Chapter 507

With a single leap, darkness instantly swallowed her form.

Yet, the anticipated sensation of weightlessness from falling did not come.

Hua Changxi only felt her body sink sharply, as if she were not falling but being pulled into a rapidly spinning vortex by an invisible suction force.

Then, the space around her suddenly contracted.

It was an extremely suffocating sense of compression.

If the yin winds of the Fourth Abyss were bone-scraping blades, then the force within this abyss mouth was the millstone that grinds all things.

"Hmm~"

Hua Changxi let out a muffled groan, feeling her bones and soul body emit a strained cracking sound, as if unable to bear the load.

This abyss mouth was nothing less than an ancient stone mortar for pounding grain.

And she was the grain being crushed inside.

The pressure surging from all directions was not static but came in waves, like an invisible pestle, with a heavy rhythm, pounding her flesh and soul body again and again.

This pain was not simple impact but a全方位 grinding.

Space was folding and compressing, trying to squeeze her flesh and soul body to the limit, then suddenly snapping back, over and over.

Just as she thought her flesh would be pressed into a lump of meat and her soul body shattered, that terrifying compression suddenly relaxed.

"Bam!"

Hua Changxi fell heavily to the ground, stirring up a cloud of gray-white dust.

She gasped for breath, each inhalation accompanied by sharp pain in her chest.

She struggled to push herself up, but found her limbs felt as if they had come apart, without even the strength to lift a finger.

At the same time, she also noticed that her soul body was now exceptionally weak.

If, when in the Fourth Abyss, her soul body was like a candle flame flickering in a gale—unsteady yet stubbornly burning—then now, her soul body was like a wisp of flame left after burning out: dim, thin, as if it could go out at any moment.

At this moment, Hua Changxi truly witnessed the danger of the Nine Netherworlds.

If her physical body were not tough enough and her soul body still relatively sturdy, just the process of falling into the Fifth Abyss would have either killed her or left her severely injured.

However, more than the pain in her body and the weakening of her soul, what alarmed her was the surrounding environment.

What met her eyes was a stretch of gray-white.

Not snow-white, but that kind of gray-white like aged bone ash.

The sky was gray-white, the earth was gray-white, the distant rocks, dead trees, and even the dust floating in the air all displayed a sickly gray-white.

There was no light source here, but everything emitted a cold gray-white glow, making the whole world seem like one built from cold, bleached bones.

Hua Changxi paid no heed to a detailed inspection of her surroundings, and, forcing her disassembled-like body, swiftly distanced herself from the abyss mouth.

While speeding away, she rapidly absorbed the soul power from the Soul River water in the Moonlight Cup while also sifting through the memory fragments of Chi Yan the Demon Consort, searching for the direction and path to the Soulmare Valley.

The Fifth Layer of the Nine Netherworlds was exceptionally dangerous; without a precious treasure for protection, only those who had reached the Ghost Commander realm could set foot here.

The Ghost Commander realm was equivalent to the humans' Spirit Platform realm.

Hua Changxi was considered a person with considerable cultivation talent among humans, lacking neither resources nor opportunities, yet even so, she had still not opened her Spirit Platform.

From this, it could be known that among humans, not many cultivators could reach the Spirit Platform realm.

Applying this to the Nine Netherworlds, the situation was roughly the same; even if the Nine Netherworlds beat the human realm to the start of spiritual energy recovery, the number of Ghost Commander realm experts would not be too high.

Moreover, the Nine Netherworlds' territory was vast, so on the entire journey searching for the Soulmare Valley, Hua Changxi did not encounter a single living being of the Nine Netherworlds.

This allowed her a great sigh of relief; aside from enduring the corrosion of the Fifth Layer's own nether essence, there were no other external threats.

Perhaps it was because in the first four layers, she had only headed straight toward the abyss mouth, never taking time to explore other directions, thus missing the chance to survey the environments of the first four layers.

And the direction of the Soulmare Valley was not the same as the direction in which the black broken knife vibrated; on this journey, Hua Changxi got to see many things she had not paid attention to before.

For instance, the Styx.

And also, the Yellow Springs.

She truly hadn’t expected that the Nether River and the Spring of the Dead would run through all nine layers of the Netherworld Abyss—until now, she had only thought that the Nether River and the Spring of the Dead existed on the first layer.

After encountering the Nether River and the Spring of the Dead, on the road ahead, whenever she approached the basins of those two rivers, Hua Changxi could sense unfamiliar auras.

She didn’t rashly draw near; instead, she held her breath, hid behind a gray-white rock wall, and observed in secret. Then she discovered that a fair number of Netherworld creatures were using the waterways of the Nether River and the Spring of the Dead to sneak into this fifth layer—and there were quite a few of them.

Taking this opportunity, she recognized all five major tribes of the Nether race.

