Grasping Evil

Ning Fan and Lan Mei leaned against the back of their seat below the seat of honour, looking neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

After the exchange of conventional greetings, Sinister Sparrow cleared his throat before he asked the question that all the old devils present were concerned about the most.

“Ahem…Elder Ning, I reckon you already noticed. Our fellow friends have the same doubt about the contribution points you obtain in Demon Sinister Forest. I wonder if you can explain to us what have you done to earn you 2,150,000 contribution points. Of course, if you don’t feel explaining them, no one will force you with my presence here.”

Ning Fan’s eyes twitched, realising that there was no way to avoid this question.

The same event happened on Wang Yao who obtained 30,000 contribution points in one day. Below was the answer he gave to the curious old devils:

“Before I enter Demon Sinister Forest, I was already a Level One Vein Opening expert. After entering the forest, I suddenly discovered the bottleneck of Harmonious Spirit realm which took me roughly one month’s time to break through. And after breaking through, I dominated the First and Second Regions.”

This answer was readily accepted by all the old devils and they all thought that it would be only a matter of time before Wang Yao, who was now a deacon disciple, was promoted to Harmonious Spirit elder position.

As for Ning Fan, his situation might not be as easy as Wang Yao to prevaricate. He was after all a late Harmonious Spirit expert. The seniors might be able to accept it if he could slaughter Harmonious Spirit ghosts, but killing nearly 1,000 Gold Core ghosts with his power? Most of them would never believe he was that powerful.

He could never tell them about the Divine Art Chant, Mei Chen, Bone Emperor, etc. So, he needed to fabricate a lie to cover the truth.

“I used poison to kill those Gold Core ghosts…”

Ning Fan said, his tone grim, making an illusion that he was not lying.

“What! Poison? What kind of poison could kill 1,000 Gold Core ghosts?”

Hearing Ning Fan’s words, all the Old Devils shivered.

In truth, it was very hard to believe if Ning Fan claimed that he killed all those Gold Core ghosts relying solely on his own strength, but if it was a poison that killed those ghosts… As long as the grade of the poison was high enough, it could kill even Nascent Soul and Spirit Severing experts.

In the subsequent moment, they suddenly recalled that Ning Fan was the great grandson of a Four Revolution Dan Master—Black Devil Ning.

Could it be the poison was some kind of pill given by Black Devil Ning?

“I wonder what kind of poison little friend Ning used.” An Old Devil asked with dread.

“It was a pill named ‘Yama Pill’. Oh, I think it is a Fifth Revolution Poisonous Pill.” Ning Fan said in an uncertain tone.

“What? A Fifth Revolution Yama Pill?”

Almost all of the experts in the hall had clearly heard about this pill before. It was concocted out of the toxins of 99 different poisonous beasts. The toxicity of one pill would be enough to poison a Nascent Soul expert to death. If Ning Fan really had such a pill, killing 1,000 Gold Core experts would be easy.

But the problem was only Spirit Severing experts would have Fifth Revolution Pills. Despite him being a great grandson of Black Devil Ning, it was still strange that he had this pill. Seeing the suspicious look on their faces, Ning Fan added.

“That pill is given by the master of my great grandfather, Black Devil Ning. And there’s only one such pill in our family. My great grandfather was worried that I would encounter danger in Demon Sinister Forest, so he gave me that pill as self-protection.”

The coldness in his tone made all the old devils gasp in a mouthful of cold breath.

What! That Fifth Revolution Pill was given by the master of Black Devil Ning? Could it be his master was a Fifth Revolution Dan Master from some high-class cultivation country?

But after a series of contemplation, everything that didn’t make sense before made sense now. They thought that a fine Dan Master would definitely have an apprentice or disciple. It was logical that the Four Revolution Dan Master Black Devil Ning had a master who was a Fifth Revolution Dan Master.

Once this news was spread out, they were afraid that no one would dare to plot something behind Ning Fan’s back anymore. If Black Devil Ning was just an expert without background, perhaps someone would still plan to subdue this Fourth Revolution Dan Master secretly.

So with this mysterious Fifth Revolution master behind Black Devil Ning’s back, it could be said that no one throughout Yue Country would dare to offend Ning City again.

This lie didn’t only clear away the suspicion the others had on Ning Fan, it also revealed a shocking origin of Ning City.

Now, the Old Devils no longer doubted Ning Fan’s ability to kill nearly 1,000 Gold Core ghosts, but their faces were filled with mixed emotions.

