What Spirit Beast Was This?

"You're really lucky." The merchant traveling with Zhou Lu looked at the Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies filling the sky and said, "You happened to arrive just as a new batch of Nightmare Butterflies was transforming."

There was a reason the Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies' price remained so high.

What stood before Zhou Lu now was their first-stage transformed form. What their larvae actually looked like remained an unsolved mystery in academic circles to this day.

Without knowing their larval form, there was no way to monitor or predict the appearance of Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies, much less breed them selectively.

"Hm? Lucky?" Zhou Lu was somewhat surprised. "I thought they were always like this."

The merchant chuckled. "If Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies could be found everywhere like ground squirrels on the plains, we wouldn't need to buy them at over a hundred thousand each."

"They're that expensive?"

"They aren't consumables," the merchant said. "To put it vividly, they're Spirit Beasts akin to production equipment. Add in their rarity, and naturally their price stays high. Still, this is the first time I've seen so many Nightmare Butterflies."

The transformation of Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies followed no seasonal pattern. It seemed to have some connection to the environment of the Linxi Secret Realm, but overall, they appeared randomly throughout all four seasons.

"If you'd come a week later, the Nightmare Butterflies here might have been caught clean," the merchant said.

As they spoke, several more Beast Tamers arrived with merchants in tow.

Zhou Lu was not surprised by this. This was a well-known Ghost Face Nightmare Butterfly habitat, and with the Nightmare Butterflies' high added value, they had become a preferred capture target for many Beast Tamers.

However, Nightmare Butterflies were not so easy to catch.

As Fantasy Species, their Racial Skill, Lilliput, could not affect objects vastly different from them in size, but it was still an extremely powerful skill.

Many rookies lost their heads the moment they saw so many Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies and ordered their spirit pets to rush in and catch butterflies.

Yet in no time at all, these rookies suffered badly.

The Nightmare Butterflies' shrinking skill could actually affect not only themselves, but Spirit Beast skills as well.

Zhou Lu personally saw a Mud Monster hurl mud at a Nightmare Butterfly, trying to knock it down. Yet the instant that lump of mud entered the Nightmare Butterfly's illuminated range, it began shrinking without stop. In the end, it went from the size of a shot put to the size of a soybean and flew right past the butterfly.

The veterans who caught butterflies, meanwhile, had far more experience.

They personally went in holding professional net bags, while their spirit pets were responsible for restricting the Nightmare Butterflies' movement range.

Because of the immense difference in size, the Nightmare Butterflies could not shrink humans. Furthermore, these net bags were insect-catching nets specially produced by Qimeng Beast Taming Technology Company.

The outer coating of the nets was made from Sticky Slime concocted from Curse Toads, allowing them to resist the effects of most skills.

Unfortunately, Curse Toads were rare third-stage Mature Stage Spirit Beasts, with only a handful in the entire world. These kinds of insect nets were simply not something ordinary people could afford.

Zhou Lu did not know what special properties these insect nets possessed. He only found it rather amazing that they could negate the effects of Lilliput.

Yet the Beast Tamers holding specialized insect nets were not very happy at the moment.

They looked at the strange snail darting around all over the ground and frowned.

Huohuo happily held five insect net bags woven from vines, cheerfully running back and forth through the swarm of Nightmare Butterflies.

Before long, many Nightmare Butterflies had stuck to her nets.

Little Grass did not understand what Lilliput was.

She only knew that these butterflies seemed capable of shrinking her vines.

But that was fine!

If they shrank, she would just grow them again.

Huohuo wrapped several more layers of vines around the outside of the net bags. To prevent the butterflies from shrinking themselves and slipping through the gaps in the vines, she wove the nets even more densely.

Under the tug-of-war between both sides, Huohuo's insect nets became a family-ending net designed specifically for Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies.

Combined with Sticky Baby's slime, every sweep of Huohuo's net took a small patch of butterflies out of the sky.

The gazes around them immediately turned hostile.

Everyone had come for the Ghost Face Nightmare Butterflies. Wasn't this going too far?

Nightmare Butterflies were not like Jade Snails, which had several populations distributed throughout the safe zone. Their habitat existed only here. If Zhou Lu plucked them all clean, then everyone else's trip would have been for nothing.

Though they were unhappy inside, no one actually dared to make a move.

It was not because they feared the safety instructors. So long as no one died, the safety instructors would not intervene.

They watched Huohuo moving actively through the field, their hearts filled with uncertainty.

What Spirit Beast was this?

Its back seemed to bear the shell of a Jade Snail, but it moved like a Plant Spirit Beast.

For a Plant Spirit Beast to move with such agility, it had to be at least a second-stage one that had completed Earth Transformation, right?

Judging from its performance, it seemed unaffected by Lilliput.

Good heavens! Could this possibly be a third-stage Spirit Beast?

The more observant people had already taken out their electronic field guides, but Huohuo's current appearance was simply too bizarre. A blade of grass carrying a snail shell and running wildly across the ground—even the most high-tech electronic field guide could not imagine such a sight.

Thus, without any surprise, the electronic field guides could not identify Huohuo's species at all.

A rare species?

The spectators became even less willing to make a move.

A third-stage Plant Spirit Beast, and an unprecedented rare species to boot.

Fuck, could this be some big shot coming to a C-Class Secret Realm to stomp newbies?

While the spectators spun ever wilder theories, Zhou Lu was under immense pressure as well.

Of course, he knew Huohuo's actions had definitely touched everyone's interests. But he could not activate Body Feed for five minutes for nothing. Forget the attributes—if he failed to snatch Lilliput as a skill, would he not be suffering a colossal loss?

Whatever! No matter what, I have to take a risk today!

Zhou Lu forcibly kept himself calm, settling his heart as he sensed the changes in skill attributes brought by Body Feed and prepared to practice Body Feed next.

He had not intended to put on airs. After all, he had no idea these people would mistake Huohuo for a rare third-stage Spirit Beast.

Zhou Lu's thoughts were simple:

I'm staying right here. If you've got the guts, come fight me.

The safety instructors are right behind me anyway. At worst, I'll get beaten half to death and have Lu Rang carry me out.

I'm determined to get Lilliput today!

After embracing the idea of smashing the jar since it was already broken, all the pressure on Zhou Lu vanished.

He stood there openly, closing his eyes to feel the workings of the Body Feed skill.

Perhaps because their escape from the Enlarged Delicious Mushroom had created a spiritual resonance, Zhou Lu seemed to sense a trace of the essence of Body Feed.

After Zhou Lu completely relaxed, his carefree appearance made everyone even more convinced that his identity was extraordinary.

But... would a big shot like this come with a merchant? Would he even care about this little money?

Just as everyone remained uncertain, Zhou Lu suddenly opened his eyes.

It was here!

He felt it.

He took out Huohuo's Beast Taming Card, and Lilliput had appeared on it as a skill.