Grasping the Evil-Chapter 1002: Muddy Waters

The Yin wind carried a putrid smell, vaguely toxic enough to harm some Void Fragmentation cultivators, but naturally unable to hurt Ning Fan.

The rattling sound of iron chains followed, and then burst out over a dozen Corpse demons with bluish, hardened skin, their limbs shackled by chains made from extraordinary ore material, though long rusted and broken, indicating their great antiquity.

"Yet more of these Corpse demons..."

These Corpse demons were nearly identical to the ones used in battles between the Tamu Clan and the Evil Sheep Sect, all demonized after the death of Masters poisoned by expensive pills. The only difference here was the eerie trace of faint Buddha Light on the Corpse demons in this mine.

Ning Fan keenly noticed that this Buddha Light was not due to any Cultivation Technique practiced by the Corpse demons while alive, but was a result of absorbing the Body Refinement power of Nirvana Mother Ore in this mine.

During his time in the Tamu Clan, Ning Fan briefly studied their script, and with the Master’s photographic memory, he may not be too proficient, but it suffices to understand the ancient texts of the Dabei Clan.

He had perused the classics of the Tamu Clan and recognized many Spiritual Medicines and ores unique to them, naturally gaining some understanding of Nirvana Mother Stone. In the Dabei Clan, Nirvana Mother Stones were among the scarce Body Refinement materials, containing a Body Refinement power known as Nirvana Mother Qi, which could even be used to cultivate various Buddha cultivators’ Divine Skills.

Thus, it wasn’t hard to fathom why these Corpse demons bore faint Buddha Light.

Corpse demons in this mine didn’t possess high cultivations, most were only in the Void Refinement or Void Fragmentation realm. Ning Fan opened his mouth and spewed out Black Dragon evil fire, incinerating all Corpse demons into ashes entirely. After his cultivation weakened, Ning Fan’s current mana couldn’t wield the heavy Reverse Sea Sword of seven stars! So, the Eleven-Flavor Demonic Fire had become his ordinary attack method.

Having eradicated the Corpse demons, Ning Fan stepped into the mine, a hidden mine within a spatial Formation in a first-level Fierce Domain. Even Shedding Void Stage cultivators passing by couldn’t necessarily discover this ore vein, but it naturally couldn’t escape Ning Fan’s discerning eyes.

The Treasure-searching Compass showed an extremely dense cluster of light points, heralding the tremendous reserve of Nirvana Mother Stones here. According to Ning Fan’s estimation, with the completion of mining, at least ten thousand pieces of one-star Nirvana Mother Stone could be harvested from here.

One star is the lowest rank of Nirvana Mother Stone; the quality of this vein is not too high. Occasionally, there are some two-star Nirvana Mother Stones, but they are never too many.

Mining stones is extremely time-consuming; naturally, Ning Fan didn’t plan to waste time here but directly approached deeper into the mine, crouched down, placed a palm on the uneven icy ground, and began directly absorbing the Nirvana Mother Qi from this vein! Such a direct and brutal act might inflict irreversible damage to this ore vein, but Ning Fan wasn’t concerned about that.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths... cracks began to form in the mine’s stone walls, and then weathered, and after a hundred breaths, they collapsed with a roar.

Disappointed, Ning Fan emerged from the ruins of the mine; even after absorbing the Mother Qi of over ten thousand pieces of one-star Nirvana Mother Stone, it barely advanced his Ancient Demon’s refined Body Cultivation a minuscule amount, still failing to break into the Ninth Nirvana of Heavenly Demon, quite regrettable.

It’s known that the Mother Qi of over ten thousand pieces of one-star Nirvana Mother Stone is enough to create a Fate Immortal level Body Cultivator, yet it still wasn’t enough for Ning Fan to break into the Ninth Nirvana of Heavenly Demon, showing how extraordinarily difficult it is.

"Enough, if one ore vein isn’t sufficient, I can absorb others, I’ll eventually break through the Ninth Nirvana. With my Treasure-searching Compass in hand, as long as there are other hidden ore veins in this Fierce Domain, they won’t escape my search..."

