Grasping Evil

Amidst the bright sky, worn out and damaged shuttles flew towards Gu Shan Guan.

Today was the seventh day since they went out to war making everyone busy in the city.

All the shuttles that set out to eliminate the demons in different cities all managed to return. The cultivators who were assigned to guard Ju Shan Guan were busy registering the battle points of the cultivators who participated in missions.

At the gate of the city, the cultivators who became embroiled in bloodbaths earlier exchanged their battle points for immortal jade, pills and treasures to increase their strength.

Above the gate tower, a woman in a plain-colored dress was looking at the edge of the sky with a concerned expression.

The stench of blood fills the air. But his shuttle hasn’t returned yet.

“Suqiu Xianzi, don’t worry. Ning… Fellow Daoist Zhou is strong. He would surely be safe…” Jing Zhuo tried to console her.

“En. I know that he’s powerful. At the end of the day, he’s just a…. I heard that seven groups accomplished their mission and only three groups didn’t manage to destroy the demon cities. Furthermore, three Nascent Soul Realm cultivators lost their bodies and only their Nascent Souls managed to return. Would he be alright?” The woman wearing a plain dress bit her lips and let out a faint sigh.

Why is he being stubborn every time?

To ask me to guard this city while heading into the frontlines himself and face danger.

The concern in her eyes never ceased no matter what Jing Zhuo said.

Only when another broken shuttle flying in the sky came into her sight that she let out a sigh of relief.

A young man was standing at the head of the shuttle dressed in white clothes and donned a dark cloak. He was facing against the wind with both of his hands behind his back. Although his face looked pale, it was always adorned with a smile.

“He finally returned… He should’ve obtained lots of battle points for sure. It’s similar to what happened back then in the Sinister Sparrow Sect…”

Yin Suqiu’s eyes sparkled and got she quickly down from the gate tower, heading towards the city. She wanted to welcome Ning Fan and celebrate his victory.

…

In this war, victory belonged to humans.

They now have sufficient battle points to leave Great Jin. What follows after the destruction of the demon cities would be the final battle at Dragon Vision Pond. That battle would be led personally by Revered Snow. However, Ning Fan didn’t intend to join the battle.

There were actually few reasons of why he won’t do so.

Firstly, since he had already gained enough battle points, there was no need for him to continue risking his life for the upcoming war. The date of the final battle had been set at exactly a month from now. On the other hand, the activation day for the Ancient Teleportation Formation would be a few days after the commencement of the final battle. If he participate in the war, he might not be able to catch up on time if something unpredictable cropped up and delays him.

Secondly, the Spirit Severing Realm demon general was still in the Dragon Vision Pond. He captured two of the demon general’s female partners and killed one of his male partner. The two female demons that were held captive didn’t pose a big threat to Ning Fan but killing the male demon did. After the male demon died, he noticed that the blood qi of the male demon stained his body. The stain remained on his body for a few days already without a sign of disappearing. Perhaps it might turn out to be a reason for the demon general to seek him out for revenge.

If I join the war, it would be a suicidal action since the demon general would certainly not let me go. So there’s completely no reason for me to participate.

The third reason was because of the storage pouch of the lion-maned demon. There was something in there which made Ning Fan to be extremely worried.

For the last reason, Ning Fan required some time to rest, treat his wounds and also to assimilate the demons’ blood!

During the return trip to the city, he had tried to examine the storage pouch in his Cauldron Ring using his spirit sense several times. The results always astonished him!

In that storage pouch that belonged to the demon with a lion’s mane contained a cherry-sized Immemorial Star!

It might look tiny and small. However, the Yin Yang Locket was created with just that amount of Immemorial Star. (The Yin Yang Locket wasn’t big after all)

As for the Separation Slayer Sword, it contained only a few fragments of an Immemorial Star. If that cherry-sized Immemorial Star was fully merged into the sword, its quality would certainly improve. Moreover, the sword would become hard enough to the extent of being able to withstand a Void Fragmentation Realm magic technique without a scratch.

Early High Grade Flying Sword – Separation Slayer Sword had a thin body. Refining it might not even need the entire piece of Immemorial Star. Perhaps Ning Fan could build another Immemorial Divine Weapon with the leftovers!

But it was already seriously corrupted by demonic qi.

Ning Fan did not know that it was given to the lion-maned demon by the demon general himself. The general ordered the demon to contaminate it with demonic qi. He had planned to forge an Immemorial Divine Weapon for himself after he completes his Dragon Transformation. Other than fiendgods, the demons who possessed Immemorial Demon Veins were the ones that were able to wield Immemorial Divine Weapons.

It’s such a pity for the general that the Immemorial Star had fallen into Ning Fan’s hands. If he found out, he would definitely be enraged.

To purify the Immemorial Star that was contaminated with demonic qi, it would need special means that might take a while. For Ning Fan, the earlier he can get his hands on a pure Immemorial Star, the better.

As such, he lacked the motivation to go into battle a month later at the Dragon Vision Pond.

