“Who is this lunatic?! How dare you kill my disciple?! You are blatantly courting death!”

An angry bellow resounded throughout Xuan Wu City along with a jarring whistling sound given out by the teleportation light of a Peak Divine Transformation Realm expert flying across the sky.

“This is bad! It’s Revered Flame! This person had always covered up for his shortcomings. No matter what the cause of Gu Zhen’s death was, he will certainly put up a fight against Venerated Ming until one of them dies!”

“In any case, Venerated Ming is still one of the Venerated Eight of the Internal Endless Sea. Would he be afraid of Revered Flame?”

“It seems like you have no idea who Revered Flame is. From his cultivation of flames, he has managed to turn his Sea of Consciousness into a fire consciousness. Besides, he has devoured countless types of flames in his whole life. He not only excels in pill refinement techniques, but he also has impressive combat power. He had literally burnt a Half-Step Void Refinement expert to death in the past!”

“What?! Revered Flame can kill a Half-Step Void Refinement expert?! Does it mean that his strength and power is considered superior even among the Venerated Seven?!”

“Not only that, I heard rumors saying that when Revered Flame entered the Endless Sea this time, he had also brought along two Void Refinement Realm experts to protect him… Even though no one knows where the two experts have gone, it’s enough to show how extraordinary Revered Flame’s status is in the Rain Palace!”

After all the spirited discussion, even if the cultivators there knew Ning Fan’s identity, many of them still did not have any hope in him. They quickly dispersed in the commotion, afraid that they might get involved with him.

Soon after these cultivators left, a blazing fiery light descended outside the southern tower with a loud bang and materialized into a red-robed old man.

The aura of the old man was extremely strong. What’s especially powerful about him was his flames.

By just standing there, the air became hot like steam for no reason and gave out crackling sounds of explosion. His aura force seethed from his body and glimmered into the sky.

This man was Gu Zhen’s master – Revered Flame, a revered being of the Rain Palace!

“Who are you?!”

Revered Flame let out a menacing bellow and his sound wave turned into raging flames which rushed towards the southern tower, trying to burn Ning Fan and the southern tower to ashes.

This technique was called Fire-Sound Transformation. It was an extremely high-end technique of fire manipulation. As soon as this technique was used, it immediately gained a lot of attention from the crowd.

Layers upon layers of fire waves blasted towards Ning Fan and invaded the palace. But at the next moment, the fire waves eerily disappeared from everyone’s sight.

Ning Fan walked out of the southern tower unaffected and stared at Revered Flame indifferently. He made a stomp on the ground which caused the whole ground to tremble. Revered Flame sensed a great force which came out of nowhere rushing towards his direction and hurriedly dodged.

However, the movement he made caused the aura condensed with his wrath to vanish.

“I’m Zhou Ming, the tower lord of the three towers of the Lost World Palace!”

“Zhou Ming?! You said you’re Zhou Ming?!”

Revered Flame seemed to have recalled something and one of the corners of his lips raised and formed into a cold smirk.

“Are you the one who took the Green Phoenix Flame? Are you the one who killed Dong Mu and the other two?”

“So what if I am?!” Ning Fan replied firmly.

“If you are, you can die then!”

Revered Flame sneered coldly. In the first place, He already had the intention to kill Ning Fan to vent his anger regarding the matter of the Green Phoenix Flame.

After all, were the people whom he placed in the Lost World Palace someone Ning Fan could kill?

Now, his disciple had died in Ning Fan’s hands. With all the grudges that he had yet to resolve with him, Revered Flame would, of course, not let him off.

Even if he set his personal enmity and grudges aside, Revered Flame coveted the several kinds of Earth Vein Demonic Flames that Ning Fan possessed!

Revered Flame patted his storage pouch and produced a fiery-red flying sword. Just as he was about to make a move against Ning Fan, he suddenly heard voices of two worried females.

“D-Don’t blame him. It’s me who has offended Gu Zhen!”

“Impudent! A revered being of the Rain Palace is trying to cause trouble in my Lost World Palace?!”

