“Did you know that the culprit responsible for the annihilation of dozens of clans had already been taken down? The culprit was eradicated by the old ancestor of Hu Clan who sacrificed his life after taking the Decaying Corpse Pill. However, Hu Clan suffered an irrecoverable loss, causing them to become a third-class major power and thus, cutting its relationship with Purple Light Sect.”
In the Dual Cultivation Palace of Sinister Sparrow Sect, several female disciples were discussing the stirring matter of Yue Country.
However, there was always a difference between the truth and a rumour, this rumour was naturally fabricated by Ning Fan.
Ten days had already passed since the battle on the Cold Moon Mountain, but the heat remained unabated. Moreover, another thing that caused a slight stir in Sinister Sparrow Sect was Wang Yao’s disappearance.
He had left the sect and hadn’t returned for a long time. Many elders had regarded him as a possible defector, but after the old ancestor of Wang Clan came personally to apologize for his descendant’s irresponsible action, the matter gradually subsided.
Subsequently, something new came up and became the hot topic in the sect – Ning Fan’s seclusion.
Everyone knew that Ning Fan had gone into seclusion to prepare for his battle against Revered White. The former was known as the number one expert amongst experts below the Gold Core realm, whereas the latter was an old monster who had gained high popularity over the years in Yue Country. The battle between these two had also attracted the attention of many across the entire Yue Country.
However, only a small number of people thought that Ning Fan would win. Despite having a monstrous talent, he was just too young, moreover, he practiced Dual Cultivation Law which made his combat power slightly inferior to his peers. As for the Revered White, Bai Feiteng, some said that his Profound Ice Art had already reached the third level of the fourth realm and he had once engulfed a Third Grade Cold Qi by coincidence.
As for his combat power, he could find almost no adversaries among his peers. Last time, he fought against a late Gold Core old expert from the Great Void Sect, Elder Songfeng for days, but it ended in a draw. This showed how powerful the elder was.
When the few female disciples in the Dual Cultivation Palace gradually shifted the topic to Ning Fan, Bai Lu who was meditating on a hassock couldn’t help but knit her brows, as if the name Ning Fan irritated her every time.
This feeling of irritation was immediately turned into seriousness when she sensed a girl coming to Dual Cultivation Palace.
She stood up, gently brushed off the dust on her clothes and brought her disciples along to welcome the visitor.
Ever since Ning Fan went into seclusion, there was a blue-clothed girl often visiting the palace. She would stand outside the seclusion room of Ning Fan for long hours.
She was Young Mistress Lan Mei that not even Bai Lu would dare to neglect.
“Greetings, Young Mistress.” Bai Lu greeted with an unnatural smile.
“Why is he still in seclusion?” Lan Mei’s voice was cold and filled with authority.
“Yes.” Bai Lu was reluctant to talk much about Ning Fan.
“Bai Lu, come with me, I have things to ask you.”
Lan Mei’s eyes glittered as she said in a tone that allowed no refusal. So, Bai Lu could only lower her head and followed Lan Mei into the courtyard where Ning Fan lived.
But as soon as they entered the room, Lan Mei removed her cold and proud face and burst into a laughter.
Her mood had gotten better after her illness was cured and her smile was getting more beautiful.
“Sister Bai, there’s no one here. So you don’t have to feel so restrained. I want to learn more today, teach me…”
“It’s not over yet? No!” Bai Lu no longer feigned her look of respect and expressed her discontentment.
“Just teach me some. You and Ning Fan have…uh…so many times…” Lan Mei was using a rare pleading tone.
“I have nothing to do with him. If you say this again, I swear, I won’t ever teach you again!”
“Alright, alright, alright. Sister won’t say it anymore. So can sister teach me now?”
