Looking at the two fingers before his eyes, Duanmu Huai frowned.
He indeed perceived a familiar aura from these fingers — as simple as that, the aura was like the one usually felt from the Nine Sacred Statues in Sky Province. It was faintly divine. He could remember Mistelina had once said that a long time ago, the Deity communicated with the finger witches through these fingers. The witches would read and interpret the deity's messages and further convey them to other people.
Of course, there were always doubters who believed that these were possibly not messages from any deity at all, and that the witches were just pretending to interpret them while possibly spouting nonsense or even intentionally misleading others.
As for why the Forest Princess would call it the Mother of Earth, Duanmu Huai could guess — most of the hand was buried in the soil, leaving only two fingers exposed. Hence, referring to it as Mother of the Earth didn't seem strange.
However...