Chapter 71
Grasping Evil
Plots, Besiege, Executes the Immortal!
In the Third Region where a sea of bamboo forests stretching out for a hundred miles, Ning Fan and the two girls stopped their evading light and landed in the forest.
The reason why he came to this bamboo forest was that he needed a secluded place for concocting pills and refining the Sense Beads that could allow his spirit sense to break through to late Gold Core realm!
The quiet atmosphere of the bamboo forest made it suitable for setting the Nascent realm grand formation named Sinuous!
Last time, Ning Fan used hundreds of thousand of immortal jades to set a Void realm grand formation that could overturn the mountains and rivers. Although the deployment was successful, the damage of the formation was far from the extent of killing Void Fragmentation experts. The reason was that although the formation eyes were placed correctly and the outline of the formation was complete, the immortal jades and immortal ores used were not enough.
On the other hand, hundreds of thousand of immortal jades was enough to deploy a Nascent realm grand formation. This grand formation would be used to create a protective barrier for Ning Fan’s seclusion. So he didn’t intend to deploy a Void realm grand formation. He used only 200 000 immortal jades to start setting the Nascent realm grand formation.
Perhaps it wasn’t as profound as a Void realm formation, but it was a complete formation. Its power could kill even late Gold Core experts.
As Bing Ling and Yue Ling were still wounded and not strong enough to fight, it is better for them not to appear in this dangerous place. As for the small sable who had spoiled countless of Ning Fan’s millennium spiritual herbs, she broke the seal and restored her peak Gold Core realm.
Ning Fan looked at Ning Honghong and Mu Weiliang with a trace of pleading and smiling. “Zhou’s life will be put in the hands of you two.”
“Pooh! It’s already at this juncture, but he still refuses to say his real name. Since you’re a living person, you can’t be a ghost who was named Zhou Ming.” Ning Honghong raised her chin.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m too absorbed in being Zhou Ming… My name is Ning Fan.” Ning Fan winked at Mu Weiliang. She responded in a very shy smile before Ning Fan continued setting the formation.
And when Ning Honghong heard Ning Fan’s name, her expression turned strange.
“Your surname is Ning?”
She finally understood why Ning Fan was surprised when he heard her name before this.
“You…you…you, you know how to set a Nascent realm formation!”
After Ning Fan selected the positions for 216 formation eyes in the bamboo forest, he exerted his spirit sense, the outline of the formation emerged from the ground. Ning Honghong had a look of shock on her red face whereas Mu Weiliang’s small mouth was left slightly open.
This Ning Fan truly knew too many stuff! Not only he could concoct Third Revolution pills, he could also deploy the heaven defying Nascent realm grand formation!
He seemed just a seventeen-year-old teenager but his cultivation rank was already at late Harmonious Spirit realm and his spirit sense had reached intermediate Gold Core. At the same time, he was also a Third Revolution alchemist and a Nascent realm formation master!
Ning Honghong took a light breath and looked directly at Ning Fan for the first time. She vaguely felt that she had been looking down on Ning Fan, which was a mistake.
“I have died for a few thousand years. When I was alive, I was able to move unhindered across Wu Country and had established a family called Haining Ning Family. In my glorious life, I thought I have seen all the heroes of the world, unexpectedly, the world still has an evil person like you…”
Ning Honghong gently praised Ning Fan, and as the words fell into Ning Fan’s ears, it made him almost make a mistake in setting the formation and almost fell.
“You said that you were born in Wu Country, and that you were the ancestor of Haining Ning Family?” Ning Fan’s expression became unusual when he guessed that the frivolous Ning Honghong might be the soul of his old ancestor.
“What’s the matter? How dare you complain?” Ning Honghong extended her long nails and threatened Ning Fan in a playful way.
“No, I’m not complaining. It’s just, surprised…”
Ning Fan coughed lightly for his surprised expression to subside.
If Ning Honghong was the ancestor of Ning Family, so what? With one look on this girl, she was certainly a virgin and hadn’t had any offspring. As such, she wouldn’t have any blood relation with him.
‘…why am I thinking all these things for…?’ He shook his head and continued with his task.
While setting the formation, he asked Mu Weiliang about her background. He wondered what the identity of this girl was…
“Sister Weiliang didn’t have the memories before her death. I accidentally picked her up when I was a patrol guard in Red Clan.” Ning Honghong explained.
Mu Weiliang looked slightly down spirited when they said she had no living memory.
“Really…? It doesn’t matter if you forget it. Living memory may not always be pleasant anyway.”