It was such a great waste that the invaluable Fifth Revolution Yama Pill that could poison peak Nascent Soul experts to death was used by this young bratto deal with those mere Gold Core ghosts.

If I have one Yama Pill, I will use it to dominate Yue Country!

Quite many of the Old Devils were lost in their thoughts.

At any rate, it was good that the precious pill was wasted away by this young brat, otherwise it would become a mortal malady to the cultivation community.

If Black Devil Ning possessed another Yama Pill, no one would be able to stop whoever he was going to kill across Yue Country. Even Purple Yin Old Devil and Great Void Old Devil would all die because of the poison.

But there was a possibility that Black Devil Ning had another Yama Pill with him. In which case, no one should ever offend Ning City.

The expressions of the Old Devils were weird but one thing was certain: they had fully believed Ning Fan’s lie. Now they confirmed that no one would ever dare to attack Ning City unless the person was an idiot.

This lie had alleviated the fear many Old Devils had for Ning Fan, because this proved that he was not capable of killing Gold Core experts with his own strength.

But then, it was very likely that he was the ‘strongest person below Gold Core realm’. Being to kill Harmonious Spirit ghosts and had reached late Harmonious Spirit realm at the age of 17 made him the strongest cultivator below Gold Core realm.

After hearing Ning Fan’s confession, some old devils left with satisfaction whilst feeling enlightened while the other experts such as Fairy Suqiu, Sinister Sparrow and other peak Gold Core experts were having a brief discussion to exchange their thoughts.

The whole meeting ended up in a pleasant way but there was one old devil who scoffed at the explanation given by Ning Fan. He was Ji Mo.

Though his face looked indifferent, he was laughing at Ning Fan’s answer in his heart.

After their failed ambush at that time, he returned to Extreme Yin Gate and reported the matter about Ning Fan to Purple Yin Old Devil, making Purple Yin Old Devil to suspect that it was Ning Fan who captured Bing Ling and Yue Ling. Later, he spent a huge amount of fortune to seek help from an elder who could perform divination in Wu Country.

Naturally, they wanted to divine the culprit who caught the two women.

That divination elder was an early Nascent Soul expert proficient in future calculation and was called the Divine Fortune-teller. But this old man had the habit of charging thousands for one session, so anyone who wanted him to calculate a future or past event must pay him at least 10,000 immortal jade.

This was what Purple Yin Old Devil did. He had paid a visit to Wu Country and painfully spent 10,000 immortal jades to divine events about Ning Fan. The result of the divination was completely beyond his expectation.

Though he guessed it right that both the sisters were kidnapped by Ning Fan, there were also other 15 cauldrons who were already plucked by him.

This news infuriated him so much he wanted to attack Sinister Sparrow Sect and kill Ning Fan, disregarding the fact that it would offend Black Devil Ning.

But then, what shocked him more wasn’t the two girls but another thing—Ning Fan was actually Black Devil Ning!

“What a good Ning Fan! The whole Yue Country has fallen into his lie. Black Devil Ning or the Fourth Revolution Dan Master is merely a Harmonious Spirit expert…Haha! This is great! This is really great!”

Subsequently, Purple Yin Old Devil sent Ji Mo to Sinister Sparrow Sect to find out one important thing about Ning Fan, which was whether Ning Fan was still a Harmonious Spirit expert.

Though Ji Mo was shocked that Ning Fan had advanced to the late Harmonious Spirit realm in just a month’s time in the forest, he was still relieved that Ning Fan was still below Gold Core realm.

As for the Yama Pill and the Fifth Revolution Dan Master, Ji Mo naturally wouldn’t believe all these after learning the true identity of Black Devil Ning.

There was only one thing he wanted to do right now and that was to report this news to Purple Yin. He was sure that Purple Yin would be delighted. After that, they would wipe out Ning City secretly and hold Ning Fan prisoner so that they could use him as a private Dan Master.

All these things were unknown to Ning Fan. He had no way to know that some people such as Bai Feiteng and Ji Mo was already planning something behind him despite his inaction.

If Ning Fan didn’t worry enough and Ning City wasn’t vigilant enough, Zhihe and the others would sink into a crisis.

There was also one more person in Sinister Sparrow Sect who was plotting against Ning Fan, the person was Wang Yao.

At noon after the spiritual fruit banquet, all the old devils left the hall one after another.

Sinister Sparrow finally let out a sigh of relief after knowing that all the old devils were departing, because he had to put up the best look and demeanor when all the seniors were present.

Before he had the chance to take a break, the White Honour, Bai Feiteng created a trouble.

