Xin Jia's eyes changed suddenly, and he couldn't have imagined that the murderous thing he summoned would make such an excessive request and ask for half of his demon soul.

didn't give Xin Jia a chance to refuse, as soon as the old man in the black robe fell, he immediately grabbed his five fingers in the air, and the way around him was retrograde.

Xin Jia gasped, he never expected that this murderous creature would attack him directly. In an instant, five black mist fingers appeared in front of him. In another flash, the finger came directly towards him, and he was already there!

Xin Jia's eyes were cold, and he would not let his fingers come to him.

He shook the storage bag, and twelve golden dragon teeth immediately flew out of the storage bag, circling and protecting him.

Those twelve dragon teeth are a set of defensive magic weapons, and the grade has reached the acquired seven nirvana, which is quite good. As soon as it transformed, a dragon head phantom flew out and swallowed towards the oncoming fingers.

However, the magic power of the finger mang was too amazing, and with only one blow, it directly wiped out the phantom of the dragon's head, and then forward, the twelve dragon teeth were directly pressed into ashes and scattered by the finger mang

Xin Jia was shocked, the weirdness of the finger mang's supernatural power exceeded his expectations. If you want to dodge again, it is too late, and you are directly torn apart by the five fingers that pierce the demon soul and tear it apart.

Under the tear, Xin Jia screamed, and half of the demon soul was directly torn off by the black-robed old man, and the demon blood was splashed everywhere.

The black-robed old man took back the torn demon soul and swallowed it, his face immediately turned ruddy, and his momentum soared again, approaching the middle stage of the sacrifice.

The period of sacrificing the sky seems to be the limit of the cultivation of this black-robed old man.

He no longer devoured demon blood to improve his cultivation, his cold gaze swept over the demons on the demon ship, and finally, he landed on Ning Fan outside the demon ship.

Swept by the gaze of the black-robed old man, on the entire demon ship, the more than 3,000 demon cultivators who were still alive were all cold and shivered.

This black-robed old man is full of magical powers. It's too ferocious, it's too amazing! With a snap of his fingers, he deprives two thousand demon cultivators of demon blood; with a wave of his hand, he can erase the Dao rules, shatter the Heavenly Immortal Treasure of the Seven Nirvana, and tear apart the demon soul of Xinjia, so that Xinjia is powerless to resist

Ning Fan's eyes were even more solemn, in his opinion, this black-robed old man was much more dangerous than Xin Jia today.

Ning Fan also noticed that when the black-robed old man urged the supernatural powers. There was a glimmer of purple in his eyes

The fleeting purple glow seemed to be somewhat familiar

"You, you want to kill this person?"

The black-robed old man asked Xin Jia coldly, facing Xin Jia, there was an innate coercion of the superior.

"Yes, you have swallowed half of the demon soul of this demon, and kill this son quickly, otherwise, this demon will not spare you!" Xin Jia replied with a gloomy face.

At this moment, Xinjia only has the left half of the demon soul left. The right half of his body has been torn off by the black-robed old man.

He urged the demon magic, and the right half of the demon soul gradually reshaped, growing hands and feet. However, the entire demon soul became illusory and transparent, and its aura was sluggish. Half of its demon soul power was taken away by the black-robed old man and could not be replaced!

Xin Jia looked at the eyes of the black-robed old man. It's extremely cold, but it's more regretful.

If you had known that you had summoned this beast, you would have lost half of your demon soul. No matter what, he would not choose to summon this murderous object.

Things have happened, and everything is irretrievable, at this moment, Xin Jia only wants to use the power of the murderous thing to kill Ning Fan, and afterwards, slowly settle the old accounts with this murderous thing!

"Noise!" The black-robed old man's eyes were cold, and an invisible ancient demon power immediately slammed down on Xin Jia.

Shocked by that coercion, Xin Jia's chest ached, he took a few steps back, coughed up blood, and his face was shocked.

The black-robed old man ignored Xin Jia anymore, his eyes swept towards Ning Fan coldly, slightly confused.

But that confusion soon turned into an indifferent and ruthless killing intent, and said coldly,

"One finger is enough to kill this person!"

The old man in the black robe flickered, blended into the heaven and earth in one step, and disappeared.

In the next instant, above the void around Ning Fan, thousands of black mist demon shadows appeared one after another, and each demon shadow was the same as the appearance of the black-robed old man.

