Chapter 88: Incarnation of the Earth Deity

Inside the four-sided courtyard.

Han Li flicked his fingers repeatedly, shooting out streaks of green light—a series of green formation flags that vanished into the ground around the courtyard with a flash. Then a faint green light screen emerged, flickering as it enveloped the entire courtyard.

After doing all this, he sat down cross-legged on the spot, closed his eyes, and began to regulate his breathing.

As time passed, the sky gradually darkened, and the night revealed countless twinkling stars.

Han Li opened his eyes, glanced up at the starry sky, then flipped his hand to take out a pill and swallowed it. Taking a deep breath, he began to circulate the Little Dipper Star Origin Art within his body. Seven faint blue star patterns emerged on his chest and abdomen.

As strands of starlight power gathered from the night sky, they formed seven pillars of starlight that descended from the heavens and entered his body, slowly restoring his somewhat pale complexion.

A night passed in the blink of an eye.

At dawn, Han Li opened his eyes and let out a long breath.

Now, not only had the fatigue of his physical body been swept away, but the injuries caused by passing through the inter-realm gap had also completely healed.

After stretching his body, he turned and walked toward a side room in the courtyard. Before long, he stood inside the room.

The space here was not large, only about seven or eight zhang. Apart from a green bamboo cabinet on one side and a few rosewood tables and chairs, there was only a single cushion in the center. However, everything was tidy and clean, spotless to the eye.

Han Li sat down cross-legged on the cushion, flipped his hand, and took out a jade box. Opening it, he revealed a yellow walnut inside.

The patterns on the walnut's surface faintly formed a human face, emitting astonishing fluctuations of earth-attributed spiritual power. It was precisely the fruit from the strange walnut tree he had obtained earlier in that mysterious bubble.

Because he had been in a hurry before, he hadn't examined it carefully. Now he finally had the leisure to study it properly.

He immediately released his divine sense, probing into the walnut to examine it closely.

But as he looked, his heart skipped a beat.

The earth-attributed spiritual power contained within had reached an astonishing level, yet it was compressed to the extreme and wrapped inside the entire fruit.

Thanks to the Celestial Bottle, Han Li had considerable experience in identifying various spiritual herbs and materials, especially in judging their medicinal age.

Although he didn't recognize this walnut, for the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within it to reach such a level, it must have been at least a hundred thousand years old.

But this alone didn't seem enough to make two true immortal-level demon beasts fight over it so fiercely.

Thinking this, Han Li continued to probe inch by inch into the walnut with his divine sense.

“Eh!”

After probing more than a dozen times, he finally detected a hint of abnormality.

The extremely dense earth-attributed spiritual power inside the walnut appeared chaotic and disordered, like continuous waves interweaving, but there was a certain pattern to it.

It seemed that every so often, these spiritual power fluctuations would enter a rather peculiar state of interweaving and merging, and a trace of an extremely faint special aura would emanate from this fluctuation.

“Could this be…” Han Li’s heart suddenly pounded a few times.

This special aura seemed somewhat similar to the power of law, yet not quite the same.

He examined it carefully for a while longer but still couldn't be certain.

After a moment's thought, he flipped his hand and took out a wooden box.

Opening the lid, a yellow humanoid figure appeared inside, its body pasted with several talismans. It was the Nascent Soul of the one-eyed giant, the owner of the mysterious bubble space. Its single eye was half-open, looking somewhat dazed.

Han Li grabbed the Nascent Soul with one hand, and streaks of black light emerged on his fingers, directly entering it.

Soul search!

To uncover the secret of the strange human-faced walnut, the fastest method was naturally a direct soul search.

The giant's Nascent Soul, originally expressionless, showed a hint of struggling emotion. A layer of yellow light appeared on its body, flickering rapidly.

Han Li frowned slightly. There seemed to be some strange power within this Nascent Soul that tightly locked the soul, making it difficult for his divine sense to penetrate.

He snorted coldly, and the black light on his hand brightened as he gradually increased the intensity of the soul search.

The yellow light on the Nascent Soul also flared up, flickering violently. Its small face showed an expression of painful screaming, but it was suppressed by the talismans and unable to make a sound.

Han Li felt a slight joy. His divine sense had finally broken through the strange power's blockade on the Nascent Soul and touched the interior of the soul.

But at that moment, his expression suddenly changed. A layer of translucent film enveloped the surface of his entire body.

Almost in the next instant, a dazzling yellow light burst from the Nascent Soul, and with a “boom,” it turned into a yellow sun that engulfed Han Li's figure.

When the yellow light faded, scattering into countless faint yellow streams, Han Li's figure was revealed again on the spot.

At this moment, he was completely unharmed, but his expression was somewhat unpleasant.

