Chapter 507 - 504: The Three Great Divine Springs and the World Tree Root
Qin Feng had spent several days walking along the border between the Undead Realm and the Mist Country, observing in secret for quite a while.
Because right when he had arrived, he had seen from afar an evil dragon, equivalent to a True Immortal, entering the Undead Realm to devour souls, which led to Qin Feng developing a deep wariness toward that icy nation ahead, so he did not enter immediately.
However, the border between the two countries was simply too vast, and the number of evil dragons and poisonous snakes was clearly not high. Unlike the Undead Realm where undead souls could be seen everywhere, Qin Feng, even after traveling along the border for quite a few places over the past few days, had only seen a sparse number of dragons and snakes flying out of the Mist Country!
This left Qin Feng completely unable to speculate about the actual strength of the Mist Country.
In the end, Qin Feng still chose to step onto the cold icy lands, heading deeper into the Mist Country.
At first, he was extremely cautious, afraid he might encounter an overpoweringly strong evil dragon. However, after walking for two days without seeing one, the tension Qin Feng had been holding eased somewhat.
It seemed that the number of dragons and snakes in the Mist Country was indeed not too many.
He quickened his pace; since he hadn’t encountered any for so long, he might as well go deeper and see.
The evil dragons and poisonous snakes fed on the roots of the World Tree, so their dens must be near the Hevalmir Spring where the World Tree took root. Even if there were others elsewhere, the numbers would not be high.
As for those dragons and snakes that left the Hevalmir Spring, they were probably just bored and wanting to change their taste.
Thinking of this, Qin Feng deliberately sought out a river.
After all, every river in this country originated from the Hevalmir Spring. He just needed to follow the river upstream, and he would surely find the dragons’ and snakes’ gathering place.
However, he couldn’t get too close; although Nidhogg, the most powerful evil dragon, might not pay attention to such a weak existence as himself, there was no guarantee that other formidable evil dragons wouldn’t take a fancy to him and swallow him on a whim.
Right now, Qin Feng just wanted to observe this realm. If he could get a distant look at the extent to which the World Tree’s roots were damaged, that would be even better, because then he could speculate the specific time of Ragnarok’s arrival.
Even if he couldn’t figure it out, he could copy the scene onto an Imprint Jade Talisman to take back and ask the Gui Ling Ancestor to take a look.
With the Gui Ling Ancestor’s powerful deduction abilities, he should be able to derive something. Incidentally, he could gain some understanding of these evil dragons and poisonous snakes, letting the cultivators of the Cultivation World understand their war power!
With such thoughts in mind, Qin Feng began to search for rivers everywhere. After half a day, he hadn’t found a major river but did find an underground river covered by a layer of ice.
He wasn’t fussy; an underground river would do, after all, every river in this world was the transformation of the water flow originating from a single source.
Qin Feng was actually quite interested in what was touted as the Unending Spring – Hevalmir. He thought that it must be a divine spring naturally formed by the creation of the world, from the very beginning.
The water that flowed within it was likely a kind of True Water evolved according to the World Principle of this realm, akin to the Divine Items like the Tianyi True Water and Xuanming Heavy Water known to the Cultivation World.
Otherwise, just relying on one spring could not possibly be called the source of all rivers, especially since it had attracted the World Tree to root its main roots within the spring’s eye.
Therefore, each drop of water from the Unending Spring could be called a treasure, and if it were possible to take some back, perhaps these True Waters could be used to refine some Divine Skills or Spiritual Treasures, and their power would undoubtedly be significant.
Moreover, just like the Heaven and Earth Spirit Fire, True Water is also a treasure that can be absorbed and refined within the body. Not only does it possess great power, but it can also give rise to many variations, and Qin Feng would naturally entertain some thoughts about it.
Apart from the endlessly flowing Hevalmir Spring, Qin Feng was also very interested in the other two mystical springs rooted by the World Tree.
Especially the Wisdom Spring, it is said that Odin, the King of All Gods, had acquired the knowledge of the world and obtained great wisdom after drinking the water from the Wisdom Spring.
Qin Feng didn’t know whether the Wisdom Spring gathered all the knowledge of this world, or if the spring water could inspire Spiritual Intelligence and enhance wisdom. However, since it could attract the King of All Gods to visit in person, its miraculous nature was evident!
As for the last Urd Spring, it’s said to be the Spring of Destiny, shrouded in utmost mystery. Sadly, that spring resided in the upper Divine Country, within the area surrounded by the gods, and Qin Feng had no opportunity to access that Divine Spring.
Additionally, he innately felt somewhat uneasy about the three goddesses guarding the Urd Spring and had even cautioned Li Miaozhen before, advising her not to recklessly approach the three goddesses guarding that spring when in the Divine Realm.
Because in any world, a divine being holding the Power of Destiny has various miraculous abilities, he feared Li Miaozhen might be seen through by those three Destiny Goddesses, which was why he had warned her early on not to entertain the idea of the Urd Spring.
Qin Feng released his Divine Sense, following the direction of the subterranean river upstream.
He wound his way along, following the dark river beneath the ice layers through countless twists and turns. Just as Qin Feng was feeling weary and prepared to fly directly northward along the direction of the chilling winds in search of the source, suddenly, he heard a series of strange squeaking and crunching sounds.
“Hmm?”
Qin Feng paused slightly, tilting his head to listen attentively for a moment, then carefully made his way towards the direction from which the sounds were emanating.
After rounding an ice mountain, Qin Feng saw three Evil Dragons, each dozens of feet in size, sprawled across a broken tree root in a glacial valley, gnawing at it.
