Stranger Danger

Chapter 660: From Cocoon To Butterfly

“Thousand Illusions of Clouds and Fog”

It felt like a meteor had struck the ground when Ah Su descended from the sky and struck the spot where Greenlake Bai was. For a moment, the ground bent inward like someone was pressing a finger against a piece of fabric. Then, it exploded into a million pieces and threw up a massive shockwave.

The shockwave swept through the Greenlake Bais and crushed eleven of them without resistance. The one Greenlake Bai that survived was, of course, her real body. A deafening boom erupted from the epicenter, followed by a mini earthquake and a rush of wind. Not a moment too soon, Ah Su appeared behind Greenlake Bai as if magic and aimed a palm strike straight at the woman’s back.

Maybe it was because she was moving too quickly, or maybe it was because there was that much force behind her palm strike. When Ah Su swung her arm, the motion actually generated sonic booms that threatened the integrity of the space it was traveling through.

At a critical moment, Greenlake Bai summoned her red umbrella and pointed it toward Ah Su. When the umbrella opened, it spun rapidly and created many bloody shadows that took the shape of dharmachakras[1]. Bloody beams shot out of the dharmachakras with enough force to cut metal and break stones like they were paper.

“Nethercall Dharmachakra”

However, the bloody beams bounced off Ah Su’s body like a weak rain against a rock, failing to leave even a scratch on her skin, much less impede her advance.

Bang!

Ah Su’s palm struck the red umbrella, causing a series of waves to ripple out and shatter the surrounding space inch by inch like a mirror. Such was her strength that both of Greenlake Bai’s wrists were dislocated, and her grip was drenched in blood. Her face looked deathly white, and a trickle of blood slithered down the corner of her lips.

It was an opportunity though. Greenlake Bai borrowed the strength of Ah Su’s attack to push herself far, far away from the woman. She resumed her run as soon as her feet touched the ground once more.

As for Ah Su, she bent her knees a little when she touched down, and the earth undulated like a wave. Shen then pushed off the ground and shot toward Greenlake Bai like an arrow.

The deafening noises slowly faded as the duo disappeared. Soon, the ancient city regained its former tranquility, though not its former appearance. The already tattered ruins looked like it had been crushed into fine powder after the battle was over.

A dozen or so breaths later, light suddenly shone out of Su Xiu’s body. At first, it was weak, barely visible, and flickering like the wisps of a firefly. But over time, it grew brighter and more colorful like some sort of fantasy.

Through the colorful light, one could see that a dark-shaped, cocoon-like object was squirming inside Su Xiu’s body. When the light reached peak intensity, Su Xiu’s chest slowly split open from top to bottom, and a single butterfly crawled out of it.

At first, the butterfly moved very, very slowly as if it was struggling to break out of its cocoon. Its wings, antenna-like tentacles, limbs and more also looked semi-transparent and very fragile. However, after the butterfly fully removed itself from Su Xiu’s body, and the sticky liquid covering its body began to dry, its body slowly but surely turned solid.

In contrast, Su Xiu’s flesh, blood, bones and internal organs vanished into thin air as if something had devoured it all, leaving behind only the skin.

The next moment, the butterfly unfolded its wings and began flying around the corpse. It looked gorgeous, and its dance was fantastic. But because it was flying around a piece of human skin that just moments ago was still an intact corpse, what should’ve been a beautiful moment felt eerie and horrifying instead.

Ten or so seconds later, the butterfly finally stopped circling the human skin and landed on the ground. Then, it transformed into a human. He was, of course, Dream Master.

Right now, Dream Master looked much weaker and paler than before. Clasping his hands behind his back, he looked down on Su Xiu’s skin and shook his head wistfully.

“All men are greedy, foolish, obsessed. Greed leads to hardships, foolishness leads to peril, and obsession leads to death. Why bother?”

Dream Master lifted a hand, and Su Xiu’s Nature’s Shell flew into his palm. When he checked its contents and found Nanke, he finally let out a sigh of relief and allowed a smile to appear on his face.

This had not been an easy fight. In fact, it was easily one of the most dangerous fights he had ever been in.

