Grasping the Evil-Chapter 804: Li Xiaoxiao
"Uh... did my thing... poke you?"
Ning Fan looked at the little girl beneath him with a strange expression. The position in which he was pressing down on her was indeed quite questionable.
His hands instinctively held down the little girl’s tender wrists firmly.
His breath, separated by just an inch, unintentionally blew on the little girl’s rosy cheeks, and he could smell the faint fragrance of her body.
His body was closely fitted with the little girl’s, although still separated by their clothing.
Subconsciously, he moved his body, indeed as if poking at something soft...
"You—shameless!!"
The little girl, flushed with shame and anger, let out a sharp scream. Despite her small size, like that of an eleven or twelve-year-old girl, she suddenly burst with strength. Her entire body emitted a purple-black light, and with a fierce tremor, she created an immense force, directly sending Ning Fan flying into the sky, out of the crater.
Ning Fan’s eyes suddenly narrowed. Others might not be able to discern what that purple-black light was, but he could perceive it.
That purple-black light was the demonic power of the Fu Li race! But when used by the little girl, it was indistinguishable from mana, perfectly identical.
The aura of the Fu Li race was utterly absent.
"This girl indeed has a great destiny with my Fu Li race..."
Thinking of this, after being ejected from the crater, he immediately halted his ascent, stood in mid-air, and without saying a word, completely suppressed the power of the Fu Li ancestor blood within him to prevent any mutual sensing with the Heavenly Dao Spirit.
Ning Fan had no intention of recognizing any Fu Li bloodline with this little girl.
In Ning Fan’s view, this girl was a disciple of the Tribulation Wielding Immortal Emperor, and having Fu Li power on her, who knew if exposing his own Fu Li ancestor blood would lead to big trouble...
The Heavenly Dao little girl, having just blasted Ning Fan away, immediately leaped out of the crater with a face full of shame and anger.
With a raised finger pointing at Ning Fan, a Black Gold Sword Light emerged with an amazing sword howl, drawing a long black arc in the sky, its sword light elegant and perfect, slashing down towards Ning Fan.
This sword was the little girl’s attack out of shame and anger, yet it only used thirty percent of her strength, with no intention to severely injure Ning Fan, merely to teach him a slight lesson.
With her current cultivation at the Initial Stage of Crossing Truth, she wouldn’t bother to make a move on Ning Fan, this ’lower realm cultivator,’ unless she was extremely aggrieved.
At this moment, the little girl’s mood was not just about grievances; she was utterly frustrated!
Unable to tolerate Ning Fan’s repeated breakthroughs and ’teases,’ she begged the Empress Dao Monarch for a favor and left her post at the lower realms’ Heavenly Dao, running off to the Four Oceans Sect to idle away her days.
Who would have thought, during this mission with the Four Oceans Sect’s Thunder Division, she would encounter the detestable Ning Fan! This damned ill-fate!
Encountering him was one thing, but to be blatantly taken advantage of by him!
Being taken advantage of was one thing, yet even after she let him crawl away, he continued to twist his body, poke, poke, poke...
Poke, poke, poke...
Poke, poke, poke...
"Sword Seal of Life and Death, strike, strike, strike!"
The little girl, looking like a resentful wife at Ning Fan, flicked her finger; the Black Gold treasure sword with thirty percent power flickered, already slashing towards the space three inches above Ning Fan’s head.
A sharp chill emanated from the sword’s edge, even causing Ning Fan’s eyes to flicker.
Although moved, this sword was not enough to harm him; moreover, it was wielding only thirty percent of its power.
Ning Fan shook his body, becoming an afterimage, already appearing a thousand zhang away.
The sword light immediately turned around, slashing towards him again.
Ning Fan raised his hand towards the sword light, grasping firmly with his palm.
In an instant, the Black Gold Sword trembled and flew back in the direction of the little girl.
This time, the little girl did not continue to attack Ning Fan.
She instinctively caught the returning Black Gold Sword, staring wide-eyed and incredulous at Ning Fan, her mind seemingly receiving a tremendous shock.
"Not... not Void Fragmentation... but Ghost Immortal... Ghost Immortal Middle Stage..."
"In merely over a hundred years since I left my position as the lower realms’ Heavenly Dao Spirit, he’s grown from a mere Void Fragmentation to this step!"
Ning Fan looked at the Heavenly Dao little girl with great amusement, unfazed by that sword, feeling rather cheerful instead.
Seeing this Heavenly Dao little girl, he couldn’t help but feel like meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign land.
After all, in Ning Fan’s view, although he initially had some friction with this Heavenly Dao Little Miss, they later turned enemies into friends. The Heavenly Dao Little Miss even frequently gifted him with presents, though those gifts gradually became more and more peculiar...
"Hmm? Someone’s spirit sense is probing over here..."
