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

The prince's face turned deathly pale the instant the dark gold protective light membrane shattered.

He sensed the true nature of the power at the tip of the knife...

The power of judgment.

The dust from the shattered White Bone Pen merged with the seventh layer of the Primordial Black Blade, converging at the tip of the blade along with Ye Futian's primordial will and Zhou Ran's own Demon Emperor primordial essence, forming a visible black-gold ray of light.

The ray of light was as thin as a hair, and the prince shivered from head to toe.

"No......"

The prince struggled to retreat, but one hundred and eight demonic puppets surged up from all directions, their chains, woven from imperial-level dark patterns, firmly fixing his limbs and torso in place.

Zhou Ran's knife tip fell.

The moment it pierced the Emperor's brow, there was no dramatic blood splattering.

There was only a very faint, muffled groan, as if something was being pried up from its foundation.

The prince opened his mouth as wide as he could, but no sound came out.

Between his brows, a fist-sized dark golden crystal was being slowly peeled away from the foundation of his primordial spirit by the Primordial Black Blade.

The surface of the crystal was covered with patterns of the Imperial Court's rules, each pattern connecting to tens of thousands of rule chains within his body.

Dig.

The highest authority certificate granted by the Imperial Court to the Emperor's son.

It is also the source of all the Emperor's power.

The stripping process lasted a full one hundred breaths.

With each inch peeled away, the emperor's son's body shrank a little.

His dark golden skin turned a dull, yellowish-gray, and the dark golden light in his pupils gradually faded.

His bones were shrinking, his muscles were withering, and his 30,000 years of cultivation were irreversibly slipping away from every pore, like fine sand in an hourglass.

When the Dige crystal was completely stripped away, the Dizi's body had withered into a skeleton.

The withered bones drifted in the air for two breaths before turning into a colorless wind and disappearing into the demonic energy of the Abyss of Soul Desolation.

The emperor's son.

Went out.

Zhou Ran stretched out his right hand and caught the dark golden imperial crystal that had been peeled off from between the Emperor's eyebrows.

The moment the crystal touched his hand, a terrifying force of rules, so powerful it made his arm tremble, surged into his meridians through his palm.

He didn't rush to absorb it, but put Dig into a specially sealed Soul Abyss Stone Box and locked it with the Emperor-level dark patterns of the Primordial Black Blade.

The Abyss of Annihilation returned to silence.

One hundred and eight demonic puppets slowly retreated back to the mine wall, returning to silence once more.

The 30,000-year-old plan has completed its final mission today.

Zhou Ran, leaning on the Taihuang Black Blade, climbed up step by step from the bottom of the Soul Abyss.

My left arm is useless, hanging by my side, the bone shattered into pieces and barely held together by the skin and flesh.

A third of the veins in his right arm were torn off, and he haphazardly wrapped the bloody gash in the tiger's mouth twice with the strip of cloth from the knife hilt.

The three scratches on his back were still bleeding, and every step he took aggravated the wounds, causing his temples to throb with pain.

But he walked very steadily.

When he emerged from the mine entrance, the sky outside Nine Nether City had returned to its normal leaden gray.

The Heavenly Demon Vanguard on the eastern front lost the Emperor's control and their formation collapsed. Bloodlust led the remaining combat-ready troops to attack from the flank, and the Ancestral Blood Spear plowed bloody paths through the demon soldiers' formation.

The Asura warriors on the western front lost the rules that sustained their form the instant the Great Emperor fell. Their six arms shattered into pieces, and the entire army vanished like frost flowers in the sunlight in an instant.

The Imperial Court warships on the northern front automatically initiated their retreat program when the true form of the Emperor Prince perished. The Black Gold Vortex of the fourth sub-body lost its core command and became an empty shell without a soul. It was dragged into the void rift by the warship without even a chance to fight.

The cheers of the Four-Region Allied Forces came from afar, wave after wave assaulting Zhou Ran's eardrums.

He didn't stop, and walked straight back to the main hall of the Devouring Demon Palace.

When he pushed open the palace door, he saw a scene that made him stop in his tracks for a full three breaths.

On the left side of the main hall, Xiao Hongli sat behind the dispatching console, a pen lying across the ore slab, her face expressionless.