He had not expected that the power on the Nascent Soul of the one-eyed giant was so overbearing that after being breached by his divine sense, it immediately self-destructed, so much so that he could not probe much information, only seeing a few scattered fragments of the giant's past. It seemed that every ten thousand years or so, it would swallow one of those human-faced walnuts, which greatly aided its cultivation.

Han Li sighed softly, looked at the human-faced walnut for a moment, then turned his hand and put it away.

Now it seemed he would have to find another way to figure out its origin. Having just returned to the Immortal Realm, he had more important matters to attend to.

After composing himself, he stood up and walked out of the small courtyard.

"Greetings, Senior Liu." Outside the courtyard stood a man in Confucian robes, none other than Luo Feng.

"Clan Leader Luo, why are you here?" Han Li asked calmly, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

"I came to see if you were comfortable here... By the way, these are some cultivation resources that our clan hastily gathered overnight as per your request. Due to time constraints, we only collected a portion; the rest will be gathered from various places as soon as possible. Please forgive us." Luo Feng said ingratiatingly, taking out a black bracelet and handing it over with both hands.

Han Li took it, swept his divine sense over the bracelet, and nodded.

Seeing this, Luo Feng breathed a sigh of relief.

"Since you're here, do you have a library or something similar? I'd like to look up some things." Han Li put away the bracelet and said.

"Yes, Senior Liu, please follow me." Luo Feng quickly said, then flew off into the distance.

Han Li shot up into the air and followed, rising to midair.

He glanced around; much of the damage from yesterday's battle had been repaired, and collapsed buildings were being rebuilt.

In the distant empty harbor and surrounding towns, many mortals without magical power appeared.

Yesterday's battle had caused widespread damage, but the mortal towns had not been greatly affected.

At this moment, the mortals and some cultivators in those towns had gathered together, performing a ritual resembling worship before the statues of the Wumeng Island Ancestral God.

"On various islands in the Black Sand Sea, there are many mortals living under the protection of the island's cultivator clans. They hid during yesterday's battle. Although cultivators on different islands often fight, they generally do not harm mortals." Luo Feng noticed Han Li's gaze and explained.

Han Li nodded. The situation here reminded him of the Chaotic Star Sea from years ago.

After a moment, the two arrived before a two-story pavilion building of considerable size.

"Ancestral God!"

"Clan Leader!"

Several cultivators at the Void Refinement stage were guarding the pavilion. Seeing Luo Feng and Han Li land, they were startled and hurried over to bow, their expressions extremely respectful.

Luo Feng ignored them and led Han Li directly inside.

On the first floor of the library, rows of bookshelves stood in orderly fashion, filled with various books, scrolls, and jade slips.

Han Li swept his gaze and noted that the library was not large, much smaller than the Scripture Depository of the Cold Flame Sect.

"Senior, our clan is weak, and the collected texts are relatively few. Please forgive us. The first floor mainly contains cultivation techniques and unofficial histories, while the second floor holds texts on magical treasures and elixirs." Luo Feng said apologetically.

"No matter. I can manage alone here. Wumeng Island is in ruins and needs rebuilding; go attend to your own affairs. You don't need to stay with me." Han Li said indifferently.

"Yes."

Luo Feng was taken aback, then agreed, turned, and walked out of the pavilion.

A flash of light enveloped him as he prepared to fly away, but he paused, stopped, and stood waiting by the library with his hands at his sides.

Han Li slowly browsed among the bookshelves. With his immensely powerful divine sense, he could peruse texts extremely quickly.

The texts collected on Wumeng Island were quite miscellaneous. As Luo Feng had said, the first floor's materials were mostly about the Black Wind Sea and cultivation techniques below the Mahayana stage.

Han Li wanted to investigate information about Earth Immortals, but there was very little about immortals here.

However, persistence paid off. After going through almost the entire first floor, he finally found a few old jade slips that contained some introduction to Earth Immortals.

After about half an hour, Han Li put down the last jade slip and opened his eyes.

Although the content in these jade slips was limited, they gave him a relatively clear understanding of Earth Immortals and Ancestral Gods.

As Luo Feng had said, Earth Immortals were a type of immortal among the many in the Immortal Realm, but their cultivation method was special.

According to the texts, Earth Immortals could use the power of faith from believers to condense laws.

However, this method of condensing laws through external force had a major limitation: Earth Immortals could only use their laws within the region where their believers were located. Once they left that area, the condensed laws would almost completely lose effect.

Because they needed to condense faith power, all Earth Immortals would have a statue made of special materials to store and refine faith power, forming a unique Earth Immortal incarnation. This incarnation's power in using laws was even stronger than the original body.

Normally, the original body of an Earth Immortal would hide, while only the incarnation acted outside. If the incarnation was destroyed, the original body would suffer severe damage, and in serious cases, could even lose the ability to wield laws, destroying all previous accumulation.