Grasping Evil

In the clearing deep within the bamboo sea, Ning Fan sat cross-legged, using the Will of the Saint to refine the immense medicinal power within him.

Suspended in mid-air was an object, unclear due to layers of seals. The blood light it emitted was blinding and searing, akin to a small sun, making it hard to keep one’s eyes open.

A vast Will of the Saint emanated from this object, enveloping the clearing.

Under such profound Will of the Saint, Ning Fan seemed burdened with countless high mountains, heavily oppressed, causing the blood in his body to flow nearly tenfold, hundredfold... even more than usual!

Just as sweat appeared on his body, it was immediately evaporated by the terrifying high temperature on his surface, producing a sizzling sound.

His meridians transmitted a throbbing pain, sometimes even rupturing, leading to injuries, obviously resulting from the excessive flow of Mana within his body.

Fortunately, Ning Fan’s physical self-healing ability was extremely formidable, even when injuries occasionally appeared, he could quickly self-recover.

Time was slow, and the surroundings were quiet.

Like a sponge, Ning Fan frantically absorbed the tyrannical medicinal power of the Nirvana Mother Stone Marrow and Thunder Tempering Fruit within his body. His eyes were tightly shut, a slight expression of pain on his face, the pain naturally caused by forcibly absorbing the vast medicinal power of these heavenly treasures.

What is Nirvana Mother Stone Marrow? It can only be extracted from mineral veins of Nirvana Mother Stone above five stars. The extraction process is exceptionally brutal, requiring the destruction of an entire mineral vein to refine a very scarce few drops of essence.

The twelve drops of Nirvana Mother Stone Marrow in Ning Fan’s hand required destroying at least three or four mineral veins to extract them. The contained medicinal power, if converted into equivalent grade Nirvana Mother Stone, could pile up into seven or eight miniature mountains of Nirvana Mother Stone!

If converted into cultivation, consuming these twelve drops of Nirvana Mother Stone Marrow equates to hundreds of thousands of years of arduous cultivation for a ordinary Mortal Cultivator.

As for those Thunder Tempering Fruits, although their value is far inferior to the Nirvana Mother Stone Marrow, their advantage lies in quantity, with a hundred fruits in total, enough to offset a ordinary Mortal Cultivator’s twenty thousand years of arduous cultivation.

The vast medicinal power was being refined within, and Ning Fan’s Ancient Chaos aura was also soaring due to the nourishment of these body refining spiritual medicines.

After burying Shen Ershisan, Ning Fan’s Ancient Demon Blood cultivation had already advanced significantly, having progressed halfway towards the Demonic Tenth Nirvana, now soaring again, not only reaching the peak of Demonic Ninth Nirvana but continuously impacting the bottleneck of Demonic Tenth Nirvana!

One impact, failed.

Second impact, still failed.

Third, fourth... countless attempts, Ning Fan could never truly step into Demonic Tenth Nirvana, always missing by just a fraction.

Gradually, the medicinal power within was fully refined, Ning Fan slowly opened his eyes, halting this rapid surge in cultivation.

He knew what he lacked to truly step into the realm of Demonic Tenth Nirvana.

It was battle!

On that day, while absorbing the power of the Nirvana Mother Stone, the breakthrough to Demonic Ninth Nirvana was seamless, because Ning Fan’s cultivation had stopped at Demonic Eighth Nirvana, accumulating enough blood battles.

He broke through to Demonic Ninth Nirvana after entering the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain, but the time spent at Demonic Ninth Nirvana was too short, the baptism of blood battles too few. Ancient Chaos are born for battle, natural warriors, the last step to breakthrough Demonic Tenth Nirvana requires accumulating enough blood battles to succeed!

"It seems you have completed the refinement, not bad, your aura seems to have grown stronger..."

Emperor Butcher pointed a finger heavenward, and the small blood-red sun swirling in mid-air immediately fell into her palm, and with one swallow, she consumed it back into her body.

Ning Fan noticed Emperor Butcher’s pale complexion and also the sweaty, clinging green gauze on her body.

Clearly, Emperor Butcher, unable to exert her cultivation at this moment, was under great pressure from the Will of the Saint, suffering intensely. Yet, to aid Ning Fan in refining the medicinal power, she still released the Saint Will magical treasure.

