Grasping Evil

"Did you know that the culprit responsible for the annihilation of dozens of clans had already been taken down? The culprit was eradicated by the old ancestor of Hu Clan who sacrificed his life after taking the Decaying Corpse Pill. However, Hu Clan suffered an irrecoverable loss, causing them to become a third-class major power and thus, cutting its relationship with Purple Light Sect."

In the Dual Cultivation Palace of Sinister Sparrow Sect, several female disciples were discussing the stirring matter of Yue Country.

However, there was always a difference between the truth and a rumour, this rumour was naturally fabricated by Ning Fan.

Ten days had already passed since the battle on the Cold Moon Mountain, but the heat remained unabated. Moreover, another thing that caused a slight stir in Sinister Sparrow Sect was Wang Yao's disappearance.

He had left the sect and hadn't returned for a long time. Many elders had regarded him as a possible defector, but after the old ancestor of Wang Clan came personally to apologize for his descendant's irresponsible action, the matter gradually subsided.

Subsequently, something new came up and became the hot topic in the sect – Ning Fan's seclusion.

Everyone knew that Ning Fan had gone into seclusion to prepare for his battle against Revered White. The former was known as the number one expert amongst experts below the Gold Core realm, whereas the latter was an old monster who had gained high popularity over the years in Yue Country. The battle between these two had also attracted the attention of many across the entire Yue Country.

However, only a small number of people thought that Ning Fan would win. Despite having a monstrous talent, he was just too young, moreover, he practiced Dual Cultivation Law which made his combat power slightly inferior to his peers. As for the Revered White, Bai Feiteng, some said that his Profound Ice Art had already reached the third level of the fourth realm and he had once engulfed a Third Grade Cold Qi by coincidence.

As for his combat power, he could find almost no adversaries among his peers. Last time, he fought against a late Gold Core old expert from the Great Void Sect, Elder Songfeng for days, but it ended in a draw. This showed how powerful the elder was.

When the few female disciples in the Dual Cultivation Palace gradually shifted the topic to Ning Fan, Bai Lu who was meditating on a hassock couldn't help but knit her brows, as if the name Ning Fan irritated her every time.

This feeling of irritation was immediately turned into seriousness when she sensed a girl coming to Dual Cultivation Palace.

She stood up, gently brushed off the dust on her clothes and brought her disciples along to welcome the visitor.

Ever since Ning Fan went into seclusion, there was a blue-clothed girl often visiting the palace. She would stand outside the seclusion room of Ning Fan for long hours.

She was Young Mistress Lan Mei that not even Bai Lu would dare to neglect.

"Greetings, Young Mistress." Bai Lu greeted with an unnatural smile.

"Why is he still in seclusion?" Lan Mei's voice was cold and filled with authority.

"Yes." Bai Lu was reluctant to talk much about Ning Fan.

"Bai Lu, come with me, I have things to ask you."

Lan Mei's eyes glittered as she said in a tone that allowed no refusal. So, Bai Lu could only lower her head and followed Lan Mei into the courtyard where Ning Fan lived.

But as soon as they entered the room, Lan Mei removed her cold and proud face and burst into a laughter.

Her mood had gotten better after her illness was cured and her smile was getting more beautiful.

"Sister Bai, there's no one here. So you don't have to feel so restrained. I want to learn more today, teach me…"

"It's not over yet? No!" Bai Lu no longer feigned her look of respect and expressed her discontentment.

"Just teach me some. You and Ning Fan have…uh…so many times…" Lan Mei was using a rare pleading tone.

"I have nothing to do with him. If you say this again, I swear, I won't ever teach you again!"

"Alright, alright, alright. Sister won't say it anymore. So can sister teach me now?"

Lan Mei's tone was soft as if she's conversing with a senior. She wanted to learn all kinds of techniques that could please Ning Fan from Bai Lu. That day, she had already become Ning Fan's woman and in the future, she would become his wife. There were some things that she had to master well. Because she didn't have her mother to pass down this kind of techniques to her, she needed to ask the help of the number one devilish girl in Dual Cultivation Palace, Bai Lu.

