Chapter 47: The Spirit Root that Created the World, who could ever out-scam you?

Seeing the Ginseng Fruit Tree broken, Qingfeng and Mingyue were so terrified their hair stood on end. The two stood frozen on the spot, for a moment not even knowing how to react.

Sun Wukong, Yang Jian, and Nezha exchanged glances, also feeling that Tang An had caused a massive disaster.

"How about we take Master and flee first?"

"You can't leave!" Qingfeng hurriedly ran over, sat down on the ground with a 'thud', and hugged Tang An's leg, refusing to let go.

If she left, there would be absolutely no way for Qingfeng and Mingyue to answer for this.

But since Tang An had already sworn an oath of brotherhood with Zhenyuanzi, making her their elder in terms of seniority, they dared not act presumptuously.

So one could only hug her leg, while the other went to report it.

"Where are you going?" Nezha teleported in front of Mingyue, blocking his path.

Seeing this wouldn't work, Qingfeng shouted at the top of his lungs: "Master! Master! Come quickly! The Ginseng Fruit Tree has been snapped by your sworn sister!"

"Hey, hey!" Tang An hurriedly went to cover Qingfeng's mouth, experiencing for the first time the helplessness of being framed.

"Don't spout nonsense, I didn't touch it."

"If you didn't touch it, then lift the Ginseng Fruit Tree back up."

"Lift... lift..." Tang An was speechless, "Lift your grandfather."

If she could lift it, would she still be feeling so guilty?

But the key was that she hadn't even touched the Ginseng Fruit Tree!

Tang An pointed at the Ginseng Fruit Tree in anger and shouted, "Aren't you ashamed? You're a Ginseng Fruit Tree of how many years, and you're playing a 'porcelain-touching' scam on me!"

She had been wondering: in Journey to the West, that Ginseng Fruit Tree was a Spirit Root from the creation of the world. Sun Wukong hadn't even cracked the soil around the tree, and his hands had gone numb from the vibration, so how could he have uprooted the Ginseng Fruit Tree with a single strike?

Now she understood: the Ginseng Fruit Tree was purely pulling a scam!

But realizing it now seemed a bit late; Wukong hadn't been scammed, but she had been instead.

"That's what you get for having itchy hands, that's what you get." Tang An patted her own hands; she could have just eaten the fruit properly, why did she have to 'check in' on it?

Now it was fine; the one who loved to scam had met the ancestor of scamming, so it should be honest now.

"Get up, I'm not running." Tang An pulled Qingfeng up and walked to the front of the Ginseng Fruit Tree.

"Let's have a heart-to-heart talk; are you just purely craving the Sweet Dew in Bodhisattva Guanyin Pusa's Jade Purifying Bottle?"

The Ginseng Fruit Tree didn't get up, but Tang An saw a branch scratch the trunk, as if it were acting coy and tacitly admitting it.

"You're pulling a scam, and you think you're in the right?"

As Tang An spoke, she rummaged through her Universe Bag and pulled out a small porcelain bottle. In that bottle was exactly the Sweet Dew she had swindled from Guanyin last time.

"One drop, and you get up."

The Ginseng Fruit Tree didn't move.

"Two drops, no more than that."

The Ginseng Fruit Tree still didn't move.

"Hey!" Tang An's temper flared, and she gave up. "Then don't drink it. I'm not going on this pilgrimage either. When all those gods and Buddhas come looking for you later, let's see if you have the ability to keep lying there." Saying this, she dusted off her backside and prepared to leave.

"Three drops." The aged voice of the Ginseng Fruit Tree came out.

"Holy crap! It's actually alive, it can really talk?" Tang An looked back in shock and discovered a face of an old man manifesting on the Ginseng Fruit Tree.

"Don't look, if you look again, I'll die for you to see."

"Ha!" Tang An was truly—her blood pressure was shooting up.

She had been scammed by a tree, and it was threatening her in this way?

Thinking this, she pulled a knife out of her Universe Bag, walked to the side of the Ginseng Fruit Tree, and started hacking away with a 'clang-clang'.

"I'll show you threatening me! I'll show you pulling a scam!"

She brandished the big knife and hacked away again with a 'clang-clang', sparks flying everywhere; it was exhausting.

Tang An was sweating from the exertion, but looking at the Ginseng Fruit Tree, not even a piece of bark had been broken.

"No, you, you..."

