Inside the ten thousand zhang Tian Chi Waterfall[1], a white-haired man in dark robes was standing with his hands behind his back. He was Revered Snow. A slight nervousness could be seen on his face.
Ning Fan sat cross-legged in front of him and drew the earth fire from the ground to refine pills. The other Nascent Soul Realm cultivators left and carried on with their duties such as guarding the city and eliminating the demons as their help wasn’t needed to cure Revered Snow. The final battle would commence once Revered Snow recovered… Currently, the threat that Ju Shan Guan faced could be considered to have lessened by a bit.
When Ning Fan took out the Dan Fragmentation Cauldron, Revered Snow’s eyes narrowed!
When Ning Fan’s finger drew four circles of flames in front of the cauldron, his eyes squinted once more!
Although that cauldron was an Early High Grade Realm magical treasure, it was forged using the Divine Scrap Metal of the Devil World. Besides, it was fortified with the Nascent Soul Realm Divine Ability, ‘Body Seal’. Actually, this magical treasure was customized to the Old Devil’s needs by using the rare treasures of the world after he suffered the injuries. With his Late Harmonious Spirit Realm magic power, he could only put Early High Grade Realm magical treasures to good use.
Moreover, the cauldron was unimaginably tough as it was made using Divine Scrap Metal. By just looking at the materials used to create this cauldron, it was comparable to “The Top Ten Cauldrons of Rain World”.
“Sure enough, he is the disciple of Deacon Han who had already gone to the Sword World. As such, he left this magical treasure to his disciple…”
As Ning Fan was drawing the flames in circular motion, Revered Snow was worried at first. After he saw the four circles of flames, joy filled his expression!
He might not know what exactly Nine Revolution of the Rivers was, but he knew it was an Ancient Pill Refining Technique!
Furthermore, the four circles of flames that Ning Fan drew had the strength to control the medicinal power of a thousand-year-old spiritual herb!
“Four circles… Do the circles symbolize that he is a Four Revolution Pill Master?!”
Revered Snow inwardly decided to believe Ning Fan. He then stood in silence, not daring to create any disturbance to him.
In Rain World, there were only a few hundred Four Revolution Pill Masters. Comparing a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator with a Four Revolution Pill Master, Revered Snow would regard the latter as a more significant individual!
A Four Revolution Pill Master below the age of 20 years old! He’s worthy enough for me to befriend as he possess such incredible potential!
Ning Fan who was refining pills wasn’t aware that Revered Snow no longer saw him as an enemy. It was the opposite, Revered Snow began to respect, trust and think of befriending him.
While refining pills, he explained to Revered Snow about his condition. Ning Fan was afraid that Revered Snow would lose his patience.
“Senior, you don’t have to worry about it. The poison is called “Absolute Yin Poison”. I once helped cure another person afflicted by it. The remedy is a Low Grade Four Revolution Pill, Seven Yin Yang Profound Pill. It should be enough to heal you.”
Revered Snow didn’t expect that Ning Fan could still talk while in the process of refining pills. Now, he looked even more highly on Ning Fan’s Pill Refining Technique.
Only Intermediate Four Revolution Pill Master can refine Low Grade Four Revolution Pills with ease, thus allowing that person to refine pills and talk at the same time. Is this young kid an Intermediate Four Revolution Pill Master?
Upon hearing the name of the poison, Revered Snow lost his composure.
“It was this poison!”
“Hmm? Senior has heard about this poison before?”
Ning Fan’s eyebrows rose. The name of the poison only existed in ancient records. Even the Old Devil didn’t know about it. It’s truly beyond his expectations that Revered Snow who was a mere Spirit Severing Realm cultivator had heard about it before.
“Hai. It now makes sense why I got afflicted with this poison… I went to the Dragon Vision Pond to save the ignorant Yun Lie from the demons. However, I was ambushed by the demon general. It was also at Early Spirit Severing Realm, just like me. After engaging in battle, we ended in a tie. He then transformed into a thousand zhang long carp and spurted a mouthful of bloody mist. Amidst the mist, there was a strand of black blood. The black blood penetrated through my spiritual armour easily and entered into my body. It was how I got poisoned. If I hadn’t retreat to the city, my cultivation realm would’ve surely been affected. Little friend Zhou, you might not know this but this poison is the special poison developed in the Land of Demons. In fact, it is refined by the Void Refinement Realm Demon Marshal using cold yin. It is beyond my understanding how this demon general could get its hands on the poison.”
Revered Snow’s words were filled with regret. But aside from that, there was a trace of joy in his voice. He felt fortunate that he didn’t own Immemorial Divine Veins. Otherwise, the poison would have spread to his entire body, leaving him with no energy to even suppress it.
