Chapter 86: Extreme (1)

After dealing with this batch of cultivators and tying up loose ends, Wang Ping left overnight.

Three days later, in a cave dwelling dug underground, Wang Ping curiously gazed at the white butterfly in his hand.

This is the one-hundred-eightieth ranked strange insect on the Strange Insect List, the trace-seeking butterfly.

It is currently in its juvenile stage, only as big as the cover of a little fingernail.

At this moment it tucked its pure white, snow-like wings and lay still in the center of Wang Ping's palm.

Its gray, fluffy head was curled up, occasionally lifting its head a few times; it seemed to still be sleeping,

This scene was somewhat cute, and Wang Ping's mouth corner unconsciously curled up a hint of a smile.

In its juvenile stage, the trace-seeking butterfly has only one pair of white wings; after entering the growth stage, it will grow another two to six pairs of wings.

Such a difference naturally stems from different breeding methods.

Among all the strange insects on the Heaven-Earth Strange Insect List, the trace-seeking butterfly is probably one of the most peculiar.

It consumes none of the world's heavenly treasures, living solely by devouring the vital breath of living beings.

The higher a cultivator's realm and the stronger their cultivation, the greater the effect of the aura they emit on the trace-seeking butterfly.

The cultivator who possessed the trace-seeking butterfly obviously knew little about this, merely letting it exist inside a spirit insect pouch.

Unbeknownst to them, doing this simply accelerates its death; once the trace-seeking butterfly hatches, it must be constantly kept at one's side to let it devour one's aura.

In the juvenile stage, if it goes a long time without devouring vital breath, it will starve to death.

The correct approach is to place it on one's body, allowing the trace-seeking butterfly to absorb one's aura; this is also a process of acknowledging a master.

As long as the trace-seeking butterfly stays on one's body for a year, it will automatically acknowledge that person as its master.

Moreover, this acknowledgment is such that if the master dies, the butterfly dies with them out of loyalty.

The Spirit Insect Cultivation Notes state: the trace-seeking butterfly is extremely rare, producing only one egg each time, and only one egg in its lifetime.

This differs from the heaven-flying soul-devouring butterfly; a fully matured heaven-flying soul-devouring butterfly may appear only once in a lifetime, but it lays hundreds to thousands of eggs each time.

Like the heaven-flying soul-devouring butterfly nest Wang Ping encountered last time in the spirit realm, the dense mass of eggs likely numbers over ten thousand.

But from those eggs, only about five or six likely mature into adult soul-devouring butterflies, and as for a fully matured heaven-flying soul-devouring butterfly, who knows how many fully formed individuals it takes to produce one.

Compared to the heaven-flying soul-devouring butterfly, the trace-seeking butterfly is far more prone to extinction.

The Spirit Insect True Person once lamented in the Spirit Insect Cultivation Notes that this kind of insect may already have vanished from the lower realm.

I never expected to still be able to see it today.

Originally Wang Ping was merely curious about it, but now seeing the trace-seeking butterfly's cute appearance in his hand, he couldn't help but grow fond of it.

Huh?

Wang Ping suddenly felt his hand itch; upon closely examining his palm, he realized the trace-seeking butterfly had been staying in his hand for a while and had begun to devour his aura.

Perhaps it had not eaten for a long time, or perhaps his aura was especially delicious to the trace-seeking butterfly; its snow‑white wings occasionally twitched slightly, looking quite content.

Seeing this, Wang Ping's mouth corner rose slightly.

After a quarter hour, the trace-seeking butterfly finished eating; Wang Ping carefully placed it into a small wooden cage he had carved himself, then hung it around his neck.

This wooden cage is made of first‑grade spirit wood, which he found in his storage bag of materials; he cut a section, crafting a cage about three cun high and two finger‑widths thick, with a thumb‑sized hollow in the middle, just right for holding it.

The trace-seeking butterfly has strong adhesion; once placed inside, there is no fear of it falling out.

In its juvenile stage the trace-seeking butterfly is too frail; its ability to locate enemies by scent is still weak, and at this stage it normally does not actively seek out foes, so that cultivator likely used a technique like the Insect Control Art to forcibly manipulate it into searching for enemies.

Doing this is no different from killing the chicken to get the eggs.

Fortunately, he used it only a few times; otherwise this trace-seeking butterfly would have suffered damage to its potential, losing the chance to become a fully mature trace-seeking butterfly.

After taking care of the trace-seeking butterfly, Wang Ping went to sleep again.

