Supreme Immortal Aperture time, several days later.
Fang Yuan's Time Path clone once again arrived before the Immortal Formation in Little Green Heaven.
"Be careful — I'm about to begin," the Time Path clone said with a solemn expression.
"Mm." The Formation Spirit materialized and nodded quickly.
Standing off to the side was another Gu Immortal — Ying Wuxie — who also wore a tense expression.
A Pure Dream Truth-Seeking Body entered the dream realm. Before long, it seized Xia Cha's foot and dragged her out.
The entire process was conducted with extreme care.
Xia Cha remained in deep slumber, without the slightest sensation or unusual movement.
Even so, when Fang Yuan controlled the Pure Dream Truth-Seeking Body clone, he only dared drag out half of the Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal's body.
Xia Cha's upper body remained within the dream realm, while her lower half was exposed outside it.
The most critical Immortal Aperture was located in the abdominal region, so this was sufficient.
Next, it was Fang Yuan's main body's turn to act. After a period of preparation, he activated the Immortal Path killing move — Great Thief Ghost Hand.
The Great Thief Ghost Hand, dark and spectral, flew straight toward Xia Cha's Immortal Aperture. But before it could make contact, streaks of Dao Mark light surfaced across Xia Cha's body.
This was a passive Time Path defensive measure — even while Xia Cha lay in deep slumber, it could still be triggered.
Normally, inside the dream realm, such a defensive measure would be unable to activate. But Fang Yuan's Great Thief Ghost Hand was also powerless within the dream realm.
Only by dragging her outside and acting beyond the dream realm did Fang Yuan have any possibility of stealing Xia Cha's Immortal Gu.
Seeing the Great Thief Ghost Hand blocked, Fang Yuan showed not a trace of surprise.
Over the past several days, this was far from his first attempt against Xia Cha.
This Time Path defense was indeed troublesome, but now Fang Yuan had leveraged his Time Path realm attainment and the Wisdom Halo to deduce a solution.
Thus, another killing move was activated by Fang Yuan.
The effect was immediately apparent — the Dao Mark light across Xia Cha's body dimmed, and the Great Thief Ghost Hand successfully penetrated the Immortal Aperture, swiftly vanishing inside.
"Fortunately, Xia Cha's defensive measures aren't as impressive as those of the people from Heavenly Court. They were likely laid down temporarily, specifically to counter the Great Thief Ghost Hand. That's why I was able to break through in such a short time."
This Time Path defensive formation had not yet reached the Eighth Transformation level — only Seventh Transformation. Relying on the Time Path Immortal Gu he had on hand, combined with numerous Mortal Gu, Fang Yuan had finally assembled a killing move to neutralize it.
"This Time Path grand formation I laid to ambush the Southern Border pursuers — while the important Time Path Immortal Gu weren't destroyed, the vast majority of Mortal Gu and several Sixth Transformation Time Path Immortal Gu were lost. This is quite detrimental to my plan to visit the River of Time. Now, let's see what I can harvest from Xia Cha."
Fang Yuan was filled with anticipation.
Before long, his expression shifted slightly, and the Great Thief Ghost Hand wobbled its way back out.
It had arrived with five fingers spread wide, but now its fist was clenched tight — something inside was continuously struggling, trying to burst free.
Seeing this scene, Fang Yuan felt not alarm, but delight.
Standing beside him, Ying Wuxie — who knew at least something about the Great Thief Ghost Hand — blurted out joyfully: "Good heavens! An Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu on the very first try!"
But then the Formation Spirit said: "Master, something is wrong! Xia Cha's soul appears to be fluctuating."
Fang Yuan's Time Path clone immediately tensed, quickly commanding the Pure Dream Truth-Seeking Body to push Xia Cha's entire body back into the dream realm.
The Pure Dream Truth-Seeking Body stayed beside Xia Cha, observing for a moment. Once Xia Cha stabilized and sank deeply into slumber once more, it withdrew.
An ordinary Gu Immortal with half their body submerged in the dream realm would also be unstable, showing signs of separating from the dream — but it would take far longer.
Xia Cha, apparently due to her cultivation in the Time Path, had this window drastically shortened to a pitifully brief interval. Fang Yuan had noticed this the very first time he moved her, when he stuffed her into the Supreme Immortal Aperture. At the time, it had given the Shadow Sect immortals a cold sweat.
Having dealt with the Xia Cha issue, Fang Yuan and the others finally had the chance to examine what exactly the Immortal Gu stolen by the Great Thief Ghost Hand looked like.
This Immortal Gu was struggling violently, but the Great Thief Ghost Hand had drawn upon the power of the Ninth Transformation killing move Ghost Unperceived — it had once stolen the Soul Beast Command — so stealing an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu was well within its capabilities.
Furthermore, with Fang Yuan's extensive methods, refining it was a foregone conclusion — no accidents would occur.
After expending some effort, Fang Yuan successfully refined the Gu and made it his own.
The Gu was a milky-white silkworm, about the size of an adult's index finger. Placed in his palm, it weighed no more than an egg, and its body was pink and tender, like touching a baby's face. At the silkworm's head grew a small emerald-green leaf that looked like a mulberry leaf. An interesting detail was that when the silkworm curled its body, the mulberry leaf wrapped around it as well.
The Gu's rich aura constantly announced its extraordinary identity — an Eighth Transformation Time Path Immortal Gu!
But exactly which Immortal Gu this was, Fang Yuan could not yet be certain.
He could only speculate: "This is likely the Eighth Transformation Time Path Immortal Gu — Spring."
If the Spring Gu were used alone, it would cause an entire region to enter spring. Ice and snow would melt, warm winds would blow gently, and new buds would sprout.