Grasping Evil

Quwo City, Pingyuan City, Meng City, Linzi City…

Under Jie Xiu’s lead, Ning Fan passed by the cities through the short-ranged transportation portals.

As both of them were Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, the treatment they received was undoubtedly different from that of Gold Core Realm cultivators.

For Gold Core Realm cultivators, the portal would only be activated when a certain number of people gathered together. The reason behind it was to avoid wasting immortal jade. As such, a lot of time was wasted while waiting for the others.

Since Ning Fan and Jie Xiu had renowned identities, they were able to demand to activate the portals whenever they reached a city. The controller of the formations didn’t dare to disobey their orders even though there were only a few Gold Core Realm cultivators with them.

In just six days, the two of them had already travelled for millions of li through hundreds of transportation portals and reached the northwestern border –Ju Shan Guan!

Along the journey, the scenes coming into sight were getting more and more horrendous as they got closer to the northwestern region.

Thousands of li outside Ju Shan Guan lied corpses of both cultivators and demons as well as shattered magical treasures. The air was also filled with a thick bloody stench. As for the villages of ordinary people within thousands li of Ju Shan Guan, they were already annihilated when the demon tide just started. Not even a single corpse of a mortal was left behind.

Just within that area, the casualties caused by the demon tide amounted to hundreds of thousands of mortals and thousands of cultivators.

If that amount was added up with the casualties in the lands that had fallen into the demons’ hands, there would be tens of thousands of cultivators slain while tens of millions of mortals lost their lives in just the northwestern region of Great Jin.

Even though Ning Fan had been through a lot of bloodshed, he couldn’t keep his composure when he saw the scenes of gore in front of him.

He could treat the death of the cultivators indifferently because fighting and killing were the fate of a cultivator.

Why do mortals also have to die? All they ever wanted was a full meal, a warm bed, a harmony family and a peaceful life. But all of those became wishful thoughts when the demon tide rose.

Jie Xiu had a different attitude from Ning Fan.

When Jie Xiu heard of the deaths of ordinary people, he was emotionless. His expression only became uneasy when he knew about the severe casualties of cultivators.

Their Dao were different…

It was absolutely unexpected for Ning Fan to see that multiple high-rank cultivation cities were occupied by the demons. They trampled upon the cities and turned them into wastelands.

Six days ago, Jie Xiu informed him that three cities had been destroyed.

Today, the total number of cities that had fallen now increased to seven.

Therefore, Ju Shan Guan, which originally wasn’t the outermost city in the border, became a high-rank city and faced a high level of threat after the destruction of the cities at the frontlines. Revered Snow who returned from battle with injuries was enraged and summoned all the Nascent Soul Realm experts to this city. He intended to set this city as the stronghold and launch a counter-attack on the demon tide!

Coincidentally, Jing Zhuo and Yin Suqiu were guarding the same city.

Are they safe? I should have advised Yin Suqiu not to select this city.

When Ning Fan and Jie Xiu were right outside the city, the demon tide was still in full force. A weak spirit sense at Early Spirit Severing Realm swept through both of them. After identifying them as part of the human race, the owner of the spirit sense no longer cared about them.

That person was Revered Snow!

Since the person is in such a level alertness, it means that the situation is in truly urgent!

Jie Xiu hoped that they could hurry into the city but Ning Fan shook his head.

“Fellow Daoist Jie, you go and join with the other Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. I want to go to the top of the city wall and meet my friends.”

“Fellow Daoist Zhou, there’s no time to waste in such urgent circumstances…”

Jie Xiu’s words fell on deaf ears. Ning Fan made a step forward and turned into an ice rainbow, heading towards the city wall of Ju Shan Guan.

Upon seeing that, Jie Xiu shook his head gently as he also knew that Zhou Ming’s companions were guarding this city as well.

In that case, he went to report his arrival to Revered Snow himself.

…

Each and every one of the demons rushed to the city like ocean waves, unafraid of death. Among them, there were Vein Opening Realm and Harmonious Spirit Realm demons too. The amount of demons was so many that there was no end to them.

Some bird-like demons and Harmonious Spirit Realm demons flew above the city wall and attacked the cultivators who were guarding the wall.

When the demons reached the bottom of the city wall, they would try to gnaw at the Grand Defensive Formation, corroding its power. Some demons that were killed by cultivators would explode themselves before dying to perish together with the cultivators while weakening the formation. The cultivators could only prevent the demons from self-exploding by killing them in one blow.

The Grand Defensive Formation of Ju Shan Guan had already started to fall apart under the fierce attacks of the demon tide. Although immortal jade could be used to replenish the power of the formation, but nearly one third of the formation’s vital areas were crushed under the impact of the attacks with no way of repairing them.

