Grasping Evil

Some women would spend the rest of their lives silently waiting for you to be their soul mates, and it’s because of your demeanor that had unconsciously attracted them even though they don’t even know your name.

Xu Qiuling let out another faint sigh. Her hands remained on the qin plucking the strings but this time, she opened her mouth and sang. Her voice was soft and gentle, harmonizing the melody of the qin.

“I opened my eyes all night long, thinking it would repay your faded smile. Blowing off the candle and walking to the shadow of the flower in the moonlight. Ten years had passed, I could still feel you; ten years had passed, my heart still beats for you…”

There was the feeling of regret hidden within her voice; a regret that she did not have the chance to know the man.

As her voice echoed in the air, each of the young masters cocked their ears as excitement filled their expressions.

This Mistress Xu suddenly sang. Could it be that her heart was touched by someone among us?

Otherwise, based on her cool and indifferent attitude, she would disdain singing for others.

When her voice reached into Ning Fan’s ears, it could not stir him up with much emotion, though it was pleasant to hear.

He was not uncultured but there was a lot of time he did not know how to enjoy such arts and culture. In fact, he did not find anything worth examining in this garden full of exotic flowers and rare grasses. Also, he did not know why this voice which could only be barely considered sweet could make the young masters feel that excited.

Ning Fan then realized that he had come to the wrong place.

Maybe the maidservant mistook me as a young master who has come to attend the gathering of Xu Qiuling.

Actually, he held a good impression of that lady but that was it.

However, Ning Fan did not intend to immediately leave. Instead, his gaze swept across all the young masters in the garden. When there was no sign of the six sons, his lips curved into a smirk.

Zhao Zijin is dead but the other six aren’t here…

The reason why the Seven Sons of the External Endless Sea came to the Pleasure Devil Sea from far away was because they were also invited to this gathering and also, they all carried the intention of pleasing Xu Qiuling. But in the end, after one of them died, the other six chose to escape.

Of course they fled for their lives since they did not appear in the garden.

If it was not Yan Zhongze, it must be Zhuo Tong who hastily escorted the six of them away, fearing that I will wipe out the remaining six of them out of rage.

Maybe it’s the cause for the absence of the six sons in this garden.

It seems that my devil prestige has even struck fear into the hearts of the Spirit Severing Realm experts of the External Endless Sea.

Escorting the disciples to flee by night… Hmm. Interesting.

I have seen both the flowers and the people here. There’s no meaning for me to stay any further.

He held the female corpse, intending to walk away but to his surprise, she shook off Ning Fan’s hand and reached out for a Bell Orchid and plucked it.

When the greyish Bell Orchid was broken away from its stem, it rang sorrowfully.

Suddenly, all the young masters turned towards them with a shocked expression.

There are maniacs who dared to pluck Mistress Xu’s favorite flower?! Are they courting death?!

“Hey! Which clan are you from? How dare you pluck Mistress Xu’s orchid?!”

Multiples fierce and unkind stares focused on them. However, the female corpse had no idea of what was happening. After she plucked the dark orchid, she wore it on her ears.

She then turned towards Ning Fan and shot him a pure, innocent look adorned with a broad smile.

“Light…Is…it…nice?” She eagerly asked as if she wanted to get a compliment from him.

“Yes. It’s nice. But you’re really a troublemaker…”

Ning Fan rubbed her hair and laughed.

She plucked the flower and it was the most treasured flower of Xu Qiuling….

I wonder if that Xu Qiuling would turn into a lioness and find trouble with me.

Xu Qiuling stopped singing. The melody of the qin ceased to echo in the air as if it heard the wail of the broken orchid. Her eyebrows knitted in annoyance and she opened her cold-piercing eyes.

“Which young master would be so cruel to my orchid…”

As she was going to severely criticize the person, she suddenly became tongue-tied. The grief and built-up wrath in her eyes instantly turned into surprise.

“It’s you!”

It’s you?

All of the young masters from well-known families who expected to witness Ning Fan’s misfortune were bewildered. Their expectations did not come into reality.

