“No!” Lu Yun violently backed away and looked at the little girl in purple with alarm.
She didn’t say anything, just looked at him with a meaningful expression. The Redbud King smiled with resignation and didn’t say anything either.
“Ah, it’s you.” Lu Yun heaved a slight sigh and then frowned. “So your true spirit borrowed the Redbud Chrysalis to reincarnate into the world.”
“You recognize me?” The little girl blinked, then giggled. “Of course you recognize me.”
“You’re the big dragon inside this mountain,” Lu Yun said slowly. “Of course I recognize you. You’re a dragon spirit nurtured by the Hongmeng, but I hadn’t thought that you’d be so bold as to relinquish your dragon body and enter one of a Redbud Butterfly.”
The first time he’d seen the chrysalis, it’d been a handful of pure life force. There was no true spirit or soul inside, making it a very easy target for possession. Lu Yun had set up the formation of space and time to accelerate its development precisely because he was concerned about this possibility.
He’d never fathomed that the dragon sleeping beneath them would take possession of the chrysalis and become a Redbud Butterfly. It was a king as soon as it was born!
This is crazy.
“What boldness.” The little girl curled her lip. “The Redbud Butterfly is a variant of the dragon species that I crafted with the power of creation. I made it to help me escape from the body of a dragon.”
“Huh?!” Lu Yun’s jaw dropped from the revelation and the fact that there were so many heavyweights in the Hongmeng that grasped creation. The Dao King and Redbud dragon were both entities on this level.
“Who would’ve thought that you’d blunder into a stroke of good luck by saving my body and setting up the formation? I would’ve needed to wait an eternity otherwise to escape my dragon form.” Though she spoke in high, lilting tones, her words were those of an old elder.
Lu Yun stared dumbly at the Redbud King, who shrugged helplessly back at him. She didn’t know any of this and had viewed the chrysalis as her only kin. So it was something that the Redbud dragon had purposefully grown!
At the same time, Redbud was a member of the race that the dragon had created and carefully raised until she was nearly invincible at sixth step king. The dragon had never meant to take her body for its own use; it’d raised her as a disciple.
Redbud Butterflies weren’t actual butterflies, but dragons. If the dragon of Redbud Mountain was the first generation dragon created by the Hongmeng, then the Redbud Butterfly was the second generation.
“So when I set up a hundred and eight thousand formations to lure your replica out, you weren’t actually asleep, but preparing to enter the chrysalis?” Lu Yun asked.
“No… I was indeed asleep.” The little girl shook her head. “My primary body is too strong and infinitely close to the fourth realm, but my true spirit can’t harness that level of power.
“There’s also a particular pattern within the Hongmeng that interferes with my efforts. If I’d kept on failing to find an alternative way, my true spirit would be eroded by the dragon body and I’d lose my sense of self. I would really be a Hongmeng crystal vein then.”
She cast a look of relief at the ground beneath her feet. What a fluke everything had been!
Though she was now free of the cumbersome body and a Redbud Butterfly, she didn’t intend to give up the dragon body. Instead, she wanted to refine it into a replica so that it could enhance her true spirit through cultivation and be a source of strength as well. That would hasten her return to prime condition and even break through to the fourth realm!
“Is that so?” Lu Yun frowned gently and probed the Bridge of Forgetfulness. It was drifting through sleep, but didn’t exhibit too many signs of abnormalities since it was bolstered by the Tome of Life and Death.
It looked like this was why its true spirit wasn’t strong enough.
“I’d wanted to go find you, but here you are.” The little girl suddenly beamed. “My name is Dragon Butterfly and I need your help!”
“What help?” Lu Yun blinked.
“Take me to Dragonhollow Mountain and help me claim the dragon race’s ancestral blood!” Dragon Butterfly explained solemnly. “Dragonhollow Mountain is the nest of all dragons in the Hongmeng and our sacred land. Our ancestral blood is there and can help my true spirit develop swiftly!”
Nest of all dragons!
No matter the realm, the first home of the dragon race was always a nest and not a palace. That was the case in the first realm as well.
In the age of the great wilderness, all races ate raw flesh and drank blood in the absence of established cultivation methods. The dragon race resided in nests then. After human dao was founded and the Flame Emperor pioneered cultivation methods, the human race helped other races walk out from that age of darkness and set course for civilization.
So had the dragons emerged from their nests then and built their palace with the aid of the human emperor, becoming guardians of the human race.
There was no such history in the Hongmeng, so the dragons still lived in nests. However, they were far stronger than the dragons of the chaos and worlds, so although they still occupied nests, they’d found civilization and developed their own cultivation methods.
The Dragonquake Scripture might have something to do with the dragons.
“You want me to take you to Dragonhollow Mountain and claim the dragon race’s ancestral blood??” Lu Yun shook his head rapidly. “You’re joking. I may not know much about Dragonhollow Mountain, but I can still easily imagine how awful it is. I’d have a death wish if I went there!”
The lizard-dragon, a half step king, had dared to threaten Jin Naluo, a sixth step king, simply because of where he was from. Jin Naluo was a titan of the Hongmeng; this indicated that Dragonhollow Mountain was stronger than Multitude Region!
Though the location’s name existed within the realm, no one knew for a fact how strong it was. Not even the lizard-dragon knew; all it was aware of was that the faction possessed an unknown number of kings.
The lizard-dragon was one of the strongest half step kings of the Hongmeng, rivaling Dusknow Morningstar, the Bloodclad Duke, the Purpleclad Duke, and the venerated enforcer. Despite that, it was unworthy of attention from the mountain.
Reaching kinghood was only the beginning.
“Um…” Dragon Butterfly scratched her head. “I didn’t think this far… but I’ve heard of what you’ve done in Multitude City. Being able to refine creation means your level is very high, and if you quickly become a titled king, you’d possibly become a high level one…”
“Stop!” Lu Yun shook his head firmly. “I don’t want to be a titled king yet.”
Dragon Butterfly lowered her head and bit her lip.
“If you’re willing to take my master to Dragonhollow Mountain and help her with the ancestral blood, I’ll give you the entire mountain!” the Redbud King suddenly said.
“Right! I can give you all one hundred million crystal veins in the mountain!” Dragon Butterfly quickly agreed.
The true core of Redbud Mountain was the dragon vein that was Dragon Butterfly’s true body, not the purple crystal veins outside it. Those were just a byproduct of the energy leaking out of the dragon vein.
It was Lu Yun’s turn to lower his head and frown wordlessly.
