Grasping Evil

Avoidance 

Ning Fan flew out of the volcano without any intention of stopping and headed for the heart of all trees of the ninth level! 

In the continuous rain, he landed on top of a 30 thousand meters tall tree. This tree blotted out the sun and the sky, towering like a giant peak. It was precisely the body of Old Man Ming Luo.

As he landed on the tree, a spirit sense even stronger than a Void Fragmentation fourth layer swept past him. Knowing that Bright Sparrow was safe and uninjured, the voice in the spirit senseheaved a sigh of relief.

“Come into this old man’s tree trunk.”

An indifferent voice was heard from the massive tree, and immediately, the tree trunk in front of Ning Fan cracked open, revealing a 30-meter large door.

This tree was the Ming Luo Tree, the true body of Old Man Ming Luo. The Void Fragmentation fourth layer small geezer earlier was merely a part of Ming Luo Tree demon soul.

His true body was the tree, grown from the dark underground, which was why he hated the glow of fire so much. Moreover, his roots had grown so deep underground that he couldn’t pull them out. Also, the Qi of his true body was extremely strong. He could’ve easily killed that Void Fragmentation fourth layer Snake Lin with his current power.

He couldn’t leave the ground and could only use his tree spirit to look for Bright Sparrow. This explained why the demons in the eighth level could take advantage of him. If those demons ever dared to come messing around in the ninth level, Ming Luo would turn all of them into fertilizer!

Ning Fan was left speechless when he thought about the true strength of Ming Luo. This also reminded him that this Ming Luo still owed him a favor. If he asked Ming Luo to help him exterminate Moksha Emperor, Ming Luo would be less likely to refuse it. Unfortunately, Ming Luo’s true body couldn’t leave the ninth level, and his clone’s strength was limited. If he ever climbed his way up to the higher levels of the grave, his clone’s cultivation base will drop. There was no way he could ever leave Dark Sparrow’s Grave.

Just like what Ming Luo had said, he only had one way of leaving Dark Sparrow’s Grave – that was by burning his demon soul and break the law of the Heavens and Earth at the expense of his life!

Ning Fan smiled wryly at this idea. Asking Ming Luo to kill Moksha Emperor was indeed somewhat unrealistic. Besides, Ning Fan would prefer to take the life of Moksha Emperor himself. Of course, that would only happen if he already had the strength to execute Moksha!

Within the tree, the paths bent in various ways towards the world of the tree heart. In the heart of the tree, there was an extensive wooden palace. A short old man in black clothes could be seen from the distance. He greeted Ning Fan hastily as soon as he saw him.

“All of the Void Poison is suppressed?!” He sounded extremely excited as he looked at the soundly asleep Bright Sparrow in Ning Fan’s arms. His face was full of affection.

“Fortunately I didn’t fail in the task,” Ning Fan said plainly.

“Good! Good! Bring Bright Sparrow to her room, let her rest and her Demonic Yuan to recover!”

…

After putting Bright Sparrow on the bed, he gazed at the short little old man outside with a dignified look.

This short old man was no doubt the essence of Ming Luo Tree. He was a Void Fragmentation expert in the ninth level of Dark Sparrow’s Grave. In front of his true body, Ning Fan felt so insignificant. The true body of Ming Luo was even a few notches stronger than Moksha Emperor. After fulfilling Ming Luo’s request, based on this old demon’s character, he certainly wouldn’t return kindness with vengeance, but things in the world was hard to predict. Ning Fan had to be on alert as he was now in a dangerous situation.

He grasped a trace of the true soul under his sleeve. This was precisely the soul of Ming Luo. With an indifferent tone, he said: “I have fulfilled Senior’s request. So, can I ask for my third request from Senior now?”

Ning Fan’s eyes didn’t show any trace of carelessness. This was his Dao of Discreet. Once he detected any signs or suspicious movement from Ming Luo, he would crush Ming Luo’s true soul instantly, dealing a massive damage to Ming Luo’s cultivation base!

“Hehe! Little Friend has saved Bright Sparrow. Just tell me if you have any more request! Don’t worry, I, Ming Luo, always do things honestly and openly. I will never break the promise I made.”

Ming Luo said with confidence, as though he had forgotten how he had sneak-attacked Ning Fan.

Ning Fan glanced at Ming Luo in a strange way, but didn’t remind the old man of what he did to avoid embarrassing the old man.

It seemed like this Ming Luo loved his face pretty much…

Before saving Bright Sparrow, Ning Fan had put forward three conditions. First, he requested Ming Luo to give him a trace of his true soul. Second, he requested to use Ming Luo’s 10 000-year-old spiritual herbs to treat Bright Sparrow’s poison.

From these two requests, it rather seemed like Ning Fan was the one who suffered the loss. Which was why he held his third request so that he could use it to give the old man a hard time.

Since Ming Luo had already agreed to let Ning Fan offer three requests, Ning Fan wouldn’t be polite about it.

“My third request… I suppose Senior can already guess what is it…I want Ming Luo Fruit!”

“Sure enough, you want Ming Luo Fruit. Alright, this old man will grant you this request! However…how many Ming Luo Fruits do you want? Currently, I only have three in my hands. If you want four fruits, you will have to go into my Ming Luo Mirage and pluck it…” Ming Luo’s eyes turned stern as he gazed at Ning Fan.

“Ming Luo Mirage?”

“That’s right! There are countless of Ming Luo Fruit growing in the mirage. But I can’t go into the mirage now as Bright Sparrow is still unconscious. As for you, I can make an exception this time by opening it for you!”

Ming Luo’s tone was flat as if he was talking about a casual matter, but Ning Fan’s expression had changed slightly.

The memory of Ancient Chaos had mentioned about the place that grew Ming Luo Fruit – the Ming Luo Mirage. However, any outside races would never be allowed to enter the illusory world. The fact that Ming Luo was willing to make this an exception indicated his sincerity.

Rumor has it that the illusory force could ignore one’s cultivation base. The number of Ming Luo Fruit one could pluck would solely depend on one’s determination, totally unrelated to one’s cultivation base. Even a Void Fragmentation cultivator would likely be affected by the illusion playing in his heart, and might end up with not a single Ming Luo Fruit. 

With the true soul of Ming Luo in Ning Fan’s hand, he wouldn’t need to worry that Ming Luo would do something to harm him.

Since there was a chance to obtain more Ming Luo Fruit, Ning Fan wasn’t foolish enough to decline it.

“Please open the mirage for me, Senior.”

“Yes. For the sake of saving Bright Sparrow, this old man will remind you once more. Once you enter the mirage, don’t be too greedy. As long as you close your eyes and wait for the illusory force to fade, you will be able to get one Ming Luo Fruit. Young man, never be too greedy. Four Ming Luo Fruit is already considered plenty.”

“Thank you, Senior, for reminding me. I will keep that in mind. However, I still want to try my best to get as much Ming Luo Fruit as possible.”

“Alright…if you are eroded by the illusory force, I will get you out even if I have to use force.”

Ming Luo shook his head. Although he praised Ning Fan’s boldness, he didn’t think that this young man could even get half of the Ming Luo Fruit if this young man pushed his luck.

The power of the illusion was the bane of the human heart. Those who cultivated Evil Dao would be affected even more by the illusory force. Plus, this young human also seemed to be cultivating the Evil Dao, which would make it very difficult for him to resist the power of the illusion.

Ming Luo had already concluded in his heart that Ning Fan would find nothing in the end, but despite that, he still opened the illusory world as a reward for rescuing Bright Sparrow. 

…