Chapter 140

Chapter 140: Butterfly Effect

True Monarch Jiu Yue still felt uneasy, so he extended his spiritual sense and swept it over Lu Wang You. His eyes sharpened at once. He lifted a hand and grabbed, catching a tiny gray speck in his palm, then crushed it in an instant.

True Monarch Jiu Yue said coldly, “Hmph! Those wicked cultivators really have some tricks. They even set their sights on this monarch’s disciple. They deserve to die!”

Lu Wang You also got a fright. He had already been so careful, yet those wicked cultivators still managed to tamper with him. The more he thought about it, the more scared he became.

“Master, the disciples who escaped with me were probably marked as well. Please help them remove the hidden danger.”

They had gone through hardship together, and Lu Wang You was willing to return this favor.

True Monarch Jiu Yue did not object. He said to Master Tan at the side, “Daoist Tan, please have those cultivators who escaped come to see this monarch.”

“Yes, True Monarch.”

Master Tan was happy to have someone clean up the aftermath for him, so he raised a hand and sent out a message talisman.

Only then did True Monarch Jiu Yue speak again. “Wang You, tell me in detail what happened this time.”

“Yes, Master.”

Lu Wang You began to recount everything. Soon, other cultivators arrived one after another and added their own details, finally bringing the matter of wicked cultivators kidnapping talented disciples to use as furnaces fully into the open.

Just as True Monarch Jiu Yue was about to interrogate the wicked cultivators’ captured lackeys, those people all died in the dungeon, one after another. After Master Tan checked them, he found that every one of them had died from their sea of consciousness bursting. It was obvious they had been silenced.

Master Tan wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking uneasy as he said, “True Monarch Jiu Yue, this was my oversight. I just didn’t expect the wicked cultivators to reach the dungeon.”

True Monarch Jiu Yue stared at Master Tan for a long time. Only when the other man was about to kneel did he finally speak. “You do bear responsibility, but it cannot all be blamed on you. The wicked cultivators must have planted restrictions in their seas of consciousness. Once they discovered that what happened at Xia Fei Valley was exposed and these people had been captured, they triggered the restrictions and killed them to silence them, leaving us with no way to investigate further.”

“True Monarch, you see clearly. Then what should we do next?”

Master Tan let out a breath and respectfully asked for instructions.

True Monarch Jiu Yue thought for a moment, then said, “There is no need to hide this. We must spread the news widely. Who can say the wicked cultivators are only taking people from our western region? The other Four Domains may have similar incidents as well. It is just that it has not been brought to light yet.”

“What you say is right, True Monarch. We must keep all cultivators on guard. That way the wicked cultivators won’t succeed so easily. We might even catch their trail.”

Not long after, sect elders, clan elders, and elders from the Independent Cultivators’ Alliance arrived in Xia Fei Town one after another. After verifying the news, they also agreed with True Monarch Jiu Yue’s proposal.

So, not long after that, the news spread throughout the Vast Cosmos Realm. The wicked cultivators suffered setback after setback in their later actions, nearly getting tracked all the way back to their lair. They had no choice but to pull back their reach.

Of course, Yun Xi still did not know the consequences her meddling would bring. With another flap of the butterfly’s wings, events once again veered off their original track.

At this moment, Yun Xi and Xia You smashed down into a desolate courtyard. It was also the middle of the night. The full moon in the sky let them see their surroundings clearly.

Yun Xi climbed to her feet, pinched a Dust-Clearing Spell, and made herself look less bedraggled. Xia You was in slightly better shape and was looking around.

“Fellow Cultivator Wei, where is this?”

Yun Xi took a deep breath. “I don’t know either. I just feel like the spiritual energy here is extremely thin.”

She immediately released her spiritual sense and spread it outward. It was the fastest way to check the area.

A moment later, Yun Xi withdrew her spiritual sense and said helplessly, “This seems to be the mortal world.”

“Huh? How did we get teleported here?”

Yun Xi thought for a moment, then said, “Right after we were sent away, the teleportation array was probably destroyed. So we were likely thrown out halfway through the teleportation. We were lucky. Otherwise, we would have been crushed by spatial force.”

Xia You also felt lucky for once. Then she asked, “What about the two daoists from Hundred Flowers Pavilion?”

“I don’t know. We were thrown out of the teleportation passage one after the other. They should be not far from us. Once it’s daylight, we’ll go look for them.”

“Alright.”

Xia You had no objections. The two of them landing in the same place was also thanks to that red cord, and she trusted Yun Xi’s judgment.

Dian Dian poked its little head out of Yun Xi’s robes, sniffed around, and sent a voice transmission. “Master, what is this place? Why is the spiritual energy so thin?”

“This is the mortal world. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out where we are exactly.”

Dian Dian blinked its black bean eyes and continued, “Master, the Fei Xia Butterfly says it can’t fulfill its agreement with you. Its butterfly eggs were destroyed, and it was forced to leave its habitat, so it wants to form a contract bond with you.”

“It’s realized it can’t protect itself, so it wants me as a free bodyguard.”

“Master, it is still Third Rank. It should be useful.”

“Fine. For the sake of it being Third Rank, I’ll suffer a little and form a contract with it.”

Yun Xi did not mind having an extra butterfly ornament. And during the fight with that late-stage Golden Core wicked cultivator, she had noticed that the powder on the Third Rank Fei Xia Butterfly’s wings seemed even more effective than she expected. She wanted to study it, so she agreed.

She pinched hand seals and drew a contract formation, but what she formed was a master-servant contract.

The Fei Xia Butterfly was clearly unhappy. It flapped its wings and landed on the contract formation’s master position. In the next instant, it went into free fall and dropped straight down at Yun Xi’s feet.

Yun Xi bent down, pinched the butterfly’s wings, and tossed it back to the servant position in the contract formation. Then she quickly formed seals. The array patterns shrank in an instant, split in two, and settled onto the centers of Yun Xi’s and the Fei Xia Butterfly’s brows. The contract was complete.

Dian Dian mocked the Fei Xia Butterfly. “I told you to behave, but you still wanted to be my master’s master. Do you think you’ve lived too long? If Master didn’t need your butterfly eggs, she would’ve crushed you on the spot.”

Its little scheme exposed, the Fei Xia Butterfly could only reply angrily, “We’re both spirit beasts. Why didn’t you help me?”

“Why would I help you? I reached Second Rank because Master raised me. I don’t owe you anything.”

Dian Dian was not afraid of this little butterfly at all. It admitted its combat power was low, but the Fei Xia Butterfly was even weaker. Besides, it could help its master find treasures. It was far more useful than this little butterfly.

Yun Xi had no interest in judging their quarrel. She waved a hand and let the Fei Xia Butterfly settle back into her hair, then prepared to rest in the courtyard for the night.

But before the two of them could enter an empty room, someone carrying a lantern pushed open the courtyard gate. In the next moment, a shrill scream echoed through the courtyard.

“A ghost!!!”

After shouting that, the person’s eyes rolled back and they fainted on the spot. Yun Xi and Xia You both showed a trace of displeasure.

“Xia Daoist, do I look like a ghost?”

Yun Xi touched her face as she asked.

Xia You shook her head. “How could you? Cultivators are nourished by heaven and earth’s spiritual energy. There’s no such thing as being ugly. That mortal clearly hasn’t seen the world.”

That was how Xia You answered, and it was also what she truly thought. She had always been confident in her appearance. Otherwise, she would not have suffered Pan Yuan’s betrayal back then.