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

Zhou Ran didn't need to hesitate.

The Taihuang Black Blade flew out of his hand, and the seven patterns on the blade simultaneously burst forth with dazzling black and gold light.

The blade's edge didn't strike the Emperor's son; instead, it slashed diagonally into the path of the rules.

The Emperor-level dark patterns and the rules of the Imperial Court collided in mid-air, emitting a shrill whistle that ripped through eardrums.

The seventh of the seven background lines...

The primordial will left behind by Ye Futian...

It confronted the rule head-on, grabbed its tail, and dragged it down relentlessly.

The Taihuang Black Blade trembled violently, bounced three times in the air, and the first pattern on the blade shattered.

But the rules were broken.

The force of the flick of the finger dissipated in the blade's edge, leaving only a muffled groan.

Only then did the emperor's attention truly fall on Zhou Ran.

His dark golden pupils narrowed slightly, not with anger, but with curiosity.

A child discovers an ant in an anthill crawling onto his foot; that's the idea.

"Early stage of void refining?"

The prince tilted his head slightly, his tone filled with genuine confusion.

"You were still in the late Nascent Soul stage three days ago. Who fed you?"

His gaze lingered on Huanyin, Shixue, and Jiuyou for a moment each, and then he understood.

"oh.

The three yin channels nourish each other.

No wonder their breathing had weakened.

The prince chuckled.

"Three women at the peak of the Tribulation Transcending stage are willing to shorten their lifespans to accelerate your maturation; you must have quite the charm."

Zhou Ran reached out, and the Taihuang Black Blade flew back into his palm from the void.

The moment the hilt touched his hand, the first crack in the blade was still leaking residual energy, scorching the skin on his hand.

He gripped it tightly.

"The Emperor's Son".

There was no fear in Zhou Ran's voice, nor any bluffing threats.

It's a very flat, steady tone, stating the facts.

"Your third clone died by my blade."

The domain annihilation privileges are now in my hands.

Does the rule I changed about you with fourteen characters hurt?

The smile on the prince's face vanished.

It wasn't anger, but rather a coldness that said, "Okay, you reminded me."

"pain."

The prince frankly admitted it.

"After my domain destruction authority was revoked, the Imperial Court punished me with three-tenths of my source energy."

Your fourteen words struck me right where it hurts most.

He lifted his foot and took a step forward.

After that step was taken, the entire 3,000-foot-high sky above Nine Nether City shattered.

It wasn't a crack, it was completely shattered, the fragments turning to dust in the Emperor's aura.

"That's why I came in person."

The emperor's figure vanished from the spot.

The next instant, a hand appeared out of thin air in front of Zhou Ran.

With fingers spread wide and palm facing down, he pressed down directly onto the top of the head.

The speed was so fast that even Huan Yin's soul imprint, which was in sync with it, only had time to send back a single word: "Danger".

Zhou Ran didn't have time to swing his knife.

His body reacted instinctively...

He raised his left hand, palm facing up, and met the emperor's hand head-on.

The two hands collided in mid-air.

"Bang!"

The city gate of Jiuyou City sank by two zhang in the shock wave, and countless cracks appeared in the stone bricks of the city wall from top to bottom.

Zhou Ran's left arm bones emitted a dense cracking sound, and every joint from his fingertips to his shoulder screamed in agony.

But his body remained motionless, his feet embedded in the stone slabs of the city tower, and his true essence, which was at the early stage of the Void Refinement realm, was desperately poured into his palms under the blessing of the Lunar Eclipse Compression Technique.

The prince's dark golden pupils changed from being indifferent to glowing slightly.

"Did you catch it?"

For the first time, there was something unexpected in his tone.

"Bloodlust!"

Zhou Ran roared in a hoarse voice.

No further instructions are needed.

Bloodlust charged in from the left flank, the ancestral blood spear trailing a crimson arc in mid-air, its tip aimed straight for the prince's waist and ribs.

The prince glanced at Zhou Ran, his right hand still pressing on Zhou Ran's left palm, while his left hand casually lifted, pinching the tip of the spear between two fingers.

Bloodthirsty pupils exploded.

The killing intent of 300,000 Blood Demon soldiers was poured into this spear, but it was held firmly by two fingers and could not advance even an inch.

