Chapter 184: Soul River
『 Realm: Nascent Soul Realm 1.5 billion/1 billion; Spiritual Sense: （100+50.5） thousand』
Looking at the realm data in her vision, Hua Changxi’s face first showed joy, but soon, the joy turned into confusion.
The joy was that the realm points had finally broken through the bottleneck, exceeding one billion points.
The confusion was about the change in the spiritual sense data.
“100+50.5?”
“What does that mean?”
Hua Changxi didn’t understand at first why the spiritual sense data wasn’t directly merged but marked separately, but soon, she figured it out.
Cultivators inherently possess a soul body, and the soul body comes with soul power. The 1 million in spiritual sense should be the soul body’s soul power points that a Nascent Soul Cultivator naturally has, while the 505,000 soul power points should be what she cultivated.
It wasn’t displayed in the previous data, and she didn’t know if it was because her realm hadn’t broken through one billion points.
Having understood the data, Hua Changxi quickly checked her Dantian.
Before, when she merged the Seven-Colored Exotic Fire into the Great Sun Divine Flame, although she rushed into the space rift at the fastest speed and chopped a branch of the Fusang Divine Wood with the fastest speed, her Dantian was still burned by the Great Sun Divine Flame; the Fire Spiritual Energy stored in her Qi Sea was almost evaporated under the scorching heat of the Great Sun Divine Flame; the Nascent Soul suspended above the Qi Sea was also on the verge of death from being roasted by the Great Sun Divine Flame.
At this moment, the Qi Sea had recovered its former vastness, but the Fire Spiritual Energy within the Qi Sea had become much more solidified. If the Fire Spiritual Energy was gaseous before, then the Fire Spiritual Energy in the Qi Sea now was liquid.
Gaseous Fire Spiritual Energy, once the Dantian encounters a problem, can easily cause instability in the Qi Sea. An unstable Qi Sea can not only damage the Dantian but also cause spiritual energy riots within the body. Liquid Fire Spiritual Energy is undoubtedly much more stable.
Although Hua Changxi was somewhat surprised by this change in the Qi Sea, she was more delighted. As for why such a change occurred, she believed there were two reasons.
Firstly, the hot spring bath is beneficial to cultivators; soaking in it is like returning to the womb. When she escaped from the space rift, she was covered in wounds, which have now all been healed.
Moreover, through the perspective of the Diagnostic Technique, she could see that her Spiritual Root was even more crystal clear than before.
The quality of a Spiritual Root is largely determined by its clarity. The clearer the Spiritual Root, the purer and tougher it is, and the greater the amount of spiritual energy it can withstand flowing through it.
With the improvement in Spiritual Root quality, the Dantian naturally followed suit, becoming more solid than before. If a spiritual energy tidal wave were to occur in the Qi Sea again, it could likely withstand it for a longer time. If she encountered an enemy wanting to destroy her Dantian, it would certainly be harder to inflict severe damage than on an ordinary person.
The improved Dantian quality naturally allowed it to contain a liquid Qi Sea.
Secondly, it was due to the Great Sun Divine Flame.
Although the Great Sun Divine Flame burned her Dantian, in another sense, the Dantian, having been repaired by the hot spring bath, had also been tempered by the Great Sun Divine Flame.
At this moment, the Great Sun Divine Flame, residing on the branch of the Fusang Divine Wood, no longer emitted a scorching heat that could burn the heavens and destroy the earth, but its suppressive power had not receded. It hung high above the Qi Sea like a torch, and under its powerful suppression, it promoted the transformation of gaseous Fire Spiritual Energy into a liquid state.
However, while the suppression of the Great Sun Divine Flame stabilized the Qi Sea, it exerted great pressure on the Nascent Soul.
Previously, the Nascent Soul floated in the air above the Qi Sea. Now, the Nascent Soul could only float cross-legged above the Qi Sea.
The change in the Nascent Soul’s position within the Dantian still caused Hua Changxi some concern; she didn’t know if this would have any impact on her cultivation.
Then there was the wisp of Black Flame on the Nascent Soul’s heart.
Previously, during the crisis, the Black Flame had almost completely engulfed the Nascent Soul. Now that the danger was resolved, the Black Flame retreated to the heart, but it had grown several times larger than before, covering half of the heart.
This coverage was not a superficial engulfment of the Nascent Soul; rather, half of the heart, from the inside out, was burning with Black Flame.
Looking at the heart that had turned half black, Hua Changxi’s expression became somewhat serious. Black Flame amplifies emotions, and once reason is drowned by emotions, one is prone to doing unpredictable things.
This time, it was her will to survive that conquered her fear. If she had retreated even a little, she would have been overwhelmed by fear, fallen into complete helplessness, and could only passively await the arrival of death.
Thinking back to the situation at the time, Hua Changxi still felt a lingering fear.
