Grasping Evil

Chapter 287 (2) The Three Halls of the Star Palace

The starlight before his eyes was flowing swiftly. Even with the Fu Li’s eye, Ning Fan was not able to see through the thing shrouded by starlight.

Its speed is too quick… The speed of this starlight is at least six hundred thousand li* per second…

Its speed was six times faster than that of the Golden Flame Chariot which was pulled by the black dragon! The speed of the starlight was probably on the same level as a Half Step Void Fragmentation Realm expert’s.

After being devoured by the starlight, Ning Fan had been teleported by the starlight for ten days. Ten days later, the starlight vanished. When Ning Fan opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings, he realized that he was now in a bright silver hall.

Silver bricks and silver tiles. The grass and trees around that hall were all in silver color too.

Ning Fan placed his palm on the wall of the hall. Immediately, a massive repulsive force was inflicted by the wall, greatly disrupting the regularity of his breath. He retreated tens of steps backwards from the wall continuously and his eyes narrowed with seriousness.

The wall of the palace had an extremely powerful force that prohibited anyone from touching it or going through it.

That force was the power of starlight!

So this place is the Star Palace…

The paths within the palace were complicated and confusing. The dangers lurking around the palace were hard to detect. However, Lu Daochen had given Ning Fan a map of the palace. Although it was just a general map, the labels on it helped Ning Fan instantly understand where he was right now.

“If I’m not wrong, this should be the one of the six compounds of the Hall of Humans…”

Ning Fan took out the jade slip that was given by Lu Daochen once more and placed it on his glabella. While studying the map, Ning Fan muttered to himself in a low tone. “The Star Palace is a vast labyrinth. According to Lu Daochen’s categorization, there are three domains from the internal part to the external part – the Heaven Hall, the Earth Hall and the Human Hall.

The Human Hall is situated at the outermost layer of the Star Palace. There are six mazes here which are arranged in the shape of a hexagon. Lu Daochen named them as the six compounds.

After going through the six compounds, then I will arrive at the three palaces of the Earth Hall.

The Heaven Hall would be at the end of the three halls. However, the structure of the Heaven Hall extremely resembles the medicinal garden of the Celestial Emperor that I’ve seen in samsara.

As for the location which is labelled by a red dot, it is the place where the remnant soul of Demon Marshal Lu is trapped. It is within the Heaven Hall.”

Ning Fan then kept the jade slip.

“I wonder where the others are teleported to by the starlight…”

When he spread his spirit sense, he realized that just the size of the compound he was in was already more than millions of li*. What was more troublesome was that the network of paths within the compound was tangled and full of traps. With the existence of the traps, ordinary experts would definitely be unable to fly at their full speed. Moreover, each and every step they took must be extra cautious.

Within ten thousand li, there was not anyone else. Although there was not any sign of a person, Ning Fan managed to find some thousand-year-old spiritual herbs. Moreover, some of them had even reached ten thousand years old and they could be used for concocting Fifth Revolution pills.

Spiritual herbs did not need to be cultured with care and they could stay around forever, endlessly increasing their age. The longest lifespan that a tuft of spiritual herbs could live was affected by multiple factors such as its type, the concentration of the spiritual qi, the existence of spiritual land or spiritual spring and so on…

At the sides of these spiritual herbs which were still in the middle of growing, there were thick ashes and dust. They were left by the spiritual herbs millions upon millions of years ago. They had grown to the limitations of their age and eventually wilted and turned into ashes of herbs because the spiritual qi of this land was not able to fulfill their needs.

“These spiritual herbs are precious. I must not miss them if I find any of them later…”

The purple star in his left eye flashed and the power of his sight improved. He called out his Fu Li demon wings. Travelling with that pair of wings, his speed would be comparable to that of a Peak Divine Transformation Realm expert.

He placed one foot forward and instantaneously transformed into traces of purple clouds and floated to ten thousand li away.

Flying above the sky outrageously like that had of course triggered multitudes of traps. Volleys of arrows made of starlight shot out from the dark heading directly at him. However, with the power of True Sight granted by his Fu Li’s eye, he could easily avoid each and every one of the sneak-attacks by simply moving his body.

It was not difficult to evade the traps. Even so, Ning Fan’s heart did not feel calm.

After travelling for just a brief moment, a sense of imminent danger suddenly surged within his heart.

The walls surrounding the palace shot out countless rays of starlight which carried a strong demon intent. It was as if the starlit sky had fallen upon him, pressuring him to the point of being unable to breathe.

