novelraw Chapter 1053: Xiao Yu!
Chapter 1053: Xiao Yu!
Obviously, his physical body was on the verge of collapse, yet the ancient demon bloodline inside Ning Fan surged more fervently than ever.
The barrier between his current ancient demon cultivation and the tenth nirvana of the heavenly demon was initially intact. However, due to this series of life-and-death crises, the barrier began to show signs of melting like ice and snow.
Despite the severe injuries within his body, Ning Fan’s powerful physical recovery ability tirelessly healed his body, turning his pale complexion gradually back to its natural hue.
Around him, the silent sky suddenly echoed with the sound of wind, accompanied by the anger-filled roars from all directions of over thirty thousand fierce beasts!
His mouth curled into a cold and sinister smile, driven by the dominion of the ancient demon bloodline over his body!
The Heavenly Dog soared, carrying Ning Fan as it roared forward towards the exit of the Six Paths Yellow Springs, where the obstructing beasts became increasingly numerous and nearer, initially only numbering in the hundreds, soon turning into thousands, charging layer upon layer.
Yet, they couldn’t halt Ning Fan’s advancement!
On the Heavenly Dog’s back, Ning Fan occasionally punched and pressed down with demonic fingers, causing blood mist explosions in the sky, killing hundreds if not thousands more Yellow Springs beings.
The slaughter intensified!
At this moment, the slaughter technique’s augmentative effect on killing was forcibly activated!
Whenever a fierce beast died here, bloodlines extracted from their bodies continually flowed into Ning Fan from all directions!
The depleted ancient demon essence was instantly replenished through slaughtering, and alongside the killings, Ning Fan’s ancient demon cultivation also received a short-term boost, continuously rising!
With each beast killed, one gains a tenth of the killed beast’s cultivation increase!
Back when he annihilated the Fourth Revolution Dan Refinement Master, Ning Fan was merely at the eighth nirvana of the heavenly demon level. Yet, relying on the slaughter technique’s augmentative effect, he managed to elevate all the way to the eleventh nirvana realm. Now that his ancient demon cultivation was stronger than before, he could naturally withstand greater augmentations.
Tenth nirvana of the heavenly demon!
Eleventh nirvana of the heavenly demon!
Twelfth nirvana of the heavenly demon!
Ning Fan’s aura continuously soared with the slaughter, eventually climbing all the way to the extreme of the twelfth nirvana of the heavenly demon!
The only regret was the Yellow Springs beings before him were not from the ancient demon tribe, so killing these creatures couldn’t absorb their cultivation traits into his own.
What does the extreme of the twelfth nirvana of the heavenly demon mean? At this moment, Ning Fan could effortlessly kill Yellow Springs beings under the Shattered Thought phase with a single punch or finger. For beings at the Early Shattered Thought stage, at most three strikes would be enough to kill them! Those in the Mid-Phase Shattered Thought realm could have their life taken within ten blows! Late Shattered Thought stage would be vanquished in twenty strikes!
This is without Ning Fan using his trump card divine skills.
If he employs the Nightmare Dragon Claw in attack, with the spirit equipment’s attack augmentation, those at the Shattered Thought Peak could be killed with one strike! Even those at the apex of Shattered Thought could be slain within two claw attacks!
What if he launches a full-powered Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike...
As Ning Fan continued his slaughter of thousands of fierce beasts, an unexpected change occurred ahead, first with the herd of beasts frantically retreating to either side of the sky, followed by a massive Yellow Springs Whale that stormed out from the middle!
Yellow Springs Whale surrounded with dark yellow momentum charged forward, fiercely crushing the long sky with Ning Fan roaring towards it. The force of its charge reached the full might of a newly ascended Immortal Venerable!
Finally, an eternal level Yellow Springs being had arrived!
"Beware! This is a Yellow Springs Whale unique to the Six Paths Yellow Springs. Its collision force is enough to..."
It was Emperor Butcher who warned Ning Fan.
But at this moment, Ning Fan paid no heed to Emperor Butcher’s warning! This formidable Yellow Springs Whale may be powerful, but Ning Fan, fears nothing!
There’s no need to release the Punishment Ring Seal.
Just using my Divine Demon Cultivation Level should suffice!
What of the newly ascended Immortal Venerable cultivation!
Activating the Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike, Ning Fan’s essence was instantly siphoned, all concentrated onto his left hand’s Nightmare Dragon Claw. The world was immediately filled with fierce winds blowing Ning Fan’s hair wildly, and on the Nightmare Dragon Claw, black energy soared into the sky, where within the black air, the shadow of the Black Dragon’s fangs faintly manifested!
