"You wanted to lure me into the ninth level and sneak-attacked me with your roots. How shameless… In that case, I don't need your Ming Luo Fruit anymore, it's done… For the sake of Bright Sparrow, I won't kill your clone, but if you continue to block my way, I have a way to kill your clone and cause your true body to suffer a heavy injury!"
Ning Fan's eyes turned cold. He kept the Pill Cauldron and extinguished the earth fire. If it wasn't because this place was under the old man's control, with countless Spirit Severing demonic beasts watching him, he would never be so courteous to this old man and would've killed this clone by now.
"Humph! Wanting to leave?! It's true that this old man can't do anything to you, but all the demons on this level listens to my command. Perhaps, this old man may not be able to kill you, but if I won't let you leave, do you think you can leave?!"
The old man's eyes were cold. His spirit sense permeated the surroundings, seemingly passing some kind of orders. Immediately, each of the Spirit Severing demonic beasts revealed a ferocious look, stepping towards Ning Fan's direction. This was a threat! And this threat was obviously harder to deal with than the old man's clone!
Under this stalemate situation, the little girl stamped her foot urgently. For some reason, she didn't want to see the Cookie Brother whom she had just met having a fight with Grandpa.
"Enough! Grandpa, if you harm Cookie Brother, I-I won't take the 'Pill' anymore!"
A trace of black light flickered intensely in her eyes. Agony was emerging on her face. Then, a pair of black wings sprouted out from her spine and clothes!
There was pain, heart-wrenching pain. At the moment when the girl sprouted out wings, she passed out with a painful wail.
The abrupt change in the girl left the old man dumbstruck.
"Not good. She has exerted the demonic force. The symptoms of the Void Poison is beginning to manifest. She has to be fed with medicine now!"
Void Poison was an extremely fierce poison during ancient times, originating from the immemorial Dark Sparrow's black feather tail wing. It was a lethal poison that had combined with Dark Sparrow's spatial force. The Void Poison of a full-grown Dark Sparrow could easily poison a true Immortal to death.
Long ago, the old man has discovered the Void Poison in Bright Sparrow's body. He had done everything he could to suppress the poison, but the fierceness of the poison was far more powerful than he had expected. He was unable to clear it off her body even with his Void Fragmentation cultivation base!
The old man had used various kinds of ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herbs to create some sort of medicinal liquid to bring the Void Poison under control. As long as Bright Sparrow didn't exert her demonic force, the poison would be under control. Only by taking these pills every once in a while could the poison be suppressed.
Due to his lack of knowledge in alchemy, the medicine he made couldn't cure the poison inside of her, and gradually, the poison seemed to have created its own immunity against the medicine, making it harder to suppress. Once the poison broke out in her body, she might die…that was why the old man had the idea of capturing Ning Fan after learning that he had broken through to the Fifth Revolution Concoction Technique.
It was just that he hadn't expected that Little Bright Sparrow would exert the forbidden demonic force just to protect Ning Fan, causing the Void Poison inside her body to manifest ahead of time!
The old man's heart was burning with anxiety. At this moment, he had lost all interest in detaining Ning Fan… This time, he had no idea if Bright Sparrow could survive this outbreak.
His eyes were blazing with fury, as if he was going to eat Ning Fan alive!
"If Bright Sparrow dies, this old man will rush out of the Dark Sparrow's Grave and shred you to a million pieces even if that means that I have to burn my own soul and fall into an irrecoverable state. You son of a b*tch! Get out! Get out of the Grave!"
The old man picked up the unconscious girl and prepared to fly back to the ninth level.
However, Ning Fan didn't seem to be going anywhere. He knitted his eyebrows and called out to the old man. He had very little affection for this old man, but he couldn't help but care for the little girl.
"Wait!"
"What do you still want?!" The old man turned his head angrily, but after seeing a trace of concern in Ning Fan's eyes, his fury reduced slightly.
"She isn't being poisoned by the Void Poison… If I'm not mistaken, the force she exerted earlier should belong to the Immemorial Dark Sparrow of Royal Clan - the Dark Demon Force. I don't know what kind of medicine did you feed her, but I know that the most it can do is to suppress the effect of the poison. Suppressing it isn't helping her, but harming her instead!" Ning Fan's eyes were solemn.
"Dark Demon Force! Dark Sparrow of Royal Clan! Not possible! She's just a tiny Pill Devil. I have seen her grew up with my own eyes!" The old man felt a tingle in his heart. As one of the demons here, there was no way that he wouldn't know who the Immemorial Dark Sparrow was and the horror of the Dark Sparrow.
He had witnessed the formation of the Pill Devil and how it grew into a nice and obedient little girl. How could she be an Immemorial Dark Sparrow? How could she be a leading figure? This was nonsense!
But after listening to what Ning Fan said, the old man also felt that the mysterious force in the girl's body was similar to the force of the legendary Dark Sparrow of Royal Clan - the Dark Demon Force.
The Immemorial Dark Sparrow or the Dark Sparrow of Royal Clan was the head of demon race and a rare existence. Only the Royal Dark Sparrow could produce Dark Demon Force. The other demons could easily be deterred by using this force alone.
When Bright Sparrow was born, she had an inexplicable restraint against demons. Perhaps, this was the thing that made him feel good about her. If this force was the Dark Demon Force, everything seemed to make sense now.
