Grasping Evil

Today, Qin Yu understood one thing, which was there were people beyond people, and Heavens beyond Heavens.

Xue Qing’s devil aura forced her to retract her arrogance and became vigilant. What surprised her the most was that the arrogant Nan Wei actually saluted a youth by kneeling down before him.

The common greeting among cultivators would be to cup one’s fists. Nan Wei’s way of greeting was like an acknowledgement of a master, which contained a great sense of importance.

“Nan Wei greets Young Master!” Nan Wei’s eyes were ablaze.

“Young Master?” Qin Yu began to realize that this skinny youth was the master of Nan Wei.

Her eyes studied Ning Fan from head to toe unabashedly, but still couldn’t understand how this thin body could withstand the Gold Core spirit sense of Xue Qing, and what made Nan Wei so willing to serve this young master.

But when her eyes spotted the jade token bound on Ning Fan’s waist, her face paled as she instantly recognized Ning Fan’s identity.

She didn’t know why he was called ‘young master’, but she knew that this youth was the elder of Dual Cultivation Palace.

“H-he is Ning Fan! Argh! No, I mean, Elder Ning.”

There was awe in her eyes as she uttered the name. Given her conceited behavior, she rarely feared anyone.

As a matter of fact, she secretly used some kind of secret art that could only be practiced by the lineal descendants on Ning Fan and she was left completely terrified!

It was the Bloodthirsty Art!

This art allowed one to advance by massacring, but it was considered a malpractice and was very difficult to cultivate. However, it was a very profound cultivation law. The cultivator who practiced this art would be able to observe the other’s blood and Qi from the person’s soul and determine how many people the person had killed in his or her life.

Although she had to admit that Xue Qing had high cultivation base and a bad temper, the blood and Qi of this old man only indicated a thousand of killings, which wasn’t enough to make him a killing maniac.

As for Ning Fan, who looked gentle and modest on the surface, she detected that his blood and Qi was a hundred times greater than Xue Qing’s.

Ning Fan’s hands were soaked with so much blood, the blood from overturning the Heaven Separation, and dominating the Demon Sinister Forest. The blood consisted of nearly a hundred thousand people, all of them were no doubt cultivators, while thousands among them had a fierce Qi, the Qi of Gold Core realm!

One might not be able to discern it from his looks, but when one looked into his heart, one would find how ruthless this young man was.

Qin Yu’s astonishment didn’t concern Ning Fan. What concerned him was the amount of respect Xue Qing showed to him. The same thing for Nan Wei. Both of them were being overly respectful to him.

With a wave of his sleeve, a gust of wind brought Nan Wei back to his feet.

Ning Fan shook and sighed emotionally. Comparing the previous Nan Wei with the current one, he still preferred the Nan Wei who brought him around the Dao Fruit Auction, looking for pretty girls.

The advancement of his strength changed his identity and earned him a subordinate, but it also made him lose a friend.

“Brother Nan.”

“Call me Nan Wei, Young Master!”

“Alright…Nan Wei, your cultivation has almost reached the peak of Vein Opening realm, only a short distance away from breaking through to the Harmonious Spirit realm. Here’s a Profound Spirit Pill. Take this pill and go into seclusion. I believe it won’t be a problem for you to break through into the Harmonious Spirit realm.”

Ning Fan slapped the storage pouch and produced a pill bottle for Nan Wei.

The Profound Spirit Pill was a Second Revolution Pill. Its ingredients were very valuable, and had heaven defying effects. It could help any peak Vein Opening expert to break through to Harmonious Spirit realm, but only few could concoct this pill because the concoction of this pill required a special concoction technique—Mutually Reinforcing Water and Fire.

No one across the entire Yue Country knew about this concoction technique, including Xue Qing. Even in Rain Immortal World, there were only a few who knew this skill.

The sight of the pill bottle intrigued Xue Qing, as if he wanted to snatch it over to thoroughly study it.

But after thinking about it for a while, he dumped the thought of doing so. Since this was a pill granted by Ning Fan to Nan Wei, he would never rob it.

Nan Wei wouldn’t have thought that such precious pill was so easily granted by his Young Master. Such a generous act increased his respect and gratitude that he had to Ning Fan.

“Thank you very much for the pill, Young Master!”

“En.” Ning Fan nodded slightly and added after recalling something he had to say. “Right, I’ll spend half a month’s time concocting pills in Dan Palace. I suppose you will have broken through to the Harmonious Spirit realm by then. By that time, come to Dan Palace and find me. I have some things that requires your assistance.”

The thing that Ning Fan wanted Nan Wei to do was to send those pills which he had concocted back to Ning City.

After learning that Bone Sovereign had been stalking him, he wouldn’t return to Ning City without knowing Bone Sovereign’s whereabouts. He didn’t want his enemy to shift its focus to Zhihe and his people.

