Chapter 117

The Advancement of Concoction Technique, Fifth Revolutions Vehicle of River

The little girl’s delicate hand had infinite strength. If it wasn’t because of Ning Fan’s extraordinary physique, her grip was enough to cause a serious injury to him.

After entering the Fourth Level, with a stomp of her small foot, a Four Marks Immortal Cloud immediately rose from the group. This cloud was familiar to Ning Fan. It was precisely the cloud he saw above the Rain Pond.

“Speak, where do you want to go, to watch the rain? I’ll bring you there!”

Under her long downward crescent eyebrows, her mouth that was filled with pills curled into a sweet smile.

There was nothing happier than having to eat Pill Cookies… Ning Fan was a good person, so she must bring him around for a good stroll!

The Four Marks Immortal Cloud was comparable to the Nascent Soul Realm. The little girl struck a ray of black light at the cloud. Then, the cloud was enveloped by chilly wind. Its speed was now doubled and comparable to an intermediate Nascent Soul expert.

On the Immortal Cloud, Ning Fan closed his eyes, letting the raindrops wet his face. There were silhouettes of Nascent Soul demonic beasts in the surroundings. They seemed to be attracted by the scent of Ning Fan’s  flesh and blood, wanting to fill their stomach with this meal.

But at this point, the little girl snorted and waved her delicate fists. Each of the demonic beast showed a look of struggle and the crowd dispersed.

Ning Fan didn’t know what identity this little girl actually had. Why were all the demonic beasts seem to be following her orders?

“Cookie Brother, don’t worry. As long as I’m here, no one can hurt you!” The little girl patted her tiny chest and smiled.

“…”

“Cookie Brother, I’m not scared of anyone in the grave except for Grandpa. So you don’t have to worry, no one is going to bully you!”

“…”

The little girl chattered, trying to curry favor from Ning Fan. Apparently, her intention was to ask for more benefits from Ning Fan after talking.

Ning Fan felt incomparably helpless being called with such a name. Should the cultivators in the outside world knew that the dignified ‘Revered Ning’ was called ‘Cookie Brother’ by a little girl, all the prestige he had established would certainly be lost.

Slowly, his ears could no longer hear the din of the little girl, but only the drops of the rain.

The third level had no rain, whereas the fourth level had continuous drizzle, just like the first and second level before.

Despite the similarity, there were certain differences among these rains. After gaining a trace of insight about the Divine Intent of Rain, Ning Fan realized that the coldness of the rain in the first level was just like Spring Rain whereas the coldness of the rain in the second level was colder and contained the scent of rainstorm, like the Summer Rain.

As for the rain in the fourth level, it was lonely and forlorn, carrying a trace of solemnity. It was like Autumn Rain.

The rains in the nine levels of Dark Sparrow’s Grave were supposed to be the same, but after Que Shenzi’s enlightenment, each level of rain was endowed with varied degree of Divine Intent of Rain – from shallow to deep and from simple to complex. The valuable thing here wasn’t the Void Spirit Intent, but the process of comprehending the Void Spirit Intent. This rain would be a part of the process.

After experiencing the rainless momentum in the third level, Que Shenzi must have felt lonely and desolate in the fourth level.

Also, he must have stayed in the fourth level for a very long time, probably thousands of years. Otherwise, he would never have such a sense of desolation.

Ning Fan couldn’t help being invaded by the Autumn Rain. Slowly, his heart integrated with the rain. He then heard deeply hidden sighs within it.

“When one is reaching the end of the cultivation path, one is destined to be lonely. All my families and relatives have already passed away… Like the rain, the loneliness doesn’t disperse… Like the autumn, it doesn’t settle down… But without this desolate process, one can never cultivate Dao. The desolate is found not within the rain, but within my heart, and the rain merely mirrors it. This is the Divine Intent of Rain…”

The little girl willed the Immortal Cloud to descend and avoid interrupting Ning Fan from his the enlightenment. He stood upright in the rain silently for a long time.

It was desolation… but it seemed like this implication wasn’t enough to explain Que Shenzi’s path of Dao, and definitely not enough to integrate it into his Divine Intent of Rain!

“Let’s go to the fifth level…”

“Great! But the Pill Cookies you made aren’t enough for me…” The little girl avoided eye contact and chuckled.

“I will make the pills for you again after arriving in the fifth level!”

“Don’t you break your promise later!”

The little girl sounded slightly dispirited. Without the Pill Cookies, this place was extremely boring.

She leaped onto the Immortal Cloud and willed the cloud to move forward at lightning speed. There were Nascent Soul demonic beasts along the way, but when they smelled the trace of pill fragrance from the little girl, they seemed as if they had thought of something terrible in the past. They stayed dormant on the ground, afraid to move even a muscle.

