the surrounding area encountered trouble, it would lend a helping hand.

The tree claimed to be a tree god and said it was a descendant of the ancestral god.

The fishermen didn't know who their ancestral god was.

Even the oldest person in the village had never heard of this deity.

However, they knew that the tree god was a good god.

He is very kind and also possesses some magical powers, such as the ability to heal the villagers.

To express their gratitude for the tree god's kindness, the villagers raised funds on Tree God Island to build a temple for the tree god, which was named Tree God Temple.

The statues enshrined in the temple were made by the tree god from his own tree roots. The ancestral god's image is a faceless, muscular man resembling a human, with blood-red skin and a kind of red crystal. The ancestral god is holding a small sapling in his arms, and this sapling is the tree god himself.

The Tree God Temple on Tree God Island.

The elderly fishermen offered cooked fish to the tree god and knelt in devout worship.

"May the tree god protect us, may the tree god protect us, and may this voyage be peaceful and calm."

The old man prayed softly.

Outside the temple, a vine extends in from the outside, carefully rolling up the cooked fish in the basin.

Smack, smack, the old man heard the sound of smacking lips.

"Old Lin, your fish tastes bland today. Did you forget to add salt?"

A clear, childlike voice rang in my ears.

The old man opened his eyes, looking somewhat angry.

"Lord Tree God, could you please keep quiet, especially when believers are praying and kneeling in worship? Gods cannot make a sound; they must maintain their dignity."

"Also, who adds extra salt when cooking seafood? Aren't they afraid of getting sick from the saltiness?"

Old Lin complained.

"You're talking nonsense. Old Zhang's family adds extra salt when they cook seafood, and it tastes so good. It's just that you, Old Lin, are stingy and unwilling to add even a little bit of salt."

The child's voice is an unhappy complaint.

"Ah ah ah."

"That bastard Zhang, he's destroying tradition."

Old Lin was so angry that he shouted and yelled.

"Stop shouting. This time, I will not punish you. Old Lin, don't go out to sea tomorrow. There will be a big storm at sea tomorrow. If you go out to sea, you will die."

After the tree spirit finished eating the sea fish, for some reason, it really liked cooked food, especially cooked sea fish. It had a strange fondness for sea fish.

Perhaps this was the ancestral god's preference, and as the ancestral god's offspring, it inherited the ancestral god's preference.

Great! The ancestral god loves to eat cooked sea fish.

Clue to the Ancestral God +1.

Is a typhoon coming?

"Then it's definitely not possible to go out to sea."

"Lord Tree God, how long will this typhoon last?"

"Three days."

"Three days? Alright then, Tree God, see you in four days."

Goodbye, Lao Lin.

The old man returned to his small boat and rowed back to shore.

Shortly after the old man left, a ship appeared on the distant sea.

Dozens of players were standing on the boat.

Their target is Tree God Island.

"The Tree God Island is just ahead."

"Be careful once you get to the island, and don't hurt any of the small animals. Our goal is the treasure, and if we provoke the tree god, the treasure will be out of our reach."

……

(End of this chapter)