Chapter 182: Soul Star

Just as Hua Changxi was sleeping at the bottom of Tang Valley, various forces who sensed the changes in Tang Valley began arriving at Qianmen Pass one after another, and some well-informed cultivators followed suit, coming along as well.

For a time, a large number of cultivators appeared outside Qianmen Fort.

"The nine great fortresses guarding the Demon Prison truly live up to the saying 'one man can hold a pass against ten thousand.'"

The towering and majestic Qianmen Fort radiated an ancient aura, like a colossal beast crouching on the ground, blocking all who sought to cross it.

"Before this, I always thought places like Qianmen Pass and Kunmen Pass were just nine ghost market trading hubs. I never imagined they were actually nine checkpoints guarding the Demon Prison. Indeed, you have to follow the actions of the noble families to learn the truth of the world."

"No kidding. The noble families knew about the spiritual energy revival centuries ago and hold countless ruins in their hands. The information they possess is far beyond ours. At first, I thought the ghost market was a secret realm—who could have guessed that this place is actually the Nine Nethers of the underworld?"

"Don't let the size of the nine passes fool you; you and I can't even fully explore a single checkpoint. Yet the Demon Prison is merely a corner of the Nine Nethers. The vastness of the Nine Nethers is beyond what you or I can imagine."

"Not just the Nine Nethers—the human world is also beyond our imagination. Though Great Jin, where we stand, is the heart of the Central Continent, beyond it lie the Eastern, Southern, Western, and Northern Continents, separated by boundless seas. There are still too many places in this world that we know nothing about."

"True, and this is just our own realm. There are other worlds beyond this one. I really want to go see them."

"Don't reach for the stars so soon. Let's finish exploring our own world first."

"Below is the Nine Nethers, above is the Nine Heavens, and in the middle is the human realm. We've only glimpsed a corner of the Nine Nethers, and we know nothing of the Nine Heavens. The only place where you and I can grow and thrive is the human realm."

After gathering in front of the fortress, the cultivators formed small groups and murmured among themselves. Those who could rush here the moment the Fusang Divine Tree appeared were all people of extraordinary insight, far surpassing ordinary cultivators in knowledge and experience.

Gu Jinfan stood among the crowd, looking at the surrounding cultivators with a complex expression.

In this lifetime, the spiritual energy revival had been exposed prematurely, resulting in many more cultivators in the Four Spirit Realm. Moreover, a group of exceptionally talented individuals had emerged, such as those who had arrived today.

These people, in their struggle for resources, would inevitably cause upheaval in the future. However, with more cultivators and more powerful experts, when outside cultivators later tried to seize the Four Spirit Realm, perhaps it would not be as helpless and defenseless as in the previous life.

"The Demon-Suppressing Army is here."

Hearing the commotion, Gu Jinfan turned to look and saw the Demon-Suppressing Army approaching, wearing qilin masks and black armor.

Watching the leader, Gu Jinfan's eyes flickered.

Chu Junyi...

She recalled that in her previous life, to prevent the demonic aura from the Demon Prison from spreading into the human world, he had used his own body as a vessel to swallow the demonic aura. After becoming demonized, he voluntarily sealed himself, transforming into the prison gate of the Demon Prison and merging with it.

That man, even in death, stood like a mountain, guarding the Demon Prison!

Sensing someone watching him, Chu Junyi followed the gaze and saw Gu Jinfan. He was somewhat surprised, but recalling that the Gu family had also rushed to Genmen Pass at the first sign of change and had occupied White Bone Mountain, he felt relieved.

His master had told him that this Gu Jinfan either possessed the ability to foresee the future or was a chosen one with heaven-defying luck—someone best befriended.

Chu Junyi nodded slightly at Gu Jinfan, then withdrew his gaze and fixed his eyes on Qianmen Fort.

Gu Jinfan also looked away, gazing at Qianmen Fort, silent and seemingly sealed by time. Seeing the ever-growing crowd outside the city gate, she sighed silently in her heart.

With so many outsiders gathered, after sensing the crisis, this fortress, which had slumbered for countless years, would likely awaken.