Leaving this mine, Ning Fan continued manipulating the Compass, seeking treasure, hunting beasts in the first-level Fierce Domain. Fierce Domain Continent is divided by danger level into ten levels, with level one being the weakest, naturally explored by many, and what’s visible has mostly been plundered, yet Ning Fan, utilizing the Compass’s power, still found a few hidden spots, discovering plenty of Spiritual Medicine, Immortal Material, and even an obscure Buddha cave, an ancient Buddha cultivator’s cave abode left here.

Inside were recorded texts, now Ning Fan could understand these writings. Among them, he discovered some intriguing matters.

Such as "... Holy Mountain wager, undecipherable triumph, ancient stone seated, ten thousand chants decayed..." phrases.

Or "... Saint’s soul dispersed, mountain changed by legacy, containing secret pills. Those who deservingly open the mountain get the pills, those undeserving enter the tomb without a path..."

Several texts mentioned "Holy Mountain." According to these writings, the Dabei Clan has a sanctuary named Holy Mountain, transformed by a Saint’s leftover will. Within the mountain are hidden valuable pills, all forged by the Saint during their lifetime, extraordinary...

These texts naturally prompted Ning Fan to recall what the giant sword man said about the Holy Mountain Tomb Guardians; Holy Mountain is the sacred ground of the Dabei Clan, yet not everyone within the clan knows of its existence. At least the Tamu Clan’s cultivators know not what Holy Mountain is, perhaps Tageli knows, yet he hadn’t shared with Ning Fan, presumably keeping clan secrets...

However, concerning Ning Fan, secrets of Holy Mountain weren’t of his interest. His primary concern was seeking the Jiuli Ritual Vessel. These texts indeed contained records about the offering vessels, surprising Ning Fan.

"... After the Saint’s death, the legacy transformed into the mountain, the good corpse sought various tribal offering vessels to dedicate them to their master. The evil corpse stole all the vessels, wanting to ruin Holy Mountain but unable to enter, ultimately agreeing to a wager, dividing realms for governance..."

The writings state that the Herb-gathering Sage cultivated Good and Evil Corpses before ascending to Saint through slaying three bodies. After the Saint’s death, Good and Evil Corpses quarreled, the Good Corpse sought numerous tribal offering vessels hoping to dedicate the Herb-gathering Sage, but the Evil Corpse seized all vessels, refusing to let the Saint receive dedication after death...

According to the texts, the so-called tenth-level Fierce Domain was the land of the Saint’s Evil Corpse, while the Dabei Clan and Holy Mountain were territories of the Good Corpse...

Ning Fan slightly furrowed his brow; the tenth-level Fierce Domain was the land of the Saint’s Evil Corpse, the offering vessels sought by the Good Corpse mostly snatched by the Evil Corpse; if among the seized offering vessels lies the Jiuli Ritual Vessel, then is the weapon of the Jiuli Clan truly within the Evil Corpse’s land — the tenth-level Fierce Domain?

Furthermore, after the Saint’s death, did their Good and Evil Corpses persist to this day, or have they vanished amidst the eternal stream of time? Should they still live, then this Dabei Clan, tenth-level Fierce Domain, might well be extraordinary, with the presence of Good and Evil Corpses of a Saint... It’s not an impossible notion.

Thinking of the Immortal Emperor slaying Good and Evil Corpses, possessing powers of Ancient Great Cultivators respectively, the Herb-gathering Sage’s Good and Evil Corpses, if truly alive today, perhaps wouldn’t be weaker than the Immortal Emperor’s Good and Evil Corps...

"These ancient symbols are ultimately limited. To truly locate the Offering Vessel of Ancient Demons, I still need to gather more intelligence. Fortunately, I have plenty of Medicine Soul Stones, and once I complete the task here, I’ll have even more. This way, I can stay at the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain for much longer..."

With Ning Fan’s cultivation, it didn’t take long for him to plunder an entire first-level Fierce Domain Continent. Then he moved on to loot some nearby first-level continents before venturing deeper into the second-level Fierce Domain.

Occasionally, he would encounter some Dabei Cultivators training in the Fierce Domain, but Ning Fan bypassed them without a word.

The good stuff in the lower-grade Fierce Domains is sparse. It was already rare to find a low-grade Nirvana Mother Ore vein earlier, and he found no more hidden veins after that. The visible veins he did find had already been mined, with not much Nirvana Mother Stone left, and all of poor quality. Ning Fan also scoured more than ten second and third-level continents without finding many hidden places. The secretive Ancient Cultivator’s Cave Abodes he occasionally entered were already emptied... However, he did complete quite a few tasks along the way.

Of the 51 Human-rank Missions, he had completed 47, and of the 11 Earth-rank Missions, he had completed 4.

Most of the remaining tasks required entry into the Fierce Domains above the fourth level to be completed. For Shekong Cultivators, the fourth-level Fierce Domains were already extremely dangerous. There were few who dared to enter on the Southern Frontier Steppe.

Ning Fan was naturally unafraid. With his skills, he was far beyond mere Shekong Cultivators. Upon entering the fourth-level Fierce Domain, the Treasure-searching Compass immediately displayed several secretive glowing spots. Evidently, the higher the level of the Fierce Domain, the more undiscovered secret places there are, and the more hidden treasures await...

As soon as he stepped into a fourth-level Fierce Domain, he was locked onto by several aggressive auras. It wasn’t the local Fierce Beasts or Corpses that targeted him, but living people.

Soon, four black dots swiftly flew over from the horizon, landing around Ning Fan. These four were dressed in a bizarre fashion, different from the nomadic attire of the Dabei clan, and unlike the outsider’s outfit of the Giant Sword Man; they wore black armor suffused with Demonic Qi. Though their cultivations were not particularly high, all at the Enlightenment level, the four Black Armored Cultivators seemed to instill considerable fear in the local Fierce Beasts and Corpses alike, deterring them from making any moves.

"Are you a Tomb Guardian of the Holy Mountain, or an outsider?"

The four black guards noticed Ning Fan’s outsider attire and immediately asked in a somber tone, with killing intent subtly revealing itself, suggesting that they would attack if Ning Fan answered incorrectly.

Ning Fan was not afraid of the four Enlightenment-level cultivators and replied calmly, "I am an outsider."

Though he had friendly intentions towards the Dabei clan, if these cultivators attacked him, he would retaliate. With his skills, he could silently eliminate four Enlightenment-level Dabei cultivators in this desolate area, leaving no trace of consequence.

"Ah, an outsider," remarked the four Black Armored Cultivators, their killing intent subsiding. It seemed only if Ning Fan answered as a Tomb Guardian they would attack.

Though their tone held a tinge of disdain towards outsiders.

One of the cultivators took out a bone Magic Artifact to confirm that Ning Fan indeed had the Punishing Ring within him. They no longer paid him heed and turned to leave.

Ning Fan frowned slightly, it seemed these four Black Armored Cultivators were not from the Dabei clan...

After the four left, Ning Fan began searching this fourth-level continent, completing small tasks casually while continuing to search for Nirvana Mother Ore veins.

He did, in fact, find a Two-Star Nirvana Mother Stone vein, although it wasn’t large, containing about a thousand pieces. As before, Ning Fan absorbed all the Nirvana Mother Qi from the vein, but to his disappointment, it wasn’t enough to break through to the Nine Nirvana Heavenly Demon.

The root of the issue was that the Two-Star Nirvana Mother Stone was too low-grade.

Ning Fan continued to scour the other fourth-level Fierce Domain continents. During this time, he discovered three more hidden veins, two Three-Star veins, and one Four-Star vein.

Having drained these veins, Ning Fan found his bottleneck for the Heavenly Demon Nine Nirvanas had loosened. He was nearly ready to break through, but something still felt missing, something crucial...

"Just a bit more...this is something beyond just cultivation..."

