Chapter 110: Silverwing Butterfly

Chapter 110: Silverwing Butterfly

With no choice, he had to dissect it right here.

Better hurry up.

The territory of a fifth-order beast is much larger than that of third- or fourth-order ones, but this place was already near the edge of its territory. If delayed, it might be discovered.

By then, he might escape in time, but the Blackscale Python would become someone else's meal.

Shang Yunduo took out a knife, infused it with fire, and cut along the softer belly skin of the Blackscale Python. Going around the junction of skin and flesh, he first peeled off the skin. When he reached the head, he froze.

The bones and meat that were fine everywhere else suddenly changed near the head; the bones were shattered, and the meat turned a dark bruise color.

Wait... is this how it died?

He crushed the Blackscale Python's skull?

Shang Yunduo hesitated, then hurriedly kept cutting it apart. He rolled up the intact snake skin and threw it into his storage pouch. Checking the injuries downward from the skull, he cut open all the bruised sections and was shocked to find that the bruising extended nearly a meter from the head downward, and the bones went from shattered to cracked, stretching almost half a meter.

He swallowed hard, stunned and confused, then butchered the Blackscale Python.

Then he gathered big leaves, spread them on the airship deck, stacking the meat piece by piece. What didn't fit went into boxes, stored in his pouch. What truly couldn't be stored had to be left there for now.

Shang Yunduo flew straight to the swamp in one go. The group of Sticky Mud Beasts saw him and immediately dove back into the mud with a swoosh. Shang Yunduo didn't have time to wonder why they suddenly were in a good mood and didn't yell or spit at him. He first pushed half the snake meat off the ship, then returned to load the rest. He thought about it, then when he passed the swamp again, he slowly landed the airship.

Seeing the Sticky Mud Beasts huddled around the snake meat, eating, Shang Yunduo deliberately stood on the shore, tossing a piece of snake meat into the water, then picking up a few bones, then tossing another piece of meat, then picking up some more bones—he put on a little play, throwing a piece of meat, picking up a few bones, throwing more meat, picking up more bones—doing this for a while, not sure if they got it.

Shang Yunduo started gesturing: "Me, use these, trade for these bones, get it?"

The Sticky Mud Beasts stared at him with round eyes, looking confused.

He sighed...

Forget it, I'll try again tomorrow!

Shang Yunduo gave up on feeding them all the snake meat and headed home. "They're kinda dumb... I'll teach them tomorrow!"

When he got back to his own mountain, Shang Yunduo was buzzing with excitement. As soon as he jumped off the ship, he ran toward the house, yelling, "Senior! Senior! Come quick, come see!"

Pei Jie already knew he was back. He stepped out and immediately smelled blood.

It smelled of beast blood. He looked Shang Yunduo over—no injuries, no traces of fighting on his body. But he was practically bouncing at the doorstep, super excited. When he landed the airship and showed Pei Jie the bloody mess on the deck, Pei Jie: "..."

"Did you really have to bring it back looking like that?"

Shang Yunduo also dragged out the snake skin and the boxed meat, "It was too big; the ship couldn't hold it!"

Pei Jie: "Couldn't you just drag it back?"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

He thought seriously, "No way, it's too heavy. Definitely couldn't drag it."

Pei Jie: "..."

Well then, just cut off the useful parts and leave the rest behind, how hard is that?!

Well, it's his first time hunting a beast stronger than himself, so excitement's expected... normal.

I'll make him clean it up himself later.

After all, he's the one cleaning!

Our cleaner Shang Yunduo was giving himself even more work. He laid out the specially preserved python head and then arranged several sections in order behind it, showing Pei Jie the power of his two fists.

Pei Jie was a bit surprised.

Continuing to look along the head, he had to admit that with the skin removed, the injuries on the Blackscale Python were much clearer.

Shang Yunduo was still babbling on about how he thought through the fight and struck, but Pei Jie had already sliced open another two sections of snake meat with his sword. Sure enough, the internal organs were also ruptured.

When Shang Yunduo had cut the meat into pieces earlier, it hadn't looked this bad, but now the organs were all dark and bruised.

Shang Yunduo, who had been summarizing as he spoke, abruptly stopped, once again startled by the brutality of his own two punches.

Shang Yunduo: "Did I really cut it this badly?"

But there were no cuts on the organs, so clearly not external damage. Pei Jie pried them open—the organs were completely shattered inside.

Shang Yunduo: "..."

Suddenly Pei Jie was more curious about how he killed the Blackscale Python. "How did you kill it? Tell me carefully from the beginning again."

Shang Yunduo: "..."

I'd been talking forever, and he didn't hear a word?

But there was no need to keep this snake meat here. Shang Yunduo just dumped it back in the swamp the same way he'd brought it.

Pei Jie didn't care about the snake meat, and neither did Shang Yunduo. They only kept the snake skin and the broken gall bladder, throwing everything else into the swamp.

Shang Yunduo, having returned, performed the barter show for the Sticky Mud Beasts again. The bewildered beasts seemed to understand. When he threw the last piece of snake meat in, the little Sticky Mud Beast that had once been captured by the Blue-crested Red Eagle was shoved forward, carrying a large bone in its mouth and swimming towards Shang Yunduo.

It didn't dare approach, just threw the bone onto the bone pile on the shore and swiftly ran away.

Shang Yunduo stared at the bone—clearly whiter and newer. He stared and stared—it seemed to be the leg bone of a Blue-crested Red Eagle?!

"That's it!" Shang Yunduo took the bone, satisfied. "Just like that!"

They finally got it!

Shang Yunduo returned with a full load. The Sticky Mud Beasts feasted. From the Color-winged Mantis to the place where Shang Yunduo killed the Blackscale Python, all the beasts along the way gradually woke from their frenzy. The surviving ones suddenly discovered that food was everywhere!

Whether they were dead, or those that were stunned or not yet awake, all were food!

Throughout the area, except for the unlucky Color-winged Mantis whose territory had been burned barren, the beasts that had woken first in other regions were all enjoying a feast.

However, the Six-winged Mantis was among the first to guard against the zither sound and also the first to wake. As Shang Yunduo chased the Blackscale Python all the way, it followed at a safe distance, even chasing into another's territory. By the time other beasts started eating, it had already eaten its fill and returned to its territory to sleep.

Today was a huge profit!

Meanwhile, Shang Yunduo was telling Pei Jie the full story of the day, including how the Color-winged Mantis was less affected by the music and his newly researched arrow formation—he felt too embarrassed to use the term "rocket" for it.

Pei Jie naturally had no idea about Shang Yunduo's overthinking, and didn't mind having his ideas borrowed. If Shang Yunduo didn't already have so much to learn, he wouldn't have minded teaching him the Sword Formation.

But compared to swordsmanship, Shang Yunduo's personality and body were better suited to Body Tempering.

After hearing the story, he thought Shang Yunduo was actually pretty sharp. All those days of going to the swamp every day to set fires and burn bones hadn't been wasted. He knew ordinary fire was useless against a Fourth-order Beast—he had to concentrate the fire to make it stronger.

"You can't condense that many arrows at once. You could start with three or five — a Sword Formation also starts small and grows, not that you can wield dozens of flying swords right away." Pei Jie glanced at him and, seeing that he was taking it in, encouraged, "Typically, the core of a Sword Formation has only six to nine flying swords. Without the ability to condense qi into a sword and turn illusion into reality, you’d be stuck manipulating real swords. Even at the Golden Core stage, you’d only manage a dozen or so, and forging that many flying swords is incredibly difficult. Without a legacy, it would bankrupt most Sword Cultivators."

Shang Yunduo nodded. True enough — just forging one powerful sword could leave you broke.

But how could Sword Cultivators resist the allure of a Sword Formation? Even Xiao Chi, who focused on heavy swords, ended up forging eighteen flying swords.

Pei Jie continued, "But with fire as your arrows, quantity isn’t a limit. If you encounter someone weaker than you, you can attack with a blaze like today. If they’re on par with you, then condense the fire into arrows."

Shang Yunduo: "Mm!"

Pei Jie: "In a real fight, it’s not a spar — you don’t have to use them so straightforwardly. Since you can’t condense many arrows, why not hide one or two inside the fireballs?"

Shang Yunduo was stunned: "Huh?!"

In theory, it was possible.

Like hiding one or two inconspicuous bombs in a room full of fireworks, catching people off guard.

But, "Wouldn’t it be discovered?"

The two types of fire would differ in temperature and spiritual power.

Pei Jie: "If you want to use them unexpectedly, you’ll have to find a way to conceal them yourself."

But how to hide them?

Shang Yunduo racked his brains.

First, the temperature had to match the other fireballs, at least at a glance, to pass as real.

Also, to hide them, the smaller the better — ideally so small that they’re like raindrops or fine needles, undetectable.

But if they were too small, their power might diminish.

The best effect would be to make them tiny as a needle when deployed, yet capable of exploding with great force when needed.

A micro bomb with huge power?

Easier said than done.

Shang Yunduo continued burning bones while experimenting with fire control.

The bones of a Fourth-order Beast were much harder to burn than those of a Third-order. Before, he would just use his maximum firepower and highest temperature all at once. Since he wanted to improve his fire arrow formation, he couldn’t be that crude anymore.

Shang Yunduo started controlling the fire temperature like when refining pills, observing changes in the bones, gradually probing the boundaries of temperature. Once he figured out the temperature needed to burn Fourth-order Beast bones, he compressed the fire as small as possible, trying to drill holes in the bones.

As he worked, he recalled sewing Chameleon Lizard skins before — controlling spiritual power back then was similar to controlling flames now.

Day after day of practice, he finally managed to compress the flame to the size of an arrowhead and use it freely. By then, it was already late spring again.

He had fought every nearby Fourth-order Beast. His daily cultivation of the Freedom Sutra had accumulated enough to cause a qualitative change during winter, partially breaking through his bottleneck, causing his cultivation to surge. His Body Tempering enabled him to reach the fifth layer, and even the Seven Baleful Fire broke through to the third layer, barely reaching the fourth.

Although his cultivation remained at the early Foundation Establishment stage, his strength had reached the Mid-Foundation stage. He finally understood why Pei Jie had no equal among his peers — apart from his spiritual root advantage and solid foundation, this technique itself was definitely a key factor.

But what surprised and delighted him most was the change in the Illusion Art.

When he first broke through to Foundation Establishment, all other techniques had advanced significantly, but the Illusion Art showed no change. Recently, while playing the qin daily for his neighbors, he could actually "see" some dots on the beasts' bodies that resembled the Illusion Art. That ignited a spark of inspiration, and he came to suspect that the demon cultivator Senior who wrote the book was studying not physics or astronomy, but biology!

Though the dots were still irregular and he was still foggy about it, he could now use these dots to locate people —

No matter how well one hid their spiritual power, beasts couldn’t hide these faint energy traces.

The Silverwing Butterfly, especially skilled in hiding its presence, became his target, and the only fifth-order beast he dared to follow and provoke.

To others, the Silverwing Butterfly had low spiritual power, no sharp claws or teeth, and was even slow. But it was silent, formless, and had no detectable spiritual power — a huge butterfly that was hard to see clearly, harder to spot than a leaf. It could land right before your eyes and you might not see it, utterly elusive.

Worse, its highly toxic scale powder seeped into everything, corroding bone and flesh, even seeping through beast scales. Once tainted, it was impossible to wash off. Being targeted meant death or injury. Most beasts only realized they were poisoned when they had to tear off their rotting hides and bones, leaving them as food for the Silverwing Butterfly. If discovered too late, they might lose their lives.

In terms of raw power, the Silverwing Butterfly was weaker than a first-order beast, but in lethality, even sixth- or seventh-order beasts might not be able to match it. It was ranked fifth-order precisely because it preferred to hunt third- to fifth-order beasts.

The first time Shang Yunduo saw it, he thought it was just a butterfly — a huge butterfly, feeding on the rotting corpse of a fish demon floating on the lake. He continued training by the lakeside while the Silverwing Butterfly was eating on the opposite shore, neither bothering the other.

Until its scale powder blew over with the wind and was burned up by his Seven Baleful Fire. Shang Yunduo vaguely sensed something wrong — it seemed he had burned something.

Even then, he didn’t realize it was that harmless-looking butterfly causing trouble. It had no spiritual power at all, it was simply a larger-than-usual ordinary butterfly.

The Dividing Mountain Range had all sorts of strange animals; a large butterfly wasn’t unusual.

Shang Yunduo warily swept the area with his Spiritual Sense but found nothing. So, becoming even more alert, he wrapped himself in a layer of Seven Baleful Fire and pulled out his qin to play his three little life-saving tunes for the mysterious opponent lurking somewhere.

After playing Soul Departure, he had just begun Falling Dream when the large butterfly on the lake started dancing in some dream, its nearly transparent scale powder, flashing, blown over by the wind and burned into silver ash by the Seven Baleful Fire. Only then did Shang Yunduo realize it was a butterfly causing trouble!

Shang Yunduo instinctively felt danger. He couldn’t send his fire across the lake, so he simply turned and fled, only scooping up a handful of ash to ask Pei Jie what that thing was.

Unexpectedly, Pei Jie’s face changed when he saw the ash. "When did you encounter it? Yesterday or today?"

Shang Yunduo: "Today. Yesterday the lake was clean — nothing there."

No fish, no big butterfly.

"What is it?"

Pei Jie: "A Silverwing Butterfly."

Shang Yunduo: "Silverwing Butterfly?"

Pei Jie: "A fifth-order beast."

Shang Yunduo: "...Ah?"

He had escaped from a fifth-order beast?

Pei Jie: "Stand right here. Take off all your clothes and wait for me to return."

Shang Yunduo: "?"

Confused but obedient, he stripped off his clothes, standing there naked, glanced around, then silently pulled out a new set to put on. It wasn’t dark yet...

After a moment, Pei Jie flew back on his sword. "Burn these, and the one you’re wearing too."

Shang Yunduo: "...Oh."

No sooner had he burned them than he smelled a familiar stench. Pei Jie was holding a box containing a grayish, somewhat translucent lump of mud.

Shang Yunduo: "..."

That was the mucus from a Sticky Mud Beast, wasn’t it?

The kind they spit out was a bit grayer than this.

What are you doing?

Shang Yunduo: "Senior..."

Pei Jie: "Don't move."

Pei Jie smeared the mucus on him and started rolling.

Shang Yunduo: "..."

Author's note:

Yunduo: Ew!

The Sticky Mud Beast, caught and stripped of its slime: Squeak, squeak, squeak! (Boo-hoo!) [Crying][Crying][Crying]