From what he could infer from the conversation, something sparked Ning Fan to contemplate. Although his mind was thinking about it, he was still keeping the flame for refining pills under control.
Absolute Yin Poison. So it is formerly developed by the demons. The Ancient Chaos Emperor doesn’t mention much about the demons’ poison. Perhaps it’s because the memory is fragmented. As for the Land of Demons, the Ancient Chaos Emperor seemed to know nothing about it. I presume that it should be something created after his generation.
Absolution Yin Poison. A demon’s poison… The Old Devil not only has White Demon Set and Emperor Moksha as enemies but also demons?
“May I know where the Land of Demons is?!” Ning Fan’s eyes glittered with ferocity.
“Ah. Since Little Friend Zhou wants to know, I can tell you all about it. It isn’t a secret after all. The Land of Demons is the ruins of the Ancient Demon World. It is a place like the Ancient Heavenly Court and exists in the Broken World. One has to use special methods at a specific time in order to visit that world as the Void Passages Between Realms that connects to them is broken. In the Ancient Heavenly Court, there’s a well-known pond called Immortal Ascension Pond. Every time the Ancient Heavenly Court appears, the cultivators from the Nine Worlds would be thrilled. If any of them is fortunate enough to discover the pond in Ancient Heavenly Court, he or she could become an Immortal straightaway. However, it is a completely different scenario for the Ancient Demon World. Most of the cultivators from the Nine Worlds would choose not to enter the world in all cases. In that world, death awaits those who enter. It was because innumerable ancient demons are in deep slumber in that world and they are impressively strong. Occasionally, some powerful demons would awaken from slumber and crush the world’s boundary to enter the nine worlds. Then, a calamity would befall our world. Of course, the demons would be really happy to search for the entrance of the Land of Demons. But the only demons who know when and where to enter that place are the ‘Ten Emperors of the Demon World’.”
When speaking about the Ten Emperors of the Demon World, Revered Snow’s brows were knitted together.
At the start of the demon tide, the Ten Emperors gave an order to Rain Palace that no experts at Void Realm (Void Refinement or Void Fragmentation) should be deployed to capture the demon general. Even if the demon tide is cleared, the demon general must not be executed and it must be handed over to the Demon World.
(Please look properly. It’s an order…) Rain World is still a lot weaker than the Demon World after all. If it wasn’t for the agreement of the nine worlds, the Demon World could easily wipe out the entire Rain World.
The most favourable outcome for the mission of exterminating the demon tide would be capturing the demon general while eliminating the other demons as much as possible. After all, the demon general was protected by the Ten Emperors. It was blatant injustice. Revered Snow didn’t like it but he had no choice. He didn’t tell Ning Fan about it because it was a secret of Rain Palace. He wanted to avoid damaging the reputation of Rain Palace.
Revered Snow turned silent while Ning Fan muttered to himself. Only the noise of the roiling flame in the cauldron could be heard in the atmosphere.
After a short while, the flame appeared more clearly in Ning Fan’s eyes. Six days passed and a strange phenomenon occurred. The pills were completed!
Low Grade Four Revolution Pills were refined in just six days! Of course, it was considered nothing to Ning Fan who was already a Five Revolution Pill Master.
However, it shocked Revered Snow greatly inside. That speed of refining pills… Don’t tell me that his Pill Refining Technique is at Peak Four Revolution. It was also possible that he is already a Five Revolution Pill Master!
“It’s not possible! Becoming a Four Revolution Pill Master at the age of twenty could already be considered a mark of being a genius. If he truly is a Five Revolution Pill Master… that would be incredibly amazing as there were only twenty-seven Five Revolution Pill Masters in the Rain World. Moreover, in history, only one person has successfully broken through the Fifth Revolution of Pill Refining Technique within a thousand years. Now, that person is already a Six Revolution Pill Master and the only one in Rain Palace. Even the Sovereign of Rain World would need to treat him with utmost courtesy. If this young little kid is a Five Revolution Pill Master… no… Even if he is just a Peak Four Revolution Pill Master, he would have the chance of becoming the first Seven Revolution Pill Master in his life!”
At this moment, the intention of befriending Ning Fan became more important in his heart! (There’s no way Revered Snow would be the enemy of Ning Fan)
Even if he fails to become a Seven Revolution Pill Master, the least he could be is a Six Revolution Pill Master given his potential. That’s more than enough for me to be on friendly terms with him.
Without even needing Ning Fan ask him, Revered Snow flew out the waterfall and blocked the Tribulation of the Four Revolution.
When the Four Revolution Pills were refined, all the cultivators in the city noticed the strange phenomenon.
