Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 500 - 494: Demonic Flame 11

Chapter 500: Chapter 494: Demonic Flame 11

Lin Xin gently grasped the edge of the scroll and tore it.

Instantly, the scroll slowly floated up and unfurled by itself.

All characters inside automatically revealed a faint silvery glow. The characters recorded were not the ghostly script,

but an ancient version of a script that Lin Xin had only recently mastered.

"This kind of writing..."

Lin Xin recognized the first few characters at the beginning with some effort.

"Moon... God... Sutra?" he read aloud.

"It sounds like a cultivation technique scripture, but upon closer inspection, it seems to be a record of a sacrificial ritual."

Lin Xin read the content below carefully, word by word.

’The Moon God shines over the earth... nurturing all spirits. In the beginning of divinity, she bore two sons, one was Sagura, and the other was Moon Worshiper.’

The following part was broken off, the characters completely erased. Lin Xin continued reading from the still legible portion.

’Sagura stabbed his brother in the chest, devoured the night, transformed into the stars of the heavens, and donned the lotus of Buddha. The masses revered as the Pure Lotus Moon Buddha...’

Below was a series of praises for Sagura Evil God, including a commoner representing the masses questioning Sagura. Sagura continuously granted the wishes of the people, transforming the world to become even more beautiful, and so on...

Lin Xin directly skipped the rest and at the very end of the scroll, he saw another section.

’He incarnated as Buddha, inquired into the underworld, why do beings despair? Is it innate or acquired postnatally?’

’The underworld replied with the source of despair, those who cannot be liberated, tormented by their obsessions, will eventually step into the source of despair, unable to reincarnate. Even the Mother of Morning Chants cannot save them, that is the abode of the obsessed...’

The content following that was lost, but Lin Xin had indeed seen such a description of the underworld on the scroll.

The specific records on it existed tens of thousands of years ago and were also related to the Primordial Ancient myths.

"Primordial Ancient myths..." Lin Xin murmured, faintly formulating some ideas.

"The source of despair is likely the Lion Plains I visited. The atmosphere there indeed fits with despair. There’s also that peculiar shadow presence. If I could visit again and see that guy, perhaps I’d make some gains."

Lin Xin felt helpless in his heart; there were too many mysteries about the underworld, and the world itself held too many mysteries.

"Was that shadow’s name Asura?" he recalled the neurotic shadow he had seen in the Lion Plains.

Packing up the scroll, Lin Xin pondered for a moment and then leapt up directly, leaving the small bridge.

He crossed the majority of the mountain and lightly alighted in front of the Formation Hall peak’s Taoist Palace, striding in.

"Greetings to the Sect Master!"

The disciples guarding the Taoist Palace bowed in salute one after another.

Inside the Taoist Palace were rows upon rows of neatly arranged, worn stone walls. The walls were covered with countless ancient characters, some in ghostly script, others in different writings.

Many elders were using magnifiers crafted from crystal glass, painstakingly examining these ancient dilapidated walls.

The master of the Formation Hall was a thin old man with the surname Wen, who also came forward to greet him.

"The Sect Master is here? It just so happens that we have made some progress as well."

"Oh? Let’s hear it."

Lin Xin signaled everyone not to bow and to continue their studies, crossing to the side to sit down with Hall Master Wen in the innermost seats of the grand hall.

"Sect Master, regarding the analysis of the Primordial Ancient myths, we invited the most renowned scholars of ancient literature from the Southern Prefecture, focusing on the analysis of these remnants of walls brought back from the Outer Regions’ ruins. We have roughly drawn some conclusions."

"Please proceed," Lin Xin said, sitting upright and speaking seriously.

"The conclusion last time was that the Primordial Ancient Era should be situated before the Mythological Era, an even earlier period. That’s correct," Hall Master Wen said in a low voice while stroking his beard.

"That’s correct," Lin Xin nodded.

Hall Master Wen gestured for an elder by the side to bring over a small box.

"After that, we focused on researching whether the relic items from the Mythological Era contained descriptions of the Primordial times. Combined with the characters on these remnants of walls here, we indeed made significant progress."

He placed a black square box made of an extremely sturdy metal on the table.

"We combined a few of the most crucial runes together, trying tens of thousands of different arrangements. In the end, by chance, we obtained this..."

Hall Master Wen appeared quite excited.

He gently opened the black metal box.

With a snap, the lid popped open.

Inside was a white silk fabric, unmarred by any blemish, as pristine as snow.

Only now, it clearly reflected the shadow of a pure black butterfly.

Indeed, just a shadow.

Lin Xin looked over several times but could not find anything that blocked the light to produce the butterfly’s black shadow.

Yet there it was, blatantly reflected in the box, resting on the snow-white cloth.

"Sect Master, you can reach out and touch it," Hall Master Wen spoke softly.

Lin Xin extended his hand, softly touching the surface of the black shadow butterfly. Yet what he felt was the texture of the silk, as if the butterfly’s black shadow simply didn’t exist.

"What is going on here?!"

He too was somewhat shocked.

If there were any abilities or divine skills that could cause such marks, he surely would have sensed them, but at this moment, he couldn’t feel anything at all.

He wanted to release his Soul Domain to probe, but he was afraid that if anything went wrong, he would destroy the butterfly.

Wen Hall Master shook his head and reached out to pull over an old man who was so aged that nearly all his face was wrinkled. The old man had been waiting eagerly on the side for some time.

"This thing was conjured up by Old Master Du; you will get a clearer explanation from him."

At this moment, Old Master Du was also staring fanatically at the butterfly shadow in the box.

"It’s all thanks to the Sect Master bringing back these relics of destroyed walls from the Outer Regions!! Without you, we old scholars would probably spend our entire lives until death without being able to research anything!"

He reached out and gently touched the shadow of the butterfly in the box. Although he knew he couldn’t touch it, joy and longing still shone in his eyes.

"Old Master, you flatter me. Please, enlighten me," Lin Xin said, with a concentrated look.

Old Master Du slowly calmed down from his excitement, slipping into reminiscence.

"Initially, we discovered that on these broken walls, there were several symbols that would slowly move at night from time to time."

"This was found by my young disciple, who has always been extremely serious and upright. She wouldn’t overlook even characters as fine as dust, insisting on comparing each one carefully. Many times, she even mistook real black residues for characters and ancient text, which became quite a joke."

When he spoke of his young disciple, his face showed affection.

"Are these characters as fine as dust the problem?" Lin Xin asked.

Wen Hall Master nodded.

"Indeed." He reached out and lightly flicked on the shadow of the butterfly in the box.

Suddenly, something strange happened.

In front of Lin Xin and the others, the butterfly shadow suddenly dispersed, turning into a mass of black ash that scattered on the white cloth inside the box.

The abundant black ash seemed to be still, but Lin Xin’s keen senses detected in the blink of an eye that the ash was moving at an extremely slow speed, continuously shifting.

It was just that because the speed was so slow, it was undetectable to most people.

"In one hour it can move less than an inch," Old Master Du said in a low voice. "This is a miracle. These are merely countless runes, combined together without any power fluctuations or formation marks!"

"It’s as if it didn’t originally exist within our sight, and only through special means can we temporarily perceive its existence."

Lin Xin narrowed his eyes, carefully observing the patch of black ash in the box, his thoughts unknown.

Old Master Du reached out again and with a light flick in the box, all the black ash gathered back together, condensing into the same butterfly shadow as before.

"This butterfly is alive."

"What?!" Lin Xin was startled.

"Sect Master must have also noticed, right?" Old Master Du said solemnly. A few other elderly researchers approached, and several young disciples followed.

Lin Xin reached out his hand, touching the completely untouchable shadow of the butterfly, and his mind suddenly recalled the Asura he had seen on the Lion Plain.

It was indeed alive!

"After research, we found that this butterfly actually exists in another world, a world fully distinct and on a different plane from ours," Old Master Du said, furrowing his brows.

"This explanation is hard to understand and even harder to elucidate. However, there’s another way to explain it."

He pointed at the shadow of the butterfly.

"Sect Master should be aware that many natural groups, such as bee colonies and ant colonies, operate as a collective entity, right?"

Lin Xin nodded. "I am aware of this."

The natural research in this world was not inferior to science; it was just controlled by a few. Hence, it was not surprising for the old man to have such an understanding.

After all, even mystical soul studies were involved here. Being aware of collective consciousness was not anything extraordinary.

Old Master Du continued.

"Then it’s easier to explain," he said as he stood up and turned around on the spot.

"We initially assumed that the butterfly’s body itself is dispersed within a section of the broken wall. Only when we use methods to aggregate it does it become visible to us. However, its actual state, the invisible dispersed form, is likely its normal state."

"Such beings are not few in number around us," he said gravely. "Their bodies are large and dispersed, so scattered and diffuse that we cannot detect them, and they can even permeate our bodies. But it is difficult for either us or them to detect each other’s existence because our planes of existence are completely different."

Lin Xin seemed to understand this. It was like the theories of dimensions or parallel realities from Earth times.

The bodies of these creatures were too large and too diffuse such that they had to be concentrated down to a limited extent to be observed by people.

"Their bodies can exist within everything in our world, interweaving with our living world without interference or influence," Old Master Du suddenly paused.

"No, perhaps it’s not without influence; it’s that we just don’t know the impact yet."

At this thought, he seemed reluctant to continue. He lapsed into deep contemplation, seemingly forgetting about the people in front of him, mumbling to himself as he walked away.

Wen Hall Master offered an apologetic smile to Lin Xin.

"Old Master Du is like this. Please, Sect Master, take no offense. If it weren’t for him, it would be hard to say how long it would take us to discover the integration method of this butterfly."