Chapter 2051: Heavenly Beast Garden (One more chapter will be added tomorrow, esteemed patrons)

Jiang Ding walked silently across the earth.

He arrived above a city and watched quietly.

This was a human city, apparently called Hei Chengwu City, a small human city with a population of two hundred thousand.

In the Fallen Immortal Realm, where spiritual energy was abundant, ordinary humans were universally stronger, and productivity was far greater, this was very common — just an ordinary small city, with a constant stream of beings passing through: farmers, merchants, beggars, martial artists, Qi Refining cultivators, and all manner of living creatures.

However, these mortals, martial artists, and Qi Refining cultivators were not the main body of this small city.

The main body of this small city was a Qi Refining Layer 7 butterfly that openly perched above the City Lord's manor, having built a nest there where it cultivated in stillness, constantly drawing on the emotional power of every living being in the city for its cultivation, tempering the foundation of its Dream Dao.

This nest was extremely conspicuous.

Built from many rotting branches and leaves of spirit trees, many of which were actually second-tier Lin Mu, deliberately subjected to secret arts to rot them, producing the spirit materials favored by the Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly clan, aiding their growth.

A mere Qi Refining butterfly, yet it had access to large quantities of second-tier spirit wood, and an entire human city to cultivate in — worthy indeed of the hegemon race of the Great Thousand World Cluster.

Jiang Ding looked again at the several hundred thousand humans in the city, waited silently for a while, until night fell.

Very bizarre — the moment it reached seven in the evening, the entire city instantly entered a state of sleep; many people had already returned to their beds out of habit, and those who hadn't reached their beds likewise collapsed limply, entering dreamland, completely indifferent to the fact that it was the dead of winter; many of them probably wouldn't survive until tomorrow morning.

Beneath the moon, a dream realm like colored clouds rose above the city, out in the open, with no concealment whatsoever.

These butterflies were the orthodox path of the Great Thousand World; every move they made carried an unhurried air, a relaxed confidence befitting the hegemon of the Great Thousand World Cluster.

Jiang Ding's gaze narrowed slightly as he probed deep into this dream realm, settling upon the dream of one living being.

This being was clearly a merchant.

"…My name is Song Lü. I obtained an immortal fate and am heading to Luoxiao Sect to cultivate… advancing to Qi Refining Layer 1, becoming a cultivator… Qi Refining Layer 6, attacked by a demon beast, dead…"

Within the dream, this merchant's entire life flashed by — one dream, several decades.

"Thirty years, Qi Refining Layer 6, low-grade ingredient."

The Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly in the nest carefully recorded this merchant's final lifetime achievement, sorting him into a category and marking him down.

She looked toward another dream whose light was clearly far brighter, her eyes lighting up.

This was a little beggar.

"…Su Lu, Heavenly Wood spiritual root… obtained an immortal fate, headed to Congyun Sect to cultivate… Qi Refining peak in ten years, Foundation Establishment peak in fifty years…"

The dream stalled at this point.

"A rare top-grade ingredient, suitable as a candidate tribute for the royal clan."

This butterfly revealed a greedy expression, reluctantly marking down this little beggar, drool even spilling out, yet not daring to truly take a bite.

She worked diligently, screening several hundred people's dreams in succession before finally stopping.

Then she began her formal cultivation.

All the beings in the city entered dreamland, beginning to frown in pain, as if encountering many unpleasant dreams within the dream realm; all manner of emotional power drifted out, absorbed by the butterfly in the sky, step by step consolidating her foundation, laying a solid groundwork for future cultivation, steady and sure.

In exchange, the souls of all these mortals in the city began to suffer damage; at most they could live to forty, and those with frail bodies wouldn't even reach thirty.

From time to time, this butterfly would select an ingredient carefully prepared within a dream and devour it, revealing a satisfied expression.

……

Jiang Ding watched all of this silently, making no changes.

The next day, a merchant and a beggar in the city suddenly revealed expressions of pleasant surprise, kowtowing toward an empty space: "Greetings, Immortal Master!"

There was clearly nothing there, yet they seemed to see something, and the surrounding commoners likewise revealed expressions of extreme envy.

"Even a beggar can encounter an immortal fate?"

"My Hutou is big and sturdy — he'll obtain a chance in the future too!"

"Immortal Master, look at my Qiao'er…"

This merchant and beggar, full of pride and satisfaction, walked toward the outside of the city; clearly there was nothing around them, yet they seemed to be speaking to someone, extremely bizarre.

Jiang Ding followed these two.

These two walked out of the city, into the wilderness, where they were joined by several more people in the wild, continuing onward into the distance, constantly gathering more, until finally several hundred people converged at a place called Luoxiao Sect.

Jiang Ding slightly held his breath.

This Luoxiao Sect was a massive flesh-and-blood ancient tree!

Dense upon its branches hung one human-shaped cocoon after another, ranging from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment cocoons.

The merchant, beggar, and several hundred others arrived beneath the flesh-and-blood ancient tree with joyful smiles, were hung upside down by drooping branches, with threads of silk winding up around them.

These branches continuously transmit spiritual energy and nutrients, constantly cultivating these human beings.

The cultivation directions were many and varied.

Some were cultivated as desserts — the cultivator trained within a dream, experiencing all manner of hardships and trials, adjusted to the most delicious flavor and most nutritious state, capable of promoting the butterflies' cultivation growth.

Some were cultivated as war machines, experiencing war after war within dreams.

Some were cultivated as flesh-and-blood components, cultivating for an entire lifetime within dreams, enduring countless trials, all for the purpose of becoming a single gear of a large magical treasure…

These various cultivation methods were extremely brutal, yet possessed a precise aesthetic of flesh-and-blood immortal industrial craftsmanship.

Such horror had continued upon this land for over a hundred thousand years already.

"Enough,"

"No more looking."

Jiang Ding sighed softly and left this place.

Within the Law-Extinguishing Diaphragm, his figure flew at extreme speed, utterly concealed, with mountains and lands passing below one after another, constantly gathering various causal data, constantly deducing something.

A True Immortal Son was closer to the Great Dao, and in deduction was unstoppable.

If not for another True Immortal Son secretly obstructing, this would have been nearly irresistible.

Jiang Ding saw that upon the earth, one human sect after another, one human city after another, had become butterflies' nests; butterflies ruled over countless humans and countless demon races through dreams, gathering countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and the resentful power of souls, to cultivate one extraordinary-talented butterfly after another, further consolidating the rule of the Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly clan.

The entire Great Thousand World Cluster, save for a few places, had fallen!

Jiang Ding shuttled through the Fallen Immortal Realm, constantly investigating, deducing, and probing, spending over a hundred consecutive years with extreme patience and without the slightest weariness.

In the end, he confirmed one thing.

The Zhu Que Star Domain's tentacles had not spread here.

"In that case,"

"this sovereign's Fallen Realm can be swept clean."

Jiang Ding said calmly.

He raised his head and looked ahead.

Here, the Tianhe crisscrossed in all directions, footsteps thundering, celestial horses returning from afar in droves, streaming into the sect — a magnificent, resplendent spectacle that had endured for tens of millions of years.

The ancient immortal sect of the human race in the Fallen Immortal Realm — the Celestial Beast Garden!

Also the location of the planar passage of the Zhu Que Star Domain!

Today, a human True Immortal came here, intending to purge this place and restore the glory of the supreme race of the endless starry skies.