After I stopped trying, a rich woman trained me into a demon emperor.

That's not the wind.

The White Impermanence spirit imprint within her body was tearing through flesh and forcibly detaching itself from this body.

"idiot!"

"Go die!"

The voice of Bai Wuchang exploded in Su Xiaoxiao's mind.

Zhou Ran looked up.

He finally moved.

"Trying to leave?"

He pressed his right hand on the hilt of his Zanpakuto and stomped his foot.

Yellow paper fluttered in the air beneath the bridge, and sewage was shaken to both sides.

The main chain that ran through his shoulder blade was caught by Zhou Ran's hand behind his back.

The Primordial Totem climbed up the wrist and finger bones, its black and gold patterns gradually biting into the white chain.

"Since you're here, leave what little you have left."

Zhou Ran clenched his five fingers.

Click.

The surface of the main chain is cracked.

Su Xiaoxiao looked up and screamed.

The will of Bai Wuchang roared within her consciousness.

"stop!"

Zhou Ran did not stop.

The primordial energy drilled deep into the chains along the cracks, firmly gripping the divine soul imprint of the White Impermanence.

Su Xiaoxiao's chest bulged.

The mark tried to be pulled out of the flesh, but Zhou Ran held it back through the chains.

"White Impermanence"

Zhou Ran's voice was deep.

"Borrowing the skin of a madwoman to run rampant in the mortal realm, you dare call yourself a Yin General?"

He exerted force with his arm.

The main chain broke apart piece by piece.

The shattered white icy energy did not dissipate; it was all swallowed by the outer membrane of the golden pill.

A ring of light white, cold patterns was affixed to the surface of the Heart-Mind Golden Elixir.

The bleeding from Zhou Ran's shoulder wound intensified.

But his breath did not falter.

It's actually colder.

The soul-snatching chill of Bai Wuchang was refined into the cold essence nourishing the Golden Elixir of the Mind.

Su Xiaoxiao finally panicked.

She wanted to withdraw.

His feet were stuck to the yellow paper talismans on the ground.

White Impermanence wanted to leave.

The soul imprint was once again seized by Zhou Ran.

This body became a prison.

"Zhou Ran!"

"Let me go!"

Su Xiaoxiao screamed.

Zhou Ran raised his knife, the tip pointing at her chest.

That was the location of the White Impermanence's soul imprint.

"Didn't you want me dead?"

"Keep hooking."

"I'd like to see if you're the one who steals my soul first."

"Let me first tear this White Impermanence skin off you."

Let go!

idiot!"

The will of the White Impermanence surged violently within her.

"If you don't stop, I'll discard this body!"

"Abandon it!"

Su Xiaoxiao roared.

"You can abandon it if you want!"

"But before you abandon me, kill him for me first!"

Two opposing forces within the body were tearing each other apart.

Su Xiaoxiao's body began to crack.

First, it was the neck.

Then the shoulders.

Further down, black cracks spread along the skin.

There was no blood in the crack, only grayish-white mist.

That's the essence of Bai Wuchang leaking out.

Zhou Ran looked at Su Xiaoxiao, whose cracks were widening, without a trace of emotion in his eyes.

next interest.

Another heartbeat came from underground.

thump—

The foundation of the entire city of Jiangcheng trembled.

The sewage in the bridge arch was shaken up half a foot.

Debris fell from the ceiling.

The distant viaduct emitted a metallic, twisting sound.

Su Xiaoxiao froze.

Even the will of the White Impermanence froze.

The breath contained in that heartbeat was enough to silence both the living and the dead.

Zhou Ran looked down at his feet.

The purple-gold demonic eyes flashed.

The deepest part of Jiangcheng's earth veins.

The massive wreckage opened its second eye.

In each of the two deep, abyssal eye sockets, a ball of eerie green fire shone.

It woke up.

Zhou Ran gripped his Zanpakuto tightly.

He grabbed the chain on his shoulder and twisted his wrist violently.

Click!

All five chains shattered.

A shockwave of frost swept across the bridge arch.

Su Xiaoxiao was thrown out, her body crashing through the railing at the edge of the bridge arch and tumbling into the muddy water outside.

The white robe was torn into strips.

Zhou Ran stood in the bridge arch, looking down at the ground.

The soil beneath my feet is rising up.

