Hatching the Ancient Sword Butterfly

The instant he broke through the bottleneck of the Heaven Transformation Realm, Heavenly Insect felt an incredible sense of exhilaration. His resonance with heaven and earth seemed to have deepened, and he could draw spiritual energy from his surroundings far more easily. That harmony was worlds apart from what he had experienced before.

"So this is the Heaven Transformation Realm..."

Although he was still far from being considered a powerhouse, his current strength was at least respectable in Flying Spirit City.

Of course, the most important thing was that he now had the Nine Revolutions Black-Whiskered Mosquito by his side, which gave Heavenly Insect far more confidence. If he could successfully raise an Ancient Sword Butterfly as well, everything would be perfect...

"Sword Jade... I wonder if I can find something like that in the Flying Salamander Domain," Heavenly Insect said, somewhat troubled.

Demon Butterfly had kept her word. After obtaining Spirit Butterfly Fairy's complete legacy, she had passed quite a few of the fairy's unique secret techniques on to Heavenly Insect. Among them, her experience in raising Ancient Sword Butterflies was particularly important.

However, raising spirit insects consumed enormous amounts of resources. For highly specialized spirit insects like Sword Butterflies, the conditions needed for growth were even more demanding.

What Heavenly Insect had not expected was that, just as he emerged from seclusion after his breakthrough, the Spirit Butterfly Lineage would give him an enormous surprise...

Looking at the piece of green jade placed before him, brimming with powerful sword intent, Heavenly Insect's face lit up with astonishment and delight.

"Thank you so much! I was just worrying about how to find Sword Jade!"

This truly was a surprise, and for Heavenly Insect, it meant two blessings arriving at once.

Demon Butterfly shook her head slightly. "There's no need to be so polite. After all, making you stronger benefits our Spirit Butterfly Lineage too, so it's only right that we do this."

Even so, Heavenly Insect's favorable impression of the Spirit Butterfly Lineage grew considerably.

"By the way, how are things in Flying Spirit City now? After all this time, word of the city lord's disappearance must have spread, right? What have those people been doing?"

As the conversation turned to serious matters, Demon Butterfly's expression grew solemn. She answered in a low voice, "Flying Spirit City is indeed a sea of shifting clouds and treacherous currents right now. Quite a few people witnessed that earth-shaking sword strike in the ruins, and Flying Locust disappeared while exploring them. Most of the city's factions are now practically certain that the former city lord, Flying Locust, is dead."

"Because of this, all the major factions in the city have begun moving. The most active are the forces belonging to the two deputy city lords. Both are doing everything they can to win the support of every faction of any standing in the city so they can inherit the position of city lord..."

"Their main target is the Flying Spirit Army, which had always answered directly to City Lord Flying Locust. Even after losing two commanders, its current strength still firmly places it as Flying Spirit City's third-largest faction."

"Moreover, since the Flying Spirit Army's Third Commander, Black Jade, is only in the Heaven Transformation Realm, he has no chance of competing for the city lord's position. Neither side sees him as a rival, and both have promised him extremely generous terms. But Black Jade seems in no hurry to take a stance. He's playing both sides..."

Heavenly Insect nodded slightly. He had anticipated all of this, but he had not expected Black Jade, who looked so honest and simple, to have such a side to him.

Still, that was hardly surprising. Black Jade's behavior in the ruins had already shown Heavenly Insect that the honest-looking giant was quite quick-witted beneath the surface. Perhaps this was what it meant to possess hidden brilliance.

The Flying Spirit Army had always held a very special position in Flying Spirit City. Its numbers were small, only five thousand, and its sole remaining leader was merely in the Heaven Transformation Realm. Even so, no one dared underestimate its power.

Ultimately, this was because something called "battle intent" existed in the Great Thousand World.

The series of events involving the Great Luo Heavenly Domain in the original story made it clear that, because battle intent existed,

the armies of the Great Thousand World possessed extraordinary power. As long as their numbers were sufficient and their battle intent strong enough, defeating stronger opponents with weaker forces was commonplace. And if a special existence like a Battle Array Master was involved, they could even kill enemies across major cultivation realms. That was why everyone placed great importance on armies.

The Flying Spirit Army was a force painstakingly cultivated by Flying Locust as city lord, and it was the strongest power under his command.

Aside from his own strength, the Flying Spirit Army deserved much of the credit for his ability to single-handedly dominate all of Flying Spirit City and leave no one daring to resist.

