Chapter 37: 【Who Did Such a Heartless Thing?】

"Back! Back! Back! Back…

Stop!!!"

Chen Yan stood at the gate of his villa, directing a truck to back its tail end into the courtyard.

Then he stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets and watched a few workers hop down from the truck, unload a whole truckload of bluestone slabs, and carry them into the courtyard one by one in pairs.

"Masters, be careful, thanks for the trouble!"

Chen Yan fished out a few packs of cigarettes, stood at the gate, and stuffed a pack into the pocket of every worker who passed by.

The cigarettes weren't expensive — the kind that cost twenty yuan a pack.

Two hundred yuan buys a whole carton, plenty to hand out.

The bluestone slabs he had ordered — how many times the price of the cigarettes was that? Spend a little money, and people handle the work more carefully, lifting and setting things down gently. Otherwise, if a corner of the carved runes got chipped even slightly, the formation simply wouldn't take shape.

People, after all, are social animals.

The owner of the stone yard had come along too. He stood beside Chen Yan, waited until Chen Yan had finished handing out the cigarettes, then pulled Chen Yan aside with a smiling face: "Fifty bluestone slabs, all cut and polished, the carvings were done by machine, and I was watching the whole time — guaranteed not a single error.

Boss, about the balance payment…"

Chen Yan glanced at the owner — a profiteer! This batch had fleeced him for at least triple the profit.

Still, a deal's a deal. Chen Yan didn't deliberately give the man a hard time; he cheerfully took out his phone and scanned the code to pay the balance.

"Straightforward! Thanks, Boss Chen!" The stone yard owner beamed as he pocketed his phone: "If there's business in the future, please take good care of me."

Chen Yan glanced at the fellow.

The guy was a bit of a profiteer, the prices a bit steep.

But the goods were genuine quality and quantity.

He had watched during the unloading — the two-meter-long bluestone slabs were indeed cut neatly, all polished smooth.

The carved patterns had no problems either.

His heart stirred, and Chen Yan thought of something: "Boss, do you have any jade material?"

"Jade?" The stone yard owner was taken aback: "Well, I do have some, but… what I've got are rough blanks — to put it plainly, the most ordinary low-grade jade. If you want jade for collecting, I don't have that; you'd have to go hunt for it at a jade shop."

He dealt in building and renovation stone materials, but jade he did have. Some people liked to add jade accents to their decorative background walls during renovations.

Like on a background wall with a Crane Delivering Longevity design, picking out two pieces of jade to set in as the crane's eyes.

Pretending to be cultured, that's all.

But just as he said, it was all the lowest-grade jade material.

Who has so much money to spare that they would inlay premium Hetian jade into a background wall?

"No problem, I just want the cheap stuff."

Chen Yan thought for a moment, gestured with both hands: "Cut into matchbox-sized jade plaques, thickness — half a centimeter is enough. But it has to be jade, even if the quality is low, that's fine. Don't try to pass off quartzite on me."

The stone yard owner blinked: "Matchbox-sized, square, half a centimeter thick… how many do you want?"

"Start with a hundred."

The owner laughed.

Something that small, only a hundred pieces.

All told, the material wasn't even as much as a set of mahjong tiles.

After a brief pause, the owner said earnestly: "Such a small order, normally I'd still have to source the material, start the machine for cutting, labor costs and all… most people wouldn't take a small order like this.

But you just gave me a big piece of business, so I have to give you face.

Per piece, I'll give you this price…"

With that, he cheerfully quoted a price.

Chen Yan heard it — sure enough, cheap! Compared to the jade he'd bought before from Bai Yu and Hu Yuqi, two zeros had been knocked right off!

Still, he had to haggle. Chen Yan directly cut…

No, wait — remembering the last time he'd haggled with this guy, last time he'd cut it in half.

This time, Chen Yan directly cut eighty percent!

The owner laughed and clapped Chen Yan's hand: "Deal! I'll deliver in a few days."

