Chapter 456 - A Weird Old Daoist (1/2)
Translator: GE_Team
After Ning Fan left, Yao Lian headed to another forbidden place of the clan on the same night and reported what had happened earlier to the Eight Ancestors.
Yao Lian did not know that Ning Fan was only pretending to leave. In fact, he had turned invisible and tailed after her all the way. Eventually, they came to a small chiliocosm where the eight ancestors were hiding. Ning Fan stood outside their hiding place with a frown for the entire night.
Ning Fan could not enter that small chiliocosm! Outsiders could only enter the place under the guidance of the people from within.
The Eight Ancestors would obviously not welcome Ning Fan, let alone guide him into the realm.
It was an extremely secretive forbidden place of the clan as it was inside a dilapidated small chiliocosm.
It was pitch black inside that realm. There was a faint flow of formation power but nothing was clearly visible.
The only thing that one could see clearly was eight gigantic pillars which glowed faintly in the dark.
A black figure sat cross-legged on top of each of the stone pillars. Every single one of them had vigorous and boundless qi but none of them was alive. It was really bizarre.
These eight individuals were the eight ancient ancestors of the Giant Devil Clan who had already died in the past. However, they still existed in a strange form inside this small chiliocosm!
Yao Lian’s report did not attract the attention of the eight ancestors.
It was because the two questions Ning Fan asked did not involve anything which would be a threat to the Giant Devil Clan and Yao Lian did not leak any important information as well.
After a brief moment of silence, none of them decided to hold Ning Fan accountable. Only one of the ancestors, Ju Yan, found it rather difficult to understand.
He had met Ning Fan one time. Even though he just had a glimpse of him, he was sure that Ning Fan was similar to him who might seem to be generous on the outside but was meticulous and smart on the inside.
Based on his understanding of Ning Fan, it was rather weird for him to purposely visit Yao Lian tonight and ask her those questions. Ning Fan’s actions were just so unreasonable but he knew that people like him would never do unreasonable things. Thus, just as the saying goes, when things are unusual, something bad must be going on.
On that day they met, Ju Yan had warned Ning Fan not to intervene in Feng Xueyan’s matter.
Inwardly, Ju Yan muttered to himself.
In the questions he asked Yao Lian, he indeed did not mention anything about Feng Xueyan at all… Did this young man really listen to my warning?
However, if it wasn’t for Yan Er, why would this young man look for Yao Lian…
Ju Yan could not figure it out. Eventually, he tossed this matter to the back of his mind.
No matter what, he and the other seven ancestors still had some important matters to deal with.
Since Ning Fan had saved the clan earlier and he did not touch upon any top secrets of the clan, Ju Yan did not think there was need to deal with him yet.
“We shall put aside the matter with Zhou Ming. A Half-Step Void Refinement Realm cultivator like him is of no importance… Yao Lian, tell us about the situation of the Pill Ceremony…”
Beside Ju Yan was another elderly person whose qi was much more forceful than Ju Yan’s. His voice was hoarse and it was filled with the malevolence of an evil spirit which made Yao Lian feel rather uneasy.
As soon as he spoke, all of the seven other ancestors went quiet. Clearly, he was the leader of the eight ancestors.
Yao Lian immediately reported to them all the matters regarding the Pill Ceremony. The night passed by smoothly.
Ning Fan returned to the west wing of the guest house. He sat in a meditative posture on his bed and sorted out his thoughts in silence.
From Yao Lian’s mind, he managed to obtain a lot of secrets of the clan.
He now knew how strong the Eight Ancestors were. Six of them were Void Inquiry Stage experts while the other two were Void Pierce Stage experts. There was no way Ning Fan could defeat them all. This, without a doubt, was bad news. If Ning Fan wants to save Feng Xueyan from the hands of the Eight Ancestors, he would need greater strength.
Of course, there was something that could be considered as a good news to him.
There was still some time before the day where they had to take out the blood of Mo Luo from Feng Xueyan’s body as it still needed at least another ten years to completely mature.
