False Hope Becoming True

"It failed after all." Di Lan muttered in his heart, "Today I had three great advantages gathered together, yet I still failed, not even seeing the shadow of the Butterfree. Right now, I don't have any spiritual stones left, and I still need to refine the Moonfang Spirit."

The end result of taking a risk was often unsatisfactory. But when the result was ideal, the profit would be impressive. Di Lan liked taking risks, this was the thrill that he can never experience in his previous life. Win or lose, the outcome doesn't matter, it all comes down to how much thrill that he feels. Despite that, he still have a sense of propriety. He still had his own limits, he was clear about his own capabilities.

Right now, the previous life experience was telling him, it was time to stop.

Sometimes, life was like this. Often it was that there was that one goal that seemed so perfect, filled with temptation. It seemed so near yet with so many twists and turns, the goal was constantly unfulfilled. It made people restless, thinking about it night and day.

"This is the helplessness of life, but it's also the charm of living," Di Lan laughed fullfilling, turning to walk away.

It was at this moment.

A gust of wind blew, like a gentle arm, lightly brushing away the clouds in the night sky. The clouds floated away to reveal the hidden moon. The gibous shaped moon hanging in the sky was like a divine eye, pouring moonlight that was clear as water down onto the earth. The moonlight spilled over the bamboo forest, spilled onto the mountain rock, bathing onto the rivers and streams in the mountain, showering Di Lan's body.

Di Lan was dressed in plain clothing; under the gentle touch of the moonlight, his young face became feminine just like Di Lang's. The darkness seemed to fade away in a flash, and taking its place was a field of snowy frost flowers. As if it was infected by the moonlight, the magical spirits began to sing once more, but this time it was not just one, but many. Scattered the surrounding area, they all cried in response.

At the same time, a type of insect that inhabited huge mountains, the Crikedot Spirit, crickets that were active under moonlight started singing a rustling song of wonder. They were critters that only came out in the night. The dot in their bodies emitted faint yellow light; at this moment they jumped out in droves, each of their bodies flashing with the brilliance of a citrine.

At first glance, Di Lan thought that these Crikedots were like jets of milky water bouncing about, landing on the green grass and wild flowers, prancing under the moonlight in the bamboo grove.

The bamboo forest was like a conscious pond, under the moonlight the leaves of the sword bamboos flashed in the brilliance of light and smooth jade. The enchanting sight of the dense trees and bright flowers in spring, Gaea was showing Di Lan her immense beauty at this moment.

Di Lan unconsciously stopped in his footsteps, feeling as if he was in a heavenly land. He was already about to depart, but at this moment he subconsciously looked around.

The clump of wild flowers and grass that he had poured the last dredges of wine over trembled gently in the wind, remaining empty. Di Lan laughed at himself and took back his line of sight.

However, unexpectedly in the process of turning away, he saw tiny glittering lights.

These glittering lights came from a purple silhouette with illusory silver wings due to the moonlight's haze.

Di Lan's two pupils expanded fiercely, his body trembling slightly. His heart dropped and started pumping faster each second.

It was the Butterfree!

The Butterfree was attracted on the fruity smell in the air just like an ordinary butterfly, but since this is a heavenly Spirit, the rich spirit essence in the surrounding made it more attracted. When it flew around, it would curl up into a ball, and its speed was illusory; sometimes, it would look very fast and other times it would look very slow.

Even though it was only a Rank one Spirit, it was worth even more than a few Rank two Spirits. To make it into one's vital Spirit was way more beneficial than the Moonfang Spirit.

Right now, the Butterfree Spirit was flying around a bamboo pole merely 10 to 12 meters away from Di Lan. He held his breath, not closing in rashly, but slowly walking backwards.

He knew his distance was very near, but to really catch a Butterfree directly it was an incredibly difficult task for a Spirit Master who just opened the spiritual core like him. You could say, there was totally no hope of success.

Di Lan's was unable to see the Butterfree clearly, but in the darkness he could feel the its vigilance at him. He slowly backed away gently, trying his best not to disturb the Spirit.

He knew that if the Butterfree intends to fly away, he could never catch up with his own speed.

Seeing Di Lan retreated further away, the Butterfree crawling on the bamboo pole stirred. The strong aroma of wine before it was so tempting, so attracting, making the Spirit happily floating lost in a reverie. If it had saliva, it would have long been drooling a pool of saliva around it.

But the Butterfree Spirit was incredibly wary and vigilant. Only after Di Lan retreated another 20 meters away did it shrink a little and bounced into the air. When it fluttered high in the air, its body curled up into a ball, looking like a purple mochi. The little mochi swept across the air in a round arc, floating down onto the grass that was sprinkled with green bamboo wine earlier.

