Chapter 482: Elixir Spring

In the Immortal Divine Wood space, Hua Changxi was completely unaware of the commotion caused by the closing of the old courtyard gate; at this moment, all her attention was occupied by the towering green tree before her.

With each breath, a dense, almost liquefied surge of life force rushed towards her; every inhalation and exhalation felt like thousands of tiny emerald light points penetrating her pores, seeping like sweet rain into her limbs and bones, carefully cleansing every inch of flesh and sinew.

If in the Fusang Divine Wood space, every cell in her body had been tyrannically ignited, boiling and burning like oil in a blazing fire; then now, under the shelter of the Immortal Divine Wood, each cell was like a seed that had drunk its fill of spring rain, no longer restless, but filled with gentle vitality and burgeoning power ready to burst forth.

At that moment, Hua Changxi felt as if her body had undergone a transformative baptism, radiating a jade-like luster from the inside out, her entire being so light it seemed she might ascend as an immortal.

At the same time, the Immortal Divine Wood space was filled with an indescribable aura of majesty—not a suffocating pressure, but a reverence stemming from the origin of life.

This was the second divine wood space Hua Changxi had entered; having already seen and experienced the strangeness and splendor of such spaces, the initial shock and comfort did not let her indulge for long, and her mind quickly returned to clarity.

"Where is the Soul River?"

Since the main purpose of entering the Immortal Divine Wood space was to collect Soul River water, as soon as her mind cleared, Hua Changxi immediately began searching for the Soul River.

She looked up, trying to glimpse the canopy that covered the sky, but her gaze vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea, lost in the endless depths of green, utterly unable to reach the end.

With her line of sight blocked by layers of sky-covering branches and leaves, she had to try flying upward.

At first, flying was smooth, but as soon as she passed the thick main trunk and entered that vast realm of branches and leaves, an invisible heavy pressure rushed at her.

The higher she went, the greater the resistance.

Gritting her teeth, Hua Changxi labored through the first layer of overlapping leaves.

The moment she broke through the leaf barrier, her field of vision suddenly opened wide—there, at the zenith of the sky, a long river flowing with brilliant white light stretched across the heavens, like a white silk sash formed by the Milky Way pouring down, or a divine scarf left behind by the gods, quietly floating above the divine wood, radiating a pure radiance that stirred the heart.

The Soul River!

Unable to hide her excitement, Hua Changxi's spiritual power churned wildly, and her form shot upward like an arrow from a bowstring.

However, when she broke through the fourth layer of overlapping leaves, which were like mountain ranges, an unprecedented heaviness pressed down on her. Hua Changxi felt unable to keep up, and could only lie flat on a divine wood leaf, gasping for breath—at this point, circulating spiritual power was no longer enough to resist the heavy pressure emanating from the divine wood.

Fortunately, the Soul River was already within arm's reach; she only needed to leap over the fifth layer of divine wood leaf barriers to touch it.

After a short rest, Hua Changxi flew upward again, but this time, no matter how she urged her spiritual power, that invisible barrier was like an impenetrable fortress, firmly blocking her beneath the fifth leaf barrier.

After several fruitless attempts, she hardened her heart, stopped relying on spiritual power, and suddenly erupted with the blood and qi inside her body!

Boom!

The surging, boiling power of blood and qi swept through her body, allowing her to forcibly tear open the barrier that spiritual power could not cross, breaking through the fifth leaf barrier.

"Spiritual power is blocked, but blood and qi can pass through?"

Standing thoughtfully on the fifth leaf barrier, as her blood and qi circulated, Hua Changxi was surprised to find that the oppressive pressure that had made it hard to breathe had receded somewhat, like a retreating tide.

"Could crossing the leaf barriers be related to cultivation level?"

She was only at the Nascent Soul realm; when circulating spiritual power, it could only support her crossing four layers. But her physical body had been cultivated to the seventh level of Body Refining, and she had even touched the threshold of the eighth level. Thus, after erupting her blood and qi power, she could not only break through the fifth layer but also found the pressure she endured greatly reduced.

With this in mind, Hua Changxi immediately began to test it.

Sure enough, relying solely on her physical body's power, she broke through like a splitting bamboo, charging straight up to the seventh leaf barrier!

However, when she attempted to cross the eighth layer, the resistance suddenly increased, like an impassable chasm.

Even when she used the divine ability "Heaven and Earth Avatar" to transform into a giant, she was still mercilessly repelled by that vast power.