Something is pushing upwards from underground.

The black-gold baby dragon lay on his shoulder, its scales standing on end, a low growl rumbling in its throat.

In the distance, the lights of thousands of homes in Jiangcheng suddenly went out for a moment.

It was just a fleeting moment.

The vital energy of 30 million people was swallowed up by the underground debris.

Zhou Ran's eyes darkened.

The black and gold demonic flames on the Zanpakuto burned even more fiercely.

At the same time.

Southern Xinjiang.

One hundred thousand mountains.

The altar that Black Witch Village had worshipped for generations collapsed.

Black mud gushed from the cracks in the altar, churning into a boiling black tide.

When the mud hits the stone, the stone cracks open and grows teeth.

When it touches a tree root, the root bends into an arm, rises from the soil, and grabs at the living person.

When encountering snakes and insects, human finger joints grow from their bodies, and they turn around and attack the Gu Master.

Extraterrestrial demons.

The lowest-ranking monster in Ye Futian's memory.

It has only one instinct.

assimilation.

Flames soared into the sky above the front of Black Witch Village.

The old gate tower, with trees that are 300 years old, is half covered with black mud.

The surface of the wood bulged out into human faces, their mouths opening and closing, emitting the sound of a baby crying.

The Gu masters in the village fought desperately.

Poison Gu, Fire Gu, and Golden Silkworm Gu were all thrown into the black mud.

In less than three breaths, the Gu worms were assimilated.

When it emerged again, its size had doubled, and it pounced back onto its owner, tearing at him.

"Run!"

"Dongzhai has fallen!"

"The Gu worms have all been eaten!"

The cries drowned out the sound of the fire.

The black mud is spreading faster and faster.

First, the houses.

Then there are the roads.

Finally, even the mountainside beneath their feet began to soften.

Less than two hours later.

Of the thirty-six villages surrounding Black Witch Village, nineteen fell to the enemy.

The remaining Gu Masters retreated to the cliff behind the mountain.

Behind them lay a bottomless abyss, with nowhere to retreat.

More than 400 people were crammed on the top of the cliff.

Men, women, young and old, their faces were filled with nothing but despair.

"Where is the chieftain?"

Where did the chieftain go?

"With something like this happening in southern Xinjiang, who will care about us?"

The men and women in the village were in complete chaos.

At the edge of the cliff top, black mud tumbled and climbed upwards.

Countless faces emerged from the mud.

There was a Gu Master who had just been swallowed.

There are mountain people living around the village.

Those faces retained the expressions they had before death, but their mouths were moving in sync.

"Hungry--"

"Hungry--"

...

The mudslide is about to engulf the top of the cliff.

Just then.

A bone flute pierced the valley.

On the mountaintop opposite the cliff stood a Miao woman.

Xiaorou.

She was wearing a black, narrow-sleeved short-sleeved shirt, with three shriveled gourds hanging from her waist.

He looked at the people of Black Witch Village with a cold, inhuman gaze.

Now, all she sees is Zhou Ran.

She had a bone flute about the length of a finger lying horizontally in her mouth.

The melodious sound of a flute drifted through the valley.

"Xiao Rou!"

"It's a saint!"

Several veteran Gu masters recognized her.

But their faces showed no surprise, only a deeper fear.

Because Xiaorou looked at them as if they were insects on the ground.

Besides, the Holy Maiden has already betrayed us!

The sound of the bone flute stopped.

Xiao Rou tucked the flute back into her waistband and took out a jade bottle from her bosom.

The bottle is entirely black, with dark red patterns entwined around it.

Those patterns weren't carved.

It was from that drop of blood that seeped out of the bottle.

Xiao Rou pulled off the bottle cap, and a drop of blood floated up from the bottle opening.

The blood droplets were only the size of a fingernail, and their color was a deep, dark black.

That drop of blood was black with a hint of purple, and within that purple lay hidden gold.

That was Zhou Ran's heart's blood, forced out of him.

It was also the core of the power that the Demon Emperor Ye Futian once held over the six heavens below the Demon Realm.

Xiao Rou stretched out her hand, and a bead of blood hung above her palm, slowly rotating.

The black mud below the cliff stopped.

The writhing faces on the mud all turned in the same direction.

Thousands of blank faces stared at the drop of black blood in Xiao Rou's palm.