Grasping Evil

Chapter 442: Chapter 442: Devil Pill Refinement Techniques, Revival Platform

Even though half a month was not a long period of time, it still shouldn’t be spent wastefully.

While waiting for the formations of the Revival Platform to be reconstructed, he was stabilizing his devil marks. And during his free time, he would spend time studying the Devil Codex of the Six-Winged Clan.

Just like the Demon Codex, the Devil Codex was also an encyclopedia which contained comprehensive information regarding cultivation. It had detailed records of the history of the devil race. Other than the Gu Tuo Writing, it also contained several languages that the devil race used.

Having knowledge is not a bad thing. It would be a waste if Ning Fan does not improve on it. Thus, Ning Fan learned all of these languages of the devil race.

Similar to the languages and writings used by the demon race, the languages of the devil race also had unique uses. The Art of Engraving Devil Marks of the devil race resembled the Spirit Augmentation Technique of the demon clan. Each of the characters that the devil race used was actually simplified from the devil marks.

As for the devil marks, every single one of them were created from the devil runes in ancient times.

The devil race had lost their ‘blood’. According to Ning Fan’s understanding, the reason why it happened was because the devil cultivators lost the cultivation method for the devil runes of the ancient devils. Thus, they could no longer continue cultivating their devil blood. Because of that, their physical bodies greatly weakened, depriving them of the innate ability of body refinement techniques that were one hundred times stronger than the other races.

The Art of Engraving Devil Marks was invented by great devil experts in order to make up for the weakened physical bodies of the devil race.

It was the same with the Spirit Augmentation Technique of the demon clan which was created to make up for the disappearance of the ‘spirit’ of their race.

Ning Fan could not help but feel a little sentimental. In present times, the demon race no longer had their ‘spirit’ while the devil race no longer had their ‘blood’. Beneath the heavens, perhaps only Ning Fan alone had a ‘spirit’ like the spirit of the Fu Li Race and had ‘blood’ like the blood of Mo Luo.

If he also obtains the ‘heart’ of the divine race, with his potential, he would probably be dubbed as a monstrous being even if he lived in ancient times where fiendgods were all over the cultivation world.

“Spirit” is the ability to borrow power from heaven and earth. “Blood” is the peerless innate talent for body refinement. Then, what does the ‘heart’ represent...?”

Ning Fan closed his eyes and took deep and heavy breaths while listening to his own heartbeat.

He was aware that the so-called ‘heart’ was certainly not as simple as what the name suggests. Perhaps one day, he would be able to find the answer.

In the Six-Winged Clan, there were written records of the experiences and insights of many body refinement experts. Ning Fan browsed through each and every one of them and checked the path of his own body refinement cultivation. It benefitted him quite a lot.

From the day Ning Fan made copies of the reading materials in the library of the Six-Winged Clan and until now, Fen Chi had visited him four times in total. She brought some devil pills to him in every visit she made. They were gifts from Xuan Yi.

Other than cultivation methods and magic techniques, Ning Fan also obtained quite a lot of pill recipes of the devil race from the library. However, this was his first time having a close look at the pills of the devil race.

The pills of the demon race were rather similar to those of the human race. The pills of the devil race, however, were significantly different from those of the two aforementioned races. The medicinal power that the pills contained were immense.

Compared to the pills of the human race and the demon race at the same grade, the medicinal effects of the pills of the devil race was at least two times greater.

However, because of the massive medicinal power within the pills, the drawback of consuming those pills was rather serious. If the person who consumed a devil pill did not have a strong physical body, they would probably suffer a heavy backlash from the medicinal power of the pills and would be severely hurt.

Ning Fan could actually understand why the devil pills would contain such immense medicinal power. Members of the devil race were skilled in body refinement techniques as soon as they were born. Their physical bodies would certainly be far stronger than the cultivators of the demon and human races. Among the cultivators of the same level, only the Wild Beasts of the demon race could compete with the cultivators of the devil race in terms of strength of physical bodies.

Naturally, it was no surprise for the members of the devil race who had stronger physical bodies to consume pills with greater medicinal power.