These Evil Dragons had twin wings on their backs, their bodies pitch-black, and their hard scale armor seemed to be forged from Refined Iron, gleaming with a black luster.
They appeared somewhat similar to the Giant Dragon Clan, but upon closer inspection, there were significant differences.
The Evil Dragons not only had fiercer and more terrifying features, but their heads were also crowned with several sharp horns, and their limbs bore sharp claws; however, the sharpest part had to be the fangs in their mouths.
Qin Feng could distinctly sense the tenacity of that tree root, yet these Evil Dragons were gnawing at the tree root as if sharpening their teeth, forcibly biting it off piece by piece and swallowing it.
“Is that… the World Tree Root?”
Qin Feng gazed questioningly at the tree root suppressed under the Evil Dragons, perplexed by the root’s thinness.
In fact, a root about a zhang thick would not be considered small elsewhere, but if it belonged to the World Tree that supported three worlds and propped up the vast lands of nine realms, then it seemed too delicate and slender.
“Could this be a root hair of the World Tree?”
Qin Feng thought to himself.
It seemed that this was the only explanation that made any sense.
After all, evil dragons weren’t known to nibble on just any tree’s roots, one couldn’t really consider them vegetarians.
If they did eat plants, they only consumed the World Tree!
In fact, Qin Feng felt that evil dragons should be more interested in the power of souls, but it was only because Nidhogg wanted to precipitate the twilight of All Gods that it tirelessly gnawed at the World Tree, which didn’t mean it truly enjoyed the taste of roots.
Otherwise, when Odin sent those evil souls into Hevalmir Spring, it wouldn’t have slowed its gnawing on the World Tree because it was greedy for food!
Qin Feng squinted his eyes as he looked down at the evil dragons beneath the glacier.
These were several dragons equivalent to the Purple Mansion Peak, their strength and size almost on par with that of the White Dragon, which made Qin Feng very pleased.
Although he hadn’t encountered many evil dragons on his journey, this was the first time he had seen those that belonged to the Purple Mansion Realm.
Those that had previously flown into the Undead Realm to devour powerful dead souls each had the strength above the Primordial Spirit Realm.
Qin Feng had initially thought that because Nidhogg was too powerful, all its offspring would possess at least the strength of the Dharma Image Primordial Spirit Realm; now it appeared this was not the case—it was just that these less powerful evil dragons weren’t prone to freely leaving the Mist Country.
Aside from these, he had also encountered a few poisonous snakes.
But those snakes were also powerful, and Qin Feng hadn’t provoked them lightly.
Qin Feng glanced around to make sure there were no other evil dragons in the glacier, and then he grew bolder.
The strength of these dragons wasn’t too formidable, perfect for him to take action.
Although dealing with three evil dragons no weaker than the White Dragon would definitely not be easy, Qin Feng was confident in his subordinates’ increased combat strength, along with the power he wielded when merged with the Ruyi Golden Snake, to confront these evil dragons.
Besides, he had been waiting for so long to finally encounter three relatively weaker dragons—should he let this chance slip by and wait to face even stronger beings later?
What was more critical, he had his eye on a root of the World Tree.
Legend had it that the long spear in the hands of Odin, the King of Gods, was made from a branch of the World Tree.
Qin Feng thought that if a branch could be made into the top divine artifact of this realm and help Odin rule the entire world, then the roots should be just as remarkable.
Although the root was minuscule compared to the vast World Tree, akin to a tiny root hair, Qin Feng wasn’t picky.
It was a windfall, after all, and since he didn’t have the strength to forcibly break off a thicker root from where the World Tree was rooted, he was quite satisfied with what he had found.
Thus, Qin Feng immediately summoned his many spiritual beasts to prepare for battle.
The moment these spiritual beasts appeared, the three evil dragons that had been gnawing at the roots inside the glacier all stood up, their ferocious eyes filled with doubtful looks directed this way.
They were puzzled and didn’t understand how so many different kinds of monsters had suddenly appeared here.
After all, this was the Mist Country, their icy and snowy domain, where aside from a few creatures they used as food that could barely survive in this realm, they had never seen any other life dare to come here.
Today, they had witnessed something novel!
Oh, besides these monsters, there was also a member of the Human Clan!
It wasn’t that they were deliberately ignoring Qin Feng; it was just that, compared to the massive sizes of beasts like the White Dragon and the Ghost-Faced Spider, his figure was rather minute and easily overlooked standing among them.
Before the amazement faded from the eyes of the dragons, suddenly, they were startled.
For those monsters that had appeared out of nowhere were actually initiating an attack on them.
This surprise was immediately followed by a surge of rage within the dragons.
The Mist Country was their territory, where they were the aggressors against other creatures; when had it become the turn for other monsters to start attacking them?
The insulted dragons, now furious, cast aside the World Tree roots beneath them and flapped their wings with all their might, ready to engage in a fight with these invaders.
Whoosh…
Before the evil dragons could mount their attack, the White Dragon spat out a scorching breath of dragon fire straight at the fastest one among them.
The evil dragon flapped its wings, twisted its body, and deftly dodged to the side.
Boom—the dragon’s breath hit the glacier behind, instantly melting a huge hole through it and turning the Cold Ice into flowing water!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The other spiritual beasts also launched their attacks.
The Qingluan, not to be outdone, opened its mouth and spewed out a blast of Pure Yang Flame, its force rivalling that of the White Dragon’s breath.
The Ghost-Faced Spider, figuring it would be difficult to trap the evil dragons with its webs since they were airborne, and considering that fire would be more effective against dragons in this snowy realm, also let out streams of black Soul Burning Demon Fire.