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

Qin San sheathed his sword and looked at Zhou Ran.

"Master, how are you?"

Zhou Ran did not answer.

He closed his eyes, his breathing becoming erratic.

That last stroke used the power of my nascent primordial spirit.

A crack appeared in the black-gold primordial spirit phantom that was originally forming.

Xiao Rou's face turned pale.

"Zhou Ran, you're scribbling again."

"fine."

Zhou Ran said in a low voice.

"It's not over yet."

Xiao Rou bit her lip, squatted down, and placed the Gu box next to the array's core.

"Then I'll make it up for you."

She cut her finger, and the blood fell into the Gu box.

Countless tiny worms inside the box began to stir.

These Gu worms are not combat Gu, but rather "Nourishing Essence Gu" that she cultivated in Jiangcheng to devour the remnants of the Void Realm and transform them into life force.

After arriving in the Demon Realm, they remained in a state of dormancy.

Now, Xiao Rou uses her lifeblood to activate the Gu swarm, and hundreds of Nourishing Yuan Gu crawl out of the Gu box and burrow into the magic crystal fragments surrounding Zhou Ran.

They didn't touch Zhou Ran, but instead nibbled at the violent demonic impurities, sending the gentlest parts little by little into the array's core.

Zhou Ran's brows relaxed slightly.

Qin San glanced at Xiao Rou's pale face.

"How much longer can you hold on?"

"We can manage."

Xiao Rou answered very quickly.

"Zhou Ran has saved me many times before. Now it's my turn to help him."

Qin San did not speak again.

He turned and walked to the pool of pus and blood, took out a dark porcelain bottle, and collected all the remaining venom from the Shadow Demon inside.

"This stuff shouldn't be wasted."

Gu Li looked at him.

"Why are you accepting this?"

"I'll give it to Yan Lie later."

Qin San spoke in a flat tone.

"The dogs he raises must really enjoy smelling their own scent."

Meanwhile, at the Zhenbei Military Governor's Mansion.

Yan Lie was standing in front of the lightning rod.

A black mirror was placed in front of him.

The mirror originally reflected a blurry image of the secret room of the Magic Crystal Inn.

Shadow Fiend can transmit everything he sees back to the Black Mirror through his compound eyes.

The image of Zhou Ran sitting cross-legged at the center of the formation, his breathing disordered, appeared in the black mirror.

Yan Lie's eyes lit up with joy.

"It's just the last gasp of its power."

But the next second, the mirror vibrated.

The Shadow Fiend's scream came from the mirror.

Then, six blurry black characters appeared in the black mirror.

[Died from his own poison.]

With a thunderous roar, the black mirror shattered.

Fragments flew everywhere, slicing across Yan Lie's cheek.

Black blood streamed down his cheeks.

The entire warlord's mansion was completely silent.

The lieutenant knelt on the ground, his voice trembling.

"General, Shadow Fiend... is dead."

Yan Lie stood there, speechless for a long time.

He raised his hand to wipe the blood from his cheek.

The drop of blood ignited a black fire on the fingertip.

"Zhou Ran".

He called out that name for the first time.

"So you really aren't some kind of emperor after all."

"You are just an outsider who climbed up from the lower realm with the relics of Nightfall."

The lieutenant looked up.

"General, then we..."

Yan Lie turned around and put on his dark armor.

"Shadow Fiend confirmed before his death that he was breaking through and had been forced to the most critical moment."

"If we don't kill him now, we'll miss our chance once he's truly stabilized his Nascent Soul stage."

He raised his hand and grabbed the halberd.

"Pass on the order."

"The entire Zhenbei Army, 30,000 strong in black armor, marched out of their camp."

"Activate the Earth Fire Formation to seal off the Magic Crystal Inn."

The lieutenant hesitated, saying, "But Grand Duke Tun Gu's 100,000-strong army is almost outside the city. If we act now, won't the Grand Duke misunderstand us as trying to steal his credit?"

Yan Lie's gaze was cold.

"Then hurry up."

"Get the Primordial Black Blade and the Demon Emperor's Origin before the Bone-Swallowing Duke enters the city."

He stepped out of the warlord's mansion.

In the northern part of Blackwind City, 30,000 Black Armored soldiers began to assemble.

Beneath the fiery ore vein, a crimson array that had been dormant for many years slowly lit up.