“Strange phenomenon of the heavens and earth would only occur because of the completion of Four Revolution Pills! That Zhou Ming is truly a Four Revolution Pill Master!”
Yun Ruowei who was lazily caressing the incense oven in her boudoir while stirring the incense ashes with her hand sensed the occurrence of the phenomenon. Her face was filled with bewilderment.
“Four Revolution… Four Revolution… He is a Four Revolution Pill Master…”
Her Heart’s Devil germinated even more in her heart. She sighed and closed her eyes with resentment. This Heart’s Devil can never be erased… Never be erased…
In a gigantic residence in the middle of the city, Yun Kuang was resting to recover from the injuries caused by Ning Fan. Whenever he thought of when Ning Fan seized his sword, he would gnash his teeth in anger.
Although he immediately left after the battle on that day, he still knew that Ning Fan was going to cure Revered Snow. It was because someone had informed him.
“Four Revolution Pill Master… How can he be a Four Revolution Pill Master?!” He let out a cold smile, inwardly mocking Ning Fan. But at the emergence of the strange phenomenon, his actions made him look stupid.
“He truly is a Four Revolution Pill Master!? How can that be?!”
Chapter 176(2) Sword Finger, Mountain Crush!Originally, he thought Ning Fan would fail to cure Revered Snow and provoke him to snatch the Cold Pine Essence. He then could retrieve the Shadow Carrier Sword and let Ning Fan taste humiliation. Perhaps, he might even be able to take Ning Fan’s life!
However, those thoughts could only exist in his mind. The Four Revolution Pills were successfully refined signifying that Ning Fan could really cure Revered Snow.
Once Revered Snow is cured, Ning Fan would leave a favorable impression to Revered Snow and receive protection from him. Until then, Yun Kuang would not dare to make Ning Fan his enemy in public even if Yun Kuang was under the protection of one of the elders.
Why wouldn’t he dare? It was because he was afraid of offending Revered Snow!
“This hatred…I have no other options but to endure it.”
He gritted his teeth while reluctance overtook his face. Suddenly, a mouthful of blood was spat out of his mouth.
The completion of Four Revolution Pills within six days attracted a lot of attention. Many of the cultivators guessed the level of his Pill Refining Technique.
However, what’s the point of making guesses? They only served to make Ning Fan even more mysterious. Ning Fan could just casually clear everyone’s doubts by claiming that the pills were special and refining them didn’t consume much time.
Deep inside the waterfall, Revered Snow consumed the Seven Yin Yang Profound Pill. The poison within his body began to dissipate and his aura started to recover.
Ning Fan stayed at the vicinity as well because he discovered that it contained powerful spiritual qi and an idea flashed in his mind.
Little Dugu once gave him an ancient scroll which contained a secret sword technique, Sword Finger. This technique allowed the practitioner to refine the body as a sword. It was an indeed a powerful Body Refining Technique. But the conditions of cultivating this technique were extremely harsh. Ning Fan would need to absorb five elements of spiritual veins using his finger. Moreover, there’s a certain requirement for the quality of the spiritual veins. For the first finger, he would need to at least absorb the spiritual veins that could only be found in Nascent Soul Realm sects.
Those veins didn’t exist in low-grade cultivation countries. Fortunately, they would certainly exist in a mid-grade cultivation country like Great Jin!
Besides, Ju Shan Guan was the place with the best quality of spiritual veins in Great Jin. Even the division of Rain Palace was built at this city.
These spiritual veins would be very suitable for cultivating the sword finger…
However, there was a drawback of that cultivation method. If Ning Fan really cultivates the technique in this city, the spiritual veins within the vicinity of a thousand li surrounding Ju Guan Shan would be destroyed. The cultivators from Great Jin would undoubtedly be infuriated by his action.
If Revered Snow has my back, then the cultivation would go smoothly. But the question is, would he lend me a hand?
Or let’s just draw the troubles to Revered Snow. I’ll just make everyone think that Revered Snow destroyed the spiritual veins of Ju Shan Guan by mistake while he was healing his injuries.
With that decision in mind, Ning Fan kept his composure and offered to refine a few types of qi recovery pills for Revered Snow. Revered Snow delightedly accepted his offer.
This time, Ning Fan intentionally delayed the steps in refining pills. His left hand was used to refine pills while one of his finger from his right hand touched gently on the ground, rotating the secret incantation of the technique in his mind.
Traces of spiritual veins gradually flowed into the tip of his index finger. A excruciating pain could be felt on his finger. However, to him, this degree of pain was not comparable to the pain of consuming the third Jade Royal Pill back when he was at the Demon Sinister Forest. There was no way he wouldn’t be able to endure this pain!
