Grasping Evil - Chapter 422
Chapter 422: A Battle Between Two Emperors
In the dream-world within his mindscape, Ning Fan’s whole body seemed to have been suppressed by thousands of mountains. His white robes were soaked in blood. However, even though the bones of his body had been crushed, he still did not fall to his knees.
He stared furiously at the middle-aged man in black robes who stood at the summit of the evil mountain with his cold and determined eyes.
Black snowflakes filled the whole world. Standing amidst the black snow, that man did not portray any contrast at all.
He was a devil and those snowflakes were evil snow. The two of them share a likeness with each other and there seemed to be a perfectly natural Dao Rhythm between them.
The eyes of the black-robed man were sharp like a halberd and had a grim and frosty expression. His black hair was untidy. Two horns grew on his head and six wings stretched out on his back. A vertical ghost eye could be seen between his brows.
Standing on the peak of the evil mountain, he looked down on Ning Fan as if the latter was an ant. There was no emotion in his eyes except for utter contempt which came from the depths of his soul.
“With one kowtow before the Devil, you will become my slave and your immortal foundation will be erased completely. Then, you will condense a devil body. Why don’t you kneel?!”
“What will happen if I do kneel?” Ning Fan sneered and questioned the man in black robes in return.
“…” The black-robed man became silent for a period of time. Faced with Ning Fan’s question, there were just two possible answers: to become a slave or to refuse.
Ning Fan was the first and only person who dared to raise a question against the man in black robes.
“If you kneel, you will obtain the slave body of Evil Luo. Slaughtering all your loved ones will allow you to attain the supreme evil path and become a true supreme devil who can then help me resurrect. When the day I resurrect arrives, I will grant you immortality!”
“Then, I will not kneel!”
Ning Fan sneered even more coldly. He would not kneel because he had already seen through the background of the black primordial spirit from the very beginning.
That black primordial spirit was none other than himself. It was the combination of all of his negative feelings.
The cold-bloodedness and hatred in that black primordial spirit equally reflected how much he loved Zhihe and cared for his women and loved ones.
He must not be devoured by the black primordial spirit. Otherwise, the first thing the black primordial spirit would make him do after taking over his body would be to kill all of his loved ones in order to walk the evil path!
He chose not to kneel not just because he had an unbending spirit or he was reluctant to become a slave but because he just could not do it!
In the past, he had fallen into the evil path just to gain strength. However, if the endpoint of that evil path meant hurting his loved ones, this evil path should then be abandoned!
“Interesting… But whether you kneel or not, it’s never up to you! Humph!”
The man in black robes let out a cold snort and made a stomp on the ground. His physical body scattered into countless black snowflakes.
At the next moment, the whole world began to tremble violently. A rush of earth-shattering evil aura force seemed to be making the heavens collapse!
Under the evil aura force, the black snow flowed in reverse and entered Ning Fan’s body.
All of a sudden, a gigantic square formation diagram appeared beneath Ning Fan’s feet. The black veined lines on the formation diagram were strange and mysterious.
Then, an irresistible gush of devil qi flowed into him, filling up his entire body. At the same moment, Ning Fan’s expression changed.
‘Body possession?! This is impossible!”
He could not imagine that the man in black robes to actually traverse time and space and life and death to possess Ning Fan’s physical body with just a trace of Evil Luo’s slave mark in his body using a supreme ability!
According to this black-robed man’s original plan, he should be demonizing Ning Fan. With his status, it was simply impossible for him to set his eyes on Ning Fan who was just a lowly Divine Transformation Realm cultivator and possess his body.
However, after witnessing Ning Fan’s stubbornness, he suddenly changed his plan and decided to possess him!
“Not bad. I’ve changed my mind. Your personality really fits my appetite. A body that has never knelt before anyone is the most qualified for me to possess!”
Within Ning Fan’s body, another consciousness began to quickly form. This consciousness belonged to one of the nine great devil ancestors, Great Emperor Mo Luo[1]!
His original plan was to demonize Ning Fan and command him to prepare a physical body of a True Immortal Realm expert for him to descend into and possess that body in order to resurrect.
