The End and the Spoils
"Aaaaaah! Suppress it!"
However, after a brief struggle, under the suppression of the century-old Power of Incense Offerings, the Dark Heavenly Lightning Flag was indeed temporarily silenced.
Seeing that the situation seemed to be under control, Grandfather Huang Three, still shaken, turned his attention back to Yin Yunze.
"You damned little fox cub—"
Recalling what had happened before, Grandfather Huang Three couldn't help but curse.
Seeing that Grandfather Huang Three had actually endured all of this and even regained his senses was quite surprising.
Yin Yunze gritted his teeth, and several more bundles of explosives appeared in his hand, preparing for a final desperate gamble!
Grandfather Huang Three only finished cursing when he suddenly stopped, a deep unease welling up in his heart.
"I'll die!!!"
A thought, quite abrupt, yet profoundly etched itself into the mind of Grandfather Huang Three.
Where? Where is it?
The sense of crisis was so strong that Grandfather Huang Three didn't even have time to pay attention to Yin Yunze, and looked around aimlessly like a headless fly.
At this moment, Yin Yunze also noticed something was wrong; the sky above the four-sided cage suddenly darkened.
Subconsciously looking up, Yin Yunze saw that the once cloudless sky was now covered by a pitch-black cloud that looked as if it had been poured with ink.
Alarm bells rang in his mind. Having also noticed the change in the sky, Grandfather Huang Three could not care about anything else and prepared to use Earth Escape to enter the ground.
However, at this moment, a powerful burst of purple lightning erupted once again from the hollow spot in Grandfather Huang Three's chest.
Under the purple lightning, Grandfather Huang Three suddenly felt his whole body go numb and he was unable to move, losing his only chance to escape.
The next moment, a black bolt of lightning as thick as a bowl, like a divine dragon, emerged from the dark clouds and fiercely pounced down on Grandfather Huang Three.
In an instant, Yin Yunze felt a burst of lightning before his eyes, and his entire field of vision was filled with fine, black lines of mysterious Mystic Lightning.
But the next moment, everything abruptly returned to calm.
The scene before them returned to normal, and the dark clouds in the sky, just as abruptly as they had appeared, vanished instantly.
Only Grandfather Huang Three, who had shed his black clothes and returned to his original gray-yellow complexion, remained, standing there blankly.
"I'm not reconciled—"
He suddenly spoke these words, but before he could finish, Grandfather Huang Three was standing there, could no longer support himself. His knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground.
Only in those still wide-open, lifeless eyes remained the last trace of Grandfather Huang Three's unwillingness.
I'm afraid Grandfather Huang Three never imagined that, as a Land God had lived for over a hundred years, he would exit the stage in such a way.
To think that he would be struck dead by lightning summoned by Yin Yunze, a junior who was fighting on foreign soil!
Seeing Grandfather Huang Three's unseeing eyes in death, Yin Yunze knew it was all over. He finally breathed a sigh of relief, his legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.
"Lord Yi Yun, you truly are the most powerful—"
Zhao Wan, on the other hand, provided emotional support to Yin Yunze at just the right time.
Although Zhao Wan spoke sincerely, Yin Yunze felt unworthy of her kindness.
After secretly resolving never to put Zhao Wan in such a dangerous situation again, Yin Yunze paused for a moment, then stood up and slowly walked towards the body of Grandfather Huang Three.
After being baptized by the heavenly lightning, the strangeness on Grandfather Huang Three's body returned to normal.
It looked like nothing more than a rather large weasel, except that it had a lot of unusual holes in its body, making it look like a honeycomb.
After thinking for a moment, just to be safe, Yin Yunze took out a Fire Character Talisman and threw it at the corpse of Grandfather Huang Three.
If something like a zombie apocalypse or a third stage were to occur at this point, Yin Yunze would truly be doomed.
Fortunately, no third stage occurred, and the lightning summoned by the Dark Heavenly Lightning Flag was powerful enough.
As Yin Yunze threw the Fox Fire at Grandfather Huang Three's body instantly turned into dust and scattered all over the ground.
Even if Grandfather Huang Three's enormous corpse were reduced to dust, it would still cover an area of several meters, forming a thick layer.
Among the fine dust that the corpses had turned into, three things—to be precise, two things that had a physical form and one thing that did not have a physical form—appeared before Yin Yunze's eyes.
The two physical objects need no further explanation: the Dark Heavenly Lightning Flag that Yin Yunze threw in, and the dragon-headed cane that Grandfather Huang Three had been holding.
