Grasping Evil

The old man clad in green robe was Song Yi while the beautiful woman in an orchid-coloured skirt was Liu Yunxu.

The two of them were the messengers from Rain Palace. However, at this moment, both of them felt dread towards Ning Fan.

This person possessed the Rain Divine Intent and he could even defeat Zhifeng easily. He must not be underestimated!

Is he one of the representatives from Rain Palace or the old ancestor of Yuanjue?

Tens of teleportations later, they travelled across thousands of li of distance and approached Ning Fan!

Their eyes felt pain whenever they met Ning Fan's gaze.

This person really have piercing eyes!

"My name is Song Yi. How about you?! When I was travelling around Wei Country a thousand years ago, I haven't heard of a Gold Core Realm cultivator whose name is Zhou Ming before!"

"A thousand years ago, you and I were Gold Core Realm cultivators! I too hadn't heard of an Old Scholar called Song Yi!

The Old Scholar had an extraordinary aura. The profound cultivation method that he cultivated emphasized on raising his qi. Therefore, his aura was even stronger than the black corpse in the past.

However, Ning Fan didn't budge an inch under the pressure of his aura. Additionally, he replied to the Old Scholar in an indifferent manner. For Ning Fan, there wasn't anyone that could make him surrender with mere pressure. Nobody!

All this time, the Old Scholar was testing Ning Fan. The first test was done using the sound wave and the fake Divine Intent. It showed that he was weaker than Ning Fan.

The second test was exerting pressure with his aura. However, he still couldn't take the slightest advantage against Ning Fan.

The Old Scholar, Song Yi, gave Ning Fan a cold gaze. After the tests, he now knew that Ning Fan wasn't an easy opponent.

However, he couldn't just let Ning Fan off when he knew that Ning Fan had intruded Wei Country using someone else's name and extorted more than 3 million immortal jade.

He turned his gaze to the beautiful woman and snorted arrogantly.

"Fine. For now, I'll believe that you are a cultivator of Wei Country. However, even if you are a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator of Wei Country, you don't have the right to take millions of immortal jade by force. Your actions just fermented chaos in this country."

"You want my immortal jade?" Without waiting for the Old Scholar to finish his speech, Ning Fan replied with a sneer.

"Precisely! I can disregard whatever you've done in Wei Country but not the huge amount of immortal jade you've obtained! Following the 'Rain Palace's World Law', you must contribute seventy percent of the total amount!"

"Really? Whatever that comes into my hands, there's no way I'd return it!" Ning Fan said with absolute resolve.

"Since you're basically asking for it, don't accuse us of bullying you when we 'act accordingly'! Fellow Daoist Liu, let's get started!"

The Old Scholar felt uneasy going against Ning Fan as he didn't have much confidence in defeating him. However, he will join forces with the beautiful woman this time. It shouldn't be difficult to handle Ning Fan.

As one of the messengers from the Rain Palace, he had an air of haughtiness. Even a Mid Nascent Soul Realm or Late Nascent Soul Realm cultivator would need to treat him with due respect!

Rain Palace's World Law stated that one must hand over seventy percent of the loot of a cultivation country.

If he hadn't met Ning Fan, then he could've ignored it. Since he had met him, there's no way he wouldn't take any action against Ning Fan!

After Song Yi and Liu Yunxu exchanged glances, both of them moved quickly and released the pressure of their aura. Their pressure alarmed everyone within a hundred li.

"Those who have no business with him, please leave this place! We from the Rain Palace will be enforcing the laws here."

It was a battle between Zhou Ming and two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. All the old monsters around intended to spectate the battle with their very eyes. However, they had no choice but to retreat a hundred li away and looked on coldly as bystanders.

From the view of Wei Country's cultivators, Zhou Ming was not a match for two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators no matter how strong he was.

As for the Old Scholar and the woman, they only planned to let Zhou Ming taste the power of Rain Palace so that he would obediently present the immortal jade. None of them had any intention of fighting him to the death.

This battle would end up with Ning Fan being defeated and giving up the immortal jade so that he could make peace with the messengers. This wasn't the first time the old monsters witnessed such means of enforcing the law. They knew that Rain Palace would never eliminate a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. Every single of them was a valuable strength to Rain Palace.

Logically, Ning Fan knew all of these. In fact, he had the notion of comparing his strength with this Old Scholar to see who was more powerful.