Chen Yan: "…………"

Damn, he overpaid again!

·

Once the moving was done, the workers hopped back onto the truck, and the owner also climbed into the passenger seat, waving goodbye to Chen Yan.

Sigh…

Who would've thought, just delivering goods, and he could still pick up some money.

In the corner of his own warehouse, there was quite a pile of low-grade jade material — all leftover scraps from cutting material for other orders.

Poor jade quality, couldn't carve anything good to sell.

And being scraps, the pieces were too small and broken to make those carved display pieces for the foyer.

Completely useless.

Normally just sitting there gathering dust, and taking up space. Even throwing them out was a hassle, hard to dispose of.

And yet, someone actually wants to buy them?

Mm, that pile of scraps isn't small. When the time comes, he should build a better relationship with this young Boss Chen, and try to sell them all to him!

·

Chen Yan returned to the courtyard and looked at the pile of bluestone slabs stacked in one corner.

He walked over, casually grabbed one bluestone slab, and exerted force with his hand!

A two-meter-long bluestone slab that ordinary workers needed two people to carry — Chen Yan gripped it with one hand and lifted it up easily, without any effort.

It took no more effort than lifting a bamboo pole.

It wasn't that his Yuan Qi entered his body, nourishing his flesh and turning him into a superhuman.

Rather, in the palm of his hand, he clenched a talisman paper—the Yi Qian Talisman.

The effect of this talisman, as written in the manual: "Transform a thousand pounds into a feather."

It wasn't that his strength increased, but that the object became lighter.

However, the name Yi Qian Talisman was too awkward; Chen Yan's head ached reading it, so he gave it a name himself: Light-Body Talisman.

One talisman's effect could last one shichen, which is two hours.

Chen Yan thought...

If he used this thing to open a moving company, wouldn't he make a fortune?

Hmm, no, no!

Using this thing to do hard labor was no different from learning a Teleportation Art and then going to deliver takeout.

The vision was too small!

·

In the afternoon, Chen Yan locked the courtyard gate and hid inside the courtyard wall to get to work.

Fifty two-meter-long bluestone slabs were personally lifted and placed by him into various positions around the courtyard.

From time to time, he would stop, take out a compass, and repeatedly survey and calculate.

Hmm, the compass was newly bought too, from the same shop on Taobao.

This time, as a returning customer, he chatted a few words with the boss and got twenty yuan off.

The price of one hundred eighty was haggled down to one hundred sixty.

Holding the Luo Luo Pan 2.0 in his hand, Chen Yan, as if having surveyed and verified the positions, placed each of the fifty bluestone slabs one by one.

A Shanzhai poor-man's version of a Spirit-Gathering Array was now ninety-nine percent complete.

The final step, and the most crucial step of the array formation: the Array Core.

Chen Yan did not possess anything of the Magical Artifact grade in his hands.

The Luo Luo Pan 2.0 didn't count!

The only things that could truly be considered 【Treasures】 currently in Chen Yan's hands were two items.

One was the thumb ring worn on his thumb.

The other was the half-white candle left by the Old Grandma, which he had carefully hidden all along.

However, for these two items, Chen Yan dared not use either one as the Array Core Magical Artifact.

As for the white candle, the Old Grandma had explicitly stated it was a life-saving treasure! It must not be used unless absolutely necessary.

As for the thumb ring, Chen Yan couldn't bear to part with it; what if it got broken if used as the Array Core?

Then he could only continue with the Shanzhai version.

With no Magical Artifact, he followed his previous line of thinking and used some jade stones that had been nourished and enriched with Yuan Qi.

He still had reserves on hand.

These were bought from a jade shop while he was scouting the commercial street at Luoyun Zhai on Qixia Mountain.

Ever since he sold the Luo Luo Pan 1.0 cheaply to Director Fang...

Chen Yan thought, what if he met someone as benevolent as Director Fang again? He couldn't be unprepared.

