Grasping the Evil

Chapter 1069: Divine Spirit Wasted Body, Communication with All Things

True Person Bailu was regarded by many as the successor to the Central Continent’s Five Emperors, holding a high prestige throughout the entire Dabei Clan. His death was sure to stir up storms across Dabei.

Unfortunately, Ning Fan cared little about the potential impact of killing Bailu. Bailu had traveled thousands of miles to kill him; in turn, Ning Fan’s counterattack was rightful. Even knowing this would put him in the spotlight again, he wouldn’t hold back.

The storage pouches of other disciples of the Hundred Flowers Sect had been nearly obliterated by Bailu’s frenzied eight hundred palm strikes, resulting in Bailu’s pouch being the sole trophy of this battle.

Naturally, there was also a pair of glistening golden antlers, a valuable item cut from the eternal true body of True Person Bailu.

In terms of hardness, these antlers could go head to head with the Reverse Sea Sword, which entwines six types of traces, in hundreds of clashes without falling behind, making them the perfect material for refining magical treasures.

Nutritionally speaking, the antlers contained the purest deer blood from True Person Bailu, which would benefit one’s body enhancement greatly upon consumption.

Ning Fan drank the deer blood straight from the antlers; his robust physical defense ignored the vast energy contained in the blood, and after forcibly refining it, his Ancient Demon Cultivation advanced further.

Thereafter, Ning Fan casually stored away the dried antlers in his pouch. He had no immediate plan to refine magical treasures, but if he ever decided to, these antlers would certainly come handy.

As for True Person Bailu’s storage pouch...

Regarding magical treasures, aside from a few quality Twelve Nirvana Magical Treasures, there wasn’t anything noteworthy.

Concerning pills, there were about twenty or thirty bottles of Nine Revolutions Elixirs, including Lead Elixirs, Silver Elixirs, and Golden Elixirs, mostly for healing and detoxification. All pills for cultivation enhancement had long been refined by Bailu.

There was also an Emperor Pill, sealed cautiously within a jade box.

Ning Fan opened the jade box, carefully observing the sole Emperor Pill, comparing it mentally to the variety of pills categorized by the Dabei Clan.

Ultimately, Ning Fan identified the name of this pill.

[Golden Primordial Emperor Ascension Pill].

This is a pill that enhances a master’s probability of becoming an emperor, increasing success by half a percent during the Nine-Five Tribulation.

It’s an exceedingly precious pill, likely sought by True Person Bailu to become an emperor in the future. This level of pill is extremely rare within Dabei, and even more so in the four heavens and nine worlds where Emperor Pill Alchemists are scarce.

"Becoming an emperor is still far for me; this pill is temporarily useless, I’ll keep it for now..."

Ning Fan browsed through numerous jade scrolls in Bailu’s storage pouch.

Many of these jade scrolls recorded the unique Nine Revolutions Elixirs of the Dabei Clan, having some aid to the cultivation at the timelss realm.

Moreover, some scrolls surprisingly recorded various secret techniques and divine skills learned throughout Bailu’s life.

The battle soul techniques and soul fusion techniques related to Medicine Souls, as well as some insights into the usage of Medicine Souls by Alchemists, were indeed helpful to Ning Fan.

Except those, Ning Fan cared little for most divine skills and absolute techniques from Bailu.

Not everything was dismissed, however, Ning Fan remained intrigued by Bailu’s last few moves, the Eight Hundred Arhats Sky-Stamping Strike.

The Xumi Palmprint is a supreme skill of the Holy Mountain; a single palm strike holds immeasurable divine power, while an eight hundred consecutive strike could destroy heaven and Earth.

Ning Fan had no intention to learn the Xumi Palmprint; though powerful, it is a Buddhist supernatural power, containing various Buddhist laws contrary to the Ancient Demon path. If released with a demon’s identity, its power would only achieve one or two tenth of its potential.

It would definitely not reach the terrifying destructive power as True Person Bailu did.

He wouldn’t learn them, but perhaps he could borrow a few concepts.

If Ning Fan harnessed the essence of the eight hundred strikes into his Mountain-Shattering Strike of the Ancient Demon, delivering eight hundred strikes to the enemy, it might be a great killer move.

