Butterfly

Butterfly (borrowing from the official animated prequel, Song of the Sand Waves)

(Solemn declaration: This book is a fanwork based on the original. Everything serves the plot and characters. All original settings and adaptations are unrelated to the original work. Please do not scrutinize it too closely or project yourselves into it. Do not get too hung up on the timeline, locations, names, original power levels, and so on (っ╥╯﹏╰╥c)... Having fun is what matters most... orz)

The night was as black as ink, slowly enveloping the boundless Tagor Great Desert.

The scorching heat of daytime, enough to melt steel, gradually faded away, replaced by a cold that seeped into the bones.

Within a sheltered hollow between sand dunes, a campfire crackled. Its orange-red glow dispersed the darkness and chill, illuminating several young faces with varying expressions.

Xiao Yan sat cross-legged beside the fire, his gaze drifting now and then toward the unconscious middle-aged man in blue robes nearby.

For some reason, from the very first moment he saw the man, he had felt a strange sense of familiarity, as though they had met somewhere before. Yet no matter how hard he thought, he could not remember.

"Brother Xiao Yan, what are you looking at?" Xiao Xun'er had somehow moved closer. Following his gaze, she asked softly.

"Nothing." Xiao Yan shook his head and said in confusion, "He just looks a little familiar, like I've seen him somewhere before, but I can't remember where."

As they spoke, the blue-robed middle-aged man lying on the ground suddenly twitched a finger, then slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze was initially somewhat vacant, but it was quickly replaced by sharpness and vigilance. He struggled to sit up, only to discover that his entire body was weak and sore. The Dou Qi that had once surged through him like a river was now completely gone.

The middle-aged man did not answer. He merely closed his eyes and forcibly circulated his cultivation technique. Yet his meridians were utterly empty, while his Dantian's Qi vortex was tightly bound by emerald snake markings. Forget Dou Qi—even a trace of energy could not be mobilized.

"Heh..." Feeling the state of his body, a self-mocking smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. "Sealed, huh... Medusa, you really are ruthless."

Seeing his desolate appearance, Xiao Yan hesitated before taking out a piece of roasted magical beast jerky from his Storage Ring and offering it to him. "Do you... want something to eat?"

Only then did the middle-aged man raise his head and look around.

By the campfire sat a black-clad boy who looked no more than twelve or thirteen, along with three stunning young girls of similar age but distinctly different appearances.

What kind of strange group was this?

"A bunch of wet-behind-the-ears brats." He sized them up, then sighed hoarsely. "At such a young age, what could you possibly be unhappy about that you came to this godforsaken Tagor Great Desert to die?"

Xiao Yan and the others did not answer his question.

Instead, Qing Lin blinked her large emerald eyes and curiously asked, "Uncle, why were you fighting Queen Medusa?"

At the mention of "Queen Medusa," the middle-aged man's eyes instantly dimmed. He remained silent for a long time, so long that even the campfire gave a faint crack.

In the end, he merely let out a long sigh.

"I... deserved it."

He did not explain further. He simply turned to Xiao Yan and asked in a hoarse voice, "Kid, do you have any wine?"

"Wine?" Xiao Yan froze, then spread his hands. "I'm still young. Senior Brother won't let me drink. I only have water. Do you want some?"

The middle-aged man shook his head, a bitter smile appearing on his face. Struggling, he took a bronze wine flask from his Storage Ring. Ignoring his injuries, he leaned against the sand dune and began drinking heavily by himself.

The fiery liquor slid down his throat and into his stomach like a ball of flame, burning a crack into his frozen heart.

Xiao Yan and the others exchanged looks, watching as he silently drank cup after cup.

Before long, one flask was empty.

The alcohol seemed to numb his pain and pry open the box of memories he had kept sealed away.

"My name is Hai Bodong." He casually tossed aside the empty flask, leaned against the sand dune, and looked at the waning moon on the horizon. "In the Jia Ma Empire, people used to call me... the Ice Emperor."

He had thought that revealing this title, once renowned throughout the empire, would at least bring a trace of surprise to these children's faces.

