Grasping Evil

Sha Bailou crawled on the ground, struggling to get up, but unfortunately, Ning Fan did not give him the chance. With a wave of his sleeve, the Calamity Thought Red Glow instantly engulfed Sha Bailou’s entire broken body, sizzling like thunder, and with a roar, Sha Bailou’s physical body exploded into a mist of blood. His Spirit was then eroded by the Calamity Thought Red Glow, constantly letting out miserable screams. On the surface, he seemed to be not far from death, unable to even complete his sentences!

Sha Bailou was very strong. As a Master at the Shattered Thought Peak, he was able to fight across levels against the Eternal Immortal Venerable, which was enough to demonstrate his extraordinariness.

However, in this world, Sha Bailou was not the only one possessing the ability to fight across levels. At least, Ning Fan’s level-crossing combat ability was stronger than Sha Bailou’s. At this moment, Ning Fan had unleashed all his cultivation, fighting against Sha Bailou whose cultivation was at the Shattered Thought Peak level, and shockingly, it took only three strikes for Ning Fan to destroy Sha Bailou’s physical body, leaving only his Spirit!

Under normal circumstances, when a Master is left with only their Spirit, they generally don’t have much power left to continue fighting and often can only choose to flee. The lucky ones manage to escape, and the unlucky ones end up being destroyed by their opponent.

Yet, Sha Bailou’s situation was extremely bizarre. Though only his Spirit remained, and his aura was waning and weak, the sense of danger he posed to Ning Fan was instead even stronger than before.

Ning Fan’s eyes showed a merciless expression as he prepared to deliver the final blow to Sha Bailou’s Spirit. Suddenly, his eyes flickered with surprise, and without saying a word, he swiftly retreated.

It was at the moment of his retreat that Sha Bailou’s Spirit suddenly stopped screaming, revealing a sinister smile on its small face, and uttered a strange incantation. In an instant, large areas of gray gas emerged from his Spirit. Wherever the gray gas covered, the blood fire on the ground extinguished, and the flesh of the corpses on the ground withered away. The moist soil, engulfed by the gray gas, dried up and cracked. The gray gas continued to spread, mountains, rivers, grass, and trees... everything, whether living or dead, encompassed by the gray gas, within a few breaths, lost all vitality and returned to silence.

"This is..."

Upon seeing these gray gases, even with the experience of the Emperor Butcher, there was a slight surprise.

Soon, he felt a lightness in his body, as he was embraced by Ning Fan, retreating swiftly over the ground swept by the roaring blood fire and gray gas.

At this moment, Ning Fan temporarily unsealed his cultivation, making his retreat very fast. Over the ground, only a red glow could be seen streaking across it, quickly moving away from the gray gas’s enveloping range, revealing his figure.

Ning Fan placed the Emperor Butcher down from his embrace, looking solemnly at the gray gas in front of him. The gray gas emitted by Sha Bailou’s Spirit covered over dozens of miles of terrain.

The gray gas was extremely potent. At this moment, Ning Fan’s entire right forearm was shriveled, resembling mummified flesh devoid of blood. Despite his rapid retreat, he was still caught in Sha Bailou’s scheme...

Fortunately, Ning Fan’s recovery ability was incredibly strong, and that mummified flesh quickly healed under the burning of the Nirvana flames.

Gradually, the gray gas sprawling over dozens of miles dispersed. In the wind, Sha Bailou’s excited laughter still echoed.

"Indeed, what a delicious prey! You wait, wait for seven days, I will return! Haha! Hahaha!"

As the originator of the gray gas, Sha Bailou’s Spirit had actually perished within the center of the gray gas. On the small face of the Spirit’s corpse, an insidious and vicious smile remained. On the surface, those words seemed to be just his unwilling cries before death.

A dozen breaths later, unexpectedly, the appearance of this Spirit began to change, transforming from Sha Bailou’s appearance to that of a child with an adorable sleeping smile, tied up with a bun.

Then, the child-like Spirit turned into ashes and disappeared into smoke.

Strange, upon Sha Bailou’s death, why did the Spirit’s appearance change... Ning Fan’s temporarily unsealed cultivation gradually dwindled, and his aura quickly lowered to the previous level. He checked the Illusory Night Pearl, and the power within seemed to have been used less than one-sixth, as the battle ended swiftly, conserving the pearl for many more uses.

"If I am not mistaken, Sha Bailou should not be dead. Lou Tuo’s capabilities are lacking, but his disciple really possesses extraordinary abilities." Emperor Butcher carefully examined the place where Sha Bailou’s Spirit turned to ashes, pinched a trace of the Spirit’s ashes, sniffed them, and then made a conclusion that caused Ning Fan’s gaze to suddenly become serious.