Inside the Magic Crystal Inn.

Just as Qin San finished collecting the Shadow Demon's corpse fluid, a furious roar came from outside the inn.

The roar pierced the street, shattering the windows of dozens of nearby houses, and even shaking the sky-covering array surrounding the inn.

"How dare you kill my men!"

"Activate the formation and raze this inn to the ground!"

The army of the Bone-Swallowing Duke has breached the outer defenses of Blackwind City.

A loud bang was heard, and the ground of the entire Blackwind City trembled.

The animal bone chandelier hanging from the roof of the inn swayed from side to side, and several lighting magic crystals embedded in the wall shattered one after another, the fragments falling to the ground with a soft rustling sound.

Wu Heng's face was deathly pale.

He had just been kneeling before Zhou Ran, trying to show his loyalty by offering tribute, but now he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, his hands supporting him on the ground, his throat dry.

"Your Majesty, all thirty-six outer watchtowers are gone."

"The Black Flag Army of the Bone-Swallowing Duke did not attack the city; they simply crushed through the Fire Canyon."

"The garrison outside the north gate of Blackwind City...didn't even last half an incense stick's time."

Qin San stood by the window and raised his hand to open a crack.

To the north of the city, the sky was already obscured by a dense array of dark battle flags.

The flags were all embroidered with a skull totem with its mouth wide open, and the flagpoles were hundreds of feet high. As the war beasts galloped, they stirred up clouds of dust.

Further away, heavily armored monsters trampled across the wilderness.

With each hooves they trod, a crack several meters long would appear in the ground.

Outside the walls of Blackwind City, three thousand elite Dark Armored Warriors had already formed ranks.

This force belonged to Yan Lie and was the personal guard of the Zhenbei warlord's mansion.

The leader rode on a two-horned demonic unicorn, covered in dark armor, with a three-zhang-long blood-red halberd hanging from his shoulder.

It was Yan Lie.

However, his complexion was extremely poor.

After being attacked by Zhou Ran's tribulation lightning, most of Yan Lie's meridians were destroyed, and the dark scales on his cheeks cracked open, seeping with dark red blood.

He should have been hiding in the warlord's mansion to heal his wounds, but he still came.

Because the order from the Bone-Swallowing Duke was more deadly than any injury.

Outside the inn, Yan Lie raised his head and looked at the three-layered sky-covering array on the top floor. His tone was extremely low, yet it carried throughout the entire street.

"By order of the Grand Duke of Swallowing Bones."

"Anyone who harbors traitors, possesses relics of the Demon Emperor, or disrupts the order of the Sixth Heaven within Black Wind City shall leave the inn within ten breaths and hand over the Primordial Black Blade and the Demon Emperor's Origin."

"Otherwise, the three thousand elite armored soldiers of the Zhenbei Military Command will raze this place to the ground!"

The streets outside the inn were already deserted.

Those forces, large and small, that were originally sending tribute all hid behind the eaves in the distance, and no one dared to show their faces.

They were just scrambling to give gifts to the "Emperor".

Now the 100,000-strong Dark Banner Army of the Bone-Swallowing Duke has arrived.

No one dared to gamble on whether the young man in the inn was the real Demon Emperor or just a madman pretending to be a deity while holding the Demon Emperor's relics.

Gu Li stood by the railing on the second floor of the inn, glanced down, and said coldly, "That dog Yan Lie was just struck half to death by lightning, and now he's wagging his tail and running out again."

Xuan Ying raised his hand and pressed it against the hilt of the knife at his waist.

"He didn't come to kill anyone."

"He's here to scout ahead."

"The Grand Duke of Tun Gu dared not enter the city directly, fearing he might run into the real Ye Futian, so he sent Yan Lie to test him first."

Gu Li grinned: "Then he picked the right person today."

in the secret room.

Zhou Ran sat cross-legged in the center of the obsidian array eye, the wound on his chest had just closed, and dark golden lightning patterns still moved under his skin.

The forced breakthrough he just made suggests that he has already entered the Nascent Soul stage.

But only he himself knew that the dark golden illusory form of the Nascent Soul within his dantian was not yet fully stable.

Most of his old nascent soul was shattered, but the last remaining foundation clung tightly to the depths of his soul, pressing down on his vital point.

If it cannot be completely shattered, his divine transformation will be nothing but an empty shell.