Grasping Evil

Chapter 317: The Great Elder

Ning Fan had already stood within the pill refinement chamber he created temporarily inside the immortal’s abode for one night.

The gains he obtained from the previous trip were rather bountiful. The venomous worms could be used in enhancing his spirit sense while the demon blood could be used to raise his cultivation level. Besides, he also gathered a number of Dao Fruits which were items of great nourishment.

Even though he gained a lot of excellent items, he did not have much time left. To Ning Fan, the arrival of Zi Chuan served as a reminder.

The Purple Robe Palace has managed to get in the Star Palace. That is to say, the other forces are probably going to arrive here as well.

“There are still three days before the Star Gate opens. Within these three days, I have to awaken my medicine soul and use the power of the purple zoysia to help Weiliang repair her Sea of Consciousness!”

As dawn broke, birds chirped and sang.

After Xi Ran woke up, she entered the pill chamber as usual. However, as soon as she caught sight of Ning Fan in the room, she immediately felt surprised.

“Brother Lu Bei, didn’t you sleep last night?”

“Not really. To cultivators, sleep is not essential.”

“Oh. Hmm? What happened to your lips?” The little girl’s inquisitive nature began to surface.

“I bit myself.”

“Oh...”

The little girl nodded her head but the great interest within her eyes did not subside. She might be simple and naïve, but she was not silly.

The wound on his lips were clearly left by a pair of teeth. Moreover, it was bitten from the opposite direction...

How could Lu Bei bite his own lips that way?

“Today, my energy and qi have already recovered. It’s time for me to awaken my medicine soul.”

“Today? But I haven’t prepared the pain relievers for you... It’s going to be extremely painful.” Xi Ran sounded a little worried.

“It doesn’t matter.” Ning Fan replied disapprovingly.

“Er... Alright. Let me establish the medicinal formation first and you help me on the side. Nah, take this and this...”

When it comes to any matters related to medicine and pill refinements, Xi Ran no longer looked like a silly little girl. Despite the small size of her body, she had the qualities of an alchemy grandmaster.

Each of the spiritual herbs were taken out by her. Within the sizeable pill chamber, she set up the formation eyes using the medicinal ingredients. In just an hour, she finished establishing a mysterious-looking formation which was enshrouded with dense medicinal mist.

This formation wasn’t used to attack or defend, let alone trap one’s enemies. The only use of this formation was to condense medicinal qi and congeal medicinal mist.

At the moment when this formation was completed, the entire pill chamber was filled with medicine fragrance which occasionally wafted out from the room.

It was the Medicine Condensing Formation, a Low Grade Divine Transformation Realm grand formation!

Xi Ran was not proficient in the Dao of Formations. However, this Medicine Condensing Formation was one of the few formation techniques that were compulsory for her to practice among all the formation techniques she knew.

As a Peak Fifth Revolution pill refinement master, Xi Ran would of course need to master the method of awakening one’s medicine soul. After all, if she were to keep apprentices in the future, she would need to help them awaken their medicine souls and guide them to attain the Fifth Revolution.

Proud. Xi Ran’s facial expression looked extremely proud.

“Brother Lu Bei... Hmm. Wait. No, no, no. Lu Bei, my little apprentice, you can now enter the formation. I, your master, will help you awaken your medicine soul!”

Every action that Xi Ran made was orderly and systematic. Unfortunately, the words she spoke sounded childish, greatly diminishing her imposing demeanor. In fact, the words she spoke did not seem to be a conversation between a master and a disciple. They were more like words that would only exist in flirty conversations between a couple.

“Fine. Xi Ran, my little master, I’ll leave the rest up to you.”

Ning Fan laughed. After taking out the Soul Refinement Sand, he consumed every particle of it. Then, he entered the formation which was filled with thick medicinal mist and sat down in the center with his legs crossed.

“I’m counting on you!”

“D-Don’t worry. You already have a medicine soul. It won’t be difficult to just awaken it. If you depend on me in such a solemn manner, I will be really shy.”

Xi Ran’s cheeks blushed as she manipulated the formation with more care and attention.

A medicine soul was actually a special ability of a Fifth Revolution pill master.

If one fails to comprehend divine intent, then they would not be able to concoct a Fifth Revolution Pill.

If one fails to condense the medicine soul, then their pill refinement realm would remain stagnant at the Fifth Revolution.

The memories of the Ancient Chaos Emperor had given Ning Fan the inheritance of his pill refinement techniques. That inheritance, however, was only up to the Fifth Revolution.

If he wants to achieve greater heights in his pill refinement techniques in the future, he could only depend on himself.

Awakening his medicine soul was the first step!

After that, if he wishes to improve, he would need to practice his pill refinement techniques and continuously accumulate experience through refining lots of pills.

Besides, the Yin Yang Transformation and pill refining techniques had to be cultivated at the same time in order to achieve the fastest cultivation speed. Neither one of them could be neglected!

“Brother Lu Bei, use the hand seal that I taught you to condense the soul power and absorb the medicine qi! Quick!”

“Mm.”

Ning Fan took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Afterwards, the shadows of his fingers moved rapidly and rhythmically as if they were dancing in the air.

Traces of green light seemed to be extracted from his soul. Under its light, Ning Fan looked like a man made out of green light.

Just as the green light appeared, all the medicinal qi of the medicinal formation began to surround the green light.

Moreover, after being strengthened by the Soul Refinement Sand, it eventually went into the green light, making the color of green become more and more concentrated.

The Soul Refinement Sand was like sandpaper rubbing against his soul. The process was without a doubt extremely agonizing. However, to Ning Fan, he had already endured that much degree of pain innumerable times. He was not concerned about it at all. He just focused at the green light with an excited expression.

The green light was none other than Ning Fan’s medicine soul!

The so-called medicine soul was the soul light which was condensed from the medicine qi, with the ability to sense and discern spiritual herbs!

The color of one’s soul light changes according to their pill refinement techniques. The color of a Fifth Revolution soul light was green; while Sixth Revolution was black and Seventh Revolution was purple.

The color of green meant that Ning Fan’s pill refinement realm was at the Fifth Revolution.

The darker the green color, the higher the quality of his soul light. which would mean a higher pill refinement realm!

When the green light reached a certain level of concentration, Ning Fan suddenly opened his eyes. His body gave out green qi which rose above his head, forming green clouds!

That green qi was a type of power that linked straight to one’s soul. It was the unique aura that would only be possessed by a pill refinement grandmaster!

At this moment, Ning Fan finally understood why whenever Xi Ran talked about spiritual herbs, her aura would become drastically different from usual. In actual fact, the special aura she exhibited was brought upon by the medicine soul.

“Brother Lu Bei, you did it!” Xi Ran revealed a look of excitement. She was just a naïve girl like this. She would treat anyone who was good to her well.

“Mm. I did it!”

Ning Fan suddenly rose up from the ground and opened his mouth, sucking in the remaining medicinal mist of the formation into his abdomen and nourishing his medicine soul which had just been awakened.

“So this is my medicine soul?!”

While trying to activate it, Ning Fan’s body glowed with a faint green qi. In the next second, his state of mind immediately became as calm as a pond.

A medicine soul would not only enhance a pill refinement master’s senses. Besides, after activating it, it would help one gather their focus.

It was because of medicine souls that pill refinement masters could concentrate their entire attention and focus in refining pills without being interrupted by any external factors.

With a slap on the storage pouch, Ning Fan took out some spiritual herbs. Surprisingly, he realized that after having his medicine soul awakened, his ability to discern spiritual herbs was increased by a few times!

Within his palm, he held a five-thousand-year-old Lightning Yellow Essence.

Before his medicine soul awakened, Ning Fan could only tell that this spiritual herb was roughly five thousand years of age. Currently, however, he could precisely determine that the age of this spiritual herb was actually around five thousand and four hundred years!

He then produced a spark of black flames on the tip of his finger. Following after the awakening of his medicine soul, his control towards flames had also improved too.

“Hmmph. The sensations you experienced after awakening your medicine soul isn’t bad, right? Remember, this was all due to my efforts!” Xi Ran lifted her chin arrogantly, as if she was craving for some compliments.

“Mm. You did well. Let me think about what to reward you for your effort...” Ning Fan purposely pretended like he was meditating deeply.

“Mm. I don’t want a lot. Just return my one billion immortal jade to me...”

Before the little girl could finish feeling pleased with herself, she suddenly felt a gush of warm breath blowing against her ear.

Before she could even respond, Ning Fan planted a kiss on her light-toned cheek.

“This is your reward!” Ning Fan smiled. With a single movement, he disappeared and his presence was nowhere to be found.

As for Xi Ran, she covered her face with both hands and stood still like she had been petrified while staring at the direction where Ning Fan left.

Gradually, she came to her senses and her silky white cheeks became red like a tomato. She clenched her fists as if she was going to give someone a good beating.

“Stinky Lu Bei! You bullied me! You took advantage of me! You bullied me! I-I... I don’t want to be friendly with you anymore!”

Xi Ran was so embarrassed that she kept stomping her feet.

He is just like a rascal!

Does he think he is really good-looking that a single kiss of his would be worth one billion immortal jade?!

At most... At most it could just be worth 50 million immortal jade...

“Hmmph! Fine. I’ll consider that he still owes me 950 million immortal jade!”

If Ning Fan knew that his kiss would be worth 50 million immortal jade in Xi Ran’s eyes, he probably would not know whether to laugh or cry.

The kiss might be given by the same person, but when it landed on a different woman’s cheek, the outcome was never the same.

Ning Fan did not show any concern to those thoughts at all. Now, his medicine soul might have awakened but the time he had left was not much. He had to obtain the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia from the old bear to recover the female corpse’s Sea of Consciousness within three days.

“The increase in the quality of one’s medicine soul does not necessarily mean that one’s pill refinement techniques would improve. However, every pill refinement grandmaster would certainly have a strong medicine soul. It’s an undeniable fact. Currently, after awakening my medicine soul, my pill refinement techniques have improved by quite a lot. However, the gap between my current level and the Mid Fifth Revolution Pill Refinement Realm is still considerably large...”

With a few teleportations, Ning Fan had already travelled to the northern part of the island from the south, reaching a forest with heaven-reaching ancient trees. Descending to the ground, he walked towards the rift valley which was situated at the end of the woods.

That place was the old bear’s den. Naturally, it was guarded by quite a number of demon beasts.

As soon as they noticed the visitor was Ning Fan, not only did they allow him to enter without inquiring him, some demon beasts even stood at the side of the path and saluted him.

“Greetings to Star Lord! King Man has ordered that if Star Lord arrives, Star Lord can directly enter King Man’s valley. No registration or reports would be needed!”

“Mm. How is Man Shan’s condition? Is he getting better?

“Thanks to Star Lord’s Sixth Revolution Pill, King Man’s injuries have completely stabilized. Now, King Man needs to rest in a calm state. It’s just a matter of time for King Man to be completely healed!”

“That’s good.”

Ning Fan nodded his head. Since Man Shan’s injuries had stabilized, he could then feel slightly at ease.

Along the way to the King Man’s valley, each of the patrolling demon beasts began to gossip and discuss among themselves when Ning Fan passed by.

“Could it be that the Star Lord is coming for the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia this time?”

“I think so... King Man has once promised that if the Star Lord asks for it, he would give half of it away to him. However, the ‘Great Elder’ does not seem to agree with him. After all, this Star Tempering Purple Zoysia is the life-saving item of the Great Elder. If it is given to an outsider...”

“Considering the injuries suffered by the Great Elder... Hai... This matter is truly cumbersome... The Great Elder is not an ordinary individual. Rumor has it that he even dared to rebut the previous star lord of the Greedy Wolf Star Sea. It was because of that that he suffered his current injuries... If it wasn’t because of his grievous injuries, he might have succeeded the position of star lord after the previous star lord of the Greedy Wolf Star Sea has left... Er. Based on the Great Elder’s moody temper, would he put up a fight against the Star Lord?”

In King Man’s valley, within a pitch-black cave, the old bear was rubbing his palms while smiling apologetically towards a coffin.

“Father, could we discuss about this matter? Let’s just give half of the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia to Lu Bei, deal?!”

“Hmmph! Man Shan! You only consider that I am not willing to give up my life, but I won’t hand the purple zoysia to that outsider just because of that! My injuries might not be worth talking about, but the greatest wish which we, the star spirits yearn, is to break free from these bodies and congeal a true demon body... Currently, I can bluntly tell you that there’s no hope for me to achieve that dream. The Star Tempering Purple Zoysia is already not sufficient to be shared among you, Jin Er and Yin Er, how could it still be given to an outsider... *Cough*... This matter is not open to any discussions anymore!”

The old bear revealed a look of helplessness.

One side was Lu Bei while the other side was his father-in-law. It sure was difficult for him to be a good guy on both sides.

At this moment, a message transmitting flying sword flew within the chamber and burst, reading out the message carried by it.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, the Star Lord is waiting in the main hall!”

Upon hearing that message, the old bear smiled bitterly. He could tell that Ning Fan was probably asking for the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia since he came at such a time.

He of course doesn’t dare to deny his request. However, his father-in-law would not agree with him...

“Could we discuss about this matter once more...”

“Get lost, you coward! Fine. Let this old man meet him personally. I want to see what this Star Lord Lu, who caused the entire Star Sea to tremble looks like... It has been thousands of years since the last time I left this coffin...”

A ray of star light shot out from the coffin, transforming into a bony little old man.

Every step he took seemed to make him almost tumble to the ground. However, his piercing gaze showed that this man was no doubt a strong and unyielding person.

Especially his aura. Because of his injuries, it was unstable and fluctuated greatly.

At its lowest, his aura did not even match a Vein Opening Realm cultivator’s.

At its highest, his aura was comparable to that of a Void Refinement Realm expert!

“Lead the way!” The old man made a stomp, causing the whole northern part of the island to tremble.

The stomp he made was more than enough to crush a Peak Divine Transformation Realm cultivator to death!