Chapter 183: The Holy-Guarding Corps

The appearance of the Soul Star and the awakening of Qianmen Bao not only shocked the myriad cultivators but also caused Liu Chengxiong, who was guarding outside the stone sculpture military formation, to change color dramatically; however, very quickly, an uncontrollable ecstasy spread across his face.

"General Liu, what is happening?"

First, the Fusu Divine Tree flashed and vanished; now a white star had appeared, scattering the gray mist and revealing the towering, majestic entirety of Qianmen Bao. Faced with wave after wave of such upheavals, Young Master Gu felt somewhat overwhelmed.

In high spirits, Liu Chengxiong said happily, "The Soul Star has ignited; Qianmen Bao has awakened."

Relying on information provided by Gu Jinfan, the Duke Prefecture had explored numerous ruins and collected many ancient texts from antiquity; Young Master Gu had read nearly all of these ancient scrolls, so he clearly knew about the Soul Star.

Gazing at that white star in the night sky, Young Master Gu's eyes flickered with light; it was actually the Soul Star!

At the very beginning of the Demon Prison's creation, not only did fierce beasts and great demons frequently break out, but the demon race also launched large-scale attacks to rescue those imprisoned within. Whenever such riots occurred, taking advantage of the chaos, demons would infiltrate the formation's core and the four major formation eyes to sabotage them; on one occasion, they nearly destroyed the Demon Prison, which had been so painstakingly established.

Because of this matter, the Holy Masters of the Five Great Holy Lands of the Central Continent soared into the nine heavens to meet with the Divine Lords Zhu Que, Qing Long, Xuan Wu, and Bai Hu, deliberating and resolving to establish nine checkpoints outside the Demon Prison to guard it.

The Soul Star, pure and rich in soul power, was jointly retrieved by the Four Divine Lords from the Soul River within the Nether Ruins; it was a unique reward exclusively for the Demon-Suppressing Guards tasked with guarding the Demon Prison.

Each checkpoint was linked to one Soul Star; by absorbing the soul power emanating from the Soul Star, the Demon-Suppressing Guards could continuously strengthen their primordial spirits during their five hundred years of military service guarding the Demon Prison.

Moreover, to ensure the Soul Stars remained abundant in soul power, the Four Divine Lords jointly employed spatial teleportation divine abilities to create a branch of the Soul River, directing it to flow specifically through the nine great Soul Stars.

However, with the arrival of the Great Extinction of the Four Spirit Realms, spatial barriers formed, cutting off the waters of the Soul River; deprived of the Soul River's nourishment, the Soul Stars lost all their soul power and thus fell into silence.

Now that the Soul Star had ignited, it was most likely because the earlier appearance of the Fusu Divine Tree had broken through the spatial barriers, allowing the waters of the Soul River to flow once more.

Watching the ecstatic Liu Chengxiong, a trace of regret flashed through Young Master Gu's eyes; with the Soul Star ignited and soul power replenished, Liu Chengxiong could continue cultivating and strengthening his primordial spirit without worrying about its dissipation, meaning he would most likely no longer cooperate with the Duke Prefecture, and the Prefecture's plan to gradually seize Qianmen Bao was now ruined.

Seeing Liu Chengxiong begin to assemble the Demon-Suppressing Guards, looking eager to return to the city immediately, Young Master Gu could not help but ask, "General Liu, are you ignoring those who infiltrated Tang Gu? There are members of the demon race among them; what if they sabotage the formation eyes?"

Liu Chengxiong glanced at Young Master Gu, thinking to himself that those cultivators who had entered Tang Gu managed to extract the Fusu Divine Tree; their strength and methods far exceeded his expectations, and engaging them directly might result in him suffering the loss rather than them.

Now that the Soul Star had ignited, providing soul power for his cultivation, his primordial spirit would not dissipate in the short term, so he was no longer so desperate to seize another's physical body.

Since he was not capturing that Nascent Soul cultivator, he simply could not be bothered to concern himself with those people inside Tang Gu.

Although Liu Chengxiong wanted to return to the fortress immediately, Young Master Gu chose this exact moment to bring up those cultivators in Tang Gu, which truly annoyed him; however, now that Qianmen Bao had awakened, according to the rules of the nine great checkpoints, each checkpoint fortress must select a force of five thousand soldiers to form the Holy-Guarding Corps to protect the safety of the Holy Lands.

As long as members of the Holy-Guarding Corps wore the Holy Tokens distributed by the Holy Lands, their primordial spirits could move about the mortal world for extended periods even without physical bodies.