An irresistible starlight bound Ning Fan’s limbs, restricting his movement. In a flash, he disappeared along with the starlight. At the next moment, Ning Fan was teleported back to his original location by the starlight.

“Prohibited airspace?!”

Ning Fan’s facial expression changed. Most of the labyrinths and historical remains had similar prohibitions. When the cultivators try to fly above the sky, they would then be forcibly sent back to their initial locations. The starlight of this place had clearly been fused with a domineering demon intent which carried the command of prohibiting the use of the airspace, disallowing anyone to fly within this palace.

It was completely beyond Ning Fan’s expectation that this Star Palace actually had such restrictions.

If that’s the case, does it mean that I have to travel this boundless Star Palace on foot?

He tried to flap his demon wings once more. However, the starlight which was fused with demon intent immediately encircled his body and suppressed him, causing him to be unable to move his wings for even an inch.

His gaze was filled with an unprecedented sternness.

“This Star Palace must have been planted with a demon intent by someone to prohibit cultivators from travelling using flight. I wonder if this demon intent that prohibits flying could be cancelled off using the power of another intent of the same grade.”

Ning Fan remained silent. He dismissed his Fu Li wings and trod forward with slow and heavy steps. Meanwhile, his body was gradually surrounded by a trace of moist qi.

Within the palace, rain suddenly began to fall upon a small area.

The Divine Intent of Rain!

When he was filled with the rain intent, he could obviously feel that the force that was prohibiting his flight was weakened by a great deal. When he summoned his Devil Intent of Evil Luo Mountain and his Demon Intent of Fu Li, the force of that restricted his flight was no longer forceful. Besides, Ning Fan could fly above the sky using half of his full speed.

In spite of that, the power of his current intent realms was still nowhere near enough to completely offset the power of the demon intent which restricted his ability to fly.

Even so, Ning Fan could ascertain one thing: his divine intent was able to offset some of the effects of the demon intent of the Star Palace.

If that is how it is, as long as my divine intent is strong enough, I will be able to suppress the demon intent and lift the restriction that was imposed on flying!

At the same time, he also realized that even though his Divine Intent of Rain was being restrained by the demon intent of the Star Palace, it was gradually transforming and improving with a notable speed.

“Interesting… Under the suppression of the demon intent from this Star Palace, my Divine Intent of Rain is actually refining itself!”

Condensing divine intent was just the first step. After comprehending the divine intent, Divine Transformation Realm experts would need to fuse their divine intents into their magical techniques. By doing that, the power of the magical techniques could be greatly enhanced.

Aside from that, after one condenses their divine intents, they would still need to cultivate their divine intents to achieve Small Accomplishment, Large Accomplishment, Perfect Accomplishment and eventually combine themselves with the divine intents, uniting the intangible and reality!

For Divine Transformation Realm experts, raising their magic power was not the only way to break through in their cultivation. Most of the Early Divine Transformation Realm experts who failed to advance into the Mid Divine Transformation Realm in their entire lives was because they failed to comprehend any divine intents.

In other words, in order to break through to the Mid Divine Transformation Realm, a Divine Transformation Realm expert not only needed sufficient magic power but they also need to cultivate their own divine intent to the level of Small Accomplishment. In order to break through to the Void Refinement Realm, one’s divine intent must at the very least attain Big Accomplishment to comprehend to bypass their bottlenecks!

Ning Fan’s Divine Intent of Rain was just in the initial stages of development since he had not deliberately cultivated it before after congealing it.

But today, due to the suppression of the demon intent from the Star Palace, his Divine Intent of Rain seemed to have been compressed and refined and now, it was moving towards the level of Small Accomplishment!

It was a rare opportunity because this Star Palace was actually fused with the demon intent of the Celestial Emperor. Although it was just a fragment of his demon intent, his aura force still remained. It was absolutely a great chance to cultivate and temper his own divine intent with its help.

“Lu Daochen once said that if I obtain the Star of the Celestial Emperor, I should be able to break through to the Mid Divine Transformation Realm. As such, in order to successfully achieve that advancement, I shall take advantage of this opportunity to temper my divine intent. Since the Key of the Star Palace is in my hands, other than me, no one else would be able to obtain the inheritance of the Emperor Star. Apart from that, judging from the current situation, I don’t have to be in a rush with my journey… This is a great chance to use the demon intent of the Star Palace to refine my divine intent!”

…

In the other compounds of the Human Hall, each of the Divine Transformation Realm experts emerged after one another. When they noticed the complicated network of paths and traps of this world, each and every one of them wore a solemn look.

