The Source

Compared with Earth Vein Power, his control over Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was relatively less flashy.

It simply allowed Yin Yunze, while in Clear Creek Village, to gather all the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within the village around himself, much like a Spirit Gathering Formation in a cultivation novel.

If Yin Yunze were a cultivator, this would have been a supplementary ability that improved his cultivation. However, even if all the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in this ordinary little mountain village were gathered together, it would probably have been a cup of water on a burning cartload of firewood to a true cultivator.

And what Yin Yunze valued was not its help with cultivation. After all, he did not know how to cultivate. Its greatest use to him as a Land God was that he could use the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi directly.

Simply put, as long as he gathered the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi around himself, Yin Yunze essentially gained a huge external mana bar.

All eight skills Yin Yunze had acquired before could now be used by consuming Clear Creek Village's Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

In other words, until Clear Creek Village's Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was exhausted, Yin Yunze did not need to touch his own reserves of Power of Incense Offerings at all.

Compared with the Power of Incense Offerings, which he had to go to the trouble of collecting from believers, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi replenished itself. What a bargain!

With the divinity of Clear Creek Village's Land God, Yin Yunze now had the home-ground advantage of Earth Vein Power and the external mana bar of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi as long as his feet were on the village's soil.

More vividly put, after Yin Yunze was elevated to a Land God, he gained a home-ground combat bonus.

If Yin Yunze's enemies stood here, however, they would be hindered by Earth Vein Power and unable to use the local Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, leaving them under certain restrictions while fighting away from home.

As one side waxed and the other waned, Yin Yunze could open up a considerable gap even against someone whose combat strength had originally been about the same as his.

The only problem before Yin Yunze now was that, to receive the Land God Divinity's blessing, he needed an anchor point—hardware—to serve as the vessel that maintained the connection between the Land God Divinity—the running software—and Earth Vein Power.

In fact, this anchor point should have been an incense god's most crucial possessions: a temple and a gilded divine statue.

Unfortunately, Yin Yunze had neither.

The Fox Immortal Temple Yin Yunze had occupied all this time, both its gilded divine statue and the temple itself, essentially belonged to the fox demon Fox Seventh Aunt, who might or might not be dead.

If Yin Yunze had continued using Fox Seventh Aunt's name, that would have been one thing. A cuckoo occupying a magpie's nest was nothing unusual among incense gods.

It was also common to use an old god to establish a foothold at first, then have believers change their impression and reshape a new god afterward.

But, as ill luck would have it, Yin Yunze had severed his ties with Fox Seventh Aunt from the very beginning, before his foothold was secure. And thanks to Sun Qin's literally well-intentioned help in spreading the word, everyone knew he was the Nine-Tail of Qingqiu Fox, Green Hill Yi Yun.

And in Clear Creek Village, the Nine-Tail of Qingqiu Fox, Green Hill Yi Yun, had neither a temple nor a gilded divine statue.

Never mind the villagers-even Yin Yunze himself did not believe he had any connection to Fox Seventh Aunt, so how could he possibly use the Fox Immortal Temple as an anchor point?

In fact, even taking another step back, if Yin Yunze were from this world, he would not even have needed to be human. Any animal would have done.

With a vessel, he could have gained the divine authority of a Land God.

But the problem was that Yin Yunze did not even belong to this world.

To make an analogy, the dragon throne and imperial crown had been prepared, and all that remained was for you to sit down and ascend as emperor.

Then you went and said you were a ghost!

Who ever heard of a ghost becoming emperor?

And so Yin Yunze found himself awkwardly stuck at this point.

Everything had been prepared for him, yet because he lacked an anchor point, he simply could not claim this huge gift package!

Without a temple or a gilded statue, Zhao Wan, upon whom Yin Yunze had performed Spirit Descent, became his only connecting anchor point.

In other words, if Yin Yunze wanted to obtain a Land God's authority right now, he needed to perform Spirit Descent upon Zhao Wan to form an anchor point.

Of course, it might not necessarily have to be Zhao Wan. Other believers who met the conditions for Spirit Descent might also do.

Although, ordinarily, Spirit Descent often only allowed a believer to gain a portion of a deity's strength, rather than obtaining nearly one hundred percent of the relevant divine authority as Zhao Wan did now with Yin Yunze possessing her.

But Yin Yunze's present condition was already extremely unusual, so it could not be judged by common sense at all.

Yin Yunze could only speculate that the anchor point formed after Spirit Descent was the only one, which was why the current situation had arisen: I will descend in my full-power form.

But in any case, only after forming an anchor point could Yin Yunze obtain a Land God's authority, the ley line bonus, and an external mana bar.

Without that anchor point, Yin Yunze could only revert to the previous version, using that crude radar map and consuming his stockpile of incense offerings as he had before.

But even though he had only experienced it briefly and had not actually tried it out, this was like making someone who had just driven a Lamborghini go back to squeezing onto the bus!

Anyone with a normal brain would find that kind of comedown unbearable!

And if Yin Yunze wanted to eliminate Spirit Descent as a prerequisite, he needed to build a temple and a gilded divine statue that truly belonged to him in Clear Creek Village.

Establish a divine name, build a temple, erect a gilded statue, and define his divine office!

After struggling and scrambling for so long, Yin Yunze finally had a clear direction for his development.

However, now that he had this goal, Yin Yunze was not in a great rush to accomplish it.

Building a temple and erecting a statue were important, of course, but with Spirit Descent as a temporary substitute, they were no longer quite so pressing.

By comparison, after sorting through what he had gained from becoming a Land God, Yin Yunze discovered something that concerned him more.

Calling it a thing was not quite accurate. More precisely, it was a feeling.

From a certain direction outside Clear Creek Village, Yin Yunze sensed a malice that he could only perceive after gaining the Land God Divinity.

At first, Yin Yunze thought someone had set their sights on him. But after carefully probing along the feeling, he discovered that this malice was not directed at him personally. The source of that malice harbored it indiscriminately toward all things.

He did not even know how long this malice had existed.

It was just that before now, Yin Yunze had not even been qualified to sense it.

To be honest, the malice made Yin Yunze deeply uncomfortable, and he did not want to pay it any attention.

Yet somehow, he also had an inexplicable sense that learning the source of this malice was extremely important.

It was as if his divinity as a Land God were warning him.

Forcing down his discomfort, Yin Yunze carefully probed in the direction the malice came from.

Suddenly, in an instant, a flash of understanding crossed Yin Yunze's mind.

This entire drought, including the one in Qingling Town, originated from the source of that malice.

The source of that malice was also the source of the drought that had lasted for more than half a year and would continue for who knew how long.

Yin Yunze was greatly shocked by this discovery.

He had not expected the drought to be not a natural disaster, but a man-made calamity—or, more precisely, a demon-made calamity.

After realizing this, Yin Yunze thought of going over to take a look.

Now that he had been elevated to the local Land God, Yin Yunze could be said to share Clear Creek Village's fate.

If he did not want all his efforts over the past days to come to nothing, Yin Yunze could not simply close his eyes like an ostrich and escape it by chanting, Don't come looking for me.

Whether he could win a fight, or even whether he would fight at all, was another matter.

At the very least, Yin Yunze first needed to find out what that thing truly was and see whether he could take any measures against it.

Otherwise, if he banked on luck and waited until it came knocking without making the slightest preparation, he might truly die without even knowing how.

However, though he had conceived the idea, Yin Yunze did not set off blindly.

After all, because he had no anchor point, Yin Yunze could still only leave Clear Creek Village by performing Spirit Descent and possessing someone else.

He was occupying Zhao Wan's body now, so even if he was going, he ought to say something to Sun Qin first.