Chapter 13: The Greenleaf Butterfly That Defied the Rules

The spirit butterfly swarm protected the three eggs, but they did not stop Wang Mu from taking them away. All of them had been hatched and raised by Wang Mu, so they knew that handing the eggs over to him was for the best.

Wang Mu first took them to the laboratory and tested the eggs' data. Everything was normal. Their vitality was five times greater than that of ordinary eggs, and the examination also revealed that they carried a faint wood attribute.

That was something other eggs did not possess.

Since he had nothing pressing to do at the moment, Wang Mu took them to be incubated.

On the first day, the eggs merely stirred and did not hatch into larvae. The same was true by the third day. Under normal circumstances, three days was already enough for a Greenleaf Caterpillar to enter its first molt stage.

Wang Mu waited in anticipation, and by the fifth day, the Greenleaf Caterpillars finally crawled out and climbed onto the tender shoots of Azure Jade Bamboo to feed. The moment Wang Mu saw the attributes of one of them, however, his pupils shook violently.

Greenleaf Caterpillar (Juvenile): 0

Bloodline: Elite Rank

Talent: Wood (Intermediate, Low Grade)

Inherited Skill: Leaf Blade (Beginner)

Shared Level: 2

Over this period of time, Wang Mu had raised more than fifteen hundred spirit butterflies. He understood very clearly that at the moment of birth, every Greenleaf Caterpillar possessed only an Ordinary-rank bloodline. Their talents were the same as those of humans: all-attribute, but entirely unranked. Only after being fed attribute materials would they change.

More importantly, Wang Mu had studied breeder knowledge for many years and read a vast number of records, yet never once had he seen anyone say that the Greenleaf Butterfly possessed inherited skills. This lineage was notoriously bizarre. Even a King-rank Solar Flare Butterfly, despite possessing numerous skills, would still have descendants that forgot every single one of them.

And now, an exception had appeared.

Faced with that exception, Wang Mu solemnly fed it Verdant Spirit Dew and began raising its Shared Level, ready at any time to share Leaf Blade at the Control level with it.

At that moment, Wang Mu already had a line of thought.

The series of phenomena that had followed the birth of that Greenleaf Butterfly were not without clues.

One Greenleaf Butterfly had shattered its bottleneck and then rushed to pass the mark of its bloodline onward. But the Greenleaf Butterfly's strength was too low, which was why it had died outright in the process. Yet in truth, it had not needed to do so.

Lately, Wang Mu had practically moved into the laboratory. Every few days, he examined the Greenleaf Butterfly, while the other two, though they had no inherited spell, were raised alongside it as well.

At last, a full month later, the Greenleaf Butterfly with the inherited spell finally emerged from its cocoon. Its two siblings had already flown away ten days earlier.

This Greenleaf Butterfly carried a great many of Wang Mu's conjectures, so the moment it emerged, it was placed upon a metal testing platform.

【Analyzing...】

【Analysis complete.】

【Source concentration: 10. Lifespan: 100 years.】

A satisfied smile appeared on Wang Mu's face.

Every spirit butterfly that had not broken through to the Fourth Rank possessed only a lifespan of twenty years. Their source concentration was 2.

This Greenleaf Butterfly, however—this one that had broken the shackles of its species—had a source concentration of 10.

When a Greenleaf Butterfly broke out of its cocoon, it burned away everything from its days as a Greenleaf Caterpillar and turned it into nourishment for its new form.

The Greenleaf Butterfly before him could be called the king of the entire Greenleaf Butterfly lineage. If it could pass on its bloodline, then in time, all ordinary Greenleaf Butterflies would be replaced, leaving behind only this Elite-rank lineage.

Its instincts urged it toward reproduction, but Wang Mu used mental power to soothe it. The Greenleaf Butterfly was no longer the short-lived species it had once been. Its way of living had to change. At the very least, it needed to wait until reaching the Third Rank before breeding. Otherwise, it would die not long after mating.

After all, it was not an adult now, but one in its growth stage.

