Grasping Evil

Ning Fan touched the large green wooden cauldron. His palm felt a cool and heavy sensation from it.

The power of his medicine soul condensed into a vortex at the center of his palms. The thick medicine qi trapped inside the large cauldron was being absorbed by the vortex and it fused into his medicine soul.

The green color on his medicine soul became fainter while the color of black became more concentrated.

The blackness began to spread nearly all over his medicine soul. Ning Fan knew that if the color of black covers his medicine soul entirely with only a tinge of green left, would mean that his pill refinement mastery had advanced to the Peak Fifth Revolution.

Green was the color of a Fifth Revolution medicine soul, black was for that of a Sixth Revolution medicine soul and purple was for a Seventh Revolution medicine soul.

If the color of green continues to diminish until the last tinge of green completely vanishes, Ning Fan would then become a Sixth Revolution Pill Refinement Master!

In the eight hundred countries of the Rain World, there were only seven pill refinement masters who managed to step into the Sixth Revolution.

If Ning Fan’s pill refinement mastery breaks through to the Sixth Revolution, his status would nearly be as respected as other Void Fragmentation Realm old monsters!

His heart was filled with gratefulness. He was extremely thankful for the Pill Sovereign’s teachings. He was even more grateful for Old Devil’s concern and good intentions.

The promise between Old Devil and the Pill Sovereign gave Ning Fan three chances to learn from the Pill Sovereign. He was not going to waste any of them!

“Absorb!”

Ning Fan’s eyes flashed with determination as he increased the absorption of the medicine qi.

The Pill Sovereign had used this large green wooden cauldron to refine pills countless times. It was unknown how many pellets of Sixth Revolution pills he had concocted in it before. The intensity of the medicine qi contained inside it was shockingly immense.

After just absorbing five percent of the medicine qi, Ning Fan felt that his medicine soul had swollen, as if it could no longer endure such a massive amount of medicine qi.

He gnashed his teeth and continued to absorb the medicine qi by force. When he had taken in ten percent of the medicine qi, his medicine soul nearly cracked.

The pain he felt which was so excruciating that it seemed to pierce through his soul made his brows knit tightly together. Ning Fan had already absorbed one-ninth of the medicine qi in the large cauldron.

“This young man is indeed a person with great tolerance…” The Pill Sovereign nodded his head with satisfaction. He thought highly of Ning Fan’s talent but he valued his personality even more.

The Dao of Pills was extremely challenging. If one does not have great forbearance, they would not be able to climb to the pinnacle of the Dao of Pills.

The Pill Sovereign looked at Ning Fan as if he was seeing his younger self.

When the Pill Sovereign was only seven, he was still just a mortal kid. In his childhood, he lived amidst the flames of war. He survived by feeding off the corpses of the dead from the ruins when the battle was over.

One day, an old Daoist in green robes came to the wasteland and saw him. That old Daoist gave him a warm and gentle smile and asked.

“Why did you feed on the flesh of the dead?”

“I don’t want to die a petty death!” The young child answered.

“Do you want to follow me? I will teach you pill refinement techniques so that you won’t live a petty life anymore. You will be able to stand up tall above tens of thousands of people…”

The smile of that old Daoist was forever engraved into the Pill Sovereign’s heart. It was heart-warming like a father’s love.

At that time, the Pill Sovereign did not know that the old Daoist in green robes was Sovereign Li who was personally entitled by the former Rain Sovereign!

Sovereign Li eventually passed away as he failed to achieve a breakthrough in his cultivation. The Pill Sovereign endured the sorrow of losing his father-like teacher and continued to follow his teachings. After enduring countless hardships and bitterness, he climbed to the top and became the Pill Sovereign whose name was famous across the Nine Worlds in the end.

The reason why the Pill Sovereign had not kept a disciple before in his entire life was because he had yet to meet a disciple whom he could treat like his own son.

