Earth Vein Power

Although he had not received an official imperial appointment, Yin Yunze had essentially risen from a wild fox immortal to become Clear Creek Village's Land God.

Whether he had an official appointment was, in essence, a matter of having a title.

It was like becoming a county magistrate somewhere. If you had nothing else, the title was naturally important, because it was the only thing you could hold on to as grounds for making others listen to you.

But if you were already the Master Huang who made everyone bow their heads, did it matter whether you had the title of county magistrate?

Even without the title, sheer strength would still let you control everyone.

A title was best, of course, since it gave you the banner of legitimacy and righteousness as well. But without one, the difference wasn't all that great.

The greatest characteristic of an Incense God was that its divinity and divine office could change dramatically according to its believers' thoughts. An Incense God never became a particular kind of god because of what it thought itself to be. Rather, the people who believed in it decided what kind of god it was, and thereby turned it into that god.

The most prominent example was the Holy Emperor Guan of Yin Yunze's real world.

At his core, Guan Yu was merely a mortal military general who was neither holy nor an emperor. But after centuries upon centuries of honors piled upon him, he rose from a mortal to the divine rank of an emperor.

Although the real world had no supernatural power, the essential nature of an Incense God's ascent was much the same.

And that was what had happened to Yin Yunze now: the change in the villagers' thinking had elevated his divinity.

Although few true words came out of Yin Yunze's mouth, everything he did was practical and real.

His identity was false, but over the past month or so, he had supplied water, sold grain, and even helped find the Dragon Lord to bring rain. All of that was real.

Wasn't it all thanks to Yin Yunze that they could live better than others even in this year of disaster?

To put it nicely, the villagers had ultimately benefited from Yin Yunze's kindness, so they naturally remembered the good he had done.

To put it more selfishly, having benefited from Yin Yunze, the villagers naturally wanted him to stay and bless them with favorable weather and bushels of gold pouring in every day.

In the eyes of the villagers who had received tangible benefits, Yin Yunze, this fox immortal, was already a local guardian deity.

Before this, however, Yin Yunze had lacked an anchor in this world, so he had been unable to activate the authority of his newly upgraded divinity.

After all, Yin Yunze was not from this world. Although he seemed able to do quite a few things here, as far as this world was concerned, he remained an "outsider" who had never truly made contact with it.

Without a tangible anchor to connect him to this world, he naturally could not truly obtain the authority that came with this divinity.

It was what Yin Yunze had jokingly called having no hardware to run the new software system.

Perhaps Yin Yunze had been so eager to try Spirit Descent on Zhao Wan because his fox immortal nature was craving that anchor.

After all, given Yin Yunze's personality, he would at least never have done something like tricking a little girl, like some creepy uncle.

The reason he had not noticed this just now was that the range of Yin Yunze's divinity existed only within Clear Creek Village.

Even an emperor had no jurisdiction over another country's land and people once he crossed its borders.

Outside Clear Creek Village, Yin Yunze could not connect with its earth veins across the distance. Thus, until he set foot on Clear Creek Village's land, he had noticed nothing amiss.

Only when he used Spirit Descent on Zhao Wan did he gain an anchor through which he could contact this world. Then, using that anchor, he returned to the area belonging to Clear Creek Village.

Only after those two not particularly difficult conditions were met could Yin Yunze connect with the local earth veins and gain preliminary access to the divine authority of a Land God.

The authority of a Land God was rather broad and abstract when examined in detail. What really mattered to Yin Yunze were two things.

First, and most importantly, while standing within Clear Creek Village, Yin Yunze could manipulate the local Earth Vein Power. Second, provided no one interfered, Yin Yunze could manipulate and use the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within Clear Creek Village.

As for the way being a Land God made local living creatures feel an affinity for him, that was a passive ability with no great use apparent for the time being.

Earth Vein Power itself had many effects.

First was a passive effect: as long as the Earth Vein Power was not exhausted, Yin Yunze could sense anything that happened within Clear Creek Village's boundaries without expending anything.

Simply put, it was a super-enhanced version of the Radar Map, with detection across the entire map.

If Yin Yunze had a sufficiently wicked sense of fun, he could even watch young couples' nighttime activities.

That also fit Yin Yunze's stereotypical impression that Land Gods often knew plenty of gossip.

Aside from map detection, the other passive ability was much more fantastical: Yin Yunze could walk on water and tread on walls.

Simply put, as Clear Creek's Land God, Yin Yunze had gained the ability to move over any terrain in Clear Creek Village. He could walk on water or walls without being affected by gravity.

The last was Earth Escape, an ability somewhere between a passive and an active ability.

Yin Yunze could use Earth Vein Power to drag someone underground.

When used on himself, it was a life-saving skill similar to Earth Escape, and moving through the ground did not consume Earth Vein Power. But capturing someone else required a certain amount of Earth Vein Power.

As for the active abilities, one dealt with terrain.

By drawing on Earth Vein Power, Yin Yunze could alter the terrain for a short time.

If he wanted, he could even perform miracles like parting a lake with a wave of his hand or splitting a mountain with a single thought.

Such miracles were spectacular, but they also consumed an enormous amount of the local Earth Vein Power.

For example, if the local Earth Vein Power had a full capacity of one hundred, doing it once would consume twenty or thirty points. And the consumption had no upper limit as the range and scale increased; at its greatest, it could drain the full hundred.

And never mind exhausting the Earth Vein Power: if more than seventy percent was consumed, the passive boosts Yin Yunze received as a Land God would weaken and eventually disappear.

Basically, doing that would be the equivalent of Yin Yunze crippling the whole of his own authority as a Land God.

Although Earth Vein Power recovered automatically over time, it recovered only twenty or thirty points a year.

Moreover, if more than seventy percent was consumed, the recovery rate would also slow down.

In other words, for the cycle to remain sustainable, every time Yin Yunze used it, he would have to wait a full year for it to recharge.

Once consumption exceeded a certain point, there would be several consecutive years of weakness.

That use was certainly spectacular, but he really couldn't go throwing it around for no reason!

The best situation Yin Yunze could think of for using it was to alter the terrain and divert floodwaters when a flood occurred.

Compared with the spectacular act of splitting mountains and parting lakes, Yin Yunze valued another use of Earth Vein Power more: transferring soil fertility.

As everyone knew, if a plot of land was farmed for a long time, its fertility would eventually become insufficient. Simply put, when the same grain was planted on the same plot, a difference in fertility could mean a difference of thirty to forty percent in the harvest.

To keep grain yields from falling, one had to find a way to enrich the soil.

The most common method was to pour the products of the five grains' cycle onto the land.

In fact, the products of the five grains' cycle were quite valuable in ancient times.

Yin Yunze, however, could draw on Earth Vein Power to transfer the unused fertility from places such as the ground in front of and behind houses into the fields.

That would increase the fertility of the fields and raise grain production.

Although he could not ensure favorable weather, ensuring that the crops flourished was not difficult.

And compared with a grand undertaking like parting lakes and splitting mountains, even transferring the fertility of the entire Clear Creek Village would cost Yin Yunze only a few points of Earth Vein Power.

In addition, even without transferring fertility, Earth Vein Power could make living things—or, more precisely, plants-grow rapidly, bring dead trees back to life, and even make plants flower and bear fruit out of season.

Although that did not consume much Earth Vein Power either, it was far less cost-effective than the other two uses.

It lacked the overwhelming grandeur of parting lakes and splitting mountains, yet was not as practical as transferring fertility.

Apart from creating a personalized garden, it had no practical use.