There were many techniques that Bai Lu could teach like the All Pleasurable Art, the Bed Art and etc. Moreover, since Bai Lu had lots of intimate encounters with Ning Fan, she wasn't actually an outsider to Lan Mei anymore.

As Lan Mei was after all still a Young Mistress, Bai Lu was afraid that her stubbornness would offend this Young Mistress, so she could only provide what Lan Mei demanded reluctantly.

Without anyone knowing it, the proud daughter of Sinister Sparrow and the number one devilish girl, Bai Lu were discussing the *Spring Secret Art openly.

…

Ning Fan didn't have a clue about anything that was going on outside. This half-a-year seclusion could be very long for ordinary people, but too short for cultivators to finish what they wanted to finish.

After sweeping away all the distracting thoughts inside his head while in the dark and quiet rocky room, an idea popped out in his head – I need to enhance my strength further!

After the battle with Wang Yao, he became more aware of his shortcomings. His attacks weren't strong enough and his defences were inadequate. Even though he had much battling experience than all of his peers, he was doomed the moment he confronted a true old expert.

He had also reached the same conclusion regarding his magical strength. During the battle with Wang Yao, he casted every one of his trump cards with his entire strength while Wang Yao used every magical art that could deal a massive damage casually.

One not only needed magical power to cast a magical art, but also the cultivation law that would be combined with this art. Although the Snow Treading Art of Ning Fan had already reached the second level, he had never thoroughly comprehended it. Therefore, he only acquired the Ice Rainbow Evading Art. There were still many other Ice Elemental Magical Arts which he had yet to acquire.

As for the Black Demon Art, he hadn't even cultivated a bit of it, but after swallowing the Black Demon Flame by chance, he would probably be able to use it now. However, because of the lack of proper magical art, he wouldn't be able to exert the true power of the flame.

If he was really dying for trump cards, he would be left with only two sword Qi, the Fire Transformation Sword Strike and the White Bone Mountain. Moreover, he had only comprehended a part of these two sword Qi, which meant that he had still a long way to go before reaching their peak power.

The silver radiance in his physique made him stronger than peak Harmonious Spirit body cultivator, but the truth was, he hadn't once cultivated a body refining technique.

Cultivating using magical power was called magical art or technique whereas the cultivation of one's physique was called a body refining art or technique. Strictly speaking, the giant form of Wang Yao on that day was a body refining technique. Within the ancient Fiendgod's divine ability, there were numerous body refining technique that had powers even greater than magical art.

However, whether it was magical art or body refining art, Ning Fan had never really practiced any of it. In the memory of Ancient Chaos, the ancient Devil Dao – the Dual Cultivation Law – was acquired when one reached the realm where both magic and physique combined into one. Bone Sovereign had achieved such an extent in his body refining technique whereas Ning Fan made none of such achievements either in magical or physical aspect.

As for the Separation Slayer, it was equipped with the Soul Burning ability, but its grade was pitifully low. It was already astounding that it could advance from low grade early rank to low grade high rank, but because of Ning Fan's rapid progress, a Low Grade High Rank Magical Treasure was no longer useful to him anymore.

So the Separation Slayer had to be refined again. If the rib of the Bone Sovereign was fused into it, it would definitely increase the power of the Separation Slayer and may even a acquire a more powerful divine ability.

Thus, the purpose of his seclusion was very clear.

First, he had to push the Black Demon Art and Snow Treading Art to the peak of second level and master the magical technique of ice and fire.

Second, he would have to cultivate a defensive kind of body refining art by maximizing the effect of his silver bone body refining realm.

Lastly, he would need to reforge the Separation Slayer with the rib bone of Bone Sovereign.

Furthermore, there were still two magical arts he needed to cultivate properly – the Falsifying Art and Defence Art.

The three techniques of the Divine Art included concealment, defence and incarnation. The first technique called Falsifying Art required Spirit Refining Grass to cultivate. Coincidentally, he had plenty of them from Meng Chu's garden.

The second technique called the Defence Art required one to swallow a spirit of magical treasure which Ning Fan already had much in his possession.