Ning Fan suddenly flickered, appearing in front of the Heavenly Dao dimwit, his sleeve sweeping, and circles of black fire halos immediately appeared at their feet.
In an instant, the two disappeared from the original spot, leaving only an inexplicable crater.
This is a secluded forest, with sparse spiritual energy, far from the cultivation city.
Generally, no cultivators would stay here, except for the dawdling girl leisurely nibbling on eight-treasure cake.
Generally speaking, no True Immortals would extend their spirit sense to probe this area unless events like these happened: for example, Ning Fan crashing into the Tianmu Star with astonishing escape light. For example, a True Immortal level duel occurred here...
Shortly after Ning Fan and the Heavenly Dao Little Miss left this place, dozens of Crossing Truth spirit senses, along with a Shedding Void spirit sense, swept towards the crater.
After discovering only a massive pit and no signs of the cultivator that used escape light, all the old monsters felt tremendous regret.
They were cultivators of Tianmu Star and initially wanted to investigate carefully, to see which godly figure performed such astonishing escape light.
Unfortunately, Ning Fan left too quickly, and they were limited to a brief encounter.
...
Over a vast expanse stretching millions of miles, Ning Fan and the Heavenly Dao Little Miss revealed their figures.
The dimwitted girl only just came back to her senses, realizing she had been taken to another place.
"Your alertness is really poor, close enough for me to approach but still daydreaming... Are you really the disciple of the dignified Immortal Emperor, the former lower realms’ Heavenly Dao?" Ning Fan looked at the little miss with a half-smile.
"Hmph, my alertness is always excellent!" The little miss glared at Ning Fan with dissatisfaction, with crumbs of eight-treasure cake still on her lips.
Usually, her alertness is so good that even a fly can’t fly close.
It seems only when near Ning Fan did she become so uncharacteristically careless, lowering her guard... Ning Fan seemed extremely special, the reason was unclear... She believed she disliked Ning Fan, that was what she believed.
Suddenly, the little miss remembered she had been sparring with Ning Fan earlier, without a word, she grabbed the Black Gold treasure sword, ready to slash at Ning Fan again.
"Pervert, see my sword!"
"Uh... pervert..."
Ning Fan looked at the Heavenly Dao Little Miss speechlessly.
In a certain sense, he really did qualify as a pervert, but he truly didn’t do anything to this little miss.
What could he do with the tiny frame of an eleven or twelve-year-old girl...
Gently raising two fingers, catching the sword light, Ning Fan smiled wryly, "The previous flight practically exhausted my mana, reaching the current limit of my mana. At this moment, it’s hard to mobilize much mana for a duel. But if you insist on sparring, considering our past acquaintance, I will accompany you to the end."
"Past acquaintance? Who has an acquaintance with you! I, I, I..." The Heavenly Dao Little Miss was at a loss for words, suddenly remembered something, and said to Ning Fan,
"By the way, how can you perform Vertical Golden Light?"
"Vertical Golden Light? Are you referring to the golden escape rainbow I used earlier?"
At the mention of the previous escape rainbow, Ning Fan’s eyes instantly focused.
Earlier, he was solely relying on the Black Demon Escape Technique, yet somehow unleashed that kind of golden escape rainbow. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
That kind of golden escape rainbow’s speed was truly terrifying, crossing the distance of an Upper Starfield in an instant.
Of course, the golden escape rainbow’s mana consumption was also terribly formidable, and it seemed to cause the bloodlines of God, Demon, and Monster to churn...
So that’s what that escape technique is called, Vertical Golden Light.
"Hey? You didn’t know Vertical Golden Light and you could still perform it?"
The Heavenly Dao Little Miss looked at Ning Fan as if he were a monster, but she didn’t speak further.
"You know a lot about Vertical Golden Light, could you give me some information about this technique?" Ning Fan asked.
"Vertical Golden Light is an ancient lost Divine Skill, very few people know about it, and information is worth its weight in gold. We are not related; why should I tell you? Hmph!"
The little miss hummed proudly, turning to leave. She didn’t want to linger for even a moment longer.
Ning Fan was taken aback, and despite his shrewd mind, he couldn’t understand why the Heavenly Dao Little Miss, who had always shown ’kindness’ to him, would give him a cold shoulder this time, with a hint of impatience.
The little miss took a few steps, suddenly remembered something, and came back angrily to Ning Fan, saying,
"Right! Compensate me for the Eight Treasures Cake! You crushed my Eight Treasures Cake; it’s completely ruined and inedible now!"
"Eight Treasures Cake?" Ning Fan was slightly stunned, vaguely recalling that when he just fell down, he did indeed crush a cake.
"Compensate me for the Eight Treasures Cake! If you don’t, I’ll fight you!" The little girl brandished her Black Gold Sword a few times, threateningly.
Ning Fan shook his head with a hint of amusement and asked, "How do you want me to compensate you?"
