Grasping Evil

It was unknown how many years had already passed since the true body of the tree demon, Min Luo, was trapped within the Dark Sparrow's Grave.

He was just a Void Fragmentation Realm demon cultivator and his lifespan should already be over a long time ago.

Fortunately, Treant Min Luo created a heaven-defying method himself to turn his original body into a tree. He had completely transformed into a tree and had lost the chance to return to his human form again.

He extracted his demon soul and produced countless clones to move around the Dark Sparrow's Grave with them.

Because his original body had degenerated into a tree, his abilities were greatly weakened but he gained an everlasting lifespan in exchange. He had gone through years of suffering and improved himself through his growth.

As long as his true body does not die, his clones would not perish. As the years went by, Treant Min Luo 's cultivation base also increased steadily and he eventually 'grew' to the level of a rogue demon.

Even though his original body was a rogue demon, he was a rogue demon that could not move or change form. He was literally rooted in the Dark Sparrow's Grave and unable to leave this place forever.

If he ignites his demon soul and strives to leave this place, he might be able to leave the grave for a short period of time but he would certainly perish right after…

There might be ways that could allow Min Luo to return to his original form or leave the grave but Ning Fan did not know any.

The Heavenly Dao was fair. Since Treant Min Luo had survived countless years in the form of a tree, the chance of him returning to his demon form was naturally slim.

The only thing that Ning Fan could do was to bring Treant Min Luo's clone out of the grave.

It was a method that he learned from Bone Sovereign. Since his true body was unable to leave the Demon Sinister Forest, he created his true soul clone and sneaked out of the forest in that body.

Thus, Ning Fan imitated his method. He only needed to concoct some Low Grade Sixth Revolution 'True Soul Pills' for Min Luo and help him condense his true soul clone within the shortest amount of time. That would be enough.

Treant Min Luo's true soul clone was different from Bone Sovereign's clone. Because Bone Sovereign's original body was perfectly intact, his true soul clone could move around freely without any restraint in the outside world after leaving the Demon Sinister Forest.

Min Luo's original body, however, had degenerated into a tree. His clone could not move too far from his original body, or else it would be like a fallen leaf that could never return to the branch and could only wilt and die…

Min Luo's true soul clone could at most move within five thousand li* (500m per li) of Yue Country.

In the Dark Sparrow's Grave, Ning Fan told Min Luo his whole plan and both of them came to an agreement.

After that, Ning Fan took away the corpses of the nine Void Fragmentation Realm beasts from Min Luo's hands as well as a large amount of spiritual herbs which were at ten thousand years old and above and left.

He did not immediately bring Ming Que away with him.

Since Ming Que had reunited with his grandpa, Treant Min Luo, after being separated from him for so many years, she probably had many things to tell him.

Ning Fan quietly returned to Seven Apricot City all alone. After seeing the transformation of the city today, he gradually set his mind at rest.

The members of the four clans of Seven Apricot City were put into different divisions by Su Yan and Yue Lingkong.

The divisions include the Weapon Refinement Palace, the Pill Refinement Palace, the Body Cultivation Palace, the Sword Cultivation Palace and the Demon Cultivation Palace…

The Three Divine Armies of the Black Devil became the Black Devil Palace.

The Sinister Sparrow Sect joined Seven Apricot City and became the Sinister Sparrow Palace.

The Fire Cloud Sect joined Seven Apricot City and became the Fire Cloud Palace.

Each of the large sects were still in their old locations. To put it accurately, the entire Yue Country was within the range of Seven Apricot City's forces after the integration of the countries.

Ning Fan did not ask anything regarding the affairs of the forces' development. He let his women be fully responsible for them and greatly trusted them.

Inside the Cauldron World, the Ning Clan Female Guard was also vigorously building up the world within.

Everyone was busy with their own matters. Of course, there were also a few bored women who passed their days leisurely.

For instance, Zhi He, Mu Xiaohua, Bai Su, Feng Xueyan…

In Seven Apricot City, Ning Fan stood under the falling snow and recalled his mortal life which seemed like a dream to him.