The spiritual qi of the veins started to enter his finger. He then slowly adapted his body to the spiritual qi that had just entered.
As time passed, his finger seemed to have transformed into a sword with the body of the sword forged by the power of mountains and rivers. Strands of spiritual qi from the veins turned his finger transparent, and eventually turning it into sword light.
Suddenly, an image of a beautiful girl appeared in Ning Fan’s mind. She flew towards a group of devils in front her and with just a flick of her finger, a sword light flashed across them, killing every single one of them.
Not enough, it’s still not enough!
Three days passed by and his speed of absorption became faster. The entire Tian Chi Waterfall trembled.
They thought of that trembling as the effect of Ning Fan’s pill refinement. As for Revered Snow who was right beside Ning Fan, his eyes widened. He was secretly amazed that Ning Fan was refining pills and absorbing the spiritual power of the earth veins at the same time.
“This kid claimed that he was refining pills but he’s actually using that as an excuse to absorb spiritual power. He is indeed intelligent…” The corner of his mouth quirked up and formed an admiring smile. However, he assumed that Ning Fan was absorbing the spiritual veins forcefully using a secret art to increase his cultivation realm. From his point of view, Ning Fan wouldn’t be able to absorb much of the spiritual veins as he was only at the Half-Step Gold Core Realm.
Seven days later, he regretted his earlier statement and let out a bitter smile.
Two-thirds of the veins’ spiritual qi in Tian Chi Waterfall had been absorbed by Ning Fan and the process of absorption was still ongoing.
Is this kid planning to destroy the spiritual veins?! What technique exactly is he cultivating? It has such domineering power that could even ruin the spiritual veins of this place…
Despite knowing that, Revered Snow didn’t try to stop Ning Fan. No matter what, he would still help Ning Fan just because of Ning Fan’s identity, let alone him still owing Ning Fan a favour.
At the tenth day, the aroma of the pills spread from the cauldron. Meanwhile, a sharp cracking sound resounded in the entire Ju Shan Guan!
The Earth Veins were completed ruined!
The cultivation of the first sword finger was finally accomplished!
Ning Fan slapped the lid of the cauldron. He didn’t look at the pills in the cauldron but his eyes were fixed on his right index finger instead!
Sword Finger, The First Finger! “Mountain Crush”!
The whole power of the earth veins a thousand li surrounding the city was now gathered in his finger!
“It’s really a terrifying Body Refinement Technique! By just exerting force with this finger, it almost exhausted all my strength. But the power of this finger is enough to eliminate a cultivator at the Intermediate Nascent Soul Stage in just a single touch!”
Ning Fan muttered to himself while keeping his original expression on his face.
He then stood up and Revered Snow followed his actions too. Revered Snow flew out the waterfall to handle the tribulations from the heavens. When he returned, he deliberately furrowed his brows together and spoke.
“Hai. The earth veins are all destroyed!”
“Senior, please forgive me. When I was refining pills, I was lacking magic power. As such, I tried to obtain some of the spiritual qi from the earth veins. Unfortunately, I destroyed the earth veins out of carelessness. Could Senior help me to settle this as a payback of the favour you owed me?”
“It’s fine. I’ve promised to help you once. So it’s natural that I would help you handle this problem. However, the blame shouldn’t be on you. You are just refining pills for me after all. I should bear the responsibility. You can ask for my help one more time in the future, considering that I still owe you a favour.”
What Ning Fan had in mind at first was to get Revered Snow to help him this time as he still owed Ning Fan a favour.
Now, Revered Snow seemed to be very willing to take all the blames for Ning Fan.
Refining Four Revolutions Pills for two times and it cost the entire spiritual vein of the city. Though the fact was still difficult to accept, it seemed forgivable as Revered Snow was involved in the destruction of the veins. No one would dare to find out more about it including the King of Great Jin.
The division of Rain Palace planned to move to another place at the destruction of the veins. Anyway, they were going to abandon this city as the demon tide had caused great damage to it already.
Revered Snow’s action left Ning Fan surprised and puzzled as he took the initiative to be friendly towards Ning Fan.
Ning Fan’s expectation was that Revered Snow would at least not disagree with him.
Now, it seemed to be far beyond his anticipations. It was as if Revered Snow was trying to befriend him.
“Why does he act in such a manner? Is it because of the level of my Pill Refining Technique?” It was incomprehensible for him, but he didn’t voice out his doubts.
As long as Revered Snow doesn’t see me as an enemy and he isn’t pretending to be kind, there’s nothing to worry about.
Now, the cultivation of the first finger of Sword Finger technique is completed. I now have another trump card.
The next thing to do is prepare for the final battle! I will end the demon tide, gather enough battle points and depart from this place!