Grasping Evil

Sha Bailou is far from being the strongest enemy Ning Fan has encountered in this life, yet he is definitely the most tenacious one.

This time, Ning Fan did not intend to use Sha Bailou to test his power any further. After setting down Emperor Butcher, he directly took out the Illusory Night Pearl and released his full cultivations!

The sky roared continuously, and amidst the rumblings, spatial cracks collapsed massively, forming a giant cavity akin to a fierce beast opening its great maw. A stench began pouring out from the cavity, followed by a blood-red figure, carrying a rancid wind, stepping out from within, and the sound of sinister laughter echoed throughout the entire third layer of the Fire Soul Tower.

Occasionally, some tribes entering the third layer were caught off guard by the laughter, and one by one, they were dizzy and flustered.

With a sharp sound, Sha Bailou, wrapped in a fierce wind, landed on the ground, smashing a gigantic crater with a diameter of a hundred zhang.

He walked out of the crater step by step, approaching Ning Fan step by step!

His body trembled uncontrollably; this time facing Ning Fan, he no longer felt the fear he had last time, only excitement! Only madness!

No more words were necessary!

Then Sha Bailou pointed a finger towards the sky, and instantly, vast expanses of blood light rolled out from the cavity in the sky, blooming into extremely dazzling giant blood flowers.

One flower, two flowers, three flowers...

In the end, a total of seventeen blood flowers appeared!

The blood flowers initially were just buds, which then grew, the petals separated, revealing the core, and at the center of each giant flower, a phantom soul existed!

The soul on the first flower was a little girl of six or seven years.

The soul on the second flower was a graceful-looking lady.

The soul on the third flower was a young man.

The fourth flower, the soul was an old woman.

The fifth, sixth, seventh flowers...

With Ning Fan’s sharp perception of aura, he could easily sense that these souls on the blood flowers each had a blood-related kinship with Sha Bailou!

All were his closest souls!

As Sha Bailou pressed five fingers towards the sky, the soul of the little girl on the first blood flower showed pain, showed... tears.

"Daddy, don’t kill me, don’t..."

However, these words could never stop Sha Bailou’s insane actions, and with a boom, the soul of the little girl exploded into blood mist at the center of the blood flower.

Then came the second, third, fourth flowers... the souls at the center of each giant flower cried out continuously as they exploded!

Soon, there wasn’t a single sound of crying on the seventeen blood flowers.

Subsequently, all the blood flowers began to frantically absorb Primordial Qi from heaven and earth, and in this process, Sha Bailou’s aura skyrocketed from the level of a newly ascended Immortal Venerable!

Eternal First Calamity!

Eternal Second Calamity!

Eternal Third Calamity!

In an instant, Sha Bailou’s aura fiercely surged to the peak of a Triple Calamity Immortal King!

The seventeen blood flowers descended from the sky, shrinking to fist-sized blood flowers, floating around Sha Bailou!

"He temporarily increased his cultivations using a Secret Technique, huh... But this Secret Technique seems to reduce a lot of my troubles." Ning Fan’s expression was calm, without stopping Sha Bailou’s act of destroying souls to enhance his power, nor did he feel any turbulence due to Sha Bailou’s surge in cultivations.

With his vision in the Second Realm of Tianren, he could faintly see that each of these souls was sufficient to allow Sha Bailou to be reborn once!

Seventeen souls, if used separately for the Blood God Reincarnation Technique, Sha Bailou could die seventeen times and resurrect seventeen times, making it nearly impossible to kill, an endless annoyance!

Compared to this infinite resurrection, Ning Fan didn’t mind Sha Bailou’s act of self-destructing souls to rapidly increase his cultivations.

Less soul mediums for the Blood God Reincarnation Technique is better! This way, he wouldn’t have to kill Sha Bailou seventeen times!

"The Blood God Reincarnation Technique can not only be used for rebirth; its medium souls can be directly consumed to forcibly elevate the caster’s cultivations to an incredible level for a short period. Don’t be reckless! Don’t push yourself! This Secret Technique’s amplification lasts only a limited time. If you can’t withstand him, it wouldn’t hurt to temporarily retreat. Avoid into the fourth layer. The fourth layer is almost entirely Illusory Art; we can use those illusions to buy time, wait for his Secret Technique to end, then eliminate him!"

Emperor Butcher secretly transmitted a message to Ning Fan.

