Grasping Evil

On the tenth day, Jie Xiu personally arrived at the inn. His arrival surprised the Gold Core Realm cultivators currently staying there.

Jie Xiu didn’t meet anybody else besides Ning Fan. After having a deep conversation with each other, Jie Xiu handed him a storage pouch.

Those unrelated cultivators inquired about Ning Fan all around. After they knew that Ning Fan was Old Ancestor Zhou Ming, each of them came to pay him a visit.

However, Ning Fan rejected all of them. The atmosphere in his room turned silent.

Jie Xiu told him that the storage pouch was an apology from the king. He hoped that Ning Fan wouldn’t mind the king’s previous aim of testing him to gauge his power.

“Was he really just testing me? If I wasn’t capable enough, I would have died already… In a way, it was indeed a trial, a trial of life-and-death.” Ning Fan said in a disapproving manner.

There were ten bottles of Three Revolution Pills in the pouch. These pills were meant to treat wounds and restore spiritual energy. A Low Grade Four Revolution Pill could be found as well, namely the “Extreme Bone Pill”. After consuming it, one could unlock the potential and break through to the Second Realm of Silver Bone for a short period of time. The pill would lose its effect after a certain period of time and the cultivator’s Body Refining Realm would return to normal. The downside of the pill was that it would leave behind a serious side effect on the cultivator.

But this pill was still very precious. If this pill is used during an intense fight, it would definitely be very effective.

Aside from those mentioned, there were also two Early High Grade Realm magical treasures.

It was as if the King knew that Ning Fan’s current magic power could only unleash the full strength of an Early High Grade Realm magical treasure. If he sent one with a higher grade, Ning Fan might not be able to use it to its full potential.

Although they weren’t Supreme Grade magical treasures, the ability added to the magical treasures after the process of Spirit Augmentation weren’t weak. One of them was the Verdant Stone Sword which held a Nascent Soul Realm ability, specifically the Shadow Phantom. The other one was Jade of Orchid Hill. It had the power of purification which could nullify any Low Grade Nascent Soul Realm evil illusory technique.

Furthermore, Ning Fan also found one spiritual equipment and a Dao Fruit…

The Dao Fruit is obtained after an Intermediate Gold Core Realm cultivator dies. It was considered rare. However, the spiritual equipment was something priceless compared to the Dao Fruit!

Profound Silver Spiritual Equipment was for Harmonious Spirit Realm cultivators. Profound Golden Spiritual Equipment was for Gold Core Realm cultivators. Profound Jade Spiritual Equipment was for Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. The equipment that Ning Fan received was Profound Earth Spiritual Equipment. It was meant for Spirit Severing Realm cultivators!

Profound Earth Spiritual Equipment, “Wind Lightning Wings”!

After making the equipment recognize him as its master, it would fuse with his body. When using it, the master’s back would grow a pair of wings having the power of wind and lightning. It allowed the master to possess movement speed comparable to an Early Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. (To clarify again, it’s about movement speed, not teleportation!)

Ning Fan could use teleportation although he was just at the Harmonious Spirit Realm. Moreover, his black teleportation didn’t cost any magic power and used the power of his spirit sense instead. However, it would be impossible for him to rely heavily on teleportation and less on flying when he travelled.

Teleportation was an ability that would only be performed in urgent circumstances. Usually, he still needed to travel by flying.

Flying consumed magic power… Unfortunately, magic power was Ning Fan’s biggest weakness and his flying speed was extremely slow as its speed was only at Early Gold Core Realm.

If he gets involved in a battle against a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, teleportation would be very effective. However, when the battle turns into a pursuit, he wouldn’t be teleporting the entire time as he might be pursuing the enemy for hundreds of thousands of li. As such, slow flying speed and low magic power might become his fatal weak point.

This equipment was indeed a helpful gift.

The biggest advantage of this equipment wasn’t its Early Nascent Soul Realm speed. In fact, the owner didn’t need to spend any magic power when flying!

Magical treasures were weapons which were infused with the magic power of cultivators to inflict damage on the opponents.

Spiritual equipments were treasure that were augmented with spiritual marks and secret arts which infused them with the energy of heaven and earth. Therefore, using them would help the cultivators save their magic power as they needn’t spend any of it.

In other words, if Ning Fan is successfully recognized as master by the wings, his flying speed would be unrivaled without exhausting his magic power. Even if he needed to travel for a long distance, he no longer needed a ship nor an immortal cloud to aid him in his journey!

