Ice Spirit Divine Butterfly

On the first floor of the trading fair, Heavenly Insect and his two companions made the rounds several times, but all they saw were ordinary spirit insects that were not worth raising.

Just as Heavenly Insect was wondering whether to check the second and third floors, Golden Cicada, who resided in his sea of spiritual energy, gave him another little hint.

"Walk ten meters ahead. Those ice silkworms are pretty good. They're worth raising..."

Heavenly Insect's eyes immediately lit up.

After Golden Cicada's performance back at the Spirit Butterfly Fairy's ruins, Heavenly Insect now placed great trust in this spiritual intuition of his.

When Heavenly Insect stopped before the trading counter, he saw dozens of thumb-sized ice silkworms inside an ice box. As they crawled, they left trails of ice that gave off wisps of white vapor.

Those icy trails also revealed just how much frost power these ice silkworms contained.

"They all look pretty ordinary..."

Heavenly Insect swept his gaze over them and immediately assessed their quality based on his own experience.

Still, since Golden Cicada had said so, he certainly would not be fooling him for fun.

Seeing Heavenly Insect staring blankly at a group of ice silkworms, the two women behind him were puzzled. Tian Fu spoke up directly. "They're just ice silkworms. What are you looking at them for? Don't tell me you're planning to buy a few to play with?"

Heavenly Insect smiled faintly.

"Why not? Besides, I think these ice silkworms have excellent potential. They contain plenty of frost power. If I used gu-rearing methods to produce an Ice Silkworm King from these few dozen, wouldn't that be a profitable deal?"

Tian Fu frowned. "Are you serious? Don't tell me you know gu-rearing techniques?"

The Spirit Insect Tribe's so-called "gu-rearing techniques" were actually much like what Heavenly Insect had known from his previous life: a group of insects was placed together to devour and slaughter one another until only the strongest survived...

Spirit Insect Masters of the Spirit Insect Tribe who studied gu-rearing techniques were also called Gu Masters. They were exceedingly rare, but they often possessed strange and exceptionally powerful spirit insects, which they called Gu Insects.

Gu Insects were usually stronger and more terrifying than spirit insects of the same level. Their only drawback was their lack of intelligence.

Unlike ordinary intermediate- and high-grade spirit insects, they did not possess near-complete intelligence.

Everything a Gu Insect did was controlled by its Gu Master. A Gu Insect could essentially be regarded as a weapon that knew only slaughter, hardly a living creature at all.

"Of course I don't know gu-rearing techniques. But if all I want is to concentrate the ice-attribute energy in these ice silkworms into the strongest one and raise an Ice Silkworm King, there are actually a few ways to do that."

Tian Fu fell silent. She did not know how much truth there was in Heavenly Insect's words, but it hardly mattered.

The pretty woman watched Heavenly Insect approach the seller and bargain with such eloquence that lotus blossoms might as well have spilled from his mouth. In the end, he bought all thirty-odd ice silkworms for ten million spirit stones and took them away.

That price was certainly far cheaper than outside. After all, on the Spirit Insect Continent, where insects were everywhere, even a high-grade spirit insect larva cost about that much.

"Golden Cicada, how many of these ice silkworms have potential? How worthwhile will they be to raise?"

As far as Heavenly Insect was concerned, if more than two of these thirty-odd ice silkworms had the aptitude to become heaven-grade spirit insects, he would have made an absolute killing!

With enough potential, an ice silkworm could break out of its cocoon as a heaven-grade spirit insect, the Frost Demon Spider. This was an exceptionally powerful heaven-grade spirit insect. Not only did these spiders have enormous bodies and eight spear-like legs, but their terrifying venom alone could strike fear into countless Spirit Insect Masters.

Unfortunately, elite-quality ice silkworms capable of evolving into Frost Demon Spiders were practically one in ten thousand. Unless someone was a Spirit Insect Master who specialized in hatching ice silkworms, an ordinary person's chances of finding one were like winning the lottery.

With the help of his Golden Cicada cheat, Heavenly Insect really was like a lucky fellow who had hit the jackpot.

"Only one ice silkworm has potential, but this isn't about raising some heaven-grade spirit insect. As long as you can meet its requirements, it can even evolve into a third-grade divine insect, the Ice Spirit Divine Butterfly!"

"You're not joking?" Heavenly Insect's pupils widened involuntarily.

