Grasping Evil

A Chess Game in the Broken Dream

For the past thousands of years, Man Shan and his wives had been borrowing power from the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia. Although they did not consume it using the right way, they had nearly reached the stage of completely transforming into true demons. Moreover, with the magical effect of the Sixth Revolution Pills, Manifestation Tempering Pills which were given by Ning Fan, they entered into seclusion at once to complete their demon transformation right after they consumed the pills!

The effect of the Manifestation Tempering Pill was to temper one’s manifestation and demon avatar. It was something that was widely sought after especially by Void Refinement Realm experts.

To star spirits, however, evolving into a true demon was no different from attaining one’s own demon avatar on the foundation of their star spirit bodies. Hence, the Manifestation Tempering Pills undoubtedly had amazing effects for them.

Seeing his three descendants having hopes of becoming demons, Man Xiong could not help but cup his fists in gratitude towards Ning Fan, despite his cold and unsociable personality.

“I’m truly grateful for this little friend’s kindness!”

“You don’t have to thank me. After all, we are just taking what each of us needs. If senior takes this pill, your injuries can be suppressed for one thousand years. Unfortunately, after one thousand years… senior will not be able to escape death.”

Ning Fan suddenly became silent. Man Xiong’s injuries were too severe. Besides, they had been staying with him for thousands of years without being treated properly. As a matter of fact, he was already a half-dead person. Ning Fan was unable to heal his injuries anymore. What he could do now was just to suppress his injuries by giving him another Sixth Revolution Pill, Death Sealing Pill.

This pill was not used in curing one’s injuries but forcibly restraining one’s condition. It did not only keep one’s wounds under control, but also had the effect of stopping the growth of one’s cultivation level.

Once Man Xiong consumes this pill, he could live a normal life like any ordinary person within one thousand years and regain his Early Void Refinement Realm cultivation level.

One thousand years later, he would still die. The reason of his death, however, was not because of his injuries but because of the limitation of his lifespan.

A Void Refinement Realm expert has a lifespan of ten thousand years. Currently, Man Xiong was already nine thousand years old. One thousand years later, he would reach the end of his lifespan and his inevitable death would be hard to reverse.

This pill might be able to suppress his injuries, but it would also restrict the possibility for growth in his cultivation level, making it impossible for him to break through to the Void Fragmentation Realm.

However, Man Xiong only laughed when told of the side effects of the pill. He was not concerned about it at all.

“This little friend sure is joking. Even if I don’t consume this pill given my current capabilities, there is absolutely no way for me to attain the Void Fragmentation Realm from my current cultivation level within one thousand years. To me, it is already enough that I can live without suffering pain from my injuries and protect these three little descendants after consuming this pill. In the eyes of our demon race, the inheritance of the race is much more important than one’s life and death.”

Without hesitation, Man Xiong determinedly swallowed the Death Sealing Pill. Moreover, after just an hour, his wounds were fully suppressed and his aura had recovered to the Early Void Refinement Realm!

“Little friend, we truly owe you a great debt of gratitude. Other than the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia, if you have anything else that you need, just say it! I heard that you wish to head towards the Heaven Hall. This old man and those three little silly children need some time for secluded cultivation. If time allows, we will certainly help you enter the Heaven Hall to search for opportunities after we exit from our secluded meditation!”

“There’s no need for that. I just need the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia.”

Looking at the King Man’s valley which was decorated with lanterns and colored hanging ornaments, Ning Fan’s eyes turned gloomy.

With my help, Man Shan and his wives now have the hope to fully transform into true demons while Man Xiong’s condition will remain stable for one thousand years. The footing of the star island on the Greedy Wolf Star Sea can be considered completely firm now…

All of them were naturally in great joy for their current situation. The feeling of joy, however, did not belong to Ning Fan.

In a remote part of the valley, Ning Fan took away the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia and stood for a long time with complicated thoughts outside Man Shan’s stone chamber. Eventually, he cupped his fists towards Man Xiong and left.

“I can help others realize their wishes. But no one is able to help me... help me restore the smile on Weiliang’s face…”

Ning Fan’s eyebrows did not relax for a single moment, even though he had already obtained the entire purple zoysia.

If he were to consume that item himself, perhaps it would make his body refining realm advance further into the Third Level of the Jade Life Realm.

However, he was not going to do that. He had decided to let the female corpse have it in order to help her recover her Sea of Consciousness.

In a way, feeding her medicine in order to revive the memories of her previous life resembled how she fed him the dew when he was just a butterfly in his previous life.

However, Ning Fan was uncertain as to what extent the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia can recover the female corpse’s memories.

The state of her Sea of Consciousness was just too severe. It was so horribly torn apart that one could hardly bear seeing it.

Even if I possess the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia now, would it really be able to recover her Sea of Consciousness?

If it fails in the end, what is the point of everything that I’ve done…

“Weiliang…”

Ning Fan paused. After making a few teleportations, he had already returned to his abode in the southern part of the island.

It was already noon. Each of the women had already woken up, chatting casually within the abode. What they were discussing was closely related to Ning Fan’s trip to the northern part of the island.