Ning Fan gently patted Mu Weiliang’s hair as a comfort and continued setting the formation. It caused the girl to blush.
It was very strange that these three individuals who clearly had just met for the first time, but they felt as if they were very familiar with one another. Ning Fan was afraid that it was hard to encounter such coincidental incidents again in his lifetime. While he was in an unfamiliar place, he had to entrust his safety to a stranger or strangers.
Maybe, they knew each other in their previous lives…
Inversing-Mountains-and-Rivers formation had seven thousand formation eyes and Ning Fan could set it without a problem. The Sinuous formation only had 216 formation eyes, naturally, it wouldn’t trouble him either.
Every formation eye was placed with immortal jades and immortal ores. Ning Fan exerted his spirit sense. After the time it took to burn half an incense stick, all the formation eyes were connected and the grand formation was formed!
If such speed in setting the formation was witnessed by other Nascent realm formation masters, it would scare their eyes out of them.
The grand formation was successfully deployed. Ning Fan searched for the place where the earth fire was most prosperous. Then, with a slash, he broke open the earth vein which led out the earth fire, and he started to concoct pills.
As for Ning Honghong and Mu Weiliang, they sat leisurely at one side, looking at Ning Fan’s skilful concoction technique in admiration.
‘Profound Netherworld Dan’ was a Third Revolution pill. Using it in conjunction with the Gold Core Sense Beads could purify the energy of Yin and ghost spirit.
The five-century old spiritual herbs he got from the vault of Green Clan was more than enough to concoct hundreds or even a thousand of Profound Netherworld Dan. The only problem he had was that he could only concoct one hundred Third Revolution pill at one time. He was afraid that he would need several different cauldrons to produce sufficient amount of pills.
Three days passed, Ning Fan had opened twelve cauldrons for concoction. Besides the one cauldron which smelted, the other eleven cauldrons were barely successful. A total of 1 100 Profound Netherworld Dan had been produced.
He couldn’t do anything about it. Even with the inherited alchemy skill of the Immortal Emperor, he couldn’t guarantee success in every concoction of Third Revolution pills.
The higher the level of the pill, the lower the success rate.
After completing the concoction of the pills, the next thing he had to do was to refine the force in the Sense Beads. Ning Fan sat cross-legged to adjust his magical power. In just half a day’s time he was already in his best condition again, and then he began refining the Sense Beads one by one.
The spiritual force in the Gold Core Sense Bead was too strong. At the moment, Ning Fan was so focused nothing outside could register in his head.
There were still seven days before the end of the examination.
…
The winding and secluded place, the deep flowers and trees and the meditation abode… The Sinuous formation was a Nascent realm grand formation. The formation was set using the terrain of the bamboo forest. Besides its harmful defences, its more important function was to protect and conceal.
The twists and turns of the formation were difficult for one to discern. After searching the bamboo forest for a few days, no experts of Green Clan was able to find Ning Fan who was hiding in the very forest where they had searched.
Ning Honghong and Mu Weiliang were praising the grand formation unceasingly, while on the other side, in Green Clan, Great Elder Qing Lengshan had become as restless like the ants on a hot pan.
The experts of Green Clan had searched for thousands of miles in the Third Region for four days, but they still couldn’t find any trace of Ning Fan.
“Trash, a bunch of trash! What’s the use of you all if you can’t even find a single person?”
Qing Lengshan unleashed his overbearing aura that swept across the experts in the hall, giving them a chilling fright. Even the late Gold Core elders changed their facial expression.
“Great Elder, perhaps that man is no longer in the Third Region. He is a living human so he can enter the Fourth Region or return to the Second Region without a problem.” The second elder, Qing Hengxing, said. He was a brawny man with rough and cold face.
“Well, it makes sense…” Qing Lengshan’s expression changed and immediately, the corner of his mouth raised a smirk.
“Has the refinement of the Immortal Execution Order completed?”
“Great Elder, the refinement has reached the last step, but… are we really using this to destroy a mere Zhou Ming? This is the item we use to deter the other Clans…” The third elder,who was called Qing Wuwei, said. He was a short, elegant middle-aged man. His face was full of hesitation.
“Stupid. As long as we kill that man, we will get the favour of the Bone Emperor. If everyone in Green Clan has reached Nascent Soul realm, can you imagine how easy it is to enter the Fourth Region!”
Qing Lengshan let out a cold humph. He was extremely disdainful of the short-sighted thoughts of the elders in the hall.
In Nine Yin Land, the Eighth and Ninth Regions of the forest didn’t exist. As such, the Bone Emperor who resided at the Seventh Region was the king. If they could please the king, who would dare to touch the Green Clan?