Indeed, he owed Emperor Butcher a favor...

This time, Ning Fan did not express thanks again, feeling that Emperor Butcher was right, verbal gratitude achieved nothing; as long as he could assist Emperor Butcher in the upcoming Fire Soul Tower expedition, he would repay this favor.

Ning Fan stood up, brushing the soil off his body, recalling Emperor Butcher’s pale face, suggested: "Would you like to rest here for a while, miss?"

"We don’t have much time to rest; when we continue later, just like before, carry me, and I’ll rest in your arms to save time." Emperor Butcher’s tone was indifferent, and she said,

"Let’s first leave this Illusory Bamboo Forest; haha, once out, a formidable foe awaits you outside."

"A formidable foe? Could it be..."

Being deep in the bamboo forest, amidst illusion, Ning Fan’s Ice Rain Technique couldn’t surpass the illusion to sense outside the bamboo forest, naturally unaware that Sha Bailou had reached here.

"As you guessed, it’s him. Let’s go meet Emperor Lou Tuo’s disciple!"

Emperor Butcher nestled into Ning Fan’s embrace, then was effortlessly carried up by Ning Fan without a change in expression, as both had embraced many times before.

Under Emperor Butcher’s guidance, Ning Fan found a path through the bamboo, turning left and right, soon disappearing from sight.

...

Outside the Illusory Bamboo Forest, Sha Bailou’s face was twisted with rage. Despite his mastery of Illusory Arts, he couldn’t enter the bamboo forest. After several attempts, he found himself repeatedly walking out from where he had entered!

He could clearly sense that Ning Fan was inside the bamboo forest, yet he just couldn’t get in!

What a bother, truly troublesome. Illusory arts, while not particularly lethal, are often incredibly annoying, especially the one cast upon this bamboo forest. Judging by its level, it had clearly reached the grade of an Inferior Taixuan Illusion Technique. Moreover, being inside a Fire Soul Tower, entering this bamboo forest was as difficult as ascending to the heavens...

Shao Bailou often retreated into a Fire Soul Tower in years past to undergo closed-door training, so he naturally understood the difficulty of the Taixuan Illusion Techniques within the Fire Soul Tower. Having tried in vain, he temporarily gave up on entering the bamboo forest.

"Interesting, interesting indeed, a bamboo forest that even I cannot enter, yet Ning Fan can! This person’s capabilities seem to surpass mine, a person indeed worth killing!"

With this thought, Sha Bailou’s anticipation of killing Ning Fan grew even greater!

Only such a Ning Fan would be worthy of being killed by him!

Unable to enter the bamboo forest, he used his Great Divine Power to seal off hundreds of miles of land around the bamboo forest. No matter from which direction Ning Fan emerged from the bamboo forest, Sha Bailou could rush over at the first moment to kill Ning Fan outside the bamboo forest!

He did not believe that Ning Fan would remain in the bamboo forest forever, without coming out!

"Come out! Come out and meet your death, let me kill you and drink your blood!"

Shao Bailou’s expression was exaggeratedly distorted with excitement, looking extremely deranged.

During this period, other competing tribes who passed by were slaughtered effortlessly by Sha Bailou, releasing his pent-up killing intent.

When Ning Fan walked out of the bamboo forest, he was greeted by the sight of scattered corpses everywhere, and Sha Bailou sitting on a female corpse, playing with a bloodstained human head in his hand!

Ning Fan did not walk out from another path; under the deliberate guidance of the Emperor Butcher, he appeared directly in front of Sha Bailou as he exited the bamboo forest.

Upon seeing Ning Fan, the long-waiting Sha Bailou crushed the human head in his hand and abruptly stood up. Blood and brain matter splattered on him, yet he was indifferent, his eyes brimming with almost manic excitement!

"You finally decided to come out!"

The repressed killing intent finally burst forth without reservation at this moment. The surging Evil Qi turned into a blood fire that rained down like meteors on the ground. Shortly, the surroundings had become a sea of flames.

Ning Fan furrowed his brows, setting down the Emperor Butcher, whose face was filled with a watching-theatre-kind of expression, aside. And the Emperor Butcher whispered ’finish it quickly’ to Ning Fan and then knowingly moved to a distance, giving space to Ning Fan’s duel with Sha Bailou.

