Walnut used me to boost her sales performance.

Hu Tao rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll try it!"

She picked up a piece of burnt egg, put it in her mouth without a care in the world, and ate it as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

"Doesn't this taste pretty good?"

"Really?" Jiang Bai was a little doubtful, looking at Hu Tao's nonchalant expression.

"You'll know once you try it yourself." Hu Tao glanced lightly at the dark, ghost-shaped egg, seemingly not caring at all whether Jiang Bai would eat it or not.

Jiang Bai picked up a small piece with some skepticism, and the moment it touched his tongue, he froze on the spot, as if he had turned into a statue.

In that instant, he felt the full spectrum of life's experiences, as if he had gone through a long cycle of reincarnation and almost lost his way on the path of reincarnation.

"Hahahaha..." Hu Tao laughed so hard she almost fell over. "This is my exclusive secret technique—Reincarnation! How about it, isn't it awesome!"

Having barely recovered, Jiang Bai frantically drank water, his face ashen like a bitter gourd, his voice weak and feeble:

"I almost felt like I was going to die..."

He couldn't imagine how Hu Tao could eat this thing without batting an eye; it simply couldn't be called food!

Reincarnation... This name is so fitting. Taking a bite of it made him feel like he had gone through a cycle of reincarnation.

I will never eat any food made with walnuts again, not even if you beat me to death!

Out of curiosity, Jiang Bai asked, "Master, what do you usually eat when you're in the wild?"

"Of course, it's ready-made food!" Hu Tao rolled her eyes. What a stupid question.

Jiang Bai: So you eat delicious food when you go out, but you want to poison me when you take me out?

For his own safety, he didn't express his resentment; otherwise, Hu Tao would definitely have tried every means to make him eat her terrible cooking.

After lunch, the two continued walking towards the central island.

Although the island is much larger, there is not much worth noting apart from the remains of some ruins guarding the ancient sites.

Just as Jiang Bai crossed the beach soaked by the sea, before even getting close to the island, he heard a clattering sound, like something awakening.

"Get ready, we're about to have a tough battle." Hu Tao's expression was serious, and a spear had already appeared in his hand.

Jiang Bai looked closely and saw that the ruins guards on the island, which he had thought were in a stagnant state, had awakened. Four giant steel creatures stood up from the ground, their cores flashing red light in the center of their chests, clearly having locked onto them.

"Goodness, these things even have built-in sensors?"

They sensed them even before they got close.

Just as Jiang Bai was wondering how these things were going to attack them, he saw a series of missiles flying towards them.

He gaped, feeling as if everyone was playing a fantasy game, but the monster on the other side had pulled out an AK47.

"Don't just stand there, get out of the way! These things can track you!" Hu Tao, who had already entered butterfly form, still reminded Jiang Bai, who was standing there dumbfounded.

Jiang Bai naturally wouldn't obediently wait to die. He was just a little flustered. Just before the missile hit him, he snapped his fingers, and a thick rock wall rose from the ground, isolating the missile from him.

"Boom—" Several missiles landed on the wall with a loud bang, and stones were scattered, but only a few dents were left on the rock wall, which remained unmoved.

Jiang Bai discovered that these missiles were not as powerful as he had imagined, and immediately let out a "hiss".

He flexed his wrists, wielded the "Persuasion Through Reason" staff, and charged straight toward the nearest ruins guard.

Hu Tao was much faster than Jiang Bai. Long before Jiang Bai was still building a rock wall to block missiles, she had already rushed towards a relic guardian.

With her agile movements, all the missiles that were originally aimed at her missed their mark.

These ruins guardians cannot launch missiles indefinitely. Not only do they charge up for a few seconds before each launch, but they also need to recharge after each launch before they can launch again.

Even so, dealing with them during this period is not an easy task.

On the contrary, this is when they are most in danger.

The massive arm wielded by the ruins guard could easily result in serious injury if you were hit by it, even with the slightest carelessness.

Jiang Bai charged toward the nearest ruins guard, swinging his weapon between attacks in an attempt to knock it down, but another ruins guard nearby had already set its sights on him.

A heavy rumble resounded, and the seemingly heavy-looking relic guardian leaped into the sky, crashing down towards Jiang Bai.