Beside her was Chen Ya, who was still holding the military manual in her arms. Her eyes were red, but her back was straight.

Lin Qingxue was placed on a soft couch, her pale face devoid of any emotion, but the last vestige of silver light from her divine eyes flickered deep within them.

On the right side of the main hall, Bloodlust stood there, holding a pieced-together ancestral blood spear, his body covered in blood, the faint imperial blood mark on his collarbone still emitting smoke.

Huanyin leaned against a pillar, her dark red dress stained with battlefield dust, her disheveled silver hair partially obscuring her face.

Jiuyou materialized from the shadows, enveloped in deathly aura, and the name engraved on the coffin lid was faintly visible behind her.

Three women from the blue planet.

Three empresses from the demon realm.

All six pairs of eyes were looking at him, yet none of them looked at the other person.

The atmosphere in the main hall was chilling to the bone.

Bloodlust was the first to speak, his crimson pupils sweeping over the three women opposite him, his voice dripping with venom.

"The war is over. There are some things that need to be clarified."

Zhou Ran stood in the center of the hall for three breaths before plopping down on the throne.

The Taihuang Black Blade lay horizontally beside the armrest, six of its seven runes had dimmed, leaving only the seventh rune still faintly shimmering.

His left arm hung limply at his side, the strips of cloth that Chen Ya had temporarily wrapped around it with the Demon Emperor's cloak were now soaked in blood, and his entire arm looked as if it were useless.

The attention of the six women pressed down on them simultaneously, making it even harder to breathe than the pressure the Emperor Prince had accumulated over 30,000 years.

"The Emperor's son is dead, the Heavenly Demon Emperor is dead, the Asura Emperor is dead."

Zhou Ran first presented the results of the battle, speaking as if he were holding a weekly meeting.

"The enemy forces on the outer lines have collapsed, and the subsequent cleanup work will be handled by Qin San and Gu Ji."

Now, let's get down to business.

He took out the Soul Abyss Stone Box containing the Dig Crystal from his sleeve and pushed it towards the center of the hall.

The box slid three zhang (approximately 10 meters) across the smooth stone slab and came to a stop in the middle between two rows of women.

"Dige. The highest-level authorization credential of the Imperial Court."

Zhou Ran's voice wasn't loud, but it could be heard clearly in every corner of the hall.

"The power of this thing's rules is enough to allow a peak Tribulation Transcending cultivator to directly step into the threshold of the Legendary level."

I don't plan to keep it for myself.

His bloodthirsty eyes lit up for a moment, then dimmed again.

She knew it all too well...

There's only one Dige, and if the man on the throne were to divide it up, it would be a battle no matter how it's divided.

Huan Yin didn't look at Di Ge; her dark red pupils were fixed on the three Blue Star women opposite her.

"Before the imperial ranks are determined, I have a question I would like to clarify."

Huanyin raised her chin and pointed at Lin Qingxue.

"In today's battle, the rule shielding in the Abyss of Souls was done by her."

The Emperor's teleportation talisman was locked because it was built upon the underlying framework of her Golden Gu data.

He turned his finger toward Xiao Hongli.

"The firepower coverage of the twelve heavy artillery formations resulted in more than 40% of the enemy's casualties on the eastern front, all thanks to her command."

Then turn to Chen Ya.

"The three hidden leads traced by the intelligence team allowed us to pinpoint the teleportation anchor point of the Heavenly Demon Realm's sneak attack seven days in advance. She uncovered it through interrogation."

Huan Yin straightened up, silver hair slipping from her shoulders. Her dark red pupils, devoid of their usual scheming, revealed a seriousness bordering on awkwardness.

"Those who have made significant contributions in three key battles should logically have a corresponding position."

"I want to know..."

She stared at Zhou Ran.

"Where do you plan to put them?"

The bloodthirsty gun butt thudded on the ground.

"Huanyin, stop trying to be a good person for others."

Their cultivation level is even lower than that of children, and they wouldn't even have the ability to protect themselves if they stayed in the Demon Realm.

By putting them on the table, are you helping them or harming them?

Jiuyou remained silent, but the temperature of the deathly aura dropped two degrees.

None of the three blue-star women on the left backed down.

Xiao Hongli was the first to stand up.