In this world, countless pill refinement masters wished to recognize the Pill Sovereign as their master but he did not care about them at all.

Today, he finally met a disciple whom he was fond of. This disciple, however, already recognized another master a long time ago. It was truly unfortunate.

“Heal!”

The Pill Sovereign pointed a finger at Ning Fan. A rush of warm and gentle soul power went into Ning Fan’s body, nourishing his medicine soul that was on the verge of bursting.

He could not eliminate the pain that Ning Fan was enduring but he could heal the cuts and wounds on his medicine soul.

He remembered that time when he was the one absorbing the medicine qi from Sovereign Li’s pill cauldron.

Under Sovereign Li’s protection, he had absorbed one-third of his medicine qi.

He had a feeling that the young man in front of him right now could also absorb up to one-third of the medicine qi of the cauldron.

Hence, he decided to give Ning Fan a hand just like how his master did to him on that day.

However, when the Pill Sovereign helped Ning Fan using his soul power, he only realized at that moment that Ning Fan’s body actually had countless traces of black star power that was healing him automatically.

Ning Fan who was using the black stars to heal himself suddenly felt a cooling sensation on his medicine soul. This gave him a boost in his vigor and spirit. Knowing that the Pill Sovereign was helping him, he was deeply grateful.

He clenched his teeth even harder and accelerated the absorption of the medicine qi once again while enduring an even more intense pain.

One-third of the medicine qi in the large cauldron was already absorbed by Ning Fan!

There were even more cracks and wounds on his medicine soul but the Pill Sovereign were healing them.

The pain, however, became too much for him to bear. It caused blue veins to surface on his forehead.

“Refine!”

Without any fear, Ning Fan assimilated the massive amount of medicine qi into his medicine soul. The black color of his medicine soul had immediately turned one-third more concentrated than before!

Ning Fan became even more certain that if he could swallow all of the medicine qi inside the pill cauldron, he could make his medicine soul advance to the Peak Fifth Revolution. The reason for that was because this pill cauldron contained all the medicine qi that the Pill Sovereign had amassed in his entire life!

Those who don’t get tired of it after suffering hardships and bitterness could turn into an Asura that rules the world from the top…

Determination suddenly filled Ning Fan’s eyes. Black mist gathered around his body and turned him into his black incarnation.

His eyes were cold and emotionless as if he could no longer feel any pain.

One must turn into an Asura and endure hardship to attain the peak of cultivation!

“Absorb!”

The massive amount of medicine qi was completely absorbed by Ning Fan’s body.

He had actually swallowed up all of the medicine qi in the gigantic green wooden cauldron in a single attempt!

The soul-piercing pain became intolerable. The Ning Fan in black robes made a groan and his body suddenly broke down into a mist of blood.

Those who witness his incarnation would only think that it was an impressive technique as it could disperse and condense again and again. However, no one had ever thought about how extremely painful it was having your body broken down into nothing.

The pain was intense as Ning Fan’s incarnation dispersed and condensed repeatedly. At the same time, he was digesting the medicine qi as much as he could.

He repeated the process one hundred times. By breaking down his incarnation repeatedly, it allowed him to continuously alleviate the impact of the medicine qi while he was gradually assimilating it.

The black color on his medicine soul continued to spread. From one-third of his medicine soul, it spread until two-thirds of it was covered and eventually, his entire medicine soul was dyed in extremely thick black color. There was just a thin tinge of light green on top of the black.

His medicine soul finally advanced to the Peak Fifth Revolution!

“Very well!”

The Pill Sovereign who had been staying quiet at a corner since the beginning finally complimented Ning Fan.

Ning Fan did not disappoint him. He had fully absorbed all of the medicine qi in the large cauldron after persevering.

The endurance he had was even slightly stronger than that of the Pill Sovereign.

“Try and see whether you can condense your natal pill cauldron in one go after the improvements you had on your medicine soul.” The Pill Sovereign reminded him.

