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

The nascent soul was not destroyed; instead, it transformed into the foundation of the primordial spirit.

Above the inn, the once still dark clouds began to churn.

Inside Black Wind City, all cultivators whose cultivation had reached the Nascent Soul stage or above looked up in unison.

Deep within the clouds, the first streak of purplish-black lightning ripped through the sky.

Yan Lie stood on the roof of the warlord's mansion, looking in the direction of the inn, a cold smile on his face.

"here we go."

Inside the secret chamber, Zhou Ran's nascent soul had already split open more than halfway.

A black-gold phantom of the primordial spirit slowly rose from the crack.

Just as it was about to completely solidify, the floor beneath Qin San's feet silently melted.

The floorboards did not break; instead, they melted like wax, turning directly into a pool of inky liquid.

Xiao Rou turned her head.

A dark hand covered with compound eyes emerged from beneath the floor.

Immediately afterwards, a figure without facial features, shrouded in shadow, slowly crawled out.

It passed through all the array patterns, through Xiao Rou's Gu worm blockade, and through Qin San's Heaven-Deceiving Array.

It raised its head, which was full of compound eyes, and stared at Zhou Ran in the center of the formation.

"turn out to be……"

Shadow Fiend's voice was hoarse and dry, with a strange sound of bones grinding together.

"You're a fake."

The moment the Shadow Demon appeared, all the array patterns in the secret chamber dimmed.

Qin San reacted extremely quickly.

He drew his sword and slashed horizontally; the blade flashed past the Shadow Demon's neck but pierced straight through the black mist.

The Shadow Demon's body dispersed, then reformed behind Zhou Ran.

"Don't move."

It extended a dark finger and pointed it at Zhou Hou's neck.

"He is in the process of transforming into a spirit. His nascent soul has cracked, but his primordial spirit has not yet been formed. He cannot even move a single finger."

Qin San's knife stopped in mid-air.

The Shadow Fiend's words were true.

Zhou Ran is currently in the most crucial stage of transforming his spirit into a divine being.

The nascent soul has been broken open, and the primordial spirit is being condensed.

If the cultivation is forcibly interrupted, at best, all cultivation will be lost; at worst, the primordial spirit will be shattered.

Xuan Ying and Gu Li rushed into the secret chamber at the same time.

As soon as the two stepped into the formation, the compound eyes on the Shadow Demon's body turned in unison.

A layer of shadow covered the ground.

The shadow beneath Xuan Ying's feet suddenly shifted, and dozens of black thorns shot out from it, aiming straight for his heart.

Gu Li swung his fist down, the force of the punch shattering the black thorns, but as soon as his fist touched the Shadow Demon, his entire right arm began to turn black.

"Shadow Poison!"

Gu Li's expression changed, and the meridians in his shoulder were blocked.

Shadow Fiend let out a low chuckle.

"You clumsy demons, how dare you touch me?"

It was Yan Lie's top assassin.

The Shadow Demon race is naturally able to blend into the shadows and penetrate low-level formations, and they are best at assassinating cultivators who are breaking through to the next level.

Yan Lie sent it not to test it, but to confirm it.

Once Zhou Ran's weakness is confirmed, take his head directly.

Inside the secret chamber, Zhou Ran remained seated at the center of the formation.

His body was unable to move, but he remained conscious.

The Shadow Fiend's fingers were getting closer and closer to the back of his neck.

The speed at which the primordial spirit condenses is slowing down.

The Shadow Demon was using his divine sense to interfere with him.

It deliberately infiltrated the center of the formation with the aura of fear, shadow, and death, trying to throw his spirit out of balance.

"Zhou Ran!"

Xiao Rou called out.

The Shadow Fiend turned his head.

Xiao Rou stood not far away, her face pale, but she held the Gu box in her hand.

She didn't rush over.

She simply opened the box.

No worms flew out of the box.

Just as Shadow Fiend was about to laugh, he felt a chill on the back of his neck.

A tiny, transparent worm, the size of a grain of rice, had somehow crouched in the slit of its compound eye behind its neck.

That was Xiaorou's natal Gu.

It had been hidden in Zhou Ran's sleeve.

After Zhou Ran entered the Demon Realm, everyone thought that Xiao Rou's natal Gu was suppressed by a hundred times the gravity and could not exert its power.

Including Shadow Fiend.

It had no idea that the Gu worm had already quietly crawled into the shadows of the floor along the demonic energy at the array's core when Zhou Ran began his breakthrough.