The voice which was begging for mercy belonged to Ya Lan while the other one that sounded imposing belonged to Bei Xiaoman.

Ning Fan was inwardly astonished. It was still explainable for Ya Lan to plead for him, but it was somewhat strange to see Bei Xiaoman taking his side.

Wasn’t this unruly little girl planning to kill me every day and night to vent her anger in the past…? I’ve heard that she has successfully attained the Divine Transformation Realm. Could it be that her disposition changed after achieving the breakthrough?

The group of cultivators who stayed to spectate the battle were all stunned. A showdown between two mighty beings which was originally going fine and smooth was abruptly stopped by two women with their words.

Revered Flame stood still with his hands clasping his sword. His eyes darkened and he stopped at once.

The reason why he did not attack Ning Fan was definitely not because of Ya Lan who pleaded with him for mercy but because of Bei Xiaoman’s arrival.

In terms of cultivation base, Bei Xiaoman was nothing in Revered Flame’s eyes but with regards to identity, Bei Xiaoman was the fourth young mistress of the Northern Heaven. She was not someone that Revered Flame could mess with.

However, what Revered Flame found difficult to understand was the rumors spreading in the outside world claiming that Bei Xiaoman had not been on friendly terms with Ning Fan. The reason why he dared to directly act against Ning Fan in Xuan Wu City was because of that information.

It seemed that the information he got was false. This Bei Xiaoman clearly did not resent Ning Fan. Instead, she was behaving coquettishly to the marrow of her bones and had a crush on him.

Revered Flame made a contemptuous smirk and mocked inwardly.

The so-called fourth young mistress of the Northern Heaven is nothing more than a loose woman.

“Mistress Bei, this man has killed my disciple and everyone here witnessed it. Don’t tell me that you and the Lost World Palace are trying to cover up for him?!”

“He killed your disciple?!”

Bei Xiaoman petulantly rolled her eyes at Ning Fan and muttered inwardly.

Why is this stinky Zhou Ming still acting without thinking properly first? Why is he so bold to kill anyone he likes?!

Bei Xiaoman was bossy and arrogant. However, she still knew how far to go and when to stop. She might dare to kill a Fourth Revolution Pill Master but she would be very polite to a Fifth Revolution Pill Master and would not purposely make things difficult for a Divine Transformation Realm expert.

Furthermore, Revered Flame was said to be quite popular in the Rain Palace and he was a good friend to many Void Refinement Realm experts of the Rain Palace. Bei Xiaoman was reluctant to displease a person like him.

Despite knowing full well that provoking Revered Flame was a foolish act, she just could not help but feel angry upon seeing Ning Fan who was still smiling leisurely in silence even though he was faced with imminent disaster.

“This stinky Zhou Ming is mine. You can’t kill him!”

*Hua*

What Bei Xiaoman said caused an uproar in the crowd.

According to rumors, Bei Xiaoman was arrogant and unruly and she never showed mercy in killing anyone. There was no way she would ever show consideration to her subordinates. Why did her temperament change today?

Why would she actually protect a devil lord at the risk of offending the Rain Palace?

The great Devil Lord Zhou Ming was truly powerful and he’s one of the Venerated Eight of the Internal Endless Sea. However, Revered Flame’s status is even higher than that of the eight venerated beings…

Even though Bei Xiaoman had a powerful background, she should know that it’s inappropriate to be on bad terms with the Rain Palace while being in the mortal world.

The guardian of the silver tower, Old Ancestor Lu Qing, was absolutely the most surprised person at this moment.

Although he heard that after Bei Xiaoman attained the Divine Transformation Realm and severed parts of her scarlet dragon which temporarily suppressed her menstruation and softened her temperament a lot, he had never expected that Bei Xiaoman would defend others.

Even Ning Fan looked at her with a puzzled look which made her blush with embarrassment and anger.

He suddenly felt that this Bei Xiaoman seemed to have some cuteness within her.

Revered Flame’s eyes flashed with a hint of hesitation. As a matter of fact, he absolutely did not expect that the Lost World Palace would be so protective towards Ning Fan.