"Dao Crystals, compensate me with Dao Crystals! The Eight Treasures Cake is made with eight kinds of precious spiritual medicines! It contains Heaven’s Dao Ginseng aged 500,000 years, Purple-grade Ganoderma aged 450,000 years, and a 620,000-year-old Nine Bends Spirit Root, among others..."
The little girl rattled off a list and ended with an extremely pained expression, looking at Ning Fan, holding up four fingers,
"Compensate me this amount of Dao Crystals, and from today onwards, we’ll be even."
She meant for Ning Fan to compensate her with 40 million Dao Crystals.
After all, the raw materials for the Eight Treasures Cake only added up to about 10 million Dao Crystals.
million Dao Crystals was quite a lot.
However, Ning Fan misunderstood the little girl’s expectations. After thinking for a moment, he took out a storage pouch and resignedly handed it to the little girl, "Alright, I did indeed crush your Eight Treasures Cake. It’s only right to compensate you with some Dao Crystals."
"Hmph, paying debts is only right... Ah! So, so many!"
The little girl looked at the storage pouch in disbelief, finding that the Dao Crystals inside amounted to more than 400 million!
Ten times over! Ning Fan compensated her with ten times the Dao Crystals! This is what it means to be wealthy!
"Gave too much?" Ning Fan asked with slight surprise.
"Not too much, not too much." The little girl tried to look serious, but the corners of her eyes couldn’t hide her adorable, soft smile, as if a Dao Crystal-colored light was gently flickering.
million Dao Crystals! Ning Fan just casually gave her 400 million Dao Crystals!
Her little heart was pounding, and her little hands were trembling.
Her gaze towards Ning Fan was simply skyrocketing in fondness.
She used to find Ning Fan disagreeable, but now she found Ning Fan incredibly agreeable!
As a disciple of the Immortal Emperor and a True Immortal of the Enlightenment stage, she was not lacking in money.
But she was a miser! A hoarder!
She wanted money not for spending, but just to possess and admire piles of Dao Crystals, which filled her with contentment.
Because of this, she was often called "a little fool."
As a Master, hoarding money without using it, isn’t that being foolish?
Her fear of the little demoness like tigers was because she had once been tricked into a wager with the little demoness, losing all her Dao Crystals and even supposedly owing the little demoness tens of billions of Dao Crystals...
So every time she saw the little demoness, she avoided like a plague, running away. What could she do? She had to evade her debts, right?
However, she was a person of extreme principle and would never sell her principles for money, at least that’s what she thought of herself.
Ning Fan felt a bit puzzled, unable to understand why this Heavenly Dao Little Miss’s attitude towards him shifted from cold to warm.
The Heavenly Dao Little Miss suddenly looked enthusiastically at Ning Fan, fidgeting yet shamelessly said, "Ning Fan... no, no, no, Fellow Daoist Ning, do you remember the half piece of the Eight Treasures Cake I gave you earlier? That half isn’t paid for yet, you still owe me 200 million."
"Even that half needs to be paid for? Alright, 200 million it is then."
To Ning Fan, who had 910 billion Dao Crystals on him, a mere few hundred million Dao Crystals was truly trivial.
He waved his hand and took out another storage pouch filled with Dao Crystals, handing it to the Heavenly Dao Little Miss.
The Heavenly Dao Little Miss took a look at the storage pouch, nearly fainting with happiness.
Just by moving her mouth, she tricked 600 million Dao Crystals out of Ning Fan, what in the world could be more happiness-inducing than making money!
While she was elated, seeing Ning Fan’s clueless, harmless smile made her feel quite guilty, feeling like a sleazy older sister tricking a child for candy.
It’s important to know, she had never swindled anyone’s money before; Ning Fan was the first to voluntarily take the bait...
The little girl felt a bit sheepish, not daring to meet Ning Fan’s eyes.
She thought again, put away her Black Gold Sword, and took out a jade scroll, engraving all the information she knew about the Vertical Golden Light onto it, and gave it to Ning Fan, weakly saying,
"...This is the jade scroll about the Vertical Golden Light... um... I’m giving you the jade scroll not because I’m guilty, or because I scammed your money... um, I have something to do, I’ll take my leave first..."
The little girl hurriedly shoved the jade scroll into Ning Fan’s hands and almost scrambled away.
Ning Fan was taken aback, suddenly realizing something. He chuckled slightly, looking at the little girl’s departing figure with meaningful eyes and murmured to himself, "So she’s a little money-grubber... interesting... just too kind-hearted and muddle-headed... if you hadn’t said anything, how would I know you swindled my money and felt guilty?"
He wasn’t in a rush to look at the jade scroll in his hand, instead he casually took out another storage pouch, which contained approximately one billion Dao Crystals.