It was a pity that all these ghosts were short of visions. No wonder none of them could be the Great Elder.
“The refinement of the Immortal Execution Order is about to complete. Have you collected a strand of Zhou Ming’s Qi?” Qing Lengshan asked apathetically.
“Great Elder, we have completely collected Zhou Ming’s Qi in his bamboo house has.”
The fourth elder, Qing Yun, was a handsome man. He reported to the Great Elder respectfully.
“Good. Set up the altar and be ready to execute that man!”
Qing Lengshan flicked his sleeve and led all the experts to the ancient sacrificial altar.
“That year, I used the Immortal Execution Order to kill a peak Gold Core elder of Ivory Clan, causing them to fall. I can’t believe that today, I have to reuse the order to kill only a mere Zhou Ming!”
He laughed and couldn’t wait. Suddenly, as if he had a second thought, he commanded.
“Also, Second and Third Elder, you two will bring experts to search for Zhou Ming in the Third Region. When the Immortal Execution Order is executed, that man will surely die, and there will be a formation with four sword shadows at the place he dies. If he is still in the Third Region, you all can bring back the spiritual herbs to the clan. Of course, if anyone dares to swallow the spiritual herbs, humph! I still have another Immortal Execution Order!”
Qing Lengshan’s eyes swept across the crowd. No one dared to express a single dissatisfaction.
…
In the grand formation within the bamboo forest, Ning Fan was refining the energy of spirit sense in the Sense Beads. His intermediate Gold Core realm was approaching the next stage – late Gold Core realm.
Only 23 days had passed, but the power of his spirit sense had been improved to such extent. If this news was spread across Yue Country, no one wouldn’t be shocked.
“Almost. It seems there are only a hundred Sense Beads left…”
Ning Fan smiled faintly. He had only refined 400 Gold Core Sense Beads, but that was about to bring his spirit sense realm to the late Gold Core stage.
It was about to reach. Only this last round of refinement to break the bottleneck of this realm…
Ning Fan’s eyes blazed like torches. He put all of his focus, and prepared to break through into the next realm of spirit sense.
However, at this moment, a danger struck him without warning. His eyes turned furious. He spurted out a mouthful of blood. His spirit sense loosened, which made him fail to break through. A force of backlash impacted his sea of consciousness, causing tearing pain in his spirit sense.
He looked at his chest with shock. There was a hole that appeared unknowingly and blood was trickling non-stop from the wound.
Just now, at the moment when he saw about to break through the realm, a sword shadow that came from nowhere pierced through his chest!
“The sword shadows are still here!”
He rose from the ground and brandished the Separation Slayer in his hand. He turned to block a sword shadow with a slash but failed to stop another sword shadow coming from another direction. It pierced through his abdomen, leaving a bloody hole.
*Pu*
Ning Fan’s face turned slightly pale. More sword shadows dashed over from all directions, unreasonably giving him no way of handling these strikes.
The two girls who were originally guarding Ning Fan lost their usual beautiful expression when they noticed Ning Fan failed at the critical moment of spirit senseadvancement and he was being pierced through by swords.
They were able to recognize the origin of the sword shadows which made them feel even more alarmed.
“Immortal Execution Order! How on earth did you offend the Great Elder of Green Clan forcing him to use the order on you? Ning Fan, we will help you!”
The two of the girls moved forth to defend Ning Fan against the sword shadows, but they were petrified by a sudden surprise.
Nearly ten silhouettes of Green Clan experts were standing in the void above the bamboo forest, attacking the grand formation aggressively.
“Don’t worry about me. Go and control the formation. Don’t let them break it… Humph! Immortal Execution Order, Green Clan! So it’s Green Clan who secretly plotted against me!”
A hint of ruthlessness surfaced from Ning Fan’s eyes. He looked up and saw four illusory swords outside the grand formation in the sky locking him at four directions, and the countless sword shadows were coming from these four illusory swords.
He suddenly got a surprise when he recalled this renowned four swords in the Ancient Chaotic Memory.
Immortal Execution Four Swords!
The four illusory swords had existed for as long as eternity. The swords would seal the sky above. Even if it was only a illusory shadow, the Qi that it exuded was obscure and profound. It would wash the air with light stench of blood. The stench of blood was formed by the blood Qi from countless of immortals.
The so-called Immortal Execution Order could condense four illusory swords and lock the target with its boundless sword Qi!
During the ancient times, the true Immortal Execution Order weren’t four illusory swords but four completely real swords!