With rich spirit essence right before it, the Butterfree dropped its guard. It impatiently climbed onto a flower bud filled with some wine and popped its little head in, only leaving a chubby tail on the outside.

The Butterfree was ravenous, and the sword bamboo wine was so delicious. Its curled proboscis erected straight and inhaled, very quickly lost in the deliciousness of its food, totally forgetting about Di Lan.

At this moment, Di Lan started to approach cautiously. He could see the tail of the Butterfree outside the flower bud. This tail was just like a silkworm's tail, lithe yet rounded. The light it emitted made people think of a pearl.

When Di Lan was only 5 meters away, he did not continue walking forward, but patiently waited. If he rushed over right now he would definitely have a huge chance on catching the Butterfree, but Di Lan's intention was to have this Spirit guide him to the Demon Monk's remains.

In a moment the Butterfree withdrew from the flower bud. Its body was fatter and its head swayed about, resembling a drunken man. Unexpectedly, it did not realize Di Lan's presence. It climbed up onto another bright yellow flower and perched on the stamen, feeding heartily on the wine droplets there.

After it had finished drinking, it finally felt full. Its body slowly shrank into a round ball and slowly flew up. When it was half a meter above the ground, it leisurely flew in the direction of the deeper part of the bamboo forest.

Di Lan slowly followed after its trail.

The Butterfree was already heavily drunk, making it fly slower by half of its usual speed. Even though this was the case, Di Lan still had to be cautious run on following after its shadow.

The night was washing past his vision as the young teenager ran in the bamboo forest, chasing after a small bead of purple silver not far ahead.

The breeze was slow and steady under the gentle moonlight. In the bamboo forest that was like a clear pond, the stalks of green sword bamboo flashed past before his eyes, quickly falling behind him. The ground was a green carpet of grass, riddled with blossoming wild flowers. There were small stones with moss growing, and the yellow shoots of bamboo.

Di Lan's faint shadow was also speeding ahead on the ground, passing through the shadows that each stalk of bamboo cast on the earth like a black line. He tightly kept his sight on the Spirit, catching up in the midst of faint wine aroma in the air.

The Butterfree flew out of the bamboo forest, and so did Di Lan. A sea of white flowers with a red spot in the middle borrowed the wind from his feet, scattering their petals. A group Crikedots resembling a flowing poem just so happened to move to the front; as Di Lan dashed through, there was a swoosh and a red cloud bloomed before him, dispersing about a sea of Fireflies which were literal flies caught on fire that emerged from the cloud.

A quiet mountain stream paved with pebbles, the splashing water surface reflecting the fall moon in the night sky; with a few splashes Di Lan waded across, creating thousands of silver coloured ripples.

It was a pity that this stream, after so many ages, had its beautiful and precious stones trampled upon and broken.

Di Lan was in pursuit, firmly following behind the Butterfree. Going upward the mountain stream, he could already hear the sound of a waterfall. After he turned around a sparse forest, he saw the Butterfree fly into a tiny crevice behind the waterfall.

Di Lan's eyes lit up and he stopped in his tracks.

Looking around, pebbles of various sizes covered the ground, the river surface barely covering over the small stones. There were also blocks of gray boulders scattered freely in the area.

Behind Bao Mao Mountain was a huge waterfall. The flow of the waterfall varied with the weather; it plummeted down to the earth, pounding out a deep pool. Beside the deep pool was the Bao Clan Village, a clan with powerful influence that was comparable to the Mu Yue village.

The waterfall branched out to many smaller branches, and it was apparent that Di Lan was facing one of the many branches of a branch. On normal occasions this benchland was dry, but due to the recent heavy rainfall that went on for a week, a shallow stream formed here.

The source of the flowing stream was from the huge boulder that the Butterfree had entered into earlier.

The boulder leaned against a vertical mountain wall. Small waterfalls that branched away from the main waterfall were like silver pythons that flowed down the mountain wall, hitting onto the boulder. After a considerably long time the middle of this huge boulder had eroded away and formed a tiny crevice.

At this time, as the waterfall washed down, the water current gently roared. It was like a white curtain, completely obstructing the gap in the boulder.

After observing his surroundings, Di Lan's breathing was no longer anxious. His eyes flashed with a hint of resolve; he walked to the boulder and took in a deep breath to push it very hard as to open up more space for him to fit in.

"So it's here." He panted heavily, his heart beating against his chest like mad. With this one stop he could feel his entire body covered in sweat, hot air surging throughout his body accompanying his accelerating blood flow.