He could finally slow down somewhat and stay in Seven Apricot City for some time. No killings, no fights, only a moment of peace and tranquility.

"Starting from the Void Refinement Realm, every minor advancement in one's cultivation realm will be extremely difficult. The shortest time it'll take for ordinary Void Glimpse Stage cultivators to break through to the Void Inquiry Stage is one thousand years. For those who have slightly weaker innate potential, they might need a few thousand years. While for those who have weak Dao Comprehension, they probably won't be able to reach the Void Inquiry Stage successfully in their entire lives…"

"I want to achieve the Void Inquiry Stage in ten years!"

Ning Fan said while holding the blood wine gourd in his hand. Ten years was the amount of time needed for the blood wine to be completely brewed!

He poured the essence blood of the nine Void Fragmentation Realm ferocious beasts into the Xuan Wei Bloody Gourd. When the blood wine finishes brewing ten years later, it would aid Ning Fan in breaking through to the Void Inquiry Stage!

"It will still need ten years for the blood wine to be completely brewed. In this period of time, I still have many things to sort out. For example, improving my cultivation methods, spirit sense and… making preparations for withstanding the Void Inquiry Stage heavenly tribulation!"

"Before this, I have to first concoct the True Yang Pills and the True Soul Pills to bring Little Black and Treant Min Luo back with him to Seven Apricot City…"

Ning Fan then began to concoct the two needed pills.

The two types of pills were Low Grade Sixth Revolution Pills. They were not easy for Ning Fan to concoct.

During the day. Ning Fan would enter the Dark Golden Pagoda to refine pills.

When night fell, he would return to Seven Apricot City to rest and spend a peaceful but sensual night with his women.

Ning Fan led a life like that for one whole month. After he finished making two True Yang Pills and twenty True Soul Pills, he returned to the Demon Sinister Forest and Dark Sparrow's Grave again.

When he returned to Seven Apricot City ten days later, he brought home two people and a sable with him.

Min Luo's true soul clone possessed a cultivation base at the Fifth Heavenly Layer of the Void Fragmentation Realm. He had promised to Ning Fan that he would guard Seven Apricot City but he disliked the hustle and bustle of the city. Hence, he chose to stay alone in a desolate mountain located one thousand li* (500m per li) away.

Mu Xiaoliang was one of Mu Weiliang's three souls. Therefore, she quickly became friendly with Zhi He and Mu Xiaohuan and became close sisters with them. They were all so intimate with each other like they shared the same mind and body.

From then onward, Mu Xiaoliang was added to the group that was sponging off others in Seven Apricot City.

For now, Mu Weiliang's three spiritual souls had already been found and only her <strong></strong><anno data-annotation-id="6238cbca-c8a7-cb43-312d-57cf826fc4ab"><strong>seven physical souls</strong></anno> were left…

Mei Chen did not appear in her human form. Instead, she stayed in Seven Apricot City in the body of a little sable.

During the day, she would linger in Ning Fan's empty room. When Ning Fan returned at night, she would leave looking unappeased. Apparently, she was still angry at him since she completely ignored him without even sparing a single glance toward him.

Others merely thought that the little sable was Ning Fan's demon pet. However, only Su Yan and a few other women knew Mei Chen's true identity as a demon cultivator with a frightening cultivation base at the Void Fragmentation Realm.

Ever since Seven Apricot City gained Mei Chen and Min Luo's protection, Ning Fan became more and more relaxed and he gradually grew accustomed to life in the city.

His heart became calmer as days went by. The tranquility he felt was a feeling that he had never felt before throughout all the seas of blood he gone through.

Ten years flashed by after settling down in Seven Apricot City!

Ten years of quietness, ten years of peace, ten years of dullness and ten years with his loved ones.

Ning Fan had never killed a single person in the past ten years. He nearly forgot that he was once a devil lord who had travelled unhindered in the Rain World.

Each and every day, Ning Fan would only spend half a day for cultivation and pill refinement and the other half on monotonous meditation.