The old rat had somehow managed to retrieve the dragon-headed cane. Yin Yunze hadn't noticed it during the battle, and he didn't know where Grandfather Huang Three had hidden it.
However, considering that even when Grandfather Huang Three went mad, he still wanted to pick it up, it is probably quite a treasure.
That intangible thing was something that not only ordinary people, but even ordinary evil spirits could not see or touch.
Only Yin Yunze, who is also a holder of the Land God Divinity, could sense it.
That was the divine status belonging to the Land God of Upper Creek Village.
The Land God Divinity, which ordinary people could not see at all, appeared to Yin Yunze as a white ball of light with golden edges.
Even without Yin Yunze taking any action, the divine spark swayed and floated towards Yin Yunze on its own.
Seeing this scene, Yin Yunze was somewhat wary.
While it's normal to get rewards after defeating a boss, Yin Yunze felt it was a bit too unrealistic that the Land God Divinity would drop so easily.
Is the Land God Divinity something that can be obtained by killing monsters?
If he could, Yin Yunze felt that his position as the Land God was truly in grave danger.
Besides, this is the Land God Divinity extracted from Grandfather Huang Three; who knows if there will be any problems?
After his encounter with Grandfather Huang Three, Yin Yunze was practically driven to the brink of mental exhaustion.
While remaining vigilant, Yin Yunze did not actually attempt to avoid the approach of the Land God Divinity.
After all, this was the biggest reward dropped by the BOSS that Yin Yunze had fought so hard to defeat.
Yin Yunze definitely be unwilling to give up right before his eyes!
Finally, after the divine status of the Upper Creek Village Land God Divinity was presented to him, Yin Yunze made his choice.
Yin Yunze reached out and slowly but firmly grasped the divine essence.
Compared to the potential dangers involved, Yin Yunze was even less willing to experience that feeling of helplessness when facing a powerful enemy again.
Now that the opportunity to become stronger is right in front of him, how could Yin Yunze just watch it slip away?
As Yin Yunze made the grabbing motion, the divine essence of the Upper Creek Village Land God reacted, transforming into a stream of light and entering Yin Yunze's body.
The next moment, countless chaotic memories that did not belong to Yin Yunze surged out from his Subordinate Deity, impacting Yin Yunze's brain.
Just when Yin Yunze thought something was wrong, that it was a backup plan left by Grandfather Huang Three, these memories quickly faded away like a tide.
Before long, all the memories related to Grandfather Huang Three's subjective consciousness disappeared completely, leaving only some information that was useful to Yin Yunze.
It was from these remaining pieces of information that Yin Yunze realized how fortunate it was that this divine essence could still remain.
Normally, the divine status of such Incense God would dissipate upon the death of the deity.
Aside from the deity voluntarily relinquishing the divine status to a chosen successor, the only other way to achieve divinity is through the recognition of believers and the re-formation of a new divine identity.
Besides these two methods, even if there are other ways to obtain godhood, they are all Evil Dao with endless troubles, and basically no one would use them.
The first reason is that the divine status of the Incense God is closely related to life. Unless the Incense God just before his demise.
The second method is even more complicated. First, you need to make sure that the divine status you want to acquire hasn't been taken by someone else. If it has, you'll have to kill the Incense God who originally held that divine status.
Some Incense God with clear specific targets are like radishes in a specific hole, such as the local Land God like Yin Yunze and Grandfather Huang Three, who are connected to the Earth Vein Power, or the mountain gods of certain famous mountains.
This kind of Incense God, which is highly tied to a specific region, cannot be reclaimed by a newcomer, no matter how much they wish to do so. Only by killing the predecessor can one attempt to re-establish this deity.
Moreover, this second method of condensing divine essence is often time-consuming and laborious.
Not to mention, the higher the level of divinity, the greater the chance of failure.
For minor Land God like Yin Yunze and Grandfather Huang Three, gaining the recognition of a few hundred people in a village is already considered extremely easy.
If you want to become the Land God of a county, you need to gain the recognition of the entire county and tens of thousands of people.
Not to mention the gods of the next level up, the gods of a prefecture or a county.
For those aiming for hundreds of thousands or millions, setting aside resources and effort, just the time involved—if there's even a slight unexpected delay—can push the project into the double or triple digits of the year.
Therefore, Yin Yunze doesn't need to worry that he'll be seen as a boss who has exploded into godhood, and that one day a brave soul will come knocking on his door to take him away.