Jiang Bai naturally wouldn't take the attack head-on. He pulled back his arm, which was still in an attacking stance, and dodged.

The relic guard that had been fighting him did not give up the opportunity and sandwiched him between two giant relic guards.

"These things can actually work together?" Jiang Bai was astonished.

These steel monsters are difficult to deal with in their first encounter, and when they cooperate, it becomes even more difficult.

One of the two relic guardians swung a fist at Jiang Bai, while the other stretched out its arms and spun like a top, blocking all his escape routes.

The more dangerous the situation, the calmer Jiang Bai remained.

Since he couldn't dodge it from either side, he aimed at the sky.

Rock element surged beneath his feet, and a rock pillar emerged from beneath them, quickly lifting him into the air.

In the air, he kept moving forward. With each step he took, rock pillars would emerge from the ground, supporting his body and helping him avoid attacks from the ground.

The rock pillars behind them were shattered one by one by the rotating force, turning into elemental particles that dissipated into the air, but more grew from the ground.

Jiang Bai glanced at Hu Tao's side. Hu Tao was also dealing with two ruin guards, but Hu Tao's experience in dealing with ruin guards was obviously much richer than his, and he was not forced to the point of having to hide by the two ruin guards.

Jiang Bai did not intend to sit idly by and wait for death. Since dealing with both of them together would be difficult, he planned to deal with one of them alone first.

The relic guard, spinning like a top, relentlessly attacked the rock pillar, while the other remained stationary, its two long arms resting on the ground, supporting its body. Its core shimmered, clearly preparing to launch another missile attack on Jiang Bai in mid-air.

Without hesitation, Jiang Bai imbued his weapon with elemental power and hurled the hammer in his hand like a javelin.

The 40-kilogram sledgehammer, thrown with great force by Jiang Bai, struck the core of the relic's guardian with the force of a meteorite falling, accompanied by a whooshing sound.

Under such force, the core cracked and lost its luster.

The relic guard, which had been gathering its strength to launch a missile, twitched twice and then stopped moving.

With one enemy dealt with, Jiang Bai's pressure was immediately reduced by more than half, but he had to throw away his only weapon.

The lack of weapons does not mean Jiang Bai is helpless.

Chapter 32 How to Use Rock Elements

During this period, he explored many uses of rock elements.

The first one is the brief creation of rock element objects that he initially mastered, such as stone benches and chairs, and the generation of rock pillars and walls. It has many uses and consumes little resources. Based on its characteristics, he called it elemental aggregation.

The second type is creation by elements.

He can activate the surrounding rock elements, repair cracks in the ground, or permanently construct rock element objects. If the elemental power is sufficient, he can even aggregate them into bridges and mountains.

These two things look similar, but they are fundamentally different.

The relationship between the former's element aggregation and users is similar to that of sheep and sheepdogs.

The incoming elemental force is like a sheepdog, bringing the flock together to form a stable collective. But once the sheepdog leaves, the flock returns to its initial scattered state.

The latter's elemental creation is similar to molding clay; it uses the rock element as a medium to guide other rock elements to form a stable structure. Just like clay shaped by external force, it can remain stable for a long time without other external forces.

However, creating such elements requires extremely high levels of mental strength and control, and is also very resource-intensive. With Jiang Bai's current level of control over the elements, he can only create very small objects; if he were to create something larger, it would simply drain him dry.

The third type, he called elemental enchantment.

Just like before, you can attach elemental power to weapons to enhance their attack power, destructive power, and even protect the weapons themselves.

In addition to enchanting weapons, he can also imbue himself with elements.

As for any other uses, he hasn't figured them out yet.

A golden light shone from Jiang Bai's body, which was the surge of rock element.

He slightly bent his front leg, then pushed off with his back leg, causing the rock pillar beneath his feet to crumble and disappear into golden particles. Jiang Bai transformed into a humanoid missile, taking advantage of the moment when the ruins' attack temporarily ceased, he jumped down from the air and slammed a punch imbued with the power of rock elements into the core of the ruins' chest.

"Click—"

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the core, and it shattered into pieces.