Inevitable things will eventually come. It was no surprise to Ning Fan that Sha Bailou would come to kill him. However, Ning Fan didn’t expect Sha Bailou to come so fast. Judging by his speed in finding his tracks, Sha Bailou must have started looking for him as soon as he was teleported to the Fire Soul Tower.

"This person seems to completely disregard the results of the illusion trials, nor does he care how much of the map gets illuminated, he just wants to kill me..."

From Sha Bailou’s eyes, Ning Fan read desire, read greed. He wanted to kill him not just on orders from Emperor Lou Tuo but also as an act of following his own inherent bloodlust!

"You have challenged me again and again, beyond my tolerance. If you are intent on seeking death, I would not mind having one more corpse beneath my feet." The acute killing intent surrounding them did not affect Ning Fan’s heart, accustomed to bloody mists over the years, as he coldly spoke.

"Haha! Hahaha!"

Sha Bailou suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter, as if he had heard the funniest joke!

To him, a mere Mortal Cultivator with the cultivation level of an Immortal Venerable could not possibly be his match! No one, not even his master, had truly gauged his strength’s limit, dealing with Ning Fan was easy!

The laughable thing was, did this Mortal Cultivator think that possessing an Immortal Venerable level made him comparable to Sha Bailou!

So what if his trial achievement was a bit higher? Did he think it excused ignoring Sha Bailou!

Ludicrous, just ludicrous!

Even if this Mortal Cultivator’s current level is sealed, indeed even at his peak state, he is just a First Calamity Immortal Sovereign, wanting to kill him, a First Calamity Immortal Sovereign is not enough! Even a Second Calamity Immortal Lord still isn’t enough!

"Do you know why I want to kill you?"

After finishing his laugh, Sha Bailou suddenly spoke, his tone exceedingly contemptuous.

"Because you and I are the same kind of people!"

"You seem to have killed many as well, but unfortunately, compared to me, you are still lacking! Have you ever heard of the Path of Familial Slaughter!"

"Kill father, kill mother, kill wife, kill child... I have slaughtered too many close ones, yet this Path of Familial Slaughter still has its flaws. I have not yet killed my master, nor myself! Killing the master would be fine, as long as my cultivations reach that far, killing the master is not hard, but the hardest thing is to kill oneself!"

"The Path of Familial Slaughter means slaughtering all dear ones, and amongst all people in this world, the closest to me is not my parents, wife, or children, but myself! I am willing to harm everyone, but unwilling to harm myself; everyone else in the world could be my enemy, but only I will never betray myself!"

"But of course, I can’t kill myself, so I can only settle for the next best thing, seeking out the mighty ones similar to me to slay! You are an excellent choice!"

"Standing on the pinnacle of slaughter yet not losing one’s true nature, there are often only two kinds: one, is the beast guarding its den, capable of slaughtering any would-be attackers to protect what’s behind them; the other is... the hunter! I am the hunter, and so are you! We are both driven by the inner desires for slaughter, we... are the same kind! But although we are of the same kind, there is a fundamental difference between you and me, that is... I am stronger than you! This is something you seem not to have realized yet!"

Ning Fan’s frowned even deeper.

So it was the Path of Familial Slaughter, no wonder the aura of Sha Bailou was so ferocious. If there was any path Ning Fan detested the most, the righteous Path of Familial Slaughter surely topped the list. But Sha Bailou was mistaken, though Ning Fan had killed many in his lifetime, he was, in essence, not the same type of person as Sha Bailou at all.

If we have to say, he was more like a fierce beast guarding its den from Sha Bailou’s words.

"Now, let me show you the disparity in power between us! Buddha’s Vast Escape!"

Suddenly, a blast of blood light erupted around Sha Bailou, and he disappeared from the spot without leaving a trace, not even an afterimage, as if by some bizarre magic!

In the Central State Forbidden Sky, where the forbidden force was many times stronger than outside, it was said only someone with the cultivation of an Immortal Emperor could use escape light here. Ning Fan, at least, admitted he couldn’t perform escape light here, and could at most rely on agility to run swiftly, yet Sha Bailou could use escape techniques, truly a peculiar matter.

