Volume 1 Volume 6 Chapter 140

Volume 6 Chapter 140: Between Righteousness and Evil (Part 3)

When Xu Qingfan woke up and opened his eyes, what he first saw was a pair of captivating eyes, very close, staring blankly at him.

What kind of eyes were those? They were completely black, with no hint of white, clearly once very beautiful, large, and enchanting. But now they had only pure black, containing no joy or anger, just endless cold indifference. Their previous beauty made those eyes seem even more eerie and terrifying.

Like a magical flower, beautiful yet strange, captivating yet harmful. Knowing the danger it holds, one still finds oneself unintentionally trapped within it.

I remember many years ago when Xu Qingfan first emerged, he would hesitate even to kill a low-level demon beast. But now, after years of training, Xu Qingfan has been stained with blood, and fear has not touched his heart for a long time. As a respected master now, he should not feel panic.

However, looking into those pitch-black eyes so close to him, an endless coldness struck Xu Qingfan, and he felt a wave of panic rising inside him.

His body shook, and Xu Qingfan suddenly stepped back. With his current skills, his speed was like lightning, but the owner of those eyes seemed to be right on him. No matter how fast Xu Qingfan retreated, the eyes remained just an inch away, impossible to escape.

Then, Xu Qingfan realized that the owner of the eyes was indeed clinging to him, arms wrapped around his neck. If not for those strange and terrifying eyes staring directly at him, their closeness would feel quite affectionate.

After retreating hundreds of feet in a blink, Xu Qingfan found that although those eyes were fixed on him with a cold gaze, they did not seem to hold any malice, causing him to halt his retreat.

With those eyes so close, Xu Qingfan could not see the outline of their owner. After the initial shock and panic, he had calmed down, realizing that despite the terror of those eyes, they gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Tilting his head back to create some distance, Xu Qingfan finally saw the true appearance of the owner of those eyes.

A face both familiar and strange appeared before Xu Qingfan’s eyes.

Familiarity came from the fact that this face was clearly Ting’er’s, but the strangeness lay in the weird black patterns covering Ting’er’s face again. These patterns were even more mysterious and complicated than in the past. Ting’er’s expression was colder, filled with a frightening intensity, as if she were a dark sorceress, looking down on the world, taking lives at will. Added to that were her completely black eyes, which made it hard for Xu Qingfan to recognize her in a hurry.

"Ting’er!"

Xu Qingfan exclaimed.

Hearing Xu Qingfan’s cry, Ting’er’s body trembled slightly. In her pure, indifferent black eyes, emotions that should belong to a human began to emerge, but these feelings were deeply hidden beneath the darkness, making them hard to notice.

It felt like hesitation, warmth, and happiness, but mostly it was just confusion.

This was the slight emotion Xu Qingfan sensed in Ting’er’s eyes.

However, before Xu Qingfan could understand why Ting’er had changed so much, he saw something else in her water-like gaze that shocked him.

It was Xu Qingfan’s own reflection in Ting’er’s eyes; in the reflection, like Ting’er, his face was covered in black patterns, and his eyes were completely dark, making him look even colder and more indifferent than Ting’er.

"Why… have I turned into this?"

"Ah!"

Just as Xu Qingfan was lost in thought, a familiar exclamation suddenly rang out.

Xu Qingfan turned to look and found Dongfang Qingling, Wang Zegang, Zhang Ningmei, Bai Yu, Bai Qingfu, and the two brothers, Tian Zhenxian and Tian Zhenling, who had been persistently asking him to take them as students, staring at him in disbelief. The one who had just cried out was Dongfang Qingling. She covered her mouth with both hands, seemingly filled with joy because Xu Qingfan was finally fine, yet beneath the joy, there was a deep sense of panic.

It turned out that as soon as Xu Qingfan woke up, Dongfang Qingling, Wang Zegang, Zhang Ningmei, Bai Yu, Bai Qingfu, and the two brothers had sensed something unusual. They had been guarding around Xu Qingfan for nearly half a month, watching helplessly as the dark patterns on his face deepened and his power grew stronger. They were worried whether Xu Qingfan would fall into darkness.

As Xu Qingfan opened his eyes, an incredibly mighty aura surged forth. With that astonishing force, the area around Xu Qingfan began to ripple wildly, the skies changed, and everyone was forced to step back. Tian Zhenxian and Tian Zhenling, the brothers with the weakest skills, even fell to the ground.

As Xu Qingfan’s aura radiated outward, Ting’er’s body shook and she awakened from her daze.

The aura surrounding Xu Qingfan was indescribable, mixing the essence of light and darkness. At first glance, it seemed like dark energy, but within it lay traces of righteous energy, feeling very strange. Xu Qingfan’s body, due to the longer time of merging with the magic orb, suddenly stood up, looking like an ancient demon, instilling fear in those who beheld him.

However, seeing that Xu Qingfan was finally awake, everyone felt relieved despite their worries about him falling into darkness. Dongfang Qingling looked at Xu Qingfan with urgency, and she was the first to notice something unusual about his eyes. They were dark yet pure, containing endless indifference. Although Xu Qingfan may not have realized it, the changes had already merged deeply into his heart and mind.

In short, the feeling Xu Qingfan had when he first looked into Ting’er’s eyes was exactly what Dongfang Qingling felt now upon seeing Xu Qingfan’s eyes, her heart racing with fear, causing her to exclaim.

However, with Dongfang Qingling’s startled cry, Ting’er, standing in front of Xu Qingfan, suddenly trembled. A fierce and terrifying look flashed in her indifferent eyes, like a frightened little beast. She could no longer remain calm, and with a shake of her arms, she broke free from Xu Qingfan and swiftly flew towards Dongfang Qingling. As she flew, dark magical flames surged from her body, far more powerful than before.