It was only because Flying Locust had held the position for too short a time, and because nurturing an army consumed such enormous resources, that the Flying Spirit Army, though already fully formed, still lacked individual strength. Otherwise, even the Flying Spirit Army alone would have been enough to suppress all of Flying Spirit City!

Heavenly Insect was rather interested in meeting Black Jade. If he could bring the Flying Spirit Army over to the Spirit Butterfly Lineage's side, Flying Spirit City would essentially be secured.

Of course, it was not yet time for them to act. They had to wait until those people had settled who would win and who would lose before the Spirit Butterfly Lineage could step in to clean up the aftermath.

After learning about the situation outside and obtaining Sword Jade from the Spirit Butterfly Lineage, Heavenly Insect wasted no time. He shut himself away in his little courtyard again, intending to hatch his Sword Butterfly egg first.

Following the method left behind by Spirit Butterfly Fairy, Heavenly Insect inscribed a hatching Spirit Array in his room, specifically designed for Sword Butterflies...

The Spirit Array somewhat resembled the taiji diagrams he had seen in his previous life. Its two halves were divided into yin and yang, with two points serving as the array's cores. Sword Jade was placed at the yin pole, while the Sword Butterfly egg was placed at the yang pole. With twelve Spirit Seals forming the array's foundation, the Sword Butterfly would hatch after seven times seven-forty-nine-days.

Ancient Sword Butterflies possessed Divine Grade bloodlines, and their larval stage was extremely brief. With a sufficient supply of spiritual energy, they could pass through that stage in just a few days, form a cocoon, and transform into butterflies.

In other words, as long as Heavenly Insect was willing to spend his Supreme Spirit Liquid, he could obtain an adult Ancient Sword Butterfly in less than two months...

And an adult Ancient Sword Butterfly, even one that had only just emerged from its cocoon, possessed strength comparable to a Supreme. This was precisely why ancient spirit insects with powerful bloodlines were so highly sought after.

Often, all one needed was a complete cultivation method and sufficient resources, and a powerful fighting force could be obtained in a short time!

Heavenly Insect still had several thousand drops of Supreme Spirit Liquid. A mere hundred would be enough to raise a fully grown Ancient Sword Butterfly.

During that time, he could also use the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's powerful devouring ability to absorb Supreme Spirit Liquid and convert it into spiritual energy to aid his own cultivation.

After his body had been reconstructed, Heavenly Insect's ability to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy had already reached the level of a peerless genius. With the additional benefits of advancing to the Heaven Transformation Realm, he now cultivated dozens of times faster than before. Even so, that still could not compare to sharing the Supreme Spirit Liquid with the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm.

There was no helping it. Every drop of Supreme Spirit Liquid required a First Grade Supreme an entire month to condense. Even disregarding its spirituality and considering only its spiritual energy, a single drop contained almost as much energy as a Heaven-reaching Realm cultivator accumulated over an entire year.

Only after the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm purified it and stripped away its spirituality could Heavenly Insect, who was merely in the Heaven Transformation Realm, absorb such pure energy.

This not only accelerated the accumulation of spiritual energy within Heavenly Insect's body, but also made his sea of qi more substantial. His rapid advancement would not compromise his foundations in the slightest.

If there was one drawback, it was that Supreme Spirit Liquid was simply too high-level. No being below the Supreme Realm could fully absorb and utilize it. Even an existence with a heaven-defying devouring ability like the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm needed over half a month to digest a single drop, greatly slowing the rate at which the man and insect could absorb it.

And so, another forty-nine days passed. Through persistent cultivation, Heavenly Insect's sea of qi had gained a considerable amount of spiritual energy, bringing him to the middle stage of the Heaven Transformation Realm. Meanwhile, the egg that had remained quietly within the hatching array finally began to stir...

Crack... crack, crack...

At the faint sounds, Heavenly Insect immediately noticed cracks beginning to appear across the shell of the Ancient Sword Butterfly Egg at the yang-pole array core.

The cracking accelerated as time passed. An hour later, the entire eggshell was covered in fractures, and then...

Bang!

The eggshell shattered like glass, revealing a plump, tender white insect a full three feet long before Heavenly Insect's eyes.

"A Sword Butterfly larva!"

Heavenly Insect was overjoyed. Looking at the chubby, tender white grub before him, he could hardly resist rushing over to kiss it.

