Chapter 492: The Ancient Path of the Yellow Spring

After leaving the forbidden ghost realm, Hua Changxi retracted her aura and moved silently across the wasteland, swiftly approaching the towering fortress that stretched across the horizon.

Along the way, Hua Changxi vigilantly scanned her surroundings.

Above, the sun and moon shed no light, only dead silence; gray fog churned in the mid-air, exuding a bone-chilling cold; the earth beneath her feet was hard as iron, with scattered chill that seemed capable of freezing one's soul instantly.

Walking amidst this, every breath caused her physical body to endure unimaginable erosion.

All of this proclaimed a cruel truth: this region was inherently antagonistic to life, tolerating not a shred of yang energy, and was absolutely no place for the 'living' to linger.

Hua Changxi condensed a cluster of ghost fire, coating her body with it; that cold flame, carrying the aura of the netherworld, barely sustained a thin barrier around her, slightly resisting the pervasive erosion of the Nine Netherworlds against the 'living'.

As she drew closer to the massive fortress, ghosts began to appear along the path one after another.

However, most of these ghosts were merely wandering spirits; upon seeing the ghost fire clinging to Hua Changxi, they fled from afar, posing no threat to her.

It was not until a murky, dark yellow giant river came into view that ghosts with sinister auras began to appear on the road.

The Yellow River?

No, it was not a river!

Hua Changxi shook her head, her gaze locking死死 onto the dark yellow river flowing across the earth ahead; the water was filthy and viscous, shimmering with an eerie glow, resembling a long-festered wound upon the land.

Strange, jagged rocks lined the riverbank, piled like withered bones; black qi seeping from the crevices tangled endlessly with yellow mist rising from the water surface, shrouding everything around in a dead, hazy silence.

There was no sound of wind, no noise of water, only the pervasive stench of rotting fishiness.

Having inhaled just a little, Hua Changxi felt her divine soul tremble, as if hundreds of millions of wronged souls were screaming silently beneath the water, trying to drag her into the river.

"It should be called the Yellow Spring!"

On both banks of the Yellow Spring, yin winds howled furiously; countless fierce ghosts loomed in and out of the mist, their oily green eyes greedily scanning past living beings.

Hua Changxi did not rashly approach the riverbank; relying on the ghost fire clinging to her, she managed to intimidate the fierce ghosts along the way.

In the ghost realm, any ghost clan member capable of manipulating ghost fire was no ordinary figure, qualifying as a powerhouse among the ghost clans.

With the disguise of the ghost fire, Hua Changxi walked along the Yellow Spring Road, encountering almost no obstruction.

However, she had not traveled far when, amidst the originally nauseating stench of decay and fishiness, a cloyingly sweet exotic fragrance suddenly mixed in.

That scent possessed both the rich fragrance of a hundred flowers and the mellow intoxication of wine; the two strangely intertwined, forming an invisible hook that struck directly at the divine soul, tempting one to become drunk with it.

Hua Changxi's heart tightened, and she subconsciously held her breath.

Immediately after, a bizarre scene unfolded.

Those fierce ghosts that had been wandering and screaming, along with the wandering spirits hidden deep within the gray fog, seemed to hear some silent call; they scrambled one after another toward both banks of the Yellow Spring, sitting cross-legged in perfect unison, facing the river, their expressions revealing a fanatical devotion.

The next moment, the world lost its color, leaving only a splash of vivid red that scorched Hua Changxi's eyes.

On both banks of the Yellow Spring, hundreds of millions of blood-red flowers bloomed simultaneously; at first, there were only a few scattered points of scarlet, but in an instant, it spread like a prairie fire, engulfing every inch of black soil on both banks.

The flowers were red to a heart-stopping degree, red with purity and resolve.

In the blink of an eye, a boundless sea of crimson flowers completely submerged both banks of the Yellow Spring.

This overwhelming blood-red hue, under the dim sky, directly reflected upon the murky waters of the Yellow Spring, turning them entirely crimson.

The sight was spectacular to the extreme, and bizarre to the extreme; it was so beautiful it made one's heart tremble, so beautiful it left one breathless.

Watching this scene, Hua Changxi's eyes trembled.

The red flowers had long, curly stamens, resembling countless hands reaching toward the void, swaying gently in the breeze and scattering specks of scarlet light.

This appearance brought three words to Hua Changxi's mind—Red Spider Lily.

Indeed, how could the banks of the Yellow Spring lack the adornment of Red Spider Lilies.

Looking at the ghost clan intoxicated by the fragrance of the Red Spider Lilies, and then at the blood-red flowers themselves, Hua Changxi felt a stir of desire.

Red Spider Lilies possessed the effect of stabilizing the divine soul and were one of the main ingredients for refining various soul pills.

Since she had encountered them, how could she leave empty-handed?

The next moment, Hua Changxi moved; borrowing the intimidating power of the ghost fire, she forcibly squeezed a path through the ghost clans layered inside and out, approached the riverbank, and positioned herself before the Red Spider Lilies.

"Hmm?"

As soon as she neared the Red Spider Lilies, Hua Changxi noticed something unusual.

Red Spider Lilies had grades: lower grade were blood-red, middle grade were dark red with a hint of purple, upper grade were deep red like ink, and supreme grade were pure white like bone.

Generally, the banks of the Yellow Spring would mostly nurture only lower-grade Red Spider Lilies, with middle grade being rare.

Yet at this moment, Hua Changxi saw quite a few upper-grade Red Spider Lilies, and even spotted several supreme-grade ones.

Hua Changxi swallowed hard; supreme-grade Red Spider Lilies could purify the sea of consciousness and the primordial spirit.

No matter how the sea of consciousness or primordial spirit had been polluted, they could clear it all with a single touch; they were top-tier soul plants that one could encounter only by chance!

Of course, she also noticed that all the ghost clans automatically avoided the areas where upper-grade and supreme-grade Red Spider Lilies grew, daring only to stay in the zones of lower and middle-grade flowers to absorb their fragrance.

This scene put Hua Changxi on high alert; she knew that picking a supreme-grade Red Spider Lily would definitely not be easy!

Just as Hua Changxi was pondering how to obtain a supreme-grade Red Spider Lily without causing a major commotion, a voice of exclamation drifted down from the air.

"This is indeed the Ancient Path of the Yellow Spring; even the Red Spider Lilies bloom so brilliantly."