Grasping Evil

"All the information about the Spirit Seals is all in this jade slip. I recorded them down myself. If you wish to learn, just take it…"

Lu Wan'er took out a jade slip from her storage pouch and passed it to Ning Fan's palm.

Thoughtlessly, her hand came into contact with Ning Fan's palm, making her cheeks blush. Bashfully looking the other way, she pulled back her hand and shifted the topic of their conversation.

"Oh yeah…I wonder what kind of spiritual iron would General Bei want to use on this whip…"

"This!"

A dark, glossy spiritual iron appeared in his hands. As soon as Lu Wan'er held in her hands, her large and beautiful eyes glittered.

"A Mortal Void Grade spiritual iron which possesses the ability of Power Drain! You actually have such spiritual iron that not even the Honorable Demon Generals could get?!"

"So Mistress Wan'er, are you confident enough to use it to augment my whip?"

"This…Of course!"

Lu Wan'er pressed her lips. This whip was already a High Supreme Grade Treasure. If she was to perform spirit augmentation on it, it might be pretty hard. Aside from that, she needed to use a Mortal Void Grade spiritual iron augment unto the whip…

Perhaps it's going to be a strenuous process for me to pull that off…

However, since it was the only thing that she could help Ning Fan do, she was reluctant to reject him even if it was going to be difficult…

Back in Seven Apricot City, although Mo Rushui had managed to imbue the Soul Ignition ability to the Separation Slayer Sword but it was just a Low Supreme Grade flying sword.

What Mo Rushui had done was definitely not something that could be compared to imbuing the Power Drain ability to the whip this time.

"Thank you… But don't overexert yourself. Magical treasures are lifeless things after all. A thing like that is not worth you sacrificing your well-being…"

Ning Fan saw through Lu Wan'er's concern. After gently caressing her hair, he shot her a smile and left, leaving her alone at the side of the gold-smelting furnace, flushing.

Holding the Spirit Crushing Whip in her hands, her heart became even more resolute.

"It's nothing to do with worth. Instead, it's all about a person's will of being willing to do it or not…"

…

In the pill refinement room, Ning Fan sat down on a cattail hassock. He did not immediately begin concocting pills. On the contrary, he pressed on his glabella and summoned the Separation Slayer Sword.

Throughout the entire journey he had gone through, countless killings had sharpened the sword light of the weapon. Even so, it was only considered a Low Supreme Grade weapon which was still a long way to go before it advances into the Mid Supreme Grade.

A magical treasure at that level would not be able to inflict any damage on Divine Transformation Realm experts at all.

Divine Transformation Realm…Immemorial Demon Bloodline…Ning Fan had a premonition that in the near future, he would have to face a bunch of demons with Immemorial Demon Bloodlines, including Li Ban.

If I don't have a suitable Immemorial Divine Weapon, I will be in a very unfavorable position when confronting them…

The Immemorial Star used to forge the Spirit Crushing Whip was too little. The only useful part of the whip was its ability to destroy one's Nascent Soul by just striking their treasures. If it were to be enchanted with the Power Drain ability, it would definitely be able to wear out one's magic power during its attacks. Its abilities would really be exceptional but its destructive power would not be naturally strong.

A whip was meant for binding people up and sneak-attacking enemies.

A sword was known for its sharpness to cut down all kinds of avatars and incarnations.

After exerting some strength through his palm, the shadow of a sword gleaming with starlight transformed into a long sword.

"Separation Slayer…Separation Slayer…You are the most meaningful weapon to me. You are my first Immemorial Divine Weapon, my first weapon which I seized for myself by challenging my fate…"

Ning Fa took out the jade slip and placed it on his forehead.

Instantly, a soft and gentle female voice resounded in his head, giving him guidance on how to use the Spirit Seals.

After a while, Ning Fan kept the jade slip and his gaze lingered on the sword in silence.

The methods to imprint the Spirit Seals were not hard to learn since it was just a Mid Nascent Soul Realm demonic technique.

The only difficult part was the ancient demon characters that formed the Spirit Seals.

