Sage of Humanity

As time passed, at the relic core, Dark Butterfly focused on refining the Banlan Core. Unfortunately, due to the cultivation gap between her and Jiu Ying, the progress was extremely slow.

A few days later, she suddenly opened her eyes: "Brother Ye, I need Dao Bones!"

It had only been a few days; although refining the Banlan Core consumed her, the burden wasn't significant. However, considering the current pace, if she didn't replenish her consumption in advance, the refining would hardly succeed.

If the Dao force runs out during the refinement, everything previously done would be futile, and she'd have to start over, wasting time and energy.

Thus, timely replenishment was necessary to have any chance of successful refinement.

She was immensely grateful for Lu Ye's foresight in instructing her to bring a batch of Dao Bones into the relic; otherwise, it would indeed have been troublesome now.

Lu Ye promptly placed some Dao Bones beside her.

Dark Butterfly, at the Peak Dao Fusion, had quite efficient refinement of Dao Bones, even though she was only a soul body now. However, the Insect Matriarch primarily cultivated Divine Soul Power, and splitting some Mental Consciousness to refine Dao Bones was not difficult.

On one hand, she replenished herself, while continually refining the Banlan Core.

Lu Ye continuously monitored the refinement progress, which was easy to check. Due to the Chains of Life, he could clearly sense the degree of Dark Butterfly's Soul Power infiltration.

Half a month later, the refinement progress was about thirty percent, and with progress acceleration, Dark Butterfly's refining speed noticeably increased.

Given this situation, maybe in another half-month, she could potentially succeed in refining. By then, with the core in hand, controlling Banlan would be an easy task.

Under Dark Butterfly's calm exterior was a suppressed feeling of excitement and anticipation.

Lu Ye was also waiting.

Things were proceeding according to his plan. He and Jiu Ying had discussed repeatedly that barring unexpected complications, everything should be fine.

After a few more days, Dark Butterfly's refinement progress reached fifty percent.

This seemed to be a pivotal point because Lu Ye could clearly perceive that upon reaching this progress, Dark Butterfly's refinement efficiency of the Banlan Core suddenly increased greatly.

This brought a joyful expression to both him and Dark Butterfly.

But moments later, Lu Ye's brow furrowed, and Dark Butterfly's expression turned frantic.

The situation… something was wrong!

The refining efficiency continued to rise, and along with it, was a frantic consumption of Dark Butterfly's Dao Force.

Earlier, she could maintain a balance by refining Dao Bones for supplementation, but with burgeoning refining efficiency, this balance broke.

No matter how she refined the Dao Bones, she couldn't keep up with the consumption rate; her Dao Force rapidly reduced.

"Brother Ye!" Dark Butterfly's expression suddenly turned panicked, as she realized it wasn't she refining the Banlan Core, but rather the Banlan Core was frantically devouring her Dao Force!

It felt like the Banlan Core was reversing the refinement on her.

If she had enough Dao Force reserves, Dark Butterfly wouldn't worry. As long as the core was completely refined before exhausting her Dao Force, she could become the master of Banlan.

But she merely calculated slightly and knew her remaining Dao Force couldn't withstand such consumption; it would deplete before the refinement succeeded.

She had no idea what would happen then.

Perhaps… her soul body might be devoured!

Under such crisis, she naturally wanted to halt the refining process. Though it would waste some time and Dao Force, it was undoubtedly a prudent choice for her safety.

Yet she was unable to stop.

At this moment, she seemed to have a very tight connection with the Banlan Core—a bond that couldn't be severed.

Was Lu Ye harming her?

This thought immediately jumped into Dark Butterfly's mind, but after she shouted, she noticed Lu Ye's expression was equally shocked.

He was unwitting! He mustn't have anticipated such an occurrence.

Under the Chains of Life, it was impossible for Lu Ye to use such means against Dark Butterfly; if she really faced some mishap, he wouldn't fare well either.

"Jiu Ying!" Lu Ye immediately called out to Jiu Ying.

"Here."

"What's going on?" Lu Ye asked.

"No need to panic, my little friend. This is a normal situation. With my assistance, the Insect Matriarch can easily refine the core, avoiding many troubles. My little friend now just needs to wait!"

"Dark Butterfly's Dao Force isn't sufficient for this refinement!"

"Little friend, don't worry, it won't affect her. I assure you this refinement will go smoothly; subsequently, the core she painstakingly refined will be shared with you. How perfect? You just need to wait… Didn't you and I both swear in the name of the Will of the Star Abyss? Don't you trust me?"

Jiu Ying has issues!

Such an old monster, who knows how many years it has lived, even if the situation forces it to appear compliant on the surface, who knows what conspiracy it's brewing behind the scenes.

Lu Ye never let his guard down around it, but despite all precautions, he still failed to guard against it. Of course, he was greedy too, as he set his sights on the Banlan Core despite only being at the level of Enter the Path, which gave Jiu Ying the opportunity it needed.