Being unfamiliar with Ning Fan, Emperor Butcher thought that even if Ning Fan regained his full strength, he might not be a match for Sha Bailou at that moment. For the Eternal Old Freaks, the Eternal Third Calamity is indeed a major turning point; crossing it means becoming an Immortal King, while below the three calamities, one remains an Immortal Venerable.

It’s extremely rare for an Immortal Venerable to defeat an Immortal King, especially when this Sha Bailou is practicing the Death Emperor Secret Teachings, his combat power is likely even higher than his realm.

Sha Bailou, at the peak of the Calamity of Eternal Aeons, could possibly erupt with battle power reaching the Four Calamity Immortal King range!

Letting Ning Fan fight against such a formidable Sha Bailou is too risky, for safety’s sake, it might be better... to temporarily avoid confrontation.

"Avoid for now... alright, Miss, you should go ahead, enter the fourth layer from this entrance to evade for a while. When I unleash my full power later, defeating Sha Bailou won’t be difficult, but I’m afraid of injuring you unintentionally, for thoroughness, Miss, it’s better to dodge first."

"Defeating him won’t be difficult? Haha, that’s quite an arrogant tone, but I like it. In that case... I’ll be waiting for you in the fourth layer."

Emperor Butcher gave Ning Fan a deep look, seeing him genuinely calm and composed, thinking that Ning Fan indeed has a way to deal with the power-boosted Sha Bailou, so she didn’t worry much. She wasn’t one to hesitate, knowing that staying here would not be much help to Ning Fan, she directly stepped onto the stairs leading to the fourth layer, heading for the fourth layer, within a few steps, she was out of sight.

This scene deeply provoked the already enraged Sha Bailou!

He disregarded perfect ascension to Immortal Venerable, forcibly elevating his realm within the Fire Soul Tower to the Immortal Venerable level.

He willingly used up seventeen entire souls of close kin, forfeiting seventeen opportunities for resurrection and rebirth.

All of this, was merely to battle Ning Fan!

However, his powerful aura that roared through heaven and earth did not stir the slightest change in Ning Fan’s expression.

What angered Sha Bailou further was that Ning Fan actually engaged in casual conversation with Emperor Butcher, boldly letting her leave ahead.

He even arrogantly claimed that defeating him was not difficult!

What a joke! He was Sha Bailou, he temporarily possessed the peak cultivation of Triple Calamity, at this moment, he could even dare to challenge the Four Calamity Immortal King! What was Ning Fan, just a Foreign Cultivator, why would it be easy to defeat him?

Roar!!!

Sha Bailou let out the most furious roar of his life, terrifying sound waves immediately began to crazily destroy all directions.

Such sound waves were enough to cause immense pain for all Eternal Immortal Venerables below the Immortal King, but when they reached near Ning Fan, it only gently hit like a flower on water, gradually calming down.

A faint golden light curtain lightly and effortlessly blocked all sound waves attempting to attack Ning Fan!

Sha Bailou stopped roaring, his gaze sank, with a wave of his hand, the seventeen blood flowers surrounding him suddenly withered, the petals started to flutter in the wind. These petals were covered with strange blood patterns and had a faint, hidden power of Dao traces. Each petal was thin as paper, yet gave an incredibly sharp feeling.

Ten pieces, a hundred pieces, a thousand pieces... countless petals seemed to all turn into extremely sharp blades!

As the wind suddenly changed direction, millions of petal-like blades filled the sky like a tidal wave of flowers, slashing down, engulfing Ning Fan!

This time, Sha Bailou held no trace of underestimating Ning Fan. All his cards, divine skills were released at the first moment!

With his current Triple Calamity peak Immortal King cultivation, he had the confidence that he could slash any Eternal Immortal Venerable at a glance!

Seeing the wave of blade petals engulf Ning Fan in an instant, Sha Bailou felt a sense of relief, believing that Ning Fan would be killed by his single strike.

However, the result of this strike far exceeded Sha Bailou’s expectations!

Yet Ning Fan opened a several feet golden light defense around him, walking leisurely amidst the wave of millions of flower blades. The sound of blade slashes constantly echoed, yet they all struck Ning Fan’s body-protecting golden light.

The body-protecting golden light was too powerful, within a short ten breaths, it withstood over a billion strikes from the flower tide. Yet these billion strikes could not leave the slightest damage on the body-protecting golden light, let alone break the golden light and harm Ning Fan underneath.

Ning Fan remained completely unharmed!

"What... what level of defense is this! How could such terrifying defense exist in this world!"

Sha Bailou gritted his teeth hard.

Wasn’t Ning Fan using more than five types of Dao traces in the previous battle his strongest divine skill yet!