Besides, there were three layers of demon’s blood condensing within his body, roiling.

In the previous battle, he had consumed three demon corpses in giant form after killing each of them. It was indeed a gruesome scene to watch. However, consuming blood was one of the ways to strengthen the demon’s power within his body, according to the Camelia Scripture from the flower demon.

There were two methods of cultivation for demons.

First, adopting the cultivation method of absorbing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and moon and turn them into demon power.

Secondly, consuming blood. The blood of living creatures would increase the demon power.

It was why Ning Fan did not just kill those demons but also ate all three of them when he transformed into a giant.

The blood of the three demons was rotating inside his body, refining into three droplets of blood essence. The light greenish blood belonged to the white snake demon, the light yellowish blood belonged to the yellow marten while the light golden blood belonged to the Mid-Nascent Soul Realm demon with a lion’s mane.

The greenish blood and yellowish blood were threadlike in his veins as both of them belonged to demons which had their cultivation realms forcefully raised to Nascent Soul Realm through the use of secret arts. Though it might seem miniscule, a drop of blood was still able to enhance the power of his current demon blood by a hundred times.

For the golden blood, it was ten times of the two types of blood altogether!

Now, the Winged Demon Bloodline in his body was steadily assimilating the power of the three droplets of blood.

His demon power was gradually improving and to his surprise, the quality of the Winged Demon Blood within him was improving too.

It was considered a miracle even for the ancient demons to witness the improvement in quality of a thin demon bloodline!

Actually, the main reason behind it was the Yin Yang Locket.

It enabled Ning Fan to open up Divine Veins, Demon Veins, as well as Devil Veins in his human form while refining the quality of his blood veins. For him, it wasn’t too shocking.

The Yin Yang Locket gave its owner the ability to incorporate any power as his own. Therefore, there was absolutely no struggle to power up himself by consuming the blood of other demons.

Ning Fan’s demon power was only at Early Harmonious Spirit Realm, excluding the realm of his magic power.

If the three droplets of blood were all assimilated, his demon power would break through to the Late Harmonious Spirit Realm or even achieve the Peak of Harmonious Spirit Realm!

Aside from that piece of Immemorial Star in the storage pouch, there were a several spiritual pills and magical treasures. The magical treasures weren’t even worth noticing as they were all seized from other human cultivators. However, the spiritual pills were of high quality. There were some Spirit Refining Grass among them too.

He also found a jade bottle which was deliberately sealed.

A strand of demon power leaked from it. By just smelling it, the demon bloodline in Ning Fan’s body began to churn!

Judging from the smell of it, it was quite similar to the three droplets of blood in his body. However, the concentration of the demon power within the bottle was worlds apart from the three droplets of blood!

“Is it possible that it contains a droplet of blood essence of a powerful demon?!”

Ning Fan could tell that if he consumes the droplet of blood in the jade bottle, his demon power would undeniably advance into the Gold Core Realm or even higher!

However, he wouldn’t act rashly by just consuming it without thinking twice. Enhancing demon power through consuming the blood of others had a limit. He must never consume the blood of a creature that was way more powerful than himself.

To absorb the power of a Nascent Soul Realm demon’s blood essence is already risky, let alone the blood that is sealed within this jade bottle. It may inflict terrible damage on me if I forcefully take it in.

Ning Fan was unable to identify the quality and grade of the blood. As such, he was afraid that he might explode into pieces after consuming it…

“I guess I have no choice but to save it for later…”

After exploring the storage pouch, the thought of not participating in the final battle became even more firm in his mind.

When the shuttle landed within the city, multiple cultivators greeted and welcomed him cordially. In return, Ning Fan nodded his head towards them as a token of respect.

He followed Jie Xiu and Yun Ruowei towards the place to update battle points. An enormous jade tablet stood there. The cultivators that returned from their missions placed their Jade of Achievements on the glossy surface of the tablet and the amount of the battle points would be recorded.

A courteous elderly cultivator was looking after the jade tablet. He was the person who helped the cultivators to convert their battle points into immortal jades, pills, cultivation methods and magical treasures.

Ning Fan did not immediately go towards to the tablet used for recording battle points. A familiar figure who had been waiting for him in the crowd of cultivators caught his sight.

“Zhou Ming!”

“Oh. It’s Suqiu! Are you waiting for me?”

“Yes.”

The two of them were acting out the role of a couple. Therefore, it didn’t matter if the way they addressed each other was a little too intimate.

When Suqiu’s gaze shifted from Ning Fan and landed on Yun Ruowei, her heart began to feel nervous. However, she still moved her eyes away from her. As for Yun Ruowei who noticed Yin Suqiu, she could guess that Suqiu was Ning Fan’s partner.

This woman has great latent talent. If I wasn’t lucky in the past, I might be at the same cultivation realm as her. Besides, she is also a woman of great beauty. It’s really difficult to have such a female cultivator with great potential in this cruel cultivation world.