The light of the cloud vanished into the huge pit that led to the fifth level. All of a sudden, the drizzle turned into winter cold rain.

Despite the extreme coldness, the rain had yet to freeze. Such a phenomenon certainly was beyond common sense.

No doubt it was rain. Even if it was an ice rain, it was totally different from ice!

Ning Fan’s eyes flashed. He began to feel that the ice rain in this level was unusual, it was unusual because it was endowed by the Divine Intent of Rain!

He recalled the magical technique he cultivated – the Ice Rain Technique. Although it was only a Spirit Level Magical Technique that was not worth mentioning, it coincided with the present scene.

He closed his eyes to gain more insight. Around him hid several Spirit Severing demonic beasts. Likewise, these demonic beasts were comprehending the Divine Intent of Rain while being drenched by the ice rain.

When Ning Fan entered the fifth level just now, each and every one of the demonic beasts revealed bloodthirsty eyes, but immediately, they withdrew their urge after being glared by the little girl.

They wouldn’t dare to do anything to Ning Fan anymore, but in their hearts, they looked down on this human. Any demonic beast that was above the Gold Core realm could shape-shift into human form. Although these demonic beasts had yet to transform, they already possessed the spiritual intelligence of humans.

“This brat is merely a Harmonious Spirit. But he can already gain enlightenment from Spirit Intent. Absurd…” An elephant-like beast spoke coldly in demonic language.

“But he’s protected by ‘that person’. We’d better not interfere in this matter.”  Another demonic beast that looked like a rhinoceros said with concern.

These demonic beasts would certainly be peerless ferocious beasts if they were placed in the Rain Immortal World, but all of them dreaded the little girl.

And, just like what these demonic devils said, it wasn’t a smooth sailing process of enlightenment for Ning Fan.

For the first time, he wasn’t able to hear the insight of Que Shenzi from the rain.

The fifth level was like a watershed. The Divine Intent of Rain in this level began to change. The enlightenment in the fourth level became insignificant when it was compared with the enlightenment of fifth level.

“What’s missing…?” Ning Fan frowned, then the little girl prompted.

“Brother Cookie, is it done yet…? You said that you will make Pill Cookies for me. I’m getting hungry…”

“OK OK. I know…” Ning Fan opened his eyes reluctantly. Being unable to gain enlightenment plus being annoyed by this little girl, his mind had totally lost its calm.

He took out the Pill Cauldron of Xue Qing, then swung his sword at the ground to summon the earth fire, but he later discovered that he couldn’t draw out any earth fire as the Rain Intent of the fifth level was too strong.

In fact, it wasn’t because there was no earth fire. It was just that all the earth fire had been converted into rain water by the Divine Intent of Rain, seeping in the ground below.

“Haha, this brat is quite interesting… The Rain Intent here is so strong. How could he concoct pills without the earth fire…?” A white ape spoke sneeringly in demon language.

“How… how could this happen…? There’s no fire here… so how can Pill Cookies be made…?” The little girl showed an anxious look. While her mood was filled with worries, she had heard the cold sneer of the white ape.

She glared at the giggling white ape, gently raised her finger to gesture it over. “You, come over here. Make the earth fire for me. Or else I’m going to ask Grandpa to catch and roast you!”

When the white ape which was supposed to take pleasure in others misfortune heard the girl’s order, he looked so grief-stricken that his face turned as bitter as bitter gourd.

Immediately, he turned into a ray of light and raced towards the little girl in an ingratiating manner.

He slammed his palm at the pit of earth fire with a magical technique that carried the Divine Intent of Rain. After that, all the Divine Intent of Rain was dispersed.

Once again, the earth fire was stirred.

“Hehe, there’s earth fire now… Alright, Ape Darling, you can go and play now…”

“Yes, yes…”

When the imposing Spirit Severing Ape Devil was called Ape Darling by the little girl, instead of feeling discontented, he revealed a look of delight.

In Dark Sparrow’s Grave, as long as one became the ‘Darling’ of this little girl, they wouldn’t have to worry about being eaten by her anymore.

Each of the demonic beasts looked at the white ape in admiration. After all, the chance to please the little girl didn’t occur every day.

Ning Fan didn’t see any of these with his eyes, though any Qi of the demonic beast here could suffocate him.

His eyes focused only on the fiery pit, the slightly ignited earth fire.

Just now, when the white ape sent out a palm, his eyes glowed gradually.

