Hundreds of thousands of years passed in an instant.
Like a dream.
At that moment, Jiang Ding was refining the artifacts of the nine Dao Children. Only a thousand years had passed, and he had just begun to melt away their impurities and extract the essence the Supreme Clarity Flying Sword needed.
Everything that had come before was an illusion.
"Butterfly,"
"you are a wonderful butterfly."
Jiang Ding gazed greedily and delightedly at the heavily sealed Sixfold Crystal Butterfly in his hand, then looked up at the dim, thousand-zhang sapphire butterfly in the sky. "How did you know I needed a Supreme's soul fragment so badly?"
"And the soul fragment of an anomaly among the Demon Race, at that!"
"You're simply too good to me!"
"Pfft!"
The sapphire butterfly spat out another great mouthful of blood. Her body shook uncontrollably.
"Ant!"
"When did you...?"
The Heavenly Illusion Butterfly Lord's voice was hoarse.
Looking back, she realized the Pure-Yang Sword Heir had detected her dream-path methods from the very beginning. He had merely pretended not to know, waiting and waiting, luring her into committing more of herself until she had sent in part of her soul. Only after greed had driven her to confirm again and again that she could send no more had he drawn in the net.
A chill ran through the Heavenly Illusion Butterfly Lord.
If the Demon Race's fortune had not warned her from beyond perception, she might have sent her entire soul into the dream just then. She had nearly lost her reason.
Why?
Profit had blinded her.
It was the secret of the absolute limit of the eighth step of Dao Integration!
If she obtained that secret, who in the endless starry sky—apart from the legendary True Immortal Heir—could hold down the Heavenly Illusion Immortal