Moreover, after Mistress Xu saw Ning Fan, she did not reprimand him for plucking her favorite flower at all. On the contrary, the grief she had in her eyes earlier turned into happiness.

Everyone began to harbor hostility towards Ning Fan.

Who is this guy?! He seems to have successfully seized Mistress Xu’s heart!

“I’m sorry. Weiliang was not being sensible earlier as she had just plucked your flower…”

“Weiliang is your wife? She has such a nice name… Since the damage had already been done, I can’t do anything about it. But I wonder what made you come to Qiuling’s flower house. Don’t tell me…”

Don’t tell me that he has come to talk about marriage with me?

It was too embarrassing for her to open her mouth and directly ask him that question. Her mind turned blank but deep inside, she felt a hint of sweetness.

The sweetness she felt was because the unknown young master, whom she had been longing for, had appeared.

The blankness of her mind was because the young master already had a wife…

“Weiliang? Yea. I guess she could be considered as my wife…”

A wistful look appeared on Ning Fan’s appearance.

If there was no female corpse, he would have been already dead in Ning City. It was him who tarnished her purity. Therefore, he felt responsible for her.

“Light…Me…Your wife?”

The female corpse pointed at herself. Her large, round eyes looked confused. Obviously, she had no idea about what the word “wife” meant.

“Yes. Wife.”

That lost look on her face made Ning Fan feel sympathy for her. He then patted her head, feeling more determined to help her recover her complete soul.

He turned towards Xu Qiuling and said, “I apologize for my impoliteness. Actually, this Young Master Zhou is not here to attend the matter regarding Mistress Xu. I was just…lost…”

*Giggle*

Xu Qiuling covered her mouth with the sleeve of her robe as she could not hold back a smile at Ning Fan.

When she found out that Ning Fan did not come for her, she felt a little down. However, that sounded more appropriate as bringing a wife to come and seek a marriage alliance could be considered an impertinent act towards Xu Qiuling. If that really is the case, she would be even more disappointed.

After hearing Ning Fan addressed himself with the surname Zhou, she secretly remembered it.

Oh. This Young Master actually has the surname Zhou.

But it was completely out of her expectation that Ning Fan would tell her that he was lost.

This young master seems to not be concerned much about his own embarrassing situation.

He really is a strange man.

“Where do you want to go? Let me, Qiuling, personally guide you there…So that you won’t get lost again and enter the rooms of the other ladies in this mountain by mistake. If not, my father is going to be angry with you…”

“It’s a bit ridiculous. Mistress is the daughter of an important man. Having Mistress as Young Master Zhou’s guide seems to be a condescending act.” Ning Fan cast her a smile.

This lady is quite interesting.

“It will be fine… Xiao Ling, see the visitors out!”

She indifferently ordered one of her maidservants. From the beginning till now, she did not even cast a glance upon the other young men.

In the entire garden, it seemed like only Ning Fan was the only man who got her attention.

Each of the descendants of the noble families also came to seek a marriage alliance. However, all of them were “chased away” by Xu Qiuling in an ignorant manner. Naturally, they felt dissatisfied.

They were envious of Ning Fan, especially when they saw the dignified mistress of the Xu Family stoop to offer to guide him.

For what?!

For what reason is this man being treated like that after what he had done?! Why would he even be appreciated by her?!

“This friend. Can you please at least tell us your name?!” A few of the young masters from the powerful forces asked in an assertive tone.

“You won’t wish to know my name. Because the previous person who asked my name had already died. I suppose you all should know who the late Zhao Zijin was… If any of you want to follow in his footsteps, by all means, please.”

*Suck in cold breaths*

The expressions of each of the young masters changed after listening to Ning Fan’s words.

One of the Sevens Sons of the External Endless Sea, Zhao Zijin, from the Profound Virtue Sect had met a sudden death. All of them had at least heard about it. Besides, any news about his death was sealed off by the top ten sects, let alone the information of the person who committed the murder. That fact alone was sufficient enough to show that the murderer was a person who either possessed heaven-defying power or had an extremely influential background that could force the top ten sects to keep it confidential!

The murderer is this young master before our very eyes?!

If it really is him, he is someone whom we must never offend!