While scouting near Luoyun Zhai, passing a jade shop, he casually bought two Bai Yu plaques.

The material was inferior, but the price was still quite high.

After buying them, he also nourished them with Yuan Qi.

Filled to the brim, high!

Use them as a temporary fix for now; in a few days, when the batch of goods from the stone quarry boss arrives, the available space will be much larger.

The position of the Array Core was inside the villa, beneath the flower bed at the first-floor entrance.

After placing one Bai Yu plaque, Chen Yan stepped back two paces, quickly formed several hand seals with his hands, chanted a spell, and finally pointed at the Array Core, shouting lowly: "Open!!"

The Yuan Qi within the jade plaque immediately began to circulate, and as the Yuan Qi circulated, the fifty bluestone slabs surrounding the courtyard, with their carved rune patterns, all flashed with a dim light...

After standing in place for a few seconds, Chen Yan suddenly felt a gentle breeze blowing in from all directions.

He opened his Heaven Eye to observe the Qi and saw countless tiny fragments of Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi sweeping in from all directions, as if attracted, surging into his own courtyard.

The density of the Yuan Qi slowly rose; Chen Yan's spiritual sense was sharp, and he felt as if his whole body was soaking in warm water, with all one hundred and eight thousand pores on his body expanding.

"So comfortable..."

Chen Yan exhaled.

Even the Shanzhai version is this comfortable; if he made a proper Spirit-Gathering Array, wouldn't he ascend to immortality in broad daylight?

He couldn't help but move a chair over and sit down in the courtyard, closing his eyes to feel it.

Silently circulating the Yuan Qi Transport Technique, the efficiency of Yuan Qi entering his body from his surroundings increased by more than three times compared to before.

However, after sitting until nearly dusk, Chen Yan felt his skin gradually itching.

He stood up, went directly back to his room, entered the master bedroom, and went into the bathroom to strip and bathe.

After a hot shower, Chen Yan felt he must have scrubbed off half a jin of dirt.

He wasn't alarmed; he could roughly guess that this was because the efficiency of Yuan Qi entering his body had doubled, and his body, suddenly flooded with a large amount of Yuan Qi, was expelling impurities from his flesh and skin.

Indeed, after the bath, standing before the mirror, his skin was clean and dry; oil, acne, blackheads, and the like had largely disappeared.

Even the wound on his forehead, which had been bumped today, had healed by more than half, leaving only a few places with a faint pink hue where the flesh and skin hadn't fully grown back yet.

However, this speed was already considered miraculous.

Yet, just after finishing the bath, before he could even finish dressing, Chen Yan felt a faint itching sensation reappear on his skin.

"Fine, this detoxification period hasn't ended yet."

Chen Yan slapped his forehead, went over and turned on the massage bathtub, letting the water run while sitting beside it to meditate and circulate his primal energy.

Once the tub was full, he sat inside.

He felt the water currents of the massage tub surging, wave after wave striking his skin.

Chen Yan simply closed his eyes.

Let it purge, let it purge...

The bathtub had automatic constant-temperature heating; there was no problem soaking in it all night.

·

On the hillside outside the villa, following the forest into the mountains, a gentle breeze blew in gusts, carrying traces of primal energy, all heading toward the villa at the foot of the mountain...

This mountain is called General Mountain; several mountain ridges intersected, forming a mountain range five or six li long.

Between two ridges in the mountain lay a wild lake, not large in area, but the water was not shallow.

The locals call it Yinlong Lake.

At this moment, the lake surface suddenly churned; as waves parted one by one, a dark shadow floated up from beneath the water.

It was an old water turtle, the size of a millstone.

Primal energy scattered everywhere, yet all headed toward the distance; the old water turtle opened its eyes...

Where's my primal energy?!

I was hibernating!!!

The primal energy has all run away?!

What's the difference between this and dragging someone out of a warm bed in the middle of a winter night!

Who did this wicked thing!!

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