Tens of thousands of demon shadows raised their fingers at the same time, and pressed towards Ning Fan in the air, and the momentum that came out was like the wrath of heaven!

There is no roar, there is no flow of demonic power, it is just a mediocre finger, the only special thing is that above the fingers, there is a purple-black demonic power flow!

Ning Fan's eyes lit up, if he was not mistaken, that finger clearly contained the demonic power of Fuli!

But that finger is not only the power of helping, but also the power of the brute beast.

At the fingertips of the black-robed old man, the power of the demon and the beast were perfectly integrated!

Under that force, the Dao rules around Ning Fan's body immediately reversed!

Between heaven and earth, countless phantoms of the cultivation star immediately appeared, and those cultivation star phantoms were all rotating against the Great Dao, half of them were purple and black, and half of them were black and red!

With these cultivation star phantoms going retrograde, the Great Dao was completely reversed, and all the living beings in this realm had the feeling of being dispersed by cultivation at this moment!

That was the real loss of cultivation, and the cultivation of all living beings was frantically wiped out under the finger power of the black-robed old man!

One brute after another stopped fighting for the time being, and they were all frightened, and their breath began to plummet!

One by one, the demon cultivators looked at each other in shock, and they didn't understand why the demon power in their bodies burned wildly and disappeared!

The higher the cultivation, the faster the loss of land!

Xin Jia's heart was beating wildly, he had summoned a murderous object several times, but it was the first time he had seen a murderous object exert such a powerful magical power.

Under the fingers of the black-robed old man, Xin Jia's demonic power burned wildly, and with only one breath, he was erased by the black-robed old man for 100,000 years!

This finger of the black-robed old man is clearly enough to erase the cultivation of a living being under the broken mind!

This is still the power that the black-robed old man can only exert on the premise of the cultivation of the empty period. If this black-robed old man is stronger, I am afraid that even the cultivation of the cultivators of the Shattered Thought Realm and the Ten Thousand Ancient Realm can be erased with one finger!

"Cha Gu!" the black-robed old man suddenly drank these two words, and no one could understand what he was saying.

Only Ning Fan understands these two words!

He didn't understand it, but the moment he heard these two words, within his bloodline, there was an extra part of the memory inheritance of the Fuli clan out of thin air!

These two words are the demon words of the Fuli clan, and few people in the world can understand them.

The bloodline of the demon clan is very mysterious, and it can inherit a lot of information. For example, talent and supernatural powers, and such as the demon text of the clan.

Since Ning Fan obtained the bloodline, it was the first time that he had comprehended his own script from the bloodline!

The word 'Cha Gu' drunk by this black-robed old man was an opportunity for Ning Fan to comprehend and help away from the demon text!

These two words have only one meaning in the Fuli clan, and that is 'return to the ruins'!

Returning to the ruins means that the Tao disappears and people die, and it means that all the spiritual powers cultivated will be annihilated in the long river of reincarnation.

This finger of the black-robed old man. There is no doubt that it has the power to make any living soul cultivate and scatter and return to the ruins and destroy the Dao!

In Ning Fan's sea of knowledge, there were more and more bloodline memories, and gradually, he actually recognized the origin of the black-robed old man's supernatural powers!

Before ancient times, when the Fuli clan was still alive, he was the supervisor of the Heavenly Dao and led the demons in the world.

The Fuli clan was favored by the Immortal Emperor, and was once given the magic powers of the three major town clans, including a type of fingering. It's called 'Returning to the Ruins'.

This refers to the punishment that was used specifically for punishment, and before ancient times, I don't know how many demon emperors committed major crimes. Those who were helped away from the ruins were forcibly erased and repaired, and those who were guilty of serious crimes were directly erased and saved, and the Tao was eliminated!

The old man in the black robe performed it. It is clearly the finger of the ruins!

Guixu refers to one of the three major town clan supernatural powers of the Fuli clan, and its power is shocking, but even in the Fuli clan. There are only a few ancestral demons who have been fortunate enough to cultivate

The bloodline memory ended here, and Ning Fan's eyes lit up.

The black-robed old man did not look like a living person, but like a dead thing, maybe it was a murderous thing left behind by a certain Fuli Demon Ancestor after his death.