"In the end, I'm still a hair's breadth short."

Hua Changxi felt a bit regretful, but understood in her heart.

Her eighth level of Body Refining had only just entered the first stage—opening seven chakras; this was still a long way from full cultivation, so it was reasonable that she could not shake the eighth leaf barrier.

Although she hadn't leaped over the eighth leaf barrier, she wasn't too disappointed.

However, in the daze during her several attempts to impact the eighth leaf barrier, she vaguely glimpsed that the scene above the eighth layer seemed different—wreathed in immortal mist, a thousand auspicious vapors, and the ethereal clouds were as solid and flat as the earth bearing all things.

Although Hua Changxi was very curious about the scene above the eighth leaf barrier, she knew her current ability could not reach it. So she withdrew her mind, took out a luminous cup, and began to collect the Soul River water.

"The luminous cup is still too small!"

However, having found a way to enter the Immortal Divine Wood space, she wasn't too bothered; after using it up, she could come back later to collect more.

Hua Changxi put away the luminous cup, her gaze falling on the edge of the divine wood leaves—there, dots of emerald green light were gathering, the overflowing life essence liquid.

Without delay, she quickly took out porcelain bottles and carefully collected dozens of them.

Previously, the explosion of the Artifact Saint Palace’s barrier caused severe damage, and the firewood branch obtained from the Divine Tree had exhausted all its vitality in healing the wounded.

These spiritual liquids now are precisely the best for nourishing the firewood branch and restoring its vitality.

After storing the spiritual liquids, Hua Changxi stood at the edge of a Divine Tree leaf on the outermost part of the seventh leaf barrier. She first looked up, gazing at the still unreachable eighth heavenly moat above her head. Realizing she could not yet glimpse the mysteries of the higher realms, she slowly lowered her eyes and looked down.

At that moment, the full majestic form of the Immortal Divine Tree gradually outlined itself clearly in her mind.

Roots as thick as dragon pillars plunged deep into the void, supporting the towering giant trunk; upon the trunk, layers upon layers of leaf barriers rose like连绵 mountain ranges, piling upward.

The higher one went, the more the leaf barriers contracted, until they shrank toward the unknown peak of the sky.

The entire Divine Tree resembled a green tower reaching to the heavens.

Hua Changxi did not linger long among the heights of the Divine Tree. She turned her body and leaped down through the layers of leaf barriers, plummeting like a shooting star toward the roots.

In an instant, she landed steadily upon the massive, tangled roots.

Beneath that lay an endless abyss of nothingness, dark and deep, as if it could devour everything in the world.

"The Divine Tree connects to the highest heavens above and to the deepest underworld below…"

Staring at the bottomless black abyss beneath the tree roots, a surge of desire to explore swelled within Hua Changxi’s heart.

The Fusang Divine Tree roots itself in Tang Valley to connect the Nine Nethers; what kind of place, then, does the depths of the Immortal Divine Tree’s roots connect to?

"Should I just jump down and take a look?"

Hua Changxi gazed at the abyss, a look of deep thought on her face.

The Dan Saint Hall is one of the four array eyes suppressing the Demon Prison. According to the layout of the Artifact Saint Palace, the array eye should be set at the very source where the Immortal Divine Tree takes root in the Nine Nethers.

The Divine Tree space is safe, and the Nine Nether array eye is guarded by demon-suppressing guards. Hua Changxi felt no danger in jumping down, so she hesitated no longer. Her figure suddenly soared, and she resolutely leaped off those mountain-like tree roots, plummeting straight down into the bottomless darkness.

This fall seemed to traverse a long river of time.

She raced through the endless darkness, the concept of time blurring—like an instant, like ten thousand years—until the surrounding darkness began to twist, and a supremely brilliant light pierced through the chaos.

As the light blazed, the sensation of weightlessness abruptly ceased.

Hua Changxi lightly touched down with her toes, landing as softly as a feather. When she looked around, her breath caught.

What met her eyes was in no way the gloomy, horrifying Nine Nethers.

Beneath her feet were rare spiritual herbs spread like brocade, with faint fluorescence flowing through the veins of their leaves; all around was a riot of blossoming flowers vying in beauty, the air thick with intoxicating fragrance.

Looking up, spiritual mist filled the air; looking down, green spiritual springs meandered along.

And in the center of this ultimate splendor stood a simple, ancient stone tablet.

Upon the stone tablet, two large characters met the eye—Dan Spring.