Nan Wei agreed to Ning Fan’s request instinctively. With Ning Fan’s presence in the hall, Xue Qing’s cold face squeezed a stiff smile at Nan Wei for the first time.

“Little friend does have a good relationship with Elder Ning.”

“Please, just call me Nan Wei, Senior! Junior ca-can’t afford to be called using that address!” Nan Wei was almost at a loss for words.

“Hehe! I reckon that little friend has come to Dan Palace to concoct pills? Come on in, this old man will open a low level concoction room for ya!”

Xue Qing’s attitude changed all of a sudden, but this only happened to Nan Wei. The other inner sect disciples were still not allowed to use any of the concoction rooms.

They all cast an envious look at Nan Wei, even a fool could see that Xue Qing was doing this because of Ning Fan.

“This Nan Wei is really lucky to have connection with Elder Ning.”

Cold Lightning Pill > Yin Lightning Pill

Having been granted access to the high-level concoction room equipped with the third grade earth fire, Ning Fan was satisfied with his trip

This time, he intended to spend half a month’s time in the concoction room to make all the needed Third Revolution Pills.

Xue Qing’s respectful act was bugging Ning Fan. In the past, Xue Qing only showed respect to grandmaster alchemists. Could it be this old man had seen through his concoction technique?

No, I have never revealed any of my concoction technique. He wouldn’t know about it. But if he knew that I’m a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, would that affect…

Abnormal matters are always related to ‘demons’. Something must not be right here. 

Ning Fan stared at the deep green earth fire and sighed. It took him a long time to clear the worries in his mind.

Counter soldiers with arms, water with an earth weir. Comparing him to Bone Sovereign, Xue Qing was like an ant. Even if he really had plotted against Ning Fan, he still wasn’t a threat.

Ning Fan slapped his storage pouch and took out the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron. With a flick of his sleeve, all sorts of herbs—five-century-old and millennium-old—materialized.

As his magical power improved, it became easy for him to control the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron. This was a high grade magical treasure and only Gold Core experts with immense magical strength could wield it. In other words, Ning Fan’s magical strength had reached their level even before he became a Gold Core expert.

Every spiritual herb was tossed into the cauldron. After a while, medicinal fragrance filled the air.

Third grade earth fire should be handled with great care as even a Gold Core expert could be killed by it if he or she was careless. But with Black Demon Flame that Ning Fan had, the earth fire was subdued completely.

The the seclusion would last for a 15 days,  Xue Qing still guarded outside the room like a statue.

From time to time, he would stretched his nose to sniff and every time, he would have different kind of surprise and expression.

Third Revolution Pill, Dragon Saliva Pill! 

*Hiss!* this is the peak Third Revolution Pill, Purple Golden Pill!

En? What aroma is this? It is a Third Revolution…it smells like a pill that protects the meridian.

Oh? This is the Flesh Regeneration Pill. This pill could heal females. Hehe, this Elder Ning really is dissolute. I wonder where would he use this pill…

Impossible! There’s no doubt about this smell! It’s the Yin Lightning Pill! Old man has only seen this in the ancient remnant volume!

And this is…this is! 

Anyone would admit that Xue Qing did have heaven defying sense of smell. He was able to infer Ning Fan’s concoction process with just the insignificant pill fragrances.

In his heart, he had concluded that Ning Fan was a Fourth Revolution Pill Master and this time, he was 90 percent sure about it.

This was because no Third Revolution Pill Master had the speed and ingenious technique that Ning Fan had. Even the Fourth Revolution Pill Master he met before didn’t have Ning Fan’s speed and success rate! And because of this, his mind was racing.

If Ning Fan was really a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, could he be the Black Devil Ning in the rumor?

Fourth Revolution Pill Master was rarer than Nascent Soul experts. There couldn’t be two Fourth Revolution Pill Masters existing at the same time in Yue Country. It would be so coincidental that both of them were great grandfather and great grandson.

If this was for real, Ning Fan had deceived the entire Yue Country with his lie.

Though lies were pointless nonsense, it was still better than the fact that there’s a 17-year-old Fourth Revolution Pill Master. Most people would rather believe Black Devil Ning’s existence.

Qin Yu saw through Ning Fan’s ruthless record of killings whereas Xue Qing saw through Ning Fan’s true concoction technique.

This alone could tell that no one in the world of cultivation could be underestimated. Even if one acted with extreme caution, it couldn’t guarantee that the secret wouldn’t be revealed.

The fortunate thing was Xue Qing wasn’t interested in Ning Fan’s identity. What interested him was his concoction technique and where did he learn it from.

As Xue Qing was still waiting bitterly outside, the formation light flicked. After 15 days of silence, the door of the concoction room opened with a loud crash. Ning Fan walked out of the room, his body was filled with concentrated medicinal fragrance.

