Grasping Evil

Pain, pain, pain...

In between the excruciating pain, the first Jade Royal Dan was finally refined by Ning Fan. A low painful groan escaped Ning Fan's throat. On the surface of his skin, a soft silver glow shimmered, whereas deep inside, his bones looked as though they were painted with a layer of silver.

The silver glow was faint but it was undeniably close to the Silver Bone Stage. At this point, Ning Fan's flesh had reached a tyrannical level of toughness.

His robe was soaked with sweat. With a thought, Ning Fan's magical powers dried his robe as he let out a mouthful of turbid air.

The shade of his skin was several times fairer than what it used to be, sans any impurities. Broken and mended, this was the real essence of cleansing the pulp and attacking the marrow!

Lightly slapping the storage bag, Ning Fan removed a mid-rank low grade long sword and slashed into his arm without hesitation. The spot being slashed glowed a soft silver as the sounds of screeching metal reverberated from the collision. Feeling slightly numb, only a thin red line could be seen on his arm.

Merely one Jade Royal Dan enhanced Ning Fan's physique enough to resist a flying sword!

His eyes lit up as he took out the second Jade Royal Dan, acting as if the grueling pain he suffered earlier was nothing at all.

If one Jade Royal Dan could make his flesh strong enough to deflect a low grade flying sword's attack, then with a second Jade Royal Dan... to what extent could his flesh reach!

A look of anticipation appeared on his face as he opened his mouth and swallowed the second Jade Royal Dan. In his opinion, he was already a Silver Bone Stage physique refining cultivator, and a Yin Yang Evil Vein one at that. Taking two jade Royal Dan at the same time shouldn't be a problem.

However, the moment the pellet entered his mouth, Ning Fan's face turned ugly. He discovered that he underestimated the overbearing effect of the Jade Royal Dan. He was filled with regret over his actions.

The pains intensity while refining the second Jade Royal Dan increased more than a hundredfold compared to the first one!

In a split second, all the veins and meridians in his body exploded. The level of pain immediately caused Ning Fan to spit out large amounts of blood, leaving him horrified.

In that moment, he understood one point!

In the cultivation world exists a heaven-defying medicine pellet, and this type of pellet had one common side effect – after the first pellet, there must be a gap of at least a decade or more before taking the second one.

Taking the second one forcefully will produce a devastating side effect.

This hundredfold pain may very well be the side effect of the Jade Royal Dan.

Ning Fan was filled with bitter regret; there was no mention of the Jade Royal Dan's side effects in the Ancient Chaos Emperor's memories. Why? Because even the Ancient Chaos Emperor lacked the opportunity to take a Jade Royal Dan that even the Immortal Emperor coveted. He had no idea whether or not the Jade Royal Dan could be taken consecutively.

However, it was now proven that the Jade Royal Dan could not be taken in a consecutive manner.

Careless, too careless. Things had been going too smoothly for him and it made Ning Fan lose that cautious nature he had when he was still weak.

As if receiving a knock on the head, he suddenly woke up, the main thing now was to suppress the pain meandering wantonly all over his body.

Refining the second Jade Royal Dan could greatly enhance his physique to a terrifying degree. This, of course, was based on the premise that he could survive this pain.

He needed to think of a way to suppress the pain! Otherwise, once the medicinal effect started to spread, with pain multiplied a hundredfold surging through his body, even a Fiendgod would be unable to resist the pain, not to mention little ol' him…..

The dignified successor of the Ancient Chaos Emperor actually dying from the pain of a pellet... that is simply too shameful!

More than a hundred thoughts flashed through Ning Fan's mind. Just then, a faint cooling energy came from the Ying Yang Locket as the blood red lines around it shone brightly. At the direst moment, the Yin Yang Locket seemed to sense the danger and instinctively wanted to protect this master whom had his life linked to it.

The cooling sensation suppressed Ning Fan's pain slightly but the effect was negligible. The instinctive act of the Yin Yang Locket didn't seem powerful enough to relieve the pain in Ning Fan's body.