Occasionally, he would go missing for a few days to half a month and bury himself in the dark golden pagoda for cultivation.

Sometimes, he would stay in Seven Apricot City for more than ten days consecutively without leaving at all.

Ten years went by in the outside world and nearly half of it was spent in the dark golden pagoda. In total, Ning Fan had cultivated for more than four hundred years on the seventh floor of the dark golden pagoda.

During his cultivation in the pagoda, Ning Fan had picked up the cultivation of the Black Devil Art again, making it a cultivation method of the fire element. Besides, he had carefully practiced the cultivation method belonging to the divine sovereigns of the Rain World – the Sovereign Rain Primordial Art and made it a cultivation method of the ice element.

He had concocted a Void Consuming Pill that would be consumed together with the Void Fragmentation Realm Dao Fruit. However, he did not eat it immediately as he was waiting for the blood wine to finish brewing so he could consume everything all at once.

Furthermore, he had used the flesh of the nine Void Fragmentation Realm ferocious beasts to concoct Fierce Cultivation Pills. The massive bodies of the nine beasts were actually only sufficient for concocting nine Fierce Cultivation Pills.

Ning Fan even used the corpses of the realm beasts for pill refinement and it allowed him to make the tenth Fierce Cultivation Pill.

The grade of the tenth Fierce Cultivation Pill was clearly several tens of times higher than the previous nine pills. After all, the power of the realm beasts' flesh was far beyond that of the Void Fragmentation Realm beasts.

He took the ten Fierce Cultivation Pills successively. Then, he started to concoct the pills that would be consumed together with the Void Refinement Realm and Void Fragmentation Realm sense beads.

Ning Fan's spirit sense was quickly improving day after day. However, no one knew what exact level his spirit sense had reached.

That was during the third year he stayed in Seven Apricot City. A massive wave of spirit sense secretly spread across a vicinity of four hundred thousand li*(500m per li).

Except for Mei Chen and Min Luo, no one within the entire Yue Country sensed the wave of spirit sense.

"Absolute Void Stage spirit sense... Even though this kid's cultivation base is only at the Void Glimpse Stage, his spirit sense has actually already reached this level!" In a desolate mountain, Min Luo's eyes flickered with amazement.

After the improvement in his spirit sense, the levels of his cultivation methods had reached a bottleneck. Thus, Ning Fan began to refine Sixth Revolution Pills meant for raising his magic power such as the True Void Pill and the Wonderful Sound Pill.

From the Demon Sinister Forest and the Dark Sparrow's Grave, he had gained a vast amount of spiritual herbs which was plentiful enough for him to use for the next ten years.

He concocted pills during the day and returned to Seven Apricot City at night to rest. As time went by, both his magic power and pill refinement realm slowly and steadily rose.

His medicine soul was already very strong in the first place as it was not that far away from reaching the Mid Grade Sixth Revolution.

In the seventh year in the outside world, a vigorous wave of medicinal soul power suddenly appeared in Seven Apricot City.

In the desolate mountain located one thousand li* (500m per li) away from the city, Treant Min Luo was once again shocked.

"Mid Grade Sixth Revolution Pill Refinement Realm! Even though he is still young, his pill refinement realm is already at this level!"

In the four hundred plus years inside the pagoda, all the fifty thousand years old and one hundred thousand years old spiritual herbs were completely depleted. After he concocted a Void Inquiry Pill used for enhancing one's insights about the Void Inquiry Stage, he stopped concocting pills.

He no longer entered the pagoda during his remaining time. Instead, he stayed in Seven Apricot City and Yue Country, brushing up his Dao of Formations. He then began to create Mortal Void Realm formation disks.

These formation disks were defensive grand formations which he prepared for facing the Void Inquiry Stage heavenly tribulation.

He had refined his Inlaid Star Compass once again and infused it with many formation techniques which were also part of his preparations for facing the upcoming heavenly tribulation.