“Alright.”

Ning Fan closed his eyes. Traces of his intent realm power were released from his body.

The Divine Intent of Rain. The Devil Intent of Mountain. The Demon Intent of Fu Li… Three types of completely different intent realms suddenly fused into one, forming a scene with falling black snow from his memories.

“This is!”

The Pill Sovereign realized with surprise that Ning Fan actually possessed the intent realm powers of the Divine Race, the Devil Race and the Demon Race.

What he found hard to believe the most was that Ning Fan had fused the three types of intent realm powers into one, creating the Memory Intent Realm. Moreover, his intent realm had attained Perfect Accomplishment. When he willed it, the entire sky became filled with black snow.

Each of the black snowflakes was the power of his Memory Intent Realm which was a Second Step Intent Realm.

Ning Fan did not have the intention to hide anything from the Pill Sovereign. In fact, he had already regarded him as one of the people who was close to him.

The Pill Sovereign had given Ning Fan an extremely precious gift. Even though he was just fulfilling his promise to Old Devil, Ning Fan was still very grateful to him.

In his mind, he was recalling the look of the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron. That pill cauldron was in all of his memories.

He patted his storage pouch and took out a three feet tall, black octagon-shaped cauldron with six corners.

It was the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron. It was something the Old Devil gave to him. Even though its grade was not high and it was of little use to Ning Fan now, it was loaded with all of the memories he had of Seven Apricot City.

He wanted to use the power of his Memory Intent Realm to condense his natal pill cauldron with the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron as the model and keep the memories of the snowy Seven Apricot City.

“Fuse!”

The power of his Memory Intent Realm filled the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron, slowly eating it away.

Ning Fan touched his glabella. He could feel that the solid Dan Fragmentation Cauldron had turned into an intangible form of divine intent which formed a black cauldron within his Sea of Consciousness. It was being built and tempered inside there.

“Cauldron, appear!”

Ning Fan’s eyes flashed with memories. Traces of power from his Memory Intent condensed into a black cauldron which fell upon the peak of the snow mountain.

As the Pill Sovereign watched the process of Ning Fan condensing his natal pill cauldron, his lips curved into a satisfied smile.

“This black cauldron is not the perfect pill cauldron. Why do you insist on making this cauldron instead of condensing other better pill cauldrons using your divine intent?”

“This cauldron is a gift from my master. Even though its grade isn’t high, it has a special meaning to me.”

Ning Fan answered truthfully. His answer made the Pill Sovereign even more satisfied.

“Very well. Now, it seems like there’s only one thing left to give you. Here. Consume these two Min Luo Fruits.”

Ning Fan took the Min Luo Fruits from the Pill Sovereign. Upon receiving them, he was slightly stunned as memories of the Min Luo Treant and Little Pill Devil suddenly flashed past his mind. Subconsciously, he asked.

“Senior, if I may be so bold, where did these fruits come from?”

Well, it wasn’t odd for Ning Fan to have questions regarding the fruits. After all, Min Luo Fruits could only be found in the Min Luo Treant Clan in the Tree World.

Other than the Dark Sparrow’s Grave, there was no Min Luo Fruit in the Rain World. Of course, it was possible that these fruits could be a gift from some experts in the Tree World for the Pill Sovereign.

“When I passed by the Mist Horn Clan back then, I bought them by chance from the auction they held.”

The Pill Sovereign faintly surprised Ning Fan.

Why would the Mist Horn Clan have Min Luo Fruits…?

Ning Fan had no time to ponder over this matter. The Pill Sovereign brought Ning Fan to a secret mountainside that was hidden from the outside world. He opened up a temporary abode and set up an invisible defensive formation. He would help Ning Fan digest the Min Luo Fruits at this place.

Once Ning Fan consumes the two Min Luo Fruits, he would enter into the dream realm that would last one hundred years.

