Chapter 53

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Thinking of what happened back then, Hou Ying rubbed his eyebrows.\n

Hou Ying: “Ji Yao, I know I made the same mistake again this time—”\n

“No, Houzi, I don’t think you’re wrong.”\n

Ji Yao simply interrupted him. Seeing Hou Ying looking at himself in disbelief, Ji Yao sighed and whispered, “People’s hearts are always long, and a person who doesn’t have selfishness is not a normal person. Who is perfect, who doesn’t have their own character defects and shortcomings, and why say that those shortcomings are flaws? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you, just… Houzi, don’t push yourself too hard. I’m afraid that you will restrain yourself too much and really repress yourself. You just made a mistake in judgment. Everyone has such a time, you… Don’t blame yourself too much, okay?”\n

Hou Ying smiled bitterly, “How could it not be my fault, Ji Yao? I even thought today that even if you get hurt a little, it’ll be worth it in exchange for the wood crystal. When I instigated you, I picked all the positive aspects to say and even guided you to ignore the potential danger of this matter. Don’t you still think I’m flawed?” \n</ins>\n\nJi Yao is so done, “Don’t fucking talk nonsense!”\n

He raised his voice a little, but then quickly moderated it, “Houzi, what I fear most is you. In fact, I know in my heart that you have such thoughts, not for your own sake. It used to be just Xiaohe, but now there is another Li Xuanyuan. They can always make you lose control and make you do some things that you wouldn’t do rationally. But that’s nothing, it’s just an impulse. It’s no different from fighting with people when we were at school. Is it really worth it for you to beat yourself up like this?”\n

Ji Yao scratched his head in annoyance, “Hou Ying, let me tell you the truth. I don’t think you’re sick again, you already asked for treatment for yourself. You haven’t done anything outrageous. Just apologize. Everyone doesn’t think there’s anything wrong. Why are you doing this?”\n

Back then, the psychotherapist pointed out this point to him. Hou Ying has consciously regulated and controlled his emotions and thoughts, which is why he still has great research interest and needs in psychology for so many years.\n

But to be honest, in Ji Yao’s opinion, Hou Ying’s small shortcoming is no big deal, like a small cold. He had to go for treatment, but it ruined his immunity and gradually caused the small cold to become a serious illness. In his heart, he just wanted to curse, hating iron for not becoming steel¹. He said, “Let me put it this way. The role of Li Xuanyuan in your heart is as good as your wife. It’s human nature to give your wife some small privileges, isn’t it? Why bother? What’s the big deal? You didn’t commit murder or arson. Is it interesting that you have to embarrass yourself like this?! I really want to punch you to wake you up!”\n

Hou Ying was speechless: “…”\n

Qiao Daye who heard it accidentally: “…”\n

Feeling that Qiao Daye’s gaze towards him is a bit weird, Li Xuanyuan opened his eyes to look at him, and then to Hou Ying and Ji Yao, who hadn’t finished speaking in secret behind the tree, and made a gesture to Qiao Daye.\n

What are they talking about?\n

Qiao Daye raised his eyebrows and mouthed: When did you become interested in this kind of thing?\n</ins>\n\nLi Xuanyuan rolled his eyes and continued to sleep, leaving him alone.\n

After spending a night in the mountains, the team set off for the twin banyan trees after sunrise the next day. Along the way, Meng Hanghai sneezed twice. Everyone felt that it’s a little too cool in the deep mountains and forests at this high temperature. Fortunately, their physique has changed qualitatively. Even Meng Hanghai didn’t catch a cold.\n

Li Xuanyuan stepped on the ground and nodded to Hou Ying. Under Li Xuanyuan and others’ cover, the latter took Meng Hanghai to give the land a blow. Sure enough, the roots of the twin banyan trees were exposed. Hou Ying took the metal knife handed by Dongfang Bai and stabbed it hard at the root of twin banyan! It twitched instantly, and then the leaves swarmed in.\n

Everyone stood and waited for a while. The banyan leaves were suddenly recalled, and the roots were twitching underground to escape.\n

Qiao Daye, who was held by Hou Ying, saw it clearly. He was dumbfounded and said, “This tree is really refined!”\n

Seeing that they don’t attack and don’t feed them their abilities’ energy, they ran away. It’s really inconceivable that the opponent is just a tree. Hou Ying said happily, “They may have consumed all the energy we gave them yesterday. The leaves are no threat to us now.”\n

He said to Li Xuanyuan, “Things are easier to handle than we thought before. I don’t think we need to waste too much effort. Let’s talk to it peacefully and harmoniously first. If it doesn’t agree, let’s follow yesterday’s plan.”\n

The twin banyan tree’s ability to devour and rebound is very powerful, but in the final analysis, it’s a special defensive ability rather than offense. As long as they don’t attack any part of the banyan tree, it can’t do anything to them. What’s more, its fatal weakness is exposed to them, that is, its root system—like all mutant plants, its size is also very large, which also makes its root system more developed and more widely distributed than before the apocalypse.\n

The group returned to the twin banyan trees. Yesterday, they put their backpacks here and hadn’t taken them away when they escaped. It’s all still intact. Except for Hou Ying, Li Xuanyuan, and Meng Hanghai who were mainly responsible for attacking the twin banyan trees, everyone else started putting their knapsacks on their backs to avoid yesterday’s situation.\n

