Chapter 1318: The Beautiful and Lovely Fairy Butterfly Daughter

"Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly Clan!"

"Why would this clan appear here? Is there some conspiracy?"

Jiang Ding cursed.

Whatever conspiracy it was had nothing to do with him. If the heavens fell, the powerful human cultivators at the top of Fallen Immortal Realm would hold it up. Even if they couldn't hold it, then they couldn't — he could just run, no need for unnecessary sacrifice.

In the future, when his strength was sufficient, one man and one sword would be enough to sweep clean all the demons and monsters of the entire Fallen Immortal Realm.

The problem now was that he needed time to grow!

He couldn't, at this moment of weakness, attract the attention of a quasi-immortal clan like the Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly Clan.

"However,"

"Then again…"

Jiang Ding's heart stirred: "I wonder what the legendary Fairy Butterfly Daughter looks like — how pretty, how beautiful, how breathtaking."

"Her soul, her blood, her bones, her fairy butterfly wings must surely be the finest materials for sword-forging. The amplification and nurturing they would bring to divine soul and sword intent must far surpass the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's inherited divine metal, Supreme Clarity Divine Iron. They must be perfectly suited to the reincarnation of the Six Paths Reincarnation, because the Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly Clan excels above all at constructing illusion realms."

"And, most crucially, the moment she sees me, she'll surely find a way to kill me — no need to waste any effort."

"She'll deliver herself right to my door."

"If there's no Fairy Butterfly Daughter, a next-tier royal-bloodline Fairy Butterfly Princess would be excellent too…"

Jiang Ding's imagination ran wild.

However much he daydreamed, he didn't neglect real business. He set down the heavily sealed Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly, his body vanished, and he returned only several months later, an integrated talisman board covered in countless circuits now in hand.

"Seventh-tier — not quasi-seventh-tier — a true Dao Merging level soul-searching talisman!"

"Worth one Dao Merging battle merit."

Jiang Ding's face showed a pained expression as he gently pressed it against the Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly's body.

For disciples of a near-immortal level faction, one couldn't be stingy — even ordinary members deserved such treatment. Waste was waste; money could always be earned later.

With this forward base in Fallen Immortal Realm gone, his future path would have many more twists; he couldn't afford mishaps.

"Right now, I cannot attract the attention of quasi-immortal clans."

Jiang Ding murmured.

"Hiss…"

"Hiss hiss…"

The Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly within the deep-blue talisman showed intense struggling, its ribbon-like butterfly wings flailing continuously, until gradually it went still, its life aura utterly faint, having lost all power to resist.

A wisp of deep-blue spiritual light emerged.

Jiang Ding's divine sense probed into it. As expected, he encountered numerous soul traps — the kind that would cause a Void Refinement cultivator to fall into an illusion realm and sink eternally if he wasn't careful.

All these various methods, to the Materialist Solar Sword

Soul, were no more than a breeze brushing the face.

"The memories are somewhat incomplete — can't be made whole. Even with a Dao Merging soul-searching talisman, worthy of a quasi-immortal clan being."

Jiang Ding sighed.

He carefully studied this clan's divine-sense defensive prohibitions, collecting data, intending to use it to fill the Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong's reserves of scientific knowledge on divine-sense prohibitions.

"This butterfly is named 'Huanmian,' a member of the Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly Clan, sent to infiltrate the Thunder Flame Domain. There are no memories before that — they were likely severed before infiltration."

"After all, the human Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong is no easy target either."

Jiang Ding carefully searched through the incomplete memories: "The clan's inherited scripture, the Celestial Illusion Fairy Scripture, has a sub-scripture called the Celestial Illusion True Spirit Scripture. Its defenses are extremely tight — the moment it sensed the soul-searching aura, the memories self-destructed. All that's left is a name and some brief introductions."

"The Celestial Illusion True Spirit Scripture specializes in infiltrating a cultivator's divine soul, weaving an illusion realm that lasts a lifetime, thereby collecting numerous illusion-path puppets. Rumor has it that beneath the Fairy Butterfly Daughter is a puppet legion of ten thousand clans' prodigies, including many human sword-path law-cultivation prodigies, even dragon and phoenix bloodline demon prodigies. The formations they compose are terrifyingly powerful…"

"This clan itself excels at controlling puppets, assembling endless legions. Their army-formation arts are extremely fearsome…"

"'Huanmian' arrived in the Thunder Flame Domain nearly twenty thousand years ago. His purpose… what a coincidence, much like mine — also waiting for the Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong's inheritance disciple. With the death of Mud Swamp True Venerable, to leave an 'Illusion Seal Seed' of the Fairy Butterfly Daughter for the inheritance disciple, in preparation for the future…"

"How could they be certain that Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun would challenge Mud Swamp True Venerable?"

Jiang Ding's face took on a thoughtful look.

The reason wasn't hard to guess.

The Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly Clan must certainly have a vast spy network within humanity, and through various coincidences, guided Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun here.

In fact, this was merely guiding by circumstance.

Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun had already been roaming about seeking suitable powerful opponents to fight; he didn't care much about the target. Whether this 'Illusion Seal Seed' could successfully infiltrate deep into Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun's divine soul and evade his sect elders was likewise uncertain.

Open warfare and covert spying and counter-spying between near-immortal level factions had continued for countless years.

This matter was neither the beginning nor the end.

"Good news."

"If this were in my home territory, many things could be arranged more leisurely."

Jiang Ding deliberated.

No matter how strong the Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly Clan was, this wasn't the core of their power — they were sneaking around in the first place, able to muster only limited experts. For now they couldn't pose a life-or-death threat to him; the worst-case scenario he had anticipated hadn't materialized.

"'Huanmian' reports upward once every two hundred years to some unknown place; right now there are still

one hundred and fifty-four years left."

"This period is safe."

Jiang Ding set down the Celestial Illusion Fairy Butterfly and took out a Void Refinement level jade box, sealing it layer upon layer.

He couldn't kill it yet.

The life or death of such a spy would be known to its higher-up contact, which might alert higher-level figures and trigger unknown risks.

When Jiang Ding completed his plan and withdrew from the Thunder Flame Domain, that would be the moment to act.

"From now on,"

"I am Mud Swamp True Venerable."

Jiang Ding Zi murmured to himself.

His appearance began to shift, and the Daoist robe on his body also began to change, transforming into an old man with grey-green hair, a bulge rising on his shoulder that revealed an emerald-green toad.

The True Venerable of the Mire was still alive.

His complete memories had been seized, so the entire Mire Demon City held no difficulty whatsoever for Jiang Ding.

Within the faint Bai Chong Guang, the Mire Jiang Ding vanished from sight.

……

After a gap of more than a year, Jiang Ding once again returned to the Mire Demon City.

This time, this vast Tushan Xiancheng no longer resisted him; instead, it split off a guiding array formation, actively drawing him into the core region of the immortal city, layer upon layer of array formation guards.

At the center of the emerald-green glazed palace, Jiang Ding sat cross-legged, his divine sense instantly refining the array formation core of the Mire Demon City.

"Nineteen types of escape array formations,"

"Three Void Refinement-grade killing arrays… not bad. If one were to fight here, it would indeed give rise to many variables."

Jiang Ding's divine sense swept once.

Of course, they were only variables; such variables still could not reverse the final outcome.

But this was war, a life-and-death war; there should be no carelessness whatsoever, and no favorable position should be given up, no matter how weak the enemy appeared.