Chapter 14: Considerations for the Future

Inside the Butterfly Carriage.

Liu Jun watched as a certain butterfly beside him greedily consumed the tributes presented by various tribes. It was sneaking bites while secretly using its divine ears to eavesdrop on the praises and boasts of the surrounding subjects, inflating its wisdom to be the greatest in the world...

Such a thief.

Yet, it earnestly tried to maintain a solemn and dignified demeanor, even though it had already been caught red-handed.

That Butterfly Liusiang—this young fellow, with the new emperor's ascension, truly knows how to handle affairs.

He arranged entertainment activities for their retirement and managed to ignite pride and faith within the butterfly race.

Faith is the backbone of a race.

Being placed in a position of pure enjoyment, even Liu Jun himself would not resist such praise and reverence.

This was also a small experiment by Butterfly Liusiang.

To implement the divine right of kings without fear of confusing the powers of ruler and god.

Because their experiment of merging with divine beings had already shown initial results.

Today’s us.

Tomorrow’s them.

They might one day ascend to godhood.

Become one of the guardian deities of this race, wielding their respective mushroom powers, existing as gods of the mushroom clan.

After all, at their core... they were a group of mushrooms.

Liu Jun smiled, quite satisfied with Butterfly Liusiang’s way of handling people and affairs—coordinating everyone, knowing how to make good use of others—indeed promising material.

Though filled with admiration, he paid it little mind.

As a third-tier mind cultivator with martial power in hand, delegation was a perfectly normal approach.

Granting power was easy, and reclaiming it was just as simple—clench your fist.

So, indifferent to trivial matters, his top priority remained cultivation, maintaining his own strength!

With that, he began to act.

“Stop eating. It’s time to read and cultivate.”

“These are cultivation materials I specially prepared for you—various theories of mental energy.”

Liu Jun gathered another batch of books, intending for the butterfly to study diligently.

As a postnatal mental energy cultivator himself, it was natural to hope for the best from one with innate mental energy talent.

If it grew stronger, he could copy from it.

The Amber Swallowtail Butterfly, seeing it couldn’t avoid the matter this time, cautiously said:

“It’s no use. I’ve tried switching forms, but it doesn’t make me much stronger. I still can’t absorb the books.”

“Really?” Liu Jun was a bit skeptical.

“Really.”

Liu Jun stared silently at it.

The Amber Swallowtail nodded heavily, pecking like a chick: “Brain-damaged, brain-damaged.”

Liu Jun: “......”

He had met many bad students like this—don’t think that acting cute and dumb lets you skip studying. Today, he must use Si Anhe’s educational methods to make it study seriously.

After several tests, Liu Jun found this was indeed the case: “Moderate wisdom” meant average intelligence.

Talent could make or break—it would lock the butterfly at a fixed number, within the normal human IQ range.

Even when this state was activated, it was still an ordinary person’s intellect, with learning ability inferior to Liu Jun’s genius.

This made Liu Jun somewhat amused and exasperated.

Which natural saint in the world wasn’t supremely intelligent, a prodigy of talent?

Only this cloned, knockoff natural Swallowtail Saint was a singular exception in history—

A brain-damaged saint.

If natural saints gathered, this one would probably be shunned for embarrassment, kicked out of their group chat.

“On the other hand, Butterfly Liusiang is quite clever.”

“He was granted moderate wisdom but wasn’t locked in—it can fluctuate and grow.”

“Moderate wisdom’s power direction is auxiliary, enlightening life... possessing normal human intelligence, this talent is already extraordinary enough—no need to ask for more.”

Liu Jun kept calculating inwardly.

“Maybe wait for the advanced ‘High Wisdom’ stage, and have a little hope.”

These gifted mushrooms were indeed fascinating.

Just the first “Wisdom” series of talents had so many hidden traits.

At that moment, a respectful voice came from nearby:

“Former Emperor, Seer, we’ve arrived.”

The sedan chair hovered midair; Liu Jun and the Phoenix Emperor stepped down to begin blessing the people.

Liu Jun glanced at Insect Thirteen, his mother, and the fervent tribal followers trailing below.

A warm, mysterious light scattered across the sky.

The Phoenix Emperor had become quite adept at the divine power of spreading wisdom.

Fortunately, Liu Jun had been working overtime to practice low-consumption ability usage, so he wouldn’t embarrass himself as a Seer.

Otherwise, losing the dignity of a god to a fool would be quite the joke.

Soon,

A group of young butterflies gained wisdom.

A group of the old and weak had their aging delayed.

What would the real mushroom soup be like?

...

Liu Jun withdrew his consciousness, descending upon the mushroom soup.

Within it, on a huge rotten wood substrate, thousands of newborn mushrooms densely covered the surface!

At the center lay a gigantic butterfly in slumber, the god of mushroom wisdom, instinctively infecting its mushroom kin to awaken their intelligence.

Little adorable mushrooms were enlightened and drawn into dreams, dreaming they were butterflies, continuing the saga spanning billions of years.

As more mushrooms entered the dream, the Butterfly Era world became ever more complete, ever more whole.

This scene was breathtakingly beautiful.

A beautiful butterfly lay among a cluster of colorful, cute little mushrooms, surrounded like flowers, guarding the sleeping ancient deity.

The Amber Swallowtail Butterfly, with low and moderate wisdom, bestowed much intelligence upon the mushrooms, while also binding all their consciousness.

“This batch of awakened mushrooms is the prototype of my fungal race,” Liu Jun observed the mushroom field, organizing his thoughts.

Mushrooms must be cultivated!

What use is mushroom soup without mushrooms?

Projecting talents, propagating the race, were all self-preservation means to grow stronger.

He might even devise cultivation methods unique to his clan.

After all, the mind cultivator’s path was tailored for them, not for Liu Jun himself.

He could sense many dormant potentials in his mushroom talents yet to be unleashed.

Having this group of mushrooms thoughtfully imagine and read the classic fairy tale primer, “Amber Swallowtail,” could serve as a kind of early childhood education like humans.

It could also represent the first era of fungal civilization—the Butterfly Era—adding an ancient, Jurassic historical veneer to his race.

“How could our civilization only date back to last week? Look at this patina—it’s clearly old, Jurassic!”

That instantly gave it value!

In this world, whose childhood didn’t include bedtime fairy tales? He himself had been enlightened this way.

Though occasionally, some mushrooms withered and died—dying in the Jurassic dream meant death in reality.

Because newborns couldn’t engage in mental imagining; their souls were too weak. If their mind was severely harmed during imagining, they would perish.

Therefore, introductory books were usually only lightly introduced at age six, and only with parental accompaniment.

But Liu Jun didn’t mind—was he supposed to wait until the little mushrooms were six before reading?

Mushrooms grew extremely fast; with proper temperature and climate, they could regrow fully within days.

Dying in dreams seemed to nourish the entire spiritual world.

But a dream was still a dream, not reality!

This dream world might one day evolve into a unique divine art of the Amber Swallowtail, constructing a supreme virtual realm—but it would never be his own.

For now, he could temporarily borrow it, but long-term use was inconvenient.

He needed to pilfer soil, water, and various resources to truly build a real, existent world here.

And this resource-poor, barren environment he beautified as: Before Creation.

The creator god’s long dream before awakening to open the heavens and earth, evolving the order of the universe.

“No matter how you sugarcoat it, it’s essentially poverty, lacking resources,” Liu Jun mused. “After all, a meal must be eaten bite by bite.”