"Did he actually escape?" Ning Fan did not expect that even under his full suppression, Sha Bailou would still have the chance to escape.

"Indeed, this child’s escape technique is quite remarkable. This technique I have only seen one other person cultivate before, yet unexpectedly, another person managed to cultivate this sinister Divine Skill. If this child really used this technique, even at the height of my cultivation, I couldn’t stop him. Because this Divine Skill does not actually escape from the real battlefield, but rather after death, reborn from another place... attaining a second life, reincarnating and resurrecting!"

"Reincarnating and resurrecting?"

"Have you heard of the Death Emperor of Sanyan Continent?"

"I’ve heard a bit... Sanyan Continent is divided into Stone Flame, Wood Flame, and Vacant Flame three major branches. Among the three branches, the Vacant Flame faction is the weakest, but strangely, within the weakest Vacant Flame faction sits the strongest among the Sanyan, the Death Emperor, known to be on par with the Bright Buddha, the foremost figure of the Holy Mountain." Ning Fan pondered and answered.

"Have you ever heard what the Death Emperor’s strongest ultimate technique is?" Emperor Butcher asked again.

"No."

"This matter, not only for you, even for figures of the level of the Central Continent’s Five Emperors, they are not qualified to know about it. The Death Emperor’s strongest skill was comprehended from the last of the Five Supremes, this isn’t a power that should exist in the Dreamland Realm, but comes from the legendary True Realm. This power is called [Desolate]. It’s said that in the True Realm, due to the power of [Desolate], countless strong clans were born, among which the most famous is the Primeval Immortal Realm. Perhaps the master of the Primeval Immortal Realm is currently the person in the True Realm with the highest understanding of the power of Desolate..."

The Emperor Butcher paused slightly, frowned, and continued to explain to Ning Fan.

Ning Fan’s eyes narrowed. Primeval Immortal Realm... True Realm... These pieces of information are undoubtedly the ultimate secrets of heaven and earth! It’s not surprising that beings like the Five Emperors of the Middle State don’t know these things, but the problem is, how does the Emperor Butcher know!

Could it be that the Emperor Butcher is actually an old monster like the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor, Burying Moon Immortal Concubine, who has lived since ancient times?

But, even the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor, Burying Moon Immortal Concubine, are all very secretive about secrets like the True Realm, unwilling to tell Ning Fan more. There are some things that one isn’t qualified to discuss without sufficient cultivation, and can’t even mention...

Yet the Emperor Butcher dares to casually mention such great secrets of heaven and earth, isn’t it a bit too bold...

"...I am not a strong figure from the True Realm, but a native Great Humble One born in the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain. At the time I was born, the path between the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain and the True Realm had been severed for years, and the entire Supreme Pill Sacred Domain had long been completely ’swallowed’ into the Dreamland Realm created by that adult of the Zidou Fairy Realm. The information related to the True Realm was not told to me by anyone, nor was it something I saw in any book, but rather... I dreamt of it. Do you find it incredible that just by dreaming, I can dream of such profound and inscrutable secrets!" As if seeing Ning Fan’s inner concerns, the Emperor Butcher explained.

At this moment, the Emperor Butcher seemed to have let go of the aura of being above as a Control Position Great Emperor, her gaze was very ethereal, very distant, accompanying the recollections, drifting back to a long, long time ago.

"When I first dreamt of these things, I was just a naive and ignorant little girl. In my dreams time and again, I saw scene after scene of strange and chaotic landscapes, where there were countless Immortal Emperors who dominated the winds and clouds, Saints who founded sects and preached the scriptures, and even beings more powerful than Saints... It was a world completely different from the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain I was in. Later, as my experience grew, I realized what kind of world the world I dreamed of was..."

"True Realm..."

"What was even more unbelievable was that the scenes I dreamt of were not illusory dreams, many fragments of my dreams... were actually real events that had happened in the True Realm! Beyond that, the reason my illusionary art attainment could reach its current level is greatly related to the numerous True Realm illusions I had seen in my dreams."

"This is exactly my purpose for entering the Fire Soul Tower this time. There is a layer of confusion in my heart, wanting to know where these dreams originate from. Gradually, this confusion became a heart demon, a bottleneck in my heart. I’m only a half step away from entering the Quasi-Saint realm. It’s not that I haven’t tried to truly break through to that realm, but every time I’m close to success, this heart demon appears, becoming the greatest barrier to my breakthrough. I’ve come to this place precisely to resolve some of the confusion in my heart, and this process requires your help."