"Speaking of which, my body technique hasn’t inherited any flow from the cultivation world. Growing along my path, perhaps I now qualify to establish a body technique lineage of my own. The Ancient Demon path is centered around eradication; starting from that essence, maybe I could develop my own body technique lineage..."

Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike...

Eight Hundred Ancient Demon Mountain-Shattering Strike...

Demon Palm Technique, Demon’s Fist Technique, Eighteen Demon Weapon Techniques...

Well, there could be many research directions.

Eventually, Ning Fan’s gaze fell upon an emerald ring in the storage pouch.

This was a medium dichiliocosm, where True Person Bailu kept six hundred billion Incense Citizens.

With Bailu dead, these Incense Citizens could be entirely incorporated.

Though incense accumulation is slow, what if Ning Fan’s Incense Citizens numbered thousands or tens of thousands times that of True Person Bailu? Presumably, within mere centuries, he could gather incense equal to that which Bailu used to pierce his God-Slaying Giant’s defense.

The divine power of such an incense sword could even cleave open the God-Slaying Giant, presumably Immortal Emperors rarely could withstand it either.

Naturally, acquiring such a vast number of Incense Citizens isn’t easy.

At Bailu’s level, opening his Incense Realm to propagate Incense Citizens is common, but due to the limited resources of the medium dichiliocosm, population reproduction often varies based on the realm’s size.

Bailu’s incense ring could nurture only six hundred billion citizens.

Yet, if Ning Fan found a way to expand this realm, the citizens therein could multiply even further...

Ning Fan placed the incense ring on his left ring finger, with a surge of divine skills, the ring merged into his flesh, his expression turned slightly befuddled.

The last time he wore a ring was probably the Yuan Yao Jade from Bei Xiao Man...

The unruly, capricious little girl from Bei Xiao Man, over the years, surely she has broken through to Void Refinement by now? Or perhaps even fragmented? Her talent was indeed remarkable.

With a laugh, he shook his head, returned his focus, and after organizing Bai Lu’s spoils, reopened the space of the Sea Valley Forbidden Land, proceeding to the altar at its depths.

The Sea Witch mentioned the Divine Spirit wasted body earlier and said she had words for him later; about this matter, Ning Fan was quite intrigued.

Ning Fan privately referred to his massive physical enhancement as the first transformation of the Yin Yang Transformation, but perhaps, its true name will be revealed through the Sea Witch’s Divine Spirit wasted body...

The Sea Witch maintained her human form, standing beside a Silver Great Cauldron in the altar’s center, awaiting Ning Fan’s arrival. Yet upon his arrival, the Sea Witch was slightly surprised at how fast he returned.

He anticipated that the current Ning Fan had the strength to deal with True Person Bailu, yet he didn’t expect that in less than two hours, he would accomplish the feat of slaying a Pinnacle Immortal King.

"Your strength... far surpasses... that of cultivators at the same level... indeed... you are... a Divine Spirit..."

The Sea Devil displayed his divine skills, causing all prisoners in the eleven blood globes to faint before he sighed, as if the matter was of great significance and he didn’t want others to overhear it.

"What exactly is this Divine Spirit Wasted Body that Senior is talking about?" Ning Fan didn’t waste words and directly asked the question on his mind.

The Sea Devil merely shook his head, and with a large grasp of his hand, he formed the few remaining memories he had after becoming a Corpse into a jade scroll and handed it to Ning Fan.

Ning Fan pondered slightly, and finally allowed his spirit sense to probe into the jade scroll.

The memories that the Sea Devil could inscribe into the jade scroll were very few, very few.

He died in the Immemorial times, and in terms of age, he was an even older existence than the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor. Precisely because of this, he was privy to many secrets that even Ancient Chaos might not know.

Sadly, after dying and transforming into a Corpse, what remained of his memories were some extremely trivial fragments.

As Ning Fan’s spirit sense probed into the jade scroll, scenes of shattered images surged like a tide.

One of the images was of a little girl with horns of a dragon playing by the sea with a small octopus.

The second image was of the girl, grown into a graceful young lady, riding a large octopus to sea to confront some golden armored divine beings.

The third image was of the octopus transformed into a sea general, following the young lady’s orders in a dragon palace, and being dispatched to guard other sea territories.

The fourth image showed the young lady dead, the dragon palace destroyed, and the octopus also deceased.