The method of refining devil pills was also completely different from the two great pill techniques, namely the ‘Nine Revolutions of Riverboat’ and the ‘San Qing Pill Condensation’. It was called ‘Five Inverse Burning Blood’. According to the ‘Devil Codex’, it was created by an omnipotent individual of the devil race in the later eras. This method of pill refinement was developed specifically for refining devil pills.

In the era of Great Emperor Ancient Chaos, there were only two types of the Dao of Alchemy and they were the Dao of He Che[1] and Dao of San Qing.

However, in the later eras, there were many peerless and outstanding individuals born in each generation who founded different types of Dao of Alchemy. As for the Dao of Burning Blood that he had just learned, it was one of them.

In the past, Ning Fan only understood the world based on Great Emperor Ancient Chaos’ memories. Thus, he did not have a lot of understanding and knowledge about things that appeared in succeeding eras after the passing of Great Emperor Ancient Chaos.

Today, since he had the chance to understand another type of Dao about pill refinement, he naturally would not miss it.

The Six-Winged Clan did not have the inheritance of the Burning Blood Pill Dao. There were just a few records which contained several ways of refining pills using that Dao.

Even so, after Ning Fan mastered the few types of refinement techniques for the devil pills, his mastery in pill refinement increased by a large margin.

Back in the Divine Space Island, his medicine soul had already improved to the next level and his pill refinement realm broke through to the High Grade Fifth Revolution.

Today, he practiced the three different types of pill Dao – the Dao of He Che, the Dao of San Qing and the Dao of Burning Blood. By making comparisons among the different pill Dao, his pill refinement techniques had become slightly better than a senior High Grade Fifth Revolution Pill Master.

The devil pills Fen Chi sent to Ning Fan under Xuan Yi’s order were mostly pills for constructing bones and fortifying bodies. The pill with the highest grade among them was just a Low Grade Fifth Revolution pill.

Among these devil pills, there was even the Devil Bone Pill which was a High Grade Fourth Revolution pill that Xu Rushan had given to Ning Fan in the past.

Out of the devil pills that he had been given, the strongest devil pill for strengthening one’s body was none other than the Jade Bone Pill which was a Low Grade Fifth Revolution pill.

After consuming many pills, the level of Ning Fan’s devil marks became even more stable than before. His physical body had also improved slightly. However, he was rather dissatisfied with these devil pills.

The Six-Winged Clan might have the pill recipes but there was no qualified pill refinement master who could produce devil pills with higher grades. There were just some Low Grade Fifth Revolution devil pills that were left by A Fifth Revolution Pill Master of the clan from the previous generation. The quantity of the pills was pitifully low.

Ning Fan had emptied the store that kept the medicinal ingredients of the Six-Winged Clan. He decided to refine some devil pills himself.

Among all the pill recipes he had obtained from the Six-Winged Clan, there was a type of body strengthening pill which was at the High Grade Fifth Revolution. It was called the Revered Devil Pill and Ning Fan regarded it highly.

If a body cultivator at the Peak Jade Life Body Refinement Realm consumes a Revered Devil Pill, their chances of breaking through to the Golden Body Refinement Realm would be increased by at least 15%!

Even for a body cultivator at the First Level or the Second Level of the Golden Body Realm, consuming the Revered Devil Pill could also greatly increase the strength of their physical bodies. A single Revered Devil Pill could directly make Golden Body Realm cultivators obtain the ‘golden orifice’.

What was the golden orifice?

The lowest level of the body refinement realms was the nine layers of silver light. When the nine layers of silver light goes into bones, body cultivators could be considered to have attained the Silver Bone Body Refinement Realm. Body cultivators at the Silver Bone Realm could battle against Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.

The level beyond the Silver Bone Realm was the Jade Life Realm. Cultivators with Jade Life Body Refinement Realm could face Divine Transformation Realm cultivators.

After the Jade Life Realm, it was the Golden Body Realm. The Golden Body Realm was also separated into four different levels. The reason the Golden Body Realm was stronger than the Jade Life Realm was due to the cultivation of the golden orifice that could contain the golden blood.

The golden orifice was different from immortal veins. It was a unique energy point outside the veins. A golden orifice could contain a single drop of golden blood. A Jade Life Body Refinement Realm cultivator could only truly break through to the Golden Body Realm after condensing one hundred golden orifices and having one hundred drops of golden blood in them.

