Grasping Evil

The fact that Ning Fan obtained ten Ming Luo Fruits was unbelievable to Treant Ming Luo. Ning Fan immediately went into seclusion in the heart of the tree after that.

The wounds that were caused by the Fire Spirits were healed.

His dazed mental state that was caused by the power of illusion had recovered.

After a long time, Ning Fan gently exhaled a breath of foul Qi, waved his palm to produce a blood-red demonic core. His eyes sparkled.

Fire Spirit demonic core…human cultivators absolutely couldn’t take the demonic core directly. It has to be refined as a pill before consuming, but there’s an exception for the Five Elemental Demonic Cores – namely, metal, wood, water, fire and earth. If these five types of spirits have unlocked their spiritual intelligence and turned into demons, the demonic core inside of them could be swallowed directly by a human cultivator, however there’s restriction on one’s cultivation base…if a human cultivator wants to devour the demonic core of any of the five elements, his cultivation base must be one realm higher than the master of the demonic core…

Ning Fan was in silence. The Fire Spirit demonic core belonged to one of the Five Elemental Demonic Cores, and was the object of pursuit of countless peak Gold Core cultivators. If he refined the core with his current strength, he would surely be devoured by the demonic core due to his weak cultivation base. Even if he could refine the demonic core, his magical strength had already exceeded the highest realm before core formation, it won’t allow him to advance any further.

With a slight sigh, Ning Fan’s thoughts raced.

If he couldn’t refine it himself, could his black-clad incarnation do it?!

The strength of the black-clad incarnation was the same as the spirit sense of his true self, which was at half-step Nascent Soul realm, and could be completely separated from his body. If he stayed in the ninth level of Dark Sparrow’s Grave to refine the Fire Spirit demonic core, his spirit sense realm would probably be able to reach the extent of Nascent Soul realm!

In other words, he could break through to the Nascent Soul realm in the Dark Sparrow’s Grave! The strength of the incarnation came from the strength of his spirit sense. There was only a small bottleneck for breaking through the spirit sense realm unlike the bottleneck in core formation. With so many Fire Spirit demonic cores, three months would be sufficient for him to advance his spirit sense to the Nascent Soul realm! At that time, the black-clad incarnation would possess the strength of Nascent Soul realm, allowing him to sweep across the entire Yue Country unhindered!

Ning Fan’s eyes moved. If his spirit sense advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, even if he hadn’t formed his core, his black-clad incarnation would be powerful enough to fight a true Nascent Soul expert!

But immediately, a trace of doubt appeared in his eyes…there were two safety concerns that he needed to consider if his black-clad incarnation were to advance to the Nascent Soul realm.

First of all, the black-clad incarnation has to form its nascent, he would need to devour the Fire Spirit demonic cores. Also, the inside of the volcano was the most suitable place for nascent formation – under the power of the fourth grade fire and overwhelming spiritual Qi, it would absolutely tremendously increase the success rate of nascent formation…however, this place was the territory of Treant Ming Luo. Although Ming Luo’s hostility towards Ning Fan had reduced a lot, there was a saying that says one’s heart was unpredictable. If Ning Fan chose to go into seclusion in Ming Luo’s territory, there was no guarantee that Ming Luo wouldn’t change his mind and do something to harm Ning Fan.

There was a solution to this problem…he still had the trace of Ming Lou’s true soul in his possession. When he asked for the true soul of Ming Luo, he intended to save it for ensnaring Ming Luo later. It was true that he had asked for the true soul of Ming Luo, but he didn’t promise to return it to Ming Luo even if Bright Sparrow’s condition was already cured!

Nevertheless, he was still afraid that Ming Luo would want the trace of his true soul back before Ning Fan left Dark Sparrow’s Grave. If that happens, Ning Fan could stand in the teleportation formation untroubled, bargain with the weak Vein Opening clone of Ming Luo to exchange the true soul for some benefits.

In that case, both of them would be even.

However, Ming Luo had opened the Ming Luo Mirage for Ning Fan. This matter alone was enough to settle his score with Ming Luo – back when Ming Luo sneak-attacked him. Plus, no matter how thick-skinned Ning Fan was, he wouldn’t use that to threaten Ming Luo at this juncture.

This also mean that he could no longer use the true soul to threaten Ming Lou, he wouldn’t return it to Ming Luo for the time being, however. It would serve as his protection while his incarnation was in seclusion…So, this true soul still had a great use!