Just when the hall was left with the elders of Sinister Sparrow Sect, Bai Feiteng stepped forward to block Ning Fan’s path.

“Elder Ning! I, Bai Feiteng, want to have a gamble with you. I want to gamble for the Supreme Rank Magical Treasure in your storage pouch!”

When the others heard his word, they were slightly agitated.

They had no idea that Ning Fan actually had a Supreme Rank Magical Treasure that only Nascent Soul experts could possess. But recalling the Fifth Revolution Yama Pill calmed their unsettling emotion down.

As a matter of fact, Ning Fan was the one who acted most strangely in his gamble.

Eh? How did this Bai Feiteng know that I have Supreme Rank Magical Treasure?

Ning Fan was slightly stunned. He knew he was carrying the Eastern Ocean Bell but Bai Feiteng wasn’t supposed to know this.

What made him feel odd was why was this old man so hostile to him despite meeting each other for the first time?

Could it be this old man has taken a wrong pill this morning?

Ning Fan muttered in his mind while Lan Mei who was next to him said in a low voice.

“Ning Fan, White Honor and your master have never gotten along. He must be using you to express his grudge against your master. Don’t accept his gamble. You are a Harmonious Spirit expert, while he’s a Gold Core expert. This gamble isn’t a fair one.”

“I see. He’s thinking to put his anger on me after losing to my master.” Ning Fan’s lips curled into a cold smirk.

His eyes glared at Bai Feiteng and his Qi rose steeply.

My master’s enemy is also my enemy! 

He patted his storage pouch and released the trace of the Eastern Ocean Bell’s Qi without showing it.

It was indeed a Supreme Rank Magical Treasure!

At the present moment, he was no longer afraid of exposing the Supreme Rank Magical Treasure in Yue Country because not many of them could snatch it away from his hands. And he thought that with the intimidating existence of Black Devil Ning, who else would dare to lay a finger on him?

The instant the Qi of the Supreme Rank Magical Treasure was emitted out, Bai Feiteng’s eyes blazed with excitement. He was pleased that he had guessed correctly about Ning Fan’s treasure.

“I will gamble my Natal Magical Treasure—Myraid Soul Streamer.”

Bai Feiteng slapped his storage pouch to produce a soul streamer shrouded with black mist. It was a magical treasure of high grade Intermediate Rank.

Such item wasn’t worth mentioning at all in front of a Supreme Rank item.

Ning Fan looked over at Bai Feiteng and mocked, “Is White Honor thinking of using a high grade Intermediate Rank Magical Treasure to gamble for my Supreme Rank Magical Treasure? Don’t you think it is very shameless to exchange for a higher ranked item using a lower ranked item?”

“What? How dare you say that I’m shameless?”

“Intermediate Gold Core senior, you don’t think gambling with a Harmonious Spirit junior is a shameless act? And you wanted to gamble with a stake even lower than mine. But be rest assured, because I will accept your challenge. I won’t accept your soul streamer as your gambling stake. I don’t need a high grade Intermediate Rank item. But I would like your title, one of the titles of the four honors. So are you willing to gamble with your White Honor title?”

What? This brat want my White Honor title?

Bai Feiteng felt surprised but immediately smirked.

He didn’t think that an intermediate Gold Core expert like him would lose to a Harmonious Spirit junior. Although making a gamble with Ning Fan would offend Black Devil Ning, gambling had been a tradition in Sinister Sparrow Sect and he was just following the rules of the sect. If Black Devil Ning wasn’t satisfied about it, he couldn’t do anything to him either.

“If you win, I will grant my White Honor title to you. But, if you lose…Hehe, your Supreme Rank Magical Treasure will become mine and I will give you 10,000 immortal jades as a compensation for losing your precious item. What do you say?”

Ten thousand immortal jades couldn’t buy anything of Supreme Rank at all, but what Bai Feiteng was doing was trying to give some face to Black Devil Ning.

“Deal, but I hope to delay this gamble by half a year.”

“Half a year? No problem, I will give you half a year’s time.” Bai Feiteng quickly accepted the offer, fearing that Ning Fan would pull back.

Six months was just a small period of seclusion to Harmonious Spirit experts. He didn’t think that Ning Fan could make much advancement within half a year’s time.

As for Ning Fan, his purpose was to further enhance his strength, so that he could suppress Bai Feiteng completely with his own strength instead of using his trump cards.

Because of this gamble, he had to go into a long seclusion, and be well-prepared.

He would never fear Bai Feiteng!