Revered Flame had also heard of Ning Fan’s notoriety as the Venerated Eighth of the Internal Endless Sea. However, he did not believe most of them. Even if Ning Fan really had a Half-Step Void Refinement Realm combat power, Revered Flame would still not put him in his eyes.

The only person who could ever make him feel fearful in the entire Penglai Immortal Island was Bei Xiaoman because he did not want to offend the Lost Palace World either.

However, the longer Revered Flame studied Ning Fan’s dantian using his spirit sense, the more apparent the covetous look in his eyes.

He had wanted to kill Ning Fan a long time ago!

Since the time when Dong Mu was killed and the Green Phoenix Flame fell into Ning Fan’s hands!

This time, many experts of the Rain Palace entered the Endless Sea to get the qualifications to enter the Thunder Emperor’s Tomb. However, Revered Flame had already obtained his qualification and he did not have to worry about it anymore.

Now, he came here just for the Earth Vein Demonic Flames! Dong Mu’s death had allowed him to find out quite a lot of details about Ning Fan. The most important detail of all was him possessing several types of Earth Vein Demonic Flames!

Moreover, he had made certain of that fact himself as he sensed four types of Earth Vein Demonic Flames from Ning Fan’s body.

If he obtains these four types of Earth Vein Demonic Flames and devour them with his flame spell, his cultivation base would certainly experience a drastic boost and break through to the Half-Step Void Refinement Realm or even… to the Void Refinement Realm!

After having innumerable thoughts in his mind, Revered Flame made a decision.

No matter what happens today, he was not going to let Ning Fan go!

“Mistress Bei, for the sake of the Lost World Palace, I showed you some respect but it doesn’t mean that I have to give others respect too! This person has killed my disciple and I must kill him to avenge my disciple! If I have offended you, I hope the Lost World Palace can be magnanimous enough to forgive me!”

“If you dare to, I will never forgive you!”

Bei Xiaoman’s eyes narrowed coldly. She rolled up her sleeves and knitted her pretty brows. Judging by her posture, it seemed like she was going to charge towards Revered Flame and teach him a lesson in the next second.

However, just as she made a small step forward, Ning Fan gently grabbed her delicate wrist and pulled her backwards. Then, he gave her a casual smile.

“Mistress Bei, thank you for not forgetting our past relationship and defending me. However, even though our relationship is deep, we have yet to take the final step and so, I am still not officially ‘yours’. You don’t have to be so protective of me.”

*Hua*

The onlookers were overwhelmed with great shock once more.

Venerated Ming is making fun of Bei Xiaoman! Judging from Venerated Ming’s words, could it be that he has a very intimate relationship with Bei Xiaoman and they’ve done many things that they love to do but just haven’t proceeded to the last step of their relationship?

Flirting. He was absolutely flirting with her!

“Let go of me! Don’t touch me! You’re gross! Who has a deep relationship with you?!” Bei Xiaoman slapped away Ning Fan’s hand without realizing at all that she had been verbally assailed by Ning Fan with obscenities.

“Be quiet, you too…”

Ning Fan’s gaze swept across Bei Xiaoman and then Ya Lan. All of a sudden, his smile turned into his usual indifferent look.

He smiled because he was in a good mood seeing his two old friends, Ya Lan and Bei Xiaoman, who were nervous for him.

He turned cold because Revered Flame kept threatening to kill him with every word he said. Even a man made of mud would also be enraged after hearing such a threat.

Interesting.

After making the Endless Sea afraid of him with some effort, there was the Rain Palace trying to challenge him now.

Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel

Note:

“Grasping Evil” is being translated on Veratales (Click here) but Liberspark (Click here) is hosting the chapters as well. You are encouraged to read on veratales.com for project updates. 🙂
Some phrases or expressions of the original are changed for ease of reading.
If a mistake or mistakes were found in this chapter, feel free to comment below.
Some terms are subject to change when better suggestions are selected.
All the internal monologues will be in italic form.