The only thing that Ning Fan couldn't figure out was that in the body of this black-robed old man, there was a second brute beast power brute beast in addition to the Fuli bloodline, which seemed to have no intersection with the Fuli clan

If you can't figure it out, you don't need to think about it again.

Returning to the ruins refers to the fact that it can only be used with the bloodline of the Fuli clan, and it has great lethality to the creatures outside the Fuli, but for the demon cultivators of the Fuli clan, the power is very small.

Ning Fan was clearly at the center of the black-robed old man's attack, and it stands to reason that his cultivation should dissipate as soon as possible.

However, he was the ancestral blood demon cultivator of the Fuli clan, and the demon blood in his body flowed slowly, and he actually dissolved all the power of this finger lightly!

He is not afraid of the power of the black-robed old man's finger to return to the ruins!

One breath, two breaths, three breaths

Four breaths, five breaths, six breaths

Ten breaths have passed, Ning Fan's cultivation has not decreased in the slightest, and all the living beings in this place have been weakened in different ways.

"Kindred"

The eyes of the black-robed old man suddenly showed a look of confusion.

In his opinion, with Ning Fan's cultivation, he should not be able to stop this finger.

But the fact is that this finger has no lethal effect on Ning Fan, and the only possibility is that Ning Fan himself is Fu Li, and the bloodline level is not low

If it is to help it away, it is a friend and not an enemy

The coldness in his eyes diminished again and again, and eventually, it disappeared into invisibility.

He dispersed his magical powers, and thousands of demon shadows returned to unity, and they actually walked towards Ning Fan step by step, and there was no hostility in his eyes.

"Kindred"

He, approaching Ning Fan, raised his hand, his eyes were confused, and he wanted to touch Ning Fan's body.

But at the moment when the black-robed old man's fingers touched Ning Fan, his body spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into white ashes and dissipating little by little

Xin Jia and the other demons were all shocked!

They didn't understand why Ning Fan was able to block the magic power of the black-robed old man and be unscathed!

They didn't understand even more why the black-robed old man named Reverse Fan would suddenly become hostile to Ning Fan and withdraw his magical powers!

Xinjia's heart is especially unbalanced!

In the ten breaths of the black-robed old man's supernatural powers, his cultivation was erased for millions of years!

This is because he has been affected by the finger of returning to the ruins, and it is only affected!

Ning Fan was in the center of the attack of the Guiru Finger, and the cultivation he received should have been burned a hundred times more than a thousand times that of Xinjia, but in the result, his cultivation was not damaged at all

"This son, why aren't you afraid of the magic power of that murderous thing!"

Xin Jia couldn't figure this out anyway.

He also didn't understand why the black-robed old man's fingers would turn into white ashes and annihilate as soon as he touched Ning Fan's fingers

The word 'reverse fan' on the stone through the sky, the light dimmed a little bit, and in the end, only shallow blood marks remained

The black-robed old man's eyes became more and more confused, and his entire body had turned into white ash, leaving only his head.

His head glanced at Ning Fan for the last time, and suddenly became clear. This clarity lasted only for a moment, and the skull also turned into ashes and dissipated.

However, Ning Fan clearly saw that in the moment before the old man's head completely dissipated, in his eyes. It was a color of enlightenment.

In the end, it was towards Ning Fan and smiled.

He realized something

He, why is he laughing?

"Impossible! What kind of demon trick did this son use, and he directly caused that murderous thing to be wiped out! This demon has tried, and that murderous thing is so strange that it can't be killed by idle means!"

Xin Jia's heart was more and more shocked, when he was in his prime, he used his whole body to attack the murderous thing. Nor was he killed. But Ning Fan seemed to have done nothing, so he killed this murderous thing

I can't understand it, this scene, Xin Jia can't understand it!

At this moment, his body has been destroyed, and his demon soul has been swallowed half by the murderous thing, and his whole body has been wiped out by the murderous thing for millions of years.

He at the moment. It is more and more not Ning Fan's opponent, and in front of Ning Fan's ten swords, he has almost no power to resist!

Ning Fan collected all the distractions and put aside the strange things of the black-robed old man.

He at the moment. He was in no mood to pay attention to the strange actions of the black-robed old man, he just wanted to recapture the Immortal Yuan Shen and bring it back!

Five fingers pressed forward, and the ten swords of rain and battle immediately rushed out. Slash down on the demon ship again.

