Chapter 483: Hard to Rise, Easy to Fall

After landing, Hua Changxi did not rush to investigate her surroundings. Instead, she stood amidst the profusion of flowers, looking up at the dead and empty black void above, her gaze deep and thoughtful.

Earlier, flying upward from the roots toward the Divine Tree had met with numerous obstacles; but falling down along the roots was unimpeded and smooth.

In the space of the Divine Tree, ascending was difficult, yet descending was easy.

Thinking that the Divine Tree pierced the Nine Heavens above and connected to the Nine Nether below, could she assume that reaching the Nine Heavens was hard, while falling into the Nine Nether was easy?

Hua Changxi withdrew her gaze, her thoughts churning.

She had heard much about the Nine Nether, and had encountered many cultivators who had descended into it; she herself had gone down into the Nine Nether several times. However, she had yet to hear of or witness anyone who had ascended to the Nine Heavens, or anything concerning them.

"It seems that no matter where one is, going up is never easy, while falling down is but a single thought away."

After voicing this sentiment, Hua Changxi composed herself and began to survey her surroundings.

The Fusang Divine Tree is deeply rooted in the Tang Valley of the Nine Nether, refining the world's strange fires; the Undying Divine Tree's roots lock onto the Dan Spring, nurturing rare spirit herbs and treasures.

The Tang Valley blazes with fiery spirit, scorching the heavens and boiling the seas; the Dan Spring surges with vast vitality, moistening heaven and earth.

Standing in the Dan Spring land, so different from the Tang Valley, and looking at the myriad rare flowers and herbs all around, Hua Changxi's face was full of admiration for the foundation of this sacred ground.

Whether Tang Valley or Dan Spring, they were not far behind secret realms; the quantity and quality of the resources they bred were even greater and higher than most secret realms.

Hua Changxi moved among the rare flowers and herbs, occasionally gathering some uncommon spirit plants and spirit flowers. Soon, she arrived before a stone tablet engraved with the words "Dan Spring."

The stone tablet stood in the center of the widest area of the emerald spirit spring.

Looking into the distance, the emerald spring meandered and coiled, with countless twists and turns, covering every inch of land within sight and extending endlessly toward the unknown beyond the horizon.

Clearly, this emerald spirit spring was the Dan Spring.

The Dan Spring was not still but flowed slowly, and its surface rotated with a strange rhythm, forming many tiny whirlpools.

The whirlpools did not devour everything but seemed to breathe; with each contraction and expansion, specks of green light rose from the spring, dissolved into the air, and became nourishment for the surrounding rare plants and treasures.

Hua Changxi chose to investigate west of the stone tablet, where the spirit herbs and flowers grew most densely, slowly advancing along the Dan Spring.

At first, she only thought the Dan Spring was naturally formed from the underground spirit energy, but after walking a stretch along it and seeing occasional green spirit rain falling from the void above, each drop brimming with vast vitality, she suddenly realized that this Dan Spring did not originate from the earth but from the Undying Divine Tree.

It was the life-nourishing spirit liquid condensed among the Divine Tree's branches and leaves, which fell to the ground and formed a spring.

As she moved farther from the stone tablet, the surface of the Dan Spring began to narrow.

At the stone tablet, the spring stretched vast like a lake, a full kilometer wide; but after Hua Changxi explored westward for an hour, the Dan Spring had shrunk into a winding stream only a few meters wide, as if it might dry up at any moment.

After that, Hua Changxi could not continue forward.

It was not that there was no path, but ahead, gray mist filled the area, obscuring vision and preventing even divine sense from probing.

Hua Changxi condensed a ball of flame on her fingertip and flung it fiercely into the mist. The flame was instantly swallowed by the gray mist, vanishing without the slightest response or sound.

Seeing this, Hua Changxi's gaze darkened slightly. After a moment's thought, she turned back, then, taking the stone tablet as a center, she explored the north, south, and east directions.

South and north of the stone tablet were the same as west: the Dan Spring narrowed to a few meters and was blocked by gray mist.

But east of the stone tablet was vastly different.

After walking only a few li east, the scene before Hua Changxi changed—a gray boundary stone platform stood prominently, its shape identical to the formation eye platform in the Artifact Saint Palace!

In the center of the stone platform, a black-green alchemy furnace floated quietly, exuding an ancient and mysterious aura.

Hua Changxi's gaze paused on the alchemy furnace for only a moment before falling on the human-shaped stone statues on the platform. The moment she saw them, a look of gravity involuntarily surged in her eyes, and her chest felt constricted.

She knew that those human-shaped stone statues had once been living people. They had sacrificed themselves, turning into stone statues to guard the formation eye, solely to seal the demonic energy.