Now, however, Mo Luo wanted to directly possess Ning Fan.
If it was the black primordial spirit who wanted to devour Ning Fan, he could still resist.
Now, however, he was being possessed by an expert who was at the level of the Immortal Emperor Realm. How is it even possible for him to resist?!
Ning Fan’s white robes that had been stained with blood gradually turned black.
His consciousness slowly turned blurry. The figures of each and every one of the women he had met in the past seemed to emerge before his eyes. All of them were walking further and further away from him as if he was a stranger to them.
He could roughly guess what kind of heartless and insane things he would do once Great Emperor Mo Luo traverse time and space to possess him.
Slaughter my loved ones…
“Don’t… ever… think… you… can… do that…”
Ning Fan’s eyes were filled with ferocity. Even though he could not choose to live, he could still choose… death!
He could abandon his Dao, sacrifice his life or even have his Dao and reputation separated from each other. But no matter what, he would never allow those women to be harmed by others!
His primordial spirit was ignited!
His demon blood was ignited!
His Sea of Consciousness was ignited!
He ignited everything he could. He wanted to stop Mo Luo from possessing his body. He wanted to stop the black primordial spirit from occupying his body. He wanted to make all of Mo Luo’s plans go in vain with his death!
Besides, if he is fortunate enough, he could cause Mo Luo to be severely injured and make him pay by committing suicide while the latter was halfway in possessing him!
“Humph! It’s beyond my expectations that this young man would choose not to help me in my resurrection even if he has to die! What a ruthless and cruel man!”
After being scared by Ning Fan’s actions, Mo Luo could only give up on his plan of possessing his body. He turned into black snowflakes and left Ning Fan’s body. Then, his physical body reformed and coldly stared at the latter.
Since he could not possess Ning Fan directly, he could only compromise and command the black primordial spirit to slowly devour him.
He just needed to make Ning Fan fall to his knees and kowtow to him. Then, everything would be fine!
“Devils of heaven and earth, heed my command. Kneel!”
Great Emperor Mo Luo let out a cold bellow and a trace of devil sound came out of his mouth. All of a sudden, an unimaginable aura force assailed Ning Fan’s body, causing his heart to waver.
Ning Fan’s expression turned into that of shock. It was as if he had become lifeless as his body went out of his control and he wanted to kowtow to the evil mountain.
Under the effect of the devil sound, he had to yield. Not just him, even heaven and earth had to yield to the owner of this voice.
It was the power of the Command Enforcing Word!
Even though one refuses to obey in the bottom of their hearts, they still could not control their bodies from obeying.
At this very moment, however, a rush of magic power which was cool like the water from the Luo River suddenly surged within Ning Fan’s body.
This coolness gradually cleared the blurriness in Ning Fan’s eyes and stopped him from kneeling down at a crucial moment.
Great Emperor Mo Luo was slightly surprised. Then, his eyes instantly turned piercing cold and said with a hint of rage.
“Mind Purifying Virtuous Incantation, the forbidden incantation of the Luo Clan! Humph! How dare you barge in and ruin my work! You’re courting death!”
He planned on acting in order to disperse the effect of the incantation on Ning Fan’s body to make the caster of the technique suffer a backlash. But at the next moment, the situation changed. This time, even Great Emperor Mo Luo himself could not help but reveal a look of surprise!
“Impossible! Why is someone at the Immortal Emperor Realm here?!”
At this moment, the whole world was suddenly separated into two!
Half of the world was still covered with black snow while the other half turned into a blood-red lightning world with rumbling thunder and lightning flashing across the sky.
An old Daoist in red robes flew to them while stepping on red clouds. The words he spoke were rather derisive.
“A dignified Great Emperor of the devil race is bullying a junior who is merely at the First Step of Dao Cultivation… Don’t you feel ashamed of yourself?”
“Who are you?!”
“I am Tai Su, an immortal emperor of the later generations. It really makes me have no regrets in dying for having the chance to battle against Great Emperor Mo Luo today! Young man, step back!”