Now that the Fusang Divine Tree had appeared, it was hardly surprising that Qianmen Fort had awakened early.

But as for Qianmen Fort, the Gu family probably had no chance to claim it for themselves.

The nine great passes, including Qianmen Pass and Kunmen Pass, were established to guard the Demon Prison.

The Demon Prison sealed the most ferocious and evil beasts. Suppressing the Demon Prison not only benefited the rise of the human race but also protected other living beings and maintained the stability of the realm.

Thus, after the nine passes were built, they accumulated a great deal of merit power.

The Xiangguo Temple, through the efforts of several generations of abbots, managed to nurture a single Golden Lotus of Merit, whereas in the ancient era, the nine passes had nurtured an entire pond of Golden Lotuses of Merit.

Even though the Four Spirit Realm had experienced extinction, the residual merit power in the nine passes was still astonishing. For instance, the Demon-Suppressing Guards within the fortresses relied on merit power to preserve their primordial spirits for five hundred years without dissipating.

Because of the nine passes, the Nine Nethers had never lost its inheritance. Some families of the Demon-Suppressing Guards, under the protection of those guards, had directly become soul-cultivation clans.

The Nine Nethers today was far more dangerous than the human world.

Gu Jinfan coveted the merit power of the nine passes. Relying on her memories from the previous life, she knew that during this period, the demon race would come to Qianmen Fort to destroy the formation eye, so she had arranged for the Gu Family Heir to contact Liu Chengxiong in advance.

She had thought that with her intervention, the Gu family could take Qianmen Fort, and with its merit power, the strength of the Gu family's cultivators would increase by a large margin.

Who could have predicted that Tang Valley would still experience an upheaval? Although the demonic aura had not leaked into the human world, it had caused the Fusang Divine Tree to appear prematurely in both the human world and the Nine Nethers.

Gu Jinfan desperately wanted to know what exactly had happened in Tang Valley.

"Boom, boom, boom~"

The war drums, each beat louder than the last, suddenly resounded, shattering the stillness beneath the dim night sky and interrupting Gu Jinfan’s thoughts, stirring unrest among the assembled cultivators.

“What’s going on?”

“What happened?”

“It’s the sound of war drums—coming from inside Qianmen Fort.”

“Hmmm~ Wooooo~”

Just as the crowd gasped and murmured, a deep, murderous horn call rang out from within Qianmen Fort.

The next moment, a brilliant white star materialized above Qianmen Fort. Its starlight directly dispersed the mist in the air, and the fort, previously only a blurry outline in the darkness, now stood fully revealed.

“The Soul Star has been lit; the slumbering Qianmen Fort awakens.” Gu Jinfan’s expression was one of awe.

“There are actually stars in the Netherworld—unbelievable.”

“That is a Soul Star.”

“What Soul Star?”

“A celestial body condensed from soul force. In the mortal realm, spiritual energy nourishes all things; in the Netherworld, soul force nourishes all things. Haven’t you felt that since the Soul Star appeared, your whole being has become light and clear? That is because the soul force radiating from the Soul Star is nourishing our soul bodies.”

“The land covered by the Soul Star is like a blessed paradise in the mortal realm. No wonder in ancient times, even though guarding the Nine Passes was extremely perilous, countless cultivators still wanted to become Demon-Suppression Guards. As long as they survived, after five hundred years, their primordial spirits would surely have grown immensely powerful.”

Among the crowd, there was a cultivator of extraordinary knowledge. He did not hoard what he knew, and when he heard someone ask, he cheerfully shared the information he possessed.

Just as the assembled cultivators were marveling, countless Demon-Suppression Guards clad in silver armor and wielding sharp weapons appeared on the city walls, watching the various forces below with solemn readiness.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

All the Demon-Suppression Guards shouted in unison, their weapons pointing directly at the cultivators below the walls. The murderous aura caused the very air to tremble.

The cultivators present were all shaken by this sight. Many, through that sound of slaughter, seemed to envision a battlefield of armored horses and a bloody struggle.