After passing through the Sword Butterfly Plaza, Heavenly Insect and Demon Butterfly seemed to have entered a new world. Lush greenery surrounded them, birds sang, and flowers perfumed the air, with none of the cruelty or bloodshed outside.
Heavenly Insect could hardly imagine how someone who was not even an Earthly Sovereign could possess such an extraordinary world...
Surely no one would claim that the Spirit Butterfly Fairy had created it herself. Even an Earthly Sovereign probably could not accomplish such a feat.
"Legend has it that this space formed naturally. The Spirit Butterfly Fairy and her husband discovered it by chance, then settled here..."
"The Spirit Butterfly Fairy had a husband?" Heavenly Insect looked astonished.
Demon Butterfly gave him a speechless look and could not help saying, "The Spirit Butterfly Fairy was a renowned beauty back then. What's so strange about her having a husband?"
Heavenly Insect could not suppress his curiosity for gossip. "Don't tell me you're a descendant of the Spirit Butterfly Fairy?"
Demon Butterfly fell silent for a moment, but finally nodded. "That's right. The Spirit Butterfly Fairy was my ancestor..."
That explained all of Demon Butterfly's earlier behavior.
Still, the Spirit Butterfly Fairy had been a powerful ruler in her own right. Had her descendants really fallen so far after only a few hundred years?
That did not make sense...
With the secret Spirit Butterfly Dance technique Demon Butterfly had used earlier, they could hardly be weak as long as they had powerful butterfly-type spirit insects to support them. At the very least, holding a city should have posed no problem, right?
Heavenly Insect did not voice any of those questions. At most, the two were merely partners for now, nowhere near close enough to share their families' secrets.
"You know exactly where the Garden is, right?" Gazing at the unbroken expanse of green before him, Heavenly Insect could not help turning to ask the woman beside him.
Demon Butterfly nodded. "According to the Secret Records handed down in my family, the Garden shouldn't be far from where we are now. Follow me..."
The two sped through this sea of green, encountering several spirit insects that blocked their path along the way. Most were butterfly-type spirit insects, and with Heavenly Insect's help, Demon Butterfly subdued them all, considerably increasing her strength.
However, most of these spirit butterflies possessed rare bloodlines but were ill-suited to combat. Heavenly Insect had no interest in them, so he simply let her do as she pleased.
Eventually, they reached a place resembling a green basin. Demon Butterfly stopped and checked several times before saying, "This should be it!"
Heavenly Insect: "?"
Heavenly Insect stared at the empty basin below, utterly baffled.
"Why can't I see anything?"
Demon Butterfly's alluring eyes remained fixed on the basin below as she slowly said, "Because someone placed a seal around this basin. Only during the daily dusk-dawn convergence, when the world's yin and yang meet, will the formation briefly fall into disorder. That will be our chance to enter."
"For now, all we need to do is wait quietly."
With that, she closed her eyes and said nothing more.
While the two waited quietly, elsewhere in the Insect Prison Site, in a space remarkably similar to the plaza they had passed through earlier, a black-jade Sword Butterfly Jade Statue exploded with a thunderous crash. A figure slowly emerged from the jade dust.
He wore moon-white robes and appeared middle-aged. With a wave of his hand, he raised a fierce gust that swept away all the jade dust hanging in the air.
"An Ancient Sword Butterfly? Nothing special. Spirit Butterfly Fairy, hehe... I wonder whether those rumors are true..."
"Jade Locust, let's go!"
As his words fell, a black, locust-like spirit insect dozens of zhang long descended from the sky, its beating wings blotting out the sun.
The middle-aged man lightly pushed off the ground and appeared atop the black locust's head the next instant. Then man and insect swept deeper into the ruins.
This middle-aged man was none other than the lord of Flying Spirit City,
Flying Locust, a Fourth Grade Sovereign. Beneath his feet was naturally the terrifying spirit insect he had raised, the Black-Feathered Star Locust, which rivaled a divine beast! Heavenly Insect had been right earlier: the sword butterfly puppet's strength posed no threat whatsoever to a Supreme like Flying Locust. Moreover, Flying Locust possessed a divine insect with Supreme-level combat power. Working together, the two had nothing to fear within these ruins.
As Flying Locust passed the trial and entered the ruins' core region, Heavenly Insect and Demon Butterfly opened their eyes outside the green basin.
The world had reached the dusk-dawn convergence.