When Ning Fan’s devil marks achieved one-fourth advancement, 25 golden orifices had opened up in his right arm, allowing him to condense 25 drops of golden blood. Hence, whenever he throws a punch with his right hand, his right arm would give out brilliant golden light.

When the number of golden orifices in the body of a Golden Body Realm cultivator reaches 300, they could then break through to the Second Level of the Golden Body Realm. With 1000 golden orifices, they could attain the Third Level whereas 2000 golden orifices could allow them to achieve the Fourth Level.

In order to attain the Peak Level of the Golden Body Realm and achieve a breakthrough to the next body refinement realm, one would need to have 3600 golden orifices all in all.

Only then would cultivators at the Golden Body Realm have the chance to attain the Nirvana Body Refinement Realm and reach the First Level of the Nirvana Realm! These cultivators were called First Nirvana body cultivators!

The strength of a First Nirvana body cultivator was comparable to an old monster who was at the First Heavenly Layer of the Void Fragmentation Realm!

With the pill recipe of the Revered Devil Pill, be it the advancement of his body refinement realm to the Golden Body Realm or its continuous improvement after attaining the Golden Body Realm, Ning Fan would have an easier time.

The only problem was the lack of a few types of main ingredients needed to concoct Revered Devil Pill. Thus, he could not start to refine the pills right away.

Half a month passed by in a flash.

News of the Six-Winged Clan’s decline had circulated throughout the Endless Sea. Meanwhile, some groups with evil intentions began to spy on the Six-Winged Clan. Aside from that, there were also experts from the Ghost Eye Clan and the Mist Horn Clan visiting the Six-Winged Clan, attempting to conquer the latter.

Since the people who had come to the Six-Winged Clan were not that strong as no Void Refinement Realm expert was with them and Yue Lingkong and Ning Fan were still staying in the Six-Winged Clan, the members of the Ghost Eye Clan and the Mist Horn Clan had to hold back and decided not to attack the Six-Winged Clan again for the moment.

Yue Lingkong and the female corpse always stayed together. Her spiritual intelligence was high enough to avoid being bullied by others.

It was as if she was aware that her Sea of Consciousness would significantly recover soon, since she was in a happy mood more frequently as of late. Whenever she was delighted, she would think of biting Ning Fan twice and leave a line of shallow bite marks on his body. She would not bite hard because she was not really willing to harm Ning Fan.

She even knew to help Ning Fan gather some information. For example, the information about the Lan Ling Sect which managed to keep the slate of the Six-Winged Clan in the end. It was the female corpse who told him about it.

On that day, Ning Fan had surrendered the slate which had already turned useless and even caused King Lan Ling and the other two great devil clans to fight amongst themselves. After a bloody and intense battle, the three forces suffered great losses but the slate eventually fell into King Lan Ling’s hands. This matter deeply infuriated the two great devil clans.

The slate of the Six-Winged Clan that they were after was a competition between the devil clans. It was not something that could be given to a member of a foreign race.

To the two devil clans, being openly betrayed by the Lan Ling Sect, which was a profound righteous sect, was a great humiliation.

Since then, the two clans were secretly planning on how to retrieve the slate from King Lan Ling’s hands. Of course, no one could be sure whether or not the Ghost Eye Clan or the Mist Horn Clan were also secretly scheming to seize the slate for themselves at the same time.

Because the two great devil clans were putting all of their focus in retrieving the slate, they did not bother to care about the Six-Winged Clan. Therefore, they let the Six-Winged Clan survive and rebuild for now without trying to take over them in a hurry.

That day, Yue Lingkong had also noticed that Ning Fan had the intention to seize the devil statue slate. However, the slate was eventually taken away by King Lan Ling.

She tried to console Ning Fan. When she saw him not being annoyed by it, she eventually put her heart to rest. She was just worried that Ning Fan might do something reckless because of his discontentment for not being able to obtain the slate.

However, she had no idea that Ning Fan had actually already seen through the text on the slate and even extracted all of the devil qi it contained.

Ning Fan did not tell Yue Lingkong about the secrets of the slate because they were related to secrets that shouldn’t be known. The secrets of ‘blood’ were really important and priceless here on this piece of heaven and earth. If the secrets were to be leaked out, no one knew for sure how many true immortals would be intrigued.

