Grasping Evil

Chapter 235 (2): A Female Child

As soon as he landed on the stage, each and every one of the three had their own reactions. Purple Gu frowned, Zhou Qing was surprised, while Guan Xiong felt awkward.

However, almost immediately, Ning Fan cupped his fist towards Zhou Qing and Guan Xiong. “Everyone please proceed. I have no interest in the Divine Space Inheritance at all. Just in case her memories can’t be read and she becomes worthless, I want to buy her as my human cauldron.”

“Oh? Fellow Daoist sure is well-informed. This matter is only known by the influential forces within the Internal Endless Sea. I was also told not too long ago. Perhaps, Xu Rushan might not know about it too.”

Guan Xiong’s eyes flashed in awe. He was astonished by Ning Fan once more.

After hearing Ning Fan’s intentions, Guan Xiong and Zhou Qing nodded in agreement.

Only Purple Gu shot him a cold glance.

It was because he originally had the idea of keeping the girl for himself if none of them could access her memories. However, he did not expect that Ning Fan would come to interfere.

But as he recalled the might of Ning Fan’s finger, he became faint-hearted at the prospect of fighting Ning Fan over the human cauldron on his own.

“Fine… The girl might be a Spirit Severing Realm expert, but she is still a girl who had yet to become sexually mature after all. Plucking her is not any good. So what if I let this kid have her… Besides, plucking a Spirit Severing Realm human cauldron will consume a considerable amount of time. This kid is going to enter the Secret Realm of Broken World within the next few days. Since Spirit Severing Realm experts are forbidden to enter the Secret Realm, he would not be able to pluck her. Furthermore, he would definitely leave this island after exiting the Secret Realm. When the time comes, I will request help from my sect to eliminate him. I would then be able to reclaim my human cauldron and snatch all of his magical treasures!”

After a brief moment of contemplation, Purple Gu Taoist wore a faint smile as if he was not bothered by Ning Fan’s intention at all and nodded his head.

Every other people at the hall left. Xu Rushan revealed himself from a dark corner and joined Yan Zhongze and Ning Fan to look after the human cauldron.

As for the other four experts, they decided to let Guan Xiong be the first one to search the girl’s soul and memories while Zhou Qing would be the second one and Purple Gu would be the last.

Guan Xiong’s secret art resembled a sword sense technique. However, it wasn’t congealed from the Sword Consciousness but his sword qi.

The secret art of soul searching of the Zhou Clan was named White Lightning Memory Extinguisher. They used lightning to form a sense which was mainly used for searching one’s soul and memories.

For Purple Gu Taoist, he congealed his sense completely from the purple worms.

The three of them took turns in probing the girl’s mind with their spirit sense congealed with their respective secret arts.

The strength of the three traces of spirit sense might even be able to probe the soul and memories of a Late Spirit Severing Realm expert.

Deep inside, Ning Fan was filled with amazement.

They truly deserve to be part of the venerated devil forces in the Internal Endless Sea. Their respective secret arts for searching souls and memories sure are exceptional and stronger than my ordinary Soul Memory Searching Technique by a few times.

Gu Xiong’s forged sword sense might be uncommon, but it is clearly weaker compared to the other two secret arts. Purple Gu’s technique is not an easy technique to learn. Even so, it is still slightly weaker than Zhou Qing’s. As for Zhou Qing’s White Lightning Memory Extinguisher, it is the strongest among the three. It’s a technique that uses lightning power but when taking a closer look at it, it seems to contain a trace of demon power within.

A fusion between lightning power and demon power…

“Is it related to the lightning beast? A combination between magical techniques and demonic techniques… The expert who invented this technique must be a person with extraordinary natural talent…”

Ning Fan’s eyes blazed like torches. With his blood lightning and Lightning Star, if he is able to learn that secret art, he would not need to be afraid of any seals anymore when searching a Spirit Severing Realm expert’s memories.

Sadly, all the three remarkable techniques failed after one another.

However, it was not strange to Ning Fan as Dong Xu had said that he also failed when he secretly tried to search the girl’s soul and memories. How could they possibly succeed when even a member of the Venerated Seven failed?