Ning Fan's figure flickered, and he appeared directly on the demon ship, turning into a red ray. Immediately following the sword light, he rushed directly towards Xinjia.

Any demon who stands in the way will be killed by Ning Fan on the demon ship!

Xin Jia is afraid, at this moment, he is injured, even against the more powerful Du Zhen, there is not much chance of winning, where will it be Ning Fan's opponent!

He regretted it thousands of times in his heart, regretted that he came to kill Ning Fan with great momentum, and regretted that he summoned the murderous thing by mistake.

All regrets, at the moment when Ning Fan's sword light arrived, stopped!

His eyes were dark, and all his consciousness was lost under the blade of the clutch sword!

His demon soul body was first brutally pierced by the clutch sword, and then by the remaining nine swords.

A wisp of demon soul was actually shattered into countless pieces by the ten Dao Law swords, and they were annihilated one by one!

"It's not good! Elder Xinjia is dead, I'll evacuate this place as soon as possible and tell the two Immortal Venerables about this!"

One by one, the demon cultivators fled from the demon ship one after another.

Ning Fan was not in a hurry to chase after those fleeing demon cultivators, and the corners of his mouth sneered slightly.

Dead? No, Xin Jia is not dead yet! The Xin Jia he killed has no blood ban in his body, and here, there is a second Xin Jia!

Ning Fan snatched the Xinjia storage bag, put it in his hand, and violently urged the ten swords, cutting the demon boat under his feet into countless pieces.

In the demon ship, in an inconspicuous cabin, there was an old man in a gray robe and dragon horns.

If the first demon soul dies, he can replace Xinjia and continue to live!

He hid in the cabin, hoping to escape from this place after Ning Fan killed Xin Jia, and in the name of Xin Jia, he would make a comeback for revenge in the future.

It's a pity that the concealment technique that he thought was advanced was not worth mentioning at all in Ning Fan's opinion.

The demon ship, under the crazy slash of the ten swords, was shattered into countless pieces.

Xinjia's second demon soul was also extremely unwilling, and died of resentment, so far, he can be regarded as truly dead

Ning Fan's figure flickered, appeared in front of the corpse of Xinjia's second demon soul, grabbed it with five fingers, directly from the residual blood, drew blood forbidden, and swallowed it in one gulp.

At the moment when he swallowed the blood forbidden, the army of brute beasts who had originally surrendered to Xinjia were all confused.

After the confusion, there was a new surrender, and they all turned to Ning Fan, and there was no hostility in their eyes!

There were originally 200,000 brute beasts under Xin Jia's command, but Ning Fan killed thousands of low-level brute beasts alone, and then lost some.

The brute beasts brought by Ning Fan originally had fourteen thousand heads, but after a battle, there were many losses, and now there are only eight thousand left. Naturally, most of the losses were low-level brute beasts, which were insignificant.

At this point, the brute beasts in Ning Fan's hands jumped from 14,000 to 200,000!

Among these 200,000 brute beasts, there are a total of 45 empty brute beasts!

Looking up, Ning Fan's gaze swept towards the demon cultivators who were scattered and fled, and the cold glint in his eyes rose again.

These demon cultivators wanted to escape and report the matter of this place to the Demon Clan Immortal Venerable, but unfortunately, Ning Fan would not give them this opportunity.

"None of them will be left!"

With Ning Fan's order, 200,000 brute beasts immediately surged out and chased after the demon cultivators who had escaped.

Ning Fan stood in the void where he was, collected the ten swords, scattered the secret method, and the feeling of weakness in his body finally came to his heart.

The mana can be continuously replenished through the guò large five elements body, but the injuries have accumulated too much due to frequent self-damage. It's beyond what he can bear.

At this moment, he is on the verge of a heavy blow, not to mention that it is extremely difficult to use his magical powers, even if he escapes.

He didn't have the heart to collect the spoils here, so he glanced at the floating Sky Stone, shook his body, flew to the Sky Stone, and sat cross-legged.

Through the empty stone, Ning Fan naturally knew, and the word 'reverse fan' on this stone made him care. It's just that at this moment, he hasn't had the heart to study this stone in detail.

Taking out some pills casually and taking them, Ning Fan urged the Black Star Technique to slowly heal his injuries.