Some Gold Core Realm demons shapeshifted into humans while some kept their beast bodies. When they rushed towards the top of the city wall and slaughtered the cultivators, not a single normal guard could resist them. Only Gold Core Realm cultivators were able to withstand them for a little while.

Yin Suqiu was also involved in a desperate fight on the city wall.

Her moves were calm and unhurried. When she was floating in the air, she looked like a celestial being from heavens. The crystal ring in her hands was already stained with fresh blood.

With just a strike using that crystal ring, a Gold Core Realm demon would surely die. There were even a few Peak Gold Core Realm demons killed by her attacks.

However, the number of demons were way too much.

Anxiety began to fill Suqiu’s eyes.

The demon tide was getting more difficult to endure. Is Great Jin going to be annihilated?

As a matter fact, the worries she had now was much lesser compared to who she used to be.

When she recalled that Ning Fan got hurt by the cultivators of Great Jin, she was no longer concerned about this country.

“Since the cultivators of Great Jin don’t have a Dao, it would be reasonable for the country to be eliminated.”

In the past, she won’t bear these thoughts in her mind. But after what she had been through, it was inevitable for her to think of them.

With the Heaven and Earth Ring in her hand, she seemed to be like a secluded orchid in a deserted valley, walking in the sea of blood. Thus, she became even more noticeable to the demons.

Four human-shaped demons at Peak Gold Core Realm surrounded her in the center. There were male and female demons among them.

Wielding her powerful ring, she severely injured one of the demons in just a blink of an eye. However, she had already exhausted her magic power earlier while attacking the groups of demons.

Suddenly, she let down her guard for just a while and a brawny male demon approached her from the back. He unsheathed his bloody claws and slashed wildy at Suqiu.

“This is bad!”

Her eyes widened with surprise. At that very moment, she couldn’t activate her Butterfly Wings to teleport away because her magic power was fully depleted. There’s no way that she would be able to escape from that attack!

At that moment, the area of a thousand zhang of heaven and earth around her became frozen. Immediately, all the weak demons turned into fragments of shattered ice and vanished after a powerful quake!

“Ice Smash!”

All four of the Peak Gold Core Realm demons spat out mouthfuls of blood. Each of them expressed astonishment and flew away to retreat!

Without having the time to recover from her fright, she found herself in someone’s embrace.

She was familiar with this aura. She knew that smile. She recognized that pair of eyes which were like thousand-year-old ice.

“Sorry that I came late!”

He gave a simple apology and instantly vanished in a blink of darkness.

The four of them were bewildered by the cultivator before them as they knew he was a Nascent Soul Realm expert!

They tried to retreat and flee. However, no matter how they retreated, they were no match to the speed of Ning Fan’s lightning technique!

With just a slap, the core of one of the demons was crushed and it died!

With a ray of lightning casted by his finger, another demon was electrified to ashes!

Throwing another punch of Ice Smash, the third demon was smashed into pieces.

With a stomp of his foot, the last demon was trodden into muddy flesh.

Strong. Extremely strong! There were none of the guards near the wall who wasn’t amazed by his power after witnessing how he killed the four demons!

“It’s a Nascent Soul Realm old ancestor! An old ancestor came to our rescue!”

“It’s strange. Aren’t all Nascent Soul Realm old ancestors in the city, assisting Revered Snow to treat his wound? How come he still cares about us?”

They weren’t aware of Ning Fan’s identity. However, they were filled with gratitude for his help.

“You’ve come! Did they hurt you again?” Yin Suqiu was in Ning Fan’s hug. Although she knew it was inappropriate, she didn’t try to push him away. She was deeply concerned about him when she saw his pale face.

“It’s nothing. It wasn’t caused by the cultivators of Great Jin.” Ning Fan replied while shaking his head. The paleness of his face was actually the side effect of casting Self-Sacrifice Technique using his blood essence.

He said nothing more and stepped into the sky while hugging Suqiu.

There was no gentleness in his mind. Only brutal killing intent filled his heart.

He then took out a bottle of Burning Blood Pill and swallowed all of them!

A massive killing intent surged within him, causing him to have the intention of destroying everything before him!

“Die!”

Black Sword Sense swept over thousands of li!

Nearly ten thousand of Vein Opening Realm demons, hundreds of Harmonious Spirit Realm demons and tens of Early Gold Core Realm demons perished under the might of the Sword Sense!

The thousands of li around Ju Shan Guan was enveloped by darkness and blood flooded the surroundings!

All the living beings of the entire city were dumbfounded! Some Intermediate Gold Core realm demons which were still alive hastily fled for their lives! Even the Nascent Soul Realm experts in the city were surprised and spread their spirit sense to check what had happened.

“Nascent Soul Realm Sword Sense! This fellow Daoist is really strong! He isn’t from Great Jin. Is he one of the foreign cultivators that came to assist Great Jin?”

“Could he be the seventh commander that was newly appointed by the King? Zhou Ming?”

This wave of demon tide was wiped out by Ning Fan alone!

It was fast. Too fast! It would at least need two hours for the other Early Nascent Soul Realm cultivators to put an end to this wave. To suppress the demon tide at such speed, that cultivator must at least possess the power of Middle Nascent Soul Realm.

Ning Fan’s swiftness in dealing with the demons earned respect from some of the Nascent Soul Realm experts even though he had not met them personally before.

In his Jade of Achievement, the battle points kept pouring in like rain.

The total amount of battle points was one hundred and nineteen thousand, seven hundred and sixty-two points! (119762 points)

Although his Colossal Bone Secret Arts had yet to break through the third level of the third realm, he now could grow into a fifteen zhang tall giant. Moreover, he was just a hair’s breadth away from breaking through the next realm.

As for the killing intent of the Burning Blood Pills, it was released through the killings in the battle just now!

“Very good. The speed of earning battle points is even faster than I initially expected…” Ning Fan’s eyes flashed with excitement. In this manner, earning three hundred thousand battle points would be much easier than expected.

With his current strength, it wasn’t difficult to gather enough battle points in just three months. Being able to get hundred thousands of immortal jade from the King was not something bad after all.

“So you are Zhou Ming?” Above the sky of the city, an old and cold voice resounded… It belonged to a Spirit Severing Realm cultivator, Revered Snow!

“Junior Zhou Ming. It’s my great honor to meet Revered Snow.” Ning Fan’s expression remained unchanged but his heart slightly wavered.

Revered Snow… This man seemed to desire the Cold Pine Essence…

“Enough with the formalities. Quickly come inside the city to meet me.”

Ning Fan couldn’t sense whether Revered Snow was angry or excited. His voice carried a strand of amazement.

As a matter of fact, he knew Ning Fan was still at Half-Step Gold Core Realm. He also knew Ning Fan had the Divine Vein of Lightning Star…

He also discovered Ning Fan possessed demon veins within his body. In addition to that, he saw through Ning Fan’s Body Refining Technique which was at Silver Bone Realm. He discovered all the above at first sight.

What amazed him the most was the fire qi in Ning Fan’s body. He was extra sensitive towards the power of fire as he cultivated Snow Element Cultivation Method.

“This kid doesn’t just possess Cold Pine Essence… He also got the Black Demon Flame! In the Rain World, there are only eleven people who owns this kind of flame. However, this kid’s flame is different from the others. There is a wisp of qi in that flame warning me that it belongs to ‘that person’!”

When he tried to sense the qi of the flame, his expression experienced a huge change after being certain of something.

There’s basically nothing to make the Early Spirit Severing Realm Revered Snow change his expression in Rain World! Even when he was fighting against the demon general, he wasn’t this astonished!

“It can’t be wrong. This is Deacon Han’s qi! Sure enough, this flame belongs to Deacon Han. That year, I was blessed with luck to be able to meet him once. I can’t be wrong!”

Ning Fan who was still figuring out ways to face Revered Snow surely didn’t know that Revered Snow had already began to fear him.

All these were caused by the qi that was purposely left by the Old Devil in the Black Demon Flame… That qi carried a warning to all those who knew him!

“Get lost!”

The qi within the Black Demon Flame turned into a warning and roared in Revered Snow’s heart!

The warning didn’t have much magic power. However, the pressure sent out by the warning was so intimidating that Revered Snow felt insignificant and vulnerable to the pressure!

Although there were only two words, they showed the difference between immortal and mortal! Within these words, there was a rare pressure – True Immortal’s Pressure!

Originally, he was prepared to take the Cold Pine Essence from Ning Fan by force. Now, he changed his mind.

Ning Fan wasn’t aware that the reason his master gave him the Black Demon Flame was to protect him.

He also didn’t know that the reason his master would age so quickly after he left Seven Apricot City was because his master left his True Immortal’s Pressure in the Black Demon Flame!

After all, his master was still worried that Ning Fan would get plotted against by some experts… Otherwise, he wouldn’t have passed the Black Demon Flame to Ning Fan when he was still at the Harmonious Spirit Realm. Even though it was something that was desired by many cultivators including those of the Spirit Severing Realm.

It doesn’t matter if Nascent Soul Realm cultivators didn’t recognize the Old Devil. For cultivators at Spirit Severing Realm and above, most of them would have at least heard of Han Yuan Ji before.

As for cultivators who were at Void Refinement Realm and Void Fragmentation Realm, everyone knew about him!

The Old Devil kept his mouth tight to Ning Fan about the protection he gave him. Ning Fan might not know about it but the protection was always there for him.

No one would dare hurt the disciple of Han Yuan Ji, even if it’s the Sovereign of Rain World!

Note :

1. Han Yuan Ji = Deacon Han = Old Devil = Ning Fan’s master