Each of the characters was a set of runes which conceals an incredible ability.

Up until now, Ning Fan had only learned 200 of them.

Each of the Spirit Seals were formed by combining a primary demon character with different subordinate characters.

Among the two hundred characters he had learned, the Spirit Seals that could be formed completely were just three.

"Hardness", "Flame" and "Sharpness".

"Hardness" was a Spirit Seal that could fortify the defense of a magical treasure.

"Flame" was a Spirit Seal that could enhance the power of flames of a magical treasure.

"Sharpness" was a Spirit Seal that could increase the sharpness of a magical treasure.

Ning Fan's eyes flashed. The most suitable Spirit Seal for the Separation Slayer Sword was none other than "Sharpness"!

A sword didn't need to possess a fancy ability. A swordsman did not need to develop a complicated method to wield it. As long as the sword was able to cut down enemies, it was good enough.

After making up his mind, he called out the word and began to perform the necessary hand seals. When his finger landed on the body of the sword, a multitude of ancient demon characters were drawn. The "Sharpness" Spirit Seal primarily constituted of the word "sharp" and eleven other subordinate demon characters.

In total, it would need 312 strokes!

As soon as he began to draw the first stroke, Ning Fan felt that it expended a unit of his demon power. It seemed as if the demon power had transformed into energy to power the rune!

The augmentation of the Spirit Seals is not really something a human can do.

The word "sharpness" itself contained 312 strokes. That is to say, only the Late Nascent Soul Realm demons who has at least 312 units of demon power would be able to imprint that Spirit Seal on their magical treasures. Besides, they would probably need to rest for a long time in order to fully replenish their demon power after engraving a single Spirit Seal.

When Ning Fan was drawing the ninety-seventh stroke, he failed due to the lack of smoothness on the tip of his finger.

He pondered in silence, reflecting the manner in which he drew the characters and restarted again very quickly.

This time, there was a slight improvement as he only failed after engraving the 276th stroke.

After failing for the second time, he comprehended something from the drawings and started all over again.

Finally, he succeeded on the third time!

When the "Sharpness" Spirit Seal became an abstruse mark embedded unto the body of the sword, Ning Fan could noticeably find that the sword trembled!

Although it was just a character, it looked like the power of Separation Slayer Sword had increased by a bit.

"Interesting. If I engrave ten thousand Spirit Seals of the same kind unto the Separation Slayer Sword, it will surely advance into the same grade as Spiritual Treasures. Its sharpness alone is enough to shred the void realm apart and kill Divine Transformation Realm beings!"

Ning Fan heaved a deep breath and traces of demon power became Spirit Seals, embedding themselves unto the sword.

2 marks, 3 marks, 4 marks…

The more Ning Fan did, the more well-versed he became in drawing the Spirit Seal. Of course, he was just becoming more familiar with the word "Sharpness".

Until the twenty-fourth Spirit Seal was drawn, Ning Fan's demon power was nearly used up. Only then did he stop and exhaled a mouthful of foul gas. Without wasting any time, he consumed a pill and rested to restore his demon power.

One day later, his demon power was fully replenished. It was then that he continued to engrave the Spirit Seals on the Separation Slayer Sword.

25 marks, 26 marks, 27 marks…

After finishing the forty-ninth Spirit Seal, his demon power was fully consumed once again.

In the meantime, he realized that the more the number of Spirit Seals he engraved, the harder it became to carve a new Spirit Seal.

He consumed a pill and regulated his breathing. On the next day, he repeated the same action again.

Day after day, the Golden Flame Chariot never ceased to move and the "flies" tailing after them never stopped chasing. At the same time, while Ning Fan was engraving Spirit Seals on his sword, Lu Wan'er was performing spirit augmentation on his magical treasure.

On the fifth day, the number of Spirit Seals on the Separation Slayer Sword increased to 114, making it break through to the Mid Supreme Grade.

On the fourteenth day, there were a total of 328 Spirit Seals on the sword, making it a High Supreme Grade weapon.

On the sixty-fifth day, he managed to engrave 1547 Spirit Seals on the sword, turning it into a Peak Supreme Grade weapon!