Buzz, buzz.
The two saw the whole world seem to dim at that moment, while the spiritual energy permeating it quietly fell into disorder...
The faint mist began to swirl into clouds as the world's spiritual energy converged on this spot.
Naturally, Heavenly Insect and Demon Butterfly both noticed the sudden change. Their expressions grew solemn as they watched, quietly raising their guard.
Although they had found no trace of anyone else along the way, Black Jade had already said that the lord of Flying Spirit City had come in person. The defenses on the ruins' outskirts could never stop him.
Flying Locust might already be somewhere in the core region. Once he sensed the changes in spiritual energy here, he certainly would not ignore them.
Before their eyes, the entire green basin seemed to twist. Spirit marks emerged like tadpoles, writhing and swimming through the air before finally tracing out a golden, gleaming formation barrier.
"The formation has appeared. Watch for an opening! We don't have much time-we have to seize that fleeting chance!" Demon Butterfly called out to Heavenly Insect, her gaze locked firmly on the formation.
Heavenly Insect did not answer, but his eyes likewise remained fixed on the formation without blinking.
The next instant, Heavenly Insect suddenly spotted ripples spreading across one part of the trembling barrier as its spiritual power shifted. Then a barely discernible crack quietly appeared...
"Found it!"
After that delighted shout, Heavenly Insect had no time to think. He grabbed Demon Butterfly's delicate hand, a phantom image appeared beneath his feet, and he charged toward the crack at his utmost speed.
But before they could approach, a terrifying beam of energy overtook them and struck the crack. The resulting explosion blasted both of them away.
Pfft!
Caught completely off guard, the two took the energy shock head-on, spraying blood across the sky.
Heavenly Insect looked back in horror and saw a gigantic spirit insect approaching from the horizon. A figure in moon-white robes stood quietly atop its head, looking as ethereal as an immortal banished to the mortal world.
"The lord of Flying Spirit City, Flying Locust!"
Demon Butterfly's terrified voice beside his ear revealed the newcomer's identity, and Heavenly Insect could not help looking aghast.
"He got here so fast!"
They had hurried all this way precisely to enter the Garden before him, yet their efforts had come to nothing at the very last moment!
Flying Locust arrived before the formation and casually glanced at the two huddled together on the ground, their faces filled with fear, before withdrawing his gaze.
Two mere Heaven Fusion Realm ants. He did not know how they had managed to stumble all the way here, but they were not worth his attention.
"A barrier formation? It seems this is the true heart of the ruins."
Flying Locust was somewhat surprised that his earlier attack had failed to widen the crack. After all, several hundred years had passed. Even a barrier formation could not exert its full power without anyone maintaining it.
"Let's see how long you can hold out!"
With that, Flying Locust took out an ice-blue jade flute, clearly the Insect Flute essential to a Spirit Insect Master...
Heavenly Insect had one himself, but his Spirit Insect Flute was only an ordinary spirit artifact. It could not compare with the one before him, which was at least a divine artifact.
Woo, woo, woo...
The mournful flute notes rang out. Heavenly Insect and Demon Butterfly watched countless streams of spiritual power gather, then erupt in the next instant...
Heaven and earth trembled. Tens of thousands of spiritual power streaks swept across the sky like an all-enveloping meteor shower, carrying earth-shaking force as they rained relentlessly upon the barrier covering the entire basin.
Heavenly Insect watched the scene intently. Could the barrier left behind by the Spirit Butterfly Fairy withstand an attack unleashed by a Supreme?
Rumble!
The heaven-shaking barrage crashed down. Just as the countless streaks of spiritual power were about to strike the barrier, ripples suddenly spread across its previously calm surface...
The next instant, brilliant light gathered, seemingly forming a hazy figure.
The light dimmed slightly, and the figure took shape.
Before Heavenly Insect appeared a slender figure dressed in green. His white hair hung loose, his face was as handsome as a young man's, and his eyes shone entirely with a green-jade luster, without a trace of black. He looked extraordinarily strange.
The moment the young man's luminous figure formed, an exceptionally pure sword intent surged skyward from the barrier. An indescribably keen aura spread through the world.
Under that aura, even heaven and earth seemed on the verge of being torn apart.
"Who dares disturb my master's slumber..."
The luminous figure gazed at the incoming spiritual power streaks with his green eyes and lightly swept the sword fingers of his right hand. The next instant, a towering sword aura shot from his fingertips, instantly annihilating the endless barrage!