"Will reaching the sixth level of the Fire Soul Tower resolve your inner confusion?" Ning Fan asked, and at this point, he finally understood the Emperor Butcher’s purpose, inevitably relaxing in his heart. With a lingering question in mind, it naturally heightens one’s guard, just as the Emperor Butcher feels with an unresolved confusion in her heart, right?

"I don’t know, I don’t know if this time I can completely resolve the confusion in my heart, but the bottom of the Fire Soul Tower should have part of the answers..."

Upon speaking of this, the Emperor Butcher seemed to have no intention of delving further, so Ning Fan tactfully redirected the topic back to Sha Bailou.

According to the Emperor Butcher, within this Dabei Clan, there exist the Five Supremes whom ordinary people can’t remember; the eminence of the Five Supremes even surpasses formidable beings like the Bright Buddha and the Death Emperor, representing the true pinnacle of the Dabei Clan’s power.

The Emperor Butcher didn’t go into detail about who the Five Supremes are specifically, only mentioning a Supreme Ox Demon. Based on Ning Fan’s speculation, this Supreme Ox Demon is likely the old man surnamed Niu who gave Wu Laoba a hard time.

As for the last of the Five Supremes, although the Emperor Butcher didn’t mention their name, she described the powers of this supreme, saying that the strongest power of this supreme is [Desolate]. The reason the Death Emperor could become the strongest in the Sanyan is because he comprehended a trace from the power of [Desolate], creating a unique skill from it, which brought him to reign supreme in the Sanyan.

The divine skill created by the Death Emperor is called the [Blood God Reincarnation Technique]; once this technique is successfully cultivated, each time the Death Emperor dies, he can reincarnate in another location using a medium. For any opponent, a foe who cannot be killed no matter how you try is undoubtedly troubling and terrifying.

It’s just that the Blood God Reincarnation Technique can’t be used endlessly. This technique requires a medium, and the medium must be the soul of a direct blood relative refined through a special secret method! Each resurrection consumes a blood relative’s soul.

It’s highly likely that Sha Bailou used the Blood God Reincarnation Technique to reincarnate somewhere else. Rumors say Sha Bailou killed his own child, and the reason why his Spirit changed appearance, transforming into the visage of a child at the moment of dispersing, is likely because this time, Sha Bailou’s resurrection used up the soul of his child...

"The resurrection of the Blood God Reincarnation Technique takes seven days to complete. During the process of reincarnation, the aura of the caster completely disappears, not existing in the world, until seven days later when he is truly resurrected. The range of reincarnation usually isn’t far from the place of death, but due to the advantage of aura disappearing, even if Sha Bailou’s place of resurrection is not far from here, at the moment, he is formless, invisible, and without breath or thought, it would be as difficult as climbing the sky for you and me to find him. Only when he is truly resurrected and his aura returns after seven days can his location be sensed..."

Ning Fan couldn’t help but sink into thought.

No wonder Sha Bailou said before his ’death’ that he would return to kill again after seven days, turns out there’s a seven-day resurrection time limit...

So in seven days, Sha Bailou will complete his resurrection and come once more to hunt him down? What a persistent fly!

"No matter, even if Sha Bailou can resurrect, what can he do! Coming to kill again is just delivering his head to us. With your strength, would you even fear a Sha Bailou? Quickly proceed to the sixth level of the Fire Soul Tower; achieving the purpose of this trip is the real business." The Emperor Butcher said impatiently, as it seemed she had wasted a lot of time because of Sha Bailou.

"I’m not afraid, I’m just a bit annoyed being pestered."

Ning Fan searched through the ruins here and found many storage pouches, aside from Sha Bailou’s own, the rest belonged to pedestrians killed by Sha Bailou.

Sha Bailou’s storage pouch left Ning Fan speechless! It contained hardly any valuable pills or magical treasures. Instead, it was filled with human heads! There were men and women, young and old, intact and decayed, and even some were just skulls...

It seems Sha Bailou had a peculiar hobby for collecting these? Hehe, truly a grotesque interest.

Naturally, those grotesque human heads were all discarded by Ning Fan.

Besides, the only somewhat useful item in Sha Bailou’s storage pouch was his Illusion Test Map.

Upon entering the Fire Soul Tower’s first level, groups of three tribes would be randomly transported. Sha Bailou’s starting point was far from Ning Fan’s Illusory Bamboo Forest, more than a thousand miles apart, yet Sha Bailou persistently found his way through. Though he pretended not to care about his Illusion Test score, unintentionally, he had illuminated over a thousand miles on the map.

