Innate Yellow Middle Plum, Fragment Moves Dao Heart

Before him, deep within the clouds and mist, stood a spiritual root towering a hundred zhang in height.

Its trunk bore a profound Xuanhuang hue, and upon its surface, streaks of Great Dao Patterns were clearly visible, as if inscribed with the Principles of Heaven and Earth.

Blossoms bloomed upon the tree, shaped like lotuses, and nine fruits had already formed, each one gleaming brilliantly, bearing the Dao characters "Yellow Middle" upon them.

Donghua stepped forward, watching the ancient pine's branches and leaves sway with the wind.

According to his inherited memories, he could confirm that this was the Yellow Middle Plum, famed among the Ten Great Innate Spiritual Roots for its miraculous efficacy.

Legend held that this tree underwent one cycle every Three Yuan Cycles: one Yuan Cycle to bloom, one to bear fruit, and one to ripen, yielding only nine Dao Fruits in the end.

Donghua raised his hand, plucked a Dao Fruit from the branch, and placed it into his mouth.

The fruit's first taste was clear and sweet, with a faint hint of bitterness; upon careful savoring, an exotic fragrance overflowed, lingering between lips and teeth.

As the fruit's flesh entered his belly, it instantly transformed into a warm, gentle current, like a stream slowly soaking through his limbs and bones, silently tempering his Immortal Body and enhancing his physical strength.

Moreover, the vast Primordial Qi contained within was enough to grant a cultivator who had not yet attained the Great Luo Realm the Magic Power of that realm on the spot; for Donghua, who had long since ascended to Great Luo, consuming one fruit was comparable to tens of thousands of years of arduous cultivation, saving countless painstaking efforts.

Yet what stirred Donghua's heart most was not this growth in Magic Power or physique.

The moment the Dao Fruit's essence dispersed, his Spiritual Platform cleared, and many previously obscure points regarding the Pure Yang Law suddenly opened up like clouds parting to reveal the sun, giving rise to numerous new insights.

Judging by this, if he could consume the remaining eight such Dao Fruits, relying on the supreme Dao resonance they contained, it would be enough to cause a qualitative leap in a cultivator's Law Comprehension, allowing them to break through to the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm in one fell swoop!

"Alas, what a pity." Donghua looked at the remaining eight fruits with a hint of regret.

Though he had not consumed them, he could sense that not all of the remaining fruits contained the Pure Yang Law.

Dismissing further thoughts, Donghua's figure flickered, his steps born on clouds, until he finally found the pivot of the Innate Great Array at the convergence of spiritual veins in this Outsider Immortal Realm.

He immediately calmed his mind and focused, his vast Magic Power flowing like streams merging into the sea, his peerless Divine Sense like spring breeze turning to rain, slowly permeating this heaven-and-earth-born, mysterious array diagram.

In the cave, no time was marked; in the world, a hundred years had passed.

When Donghua opened his eyes again, a gleam of wind and water stirred within them, and the entire network of veins of Penglai Immortal Island was clearly reflected in his heart.

From then on, Penglai Immortal Island belonged to him. With a single thought, he could summon the long winds of the nine heavens; with another, he could command the vast expanse of blue waves.

Wind and water here mutually nourished each other, vast and irresistible, all moving according to his will.

Having fully refined the immortal island, Donghua's mind stirred slightly, and every living thing on the island was gathered into his perception. At that very moment, a unique object was instantly captured by him.

Donghua's Dao Heart, usually as calm as an ancient well, now could not help but ripple.

"I never thought this fortune would be so great!"

He had assumed that acquiring a Top-grade Innate Spirit Treasure was already a great stroke of luck, but he never imagined that this island actually contained such a thing! If it truly was...

Donghua's body transformed into a streak of clear cyan escape light, like a startled swan skimming the shadows, suddenly cutting through the unyielding spiritual mist of Penglai Island.

