Chapter 499: Spirit Butterfly Flower Blooms, Dream Return Immortal Fate, Hundred Boats Chamber of Commerce

Brother Qian Chen was teasing a spirit grass in his cave dwelling.

The spirit grass was quite peculiar; the lower part was like an orchid, with several thin leaves drooping, and a golden-silk-like luster flowing on the leaf veins, with a crisp stem raised high.

On it, however, lay a butterfly with phoenix tails and colorful spots, its scales shimmering under the light.

Brother Qian Chen reached out his hand, and the butterfly flew up, but it could not escape the seal Brother Qian Chen had casually outlined. It could only bump around like a headless fly within the seal's spiritual light, revealing the clever seal like a spider web around this pot of spirit grass.

Finally, the butterfly flew until it was tired and stopped on Brother Qian Chen's fingertip!

This orchid and butterfly were both part of this spirit grass...

This flower was no different from an orchid at first, but it did not bloom. Only after growing for more than sixty years would a green caterpillar crawl out from the spore sac in the roots buried deep underground.

The green caterpillar would change nine times in one day on the orchid, breathing in the essence of the sun and moon. After seven days, it would spit silk and form a cocoon, and then after one day of transformation, it would turn into a spirit butterfly.

And this spirit butterfly was the flower of the spirit plant!

The butterfly took the spirit plant as its root and could fly freely within a radius of ten miles, collecting pollen and dew from spirit grasses. Every time it collected nine kinds of spirit grasses, the butterfly would transform once. After collecting a hundred flowers in one day, it would return to the orchid, undergo its final transformation on the branch, and then completely detach from the mother plant and fly to other places to lay eggs.

These eggs were the seeds of this kind of spirit plant!

"Spirit Butterfly Flower!"

Brother Qian Chen whispered the name of this spirit plant.

This was the best spirit plant he had received since the news of his high-reward acquisition of spirit plants had spread recently.

The ordinary Spirit Butterfly Flower was just a spirit grass. Its only value was the butterfly transformed from its flower, which could be used to refine Elixirs of Life, Elixirs of Transformation, Nine-Day Butterfly Heart Elixirs, etc. It had medicinal properties to shed old illnesses and be reborn, and it had quite a wonderful use for refining healing elixirs.

Also, because this spirit plant only differed from ordinary orchids during the nine days of the flower's metamorphosis.

It was extremely difficult to collect, and because of the dual change of flower and butterfly, it was a kind of spirit plant flower quite popular among cultivators. Therefore, this spirit plant was often planted and raised by cultivators who loved gardening and spirit plants.

The one in his hand was sold by a cultivator who sold exotic flowers and spirit grasses.

Because the essence of the Spirit Butterfly Flower was taken away by the final spirit butterfly, it would wither once the spirit butterfly left.

But that family who made a living by planting spirit flowers—the great-grandmother of that cultivator was a flower lover. After planting this Spirit Butterfly Flower, because she couldn't bear to see the spirit plant wither, she would pinch the cocooned spirit butterfly to death before it broke out every time and bury it back in the roots of the spirit grass.

That great-grandmother of the cultivator was a Core Formation cultivator. From the time she was a young girl, she had planted this Spirit Butterfly Flower and had pinched to death eight cocooned spirit butterflies.

Over four hundred and eighty years, she had never seen this flower bloom eight times.

After that great-grandmother of the cultivator passed away, he thought it was a strange treasure and secretly swapped this spirit flower, planting it for another thirty years. He thought that this first bloom of the five-hundred-year spirit grass would surely have extraordinary changes.

As a result, the spirit grass finally bloomed the day before yesterday, but it was only slightly more filled with spiritual energy, and there were no remarkable changes.

Disappointed, the cultivator sold this spirit flower to Brother Qian Chen.

