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

Lin Qingxue couldn't see the lights in the courtyard, nor could she distinguish the outlines of the people.

But she could see the nascent soul in Zhou Ran's dantian.

The small, purple-gold figure stood in the center of the dantian, with six gray lines revolving around it.

The livid spots that were originally crawling in the flesh and blood have faded, and the gray lines are now connected end to end, forming a half-open door.

A gray light from the void shone through the door.

Black and gold runes were pressed down outside the door.

The door was not yet fully formed, but it had already begun to swallow the gray lines beneath Jiangcheng's ground.

Lin Qingxue stood in the courtyard, not in a hurry to go over.

She had just retrieved her Dharma Eye, and her essence was not yet stable; her brow furrowed intermittently.

The Jade Bed, the Tide Array, and the protectors Su Qingling and Su Qingwu are all still waiting for her to return to the basement.

But Zhou Ran's problems could no longer be delayed.

He always downplays things.

He said it was easy to beat the Song emperor.

He pointed to the right hand of the corpse that was on his way.

He said it was the right thing to do to reclaim the law.

Even now that he's about to be turned into a door bolt, he's prepared to gloss over it with a few words.

Lin Qingxue walked up to Zhou Ran and stopped.

"You'll soon become part of the door too."

No one in the courtyard responded.

Fatty Wang wanted to say something to liven things up, but he swallowed the words back down.

He followed Zhou Ran to this day, saw Zhou Ran get stabbed, saw Zhou Ran withstand the left eye of the Heavenly Corpse, and also saw Zhou Ran subdue the Song Emperor in the Underworld.

This time it's different.

Zhou Ran had no ordinary wounds.

He was being pulled through that door by the rules.

Fatty Wang couldn't understand the three branches of government, nor could he understand the orders from the lower levels. The first thought that popped into his head was absurd.

If Ran Ge really becomes a door, will they have to knock twice to get in and out?

The moment the thought crossed his mind, he immediately composed himself.

The ancient compass in Li Zhiyao's hand was still lit up.

The ancient characters on the board spun faster and faster.

After Zhou Ran landed, she kept calculating the changes in the gray patterns. The deeper she calculated, the more chaotic the light on the plate became.

The Forgotten River Heart Seal, the White Bone Brush, the Remnant Power of the Left Eye, the Remnant Seal of the Grand Commander's Order, the Boundary Mark left by the Primordial Black Blade, and the gray patterns stuffed in by the Moon Emperor.

Any one of these items would be enough for an ancient cultivation sect to maintain for hundreds of years.

Now all the pressure is on Zhou Ran alone.

If it were anyone else, their physical body and soul would have been shattered long ago.

Zhou Ran is still standing here.

Li Zhiyao stared at the ancient compass, the veins on the back of her hand bulging.

His nascent soul has transcended the realm of ordinary nascent souls. But this may not necessarily be a good thing.

The closer you are to the "door", the easier it is for the Moon Emperor to use you as a key.

Xu Youwei also raised her head.

Her right hand was wrapped in strips of cloth, beneath which pressed down the mangled right eye of her left eye. The silver eye was much more subdued now, but it was still alive.

She had just been transformed from a sacrifice into an eye-holder, and her body had not yet adapted; her back felt weak after standing for a long time.

But she understood what Lin Qingxue said.

Zhou Ran dragged her off that cannibalistic table in Penglai.

Now, Zhou Ran sat down at another table by himself.

She wanted to speak.

"Thank you" is too light.

Saying "Don't do it" sounds too fake.

Everyone present knew that if Zhou Ran didn't do something, Jiang Cheng would be dragged into the virtual world.

Zhou Ran admitted it very readily.

"Um."

Lin Qingxue's fingers tightened and then loosened.

She didn't like the answer.

But Zhou Ran's willingness to respond was tantamount to presenting the worst-case scenario to her.

She asked, "When did it start?"

"Start by swallowing the first gate symbol."

Zhou Ran put the white bone pen back in his palm and looked down at his chest.

Beneath the fabric, the gray veins are burning hot.

He didn't mention the pain.

Speaking it out won't lessen the pain at all.

He only had a few things on his mind.

Five days.

Jiangcheng.

Yue Zhao.

Lin Qingxue.

Xu Youwei.

There is also the Moon Emperor hidden deep within the heart of the Heavenly Corpse.

The Moon Emperor is troublesome not only because of her strength. She has patience and leverage. She can manipulate everyone into her game.