It turned out that the Divine Intent of Rain was assimilation. Just comprehending it wasn’t enough. One had to activate it as well, using it to assimilate magical art, earth fire and every enemy that entered the domain of the Divine Intent of Rain.

A trace of insight slowly rose. Instead of concocting pills for the little girl, he performed a hand-seal with both hands, beginning to cast waves of the Ice Rain Technique.

In the tenth time, the rain still turned to ice.

In the one-hundredth time, some within the raindrops hadn’t formed ice.

In the one-thousandth time, half of them were finally in the form of rain.

After a thousand of trials, he closed his eyes. Finally, he could hear the sigh of Que Shenzi. That sigh was also assimilated to the Divine Intent of Rain and turned into rain drops. Before that, he wasn’t able to differentiate it from the rain, but right after, he could tell that the few drops were the insight of Que Shenzi in one glance!

“What is rain? I turn my palm and it becomes cloud, I turn my palm again it becomes rain!”

Despite it being only a few words from Que Shenzi, it enlightened Ning Fan, shaking off his last trace of dubiety.

At this moment, he opened his eyes. There was no longer amiability in his eyes. They had turned disdaining and domineering.

He cast the Ice Rain Technique. Instantly, thousands of ice spikes emerged in the sky, half of them was ice and the other half was rain.

A trace of Divine Intent was activated in his heart. He held the few drops of rain that contained the Divine Intent of Rain that was left behind by Que Shenzi that year, crushed them and yelled coldly: “I turn my palm, it becomes rain!”

He turned his palm abruptly and all the ice spikes turned into rain at the same time. Although these were just ice spikes turning into rain and it wasn’t any kind of Divine Intent Magical Art, its power was at least 30% more powerful than before.

In Ning Fan’s heart, the faint trace of Divine Intent of Rain got stronger and stronger, like a continuously rolling snowball.

The scene made all the Spirit Severing demonic beasts dumbstruck and eyes wide as every one of them had spent a long time just to get a hint of the Divine Intent. Except for the white ape and a rare number of others, there were still plenty of them that hadn’t understood the usage of Spirit Intent.

Despite Ning Fan being a mere Harmonious Spirit expert, he was able to comprehend the Divine Intent faster than most of them. If this kid was a Spirit Severing expert, they were afraid that none of the demonic beasts on the scene would be a match for him!

“Cookie Brother, do you want to head over to the sixth level…?” The little girl next to him bit her lip and said.

Although she wanted very much to fill up her stomach, but when she saw Ning Fan’s progress, she feared that her greed might interrupt Ning Fan’s enlightened mental state.

“No need, I will concoct pills for you now… The next few levels no longer matters to me…”

The dominance in his eyes faded and was replaced by a faint smile. Then, he began the concoction of pills.

In the fifth level of enlightenment, he had gained a preliminary understanding of the use of Divine Rain Intent, but such a Spirit Intent was far beyond his power to manipulate.

His magical strength wasn’t strong enough to turn all of the ice spikes into rain. Besides, he used the Spirit Intent left by Que Shenzi to cast the spell.

It was only through this that he finally comprehended the mystery of Divine Rain Intent.

In his point of view, the following levels – sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth – were probably the process of Que Shenzi condensing his Spirit Intent, merging the Spirit Intent with his Dao Enlightenment. As for himself, he hadn’t formed his Dao yet and his magical strength was insufficient to merge with Spirit Intent that belonged to his.

Despite all of that, he could use these tiny bits of Spirit Intent to concoct Fifth Revolution Pills… He should give it a try!

He didn’t intend to concoct a Fifth Revolution Pill now, because given his current concoction technique, even if he succeeded in his first attempt, it would take at least half a year for him to finish the concoction.

However, he had a way to test if his concoction technique had improved.

In his head, he was recollecting the memory of Emperor Ancient Chaos’ concoction technique – Ninth Revolution River of Vehicle. In between his fingers were burning with black flame. He drew an outline of circles in the void in front according to some profound invisible locus.

First Revolution, Second Revolution, Third Revolution, Fourth Revolution… Four circles were drawn successively before Ning Fan felt that his finger couldn’t move anymore, like there was a barrier of force that was making his finger immobile.

“Four circles mean Fourth Revolution Concoction Technique… If I can draw out the fifth circle, I will be able to concoct Fifth Revolution Pills!”

A hint of faint Divine Rain Intent emerged in his indifferent eyes. This Spirit Intent went from his heart to his fingers, and integrated into the black flames. A layer of Rain Intent was formed on the blazing flames.

At this moment, with a boost of magical strength, the sluggish finger immediately drew out the fifth illusory circle in the air.