Outside the grand formation, the second elder, Qing Hengxing and third elder, Qing Wuwei, were leading around ten Green Clan experts to break the barrier of the formation.
They were just following the orders of the Great Elder to seek for Zhou Ming in the Third Region but didn’t think that he was bold enough to stay here after robbing all the spiritual herbs.
“Haha! We’ll wait until the Immortal Execution Order killed him. Then, we will retrieve back the spiritual herbs. It will be considered a great contribution!” Qing Hengxing gave a cold laugh and exerted more strength to break the Nascent realm grand formation.
His body was as sturdy as iron bone. Every punch of his created traces of cracks on the grand formation, made the land to tremble, and gusts of wind to emerge. Although the cracks on the surface of the grand formation recovered quickly, the immortal jades in the formation eyes were being consumed at great speed.
The formation would be broken when the immortal jades were exhausted!
Before Qing Hengxing could finish his laugh, two elegant silhouettes were holding immortal jades given by Ning Fan to replenish the formation eyes.
One girl in red showed a murderous look. While controlling the grand formation, thousands of green light shot up abruptly and turned into light bamboo leaves as sharp as sword sweeping at the Green Clan experts.
The Nascent realm grand formation itself had the effect of killing!
They had not imagined that there were companions that helped that Zhou Ming control the grand formation. They were completely caught off guard. Four Gold Core experts were killed by the light of the formation. While the rest of them were injured to a certain extent.
Even the steel man Qing Hengxing was wounded at the chest. He roared but when his eyes fell upon the two uniquely beautiful faces, it switched into a lewd smile.
The two girls in action had the perfect look that he had ever seen in his life.
“Okay, okay, okay! I never thought that that Zhou Ming had these two beautiful ladies guarding for him. But, he will never escape from the tribulation of Immortal Execution. As for these two girls, it doesn’t matter because the formation will eventually be broken! Heh! Heh! You two are quite good looking. After breaking the formation, I will not spare the two of you. Tonight, I’m going to make you two feel an irresistible pleasure!”
Qing Hengxing was a late Gold Core cultivator and also a rare physique ghost cultivator that had amazing combat strength. As long as the grand formation was destroyed, he alone could handle the girls!
As for the two ladies in the formation, their pretty faces changed as they saw the two elders of Green Clan.
A moment ago, Ning Honghong manipulated the formation to amplify her attack. The blow seemed damaging but it was mainly due to the enemy being caught off guard. Now that all of them were already alerted, it became hard to injure them again like just now.
Besides, that blow just now had consumed a tenth of the immortal jades. So how many times such blow could be launched?
The eyes of the two girls fell upon Ning Fan. Their faces were filled with unbearable heartache.
The present Ning Fan had thousands of bloody holes on his body. His flesh was damaged badly. They were afraid he wouldn’t stand long under such circumstances.
But then at this time, despite some pieces of flesh had been cut off of Ning Fan’s body and some white bones became visible from the outside, a trace of anger filled his eyes expression before it turned into the will to annihilate Green Clan!
“Green Clan…I will remember this revenge! When I break the Immortal Execution Sword Shadow, I will go and annihilate Green Clan!”
His words, with the murderous intent of Immortal Emperor fell into the ears of the Green Clan experts. Everyone including Qing Hengxing could feel a trace of fear due to it.
What kind of murderous intent was this?! Not even the supreme Bone Emperor had such murderous intent!
However, the fear only petrified them for a moment as they weren’t newly born chicks. They wouldn’t be frightened away by a mere murderous intent.
In the grand formation, Ning Fan’s eyes revealed resoluteness when he took out the third Jade Royal Dan.
The time interval since taking the last Jade Royal Dan was too short. Thus, this time, he would suffer horrendous pain.
But then, he was left with no other choice. Despite the swords being merely illusory, he would still lose his life.
It was either die in pain, or slashed to death by the swords!
He swallowed the Jade Royal Dan. The flesh of his body had been cut numerous times by the sword shadows. The silver light in his bone was glowing brighter.
“I am the Ancient Chaos! Immortal Execution Sword Shadows, how dare you slash me!”
This time, he used the imposing manner of the Immortal Emperor in the Yin Yang Locket to command the sword shadows. Surprisingly, a moment of hesitation was observed from the sword shadows.
Ning Fan’s eyes turned cold, and he did something that no one could believe.
He opened his mouth and swallowed the countless of sword shadows into his belly.
“If I do not die, the sword Qi of Immortal Execution will be refined. And none of you can escape!”
Ning Fan’s desire to eliminate Green Clan had risen to the pinnacle state!