Those who were acting tough and bold earlier immediately kept their mouths tightly shut because of Ning Fan’s words.

In a way, it was a good thing as it saved Ning Fan the effort of killing a group of insignificant beings that were comparable to a group of kittens and puppies.

Xu Qiuling’s tiny mouth was slightly agape. She had never imagined that the gentle and elegant Ning Fan was capable of killing Zhao Zijin.

However, neither did she think Ning Fan was lying nor his action was sinful in the External Endless Sea.

In a place like this, if you aren’t capable of protecting yourself by killing others, you will then end up dead, getting killed by others… This is the undeniable sad truth about the cultivation world.

However, if he can kill Zhao Zijin, then his cultivation level should at least be at the Mid Nascent Soul Realm.

Past memories flashed and surfaced in her mind.

In the past, she secretly erased Zhao Zijin’s spirit sense tracking seal on Ning Fan.

In the past, she reminded Ning Fan to be more cautious in the External Endless Sea.

In the past, she also tried to entice Ning Fan with just ten thousand immortal jade for the Bell Orchid.

Now, everything she did seemed to be unnecessary.

If he truly is a Mid Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, what I did should be laughable in his eyes.

Her face blushed in shyness. She wished to have a place to hide herself right now.

“Young Master seems to hide a lot about yourself…”

“However, I still can’t match the Mistress… This place is named as the Grave of Flowers. But it is not for burying flowers. Instead…”

“Don’t speak!” Xu Qiuling’s eyes turned red as if she was holding back something melancholic to herself. In the next second, the sudden sadness on her face faded, replaced by a calm smile.

“Young Master truly understands Qiuling. Let me be frank with Young Master. What you said is true…”

Yes. I, Xu Qiuling, don’t have much time left.

Yes. This place was prepared to bury me…

But he saw through it.

He truly is the person I am waiting for after so long. But he appeared a little too late…

“Isn’t Mistress going to lead the way…”

“Ah. I almost forgot about it. I’m sorry… Where does Young Master want to go? I am willing to lead you to every place including where my father stores his magical treasures and pills, but of course except for the women’s living area”

“Oh?”

Ning Fan could not help but laugh.

This Qiuling resembles Lan Mei a lot.

After meeting each other for just several times, she is willing to bring me, a stranger, to Xu Rushan’s treasure room and pill room.

People say that women’s hearts tend to be extroversive. But not to mention my true name, I have even yet to tell her my complete pseudonym.

The good feelings she has for me seems to have developed too fast.

She sure is an interesting lady, isn’t she?

“Actually, I have something to discuss with Senior Xu. I hope you can lead us there.”

“This…” Xu Qiuling frowned as if Ning Fan made things difficult for her.

“Am I troubling you?”

“No. It’s not… But today my father is going to entertain an important guest. He is a devil lord in the External Endless Sea who committed innumerable murders and violated countless wives and daughters. He is cruel, ruthless and he had done every heinous crime. Young Master must be extra careful to not provoke him when meeting him later… Otherwise, even if Young Master is a Mid Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, you might…”

“Mm-hmm. Thank you for your concern, Mistress Qiuling. I will take note of that…”

Ning Fan did not know whether to cry of laugh.

Is my reputation that bad?

As for Qiuling, when she heard Ning Fan calling out her name, her face flushed red uncontrollably.

He just called…my name…

In the envious eyes of many young masters, Ning Fan and Xu Qiuling entered into the internal hall of Blissful Summit.

That was the place where Xu Rushan entered into secluded meditation. It was a forbidden area where no ordinary people or personnel could enter, including them!

Ning Fan left a favorable impression in the eyes of Xu Qiuling and was able to enter.

Meanwhile, the rest of the young masters were guided to the door and were sent home.

Now, they no longer dare to hate Xu Qiuling or Ning Fan out of jealousy.

The first one was the daughter of a Spirit Severing Realm expert while the latter was a ferocious devil lord who claimed to have killed one of the seven sons.

They could not afford to provoke either one of them!

Note :

Measurements :
a. li(里) = 500 m
b. zhang(丈) = 3.13 m
c. chi(尺) = 30.7 cm