This was also the limitation of spirit beasts. Even if they occasionally broke through the shackles of their bloodline, instinct would prevent them from truly achieving a collective breakthrough.

Greenleaf Butterfly (Growth Stage): 1

Bloodline: Elite

Talent: Wood (Intermediate, Low Grade)

Inherited Spell: Leaf Blade (Control)

Spells: Energy Beam, Leaf Storm, Needle Barrage, Thorn Entangling

The two mid-tier spells had been shared over from Wang Mu, while the latter two had been comprehended by the Greenleaf Butterfly itself. In the past, the process from Greenleaf Caterpillar to Greenleaf Butterfly had counted as a kind of abnormal transformation and did not raise growth levels. But now, it did.

Because it was too special, Wang Mu did not teach it any spells of other attributes. At the very least, he had to wait until it produced offspring first. The original bloodline was the most important thing. In theory, Wang Mu could repeat the previous steps again and create a new special Greenleaf Butterfly.

But Wang Mu had already been a High-Level Breeder for two months. He had graduated early in April.

And every year in mid-June, there was a New Generation Breeder Exchange Meeting, which invited breeders who had graduated within the last five years.

In the history of Shanhai City, there had once been breeders who reached the Breeder tier in five years. Unfortunately, this current exchange meeting had none. It appeared low-level and unimpressive, as though it could offer no help, but that was not actually the case.

Breeders could buy resources from the Association at low prices through points, but there were quantity limits. Since different breeders raised different spirit beasts, they could often complement one another, so breeders would exchange resources privately.

At the same time, the exchange meeting provided a venue for a group of extreme recluses.

Wang Mu placed great importance on the exchange meeting, though not this year, but in the coming few years. At present, he lacked competitiveness and would be unable to trade for the resources he truly wanted.

As everyone knew, entering the breeder profession was difficult, and specializing in it was difficult as well. Every year, throughout all of Shenzhou, roughly a thousand people passed the breeder assessment. Of those, five percent had backing. They were born into breeder families, and thus had a very high chance of continuing onward.

Of the remaining ninety-five percent—nine hundred and fifty people—eight hundred would remain trapped at the Mid-Level Breeder stage for life. After that, one hundred and fifty might reach High-Level Breeder, but among them, those who could advance to Breeder were vanishingly few.

Wang Mu's plan was to exchange ideas with that small group of true geniuses and let inspiration collide.

And to exchange resources with those children of great families, so that he could raise himself quickly.

At present, he had only just graduated. In the space of two months, he had already completed his initial accumulation of capital. The next step was to breed a Commander-rank spirit beast and become a Breeder as quickly as possible. Only once he reached that level would he feel even slightly at ease.

Right now, Wang Mu still had to restrain himself in all directions. Despite possessing the Sharing talent and being able to mass-produce Silver Butterflies that carried mid-tier spells, he still reported only a very small output.

"So many troublesome matters. Still, strength isn't something that rises overnight. Better to lie low for now and grow first."

Wang Mu carried the Greenleaf Butterfly out of the laboratory. Spirit beasts were, generally speaking, rather reassuring. Once given instructions, they would not act recklessly.

Yet the moment the Greenleaf Butterfly entered the ecological zone, it still caused a commotion. Evolution was a spirit beast's instinct, and those ordinary short-lived spirit butterflies were driven by that instinct.

But Wang Mu had not guessed wrong. This Greenleaf Butterfly truly was the king of the entire lineage. It merely beat its wings and circled once through the air, and every single spirit butterfly immediately returned to normal.

Not entirely, however.

Several mental-type spirit butterflies were currently using spells, while the Greenleaf Butterfly was... learning?

Wang Mu was dumbstruck. "I thought I'd already overestimated it. I didn't expect this."

As someone who had crammed himself full of theory through relentless study, Wang Mu had read related materials before. If a spirit beast of Ordinary-rank bloodline was bred into an Excellent-rank one—or something even higher—then that new spirit beast would become the king of its race and possess absolute command over it.

For most other spirit beasts, this was easy enough to achieve.

But because the Greenleaf Butterfly had previously been incapable of inheritance, no one had ever been able to do it.