"Your ancestral bloodline is quite good."

The prince was praising a dish.

"Unfortunately, the waiters are too weak."

With a twist of two fingers, the shaft of the Ancestral Blood Spear snapped in two.

Bloodlust was thrown back by the force of the recoil, crashing through three arrow towers on the city wall, spitting out blood.

"Phantom Sound!"

"Nine Netherworlds!"

The Illusory Sound's Formless Domain immediately unfolded, enveloping the Emperor's perception system in an illusion.

The Nine Netherworld's coffin burial law surged from the ground, and the pitch-black death energy transformed into countless chains that wrapped around the Emperor's son's feet.

The prince didn't move at all.

A very thin layer of dark golden light membrane emanated from his body. The moment the light membrane expanded, Huan Yin's formless domain melted away inch by inch.

The death energy chains of the Nine Netherworlds evaporated instantly upon contact with that layer of light, leaving not even a trace.

Huanyin groaned, took three steps back, and blood trickled from her lips.

Her mid-stage Tribulation Transcending cultivation was nothing but paper in front of the Emperor's son.

Jiuyou's figure flashed three times in the shadows, and the concentration of death energy dropped to a dangerous level.

Even with the combined efforts of three empresses at the Tribulation Transcending stage, they couldn't hold out for even a moment.

"A little gadget."

The prince's attention remained fixed on Zhou Ran, and he began to increase the pressure on Zhou Ran's left palm.

Zhou Ran's left arm is completely useless.

The bones were shattered into pieces, barely covered by skin and flesh, and fresh blood kept gushing out from between the fingers.

But his right hand had already grasped the Taihuang Black Blade.

The prince's lips curved into a smile.

He deliberately did not stop it.

"You want to kill me?"

Last time, your strike didn't even leave a mark on the secondary body's armor.

Now that you've replaced it with a broken knife that has a few shiny patterns, what do you think...?

The knife is here.

Zhou Ran did not gather his strength, roar, or activate any external amplification.

He simply and quietly raised his right hand and swung the Taihuang Black Blade upwards.

All the true essence from the early stage of the Void Refinement realm was compressed into an extremely dense state using the Lunar Eclipse Compression Technique and then infused into the seven foundational patterns.

The moment all seven patterns lit up simultaneously, two completely different lights appeared on the blade...

The first six background patterns are shimmering with the black and gold imperial blood light, while the seventh background pattern embodies the vast and ancient will of the Night Bearing Heaven's origin.

The two lights resonated strangely at the moment they converged on the blade.

At the deepest level of resonance lies a third force.

The fragments of the Moon Emperor's rules that Zhou Ran devoured when he broke through to the next realm were silvery powers that had been dormant deep within his primordial spirit for less than a day.

Three forces combined.

A knife.

The speed of the strike was not fast; it could be tracked with the naked eye. But the prince's dark golden pupils suddenly tightened the moment the blade approached.

Because he sensed that the superposition frequency of the three forces on the blade coincided perfectly with a resonant node of his own protective rule.

Resonance breaks through defenses.

He didn't have time to remove his hand from Zhou Ran's left palm, nor did he have time to raise his other hand to block.

The blade grazed his cheek.

On his dark golden skin, a very thin bloodstain slowly split open.

Dark red blood seeped from the prince's cheeks, slid down his jawline, and dripped into the void.

No one made a sound on the city wall. Even the wind had stopped.

On the city walls, on the ground, and in the sky, everyone's eyes were fixed on that bloodstain.

The emperor released his grip on Zhou Ran and took a step back.

He raised his hand, his fingertips slowly tracing the bloodstains on his cheek.

He looked down at the dark red blood staining his fingertips.

His expression changed.

It wasn't pain, it wasn't anger.

It is an extreme, bone-deep, almost manic excitement.

"interesting."

The prince's voice trembled.

"That's really interesting."

He raised his head, his dark golden pupils filled with a mad light, fixed on the Taihuang Black Blade in Zhou Ran's hand.

"It's been 30,000 years."

For 30,000 years, no one has ever touched my skin.

The prince grinned, his smile so cruel it sent chills down one's spine.

"But do you know what the price will be for hurting me?"