All the time, he had relied on Yin Plucking Finger and Yin Yang Transformation to subdue two Nascent Soul Realm female cultivators. The only opportunity he had to fight against a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator was the fight against the black corpse. Today was the perfect chance for him to fight in earnest with Nascent Soul cultivators.

Apart from that, Ning Fan was unwilling to give up the immortal jade. Seventy percent of the immortal jade he obtained would be equivalent to around two million immortal jade. Furthermore, he got the immortal jade with his own effort. How could he hand them over to the Rain Palace without any justifiable reason?

It would be absolutely impossible for him to surrender the immortal jade unless he loses the battle!

After Song Yi's voice resonated in the sky, all cultivators, including the disciples and sect leader of Yuanjue Valley, hurriedly evacuated from their sect.

Then, the both of them split up. The woman performed hand seals and her body became like lightning, vanishing to the sky after teleporting a few times. It was then that a hundred zhang long blue light vortex emerged.

Blue flames continuously sprang up from within the vortex and exploded in mid-air, transforming into a rain of droplets of blue flames which carried a whiff of orchid-like smell.

When she appeared, she grabbed the blue light vortex with her bare hands and all the fire rain condensed in her palm. Suddenly, a hundred zhang ruler blazing with faint blue flames came into existence. It fell directly from above Ning Fan!

Upon witnessing that, there was an uproar from a hundred li away where the bystanders were.

"Fourth Grade Spiritual Fire, Underworld Orchid Fire! It's indeed exceptional to be able to display a Low Grade Nascent Soul Realm technique using this fire and transform it into a fire ruler! Rumor has it that when she was killing demons in the past, she used the ruler to scorch tens of li of a land!"

This ruler was truly uncommon. After parting with the woman, the Old Scholar took out a sword and charged wildly at Ning Fan with the tip of the sword pointing directly at him!

Supreme Grade Magical Treasure, Winter Sword! The demons who died under this sword were far too many to count!

Both of them did not hold back their strength. They wanted to frighten Ning Fan in the very first bout. It was too difficult for Ning Fan to withstand the attacks of two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators!

Even though he possessed Yin Yang Transformation, he wasn't able to get near the beautiful woman and use his Yin Plucking Finger since she kept a sharp eye on Ning Fan.

He was left without a choice other than displaying his true strength!

He patted his storage pouch and a small golden black human which looked like a mud doll appeared on his palm. He hurled it towards the woman who was in mid-air. At the same time, a silver light flashed between his eyebrows and soon he was enveloped by silver light. The next moment, a nine zhang and nine chi giant came into view!

The small golden black human turned into a black refined corpse in a few breaths of time. The corpse qi it released was enough to cover the heavens. When it raised its hand and scratched the empty air, the hundred zhang blue light vortex above the woman was pulverized!

After Ning Fan became a giant, he let out a devilish roar and threw a punch. Thousands of zhang of heaven and earth around the Old Scholar was frozen and his escaping light was shattered, stopping his movement!

Although that punch was thrown at the air, he could feel that the strength of the punch envelop thousands of zhang around him!

His expression greatly changed. Brandishing his Winter Sword and performing a few sword techniques hastily, sword qi began to wrap his body.

Each of the sword qi was enough to kill a Harmonious Spirit Realm cultivator with ease. However, when the sound of crushing ice filled the air, heaven and earth shook and all sword qi were crushed! He wasn't hurt but his chest was slightly shaken by the vibration of the punch, causing him to almost cough up blood. Great disbelief shone through his eyes!

On the other hand, the black refined corpse was remarkably insensitive to pain. No matter how many times the woman dropped the fire ruler on it, there weren't any injuries on its body. Its body was heaven-defyingly strong!

Besides, the sheer physical strength of the black corpse was incredible. Every punch it threw carried a thunderous blast. After tens of punches launched at the fire ruler, cracks began to appear on its surface. It's only matter of time for the fire ruler to shatter into pieces.

Horrifying! Absolutely horrifying!

It's not just the bystanders who couldn't believe their eyes, but also both of the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators!

None of them had imagined that Zhou Ming owned a refined corpse with powerful physical defense that could ignore all attacks at the Early Nascent Soul Realm. Its strength was also strong enough to match a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator.