Was this unbreakable body-protecting golden light... his strongest trump card!

Then let him smash Ning Fan’s barrier!

"Primeval Impact!"

Sha Bailou stomped the earth, his whole body exploded, transforming into a blood shadow, instantly traversing countless distances, violently crashing into Ning Fan’s body-protecting golden light.

Time seemed to freeze, but in the next moment, the terrifying impact spread, causing the entire third layer’s land to crazily collapse, sinking the ground by ten feet!

Such a terrifying impact was considered one of Sha Bailou’s great skills, but hitting Ning Fan’s body-protecting golden light still couldn’t cause even a crack on the golden light.

It was incredibly hard!

"Break for me... shatter!"

Ten strikes!

A hundred strikes!

A thousand strikes!

Sha Bailou seemed truly insane, attacking Ning Fan’s body-protecting golden light relentlessly. His silhouette flickered around, crashing into Ning Fan more than a thousand times in just over ten breaths!

Yet all of this was futile!

Sweat and blood dripping down his face, Sha Bailou, with a trace of horror, looked at Ning Fan, who was calm within the golden light.

Ning Fan was unscathed, and his body-protecting golden light showed no damage. On the contrary, Sha Bailou, who launched the attacks, was harmed by the accumulating recoil force!

There exists an Eternal Immortal Venerable, capable of elevating defense to this realm!

This is not the defense an Eternal Immortal Venerable should possess, not even an Immortal King could have it!

Let alone him, even a true Four Calamity Immortal King attacking this defense would be in vain!

Even a Five Tribulations Peak Immortal King might not succeed!

"I sacrificed everything, put in all my might, yet couldn’t even touch his hem..."

For the first time in his life, Sha Bailou’s heart wavered!

In his life, he never lost to anyone of the same rank, rarely when fighting beyond his rank!

Previous defeat at Ning Fan’s hands didn’t waver him, because back then he was only using his Shattered Thought Peak cultivation and lost to Ning Fan, who was infinitely close to a Second Calamity Immortal Lord, not unjust.

But this time, he had raised his cultivation to nearly the level of a Four Calamity Immortal King, he had suppressed Ning Fan in cultivation.

Yet, he couldn’t even touch Ning Fan’s hem or move a single facial expression of his!

How... can this be!

"You’ve attacked for long enough, now, it’s my turn..."

The hand Ning Fan concealed in his sleeve, with the faintly flickering Grand Momentum Golden Light, was gradually extinguishing.

In the midst of Sha Bailou’s stormy attacks, he wasn’t idle. In fact, he had been secretly controlling the grand momentum, laying layer upon layer of restrictions secretly in the surroundings.

After completing all this, Ning Fan spoke, and with a flip of his hand, took out a bottle emitting the aura of ocean waves.

In the instant the bottle appeared, an unprecedented sense of crisis engulfed Sha Bailou’s heart.

If before, Ning Fan demonstrated unparalleled defense, then at this moment, Ning Fan was about to display his nearly terrifying lethality!

This bottle was unexpectedly an innate mid-grade magical treasure!

Not good!

At the moment Ning Fan raised the bottle, the crisis in Sha Bailou’s heart reached its peak!

Gritting his teeth, Sha Bailou, without any hesitation, turned and tried to escape.

Because due to cultivating the Blood God Reincarnation Technique, Sha Bailou could be reborn after death, hence he wasn’t afraid of death, rather relished the life-and-death struggle.

But this didn’t mean he truly wasn’t afraid of death!

Adding in the seventeen close souls sacrificed this time, he had used up eighteen souls in total, with only three remaining close souls on him.

This means, before replenishing those close souls, he could only be reborn three more times. If he could be reborn more, he wouldn’t mind dying once more and counter-attacking Ning Fan before dying. But with only three lives left, he needed to conserve his deaths.

Therefore, faced with the unbeatable Ning Fan, Sha Bailou had to suppress his urge for slaughter and chose to flee.

But soon, his face darkened, realizing that the surrounding world was densely planted with a thousand layers of seals. With his cultivation, breaking these seals wasn’t hard, but certainly not something that could be done in an instant.

Ning Fan’s attack was already imminent!

Escape... was impossible!

"By Ning Fan’s command, water to flood a realm!"

As Ning Fan’s Mana activated, the three water droplet designs on the Water-Flooding Realm Bottle began lighting up one by one.

The first droplet design gradually lit up from one-third to two-thirds and finally fully lit up!