That young lady, in her grown-up form, bore an uncanny resemblance to Wuxx Na; she was the master of the octopus.

Ning Fan, who now had some understanding of reincarnation, vaguely saw that the octopus was the Sea Devil’s identity in its previous life, and that the dragon horn girl residing in the dragon palace was Wuxx Na’s past life...

"Is this the reason you refer to Wuxx Na as your master? Did you defend me against Bai Lu and others for her sake?" Ning Fan sighed lightly and asked.

The Sea Devil didn’t speak, just nodded.

"You are indeed loyal to your master. I didn’t expect that the little girl Wuxx Na was in her previous life actually had dragon horns. Was her past life a Yin Yang Transformation of the True Dragon Race?"

The Sea Devil shook his head, showing a hint of disdain for the so-called True Dragon Clan.

"What do these memory fragments have to do with what you referred to as the Divine Spirit Wasted Body?"

"Keep watching..." the Sea Devil replied hoarsely.

Ning Fan once again immersed his spirit sense into the jade scroll.

More scattered images imprinted themselves into his mind.

They were all trivial images, and the timeline wasn’t chaotic, making it difficult for Ning Fan to understand what past events these fragmented memories depicted.

He could only discern some information from the context within the images.

"I am the eldest princess of the South Sea Dragon Palace, you are my servant, and it should be..."

"The calamity of the South Sea is here... Father and several prince brothers have perished in battle... I can’t leave... Little Octopus, you must leave alone."

"You cultivators of the sect, why do you betray the Divine Spirits of the Ancient Country!"

"You are... a Primordial Spirit-Eating Bee! Quickly stop, don’t kill my little octopus..."

...

He still couldn’t glean much information, but from these memory fragments, Ning Fan heard many words related to the Great Secret of Heaven and Earth.

South Sea Dragon Palace Princess...

Ancient Kingdom Divine Spirits...

Primordial Spirit-Eating Bee...

Ning Fan reviewed all the fragments, and only then did the Sea Devil finally speak again.

"The Divine Spirit era... has already... ended, the Real Realm... era... has no Divine Spirits..."

"Ancient Gods... ancient demons... ancient devils, and... numerous... yin side... cultivators, they emulate... the Divine Spirits... to cultivate..."

"But they can only... imitate... a part..."

"The outstanding ones... may become... Divine Spirit Wasted Bodies..."

"Above the wasted body... are Acquired Divine Spirits..."

"Above the acquired... are Innate... Divine Spirits..."

"Your... cultivation technique is unique... in this realm... the only... Divine Spirit Wasted Body... but... incomplete..."

"Understand... now?"

Ning Fan felt a headache, finding it extremely difficult to follow the Sea Devil’s words, but he still barely understood the Sea Devil’s meaning.

In other words, before the Three Great Realms, there was a Divine Spirit era. After the Divine Spirit era ended, the Real Realm era began, yet many cultivators still attempted to cultivate on the path of the ancient Divine Spirits.

Ancient Gods, ancient demons, ancient devils, and savage tribes, such yin side cultivations, were all despised by the laws of heaven and earth because they imitated the power of the ancient Divine Spirits.

Due to the uniqueness of his Yin Yang Transformation cultivation technique, and his practice of four bloodlines, with yin and yang separated, he somehow cultivated a Divine Spirit Wasted Body, officially embarking on the ancient Divine Spirit’s cultivation path.

However, according to the Sea Devil, his Divine Spirit Wasted Body is still a complete Divine Spirit Wasted Body, indicating it remains lacking...

And further cultivation on the Divine Spirit Wasted Body could lead to becoming an Acquired Divine Spirit, and then an Innate Divine Spirit...

The so-called divine spirit wasted body, acquired deity, and innate divine spirit stages, in Ning Fan’s view, are entirely just the one evolution, the two evolutions, and the three evolutions of Yin Yang Transformation.

"The Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor created the Yin Yang Transformation and Chaos Ring Formula and claimed to have disturbed an immemorial. Could it be because this cultivation technique, once truly mastered, can allow cultivators to become ancient deities?"

"The Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor seems to have never accomplished this divine spirit wasted body, whereas I... have surprisingly achieved it..."

"On the day the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor gifted me the Blood of Calamity Seed, without it, I definitely wouldn’t have had the chance to cultivate Calamity Blood Cultivation today. My divine spirit wasted body might also be a situation the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor tried to create..."