A third-grade divine insect-wouldn't that be even stronger than the Ancient Sword Butterfly he currently possessed?

Compared with cultivators' realms, a fully matured third-grade divine insect was comparable to a Third Grade Sovereign.

But as mentioned before, divine insects were like divine beasts: their combat power utterly overwhelmed others of the same level. If Heavenly Insect possessed a third-grade divine insect, he would have enough strength to face even a Fourth Grade Sovereign.

"What conditions does it need to evolve into an Ice Spirit Divine Butterfly?"

Heavenly Insect eagerly asked.

"How would I know? My inherited memories don't contain evolution information for a mere ice silkworm. Didn't you come here to get into the Twelfth Branch? Just look for the relevant secret techniques once you're there."

As usual, Golden Cicada had no idea what it meant to "help someone all the way, and escort the Buddha all the way west!"

"You'll never make it to Spirit Mountain when you go to fetch the scriptures in your next life..."

Leaving Golden Cicada with that cryptic remark, Heavenly Insect could only turn to someone else.

"Miss Demon Butterfly, does your Spirit Butterfly Lineage have any records of the Ice Spirit Divine Butterfly?"

The Spirit Butterfly Lineage's ancestor had specialized in raising butterfly-type spirit insects, so she might well have known something about the Ice Spirit Divine Butterfly back then.

Demon Butterfly pondered for a moment, then said, "The name Ice Spirit Divine Butterfly does sound familiar. Supposedly, its larvae need the help of an ice-attribute rare treasure called a Snow Soul Bead to have a chance of evolving successfully.

"As for anything more specific, the inheritance our ancestor left behind doesn't mention it. I imagine she didn't have much contact with them either..."

But that was already enough for Heavenly Insect!

"A Snow Soul Bead? That should be a rare ice-attribute treasure. Perhaps Flying Salamander City really does have one..." Tian Fu suddenly said.

She was right.

A Snow Soul Bead was an energy core nurtured by the essence of thousand-year-old ice and snow. It contained exceptionally pure frost power and was one of the materials favored by many powerful ice-attribute divine insects.

"If you really want one, I suggest you visit the Flying Salamander Auction House after the assembly. You might find what you're looking for there..."

Heavenly Insect nodded slightly, committing the name Flying Salamander Auction House to memory.

Needless to say, judging by the usual pattern, an auction house bearing that name had to be the largest in Flying Salamander City. There was also an eighty-percent chance that its owner was the Domain Lord himself.

The so-called annual assembly of the Flying Salamander Domain was really the occasion when its subordinate cities paid protection money to the Domain Lord.

At first, this automatically brought to Heavenly Insect's mind scenes of gang bosses holding meetings in the Hong Kong movies he had watched.

Only here in Flying Salamander City, the scale was somewhat grander.

Once the money had been paid, what remained was the part that directly concerned every city lord's personal interests.

This stage was called the arena contest. Each city lord had an arena, challengers came to challenge them, and the city lords had to defend it.

If a challenger succeeded, he would seize the arena from the defeated lord and become its new champion.

If, by the end of the arena contest, a defeated champion had failed to reclaim his arena, he would lose completely.

And the price of defeat was the city in his hands!

Every year, quite a few small cities near the bottom of the rankings changed masters...

The Flying Salamander Domain governed a total of 162 cities. A city like Flying Spirit City ranked only in the lower-middle range, so Heavenly Insect's seat was likewise placed among the lower-middle ranks of the city lords.

Even so, as someone with only Heaven-reaching Realm cultivation, he stood out considerably sitting among a group of Sovereigns.

On either side of Heavenly Insect sat a thin-faced old man and a beautiful woman.

The two apparently knew each other. When they saw a stranger seated in the Flying Spirit City lord's place, both looked astonished.

"Wasn't Flying Locust the lord of Flying Spirit City? We even drank together at the last assembly. How did someone else suddenly take his place?" the thin old man could not help asking curiously.

Heavenly Insect turned to glance at him. This old man was named Qing Tiao, the lord of Qing Tiao City. His cultivation was around the Third Grade Sovereign level, putting him on par with Flying Locust back then. The two had presumably been on good terms.

"Hehe, City Lord Flying Locust died several months ago due to certain circumstances. I am Heavenly Insect, Flying Spirit City's new city lord."

"Heavenly Insect?"

Hearing his introduction, the beautiful woman in a red dress seated on his other side could not help speaking up.

