Chapter 38: Chapter 33 Request for Reinforcements i
Translator: 549690339
He had prepared a total of 41 strips of cloth, which should have been more than enough.
When he used them all up, he instinctively looked up at the sky but could still only see the dense canopy of the Ancient Banyan Tree. Turning back, he checked the cloth markers he had left; there were no issues.
He could clearly see and find every single marker.
Qin Niu now felt completely hopeless.
He had never imagined there could be such an evil tree in the world. He had only heard of willow and locust trees harboring heavy Yin energy and being prone to strange occurrences.
In Taoist texts, there were often mentions of locust trees gathering spirits and willow branches fending off ghosts.
Some Taoists who kept minor ghosts would whip them with willow branches to force them to obey.
But he had never heard of an Ancient Banyan Tree being evil!
He certainly wasn’t going to just sit around and wait for death; he took down the strips of cloth one by one and then chose a different direction, this time walking backwards.
Every time he walked a certain distance, he tied on a strip of cloth.
The result was that he again despaired to find that getting out from under the Ancient Banyan Tree seemed nearly impossible.
It was as if the palm of the Buddha had shrunken a piece of the world into the ‘palm’ of this Banyan Tree, completely overshadowing everything.
“Since you won’t let me leave, then you can’t blame me for cutting you down!”
After trying various methods to escape to no avail, Qin Niu began to grow anxious.
With determination in his heart, he carried his Treasured Sword directly toward the Ancient Banyan Tree.
Although the tree’s trunk had a diameter of over two meters, making it very difficult to fell, Qin Niu had no other choice now. Even if he did nothing else all day, he had to chop it down.
It felt bizarre; trying to walk out seemed endless.
Yet returning to the base of its trunk seemed so easy.
When he arrived at the trunk of the tree and truly prepared to chop it, he could deeply feel its girth.
The diameter of the trunk being about two meters meant that the circumference was over six meters and twenty centimeters.
An adult’s arm span is roughly one meter seventy to one meter eighty. Three adults embracing the Ancient Banyan Tree together couldn’t wrap their arms around it.
“I’ll erase you and then we’ll talk!”
Qin Niu, always a man of few words but decisive action, put aside his basket, rolled up his sleeves, and began to hack at the Banyan Tree.
Bang!
One slash struck the tree, increasing his proficiency in the Slash Martial Skill by +0.01, with the blade penetrating over two inches deep.
One inch is approximately 3.3cm, so two inches would be 6.6cm.
This was a terrifying depth.
The diameter of an adult’s thigh near the knee is roughly ten centimeters, and around fifteen or sixteen centimeters at the base of the thigh.
With one chop like that, a tree as thick as a thigh would only need two hits to be felled.
If the Explosive Slash Effect occurred, it would fall with a single strike.
After withdrawing the sword, green sap began to flow out once more.
With much of it sticking to the blade, Qin Niu felt the Treasured Sword in his hand become even more excited.
“It seems this Ancient Banyan Tree’s ‘blood’ is to the Treasured Sword’s liking!”
Qin Niu thought of Master Ou’s words, that nurturing a sword meant following the sword’s preferences.
A Treasured Sword might have one method of nurturing, but different methods could result in different characteristics and abilities in the sword that emerges.
It’s like a child; born a blank slate, the guidance of the parents greatly influences their future personality, methods of dealing with matters, and their achievements will vary accordingly.
Qin Niu was pleased to discover that the blood of the Ancient Banyan Tree was good for nurturing the sword.
But being trapped under the tree and unable to leave filled him with fear.
He had to get rid of it.
He swung his sword and struck the trunk fiercely once more.
Bang!
He hit precisely on the original wound.
Having achieved a minor proficiency in the Slash Martial Skill, he could strike accurately, fiercely, and quickly.
With each chop to the trunk, more green fluid flowed down the body of the tree.
Qin Niu’s mind stirred, thinking the blood of the Ancient Banyan Tree might be valuable.
