Grasping Evil

Chapter 462: Chapter 462: Flame Light Goblet

After King Lan Ling’s arrival, Mo Xiu finally had the chance to breathe and avoided a calamity.

However, since his flames had been seized, the result he gained in the second round was not good.

Out of 1500 pill refinement masters, only 180 people managed to completely melt a one thousand years old spiritual herb in four hours and refine the medicinal liquid ten times.

Out of these 180 pill masters, most of them were Fourth Revolution Pill Masters. There were also several Peak Third Revolution Pill Masters who accomplished the given tasks and were fought over by many forces in order to recruit them.

Those who managed to refine the medicinal liquid of one thousand years old Purple Jade Banyan over 50 times were all Fifth Revolution Pill Masters.

Huang Tingzi had managed to refine the medicinal liquid 74 times while Yi Yunzi had done it 77 times.

Mo Xiu only managed to do 72 refinements due to the backlash he suffered and the absence of the flames he once had. He had actually lost to both Huang Tingzi and Yi Yunzi.

A fact that Mo Xiu found even more difficult to accept was that Ning Fan had actually refined the one thousand years old Purple Jade Banyan 99 times!

One has to know that even a true Sixth Revolution Pill Master could at most refine a one thousand years old spiritual herb a hundred times.

Ning Fan’s result was, without a doubt, telling everyone that his pill refinement mastery was extremely close to the Sixth Revolution!

Although pill refinement grandmasters like Huang Tingzi and Yi Yunzi were also participating in this test, Ning Fan still got first place in the second round.

Of course, the second round only tested their ability to melt and refine spiritual herbs.

Perhaps Ning Fan was better than them in melting and refining spiritual herbs but weaker than them in pill refinement. Something like this might not necessarily be impossible.

Many old monsters could not wait for the third round of the competition where all pill refinement masters would concoct pills with their true skills. It would be the round that could truly determine the best among them.

They were eager to know whether Ning Fan could still occupy the first place in that kind of situation.

The second round had finally ended. There were still ten days before the third round would start.

In the next ten days, Ning Fan continuously stood outside the western wing of his guest house. Under the snowy and windy weather, his mind was recalling the methods the 1500 pill refinement masters used to melt the spiritual herbs.

On the seventh day, news about Mo Xiu’s complete recovery had spread in the outside world.

Aside from that, Mo Xiu said that he wanted to compete with Ning Fan fair and square in the final round to decide who between them would be the victor!

Hearing this kind of rumor, Ning Fan sneered and disregarded it. He never thought of Mo Xiu to be a person who would do things fairly without resorting to any trickery.

In the dead of night on the eighth day, massive fluctuations of magic power suddenly spread out from the direction of Ju Mo’s broken world.

Some cultivators saw King Lan Ling being involved in the fight against seven to eight Void Refinement Realm old monsters with vigorous aura forces.

In the end, King Lan Ling left in rage as he was outnumbered in that fight.

As for the mysterious Void Refinement Realm experts, they did not pursue King Lan Ling as they dreaded him as well.

Only Ning Fan was aware that King Lan Ling must have been overconfident of himself. Hence, he tried to sneak into Ju Mo’s broken world on his own. However, he was forced to retreat by the Eight Ancestors.

This matter made Ning Fan dread the Eight Ancestors even more.

Even though King Lan Ling only came with his second primordial spirit, his current form was already much stronger than many Void Pierce Stage old monsters.

Since even a strong person like King Lan Ling could not intrude Ju Mo’s Broken World and seize the devil statue slate, it would be even more impossible for Ning Fan to seize the slate by force.

“On second thought, this King Lan Ling is strong. Even though his current form is his second primordial spirit, he could still survive even after he was surrounded by 2 Void Pierce Stage experts and 6 Void Inquiry Stage experts... He truly deserves his fame as an expert at Yun Tianjue’s level. This man’s true self has yet to break through to the Void Fragmentation Realm but no cultivator below the Void Fragmentation Realm would be able to match him...”

After failing to seize the devil slate, King Lan Ling still managed to escape with severe injuries.

He was extremely strong. Of all the experts at the same level as him, he only lost to Yun Tianjue.

King Lan Ling was someone who had fought with Yun Tianjue before. He was unrivalled when facing cultivators below the Void Fragmentation Realm. Moreover, according to rumors, even a First Heavenly Layer Void Fragmentation Realm expert suffered some injuries by his own hand.

The current Ning Fan was far from being King Lan Ling’s opponent. Additionally, he also did not have the intention of fighting him at all.

Since Mo Xiu had recovered to his peak state, he no longer needed King Lan Ling’s protection. He actively began preparations for the third round with the aim of returning the embarrassment he suffered to Ning Fan.

