Chapter 18: Cancer Cells’ Off-the-board Move, Vanished Lifespan
Zhao Kang saw Lin Nan’s expression and asked, “You all haven’t gone to the old elm trees yet today?”
Lin Nan shook his head. “We just arrived today and took the child to experience some countryside vegetable planting. In the end we all ended up playing with mud!”
Zhao Kang understood and smiled as he explained with the tone of someone experienced, “These three old elm trees of the Chen Clan have a deep foundation. In the past, calamities came one after another, and people from the surrounding ten miles and eight villages prayed to the Heavenly Lord of Demon Subjugation worshiped by the Chen Clan. The current patriarch was moved and planted three old elm trees, because elm trees carry the meaning of protection, guarding, and suppressing evil spirits.”
“Even Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing dynasty came to water the three elm trees. The key is that the three elm trees have long received the Chen Clan’s offerings, so they developed spirituality and emanate spiritual energy. When people are within the range of the three old elm trees, they will have a magical feeling.”
“Uncle Zhao, what you’re saying is way too mystical, isn’t it?” Lin Nan found it a bit hard to believe.
The others felt the same.
Although there is a saying that ancient trees have spirits, who has really seen a tree gain spirituality?
“Mystical or not, you’ll know once you come with me to take a look.” Zhao Kang smiled.
Lin Nan and the others really had their curiosity aroused and wanted to see for themselves. They followed him out of the tourist accommodation area and headed to the place where the three old elm trees stood.
Before long, Lin Nan saw the three old elm trees from afar.
These over-three-hundred-year-old ancient trees, even in the dark of night, had silhouettes that gave a sense of magnificent crowns.
A bit closer, they could see some specially made retro lantern night lights encircling the old elm trees. They were not very bright, but bright enough to see the surroundings clearly. They were very distinctive and matched the style of the Chen Clan Ancient Architecture.
“Come on, once you get close to the ancient trees you can feel that wonder.” Zhao Kang invited, taking the lead and walking in. After a short while, he really did feel that magical sensation.
Seeing how confident Uncle Zhao was, Lin Nan grew even more curious and followed. However, once he entered a certain range, he froze.
In that instant, a wave of complete comfort swept through his whole body. He even felt the follicles in his breathing expand, as if he was suddenly in an oxygen bar.
This…
The sudden feeling made him instinctively take a step back, and with that step, the sensation instantly vanished.
He took one step forward again, and the magical feeling reappeared.
The others felt it too, and all of them were full of surprise.
“This feeling is really miraculous. It appeared all of a sudden.”
“Yeah, if you don’t experience it yourself, it’s hard to believe.”
“…”
Lin Nan was also shaken, staring in disbelief at the magnificent crowns of the three old elm trees in the night. Maybe… these three old elm trees really did have some spiritual energy. Otherwise, how could this magical feeling be explained?
…
Time passed, and the night went by.
Chen Han woke to the sound of an alarm clock ringtone. It was already four thirty in the morning, and the Maoshi hour was about to arrive.
He got up right away, but his fatigue was worse than usual today, all due to the sequela of taking painkillers.
He looked at the game interface in his mind. While he slept, there had been quite a few game system prompts.
【Congratulations, the Hall Elder of the Work Hall has built a special crucible for refining Thunder Bamboo Spirit Tea. You can start stir-frying Thunder Bamboo Spirit Tea!】
Clearly, his uncle had worked through the night to build this crucible.
Under normal circumstances, after such a stove and frying wok were set up, they would need at least 5–7 days of air drying before they could be used.
But with the game system, the air-drying process was obviously skipped.
There were also nine messages of 【Congratulations, through the recorded images transmitted by the Spirit Shadow Mirror, you have gained one supporter and 1 point of reputation!】 and seven messages of 【Congratulations, the miraculous scenery of the Chen Clan has shaken people. Reputation +1!】
Apparently, the video of inciting Dog Demon Infighting had brought him nine more fans. He opened his mobile phone to take a look: likes had already passed 2,400, but the numbers had stopped moving.
The seven points of reputation from the shaken-by-scenery should be from Mr. Lin’s group of six, plus Mr. Zhao.
This made his eyes light up.
If it was like this, then a single tourist was not limited to triggering manifestation before people and miraculous scenery reputation only once. After a day or after some time, it should be possible to trigger them again.
So today he could find Mr. Lin’s group and run an experiment.
Chen Han checked his reputation.
Adding these 16 points, his total reputation reached
Then he looked at what he cared about most: lifespan, 25 days 18 hours 20 minutes.
He froze.
That was not right.
At this time yesterday it had been 27 days 18 hours.
He had eaten Dog Demon Meat and had one Spiritual Energy Rinse, so one day of lifespan consumption should have been offset.
So today it should still be 27 days 18 hours.
But now it was 25 days.
Two days had vanished out of nowhere.
Was it because of last night’s rampaging cancer cells?
But earlier when he coughed blood, there had been no such problem.
This made him furrow his brows tightly.
Cancer patients need to keep painkillers on hand because the cancer cells act up from time to time. Even if you are waiting to die, they will not let you go in peace.
In his case, the cancer cells had already flared up twice in a short time.
Previously, coughing blood had not affected his lifespan, but last night, without coughing blood, it had.
It seemed to be probabilistic.
It should depend on the direction of spread, the size of the mass, and the damage to surrounding tissues, organs, and nerves.
This was exactly the kind of unexpected situation he worried about.
If that was so, then by relying only on the daily extra time from Dog Demon Meat and Spiritual Energy Rinse, he would not be able to withstand the off-the-record consumption caused by the cancer cells.
For a moment, Chen Han felt upset and agitated.
He had to upgrade the sect residence as soon as possible to obtain new rewards.
With that in mind, he hurried out, heading to the Special Spiritual Aperture.
The emergence of this situation was already an extra crisis buff for him. The baseline time gained from Spiritual Energy Rinse and Dog Demon Meat must not suffer any more accidents.
When he arrived at the Special Spiritual Aperture again, the light all around was already dimly bright. His gaze was first drawn to the vine plants and flowers on the fence wall, because they were somewhat wilted.
Although his uncle and the others had done well sourcing materials on the spot, the roots inevitably suffered damage, different from purchased cultivated plants.
But they did not cost money. If they died, they could just go up the mountain to collect more.
He entered the pavilion, sat cross-legged, and waited until the rays of the morning sun crossed the distant mountains and spilled over the land. The Spiritual Energy Rinse of the Special Spiritual Aperture was triggered.
That magical feeling appeared again. As the spiritual energy emerged, all his follicles felt comfortable, and like a parched fish, he frantically absorbed the rinsing spiritual energy.
When the Spiritual Energy Rinse ended and he came out of that marvelous state, Chen Han truly had that emptiness of a man after a hearty release.
“Ah!” Chen Han sighed. When he looked again at the vine plants and flowers on the fence wall, he found that they no longer seemed wilted at all. In a short time, they had become vividly green, exuberant under the blazing sun, full of vitality.
This had obviously benefited from the Spiritual Energy Rinse.
He suddenly felt a bit envious.
A single Spiritual Energy Rinse could restore these vines and flowers from a wilted state completely, while he could only gain 12 hours of lifespan, rising from 25 days 18 hours to 26 days 6 hours.
Those two days of lifespan that vanished for nothing were truly painful.
He did not waste time. He went to the tourist hosting kitchen to get another piece of meat and slice it into pieces, then headed outside the village, planning to do his daily task of inciting Dog Demon Infighting.
Dogs are early-rising animals. Early in the morning, there were already three doggies wandering at the village entrance, including the white doggy that had been beaten yesterday. Its dog leg had clearly recovered quite a bit, and nothing seemed wrong with its walking.
He took out the Spirit Shadow Mirror and started today’s recording. “As the patriarch of the clan, for the safety of the family, I have decided to once again go deep into the dog demon gathering area and continue to incite their infighting.”
Since this could bring fans’ attention, he naturally had to keep filming to increase reputation.
With yesterday’s experience, today he smoothly lured those stray dogs from outside the village to the village entrance. The white doggy seemed bolder today, perhaps because it had two companions, and barked fiercely at the group of stray dogs from outside the village.
But while it was barking, its two companion doggies had already run back toward the village. So when several stray dogs from outside the village pounced on it, it realized it was too late, got severely beaten again, and ran back toward the village on three legs, barking miserably.
Then the little earth dog appeared once more with a group of doggies, ferociously charging in, and once again the stray dogs from outside the village scattered in defeat.
When the fight ended and the dogs dispersed, Chen Han appeared at the battleground, in a very good mood as he looked at the two pieces of Dog Demon Meat wrapped in White Light. It seemed that the drop rate was not fixed.
After storing the two pieces of Dog Demon Meat in the warehouse, Chen Han returned to the Chen Clan. When he reached his uncle’s courtyard, he could see the bamboo leaves and bamboo leaf cores spread to dry on three bamboo trays. They had all softened, with much of the moisture evaporated, and were ready for stir-frying.
In the kitchen, his uncle was already cooking congee.
While his uncle was not paying attention, he took out a piece of Dog Demon Meat from the warehouse. It was enough to make two servings of medicinal cuisine.
“Xiao Han, the congee needs a bit more time. Sit for a while,” Chen Lin greeted with a smile when he saw his nephew arrive. Then he noticed the piece of meat in his hand and asked in surprise, “This is?”
“Meat for medicinal cuisine. Uncle, please process it.” Chen Han made up a reason and handed the meat to his uncle.
This Dog Demon Meat was very hard to handle and exhausted him every time. After last night’s incident with the loss of lifespan, he decided to cut down on such energy-consuming tasks. The strain on his body would be too much.
Chen Lin nodded. It was just one piece of meat; nothing difficult.
He took the meat, drew his knife to process it as usual, cutting into the skin, and then froze. “????”
This meat was so hard!
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