As soon as they saw Ning Fan return, each of them stood up one after another.

Yue Lingkong felt slightly discontented. From Xi Ran’s mouth, she found out that Ning Fan went to the King Man’s valley in the northern part of the island to obtain the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia. She just thought that he was just too mean for not bringing her along to a matter which involved fighting.

Wu Yan was a little worried. She worried that Ning Fan would get into a brawl with Man Shan and his men.

As for Xi Ran, she wore a sulky expression with her lips pouted. She was still angry about the 950 million immortal jade that Ning Fan owed her.

As for Yuan Yao, she shifted her gaze away to avoid Ning Fan’s eyes as her heart was still filled with guilt and embarrassment.

“How did it go? Did you get the purple zoysia?” Yue Lingkong broke the silence and asked.

“Mm. It’s in my hands now…”

Ning Fan only looked the female corpse who was standing alone at one corner, feeling pained inwardly.

“I want to treat her wounds. Please help me stand guard and protect the abode...”

With a gentle step, he floated to the female corpse’s side. In a twirl, the both of them had gone out of sight.

All the four women were surprised at once. The guilt, remorse and weakness that filled the current Ning Fan’s eyes could not escape from their observation.

“He… actually has such feelings as well…”

Even if Ning Fan had killed millions upon millions of lives, he had never once hesitated or felt remorseful for his actions.

However, when he saw the rigid and emotionless expression on the female corpse’s face, he found it difficult to avoid feeling heartache.

As the sea breeze blew, Ning Fan hugged the female corpse and soared into the sky, going against the direction of the sea breeze. He did not plan to enter into seclusion in the star island. Instead, he brought her straight up to the sky where the starlight was the brightest: the remotest part of the sky located at about 4.8 million zhang* above the ground.

Amidst the soft-blowing wind, Ning Fan came to a halt and hugged the female corpse even more tightly.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here… If the recovery of your Sea of Consciousness fails, I will look for other ways to help you regain your memories. I will. I definitely will…”

“Light?”

The female corpse wore a blank expression. She completely had no idea why Ning Fan would suddenly show her such a frail expression.

Neither could she understand why she would suddenly be brought so high up into the sky by Ning Fan when everything was alright.

Instinctively, she just wanted to push Ning Fan away because she did not like being hugged by any man.

However, at this moment, the current Ning Fan gave him an extremely familiar feeling. All of a sudden, she felt like the person who was hugging her was not a man but a butterfly…

Her fragmented Sea of Consciousness began to tremble. Apparently, she seemed to have had a glimpse at a scene of her previous life which made her completely overwhelmed by grief.

That butterfly which only had a pair of insignificant wings charged towards Zhang Qing in order to save her life!

“Light…I…don’t…feel…good…”

“I…didn’t…open…the…door…”

She did not know why she felt like crying but she could not stop it.

A corpse devil had no tears; thus it would never cry. A corpse devil did not have a heart; thus it would never feel heartache.

“Don’t be afraid. The past life is just like flying dust. Everything will pass. In this life… I’m here! I’m here for you. Regardless of anyone, no one shall be able to harm you, even if that person is…an Immortal Emperor!”

Ning Fan deeply inhaled, calming his emotions. He must not feel nervous. He must not waver. He must not let weakness overwhelm him!

Previously, he was worried whether the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia would be able to cure the female corpse. Currently, however, he no longer had any worries anymore.

“If a single tuft of purple zoysia can’t cure you, I will then search for one hundred tufts, one thousand tufts or even ten thousand tufts! If you can’t recover your memories within one year, it doesn’t matter because I will wait for that day to come no matter how long it takes, be it one hundred years, one thousand years or even ten thousand years! I will wait for the moment… when you finally remember who I am!”

The confusion within Ning Fan subsided as he let go of the female corpse from his arms. Now, there was an unprecedented aura surging around his body.

Slapping on his storage pouch, he took out a khaki lingzhi.

Whatever aspect it was, be it its smell or its appearance, this lingzhi shared an exact resemblance to the Extreme Profound Zoysia. If Ning Fan were to bump into it in the past, he would without a doubt consider it as an Extreme Profound Zoysia.

However, after awakening his medicine soul, his ability to discern spiritual herbs sharpened. He now could already recognize a spiritual herb just by smelling it. The smell of this lingzhi might closely resemble that of the Extreme Profound Zoysia, but in actual fact, it was just a camouflage.

Of all creations in this secular world, everything possesses a spirit. Every one of them knew how to avoid disasters and pursue good fortune. As for this Star Tempering Purple Zoysia, it had an exceptional spirituality. Hence, it knew how to camouflage itself by imitating the looks of other spiritual herbs naturally in order to deceive others.

“How can a man not be like this since a mere medicine is already behaving in this manner…”

Ning Fan indifferently muttered to himself and activated his medicine soul. The next moment, his body emanated a bright green light which then gathered on his palm and condensed into a green jade piece. Using it, he scraped it on the lingzhi.

After being scratched by the green jade which was formed using his medicine soul, that lingzhi trembled gently and immediately transformed into a tuft of purple lingzhi which was one chi* long. (30.7 cm per chi)

Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel