Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1325 The Final Seclusion
The words of the Lord of Scales and Feathers are not really a "spoiler".

Because all that's needed is for Aiwass to get the Celestial Fragment of the Flame Celestial from Gray, and he'll immediately realize—

If Little Butterfly cannot use the fragments of Geometry, Weizhe, or Flame, then it means that Little Butterfly is a special case.

This is a situation that cannot exist for any other phantom demon—if fragments of the same race cannot be used, fragments of the same element cannot be used, fragments of the same path cannot be used, and fragments of the same origin cannot be used either, then there is something wrong with the iron.

Aiwas's ability to obtain the "Illusory Blood" is clearly due to the presence of some element of the Path of Beauty within him. While he does lack the adaptability to the Path of Beauty, even Master Agnes believes Aiwas possesses the talent for the Path of Beauty, and the Pope considers Aiwas to be the offspring of the Butterfly Celestial... all of which actually hint that Aiwas's soul contains a fragment of the other half of the Butterfly Celestial.

Looking back now, there were actually signs all along...

The awakening of the "Power of Conflict" by the Butterfly of the Rebellion is a harbinger of this.

The power of conflict is the core of the sun's power, the "core of the sun" that the Horus people dream of. Once they possess this ability, all they need is a "container" to undertake the monumental task of creating an artificial sun. The sun is, of course, a celestial being; and the fragments of the celestial being also need a container to exercise their authority.

So what is the oldest man-made sun?
—It is the eye of the great sage, Mithra.

In other words, even if Aiwas goes through all sorts of hardships to obtain the Celestial Fragment of the Butterfly Celestial Division, he may not be able to use it!

Because Little Butterfly already possessed a portion of the Celestial Division fragments!
Her original "evolution" was simply interrupted.

...No wonder the Flame Butterfly is the only Phantom Demon that inexplicably possesses the "priority increase of one" unique to higher-ranking Phantom Demons.

This characteristic of "priority plus one" comes from "divinity".

At that time, she was only at the third level, which was the lowest level among all the high-level phantom demons.

At the same time, Little Butterfly has another special trait—she is the most sensitive to nurturing techniques among all of Aiwas's phantoms. Aiwas easily strengthened her to near-limit levels, and if he didn't restrain her, he could easily push her into an overlimit state that makes her impossible to summon normally.

However, the same intensity of nurturing techniques failed to even fully power up the fourth-level Shadow Fiend.

Because after that, Shadow Fiend had been evolved into Night Fiend by Aiwass and could no longer be summoned normally... In order to maintain at least one summon that he could use normally, Aiwass gave up the idea of ​​continuing to use the Shepherd method on Little Butterfly.

After that...

As a pure artillery unit, the Flame Butterfly, and also as an offensive Phantom, gradually became less agile than Helechin, who possessed extraordinary combat awareness. From then on, the Flame Butterfly was summoned primarily for the purpose of unleashing a nuclear explosion... However, if Leah were to use a nuclear explosion, her destructive power would already be sufficient. Further strengthening her would only make the nuclear explosion's range uncontrollable. Therefore, Aiwass still did not use the Nurturing Technique to further enhance her.

After that, Aiwass started the Celestial Battle. The Phantom Demon, who obtained the Celestial Fragment, was obviously stronger and was undoubtedly the main force. As a result, the once super-large cup, the Flame Butterfly, gradually shrank to a medium cup that was difficult to use.

"...The answer to the riddle was actually right there on the surface of the riddle."

Aiwass sighed.

Because a complete fragment was used when Aiwas and the Flame Butterfly were created, the Flame Butterfly can possess the "Power of Conflict," a law-based ability normally only usable in the Celestial Realm... As the "energy core of the sun," in Aiwas's understanding, it is actually the law of nuclear fusion.

This is clearly not a power that an ordinary phantom demon could possess.

Not to mention, this is unique to this world; no other phantom demon possesses this ability.

In other words... the Butterfly of the Rebellious Flame doesn't actually need the Celestial Fragments of the Butterfly Celestial Bureau.

All Aiwas needs to do is consistently use the nurturing method on her, and the Flame Butterfly will naturally complete its evolution.

If Aiwass uses the "Complete Shepherding Method" on the Flame Butterfly, she can immediately transform into the Celestial Form!
That was not the law of the Butterfly Celestials, because the law of the Butterfly Celestials had already returned when He took His place. This was a completely new law, the law of the Butterfly of Rebellion.

Perhaps we should call her "Nuclear Astronomy Director".

That is not the law of the path of beauty, but the law of the path of dedication.

It is the law of the sun!

Just like the starter Pokémon you get from the professor—although their initial base stats may seem low, their strength is actually quite solid if you train them to their final form. Those "seemingly stronger" Pokémon you see in the wild are mostly not as strong as these cuties after they've evolved.

"That's a good thing, too."

Aiwass breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, there really wouldn't be any need to sacrifice anyone.

He didn't need to capture anyone to perform the Ouroboros ritual, force them to summon the Butterfly Celestial, or inexplicably drag the Butterfly Celestial down and kill them. The only sacrifice required was for Aiwas himself.

I never expected that the unique properties of the [Dissolving Soul] path could be used here...

Aiwass's soul regenerates slowly—he only needs to feed his soul to the Flame Butterfly.

He allowed the Flame Butterfly to suckle... without even needing to accumulate enough to feed "an entire Aiwas". Just as Aiwas could precisely separate a part of his own soul, he could also feed the Flame Butterfly the part that belonged to the Butterfly Celestial Fragment.

Just like distilling liquor, it distills out as much alcohol as possible.

By absorbing Aiwas's Dao talent that prevents him from using "Illusory Blood," the Flame Butterfly can be completely repaired.

...Luckily, I compromised early.

Instead of insisting on his own path out of pride or stubbornness, he accepted help from others.

It is July 11th now, and there are still 20 days until the new moon ceremony at the end of the month.

Although Aiwass will inevitably be somewhat weak, fortunately, the Flame Butterfly only needs what Aiwass doesn't need... After resting for a few more days at the end of the month, his condition will recover somewhat.

This is just paying off a debt—

After clarifying what he wanted to do, Aiwas decisively entered a state of seclusion, wasting no time at all.

No one knew what Aiwass was doing; all they knew was that he was constantly practicing pastoral practices.

To avoid upsetting Isabel, Aiwass avoided seeing her for a while, spending time alone with the Flame Butterfly.

This time, in order to create more "wounds" for himself and thus more "channels" for the Flame Butterfly to absorb... Aiwas didn't even use the Fire Ritual to heal himself, and even suppressed his recovery ability with a ritual.

This is a rather counterintuitive choice.

Normally, it seems that only after restoring health to full can the next self-sacrifice provide more life force and make the nurturing method more effective.

However, after merging with the shepherd's memories, Aiwass knew that the truth was not so—

Shepherds are not incapable of healing themselves.

He wasn't a priest, but other paths also possessed healing abilities... for example, the pharmacists who adapted to their chosen path, the snake-people priests, and the sacrificial arts of forbidden paths. He could completely rely on others for healing; even some phantom demons could heal others...

The pastor himself did not receive treatment.

Because if you can easily heal yourself, it means that the price of that suffering has been secretly eliminated. The price you pay isn't that high... Deceiving yourself is pointless.

Thus, the "dedication" of this pastoral method exists only in suffering... but suffering can also be gotten used to.

Thus, they could only pursue ever-deeper suffering and engage in ever-more-cruel sacrifices—just like Aiwass's previous choice, and also like the benevolent lord of Paradise City.

But now, Aiwass realizes... there's another way to go.

That is to not treat yourself at all.

If he were already on the verge of death, then even a few drops of his blood would be incredibly precious.

It's like a person who is about to die of thirst. If he is willing to give you the last drop of water from his water bottle—even if the water is mixed with sand and has an unpleasant smell—it represents his pure heart of dedication.

Until July 26th.

Aiwas has finally ended his seclusion.

(End of this chapter)