Chapter 57

In the afternoon, Wei Yuning, Qiu He, and Ye Ying went again to the general goods market at Guest Come Peak. As inner sect disciples, Wei Yuning could go to the dining hall to eat free meals, but Qiu He and Ye Ying, who had no official work, lacked this privilege and needed to prepare their own food.

According to the steward of Wind Lotus Abode, the previous owner was a cultivation-obsessed martial uncle of the Heaven Sword Chamber who had entered the peak of the Heart-Moving stage; he has now gone to the external domain battlefield to fight demonic cultivators, seeking a breakthrough.

This former owner seemingly did not like cooking; inside the house, aside from a few sets of tea ware, a hanging kettle, and an earth fire stove, there was nothing related to eating. Pots, bowls, various spiritual fruits and meats, brand-new bedding, sheets, pillows, and other linens, tables, chairs, stools, and other daily necessities—if not for having a storage ring, bringing these items back would be troublesome.

After everything was settled, Wei Yuning declined Qiu He's attempt to keep him and left Wind Lotus Abode.

Days returned to tranquility.

Apart from catching insects and guiding the Spirit Beast House on how to remodel the new beast enclosure, Wei Yuning began spending most of his time constructing the details of his imagined spirit butterfly.

When the details of his imagined object became concrete down to the cellular level, he could go no further; however, he discovered other details. Each cell is an independent living entity, and after sufficient understanding, he occasionally found that by infusing thoughts he could control each cell's activity. Of course, not every thought is effective; after half a month of experimentation, he obtained three effective methods of mental control.

First, fusion: two identical cells can become one cell, material weight doubles, volume essentially unchanged, other attributes undetectable, but defense increases roughly double; however, this devouring has a limit—when the number of devourings reaches nine, his divine sense nears collapse, and the final defense increases about fivefold.

Second, assimilation: he can turn two different types of cells into the same type, and he can control which type they become.

Third, repulsion: he can cause two cells, whether of the same or different kind, to mutually repel once they enter a certain range.

Although Wei Yuning could not determine what these cells' abilities were for, he felt it was time to begin constructing a new imagined object, but before that he still needed to go to the Spirit Beast House to get something.

Spirit Beast Peak lies at the northwest corner of Come Peak, about twenty kilometers away in a straight line.

Between each peak there is a small teleportation array, making travel extremely convenient.

Spirit Beast Peak's area above the clouds is second only to that of Pill Peak, about ten square kilometers, or roughly fifteen thousand mu; compared to the gentle slopes of Pill Peak, Spirit Beast Peak's environment is more complex, most of it having been reshaped—there are dense forests for raising azure birds, deep pools for keeping pythons, pastures for raising most animals, and so on.

The place Wei Yuning went to is called Butterfly Garden, located in a small sunken basin at the southern end of Spirit Beast Peak, about ten or so mu in size. Here, earth fire rises, it faces the sun year-round, so the temperature is naturally high; the sect added a crystal canopy above the basin, making the climate akin to the blazing season. In the Butterfly Garden grow many heat-loving broadleaf plants, whose huge blossoms are the butterflies' favorite.

His purpose in coming here was to use his divine sense to sense the butterflies' bodies.

Although the creature he imagined is a high-level spirit butterfly and not the same species as these butterflies, the monarch butterfly among them is a hybrid descendant of high-level spirit butterflies, carrying their genes in its body, and he hopes to find it in the monarch butterfly's body.

The one receiving Wei Yuning was a martial uncle named Hong Feng, an exceptionally experienced beast tamer. They had met before; when they were remodeling the breeding grounds for the moon-tortoise worms, they had discussed the details together.

After exchanging greetings, Hong Feng could not help but ask curiously, "I wonder why Martial Nephew Qingmo insists on personally touching the monarch butterfly? Insect-type spirit beasts have low intelligence; even I can only approach it when it is full and in a good mood, and only those who have signed a contract with it as partners may touch it freely."

"I want to use my divine sense to feel its body; this will help my cultivation. Uncle, how strong is it? If it gets angry, will it hurt me?"

"Certainly will, the monarch butterfly's body is as hard as steel, its claws are even sharper, but the most fearsome is its proboscis, which can easily pierce ordinary spiritual armor and robes." Hong Feng said solemnly; as for what cultivation method Wei Yuning practices, since he did not volunteer the information, Hong Feng had no intention of prying, and every cultivator has their own secrets.

"I never expected a previously unheard-of insect-type spirit beast to be this formidable!" Wei Yuning exclaimed.

"That's only natural; even the lowest-level spirit beast cannot be resisted by a human body—this is the divide between humanity and beasts, and it holds true even for cultivators among humans. Even those who specialize in tempering their flesh must reach a high level before they can match spirit beasts. I know you are at the Foundation Establishment stage of body cultivation, but your level is still too low; perhaps only after you reach the Golden Core stage will you not fear the monarch butterfly's proboscis attack."

"What should I do then?"

"Let's wait and see for now; it will eat once before dusk, then sleep after eating. By the way, how fast is your movement technique?" Hong Feng asked.

Wei Yuning recalled his own "Rocket Movement Technique," nodded, and said, "Very fast!"

Hong Feng glanced at Wei Yuning in astonishment; he had never seen such an immodest disciple—a body Foundation Establishment disciple whose speed might be slightly greater than that of a divine-sense Foundation Establishment peer, but how fast could it possibly be? He thought he had misheard, and couldn't help but ask again, "Just how fast?"

"On the ground I am just a bit faster than Uncle Hongyin." That statement was truly modest; if he used the force of pushing off the ground, his speed would definitely surpass Hongyin by a considerable margin, and even in the sky, as long as spiritual energy is ample, his jet-propelled movement technique is not inferior to any ordinary movement technique, unless it is a teleportation-like evasion technique, but that is already another level of cultivation method.

"Are you referring to the Earth-rank battle commander Hongyin of the mountain patrol team?" Hong Feng startled, hurriedly confirming.

"Yes, are there any other Hongyins?"

"No, no, all good, all good—then there's no problem. Later, when it's asleep, touch it; with your speed, you should be able to dodge before it reacts." Hong Feng, flustered by the fright, had heard earlier that this disciple from the Herb Garden was rather uncanny, and he hadn't expected it to be true.

"Hongyin martial uncle, my goodness, that is a legendary figure of the Hong generation, a prodigy, a person the Yunyin Sect sees once a century, yet his speed is actually inferior to this kid before him!" Hong Feng thought to himself. He did not think Qingmo would lie, for there was no need to.

The two sat down and chatted casually; Hong Feng also prepared a piece of wild honeybee-produced honey dew for Wei Yuning to eat, and before they knew it, the sky grew dark.

Tonight, amidst the third month, the Wind Moon blocked the sun's light, leaving the Flower Moon and Autumn Moon to shoulder the role of nighttime illumination.