But Ning Fan did notice something − the body's comfort level could be enhanced to reduce the sense of pain.

This small stream of cooling comfort was not enough to suppress the tyrannical pain, but what if it was something more 'comfortable' than this?

The two most 'comfortable' things in life were none other than one, a breakthrough, and two, dual cultivation. A breakthrough was impossible in this short timeframe, but dual cultivation...can it suppress this extreme pain…..

Decisively acting on his decision, his foot stepped onto an ice rainbow and flew out of the dan refinement room – straight to Zhihe's boudoir.

The only one he could think of was Zhihe, his only 'wife'. Perhaps he could choose Si Wuxie for dual cultivation but there was apprehension in his heart against her.

There was one great benefit to dual cultivation with the Yin Yang Locket. When he dual cultivated with the girl he liked, both of them could increase their cultivation. Yet at the same time, it was also a barrier.

If Ning Fan dual cultivated with Si Wuxie, the result would be that Ning Fan's cultivation would improve. The same applied for Si Wuxie, her cultivation would also improve.

Before Si Wuxie was caught, she was already a fake Nascent Soul. Once they dual cultivated through the Yin Yang Locket, there was a high chance she would breakthrough into a true Nascent Soul realm cultivator. Whether his puppet art could still control Si Wuxie at that time was an unknown factor…

If he had refined a Cauldron Ring, and there were hundreds or thousands of cauldrons within, maybe Ning Fan needn't worry…

Little Zhihe had just woken up, roused from sleep by the lightning and thunder rumbling in the sky. She rubbed her eyes with her hand as she sat up on the bed, still drowsy from sleep when she saw Ning Fan rushing into the room on the ice rainbow.

"Brother Fan, what is it? Someone came to make trouble again?"

"En, don't worry, disregard them, your Brother Fan is in more danger at the moment…" Ning Fan smiled wryly. This wasn't the time for an explanation.

Pouncing onto Little Zhihe, the pain in his entire body gradually subsided as he rubbed against her softness.

However, the crisis was far from over. While he was in pain, Ning Fan noticed the Yin Yang Locket was flickering with a strange red light.

The blood red lines along the deep green jade shone brightly. Initially, the Yin Yang Locket's utility was to enhance both the male and female's cultivation, but at this moment, it turned into snatching instead. His pain was being reduced and his cultivation was improving but Little Zhihe's cultivation was declining.

Ning Fan could tell that as he moved, one opened Vein inside Little Zhihe's body crumbled. This was a sign of cultivation declining, and her face showed expressions of pain.

He wasn't using dual cultivation to relieve himself but was instead snatching Yin to boost his Yang, transferring the pain from his body to hers. He was basically plundering her cultivation away!

It was an instinctive act of the Yin Yang Locket to protect its master, triggering the first layer of supernatural ability in the magical treasure, 'YinYang Mutation'– plucking Yin to nurture Yang!

The Yin Yang Locket was supposed to compliment the dual cultivation between the male and female while enhancing both sides' cultivation at the same time. But if the locket's master opened the first layer of the 'plucking to nurture' supernatural ability, then he could rob all of the female's cultivation, turning it into his own.

At this very moment, he was plucking from Zhihe!

Pulling his body away from Zhihe, Ning Fan felt as if his heart was sliced by a knife. Zhihe was his wife, not a cauldron, he would dual cultivate with Zhihe but never, ever 'pluck' her to enhance himself.

He would only do that with a 'cauldron'. And in his lifetime, he would never fall in love with a fleshly cauldron.

"Should I… pluck Si Wuxie instead….." Ning Fan suddenly stood up, an evil aura permeated from his body. But in the next moment, he gritted his teeth. There was a faint unbearable feeling.

The amnesia-ridden Si Wuxie was like a sheet of pure white paper, extremely dependent on Ning Fan, a completely different person altogether when compared to her previous self.

If it was the same ruthless Si Wuxie, Ning Fan would show no mercy, but the current Si Wuxie…. Could she still be considered the same person?… Ning Fan could not do it.

"What should I do? Who else can I pluck….."

His heart continued to struggle in hesitation. He couldn't touch Zhihe and was unwilling to pluck Si Wuxie, so who else was there.

A wave of pain that engulfed everything hit Ning Fan, destroying his every thought. There was no time left….

It was in that moment that a bang suddenly sounded on the roof, and a heavy object fell down into the room – a green jade coffin.

The lid fell off of the green jade coffin. Nestled inside was a young woman that was still breathing, albeit weakly, yet it also felt as if she hadn't taken a breath in many years.

Her face was pale and exquisite, like an ethereal beauty from a painting, even the style of the clothes she wore was like those depicted from ancient immortal fairies.

From where did this woman originate…..

Who is this woman…..

Ning Fan's mind blanked, but in the next second there was only one thought in his heart: "Could it be the Heavens bestowed upon me a woman's corpse for me to pluck….?"

Plucking a woman corpse was still better than plucking Zhihe….

...…

Between the sky and the horizon, beneath the rain of lightning and rumble of thunder, Si Wuxie's sleeves were fluttering. With just a wave of her sleeve she easily deflected the heaven tribulation lightning that struck down, every time.

Taking no more than a few flicks of the sleeve, the dark, overcast clouds and sky of lightning dissipated.

This scene imprinted into the eyes of the four 'guests', the expression on their faces could not be described with the word shock.

If the three Black Demon Guards were enough to deter Nanyang Zi on a low level, then this young woman that was exuding a late Gold Core cultivation and was hovering in front of his eyes, completely terrified him!.

Lu Nanzi, on the other hand, seemed to lose half of his soul in the blink of an eye because he noticed that after Si Wuxie dealt with the heaven tribulation lightning, she was casually moving towards the four of them.

In that split second, the four people − Lu Nanzi, Nanyang Zi, Chen, and Zhu – understood one thing.

The four of them coming to Ning City looking for revenge was the dumbest mistake of their entire lives.

"Escape separately!"

The four of them tried to escape in four different directions but every point was blocked by someone.

Lu Nanzi and the other two peak Harmonious Spirit experts were blocked by the three commanders, and after a round of melee, all three of them were greatly shocked.

Although these three people's cultivation was lower than them, their fighting prowess was not!

And Nanyang Zi was blocked by Si Wuxie. Appalled and terrified, he raised a medium grade flying sword but it was instantly shattered by Si Wuxie with just a wave of her sleeve.

Panicked, Nanyang Zi threw out several magical treasures, all of them were shattered to pieces with a wave of Si Wuxie's sleeves, there was no exception.

His bulky storage bag gradually deflated, and it finally dawned on Nanyang Zi that the gap between him and Si Wuxie was like the gap between heaven and earth.

In desperation, Nanyang Zi took out an ancient green jade coffin. This coffin was something he acquired three hundred years ago by coincidence.

For many years, after exerting all of his effort and strength, he was still unable to open the green jade coffin. Thus, he surmised the coffin must be some kind of extremely powerful magical treasure of unknown grade.

Even more out of his reach was the probable 'treasures' within the coffin.

No one knew the famous Nanyang Zi was just a small-time grave robber three hundred years ago.

Nanyang Zi had never shown anyone the coffin, and would not show anyone, spending his time and effort alone to study it and figure out a way to open it.

Today, facing death without any magical treasure to protect himself, in this dire and hopeless situation, he could only produce the green jade coffin, trying to use it to crush Si Wuxie to death.

This unknown grade magical treasure could perhaps suppress Si Wuxie…

But before he could utilize the giant green jade coffin, Si Wuxie flicked her sleeves again, hitting Nanyang Zi's wrist.

A burst of sharp pain eked out of his wrist, and the giant coffin fell down to Ning City below, crashing into the room Ning Fan was in.

Then….

Ning Fan carefully lifted the slumbering woman out of the ancient coffin.

If he couldn't do it with Zhihe, the only choice left was the female corpse….

At this point, Ning Fan fell into a trance when he saw the woman's face clearly….

<strong>Note:</strong>

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<strong>Credit: </strong>

Translator: Stoned

Editor: Wayfinder