Chapter 452: Guardian of the Human World, Chen Yi!

Seeing the Earth Spirit floating right in front of him, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner's heart started getting restless again.

"Oh~~ It's the Earth Spirit!"

Chen Yi shot him a glance.

"What do you want to do?"

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner immediately wiped the villainous grin off its face.

"I want to shine his shoes."

After the Earth Spirit appeared, Hua Wuyan explained the matter of the inheritance, then began casting a spell to sever the connection between herself and the Earth Spirit.

Following that, the Earth Spirit passed a cultivation technique to Chen Yi.

Calling it a cultivation technique wasn't quite accurate, because this technique didn't cultivate anything in particular. It was merely a route for circulating immortal energy. Complete one full cycle, and you could communicate with the Earth Spirit.

The Earth Spirit couldn't speak. Throughout the entire exchange, it communicated with Chen Yi purely through consciousness.

It told Chen Yi that this method wasn't something just anyone could learn.

Some people could go their whole lives without mastering it, and there was nothing to be done. The only option was to pass the method on to someone else.

If that person still couldn't learn it, then it would continue being passed down to the next generation.

That was why, over the past thirty thousand years, there had only been five Guardians.

Those gaps in between? They were periods when no one could ever manage to learn it.

"I've learned it."

The "Proficiency" trait kicked in.

One sentence from Chen Yi left both the Earth Spirit and Hua Wuyan utterly stunned.

"You've already mastered it? It took me decades to learn back then. This method demands an almost obscene level of precision in True Qi circulation. Even someone with extraordinary talent would need to polish it through repeated practice. How could you possibly grasp it so quickly?"

Chen Yi proved it with direct action.

As Chen Yi circulated the technique, an invisible connection was established between him and the Earth Spirit.

At that moment, Chen Yi found himself in a strange state.

He felt as though he could hear the inner voices of every single person in the entire human world!

Someone was praying for a family reunion.

Someone else was praying for favorable weather and a bountiful harvest.

And still another was praying for a loved one's illness to be cured.

Besides the voices of humans, Chen Yi felt he could also sense the consciousness of animals, and even plants.

They lacked intelligence, so they couldn't produce any substantive expression. It was all just streams of consciousness like "thirsty," "hungry," or "feeling good."

This wasn't the "Eavesdrop on Heartstrings" trait at work. This was the state the Earth Spirit existed in every single day, sharing joys and sorrows with every living being in this world!

And the Guardian could be considered the Earth Spirit's representative walking among the mortal realm.

Seeing that Chen Yi had officially become the Guardian, Hua Wuyan spoke with satisfaction.

"Alright, I can finally shed this responsibility and go live the life an old woman deserves... Oh, right. I only told you about the perks of being the Guardian just now. I forgot to mention the duties and obligations that come with it."

Seeing the rather tense look on Chen Yi's face, Hua Wuyan chuckled.

"Don't worry. There's basically nothing you need to do. The things that require you to step in and resolve are all matters of world-shaking importance. Of course, if you want to do more for the sake of all living beings, that's entirely up to you."

Hua Wuyan went through the list item by item, and Chen Yi's "Photographic Memory" recorded every word.

Compared to the obligations, the Guardian's privileges really didn't seem like much at all.

After finishing, Hua Wuyan teased him.

"Chen Martial God, are you having regrets?"

Chen Yi replied calmly.

"Regrets? How could that be? A real man's word is his bond. I promised to take up this duty, so of course I'll fulfill it to the letter."

Chen Yi was already planning to have his doppelganger handle this job while he himself just acted as a messenger.

"Well then, busy man, you should go deal with the four Five Element Root Vessels in your hands. Oh, and one more thing."

Chen Yi, who was already ready to make his getaway, stumbled mid-step and came back.

"Please, go on."

"Our Five Element Root Vessels all have some issues one way or another, right?"

"True enough."

"If your moral standards aren't too high, there's a way to completely repair them."

"My standards have always been quite flexible. If it's for the sake of the human world, I can lower them quite a bit."

"Didn't you say you were going to hide these root vessels in other planes?

When you do, you can use your Guardian identity to lure out the Earth Spirits of those other planes.

Then have those Earth Spirits restore our Five Element Root Vessels for you.

This will deplete the spirituality of those Earth Spirits, and to a certain extent, it will affect the reproduction and cultivation of local living beings.

But if you're only fostering one vessel per plane, the impact won't be too severe."

The root vessels of the human world were all basically flawed.

If you tried to nourish them with the human world's Earth Spirit, it simply couldn't sustain them.

As for going to other planes, ordinary Guardians didn't have anywhere near that kind of power. Going when they wanted, coming back when they wanted, that wasn't possible.

What if they sent the vessels over and couldn't get them back? Then the problem would be huge.

So this method was something only Chen Yi could pull off.

There was just one question though.

"Are Earth Spirits really that easy to trick?"

Hua Wuyan answered with a single word.

"Mm?"

Chen Yi understood.

What she meant was: What are you even saying? Have you only known the Earth Spirit for a day?

"Senior Hua, now that you no longer bear the heavy burden of the Guardian, why not use the Path to Immortality next year and seek an opportunity in the Real Realm?"

Hua Wuyan waved her hand.

"I'm not going. I love this land too much. I can't bear to leave her."

Chen Yi didn't force the issue. He bid farewell to Hua Wuyan.

Then, Chen Yi flew south, leaving the mainland behind, soaring over the South Sea until he reached a region where there was no sign of humanity, nothing but endless ocean stretching in every direction.

He was going to tear open a gap to another plane right here.

Now that he had become the Guardian, this task would be much easier.

Chen Yi took out the Sun Moon Tower.

The Sun Moon Tower's artifact spirit spoke in that same sickeningly sweet voice.

"May I ask where our new Guardian is taking us~"

Chen Yi shook off the goosebumps crawling across his skin.

"We're going to find you a nice place to recover."

"I don't have any injuries on me anymore~"

"When the Great Demon confined you in that forbidden land all those years, he wasn't just using you to stabilize his soul. At the same time, he was helping neutralize the 'demonic nature' within you."

"What demonic nature? I don't understand any of that~"

When the Great Demon stepped onto the Path to Immortality and left the human world, he had sent Chen Yi a message through consciousness.

He told Chen Yi that the Sun Moon Tower had been victimized in the past.

It could have been the Ancient Wasteland Survivors, or it could have been the Black Hand. Who exactly did it wasn't important anymore, since both parties were after the Five Element Root Vessels anyway.

The Sun Moon Tower's original artifact spirit had been replaced with the spirit of an evil object.

Think of it like stuffing the Ten Thousand Souls Banner's spirit into the Nine Provinces Cauldron.

Except, the evil spirit that replaced the Sun Moon Tower's original one was specifically crafted to be extremely similar to the tower itself, allowing it to adapt almost perfectly.

Through years of effort, the Great Demon had completely suppressed the evil spirit's demonic nature and largely neutralized it.

Now that the Great Demon was gone, the evil spirit inside the Sun Moon Tower, having lost the Great Demon's suppression, might revert to its original state.

"What? I'm a bad guy? No way~ I want to be a good person~"

"So that's why we're going to find you a 'sucker' to take you in, using an Earth Spirit to nourish your spirituality and purge the demonic nature."

Chen Yi began to break through the world barrier.

It was simple. All he needed was power exceeding the upper limit of the Void Realm.

A single detonation from the "Light Speed Fist," and the surrounding spacetime collapsed on the spot. Spatial Turbulence came surging in, and time-slices from other planes flickered in and out of view within the chaos.

"Earth Spirit, lend me your strength!"