Dongfang Qingling was focused only on observing Xu Qingfan and did not notice Ting’er rushing towards her. By the time she realized it, the dark flames were already very close, and the power of the flames caused the space around them to tremble slightly. It seemed she was about to meet a terrible fate.

Seeing all of this, Xu Qingfan felt a rush of anxiety in his heart, but beneath that anxiety, there was a sense of indifference. Although he knew these people well, their lives and deaths did not seem to matter to him.

In fact, Xu Qingfan had sensed this indifference long before. Initially, when he saw Ting’er’s strange eyes and felt disbelief at her transformation, he experienced strong emotions, but all of them hid a deep indifference, as if he cared nothing for everything around him. The various emotions were merely a subconscious disguise.

However, this time, the indifference felt even more clear.

As he sensed the deep indifference in his heart, Xu Qingfan froze for a moment, and the action he had prepared to save her stopped as well. Coupled with his unfamiliarity with the newly acquired life-and-death energy, his delay meant that he could see Dongfang Qingling was about to perish under Ting’er’s dark flames.

Fortunately, at the most crucial moment, Wang Zegang intervened.

Under the fusion of life and death energy, Wang Zegang acted silently. When Ting’er was just one yard away from Dongfang Qingling, it was as if she had run into an invisible wall. Her body suddenly halted, and the dark flames around her scattered. Where the flames fell, deep, bottomless holes appeared silently in the hard ground.

Sensing her attack had been blocked, Ting’er’s bloodthirsty and violent aura intensified. Looking around, she quickly found Wang Zegang, discarded Dongfang Qingling, and charged towards him. With a wave of her hand, dark flames erupted before her again, transforming into a massive, fierce black dragon that roared and lunged at Wang Zegang.

Feeling the fierce power of the black dragon, Wang Zegang was greatly shocked because he realized that Ting’er, who had only been at the early stage of the Real Golden Core Stage before, was now at a level equal to his own. The black magic flames, which he had already worried about, now contained ten times more demonic energy.

Not daring to be careless for a moment, Wang Zegang quickly formed hand seals, and the energies of yin and yang appeared around him, swirling into a vortex to block the black dragon’s attack.

The yin-yang fusion technique Wang Zegang practiced was transformed from Xu Qingfan’s "Formula of Life and Death," which was considered a rare and advanced cultivation method in the cultivation world. However, when faced with Ting’er’s magic fire technique, he found himself at a disadvantage despite having the same level of power, and he could only struggle to hold on.

On the other side, seeing Wang Zegang blocking Ting’er for him, Xu Qingfan let out a long sigh and seemed to feel relieved.

The reason it was "seemed" is that Xu Qingfan always felt as if he had never worried. The earlier impact of the Demon Thought, while not controlling Xu Qingfan’s mind, had mingled with his spirit, giving him the indifference of someone from the demon path and a disregard for others. But now, his heart was filled with emotions, as if it were merely a habit, deceiving himself.

This feeling made Xu Qingfan very uncomfortable.

Shaking his head to suppress his doubts, Xu Qingfan then looked closely at the battle between Wang Zegang and Ting’er, carefully observing Ting’er’s changes. After a moment, Xu Qingfan finally understood why the "demon orb" had suddenly lost strength when it merged with him.

At this moment, Ting’er’s body was filled with surging demonic energy, and when the "demon orb" merged with Xu Qingfan, the sudden leak of demonic energy occurred, and he had a close encounter with Ting’er while being conscious…

It was clear that at a crucial moment, Ting’er sacrificed herself to help Xu Qingfan bear the demonic energy, thus preventing him from being controlled by the "demon orb."

"Ting’er, why are you putting yourself through this?"

Xu Qingfan sighed quietly.

Touched in his heart, the coldness deep inside him seemed to melt away a little.

At this moment, although the fight between Ting’er and Wang Zegang was fierce, Xu Qingfan did not step in to stop it. First, he was not yet familiar with the power of the life-and-death energy he had just formed. Second, he had just reached the Astral Projection Stage and was still unsure of how strong he really was. He feared that if he tried to intervene, he might accidentally harm Wang Zegang and Ting’er.

Most importantly, Xu Qingfan needed to carefully observe Ting’er’s situation right now.

"What is happening? Looking at Ting’er, she seems to have no memory of the past, as if she has lost her mind. Could it be that she absorbed too much demonic energy? But this is just demonic energy, part of the energy of the world. While it can have a strong effect on the mind, it shouldn’t cause such a state. After all, even though Ting’er helped me absorb the demonic energy from the ‘demon pearl’, the Demon Thought inside it has always been wreaking havoc in my mind."

Xu Qingfan frowned as he thought.

Normally, if he saw Ting’er in such a state, Xu Qingfan would be incredibly anxious. However, deep down, under his endless coldness, he felt unusually calm and did not lose his composure. Perhaps this was the only benefit of his coldness.

However, Xu Qingfan did not like his current state because he felt that being indifferent and calm, as if he did not care about anything, was not how a normal person should behave.

Especially now, Ting’er was clearly the person he cared about the most, but for some reason, Xu Qingfan’s heart could not feel any urgency. These two conflicting feelings made Xu Qingfan extremely uncomfortable.

What was most important was that Xu Qingfan instinctively felt a kind of fear towards this seemingly indifferent coldness, worrying that one day in the future, under this cold feeling, he might do something he could never undo.

Suddenly, Xu Qingfan had an idea.

"Just now, Junior Martial Sister Dongfang’s loud scream caused such a big reaction from Ting’er, but at the beginning, when Ting’er was retreating a hundred steps from me, she remained completely quiet. Could it be that… even when Ting’er was lost in her thoughts, she still remembered me?"

With this thought in mind, Xu Qingfan decided to do an experiment.