Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

The hunting trip continued without incident, although the animals were oddly active. Besides this, Liu Zhu noticed something else that was odd. There were a lot of butterflies in this forest. About an hour after he noticed this, he realized that it was even weirder than he thought- what he thought had been many butterflies scattered about the forest was just the exact same butterfly. It kept flying around him, stalking him as the group wandered through the forest. What was even more confusing than the idea of a butterfly following him was the fact that it had to be traveling as quickly as the hunting group. They hadn't been travelling at full speed, but they were still cultivators after all- how the hell could a butterfly keep up with them?

Confused, Liu Zhu asked Yu Bai whether this was normal. Yu Bai examined the butterfly as it fluttered about in the distance before a look of surprise appeared upon his face. "Brother Liu, that's interesting! I may be mistaken, but that's a Gold Silk Butterfly. It's native to to this area, but I've never seen one myself. It's beneficial in growing spiritual herbs and as a caterpillar it produces valuable gold silk to spin its cocoon. The silk isn't horribly rare because it spins many cocoons before deciding on one to use, but it's still a valuable material.

Liu Zhu was surprised to hear that such a rare and expensive creature was following behind their group, but quickly turned his focus back to the hunt. After all, the market for the butterflies was small, and he wasn't an apothecary. Plus, it's not like he could catch it anyways- apparently it could fly even faster than some of the deer they were hunting if it was threatened.

Liu Zhu stopped paying attention to the butterfly, but over the course of the next hour it slowly closed in on Liu Zhu before eventually landing on his shoulder. Liu Zhu and Yu Bai shared a confused glance as it did so, and after a moment Yu Bai spoke up. "Are you interested in selling that butterfly? I have some confidence in catching it from such a short distance, and my family would be willing to pay a good price. We happen to know an apothecary interested in breeding them."

Liu Zhu considered Yu Bai's offer, but turned it down after a moment. Given his new ability to grow plants with his blood and the... fairly earned gold from Fang Wu, he wasn't hurting for cash. The butterfly wasn't worth a huge amount alone anyways. Plus, he'd feel a bit guilty about capturing an innocent butterfly that just seemed interested in him. It hadn't offended him or anything. Yu Bai shrugged in response to the rejection and returned his focus to the hunt as the butterfly sat on Liu Zhu's shoulder.

The butterfly poked at Liu Zhu's shoulder with its proboscis for the next half hour, seemingly searching for nectar, before eventually flying away. Liu Zhu brushed off the pollen it left behind, confused, as he watched it fly away. That's when a thought struck him- what if it was trying to get his blood? It helped plants grow, so maybe some animals can benefit from it too?

Liu Zhu hurriedly excused himself before following the butterfly. Yu Bai was perplexed by the situation but didn't pursue him, giving Liu Zhu the privacy needed to test his theory. A few minutes after he started following the butterfly he lightly cut his palm. A few drops of blood dripped from his palm, and the butterfly immediately zoomed towards him at a speed faster than his own. It rapidly slurped up the blood left on his palm with its proboscis before darting about between the trees, flying to and fro as fast as it could.

After a minute the butterfly calmed down from what looked like a stimulant-induced frenzy and Liu Zhu resumed following it. A few minutes later the butterfly stopped, orbiting around a set of trees. Liu Zhu glanced at the trees and saw that they were covered in golden protrusions, which upon closer examination were revealed to be cocoons. Liu Zhu awkwardly stood there for a moment before grabbing one of the cocoons. "I guess this is a fair trade then?" The butterfly, as expected, didn't respond, and he put the rest of the gold silk cocoons into his bag.

Just as Liu Zhu was ready to leave, the butterfly fluttered back towards him, half a dozen more following it. All of the new arrivals fluttered around him eagerly, poking at him with their proboscises. The leader, having had his fill, stood back. Liu Zhu scratched his head, a bit amazed by the whole situation. "I guess that was a lot of cocoons for one butterfly... uh, I'll give the rest of you some too then."

The cut on Liu Zhu's palm had already healed, so he cut himself again. Upon doing so the butterflies swarmed him, slurping up the blood as it came out. He ended up having to cut his palm yet again due how quickly his wounds healed, but eventually the butterflies fell back and fluttered around him, their hunger seemingly satiated.

Liu Zhu went to return to the rest of the group, the butterflies eagerly following. Liu Zhu was confused on how to handle this, but after some thought decided that if they really wanted to follow him he wouldn't stop them. He wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth after all. Maybe he could make a garden for them and the plants he was growing, it seemed like a good enough idea.

Upon Liu Zhu's return, the rest of the group stared at him in a mix of awe, confusion, and jealously. Gold Silk Butterflies, a species which most of them hadn't seen but had heard of, were flying around him frantically. To everyone else, it was like he was surrounded by flying banknotes. Feigning ignorance of everyone else's greedy expressions, Yu Bai approached him. "Err... Brother Liu, what happened, with, um... that?" Liu Zhu, not knowing how to respond, shrugged. "They, uh... they liked me. I'm not sure what to say."

Yu Bai stood there a moment before dropping the subject, realizing that it wouldn't be useful to dig any further. He raised his voice, addressing everyone. "One of you said they saw deer tracks, right? Start tracking it." Everyone snapped back to attention, remembering their goal for the day, as Liu Zhu gave Yu Bai a few gold silk cocoons as thanks for telling him about the butterflies.