Those with forehead patterns carved like flowing water were the Nether River Tribe; those with round spring-eye patterns that spread outward in rings were the Spring of the Dead Tribe; those whose foreheads were entwined by countless extremely fine soul threads, coiling like wisps of green smoke and mist, were the Soul Clan; those whose foreheads were built around a rotating blood-red whirlpool, with patterns like surging waves of blood, were the Blood Sea Clan.

Adding in the Demon Clan she had seen earlier, whose foreheads were etched with jagged, broken cracks like ferocious teeth, she had now seen all five major tribes of the Nether race.

“The Nether River, the Spring of the Dead, the Soul Clan, the Blood Sea, the Demon Clan, plus the earlier Asura Gate, and human cultivators… they’ve all come out… Is something major about to happen in the Nine Netherworlds?”

Suppressing the doubts in her heart, Hua Changxi did not linger. Using the cover of the gray-white mist, she slipped away silently, then sped forward at full speed, continuing to rush toward the Soulmare Valley.

“Screech~”

A piercing, sharp cry suddenly tore through the deathly still sky, making the surrounding gray-white mist churn in response.

After crossing the basins of the Nether River and the Spring of the Dead, Hua Changxi could clearly feel that powerful unfamiliar auras were beginning to appear around her.

Just as the dark outline of the Soulmare Valley faintly emerged on the horizon, a massive shadow suddenly descended from the sky, blotting out the already dim light.

Hearing the cry, Hua Changxi’s heart tightened. She quickly looked up, following the sound.

Far away in the sky, a colossal creature was circling and surveying from above. It was a ferocious bird with nine heads, its wings blotting out the sky, exuding a chilling murderous aura.

“A Nine-headed Bird?!”

Hua Changxi’s pupils contracted sharply. Almost instinctively, she reached out and removed the Nine-headed Bird Soul Flute hanging at her waist, then with lightning speed stowed it into the Divine Farmer’s Cauldron, terrified that even the slightest trace of its aura would attract the attention of that ferocious bird.

After doing all this, she dared not delay another moment. She pushed her speed to the limit, turning into a streak of light as she crazily dashed toward the Soulmare Valley.

The reason Red Nightmare Matriarch could firmly occupy the Soulmare Valley without being coveted and seized by other Nine Netherworld powerhouses lay in the fact that this region had a unique affinity with her nightmare arts.

Within the Soulmare Valley, soul force was dense, as if it were a natural breeding ground for nightmare arts—not only did it allow her to perform techniques with ease, but it also greatly enhanced their power.

Once one stepped into the bounds of the Soulmare Valley, even a King-realm powerhouse of the Nine Netherworlds, if careless, could fall into the dream woven by Red Nightmare Matriarch and eventually become her captive.

Unless an Emperor-realm powerhouse acted, no one else could take the Soulmare Valley from Red Nightmare Matriarch.

And to this day, no Emperor-realm powerhouse had appeared in the Nine Netherworlds.

Therefore, as long as she entered the Soulmare Valley, Hua Changxi would be safe.

“Phew~”

After an all-out sprint, Hua Changxi finally reached the entrance of the Soulmare Valley. Just as she was about to plunge into the valley mouth, the sky above suddenly darkened.

Boom!

A black palanquin, wrapped in surging ghostly qi, crashed down like a falling meteor.

King realm!

A Ghost King had arrived!

Sensing the powerful aura emanating from the black palanquin, Hua Changxi immediately dodged and hid in the shadows within the valley.

At the same time, the black palanquin did not land; it hovered in midair, its curtains rustling without wind, exuding a chilling aura.

After a moment, a group of Ghost Clan experts rushed toward the black palanquin and knelt in a dark mass.

“We pay homage to Lord Mingyue!”

“How dare you!” the palanquin-bearer, a Ghost General-level attendant, snapped harshly. “Lord Mingyue has broken through and ascended to Ghost King—you should now pay homage to His Highness the Ming King!”

Amid the fearful bows and greetings, the black palanquin’s curtain slowly lifted.

A coldly beautiful, peerless woman in black robes appeared before everyone’s eyes.

“I just heard a rumor…”

Su Mingyue lifted her eyes slightly, looking down at the crowd below. Wherever her gaze fell, even the air seemed to freeze: “I heard that a ghost clan member appeared wielding the Hellblade?”

“Reporting to the Ming King, it is indeed true!”

A Ghost Marshal knelt and replied: “That person went on a killing spree at the Fourth Deep Abyss Entrance. The rich origin aura of the Netherworld still lingers in the air. The black broken blade he held is exactly the same as the legendary Hellblade.”

Upon hearing this, Su Mingyue's eyes instantly burst with a dazzling, determined gleam. Just as she was about to press further, a harsh screech once again echoed from the depths of the sky.

She lifted her gaze slightly and saw a Ghost Chariot at the Marshal realm flying over.

"Even a Ghost Chariot has appeared..."

Su Mingyue narrowed her eyes: "It seems the Nine Abysses is truly about to become lively."