On the ninth day, Huang Tingzi and Yi Yunzi came to pay Ning Fan a visit one after the other. No one knew what the three of them had discussed.

When Huang Tingzi left, he announced to everyone that Ning Fan would officially become a feudal ranking elder of the Pill Island.

When Yi Yunzi left, he declared to the public that the Zhou Clan would forever back Ning Fan up.

Outsiders had no idea about Ning Fan’s exact pill refinement realm. However, the two of them could tell that his pill refinement mastery was at least at the Peak Grade Fifth Revolution already. Moreover, there was rarely anyone at the Peak Grade Fifth Revolution pill refinement mastery who could compare with him.

Knowing this fact filled them with frustration but also admiration towards Ning Fan’s profound pill refinement techniques at the same time.

On the tenth day, Yun Niansu came to see Ning Fan and told him some information.

Yun Niansu had found out that the narrow-minded Mo Xiu was prepared to create some disturbance during the third round of the Pill Ceremony which might be harmful to Ning Fan.

Yun Niansu was clearly representing the Profound Heaven Palace. Him expressing goodwill to Ning Fan was to actually strengthen the bond between their respective palaces.

After knowing Yun Niansu was the foster son of Yun Bushu who was the third prince of Rain Palace, Ning Fan became even more polite towards him.

According to hearsay, among all the princes of the Rain Palace, only Yun Bushu had a friendly relationship with Yun Tianjue.

On top of that, Yun Niansu had expressed his kind intentions towards Ning Fan several times. Thus, Ning Fan was willing to befriend him.

With Yun Niansu’s warning in mind, Ning Fan had higher alertness for the third round of tests.

Since King Lan Ling was no longer around, if Mo Xiu really dares to cause any trouble to him during the competition, he would not mind taking advantage of that opportunity to eliminate him!

With the protection from the Rain Sovereign, the Pill Sovereign and the Zhou Clan, no one in the entire Rain World would dare to hurt him before he and the Rain Sovereign have a fallout.

He did not need to have too many concerns. Even if it’s the palace lord of the Scarlet Heaven Palace, he might not necessarily be a person whom he could not kill!

Ten days later, the third round commenced.

This time, the test was being held on a land of ice. The spiritual qi in this area was much more concentrated than in the snow valley. If one concocts pills here, it would be at least six to seven times faster than in the outside world.

A hundred and eighty pill masters were participating in this round. However, those with discerning eyes were fully aware that the top three pill masters of this round would probably be selected from Ning Fan, Yi Yunzi, Huang Tingzi or Mo Xiu.

Ning Fan arrived at the ice land quite early. He stood at the platform that belonged to him like an immovable statue.

The weather was cold and dismal with the wind and snow. However, his mind was as peaceful as a white dove.

He repeatedly thought about pill refinement techniques by recalling his memories of him refining pills in the past.

Under the guidance of the Pill Sovereign, his body gradually formed a different aura from the rest.

That aura belonged to his own Dao of Pills. Even though it was currently far from complete, there would certainly be a day where it would fully develop.

His medicine qi which was as dark as concentrated ink spread across a few zhang* (3.33m per zhang).

At this moment, Ning Fan no longer resembled a devil lord. Instead, he completely turned into a pill refinement grandmaster who wholeheartedly devotes himself to the Dao of Pills.

Xu Qiuling stared at Ning Fan from afar. Her beautiful eyes seemed to have been held captive by what she saw.

Yue Lingkong, however, was actually not used to Ning Fan’s pill refinement grandmaster aura when she looked at him. In his mind, Ning Fan should always be a devil lord with a frightening devil qi.

At this moment, Fen Chi was deeply attracted to Ning Fan. There were countless good-looking female cultivators among the audience who felt the same as her.

Feng Xueyan was not here. After King Lan Ling attacked Ju Mo’s Broken World, she was being carefully guarded by the Eight Ancestors as they were worried of her possibly making a careless mistake.

Before she outlives her usefulness, the Eight Ancestors would be extremely good to her.

However, when Ning Fan thought of all that goodness being a mere pretense as they were planning on killing her ten years later, he felt disgusted by the Eight Ancestors of the Giant Devil Clan...

“Hehe. Revered Ming is really early.”

After having a brief conversation with Ning Fan, Huang Tingzi and Yi Yunzi headed to their respective jade platforms. Each of them looked like they were fully prepared.

More and more pill refinement masters reached the ice land. Mo Xiu among them.

Today, Mo Xiu had regained the calmness he usually had. From the beginning until the end, he did not have the slightest trace of hostility in him. It was as if he had completely forgotten the unsettled grudges he had against Ning Fan ten days ago.

This disappointed a lot of people who were waiting to see the both of them fight.

Eventually, the 180 participating pill refinement masters all arrived.

