Grasping Evil

A Chess Game in the Broken Dream

One would need to go through three steps in order to consume the Star Tempering Purple Zoysia.

Firstly, one would need to transform his ‘medicine soul’ into jade to break the disguise of the spiritual herb.

 Secondly, roasting the zoysia with flames nine times.

Thirdly, using a ‘medicine slave’ to purify the poison contained within the zoysia, bringing out its maximum medicinal power. 

After completing the first step, a column of black flames which was three chi* (30.7 cm per chi) tall rose from the tip of his finger. Without further delay, he began roasting the purple zoysia.

The process of roasting the zoysia required a high level of control towards flames. If the temperature of the flames were to be slightly higher, the purple zoysia will then be turned into ashes, whereas a lower temperature would cause the zoysia to be under-roasted.

After awakening the medicine soul, Ning Fan felt that his sense of sight and hearing had greatly sharpened. Moreover, his ability to control flames had become exceptionally better! 

Within just an hour, the process of roasting had been completed. After roasting the zoysia for nine times, whiffs of fragrance began to fill the atmosphere. By just sniffing its smell once, Ning Fan felt his magic power surge, as if it was showing signs of improvement. 

"Next would be the third step..."

 Looking at the female corpse who was wearing a dull expression, Ning Fan’s eyes glinted with determination. He exhaled a mouthful of essence qi and then sucked in the huge purple zoysia into his abdomen. 

“Refine!”

As Ning Fan uttered the word, the purple zoysia started to be refined inside his body, turning into droplets of purple zoysia juice which was then condensed into pellets of purple medicinal crystals. 

Ning Fan was very careful, worrying if he would waste the medicinal power by absorbing the slightest trace of medicinal essence, and diminish the possibility for the female corpse to regain her memories.

Along the process of refining the medicinal crystals, streaks of poison which were black like ink forced its way into the crystals and was then absorbed by him.

Just like how the saying goes, whenever heaven gives birth to a medicine, it would certainly create a poison as well!

Thus, the stronger the medicinal power of the purple zoysia, the heavier its poison would be.

 When the poison entered his body, Ning Fan’s lips immediately turned dark purple while his face started to be suffused with black qi.

No matter how the poison racked his insides or how agonizing his five internal organs felt, Ning Fan only clenched his jaw without uttering a single word. Gradually, the pellets of the purple medicinal crystals emanated a massive amount of medicinal qi out of his body and placed each of them into the female corpse’s mouth.   

Pain?! I don’t care about pain!

Cultivation level?! I could also give all of it up!

The only thing I wish is that I could see you smile again!

“The thirteenth medicinal crystal!”

After Ning Fan inserted the last medicinal crystal into the female corpse’s mouth, he felt a sharp pain in his chest as if he had just received a heavy blow and retreated one hundred steps, spurting out a mouthful of black blood. At that moment, he was already in a severe condition.

Ordinary beings were unable to resist the poison that came along with spiritual herbs. Even an ordinary medicinal slave would not be able to sustain the poison contained within the purple zoysia, let alone survive it… But Ning Fan didn’t care about it!

“Light…you’re…hurt…”

“I…don’t…get…it…”

The female corpse obediently consumed those medicinal crystals and stared blankly at Ning Fan.

She didn’t understand. She didn’t understand why Ning Fan vomited blood.

“It’s nothing. You don’t need to understand…”

Ning Fan smiled satisfyingly. He had already noticed that after the female corpse swallowed the medicinal crystals, the power of the purple zoysia was starting to be assimilated by her body.

In the sky above the Star Palace within the vicinity of 4.8million zhang* (3.33m per zhang), countless and seemingly endless rays of starlight began to rush towards the female corpse, gathering inside her body. 

 Streaks of starlight revolved around her body. Her internal injuries were starting to recover amidst the starlight.The broken pieces of her Sea of Consciousness also began to show signs of uniting.

So, all that I’ve done isn’t a waste after all…

However, what happened next was totally out of Ning Fan’s expectations.

After Ning Fan had refined the poison of the zoysia and fed the female corpse the purified medicinal crystals, the female corpse gradually recovered while basking in the silver-colored starlight.  

As for Ning Fan, there were also rays of starlight which were as light as veils emerging around his body.

This starlight, however was black in color….

“Black starlight? What…is this!”

Ning Fan’s eyes glinted with surprised. A moment after he was covered by the starlight, his eyelids started to droop, and he seemed to have entered a dream.