Now, this map was confiscated by Ning Fan. Ning Fan unleashed a burst of Black Dragon evil fire to burn Sha Bailou’s map, instantly acquiring the areas Sha Bailou illuminated. His map now showed not only the region within a hundred miles surrounding the Illusory Bamboo Forest but included all the regions Sha Bailou had traversed.

The other contestants’ storage pouches also contained three maps, but due to their short time in the tower, collectively they explored only one or two hundred miles, with many overlapping sections.

These three maps were destroyed by Ning Fan as well, thereby seizing their Illusion Test scores.

Thus, although Ning Fan had lingered long in the Illusory Bamboo Forest, the map had already illuminated over twelve hundred miles, translating to a score of over 2400 points!

"If you truly care about the Illusion Test score, you should join me at the sixth level of the tower base. There, illuminating a mile of land can earn you 64 points, a thousand two hundred miles can yield over seventy thousand points. It’s much faster than scoring in the Fire Soul Tower’s first level, effortlessly claiming first place in the Illusion Test," Emperor Butcher said impatiently. Time, oh time, Ning Fan spent too much time picking up these storage pouches!

"I know you’re eager to move forward, but I’m afraid I’ll need to take a bit more of your time..."

Ning Fan smiled helplessly, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began refining the power of the Medicine Soul Stone.

The territory of the Dabei Clan is extremely rich in medicine power. If one’s Medicine Soul is not sufficiently strong, frequent absorption of Medicine Soul Stone power is needed to survive here. Hence, he must replenish some Medicine Soul Stone...

"Troublesome, really troublesome! It seems necessary to enhance your Medicine Soul realm, otherwise, with your stop-and-go approach, more time will be needed to reach the sixth level..."

Emperor Butcher took Ning Fan’s map, carefully studying it, seemingly searching for places along the way where Ning Fan could upgrade his Medicine Soul...

Soon, Ning Fan completed the refinement and stood up, informing Emperor Butcher that he had absorbed enough Medicine Soul Stone power and could continue on his way.

Emperor Butcher’s expression became somewhat unnatural, seemingly reluctant for Ning Fan to carry her, requesting Ning Fan to give her a piggyback ride.

Fine, a piggyback ride then. After all, Ning Fan could still receive Emperor Butcher’s illusion guidance en route, making it a worthwhile exchange.

Yet Emperor Butcher, though intent on heading directly to the entrance of the second level, suppressed her impatience, detoured several times, and took many wrong paths. The purpose was to visit all three dangerous areas on the first level of the Fire Soul Tower.

Dangerous areas in the Fire Soul Tower often contain valuable items. If they could be used to enhance Ning Fan’s strength, it would contribute to the success of the task in the sixth level.

Besides the Illusory Bamboo Forest, the first level has three dangerous areas: Rusheng Building, Thousand-Foot Cliff, and White Horse Glacier.

Within Rusheng Building’s illusion depths, hundreds of Ten Nirvana and Eleven Nirvana treasures are sealed; atop the Thousand-Foot Cliff lies a deceased Innate Spiritual Wood.

These things were of little use, causing Emperor Butcher to repeatedly lament, regretting the wasted steps.

Fortunately, the final location at the White Horse Glacier’s bottom yielded considerable gains, acquiring an eight-million-year-old White Dragon Coral.

This small segment of White Dragon Coral could greatly enhance the Medicine Soul power of the Nine-Turn Alchemist! Ning Fan’s first thought was to save this White Dragon Coral for Ouyang Nuan to consume. Unfortunately, Emperor Butcher insisted that Ning Fan immediately consume it to quickly boost his Medicine Soul power. After all, boosting Ning Fan’s Medicine Soul power would expedite her travel. Moreover, during the important task on the sixth level, there would be no opportunity for Ning Fan to consume Medicine Soul Stones continuously for days. Therefore, Emperor Butcher’s plan was to elevate Ning Fan’s Medicine Soul level to the rank of Nine-Turn before entering the sixth level!

As long as Ning Fan’s Medicine Soul level reaches this height, even as an outsider, he won’t need to rely on Medicine Soul Stones daily anymore but can adapt to the overwhelming medicine atmosphere within the Dabei Clan through the sheer strength of his Medicine Soul.

For ordinary people, attempting to advance from the Seventh-Turn Medicine Soul to the Ninth-Turn Medicine Soul in a short time is simply a daydream.