What Zhou Ran had to do was very simple.

They overturned the chessboard.

After the scuffle is over, will I still be able to stand up? Will I be able to get to the front of the line?

He said, "Later, the gray lines, the Forgotten River Seal, the White Bone Pen, and the power over my left eye all piled up on me."

"The Moon Emperor wants to turn me into a key."

"I turned the tables and blocked the door with myself."

Lin Qingxue asked, "And the price?"

Zhou Ran looked at her.

Her eyes hadn't recovered yet, and her gaze was unfocused. Her brow was open, with bluish-white and black hues obscuring her vision.

She can see things that are invisible to the naked eye more accurately.

Zhou Ran was not prepared to continue hiding it.

If he continues to hide it, he'll be no different from those old fogies from Penglai.

He said, "If it can't be closed, Jiangcheng will enter the void in five days."

"I, you, Yue Zhao, and Xu Youwei will all be dragged back to the Heavenly Corpse by the Moon Emperor's orders."

"Even after it's closed, this door on me might not be completely removed."

After listening, Lin Qingxue neither cried nor tried to persuade him to stop.

She reached out and touched his chest.

The fingertip stops at the position corresponding to the gray line.

She couldn't feel the gray lines.

But something was throbbing beneath that piece of skin and flesh.

That wasn't a heartbeat.

It is the undulation of the door pattern.

She withdrew her hand.

"Then close it within five days."

Zhou Ran looked at her and smiled.

There wasn't much ease in his smile; he simply accepted the sentence.

That's how I arranged it too.

Fatty Wang rubbed his face beside him.

"Can you two stop making the apocalypse sound like you're working overtime on the weekend?"

Chen Ya spoke with a cold face:

"You still have three remnants of Holy Radiance that you haven't dismantled."

Fatty Wang turned and left.

"I'm going to work overtime now."

He took two steps, then turned back and asked in a low voice:

"Sister Chen, can you reimburse me for late-night snacks?"

"I'm leading the demon soldiers on missions; I can't let my brothers go hungry."

The three demon dukes all looked at him.

Demons don't need midnight snacks.

But as soon as Fatty Wang said that, several demon soldiers next to him also looked at Chen Ya.

Chen Ya's forehead twitched.

"After you've demolished all three places, I'll cook for you."

Fatty Wang clapped his hands together.

Did you hear that?

Sister Chen approved it.

Get to work!

A hundred demon soldiers followed him as he turned and left. The black-armored soldiers stepped over the stone bricks in the courtyard, causing the array patterns in the cracks to flicker.

Zhou Ran did not stop him.

Fatty Wang is a chatterbox, but he's reliable when it comes to getting things done.

The remnants of the Holy Radiance artifact must be completely dismantled. As long as one piece of equipment left behind by that group is still operational, the Moon Emperor can pull out another gray thread.

Zhou Ran turned to Chen Ya.

"Tell me the intelligence."

Chen Ya handed the tablet to Li Zhiyao and then unfolded the paper map.

She hadn't slept much these past few days; her eyes were bluish, and she hadn't had time to tidy her hair. But the documents in her hands were neatly organized.

Red lines, blue lines, black dots, evacuation zones, medical points, and overlapping gray lines are all marked on the same map.

Zhou Ran scanned it once.

Chen Ya was able to hold on from the rear, and it wasn't just money that helped her.

When the world is destroyed, it won't just fall on cultivators.

Hospitals, schools, subways, bridges, and ordinary people's dining tables will all be affected.

What she had to do was minimize the number of deaths in these places while Zhou Ran and the Moon Emperor were fighting for their lives.

Chen Ya said, "The gray line has stabilized for now."

"After Miss Lin's Dharma Eye returned, the manor's array core suppressed the East City."

"But when we rechecked all the convergence points of the gray lines, our previous judgment was wrong."

Zhou Ran looked down at the map.

On the map, the East City, the riverbed, Mangshan, the manor, and the entrance to the Third Hall are all marked.

None of the red lines ultimately pointed to the Dongcheng Cultural Center, nor to the hole at the bottom of the river.

They circled around and merged into the northwest corner of Jiangcheng.

It was an old hospital.

Lin Qingxue looked up.

"Jiangcheng First Maternal and Child Hospital"

Chen Ya looked at her.

"right."

"The place where you were born twenty-seven years ago."

Everyone in the courtyard turned to Lin Qingxue.