“Black star, it’s actually the black star! My silly little brother, I can’t believe that you got this golden opportunity! You’re so awesome” Luo You said excitedly inside the Yin Yang Locket. Unfortunately, Ning Fan could not hear her words as he had already fallen into a dream.

Outside the abode, Yuan Yao gazed into the sky without uttering a single word.

After noticing the movement of the starlight above the sky, she guessed that Ning Fan probably had already successfully fed the female corpse the purple zoysia and drew the power of the starlight to cure her injuries.

“One of its leaves enables one to condense the star of fiendgod. A bite on its flesh can draw the power of starlight to temper one’s body and enhance their body refining realm… You weren’t reluctant at all to let her consume such a precious item whole. You treat her really well, even though she might not necessarily be able to understand how much you have done for her…”

Yuan Yao sighed with emotions, feeling a little dejected. However, a brief moment later, her face was filled with utter amazement.

It was because pieces of black star clouds began to form in the sky, refracting starlight which was as black as the darkest night!

“Black-colored starlight?! Immortal Demons can borrow the power of starlight to cure their wounds. However, there are differences in superiority in terms of the power of starlight… Ordinary Immortals Demons could only comprehend silver-colored starlight which allows them to cure their wounds and remedy poison. The color of silver, however, is the lowest grade of the starlight… Whereas black is the color of the strongest grade among the nine grades of starlight!”

Yuan Yao’s face was plastered with astonishment. It was rare to find anyone who could understand what she was currently feeling. One has to arrive at a certain cultivation level and only then could they know what the differences were between black-colored starlight and starlight with ordinary color.

Both of them were borrowing the power of starlight to heal their wounds and injuries, but the difference in terms of the effects of both types of starlight was like the gap between heaven and earth.

The technique of tempering the body using starlight was actually a type of treatment to heal wounds that was commonly used by immortals. The number of stars for healing the wounds and the color and grade of the starlight directly related to the effectiveness of this technique.

“Rumor has it that the Celestial Emperor had cultivated this technique to the level where he could call upon a million stars. With a flick of his hand, one million black stars would appear and the starlight which would shine upon him would never extinguish. No matter how heavily he gets besieged by the other celestial immortals, no matter how severe he was injured and how much blood he shed, he could be healed in a flash…”

“If you are able to comprehend this technique, perhaps you could be the next Celestial Emperor when you attain the cultivation level of an Immortal Emperor… Erm… What was I thinking?”

Yuan Yao shook her head while laughing at herself.

She seemed to have forgotten herself being so excited after just seeing Ning Fan drawing the power of the black starlight.

Being able to draw the starlight to heal injuries did not necessarily mean that one would be able to comprehend the technique of starlight.

Successfully comprehending the technique of starlight did not necessarily mean that one could cultivate to the level of summoning one million stars, let alone become an Immortal Emperor.

Ning Fan surely had great luck to get such an opportunity to call upon the black star. However, the gap between him and Yuan Yao was still too huge after all.

“Difficult…”

No one clearly knew if the word ‘difficult’ she uttered was about the difficulty of comprehending the technique of starlight or the love affair between her and Ning Fan.

Ning Fan stood still within the black starlight for three days. Throughout these three days, he seemed to have been dreaming.

With his consciousness fully immersed within the dream, he could not break free at all.

In the dream, he wore a white robe. In front of him, there was a middle-aged man who was clad in a black robe which was majestically adorned with a dragon. Both of them were playing chess.

Ning Fan was controlling white chess piece while his opponent was controlling the black chess piece.

“Butterfly boy, it’s your turn…”

The black-robed man stroked his beard as he spoke. His left eye was gouged out and black blood had been oozing out from his wound continuously to the floor but his facial expression remained composed.

“In this world, when there is white, then there will be black. When there is life, then there will be death. When there is sunlight, then there will be shadow. When there are heroes, there will be villains. From my perspective, the technique of starlight is just like a chess game. The black star and the silver star; the strongest and the weakest, both of them are in this game… Isn’t it interesting… I didn’t expect that 150 million years after my death, the remaining intent that I left within the starlight will be discovered by you again… You are quite good towards Weiliang just now. I’ve seen it all…”

“Who are you?!” Ning Fan lifted his head and stared straight at the mysterious man’s eye.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. This is just a broken dream. Winning this chess game is all that you need to do! You still have half a day to consider what the following move to make!”