Furthermore, the speed of escape was not the slightest bit inferior to the Vertical Golden Light that Ning Fan had comprehended, perhaps even a notch above Ning Fan’s current level of Vertical Golden Light. Ning Fan hadn’t even clearly seen Sha Bailou’s figure before instinctively forming a defense; the Nightmare Dragon Claw instantly materialized, striking a distance of one zhang forward, almost at the moment of attack, a human-sized blood shadow appeared before Ning Fan.

It was Sha Bailou!

Boom!

The five black slashing waves of the Nightmare Dragon Claw accurately hit Sha Bailou who had suddenly attacked, but the clash force transmitted back, causing acute pain and numbness in Ning Fan’s left arm, forcing him back several steps, clearly at a disadvantage!

Sha Bailou not only had extreme moving speed but also immense physical power, far surpassing the current sealed Ning Fan!

What made Ning Fan’s glance deepen was that after one strike, Sha Bailou’s silhouette, too swift for the eye to capture, suddenly turned and rushed toward the not-far-away Emperor Butcher.

The Emperor Butcher had merely been watching the spectacle, curious how Ning Fan would handle Sha Bailou’s provocation, but didn’t expect that the brat Sha Bailou dared to attack herself, immediately making her eyes sparkle with cold light.

Behind the cold shimmer was more of solemnity. At the moment her cultivation couldn’t exert a bit; even though her cultivation was high, she followed the Illusory Art Path, and her physical body wasn’t the strongest among Immortal Emperors. If hacked directly by Sha Bailou, even if not destroyed, she would still suffer severe injury.

If she had even a sliver of cultivation power, she wouldn’t be in such a predicament, yet now, there was a faint crisis looming over her, albeit she did have countermeasures, but each came at a hefty price...

Hmph, what’s the use of the price, she couldn’t allow a youngling to bully her!

Just as Emperor Butcher was about to take action, she suddenly felt emptiness under her feet...

Then, her body got engulfed by Sha Bailou’s blood light attack!

"First kill one irritating obstacle, then kill you!"

As the blood light dispersed, the place had turned to ruins, underneath which faint remnants of limbs and body parts were visible. It was unclear whether those belonged to the corpses previously lying around or to the Emperor Butcher. Then Sha Bailou appeared holding a blood-colored bone sword, as per usual, after killing, bringing the sword to his mouth as if to lick the warm blood off it, yet upon licking, realized it slicked nothing but air, which darkened his eyes instantly.

No blood on the sword! This attack actually didn’t hit the target! How could a mere girl from the Huanhai Clan dodge his attack!

Gazing sharply toward Ning Fan, he saw Ning Fan holding the fair lady in his arms, quickly realizing that Ning Fan had, somehow, in a fraction of a moment, pulled Emperor Butcher to his side, narrowly escaping Sha Bailou’s strike.

Now, Emperor Butcher was held in Ning Fan’s embrace. Beneath her feet was a Swirling Void Technique vortex filled with spatial power, slowly dissipating.

To Ning Fan, the Swirling Void Technique’s power was insufficient for a duel, but it’s quite useful for rescue. Using the space teleportation from the Swirling Void Technique, he had instantly brought Emperor Butcher close to him, thus avoiding Sha Bailou’s attack.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Emperor Butcher, who had lived for such extensive times, had never been rescued by a junior with less cultivation than her. Her eyes faltered briefly, soon regaining clarity, only feeling that this time Ning Fan held her so tightly, why did she have accelerated breathing? She was quite used to such physical contact, having been held countless times by Ning Fan before, apart from a slightly embarrassing difference during the initial times.

And yet, this time, she felt as though Ning Fan’s embrace was like a pincushion, like a trap she could not stay long within and must leave immediately.

Twisting her waist, she wriggled out of Ning Fan’s embrace, frowning she chided Ning Fan.

"Even without your intervention, I wouldn’t have been harmed by him. Didn’t I tell you to wrap this up quickly? Why are you still wasting time with him, three breaths, chop him up!"

Underlying her words, seemingly, she blamed Ning Fan for overdoing it by rescuing her, and further for dawdling without swiftly concluding the battle.