Clearly, someone bearing the ruling surname, especially someone who looked so young yet possessed considerable strength, commanded attention wherever he went.

"You have such an impressive bearing, Young Master Heavenly Insect. One glance is enough to tell that you're a young genius. Why would you go to such a remote place as Flying Spirit City to become its lord?"

You're a genius with the ruling surname. Why throw away a bright future and run off to some forgotten corner to become a city lord? Has your brain gone haywire?

Looking at the beautiful woman watching him curiously, Heavenly Insect suddenly realized that although she could not quite be called seductive, she held considerable appeal for men.

Even the old man Qing Tiao beside him was staring at her with his eyes fixed, wasn't he?

Heavenly Insect glanced at the beautiful woman before him and said calmly, "You flatter me, City Lord Hong You. With my current strength, I wouldn't dare be complacent before seniors such as yourselves."

Seeing that Heavenly Insect had not taken the bait, the beautiful Hong You did not press him further. Instead, she withdrew her gaze with a faint smile and quietly waited for the Domain Lord to arrive.

Tian Yuan, the Domain Lord of the Flying Salamander Domain, did not keep everyone waiting long. A short while later, he appeared on the throne at the highest point in the hall.

Heavenly Insect rose with everyone else to salute him. In the process, he caught a glimpse of the Flying Salamander Domain Lord's appearance.

Tian Yuan looked like a middle-aged man. He wore a dark brown robe covered in spots, enough to make someone develop trypophobia at first glance.

"Hehe, it's time for another annual assembly. At last, all the seats here are filled." Looking down at the fully occupied seats, Domain Lord Tian Yuan smiled faintly. "Since everyone has arrived, let this assembly begin."

Among the hundred-odd city lords, unexpected deaths like Flying Locust's occurred almost every year, and there were quite a few.

Not every city that lost its lord could produce a new one to take charge as quickly as Flying Spirit City had.

Naturally, the seats belonging to those cities without lords could only remain empty during the assembly.

Since this was Heavenly Insect's first time attending the assembly, he kept an exceptionally low profile. He voiced no opinions on anything, merely watching it all in silence.

Only when it was finally time to pay did he quietly hand over the thousand units of supreme spirit liquid that had already been prepared as Flying Spirit City's dues.

This supreme spirit liquid did not come from Heavenly Insect's own private reserves. The required amount had been set aside long ago and kept under Tian Fu's supervision. Neither the former city lord Flying Locust, nor Wu Xiao, who had held the position for barely two days, nor even Heavenly Insect now dared tamper with it.

Once he had done what was required, all that remained was to wait for the next stage of the assembly to begin.

Perhaps because collecting the money had gone smoothly this time, Heavenly Insect noticed that the Domain Lord was in an excellent mood. Without any unnecessary words, he led the city lords straight to the venue for the arena contest.

It was an enormous plaza containing 162 arenas, each a hundred zhang across, arranged in order. Each arena had its own marker and city name, so the city lords only needed to find their respective arenas and step onto them.

Heavenly Insect found the arena representing Flying Spirit City. After flying onto it, he sat cross-legged in its center and closed his eyes to rest.

He knew perfectly well that the challengers were shrewd. They usually selected newly appointed city lords with relatively low cultivation, just like him...

Such people were the easiest to defeat, and taking their place to assume control of the city would also bring fewer difficulties.

Thus, people like Heavenly Insect were always the choice morsels in countless challengers' eyes.

Of course, not just anyone could become a challenger. Those whom Tian Yuan favored and granted the right to challenge had to be absolutely solid in strength, talent, loyalty, and more!

These challengers were about as strong as the lower-ranked city lords, all possessing Sovereign-level cultivation. Someone like Heavenly Insect, a mere Heaven-reaching Realm cultivator, was far too conspicuous...

"I am Xu Qing, here to challenge the lord of Flying Spirit City!"

A sinister smile appeared on the pale face of the man named Xu Qing. The look in his eyes made it clear that he already believed victory was firmly in his grasp.

Heavenly Insect slowly opened his eyes and studied the challenger opposite him...

Judging by his aura, this man was at most a First Grade Sovereign, hardly outstanding even among the challengers. To think that someone like this would be the first to step onto his arena-was he looking down on him?

"Release your life-bound spirit insect. Otherwise, once I make my move, you won't have another chance."

Heavenly Insect's calm voice rang out, leaving both the nearby challengers and the city lords being challenged utterly stunned.