That is to say that Feng Xueyan would not be in any danger within ten years. Moreover, the Eight Ancestors would secretly protect her like a precious treasure.
However, ten years later, the Eight Ancestors would certainly execute their plan on Feng Xueyan. When that time arrives, unless Ning Fan attains a great improvement in his strength, he would not be able to save her.
“Ten years, huh… Within ten years, the blood wine will be completely brewed. I wonder if I can break through to the Void Refinement Realm when I consume it… Advancing to the Void Refinement Realm is just too difficult. However, attaining the Golden Body Refinement Realm is much easier. I just need to gather the remaining three pieces of stone slates and obtain the devil qi from them, I have confidence of breaking through to the Golden Body Refinement Realm in ten years!”
“No matter what, I can’t let Feng Xueyan call me her brother-in-law for nothing. I can’t allow the eight ancestors of the Giant Devil Clan to harm her!”
Ning Fan remembered that the devil statue slate was currently in the hands of the Eight Ancestors.
I wonder if I can get closer to the devil slate and extract the devil qi within it…
“I can’t enter the small chiliocosm where the Eight Ancestors are hiding. It will still need further investigation to figure out how to get the devil statue slate of the Giant Devil Clan… As for now, the most important thing should be placing all of my focus on improving my pill refinement techniques. In order to attain a breakthrough in my cultivation within ten years, my mastery in pill refinement definitely can’t be neglected.”
Ning Fan was well aware of the fact that he was a person of great notoriety. The reason why a notorious person like him could live until today was because of his strength.
His current strength had already made him famous across the entire Rain World. However, it was still far from enough!
He needed to possess the strength to wipe out the entire Rain World and only then could he be on par with Sovereign Moksha.
The first rays of the morning sun shone through the windows. Ning Fan looked for his women one by one. After passing them some messages, he asked Yue Lingkong to take control of the four spiritual puppets and take care of their safety. He then began to make preparations for the tests of the Pill Ceremony.
First of all, he must get into the top three of the competition and become one of the three pill refinement masters who would concoct the pill for Feng Xueyan.
He was a little worried. He did not know what the so-called life-saving pill was. Thus, he had to concoct the pill for Feng Xueyan himself in order to make sure that no one was trying to harm her.
Since the Cold Northern Country was the venue of the Pill Ceremony, innumerable famous pill refinement masters of the Rain World had gathered there.
In the province, many old monsters got together in the Eternal Peace Pavilion to trade pill recipes, spiritual herbs and many other items.
The Eternal Peace Pavilion was a property directly owned by the Giant Devil Clan. Hence, all of the profits earned from the sale of spiritual herbs solely belonged to the clan.
In order to satisfy the needs of the pill refinement masters, the Eternal Peace Pavilion had purposely opened up a floor for trading activities that allowed pill refinement masters to set up their own stalls here to buy or sell pills and spiritual herbs.
As the actual date of the Pill Ceremony was quickly approaching, many pill refinement masters were purchasing spiritual herbs in order to prepare for the event. Naturally, there were also many profit-oriented old monsters who just came to sell spiritual herbs, pill recipes and medicine cauldrons.
Some rare spiritual herbs were unavailable here. Thus, pill refinement masters could only resort to bartering among themselves. Well, wouldn’t there be situations where the spiritual herbs that one is lacking are excess items of some other pill refinement masters?
In just a few days, Ning Fan travelled across seventy million li* (500m per li) of the Cold Northern Country.
A few days later, Ning Fan arrived at the Eternal Peace Pavilion in a manner as light as the clouds. Needless to say, he had come to purchase spiritual herbs.
Be it for collecting the main ingredients to concoct the Revered Devil Pill that could raise one’s body refining realm or making preparations for the Pill Ceremony, he still had to come and take a look.
In order to attain the Golden Body Refining Realm as soon as possible, Ning Fan not only needed to gather the remaining three pieces of devil statue slates but also concoct the Revered Devil Pill.