There were too many things he needed to do and half-a-year was just too short, however, he believed that after immersing himself in seclusion for half-a-year to scrape off the weaknesses that he had would make him become a true expert.

Whether it was cultivation or the enhancement of magical art, they were all the preparations he needed before breaking through into the Gold Core realm.

Even with the inheritance of Ancient Chaos, it didn't raise the percentage of his success in breaking through to the Gold Core realm. According to his calculation, he would need at least ten years of seclusion to have a chance of breaking through the bottleneck before Gold Core realm.

But if he failed, the ten years of effort would be in vain!

Cultivators with inferior potential only had 10 percent success rate of breaking through the bottleneck of the Gold Core realm. As for those geniuses, their success rate wouldn't be more than 20 percent. Every Gold Core expert had tried many attempts to break through that bottleneck before becoming a real Gold Core expert. Anyone who could make a breakthrough on their first attempt possessed a heaven defying luck.

Ning Fan was calculating his success rate in core formation. He might not have an excellent potential, but he wasn't inferior either. So, it was safe to say that he had 20 percent chance of success.

"If I pluck the two girls, Bing Ling and Yue Ling, the success rate will become 30 percent, but that will be at the expense of them."

Ning Fan's eyes were filled with mixed feelings. He glanced at the Cauldron Ring on his left wrist and hesitated for the first time whether to pluck the two girls or not. In the end, he decided not to do so because he couldn't convince himself to do such a thing to someone whom he was indebted to.

After letting out a sigh, he patted the top of his skull and a soul incarnation of half-step Nascent Soul realm exited his body. Due to the unstable condition of this incarnation, it wasn't able to deal much damage to opponents, but it was still quite useful for sneak-attacking.

"Because of the slashing of my soul, my success rate in core formation will be lowered by 50% compared to an average expert, but my powerful spirit sense could help me resist against the Heart Devil. Therefore, instead of reducing my success rate, it has increased by 40% instead"

Later, Ning Fan slapped his storage pouch and produced a blood-red pill the size of a fingernail. It contained a vast amount of magical power. If one listened closely, one could hear the sound of a heart beating inside of it.

When he saw the pill, a trace of disappointment was seen on his face. This was the Cultivation Pill produced by the old ancestor of Hu Clan using his soul. It was supposed to be given to Hu Ming, but Ning Fan's emergence had altered the old ancestor's original intention.

"Cultivation Pill…it was condensed using the magical power of early Gold Core realm after the old ancestor of Hu Clan took the Decaying Corpse Pill. Although it's a little inferior compared to an early Gold Core Dao Fruit, the difference isn't really significant. After consuming this pill, my success rate in core formation will be increased to 60 percent."

Lastly, he took out a primitive scroll of medicine record that was gifted by Xue Qing.

There was a Third Revolution Pill named Golden Red Clouds Pill in the medicine record.

Even though this pill could only raise the success rate by 10 percent, this 10 percent might play a critical role as to whether Ning Fan would succeed in the core formation or not.

Additionally, after taking in this pill, even if he failed in core formation, it could still help him accumulate magical power inside his body, laying the foundation and shortening the time for the next breakthrough.

With this pill, Ning Fan's success rate in core formation would be 70 percent!

If this success rate was spread out, he was afraid that each and every Gold Core expert will be gaping at Ning Fan. There had never been an expert with such a high success rate. Furthermore, those old experts would be more than willing to exchange for pills that could raise their cultivation after core formation instead of spending time, effort and resources to increase the percentage of success in core formation with their limited resources.

They weren't short of time and they weren't afraid of failures. Ning Fan however, lacked such luxury. Core formation itself was a time consuming process. If he failed this time, he wouldn't dare imagine that kind of powerlessness he would be feeling while confronting the Mosha Emperor a hundred years later.

"70% chance of success isn't low, but I still need to increase it higher! If I perform the Body and Essence Dual Cultivation, my success rate will increase by another 5 percent. If I advance the Black Demon Art and Snow Treading Art to the third level, it will increase by another 10 percent. In that case, my total success rate will become 85 percent. I have already reached my limit for this. So if I still fail after all of that, I can only accept the Heaven's will."

