Chapter 872: A lost life, a butterfly

Chu Mu had done quite a bit of homework in Xiangrong City, and was no longer clueless about the city.

Always, fairy butterflies had all sorts of colors, where each color signified a different ability.

Yet, black fairy butterflies were a very special species, very rarely seen in Xiangrong City and the wild.

Black fairy butterflies weren’t loved by humans. Fairy butterflies were extremely sensitive creatures that are able to sense whether a person’s soul is dirtied or pure.

Yet black fairy butterflies signified death, sickness, and darkness. These fairy butterflies definitely weren’t nonexistent, but whenever they appeared, they were ostracized by residents and even their own species.

Usually speaking, these black fairy butterflies should appear in extremely small amounts in select inauspicious locations.

Yet, Chu Mu was seeing billions upon billions of black fairy butterflies. When did this rare and ominous black fairy butterfly become so large in numbers, so large that it was astounding!

“Pupupupu!!!!!!!!”

The sound of wings flapping sounded by Chu Mu. The black fairy butterflies were cold and arrogant, hostile towards the foe that interrupted their rest.

Chu Mu’s overhead was slowly covered by a large amount of high rank black fairy butterflies that blotted out the sun and gave Chu Mu and the devil tree battle soldier a large shadow.

Their red eyes became cold jewels that dotted the space above him, glinting coldly as they watched Chu Mu and devil tree battle soldier.

Angry like a gale, they came down between the tall trees of the forest.

Chu Mu lifted his head and noticed that the shroud of black fairy butterflies used their floating bodies to create a large black whirlpool that at some point started shedding an unknown black pollen from the skies that fell on Chu Mu and Devil Tree Battle Soldier

Seeing this shocking scene, Chu Mu remembered the billions of heavenly devil insects in Great Broken Sting Valley. The scene of countless massive flying organisms created in the skies were visually shocking, to say the least.

Fairy butterflies were elegant and beautiful. Even the black ones, when flying in groups, looked like a blossoming and poisonous black rose. It was extremely dangerous yet also beautiful, their dancing pose through the skies creating an image that almost caused Chu Mu to forget to think.

“Let’s leave here.” Feeling the hostility from the black fairy butterflies, Chu Mu no longer dared to stay around.

There were probably tens of thousands of black fairy butterflies right above Chu Mu. Once the group launched a group attack, it would cause great damage to devil tree battle soldier.

And, if all these black fairy butterflies gathered together, even Chu Mu may find issues getting away. After all, when soul pets get into groups and all dive towards the same target, it didn’t matter what rank the enemy was.

Chu Mu didn’t know where all these black fairy butterflies came from. However, he also didn’t want to become enemies with all these fairy butterflies without figuring out the situation.

......

After leaving Yang Feng Ridge, Chu Mu stood at the peak of some mountain and looked back one last time at the black forest that absorbed all light.

Voluminous, the black forest covered an entire swathe of land. No matter what Chu Mu looked at, whether it was the mountains, basins, forests, even behind the furthest mountain Chu Mu could see, they were still covered in the magnificent darkness.

Just how many black fairy butterflies were there?

......

Coming back to Xiangrong City, it had been two months already.

Xiangrong City was still the same. Colorful fairy butterflies gathered in the city. Their gentle grace and amiability made them pure little creatures, bringing peace and calm to everyone.

Here, there were almost no black fairy butterflies. Except, compared to the sea like magnitude Chu Mu saw, the sight he saw now was like a group of honest villagers versus a sea of black armed troops.

Chu Mu came back to the courtyard he rented and, interestingly, all the pretty butterflies quickly left hurriedly, disappearing as Chu Mu returned.

“Seeing them all run away, I knew you came back.” Ye Qingzi stood by the flower garden and smiled.

Chu Mu walked forth and hugged Ye Qingzi’s soft and thin waist. In the past few days, Ye Qingi gained the allure of a woman, showing a grace and beauty that always attracted Chu Mu’s attention.

And, ever since they had the forbidden fruit, Chu Mu had an infatuation with Ye Qingzi’s body. The two months they were apart felt closer to four years.

After spending some intimate time together in the flower garden, Chu Mu explained the scene of black fairy butterflies he saw to Ye Qingzi.

Ye Qingzi was surprised for a while. Having lived in Xiangrong City for two months, she knew that black fairy butterflies were uncommon and were called ominous species.

“Pupupu~~~~”

Just as they spoke, Chu Mu suddenly felt a cold yet aromatic scent come from his shoulder.

Ye Qingzi opened her small mouth and pointed at the black butterfly on Chu Mu’s shoulder, “Chu Mu, this......this black fairy butterfly......”

“This little fellow lives nearby I think. I saw it two months ago, and it followed me around for a few days.” Chu Mu lifted this lonely little black fairy butterfly on his finger and brought it forward.

“Could it have come from the south side of yang Feng Ridge along with the rest?” Ye Qingzi asked curiously.

Chu Mu shook his head, “This little fellow is a young soul pet. With its flying speed, it can’t fly here even with a few years, and it only seems to be born for a few months.

“The entire Xiangrong City seemed to only have this one black fairy butterfly.....”

“Come with me to the library.”

Chu Mu felt that this wasn’t simple and he should talk with old Duan first.

“Chu Mu, I made a seventh rank soul item for your devil tree battle soldier. The quality may be low, but there’s still a chance you can raise your devil tree battle soldier to high class emperor rank. Also, we’re running out of spirits, you should think of something for that.” Ye Qingzi said to Chu Mu.

The first half caused Chu Mu to be happy, yet the second half caused Chu Mu to laugh helplessly.

Every advanced soul teacher was extremely money spending. Chu Mu had quite a bit of savings from three palace, yet it wasn’t even enough for ye QIngzi to last two months.

“Spirits, I will find a way.” Chu Mu said.

......

At the library, old Duan was no longer there but Chu Mu met the girl from before.

The girl was very eager to help. Learning that Chu Mu had something important to tell old Duan, she brought Chu Mu herself to old Duan’s living quarters.

Old Duan lived quite remotely. It was a small and elegant house made entirely of wood.

“This brother, why do you have a black fairy butterfly on your shoulder? They are very rare and old people say that they are bad and bring sickness.” The girl pointed at the black fairy butterfly on Chu Mu and said.

“Hehe, the one that should be afraid of getting sick is the little fellow,” Ye Qingzi laughed charmingly.

“......” Chu Mu laughed bitterly.

Stepping into the courtyard, one could quickly hear the old fellow utterly angered. Clearly, this strange tempered old man didn’t welcome others to his house.

However, after noticing that it was the grand daughter of Li Guang, his expression quickly changed to one of apology and smiled.

“Old Duan, you have to change your temper a little.” The girl criticized.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Can’t be changed anymore.” Old Duan eyed Chu Mu and asked questioningly, “Why are you still here, didn’t I tell you to go to Yang Feng Ridge?”

“I already went once.” Chu Mu didn’t mind the old man’s strange behavior.

“Went already? Did you do all the training along the way?” Old duan said.

“Old Duan, didn’t you want me to go deep into Yang Feng Valley? I got there and didn’t find anything specific doing wrong, except I saw this.” Chu Mu pointed at the black fairy butterfly on his shoulder.

“Isn’t it just a black fairy butterfly? If you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it. It’s not something precious.” Old Duan had seen a lot and didn’t find it surprising at all.

“I saw a large group.” Chu Mu said seriously.

“Oh? A large group? That’s much rarer.” Old Duan lifted a white eyebrow. Continuing, he said, “Black fairy butterflies are also known as the “Butterfly souls that remain in the human realm”, they are born when an organism dies in a certain dark aura environment. The chances they stay alive are extremely low, so they are rather rare.

Seeing the girl getting interested, old Duan continued, “Usually after a life is lost, such an environment will create a black butterfly egg. This egg will then give birth to a black fairy butterfly. Because they are born from life after death, many people connect them to the soul of the life lost. And in reality, this is true. When an organism dies and its soul wanders, there’s a chance it will latch onto a newly born fairy butterfly and stay around in our world.....”

“But there are a lot of theories about the black fairy butterfly, most of them leaning towards ominous, death, plagues. You said you saw a large bunch of black fairy butterfly, just how much, a few hundred, a few thousand?” Old duan asked.

Hearing Old Duan’s description of “A lost life, a butterfly”, Chu Mu’s mind went completely blank!!

If every lost life creates one black butterfly, then to create the shocking scene he saw, just how many lives had to be lost?

A few million?

Tens of millions?

Then what were these lost lives!!!?