"Of course, I trust you!" Lu Ye said as he sealed the Divine Sea.

He roughly understood Jiu Ying's plan.

Unfortunately, it miscalculated. In this situation, Lu Ye was extremely grateful that he had previously had Dark Butterfly allocate a batch of Dao Bone as backup. Without them, he would surely suffer a heavy loss this time!

The allocation of Dao Bone was a selfish decision because if Dark Butterfly didn't use them, they would be his. He never thought they would be of such great help at this moment.

"Brother Ye, I have a really bad feeling!" Dark Butterfly spoke slowly, "I fear I can't escape this disaster."

At the Peak Dao Fusion, one is extremely sensitive to the perception of life and death. Although she wasn't at the brink of life and death yet, she could sense that today she might die here!

Her entire Dao force had been exhausted, yet the progress of refining the core was not optimistic. At this moment, the core was continuously devouring her power, and once her Dao force was depleted, even her soul body might be consumed!

"Break the Chains of Life!" Dark Butterfly looked seriously at Lu Ye.

Lu Ye was taken aback.

He truly didn't expect Dark Butterfly to say such a thing at this critical moment. He could feel that Dark Butterfly genuinely wanted to break the Chains of Life with him, as she didn't want her death to drag Lu Ye down.

This whole situation...

He was captured by Li Qi, and Dark Butterfly's original plan was to use the Divine Origin Illusory Sea Technique to probe Lu Ye's secrets, which led to the accidental forging of Chains of Life with Lu Ye, sharing life and death, making them cautious of each other so neither could do anything.

He had previously intended to escape the insect hive and didn't want to remain with Dark Butterfly, but ultimately he was forced to return.

Despite Dark Butterfly's warm and affectionate demeanor towards him, Lu Ye believed she would definitely kill him if she got the chance.

So he didn't understand what prompted Dark Butterfly to make this decision.

Is it that a dying person speaks kindly?

"No need!" Lu Ye said, taking out all remaining Dao Bones and spreading them out beside him as he spoke. His plan hadn't yet been executed, so how could he break the Chains of Life?

Dark Butterfly gritted her teeth: "Lu Ye!"

She rarely addressed Lu Ye directly by his name, and her expression was unprecedentedly serious: "I can feel it, this is a calamity, do you want to die with me?"

At this moment, she was no longer actively refining the core, but as the core devoured her power, the progress of refining was skyrocketing.

Yet she couldn't escape this situation.

"What's the point of taking out the Dao Bone? My refining efficiency isn't that high, I can't replenish my own consumption, it's just prolonging life. Whether you mean it or not, I can't escape this calamity today. Since my birth, I've never been so intimately involved with another lifeform. I admit I've been trying to break the Chains of Life and then control you, but I have no clues. Before I change my mind, quickly break the Chains of Life."

"Shut up!" Lu Ye couldn't be bothered to pay attention to her. Under the activation of the Talent Tree's power, invisible roots spread out, plunging into the Dao Bones, devouring them frantically.

Visibly, the gold light within the Dao Bones began to dim.

"What's the point of doing this?" Dark Butterfly huffed, staring at him, "I can share the results of refining the Dao Bone with you, but you can't share them with me..."

She had previously witnessed Lu Ye's efficiency in refining Dao Bones in the insect hive. Although she didn't know exactly how Lu Ye did it, his refining speed was indeed terrifying.

But ultimately, it was all in vain.

"Who says I can't share?" Lu Ye glanced at her indifferently.

As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to the center of her forehead: "Relax!"

In the next instant, Dao force surged, and Dark Butterfly's soul body was covered with dense lines.

Not only her, but even Lu Ye also had the same markings.

With a swoosh, Dark Butterfly felt something unfurl behind her. She turned her head and saw a phantom wing flash and disappear on her right shoulder blade, turning into specks of light.

At the same time, the same scene appeared behind Lu Ye!

"This is..." Dark Butterfly was repeatedly astonished.

Originally, under the influence of the Chains of Life, the connection between her and Lu Ye was already very close, but now it seemed there was another layer of connection!

This was a very strange feeling, as if she and Lu Ye had truly become one.

Lu Ye grasped her hand.

Dark Butterfly's eyes immediately widened because from Lu Ye, there was now a continuous influx of Dao force into her soul body. That Dao force merged like a torrent, immense and quickly replenishing her depletion.

There was already little Dao force left within her, like a dried-up river, continuing to deplete rapidly, but after receiving this replenishment, though it couldn't be said how much improvement it would bring, at the very least, it no longer depleted.

The Banlan Core was devouring the Dao force transmitted by Lu Ye!

"This... what is this?" Dark Butterfly was repeatedly astonished, thinking she was doomed this time, but suddenly finding hope amid despair. The dramatic rise and fall of emotions in the face of life and death was enough to move even someone at the Peak Dao Fusion.

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