Nine Springs

In the Underworld there are nine lakes, each corresponding to a different color and law. At the center is a whirlpool and staircase leading down to the Gates of Hell.
== Introduction: Qu's memories ==
Qu Jianying continued to advance. There was no way to sense the flow of time here, but eventually she reached a giant whirlpool.
There were nine lakes, all different colors: Red, orange, yellow, green, azure, blue, violet, white, and black赤、橙、黄、绿、青、蓝、紫、白、黑 lake water was gathering here, forming a gigantic whirlpool.
"This is the legendary Nine Springs? Below the Nine Springs is the land of the dead?" Long Chen's hair stood on end. Were the stories told by the common people actually true?
If they were, what of the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guardians of the underworld? What of the Black and White Deities of the Dead? What of the Asuras of Purgatory?
Having cultivated to this point, he now saw things on his cultivation path that were only spoken of in stories by the weakest commoners of the land.
Qu Jianying paused where the nine springs gathered. The water was flowing, but the wooden logs didn't move. The strange monsters of the lake had also vanished.
Long Chen carefully examined the nine springs. He felt like he was close to grasping some kind of mysterious element to them, but then that feeling vanished.
"These nine springs are definitely hiding some kind of secret." Long Chen was sure about this. This was a kind of intuition that he felt very clearly.
Regretfully, all he was seeing was some memories. Many things could not be transmitted through just the five senses. He was also only able to experience it as Qu Jianying had experienced it.
Qu Jianying continued forward. A straight set of stairs appeared descending into the center of the whirlpool.
When Qu Jianying reached the bottom, Long Chen saw that the waterfall of lake water was actually flowing in reverse here, forming a strange cycle.
== NSHBA connection: Chen and Wu's journey ==
The two of them eventually reached the end of the floating logs, and the whirlpool of nine different colored pools appeared.
When they personally witnessed it, this sight was even more stunning. They felt majestic energy gathering. It was like all the Daos of the world were concentrating here, as if this was the pinnacle of the world.
When he saw the nine-colored whirlpool, Long Chen felt his 108,000 stars slowly circulating.
"As expected, my senses weren't wrong. These nine lakes have some kind of connection to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art," muttered Long Chen.
Through Qu Jianying's vision, he had immediately felt an urge to come here when he had seen these lakes. That was the main reason why he had decided to take this risk.
Or rather than saying that the nine lakes were related to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, perhaps there was some aspect of them that was based on the same concept as the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.
The two of them stood on the edge of the whirlpool. The flow of the nine liquids was like the cycle of life. There was joy, sorrow, anger, the cycle of birth and death. It was all in an endless cycle.
"These nine lakes are a manifestation of the Heavenly Daos. They contain the principles of life, death, and reincarnation, the mysteries of the universe's rise and fall. If I could comprehend them, wouldn't I be able to ascend in the future?" said the old man emotionally.
However, that was impossible. No matter how much he comprehended here, that comprehension would vanish once he left. It would be like a dream that he couldn't remember.
Long Chen went down the whirlpool with the old man. There was a straight staircase that the two of them went down.
With the nine-colored waterfall around them, Long Chen felt the turning of the cosmos within the water. It was like he was lost in the river of time. Time seemed to be speeding by yet also standing still. That feeling was very difficult to describe.
Long Chen and the old man continued downward. When they were still some distance from the bottom, the waterfall began to slow down and flow back upward. It was a shocking sight.
== Whirlpool and staircase ==
Since he had entered the Netherworld with the old man, he could only descend into the whirlpool from the black lake's path.
In the other regions, he was unable to descend down. That was why the only thing he could do was go all the way around through the other regions. At the bottom of the whirlpool, he was unable to find any other path up. Then as soon as he had gone back up the staircase in the black region, even it had vanished, so he couldn't even go back down.
This Yellow Springs Path was too strange. It had its own incomprehensible laws.
== Core region ==
"I guarantee there are treasures. When I was collecting the life spirit water, I got curious and went deeper to see where the nine springs gather. There are countless precious stones there with frightening fluctuations. The suction there is also very powerful, so I didn't dare to go. I'm just wondering if you have any method of handling it," said Xie Qianqian.
The whirlpool of the nine lakes flowed down in a waterfall and then flowed back up. That was where the nine springs gathered. The only possibilities were that there would be no treasures, or whatever treasures there were had to be stunningly precious.
The two of them were descending deeper and deeper. Long Chen estimated that this place might be even deeper than the Martial Heaven Sea-Ring. However, despite the immense pressure, the flying boat was fine.
The flying boat was still descending. A general image appeared in Long Chen's head. The nine springs formed a circular sea, with the whirlpool at the center and the Gates of Hell at the bottom.
However, despite the Gates of Hell being located not far from the bottom of the nine springs, they weren't actually the bottom of the nine springs. That was completely incomprehensible.
Everything was white as they descended. However, after a while, intense fluctuations came from below, and the flying boat began to shake.
"Look! That's the core of the nine springs!" Xie Qianqian carefully controlled the flying boat as she pointed in a certain direction.
Long Chen looked at where Xie Qianqian was pointing and saw a nine-colored whirlpool that had a large black hole in its center.
When he saw the red, orange, yellow, green, azure, blue, violet, black, and white colors intertwining, he suddenly felt the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art form an indescribable resonance with it. It began to circulate on its own, and the Five Star Battle Armor almost activated.
"Will the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art follow these nine colors as well? The first five stars caused the divine ring to become red, orange, yellow, green, and azure. Nine stars... nine springs. Is there some kind of connection? But why do I feel like that's not entirely right either?" wondered Long Chen.
He felt the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art react to the gathering of the nine springs, but there also seemed to be something different about them. One was a dragon, one was a snake. They looked similar but were completely different species. This feeling was indescribable. To sum up, this feeling was simply very strange.
"Long Chen, do you have any way to get those crystals on the ground?" Seeing that Long Chen was staring blankly, Xie Qianqian thought he was stunned by the sight, so she pulled his attention to the treasures.
Only then did Long Chen recover. Now, they were even closer to the whirlpool, and the flying boat was constantly shaking.
There was a huge twister where the nine streams gathered. It was roaring like a dragon.
If someone were to be sucked into that twister, they would probably be instantly torn to pieces.
=== Crystals ===
There are 
*Life spirit crystals
*Blood Soul Stones
However, not far from there, there was a plot of land that had been eroded for countless years. Many criss-crossing and deep ditches were present on it.
The deep ditches revealed large crystals at the bottom. Each of them was several meters long, and they came in different colors.
"The flying boat is unable to get any closer. Otherwise, we might get sucked into the core," said Xie Qianqian. This was the limit.
However, even at this distance, the closest white-colored crystal was several miles away.
The surrounding crystals were quickly pulled out. There were more ahead, but they were too close to the core, making the two of them not dare to approach. They began to slowly roam the outer regions, looking to get some more crystals.
However, the hurricane at the core rapidly expanded. It came without any warning at all.
However, the flying boat had just started moving when a terrifying suction force came over them. The flying boat began to fly toward the hurricane out of their control.
== Springs ==
=== Yellow lake ===
*Yellow Springs Path: bridge, chain monsters
=== Black lake ===
*Black lake: contains death poison black water
=== Orange lake ===
With his speed increased, he quickly left the black lake and arrived at an orange lake. In this region, it was like gravity had suddenly lightened, and as a result, his quick paddling caused his boat to fly into the air.
"It seems each region represents a different law. Whatever, getting the white water is more important. Time is definitely different here. If a hundred years passed in the outside world while I'm in here, that would be bad."
It was impossible to sense the flow of time here. Although a hundred years was a bit exaggerated, if a few years had passed when he returned, then who knew what could have happened? The Xuantian Dao Sect was still surrounded by powerful enemies.
Long Chen quickly crossed the orange lake. When he flew over the bridge of floating logs, a lifeform was swaying on top of it, and it looked like it couldn't maintain its center of gravity.
=== Violet lake ===
Long Chen left the orange region and entered the violet region. As soon as he did so, he sensed something. He hastily put away the boat and stepped onto the lake.
Countless lightning runes appeared on the surface of the lake. With five-colored lightning wrapped around him, Long Chen directly ran across it.
This violet lake actually contained thunderforce. With his own five-colored lightning, this thunderforce was unable to do anything to him.
However, he still felt a stinging sensation on his feet. That made him very curious. His thunderforce was one of pure Yang power, while the lake's thunderforce was a strange Yin lightning. A portion of its power was able to bypass the protection of the five-colored lightning. However, it wasn't even an injury, just a stinging sensation. Although Long Chen couldn't fly, he was as fast as lightning as he crossed this region.
A lightning beast suddenly appeared, blocking Long Chen's path. It was a strange lightning fish. It opened its mouth, attempting to swallow him.
Long Chen directly slapped the fish away. However, he remembered not to kill this fish creature. Otherwise, it would cause even more of them to attack him.
=== Blue lake ===
Ice lake.
The blue water was frighteningly still, but he felt a terrifying danger from this lake.
Although Long Chen managed to stop himself, the fish behind him didn't have emergency brakes. Long Chen dodged its attempt to swallow him, and it shot into the blue region.
It crashed into the surface of the lake. But rather than raising a shower of water, not even a single drop was displaced.
Time seemed to stand still. The instant the lightning fish touched the surface of the water, time seemed to freeze. It stayed in its original posture, just barely touching the surface of the water.
"What terrifying Ice Qi."
Long Chen was shocked to see it suddenly come to stop. However, frost crystals quickly began to appear around it. Those crystals were incredibly small and almost impossible to notice.
That made Long Chen's heart pound. This lightning fish did not possess an actual physical body. It was composed of lightning. Just how terrifying did this Ice Qi have to be in order to freeze it?
Unfortunately, he couldn't take any of it like how he had taken the black water. If he did, probably all the World Trees and precious medicinal ingredients in his primal chaos space would be destroyed.
The Netherworld was definitely a good place with all kinds of killer items. However, he didn't have enough time to study them.
=== Red lake ===
*Red lake: contains poisonous blood water
=== White lake ===
The white lake quickly appeared ahead of him. However, once he got close to it, the fish monster refused to advance no matter how Long Chen struck it. It seemed it was absolutely terrified of the white lake.
Long Chen could only release it. However, now his chains had two large chunks of flesh on it. The fish monster let out a roar and fled for its life. It didn't dare to do anything to Long Chen anymore.
Long Chen slowly paddled his way across the remaining distance. He sensed vast life energy coming from the white lake.
The white lake contains White water.
== Bridge ==
The two of them continued onward through the gate. As expected, a long bridge appeared on the other side.
The bridge was covered in dense smoke, and countless figures were roaming across it. There were men and women, young and old. They were staring vacantly.
When he had seen them through Qu Jianying's vision, he hadn't sensed anything in particular about them. However, this time, he clearly sensed their spiritual fluctuations.
They weren't the spiritual fluctuations of normal people. Their spiritual fluctuations were completely calm.
== Creatures ==
* There are chain monsters around the bridge.
* Long Chen and Wu Guangyuan meet a Red-haired man here.
==References==
Category:Underworld