A majority of them entered the Third World with the purpose of awakening the Demon Marshal while the others harbored the intention of seizing the Star of the Celestial Emperor from the Demon Marshal.

However, none of them had expected a labyrinth made of starlight would emerge in front of their eyes.

What was more strange about it was that each of the halls and palaces were established with the demon intent of that prohibited flying.

Fortunately, after they summoned their respective demon intents, most of them were able to fly above the sky with at least one tenth of their original speed.

Somewhere outside a dilapidated wall, Imperial Concubine Zi’s phoenix eyes became as gloomy as dark clouds. She did not expect the Third World to be in this condition.

“Detestable! Why does this place where the exiled creature slumbers turned out to be like this?! In this matter, how should I know whether we can still search for enough remnant ashes of the emperor’s medicine… If I can’t accomplish the mission assigned by the Spirit Empress, I will die for sure!”

Slowly, she took out a purple luopan (compass) and sneered.

“My Demon Intent of Purple Cuckoo has already reached the level of Small Accomplishment. With that, I can at least fly in this place at half of my original speed! Hmmph. I shall first find where the other imperial concubines are at! As for the spiritual herbs at this place, since they grew up here, perhaps they could satisfy the Spirit Empress. It’s better that I gather some of them…”

At the end of a palace with deathly stillness located somewhere in the six compounds stood a gigantic door shining with brilliant silver light.

An Early Divine Transformation Realm Demon General cautiously inched forward to the gate. As he pushed open the door, he was sighing in relief.

“Unexpectedly, the Third World is actually a vast labyrinth. What is more unexpected is that this place actually has a restricted airspace. Luckily the place where I was teleported is much nearer to the center of the world. Mm… It should be the central domain after this gate is opened. Hehe. If I am able to find the slumbering Demon Marshal Lu Wu before the others, the Star of the Celestial Emperor would be mine. Then, I will have the qualifications to break through to the Mid Divine Transformation Realm… After I achieve that advancement, of all members of the Angry River Tribe, I will be the strongest person after the Honorable Demon General!”

This general was a member from the fifth division, Angry River Tribe.

By luck, he was directly sent to the interchanging point between the Human Hall and the Earth Hall.

As he pushed open that heavy giant gate and stepped one foot forward, a few silver shadows which were asleep inside the poorly lit palace were awakened by him.

“Any intruder of the Star Palace shall die!”

The voices that came out of the few silver shadows did not sound fluent. At this very moment, the Demon General’s countenance was filled with great shock.

“Divine Transformation Realm spiritual puppets?! Why are there so many of them?! Ahhh!”

A loud wail of pain echoed through the palace as the giant door shut.

Within the Heaven Hall, the nine Honorable Demon Generals exchanged looks of surprise with each other. All nine of them were teleported by the starlight to this place at the same time.

After all, they were old monsters who had been in the cultivation world for countless years. A moment later, they immediately regained their composure and began to figure out the current situation which they were facing.

As for Lu Daochen, his countenance changed. If he was not wrong, this place must be the Heaven Hall labelled by him on the map without a doubt.

“The Heaven Hall! According to my predictions, anyone who enters the Star Palace should by right be transported to the Human Hall. Why are we, the nine Honorable Demon Generals, were sent straight to the Heaven Hall?”

*Roar*

A deep and formidable roar of a beast reverberated from the other side of a sealed giant gate which separated them from another palace. It carried an aura force so intimidating that Lu Daochen felt chills running down his spine. All the thoughts inside his mind were interrupted.

The aura force spread along the air along with a gust of black wind. As it blew against them, all nine of them were caught off guard, causing them to lose their balance. Immediately, they flew backwards, avoiding a direct confrontation with the aura force.

If it was not because of the sealed giant gate that reduced the power of the roar, it probably would be able to inflict heavy damage on the nine of them.

“It’s master! No… It isn’t! This is…” Lu Daochen’s facial expression looked astonished.

It can’t be wrong. Lu Wu’s remnant soul should be sealed in a place within the Heaven Hall.

But what is the creature residing inside that palace?!

“Lu Daochen! What are you hiding from us?! Why would the place where Demon Marshal Lu slumbers became like this? Is it really Demon Marshal Lu who is currently locked up inside that palace?!”

Lu Jiefen’s face was unpleasant. However, within his fearsome gaze, there was a hint of dread.

Could it be that Demon Marshal Lu who is supposed to be asleep has awoken?

But if he has awoken, why is the palace filled with such intense qi of death? Don’t tell me…

“Demon Marshal Lu is dead! And…” Lu Jiefen’s facial expression drastically changed.

Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel