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

The last rays of the setting sun were cut off by the roller shutter.

The crisp click of the latches shut out the noise.

Fatty Wang wished he could embed his big, round face into the phone screen; his eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets.

"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands..."

He counted again and again, the sound of him swallowing his saliva particularly clear in the empty venue.

Five hundred million!

"A whole five hundred million, Ran-ge!"

Fatty Wang suddenly looked up, his face flushed red, as if he had just downed two jin of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) in one go.

He had never seen money come so quickly in his entire life.

This isn't a money-printing machine, it's outright robbery, and these top-tier wealthy women are lining up, begging him to rob them.

"Promising."

Zhou Ran leaned back on the sofa, the dark aura he had drawn from Han Hongmei's spine was being rolled into an ink ball by his fingertips.

With a casual toss, the ink pellet traced an arc and landed precisely in the fruit bowl on the coffee table.

"This money is burning my hands; it's money earned at the cost of my life, and it's also the first military expense we've received since entering Beijing."

In the fruit platter, the white mushroom disguised as an ornament suddenly opened its cap and swallowed the ink pellet like a Venus flytrap.

"belch--"

Bai Xuan let out a loud burp, the mushroom stem swelled up, and his seductive appearance was as lewd as could be.

"The taste is a bit strong, that's the resentment from menopause, but it's very nourishing."

Fatty Wang's eyes twitched as he watched, and he subconsciously shrank back behind Zhou Ran.

"Ran-ge, these mushrooms... are getting more and more sinister."

"There are even more sinister ones."

The fat man slammed his phone on the coffee table, his expression grave, and pulled up a satellite map of the western suburbs of Beijing.

"That Japanese woman named Haruko chose this place as our meeting spot."

Where the finger landed, it appeared as a festering black spot on the satellite image.

"The mass grave in the western suburbs."

The fat man said dryly,

"I just checked the information. It's a mass grave from the previous dynasty, and it's a notoriously dangerous place in the capital."

Taxi drivers would rather take a 20-kilometer detour than go that way.

"That's an extremely yin place for raising corpses, you ignorant fatso."

Bai Xuan disdainfully shook the mushroom cap.

"Beneath that lies the severed 'remnant lineage of the evil dragon' from the previous dynasty, its malevolent energy becoming tangible, capable of softening even the bones of a living person."

That woman chose this place specifically to set a trap for you.

"The blood of the Qilin is extremely yang, and the fire of the drought demon is extremely fierce."

"Once you get to that kind of place, the boss's strength will be suppressed by at least 30%, while the opponent's Sakura shikigami will have double the combat power."

Bai Xuan hit the nail on the head.

The fat man grew anxious, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"This is a pig butchering scam! Brother Ran, how about I contact Liu Jianguo and ask him to use his connections in Beijing to bring over some heavy weapons?"

After all, all fear stems from insufficient firepower.

Zhou Ran got up and walked to the French windows.

The night view of Beijing is beautiful, dazzling with lights.

"Bring people?"

That was just a fight between petty thugs.

Zhou Ran looked down at the flowing river of cars outside the window, his pupils showing no anger at being schemed against.

Instead, it's like a hunter staring at a deer that has fallen into a trap, with a cruel mockery in its gaze.

"What I need to do is clean house."

"Since they've already chosen the burial site, wouldn't it be disrespectful if I didn't go and fill in the soil?"

He turned around, his expression indifferent.

"Fatty's here to watch the house, but White Umbrella, you're coming with me!"

"No, please, prison guard!"

……

In the western suburbs, at midnight.

The withered grass rubbed against each other in the night wind, making a sound like fingernails scratching a coffin.

The air was murky, carrying the earthy smell of damp soil and fermenting decaying vegetation.

This place is completely out of place in the bustling capital city.

Only the pale moonlight shone on the grave mounds piled with rubble.

In the very center of this desolate graveyard, a low mahogany table lay out incongruously.

Two white paper lanterns hung on the bare branches, their flames glowing a pale green.

Haruko Abe changed into a plain white kimono and was kneeling on a futon to warm sake.

A small red clay stove, a white jade wine pot—the movements were so refined, it felt like being in a teahouse in Kyoto, not a mass grave filled with corpses.