The old man in red robes arrived in front of Mo Luo in the blink of an eye. The lightning in his eyes flashed and a rush of immortal aura force which was a bit weaker than Mo Luo’s began to spread, eliminating all the devil qi in Ning Fan’s body.
Ning Fan regained his mobility!
His eyes were filled with astonishment. This old Daoist who appeared out of nowhere and was standing above the red clouds called himself Tai Su. Without a doubt, he was the master of that lightning star and emperor bone!
The reason why this person showed himself was actually to protect Ning Fan. By just standing beside Mo Luo and him, Ning Fan felt that his body was on the verge of collapsing. He could not withstand the frightening immortal aura force.
Immortals were beings who stood on the summit of the mountain.
As for these two immortal emperors of different eras, they had also once stood on the pinnacle of immortals!
Step back… The only thing that Ning Fan could do was to step back. There was no room here for him to act here at all.
He hurriedly went one hundred thousand li* (500m per li) away from them, observing them from afar.
Mo Luo and Tai Su stood facing each other. The place where they stood turned into worlds which belonged to them respectively.
Mo Luo commanded the snow to fall upon heaven and earth while Tai Su ordered the blood-red lightning to fill heaven and earth. With Ning Fan’s current insight, he could roughly tell that these two Immortal Emperors had taken over the Heavenly Dao with their emperor might and made the Heavenly Dao in their respective places to change.
“So it turns out that when one attains the Immortal Emperor Realm, they could even seize the Heavenly Dao in reverse!” Ning Fan exclaimed.
He knew that a battle between two emperors which no one in the realm world would know was about to happen within his mindspace!
It was a rare and unprecedented event in history and the only person who had the chance to witness it was Ning Fan!
For ordinary cultivators, if they could witness the true appearance of immortal emperors, they would probably die with no regrets. As for Ning Fan, however, he was lucky enough to witness the showdown between two immortal emperors!
Mo Luo and Tai Su. One was in black robes while the other was in red.
The world was torn into two. The great momentum of the Heavenly Dao of the two worlds were resisting each other.
The worlds of black-colored snow and blood-red lightning collided against each other and vanished into thin air like smoke.
After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the two worlds began to crumble one after the other. The red-colored Heavenly Dao momentum was dispersed. Even though the black momentum had yet to disperse, it had been seriously damaged.
The remnant waves of force from their clash was enough to shatter the Rain World!
Tai Su only regained his balance after retreating for ten steps. Each step he took would certainly crush mountains and rivers.
Vaguely, his eyes revealed a hint of amazement. With a solemn tone, he said.
“You really deserve to have the title of one of the nine ancestors of the ancient devil race. I am actually so much weaker than you!”
“Humph! You aren’t bad either. A mere immortal emperor of a later era could actually make me fall back half a step. This level of strength is enough to make you unrivalled among those who were at the same level as you in your era!”
Indeed. Mo Luo had moved back half a step. From his livid expression, one could tell that this half a step was a massive humiliation to him.
When the nine ancestors had been born in the devil race in ancient times, Mo Luo was the strongest of the nine emperors in his race. Those who were able to make him fall back half a step were all impressive individuals.
As an immortal emperor of a later era, Tai Su was also one of the handful of supreme experts in his generation just like what Mo Luo had guessed since he was capable of making him fall back for half a step!
Since Tai Su had come to protect Ning Fan, it was impossible for him to hurt the latter.
As for Mo Luo who had his own pride and arrogance, he would definitely not bother to sneak-attack Ning Fan.
He let Ning Fan spectate the battle between the two of them. He even purposely restrained the impact of their battle in order to prevent the remnant force of their power from crushing Ning Fan.
Compared to demonizing a junior, the current Mo Luo was much more interested in confronting Tai Su.
“Bring it on and fight me!”
Mo Luo took a step forward as his eyes glinted with crazy killing intent. However, they gradually became calm afterwards.
His eyes went from burning with killing intent to nothingness. No. He did not lose the killing intent in him but it was sublimated instead!
His eyes turned pitch black. At this moment, wherever Mo Luo’s eyes land on would be dyed black completely, including heaven and earth!
Each ray of blood-red lightning began to disperse and disintegrate.