His figure flickered in and out of existence in the void several times, leaving behind trails of afterimages, and in an instant, he arrived at the very edge of the island.

Standing before the Innate Great Array, Donghua's mind stirred slightly, and the great array protecting Penglai Immortal Island responded to him.

With a light flick of his sleeve, a clear cyan immortal light bloomed forth, like a master gently knocking on a door. The layers of radiance from the profound and complex great array folded inward, silently opening a passage.

The great array fell utterly silent, leaving only an ancient altar standing still.

Its entire surface was covered with mottled traces of wind erosion and rain wear, as if it had been bearing the solitude of eternity here since the very beginning of heaven and earth.

And directly above the altar, a ring joined end to end floated quietly.

It was not a physical object; rather, it seemed like a miniature river formed by countless flickering, dimming stars, linked head to tail, slowly revolving.

Within the river, waves seemed to surge, each wave a snapshot of one Yuan Cycle; star-sand rose and fell, each grain the rise and fall of a clan.

It flowed silently, yet it caused the surrounding space to take on a strange, layered quality, as if simultaneously reflecting countless fragments of the past, present, and future.

"The Time Law..."

Donghua's gaze sharpened as he stepped forward slowly, his expression extremely solemn.

The closer he drew, the more clearly he could perceive a vast, ancient, and pure Time Law spreading from that ring-shaped river.

Standing before the spirit treasure, Donghua's expression was calm, without the fervor ordinary cultivators would show upon seeing a Top-grade Spiritual Treasure.

The spirit treasure that caused the Time Law to permeate the surroundings was not his true target.

His profound gaze seemed to pierce through the magnificent river flowing with the birth and death of stars and the evolution of civilizations, landing directly on the depths of the river.

There, hidden beneath endless fragments of time and shadows of history, a fragment no larger than a fingernail, with a chipped edge, drifted with the current.

It was too ordinary, its color dull, without the slightest ripple of spiritual light, like the most inconspicuous pebble at the riverbed.

The River of Time rolled ever onward; any mortal thing that touched it would decay.

That it could endure the erosion of time unchanged was itself proof of its extraordinariness.

Donghua's eyes focused, and his form flickered as he stood upon the altar.

As Donghua's hand reached into the spirit treasure, grasping for the fragment, the Time Law within the treasure instantly collapsed into chaos.

In the Primordial Wilderness, cultivators who reached the Golden Immortal realm became immortal; upon reaching this realm, they no longer needed to worry about lifespan.

However, the Time Turbulence brought by this spirit treasure would madly flood the memories and experiences of countless beings into his mind.

Faced with this, even a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal could lose themselves in the Time Turbulence. Once a cultivator lost themselves, they would dissolve into the Dao of Heaven and Earth.

Yet as a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, Donghua had long since transcended the River of Time, where past, present, and future were fused into one.

This Lost Calamity, which caused all beings to sink into oblivion, was to Donghua nothing more than a flower in a mirror or the moon's reflection on water—unable to touch his True Self Spirit, which was gathered into a single, unchanging whole.

To him, it was merely a breeze brushing past his face.

Without the slightest hesitation, Donghua grasped the fragment in his palm, and his vast Divine Sense plunged into it with a thunderous roar.

In an instant, a pressure that defied comprehension seeped into his being, as if the weight of the entire Chaos Era had been pressed upon his True Spirit.

Even with Donghua's mind, tempered through countless kalpas and unshakable, he could not help but reveal a look of delight at this moment, with turbulent ripples rising in the depths of his eyes that were hard to calm.

Across the Primordial Wilderness, there was likely no cultivator who could remain composed before such an object—not even Hongjun would be an exception.

Cultivators were not without emotion; what was called a serene and unruffled state was merely the result of witnessing the vicissitudes of the world through endless ages, where ordinary joys and sorrows could no longer stir ripples in the lake of their hearts.

Only the necessities for proving their own Great Dao could move their emotions.