Heavenly Insect sucked in sharp breaths at the sight. A bone-piercing chill raced from his heels to the crown of his head, and he felt as though he had just walked past the gates of death.
"That is... the Ancient Sword Butterfly's true spirit, which once accompanied the Spirit Butterfly Fairy!" Demon Butterfly said, her voice trembling as she stared at the figure on the barrier.
"The Ancient Sword Butterfly's true spirit? Could the Spirit Butterfly Fairy's Sword Butterfly have taken human form back then?"
Heavenly Insect looked utterly stunned.
Like spirit beasts, spirit insects could choose to take human form after reaching a certain level. However, Spirit Insect Masters generally did not allow their insects to do so, because only in their original forms could spirit insects unleash their greatest combat strength.
Moreover, spirit insects might betray their masters after taking human form. Thus, even the powerful Earthly Sovereign-level spirit insects within the Spirit Insect Tribe still retained their original forms.
Demon Butterfly silently glanced at the astonished Heavenly Insect, nodded slightly, then said softly, "My ancestor's husband was this Ancient Sword Butterfly in human form..."
"...!!!"
Heavenly Insect's mouth fell slightly open and remained that way for a long time.
"That, that's just too..."
After hesitating for a long while, Heavenly Insect still did not know what to say.
What the Spirit Butterfly Fairy had done would probably have been considered a betrayal of tradition throughout the entire Spirit Insect Tribe.
At that thought, Heavenly Insect suddenly turned his gaze toward the woman beside him...
If the Spirit Butterfly Fairy had married her own Ancient Sword Butterfly, did that not mean her descendant, Demon Butterfly, also possessed a sword butterfly bloodline?
Sensing Heavenly Insect's gaze, Demon Butterfly naturally knew what he was thinking. Her exquisite face remained utterly calm as she said, "Yes, it's exactly as you think. Our clan has possessed the spirit butterfly bloodline since ancient times, and every child born to us is female..."
Heavenly Insect opened his mouth, almost asking how this "kingdom of women" of a family continued its line. Then he remembered that this world also had the practice of taking husbands into the wife's family, and his puzzlement vanished.
No wonder this woman could turn herself into a seven-colored spirit butterfly...
Meanwhile, Flying Locust, who faced the Sword Butterfly True Spirit from afar, also showed a flicker of surprise as he watched that sky-piercing sword aura.
"Hehe, I certainly didn't expect your Ancient Sword Butterfly true spirit to remain after several hundred years, still faithfully guarding your master. Such admirable loyalty."
Flying Locust spoke with a light laugh.
"Those who disturb my master's slumber shall die!"
Clearly, although the Ancient Sword Butterfly's true spirit still existed, his intelligence had long since deteriorated. Only his final obsession with guarding this place remained, driving all his instinctive actions.
With that furious shout, spiritual power rapidly gathered above the barrier, then formed a hundred-zhang giant sword that slashed down at Flying Locust.
"Hmph. You think a mere remnant soul can stop me?"
Flying Locust gave a cold laugh, and boundless black light erupted from his body.
Endless spiritual power gathered and churned wildly behind him like a surging sea.
Roar!
A savage roar suddenly burst from that sea of spiritual power. A ferocious Black-Feathered Star Locust covered in cold black scales charged out, its enormous body radiating the power to destroy heaven and earth.
Flying Locust's figure shuddered, turning into a streak of black light that merged with the Black-Feathered Star Locust. Then he charged straight at the Ancient Sword Butterfly's true spirit above the massive barrier.
Spirit Insect Masters differed from ordinary spiritual power cultivators. Upon reaching the Supreme stage, cultivators had to form a Supreme Dharma Body, whose strength directly determined their power and the heights they could reach.
Spirit Insect Masters, however, did not cultivate dharma bodies. Instead, their life-bound spirit insects took their place. Normally, a Spirit Insect Master and his life-bound spirit insect fought together, producing combat power that was unquestionably greater than the sum of its parts.
But when Flying Locust merged directly with his life-bound spirit insect as he was doing now, his power increased geometrically. Originally only a Fourth Grade Sovereign, Flying Locust could even unleash the combat strength of a Fifth Grade Supreme after merging with his Black-Feathered Star Locust!
It was precisely such terrifying methods that had earned Spirit Insect Masters their current place in the Great Thousand World...
Before you continue