Guan Xiong sighed and shook his head. Purple Gu’s face became gloomy. In stark contrast, Zhou Qing burst into laughter. He was not vexed by his failure at all. With an uplifting tone, he spoke, “Since this girl’s soul and memories can’t be accessed, it only means that the change in the Divine Space Island is certainly terrifying. It isn’t a bad news if we can’t pry into her memories. On the bright side, maybe we can avoid a fatal disaster having not acquiring the crucial information to enter the Divine Space Island…About Fellow Daoist Zhou Ming…”

Zhou Qing’s gaze shifted to Ning Fan and shot the latter a smile.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou Ming seems to be rather interested in my White Lightning Memory Extinguisher… I am very willing to teach you that technique, however, mine is still incomplete. Besides, this technique is related to the secrets of my sect. Please pardon me for being timid and not daring to teach you. If Fellow Daoist is willing to come to my Zhou Clan, perhaps the old ancestor of my clan might take a liking to you and then pass on the technique to you.”

“Hehe. Fellow Daoist must be joking. No matter how audacious I may be, I would never pry into the secret art of the Zhou Clan…” Ning Fan laughed but in his heart, he felt a hint of eccentricity about that conversation.

Seemingly, Zhou Qing no longer bear any hostility towards me.

Meanwhile, he spares no effort to invite me to his Zhou Clan in the Internal Endless Sea. What’s his true intention…

Although Zhou Qing’s technique was unique, Ning Fan would not be so impetuous to set foot on the territory of Zhou Clan for just a soul and memory searching technique.

He did not want to take a risk before he is powerful enough to do so. Who knows if the Zhou Clan harbors good or bad intentions toward Ning Fan?

The kind intention of the Giant Devil Sect and Dong Xu were clear. The intentions of the Zhou Clan, however, was rather ambiguous…

“Hai…As such, I suppose I have to disappoint Venerated Sword who appointed me for this task… Congratulations to you, Fellow Daoist Zhou, for having this girl as your human cauldron. If there is a chance in the future, be sure to pay a visit to my Sword Island! Farewell!”

Guan Xiong cupped his fist as a gesture of courtesy before he turned into a sword light and disappeared into thin air.

With just a leap, perhaps he was already at ten thousand li away.

It was not Instant Shift. Instead, it was the Sword Blinking Technique that was a unique technique of sword cultivators. A sword cultivator with this technique would be able to travel at a peerless speed among other sword cultivators.

Next, Zhou Qing gently nodded his head towards Ning Fan and turned to his back. At the same time, he spoke to the elderly behind him through telepathy.

“This man is extremely vigilant. It’s fine. There are still a few years before the opening of the Thunder Emperor’s Tomb. Anyhow, he would eventually come to our Zhou Clan for the pass to enter the tomb… Let’s go, Zhou Qi!”

“Yes!” The elderly man answered.

With a wave of his hand, he turned into a cloud of silver smoke and dashed towards Zhou Qing, carrying him away.

The Spirit Severing Realm Instant Shift was different from Nascent Soul Realm Instant Movement. It enabled the expert to bring multiple people with him when travelling with ease.

Finally, Purple Gu was the only foreign expert in the hall.

His eyes stopped at the little girl and shot her a sly leer. Then, he unglued his gaze and cupped his fist towards Ning Fan with a crafty smile before vanishing in a cloud of purple smoke.

As he departed from the tower, the first thing that came into his mind was to search for backup and kill Ning Fan!

Only when everyone had left did Xu Rushan and Yan Zhongze heaved a sigh of relief.

Both of their gazes were filled with awe when they looked at Ning Fan.

They knew that if they were the one who withstood Ning Fan’s finger that he displayed during the battle with Evil Light, they would either die or end up in a critical state!

“Fellow Daoist Zhou truly is unfathomable! I am ashamed to be so inferior compared to you…” Yan Zhongze said.

When Ning Fan strenuously withstood his five palms combo attack in order to break through to the Jade Life Realm in the past, Yan Zhongze had already known that he was holding back his full potential.

If he were to display that technique on that day, Yan Zhongze’s life would surely be at stake. As he put himself into that scenario, he could not help but to agree with Xu Rushan’s comment about Ning Fan in the past.

