Chapter 65

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<b>Chapter 65: Tree Deity (2)</b>

 

After a full night’s rest, Mi Wan brought along Auntie Zhang’s preparations and rushed to the North entrance of the school bright and early in the morning. Since it was Sunday, there were not many people had gathered outside the school’s entrance, since most students tended to sleep in on the weekends. Mi Wan looked around frantically for signs of Han Xiao’s figure, but even after taking a detour around the place, she could not find the person she was looking for.

“Did I arrive too early?” Mi Wan checked her phone. There were still 10 more minutes before 8 am so she stood by the entrance and sent a WeChat message to Han Xiao.

<b>(I’ve arrived. Waiting at the entrance for you guys.)</b>

“Miss Mi?”

Not long after Mi Wan sent her text, a series of voices came up behind her. When she turned around, she found Han Xiao standing in front of a black car, and behind him were two young men who were likely the two classmates that were to be part of this trip.

“Oh, you were early?” Mi Wan set aside her phone and walked over.

“It was too cold so we waited in the car, sorry about that, we didn’t see you just now.” Actually, Han Xiao had never taken his eyes off the school’s entrance, he just thought Mi Wan’s large figure would be easy enough to spot. He did not expect this person to suddenly slim down over a weekend.

You can even see her waist.

Han Xiao quietly moved his eyes away from her waist.

“No worries, it’s pretty cold, so let’s hurry back in the car.”

The group boarded the car once more, and when they had settled in, Han Xiao gave everyone a simple introduction. Though they rarely interacted, it was easy enough to recognize one another as classmates and develop a sense of familiarity. The car belonged to Liu Gu, Jin Mingxuan sat on the front passenger side seat, while Mi Wan and Han Xiao sat in the back.

Being the naturally energetic one, when Jin Mingxuan noticed that Mi Wan was far more outgoing than he expected, he gradually dropped the formalities.

“Miss Mi, it’s only been a day since we last saw you. How did you manage to become an entirely different person?”

“Did I?” Mi Wan asked doubtfully.

“Duh. When we were waiting in the car just now, none of us had recognized you as the girl at the school’s entrance.”

“Why not?”

“You lost a lot of weight.”

Mi Wan’s height was about 166 cm. Though her current weight is still around 130 Kg, with help of the Fanyin tree’s blessing, her figure had become well-toned. In addition, after shedding off the bulky coat she previously wore and changing into her new clothes, her whole appearance looked 10 Kg slimmer than her actual weight. According to Han Xiao and his friends’ recollections, Mi Wan was still an overweight person in a thick coat on Friday. In just one Saturday, Mi Wan broke their visual memory by seemingly losing 30 Kg.

“Might be because these clothes make me look thin.” When she returned home yesterday, Auntie Zhang was raining praises on her clothes saying that they made her look pretty and slim.

“You look much better now than before.” Jin Mingxuan commented sincerely.

“How was I before?” Mi Wan asked curiously.

“Um… Kinda like you don’t exist.” Jin Mingxuan was reluctant to tell Mi Wan that she gave others a depressing vibe, so he chose a kinder reference.

“How can I lack a sense of existence when I’m so fat?” Mi Wan feigned a look of shock to tease the three men in the car.

“Ahaha… Miss Mi, never thought you were the type to joke around.” Jin Mingxuan burst out laughing, with his two companions following suit. Those words seemed to do the trick in finally breaking the ice between Mi Wan and them.

“Oh yeah, I have a gift for you.” Noticing the uplifting mood, Mi Wan pulled out the 3 headphones that she previously prepared for the trip.

“These are exercise headphones. You can use them to listen to music while you jog.”

The three men froze, and with the exception of the driver, Liu Gu, the others looked at their headphones in confusion.

“Miss Mi Wan, why are you doing this?” Han Xiao asked hesitantly. It wasn’t chocolates this time and since every single one of them received a gift, he wasn’t narcissistic enough to believe that Mi Wan had underlying feelings for him.

“Bribery fee.” Mi Wan chuckled.

“Bribery?” Everyone asked in mass confusion.

“Remember I was absent for half a semester? I am positive that I do not understand a thing about today’s research, so I wanted to bribe you guys with some small gifts to make up for being a shitty teammate.”

“Class Pres, I finally understood why you were willing to tutor Miss Mi Wan~~” Jin Mingxuan gave his good friend a sly look.

“I’ll agree to this kind of bribery from time to time.”

“Stop talking nonsense.” Han Xiao looked irritably at his dorm mate and rolled his eyes before turning around to return the gift back to Mi Wan. “Helping your classmates is the right thing to do. I won’t look down on you for it, so you don’t have to give me a gift.”

“But I already bought it, and it’s non-refundable.” Little Bro Mi told her not to buy anything too expensive, so Mi Wan chose to buy something on sale. It usually would have cost around 2000 yuan, but when she bought them, there was a ‘Buy 2 get 1 free’ sale. Of course, there were cheaper headphones, but Mi Wan found them too ugly.

Han Xiao recalled the incident when Mi Wan donated a hundred thousand yuan without batting an eye and knew that returning or reselling these headphones was not worth the trouble so he was not insistent on returning the gift and instead replied, “Then don’t give us gifts in the future.”

“So does this mean my bribery worked?” Mi Wan asked slyly.

“Yes!” Without waiting for an answer from Han Xiao, Jin Mingxuan replied with a smile. “If there’s any questions you have about the coursework, you can come and ask us. Though Liu Gu and my scores aren’t as high as the class president’s, they aren’t too far behind.”

“The notes that Class Pres lent you before were copied from mine.” Liu Gu took the opportunity to boast.

Mi Wan pursed her lips into a smile, feeling like she had improved. For the rest of the trip, Jin Mingxuan dug into the headphones that Mi Wan gifted and after raving over the sound quality and chatting about their favorite songs, the happy crew soon reached their destination.

Gu Yuan village was located on the foothills of Mount Gu Yuan.

“Let’s have lunch at my house first.” Liu Gu stopped at the village parking lot and guided the group to his house.

“This is your house?” Mi Wan asked in surprise.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you.” Han Xiao introduced, “Initially we planned on conducting our research in one of the parks owned by Life Corp, but recently, all of Life Corp’s recreational parks have closed, so we had to change locations at the last minute. It just so happens that Liu Gu’s house is situated under Mount Gu Yuan, so we selected this place. Liu Gu mentioned that the surrounding vegetation in mountains was not growing properly, so we can take the opportunity to collect a few samples for our research. With a bit of analysis and comparisons, it would be enough for our report.”

“I really hope the Earth King would one day take notice of this mountain behind our family home.” Liu Gu lifted his head and glanced towards the looming mountain range behind the village and sighed mournfully.

“Earth King?” Mi Wan perked up sensitively, “You referring to Earth King Fan Chen?”

“Yeah.” Liu Gu smiled, “If the Earth King were to buy up Mount Gu Yuan, I can become rich overnight from selling off my property.”

“Stop daydreaming.” Jin Mingchen kicked him in the shins.

The merry bunch continued to joke around as they walked and soon arrived at Liu Gu’s house. Liu Gu’s parents were expecting their son to bring his classmates home, so they prepared a table of food ahead of time and waited for their arrival. Since they still have to return back to school by the evening, after lunch, the four of them immediately picked up their lab equipment and prepared to go to the mountains to collect samples for their research.

“Little Gu, take this. Don’t forget to pray.” As they were leaving, Mama Liu handed a red plastic bag to her son that contained a few apples and joss sticks.

This made the rest of the group somewhat curious, but no one wanted to ask questions in front of Mama Liu, so by the time they reached the mountains, Jin Mingxuan finally couldn’t help but ask.

“Who did Auntie want you to pray to? A mountain deity?”

“It’s a tree deity, but you can also call it a mountain deity.” Liu Go replied.

“A tree deity? Your family still retains these ancient traditions?” Jin Mingxuan was shocked. With the development of science and technology, the influences of deities have grown weaker amongst people, and along with it, many traditions were gradually forgotten. Nowadays, with the exception of a few senior villagers who would remember to pray and put out offerings during holiday celebrations, these traditions were lost amongst the younger generation.

“Tree deity. Why is it called a tree deity?” Ignoring Jin Mingxuan’s outburst, Mi Wan became more interested in the origin of the tree.

“There’s a story behind that.” Liu Gu began his tale enthusiastically. “It was said that about 50 years ago, Mount Gu Yuan was one day blanketed by dark clouds. Lightning was aggressively flashing through clouds, but there was no rain, and it went on for a whole day when suddenly, a lightning blast that was this wide around zipped through the clouds and struck the ground, erupting everything into a fire that burned for a night and day.”

“You’re making it up. 50 years ago you weren’t even a living cell, so how would you know the radius of that lightning strike?” Jin Mingxuan mocked.

“That was how my grandfather described it. He saw it with his own eyes.” Liu Gu retorted.

“What happened next?” Mi Wan gushed.

“After that? The forest burned for a night and a day and most of the plants and vegetation were destroyed, all except for one tree. It was standing in the center of that forest fire, and other than some superficial burns, everything was left intact. During that time, there were some superstitious villagers who said this was a tree deity, so they came up with a tradition where people would pray and give offerings during the holidays.” 

Liu Gu sighed. “But today, most of the villagers have moved into the city for work, so there are not a lot of people who can pray to it. That’s why, now whenever I come home, my mom wants me to pray and send offerings to the tree deity. She said it protects me while I’m outside the village.”

Heavenly lightning was unable to kill a tree? 

If what Liu Gu said was true, this situation sounded like a demon undergoing heavenly tribulation.

With the story of the tree deity still in their minds, the group continued to climb the mountain.

“We’re here.” After half an hour, they arrived at the tree deity’s location.

The group turned their gazes towards a giant spotted cypress, whose trunk was about 3 meters wide.

“Damn, that’s a big tree.” Jin Mingxuan strained his neck but was unable to see the entire tree no matter how far he stretched his neck.

“This tree might be a few hundred years old.” Han Xiao was also impressed by the sight.

“Not sure and no one has ever verified. But it should be at least up to 2 to 3 hundred years old.” Lu Gu replied.

“It should be over a thousand years~~” Mi Wan suddenly pipped up.

“Impossible. If our house had a thousand-year tree behind it all this time, this place would have become a tourist destination.” Liu Gu chuckled.

Mi Wan did not continue to explain. Normal people often believed that the longer a tree lives, the larger its trunk would get, and therefore they would be easier to discover. But spiritually awakened trees have an opposite reaction. Unless they are growing in a secluded wilderness, trees with spiritual awakenings would carefully conceal their true forms in order to successfully evolve. They would never expose themselves until the day of their transformation. If they were to successfully transform, then they can leave the forest, they can go wherever they want and take root. If their transformation fails, then the surrounding demonic energy would cause them to grow into a huge tree overnight.

This tree before her clearly had failed its transformation. Except Mi Wan noticed that its trunk was not as large as other trees that had failed their transformations, likely because of the surrounding energy being diminished.

To avoid causing another forest fire, the villagers erected a small stone house at the foot of the tree deity and placed their joss sticks inside. Liu Gu set down the apples, lit up the joss sticks, solemnly bowed three times, walked over to the tree deity to pick a small branch, and pocketed it.

“What are you doing?” Han Xiao asked.

“The seniors in our village said that picking a tree branch after praying would work as a safety amulet.” Liu Gu explained.

“You’re pretty devout.” Han Xiao smiled.

“Better superstitious than sorry.” Liu Gu packed everything up.

“Let’s hurry up and collect our samples. The weather looks like it might rain again.”

“Let’s go then.” The group hoisted their backpacks and continued on deeper into the mountains.

“Shwaaaaa Shwaaaaa Shwaaaaa~”

Suddenly, a chilly wind swept across everyone’s necks, causing them to shiver and duck down. 

Mi Wan was the only one that turned and looked uncertainly at the large tree.

What did you just say?

“Hurry~~~ Flee~~~”

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