The Shadow Fiend's compound eyes rotate.

"What is that?"

Xiao Rou raised her hand and closed her fingers.

"Bite it."

puff!

The transparent worm burrowed into the back of the Shadow Demon's neck.

Shadow Fiend's body froze.

Its compound eyes widened simultaneously, emitting a piercing scream.

The natal Gu didn't bite its flesh; instead, it directly severed the Shadow Demon's central nervous system.

The Shadow Demon is most adept at manipulating shadows with its divine sense and controlling enemies with its shadow poison. However, after its central nervous system was bitten off by the Gu worm, all of its shadows lost control.

The dark shadows on the ground began to dart about.

The shadows in the wall began to peel away.

The Shadow Demon reached for the back of his neck, but grasped at nothing.

"My shadow body is invisible; how could ordinary Gu worms possibly enter my neural nest!"

Xiao Rou's face turned pale as she answered seriously, "It is not an ordinary Gu worm."

"It has eaten Void Realm chips and the gray threads of the Old Gods. This one doesn't taste good, but you can bite into it."

Shadow Fiend's body twitched.

It wants to reintegrate into the ground.

However, each time the image is projected, the central nervous system sends out a pain signal.

Qin San seized the opportunity and severed its left arm with a single stroke.

Gu Li raised his foot and stepped on its leg, pressing it firmly to the ground.

Xuan Ying then struck its chest with a palm, shattering dozens of compound eyes with demonic energy.

The Shadow Demon screamed in agony as its body began to dissipate into black mist.

"Yan Lie will not let you get away with this!"

"The Grand Duke of Bone Swallowing has arrived!"

"You imposters!"

Its sound abruptly stopped.

Zhou Ran opened her eyes.

It wasn't the physical body that opened its eyes, but rather the black-gold primordial spirit phantom within the array's core that opened its eyes at that moment.

Shadow Fiend froze.

It saw that Zhou Ran's physical body was still sitting in the same place, unable to move, but Zhou Ran's consciousness had already followed the half-formed primordial spirit and directly pressed into its sea of ​​consciousness.

Zhou Ran's face was very pale.

Blood was still dripping from the corner of his lips.

But when he looked at Shadow Fiend, there was no emotion in his eyes.

"Yan Lie sent the array plate and the assassin."

"There are many gifts."

The Shadow Fiend's compound eyes twitch.

"You cannot manipulate the rules; if you do, your primordial spirit will dissipate!"

"Before we part ways, let me send you on your way."

Zhou Ran raised a finger.

The illusory image of the white bone pen emerged from his fingertips.

The pen nib was not stained with blood.

Instead, it directly absorbed the power of the first strand of primordial spirit that he had just condensed.

The pen strokes fell.

The Shadow Fiend tried to escape.

But Xiao Rou's natal Gu bit into its nerve nest tightly, Qin San's knife pressed down on its shadow core, and Xuan Ying and Gu Li used their last bit of demonic energy to lock its limbs.

Everyone was trying to buy Zhou Ran a breath.

Zhou Ran only needs a breath.

[Died from his own poison.]

Six words landed between the Shadow Demon's brows.

Shadow Fiend paused for a moment.

The Shadow Poison within its body, originally intended for assassinating others, suddenly went out of control.

Dark, poisonous markings spread from its heart, rushing along its meridians to its limbs and bones.

Shadow Fiend roars.

"No! This is my poison! It only obeys my commands!"

"I'm not listening anymore."

Zhou Ran spoke.

The Shadow Fiend's Shadow Poison began to backfire.

Its skin cracked open, and dark pus gushed from its countless compound eyes.

It tried to expel the poison, but the more it stirred up the demonic energy, the more potent the poison became.

Shadow Fiend's body began to melt.

First, it was the arms.

Next is the chest cavity.

Finally, the head.

Its compound eyes shattered one by one, turning into foul-smelling black water.

The Shadow Demon didn't even escape in his soul.

"Dying from one's own poison" is no ordinary spiritual attack; this rule directly determines the Shadow Demon's fate.

A few breaths later, only a pool of dark pus and blood remained on the ground, bubbling continuously.

The secret room returned to silence.

Gu Li stared at the pool of pus and blood, and his eye twitched.

"This kind of death is even uglier than being chopped in half."

Xuan Ying said in a deep voice, "Yan Lie's Shadow Demon died here, and the warlord's mansion will soon find out."