Chapter 44: The Ultimate End of Death is Life

“What a hard head.”

Ye Chen’s eyes flickered as he glanced at the little beast. The creature was shrouded in swirling black light, exuding a sense of ominousness. It dashed left and right, but the mistake was the world itself—everything was trapped within the illusory realm. No matter how fiercely it struggled, unless it could shatter the constraints of the realm, nothing would change.

It seemed almost like a grand performance, as torrents of collapsing light tore the heavens and earth asunder, the unleashed forces of water and fire burning relentlessly across the boundless sky. The entire illusory realm was ravaged with apocalyptic chaos, reducing all to ash, withering grass and trees, leaving everything unrecognizable.

Ye Chen caught sight of a seemingly insignificant arm suspended in the void—skeletal and pristine as jade, as tiny as dust. The bone token pierced through it. That fragment of an arm was the true origin of the little beast; black mist streamed from it, and within the haze of death, the beast had emerged.

If that fragment were destroyed, could the beast continue to exist? Even if it could, its head would no longer be so hard to crack—a much easier target.

The bone token, now as keen as the sharpest dagger, struck with a crisp snap, shattering the arm to pieces. Droplets of radiant light, like a tidal surge, poured into the bone token. Washed by this brilliance, the token burst into dazzling color and, in an instant, seemed to awaken completely, brimming with a majestic power that set mountains and seas trembling, as resplendent rain of light cascaded down.

Within this rain of light danced spirit butterflies.

They were as radiant as fireworks, their bodies bathed in infinite divine glow, extraordinary in every sense.

Ye Chen was astonished. These spirit butterflies were not his own form. As the arm crumbled to dust, how could such a being emerge?

“Far stronger than I am,” Ye Chen mused. “That spirit butterfly must be a Dream Immortal Butterfly.”

From it, he felt an immense pressure—not merely the suppression of strength, but a boundary of existence itself, one he could scarcely hope to cross.

Ye Chen had yet to truly transform into a Dream Immortal Butterfly. The suppression he felt was not only a matter of power, of an unbridgeable chasm, but also because the opponent was already what he had not yet become.

But Dream Immortal Butterflies were supposed to be exceedingly rare—one did not simply encounter them by chance.

“How can this be?” Ning Peach Blossom looked on, her voice betraying her shock. “That fragment of an arm clearly came from the Bone Demon.”

“Otherwise, how could its connection to the bone token be explained? There must be a deep, inscrutable link,” she murmured. “Could it be that the Bone Demon was once a Dream Immortal Butterfly? No one knows the Bone Demon’s true origin, but if it was a Dream Immortal Butterfly, that would make sense.”

“Perhaps a Dream Immortal Butterfly once perished prematurely—death to the utmost becomes life again, and in the reversal, it attempted to steal heaven’s longevity and defy fate itself?”

Yet even as she spoke, Ning Peach Blossom felt uneasy. Dream Immortal Butterflies were not common at all, yet here was a spirit butterfly on the verge of transformation. How likely was that? It was all too strange, and she struggled to accept it.

But reality was before her, and she could not deny it.

The spirit butterfly, trailing streams of radiant light, spotted Ye Chen at a glance. As if delighted by the hunt, it rushed towards him—not to seek the body Ye Chen had claimed, but his true form.

The two spirit butterflies danced in midair, but this was no reunion of kin. Within the streaming light, killing intent poured forth; the other attacked, while Ye Chen defended.

He appeared flustered, and the spirit butterfly, turning into a flash of lightning, shot towards him like an arrow. In that instant, time itself seemed to fracture, the flow of years pausing.

A terrifying scene—all things were frozen in place. This was Ye Chen’s domain; within the illusory realm, even a powerful enemy was not without challenge.

But in the next moment, space exploded, and the entire realm shuddered as if shaken to its core. The sky collapsed, the world spun, the four poles inverted, heaven and earth overturned, mountains split, the wind howled and swept across land and sea as if a god had lashed the world, sundering lakes and rivers.

Amidst the chaos, a white lotus swayed gracefully, ethereal as if transcending infinite time. Ye Chen borrowed a thread of its light, and an unimaginable aura surged around him, spreading outward until all was still.

The uproar faded away, the spirit butterfly’s form shattered, and all the streaming radiance was seized by Ye Chen.

“Despicable wretch!” a voice cried in rage and despair, as if wanting to curse further, but Ye Chen gave it no chance. He knew well enough—delaying with words was a classic mistake of villains; he would not let it happen.

The power of the white lotus was not something one could borrow lightly—it was a matter of luck.

The white lotus resided in the Sea of Laws. Only because Ye Chen had forged a new path did he have this opportunity. Compared to the lush forests of the Sea of Laws, the lotus seemed so insignificant. If he drew upon it too often, it could trigger a chain reaction, destabilizing the new path—small gain for great loss.

Thus, Ye Chen dared not hesitate. If he delayed and the spirit butterfly unleashed a deadly blow, he would only die in vain.

He struck with all his might and swiftly killed the spirit butterfly. Though it struggled, it soon breathed its last.

“What a pity. There were great secrets hiding within that one,” Ning Peach Blossom said with regret. “If only we could have uncovered the whole story.”

It was a Dream Immortal Butterfly, and though she suspected the Bone Demon’s origin, she still knew little of the tale.

“But if it was a Dream Immortal Butterfly, why did it die so easily?” she wondered. “Was its strength not yet restored? If it was just a remnant, not truly alive, then its weakness is understandable. Or perhaps, what was here was only a lingering shadow, not the full extent of its power.”

She had not forgotten—it was, after all, only the transformation of an arm. If that arm was but a part of the Dream Immortal Butterfly’s body, what of the rest?

Of course, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. Perhaps similar events were unfolding elsewhere, but not everyone would chance upon someone like Ye Chen, who forged new paths. The spirit butterfly was unlikely to meet its end so easily elsewhere.

“Is the Dove Tribe just cursed with misfortune, having a fragment of a Dream Immortal Butterfly buried beneath their land?”

With the spirit butterfly gone, the little beast could no longer hold out, no matter how fiercely it bared its fangs.

The power of the illusory realm surged and crushed the beast to death.

All fell silent. Ye Chen now focused on absorbing the fortune left behind by the spirit butterfly.

Anyone else would have been left empty-handed, but Ye Chen and the spirit butterfly shared the same origin—this made all the difference.

A Dream Immortal Butterfly was, in essence, far above Ye Chen. To swallow its legacy in one gulp was to win a fortune.

This would not merely advance him on the divine path; if he could transform into a Dream Immortal Butterfly, his power would increase beyond measure.