After some thought, Ning Fan decided to continue searching the fourth-level continents for Nirvana Mother Ore veins. During this period, two more groups of Black Armored Cultivators questioned him, leaving promptly upon learning he was not a Tomb Guardian of the Holy Mountain.

Ning Fan had nearly scoured all the fourth-level continents near the Southern Frontier Steppe, finding no more ore veins.

Just as Ning Fan was about to decide to venture deeper into a fifth-level Fierce Domain continent, the Compass reacted violently over a particular fourth-level continent.

"What is this..."

Ning Fan’s eyes lit up.

This particular fourth-level continent harbored a Nirvana Mother Stone vein, and its grade was not low at all. By Ning Fan’s estimation, it was at least a Five-Star vein, possibly containing even some Six-Star Ore Stones!

"Speaking of which, I happen to have an Earth-rank Mission requiring ten Six-Star Nirvana Mother Stones..."

Ning Fan reviewed the Earth-rank Mission subsection, musing over it. Ten Six-Star Nirvana Mother Stones greatly aid in Body Refinement, but the task’s rewards were also quite generous. For Earth-rank and above missions, the reward was often not Medicine Soul Stones, but this particular mission’s reward was a stalk of Innate Soul-Nourishing Spiritual Medicine!

And it’s something Ning Fan hadn’t obtained yet!

An Earth-rank mission, the reward turned out to be Innate Spiritual Medicine, which should be said to be very generous. This indicates the person issuing the mission has a significant background, can easily produce Innate Spiritual Medicine, and desires the Six-Star Nirvana Mother Stone greatly, otherwise such a reward wouldn’t be offered...

However, it’s regrettable that the tribal competition is approaching, and this task is extremely dangerous. The Shekong cultivators of the Southern Frontier Steppe dare not take risks for Innate Spiritual Medicine...

According to the understanding of the Dabei people, Six-Star Nirvana Mother Stones are often guarded by extremely fierce creatures, even Shattered Thought cultivators find it difficult to obtain them. Although the task offers high returns, the risks are equally high, and one careless step can lead to demise...

Even that self-assured Giant Sword man firmly believes that without the cooperation of three Late Stage or Peak Shekong cultivators, obtaining the Six-Star Nirvana Mother Stone in this area is impossible...

"This task is not bad, thus obtaining six different types of Innate Soul-Nourishing Spiritual Medicines..."

Ning Fan raised his hand to tear open the spatial formation at this location, entering a hidden space inside. The space was heavily filled with Yin energy, still being a mine but the entire mountain was sealed within this space.

Outside the mine, there were many bones, some wearing nomadic attire, and others dressed as foreign cultivators. They were bones from many years ago, crumbling into dust upon touch...

"The Yin energy here is heavy, but the strange thing is, this mine seems unlike other mines I’ve seen, there’s no Corpse occupying it... no, it’s not having no Corpse, rather the Corpse here is extremely good at hiding!"

Shattered Thought Early Stage...

With Ning Fan’s Rain Technique perception, he directly sensed the Corpse’s cultivation level here. Just as he was about to sense the hidden position of the Corpse, a sudden Yin wind inexplicably appeared from behind.

Having walked from the mountain of corpses and bloody mist, Ning Fan’s reaction is exceptionally swift. Before the shadow behind could assault him, his body transformed into a beam of golden light, instantly leaping, appearing a hundred steps away in a flash, easily avoiding the sneak attack.

Clacking, clacking, clacking...

The one sneak attacking Ning Fan was a plump Corpse, with every movement, the chains on its body collide, making sounds.

This Corpse was expressionless with no emotions, missed its strike, directly pouncing towards Ning Fan head-on.

Ning Fan wasn’t flustered, opened his mouth and spat out the Twelve-Flavor Demonic Fire, causing the entire space to echo with the sound of wind and thunder. Under the extension of the demonic fire, it turned into a vast sea of fire, swallowing the Corpse within.

The Corpse had extremely low spirit awareness, did not evade, let the demonic fire burn completely, suddenly emitted ten thousand rays of Buddha Light, astonishingly withstanding the damage of the demonic fire, explosively charged out from within the sea of fire.