When Ning Fan was vaguely captured by Mo Luo’s gaze, his expression suddenly changed greatly. At the same moment, he felt like he was about to be consumed by the darkness in Mo Luo’s eyes from the depths of his soul!
It was not death… It was merging him into Mo Luo’s Dao, turning him into a part of that great devil ancestor!
It was an annihilation of his conscious self which was much more terrifying than death!
It would turn everything empty and make all Dao Sense vanish like smoke!
“Protect yourself with the lightning diagram!”
From afar, Tai Su’s voice echoed into Ning Fan’s ears and a trace of lightning power went into his body. Instantly, a massive blood-red lightning diagram appeared automatically beneath his feet without him personally activating it.
Moreover, the might of this lightning diagram was more than one hundred times stronger than what Ning Fan could summon! It could not only devour lightning power of the same level as it, but also the Dao Sense of others and everything else!
A trace of magic power from Immortal Emperor Tai Su could actually make the lightning diagram have such immense and intense power. If Tai Su personally summons this lightning diagram, how powerful would it be?!
Ning Fan was filled with gratitude. If it was not for Tai Su who had saved him every single time, his Dao would surely perish under the power of Mo Luo’s eyes.
At the end of the day, it turned out that he was still really frail and weak.
At the end of the day, it turned out that he could not even withstand a single glance from an immortal emperor.
Other than the trace of lightning power that Tai Su had given to him, Ning Fan also discovered a trace of a cooling magic power within his body. It was gentle and warm like water.
He had a sense of familiarity with this gentleness and warmth but he was certain that he had not seen it before.
“Other than Tai Su, who else is helping me…?”
He frowned. At the next moment, all of his thoughts were dismissed by a terrifying aura force.
Mo Luo stretched his five fingers and clawed at the skies, condensing the great momentum of the Heavenly Dao into pieces of black snowflakes. Each of them glowed with mysterious starlight. Soon, he turned them into a black bow of icy snow and glittering stars.
Above that black bow, there were one million traces of abstruse marks of the devil race.
With Ning Fan’s knowledge, he could tell at first glance that these marks were the veined lines of a unique formation. It seemed to be enhancing the destructive power of the bow.
With his proficiency in the Dao of Formations, he saw through the veined lines of the marks and engraved them deeply into his memories.
Then, he recognized it. This bow technique was the famous technique of the old ancestor of the Six-Winged Clan, the Star Punishing Bow!
Mo Luo did not use star power to condense it. Instead, he borrowed the great momentum of the Heavenly Dao and turned icy snow into stars to transform into the Star Punishing Bow. The supreme concept behind it was beyond Ning Fan’s comprehension.
However, he understood that this Star Punishing Bow that Mo Luo formed was millions of times stronger and more profound than the bow he displayed.
Even though Mo Luo had yet to draw the bow string, heaven and earth were already trembling in fear.
The destructive power of a single arrow from this bow would be enough to pierce through the Rain World. This was the true interpretation of “as soon as the bow is drawn, a world shall be extinguished!”
To Ning Fan, being able to witness Mo Luo displaying this bow technique was certainly a rare and precious opportunity!
“The Star Punishing Bow!” Obviously, Tai Su also recognized this technique and his eyes turned deeply grim.
“This bow technique was invented by my slave, Liu Yi. He eventually became my Dao corpse and contributed his body to me. Thus, this bow technique is naturally mine to use. Withstand my arrow!”
Mo Luo’s mouth curved into a cold and vicious smile. He stretched his arms and pulled the bowstring.
A boundless and frightening magic power condensed into a black arrow of snow and starlight.
Mountains crumbled and rivers trembled. The vast earth collapsed as pieces of the hollow skies collapsed.
“Die!”
Mo Luo smirked and fired an arrow. Every place that got affected by the light of the arrow crumbled and disintegrated, returning to the formless mass before creation!
Tai Su’s eyes widened with surprise. He sensed a strong force from this arrow which would determine life and death.
He extended his five fingers and clawed at the air. A lightning ray which was resplendent like a rainbow immediately condensed into a lightning armor.
