Grasping Evil

"The primordial chaos shaped the heavens and created humankind. There was immemorial iron called stars. There were gods in the sky who used their broken bones to create weapons. Amongst the void, there was an immortal emperor. By worshipping the emperor, one can come to understand the mysteries of the world. The body can turn into boundlessness, something capable of housing all living beings. The eyes became the sun and moon, and the breath was the thunder. When the dream was over, all worlds met oblivion…."[1]

In the refinement room inside the Si Fan Palace, Ning Fan sat cross-legged in front of a Metal Casting Cauldron with Separation Slayer in his hand while recalling the fragmented verses of Ancient Chaos.

"Dao Scripture…" Rumor has it that it was a scripture from the primordial chaos passed down by the Immemorial Immortal King. In the fragmented memories of Ancient Chaos, there was only a short passage.

In the short section of the "Dao Scripture," there was the history of the Immemorial Era along with a short line referring to Immemorial Stars.

The Immemorial Stars were used to create weapons that couldn't be used unless the wielders were Fiendgods. Even though there were only a few broken stars inside Separation Slayer, but in terms of value, it would be difficult to find a second item!

The only thing that dissatisfied Ning Fan was that Si Wuxie's refinement skill was too poor. There were too many impurities which limited the amazing effects of the Immemorial Stars.

Ning Fan's eyes were clear and calm, but each blink revealed the vicissitudes from the ancient past. With great insight, he wanted to see through all the flaws on Separation Slayer.

Aged Gold for the blade edges, Thunderous Silver for the tip, Earth Steel for the body — this sword used many rare minerals and reached the finest grade because of it. It could be considered a famous sword, but in the end, it could only be a famous sword. Without the amazing property of the Immemorial Stars, it wouldn't become a divine sword.

"I need to remove the impurities. Outside of the Aged Gold, Thunderous Silver, and Earth Steel, the rest must be removed via refinement…"

Ning Fan curled his finger and then shot out a command at the sword. Separation Slayer turned into a gleam of steel and flew into the cauldron.

This cauldron only had an Earth Vein Flame, so the fire power was not great. In order to temper such a divine weapon like Separation Slayer, it would need several months.

Ning Fan was not in the mood to wait for several months.

He took a breath and then spewed out a Yin Yang Flame from his mouth straight into the cauldron to strengthen the Earth Flame.

With the power of the Yin Yang Flame, Separation Slayer's body will melt in three days at the latest.

Ning Fan's magical power could only last for up to two hours when using the Yin Yang Flame to refine the weapon.

He took out a bottle of pills and placed it in front of him. There were "Rising Origin Dan", "Spirit Restoration Dan", and "Spring Returning Dan"— they were all pills used to quickly restore depleted energy.

Time flew by as fast as flowing water. Ning Fan's divine sense controlled the cauldron's flame for three whole days. Separation Slayer gradually turned into liquid metal.

A stream of hot air sprung out from the cauldron and unbearably blew right into Ning Fan's face, burning his hair. The dissolution of a finest rank sword emitted a powerful energy that was seemingly able to shatter the Metal Casting Cauldron. And once this energy ran wild, the entire palace would also be razed to the ground.

Ning Fan's gaze grew solemn. He was paying close attention to the impending danger from melting Separation Slayer. He needed to separate the immortal minerals before the spirit energy explodes!

Ning Fan tapped on his storage pouch and unhesitatingly took out the Shadow Chasing Sword and performed a Fire Transformation Sword strike. The sword shadows extracted the different metals one by one in the cauldron.

Violet Ashes, extracted...

Dragon Cold Jade, extracted…

Vermillion Iron Essence, extracted…

Tearless Crystal, extracted…

With the removal of each immortal mineral, the rank of Separation Slayer sharply fell from peak middle rank — high, medium, then low. Then, it fell down to peak inferior rank — high, medium, then low. Eventually, it almost dropped down from a spirit treasure to a mortal weapon.

Ning Fan shouted coldly. If it dropped down to a mortal weapon, then all of this would be for naught.

He withdrew the Shadow Chasing Sword and bit his fingertip. He then dripped the blood into the cauldron and onto the sword's body to protect Separation Slayer's rank from dropping down any further.

