After watching for a while, Old Chen hesitated before speaking:

"There shouldn't be too much of a problem. We've practically turned this peach grove upside down, and this is the only one that offers any hope."

Without further ado, he stepped forward, took his iron rod, and began to tap and hammer the peach wood.

I sighed, but I could understand his actions.

He's different from us. After all, he's from the village, and he genuinely hopes that the village can return to normal so that he won't have to leave his hometown.

So even if there's only a sliver of hope, he wants to seize it.

Suddenly, Old Chen let out a scream in our sight, and his whole body was stuck to the peach tree like iron meeting a magnet.

"There's definitely something wrong with this peach tree! Please help me!"

Old Chen screamed in a shrill voice.

"Holy crap, are you alright?"

Luo Tianhe exclaimed in surprise, and then stepped forward to try to pull the old man out, but the next moment, in our view, he suddenly pounced on Old Chen.

Just moments before, Li Huai was about to step forward to help pull me away, but he immediately froze in place, not daring to take another step forward, staring straight at me.

"Yan, Brother Yan, do you have any ideas?"

But I ignored him.

Looking at the eerie runes flowing on the peach tree, I suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu.

I felt like I'd seen that thing somewhere before. Suddenly, I slapped my forehead, took out the animal skin scroll, and quickly flipped through the pages. I soon found the description of the rune: it was a kind of bewitching array!

The book also contained the method to break the formation, but it was quite troublesome. So I took out a three-edged bone needle and stabbed it at the flaw in the formation as described in the book.

The flowing runes on it paused for a moment, and then shattered!

The strange suction force on Luo Tianhe and Lao Chen suddenly disappeared, and the two of them collapsed under the peach tree.

"Holy crap, what is that? It scared me to death."

Luo Tianhe was panting heavily. He had tried his best to struggle down, but the suction was so strong that he couldn't get down at all.

"A strange formation. Did Chen Hua know all along that we might come here to look for century-old peach wood?"

Li Huai had just witnessed my deciphering process, so he guessed from the side.

I shook my head:

"It doesn't seem like Chen Hua's doing. If it really was him, why didn't he just destroy the peach wood? That way, we would never be able to get the century-old peach heart."

“That’s right. And that formation, although it startled me just now, didn’t have much real killing power. If it really was set up by Chen Hua, I’m afraid Luo Tianhe and I would have died a terrible death.”

Old Chen slumped to the ground, gave a bitter laugh, and realized he had been reckless.

"I didn't sense the slightest bit of killing intent from this peach tree, which is why I dared to touch it."

After a pause, Old Chen began to explain, as if trying to justify himself.

I stroked my chin, pondered for a moment, and then spoke:

"I feel that this formation might have been set up by Seventh Uncle."

Upon hearing my words, Luo Tianhe and the other two all looked puzzled.

Old Chen, in particular, couldn't help but ask:

"How could it be Seventh Uncle? He's the one who sent us to find this peach tree."

"The handwriting on this letter is already dry, so it must not have been written recently; it must have been there a long time ago."

Instead of answering directly, I started talking to myself.

"And that animal hide scroll is quite old; it must have been there before we arrived."

"So this wasn't prepared specifically for us. It was Seventh Uncle testing the strangers entering the village. Once he found someone who seemed capable of solving the village's problems, he would show us the letter! And we undoubtedly passed his initial test."

"That's why Seventh Uncle showed us the letter. The restrictions on the peach tree were set by him. Firstly, to protect the peach tree. After all, if anyone touches it, no matter what the reason, they will be prevented from touching the peach tree."

"Secondly, it could be a test. If the person who obtained his animal skin book cannot even break through this small restriction, then they cannot deal with Chen Hua, and there's no point in wasting resources."

After hearing my explanation, all three of them looked enlightened.

This possibility is indeed very high, and it is entirely reasonable.

"Alright, let's stop wasting time. Let's take out the century-old peach heartwood and prepare to make a magic artifact."

Old Chen nodded in agreement, picked up his wood-chopping knife, and stood up to approach the peach tree.

He was using a wood-chopping knife, not an axe, so it wasn't as convenient. He could only carefully chop at the outer layer of the peach wood.

The century-old peach wood was exceptionally hard; even an experienced person like him spent considerable time extracting the core of the wood.

"Damn, this is good stuff!" Li Huai's eyes widened.

I nodded, agreeing with what Li Huai said.

The heartwood was a deep purplish-black, gleaming faintly in the sunlight. Its fine texture was unlike that of stone, resembling more of certain jade.

Old Chen carefully removed the entire piece of wood, which was 1 foot and 3 inches long, meeting our production requirements.

Strangely enough, as soon as the wood core left the tree, the entire peach tree withered rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the blink of an eye, it turned into a pile of rotten wood.

This bizarre scene left us speechless; it was as if the peach wood had been stripped of its soul.

However, we didn't pay much attention to it; there are plenty of strange things in this world.

I took the peach wood heart; it felt heavy in my hand, and I could faintly sense the pure yang energy contained within it.

Ancient Taoist priests used peach wood to make ritual implements, among which the peach wood sword was the most famous.

There are reasons for using peach wood, the most important of which is that peach wood is generally extremely rich in yang energy, which can suppress some evil spirits!

The heartwood of a peach tree is the essence of the tree, possessing extremely strong yang energy!

What's more, this is a peach wood that has grown for a full hundred years!

We didn't dare delay and headed to Old Chen's yard with the peach wood heart.

We avoided the intersection where Wang Fugui had been walking before, not wanting to run into him again.

The journey was surprisingly smooth; we didn't see a single ghost.

"Strange," Luo Tianhe looked around warily, "Why are those villagers so quiet?"

I rolled my eyes and said irritably.

"It's good that nothing's happening. I don't want to run into those things."

Although I had a vague feeling that something was wrong, the most urgent thing was to make the ritual implement!

Like thieves, we cautiously followed the shadows of the village to Old Chen's courtyard.

Stepping into the courtyard, we couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.