None of them were able to guess that the Old Scholar and the woman would display their ultimate techniques at the first exchange of pointers with Zhou Ming. However, Zhou Ming was able to withstand the two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators' ultimate techniques without experiencing any difficulties. Aside from withstanding their attacks, Ning Fan counterattacked them and within a few breaths, both sides were at a standstill!

Silver Bone Realm and a strange refined corpse. This Zhou Ming surely had a lot of methods!

The black corpse and the woman had an ongoing fight and it was difficult to determine who would come out on top.

As for the Old Scholar and Ning Fan, they were engaging each other for the third time already.

It was a failure on the part of the Old Scholar again. His fear towards Ning Fan became more deeply rooted in his heart. The way he stared at the wild nine zhang nine chi giant was as if he had met a formidable enemy.

Without giving the giant a second chance to display his ice-crushing fist, the Old Scholar immediately patted his storage pouch and three Supreme Grade Flying Swords flew out from his pouch. Every sword was similar to his Winter Sword! Every sword made Ning Fan's body feel danger!

"Four Swords of Winter! Suppressing the four directions!"

He vigorously performed hand seals and the four swords turned into four sword lights. After shining for a while, all of them appeared separately at the four directions around the giant, surrounding him.

It was a Sword Formation.

When the Sword Formation was completed, ancient and primitive sword qi condensed within the four swords. A strand of desolate killing intent was released from the swords and fused with the bright sky!

The sword qi was as ancient as the vast earth. Upon the emergence of the sword qi, heaven and earth quivered.

Meanwhile, a faint sword chant was reverberating in the sky like reading a mantra.

"In the land within the four swords, death is certain for any life form!"

The very moment the sword qi appeared, surprise became apparent in the woman's eyes. As for the black corpse which showed no inkling of intelligence, its body was trembling.

Those cultivators who were far away felt insignificant and helpless when faced with this ancient sword qi. All of them felt the threat of inevitable death in front of that sword qi.

Even Ning Fan who was currently a giant became serious. However, he let out a sneer the next moment.

The formation of the four Winter Swords imitated the Immortal Execution's style. Within the four swords, there was also a trace of the Immortal Execution's sword qi which no one knew how the Old Scholar got his hands on.

Every life form would die within the area surrounded by the four swords. With those swords, the Old Scholar who only had an Early Nascent Soul Realm cultivation was capable of even fighting a Mid Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, and come out undefeated. However, what good would it bring displaying this sword qi to Ning Fan?!

At that instant, the sound of Ning Fan's Consciousness of the Sword within his Sea of Consciousness could be heard resonating with the sword qi. It was somewhat attracting the power of the sword qi.

He then released his sword sense and instantaneously, the four swords floating in mid-air let out a sad screeches. And it was then that half-inch cracks formed on the bodies of the swords.

The sword qi of the swords was swept away by Ning Fan's sword sense and had been absorbed into his Sea of Consciousness, turning it into nourishment for strengthening his Consciousness of the Sword.

The sword qi within his Sea of Consciousness became invigorated and even his sword sense was a tad bit stronger than before. The Old Scholar's swords lost their power and the Immortal Execution's sword qi disappeared. They could no longer activate the sword formation to launch a powerful attack against the giant before them!

I don't understand… I don't understand! The Old Scholar couldn't comprehend why the sword qi was taken away even though the sword formation was completed. It was just about to inflict serious injuries on the giant!

When he saw the dark-coloured sword sense, he was thunderstruck. He now realized that Ning Fan might already have condensed the Consciousness of the Sword and sword sense!

"This person was able to break my sword formation and even steal my sword qi… In that case, I am only left with one technique to fight against him! Lightning Sacrifice Formation, arranged with Lightning Sacrifice Luopan1!"

He took out tens of silver-coloured disk arrays. After splitting them with his bare hands, each of the disk arrays floated strangely in the air before him. Each of them was activated using his spirit sense and then silver patterns of a Dan Realm Formation emerged in the sky.

There were a total of forty-nine lightning patterns!

That formation was called Ancient Lightning Sacrifice Formation!

This formation was truly the Old Scholar's final trump card. Once the formation is completed, tens of thousands of lightning would strike. It was a fatal attack for Early Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. Even if the giant before him escaped death, he would still suffer heavy injuries!

When the formation surfaced, all the bystanders became wide-eyed and hastily retreated to a further distance.

If the attack was initiated, the vicinity within two hundred li might be bombarded by lightning into oblivion!