With the blood as a catalyst, its rank stayed in the same place without dropping further than a low inferior rank. Seeing this, Ning Fan finally took a breath of relief and wiped the sweat off his forehead as he slightly smiled. The remaining tasks were simple from now on.

Ning Fan took several more pills and waited for his magical power to replenish. He swung his sleeve to reverse the cauldron's flame. The flame temperature plummeted, and Separation Slayer started to take shape.

After half the time it took for an incense stick to burn, a sword sound rang from within the cauldron. Ning Fan tapped on the cover and a streak of starlight snuck out of the cauldron as it hovered around his body.

The starlight was as clear as water and very light, just like an icy rainbow — very pretty looking.

Ning Fan pointed at the starlight, and it immediately turned into a three-foot long sword that fell onto his palm with a still burning heat.

He opened his mouth and sucked in the Yin Yang Flame from the cauldron and then turned off its fire. Ning Fan then meticulously observed Separation Slayer and revealed a satisfied expression.

At this moment, Separation Slayer was only a low inferior ranked spirit treasure, but it regained its ability to rank up.

Before, when Separation Slayer was at its highest movement speed, there was only a glint of steel and no starlight. The reason was because there were too many impurities hampering the effects of the Immemorial Stars.

But at this time, the starlight of the sword shone like a star even though its rank was still low. One day, it will become a stunning divine weapon of a Fiendgod that was capable of cutting through all existences!

Ning Fan held the sword and cut his arm to use his blood as sacrifice for the sword.

Basking it with blood signified the official rebirth of Separation Slayer as it — once again — accepted Ning Fan as its master!

In an instant, the shadow of the sword flashed, and all of Seven Apricot City's sky was covered with a starry brilliance. Even though it was during the day, one could see the bright stars for a hundred miles. Such a strange phenomenon alarmed everyone, including Seven Apricot´s four clans — Wu, Ye, Mo, and Fang. Yuchi, who was taking care of his pig; Situ, who was practicing the sword; and Nangong, who was looking at his compass, were all shocked.

Countless people came out of their buildings to look at the sky in astonishment.

The stars appearing in the middle of the day signaled the birth of a divine weapon. This was only a rumor of an immemorial legend, but the people from Seven Apricot City actually had the privilege to see such a sight.

"Stars during the day, the birth of a divine weapon… Could it be that the Fang Clan's old devil managed to create a treasure of the 'divine weapon rank'? How is this possible?"

"I don't think so… It could be a Spirit Augmentation Master from the Mo Clan creating a new spirit equipment or a magical treasure and adorned it with an unimaginable 'divine power'..."

Countless people speculated about the appearance of the visual phenomenon. However, the vision only lasted for ten breaths before disappearing from the sky. No one knew who actually created this divine weapon.

"Little Ning, you once again shocked me… Immemorial divine weapon… To be able to refine such a thing... In the future, if you could go to the Four Heavens immortal world, maybe you could even compete against the countless Fiendgod descendants!"

The old monster shook his head and became lost in contemplation. However, during his daze, the dan cauldron — once again — resounded as ashes flew up. The cauldron exploded again…

"Four Revolutions Dan, my Four Revolutions Dan... Only a bit more, only a bit longer and it would have been complete! I don't want to live anymore, don't want to live anymore!"

This was the memorable 61st cauldron explosion of his…

Ning Fan pushed the doors open and left the refinement room while the sword shadow's starlight was still hovering around him.

A cold murderous intent came from the sword shadow. In a radius of three zhang around Ning Fan, all the falling snowflakes were cut in half by the sword qi.

Such sharp sword gleams! With just this sword, Ning Fan would be able to decapitate a level ten Vein Opening cultivator without using any magical power. And if he used this sword to perform the Fire Transformation Sword, unless it was a peak Harmonious Spirit stage expert, he was confident that no one could withstand one slash from him within the late-stage Harmonious Spirit realm!

He opened his mouth and sucked, then the sword shadow's starlight was inhaled into his stomach. It condensed into his dantian right next to the Yin Yang Locket.

Under the permeation of magical power from the evil veins, Separation Slayer used an unfathomable speed to gradually evolve.

There were two different ways for immemorial divine weapons to rank up. One was through refinement via magical power, and the other was to kill people and use the blood to rank up.

Ning Fan exhaled a long breath after bringing the sword into his body. He was not completely satisfied and wanted to use another method outside of ranking up to quickly increase the power of Separation Slayer.

Spirit Augmentation! He needed to add a divine power to Separation Slayer!

With the addition of "Body Locking", it will slow the enemies down when the sword appeared.

With the addition of "Shadow Chasing", it allowed for Separation Slayer to pursue its enemy.

With the addition of "Wind Boost", it increased the unsheathing speed of Separation Slayer.

Spirit Augmentations did not affect the ranking up of Separation Slayer; on the contrary, it could make the sword even more perfect.

But unfortunately, Ning Fan did not know how to spirit augment. It was a new job that the cultivation world came up with and was not mentioned in Ancient Chaos's memories.

Even though Ning Fan couldn't do it, there was fortunately one decently ranked Spirit Augmentation Master in Seven Apricot City.

There were seven different powers in the old monster's Seven Apricot City. Within it, the Black Evil three guards controlled the battle power while the Seven Apricot Four Clans engaged in logistics.

The Seven Apricot Four Clans (Wu, Ye, Mo, and Fang) were all gifted in their own trades. The Wu Clan's head, Wu Lan, was known as "Beauty Lan" and was a Formation Master of the "Dan" rank. The Ye Clan's head, Ye Huan, referred by others as "Cloud Monster Huan", was an Immortal Cloud Master of the "Three Clouds" rank. The Fang Clan's head, Fang Nuo, also known as "Regional Treasure Nuo", was a Refinement Master of the "Dan Treasure" rank. His biggest achievement was a peak middle rank magical treasure; this treasure was adored by a Gold Core old devil.

The last clan of the four was the Mo Clan. Its head, Mo Rushui, also known as "Goddess Mo", specializes in refining spirit equipments, along with Spirit Augmentation. She was a Spirit Augmentation Master of the "Dan Treasure" rank.

The "Body Locking" divine power on the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron of the old monster belonged to a rare class, and it was augmented by this Mo Rushui.

In the Four Heavens and the Nine Worlds, Spirit Augmentation Masters were much more respected than Dan Masters and Refinement Masters. Rumors have it that the qualifications to become one was extremely harsh. As for the exact details, it was unknown.

Ning Fan slightly smiled. Since the impurities were cut off from his Separation Slayer, he could now go to find this Mo Rushui and add power to his sword.

If this was possible, then his battle power would be increased by quite a bit.

He returned to the room and, after some gentleness with Zhihe, he left the Si Fan Palace and went straight to the Mo Clan in Seven Apricot City's southern city.

***

At this moment, the Seven Apricot Mo Clan's several hundred guards were all standing guard outside of the entrance in a formation.

There were not only Mo guards, but also guards from the Wu, Fang, and Ye clans.

The four clan masters were gathered at the Mo Clan. Inside the grand hall, everyone had a serious expression.

The Mo Clan's Mo Rushui was a young girl dressed in black. Although she was more than three hundred years old, she still had a pair of cold and beautiful eyes. She was looking at the four people who were standing arrogantly inside the hall.

"Elder Lin, Young Master Lan [2], son of Honorable White [3]' - Bai Bi, and the disciple of 'Honorable Black'— Yan Zhuiyun… Haha, the four respected guests visiting my Seven Apricot Mo Clan, what is this rare occasion?"

"Mo Rushui, I will not waste time with you. Today, my intention is only for the Spirit Augmentation 'Soul Burning' spirit iron."

The young man dressed in a black robe named Yan Zhuiyun had a cold expression that did not care for anyone.

He did not put the four early Harmonious Spirit clan masters of the Wu, Fang, Ye, and Mo Clans into his eyes!

<strong>Note:</strong>

[1] All are four words phrases. Not supposed to make perfect sense, plus the memories are fragmented.

[2] She is the daughter of the Sinister Sparrow Sect´s Master.

[3] White in chinese is "Bai".

<strong>Credit: (the former team)</strong>

Bao (TL)

Nahct (E)

Lace1010 (TLC)

Wayfinder (E)