At that moment, Wang Mu felt deeply tempted. He wanted to contract the Greenleaf Butterfly. Some things that could be shared simply could not even be seen before reaching a certain level. He had a feeling that this kingly quality of the Greenleaf Butterfly might also be shareable. Perhaps it would only appear at the MAX level.

Qingling was currently at the Second Rank, and Wang Mu's own strength was steadily rising. In theory, he could contract a second spirit beast now.

Yet in the end, Wang Mu suppressed the idea.

He already had plans for the second spirit beast slot in his heart.

The Nine Provinces had long been sundered apart, and each province had given birth to unique powers. If spirit beasts and Beast Tamers from Shenzhou went to other provinces, their strength would be greatly diminished.

Back when the continent shattered, some abyssal rifts had also formed, leading into the underground world. That place remained connected to the Nine Provinces, and among its denizens was a special spirit beast called the Darklight. It was a soul-type spirit beast capable of releasing a dark domain.

Any spirit beast hatched within that domain would develop Adaptability.

The environment had an influence on the strength of spirit beasts, and this Adaptability allowed them to adjust to their surroundings, offsetting between ten and eighty percent of outside influences.

Ordinary Beast Tamers might not care about such things, but every Beast Tamer above the mid ranks would take them into account. Wilderness environments were extreme, and the spells possessed by demon beasts were endlessly strange. Far too many things could affect a spirit beast's combat power. Because of that, the Darklight was a spirit beast every breeder had to contract.

At the same time, Wang Mu was also coveting the Darklight's innate spell, Dark Sky, which altered the weather within a certain range and transformed it into a state of perpetual darkness.

That was a weather spell!

Any weather spell or domain spell counted as a core component, enough to build an entire system around it.

The Greenleaf Butterfly, for example, possessed King-rank evolved forms. Among them, the Solar Flare Butterfly wielded the spell Solar God, capable of forcibly changing the weather into clear skies.

The Lunar Moonglow Butterfly wielded Moon God's Incarnation and brought forth night under the moon.

This was, after all, a world centered on Beast Tamers. Ever since childhood, the stories Wang Mu had heard most often were examples of famous figures. And among every great person he had ever heard of, their teams always had at least one weather spell user.

No matter what kind of harsh environment they encountered, they could turn fighting on hostile ground into fighting on home terrain.

Darklights could be directly applied for through the Association. The Beast Tamer Association was more than happy to see Breeders obtain spirit beasts of this sort. It would simply provide Darklights of different bloodlines based on the breeder's own ability.

In truth, Wang Mu wanted to find a breeder who raised Darklights and exchange for a cub instead, so that he could raise it from childhood. That way, he would not need to contract it, yet could still share the Darklight's spells with Qingling.

Wang Mu already had some plans for Qingling. The World Tree of myth was a good example. Its very existence altered the environment. At present, because of its attributes, Qingling gathered wood and earth spiritual energy. But if it could gather all attributes, and then add every weather spell on top of that, then once it was placed inside a secret realm, there would be no need for all kinds of treasures to reshape that realm. Qingling alone would be enough.

Having already laid out his plans, Wang Mu opened the Breeders Association's official website. Sure enough, he found the invitation in the backend. Exchange meetings for breeders below the Breeder tier were only held within one's own city, and the venue was inside the Breeders Association itself. After Wang Mu clicked to register, he began making preparations.

The main thing was to see what resources he had on hand.

First, money.

The income from the first batch of spirit butterflies had already been spent, but most of the income from the second and third batches had now arrived.

Out of one thousand spirit butterflies, Wang Mu had kept two hundred back, as they needed to take part in later breeding experiments. The rest had all been sold. After subtracting the cost of buying materials, 1,2 billion still remained.

It sounded like an enormous amount, but in reality, that was only because Wang Mu had been frugal enough to preserve it.

Otherwise, if he had gone all out upgrading the various facilities and instruments in the breeding center, there would have been almost nothing left. The things he had bought back then with points had only been the basics. If he wanted a truly better experience, he would have to replace them with improved versions himself.