The relic guard, which was preparing to switch its attack mode, also lost power and crashed vertically to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Jiang Bai took a deep breath and looked at Hu Tao. Hu Tao was handling the two ruins guards with ease.

She was like a light, fiery butterfly, flitting between the two ruins guards. Her body would occasionally become transparent, as if she had entered another world, and the ruins guards could not attack her at all.

The spear in her hand was engulfed in flames, and each attack inflicted considerable damage on the two ruin guards.

As both ruin guardians were briefly paralyzed, the white ghost emerged from the ring.

As a crisp voice rang out, "Have a good meal and a safe journey!", scorching flames swept out, and the two ruin guardians fell silent.

"Phew~ All done!"

Seeing that Hu Tao didn't need his help, Jiang Bai picked up his "Persuasion Through Reason" from the sand, wiped it dry, and put it away.

"You're pretty good, kid. You actually solved it a little faster than me!"

Hu Tao witnessed Jiang Bai's battle. Unlike her, Jiang Bai used sheer force to overcome all obstacles, regardless of demons or monsters, he just smashed them.

Unfortunately, he was also unusually strong; otherwise, this move might not have been so effective.

Jiang Bai, who had knocked down the guardian of the ruins with a single punch, revealed a shy smile, looking innocent and harmless.

"It was just a coincidence. You're still the most capable, Master!"

Hu Tao patted his shoulder with an air of superiority, "What's with the modesty! Of course, the more capable the disciples of my Rebirth Hall are, the better!"

Jiang Bai smiled, no longer trying to be modest.

"Should we just leave these ruins unattended?"

"If the core is broken, it's just a pile of scrap metal. Or you could collect a few small parts as souvenirs?" Hu Tao didn't know what this thing was for, nor had she heard of any merchants collecting these things.

Even if you wanted to melt these materials into molten iron, it wouldn't be cost-effective. First, the transportation would be difficult, and second, there would be too many impurities.

Besides copper and iron, these ruin guardians also possess many other minerals whose functions they do not know. Extracting copper and iron from them would be too costly and not worthwhile.

As for how these relics were made and how they were able to operate autonomously, perhaps some people have tried to study them, but the results are unknown.

Jiang Bai went to the two that Hu Tao had killed and broke off the two intact cores. Although he didn't know what they were for, he kept them as a souvenir.

"Let's go!"

The two continued walking forward, and behind them, the silent guardians of the ruins lay fallen on the beach and on the sea.

In the long river of time, no one knows where they came from, only that they lingered in the ruins as if guarding something.

These guardians are long gone, and their dark cores gaze lonely at the sky.

"Master, aren't there a bit too many ruins here?"

Along the way, there were broken stone pillars everywhere, as well as the remains of ruins guarding the ancient sites.

The massive stone pillars are carved with exquisite and intricate patterns, making it hard to imagine how magnificent these buildings must have been when they were intact.

"The Emperor used the rock spear to smash this place more than two thousand years ago. It's normal that there are so many ruins here after such a long time, right?"

Not everyone in Liyue lives in Liyue Harbor; many people live in various parts of Liyue.

Perhaps people once lived here, but later moved to other places, leaving this place in ruins.

"But I feel that the style of the carvings on these stone pillars is not quite similar to those in Liyue..."

The carvings on these stone pillars are triangles formed by a continuous line, with a circular inner ring. He also saw these carvings on the guardians of the ruins, not just the pillars.

Most of the buildings in Liyue have a meander pattern, making them easy to distinguish.

"Perhaps the people who once lived here were the subjects of a defeated demon god..."

Different demons have different beliefs, customs, and values. Who knows what kind of people once lived here?

Jiang Bai had heard the term "Demon God War" before, and he wanted to ask about it then, but Hu Tao was too lazy to answer him.

But now that he had the chance, he blurted out his doubts.

"Defeated the Demon God? Was there ever a great war between the Demon Gods?"

"Yes, the war between the demons and gods back then was extremely fierce. Our Hall of Rebirth was also established at that time, but we didn't perform funeral rites then; instead, we did work similar to doctors..."

Chapter 33 The Origin of the Hall of Rebirth

Hu Tao then recounted the origins of the Hall of Rebirth.