Chapter 728: Chapter 728

The underground cavern resembled a place of thunderous marsh, a Lightning Marsh hidden beneath the earth.

Below was a knee-deep dark river, while above loomed a thick canopy of thunderclouds.

Qin Sang had never encountered such a bizarre terrain before.

Why would lightning form in a place so deep underground, where sunlight never reached?

He could not find an answer no matter how he pondered. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel⦿fire.net

The few Six-Petaled Butterfly Pansies grew on the far side of the dark river, their roots wedged tightly between cracks in the stone. Aside from that location, Qin Sang also noticed signs of excavation along the riverbank in two other spots.

Judging by the marks, he suspected they had not been digging for spiritual herbs, but rather some type of mineral.

This place was not only home to Six-Petaled Butterfly Pansies, but also rare minerals. It was nothing short of a treasure trove.

The minerals had already fallen into the hands of the witch race brute. He had mined them clean. As for what kind of minerals they were and how valuable, there was no way to verify now.

Six-Petaled Butterfly Pansies, if harvested before full maturity, would wither almost instantly, leaving only a trace of their medicinal energy.

Judging by that man’s actions, if not for this trait, the few mature pansies here would likely have been dug up already.

Perhaps the formation of the thunderclouds was related to that unknown mineral.

Qin Sang stood in the water, looked up at the thunderclouds above, then lowered his gaze to the Sky-Eyed Butterfly resting in his palm.

Ever since they had entered this subterranean space, the butterfly had awakened on its own and become restless, as if it were desperately drawn to something hidden within the thunderclouds.

If there were any treasures hidden in those clouds, surely the witch race brute would have already taken them?

As a witch cultivator, he likely possessed a life-bound insect gu of his own.

Could it be that the thunderclouds only attracted the Sky-Eyed Butterfly?

Rather than recklessly releasing it, Qin Sang first brought out the fat silkworm. Seeing that it remained completely indifferent confirmed his suspicion.

The power of lightning within the clouds was nothing like the terrifying bolts found in the outside world. These formed incredibly thin arcs. Even so, probing them with spiritual consciousness remained entirely futile.

After a moment of thought, Qin Sang activated his true essence and sent it surging into the clouds above.

For a while, the cavern filled with swirling mist and crashing thunder. He soon ceased his efforts, for he had seen the core of the thundercloud. It contained nothing but a mass of vapor.

Having found nothing, Qin Sang finally released the Sky-Eyed Butterfly.

The butterfly fluttered joyfully, flapping its wings as it rose toward the base of the thundercloud. There, it began circling slowly.

Moments later, it hovered directly beneath the center of the cloud layer and started beating its wings with increasing force. Though it was not weak, what it stirred up was no ordinary gust. The winds it summoned carried a strange suction force.

Unlike Qin Sang’s attempts, the butterfly’s winds began drawing something out from the depths of the cloud. A thread of milky white mist slowly emerged within his field of vision.

That mist was incredibly thin. Under the butterfly’s suction, it stretched into a fine thread, the other end connected directly to the butterfly’s mouthparts.

The Sky-Eyed Butterfly was absorbing the mist.

Qin Sang’s expression turned to one of astonishment. To him, the thunderclouds had seemed completely ordinary, nothing more than condensed water vapor. Yet the butterfly treated it as a rare delicacy. He could clearly sense its delight and satisfaction.

"What could be hidden inside those clouds..."

Lost in thought, Qin Sang glanced toward the distant Six-Petaled Butterfly Pansies and flashed forward.

The flowers were exquisite, brightly colored, and all six had fully bloomed. They would be enough to nourish the Sky-Eyed Butterfly to the peak of its second transformation.

In Yuling Sect’s ancient records, there was little information about the Six-Petaled Butterfly Pansy. The only information was that it was a spirit flower favored by Sky-Eyed Butterflies and could be used to raise them.

Its properties and growth environment were scarcely documented.

"Maybe it’s the unknown mist within the thunderclouds that gives rise to the Six-Petaled Butterfly Pansy, and the butterfly’s true desire is not the flower, but that mist?"

Qin Sang could only speculate wildly.

He took out six jade boxes and carefully harvested each of the pansies. After scanning the surroundings one last time and confirming there were no other treasures, he returned to the center of the dark river to observe the butterfly’s behavior.

In just a short while, the mist had thickened, now about the width of a chopstick.

Despite its small size, the Sky-Eyed Butterfly seemed like a bottomless pit, gulping down the white mist with a voracious appetite, showing no signs of being full.

Just then, a burst of dense thunder erupted from deep within the thunderclouds. At the same time, a streak of lightning suddenly flashed through the white mist, the two merging into one.

Seeing this, Qin Sang's expression changed. He was about to urge the Sky-Eyed Butterfly to retreat, but to his surprise, the butterfly showed no fear at all. Instead, it beat its wings and flew straight toward the fusion of mist and lightning, then inhaled forcefully, swallowing both into its body in one gulp.

Qin Sang was dumbfounded. He had never anticipated such a turn of events. There was no time to intervene. He hurried over, eyes locked anxiously on the butterfly to observe what would happen next.

What will happen after it swallows lightning?

No matter how small, lightning represented the most violent force in the world.

The Sky-Eyed Butterfly hovered mid-air, and the flow of white mist ceased. The winds calmed. It looked as if the butterfly had fallen into a slumber.

Qin Sang grew extremely worried and quickly attempted to connect with its consciousness. The good news was that the butterfly's awareness remained stable. Its energy, however, was clearly unsettled.

The butterfly lay curled in his palm, thin wisps of white mist wrapping around it. Its body trembled faintly, clearly affected by the lightning’s impact.

Its impulsive behavior had completely caught Qin Sang off guard, but he could not simply stand by. The only thing he could do was channel his true essence through the blood link they shared and pour it into the butterfly to support it.

As time passed, the trembling gradually lessened. The Sky-Eyed Butterfly had weathered the most dangerous phase. Soon after, its energy began to stabilize.

Qin Sang quietly let out a breath of relief. He leaned in to inspect the butterfly closely but found that, despite having absorbed the power of lightning, there were no major visible changes.

Only the patterns on its wings now appeared slightly more radiant.

Unexpectedly, the Sky-Eyed Butterfly flapped its wings again and soared upward, resuming its voracious consumption of white mist and lightning.

Qin Sang’s gaze flickered. This time, he did not stop it and simply let it do as it pleased.

Again and again, the butterfly rose and fell, each time growing more fluid in its movements, devouring mouthfuls of white mist and lightning with increasing ease.

At last, after consuming the final wisp of mist, it returned to Qin Sang’s palm and curled up, looking somewhat fatigued. Then, its wings began to glow.

Amid the intricate patterns, faint silver light started to flicker and dance.

The glow grew increasingly bright, and white mist billowed around it. Eventually, it transformed into something resembling a cocoon of lightning, enclosing the butterfly completely. Inside the lightning cocoon, the Sky-Eyed Butterfly lay quietly, having entered a deep slumber.

Qin Sang stood by and watched the entire process unfold without interfering. Still, he remained alert to any changes in the butterfly’s condition.

He was certain that this slumber was not a metamorphosis, but something far rarer, recorded only sparsely in the witch race’s texts. It was a mutation!

Normally, a spiritual insect’s supernatural abilities were simple and limited in scope.

However, some had discovered that under rare circumstances, spiritual insects could undergo spontaneous mutation. The chance of this happening was incredibly small, but in the witch race’s long tradition of insect taming, such events were not unheard of.

These mutations occurred randomly and could not be replicated. Qin Sang had never imagined he would witness such a fortunate event here.