As for the Pill Sovereign, he would use a Dream Entry Technique to enter into Ning Fan’s dream and teach him about pill refinement for one hundred years in that realm.

One hundred years in the dream world would be equivalent to only several days in reality. This way of teaching was rather unconventional and unique.

Ning Fan greatly trusted the Pill Sovereign. If the Pill Sovereign really wants to harm him, he would not have any chance to retaliate at all. Hence, there was no need to have doubts about his method.

After consuming the two Min Luo Fruits, Ning Fan sat in a meditative posture and fell into the dream realm.

The Pill Sovereign also sat in the same posture and began meditating. Using his strong spirit sense, he managed to enter Ning Fan’s dream easily without needing to be in contact with him.

It was a dream realm with a vast and boundless world. Ning Fan was standing inside a mountain valley. There were countless spiritual herbs growing around the area.

Well, it was a dream realm. He could have whatever he thought of.

The biggest advantage of teaching pill refinement techniques inside the dream world was that it could save time and resources.

Surely, there were disadvantages to this kind of teaching method. At the end of the day, it was not actually refining pills in reality. Even though it could increase one’s proficiency in the techniques of concocting pills, it was ineffective in raising your pill refinement realm. A pill refinement master would not be able to allow his medicine soul to absorb medicine qi since it was not truly refining pills.

*Bang*

Ning fan summoned his gigantic Dan Fragmentation Cauldron in the medicine valley. He plucked a bunch of spiritual herbs randomly and tossed them into the cauldron and began refining pills.

At one side, the Pill Sovereign was silently looking at Ning Fan as he was refining pills with a stern expression.

He might have an easygoing personality but if someone touches his reserve scale, he would show his merciless side to them.

When it comes to pill refinement, he would be particularly strict. During the process, he was serious, focused and scrupulous of every detail. He did not allow a single flaw.

“Your method is wrong. You have three kinds of Dao of Pills and you should integrate them by choosing the ones that are effective while abandoning those which are ineffective…”

“The flame temperature is slightly higher. Not qualified!”

“Concentrate your spirit sense. Disperse your medicine soul. Consolidate and maintain your energy. Spiritual light should shine in your heart!”

…

One hundred years later, Ning Fan woke up from the dream realm.

Inside the dream, he went through one hundred years of pill refinement. His techniques and skills had become smoother. He had now completely adapted to being a Peak Fifth Revolution Pill Master.

In reality, only a few days had passed by.

Ning Fan looked around the temporary abode and realized that the Pill Sovereign had already left a long time ago. The latter only left a storage pouch for Ning Fan. It contained all of the spiritual herbs he had on display in his stall that day.

Besides, the Pill Sovereign had also nullified the disguise of the three tufts of one hundred thousand years old spiritual herbs that Ning Fan could not identify and gave them to him.

Aside from these innumerable precious spiritual herbs, the Pill Sovereign had also left a jade slip which contained a single message for him.

“I will continue travelling around the world to gain insights for my pill refinement mastery. When your pill refinement mastery breaks through to the Sixth Revolution, I will give you the other two lessons. Be careful and take care of yourself…”

The message inside the jade slip was not lengthy but it made Ning Fan silent.

He kept the jade slip and gazed at the sky at the exit of the abode. With his fists cupped, he slightly bowed.

“Thank you for your kindness in passing the Dao to me, Pill Sovereign!”

If it wasn’t for the Pill Sovereign’s help, it would have been certainly impossible for Ning Fan to become a Peak Fifth Revolution Pill Master in such a short period of time.

In the lesson he had this time, the Pill Sovereign had not only helped him awaken his Human Eye, condense his natal pill cauldron, give him countless spiritual herbs, but also guided him personally in the pill refinement process for one hundred years.

In the past, Ning Fan had been groping in the dark in the Dao of Pills on his own. Without proper guidance, he more or less would have some inadequacy in his skills in pill refinement.

This time, however, the Pill Sovereign personally taught Ning Fan for one hundred years. Currently, Ning Fan’s pill refinement mastery was nearly unrivalled in the entire Rain World other than the seven Sixth Revolution Pill Masters!

Ning Fan did not immediately leave the temporary abode. He sat down again in a meditative position and began meditating.

The level of his medicine soul was stabilizing.

Meanwhile, he was recalling the scenes of pill refinement techniques that he had practiced inside the dream realm in his mind.

…

Another twenty days had passed.

The entire province of Cold Northern Country was extremely crowded because of the grand occasion.

Inside the province, a ten thousand zhang* (3.33m per zhang) tall jade platform was built. And on the jade platform, there was a gigantic four-colored stele. It was called the Pill Stele. It was something the Pill Island was providing for this time’s Pill Ceremony.

The seats in four directions were fully occupied by pill masters and old monsters from different places.

On the main seats, there were Ju Qing and Dong Xu who were both a part of the seven venerated beings of the internal sea and also the great elder of the Pill Island.

The great elder of the Pill Island was an elderly man with a pair of sharp eyes. He had Peak Divine Transformation Realm cultivation base and High Grade Fifth Revolution pill refinement mastery.

His pill refinement techniques were famous across the world. Thus, he could skip the first two rounds.

As for some well-known Fifth Revolution Pill Refinement Masters, they would also directly participate in the third round.

At the center of the jade platform, Elder Fu Bai of the Giant Devil Clan was hosting the first round.

Each of the pill refinement masters registered their names and waited for their turn to test their pill refinement mastery under the Pill Stele.

When their palms touched the Pill Stele, that mysterious stone would release a ray of power which was similar to a medicine soul to test the pill refinement master’s mastery.

The First Revolution pill refinement realm would light up one color of the Pill Stele.

Accordingly, the Fourth Revolution pill refinement realm would light up four colors of the Pill Stele.

At the same time, there were still tiny scales in between each of the colors to accurately test the level of one’s pill refinement mastery thoroughly.

Every one of the pill refinement masters went up the platform to take the test while Great Elder Fu Bai announced the results of each of the participants.

“High Grade Second Revolution, disqualified!”

“Mid Grade Third Revolution, qualified!”

“Early Grade Fourth Revolution, qualified!”

Those whose pill refinement mastery was below Third Revolution would all be eliminated straight away in this round.

On the other hand, every time a Fourth Revolution Pill Master appeared, countless cheers would fill the entire arena.

A Fourth Revolution Pill Refinement Master was enough to be a person of importance to a cultivation country!

There were at least five thousand pill refinement masters who were participating in the Pill Ceremony.

Even though there were a lot of participants, the test moved rather quickly. Perhaps everyone would finish taking their tests within one day.

On the seats designated for female cultivators, Yue Lingkong looked pretty flustered.

“Where did Little Cucumber go? There has been a frenzy of rumors saying that Little Cucumber has met the Pill Sovereign and he gained recognition from that man who later announced that he would keep him as his half disciple… If this is real, it is obviously a good thing. However, why hasn’t Little Cucumber returned after so long. Could he be in danger? Could that Pill Sovereign harbored bad intentions towards Little Cucumber?!”

“Brother-in-law…” Feng Xueyan’s eyes were filled with worry as well. However, she could not speak.

“Young Master Zhou has the support of both the Rain Palace and the Zhou Clan. I personally think that he would not be in any danger…” Fen Chi was quite rational. However, even though she was verbally reassuring them that Ning Fan was safe, her eyes were also filled with concern.

“Elder Sister Yue, don’t worry. Big Brother will certainly come…”

Xu Qiuling’s bright eyes flickered. She understood Ning Fan. Since he had promised to participate in the Pill Ceremony, he would come no matter what.

“What?! This is!”

Exclamations of amazement suddenly resounded from everywhere within the arena. Each of the cultivators stared at the center of the jade platform in disbelief.