Hua Changxi stroked the back of her right hand, feeling fortunate that she had believed the master from Xiangguo Temple and had the Awakening Mark imprinted on the back of her right hand.
Many times, when emotions flared up, she couldn’t even detect certain desires rising in her heart, which inadvertently nourished the Black Flame. The Awakening Mark would remind her the moment she was feeding the Black Flame.
Of course, the Awakening Mark could only remind her and make her aware of the desires in her heart. To completely resolve the issue of the Black Flame, she still needed to find the White Jade Lotus Petal, ignite the White Flame, and achieve Yin-Yang balance between the Black Flame and the White Flame.
After checking her body and confirming she was unharmed, Hua Changxi finally had the leisure to examine the bottom of the hot spring bath she was in.
Looking at the roots of the Fusang Divine Wood, Hua Changxi sighed, “If only I had known…”
If she had known there were Fusang Divine Wood roots at the bottom of the hot spring bath, she wouldn’t have had to risk entering the space rift.
However, there are no “if onlys” in reality. The situation at the time didn’t allow her any other choice. Moreover, she wasn’t sure if her ability to soak in the hot spring bath, besides being a Fire Spirit Body, was also due to her having subdued the Great Sun Divine Flame.
Hua Changxi summoned the Floating Light Sword, which was nurtured in her Dantian Qi Sea, picked it up, and swung it towards a slender tree root.
The center of this Formation Eye was guarded by the Artifact Saint Palace. When she condensed the Great Sun Divine Flame earlier, Master Baili and his disciple had looked at her as if she were a thief. The chances of her coming to this hot spring bath again in the future were likely slim. Since she had encountered it, she definitely had to chop off more Divine Wood Branches to take with her.
Although the Floating Light Sword couldn’t be pulled out, it was still very sharp when used with the Floating Light Sword Art to chop wood.
Chopping trees underwater was too strenuous. Hua Changxi was so tired she was panting. She chopped more than ten sections of tree roots, each as wide as a Sumeru and dozens of meters long, before stopping.
Hua Changxi wanted to put the Fusang Divine Wood roots into her Sumeru Mustard Seed Space. To her surprise, as soon as she put one in, she saw the spiritual river inside dry up at a visible rate. She was so frightened that she quickly took the root out.
“The Fusang Divine Wood carries powerful fire laws. Ordinary mustard seed spaces cannot store it.”
Hua Changxi thought for a moment and summoned the Shen Nong Cauldron.
“The Shen Nong Cauldron should be able to store Fusang Divine Wood roots, right?”
Hua Changxi was somewhat uncertain. Just as she released the Shen Nong Cauldron and prepared to move the spiritual plants and spiritual medicines inside to the Sumeru Mustard Seed Space on her neck, the riverbed beneath her feet suddenly began to vibrate.
The next moment, the white Soul Crystals spread around the Fusang Divine Wood roots floated up, flying towards the Shen Nong Cauldron like birds returning to their nest.
Seeing this, Hua Changxi had no time to be shocked. Before the Soul Crystals entered the Shen Nong Cauldron, she quickly transferred the supplies inside and then watched with her mouth agape as the Shen Nong Cauldron, like a giant beast with its maw wide open, continuously devoured the Soul Crystals at the bottom of the river.
As the nearby Soul Crystals were completely absorbed, the white light from the Soul Crystals around Hua Changxi’s location disappeared, and the riverbed gradually turned blood red.
Amidst the blood red, Hua Changxi noticed several areas where streams of white liquid were pouring down.
The places where the white liquid fell were precisely where the Soul Crystals were most abundant.
Hua Changxi swam towards a white stream, and when she saw that the white stream was flowing in from a black rift, her expression suddenly changed.
Space Rift!
The white stream was actually flowing from a space rift! There was a space rift at the bottom of this hot spring bath!
Hua Changxi went to look at other places with white streams, and each white stream was connected to a space rift.
Sensing the pure soul power emanating from the white stream, Hua Changxi made a guess. The Soul Crystals at the riverbed definitely did not appear out of thin air; they were most likely condensed from these white streams.
Hua Changxi looked at the Fusang Divine Wood roots at the riverbed, her expression gradually clearing. That’s right, since there were Divine Wood roots here, it must be connected to the space where the main trunk of the Divine Wood was located.
If she wasn’t mistaken, behind these space rifts was the space where the Fusang Divine Wood was, which she had previously ventured into.
Hua Changxi stared at a space rift, took out the Floating Light Sword, inserted it into the rift, condensed her spiritual power, and began to tear at the rift. Soon, she tore open a large opening.
As the rift widened, the white stream poured down with a rushing sound, like a waterfall.
Through the gaps in the rift, Hua Changxi saw the sky-obscuring Fusang Divine Wood, and also a brilliant white river winding around the divine wood like a sash.