However, in Zhou Ran's field of vision, there were no fewer than twenty sharp auras hidden in the surrounding dark woods.

Even in the soil beneath your feet, something is moving.

"Mr. Zhou has great courage."

Seeing Zhou Ran arrive under the moonlight, Qingzi put down her wine pot and bowed slightly.

The smile beneath the white makeup was just right, possessing both a woman's charm and the hostess's composure.

"Please sit down. This is sake from my hometown, buried under a cherry blossom tree for ten years. It's the sweetest and most refreshing sake yet."

Zhou Ran did not sit down.

He stood there looking at Haruko, his gaze calm.

"I don't drink wine made from dead people."

His voice was cold and indifferent, without a trace of anger.

Haruko paused slightly as she poured the wine, then covered her mouth and chuckled softly, her eyes sparkling.

"Is Mr. Zhou still angry?"

Actually, we are not enemies.

She picked up her wine glass and took a sip, leaving a bright red mark on the white porcelain glass with her red lips.

"The president greatly admires Mr. Zhou's talent."

"Your cultivation world has declined. You are a dragon; you shouldn't be trapped in these shallows."

"If you hand over the technique for devouring dragon veins and join the Black Dragon Society..."

Haruko held up three fingers, her tone full of seduction.

"You will receive 30% of all future profits from this region."

"We will use all our resources, even sacrifice the fortune of a shrine, to help you form your Golden Core."

She took a sip of sake and gave an extremely alluring smile. "After all, the energy needed to form a core on Earth would probably be more than the entire Pacific Ocean."

As she spoke, she slowly pulled down her collar, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin, and her voice became sweet and sticky.

"As for Haruko herself, she has cultivated a seductive nature since childhood."

If Mr. Zhou doesn't mind, tonight... this mass grave can be transformed into a den of ecstasy.

These conditions are enough to cause a cultivator to lose their Dao heart.

Power, wealth, strength, and beauty.

This is the most sophisticated and overt strategy.

Zhou Ran smiled.

"Is your tiny, insignificant country desperately poor?"

Zhou Ran bent down, his face close to Qingzi's, and lightning flashed in his purple-gold pupils.

"Trying to buy me off with our country's money?"

"You're using my five-thousand-year-old dragon vein to make empty promises?"

"As for you..."

Zhou Ran looked Qingzi up and down, his disdain undisguised.

"2000 per shot, no more than that!"

Haruko's fake smile crumbled.

The allure in her eyes faded, replaced by a venomous resentment.

"You're asking for it!"

"Since you're courting death, then stay and become my shikigami puppet!"

Haruko let out a sharp cry and slammed the wine glass in her hand to the ground.

Snapped!

The crisp sound of the wine glass shattering became the signal to start the war.

The ground exploded, and several pitch-black chains, like monstrous pythons bursting from the earth, coiled around his legs.

At the same time, a dozen dark figures shot out like ghosts from the surrounding woods.

The samurai sword in his hand glowed with a ghostly green, poisonous light, sealing off all of Zhou Ran's escape routes.

That was a sure-kill situation!

"A little trick."

Zhou Ran didn't even glance at the chains.

He simply raised his right foot and stomped heavily on the valuable mahogany table in front of him.

boom!!!

The mahogany table was crushed into powder.

The terrifying energy struck Zhou Ran, sweeping outwards like a shockwave.

boom! boom! boom!

The dozen or so black-clad ninjas who rushed forward were sent flying by the domineering shockwave before they could even touch Zhou Ran's clothes.

The sound of bones shattering echoed through the night sky.

Haruko was thrown off her feet and rolled around on the ground seven or eight times, her expensive kimono torn to shreds by the dry branches.

The dust has settled.

Zhou Ran stood in the center of the ruins.

His left sleeve ripped open, revealing a grotesque, black jade-like arm.

Beneath the black scales, a dark red, magma-like light flowed slowly, radiating a suffocatingly high temperature.

The surrounding evil spirits that tried to approach, upon touching this intense heat, emitted a sizzling scream and vanished without a trace.

Zhou Ran reached out and grabbed at Qingzi, whose face was filled with horror.

"Now that you're here, you're not leaving."

"Perfect timing! My massive arms are itching for a workout!"