"Old Song! This item is meant for suppressing demons. You must not simply show it!" The beautiful woman who was far away got bewildered after she discovered that the Old Scholar activated the disk arrays.

"There's no harm in using it. The formation has already been activated and there won't be any errors. Besides, the disk arrays are impossible to damage. The elders won't accuse me for using it to frighten this guy. Unfortunately, the lives of all Yuanjue Valley's cultivators who are below Gold Core Realm will be forfeited within the lightning formation. However, there is still a great number of Harmonious Spirit and Vein Opening Realm cultivators in Rain World. Their deaths aren't even worth mentioning!"

The Old Scholar's focus was all on Ning Fan. There's no other thing that would be able to distract him.

The reason he did all of these was because Ning Fan made him too tense.

At this moment, cold light reflected from within the giant's eyes.

Ancient Lightning Sacrifice Formation… Rumors has it that this formation contained the lost divine ability of a fiendgod, the Lightning Sacrifice Technique. However, no one knows about the specifics.

"Seven" was the cardinal numbers of this formation. A single layer of formation was evaluated to be at the Spirit Realm. Seven layers of this formation would make it a Dan Realm formation. Forty-nine layers would bring it it into Nascent Soul Realm. Three hundred and forty-three layers would turn it into a Divine Transformation Realm Formation. Two thousand four hundred and one layers would be at the level of Mortal Void Realm. Sixteen thousand eight hundred and seven layers of formation would be regarded at the level of Immortal Void Realm Formation! The greater the number of layers, the harder the arrangement of the formation…

Since the Old Scholar was able to arrange forty-nine layers of formation, he surely had an exceptional cultivation of the Formation path! It's just that his personality was overly indifferent.

When the formation was opened, the area within two hundred li was flooded with lightning! Many of Yuanjue Valley's disciples weren't able to escape from the lightning!

Originally, the elimination of Yuanjue Valley's was not Ning Fan's business but it did help him obtain the immortal jades. Therefore, karma has formed between him and the sect.

"You've crossed the line!"

A cold light shone from within the giant's eyes!

The lightning star on his glabella blinked multiples times continuously!

His voice was comparable to the thunder roaring in the sky. It was then that flashes of lightning started to form vaguely in the clear heavens!

A single flash, ten flashes, hundreds of flashes, thousands of flashes and tens of thousands of flashes!

Under the sky full of flashes of lightning, the lightning power of Old Scholar's profound Lightning Sacrifice Formation wasn't even to comparable to his.

When the Old Scholar spotted the silver star in between Ning Fan's eyebrows, he shuddered with fear.

"Divine Star! You possess Immemorial Divine Veins!"

"Get lost!"

The giant's roar seemed to have merged with the lightning fury of the heavens. A unique force imbued his voice making it seemed as if there was a thunderblast within the minds of the Old Scholars, the woman and all the cultivators who were observing the battle!

He seemed to have just demonstrated the strong divine ability of a cultivator at Peak Nascent Soul Realm, Spirit Speech.

The Lightning Sacrifice Formation was broken under the influence of his roar.

All forty-nine silver disk arrays were cracked!

The Old Scholar's consciousness was connected with the disk arrays. Therefore, when the disk arrays cracked, he immediately spurted out blood ceaselessly from his mouth, suffering serious injuries. Judging from the damage he took, he would need at least tens of years of cultivation to regain his previous cultivation realm!

Get lost!

Under the heavenly pressure, those words made the Old Scholar feel inferior when facing Ning Fan, as if he faced a Divine Transformation Realm cultivator instead. His body trembled uncontrollably with fear.

Ning Fan told him, a reputable Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, to get lost!

Although he didn't want to give up, he had a feeling that if he didn't follow Ning Fan's instruction, his life would undoubtedly end there!

When he saw Ning Fan had a blood-red jade slip2 in his palm, the feeling he had earlier magnified even more!

A vicious killing intent was concealed within the jade slip. The killing intent would be able to tear the Old Scholar into pieces!

"Fellow Daoist Zhou Ming, please show mercy! An old fellow like me will immediately leave this place! Fellow Daoist Liu, hurry up and let's go!"

This time, the Old Scholar no longer held the arrogance he had earlier when he denounced Ning Fan publicly for his violation of laws. There was only a single thought in his mind, to leave as soon as possible.

He decided that he's not going to have any more business with Zhou Ming no matter what his identity was or what had he done in Wei Country. He even hoped that he would never have anything to do with Zhou Ming in the future.

In the Old Scholar's opinion, Zhou Ming was unfathomable!

Furthermore, he had a guess on Zhou Ming's identity. Although his guess was incorrect, his guess was something that made the messengers of Rain Palace to have no audacity to oppose him.

Every cultivator stared in disbelief upon seeing both the representatives from Rain Palace left hastily.

After this battle, there's no way ordinary Nascent Soul Realm cultivators would underestimate Zhou Ming of Wei Country!

…

Two escaping lights were fleeing for their lives. It was only after fleeing for a few days that the Old Scholar let out a sigh of relief and slowed down as they were already tens of thousands of li from Yuanjue Valley.

"Old Song, are we going to leave just like that?" A beautiful woman on a mountain peak asked after her magic power recovered.

"Or what, do you want us to seek death in Yuanjue Valley?" Song Yi replied harshly. When he recalled Ning Fan's methods, he would still feel frightful about it.

"Were we going to die? Old Song might have suffered injuries, but it is not to the extent of dying. We are Nascent Soul Realm cultivators and we have inexhaustible life-saving means. Even if our bodies were to be destroyed, we would still be able to escape with our Nascent Soul. No matter how strong that Zhou Ming was, he wouldn't have the capability to kill us. Apart from that, our identities are reputable as we are divine messengers from the Rain Palace. Perhaps he can kill us, but he would not dare to do so." The beautiful woman answered with a hint of disapproval to the Old Scholar's words. She concluded that while she might not be Ning Fan's opponent, her identity as Rain Palace's messenger made her feel better than Ning Fan.

"He couldn't be killed! The means he possessed were strange and unpredictable. My famous technique, the Four Swords Formation was crushed by his sword sense. The Lightning Sacrifice Formation that I arranged to pin him down was broken down by his lightning-based technique. At the end, he even took out a jade slip. If I wasn't wrong, there's an all-out attack at Divine Transformation Realm stored in it. Not to mention me, even a Mid Nascent Soul Realm cultivator would die after receiving that attack!"

There was still a lingering fear within the Old Scholar heart. He quickly continued by expressing the biggest but most incorrect guess in his mind.

"Additionally, if I'm right, this Zhou Ming might be the descendant of that lord. That lord bears the same surname with him."

"Which lord?" The woman curiously asked.

"The lord who was born in Rain Palace but died in the Endless Sea. He was the person that the Divine Emperor was fearful of. He possessed the divine veins of lightning, condensed the divine star of lightning, and mastered lightning. His Lightning Sacrifice Technique was made to be unrivalled for other cultivators at his realm. Once, he had fought the three Emperors of the Sword World. Although he did not win, he managed to remain undefeated in that fight. Rumor has it that he was the first person to achieve Void Fragmentation Realm in the Rain World tens of thousands of years ago!"

"What?! Old Song, are you saying that he's the descendant of 'Thunder Emperor Bu Zhou'?!"

"Shhh. Don't speak of it so carelessly. You must not reveal this to the others. All in all, I have no business in this matter anymore. I am just an insignificant messenger from Rain Palace. I don't want to be involved in it…"

The fear in Song Yi did not recede. In fact, the fear intensified whenever he thought of Ning Fan's means, strength and "identity".

As a matter of fact, Ning Fan got the pseudonym of "Zhou Ming" from the Demon Sinister Forest. It absolutely had no relation with "Thunder Emperor Bu Zhou". It was just a coincidence that Ning Fan would be regarded as the descendant of the emperor.

However, Song Yi might not have the guts to face Ning Fan anymore in his entire life. For him, Ning Fan was too terrifying!

In fact, the divine messengers of Rain Palace were nothing but ants when comparing them with Thunder Emperor Bu Zhou. They should be regarded as coolies3 of Rain Palace.

<strong>Note:</strong>

1. Luopan is Chinese Magnetic Compass

2. Jade slip is media for writing documents in China before the introduction of paper. Wood slips were more widely used in the past. Please refer here to see the picture.

3. Coolie is the unskilled labourer in India, China and some other Asian countries.

4. Measurement: Li = 500 meters, Zhang = 3.13 meters, Chi = 30.7 cm

<strong>Translator Team:</strong>

G-Team [Tommy (TL), Roel (Editor)]