This was somewhat impressive!

Although due to Ning Fan’s limited cultivation, the power of the demonic fire was greatly reduced, that was still the Twelve-Flavor Demonic Fire, a high-ranked one, not a mere Shattered Thought Early Stage could easily withstand. But this Corpse simply with the addition of Buddha Light, directly resisted the demonic fire with its physical body without damage, which sufficiently proved its terrifying physical body.

The Corpse’s cultivation level, even though it hasn’t entered the Mid-Phase Shattered Thought, it’s probably not much different!

As soon as the Corpse got close, it immediately fiercely swung a punch, the power of a punch instantly shook the heavens and earth, causing the entire space to become unstable. Ning Fan was not afraid, he was a half-step into the Ninth Nirvana of Heavenly Demon Ancient Demon, if the opponent wants a physical confrontation, why should he fear!

Bang!

A punch collided, emitting the sound of metal clashing, sufficiently indicating the toughness of the two sides’ physical bodies. A strong force spread, Ning Fan retreated ten steps, the Corpse similarly retreated ten steps.

Relying on the protection of Buddha Light, the punch colliding, the Corpse almost wasn’t damaged, yet Ning Fan’s fist bone was shattered. In terms of physical strength, Ning Fan was comparable to this Corpse, but the Corpse’s Buddha Light Divine Skills were very formidable, otherwise, the Corpse should also suffer some injuries.

Fortunately, on Ning Fan’s fists, black fire burnt instantly, within the black fire, the injured wounds were almost instantly healed, and he once again collided fists with the Corpse!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ning Fan wasn’t unable to take out a more powerful trump card, to instantly kill the Corpse here, it’s just that after all, he was an Ancient Demon, having the pride of an Ancient Demon in his bones. When the physical gap isn’t large, if he can’t rely on his Ancient Demon body to oppress the opponent, he wouldn’t be a true Ancient Demon!

Moreover, in this series of collisions, Ning Fan unexpectedly discovered, the difficulty with breaking through the Ninth Nirvana Heavenly Demon was always just lacking a bit, was gradually filling.

"So this is it..." Ning Fan had an epiphany.

The Ancient Demon lineage loves slaughter, is natural war fanatics, what he lacks isn’t the gap in cultivation level, but the necessity to breakthrough in combat.

This breakthrough must not rely on external forces but requires fighting with one’s physical body to sharpen, to open this last bottleneck!

So even though Ning Fan had more powerful means to eliminate the Corpse, he was not in a hurry. Instead, he chose to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Corpse here, fighting until the space shattered. Ning Fan even forgot that his original purpose for coming to this space was to collect the Five-Star and Six-Star Nirvana Mother Stones.

This battle lasted three days. During these three days, his Ancient Demon Bloodline seemed to burn, and he could feel each day bringing him closer to the Nine Nirvana Heavenly Demon realm.

Although the Corpse’s defense was strong, ultimately, in the fierce battle, its wounds gradually worsened. Ning Fan, on the other hand, every time he was injured, was rejuvenated through the flames. Consequently, as the Corpse became more seriously wounded, Ning Fan maintained his full strength. With this balance swinging in his favor, Ning Fan eventually used his physical body alone to kill the Corpse! 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

And at the moment of killing the Corpse, Ning Fan completely broke through to the Ninth Nirvana of the Heavenly Demon!

Defeating an early-phase Shattered Thought isn’t a major event for Ning Fan anymore, but to do so using only his Ancient Demon Body, without using his Calamity Blood Cultivation, without resorting to any magical treasure, without the power of Divine, Demon, and Magic Yin and Yang’s traces of Dao laws, was a rare achievement.

"So this is the power of the Ninth Nirvana of the Heavenly Demon!"

With the breakthrough naturally achieved, Ning Fan felt a terrifying increase in his physical body’s strength. If, before the breakthrough, it took him three days of hard battle to defeat the Corpse, after the breakthrough, he had the confidence to solve it within two hours!

