Qin Yun looked at the portrait as his face flushed red with excitement. He completely engrossed himself in it.
When she saw this, the female warrior thought, “The way he looks so fanatically at the portrait, he must not have seen many overly powerful manuals. Either he comes from a tiny sect or he is an itinerant cultivator. Will he be able to kill Hawk Fiend King? He needs to reach the seventh Firmament Skyimmortal realm. Upon reaching that, even the Heavenly Courts will send envoys to recruit him to be an official.”
The nine Firmaments of the Skyimmortal realm were further demarcated into three major sub-realms. Every three Firmaments was a big step up, making the attainment of the seventh Firmament very difficult.
As for breaking through the ninth Firmament to become a Golden Immortal, that was something only the mightiest figures of the Three Realms were capable of. They would even become honored guests of the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother.
…
Qin Yun was lost in his amazement as he gazed at the scroll. The way the butterfly’s wings gracefully flapped was simply wonderful. Their movements were even more gorgeous than those of any sword art Qin Yun had ever cast. As such, problems that vexed him during his individual comprehension of the Sword Dao were being resolved one after another. Having comprehended so many different aspects, he felt more and more touched and joyful.
As he watched the butterfly, sword techniques filled his mind naturally. They contained the charms of the butterfly’s flight.
Butterfly’s flight…
The casting of sword techniques…
Qin Yun inferred more than a thousand sword moves in his mind. However, this sudden epiphany gradually vanished. He felt that the trajectories of the butterfly wings were the core truth of the world. The sword moves he had inferred were still incomparable to it. He was still not experienced enough to perfectly interpret them. To comprehend more, he needed to spend more time on it.
“This land of darkness that was formed by a splatter of ink.” Qin Yun cast his gaze to the spot beneath the butterfly.
This land looked very simple.
But with Qin Yun’s present realm, he immediately noticed its extraordinariness.
Depth, majesty, repression, pain, suppression…
He felt all sorts of emotions tug at him.
The ‘land’ similarly contained a core truth of the world. However, the sensations of repression and pain made Qin Yun uncomfortable. He could even vaguely see his wife die. He saw his son and daughter, his parents, brother and sister-in-law, niece and nephew, as well as Daoist Divine Firmament… Everyone he knew was collapsing dead.
All humans in the Great Chang world died.
Immense pain enveloped Qin Yun’s heart. Although he gained new insights while watching this and was inferring new sword techniques even then, it only took about a hundred plus moves before…
“Pfft!”
He could not help but spit out a mouthful of blood that had been hanging heavily in his chest.
“I can’t stare at it for too long. The repressive feeling it gives is just too much to bear. Spitting out this mouthful of blood makes me feel a lot better.”
When he opened his eyes again, he did not dare to stare at the land continuously. Instead, he would mainly watch the butterfly and occasionally sweep his glance at the land of darkness…
But just a few sweeps from the corner of his eyes left Qin Yun taken aback.
“This is…”
The dark and deep land. The intelligent and joyful butterfly.
Both of them gave off contrasting charms.
But together, they were extremely harmonious like Yin and Yang. The contrast was intense but it also formed a perfect compliment. It was a flawless portrait, a picture that contained the core truth of the world.
As he looked at the two aspects simultaneously, he could sense a resonance between the two opposing elements, giving Qin Yun new insight.
…
Qin Yun was an itinerant cultivator who cultivated arduously. He had no master and by the time he soared, the manuals left behind by Skyimmortals and Skygods of the Great Chang world gave him little aid since he was already approaching their level.
In fact, those select few in the Great Chang world had mostly obtained the greatest of heritages.
Daoist Divine Firmament needed no explanation. He was a personal disciple of the Dao Ancestor! He had obtained the top heritage of the Three Realms.
Patriarch Bai was present when the Dao Ancestor preached the Dao on Numinous Treasure Mountain. He was also considered a disciple of the Dao Ancestor by name.
Bodhisattva Mahākāśyapa was the only Bodhisattva of the Great Chang world’s Buddhist school of thought.
The East Sea Skydragon was a dragon by birth!
Only Skydemon Palace’s Skydemoness and Human Emperor cultivated in relatively ordinary heritages. However, no matter how ordinary their heritage was, one was that of demons and the other of Godfiends.
