Obtaining the Origin Seed

Jun Anshi's movements remained fluid and her footsteps light, as if the time-dilation field simply did not exist for her.

The power of her Temporal Dao Body was displayed to the fullest in this moment—not by resisting the laws of time, but by resonating with them, making herself a part of time itself.

Seeing the Time Spirit Deer about to take this opportunity to escape, Jun Anshi suddenly gathered her strength and accelerated.

In the next instant, she arrived right in front of the Time Spirit Deer.

Reaching out her right hand, her fingertips touched the deer's forehead.

The Time Spirit Deer's movements abruptly stiffened.

A strange light flashed in its eyes—not fear, nor anger, but an indescribable emotion, like liberation, or perhaps relief.

It glanced at Jun Anshi, her silhouette reflected in its purple-gold pupils.

Then, its phantom-like form began to fade.

Purple-gold light spilled from its body, slowly converging into the palm of Jun Anshi's hand.

The Time Spirit Deer's figure grew fainter and fainter, until it completely dissipated into the air.

And in Jun Anshi's palm, there was now a crystal core the size of a fingernail.

The moment the Time Spirit Deer disappeared, the time-dilation field enveloping the clearing vanished with it.

The cultivators who had been frozen in slow motion suddenly regained their normal speed of movement.

Then, all eyes fell upon Jun Anshi.

To be precise, they fell upon the silver-white crystal core in her palm.

Greed.

It was undisguised, naked greed.

Their gazes were like starving wolves staring at a piece of fat meat, carrying an almost instinctive eagerness.

The Origin Seed of the Great Dao—to Soul Formation realm cultivators, this was a supreme treasure capable of changing their entire destiny.

With it, cultivating the laws of time would yield twice the result with half the effort; if refined to the extreme, one could condense the foundation of the Great Dao, paving a smooth path to immortality.

And now, this Origin Seed was in the hands of a seemingly young female cultivator.

Jun Anshi felt their stares.

Her expression remained unchanged as she raised her left hand, a token appearing in her palm.

"I am a disciple of the Celestial Human Holy Land."

Her voice was not loud, but it clearly reached the ears of everyone present. Her tone was calm, yet it carried an unquestionable confidence.

"If you have the guts to rob me, you had better consider whether your factions can withstand the wrath of the Holy Land."

As soon as these words were spoken, the greed on many cultivators' faces instantly faded by more than half.

Celestial Human Holy Land.

These words carried far too much weight in the current Jiuxiao Realm.

So much weight that no faction dared to easily provoke them.

So much weight that even offending an ordinary disciple of the Holy Land could bring about total annihilation.

Many cultivators hesitated no longer, turning around and leaving rapidly, terrified of being implicated.

However, a small fraction of the cultivators remained standing where they were.

The expressions on their faces constantly shifted as they repeatedly weighed the pros and cons in their hearts.

The temptation of the Origin Seed was simply too great, so great that it made them start considering things they would normally never dare to think about.

The deterrent power of the Celestial Human Holy Land was indeed strong, but what if... what if they did it cleanly?

Wealth and status are sought amidst danger. This was the Origin Seed of the Great Dao of Time; if they missed this chance, they would likely never encounter another one in their lifetimes.

They secretly calculated in their minds: The other party is only one person, while we have over a dozen people here, including several cultivators at the peak of the Soul Formation realm. By joining forces, we can definitely kill her with ease and seize the Origin Seed.

Moreover, this was the Immortal Emperor's Secret Realm.

As long as they killed Jun Anshi and destroyed her corpse to erase all traces, preventing her from returning to the Holy Land's team to report, then no matter how powerful the Celestial Human Holy Land was, they couldn't re-enter this Secret Realm, nor could they trace it back to them.

Feeling the powerful aura of the Great Dao emanating from the Origin Seed, cultivators from two factions ultimately failed to resist the temptation. Evil grew from their audacity; they gritted their teeth fiercely, a flash of absolute resolve in their eyes.

They looked at each other, secretly exchanging a glance, their minds already made up—they would join forces to rob her.

Suddenly, they dashed out, their figures like arrows. Carrying fierce spiritual energy, they lunged toward Jun Anshi together.

Even if the Great Dao of Time wasn't their own destined Great Dao, taking the Origin Seed out would still allow them to exchange it with their sects for an abundant amount of cultivation resources.

Whether it was pills, dharma artifacts, or cultivation techniques, they could pick and choose as they pleased, and their subsequent path of immortality would be much smoother.

At this thought, the apprehension in their hearts completely dissipated, leaving only thick greed and killing intent. Their attacks became increasingly vicious, every move lethal, all wanting to be the first to snatch the Origin Seed from Jun Anshi's hands.

Jun Anshi gave a cold snort.

She gently rolled the Origin Seed of Time in her right hand, slowly injecting a wisp of the power of time into it.

The next second, the powerful time-dilation field from before reappeared, enveloping all the dozen or so cultivators rushing toward her.

The movements of those cultivators instantly became extremely sluggish, as if they had sunk into a quagmire, and their attacks immediately stalled.

A cold glint flashed in Jun Anshi's eyes.

She withdrew her disciple token and simultaneously summoned her purple-gold spear. On the spear, the power of time and spiritual energy intertwined, exuding a sharp, overbearing might.

Her figure flashed as she weaved among the sluggish cultivators. She thrust her spear, every strike precise, aiming straight for their vitals without showing the slightest mercy.

In just a few short breaths of time, all the cultivators who had rushed up to snatch the Origin Seed collapsed to the ground, devoid of life.

Jun Anshi stood tall as she pulled back her spear. With a twirl of the weapon in her hand, the blood on the spear tip was flicked off, seeping into the soil.

She didn't even spare a glance at the corpses, her gaze sweeping over the cultivators hiding in the shadows observing the situation.

Jun Anshi withdrew her gaze, carefully stored the Origin Seed into her spatial ring, and then, with a movement of her body, sped off toward the north.

Her figure quickly disappeared into the sea of trees.

Gu Changyuan stood on the branch of a large tree, watching the direction Jun Anshi departed in, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

This little girl, she didn't even know to take the resources off these people.

Just as he was about to raise his hand and use his spiritual energy to collect all the spatial rings and pouches from the corpses of those cultivators...

He saw a few cultivators who had been hiding in the dark watching the scene carefully walk out, their eyes vigilantly scanning their surroundings.

Seeing that Jun Anshi had already gone far away and Gu Changyuan's figure had not revealed itself, they quickly walked toward the corpses, clearly wanting to pick up the scraps and see if there was anything valuable.

The smile in Gu Changyuan's eyes instantly faded, and he snorted coldly.

The aura around him instantly turned freezing cold, and a terrifyingly powerful, suffocating burst of spiritual energy descended from the sky, ruthlessly suppressing those scavenging cultivators.