Chapter 137: Butterfly Transformation Gu Master

After nearly an hour, cracks appeared across the ground, and strands of red light shot out from the floor. The Holy Martyrdom Soul-Sealing Formation had not only sealed the Namoans here but also suppressed the Abyssal Rift on the Red Planet. That was why, after the Namo Race, no monsters from the Abyss had ever invaded the planet. But now that the formation had dispersed, the Abyssal Rift was gradually recovering.

Yu Xian's eyes were tightly shut. He was completely unaware of the changes happening around him.

A thin little arm stretched out from the narrow Abyssal Rift. Pressing its hand against the floor, it pushed hard and slowly crawled out of the crack. It was a pint-sized, crimson creature, barely half a meter tall, with a tiny body and a massive head crowned with sharp horns. This creature was called an imp, belonging to the lowest tier of devils in the Abyss, with strength equivalent to the lower Wolf rank.

Imps generally did not have names, nor did they possess any special abilities. Their overall attributes placed them at Wolf rank. Usually, they pounced onto their target and clawed at them in a wild frenzy. In the Abyss, they were considered the bottom of the food chain and often preyed upon by various creatures.

The first thing the imp saw was Yu Xian standing motionless. Excitement filled its eyes, and without the slightest hesitation, it lunged straight at him.

Although the Cloak of Deceit had already dispersed because Yu Xian had exhausted all the divine power of deceit, the Dragon Shield still protected him. Before the imp could even touch him, its head slammed hard into the Dragon Shield.

It let out a pained cry as it rebounded straight back the way it had come. When it hit the ground, it cried out again, and the sharp horns on its head fractured.

The imp let out a strange cry and quickly scrambled to its feet, staring at Yu Xian in terror. Panic-stricken, it turned around to flee. But just as it rushed out through the stone gate, a black shadow zigzagged through the air, leaving a clean slice across the imp's forehead and neck. The strike cleanly severed the imp’s head, and it collapsed to the ground.

Not far away, the Shadow Gu glided over like pooling liquid. After entering the stone gate, it quickly slipped into Yu Xian's shadow. This was the final order Cui Xianzhen had given it.

***

Supernatural abilities granted by Forbidden Fruits were normally passed down in one of three common ways. The first was bloodline inheritance. This applied to Nine-Tailed Foxes and the descendants of Kuafu, vampires, werewolves, and many other beings.

The second was knowledge inheritance. It was used by ordinary martial artists, alchemists, and individuals from similar professions.

The third category was "imprint" inheritance. It was used by battle-aura warriors, mages, cultivators, and Gu Masters. This type of inheritance usually required an "imprint" or "seed." For example, no matter how much an ordinary human trained, they could never develop a battle aura on their own. But if a "battle-aura seed" was implanted inside them, they could train themself to slowly incubate the seed within them, allowing it to take root and sprout until it eventually became their supernatural power.

Gu Masters were the same. They needed an inheritance imprint before they could start cultivating. Without an inheritance imprint, they would be unable to control Gu Insects, let alone nurture them. Even if they used some other ability to control a Gu Insect, they would never bring out one hundred percent of its power.

The cyan butterfly Cui Xianzhen had given Yu Xian was actually a Gu Master's inheritance imprint. It wasn't just a repository of massive knowledge; it was also the key to controlling Gu Insects, equivalent to a command token or military tally.

Three hours later, Yu Xian had completely absorbed all the Gu Master knowledge. He slowly opened his eyes. The cyan butterfly mark between his brows flashed briefly, and he immediately sensed the Shadow Gu hidden in his shadow, as well as the Molten Spirit Gu Insects and Blightstone Gu Insects in the distance.

In the past, many members of the Miao ethnic group[1] had dreamed of becoming Gu Masters. When they consumed Forbidden Fruits, they often made wishes along those lines. As a result, Gu Masters had many different schools, but all of them could be traced back to their source, each one beginning with a lucky person who had eaten a Forbidden Fruit.

The legacy Cui Xianzhen had passed on to Yu Xian belonged to the School of Butterfly Transformation. The members of this school were also called Butterfly Transformation Gu Masters.

The mark on Yu Xian's forehead was a unique mark known as the Thousand Butterfly Imprint. It was exclusive to Butterfly Transformation Gu Masters. With it, Yu Xian could feed his blood to various insects and inject his mental energy into the imprint, guiding the insects through a "butterfly transformation" that would evolve them into Gu Insects. The Molten Spirit Gu Insect had undergone this method. It had evolved from a firefly through countless butterfly transformations.

However, every butterfly transformation was a trial of life and death for a Gu Insect. If the insect died during the transformation, everything ended. But if it survived, it would evolve into an even stronger Gu Insect.

Although Cui Xianzhen had cultivated to lower Tiger rank, she possessed only four Gu Insects. Her other Gu Insects had failed to survive their butterfly transformations and died.

Yu Xian realized just how precious this inheritance was. His eyes reddened as he bowed once more to the remains of Hong Zheng and his wife. "Thank you, Seniors!"

He straightened up and glanced at the cracks in the ground. Knowing that he had to quickly gather and arrange the remains of the members of the Rising Tide Society, he vanished in the blink of an eye.

A little over ten minutes later, he appeared again. He took out one coffin after another from his spatial ring and began placing the remains into them with countless hand-shaped bubbles. After he was done, he first bowed to every closed coffin, then stored them inside his spatial ring. Finally, a bubble appeared out of thin air in front of him.

He teleported an especially large Molten Spirit Gu Insect into the bubble. This Molten Spirit Gu Insect was the king of all Molten Spirit Gu Insects and one of the four Gu Insects Cui Xianzhen had cultivated.

Through the Thousand Butterfly Imprint, Yu Xian gave it an order. Soon, more and more Molten Spirit Gu Insects were teleported over through the bubble. In just half a minute, Molten Spirit Gu Insects had occupied the entire Rising Tide Society.

Yu Xian ordered them, "Guard this place!"

Although these gu were useless against the Namo Race, they were fairly powerful against ordinary creatures from the Abyss. As long as it was not an Archdevil like Deimos, these gu had the strength to fight through sheer numbers.

Even if an Archdevil did emerge, as long as the Molten Spirit Gu Insects could delay it for a while, Yu Xian could call for reinforcements and teleport them over to eliminate the threat together.

Yu Xian followed the tunnel back the way he had come, placing all the remains along the passage into coffins. Although the owners of many of these remains had once been controlled by the Namoans and even fought and killed their own people, that had not been their true will. Yu Xian would treat them all equally and give them a proper burial.

Once he had gathered all the remains, he instantly teleported back to the Blue Planet. When he returned to Silver City, the Thousand Butterfly Imprint between his brows flashed. He had sensed the location of Cui Xianzhen's fourth Gu Insect, which was also her Natal Gu Insect.

He immediately covered himself in red light and teleported over. In an instant, he appeared in a dense mountain forest. A butterfly roughly the size of a tennis racket lay on the ground, devoid of any signs of life. It was a Phantom Butterfly Gu, capable of myriad transformations.

Cui Xianzhen had left it on the Blue Planet so that it could take on her appearance and remotely handle various matters for the Rising Tide Society. However, she never expected that she would ultimately sacrifice herself on the Red Planet, leaving the Phantom Butterfly Gu forever stranded here.

Yu Xian looked at the Phantom Butterfly Gu and commanded, "Come out!"

A smaller, faintly visible butterfly slowly drifted out from the corpse of the Phantom Butterfly Gu.

1. Miao ethnic group is an ethnic group officially recognized in China, with communities mainly in southern China and parts of Southeast Asia. The broader Miao classification includes several distinct subgroups, including the Hmong. ☜