For Ning Fan, whose cultivation had made significant progress, and having activated his body-protecting golden light, lighting one water droplet design was no longer enough to destroy his arm due to the counter-collapse force of the Water-Flooding Realm Bottle. Although his arm did experience severe pain and sustained some injury, the injury wasn’t serious.

Lighting one droplet was Ning Fan’s current limit.

Lighting the second droplet would require releasing the full form of the God-Extinguishing Shield!

Under Sha Bailou’s incredulous gaze, Ning Fan’s body-protecting golden light suddenly surged, rising to form a gigantic golden skeletal giant that enclosed Ning Fan within!

The golden skeleton burned with blazing flames, and within those flames, flesh and bones emerged, forming a complete God-Slaying Giant holding a massive shield, presented before Sha Bailou.

This God-Slaying Giant, though only a hundred zhang tall, exerted an unprecedented pressure on Sha Bailou!

It was an indestructible feeling! As if not even an Immortal Emperor could break through this giant’s defense!

Sha Bailou felt like he was witnessing a divine miracle, stunned by the defense born in a mere Immortal Venerable’s body!

After a momentary daze, Sha Bailou realized in horror that the sky above had somehow... turned into the sea!

He remembered in his youth, reading in some absurd ancient text a description: The sea is the inverted sky.

Such a scene made him involuntarily recall that sentence.

The sky... became the inverted sea, with ocean waves roaring toward the earth, and the one controlling all this... was Ning Fan!

In the next moment, Ning Fan, who had activated the God-Slaying Giant mode, lit the second droplet design on the Water-Flooding Realm Bottle!

Then, the Sea of the Sky began pouring and falling toward the ground!

First, a single drop of seawater hit Sha Bailou’s face!

A single drop of seawater, only one drop... yet Sha Bailou felt he was struck by an entire mountain, the droplet tearing across, leaving a scar on his face!

One drop of water... so powerful, followed by waves formed by millions, tens of millions of water droplets engulfing him!

It felt as though the weight of an entire starry sky pressed upon Sha Bailou, his physical defense collapsing in an instant within the waves, eliciting a heartrending scream...

Not only Sha Bailou, but at this moment, the entire third layer of the Fire Soul Tower had changed completely, no land could be seen anymore, only a vast and surging sea remained as far as the eye could see...

Everything was submerged beneath the sea waves, leaving only Ning Fan, gradually releasing his God-Slaying stance, standing atop a gigantic bottle, floating amidst the sea, silently watching everything around him.

The giant bottle rose and fell on the waves, with Ning Fan calculating something silently in his mind.

Suddenly, coming to a conclusion, Ning Fan splayed his five fingers forward, the heavy sea waves split apart, revealing a faintly dying blood-red Spirit amidst the wave, which belonged to Sha Bailou.

However, this time, Sha Bailou’s Spirit didn’t perish, due to Ning Fan’s calculated restraint.

The reason Ning Fan spared Sha Bailou’s life wasn’t due to a kind heart, but because he figured Sha Bailou must have other souls within him.

Killing him... would only lead to his rebirth! It’s better to spare him momentarily, eradicate the close souls within him, then deal with his Spirit, achieving permanent cessation!

Poor Sha Bailou, of all people, he picked the monstrous Ning Fan to provoke.

One must know, even while testing the Water-Flooding Realm Bottle on Water Curtain Star against the Water Curtain Immortal King, Ning Fan only unleashed the power of a single water droplet design.

That single droplet almost drowned the Water Curtain Immortal King, and that battle probably left an indelible shadow on the Water Curtain Immortal King...

Yet this time, Ning Fan was nearly brutal... activating the power of two water droplets, not only Sha Bailou but even changing to a Four Calamity or Five Calamity Immortal King, few could survive such a flood!

Plus, this attack spanned an entire realm, unavoidable, exceedingly effective against groups of enemies.

Of course, the main disadvantage of the Water-Flooding Realm Bottle was its indiscriminate range, causing collateral damage with no distinction between friend and foe!

Because of this, Ning Fan had Emperor Butcher leave in advance; otherwise... even Ning Fan, the owner of the Water-Flooding Bottle, wasn’t confident of saving Emperor Butcher from a realm-wide flood...

...

At the instant Ning Fan captured Sha Bailou’s Spirit, on the external high platform, Emperor Lou Tuo, who was originally smiling faintly with eyes closed in meditation, suddenly sensed the event and opened his eyes, which were filled with fierce blood threads!

His treacherous disciple, even using full force, failed once more!