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

When Mingcang rushed in, his lips were purple.

He had been the steward of the Demon Palace for hundreds of years, and even when the sky was falling, he had never panicked like this.

He braced his hands on his knees, bent over, and gasped for breath.

His words cleaved the lively atmosphere of the hall in two.

"Emperor... at the bottom of the Abyss of Annihilation, Ye Futian's bronze coffin... opened by itself."

No one in the hall spoke.

Zhou Ran had just finished transferring the last bit of essence to Xiao Hongli.

Xiao Hongli's nascent soul power was still slowly circulating in her meridians, while Chen Ya and Lin Qingxue were also sitting cross-legged by the spiritual spring pool to digest their cultivation levels.

The three empresses' auras have completely returned to the peak of the Tribulation Transcending Realm, and their power after their old injuries have healed is even more refined than before.

Everyone was enjoying a rare moment of relaxation after the great battle.

Mingcang's words shattered Songci's composure completely.

Bloodlust was the first to stand up, slamming the jerky in his hand to the ground.

"What did you say?"

"The coffin lid... was pushed open by itself."

Ming Cang swallowed hard, his voice trembling.

"When I was inspecting the formation at the bottom of the Soul Abyss, I reached the seventh level and saw from afar that the lid of the coffin was tilted to one side."

"It's empty inside, there's nothing there."

Jiuyou emerged from the shadows, his deathly aura fluctuating violently upon hearing the words "bronze coffin."

She didn't speak, but the black frost under her feet visibly spread in all directions.

Zhou Ran gripped the hilt of the Taihuang Black Blade.

The seven background lines were slightly warm.

"Walk."

……

The entrance to the Abyss of Souls still bears traces of the great battle.

Thirty percent of the Emperor-level dark patterns on the mine walls were destroyed in the battle, and twenty-seven of the one hundred and eight demonic puppets were lost.

The rest are slowly repairing themselves deep inside the mine.

Zhou Ran, along with six women and Ming Cang, ventured deep into the seventh floor.

The air grew increasingly thick, the concentration of demonic energy so high that water could be squeezed out of it.

Since digesting the Emperor's "Emperor's Mark", these demonic energies are no different from soaking in a hot spring for him.

The deepest part of the seventh floor.

The bronze coffin is right there.

The coffin lid was tilted and rested against the edge of the coffin, revealing the entire interior of the coffin.

The inner wall is covered with dense array patterns, each of which is of the same origin and frequency as the background pattern of the Taihuang Black Blade.

The bottom of the coffin was covered with a layer of black liquid that had dried up over countless years.

empty.

Utterly empty.

Zhou Ran walked to the coffin and looked down inside.

There is a line of text in the very center of the bottom of the coffin.

The handwriting is extremely new, with the strokes deeply embedded in the bronze.

Each stroke carries an ancient aura that makes your teeth ache.

That aura was all too familiar to Zhou Ran... It was the primordial will remaining in the seventh layer of the Taihuang Black Blade.

"Kid, you've got a good grip on the knife."

Seven characters.

Zhou Ran stared at those seven words, a chill running down his spine.

It's not fear.

From the day he received the Primordial Black Blade, he believed that every choice he made was his own...

In the end, it was discovered that someone had been standing on the chessboard 30,000 years ago, watching him move all the squares with a smile.

He turned to look at the three empresses.

The bloodthirsty dough stretched to the point of being as stiff as an iron plate.

Huanyin's dark red pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints.

The outline of Jiuyou became blurred and indistinct in the deathly aura.

"Ye Futian is not dead."

Zhou Ran squeezed each word out from between his teeth.

impossible!

That's absolutely impossible!

This old devil was refined by his own hands.

Besides, his last shred of obsession had long since vanished, so how could he not be dead?

Is this the method of a Great Emperor?

Zhou Ran dared not think any further.

If Ye Futian can be resurrected, then wouldn't the other Great Emperor realm cultivators he killed also be resurrected?

Huanyin walked to the coffin, bent down to look at the words, and gently traced her finger along the edge of the coffin.

The moment her fingertips touched the edge of the engraving, her dark red pupils jumped violently.

"These characters were carved in no more than three days."

Huanyin's voice lost its usual languidness and became dry and hoarse.

"He emerged from his coffin while we were fighting the emperor's son."

Bloodlust slammed his fist into the mine wall, creating a crack that stretched from the ceiling to the floor.

"Thirty thousand years!"

His bloodthirsty voice had gone hoarse, and what burned in his crimson pupils was not murderous intent, but something even hotter.

"I guarded the sea of ​​blood for him for thirty thousand years!"

"He told me he was dead, and asked me to avenge him, and to wait for the next Demon Emperor to inherit his will."

"So he wasn't dead at all? He just hid in his coffin and watched us put on this for 30,000 years?!"

Jiuyou finally spoke.

Her voice was always cold, but this time, there was a thin, transparent layer of bitterness beneath the cold.

"The name on the coffin lid."

Jiuyou said.

"He was inside when I carved it."

Everyone fell silent.

On the night Jiuyou carved Zhou Ran's name on the coffin lid, a living person lay inside the coffin.

The living person listened as she painstakingly carved another man's name onto her coffin lid, stroke by stroke, from beginning to end.

Zhou Ran clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

He remembered too many things.

When the seventh background pattern lit up, the shadowy figure of Night Sky nodded... That wasn't approval, it was confirmation.

It confirms that his piece has reached the correct position.

The 108 demonic puppets are not an inheritance, but guard dogs.

The Abyss of Souls is not a tomb, but a secret chamber that has been locked for 30,000 years.

From the moment he obtained the Taihuang Black Blade, Zhou Ran was a carefully nurtured piece in this game of chess.

"The battle in which the Imperial Court 'killed' Ye Futian."

Lin Qingxue's weak voice came from behind.

She leaned against Chen Ya, the remaining traces of her divine eyes gleaming faintly with silver light deep within.

"If Ye Futian hadn't died, the significance of that battle would have been entirely different."

She spoke slowly, but every word hit the nail on the head.

"He needs the Imperial Court to believe he's dead."

"He needs everyone in the demon realm to believe he's dead."

"Only in this way will the Imperial Court relax its surveillance of the Demon Realm, allowing him to secretly lay the groundwork for 30,000 years."

Lin Qingxue coughed twice, and Chen Ya quickly patted her back.

"The three of you are his most important pawns."

Lin Qingxue's gaze shifted from Bloodlust to Illusionary Sound, and then to Nine Netherworlds.

"He made you believe he was dead, and made you guard the demon realm for 30,000 years with hatred and loyalty, maintaining its basic base for him."

"When the new Demon Emperor appears, when the Imperial Court's attention is completely drawn to the new Demon Emperor..."

She didn't finish speaking.

Huanyin finished speaking for her.

"So he can do what he really wants to do where no one can see him."

Huan Yin's lips curled into a smile, a smile more unsightly than a cry.

"Truly worthy of being the master I've served for thirty thousand years."

"They treat the living like the dead, using three women at the peak of the Tribulation Transcending stage as watchdogs."

Xiao Hongli stood to the side, listened for a long time, and then suddenly spoke up.

"Isn't this just a shell company?"

Everyone looked at her.

Xiao Hongli's expression was calm as she twirled the pen between her fingers.

"The founder faked bankruptcy and fled, leading the three executives to believe the company was going to collapse, and they desperately tried to keep it running."

"After the company was saved by the new leader and its market value increased tenfold, the founder stepped out from behind the scenes and said, 'This company is still mine.'"

She looked at Zhou Ran, her eyes sharp.