Lan Mei’s tone was soft as if she’s conversing with a senior. She wanted to learn all kinds of techniques that could please Ning Fan from Bai Lu. That day, she had already become Ning Fan’s woman and in the future, she would become his wife. There were some things that she had to master well. Because she didn’t have her mother to pass down this kind of techniques to her, she needed to ask the help of the number one devilish girl in Dual Cultivation Palace, Bai Lu.
There were many techniques that Bai Lu could teach like the All Pleasurable Art, the Bed Art and etc. Moreover, since Bai Lu had lots of intimate encounters with Ning Fan, she wasn’t actually an outsider to Lan Mei anymore.
As Lan Mei was after all still a Young Mistress, Bai Lu was afraid that her stubbornness would offend this Young Mistress, so she could only provide what Lan Mei demanded reluctantly.
Without anyone knowing it, the proud daughter of Sinister Sparrow and the number one devilish girl, Bai Lu were discussing the *Spring Secret Art openly.
…
Ning Fan didn’t have a clue about anything that was going on outside. This half-a-year seclusion could be very long for ordinary people, but too short for cultivators to finish what they wanted to finish.
After sweeping away all the distracting thoughts inside his head while in the dark and quiet rocky room, an idea popped out in his head – I need to enhance my strength further!
After the battle with Wang Yao, he became more aware of his shortcomings. His attacks weren’t strong enough and his defences were inadequate. Even though he had much battling experience than all of his peers, he was doomed the moment he confronted a true old expert.
He had also reached the same conclusion regarding his magical strength. During the battle with Wang Yao, he casted every one of his trump cards with his entire strength while Wang Yao used every magical art that could deal a massive damage casually.
One not only needed magical power to cast a magical art, but also the cultivation law that would be combined with this art. Although the Snow Treading Art of Ning Fan had already reached the second level, he had never thoroughly comprehended it. Therefore, he only acquired the Ice Rainbow Evading Art. There were still many other Ice Elemental Magical Arts which he had yet to acquire.
As for the Black Demon Art, he hadn’t even cultivated a bit of it, but after swallowing the Black Demon Flame by chance, he would probably be able to use it now. However, because of the lack of proper magical art, he wouldn’t be able to exert the true power of the flame.
If he was really dying for trump cards, he would be left with only two sword Qi, the Fire Transformation Sword Strike and the White Bone Mountain. Moreover, he had only comprehended a part of these two sword Qi, which meant that he had still a long way to go before reaching their peak power.
The silver radiance in his physique made him stronger than peak Harmonious Spirit body cultivator, but the truth was, he hadn’t once cultivated a body refining technique.
Cultivating using magical power was called magical art or technique whereas the cultivation of one’s physique was called a body refining art or technique. Strictly speaking, the giant form of Wang Yao on that day was a body refining technique. Within the ancient Fiendgod’s divine ability, there were numerous body refining technique that had powers even greater than magical art.
However, whether it was magical art or body refining art, Ning Fan had never really practiced any of it. In the memory of Ancient Chaos, the ancient Devil Dao – the Dual Cultivation Law – was acquired when one reached the realm where both magic and physique combined into one. Bone Sovereign had achieved such an extent in his body refining technique whereas Ning Fan made none of such achievements either in magical or physical aspect.
As for the Separation Slayer, it was equipped with the Soul Burning ability, but its grade was pitifully low. It was already astounding that it could advance from low grade early rank to low grade high rank, but because of Ning Fan’s rapid progress, a Low Grade High Rank Magical Treasure was no longer useful to him anymore.
So the Separation Slayer had to be refined again. If the rib of the Bone Sovereign was fused into it, it would definitely increase the power of the Separation Slayer and may even a acquire a more powerful divine ability.
Thus, the purpose of his seclusion was very clear.
First, he had to push the Black Demon Art and Snow Treading Art to the peak of second level and master the magical technique of ice and fire.
Second, he would have to cultivate a defensive kind of body refining art by maximizing the effect of his silver bone body refining realm.
Lastly, he would need to reforge the Separation Slayer with the rib bone of Bone Sovereign.