Yet the thought had barely formed when the Sword Butterfly larva, perhaps sensing malicious intent from him, sent a slash of pale green sword qi straight at him.

"Whoa!"

Heavenly Insect raised an eyebrow and swept the feeble sword qi aside with one hand.

After all, the Sword Butterfly larva had only just hatched. Naturally, its sword qi was utterly fragile before Heavenly Insect.

But judging by its strength, even a Spirit Wheel Realm cultivator might not be able to block it. In other words, despite having only just hatched, this Sword Butterfly larva already possessed combat power beyond that of an intermediate spirit insect.

So this was the power of a spirit insect with an ancient bloodline!

Marveling inwardly, Heavenly Insect swiftly used his own blood as a catalyst to condense an Insect-Control Blood Talisman, then guided it directly into the Sword Butterfly larva's body.

As mentioned before, this method of controlling insects with Blood Talismans was far stronger than using spiritual talismans, second only to the bond with a life-bound spirit insect. Thus, when dealing with an existence like an Ancient Sword Butterfly, Heavenly Insect naturally employed a Blood Talisman without hesitation.

Once the Blood Talisman established their connection, Heavenly Insect could sense the Sword Butterfly larva's consciousness. Its sea of consciousness was a vast expanse of white, free of any stray thoughts. Upon first encountering Heavenly Insect's consciousness, it briefly reacted with instinctive fear and resistance, but gradually began to grow close to him.

Only then did Heavenly Insect pick the grub up off the ground and let it rest on his arm. It happily crawled along his arm, over his shoulders, and onto his head, roaming about like a mischievous little baby.

Ignoring the playful larva, Heavenly Insect continued inspecting the hatching array.

He then discovered that all the spirit stones he had used to power the array had been drained of spiritual energy. The Sword Jade serving as the other array core had also cracked, and all the sword intent within it had vanished.

It seems I'll need more Sword Jade if I want the Ancient Sword Butterfly to grow quickly.

Heavenly Insect thought to himself.

Although the Sword Butterfly larva did not need Sword Jade to emerge from its cocoon as a butterfly, increasing its strength required a sufficient supply of sword intent.

Besides, this kind of spirit insect was meant to be born in an environment brimming with sword intent...

With a wave of his hand, Heavenly Insect erased the array's Spirit Marks from the floor and began inscribing another array to accelerate the Sword Butterfly larva's growth.

Since this array required Supreme Spirit Liquid as its source of spiritual energy, he first had to construct a sealing array capable of trapping that highly spiritual liquid...

This was the downside of having an insufficient cultivation realm. Without entering the Supreme Realm, one was not even qualified to use Supreme Spirit Liquid. Everything required the assistance of various arrays.

Fortunately, Spirit Butterfly Fairy's legacy contained a complete method for raising Sword Butterflies, including instructions on this matter. She had probably anticipated that her descendants might encounter such a situation and had deliberately developed these methods.

Otherwise, with only the scraps of memory Heavenly Insect had inherited from the body's original owner, he would have been groping in the dark beyond the commonly known secret techniques of Spirit Insect Masters and a few family techniques passed down by his father. Even if he obtained the Ancient Sword Butterfly Egg, he would have had no idea how to raise it!

This was also the main reason Heavenly Insect had gone to such lengths to return to the Spirit Insect Tribe from the distant Hundred Spirits Continent... Everything was for the sake of its legacy!

Ten days later, more than two months had passed since Heavenly Insect arrived at the Spirit Butterfly Lineage. By then, the atmosphere throughout the Spirit Insect Tribe had grown somewhat grim and murderous.

After emerging from seclusion, Heavenly Insect learned that the turmoil in Flying Spirit City was nearing its end.

Wu Xiao, one of the two deputy city lords, had gained greater support and crushed his opponent's forces in one decisive stroke. He had even secretly plotted to surround his rival with a great army, piling up human lives until the other deputy city lord was worn down and killed.

Although this had greatly diminished the strength under Wu Xiao's command, with his rival gone, the position of Flying Spirit City's lord was now within easy reach.

All he needed to do now was unite every force under his command and pacify the remnants of his enemy's faction. Those who could be subdued would be brought into the fold; those who could not would simply be destroyed...

He would then have to redistribute the spoils among his allies, striving to divide this great cake as "fairly and impartially" as possible. Only then could he pass smoothly through the opening stage of his tenure as city lord.