"Fool!" Brother Qian Chen looked at the bloomed spirit grass and was extremely disappointed: "This Spirit Butterfly Flower was never a spirit grass used for its spiritual energy. In the Nine-Day Butterfly Heart Elixir for which it is the main ingredient, it only borrows the strange medicinal property of the nine-day transformation that occurs once every sixty years!"

"This spirit grass has undergone eight transformations without dying, which is extremely rare. You must know that even if every time the essence is returned to its origin, it is a death tribulation for the spirit root!"

"Eight transformations without dying; that Core Formation female cultivator who raised the flower was truly a flower lover!"

"If I had seen this flower before its ninth bloom, I would naturally have been able to use alchemy methods to refine it as an elixir from the moment the green caterpillar came out! Nine days in a row, nine changes in one day, refining it bit by bit into a one-turn spirit elixir, and then using the method of returning the elixir to re-integrate the transformation power of the spirit elixir back into the spirit root."

"At that time, the transformation power of the nine life-and-death tribulations of the spirit root over five hundred years would reshape its foundation and elevate it to another realm."

Brother Qian Chen calculated with his fingers: "One spirit root blooms nine flowers!"

"This spirit root has nine butterflies circling it, blooming constantly without fading, and the spirit butterflies transformed from the blooming flowers can roam the great thousand worlds, moving a thousand miles with a flap of their wings, collecting pollen from billions of flowers in the great thousand worlds, and returning to the mother plant every sixty years. At that time, the spirit honey refined from the pollen of billions of spirit flowers would surely be a supreme treasure!"

"And the magic treasure refined from this spirit root would have the ability to manipulate nine spirit butterflies to patrol the great thousand worlds, barely reaching the rank of carrying wood virtue!"

Brother Qian Chen calculated it repeatedly. This envisioned Spirit Butterfly Hairpin was quite compatible with the Sea Dream Butterfly Law Seal of the Nanhua Sect that he knew.

If it were truly refined into a magic treasure with wood virtue, it would be one of the very few magic tools capable of entrusting divine thoughts and roaming the void boundary sea.

Nine spirit butterflies entrust a dream, fly into other worlds, and transform into humans with spirit butterflies. One can practice the Dao heart by entering the Dao through dreams, or one can separate divine thoughts to roam other worlds. It is a treasure of the Dao heart that is rarest among the Daoist sects!

But all of this was ruined by the ignorance of that cultivator!

Once the green caterpillar breaks out of the cocoon, it will take away all the spiritual energy of the spirit plant.

Now, the roots of this spirit root are actually withered, and it is entirely relying on Brother Qian Chen's spirit pills to sustain its life.

The essence of the spirit plant has been taken by the spirit butterfly and can never be recovered. Even if Brother Qian Chen destroys the spirit butterfly to use its transformation power to save it, it will only be an ordinary Spirit Butterfly Flower at best!

"This spirit butterfly contains the power of nine transformations, which can indeed be used to refine many miraculous elixirs, but after all, it is not born from the same source. This transformation power can no longer create such a miraculous spirit root as the original mother plant! Sigh! Having seen the most beautiful scenery, I have no heart to care for others!"

Brother Qian Chen sighed and continued to activate the seal, catalyzing several spirit pills buried beside the roots of the spirit plant, injecting the elixir energy into the spirit root to maintain that thread of life.

But the flying spirit butterfly was still like a black hole, constantly devouring the vitality of the mother plant.

Brother Qian Chen issued a series of magic formulas, forcefully hitting them into the mother plant, constructing a nine-layer Sea Dream Butterfly Law Seal. He now used the mother plant as a furnace, throwing in spirit pills to refine this Spirit Butterfly magic tool, which also had a few of the original wonderful uses.

At least entrusting divine thoughts and dreaming through the great thousand worlds was still possible, and it was one of the very few magic tools capable of entrusting Yin Spirits to roam.

Seeing that the last thread of vitality was about to be transformed into a seal, Brother Qian Chen pondered slightly and still stopped the magic formulas in his hand, giving up the tenth layer of the seal.

He looked at the butterfly flying in the air, graceful and peerless, and sighed slightly: "Things cannot be done to the extreme. After all, it was the hard work of an flower lover for hundreds of years. How can I not leave a thread of life!"

Brother Qian Chen reached out his hand, touched the butterfly's abdomen, and urged it to lay a crystal-clear spirit egg.

In the dark, he seemed to see a young girl dressed in Central Lands attire come before him and reach out to catch the flying butterfly.

In her eyes, there was a kind of expectation and nostalgia, sincere and moving!

Brother Qian Chen sighed: "It was originally just a potted flower brought from my hometown when I was married off to overseas. I thought it was just a pastime, but on the day it bloomed, I was inexplicably unable to bear the thought of the butterflies leaving the flowers. After keeping it by force, it gradually turned into a kind of obsession. This obsession is also mysteriously entrusted within this flower..."

"Is she wanting to return to her hometown?"

Brother Qian Chen held the spirit butterfly with his fingers and said silently: "Your hometown is still visible, while my hometown has already drifted away without a trace!"

"Go home!"

Brother Qian Chen walked out of the cave dwelling and released the butterfly in his hand toward the direction of the Central Lands!

The butterfly flapped its wings. On the sea, it was so small that it made one feel a kind of pity. It was like a dream and illusion, drifting further and further away, gradually disappearing in Brother Qian Chen's gaze. This tiny spirit butterfly flew across the vast sea, flew over the stormy waves...

Nanyang Commandery, Jiyang County, Ye Clan!

The early-rising Ninth Daughter of the Ye Clan pushed open the window and looked at a small garden facing her boudoir.

The garden was planted with exotic flowers of various colors, including a small patch of Spirit Butterfly Flowers.

Little Ye Niang rested her chin on her right hand and looked at the garden with some worry, sighing: "Mother said that if I can't reach the Foundation Establishment Supreme Rank, she will have to prepare a dowry for me! Must a daughter marry?"

The little lady turned to look at her cousin's boudoir. After her cousin married a year ago, this embroidery room had been closed, and it was hard to open it even once a year.

And her cousin had also become gradually thin after marriage.

Occasionally, when she returned home, she would see her cousin, who had never been inferior to men in spirit, looking depressed between her brows. When she ran to her, her cousin would always whisper to her: "Little Niang! You must cultivate well. Otherwise, you will be trapped in a small world for the rest of your life, and your fate will be like duckweed in the water, only able to drift with the waves... and you will not be free!"

"What realm must one cultivate to be free and at ease?"

At that time, she was so curious to ask.

Her cousin looked into the distance, clearly not having full confidence, and sighed: "At least you have to cultivate to the Core Formation realm like the Great Aunt who married overseas! But even if it is Core Formation, isn't it like water splashed out, unable to even return home?"

Ye Ninth Daughter changed to resting her chin on both hands, quietly blowing bubbles with her mouth: "Core Formation, that's too hard!"

"Brother cultivates the best technique of the Ye family, and he drinks spirit medicine like it's free every day, and he is only at the Foundation Establishment Second Rank. Others say he has the potential for Core Formation, and Father is so happy. I cultivate an ordinary technique, and my monthly allowance is not even one-eleventh of Brother's. Where would I have the hope of Core Formation? But Mother said that my aptitude seems better than Brother's. If I can reach the Foundation Establishment Supreme Rank, I can be admitted to the Qingxu Mountain Gate!"

Ye Ninth Daughter picked up the celadon cup beside her and rushed out of the door, wanting to take advantage of the dew that hadn't yet dissipated to collect a little spirit dew from the exotic flowers and spirit grasses.

Brewing spirit tea with this spirit dew and drinking a cup early in the morning is beneficial for Qi Refinement!

But when she rushed out of the door, she saw a young girl wearing a ru skirt, who looked somewhat similar to her and was peerlessly bright, appearing in the courtyard, gently sniffing a Spirit Butterfly Flower that was about to bloom.

Ye Ninth Daughter's footsteps hesitated, and she asked carefully: "You... who are you? Why did you come to my house?"

The young girl turned her head slightly, saw her, and smiled slightly without showing her teeth.

She reached out her hand, and a beautiful butterfly dragging a phoenix tail flew from her fingertip and flew toward Ye Ninth Daughter. The butterfly landed on Ye Little Niang's brow.

Ye Ninth Daughter raised her head foolishly, afraid of scaring the butterfly away. The place where her forehead touched the butterfly was icy cold, sending a trace of coolness.

Ye Ninth Daughter stared intently at the butterfly on top of her head, forgetting the young girl!

"Little Niang!" A call woke her up. The Ninth Daughter only saw her father walking toward her quickly: "Who are you talking to?"

"A sister over there..."

Ye Ninth Daughter pointed, but where was anyone? There was only a butterfly fluttering in the courtyard.

"You are still young, don't lie!" The head of the Ye family frowned, preparing to scold his daughter, but saw his daughter suddenly full of panic, looking up, full of disbelief: "Father, I... I seem to have reached Foundation Establishment!"

"What?" The head of the Ye family reached out and grabbed his daughter's right hand, probing with magic power to test the aura of her meridians.

"Foundation Establishment First Rank, how is that possible?"

Brother Qian Chen was facing the wall in his cave dwelling, reciting Daoist books, when he saw a butterfly fluttering over and landing on his shoulder.

"Finally resolved the obsession?"

Brother Qian Chen reached out to hold the spirit butterfly, closed his palm, and when he opened it again, the spirit butterfly had turned into a butterfly-shaped jade pendant, which he casually hung on his waist.

In the hands of others, this Spirit Butterfly Pendant was a very good magic tool, capable of searching for spirit medicine and testing seals, but in Brother Qian Chen's hands, only the function of entrusting divine thoughts and roaming the great thousand worlds was somewhat practical.

The spirit butterfly entrusts a thought, and its speed is extremely fast. It doesn't even take a cup of tea's time to get from here to Jiankang!

In the future, when communicating with Senior Brother Yan, Ning Ning Shimei Si, and Ning Ning Shimei Ning, there would be no need for letter talismans!

"It seems that among the rogue cultivators nearby, this Spirit Butterfly Flower is the limit! To get more reliable news, I have to bring out bigger bait!"

Brother Qian Chen thought of this, separated a Sun and Moon Harmony Elixir, put it in a jade bottle, and went straight to the Flying Boat Sea Market.

Arriving at the large islands where the Sea Market was located, Brother Qian Chen was familiar with the road and came to a pavilion with a plaque reading "Hundred Boats Chamber of Commerce."

Seeing Brother Qian Chen enter, the shop assistant in the pavilion hurriedly greeted him: "Welcome, honored guest! The spirit grass seeds you wanted to acquire have been prepared by this chamber... The news of spirit plants you wanted to acquire has also been obtained, and all of it is reliable news verified by this chamber."

The shop assistant looked up slightly and said carefully: "And our chamber's Young Master Fan also wants to invite the honored guest to the inner pavilion in the back for a chat?"

Brother Qian Chen glanced at the shop assistant and had already sensed the panic in his heart.

"It seems this chamber of commerce was also involved in leaking my news last time!"

Recalling the memories obtained from the Li brothers by the Formless Yin Demon, Brother Qian Chen felt a trace of joy in his heart: "Could it be that this time I don't even need to fish, and the fish has taken the bait on its own?"

"But it's easy to kill the two Li brothers, but to deal with a sea merchant of this scale... is it too high-profile?"

Brother Qian Chen's sword light turned between his fingers, he rubbed his fingernails, pondered slightly, and said to the shop assistant: "Lead the way!" ===== CHAPTER 500 =====