The next moment, the Yellow Springs Whale charged, greeted by Ning Fan’s audacious five slashing waves from the Nightmare Dragon! These slashes bent like dragon teeth, each several thousand zhang in size, releasing overwhelming demonic thoughts. Those demonic thoughts condensed from Ning Fan’s lifetime of slaughter, scattered demon might, directly intimidating nearby weaker creatures into immobilization!
The Yellow Springs Whale bore the brunt, subject to the strikes’ attack. Confident in its potent physical defense, it neither dodged nor evaded; instead, it arrogantly collided with five black dragon tooth slashes, relying on its immense momentum and physical power to smash through the first and second dragon teeth attacks, only halting before the third dragon tooth strike—its charge exhausted, unable to smash the third dragon tooth, suddenly feeling fear.
Clearly, it did not expect Ning Fan’s five slashes to be so formidable. With its Immortal Venerable strength, it still couldn’t disentangle this attack with a single blow! Now contemplating avoiding the dragon teeth attack was too late!
The third, fourth, and fifth dragon tooth strikes magnified continually in the Yellow Springs Whale’s fearful eyes! Subsequently, its physical body was pierced through by the remaining three dragon tooth strikes! Torn apart!
Blood rain scattered over the long sky, and then, the Yellow Springs Whale’s colossal corpse shattered into countless pieces, plummeting down to the Yellow Springs Great Sea, sinking, leaving no remains.
A thick wave of astonishment and dread instantly engulfed the heart of every Yellow Springs being present!
An Immortal Venerable level Yellow Springs Whale... was actually slain by Ning Fan in mere contact!
Even Emperor Butcher was slightly shocked at this moment. If Ning Fan had slain an Immortal Venerable Yellow Springs Whale when fully unleashing his cultivation, she wouldn’t be surprised at all. Yet, at this moment, Ning Fan’s cultivation is constrained by the Punishment Ring, unable to deploy Immortal Venerable’s power...
Yet he still instantaneously killed an Immortal Venerable Yellow Springs Whale!
Throughout the journey, she thought she understood all of Ning Fan’s strength, but now she realized her knowledge of Ning Fan was just the tip of the iceberg...
"It seems there’s no need for me to deplete my cultivation; you can handle the current predicament..." Emperor Butcher sighed in admiration.
"Mm, rest assured."
Having succeeded in a single strike, Ning Fan remained calm, evidently having foreseen such an outcome. The extreme of the twelfth nirvana of the heavenly demon realm was just a step away from the actual ancestral regression realm of the ancient demon. Given the ancient demon’s physical strength, far surpassing others of the same level, Ning Fan’s physical power at present was slightly superior to that of the Yellow Springs Whale.
Already at advantage, coupled with Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike’s critical damage, instantaneous annihilation of the Yellow Springs Whale was hardly surprising.
The only issue was the gigantic consumption of essence by the Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike; currently, Ning Fan’s essence reserves had hit bottom. Thankfully, here was a battlefield teeming with enemies. As long as there was slaughter, essence could be replenished. After slaughtering hundreds more Yellow Springs beings, Ning Fan’s essence had returned to full abundance.
Should more eternal level beings attack, he could still deploy Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike!
Of course, it’s better not to get entangled with these Yellow Springs beings. Ning Fan secretly calculated; with his current cultivation elevated by the slaughter technique, even using Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike could at most inflict damage on Immortal Venerable level Yellow Springs beings. To deal fatal damage to Immortal King level Yellow Springs beings would be quite challenging.
The problem is, among the fierce beasts pursuing from the direction of the six ancient mountains, there lurked Immortal King aura...
"If I escape from the Six Paths Yellow Springs, I wonder if these Yellow Springs beings will continue pursuing from Yellow Springs or the hunt will end within its borders..."
"Now it’s already the twenty-eighth day of the Illusionary Test, and according to the test rules, the passage leaving Fire Soul Tower opens three days before the test ends. If the participants don’t wish to remain longer, they can leave early..."
"If I leave the Six Paths Yellow Springs and these Yellow Springs beings still pursue me, at worst, I’ll escape from Fire Soul Tower directly; no need to linger here! Although not matched for the Immortal King beings, no Yellow Springs being can stop me from leaving!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Beasts blocking the path were continually smashed and died in screams, finally Ning Fan arrived at the entrance of Six Paths Yellow Springs.
The Heavenly Dog carrying Ning Fan and the other person, under Ning Fan’s command, charged towards the oily yellow cloud mist in the sky. There lay the spatial entrance to Six Paths Yellow Springs; there exists the formidable obstruction of high-grade Tai Xuan Illusion Technique!