But it did not.

Xiao Yan and Qing Lin looked completely bewildered. Tian Xin and Xun'er seemed to have heard of him before, but their expressions did not change much either.

"Heh, of course. It's been so many years..." Hai Bodong smiled self-mockingly, took out another flask of wine from his Storage Ring, and continued pouring it down his throat.

His voice carried a hint of drunkenness, along with endless weariness.

"Some time ago, I accepted a mercenary mission. The reward was outrageously high. The task was simple: enter the Tagor Great Desert and find a runaway Snake People Tribe woman named Butterfly."

"I found her, but it was only while bringing her back that I learned why she had fled."

"She did not want to fight her own elder sister for the sole throne. She was tired of the Snake People Tribe's law of the jungle and longed for the free life outside."

A gentle look of reminiscence flashed through Hai Bodong's eyes.

"She was unlike every other snake person I had met. Her heart was pure, she disliked conflict, and she had none of the bloodthirsty brutality of the Snake People Tribe."

"When I was with her, I could even forget that she was a snake person."

"I... softened. I tore up the mercenary contract and decided to help her, to send her somewhere no one knew her so she could start a new life."

"But I underestimated her sister—the Queen Medusa you speak of."

Hai Bodong took another large gulp of wine, his tone turning bitter.

"In Medusa's eyes, tribal law was above all else. Butterfly's escape was a betrayal of the tribe, a desecration of their bloodline, an unforgivable crime."

"To bring back her younger sister, she personally led the tribe's eight great leaders and surrounded us deep within the desert."

"That day, the battle was earth-shattering. I was a Dou Emperor, but my opponent was at the Dou Emperor Peak, with eight Snake People Tribe experts at the Dou Wang level beside her. Two fists could not defeat four hands."

"Butterfly could not bear to see me fighting her sister to the death for her sake, with everyone ending up dead or wounded. Crying, she begged me, and she begged her sister, to stop."

"But we... had both gone mad with killing."

At this point, Hai Bodong choked up. He closed his eyes in pain, as though he had returned to that blood-red dusk filled with flying sand.

"In her desperation, she... she actually threw herself directly between our attacks."

"She wanted to use her own life to stop a battle that should never have happened."

"And then... there was no afterward."

Hai Bodong's voice was as faint as a sigh in the wind.

"Butterfly... died just like that, beneath the aftermath of the Dou Qi from her sister and me."

"In that moment, the entire world fell silent. I saw Queen Medusa, always aloof and cold-hearted, clutch her younger sister's gradually cooling body and let out a beast-like howl."

"That was the first time, and the only time, I ever saw her cry."

"After personally killing her only younger sister, she completely lost her mind."

"She brought Butterfly's body back to the tribe for burial. Then she began hunting me without rest, determined not to stop until one of us died."

"I was no match for her to begin with, much less when she was consumed by fury. I had thought she would kill me on the spot, and that would at least count as giving Butterfly an answer."

"But I never expected that she would only cripple my cultivation and seal me. Heh..."

"Perhaps, in her eyes, letting me struggle on like a cripple in this desert, spending the rest of my life in endless torment and remorse, was the greatest punishment she could give me."

After the story ended, the campfire was surrounded by deathly silence.

Xiao Yan, Xun'er, Qing Lin, and Tian Xin were all moved by this sorrowful tale.

After finishing the second flask, Hai Bodong slowly rose to his feet. His body swayed slightly, but some clarity had returned to his eyes.

He took out a map from his Storage Ring and tossed it to Xiao Yan. "I don't know what you little brats are doing here, but a map should make things easier. Take it as repayment for saving my life."

With that, he turned around and dragged his sealed body step by step toward the depths of the dark sea of sand.

His shadow stretched long beneath the moonlight, filled with desolation and loneliness.

"Elder Hai!" Seeing his lonely back, Xiao Yan could not help calling out. "Where... are you going?"

Hai Bodong did not stop. He simply continued forward without looking back, his hoarse voice drifting back from afar on the night wind.

"To find a place..."

"To live out the rest of my days."