The fifth circle wasn’t a perfect line and dispersed immediately after it was drawn. This indicated that Ning Fan’s concoction technique had reached Fifth Revolution. He could now concoct Fifth Revolution Pills but with great difficulty. In the best case scenario, if he concocted ten pills, only one pill would succeed, however he already had to thank the Gods for this.

In any case, he had officially become a Fifth Revolution Pill Master the moment he drew the fifth circle.

He couldn’t deny that the harvest in the Dark Sparrow’s Grave wasn’t small at all!

The improvement in his concoction technique made the concoction of Third Revolution Pills even handier for him. Before the pills were finished, the little girl couldn’t hold it any longer and kept on drooling.

“It smells good. It smells so good! Way better than before! Why is that so?”

“Because I’m now a Fifth Revolution Cookie Refinement Master…” Ning Fan slapped the cauldron lid and the pills were concocted!

“Whoa! Cookie Brother, you are amazing! If Grandpa knows how amazing you are, he will definitely like you.”

The little girl took the pills straight out from the cauldron, disregarding the fact that the pills might scald her hands, then put them in her small mouth.

When Ning Fan heard that she said ‘Grandpa’, a chill instantly settled over him.

That ‘Grandpa’ naturally would be a Void Fragmentation Expert. He wondered if he was being watched by the Void Fragmentation Grandpa just now.

The harvest of refining the Black Demon Flame and improving his concoction technique weren’t small, but if he could obtain the Profound Yin Qi as well, it would be perfect…

The Profound Yin Qi was ranked as the ninth Heavenly Frosty Cold Qi. Many experts of Rain Immortal World had come to Dark Sparrow’s Grave, but found no trace of it…

The Cold Qi had no spirit, so it couldn’t hide itself. Before this, Ning Fan didn’t know the reason why everyone couldn’t find the Cold Qi, but now, he could already guess the answer.

Perhaps, the Cold Qi had already been hidden by this little girl as the ‘Cold Qi Treasure’.

“Girl, do you know where the Profound Yin Qi is…?”

“I know… En, no, I don’t know… What do you want to do with my Profound Treasure…?”

The little girl stopped eating the pills and took two steps back, staring at Ning Fan with concern.

However, awkwardness flashed past her eyes when she saw the pills in her hands.

“You are much nicer to me than the Profound Treasure. They don’t even care about me and make Pill Cookies for me to eat. If-if you can make better cookies, thousand times or ten thousand times better than this, I will tell you where the Profound Treasure is at…”

“In that case, you will have to wait for me to refine Fifth Revolution Pills and use them to exchange for the Profound Yin Qi.”

Ning Fan contemplated it briefly. He was afraid that only Fifth Revolution Pills could fulfil that condition. It was inappropriate for him to rob the Cold Qi from this little girl. Plus, there was a Void Fragmentation expert watching him.

Anyway, he didn’t have an urgent need for the Profound Yin Qi for the time being. The Cold Qi wouldn’t be lost by leaving it in Sinister Sparrow Sect. So, he could only wait until he could concoct a Fifth Revolution Pill and exchange it with the little girl for the Cold Qi.

Apart from Profound Yin Qi, there was also another thing that stirred up his interest very much.

“What about the Ming Luo Fruit? It’s grown in which level?”

“What Ming Luo Fruit are you talking about?” The little girl tilted her head, seemingly confused.

“The pits of the fruit you ate…”

“That Fruit Fruit is grown in the ninth level, in Grandpa’s watch… Cookie Brother can’t eat them… Grandpa said that even I could only eat one Fruit Fruit in ten years…”

“Is that so… forget it…” Ning Fan shook his head. If Ming Luo Fruit was really in the control of the Void Fragmentation old expert, Ning Fan had to admit that he would never be able to deceive a Void Fragmentation old expert into giving him a Ming Luo Fruit.

A Ming Luo Fruit could grant a dream that would increase fifty years of mental cultivation. It seemed that he had no other choice but to let go of this opportunity despite being so close to getting it.

But just as he shook his head, a voice sounded from behind.

“Fifth Revolution Pill Master… It’s enough to qualify you to speak with me… You can have the Ming Luo Fruit, but you have to promise me one condition…”

The voice sounded without warning. Despite the plainness of his tone, it was laced with killing intent. This mysterious person wasn’t giving Ning Fan any room to decline the offer.

Ning Fan could only agree to his condition, or else he would die for sure!

When the voice was heard, the lawless little girl immediately showed a frightened look, and hid her hands that were holding the pills behind her back.

“Grandpa… I-I didn’t steal the Pill Cookies…”

Pit – A hard shell containing the nut or seed in the middle of some types of fruit.