Ning Fan showed a helpless smile. There was no one who could defy the Heaven's will.

The Old Devil had been embarrassed by Heaven's will when his True Immortal realm fell drastically to the Harmonious Spirit realm, and even to the extent where he couldn't become a cultivator anymore, like a crippled man. Anyone who violated the will of the Heavens would never end up well.

The word defying in heaven defying lied with endless difficulty.

If Ning Fan had a choice, he wouldn't pick the path of defying the heavens as that was too difficult, painful and lonely.

If he still failed in the core formation process even with 85% chance of success, he would make sure to defy the heavens next time in order to succeed.

"Let's start the seclusion! First off, I will have to comprehend two different types of cultivation law first. The more cultivation laws one can comprehend, the better it is. This is the right time to use the third technique of the Divine Art, Body Art and also known as the cloning technique."

While Ning Fan gestured his fingers with incantations, an illusory clone of himself exited his body one after another. It had the same appearance as Ning Fan, but there was no cultivation base inside of it.

This type of cloning technique was akin to a fake clone of oneself. It was completely different from an incarnation. Using these clones in battle would mean sending them to their end, but it could be quite useful when it came to collective comprehension.

In an instant, roughly a hundred clones were produced. This was the maximum limit of his half-step Nascent Soul realm spirit sense.

"All of you can only live for three days. So within these three days, I want you all to comprehend the Black Demon Art and Snow Treading Art together!"

"Roger!"

A hundred illusory Ning Fan replied in unison.

Using a hundred clones to comprehend was a hundred times faster than the comprehension speed of an ordinary person. Although this was a great burden to one's spirit sense, Ning Fan was determined to endure the pain.

Advancing these two cultivation laws to the peak of the second level wasn't a difficult task in half-a-year's time of seclusion.

In the first transformation, Ning Fan was transformed into a cultivator from a mortal human after obtaining the inheritance of an Immortal Emperor.

For the second transformation, Ning Fan desired to become a true and powerful expert.

While Ning Fan was still in his seclusion, some changes began to take place back in Ning City.

In the City Lord's room, inside the fragrant boudoir, Zhihe and Si Wuxie were sleeping on the bed with their usual clothes as if they had had a long chit-chat last night.

The innocent-natured Zhihe and Si Wuxie who had lost her memory seemed to be getting along very well.

As some of the morning light streamed in from the curtains, Zhihe lazily made a roll and continued with her sleep, while Si Wuxie's whole body shook lightly as if she had been electrocuted.

Immediately, she opened her beautiful eyes and was awoken.

In fact, she wasn't really awake, she was sinking into the memory of her body.

"Ning Fan! My sect! I remember them now!"

Si Wuxie revealed an expression of indignation, but almost instantly, she felt a sudden pain and passed out.

After a long time, she reopened her eyes and returned to her pure girl style.

"It was strange. I had a very strange dream just now."

"Hmm? Sisi, what's wrong with you?" Zhihe rubbed her eyes and yawned.

"It's nothing. I just had a dream. I dreamt about my other self. It was strange." Si Wuxie was bewildered.

"You must be thinking too much about it. Oh, by the way, I'm going to break through to the Harmonious Spirit realm soon, I will collect the pills from Nan Gong and then go into seclusion later. Would you mind keeping a lookout for me?" Zhihe sounded pleadingly. When Si Wuxie heard that Zhihe was breaking through to Harmonious Spirit realm, her mouth couldn't close which made her seem cute.

You haven't cultivated once in your life, so how are you able to break through to the Harmonious Spirit realm?

Although she had lost her memory, she could vaguely remember that Harmonious Spirit realm was an extremely difficult level to break through.

Could the silly-looking Zhihe really had such a high talent for cultivation? No wonder master is so fond of her.

Speaking of her master, she was missing him very much.

<strong>Note:</strong>

1. *Spring – A common euphemism for sex.

<strong>Credit:</strong>

G-SEAN(TL)