The more secrets one knew about, the more danger they would be in. Hence, not telling Yue Lingkong about those secrets was all for her safety.

The final layer of formation in order to activate the Revival Platform was finally repaired.

Xuan Yi was at the initial stage of stabilizing his injuries but he still willingly came out of seclusion and personally brought Ning Fan and his women to the Revival Platform.

It was a ten thousand zhang* (3.33m per zhang) tall platform which had been built using gigantic silver-colored rocks. It was located deep within the Six-Winged Clan’s forbidden area. It was completely separated from the ocean.

The area of one hundred thousand li* (500m per li) that surrounded the tall silver platform had been set up with hundreds of layers of formation light to prevent any outsiders from entering.

Above the tall silver platform stood a one thousand zhang* (3.33 per zhang) silver tower. The tower had seven floors and all of them gave out a strong healing power.

This tower was the Buddha Revival Tower. It was the key to the Revival Platform’s healing power.

Below the ten thousand zhang* (3.33 per zhang) tall silver tower, the ground was fully engraved with the blood characters of the devil race. Countless blood offerings were also placed around the platform and many devil statues were enshrined there as well.

This time, the Revival Platform was only activated for Ning Fan’s use. Even the wounded members of the Six-Winged Clan were not permitted to enter.

After all, Ning Fan was the one who was borrowing the Revival Platform this time. He wanted to recover the Sea of Consciousness of the female corpse. Xuan Yi could plainly see how important the female corpse was to Ning Fan. Thus, he was worried that if he allowed an additional person to enter the platform for some treatment, it would weaken the healing effect of the Revival Platform and arouse Ning Fan’s anger.

The wounded members of the clan can slowly be treated in the future.

However, if I enrage him now, the Six-Winged Clan would be annihilated in an instant.

“This ten thousand zhang* (3.33m per zhang) tall silver platform is the Revival Platform. The silver tower on top of it is called Buddha Revival Tower. When my Six-Winged Clan was still prosperous and strong in the past, there was once an ancestor of a previous generation who had some connections with the Jade Pool Saintess of the Kunlun World of the Western Heaven. Because of that, he obtained this Buddha Revival Tower. It’s a silver-grade tower. The tower has seven floors. Cultivators at the Vein Opening Realm can enter the first floor whereas the seventh floor can only be entered by experts with cultivation bases of at least the Void Fragmentation Realm. Judging from this sequence, the healing power of every floor you ascend will be worlds apart compared to that of the previous floor. With Fellow Daoist’s strength, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to enter the fifth floor by going in alone. However, the cultivation base of your wife is just at the Divine Transformation Realm. If you recklessly bring her to the fifth floor, she won’t be able to withstand the massive healing power and it will affect her recovery instead.”

“Thank you for Fellow Daoist’s reminder.” Ning Fan gazed at the Buddha Revival Tower from afar. His eyes remained still as he was absorbed in his thoughts.

This Buddha Revival Tower is rather similar to the Lost World Tower on Penglai Immortal Island as it is also a silver-grade tower.

The Lost World Palace is the strongest in the Northern Heaven and is famous across this world for its Lost World Tower that can provide a cultivation ground with the time distortion effect.

The Kunlun Jade Pool is the most influential force of the Western Heaven. It is famous for its Buddha Tower which can allow cultivators to treat their injuries.

Kunlun Jade Pool... Isn’t it the force that Si Wuxie belongs to?

The real body of Si Wuxie is the Jade Pool Saintess. Is she someone who is at the same level as the Little Demoness from the Godly Void Pavilion, Bei Xiaoman from the Lost World Palace and Tantai Weiyu from the Zifu Academy...?

In the past, Ning Fan was young and reckless. In order to save his younger brother, he had eliminated the Heaven Separation Sect due to his anger. Aside from that, he had also captured Si Wuxie and erased her memories.

Come to think of it now, the way he treated Si Wuxie that time seemed to be a bit too cruel and mean. Si Wuxie only said something rude. The one who abducted Ning Gu was actually the elder of the Heaven Separation Sect and it was really not Si Wuxie’s idea.

During that time, Ning Fan did not understand why he would be so soft-hearted towards Si Wuxie and actually did something he would rarely do – let her go freely.

Somehow, Ning Fan believed from the bottom of his heart that Si Wuxie would never harm Zhihe at that time.

Today, he already found his answer. However, this answer made him feel heartache.

During that time, he was not aware of Si Wuxie’s identity. That’s why he was so mean to her and even erased her memories...

“Sisi...”

The reason why Ning Fan was lenient to Si Wuxie was definitely not because of her identity as the Jade Pool Saintess. Obviously, it was also not because she was once Sisi. Instead, it was because of another identity she had.

With that identity, even if Si Wuxie had committed an unforgivable sin, Ning Fan would still protect her.

The original objective she had in sneaking into the mortal world with her reincarnation was extremely simple.

She came to look for Zhihe. She came to protect Zhihe. Hence, she would never harm Zhihe. Never.

Ning Fan, however, harmed Si Wuxie instead.

“Light...” The female corpse held Ning Fan’s hands with her icy little hands. She could feel what Ning Fan was feeling and wanted to comfort him.

“Weiliang, did you know that I have already gathered all of your souls? However, I can’t let your souls merge into one... Even if I heal your Sea of Consciousness, I can’t let you have your souls back. In this life, you will probably remain as a corpse devil... Zhihe, Xiao Huan and the little Weiliang in the Demon Sinister Forest... All of them are three parts of your complete soul. As for Sisi, she is your...”

Ning Fan paused. The female corpse covered his mouth with her little hands.

“Light, I...am...fine...”

“I...like...Xiao Huan...very...much...”

“Let’s...go...”

She took the initiative to hold Ning Fan’s hand and leapt into the air. Both of them then flew towards the silver platform. She was currently not the silly and clumsy female corpse in the past. She had recovered a lot of her spiritual intelligence and she knew how to console others now.

“Yue Er...” Ning Fan turned back and looked at Yue Lingkong, trying to tell her something.

Yue Lingkong was incredibly smart. Hence, she naturally knew what Ning Fan wanted to say without even needing to be reminded by him.

“Don’t worry. Just go and heal Weiliang. I will stand guard for you. With me here, no one will dare to disturb you!”

Yue Lingkong wore a stern and domineering expression and scanned across the members of the Six-Winged Clan around with her fierce, sharp eyes as she spoke with a threatening tone.

With her strength, she could directly kill anyone who dares to disturb Ning Fan when she stands guard outside the formation light for him.

When each of the members of the Six-Winged Clan met Yue Lingkong’s eyes, they immediately became as silent as a winter cicada. How could they still dare to harbor ill intentions towards Ning Fan.

They had witnessed Yue Lingkong’s incredible strength. They were there when she confronted two Void Glimpse Stage experts and two Illusory Void Stage cultivators. She fought the four of them all by herself!

If it wasn’t for King Lan Ling who suddenly arrived and stopped the fight, Yue Lingkong would definitely have killed all four of them!

“Pass down my command, all members of the Six-Winged Clan are prohibited to enter the area of ten thousand li* (500m per li) around the Revival Platform without permission before Venerated Ming leaves the silver tower. Those who defy my command will be executed and their family members will be exiled from the clan with their cultivation bases crippled!”

After Xuan Yi had given a stern command, no one would have the guts to mess with Ning Fan.

Each of the members of the clan would not even dare to breathe loudly. After hearing Xuan Yi’s command, it became even more horrifying to anyone who wanted to cause trouble.

“Yue Er, these four spiritual puppets are for you to protect yourself.”

Ning Fan patted his storage pouch and took out four Void Glimpse Stage spiritual puppets. He left all of them at Yue Lingkong’s side.

Only then could he enter the tower to treat the female corpse with greater peace of mind.

The four Void Glimpse Stage spiritual puppets stood behind Yue Lingkong with intense killing qi. Their aura force was truly frightening.

With Yue Lingkong who was unrivalled among all Void Glimpse Stage cultivators and four Void Glimpse Stage spiritual puppets, not even Void Inquiry Stage experts would dare to cause trouble here.

It will be very safe to treat Weiliang’s wounds this time.

With a single step, they descended to the Revival Platform. The female corpse still wanted to hold Ning Fan’s hands to walk hand-in-hand but he took her hands and pulled her into his embrace instead.

“Light...”

“Weiliang, don’t worry. I will certainly cure you. I will! If this Buddha Tower is not enough to heal you, I will bring you to the Kunlun Jade Pool in the Western Heaven. I will bring you to use the best Buddha Tower to heal your Sea of Consciousness... I will!”

With the female corpse in his embrace, Ning Fan took a gentle step forward and turned into a trace of faint smoke, flying into the Buddha Tower.

The confusions and doubts in his eyes disappeared and there was only firm determination left behind.

The moment they set foot inside the Buddha Tower, an old and mysterious voice suddenly resounded within the tower.

“Saving one’s life is greater than building a seven-floor Buddha Tower. By eliminating a devil, one can gain boundless merits.”

*Chi* *Chi*

Two masses of silver light suddenly shone upon Ning Fan and the female corpse.

As the female corpse got enveloped by the silver light, her injuries began to heal little by little.

Ning Fan, on the other hand, felt a sharp pain on his chest as he got exposed to the silver light. The silver light actually attacked him and made him suffer minor injuries.

His expression changed. The female corpse could use the power of the Buddha Tower to heal her wounds. As for Ning Fan, however, the tower was hostile towards him and it seemed to abhor his presence.

“Why would it react like this?”

Ning Fan thought carefully, contemplating the deep meaning behind that voice he had heard just now.

It seems like the Buddha Tower has two functions. One of them is to save people while the other is to restrain devils.

Healing Weiliang and treating her wounds is because of the first function of this tower.

Then, could it be that it is attacking me because of the second function of this tower?

But what’s strange is how did the Buddha Tower judge me as a devil and attacked me?

The Buddha Tower is located within the Six-Winged Clan and all the members of the clan are devil cultivators. However, there has never been a case where the members of the Six-Winged Clan had been attacked by the tower.

Evidently, the Buddha Tower’s criteria for determining a devil and launching its attacks on them isn’t the devil veins, the devil cultivation methods or the devil qi.

“It’s Mo Luo’s blood!”

Ning Fan’s eyes glinted, as if he had understood something.

In this era, the only difference between the divine race, the demon race and the devil race was their cultivation methods and that was it.

However, in ancient times, the divine race had the ‘heart’, the demon race had the ‘spirit’ while the devil race had the ‘blood’. That was the true difference between the ancient divine beings, the ancient demons and the ancient devils!

Now, the Buddha Tower had recognized Ning Fan as an ancient devil and attacked him.

In the eyes of the Buddha Tower, Ning Fan was the last true devil in the cultivation world of this era. He was the last member of the devil clan who possessed the ‘blood’!

The Kunlun World of the Western Heaven must have had a long and never-ending feud with the devil race. Otherwise, they would not hate the ancient devils to this extent.

Fortunately, to Ning Fan, the attack of the first floor of the Buddha Tower was still bearable and it was no big deal.

However, Ning Fan could foresee that while the female corpse would enjoy better healing effects as he brought her to the higher floors of the tower, he would for sure be inflicted with more severe injuries.

Now, even Ning Fan was not certain how many floors he could endure in the end.

This tower is not simple. It is a supreme treasure itself.

“Light...you...are...bleeding...”

Under the warm and comfortable healing power of the silver light, the female corpse was slowly recovering and she felt extremely excited.

However, when she noticed that a trace of blood flowed out from a corner of Ning Fan’s mouth, she was startled and confused. She began to worry.

When one was bleeding, it meant that they were injured.

Why was Ning Fan injured? She had no idea. To her, wasn’t the silver light of this Buddha Tower meant for healing wounds?

“Don’t worry. I am fine. Let’s go to the next floor.”

Ning Fan let go of the female corpse from his embrace and held her hand. Together, they walked towards the second floor of the tower.

He wiped off the blood on the corner of his mouth. He did not care about it at all.

No matter what, he had to do his best and bring her to the higher floors of the tower so that she could receive greater healing!

Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel

[1] He Che (Chinese: 河车) He Che literally means riverboat. The first pill refinement technique that the MC had was Nine Revolutions of He Che (河车九转 : He Che Jiu Zhuan). However, it was translated as Nine Revolutions of Riverboat later on.