The small pot in the basket used for feeding the Termite meat was at hand; he might as well fill a pot with it to keep for nurturing his sword later.
With that thought, he immediately took out a jar to catch the flowing sap.
To better collect the sap, he struck the tree with his blade, not hastening to pull it out, allowing the green blood to drip down along the sword’s blade.
The small jar caught it just right.
In about half an hour, it was full.
He sealed the jar with a wooden stopper, placed it back into his basket, and continued chopping the tree.
“Eh!”
When he tried to pull out his sword, he found it stuck as if embedded in the tree.
It was immovable.
It took a great deal of effort before he could pull the sword from the tree.
Luckily it wasn’t embedded deeply, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to pull out the sword at all.
He didn’t waste any more time and swung his sword to continue chopping the tree.
“Eh, that’s not right, its wound seems to have healed a lot!”
At this moment, Qin Niu discovered something even more bizarre.
The cuts he made before were at least four or five inches deep, but after the slash he just made, he realized the wound had become much shallower, merely two inches deep.
This suggested the tree had a strong healing ability.
His heart sank to the bottom, fearing that if this was true, he would never be able to fell the tree.
Legend spoke of a man named Wu Gang in the Moon Palace, who, for pursuing the Chang’e Fairy, was punished by the Jade Emperor. Stubborn Wu Gang’s love for Chang’e was unyielding, and to make an example, the Jade Emperor ordered him to cut down an osmanthus tree in front of the Moon Palace, promising that once he did, Wu Gang could pursue the fairy.
The osmanthus tree would heal as soon as it was chopped, making it impossible to fell.
Thus, Wu Gang spent his entire life continuously chopping the tree.
Although just a myth, it served as proof that some trees indeed had incredible healing abilities.
The healing ability of the Ancient Banyan Tree wasn’t as horrifying as the one in the Moon Palace, but for the weak Qin Niu, this already posed a huge obstacle in cutting down the Ancient Banyan Tree.
He tried chopping some more, but the wounds on the tree always remained about five or six inches deep.
He also found that the deeper he chopped, the stronger the healing ability of the tree.
Despair had completely overtaken him.
Felling this tree had become a vain hope.
To say nothing of bringing it down by nightfall, he couldn’t even do it in a lifetime.
“I can’t just wait here to die, I need to quickly figure out a way to save myself while there’s still light.”
Qin Niu estimated the time; it should be noon now.
There were six hours left until sunset.
If he couldn’t escape within those six hours, he feared he would be buried in the mountains forever.
Sitting under the tree, Qin Niu forced himself to remain calm, thinking over ways to escape his predicament.
Rash actions were certainly a dead end.
Chopping the tree was futile, marking with cloth strips useless, using the sun as a point of reference also failed… Every method he could think of had been tried and all had failed.
What other way could there be to escape?
Qin Niu racked his brains.
“Right, how could I forget about the termites! Termites have their own unique way of discerning direction; they don’t need any point of reference. If I can get them in here to help guide me, perhaps they can assist me out of this dilemma.”
But the distance from here to the Ant Nest was a bit far, at least over five li away.
Their crawling speed was slow, and under normal circumstances, the worker ants couldn’t stray far from the group or they would die quickly.
“First, let me give it a try; it’s better than just sitting here waiting for death.”
Qin Niu tried to contact the Ant Queen.
Possibly due to the distance, and the presence of the ancient tree’s mysterious powers making the area under it akin to being within a shielded bubble, reaching out to the ant colony was even more difficult.
But Qin Niu wasn’t disheartened, instead he closed his eyes, using the method he practiced last night with the Everlasting Spring Technique to keep his mind in an extremely calm state.
As he closed his eyes, the Everlasting Spring Technique also began operating on its own.
His mind went from restless and anxious to gradually calm.
Strands of refreshing energy started flowing into his body from all directions, at a rate more than ten times faster than bathing in the moonlight the previous night..
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