Profound Earth Spiritual Equipment… It was also considered as a precious item to the King!

The last item in the pouch made Ning Fan stupefied for a while.

He didn’t expect to find this item in this country and it was even beyond his expectations that the King would present this item to him as a gift…

The eleventh rank qi in the  Twelve Heavenly Cold Qi, Cold Pine Essence!

It might not be as strong as the Profound Yin Qi which was ranked at the ninth, but it’s much stronger than Bone Prison Qi which was ranked at the twelfth place…

Only cold qi of the fifth grade and above were named as Heavenly Cold Qi… This item was priceless!

If the others knew that he possessed it, there would be a lot of people interested and try to seize it from him.

Is the King really being nice to me? If it was given by the King out of good intentions, Ning Fan would try to forget the misunderstanding between them.

However, Ning Fan felt that the gift wasn’t something good at all.

It was as if he was drawing more troubles to Ning Fan. It would trigger some people’s greed to snatch it from him.

As his cultivation realm increased, he gradually realized that he couldn’t be like his master, displaying the Black Demon Flame everywhere.

His master was able to do that because even the ‘Big Shot’ of Rain World showed him respect. No one dared to snatch it from it.

My situation is much different from my master. Not many people know that I am the disciple of the Old Devil. If I keep displaying the Heavenly Cold Qi or Earth Flame without caution, I would certainly receive the attention from the enemies lurking in the dark.

It won’t be a serious matter to display the Black Demon Flame once in a while in a low-grade cultivation country. However, there were a lot of strong experts in a middle-grade cultivation country. Moreover, the Spirit Severing Realm Demon General seemed to be keen on getting it… That was the reason why Ning Fan didn’t reveal his Fire Element Cultivation Method when he was tested earlier. He showed the opposite, which was Ice Element Cultivation Method. He was afraid of exposing the fact that he possessed the Black Demon Flame.

Currently, it appeared that the King had the intention of getting Ning Fan into troubles.

If the King wants to cause trouble for me, he wouldn’t keep it as a secret after this item lands into my hands.

If I am not mistaken, there would be a Spirit Severing Realm cultivator coming to ask for the Heavenly Cold Qi after a while.

I would of course be fine if I obediently hand the item over to the cultivator. Furthermore, I might be able to get a favourable impression from him.

However, I might appear to have no harm on the surface but my Heart of Dao would suffer great damage.

My Heart of Dao was not giving in to others. If I am forced to hand over this item, it shows that I submit myself.

Is that the ultimate intention of the King?

Ning Fan wasn’t certain on his assumption. It’s easy to find out the truth!

He left the inn and spread his spirit sense all over the area, covering the entire Quwo City.

At the next moment, he could eavesdrop on the conversations and gossips from the restaurants and residences.

“Have you heard? Old Ancestor Zhou Ming received the approval of our King and will become one of the Seven Commanders. He’s going to take over Xun Ri’s position who was also known as the ‘Water Commander’ that died in the line of duty.

“Who doesn’t know about this?! Did you also know that Old Ancestor Zhou Ming not only got Xun Ri’s post, but also obtained Xun Ri’s treasure!”

“What?! Is there really something like this?! What’s the treasure?!”

“Heavenly Cold Qi! Cold Pine Essence!”

“Aiya! It’s weird. This item is always wanted by Revered Snow, one of the Revered Elders of Rain Palace, isn’t it? Could it be that Revered Snow didn’t want it anymore?”

…

Ning Fan withdrew his spirit sense and his eyes turned cold.

If the King held good intentions, it would be impossible for him to spread the news all around which would cause troubles for me.

From the conversation earlier, Ning Fan found out that Cold Pine Essence was owned by the late Xun Ri. Besides, Revered Snow of Rain Palace took fancy to it.

Ning Fan didn’t know who Revered Snow was. He presumed that it must be a Spirit Severing Realm Revered Elder. It was because only Spirit Severing Realm cultivators could be addressed using the word ‘Revered’ in Rain Palace!

“Sure enough, the King wants to take revenge on me for crushing his Dominating Intent. He now wants to destroy my Unyielding Intent.. Revered Snow, Spirit Severing Realm… It was indeed a ‘huge’ gift from the King. Does he really think that I, Ning Fan, dare not to receive?!”