While healing, he took out a green banner from Xin Jia's storage bag, which was the thunder banner that detained the fairy Lori Yuanshen.

At this moment, the aura of the thunder banner has almost completely dimmed, and the space inside it is on the verge of collapse. Can't stop any divine probe.

Ning Fan's divine thoughts swept towards the space of the Thunder Banner, and he was immediately speechless.

At this moment, in the space of the thunder flag, Fairy Lori's little primordial spirit. Swimming in a large sea of thunder.

While swimming, he gulped down the thunder in the thunder sea, and giggling laughter was heard from time to time.

For her, there is all the thunder in the flag. It's a rare delicacy, and the mood is very exciting.

Ning Fan smiled bitterly and rubbed his forehead.

He wanted to get her back. Almost with all his might, he was covered with injuries. It's good that she's eating merrily here and giggling heartlessly

Suddenly, Ning Fan's eyes froze, as if he had seen something unbelievable!

He didn't look closely just now, he didn't notice the changes on the fairy loli primordial god, but at this moment, he took a closer look, only to find that above the fairy loli primordial god, there was an emperor's qi flowing!

"This is Emperor Qi!"

Ning Fan took a deep breath, and in an instant, there were countless guesses in his heart.

Immortal Lori's primordial spirit has the emperor's energy, so naturally she is an immortal emperor!

Immortal Lori belongs to the East Heaven Extreme Thunder Palace, and the Extreme Thunder Palace, there is only one Immortal Emperor, who is the palace master of the Extreme Thunder Palace, the emperor is called 'White Emperor', and the boudoir name is 'Lan Yunxian'!

"Before the evolution of the Immortal Thunder Body, could it be the Immortal Emperor Lan Yunxian of the Extreme Thunder Palace?!"

Ning Fan suddenly recalled what Fairy Lori had said, and his expression became more and more complicated.

"Hmph, don't look down on me, I'm really strong! I tell you, I killed a red-haired big demon king a few years ago, he's very strong, what's the right name, it's called Big Mushroom"

Before the evolution of this little girl's thunder body, it seemed to be really strong

Ning Fan was silent, not knowing what he was thinking, sometimes smiling bitterly, sometimes sighing.

Shaking his head, Ning Fan suddenly discovered something in hindsight, and temporarily put aside the identity of Fairy Lori.

With a wave of his hand, he took out a token from the storage bag - the identity token of the sixth-grade Luo Tian Protector!

Once, he killed sixty-eight poisonous dragon guards in a row, accumulated countless combat exploits, and the immortal rank was promoted from the eighth rank immortal guard all the way to the sixth rank protector.

Now, he has killed Xin Jia, and the immortal rank has been promoted again, from the sixth-rank Luo Tian Protector to the fifth-rank low-grade Golden Immortal!

Although Xin Jia Xiuwei suppressed, no matter what, he was a demon clan powerhouse in the middle of the Broken Thoughts, and if he was killed, he would naturally have a lot of combat achievements.

With this merit, Ning Fan's immortal rank was promoted, but it seemed logical.

In the Siming Sect, no matter what you do, you have to look at the level of the immortal.

In the Four Ming Sect, the fifth-rank low-grade Jin Immortal has a status comparable to that of an old monster in the Broken Thoughts Realm, and his authority is extremely heavy

"Inferior Golden Immortal" Ning Fan shook his head, accepted the immortal token, and continued to heal on his knees.

He doesn't value authority, but he doesn't exclude promotion.

Ning Fan fled all the way from Xinjia's pursuit, spending several hours, and now healing, it took several hours.

It has been a day since the wilderness collapsed. The 200,000 brute beasts that chased and killed the demons had already returned, and they didn't let go of any demon cultivators.

Ning Fan was kneeling cross-legged on top of the Sky Piercing Stone, still healing, and the Sky Piercing Stone continued to release a black demon mist, forming a huge dark cloud, wrapping the beasts in the mist.

From a distance, above the dark clouds here, it seems that Ning Fan is the only one sitting in the Sky Stone to heal his wounds.

In the void, a group of Terran monks flew out of a certain living gate and moved cautiously.

This group of monks sat on the spirit boat, and the scale was not small, there were tens of thousands.

On the Lingzhou, the highest cultivator is a lewd old man in the early stage of broken thoughts, and because of the power of the forbidden immortals, he can only exert his early cultivation of the void.