Hou Ying squatted down and was about to start when he suddenly said again, “Xuanyuan, wait.” \n</ins>\n\n“What’s wrong?”\n

“Everyone, be careful. In case this old goblin can store abilities, we gave him a lot yesterday, it’ll be troublesome for us. Don’t take it lightly.” \n

The cunningness of the twin banyan trees made him more mindful.\n

Facts have proved that his worries are too prescient!\n

When Hou Ying suddenly cut a whole piece of sand to expose the roots of the twin banyan trees buried in the ground, it finally felt bad. It shook its trunk angrily and the leaves all over the sky quickly attacked everyone. This time, the leaves carried infinite lethality, completely different from the way they were tested just now.\n

“Cover me!”\n

Hou Ying yelled, blocking Meng Hanghai under his body, and maximizing his ability to activate the space attack. The resulting attack approached the main root of the trunk from the outer ring around the banyan tree. Seeing that its offense continued, Hou Ying was cruel. The outer ring, about 20 meters deep into the ground, was suddenly cut and made into sand by him!\n

The banyan realized that things aren’t going well right now, so it suddenly retracted its leaves and shook even more.\n

“Xuanyuan, go try it out.”\n

Li Xuanyuan approached the trunk and released the keel spurs. They’re all immediately swallowed by the banyan tree just after they’re attached to the trunk, and the banyan leaves viciously attack Li Xuanyuan!\n

“Looking for death!”\n

Hou Ying simply destroyed the circle of soil closest to the trunk. The people outside wanting to rescue Li Xuanyuan was stunned. They saw that place suddenly disappear and go down ten meters underground. The roots of the twin banyan trees can be seen at a glance!\n

It instantly retracted its leaves and trembled even more. Now all its claws and teeth were taken back.\n

Although they did not relax their vigilance, they somehow knew that the twin banyan tree had been deterred. Qiao Daye laughed loudly, “Brother Hou, you’re like molesting a good family woman. The tree is like being stripped of its underwear, so pitiful and ashamed.”\n

“Save your joke and say it when we go back!” Gongsun Jing smiled and scolded him.\n</ins>\n\nThe crowd looked at the tree. The more they looked, the more it looked like what Qiao Daye said. It even curled up its roots.\n

Hou Ying winked at Li Xuanyuan and stepped on the roots to approach its trunk again. Hou Ying made another move and spread the scope of soil disappearance for another ten meters.\n

This time, Li Xuanyuan’s palm was pressed against the trunk, and the twin banyan trees became unusually docile. A crystal clear wood crystal was spat out from the trunk with the absorbing ability, and then next is the one with the rebounding ability. The people who saw wood crystals for the first time had their eyes widened, but before they took a closer inspection, the wood crystals got into Li Xuanyuan’s body.\n

Li Xuanyuan’s body suddenly softened.\n

Hou Ying was startled, “Xuanyuan!”\n

Qiao Daye quickly brought him back.\n

“What’s the matter? Gongsun, check him!”\n

Li Xuanyuan is still sober, he said, “It’s okay, it’s just too powerful. My body is still digesting it.” He couldn’t move, then his brows smoothed out, and said, “No wonder I haven’t seen a mutant plant near here before. Their wood crystals have been swallowed by the banyan trees.”\n

Everyone was overjoyed when they heard this. In this way, their trip was worth it!\n

Hou Ying sat down on the ground and said to them, “My energy consumption is a bit big, let me rest for a while. Go find some soil and fill it in here. Let’s return this to its original ecology.”\n</ins>\n\nThe group who had planned to go back after Li Xuanyuan absorbed the wood crystal were stunned by his words. Then Dongfang Bai asked first, “Brother Hou, just how on earth did you do it? Why is all that dirt gone and where did it go?”\n

“It doesn’t disappear, it’s just broken down into tiny components that can’t be seen by the naked eye. This is the limit I can do now.”\n

“What the fuck! It turned out that what Brother Hou said yesterday was true. It’s basically material decomposition!”\n

Qiao Daye shouted.\n

Hou Ying laughed, “No, I can’t destroy their properties. I can only divide them in units by space.”\n

“Sounds awesome enough.”\n

Everyone was pleasantly surprised.\n

When Meng Hanghai was looking for soil with everyone, he asked him, “Uncle Hou, can I be like you in the future?”\n

“Of course, this is your ability.”\n

Meng Hanghai happily left with the group, full of enthusiasm for everything.\n

When they filled the soil, the sun had climbed to the middle of the sky, but it wasn’t until 2 p.m. that Li Xuanyuan absorbed the wood crystals of the twin banyan tree.\n

Qiao Daye’s speed ability has the least lethality. He gave Li Xuanyuan a quick push, who remained motionless. Then the latter looked at his teammates who’re eagerly staring at him and said, “Can be absorbed.” \n

The group celebrated.\n

They returned with a full load, and behind them, the huge twin banyan leaves were dim, no longer bearing the beauty of the previous fluorescence. When this mountain area once again breeds mutant plants and replenishes its nutrients, wood crystals will condense again in their trunk, but that will be many, many years later.\n\n</ins>\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator">\n\n

Translator’s Note:\n

<ol>恨铁不成钢 [hèn tiě bù chéng gāng] – be exasperated at sb.’s failure to make good; regret that one’s offspring does not live up to one’s expectations.</ol>\nBelated Merry Christmas everyone~~ How was your holiday?\n\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator">