The Divine Butterfly flapped its wings, streaking out as a gorgeous stream of light in the underground palace, and rushed straight toward the end of the tunnel.
From the flower garden, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion rolled over and shook its head, then bounded after it.
Just as the two spirit beasts were about to break through the barrier—
a screen of Spirit Power flared into existence.
Boom—!
Boom—!
Two muffled impacts resounded.
Ripples shivered across the barrier.
Both the Divine Butterfly and the Three-Eyed Golden Lion were thrown back in disarray.
The Divine Butterfly stabilized its body in the air. It suddenly turned around and looked at the depths of the underground palace.
Its butterfly wings flapped quickly, kicking up tiny ice crystals and sparks.
The twin colored antennae atop its head pointed toward the tunnel outside, conveying a silent urgency.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion shook its head, and a look of anticipation was revealed in its reddish-golden eyes.
The underground palace fell into a brief silence.
A few breaths later—
Rumble—!
The entire palace trembled.
Loose stones rained down, and the ground quaked without cease..
In the darkness in the depths of the underground palace—a darkness thicker than the night—two huge golden cracks suddenly cracked open.
They were like two scorching suns rotating in the eternal darkness. Their majesty made the space itself tremble for it.
"Not yet." A voice rumbled like colliding mountains, addressing the Three-Eyed Golden Lion:
"Humans are cunning. Only when you attain ten-thousand-year cultivation may you leave this palace."
The words rolled and crushed their way through the underground palace.
No longer paying heed to the snarling emperor beast,
those golden eyes, vast as the sun and moon,
fell upon the divine butterfly, its wings fluttering anxiously.
"Little one…"
"You mean you sense a human aura connected to your bloodline?"
The Divine Butterfly nodded again and again, and ice flames splattered everywhere.
Whoosh—
Whoosh—
Winds rose violently within the palace without warning.
From the darkness came the grinding sound of scales, like mountains grating together.
The golden eyes suddenly expanded, as though drawing nearer in the void.
Even the faint outline of black-golden scales filled the vision completely.
"The human you are bound to… The one who created you, perhaps…"
About half a year ago, it sensed a faint but profound aura entering the Star Dou Forest. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion, who was related to the fate of the entire Spirit Beast race, felt an especially intense reaction to this aura.
Only after it guided this butterfly to the underground palace did it see the butterfly's true nature. Its origin was far beyond imagination.
The Auspicious Emperor Beast was related to the fate of the entire Spirit Beast race. However, this Ice Flame Divine Butterfly escaped from outside of fate.
—It broke the shackles of fate's cocoon and escaped the cage of the future.
This was a Spirit Beast that should not have been born, but it miraculously broke free from its fate.
For it, this tiny Divine Butterfly allowed it to catch a glimpse of a faint light that could break the Spirit Beasts' misfortune. Its importance was now equal to the Auspicious Emperor Beast..
"Little one…"
The deep voice rumbled again.
"Humans are unpredictable.
Even if bound to you, their hearts may be good—or evil."
"You are still weak. Stay in the palace."
The Divine Butterfly suddenly turned around. The ice flames condensed on its butterfly wings, turning into a gorgeous stream of light, and collided with the Spirit Power barrier with a resolute force.
Boom—!
Boom—!
It did it again and again.
Even though the barrier didn't move an inch, and even though every collision brought an injury, it still did it recklessly.
Its butterfly wings scattered and fell apart in the collision. Shards of ice and fire splattered like sparks. Its small body was shaken and swayed, but it stubbornly flapped its wings and rushed up again..
It had only been born for less than a year. But its extraordinary origin and the nourishment of the rich vitality of the underground palace allowed its intelligence to develop early, and its cultivation to make rapid progress.
It clearly remembered its origin. It even more clearly understood how precious this life was that it had "stolen."
It was originally a silent cocoon on a dry branch next to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well..
Once, it had been nothing but a cocoon on a withered branch
beside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Day after day, it endured the dual tempering of extreme cold and scorching heat, on the verge of death in the cocoon of fate.
Until that day... a white-robed young man came to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and used his sword qi to split open the shackles of fate.
It spread its wings from the ashes.
The first thing it saw was the starlight on the tip of the boy's sword.
The divine butterfly's thoughts surged.
Its collisions against the barrier grew ever fiercer.
A fragment of its crystalline wing fluttered down, as it let out a mournful yet unyielding cry.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion roared anxiously at the depths of the underground palace.
Then it reared upright, claws tearing at the barrier,
as if to open the way for the Butterfly.
"Let it be."
The golden dragon eyes glared angrily.
In the crisscrossing cracks on the ground, the liquid vital energy surged into a river, and in the center, it condensed into a water mirror.
Ripples spread out in the mirror, and it gradually revealed a hazy, dense forest.
"Let me see…"
"What sort of extraordinary human could leave you so bound in heart and soul."
In the mirror appeared—
An endless primeval forest, towering trees blotting out the sky.
A gray miasma drifted among the woods.
And within the water mirror—
A white-robed youth and a golden-haired maiden came into focus.
The moment that long-yearned-for figure appeared,
the listless Divine Butterfly burst with excitement, fluttering joyfully around the mirror.
It stretched out its delicate antennae, trying to touch the youth inside.
Yet only ripples stirred across the mirror's surface.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion also curiously tilted its head, looking at the scene in the mirror.
"Mm?!"
From the depths of the palace came a voice of shocked doubt.
"A divine aura? That human girl carries the aura of a god?!"
As it spoke,
the golden dragon eyes shifted toward the white-robed youth.
"Little one…"
"This is the human you are bound to?"
"Let me look closer…"
"Sharp-edged, sword-boned, a natural prodigy—his talent is remarkable."
Though separated by distance and constrained by the water mirror, its perception was limited.
Even so—
the sharp aura emanating from the boy still made Di Tian nod silently.
Then—
a faint, unfathomable aura seeped forth, as if piercing space itself, quietly spreading from the white-robed youth.
"Divine aura?!"
"This boy also carries the aura of a god?!"
"And moreover…"
"Not just one god!"
The deep voice thundered with disbelief, surging against the water mirror until its image quivered and distorted.
At that moment—
The white-robed youth halted abruptly, his brows furrowing.
Sword-sharp eyes snapped up, scanning the empty void around him.
"Oh?"
"He already sensed it?"
"What's wrong, Li Zhexian?"
Without warning, Li Zhexian had stopped.
The girl behind him, Qian Renxue, unprepared, stumbled against his back.
At the center of Li Zhexian's brow—
the Qinglian Sword mark flickered uncertainly..
His expression turned grave.
His piercing gaze swept across the gray fog forest, which hid endless dangers.
"I think..." Li Zhexian's tone was tense.
"There's an unknown presence… watching us."
Qian Renxue was startled. Li Zhexian took her hand and ran wildly toward the outskirts of the forest.
"You're not hunting for your soul ring anymore?"
"No, there is a great danger here!"
Within the underground palace—
"Sharp perception."
The huge golden eyes looked at the Divine Butterfly.
"Little one, this human is leaving. Once you've cultivated enough strength, you may go to him."
The butterfly let out a broken, plaintive hum.
The golden eyes suddenly blazed with anger.
"Do you even know what you're saying?"
"A spirit beast, aiding a human to hunt for a soul ring?!"
But the Divine Butterfly only turned again.
And once more hurled itself against the barrier with relentless force.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion too rose upright again,
scraping and clawing at it with its talons…