Struggle appeared in the old man's eyes. After a moment of deep contemplation, he partially believed Ning Fan's seemingly absurd inference.
How could a Pill Devil become the Royal Dark Sparrow, the old man was confused, but that seemed to be the truth.
If that demonic force was the Dark Demon Force, the poison was supposed to be a great benefit to Bright Sparrow that she could refine bit by bit. A few decades later, even if she wasn't a Void Refinement expert yet, she could at least reach Spirit Severing. However, the poison had been suppressed by his medicine all the while, which had inadvertently nourished the poison, allowing the poison to grow stronger and stronger.
If Bright Sparrow had refined the poison completely, perhaps she would have already broken through to the Void Refinement realm…but, such horrifying poison wasn't something a Golden Core little girl could simply devour!
If Bright Sparrow died, it must be because the poison inside of her went out of control, and this was because he had been suppressing it the whole time!
"How certain are you that her body contained Dark Demon Force…?" The old man closed his eyes bitterly.
"Seventy percent…" Ning Fan said plainly.
"Hehe, after listening to what you said, this old man is 80% certain. No wonder the Void Poison was able to nourish itself by absorbing the medicine I made. This old man understands now…Can Bright Sparrow be saved…?"
"If the Void Poison is unleashed, she will certainty die and all nine levels of Dark Sparrow's Grave will be turned into a barren land."
"Hehe, little friend, you have underestimated the power of the Void Poison. If the Void Poison is unleashed, not only all the creatures in the nine levels of Dark Sparrow's Grave will die, 100 000 miles area of the land, and 300 000 meters above here will perish as well! Little friend, I'm not going to waste time conversing with you anymore. Do you have means to save her?!"
"Yes, 30% of success…"
"30%..." Ning Fan slightly closed his eyes.
Life and death were decreed by fate. He only had 30% certainty in saving the little girl. The girl's physique was too strange and the level of the Void Poison was still unknown, and there's also a lot of other variables. As such, having a 30% chance of success in such a situation was already considered rare.
"Is that so…? 30% chance of success…well, this old man doesn't even have 10%. If you are willing to save Bright Sparrow, what conditions do you have? Say it out!" The old man's eyes turned grim and he spoke sternly!
"I have three conditions. First, you have to hand over a trace of your true soul. In that way, if you ever do anything to harm me, I can severely injure you at any time!"
"About this…agreed!" The old man hesitated for a moment. He hesitated not because he was reluctant to hand over his true soul, but Ning Fan's first condition wasn't to ask for benefits, but for self-protection.
"Second, I want to use your ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, with those herbs, the success rate of saving her will increase to 70%!"
"70%! Of course, you can use them!" At first, he felt disdainful when Ning Fan asked for the ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, but after knowing that this would increase the success rate of saving the little girl's life to 70%, he immediately agreed to it and was overjoyed.
"Third, I haven't thought about it yet…if I can save this little girl, I will exercise this condition to ask for reward. If I failed in this attempt, the Void Poison will be released, however I don't think the poison will destroy the country above, but I believe that I will die in this place."
Ning Fan looked at the old man solemnly. The fact that the poison would make 100 000 miles of land above to perish was a lie. The purpose of saying this was to eliminate the thought of fleeing away in Ning Fan's mind, so that he could focus on detoxifying the poison in Bright Sparrow.
Without this threat, the old man couldn't ensure that Ning Fan would stay in the grave, but he didn't know that although Ning Fan had numerous shortcomings, Ning Fan was a man who remembers kindness.
However, the kindness shown by the little girl wasn't worth mentioning, but if she hadn't helped Ning Fan out of the crisis earlier by exerting her Dark Demon Force, she would have never stirred the Void Poison inside of her, causing her to fall into a dangerous state.
Perhaps, it was fate that Ning Fan met her today. If this incident didn't happen, Ning Fan might have left this place and wouldn't know that this girl had such a deadly poison, and one day, this girl would die of the outbreak of the poison.
There was a 70% chance of success in saving Bright Sparrow. If Ning Fan succeeded, he would be safe and sound, if he failed, the Void Poison would erupt, causing death to all beings, including him. The 30% chance of death was enough to draw fear out of any ordinary cultivator, but to Ning Fan, 70% of success rate was still worth trying.
But if he didn't save Bright Sparrow, he would need to question himself what kind of Dao was he cultivating! If he didn't save Bright Sparrow, it would make his insistence on kindness ridiculous!
He would save Bright Sparrow not because of the old man's threat, or to gain rewards, but because of the determination of his Dao Heart!
He gently took out a Voice Transmission Stone, casted a spell and sent his message to Xue Qing.
"Xue Qing, bring Zhi He, Xiao Lan and Sisi out of the Dark Sparrow's Grave quick!"
He didn't explain much about it. He decided to take the risk on his own. He would never involve Zhi He and the other girls in this!
This is...my Dao!
A trace of Dao Heart's metamorphosis was visible in his eyes. It was happening slowly and astonishingly! Similarly, the Divine Intent of Rain also underwent a gradual metamorphosis under the metamorphosis of his Dao Heart!
Note:
This translation originated from Liberspark.
If a mistake or mistakes were found in this chapter, feel free to comment below.
Certain name of skills will not be capitalized but italicized.
Some terms are subject to change when better suggestions are selected.