Smiling harmlessly as he called out to the little girl’s fleeing figure,
"It seems I can’t just take your jade scroll for free. How about I give you one billion Dao Crystals?"
"O...one billion! That’s so much! The information I know about the Vertical Golden Light is just a little bit, definitely not worth that price!"
The little girl, who initially wanted to flee, stopped abruptly, her face flushed with excitement.
Reason told her she should stay as far away from Ning Fan as possible, the farther the better.
But Ning Fan was willing to give her one billion Dao Crystals... since he offered, how could she not take them, that would be a waste...
Moreover, deep down, she didn’t seem to dislike Ning Fan as much as she thought. Not only did she not dislike him, but when Ning Fan offered her money, she even felt a secret joy, a feeling buried so deep she hadn’t even realized it herself...
"I came to Tianmu Star to use the Divine Weapon Lake to heal something, but I’m unfamiliar with this place. How about you act as my guide, accompany me to the Divine Weapon Lake, and I’ll pay you ten billion Dao Crystals as a commission, how does that sound?"
Ning Fan’s eyes twinkled slightly as he spoke with a calm smile.
He wasn’t unfamiliar with Tianmu Star; he just wanted to get close to the little girl to explore the secrets about the Fu Li related to her.
The worst is when people don’t have weaknesses. As long as there are weaknesses, one can slowly take advantage of them.
And although this little girl was a bit greedy, she wasn’t inherently bad.
In Ning Fan’s view, she was just a little money-grubber, innocent and a bit muddle-headed. With some manipulation and Dao Crystals, he would likely get some useful information from her.
Information related to the Fu Li!
"Wha... what! Accompanying you to the Divine Weapon Lake can earn me ten billion Dao Crystals!" The little girl was almost dizzy with joy from this stroke of luck.
She was planning to go to the Divine Weapon Lake anyway, and merely accompanying Ning Fan and acting as a guide would earn her Dao Crystals—what a profit!
"But before we head to the Divine Weapon Lake, I’d like to take a walk around the largest trade city on Tianmu Star. You don’t mind taking me there, do you?" Ning Fan asked with a smile,
"I don’t mind! Not at all!" The little girl confidently said, puffing out her small chest.
"By the way, I remember you’re called ’Life and Death,’ right?" Ning Fan changed the subject and asked.
"No, ’Life and Death’ was just my code name when I was the Heavenly Dao Spirit. I have no name, but the Empress Dao Monarch gave me one, ’Li Xiaoxiao,’ Li as in parting, and Xiaoxiao as in small."
The little girl answered almost every question, her speed of accepting Crystals assuring a corresponding quality of service.
"Li Xiaoxiao... could this ’Li’ be referring to the Fu Li?" Ning Fan pondered.
Moments later, Ning Fan took out another ten billion Dao Crystals and, along with the previous one billion, handed them all to Li Xiaoxiao.
Receiving the Dao Crystals, Li Xiaoxiao was overwhelmed with happiness. Suddenly, she transformed into a beautiful Winged Demon, half black and half white, and with her beak raised and wings spread, she landed in front of Ning Fan, saying,
"Hop on, once I transform, I can fly really fast. I’ll take you to the largest trade city on Tianmu Star right away!" The giant avian Winged Demon enthusiastically said.
"Is there even a mount service? Just because I gave you Dao Crystals?" Ning Fan asked, his eyes filled with an amused look.
"Pah pah pah! What kind of talk is that! I’ve never carried anyone before, not even the Empress Dao Monarch allows it. Who else has this honor to sit on my back? Hmph! Is a bit of filthy money that great? Being picky here and there, if you don’t want to ride, I don’t want to let you ride either."
With that, the Winged Demon seemed about to transform back into human form.
Ning Fan smiled, walked closer, patted the Winged Demon’s feathers, and apologized,
"Sorry, I misspoke."
With those words, Ning Fan leaped up and sat cross-legged at the neck of the giant bird, examining the jade scroll with information on the Vertical Golden Light.
The Winged Demon, slightly unused to Ning Fan’s apology, fidgeted uncertainly, and could only weakly say, "Hold on tight," before flying high into the sky with Ning Fan, heading towards the largest trade city on Tianmu Star—Wangyun City.
Li Xiaoxiao, with cultivation at the Initial Stage of Crossing Truth, flew at tremendous speed once she transformed into her demon form, even faster than ordinary Mid Stage Enlightenment Masters.
Riding such an attention-grabbing mount naturally attracted plenty of attention.
When he reached Wangyun City, nearly all the Masters in the city craned their necks to gaze at the astounding scene in the sky.
Many Masters exclaimed in surprise in Ning Fan’s direction, "Who is this person! He doesn’t look like a Shedding Void Realm old monster, yet why does he have a Mount of the Crossing Truth realm! Could he be a disciple successor of some Shedding Void Realm old monster?" (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)