Ning Fan frowned, saying nothing more. Indeed, he had erred, knowing Sha Bailou was no simple foe, he shouldn’t have held back but gone all out immediately.

The reason why he hadn’t used the Luminous Pearl gifted by Emperor Butcher to restore his full power when first facing Sha Bailou, was purely to see how his drastically elevated Ancient Demon Blood Wine cultivation fared.

Testing had been done, showing the greatly increased Ancient Demon Blood Wine cultivation to be much more formidable, yet against someone like Sha Bailou, who held the strength of an Eternal Immortal Venerable, that level wasn’t nearly enough. Simply a disparity in levels.

The trial completed, now focus should be on swiftly ending the encounter!

Ning Fan flipped his hand, drawing out the Illusory Night Pearl bestowed by Emperor Butcher, channeling Mana into it, and with a slight urge, a gentle illusory power flowed from the pearl, infusing into his body.

"Heh, your Path of Killing hasn’t reached a heartless, detached state yet; for a mere woman, you wouldn’t let go and even saved her. How utterly laughable!"

Not aware of the changes happening within Ning Fan, Sha Bailou was about to launch another attack when his pupils suddenly widened.

What followed was monumental excitement!

Ning Fan actually broke free from the Punishing Ring’s seal, temporarily regaining his cultivation!

No mistake! Ning Fan’s aura was soaring, this dish was finally showcasing its most delicious aspect!

Except... it seemed Ning Fan hadn’t destroyed the Punishing Ring to regain his cultivation but employed some special method instead.

Sha Bailou’s eyes slightly narrowed; there was a legend of something called Reprieve Cold Dew, which could temporarily lift the Punishing Ring’s seal without breaking it... Could it be that Ning Fan used this to restore his cultivation without damaging the ring?

Forget it, no matter how he restored his cultivation! As long as he can restore his cultivation, it’s the best thing! Sha Bailou indeed wants to kill Ning Fan, but he doesn’t want to kill him when Ning Fan is at his weakest. Only by killing him at his strongest can he best prove the Path of Familial Slaughter!

"Good, very good! Since you’ve already restored your cultivation, I’ll let you know that even if you recover, you’re still not my match..."

Before Sha Bailou finished speaking, he suddenly saw a flash of red light before his eyes. Ning Fan had already closed in, and without even seeing Ning Fan’s move, he was spurting blood wildly, being blasted away.

The violent wind roared, an unknown sinister red light swept across the land, and beneath the red glow was Ning Fan’s silhouette in white, his robes billowing!

His long hair danced wildly like a demon, and his eyes were as cold as millennia-old Xuan Ice!

It was a different coldness from Sha Bailou!

Sha Bailou’s cold was ruthless and indifferent, while Ning Fan’s cold felt like the callousness of the Heavenly Dao, a kind of aloofness that looked down on all living beings!

It was a gaze unique to the Taicang Calamity Spirit! A realm that Sha Bailou’s current Path of Familial Slaughter could not reach!

Surely, in proving the Dao through familial slaughter, the Taicang Calamity Spirit is the true ancestor! Did you not know that when the Zi Dou Immortal Domain collapsed, even saints as strong as they were, were controlled by the Taicang Calamity Spirit, disowning their kin and betraying their world!

Sha Bailou trembled all over, as if in fear, as if in excitement, Ning Fan’s powerful strength shook him. This level of power is not something an ordinary First Calamity Immortal Sovereign would possess!

This is already very close to the power of the Second Calamity of the Eternals! No, in terms of attack power alone, even among Second Calamity Immortal Lords, few can reach this level! Is Ning Fan really just a First Calamity Immortal Sovereign?

"Sha Bailou, you’re strong, but you shouldn’t have provoked me! This was the first strike, the second strike comes next!"

Another flash of red light!

Sha Bailou’s pupils widened, bloodshot, as he faced the approaching red light, he fiercely stabbed out with his blood-colored White Bone sword.

This strike even entwined a bit of the Power of Dao Laws he’d comprehended through his cultivation of the Path of Killing, but such level of Dao Laws, under the press of Ning Fan’s five fingers, were shattered together with the blood bone sword itself!

Sha Bailou himself spat blood wildly, being blasted dozens of miles away by Ning Fan’s strike, his body deeply embedded in the middle of a mountain, his aura significantly weakened.