On the one hundred and fifty-fourth day, the number of Spirit Seals on the sword increased to 7455, making it even more sharper than an ordinary Profound Heaven Defective Treasure!

Five months!

Throughout the five months, Ning Fan consumed all of the pills that restore demon power gifted by Xu Rushan just for refining a weapon.

However, the 7456th mark became extremely strenuous to engrave. Even if he forcibly engraves it, it would not be perfect.

Perhaps it's because I only have that much demon power… After all, engraving Spirit Seals could only be done by beings who have outstanding demon power.

Staring at the long sword shining with starlight, Ning Fan's eyes flashed with excitement!

This sword has become exceedingly sharp!

After being enhanced by 7455 Spirit Seals, this sword became slightly stronger than common Profound Heaven Defective Treasures.

Besides that, because Ning Fan had only engraved "Sharpness" on the sword, a true flying sword at the Spiritual Grade would probably not be able to rival his Separation Slayer Sword in terms of sharpness!

By just placing it on his palm, the sharpened edges of the sword glinted due to its extreme sharpness.

Ning Fan held the hilt and simply wielded the sword. With just a single slash, the hollow air in front of him split into two, exposing a trace of darkness…

"What an exceptionally sharp sword! With this sword, I am now even able to cut through the strong defense of Yue Ling Kong's body which is at the Second Level of the Jade Life Body Refining Realm!"

For ordinary cultivators, most of them would never neglect the agility, the durability, special abilities and other elements of the flying sword just to increase its sharpness.

But for Ning Fan, he did not even consider any of those elements because to him, the Separation Slayer Sword was not a flying sword!

He also was not worried that his sword would break due to lack of durability because it was a sword that was wholly forged using Immemorial Stars. It might be defeated by other weapons but it would never break!

After five months of hard work, Ning Fan was pretty satisfied with the outcome.

With a single touch on the Separation Slayer Sword, it shrunk into starlight and went into Ning Fan's glabella.

He spread his spirit sense and found out that Lu Wan'er was still in the middle of spirit augmentation on his Spirit Crushing Whip after five months.

A frown appeared between his brows. Internally, he was filled with a hint of worry.

"Is it so difficult to use a Mortal Void Grade spiritual iron to augment a Supreme Grade treasure…"

After sensing that Lu Wan'er's qi still remained stable, only then did he heaved a sigh of relief.

Five months had passed and the Golden Flame Chariot had travelled for 240 million li* from the Northern Desert City during that period of time!

Even so, there were still 500 million li* of distance left to the Luo Yun's Province.

Since there was still such a large distance before he arrives at his destination, the only thing he could do at the moment was to concoct pills while waiting for Wan'er to complete the spirit augmentation.

"Condense!"

In the pill refinement room, Ning Fan grabbed the air and conjured two illusory pill cauldrons.

The first one was full of mist and moisture while the other one billowed with devil qi.

Forming pill cauldrons with Divine Intent! It was an essential technique that a Fifth Revolution pill master must possess!

The first pill cauldron was the cauldron formed from his Divine Intent of Rain while the second one was conjured from his Devil Intent of Evil Luo Mountain!

The Devil Intent of Evil Luo Mountain was a few times stronger than the Divine Intent of Rain. In spite of that, Ning Fan shook his hand and flattened the second pill cauldron with his finger. With a wave of his hand, the first pill cauldron landed on the sea of golden flame in front of him.

The Devil Intent of Mountain might possess a monstrous devil qi but it was not suitable for concocting pills after all. In stark contrast, his Devil Intent of Rain might be weak but its moisture was perfect for this purpose.

There were four types of Fifth Revolution pills that Ning Fan had to concoct: the Facial Restoration Pill, the Separation and Reunion Pill, the General Breaking Pill and the Profound Blood Pill.

Fortunately, the four types of pills were all Low Grade Fifth Revolution Pills. With Ning Fan's current pill refinement techniques, it was good enough to concoct them.

However, it was still his first time officially concocting Fifth Revolution Pills.

