Chapter 500: Below Hell is Heaven? Divine Beast Fuzhu!

Deep underground in a world of ice crystals, Ning Fei approached the faint blue flowers.

"These flowers have no scent. None at all."

"Water is plentiful down here, but where are they drawing their nutrients from?"

"The existence of this subterranean world is truly unexpected."

Ning Fei spoke at a leisurely pace.

"I'm currently over 2,300 meters from the entrance."

"It looks like I can keep going further down."

"I wonder what lies ahead."

With the illumination from his mobile phone, the viewers could see the surrounding scenery clearly.

The blue flowers were stunning. Under the phone's light, every petal looked exquisite and surreal.

"I'm a botany grad student, yet I have no idea what family these flowers belong to. This is amazing!"

"These flowers must be an entirely independent species."

"What do they rely on to survive?"

"They can't survive on water alone. If I had to guess, the rocks must contain abundant organic nutrients to nourish flowers like this."

"I thought we'd discover unknown animals in the subterranean world. I never expected such peculiar plants."

"I still feel like the existence of these ice layers is completely unrealistic."

The viewers' discussions grew increasingly heated.

Countless people both at home and abroad were discussing Ning Fei's live stream.

Numerous news outlets caught wind of the situation, and reporters from various media organizations were already drafting related articles.

Ning Fei's expedition had sparked massive worldwide reactions. It was a true international phenomenon!

From the System, Ning Fei learned that the Fuzhu was located another two hundred meters further down.

A distance of two hundred meters might not sound far, but a sheer drop of two hundred meters deep underground defied imagination.

"The deeper we go, the lower the temperature drops," Ning Fei said.

"It's already below freezing."

"If we keep going, it might reach around negative 20 degrees."

"When coming to a place like this, it's best to bring professional heating equipment or wear extra layers."

Ning Fei spoke in a relaxed tone, despite wearing nothing but a form-fitting diving suit.

The viewers were rendered utterly speechless.

"Good lord, you're telling us to bundle up while you're wearing just that?"

"Besides, if you wore a bunch of clothes, how would you even dive all the way down here? It's a paradox."

"Perhaps ordinary people will never be able to reach this place anyway."

The glacial world stretched endlessly downward, its path lined with flowers emitting a faint blue glow.

The viewers had never seen such a spectacle.

Everything was becoming increasingly surreal.

Was this really a scene that existed in reality?

Perhaps, below hell, there was heaven?

What lay at the very end?

"My heart is pounding! I have a feeling Temple Master Ning is about to discover something incredible!"

Everyone's attention was fully fixed on the live stream feed.

Every single frame surpassed their wildest expectations.

Ning Fei wondered, 'Is the Fuzhu sleeping? How does it even sleep?'

'Or is it frozen within the ice?'

The Fuzhu was a breathtakingly beautiful divine beast recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

It took the form of a deer covered in soft, white fur, sporting two majestic pairs of antlers. It possessed the power to command water and ride the clouds and mist.

The descriptions in the Classic of Mountains and Seas might have been somewhat exaggerated, but its physical appearance shouldn't have deviated much.

Ning Fei continued his descent. He had been walking for a very long time.

It was a downward tunnel, surrounded by nothing but ice and flowers.

"Why does it feel like this path is looping?!"

"Fuck! Don't scare me. Is this some infinite loop of hell?!"

"Stop talking nonsense. The positions of the flowers are clearly different, alright?"

"Your observation skills are terrible. The environment has been changing the whole time. You're just getting dizzy from staring at the flowers."

"Just how far has he walked?!"

The viewers chattered endlessly.

With every step forward, Ning Fei was relentlessly breaking records.

Everyone wanted to see just how far this record, authored by Ning Fei himself, would stretch before it stopped.

Finally, he neared the end.

Ning Fei turned off the live stream first.

He didn't want the world to see the Fuzhu.

Yet, when Ning Fei tucked away his phone, took a few more steps, and arrived at his final destination, a flicker of astonishment flashed across his face.

There was no divine beast Fuzhu waiting for him.

Instead, resting in the depths of the earth, was a solid, ice-blue egg!

The live stream was dark, leaving the viewers wailing in protest, utterly blind to what was unfolding in the depths.

The chat room was completely flooded with question marks.

"An egg!"

"This is the Fuzhu?!"

Ning Fei reached out and touched the blue shell.

It was massive, roughly the size of a washbasin.

The moment his hand made contact with it, the System's notification chimed in his mind:

"Ding! Detected that the host has found the Fuzhu Egg."

"Reward: Divine Beast Space."

"Divine Beast Space: A place to temporarily store divine beasts. Divine beasts cannot feed while inside, so please ensure they are released in a timely manner."

The System's prompt brought a look of joy to Ning Fei's face.

He had just been wondering how to haul such a massive egg out of there, and the System had provided the perfect skill right on time.

This made things far more convenient.

"System, isn't the Fuzhu a deer? Why is it an egg?"

Ning Fei pressed further.

"In ancient times, the Fuzhu was severely injured. It exhausted its remaining strength to produce an offspring, which manifested as this egg."

The System answered.

"Isn't the Fuzhu a divine beast? Not even Gonggong was its match, so how could it get hurt?"

This time, the System remained silent.

"Alright then."

Ning Fei shrugged.

He knew that whenever he asked a critical question, the System would selectively play dead.

It seemed something incredibly catastrophic had happened in the past.

Ning Fei placed the Fuzhu Egg into the Divine Beast Space.

The most pressing matter was to get out of there first, then figure out a way to hatch the divine beast.

Once the divine beast egg was stored, Ning Fei quickly turned the live stream back on.

"It's back, it's back! We have a picture!"

"What just happened?"

"Why did the screen go black? You scared me half to death!"

Ning Fei then explained, "When I was diving earlier, some water got into the mobile phone. Combined with the low temperatures, it shut down automatically."

"It just finished restarting."

His explanation was perfectly reasonable, so the viewers didn't press the issue.

"I have reached the end of the cave."

"The current depth is 2,523 meters."

"This is also the deepest I can possibly go."

"The Krubera Cave will continue to settle downward."

"Perhaps many years from now, new explorers will arrive and break my record."

"But for now, this record belongs to Huaxia!"

"With that, the expedition is over. It's time to head back!"

Ning Fei panned the camera to show the viewers the end of the cavern. Naturally, he carefully avoided the spot where the Fuzhu Egg had been resting, wary of anyone spotting something unusual.

There was no path forward, only a solid wall of rock sealed behind thick layers of ice.

Ning Fei began retracing his steps.

The phone's light couldn't pierce very far into the darkness; the viewers could only see about a meter ahead through the rear camera.

No one noticed what was happening as Ning Fei made his return journey through the tunnel.

Wherever he passed, the blue flowers gave off a faint, haunting glow.

Wherever he stepped, the blue light beside him would flare with striking intensity.

These flowers seemed to be welcoming him, or perhaps thanking him. More than anything, they appeared to be bowing in submission to him.

Ning Fei felt that he was drawing ever closer to the truth of ancient times.