Ning Fan concentrated his spirit intensely and focused greatly.
Upon entering the Six Paths Yellow Springs facing the entrance illusion, he was defenselessly ensnared into the illusion. Had Emperor Butcher not sacrificed to rescue him, he would have perished within the illusion’s saintly duel.
He acknowledged the entrance illusion of Yellow Springs was powerful!
But for the same pitfall, he absolutely won’t allow himself to falter twice! At least when exiting Yellow Springs, he wouldn’t permit himself to fall into an illusion crisis again!
Must Emperor Butcher sacrifice once more to save him!
Absolutely not!
In his eyes, the Tianren Second Realm’s azure light fully ignited, and Ning Fan’s entire eyes turned azure!
At the center of his brows, the dark yin-yang power was fully unleashed, plunging the world into darkness for a moment, and in that instance, the amplification of the dark yin-yang illusion also took effect!
In his left eye, the Fuli Illusion-Breaking Talent was activated, causing the demon blood within Ning Fan to burn!
See through, see through, see through!
He wanted to see through the illusion here!
He wanted to rely on his own power, to leave this illusion attack unscathed!
Just as the Heavenly Dog crashed into the yellow clouds, a massive force of illusion swept towards Ning Fan’s divine sense, attempting to drag him back into the illusion once more.
Emperor Butcher furrowed his brows and planned to intervene once more to save Ning Fan. But this time, after the first wave of illusion attack, Ning Fan did not fall into the illusion but remained conscious, lightly reaching out to hold down Emperor Butcher’s hand, who was preparing to cast spells.
"Don’t worry."
Such simple two words yet brought an unprecedented shock to Emperor Butcher.
Unexpectedly, Ning Fan maintained his mental clarity under the attack of the High-Grade Tai Xuan Illusion Technique!
One must know that this kind of illusion could not be resisted even by an Immortal Emperor...
Emperor Butcher turned back in surprise and saw Ning Fan’s eyes covered with azure, clear as the Tao!
Clearly, her cultivation realm was higher than Ning Fan, but facing Ning Fan’s gaze, she felt an uncontrollable sense of inferiority.
As if, at this moment, she was merely an ant on the ground, while Ning Fan was the supreme boundless Dao!
"Tianren... Second Realm! He was not just a typical Tianren cultivator, but one of the few in the Era of Decline... a Second Realm cultivator!"
While Emperor Butcher’s inner mind was in turmoil, Ning Fan warded off the illusion impact from the entrance of the Netherworld time and again.
Tianren Second Realm cultivator can discern all illusions of the Second Step of cultivation!
Of course, High-Grade Tai Xuan Illusion Technique actually already belongs to the Divine Skill of the Third Step, merely relying on this point is not enough to contend against High-Grade Tai Xuan Illusion Technique. However, what Ning Fan possessed was not only the eyes of Tianren Second Realm but also had the illusion amplification of dark yin-yang and the Illusion-Breaking Talent from the Fuli race.
His illusion art talents were extraordinary!
He had received many pointers from Emperor Butcher along the way!
Moreover, he had the past experience of falling into the illusion here!
Never fall into the same pit twice! Never!
Ning Fan steadfastly held onto a thread of consciousness, gritting his teeth and persevering, despite the waves of illusion attacks coming forth, he was adamant not to succumb!
Finally, the illusion attacks were quelled.
Finally, the light of the sixth layer shone into Ning Fan’s eyes.
He succeeded! He deflected the frontal impact of the High-Grade Tai Xuan Illusion Technique by his own strength!
Ning Fan felt unprecedented mental fatigue, evidently due to the immense consumption of his mind in contending against the High-Grade Tai Xuan Illusion Technique, yet more grand than the fatigue was the elation within.
Just by competing against the High-Grade Tai Xuan Illusion Technique, his illusion proficiency had notably improved! Many illusion knowledge that he couldn’t comprehend before actually came to a realization during this collision!
Yet moments later, Ning Fan’s gaze turned cold. After he exited the Six Paths of Yellow Springs, the creatures inside actually... pursued him out!
"It seems their pursuit is not constrained to inside the Yellow Springs but wishes to hunt me to the ends of the earth! Alas, it appears not all pursuers can pursue out."
Ning Fan sneered, commanding the Heavenly Dog he rode to swiftly fly towards the position of the sixth layer’s entrance.
