[Description]: The Phantasm Dream Tree is the sovereign of the realm of phantasmal dreams, able to drag its prey into the dream world. Within that dream world, it can create phantoms identical to the hypnotized subject and set them to do battle with it.

Senior Li fell silent. It was indeed possible—but how had your Green Silk Bug managed something that even a pet beast with a consummate-level Dream Stealing skill found nearly impossible, all without having the skill itself?

Was that even scientific?

And you just said your Green Silk Bug was a cocoon. A cocoon—shouldn't it be deep in slumber? How could it help you enter a dream?

Sleepwalking?

There were too many things to poke at; for a moment, Senior Li actually didn't know where to begin.

At this point, Senior Li still hadn't spoken, but Shi Jin was already overjoyed.

You're the best, Buggy.

If it awakened Dream Stealing, that would be absolutely awesome.

Wasn't that exactly why he had used the Dreamfruit in the first place?

When Buggy used Phantom Reality, the hardest part about summoning a powerful beast was always insufficient knowledge of the creature and insufficient resonance, which left the summoned phantom with a pitiful combat capability.

Even with a dragon whisker, it could not replicate the Ice Dragon almost perfectly.

The Dream Thief skill, however, allowed a beast to delve deep into the dreams of other life forms, peep into the secrets of their skills, and replicate their abilities almost perfectly.

It was precisely by mastering this skill that the Dreamtree could drag its prey into the dream world and then summon a phantom copy of the prey, making the prey fight itself.

That alone was already formidable, but if Buggy mastered it, it could become even more formidable, because the Dreamtree could only manipulate the enemy's dream phantom within a dream, whereas Buggy could, through the Phantom Reality skill, summon it into reality!

Dream Thief plus Phantom Reality—this was simply an invincible combination.

In other words, so long as Buggy's levels in these two skills grew high enough in the future, it might even be able to bring a Tyrannosaurus Rex back into the world in near-perfect form?

It might even be that if a divine beast were willing to let Buggy enter its dreams, Buggy could materialize even a divine beast!

Buggy, you absolute legend.

Truly worthy of the name Worm of Fantasy.

After evolution, you'd better awaken the Dream Thief skill for me—that way you'll be worthy of that Dreamfruit.

As for why Buggy could already lead him into dreams without having awakened Dream Thief, Shi Jin thought it over for a moment and decided it might have to do with its max-level Psychokinesis.

Psychokinesis was the foundational skill of the psychic type, with endless directions for development, the cornerstone of the vast majority of psychic skills; what a max-level Psychokinesis could do to other skills was still unknown.

"Of course, the biggest possibility might be that my own talent is simply outstanding?"

Shi Jin nodded. That was indeed possible—after all, he had even mastered the Listening talent, so it was not impossible that he perfectly matched the meditation method developed by the Time Emperor...

"Your Green Silk Worm really does seem to have quite the extraordinary talent."

In the end, Senior Li gave up on asking. Too much trouble, she thought; that Green Silk Worm of Shi Jin's had been strange from the very beginning—but then again, it was a Green Silk Worm that had received the Dreamshell inheritance, so a little unscientificness was only natural.

"By the way, did you just say that your Green Silk Worm is still in its cocoon state?"

"Can you pin down when its evolution period will be?"

Senior Li suddenly spoke up.

"Within a month, I'd say," Shi Jin replied.

"Within a month..." Senior Li's tone was somewhat uncertain. "I don't know if that will be in time."

"Is something the matter?" Shi Jin asked.

Senior Li said, "I got word a couple of days ago: one of the Eastern Radiance guardian deities, the 'Butterfly God' who slumbers in the Divine Capital, has awakened."

A guardian deity of Eastern Radiance... which meant a totem-level being!

Shi Jin fell silent. The Butterfly God?

Did that mean a butterfly-type creature?

"Do you know about the Grand Metamorphosis Gathering?" Senior Li asked.

Shi Jin: "Never heard of it..."

"Mm... it's an evolution gathering held by the Butterfly God."

"The Butterfly God is a guardian-deity-level butterfly beast, its race a high-tier overlord. But at the beginning, it was just an ordinary Green Silk Worm, utterly unremarkable, no different from the Green Silk Worms you can see everywhere on the streets—nowhere near as talented as yours."

Shi Jin: "..."

You're overestimating Buggy, Senior. At the start, it was even worse than those ordinary Green Silk Worms.

"And this Butterfly God's true identity was a pet casually raised by Senior Lin—never contracted."

"Senior Lin...?" Shi Jin mulled it over. To be called "Senior" by a big shot of the Eleventh Bureau...

"You mean Senior Lin Feng, one of Eastern Radiance's legendary beastmasters, the one with the Evolution talent?" Shi Jin said.

Li Lianping said, "Mm."

"Senior Lin Feng possessed the Evolution talent. Besides the nine beasts he had contracted himself, he also liked to raise other beasts. He never contracted them, but these beasts, once he had guided them through multiple evolutions, all willingly acknowledged him as their master."

"The Butterfly God was one of the pets Senior Lin raised. After Senior Lin and his nine great beasts went missing, these beasts he had raised searched for them for a time to no avail, and then settled into slumber upon the land of Eastern Radiance, becoming our guardian deities."

"Among them, this Butterfly God, because of its own special experiences, uses its special Eclosion talent after each awakening to assist the evolution of the Green Silk Worms in the forest where it slumbers. The Green Silk Worms it aids emerge from evolution with tremendous racial potential and tremendous vitality."

"Over time, through this evolution, it became the famous 'Grand Metamorphosis Gathering.' With the Butterfly God's permission, even some beastmasters' Green Silk Worms can now, after it awakens, receive its evolutionary blessing just like the wild Green Silk Worms in the forest."

"And so, every time the Butterfly God awakens, it's a festival for beastmasters who raise Green Silk Worms, because it means they can freely receive a blessing from the Butterfly God—a blessing from a totem-level being who commands the Eclosion talent."

"You're in luck. The last time the Butterfly God awakened seems to have been ten years ago..."

"I was there myself. Tens of thousands of Green Silk Worms metamorphosing into butterflies all at once—the scene was simply breathtaking, haha."

"And word has it that the most perfect of all evolved forms receives an additional gift from the Butterfly God."

Shi Li: "So that means I can take my own Verdant Wooly Worm and enter this 'Metamorphosis Gala' too??"

Li Lianping said, "Mm, but the Butterfly God has only just awakened, so the exact time-window is still uncertain. Whether you can make it in time, I can't say."

"If your Verdant Wooly Worm completes its evolution ahead of schedule, you'll miss this chance altogether."

"Keep an eye on the timing of the Metamorphosis Gala. If you can't make it, you might look for ways to slow its growth for the time being."

Shi Jin sank into thought. Making it in time would certainly be no problem—his little bug's consciousness was perfectly clear at this moment, fully capable of controlling whether or not it evolved. Even if it evolved right now, the bug could do it with ease, breaking free of its cocoon without trouble; it was just that the evolutionary power had not been fully absorbed yet, so an early evolution wasn't worth it.