He was a Deva, and the Devas enjoyed a prominent status among the Eight Legions. Despite this, he was still considered a genius and a leader of the younger generation among his fellow Devas.

The Eight Legions possessed a powerful Strange Artifact called the Eight Stupa capable of hiding one’s destiny. It was why anyone below the Grandmaster stage would not appear on the Human Champions Ranking.

Despite not being named on the Human Champions Ranking, Dream Master did not believe that he was inferior to anyone on the list. Even the top ten monsters were so-so in his eyes. After all, he was a monster himself.

But after he left his sect to carry out this mission, he finally learned that there was truth behind the saying, “There are people beyond this person; skies beyond this sky.”

The first battle that enlightened him to the truth was his fight against the seventh warrior on the Human Champions Ranking, Defeated. It was the first time he recognized that no one in the top ten was a small fry. In fact, he wasn’t sure he could have defeated the man if Earth Walker, Slaughterer and Dancer hadn’t returned in time.

Of course, his fight against Defeated was too short for him to glimpse anything but the tip of the iceberg. His fight against Su Xiu though, this was the fight that enlightened him to the true power that was a top ten warrior of the Human Champions Ranking.

If he hadn’t reached the journeyman level of the “Dream Butterfly True Sutra” and grasped the Magia known as “From Cocoon To Butterfly”, he might already be dead.

“From Butterfly to Cocoon” was a resurrection Magia that allowed him to imbue a sliver of his mind, soul and sentience in another person’s body when he was near death. The victim would function as his cocoon and feed him energy until he was ready to transform into a butterfly and be reborn.

There were two stages in “From Butterfly to Cocoon”, and they were called “Resurrection Through Blood”, and “Resurrection Through Dream”.

“Resurrection Through Blood” was exactly what it sounded like. The practitioner would be reborn from another’s flesh and blood.

“Resurrection Through Dream” was also exactly what it sounded like. The practitioner would be reborn from another’s dream.

Obviously, “Resurrection Through Dream” was the greater, more advanced type of resurrection between the two. After all, it did not require a physical medium to achieve resurrection. A dream was all one needed to be reborn. In a sense, someone who attained “Resurrection Through Dream” had also attained immortality.

At his current strength, Dream Master could only resurrect through one’s flesh and blood. Right before he was going to die, he had injected a sliver of mind, soul and sentience into Su Xiu’s body.

Yes, he was the one who killed Su Xiu. Normally, the feat would’ve been completely impossible—Su Xiu was a Half-Step Grandmaster after all—but Su Xiu had turned out even weaker than him after using “Devour Demon”, so much so that even an ordinary child had more strength than him. That was why he was able to kill him.

There were two reasons he chose to kill Su Xiu. One, it was to pit Greenlake Bai and Ah Su against each other. Although Su Xiu was injured and exhausted, he was accompanied by the two women. He had fought against them briefly inside his dream, and he could tell that they were both quite strong. That woman named Ah Su in particular intimidated him even more than Su Xiu.

Su Xiu might be incapacitated for the time being, but the two women still stood in his way of reclaiming Nanke. He did not think he could succeed in his current state at all.

Luckily for him, Greenlake Bai and Su Xiu were really hostile toward each other, and the strongest of them all, Ah Su, was mentally disabled. That was why he was ultimately able to kill Su Xiu, pit the two women against each other, and become the final victor of this battle.

Second, there were two ways he could resurrect Su Xiu’s body. One, he could use Su Xiu’s body as a breeding ground and slowly nurture his mind, soul and sentience back to fullness. Over time, he could gradually replace his mind and become Su Xiu. Second, he could kill the man immediately and use his flesh and blood to achieve swift and immediate resurrection.

Both ways had their pros and cons. The first way was longer, but it was also safer. More importantly, he could rob his host of all their potential. Not only would he regain his full strength after he was reborn, he could become even stronger than he was at his peak.

The second way gave him no time to rob his host’s potential. Moreover, he would be severely weakened and need a long time to recover his strength. However, he could resurrect immediately.

1. The dharmachakra or wheel of dharma is a widespread symbol used in Buddhism. ☜