In this strike, he used a Dao Law power he had just barely comprehended, thinking he might slightly suppress Ning Fan, but little did he expect Ning Fan to use more than one Dao Law, all of which he understood to a rather profound degree!

"Two kinds, three kinds, four kinds... I can’t see through, I can’t see through how many kinds there are! How can an Immortal Venerable cultivator comprehend such diverse Dao Laws, this... how is this possible!"

"I don’t believe it!"

Bang!

With a loud bang, the mountainside collapsed, and Sha Bailou bloodily escaped from within, crossing the dozens of miles in nothing but an instant, flying back and charging at Ning Fan nearly maniacally.

He doesn’t believe it! He doesn’t believe the gap between him and Ning Fan is so vast, he has killed a Second Calamity Immortal Sovereign before, how could he lose to Ning Fan by so much, how is it possible!

"Your power is strong, but if I’m not mistaken, this power actually doesn’t belong to you. Your true strength hasn’t even reached the Immortal Sovereign level. To have power beyond an Immortal Sovereign, it’s only because you absorbed the souls of your closest kin, integrating them into your body. This cultivation, this power, you still can’t wield it freely, because your Path of Killing went astray. When you slaughtered your kin, did you really feel no guilt deep inside..."

Ning Fan’s figure flickered, his entire being shrouded in blood light, charging toward Sha Bailou.

Then came the third fierce collision after unsealing his cultivation, echoing endlessly in the heavens and earth!

The result was Sha Bailou being blasted away once again like a dead dog, his body continuously breaking apart during the retreat, clearly having accumulated too severe injuries! He could match evenly against a Second Calamity Immortal Sovereign, but against Ning Fan who wielded multiple Dao Law powers, who even battled Pinnacle Immortal Kings before, defeating a mere Sha Bailou, Ning Fan easily gained the upper hand with his domineering attack power!

After three clashes, Ning Fan wasn’t unaware that after unsealing his cultivation this time, his strength was visibly stronger than before entering the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain.

With a bit of thought, he understood the reason.

The integration of the divine, demon, and monster bloodlines in the Divine Demon Calamity wasn’t a simple additive calculation of cultivation, but a mutual aid, mutual enhancement.

And the Dao Laws he comprehended weren’t just for boosting attacks either, they could be integrated into his strength as well.

Previously, his divine, demon, and monster bloodline powers, and Calamity Blood cultivation strength were unbalanced, leading to him only being able to exert seventy or eighty percent of his total strength, with the remaining ten or twenty percent used to stabilize the balance within.

Now his Ancient Demon cultivation has improved quite a bit, making this imbalance slightly more even, so if previously he could only exert seventy or eighty percent of his full power, now he can exert nearly ninety percent! Further enhanced by the significant advancement in Ancient Demon’s cultivation, leading to a qualitative change.

It was as if many kinds of powers collided and surged within him, like streams converging into a river, rivers into a body of water, bringing about a qualitative change.

If it were solely the power of Calamity Blood, Ning Fan wouldn’t be able to suppress Sha Bailou in direct combat empty-handed, he would at least need to employ some magical treasures and divine skills to achieve this.

But at this moment, Ning Fan could clearly feel that his entire strength had merged together, forming an ocean. A million streams can’t drown a person, but the ocean is different, even if the volume is the same, the power is vastly different. The force it can unleash is far beyond the level of Calamity Blood cultivation, but... infinitely close to the power of the Second Calamity of the Eternals!

"I only used to think that the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor cultivated both divine, monster, and demon for the sheer amount of cultivation power, but now it seems such thinking was wrong. The unity of divine, monster, and demon creates a new power, transforming quantity into a qualitative change in strength. If it also involved the Taicang Calamity Blood, something even the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor couldn’t achieve, then this qualitative change would be even greater, more complex... The power I now wield surpasses Calamity Blood cultivation, serving as proof of this qualitative change..."

It was as if Ning Fan, at this moment, was rediscovering the grand work of ’Yin Yang Transformation’, a monumental cultivation technique of mixed bloodlines.

In the eyes of others, the seemingly trivial cultivation technique of Dual Cultivation concealed profundities that ordinary masters could never reach in the Grand Dao...