Once the battle ended, he only realized in hindsight that he had actually shattered the space here. The previously intact ore mountain had long since fragmented, with debris floating in the dark void...

This saved him the trouble of mining.

From the countless fragments, Ning Fan selected ten pieces of Six-Star Nirvana Mother Stones and collected them, while all the other ores were taken for refining and absorption.

Because the quality of the Nirvana Mother Stones here was high, refining them took quite a lot of time. It took over twenty days to complete the refinement. The effects were also quite noticeable. Supported by the Nirvana Mother Qi, Ning Fan not only stabilized the Ninth Nirvana of the Heavenly Demon’s cultivation but also slightly advanced his Ancient Demon cultivation, nearly making a one percent progress toward the Tenth Nirvana.

This progress was very significant, considering that an ordinary ancient demon would require over ten thousand years of rigorous cultivation to achieve such an advancement. This demonstrates just how helpful the Nirvana Mother Stones from the Dabei clan are for body cultivation.

Having witnessed the effects of the higher-grade Nirvana Mother Stones, Ning Fan was quite eager to find other Nirvana Mother ore veins. Unfortunately, this trip took too long, and the time for the Southern Frontier competition was approaching. He could no longer afford to waste time here. Moreover, the Southern Frontier is too small; the highest Fierce Domain here is only fourth level, with no higher-grade ones. Ning Fan had already explored all the Fierce Domains below fourth level...

Another issue was that the Fierce Domain levels near the Southern Frontier were too low, with no innate spiritual medicine, let alone soul-nourishing innate spiritual medicine. This left Ning Fan somewhat helpless.

"When time permits, I’ll enter higher-grade Fierce Domains elsewhere..."

Ning Fan stood up from the void, deciding to leave this ore vein space, though doing so proved a bit troublesome.

The magnetic force of the Fiendish Domain Continent was very peculiar, making it extremely difficult to pinpoint former coordinates from the endless void after some hidden spaces shattered, effectively making it hard to return to the outside world, and naturally, for the outside world to find a way in.

Fortunately, Ning Fan had the Treasure-searching Compass, which detects everything above and below ground. After some effort, he identified the spatial intersection point and finally managed to leave this broken space.

Yet, upon exiting to the outside world, Ning Fan immediately discovered that two groups were fighting nearby, and the surrounding space was completely sealed, allowing entry but not exit!

On one side of the fight were the Giant Sword Man and Red-haired Woman he’d seen in the Evil Sheep Sect, while on the other were dozens of murderous Black Armored Cultivators, besieging the pair.

The Black Armored Cultivators were all at least Transcendent True Immortals in cultivation, with three at the peak of Shekong. Meanwhile, both the Giant Sword Man and the Red-haired Woman were at the Peak of Shekong, each seriously injured. They were clearly being besieged by the Black Armored Cultivators and, due to the surrounding space being sealed, couldn’t even escape. They had been fighting desperately here for days.

Ning Fan’s sudden appearance surprised the Black Armored Cultivators, while the Red-haired Woman showed a look of desperation, immediately changing direction to flee toward Ning Fan, deliberately calling out,

"Junior Brother Ning! As fellow Holy Mountain Tomb Guardians, come and help Senior Sister kill the Sanyan Armor Guards and earn merit!" She shouted while fleeing, even directly escaping to Ning Fan’s back!

The Red-haired Woman’s shouting and dodging directly brought Ning Fan into the Black Armored Cultivators’ killing intent.

"Hmph, is this one also a Holy Mountain Tomb Guardian? Kill him!"

Instantly, several Black Armored Cultivators shifted direction, attacking Ning Fan, not giving him a chance to explain.

Ning Fan’s gaze slightly cooled. Before he could understand the situation, it seemed this red-haired woman had dragged him into troubled waters!

"I’m called Duolan, the daughter of the Immortal Emperor of the Holy Mountain. I know you’re a Tamu Outsider! If you save me, I will reward you handsomely!"

Duolan gritted her silver teeth; if it weren’t a matter of life and death, with her proud nature, she would definitely disdain to humble herself and ask for help...