This was a valley on the western side of the Fourth Sea Island. From the sky, this valley looked very similar to the countless other valleys on the island: a vast and utterly barren basin without a trace of vegetation.
However, guided by the legacy black pearl, as Ye Chen flew above the valley and looked closely, he could sense faint fluctuations of the Heaven and Earth True Qi emanating from below.
Clearly, this valley was not barren at all. It was not as simple as it seemed and held secrets within!
After flying back and forth over the valley a few times, Ye Chen stopped at a certain spot in the sky above it.
Then, he formed a spell with his hands. Suddenly, the legacy black pearl, transformed from the wooden plaque, burst out from his body and flew towards the valley below with a thunderous speed.
When the black pearl reached just two or three zhang above the valley floor, it seemed to touch something and exploded with a bang.
Subsequently, the initially barren basin was suddenly filled with bright light, as if a screen of light had been torn open. In the midst of this radiance, the desolate valley basin transformed in an instant.
The previously vegetation-less wasteland suddenly surged with endless Heaven and Earth True Qi, as the valley seemed to transform into a prime cultivation sanctuary.
Looking down, at the very center of the valley, a spring pool about fourteen to fifteen meters in length and width appeared all of a sudden, with seven or eight huge spring eyes bubbling and spewing forth water—though these were no ordinary waters. All of them were red-colored Spiritual Springs, exuding endless Heaven and Earth True Qi!
Further beyond the spring pool, there stood three enormous willow trees growing at its edge.
These three vast willows were hundreds of meters tall, almost as if they were about to pierce through the valley itself!
Falling from the three willows were boundless willow branches, each hundreds of meters in length. What was magically unique was that these thousands of drooping branches, whether it was the leaves or the tips, all emitted a fiery red light similar to that of the Spiritual Spring's waters.
Fire Elemental Spring!
This was the Fire Elemental Spring boundary that the legacy black pearl obtained by Ye Chen had indicated!
The valley that originally seemed utterly barren was actually an illusion shown by the Illusionary Formation. Once this Illusionary Formation was broken by the legacy black pearl, the true form of the valley was revealed—as was this hidden treasure land, the "Fire Elemental Spring".
Standing in the void, Ye Chen could feel the wonder of the fiery red waters in the Fire Elemental Spring from a distance. Just by breathing in the mist from the springs of the valley, he could feel a surge of dense Heaven and Earth True Qi turning into Gang Yuan True Qi Spiritual Liquid as it entered his Spirit Sea.
If one could really cultivate by these waters, the speed of cultivation might increase by tens of times!
And according to what the legacy black pearl had said, the real treasure, the "Fire Elemental Spirit Stone", was hidden beneath the spring eyes of the pool. It was this Fire Elemental Spirit Stone that continuously produced the waters of the Fire Elemental Spring.
If one could obtain the Fire Elemental Spirit Stone and carry it around, one might even continuously draw Heaven and Earth True Qi from it to cultivate, until all the True Qi within the stone was completely refined!
Drawing Heaven and Earth True Qi from the Fire Elemental Spirit Stone for cultivation was much faster than directly drawing it from the void, and it could also help replenish depleted True Qi. It was a remarkable relic left by the ancient tomb owner, very useful for those who cultivate True Qi!
Just as Ye Chen broke the Valley Illusionary Formation and revealed the Fire Elemental Spring, the surrounding Heaven and Earth True Qi began to shift.
The rich Heaven and Earth True Qi had an endless allure, and in an instant, it attracted the giant beasts from within a radius of several dozen miles around the valley.
While Ye Chen was still inspecting the three giant willow trees and the "Fire Elemental Spring" beside them, "howls" could be heard as five Great Demons, each with a body length of several tens of meters, flew from the surrounding area towards the Fire Elemental Spring below with explosive speed.
By their actions, these Great Demons knew of the spring's wonders and sought to obtain its waters!
The "Fire Elemental Spring" was the treasure Ye Chen sought to claim, and he certainly would not let these Great Demons succeed.
However, just as Ye Chen was about to intervene and stop these Great Demons, a strange change below caused him to halt his movements.
Just as those five flying Great Demons approached within a few dozen meters of the Fire Elemental Spring, the three giant willow trees by the pool suddenly underwent a transformation.
The previously tranquil willows, as if stimulated suddenly, burst into action as their drooping branches shot up explosively, with a "swish, swish, swish" sound as the countless willow branches hundreds of meters long danced wildly in the air.
With the fiery red light twinkling at the tips of the branches, the sprawling willow strands all turned fiery red, making the three giant willows look like a burst of sparkling fireworks!
As the five flying Great Demons continued to descend, dozens of willow branches nearest to their flight path suddenly shot out like lightning towards the demons.
The speed of the willow branches' attack was simply inconceivable!
Even Ye Chen, who was observing from the side, had his expression change drastically.
Because Ye Chen found that the speed of these branches bursting forth was even faster than the hand speed of many Half-Step Rotating Pill masters!
In the blink of an eye, the five mid-tier Great Demons were pierced through by the willow branches.
As the willow branches pierced through the bodies of these five mid-tier Great Demons, the fiery red light on them flickered, immediately pulverizing everything inside the demons' bodies!
These three willow trees had actually killed five mid-tier Great Demons with a single strike from their branches!
After killing the five mid-tier Great Demons, dozens of willow branches shook and flung the corpses, smashing them loudly onto the ground.
Afterward, the fiery red glow on the branches slowly faded away, and the branches drooped down once more, with the three giant willows returning to their previous stillness.
From the moment the flying Great Demons charged towards the Spiritual Spring to when the willows burst forth and their branches slew the demons, all happened in an instant.
This astonishing exchange also surprised Ye Chen, who was watching from the side.
These three willow trees were by no means ordinary; they were more like three peerless masters guarding the Spiritual Spring!
"Their attack speed and lethality are even stronger than those of the Half-Step Rotating Pill masters I've fought against; these willows are extraordinary!"
Just as Ye Chen wanted to test the might of the willows, once more, dozens of Great Demons rushed toward this valley from the sky above and the earth below, and the number of demons behind them kept increasing.
These demons did not even notice Ye Chen in the sky; as soon as they arrived at the valley, they rushed towards the Spiritual Spring, just like the previous five flying Great Demons had done.
And when these demons neared the Spiritual Spring, the three giant willows erupted once again, with the branches waging battle against countless Great Demons.
These demons included low-tier, mid-tier, and even high-tier Great Demons!
But no matter how formidable these demons were, they couldn't break through the defense of the three willow trees, and all were pierced to death within forty to fifty meters of the Spiritual Spring.
Before long, the corpses of the Great Demons piled up on the ground like small hills!
The number of Great Demons killed by the three giant willows had surpassed several hundred!