Once the Artifact Saint Palace manifested in the world, he, as the supreme commander of Qianmen Bao, would also be able to appear in the mortal realm.

He had never left the Nine Nether regions and knew nothing about the mortal world; since the Duke Prefecture held a high status in the mortal realm, if he went there in the future, he would inevitably have to deal with them.

Furthermore, although the replenishment of soul power meant he did not need to worry about his primordial spirit dissipation for now, if he wished to cultivate beyond the Dao-Integration Realm, the matter of obtaining a physical body would sooner or later need to be resolved.

The highest realm a soul cultivator could reach was the Soul-Departure Realm; to advance to the Dao-Integration Realm, one's physical body and primordial spirit must merge into one.

The fact that the Duke Prefecture could arrive in the Nine Nether regions so early to lay out arrangements meant they must have seized considerable cultivation resources in the mortal world.

For cultivators to continue ascending in cultivation, they required vast quantities of cultivation resources; regarding powers that controlled such abundant resources, unless there was absolutely no room for negotiation, he generally left some leeway.

Thinking thus, Liu Chengxiong ultimately gave Young Master Gu some face, explaining, "Qianmen Bao has just awakened, and there are many matters to handle; this General must return immediately to take command and prevent any unrest. As for those who infiltrated Tang Gu, there is no need to worry too much; the formation eyes are not so easily destroyed."

Having spoken, Liu Chengxiong paid no heed to Young Master Gu's reaction and directly commanded the Demon-Suppressing Guards behind him, "All officers, heed my order: Return to the city!"

Liu Chengxiong led the Demon-Suppressing Guards away on horseback; Young Master Gu looked at the volcanic crater, and although he desperately wanted to enter and see what had happened inside Tang Gu, he dared not take the risk and could only regretfully lead his attendants to pursue Liu Chengxiong.

In Tang Gu, at the bottom of the hot spring bath, countless streams of spiritual energy formed from pure fire spiritual energy continuously poured into Hua Changxi's body, rapidly filling her withered sea of qi.

When her sea of qi once again became a vast ocean, Hua Changxi slowly opened her eyes; upon opening them, all she could see was a brilliant, pale red world, with countless blood-red, crystal-clear tree roots crawling everywhere, and upon these red roots lay dense clusters of white stones resembling goose eggs.

Seeing the red tree roots and white stones, Hua Changxi's pupils trembled.

The red tree roots belonged to the Fusu Divine Tree, while the white stones were Soul Crystals.

At this moment, she lay between two Fusu Divine Tree roots several meters wide, with nothing but white Soul Crystals beneath her.

"Where is this place?"

Recalling what had happened before she lost consciousness, Master and disciple Bai seemed to have placed her into the hot spring bath, so this must be the bottom of the bath.

She had actually sunk to the bottom of the hot spring bath, and the bottom was connected to the Fusu Divine Tree, containing so many Soul Crystals.

Yet, being underwater, how could she still breathe freely?

Hua Changxi discovered a layer of red light enveloping her body; this red light acted like a filter shield, protecting her so that not only could she freely absorb fire spiritual energy while 'in the water,' but she was also unaffected by anything else.

Before this, she had guessed she might possess a Fire Spiritual Body; now, seeing the red light aura shield around her, she was certain.

All spiritual bodies could automatically generate a spiritual energy shield to preserve themselves in extreme environments!

Confirming she possessed a Fire Spiritual Body and could move freely 'in the water,' Hua Changxi supported herself on a nearby tree root to sit up; looking at the Fusu Divine Tree roots, a wave of post-traumatic fear rose in her heart—it had been so dangerous; she had nearly been unable to emerge from the spatial rift.

Thinking of the process of emerging from the spatial rift, a thought stirred in Hua Changxi's heart, and the Floating Light Sword appeared in her hand.

What she had not expected was that the Floating Light Sword possessed the ability to tear through space!

Had the Floating Light Sword not forcibly torn open that spatial rift which was on the verge of closing, she would likely have become lost within the spatial rift and died from exhaustion of her spiritual energy.

Furthermore, the branches of the Fusu Divine Tree had also been severed by the Floating Light Sword; regrettably, although she had subdued the Great Sun Divine Flame and her connection with the Floating Light Sword had grown stronger, she still could not draw the sword from its scabbard, which meant that when chopping the Fusu Divine Tree branches, she had expended great effort and wasted considerable time.

Putting away the Floating Light Sword, Hua Changxi began to inspect her own body.