This old Dao Dao Demon Yuanzi is the Demon Dao power of the Northern Heavenly Immortal Realm.

Mo Yuanzi is a ruthless character, and what he loves to do most in his life is to kill people and seize treasures.

This person killed a lot in his life, and rarely saved people. He was a Killing Dao Demon Cultivator, and his original intention of coming to the Barbarian Ancient Domain was to kill Demon Cultivators here, so as to comprehend the bottleneck of the middle stage of Broken Thoughts.

It's a pity that his luck is slightly poor, and he just came to the wilderness for a few years, and then caught up with the great changes in the wilderness.

When the catastrophe came, the Demon Yuanzi and the Terran army were scattered, and Xiuwei was suppressed by the power of the forbidden immortals, and he was eager to find the two Terran Immortal Venerables and seek refuge.

He was used to walking alone, but when he encountered a herd of brute beasts alone, he suffered a big loss and almost died.

After that, he didn't dare to go alone, so he gathered the Terran monks all the way and walked forward together, and when he encountered the brute beast herd again, he could be regarded as having a helper.

Along the way, he saved tens of thousands of Terran monks. After saving people, he felt that saving people for free was really not in line with his ruthless personality.

Therefore, for every person saved, Mo Yuanzi would ask for a number of Dao Crystals as a reward.

If the rescued Terran monk has a secret treasure and is taken by him, he will directly take action, snatch the secret treasure and put it in his storage bag.

In this way, Mo Yuanzi saved tens of thousands of monks along the way, but he also gained a lot, and gradually liked this kind of rescue and treasure hunting.

While flying, Mo Yuanzi's eyes suddenly moved.

In front of the spirit boat, an incomparably huge dark cloud appeared in the distance, and from a distance, it looked like a coiling dragon.

Above the dark clouds stood a boulder, and on top of the boulder sat a monk, who seemed to be healing from his wounds on his knees.

The monk's ghostly face, silver hair, and messy breath were enough to show that the man had been seriously injured.

The aura is messy, and the occasional aura is indeed the breath of the human race, and it has reached the mid-stage level of Duzhen, which makes Mo Yuanzi's eyes light up.

"In other words, when this person was in his prime, he was a monk in the Void Period? Saving this person can come in handy, huh? Underneath his ass is the Void Stone! It's really the Void Stone!"

Mo Yuanzi gasped, and then his eyes showed greed.

How could he not know the name of the Sky Piercing Stone! The Sky Piercing Stone could be used to refine high-level acquired flying escape magic weapons, and it could also be used to cultivate the secret art of flying escape. Even for the old monster of broken thoughts, it is an extremely valuable thing!

With the personality of the Demon Yuanzi, how can it not be taken away when encountering such a heavy treasure!

"Old man Demon Yuanzi, the devil is the devil's demon! The old man's favorite thing in his life is to kill people and seize treasures!"

If you give this stone to the old man, the old man can send back kindness, not hurt your life, and allow you to get on the boat and take you to escape with you!"

"If you refuse to hand over this stone, don't blame the old man for turning his face and being ruthless!"

Mo Yuanzi stood on the bow of the Lingzhou with his hand, snorted coldly between his noses, and the evil qi accumulated from a lifetime of killing went towards Ning Fan Town in one fell swoop.

The tens of thousands of monks on the Spirit Boat, all who felt this evil aura, all looked shocked, shocked by the number of killings by the Demon Yuanzi.

Ning Fan was still healing, but suddenly heard the threatening words of Mo Yuanzi who wanted to seize the treasure, and immediately opened his eyes coldly.

Although Mo Yuanzi has killed a lot in his life, most of the kills are low-level monks, and he has not killed a Broken Nian monk, so his evil aura naturally cannot deter Ning Fan by half a point.

Ning Fan's gaze was indifferent and ruthless through the void, and he directly locked on to Mo Yuanzi, just one gaze, which immediately made Mo Yuanzi feel creepy!

A few hours ago, Ning Fan had just killed Xin Jia in the middle stage of Broken Thoughts, and the evil qi on his body was terrifying!

Mo Yuanzi shuddered slightly, he couldn't imagine that Ning Fan had such a strong demonic power in his eyes!

"Are you sure you want to take the empty stone of this seat!" (to be continued......)