Ning Fan did not know how many grades higher that lightning armor was compared to his. Moreover, it was not recorded in Hong Yi’s secret technique.
Tai Su had once forcibly withstood the attacks of several immortal emperors at the same level as him with the strength of this lightning armor without it breaking.
But when the light of the arrow shot past the lightning armor, the world where Tai Su was standing began to gradually fall apart!
His lightning armor which was strong enough to defend against the joint attacks of a few immortal emperors cracked and shattered in the next moment!
*Puff*
Tai Su coughed out fresh blood severely. His expression was filled with sheer surprise. Even with his strength that made him nearly unrivalled among the experts in his era, he actually did not have the power to resist against Mo Luo!
That single arrow pierced through his armor and was about to eliminate Tai Su’s Dao as well!
At that critical moment, Tai Su stomped harshly on the hollow space and a rainbow-colored lightning diagram emerged underneath his feet. Just as his physical body was about to collapse, he turned into a rainbow-colored ray and went into the lightning diagram, avoiding that fatal strike.
That arrow did not kill Tai Su. It blasted the vast hollow space behind Tai Su, causing horrifying windstorms across the sky.
After a long time, the windstorms died down. Tai Su then came out from the lightning diagram with his aged face as pale as joss paper. There was a bloody hole on his chest. It was undoubtedly left by the arrow which pierced right through his heart and could not heal.
“Hehe… I have lost…”
“You are already not weak. When I was at my peak, those who could survive my arrow were only one or two individuals from the nine devil ancestors.” Mo Luo frowned and spoke. The fact that his arrow did not kill Tai Su was really beyond his expectation.
“But currently, you are not at your peak condition…” Tai Su smiled mockingly at himself. His eyes deliberately looked at the evil mountain that was situated far from him.
“Don’t worry. I have even used thirty percent of my strength. You should be proud of yourself for not dying after receiving my attack!”
Ning Fan was internally shocked. He had always thought that immortal emperors were the strongest experts. However, from their conversation, Ning Fan could tell that Tai Su was definitely the strongest immortal emperor among the others in his era.
However, an immortal emperor like him was nearly killed by a single arrow from Mo Luo who only used thirty percent of his strength.
This Mo Luo is so strong. He is indeed a very scary being!
Immortal emperors aren’t the strongest beings in the world!
“Great Emperor Mo Luo, you are very strong. But this young man is my inheritor after countless generations. He is the first junior who could fully condense my Tai Su Lightning Star. Thus, he can be considered as half a disciple to me… You can’t harm him!”
“*Snort* A thickheaded old man. This time, I will not show any mercy… Soul Extraction!”
Mo Luo’s eyes turned cold. He extended his five fingers and clawed at the hollow space. At the next moment, traces of soul power were extracted into his hand.
He clawed at the earth and extracted the soul of the great earth!
He clawed at the Void Realm and extracted the soul of it!
He clawed at the heavens and extracted the soul of the sun, the moon and stars!
Then, he clawed at the heavens again to extract the soul of the Heavenly Dao!
Each time he extracted the souls, he would become even stronger than before.
This was Ning Fan’s first time seeing the Soul Extraction being used on extracting other souls other than the soul of the earth. Evidently, his Soul Extraction technique of extracting the soul of the earth was just at the lowest grade.
After extracting all the souls of the heavens, the earth, the Heavenly Dao and source of all lives, Mo Luo’s aura force had nearly increased by one fold. In the face of such aura force, Tai Su who was already injured felt as if he was suffocating.
“This is approximately fifty percent of my magic power when I was at my peak condition. You will surely die now!”
Mo Luo’s voice reverberated across heaven and earth and the echo of his voice constantly resounded in their ears like rumbling thunder.
The two worlds combined into one and it was solely under Mo Luo’s control again.
Even Lightning Emperor Tai Su did not have the power to seize Mo Luo’s world away!
Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel
[1] Mo Luo (Chinese: 魔罗) Mo Luo is the same as Evil Luo. The name has been changed to better fit the context. Mo literally means evil; Luo has a wider meaning. It could literally mean either silk, net, display or collect.