In this way, the safety issue of his black-clad incarnation’s seclusion was resolved…but, that also indicated that only half of Ning Fan – the white-clad – could leave the grave. Three months later, the Extreme Yin Gate would attack Ning City. His white-clad incarnation alone wouldn’t be enough to fight against the Old Monster Purple Yin.

The white-clad incarnation inherited Ning Fan’s cultivation base and flesh, whereas black-clad incarnation inherited Ning Fan’s sea of consciousness and sword sense.

Though white-clad incarnation still possessed spirit sense as the black-clad incarnation was still staying in Dark Sparrow’s Grave, he wouldn’t be able to exert the heaven defying technique – sword sense. If the black-clad incarnation could advance to the Nascent Soul realm before the attack of Extreme Yin Gate, it could certainly reverse the situation… However, if the black-clad incarnation encountered an accident during its breakthrough, he could only rely on the peak Harmonious Spirit white-clad incarnation to defend against the half-step Nascent Soul Old Monster Purple Yin. Many dangers had existed in this matter.

Ning Fan’s spirit sense swept through the volcano and he knitted his brows. Due to the slaughtering of the black-clad incarnation, thousands of Fire Spirits were killed, the Fourth Grade Spiritual Fire in the volcano began to extinguish. If he missed this seclusion and chance to devour the Fire Spirit demonic cores for nascent formation, he would never find a place as good as this for his seclusion again. Not every place in the world had a sea of fire similar to this Fourth Grade Spiritual Fire waiting for you!

After all, a tiny Fourth Grade Spiritual Fire could be sold at a sky high price in the outer world!

“The fire of this volcano isn’t fire, it’s created by the demonic force and can’t be brought out of Dark Sparrow’s Grave. Additionally, as numerous Fire Spirits were killed, the fire is beginning to die out. If I miss this chance, it will be extremely difficult for black-clad Ning to break through to Nascent Soul realm in the future, but if I let black-clad Ning stay here for nascent formation, the white-clad incarnation will face lots of dangers…

“Forget it. Let’s make a compromise…the black-clad incarnation will stay here for nascent formation while the white-clad incarnation will leave the Dark Sparrow’s Grave and return to Ning City. If Ning City is under attack and black-clad incarnation hasn’t broken through to the Nascent Soul realm yet…he will have to give up the chance of nascent formation and return to Ning City at once!”

Ning Fan casted a spell, then patted the top of his skull. In a flash of brilliance, the white-clad and black-clad incarnations exited his body.

Both of them had a very strong tacit understanding. The black-clad incarnation took away all the demonic cores without being told, held the trace of demonic soul and went straight into the extinguishing volcano.

As for the white-clad incarnation, he slightly sighed, patted the storage pouch to produce a Ming Luo Fruit.

This Ming Luo Fruit was the size of a lychee. Its rough surface resembled the Immortal Cave Stars in Ancient Chaos memory, but the traces of rainbow patterns densely enshrouded it, radiating a dim light that rippled with the power of illusion.

The Ming Luo Fruit was also known as the dream fruit. Consuming one fruit could allow the cultivator to obtain fifty years of dreaming. It was a way to improve one’s state of mind by immersing oneself into a dream. One dream would only take one night in the outer world, but in the dream, it would be 50 years. Although 50 years in a dream wouldn’t raise a bit of one’s cultivation base, it could make one’s mental state to converge!

“Ever since I practiced the Evil Cultivation, although my cultivation base has been rising pretty quickly, my mental state has rather been stagnant…it really takes time for one’s mental state to improve. Such improvement can’t be obtained through pills…apart from the Ming Luo Fruit, I’m afraid that there’s nothing else in the world that has the effect of raising one’s mental state. I want to be the first to take the Ming Luo Fruit in Dark Sparrow’s Grave!”

The White Ning let out a faint smile, placed the Ming Luo Fruit in his mouth and munched it.

The rainbow power of illusion instantly caused his eyelids to fall, plunging him into the dream world.

…

In the dream.

In Haining Ning Family, there was a three-year-old kid with blank eye-expression being brought into the servant courtyard of Ning Family.

Next to the emerald-green river was Haining City. Countless number of kids with the same eye expression were led into Ning Family.

Most of them were orphans and beggars. They were found from all parts of Wu Country by the cultivators of Ning Family. Their memories were erased, and they were taken as children of Ning Family. Those who were endowed with the talent for Immortal Cultivation would be called ‘young master’ whereas those that lacked endowment would be given the title of ‘servant child’.

The three-year-old child was at the heel of a scrawny middle-aged man and was acting obsequiously. The middle-aged man had a snobbish look and said coldly:

“From now on, you are called ‘Ning Fan’, my, Ning Daniu’s adopted child. I also adopted another child who is a year younger than you named ‘Ning Gu’…”

“Oh…”

The three-year-old child replied with caution. When he heard the name ‘Ning Fan’ he felt extremely familiar and when he heard the name ‘Ning Gu’ he felt somewhat sad.

However, he didn’t understand what those feelings were as he was just a three-year-old kid.

While in contemplation, the kid named Ning Fan couldn’t help but come to a halt. He stood there motionless, his eyes went blank.

“Why must I be called ‘Ning Fan’…? Can I not be called this name? My mother said that my surname is ‘Yun’…”

“*Hiss!* this three-year-old kid’s memory has been erased. So how can he still remember his past…? Humph! I will need to ask Immortal Master to wipe your memory once more. This time, it has to be a thorough one…”

Ning Daniu couldn’t close his mouth due to astonishment.

Even after having his memory erased, this kid still could remembered his own name. This kid is…

Ning Daniu’s eyes twitched. Could it be that this child would be a monster…? Or else how could this happen?

While he was pondering, a youth in white robe and black cloak walked over lightly.

“Ning…Ning Daniu greets Grandfather Immortal Master!” Every cultivator was an Immortal Master in Ning Daniu’s eyes!

Ning Daniu fell to his knees with a thump. He was scared, really scared. He had once witnessed an Immortal Master slaughtering 207 bandits, one after another, on a mountain. Immortal Master was the existence whom Wu Country paid homage to. Naturally, Haining’s Ning Family was also extremely courteous to the Immortal Masters. So, he, Ning Daniu, could never afford to offend an Immortal Master.

It was just that the youth cultivator didn’t even glance at Ning Daniu, his eyes fell on the kid named Ning Fan in recollection.

“You are called Ning Fan? Good name…you said that your surname is Yun?”

“En.” The child answered obediently. For some reason, the child had an instinctive sense of closeness to the youth.

“Ning Fan…perhaps, your real name is Yun Fan…Hehe…I never thought that the refinement of a Ming Luo Fruit could allow oneself to see the trace of a memory in the depths of one’s mind. It’s just that what’s the big deal in knowing one’s own surname? Every child that is adopted by Ning Family is an orphan. After all, you neither have a father nor a mother. There’s no difference if your surname is Yun or Ning.” The youth sighed.

“Oh…” Ning Fan nodded, even though he didn’t have a clue what the youth uncle was saying.

After sighing, the youth’s eyes turned stern, his Qi rolled frenziedly like a mist!

“Let me ask you, do you have the heart to defy and slash the Heaven!?”

“I…I don’t understand…” The little child seemed as though he thought of something and revealed a frightened look.

“Forget it. This is the first Ming Luo Fruit. Your heart is too puerile. It’s not the time to return to Haining and slash the Heart Devil yet.”

The youth made a sigh again, rolled his sleeve and brought the child Ning Fan with him under the astonished gaze of Ning Daniu and vanished.

The dream was smashed to pieces.

When the dream recondensed, it was a deserted and desolate land. It was the scene in the Demon Sinister Forest.

“In these fifty years, you will have to watch me kill…”

The youth stepped into the forest, taking the child with him, beginning his endless slaughtering!

As it was the first time the child saw blood, broken limbs and body parts, he passed out due to fear and puked countless of times, however his puerile heart was getting mature every time!

In fifty years, the youth and child never even spoke once.

In those fifty years, the youth kept on slaughtering an endless number of ghosts. It was just that every time the ghosts died, they reformed. It was because here, was the dream world.

From feeling loneliness to fatigue, then numbness towards the killings…resoluteness and coldness gradually emerged in the child’s eyes.

“I wonder if I have the heart to defy and slash the sky and if I can slash the sentiment!” The child’s tone was tender, but his expression was as cold as a god of slaughter!

After that, the dream of fifty years of slaughtering was broken!

…

In the ninth level of the grave, in the world of the heart of the tree, Ning Fan opened his eyes abruptly. His eyes were filled with hints of exhaustion and vicissitudes.

He closed his eyes, then settled his mental state. After some time, he opened his eyes. All the tiredness and vicissitudes in his eyes vanished, except there was an immeasurably vast difference in his expression!

The cultivation base of his mental state had been raised by fifty years!

Instead of feeling happy, he sighed.

“It’s still not enough. I still haven’t gotten the heart to defy and slash the Heaven…if that’s the case, I’m still unable to slash my sentiments and form the core! But I won’t slash the sentiments!”