Chapter 58

Let's go, time's about right! Hong Feng looked at the sky and stood up.

The two came out of the quarters where the disciples managing the Butterfly Garden lived, went down a flight of steps, and headed toward the Butterfly Garden basin.

The entire Butterfly Garden is protected by formations and high walls, as Hong Feng said; insect-type spirit beasts lack sufficient intelligence, untamed insects are hard to discipline, and if tamed too early they lose their spirituality, so they can only be kept confined.

Hong Feng lifted a bright glowstone lamp, entered the interior of the Butterfly Garden, as if stepping into a tropical rainforest: dense broad-leaf plants, humid to sticky air, moss covering the stone paths, and many strange insects crawling about.

Although these insects have little attack power, they are extremely disgusting, and the two almost simultaneously activated their qi shields. This is a basic skill all cultivators possess; compared to specialized defensive arts or innate protective techniques, this qi shield offers almost no protection, but it can deflect raindrops, snowflakes, or small things like mosquitoes, and of course it also prevents interference from these ground insects.

In the center of the Butterfly Garden there is also a pond about two mu in size, and the monarch butterfly is at the edge of the pond.

"I won't go over there; the monarch butterfly rests behind that fake mountain when it sleeps. If you notice anything wrong, flee this way immediately!"

"Right, martial uncle, I forgot to ask—how many monarch butterflies are there?" Wei Yuning suddenly remembered this question.

"Nonsense, since it's a monarch butterfly, of course there's only one—how could there be several emperors at once?" Hong Feng said.

Doesn't it need to breed offspring?

The monarch butterfly is special; it can breed offspring on its own, but this only happens when it dies—its body turns into countless insect eggs, one of which will grow into another monarch butterfly, while the rest become ordinary butterflies. One more reminder: stay safe, watch out for its proboscis!

Got it, don't worry!

Seeing Wei Yuning walk around the pond toward the monarch butterfly, Hong Feng retreated about thirty meters back, readied himself to flee, and muttered softly: "Hope this kid isn't bragging."

To avoid startling the monarch butterfly, Wei Yuning didn't take the glowstone lamp, but walked forward using the moonlight. Leaving the open stone path, tall trees surrounded him, the light suddenly grew much dimmer, and he stepped unevenly toward the fake mountain.

When he was about ten or so meters from the fake mountain, he gathered qi around his body and floated forward.

"What a big, beautiful butterfly!" Wei Yuning couldn't help but exclaim upon seeing it for the first time.

The spirit butterfly's body is roughly the size of a human's, its head and legs are golden, its body is golden, and its two pairs of wings, spanning about a zhang square, are striped with alternating gold and black. In the hazy moonlight, the golden parts of the monarch butterfly's entire body emit a faint glow, illuminating the surrounding three to five meters. Its body shines with a lustrous sheen, as beautiful as jade.

At the edge of the light, Wei Yuning stopped. The butterfly has no eyelids, so he couldn't tell whether the one before him was asleep.

Originally he was ignorant and bold, but after hearing Martial Uncle Hong Feng's words, he became full of wariness toward this beautiful creature before him.

He landed and stood in the shade, carefully observing the monarch butterfly's movements. Time passed minute by minute, a full fifteen minutes went by, and the butterfly maintained the same action the whole time.

Wei Yuning let out a breath, once again wrapped himself in qi, and moved toward the spirit butterfly.

"Who are you? I've never seen you before!"

When he was less than a meter from the spirit butterfly, a clear voice suddenly rang out. Wei Yuning instinctively wanted to flee, but he noticed the surroundings shift—from a dim tropical rainforest to a vast garden bathed in bright spring light.

The garden consisted of gently rolling land, covered with various green low plants, blooming with beautiful flowers of many colors, countless butterflies fluttering up and down, a gentle breeze blowing, the flowers swaying, and before him it seemed like a vast sea of flowers.

Directly ahead of him stood a pretty girl with a solemn expression, wearing a glittering golden long dress, barefoot, floating above the flowers and grass, with two pairs of pure black huge wings behind her, lightly flapping.

"Is this an illusion?" Wei Yuning didn't answer the girl's question, but muttered to himself.

"This is not an illusion. It's only because your body is special that you actively entered my space. Let me ask you again—who exactly are you?" The girl remained icy, but her brows began to furrow, showing a hint of impatience.

"Are you the monarch butterfly?" Wei Yuning finally realized.

"Of course, what are you sneaking up to my side for?" the girl asked coldly.

"I… I wasn't being sneaky… I… I'm a disciple of the Spirit Beast House; isn't it normal for me to come in?" Wei Yuning said nervously.

"Impossible, you've stood motionless beside me for a long time—you must have some ulterior motive. Who are you really?" In an instant, a strange black spear about three meters long appeared in the girl's hand, pointed at Wei Yuning. Clearly, she had lost her patience.

"I… I heard the monarch butterfly is a descendant of high-level spirit butterflies, so I wanted to take a close look, and if I could touch it, even better." Wei Yuning hastily spoke the truth. Looking at the situation, the monarch butterfly seems far from as simple as Hong Feng described. Fortunately, the other party is a sentient being we can communicate with, and he originally had no intention of doing anything harmful to the monarch butterfly, so he might as well lay out the facts.

"What high-level spirit butterfly? These humans just make things up—it's clearly a 'world butterfly'; where does the talk of high-level spirit butterflies come from?" the girl said disdainfully.

"Miss, you're right—these people are ignorant and narrow-minded. In that case, I won't disturb you anymore; could you… send me out?" Wei Yuning said carefully. He didn't know what a world butterfly was, but he thought the most important thing now was to leave this place.

"You actually call me 'miss'—what an interesting term, hehe. Go out? Why go out? Isn't it great here? The place is spacious, the air fresh, the scenery beautiful, and there's plenty of food—isn't it much better than that damp, hot cage outside?" the girl said, her tone tinged with a hint of sorrow.

Wei Yuning curiously asked: "Don't you like the outside environment?"

"Who would like that place, damp and hot? Perhaps… ordinary butterflies might like it, but I don't." The girl said wistfully.

"Or… after I go out, I could tell them to move you to a more open place, just like this!" Wei Yuning said.

"You… your cultivation is so low, will they listen to you?" the girl asked skeptically.

Wei Yuning fell silent. The sect had confined the monarch butterfly here precisely to prevent it from flying around wildly; if the monarch butterfly were lost, for a sect that takes high-level spirit butterflies as its object of contemplation, the hybrid offspring of high-level spirit butterflies would be gone, and if this happened because of him, the sect would surely not spare his skin.

"If you could become my battle pet, they would surely believe it, and then I could take you out." Wei Yuning had a sudden inspiration.

"That's actually a good idea!" the girl nodded.

"Once you go out, you won't leave the Yunyin Sect, will you?" Wei Yuning suddenly thought of this important question.