The entrance to the Yellow Springs was too small, too narrow, so many large creatures could not leave the Yellow Springs. Such creatures as the Yellow Springs Whale, of which there are over ten types, such giant beings could not pursue out of the Yellow Springs and could only resentfully halt internally, bellowing at Ning Fan through the Yellow Springs entrance.
Those able to pursue out were mostly smaller creatures, such as the Heavenly Dog, Yellow Springs Lion... but due to the width of the passage, over thirty thousand Yellow Springs creatures had to fly out in batches, in sequential order.
By the time all size-suitable Yellow Springs creatures had pursued out, Ning Fan had already fled to the fourth layer of the Fire Soul Tower.
With a flick of Ning Fan’s spirit sense, a light rain suddenly swept through the entire fourth layer of the Fire Soul Tower.
Behind him, only a sparse few Yellow Springs creatures were continuing their chase, their main contingent still seemed to be lingering in the sixth and fifth layers, not catching up.
And after Ning Fan once again slaughtered a Newly Ascended Immortal Venerable level avian creature, the pursuing Yellow Springs creatures temporarily did not see other Eternal beings appear.
Ning Fan swung a fist with one hand, exterminating the Yellow Springs creatures that came chasing, while the other hand took out the Illusion Test Map, slightly furrowing his brow as he flipped through it.
Peculiar, very peculiar...
Upon escaping to the fourth layer, for unknown reasons, his heart suddenly had an influx of intuition. As if some great life-and-death crisis was ceaselessly approaching.
Great Masters often have a sense of impending unknown crises, Ning Fan had no doubt about the authenticity of this foreboding.
The question was... where does this sense of crisis stem from?
Is it from the Well of Worries he offended? No, it doesn’t resemble that; the source of this crisis feeling appears to be in the lower direction, not the Well of Worries, nor those Yellow Springs creatures...
Could it be the Meng Clan...
Ning Fan’s gaze suddenly sharpened, then he smirked cold.
Indeed, the source of this crisis feeling is most likely the Stone Flame Meng Clan. Information from Emperor Butcher stated that due to the death of Demon Seed Meng Zhen, the Meng Clan had developed a heart of certain killing intent toward him, intending to strike during the illusion test.
Now only two days remain until the illusion test ends, has the Meng Clan finally decided to strike!
Are the elders of the Meng family waiting at even lower layers for him to walk into their trap!
To bring such a significant sense of crisis, even to the point of inducing intuition, it indicates that the Meng family envoy is terrifyingly strong...
At least an Immortal Emperor!
"Ning Fan, be careful! From the direction of the third layer, I sense a powerful aura concealed; the opponent should undoubtedly be an Immortal Emperor! And judging from the aura, this person cultivates the techniques of the Stone Flame Clan!"
"Could it be a strong figure from the Meng family?"
"Almost certainly!"
"Haha, I didn’t expect the Stone Flame Meng family to actually dispatch an Immortal Emperor to kill me; what a grand gesture. It seems this time, without the resolve to destroy the Punishing Ring, there’s no way to leave safely!"
Ning Fan was clearly laughing, yet that smile carried an ancient ice-cold intent, evidently due to the Meng family’s pursuit, he harbored anger.
Facing the third step Well of Worries, he dared to sever its finger, and facing the Meng family Immortal Emperor, he likewise would not retreat!
"In three more hours I can restore my cultivation. The opponent should just be a Sixth Calamity Immortal Emperor. With my full cultivation, defeating him isn’t difficult! We should not hurry into the third layer, but first spend some time in the fourth layer. When my cultivation is restored, your enemy, I will help you kill! After all, you helped me once, I will certainly help with this task!" Emperor Butcher said boldly.
However, just as Emperor Butcher finished speaking, the surrounding world suddenly had a confinement, the originally advancing Heavenly Dog suddenly seemed to collide with an invisible wall, crying out miserably, its head broke and bled as it fell from the sky.
Ning Fan’s gaze immediately darkened, hugging Emperor Butcher tightly, as they leaped from mid-air and landed steadily.
In mid-air, suddenly a flash of blood light, from which emerged an elderly figure bathed in blood shadow, standing amid the forbidden force among the sky, looking impassively at Ning Fan and Emperor Butcher below.
A matchless Immortal Emperor’s aura swept over the entire fourth layer in just an instant, exuding a world-destroying killing intent!
"You will not have three hours to restore your cultivation! Everything happening now is within my Meng Baixiong’s calculations! That blind woman over there, you may leave, I won’t kill you, nor do I wish to become antagonistic with you! But this foreign cultivator, I must kill! No one can save him! Not even you, it’s impossible!"