Half a month of endless concoction had worn him out but his magical power had improved slightly during the process while his Qi was as composed as before.

Similarly, he cupped his fists at Xue Qing, turned and left, but Xue Qing caught him on the sleeve.

“Elder Ning is Fourth Revolution Pill Master!” said Xue Qing.

“So what if I am or not?”

Ning Fan’s glance turned cold. This Xue Qing had finally revealed his real intention, but he still wondered if this would be a good or a malicious one.

“If Elder Ning is a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, old man will give three presents to Elder Ning.”

“Oh? Ning Fan would like to see them.”

Ning Fan’s gaze softened. It seemed that Xue Qing wasn’t hostile to him. But then, he still couldn’t figure out what was Xue Qing’s purpose of doing so.

“Hehe! The first present may be seemingly far away, but it’s actually right before your eyes. If Elder Ning is a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, old man is willing to become Elder Ning’s furnace boy. Hehe, old man is also a Third Revolution Pill Master and an early Gold Core expert. Don’t you think that having a furnace boy like me will benefit you?”

“Oh? Elder Xue really knows how to joke around. You are a dignified senior. How can you be this junior’s furnace boy? Even if Ning Fan is a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, having senior as my furnace boy won’t benefit to me. You may say that you just want to tender the fire but I suppose it isn’t the fire that senior wants to see, it’s Ning Fan’s concoction method.”

Ning Fan smiled slightly as he had hit Xue Qing’s intention.

“Hehe! It seems being a furnace boy isn’t enough to make Elder Ning feel touched. Ai, it seems old man has to go all out in order to learn greater concoction technique. If Elder Ning is really a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, I, Xue Qing, is willing to become Elder Ning’s disciple! Elder Ning can also control my life or death by planting the Restrictive Spell on me!”

*coughing*

This time, Ning Fan was choked by Xue Qing’s words.

Despite knowing that this old man would have an uncommon intention, it was beyond Ning Fan’s imagination that this old man was willing to become his disciple just to learn concoction technique from him.

From here, he learned that Xue Qing was kind of rash in making certain decisions.

In fact, Ning Fan wasn’t too concerned about getting new disciples but it was rare to have an early Gold Core Third Revolution Pill Master disciple . So naturally, he wouldn’t refuse it.

What raised his curiosity was the last two presents that Xue Qing said.

The first present was to sell himself to Ning Fan and the other two were still unknown.

“Hehe, master must be touched by the first present. This is good…this is good…”

Xue Qing quickly called Ning Fan as master, fearing that he would refuse the offer, because Ning Fan was a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, after all. Also, he estimated that there was only one of such pill master in Yue Country. If he missed this chance, he would never get to improve his concoction technique further.

He was too fond of alchemy like how Elder Meng Chu was passionate about his tea.

“The second present will be… hundreds of years ago, disciple obtained a remnant scroll by chance. There are records about ancient concoction technique inside it, and it also has ways to advance to Fifth Revolution Pill Master. If master is really a Fourth Revolution Pill Master, master surely will be interested in this present!”

“What? Ways to break through Fifth Revolution Pill Master?”

This time, even Ning Fan couldn’t keep his composure.

Though he had the inheritance of Ancient Chaos, he could only reach the Fourth Revolution level and felt that there was a barrier to break through to the Fifth Revolution.

So it would be a lie to say that he didn’t want to break through to the Fifth Revolution level, because he couldn’t have achieve the peak of Harmonious Spirit realm in such a short period of time if it wasn’t for the pills he concocted.

He never thought that Xue Qing would deliver more than he thought. Not only this old man would sell himself to him, he would also give away the secret of breaking through to the Fifth Revolution Pill Master to him.

It may be not be a bad thing to accept this disciple. After all, he knows how to show respect to his master.

Ning Fan was now expectant of the third present Xue Qing was going to say.

For the first present, Xue Qing would sell himself to him.

For the second, Xue Qing would present him the method of breaking through to the Fifth Revolution level.

So what else would Xue Qing provide in the third gift?

“For the third benefit, it’s a pill. No, pill isn’t the right word. To be precise, it’s a pill devil.”

Xue Qing, for the first time, had made Ning Fan change his expression.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely!”

It couldn’t be helped. Pill devil was a high-quality pill. Due to long years, spiritual intelligence had grown inside it, turning it into a demon.

The condition for a pill to turn into a pill devil was extremely harsh. The most important condition of all was that the grade of the pill must be at least a Fifth Revolution pill!

The third present was at least a Fifth Revolution pill. The only thing he wondered now was what cultivation base had that pill devil reached.

If this devil’s cultivation had exceeded Gold Core realm, he wouldn’t accept it despite its preciousness

This Xue Qing had really presented great gifts to him, making him feel that it would be a waste to not accept this old man as a disciple.