It’s no wonder Xu Rushan thinks so highly of this kid. So this is it - the danger that Xu Rushan was talking about. It’s indeed dangerous for Spirit Severing Realm experts to stay too close to him.

Unfortunately, he got the wrong idea.

Xu Rushan stared at Ning Fan with a confused look, as if the latter was alien to him.

Ning Fan knew about the background of the Spirit Severing Realm human cauldron, which was something that Xu Rushan himself had no clue at all.

The longer he knew Ning Fan, the more he felt that he could not see through him.

“He must be the person whom Venerated Giant has been waiting for…”

Xu Rushan took a deep breath. Being able to successfully hold the auction and find Ning Fan for Venerated Giant at the same time would surely give him lots of credit.

My daughter seems to be hanging out with this man for the past few days. I suppose their relationship is not just skin-deep anymore…

“I shouldn’t be controlling how Qiuling behaves. I might as well just let her do as she pleases. Furthermore, this Zhou Ming isn’t bad after all…” In Xu Rushan’s mind, he was thinking about the most important affair in her daughter’s life - her daughter’s marriage.

Ning Fan’s gaze focused on the girl’s blank eyes, pondering in silence.

This girl’s aura truly belongs to an Early Spirit Severing Realm. There’s no mistaking it. But apparently, something is off…

“I wonder how much this girl would cost…” Ning Fan asked in a resolved tone.

“Hehe. Fellow Daoist must be joking. Since her memories can’t be accessed, she is now just a Spirit Severing Realm human cauldron. Apart from that, plucking a human cauldron like her would only give you hundreds of units of magic power. Why would I be concerned about her price since this old man is even willing to gift you 200 drops of Profound Liquid of Mother Earth. Just take her with you. I suppose Venerated Giant would do the same too. However, since I have already expressed my sincerity, Fellow Daoist really must not disappoint me with the task… With Fellow Daoist’s current power, not to mention 150 Fake Wild Beasts, I believe you can even hunt down every last one of them in the Secret Realm if there’s enough time for you…”

“Fellow Daoist Xu sure is kidding. If that’s the case, it is disrespectful for me to decline your kind offer.”

Ning Fan shook his Cauldron Ring and kept the girl within. With his current identity, it was no longer surprising to use an Immortal’s Abode Magical Treasure in public.

Actually, Xu Rushan was just being humorous. The meaning of “enough time” he mentioned in the conversation implied that wiping out all the beasts in the Secret Realm would at the very least take a few years to tens of years. He did not mean that Ning Fan would be able to do that within just 5 months. Instead, he was trying to say that it would not be difficult for Ning Fan to kill 150 Fake Wild Beasts.

However, his joke which was supposed to be only humorous was going to be realized soon.

…

There were 8 days left before the opening of the Secret Realm.

After returning to the Profound Jade Palace, it was still Yu Long who entertained all the cultivators that came by to pay a visit and kept all their gifts.

As for Ning Fan, he brought the female corpse into the Yuan Yao World.

With a shake of his Cauldron Ring, he summoned the Spirit Severing Realm girl.

Plucking a Spirit Severing Realm human cauldron was not as easy as it seemed. Multiple pills were required in order to achieve the greatest effect of the cultivation method.

However, for the time being, Ning Fan did not have any of the pills.

On the other hand, with his current cultivation level, it would take at least half a month for him to completely assimilate the magic power gained from plucking her.

The reason why he summoned the girl this time was just to try prying into her memories.

In actual reality, he wasn’t really uninterested about the Divine Space Island.

No, he did not lie. He really had no interest in obtaining the Divine Space Inheritance.

But he was intrigued by the female cultivators on the island, especially the seven Spirit Severing Realm disciples of Venerated Moon.

“Firstly, I have to try if I am able to search her soul and memory. If that method fails, I will try using Mind Reading Technique to pry into her secrets…Perhaps I might be able to see what the Venerated Seven of the Internal Endless Sea can’t.

Note:

1. Measurements:

a. li(里) = 500 m

b. zhang(丈) = 3.13 m

c. chi(尺) = 30.7 cm

d. cun(寸) = 3.33cm