Ning Fan was aware that he had thoroughly offended the Heavenly Dao and the next heavenly tribulations he would face would be extremely frightening. Therefore, he would not find it strange even if a Void Fragmentation Realm heavenly tribulation would fall upon him when the time comes.

In the remaining three years, Ning Fan used a great amount of Dao Crystals to create one hundred formation disks containing Mortal Void Grade grand formations.

After that, he only had two thousand Dao Crystals left which were equivalent to ten billion immortal jade.

When the one hundred formation disks were all activated at the same time, the formation light they produced was particularly terrifying. Even an expert at the First Heavenly Layer of the Void Fragmentation Realm would also be unable to destroy it within a short period of time.

Ning Fan then gave his women the powerful magic treasures he had obtained from the enemies he had killed in the past and only kept most of the broken and second-rate magic treasures. He was planning to use them all to face the heavenly tribulation...

Time flashed quickly. Ten years went by and the blood wine was finally done brewing.

For ten whole years, Ning Fan immersed himself in the windy and snowy weather of Seven Apricot City, living a peaceful and tranquil life.

For ten whole years, Ning Fan never took a life and stained his hands with blood.

All of his preparations for the past ten years were solely for breaking through to the Void Inquiry Stage!

After the blood wine was complete, Ning Fan informed his women about what he was going to do and left Seven Apricot City.

He did not want to repeat the same mistake that Old Devil had made in the past which was facing his heavenly tribulation in Seven Apricot City.

Since he was fully aware that the heavenly tribulation he would face this time would be especially fierce, he needed to find a vast and secluded place to set up one hundred layers of Void Grade grand formations to face the heavenly tribulation on his own!

Ning Fan travelled all the way south. After travelling across more than ten cultivation countries, he finally arrived at the South Gazing Sea of the Rain World.

The Endless Sea was located at the easternmost corner of the Rain World while the South Gazing Sea was situated at the southernmost area of the Rain World.

Meanwhile, Yue Country was located on the Rain World's south-eastern continent. To cultivators like Ning Fan, it would not take them too much time to reach those two sea domains from Yue Country.

The South Gazing Sea did not have as many cultivators as the Endless Sea Although its sea domain was extremely vast and broad, it was rare to find cultivators cultivating here.

After arriving at the South Gazing Sea, Ning Fan continued to travel to the southern direction and eventually set his eyes upon a desolate island that was a landmass of one million li* (500m per li). He landed on that island and set up one hundred layers of Mortal Void Grade grand formations.

Then, he sat cross-legged on the peak of a lonely mountain on the island to regulate his breathing and adjust his condition. Now, he only needed to wait to be in his best condition and consume the Void Fragmentation Realm Dao Fruits, the blood wine and the Void Inquiry Pill all in one go in order to advance into the Void Inquiry Stage!

...

On an island filled with incredibly thick demon qi situated several ten million li* (500m per li) away from the desolate island, there was a spooky cave full of piled up white skeletons.

Inside the cave, three female cultivators wearing revealing clothes were surrounding a crystal ball, peeping at a scene from several ten million li* (500m per li) away from them.

If it were a Void Refinement Realm expert who had lived in the South Gazing Sea for a long time, they would certainly recognize who the three female cultivators were and would definitely not dare to mess with them.

The three of them were the notorious 'Three Phoenix Maidens' of the South Gazing Sea. The three of them were demonnesses who possessed the demon bloodline of the Phoenix Race. Moreover, they were the three overlords of the South Gazing Sea!

The demon techniques the three of them cultivated were extremely vicious. They needed to hunt and feed on a huge number of men in order to raise their cultivation bases.

One of the three women was at the Absolute Void Stage while the other two were at the Void Pierce Stage.

Even though their demon powers were illusory and unstable due to their frequent feasting on humans, their strength was not insignificant. They had already killed several Void Refinement Realm experts of the Rain World by teaming up against them.

And then, the Rain Palace gave them an imperial edict which only allowed them to kill within the South Gazing Sea and restricted them from doing so outside of that area.

Few cultivators were willing to come here for cultivation due to the existence of the Three Phoenix Maidens in the South Gazing Sea who liked to feed on men.

It had already been many years since the Three Phoenix Maidens last tasted the flesh of a Void Refinement Realm man...

"This white-robed young man has quite a handsome face. If we capture him, we can pluck him first and then eat him later!" A Void Pierce Stage demoness looked at Ning Fan's image in the crystal ball and licked her fragrant lips. Her eyes flickered with a dark green light, as if what she saw was a delicious dish.

"We can't. Didn't you notice? He has already set up one hundred layers of formations on that desolate island and every single one of them is at the Mortal Void Grade! He must have a powerful background, putting aside how he managed to get so many Mortal Void Grade formation disks. With one hundred layers of formations protecting him, we certainly can't break through them and capture him!" Another Void Pierce Stage demoness worriedly said.

"There's no need to be scared. The reason why he appeared in the South Gazing Sea and set up one hundred layers of Mortal Void Grade formations is probably to face his heavenly tribulation. Besides, his cultivation base is only at the Void Glimpse Stage. I suppose he is preparing to break through to the Void Inquiry Stage and deal with the Void Inquiry Stage heavenly tribulation. He has actually prepared so many formation disks in order to face a mere Void Inquiry Stage heavenly tribulation. This is evident of him being an extremely timid person. Or it could also mean that his combat power is weak... We only need to wait for him to finish dealing with his heavenly tribulation. No matter if he manages to successfully attain the Void Inquiry Stage or not, he will certainly be worn out and grievously injured. When that time comes, we will conduct an abrupt sneak attack on him. We will certainly be able to capture him without shedding a drop of blood. Therefore, won't it still be up to us whether to kill him or skin him alive?!"

The Absolute Void Stage demoness spoke and licked her lips with her eyes glowing with a dark green demon light.

She had stayed in the South Gazing Sea for quite a long time. Since she had not traveled to the continents of the Rain World, she had no idea of who Ning Fan was.

Even if she knew, with a cultivation base at the Absolute Void Stage, she certainly would not be afraid of a simple Void Glimpse Stage man. Aside from that, she was not scared of any forces with her unscrupulous personality.

"Let's wait for him to deal with his heavenly tribulation! The moment he is done with it will signify his end! A lowly Void Glimpse Stage cultivator... *Chuckle*..." The Absolute Void Stage demoness chuckled evilly. She did not put Ning Fan in her eyes at all.

...

On the peak of a mountain on the desolate island, Ning Fan suddenly opened his eyes which flashed with a cold light.

"Interesting. It seems like the Void Refinement Realm cultivators of the Rain World have forgotten about my infamy after I've stopped killing people for ten years..."

Ning Fan spread his spirit sense and inspected an area of four hundred thousand li* (500m per li) around him. He did not discover anyone within that area but he could feel that someone was spying on him.

He closed his eyes and checked it carefully. Then, he vaguely sensed that the ones who were spying on him were three Void Refinement Realm cultivators.

When he tried to detect them more carefully, he discovered that the three traces of qi belonged to women. They openly revealed their killing intent toward him.

"Three human cauldrons have presented themselves right to my doorstep, huh? Very well. It saves me the effort of catching human cauldrons."

"After dealing with the heavenly tribulation, I'll make use of their cultivation to help stabilize my new cultivation base!"

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

<annotations style="display: none;"><ol class="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="6238cbca-c8a7-cb43-312d-57cf826fc4ab">The Three Spiritual Souls and Seven Physical Souls refers to The Three Hun and Seven Po (Chinese: 三魂七魄 Pinyin: sān hún qī pò) From the perspective of Daoism, a human soul is believed to consist different spirits which constitute the Yang aspect and the Yin aspect. The Yang aspect is made up of three Hun (spiritual souls) while the Yin aspect is made up of seven Po (physical souls). Do check out the website below to get a deeper understanding of a human soul.Source: https://daoistgate.com/understanding-the-human-soul/</li></ol></annotations>",