Ning Fan speculates in his mind.

"I have something... to ask you... for help... it will be... beneficial... to you..."

"This is... Dabei... Saint Nan Yao’s... life-long nine cauldrons... the seventh cauldron... named... Refining God..."

"Others... can only use... this cauldron... for alchemy..."

"Divine spirits... can refine spirits!"

The human shark raises a hand and taps the Refining God Cauldron, and suddenly, the cauldron emits precious light, revealing ancient texts on its surface.

These are texts even the human shark doesn’t recognize.

These are divine spirit scripts that only ancient deities can understand through their bloodline power!

Ning Fan clearly doesn’t recognize those texts, yet... at this moment, he inexplicably understands their meaning, truly mysterious to the extreme!

"Nine Reversal Twenty-One Withering Refining Spirit Cauldron..."

Ning Fan stares at the text and reads it aloud. The name he utters is the true name of this precious cauldron.

And as he called out the cauldron’s true name, a gentle will suddenly emanates from it, expressing closeness to him.

After waiting countless years, the cauldron has finally found an ancient deity capable of calling its true name.

The human shark’s face reveals an excited expression.

The details of the past demise are not very clear to him. He vaguely remembers dying in the southern sea rebellion, pierced by a terrifying existence with a black rod.

The black rod is a divine skill of an ancient deity, only someone who is also an ancient deity might be able to remove it.

This black rod is the main culprit that made him suffer worse than death!

To remove the black rod, he once traded with Baihua Great Emperor, but unfortunately, the other party didn’t have the real ability to remove it.

But now, he finally sees a shred of hope on Ning Fan!

"This cauldron... is a treasure of South Sea Dragon Palace... can refine blood... and cultivate spirit..."

"Try... to activate this cauldron..."

Ning Fan nods, memorizes the formula inscribed on the cauldron, and murmurs it to himself.

Instantly, numerous tadpole-like runes on the silver cauldron start to glow and move, an unexpected change arises!

The eleven prisoners imprisoned in the blood spheres in mid-air, one after another, see their bodies wither as the blood spheres rapidly absorb the essence of their flesh, even the Immortal Emperor’s Divine Spirit from the first blood sphere lasted only a dozen breaths before dying miserably, its spirit essence completely drained by the blood sphere!

Eleven prisoners, all perished!

Anyway, these people were once the bane of the Sea Witch Sect, thus Ning Fan feels no sympathy for them.

He is astonished that the flesh essence of the eleven prisoners is absorbed into the Refining God Cauldron, and these flesh essences rapidly condense into blood-colored pills covered in silvery patterns within the cauldron.

When the pill condensation ends, about three hundred blood pills are refined in the cauldron.

"This pill... named ’Blood of Ten Thousand Spirits’... is harmful and useless if taken by non-divine spirits..."

"And you... can consume it..."

The human shark signals Ning Fan to consume these blood pills.

Ning Fan doesn’t immediately consume the pill but takes one, observing it in his palm, and slightly furrows his brow.

This Refining God Cauldron is a half-destroyed item. He previously saw its main effect wasn’t for attack or defense, nor for alchemy, but for another purpose. Unexpectedly, its true use is to refine human flesh into pill.

Is this what the so-called ancient deities were like, such a cruel race, using humans as food, is this the reason why the era of divine spirits ended with rebellion...

Of course, Ning Fan, who has long been accustomed to swallowing cultivators’ divine spirits, is in no position to condemn the ancient deities’ cruelty, nor pose as a benevolent person.

He differs from those who slaughter livestock for meat while advocating for equality among all beings.

He is inherently a villain!

If it were to refine innocent people’s flesh into pills, perhaps Ning Fan would hesitate, but since it’s pills made from the flesh of a bunch of malefactors, there’s nothing inappropriate, not deviating from his spirit sense.

"Your... divine spirit... wasted body... still lacks... you have not... awakened... divine talent..."

"Different divine spirits... have different talents..."

"Once talent... is awakened... it can... condense divine power... help me to remove... the black rod..."

"Blood of Ten Thousand Spirits... is necessary for divine spirits... cultivation... this cauldron is half-destroyed... low-grade... can refine... low-grade... Blood of Ten Thousand Spirits..."

