Chapter 486: Selfless Altruism

After mastering the law of "Life," Hua Changxi smoothly "obtained" two Spring Eye Beads, but when she went to "take" the third Spring Eye Bead, she encountered resistance once again.

"What's going on?"

Hua Changxi frowned, first looking at the 'Sheng' character halo floating above her palm, then at the Spring Eye Bead lying on the crystal bed at the bottom of the spring.

Can't be greedy?

Can only take two?

"Why two?"

Hua Changxi was utterly confused, but when she thought about placing the Spring Eye Beads above Dan Yuan Peak and Dan Ding Peak, she had a moment of understanding.

The Immortal Divine Tree nurtured the Spring Eye Beads, surely to nourish the sacred grounds—she governed two peaks, so she could only "take" two Spring Eye Beads?

Hua Changxi's gaze lingered long over the remaining seven Spring Eye Beads, as if reluctant, finally retracting it slowly, then she lowered her eyes to stare at the ceaselessly flowing 'Sheng' character halo in her palm.

This exploration of the "Divine Tree Root — Cinnabar Spring" had yielded far more than expected.

In past ordeals, her mind had been focused solely on how to obtain, blindly seizing opportunities from heaven and earth, as if all things in the world should belong to her.

The results she reaped and the feedback from her surroundings seemed to confirm the legitimacy and rationality of this mentality.

But this experience granted her a different state of mind—to "get" a treasure, one must first learn to "give."

"Plunder, give..."

Just as Hua Changxi was carefully contemplating the difference between these two mentalities, a tearing, unbearable pain first struck the back of her right hand, followed by a refreshing warm current surging forth.

The pain was like a blade scraping bone, or frost invading the body, carrying the restlessness and madness of devouring and destruction.

The warm current, like spring breeze transforming into rain, instantly swept through her limbs and bones, washing away the surging desires in her heart. She felt her spiritual platform clear and bright, her whole body filled with unprecedented transparency and lightness.

Hua Changxi instinctively looked down, and her pupils suddenly constricted sharply.

On the back of her hand, a yin-yang fish pattern interwoven with black and white had emerged.

The black fish was like an abyssal raging wave, its ink color thick and inseparable, occupying the vast majority of the view, exuding a chilling and terrifying aura.

In contrast, the white fish appeared pale and weak, its light shallow and faint, its lines even broken and scattered, as if it could be completely swallowed by the surrounding darkness at any moment, unable to take shape.

Looking at the black-and-white fish pattern, Hua Changxi's eyes trembled violently, her heart shaken beyond words. She immediately closed her eyes in introspection, sinking her divine sense into her dantian.

The next moment, she saw that in the black flame on the heart of her Nascent Soul, countless white sparks were shining brightly.

However, the black flame flickered, and the white sparks were quickly covered.

Hua Changxi opened her eyes, looking at the black-and-white fish pattern that had also disappeared from the back of her hand, her thoughts churning.

She remembered now: earlier, in the Ghost Ridge Forbidden Land, when she had unhesitatingly reached out to save someone, she had also felt a warm current sweep through her body.

But that warm current had appeared too suddenly and disappeared too quickly, so much so that afterwards she had no memory of it at all.

Combining the contexts of the two appearances of the warm current, Hua Changxi seemed to understand how to ignite the white flame.

It required not only the giving and dedication of compassion for all beings, but also the fearless responsibility of bearing a thousand jun burdens—in short, the legendary pure altruistic heart that completely abandons selfish desires and disregards gain and loss!

If that were really the case, then Hua Changxi had found the reason why she had never been able to ignite the white flame.

An altruistic heart that disregards gain and loss—sorry, she really didn't have it, and didn't want to have it either!

However, Hua Changxi then thought of the group of cultivators who had ignited both black and white flames trained by the royal family, and she became puzzled again—if she didn't have the altruistic heart that disregards gain and loss, did those people have it?

"I must have thought wrong."

The key to igniting the white flame still needed further exploration.

Afterwards, Hua Changxi did not stay long at the spring bottom. She collected some crystals full of life force (Life Essence Stones) and put them into her Sumeru space, then took the two Spring Eye Beads and broke through the water to surface.

After coming ashore, she planned to try returning the same way she came.

But before that, she wanted to fly to a high place to see the full view of the Cinnabar Spring.

As her body rose from the ground and swiftly ascended, the scope of Hua Changxi's sight gradually expanded.

"Huh?"

Hua Changxi was about to descend when...

Her body continuously rose. Hua Changxi gazed into the distance, taking in the full view of Dan Spring, while at the edge of her vision lay a shocking scene.

At the eastern extremity of Dan Spring, a massive rift valley, as if slashed by a divine blade, stretched across heaven and earth, tearing the land apart.

Further east of the rift valley was a bottomless, pitch-black void that seemed to devour even light itself. Though she was far away, she felt that area was absolutely a forbidden zone for life.

And a thousand li west of Dan Spring, she saw a towering giant city wall, coiled like an iron dragon on the horizon, drawing a clear and solemn boundary under the gloomy and eerie starry sky.

"Is that... the location of the array core?"

The Zhenmen Fortress and Genmen Fortress, which guarded the array eye, were located due east and northeast of Dan Spring respectively. Their walls were far from being as tall and imposing as the wall to the west.

Just as Hua Changxi was gazing at Zhongmen Pass from afar, on the walls of Zhongmen Pass, Chu Junyi seemed to sense something and quickly looked toward Dan Spring.

"General, have you discovered something?"

"Someone is spying on Zhongmen Pass."

"Enemy activity?"

"It shouldn't be. The spying gaze comes from the location of the Dansheng Hall array eye."

"The Nine Passes Ghost Market Joint Auction is about to start. Dansheng Hall will surely send people. It's probably some disciple who doesn't know restraint, scouting the surroundings."

Chu Junyi thought of the Nine Passes Ghost Market Joint Auction and his expression turned serious. "There will certainly be many cultivators entering the Nine Nethers recently. Every pass and fortress must be vigilant. We cannot allow the demon tribes and the various races of the Nine Nethers to take advantage and cause chaos."

"Understood."

At that moment, Chu Junyi's Yiniantong vibrated. He picked it up and looked, his eyes lighting up. He glanced toward the Dansheng Hall array eye and quickly descended the city wall with a few trusted subordinates.

"General, what's wrong?"

"There's news of the Soul Realm Key."

"Really? Where is it?"

"Guijie Fortress."

On the other side, after observing the layout of Dan Spring and its surroundings, Hua Changxi did not look further. She turned back to where she had previously landed, leaped into the air again, and attempted to return to the Spiritwood Space along the same path to go back to the Old Courtyard in the square.

Falling down was easy, but going up was difficult.

Fortunately, Hua Changxi's body tempering was sufficient. Bursting with full body qi and blood, she finally managed to stand on the roots of the spiritwood again with difficulty.

At the same time, in the Old Courtyard, because Hua Changxi had closed the courtyard gate, Gu Xing couldn't go out. He could only stand at the gate and communicate with others from the Holy Land through the door.

"Old Gu, Pavilion Master Meng has taken the various secret realm masters into the Nine Nethers to attend the Nine Passes Joint Auction."

"Mm."

Just as he said this to the person, Gu Xing saw the wall directly opposite the courtyard gate ripple like water waves. The next moment, Hua Changxi's figure stepped out from it, suddenly appearing in his line of sight.