But fortunately, Emperor Butcher is extremely familiar with the Fire Soul Tower, knowing that there are numerous forbidden treasures here, enough to make such hopes a reality. Naturally, those forbidden treasures are not easy to obtain, but given her major goal this time, these minor difficulties are not a problem—she will guide Ning Fan one by one to overcome them.

A piece of White Dragon Coral did not directly raise Ning Fan’s Medicine Soul level to the Seventh Revolution peak; it still fell slightly short of the Seventh Revolution peak.

This made Ning Fan feel quite regretful. With his Medicine Soul perception, he could sense some of the characteristics of the White Dragon Coral. This item requires a slow refinement to fully absorb its power, and cannot be rushed. If handled aggressively, most of the power will be lost.

If given several months to slowly refine this White Dragon Coral, he was confident he could absorb its complete power and make a breakthrough to the Seventh Revolution peak in Medicine Soul level!

Obviously, Emperor Butcher can’t afford to give Ning Fan so much time to dawdle. To her, a bit of power wasted is fine, as there are plenty of good items ahead, nothing is more precious than her time.

After the refinement, Ning Fan once again carried Emperor Butcher and hastily sped through the first level, heading straight for the second level entrance indicated on the map.

The following day, Ning Fan and Emperor Butcher reached the second level.

On the sixth day, Ning Fan and Emperor Butcher entered the third level.

The dangerous area in the second level was similarly explored by the duo, acquiring several kinds of spiritual items, completely allowing Ning Fan’s medicine soul power to break through to the Seventh Revolution peak, just a line away from breaking into the Eighth Revolution!

Of course, the benefits he gained were not limited to medicine soul growth; the study of illusion techniques was the biggest advantage.

Everywhere in the Fire Soul Tower were perilous illusions, and each time they encountered one, Emperor Butcher would give Ning Fan a brief explanation. Starting with the basic knowledge of illusions, carefully explaining the various changes in reality and illusion.

Ning Fan has an extremely high talent for illusions, lacking only the basics. He absorbed the knowledge Emperor Butcher imparted like a sponge, and many previously incomprehensible concepts gradually became clearer in his mind, forming outlines.

The way of illusions lies in the transformation between reality and illusion. True and false exist in one thought, but how to utilize that thought is crucial.

Attack the false, conceal the real; defend the real, deploy the false; extinguish the real, preserve the false; no false, no real... Ning Fan previously did not know that a simple illusion contained so many intricacies, as if opening a brand new magical door before his eyes.

Illusion techniques not only require skillful use of reality and illusion but also distinguish between living illusions and dead illusions... Having learned all this, Ning Fan recalled the Inferior Taixuan Illusion Technique from the Illusory Bamboo Forest and felt he had captured the path in his mind. If he were to enter the Illusory Bamboo Forest again, he was confident he could walk through it!

With a significant increase in illusion basics, Ning Fan also gained new insights into the use of Dark Yin Yang. Regarding the previously created dark illusion technique perfected through the Demonized Dark Night Dao Elephant, he planned to refine it further.

The Demonized Dark Night Dao Elephant, from which he comprehended the dark illusion technique, was supposed to be a trump card. However, after understanding this technique, Ning Fan found it difficult to perfect, always feeling it lacked something, useful occasionally but hard to make a big impact.

Now looking at this dark illusion technique again, Ning Fan feels more confident that given enough time, he could utilize the illusion knowledge imparted by Emperor Butcher to perfect this technique into a truly terrifying divine skill!

Of course, the current focus is not on perfecting the dark illusion technique; Emperor Butcher would not grant him the time to do such things.

The seventh day finally arrived!

Ning Fan knew at this time, Sha Bailou had most likely completed his resurrection, but naturally, he wouldn’t stop his steps because of Sha Bailou. Though Sha Bailou’s divine skills are bizarrely eerie, they’re not enough to make him fearful!

On the eleventh day, Ning Fan, carrying Emperor Butcher, reached the entrance to the fourth level, preparing to enter when he suddenly halted.

Behind him, the sky was suddenly enveloped by a blood-colored killing intent, accompanied by a whistling blood-red glow carrying the aura of Zero Tribulation Celestial Venerate!

It was Sha Bailou!

But unlike before, the present Sha Bailou was no longer at the Shattered Thought peak cultivation, but a newly ascended Immortal Venerable!

Compared to the former Sha Bailou, after breaking through to Immortal Venerable, his aura was more than twice as strong!

"Ning Fan! To kill you, I have abandoned my plan for a perfect ascension to Immortal Venerable, completely breaking through the cultivation bottleneck suppressed for many years! Now I am not the weakling you overcame before—I will kill you this time!"