The next day, he formally began practicing the Spirit Sense Condensing Hammer Method.

The first condensation can only start from one catty, because at the beginning the will has not been tempered; if a heavy hammer were used directly, it could scatter the will, likely turning one into an idiot.

Condensing the Spirit Sense Hammer must not be rushed; it must proceed gradually.

So each day, aside from training the Spirit Sense Hammer, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation, occasionally playing with the trace-seeking butterfly.

In the blink of an eye, three years have passed.

"Little White! Come! Fly left! Fly right, ah! So obedient."

In the cave dwelling, Wang Ping was smiling as he played with the trace-seeking butterfly.

Over the past three years, the trace-seeking butterfly that had never left his side had long acknowledged him as master, and its mental state was far better than when he first obtained it.

Thus he also gained another way to relax his mind.

"Ding! Energy is full! Please select a time for transit!"

As he was playing with the trace-seeking butterfly, Wang Ping's mind rang with the sound of the silver stone gate!

At last, we have arrived!

Wang Ping rose, placed the still dazed trace-seeking butterfly into the wooden cage, and then put it into a small hole on the left side of the cave entrance.

Then, after silently reciting, the next moment the silver stone gate flew out, transforming into a vortex.

He entered the vortex, passed through the familiar path, and arrived once more before the silver stone gate; the patterns on the gate had vanished.

Obviously, this time it was again a random selection.

Taking a deep breath, Wang Ping murmured words, and finally said: "Silver stone gate, bless me; this time let me transit to a somewhat normal area, and in return I will strive to find fragments for you!"

As soon as he spoke, the towering silver gate seemed to flash with a gleam.

"In ten breaths, activate the transmission!"

Wang Ping clenched his teeth silently; this time it must succeed, otherwise he might waste another three years in vain.

The Qingdi Changsheng Gong only increased his cultivation speed, lacking any effect to resist heavenly and earthly resistance; thus he had already felt the descent of heavenly and earthly resistance two years ago.

In the two years of cultivation that followed, each time he circulated his technique he felt as if an invisible layer lay ahead, blocking his advance.

As time passed, this resistance grew greater; after he had condensed a hundred strands of spiritual power, now it almost takes two months to condense a single strand.

This almost slowed his cultivation speed eightfold.

He followed Xiao Yang's advice, and before the resistance even appeared, he began to temper his will with the Divine Sense Hammer, so that upon reaching his limit, he could quickly break through it.

Now he has already used a three-catty Divine Sense Hammer, and Wang Ping already feels that the three-catty Divine Sense Hammer is no longer effective.

He has already condensed four-catty, five-catty, six-catty, and seven-catty Divine Sense Hammers; all that remains is to wait for the heavenly and earthly resistance to reach its limit and for his will to become highly concentrated, then he will carry out the hammering.

According to Xiao Yang, the will limit of a Qi Refining cultivator lies between the six-catty and seven-catty Divine Sense Hammer.

Now everything is prepared; all that remains is the upcoming journey to the Spirit Realm!

Buzz!

The silver stone gate gave a shudder, the tightly shut doors slowly opened, and Wang Ping entered with a calm face, though his heart was actually pounding with anxiety.

Spirit Realm! Tianpeng Domain!

In an unnamed mountain range, Wang Ping, who had emerged from the silver vortex, saw the scene and breathed a sigh of relief.

Spiritual trees loomed high, spiritual medicines were everywhere; within just ten zhang of him, there stood one second-grade spiritual tree, ten second-grade spiritual medicines, and one third-grade spiritual medicine.

He did not recognize the third-grade spiritual herb; among the ten second-grade spiritual medicines, he only recognized two: one was a three-petaled flower, purple in color, three-leaved Purple Heart Grass; the other was a ground-growing second-grade spiritual medicine, Dryland Lotus.

They are all spiritual medicines used to refine second-grade elixirs.

Wang Ping was extremely pleased with this place; he first gathered the spiritual medicines on the ground.

He then walked to beneath the spiritual tree, sat cross-legged, began to regulate his breath; after a full cup of tea's time, Wang Ping finally opened his eyes, and at that moment his eyes were unusually calm.

Cultivation has begun!

A huge amount of violent and pure heavenly-earth spiritual energy was inhaled by Wang Ping into his body; the Qingdi Changsheng Gong ran wildly; before this massive spiritual energy, the heavenly and earthly resistance that had once left Wang Ping feeling helpless was scattered in disarray.

This effect!

Wang Ping opened his eyes in surprise, somewhat beyond his expectations.