Only Qin Yun had obtained a mortal-level sword immortal Dharmic formulation early on. Apart from that, he had nothing!
He had obtained the stone wall palm arts long ago, but as his realm increased, the usefulness of it gradually diminished.
As for the Butterfly Portrait, it was a lot more brilliant than the stone wall palm arts. The latter had intense feelings in it and the intent contained in it was very unbridled. As for the Butterfly Portrait, the simple splatter of ink and a few strokes of the brush that formed the butterfly reduced the mighty Dao into its simplest form. It was a lot more profound in that way, on a completely different level!
Even Skyimmortals would look at it with reverence if they saw it.
The deceased Skyimmortal, Fang Rong, also mentioned that he believed that the portrait was likely drawn by a mighty figure.
Such a portrait was a priceless treasure for an itinerant mortal sword immortal like Qin Yun! He had gained immense benefits simply from immersing himself in it.
In fact, if it were elite disciples of a top sect in the Effulgent Great World, they might not think too much of the portrait since they had the opportunity to see manuals left behind by Golden Immortals themselves.
******
The female warrior did not disturb Qin Yun as he engrossed himself in the Butterfly Portrait.
And elsewhere.
“That mortal sword immortal has killed another junior brother. He has killed three junior brothers as of now,” said the red-robed fiendcelestial in a deep voice. “I originally thought that the dense and complex network of the underground nest would make it difficult for them to meet. Besides, I warned them earlier to escape the instant they discovered the mortal sword immortal. But still, another of our junior brothers has perished.”
“He was too crafty,” snorted the saber-wielding fiendcelestial. “He actually thought to have that Scenic Jade Palace disciple carry his flying sword. No one thought anything of him but that flying sword suddenly flew out before anyone could react… A junior brother was slain because he was caught by surprise.”
“Yes.” The red-robed fiendcelestial nodded. “Unfortunately, we have no more subordinates left to probe for us.”
Among the three factions outside, the Thousand Saber Fiend Sect still had four fiendcelestials left. Of course, only two of them were third Firmament fiendcelestials. They did not think too much of the deaths of the two weaker junior brothers but now they had no way to force the other two junior brothers to probe.
Before this…
They had instructed five junior brothers to take prisoners with them. The most dangerous tasks were left to the prisoners.
“Boom!”
Just as the two third Firmament fiendcelestials were raging silently, a large boom erupted from the deep depths of the mountainous region. All experts from the three factions were astounded.
“The source of the boom came from nine hundred kilometers underground,” said the saber-wielding fiendcelestial with a voice transmission after he sensed it. “It’s so far away yet so powerful! From the looks of it, something important has been discovered.”
“According to our sect’s records, this place might hide the supreme-grade Numinous treasure, Fire Raven Calabash. The battle that happened here was just too intense. All parties eventually agreed to a ceasefire and sealed off the entirety of the Ancient Augury World. Following that, ordinary disciples would be sent to this area to explore it as a trial. Losses were minimized. Even we do not dare enter the core region of the Fire Raven Nest. However, there are tons of Skygods and Skyfiends who have died there. Just obtaining some of their treasure would be a success.” The red-robed fiendcelestial was tempted.
At their present realm, they were not far from breaking through to the Skyfiend realm. Ordinary disciples might not know the secrets of the Ancient Augury World but peak third Firmament elites were privy to the information.
…
When the resonating boom came from the deep depths, the dragons did not hesitate to transform into streams of light and rapidly tunneled into the caves.
“Let’s go.” The Daoist cultivators hesitated for a moment but also entered through another cave quickly.
“Are we entering or not?” asked the saber-wielding fiendcelestial.
“They have scouts in there. Since they dare enter, we should too,” shouted the red-robed fiendcelestial.
Hence, the fiendcelestials rapidly followed behind the Daoist cultivators.
Instantly, there were no Essence Souls on top of the mountain. There were only a few mortals left, hoping to pick up some scraps.
“They all went in?”
“The experts from three factions and that mortal sword immortal are all inside. It will be quite lively in there.” The mortals naturally hoped for the conflicts to get more intense. The more troubled the waters were, the easier it was to fish in those waters. They could immediately activate their Transference Tokens and escape with anything they found.