"Ah!!!!"

Tang An felt that after being scammed, she had been thoroughly toyed with.

"I'm done playing." She sat down on the ground next to the Ginseng Fruit Tree, "I say, big brother, have you watched enough of the show?"

Presumably, Zhenyuanzi had spent a long time with this old tree and must have known its character.

Otherwise, with that shout Qingfeng let out just now, Zhenyuanzi should have appeared long ago.

Yet she had been playing along with this old rascal of a tree for half a day, and she hadn't seen a shadow of Zhenyuanzi; he must have been watching the fun from afar again.

"Hahahaha~"

Zhenyuanzi's hearty laughter rang out, "Sworn sister, do not blame your brother. If not for this trial, how could you four master and disciples pass through two trials here at Wuzhuang Temple?"

Tang An understood this logic, otherwise she wouldn't have spent half a day playing with a tree and gotten this tired.

After Zhenyuanzi appeared, he said to the Ginseng Fruit Tree: "You, oh you, do not make things difficult for my sworn sister anymore; hurry up and get up."

The Ginseng Fruit Tree hadn't drunk the pure dew yet, so it clearly didn't want to get up.

"Two drops, two drops and I'll get up."

"Two drops, is it? Alright."

Trying to scam her, were they? Fine, who doesn't know how to scam people?

"Wait for me to pour it out for you."

Tang An reached both hands into her Universe Bag; no one knew what she was rummaging for.

Until Tang An pulled her hands back out, and there were two transparent glass bottles in them.

In other words, what she was holding were two bottles of white liquor.

"What is that in your hand?"

"What I have in my hand is, of course, a treasure—a treasure even better to drink than pure dew." With a wicked glint in her eyes, Tang An walked up to the roots of the Ginseng Fruit Tree and poured one bottle onto the roots and another onto the trunk.

As the white liquor touched the Ginseng Fruit Tree, its trunk gave a distinct shudder.

"Cough, cough! Cough, cough, cough, cough..."

"Cough! Cough, cough, cough, cough!!!"

"Hehe~" Tang An put away the remaining white liquor and retreated to the side of Nezha, Sun Wukong, and Yang Jian.

After all, white liquor from ancient times had not gone through the multiple modern industrial processes to extract its potency. So, catching it off guard and making it choke was still doable.

"Letting an old geezer like you pull a 'touch porcelain' scam on me—do you feel comfortable now?"

The Ginseng Fruit Tree coughed for quite a while, seemed to shudder again, and then rose up from the ground.

The tree was as good as new, and the Ginseng Fruit that had fallen to the ground had all returned to its branches.

"Comfortable~"

"Huh?" This wasn't the effect Tang An wanted; how could it actually be feeling comfortable?

"Little girl, come, give me some more, give me some more~"

Although what Tang An gave it couldn't compare to the nourishment brought by Sweet Dew, it couldn't resist how good the stuff tasted—it was simply Jade Nectar!

No, that wasn't right; it was much more potent than Jade Nectar, and it liked it immensely.

"If you drink this, you won't pull any more scams?"

"I won't, I won't." As the Ginseng Fruit Tree spoke, it shook its body, causing a few fruits to fall off and drift toward Tang An.

Tang An tentatively reached out to catch the fruits, but Nezha took a step ahead of her, grabbed the fruits in front of her, and popped them directly into his mouth.

Sun Wukong, Yang Jian, and Tang An all stared nervously at Nezha's reaction, afraid he would be tricked by the old tree again.

Being stared at so intensely by the three of them, Nezha choked.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

"You old geezer!" Tang An said, about to go reason with the old tree, but Nezha pulled her back.

"It's nothing, I was just choked by you all." Nezha said, handing the fruit in front of him to Tang An.

"Oh." Only then did Tang An take the Ginseng Fruit with relief, and when she turned her head, Sun Wukong and Yang Jian were already eating theirs.

"Fine, seeing as you didn't trick us again, I'll give it all to you."

Tang An sent the two liquor bottles toward the Ginseng Fruit Tree; this time, she didn't dare get too close, fearing another scam.

The Ginseng Fruit Tree sprouted vines from the ground, coiled them around the liquor Tang An had given it—the remainder from before—and poured it onto its roots with a "swish."

"Wonderful, wonderful."

The Ginseng Fruit Tree was still unsatisfied, "Are there any more?"