However, Great Elder Fu Bai was not anxious to announce the commencement of the third round. Instead, he was quietly waiting for something.

Every pill refinement master was also patiently waiting. Two hours later, a strange phenomenon suddenly happened where an ocean sun rose from the sea in the distance. In addition to that, the sun was green in color.

It was already midday and a bright red sun was already up in the middle of the sky.

The emergence of a second sun that was green in color was rather abnormal. It seemed to be able to move by itself too as it was flying rapidly towards the Cold Northern Country.

The brightness of the sun made countless cultivators incapable of opening their eyes. All of them revealed looks of surprise with none of them being able to identify what it was.

When it got closer, only then could they see sixteen giants clad in black armor carrying a pure golden wine goblet as huge as a small mountain.

At this moment, Great Elder Fu Bai made a faint smile and explained.

“Fellow Daoist, don’t be nervous. This item is a treasure of the Pill Island. It’s called the Flame Light Goblet. It’s a supreme treasure for identifying the quality and grade of pills. For the sake of this final round, sixteen experts from my Giant Devil Clan have purposely borrowed this item from the Pill Island.”

Fu Bai did not explain too much and only highlighted the necessary information. However, his words instantly caused a commotion among countless cultivators.

“What?! This is the greatest treasure of the Pill Island, the Flame Light Goblet? It’s been said that this treasure was created specifically for verifying the grade of pills. By putting the pills into the wine goblet, it could then refract different colors and sizes of sun and flame shadows depending on the grade of the pill.”

“Green for Fifth Revolution, black for Sixth Revolution and purple for Seventh Revolution. Since it’s giving off the green virtual shadow of the sun, did someone place a Fifth Revolution pill inside the Flame Light Goblet?”

“A low grade pill will cause the goblet to project the shadow up to ten thousand zhang. (3.33m per zhang) Meanwhile, a mid grade pill will cause the goblet to cast the shadow up to twenty thousand zhang* (3.33m per zhang). A high grade pill will cause the shadow to extend up to forty thousand zhang* (3.33m per zhang) while the shadow will stretch up to eighty thousand zhang* (3.33m per zhang) for a peak grade pill. The current shadow of the green sun was about thirty thousand zhang* large. Thus, the pill that had been placed in the Flame Light Goblet is probably a Mid Grade Fifth Revolution pill. Besides that, it should also be an extraordinary item among Mid Grade Fifth Revolution pills.”

The sound of discussion began to fill the atmosphere. The sixteen black-armored giants placed the gigantic Flame Light Goblet before the seats of the hosts and carefully looked after it.

Ning Fan scanned past the Flame Light Goblet. In his one hundred years inside the dream realm, the Pill Sovereign had mentioned this item before.

When a pill is placed into the Flame Light Goblet, the goblet would give off different colors of shadow which would represent the grade of the pill.

The sun existed in the Four Heavens and Nine Worlds. Everyone could see the sun but it was like the moon’s reflection in the water. No one was able to touch it.

The sun that cultivators saw with their eyes actually did not exist. It was nothing more than an illusion.

According to ancient sayings from ancient times, the Immortal Sovereign controlled Samsara and created the Yin & Yang Pills. The Yin Pill was the moon while the Yang Pill was the sun. In addition to those two, he used a great magic technique to disperse the shadow of the moon and the sun, allowing every place in the Four Heavens and Nine Worlds to experience day and night.

The so-called sun was a non-existent pill the Immortal Sovereign created. Its grade could not be estimated.

The usage of the sun shadow in determining the grade of a pill in the Flame Light Goblet could be said to have borrowed from that ancient legend.

“The Flame Light Goblet has been brought over. My Fellow Daoists, prepare to open your cauldrons to concoct pills. The grade and quality of Third and Fourth Revolution pills will be assessed by selected appraisers. As for Fifth Revolution pills and higher, they will be assessed by the Flame Light Goblet itself. The time limit for pill concoction is one month. Fellow Daoists must not exceed the time limit. Otherwise, you will be disqualified. The final round begins now!”

Each of the pill masters wore a solemn expression. They summoned their pill cauldrons one after another and started concocting pills.

Ning Fan glanced sideways at Mo Xiu who was looking right at him as well.

Mo Xiu’s eyes contained a hint of inexplicable coldness. He concealed it very deeply within. Suddenly, he spoke.

“Revered Ming, are you brave enough to make a bet with me?”

“What kind of bet?” Ning Fan’s eyes remained tranquil, as if he already knew what Mo Xiu wanted to say.

“Let’s bet on whose pill refinement mastery is better between you and me in this final round!”

“What’s at stake?”

“If I lose, you can take one treasure of mine. If you lose... I will take your black flame!”

After all, Mo Xiu was a tactful person. With the order from the Rain Sovereign, he would not dare to kill Ning Fan but he wanted to seize his flame instead.