Considering his chances of failing and the need of accumulating experience, Ning Fan did not start to concoct the Facial Restoration Pill. Instead, he began with the Separation and Reunion Pill as the ingredients of which was the most he had.

From all the materials he had, he was able to concoct this pill eleven times. In other words, Ning Fan was allowed to fail ten times in preparing this pill.

In order to cut down the time he needed to refine each of the Fifth Revolution Pills, Ning Fan swung his palm and summoned the Green Phoenix Flame.

Now, he had already owned two types of Earth Flames1 and three types of Heavenly Cold Qi. There was no need for him need to search for another place which was as cold as the Heavenly Cold Qi to devour the Earth Flame.

Because of the additional Heavenly Cold Qi within his body, his body became incomparably frigid and he was in need of another type of Earth Flame to balance out the power of coldness within his body.

For half a month, his body sat still in a meditative posture without moving a single muscle after devouring the Green Phoenix Flame.

Half a month later, he opened his eyes and they shone brilliantly. His aura force intensified and his magic power began to increase drastically at the same time.

His current cultivation level enabled him to absorb one-third of the power of the Green Phoenix Flame as his magic power.

With an increment of 340 units of magic power, his magic power increased to 1015 units.

Improving his magic power was not Ning Fan's ultimate objective. As such, he did not continue to consume the Profound Liquid of Mother Earth.

His objective was to fuse the three types of Earth Flames and Heavenly Cold Qi into a grey Yin Yang Flame to concoct the pills!

In that manner, his pill refinement speed would increase by 6 times as compared to that of a common Fifth Revolution pill master.

Now, he would only need one month to concoct a Separation and Reunion Pill, based on his calculations.

Out of the eleven attempts, Ning Fan failed miserably for the first eight tries. On the ninth attempt, he managed to concoct a semi-finished pill.

Although it was a defective one, he was not disappointed but satisfied with himself. The nine attempts enabled him to gain insight on concocting Fifth Revolution Pills.

As for the materials for the General Breaking Pill, he had seven sets of them. He only experienced two failures while preparing for the pill and on his third attempt, he managed to concoct a defective version of the pill.

For the Profound Blood Pill, he only failed once and managed to produce a marginally qualified pill immediately on his second trial.

The last one was the Facial Restoration Pill. It also took him one attempt before he came up with a defective pill.

Three months of continuous failures had given him enough experience about the few types of pills.

After pondering for a while and mustering enough confidence in himself, he opened the pill cauldron and began to properly concoct the pills that he wanted.

On the fourth month, the Separation and Reunion Pill was completed.

On the fifth month, the General Breaking Pill was completed.

On the sixth month, the Profound Blood Pill was completed.

On the eight month, two Facial Restoration Pills were completed.

After spending eight months immersing himself in concocting pills, he finally could become a qualified Low Grade Fifth Revolution pill master.

However, Ning Fan helplessly discovered that the improvement of his pill refining technique was extremely miniscule despite all his efforts throughout the eight months.

I guess it will be impossible to improve my pill refining techniques to Mid-Grade Fifth Revolution without decades of hard work…

The remaining time before they arrived at the Luo Yun's Province was now less than a month.

Ning Fan kept all the five pills, stood up, and moved his body, emitting some cracking sounds resulting from the collision of his bones.

"So this is the life of a cultivator…Spending five months in refining treasures and 8 months in concocting pills… A cultivator's life is rather dull…The five-month promise is already long past. I wonder if Xu Qiuling is still worrying about me…There are still 30 years before the sword qi within her body collapses. For now, her life should be safe…"

He did not immediately summon the Wind Demoness and the Flower Demoness and help them to restore their appearances because the Facial Restoration Pills were required to be consumed with the help of a medicine bath.

Since they were demons, some of the spiritual herbs to prepare the medicine bath were needed to be replaced by some demon grasses.

Since the demon grasses are not any precious items, they should be obtained easily in the province.

Pushing open the door, he cast his spirit sense and realized that Lu Wan'er had yet to finish the process of spirit augmentation.

In the meantime, the reaction of the magical treasure in the treasure refinement chamber became even more intense.

"Is it almost finished?"

Ning Fan did not intend to intrude into the chamber as he was afraid that he might disturb her.

For a few days, Ning Fan waited. However, during these few days when the spirit augmentation was on the verge of succeeding, he could faintly feel that Lu Wan'er's qi which was still stable at first had rapidly grown weaker…

His eyes turned gloomy. There was no way that he did not know that she was actually offering her blood to refine the treasure at such a critical moment.

The reactivity within the treasure refining chamber gradually subsided.

As the door was opened, a wan-and-sallow-looking woman clad in purple robes walked out from the chamber.

One year and three months of spirit augmentation. For a Mid Nascent Soul Realm being like her, the process took a heavy toll on her, especially because of the unauthorized decision she made herself.

She did not just imbue the Power Drain ability to the Spirit Crushing Whip but also another Mortal Void Grade ability – Thunder Spirit to enhance the might of the blood lightning in destroying one's Nascent Soul.

Originally, she did not have any Mortal Void Grade spiritual iron.

However, after Ning Fan had given her the spiritual iron with the Power Drain ability, she could tell that Ning Fan was a person with high standards. He could not possibly set his eyes upon mere Divine Transformation Grade spiritual iron…

She had only three pieces of Divine Transformation Grade spiritual iron with the Thunder Spirit ability.

As such, she used the secret art imparted by the Cloud General – Spirit Promoting Art. By sacrificing her blood essence and fusing it with the Thunder Spirit ability, she forcibly promoted the grade of the spiritual iron into the Mortal Void Grade. Then, with great effort, she imbued the second Mortal Void Grade ability into the weapon.

That secret art was obscure and difficult to learn. The chance of success was miniscule. Moreover, it required her to harm herself. But she did not care about any of that at all.

Throughout her experience in spirit augmentation, it was her first time promoting spiritual iron at the Divine Transformation Grade into Mortal Void Grade on her own.

Aside from that, it was her first time trying to imbue a second ability on a spiritual equipment… Therefore, it was the reason why it took her more than a year to complete.

Finally, it's done…

However, in her current worn out condition, she found it difficult to even maintain her human form. Under her purple skirt, four tails of a white fox were revealed…

Holding the Spirit Crushing Whip with both hands as if she was holding the most precious thing in her life, she opened the door. But she had never anticipated that Ning Fan would be waiting outside of the chamber.

"Aiya. Why are you here…"

The corners of her lips curved into a sweet smile as she passed the whip to him, looking forward for a compliment.

But Ning Fan's expression turned gloomy and as he opened his mouth, he reprimanded, "Why were you acting so rashly? Didn't I tell you that magical treasures are just lifeless items? It's not worth it for you to sacrifice yourself!"

In ancient times, there were cultivators who sacrificed their lives for the swords named Ganjiang and Moye2 by throwing themselves into the furnace. From Ning Fan's perspective, such a deed was completely unreasonable and not worth it!

Now comes Lu Wan'er who actually did the same thing by offering her own blood essence in order to cause the spirit augmentation of the Spirit Crushing Whip to succeed…

Her heart turned sour.

I sacrificed my blood essence just to perform spirit augmentation for you. But in the end, what I get isn't a compliment but a reprimand…

But just as the sour feeling was evoked within her heart, it was instantly replaced by shyness.

Letting out a surprised cry, she powerlessly found out that she was horizontally carried by Ning Fan in his arms and brought directly to the bedroom.

At the same time, Ning Fan's hand, intentionally or unintentionally, touched her fox's tails, making her body go numb and restless immediately.

"Lu…Lu Bei. Don't… Don't do it here…I am unable to…to have sex with you now in my current condition…" She pleaded, although she was looking forward for it to happen deep inside her.

"Have sex?" Ning Fan uttered, feeling angry but also amused.

"After your body has become better, the day will naturally come! We will talk about it next time. Now, your only duty is to cultivate! Cultivate and regain all the blood essence that you have sacrificed! If you don't cultivate quickly, it won't just reduce your lifespan but will also greatly impact your cultivation level… Now I will bring you to rest!"

Making a step forward, he turned into a shadowy smoke and appeared in the massive resting chamber of the Golden Flame Palace.

Taking off her embroidered shoes, he placed her on top of the soft and comfortable bed and covered her with a thin quilt.

She was just like a bashful, little fox, curling up into a ball inside the blanket, leaving only her eyes uncovered. Half of her reddened cheeks were hidden under the blanket.

She was hugged by Ning Fan just now… Even her most secretive and sensitive fox's tails were also touched by Ning Fan…

The grievance within her heart was already long gone. Thinking about it carefully, the reprimand which made her feel wronged just now was clearly out of concern…

"It's because Lu Bei was concerned about me and that's why he scolded me… He didn't even look at his magical treasure because he was really worried about me…"

Her heart fluttered.

"A fool… Why didn't he look at a magical treasure that was imbued with two special abilities and instead looked at me, an ugly-looking lady…Idiot…"

Lu Wan'er cursed in a low tone.

"Take this pill and rest for now. I will stay here and guard you…"

"Mm. But you aren't allowed to do shameless acts on me while I am sleeping…"

Lu Wan'er's eyelids became heavier and heavier. Drowsiness began to weigh down on her body and her consciousness slowly seeped away.

She could feel that Ning Fan's fingers intruded her lips while holding a pill in between, touching her wet and soft tongue.

She felt extremely embarrassed but she did not resist. Her limbs were getting heavier and she allowed herself to succumb to her weariness…

Beside the bed, Ning Fan let out a sigh while staring at Lu Wan'er who had just fallen asleep.

"Consuming the Silver Blood pill on time should be able to stop her condition from deteriorating and replenish her blood essence. It should be fine…"

As he thought of this woman who would sacrifice her blood essence to augment his magical treasure, Ning Fan closed his eyes, feeling touched and grateful.

From the beginning up to now, this lady had never expressed her feelings to him.

Even so, Ning Fan felt all her thoughts and concerns.

It was only Lu Wan'er who did not know what Ning Fan's concern was.

"If I tell you that I am not Lu Bei, would you regret your choice…."

He sighed and his hand caressed Lu Wan'er's cheek. It was at this moment when the Golden Flame Chariot experienced a tremor.

However, that slight movement made Ning Fan's eyes turn cold.

Since they were getting closer to the province, the "flies" which had been tailing them had become rather impatient.

Being able to catch up with the speed of the Golden Flame Chariot showed that this bunch of "flies" were not weak! Among them, there were three traces of Divine Transformation Realm qi!

Grasping the Spirit Crushing Whip in his hand, Ning Fan vanished in a column of smoke and flew out from the Golden Flame Palace.

Now, I shall let this bunch of "flies" taste the might of this magical treasure!

After making a few steps, he suddenly came to a halt and stared at his weapon in disbelief.

It was at that very moment when he realized that his whip was augmented with two types of abilities.

"Power Drain… Thunder Spirit?!"

His mind felt a jolt but shortly after that, his eyes revealed a hint of gentleness.

"So this is how that matters stand…You spent one year and three months in performing the spirit augmentation and even sacrificed your blood essence just to imbue this second ability…What you are trying to do wasn't just to imbue the ability into my treasure, but also leaving a part of you in my heart…You made it…"

"My tone seemed to be a little too harsh just now… I should have praised you earlier…"

He shut his eyes, pondering. When he reopened them, they became piercing-cold once again.

"Got to make it a quick and end it fast… These flies are disturbing Wan'er's rest…"

<strong>Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel</strong>

<strong>Note:</strong>

1. Earth Flame is the short form of Earth Vein Demonic Flames. There are twelve of them in total.

2. Ganjiang and Moye are a pair of swords which were named after the swordsmith couple who forged them. Click here for picture.

3. Measurement :

a. li (里) = 500 m

b. zhang(丈) = 3.13 m

c. chi(尺) = 30.7 cm

d. cun(寸) = 3.33cm