As the human shark explains, Ning Fan shows an enlightened expression.

It seems that those who truly cultivate the divine spirit wasted body can awaken their respective divine talents? Apparently, he hasn’t awakened yet, these blood pills may help him awaken some abilities...

After ensuring there’s nothing wrong with the pill, Ning Fan finally takes the pill named Blood of Ten Thousand Spirits and swallows it.

A huge warm current instantly spreads within his body, the medicinal power of one blood pill almost rivals that of a Ninth Revolution Golden Pill!

Ning Fan refined the medicinal power within his body. He could vaguely sense that some change was happening within him, but no matter how he tried to investigate, there was nothing to be found.

The toughness of his physical body, divine sense, and Spirit seemed to have been slightly enhanced by the medicinal power. Of course, since his base attributes were already quite high, this enhancement was not particularly noticeable.

With one blood pill completely refined, Ning Fan began refining the next one.

One day passed.

Two days passed.

On the third day, the awakening finally stopped.

At this moment, Ning Fan was surrounded by the golden radiance of an ancient deity, which gradually began to fade. He exhaled a deep breath and slowly stood up.

With his current bodily strength, refining medicinal power did not require taking his time; it proceeded swiftly. In just three days, more than three hundred blood pills were fully refined.

This is not something an ordinary Immortal Venerable or Immortal King could accomplish.

"Your... Divine Spirit Wasted Body... seems... finally... complete... Sense it... see... what... new abilities... you have..." the human shark asked with great interest.

Ning Fan looked within himself, frowning slightly.

He could clearly feel that some divine spirit ability had indeed awakened within him, officially marking him as having a true Divine Spirit Wasted Body.

With a mere thought, he could condense a small amount of golden divine power into his palm.

But... he could not perceive what divine talent had emerged within him.

His divine talent was not attack or defense divine skills...

Not cultivation enhancement...

Not magic seal transformation...

Not Heavenly Eye or Heavenly Ear...

Not this, not that...

He wanted to ask the human shark about the specific divine talents of a divine spirit, but the memory-damaged human shark was at a loss, leaving Ning Fan helplessly clutching his forehead.

Just as Ning Fan was exploring his divine spirit talent, suddenly voices started to emerge from the stone pillars on the altar.

Pillar A: "I am a stone pillar, la la la."

Pillar B: "Standing guard on this altar every day is so boring, oh."

Pillar C: "This old man is so ugly, but this little brother is so handsome, I really want to marry him, and give birth to little stone pillars."

Pillar D, Pillar E, Pillar F...

Altar: "These two people have been standing on me for three days and nights, how annoying, how annoying!"

The ruins formed by Ning Fan and the human shark’s fight: "I am a mountain, a destroyed mountain! I hurt so much, why did your fight involve me, please don’t hit me again, okay!"

The ant on the ground: "Climbing! Climbing! Climbing hard!"

The wind in the air: "Blowing, blowing, I am fearless and unashamed!"

Ning Fan’s clothes: "I am clothes, clothes!"

Ning Fan’s shoes: "I am shoes, I am shoes!"

...

...

......

What is going on!

Could it be his divine talent is... hearing the inner activities of surrounding creatures, living or dead?

Are these voices truly existing, or... is his mind experiencing hallucinations...

Ning Fan relayed the sounds of all things he heard to the human shark.

The human shark’s expression suddenly turned strange.

"You’re... joking... right..."

Clearly not believing in Ning Fan’s ability to listen to the voice of all things.

Ning Fan helplessly shook his head.

He initially thought awakening the divine spirit talent would give him a qualitative leap in power, only to find it was such a bizarre ability.

Or perhaps, the blood pills he consumed were problematic, he ate so many that it scrambled his mind, leading to hallucinations...

But in any case, it seems that he can indeed now condense divine power unique to ancient deities, although the amount he can condense is very limited.

"Foreign Cultivator... help me remove... black rod... and I... owe you... a favor..." the human shark ignored Ning Fan’s listening to all things and pleaded.

...

At the same time, in a music hall called Xiu Fang in Zhongzhou Liuli City, the Ten Bees Supreme performing a leading dance in front of patrons, lightly raised her elegant eyebrows.

"To think it’s the rarest of the Nine Great Divine Arts, Communication with All Things... such potential, reaching such a high degree?"