Ning Fan’s eyes flashed with cold light. If Mo Xiu was really willing to bet with him fairly and honestly, he would be willing to entertain him.

However, Yun Niansu had already found out about Mo Xiu’s evil plot. This time, there was no way he would behave himself and compete with Ning Fan fairly.

“If you lose, can I take your life as well?” Ning Fan’s expression did not have joy or anger. The words he spoke, however, sent chills down Mo Xiu’s spine.

The chills he felt only lasted for a brief moment.

Mo Xiu made a disdainful smirk. His pill refinement mastery might not be as good as Ning Fan’s but his strength was far greater than his.

Today, he was at his peak state. He did not think that Ning Fan would be capable of killing him at all.

“If you have the capability to do so, you might as well give it a try!” Mo Xiu confidently replied.

*Hua*

Their conversation sparked an uproar in the audience who were observing them.

At the moment the final round began, Mo Xiu had actually made a bet with Ning Fan.

Even though Ning Fan’s medicinal soul was extremely powerful and he also obtained the first place in the second round, a vast majority of the audience had no clear idea of the level of Ning Fan’s pill refinement mastery.

Mo Xiu, on the other hand, was a senior pill refinement master whose name was famous in hundreds of countries. He also had a very high prestige. Moreover, he was the palace lord of the Scarlet Haven Palace and also a trusted aide of the seventh prince of the Rain Palace.

This happened all too quickly and not everyone thought Ning Fan would win if both of them really fought each other.

Besides, when many people saw the proud and confident smile on Mo Xiu’s face, they began to believe that he would have the final laugh.

During the second round, if it wasn’t for Mo Xiu injuries due to the backlash he suffered, he might not necessarily be any weaker than Ning Fan.

“Why did Little Cucumber make a bet with that old thing? If he loses, isn’t he going to have to give his black flame to him?” Yue Lingkong muttered with worry.

“Doesn’t Elder Sister Yue believe in Big Brother? When has Big Brother done anything that he isn’t confident with.” Xu Qiuling’s face was full of confidence in contrast.

In Ju Mo’s Broken World, the Eight Ancestors were all nursing their injuries. Although King Lan Ling retreated in defeat after he tried to forcefully intrude into this secret place, he still landed quite a serious blow to the Eight Ancestors.

The Eight Ancestors were neither dead nor alive in the first place. Hence, they run the risk of completely vanishing from this world at any time.

After their confrontation with King Lan Ling, their bodies became even more illusory.

“Detestable! If I have the chance, I will certainly tear King Lan Ling to shreds and eliminate his entire family!”

A woman’s cold and fierce voice resounded.

“We will set aside King Lan Ling’s matter for now. He has been wounded quite seriously. He won’t dare to come and cause us trouble again. Unfortunately, after our confrontation with him, our forms have become unstable again. Originally, we could hold on for another ten years. But the little Lan Ling has accelerated the tribulation. The ‘Sinful Ocean Pill’ that have been passed down from generation to generation within the clan are already used up. We need to request the help of a pill refinement master to concoct this pill.” An elderly man said with a deep and hoarse voice.

“Whom should we request? The pill refinement masters that Little Ju Qing hired for his daughter seem fine. However, there’s no Peak Grade Fifth Revolution Pill Master among them.”

“Zhou Ming!”

“Impossible. This young kid hasn’t even reached five hundred years old. It’s already heaven-defying for his pill refinement mastery to attain Fifth Revolution. How could it be possible for him to possess Peak Grade Fifth Revolution pill refinement mastery? The reason why he could get the first place in the second round is probably because of his impressive pill cauldron and the flame he possessed.” The unkind woman rebutted.

“Wipe your eyes and wait and see what happens next... I have devoured many medicine souls of pill masters in my entire lifetime. His medicine soul looks especially delicious. My senses shouldn’t be wrong. Hehe... Unfortunately, before accomplishing that important matter, we will still need this young kid to make the Sinful Ocean Pills. Otherwise, I don’t mind having a taste of his medicine soul.” The elderly man with a hoarse voice made an evil smirk.

When he smirked, the primordial spirits of the other seven members including Ju Yan trembled instinctively.

All seven of them were experts of the Giant Devil Clan. They were devil cultivators too.

However, only the elderly man with a hoarse voice was truly a devil lord who could make others shiver with fear by just hearing his name...

The little hands of Feng Xueyan who was sleeping on a cold ice bed aside suddenly tightened.

Actually, she was already awake and overheard the conversations between the Eight Ancestors. Her heart began to race and her expression turned pale.

“They... Are they trying to eat my brother-in-law?! I-I must tell him!”

“Grandfather... Grandfather is a bad guy!”

“Wait... Where am I... What’s this place?”

Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel