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

Li Zhiyao's wrists kept moving.

The scarlet paper banner pierced the eerie wind of the underground palace, and the incantation for summoning souls bounced back from the rock wall, circling the entire underground where 80,000 lives had been buried.

Song Zhentian put down the scalpel.

The face, crisscrossed with sutures, slowly turned around.

The misaligned muscles twitched, and a crack appeared in the skin at the corner of the mouth.

The sound squeezed out of its throat didn't sound like a human laugh; it was the hoarse, hissing sound of something catching its prey.

"Yin spirit?"

"You've come at the perfect time."

He interlaced his fingers, forming intricate, overlapping marks.

Each fingertip is an outward-curving flesh, and the angle of the bent knuckles is unlike the curvature that a living thing should have.

"Takamagahara: Deathly Evil Technique!"

The incantation landed.

The space around the platform suddenly collapsed.

A viscous swamp churning with black bubbles appeared out of nowhere.

The putrid yellow liquid swirled within, carrying an extremely corrosive nature, seeping through the gaps in the air and spreading towards the jade skeleton on the white marble platform.

He wanted to destroy Li Chengfeng's remains.

Li Zhiyao's eye socket cracked.

There was no preparation, no warning.

Two lines of bloody tears streamed down her cheeks, dripping onto her moon-white cheongsam, creating two striking red plum blossoms.

She bit the tip of her tongue.

Before the metallic taste in his mouth had even dissipated, a mouthful of his own lifeblood was sprayed onto the paper banner.

"Borrowing a Path to the Underworld—The River Styx Flows Backwards!"

The white paper lantern burst forth with a blinding white light.

A crack several meters wide was torn open in the ground.

The murky, yellowish waters of the Styx surged into the sky from the crack, flowing upstream straight into that filthy swamp.

When the evil waters of the two realms meet, they engulf each other.

White smoke rose, accompanied by a chilling hissing sound, and the sound of dissolving continued incessantly.

But Li Zhiyao is merely a reincarnator who travels between the two worlds.

A thousand years of accumulated good deeds have been almost entirely wiped out by the reverse flow of the River Styx.

The Styx River receded steadily, and the poisonous water slowly rose, soon to submerge the skeleton's toes.

"The supreme method of the Great Sun Black Dragon Sect."

Song Zhentian looked down at the crowd, his tone full of arrogance.

"With your meager skills, you think you can stop me?"

He hadn't finished speaking.

A thunderclap suddenly resounded in the underground palace.

It is not magic, not hand seals, and not any cultivation method that begins with hand seals.

It's just one step.

The moment Zhou Ran took that step, the bluestone slab beneath his feet shattered into dust.

He transformed into a purplish-black line and disappeared into the Dead Swamp.

The Black Dragon Cult's proudest method of extreme Yin corruption.

Before the destructive power of the Qilin Arm, it was like a piece of rotten, wet paper.

The swamp was torn in two from the middle.

Before the poisonous water even touched his skin, it was burned to black ash by the protective demonic fire and scattered in the wind.

Zhou Ran stepped over the rubble of the swamp and headed straight for the high platform.

This is his Qilin bone!

How could we allow this old bastard to commit such blasphemy!

Song Zhentian's eyes bulged out.

With a powerful stomp of his right leg, dozens of half-meter-long, pale bones pierced through the skin from the stitched-up elephant leg.

It twisted and deformed in mid-air, transforming into dozens of sharp katana, their blades coated with eerie green venom, sealing off all entry points.

"Demon Slayer!"

Zhou Ran did not stop.

Facing the net of blades, spread your left hand with your five fingers open and make a loose grip forward.

There were no incantations or hand seals.

It refers to the physical body.

"Click—"

He gripped dozens of bone katanas, each powerful enough to cut through steel bars, in his palm. With a burst of Qilin energy, the katanas shattered into a handful of bone fragments.

The crumbs spilled through his fingers, clattering onto the white marble steps.

Song Zhentian finally panicked.

He wanted to back out, but his legs didn't move.

Zhou Ran had already moved closer.

His right fist, brimming with purple-gold demonic energy, slammed towards Song Zhentian's chest with a piercing sonic boom.

With a loud bang.

The powerful body, stitched with more than a dozen demonic organs, had its chest caved in on the spot.

The force of the punch penetrated the internal organs, tore open the back, and emerged from the body.

Half of his body exploded into a cloud of blood mist.

Minced meat, mixed with fragments of unknown organs, splattered on the rock wall and flowed down the cracks in the rock.

Zhou Ran withdrew his fist and looked down at the half-destroyed body on the ground.

Beneath the ruptured muscle tissue, instead of bone, lay extremely intricate wooden mechanisms.

There are also layers of tightly arranged, interlocking Yamata no Serpent scales, still clicking and turning, like a clock that has been smashed but is still running.

This thing was never a person.

"Got all that effort, and all I got was a toy."

Zhou Ran shook the crumbs off his hands, his tone completely calm.

The half-head on the ground was still alive.

Song Zhentian's only remaining eye was bloodshot, and he rubbed his chin against the ground.

A muffled laugh escaped his lips, intermittent yet exceptionally jarring.

"Insects of the Xia Kingdom".

"You think you've won by simply breaking a body?"

"The empire's spirit of annihilation—has only just awakened."

......

Song Zhentian's only remaining left hand gripped tightly the pulsating black core inside his chest cavity.

Apply force with all five fingers.

crumb.

The sound was extremely soft, as soft as stepping on an insect.

But the next moment, the walls moved.

Within the layers of burial pits, eerie green will-o'-the-wisps flickered simultaneously.

A heavy grinding sound came from deep within the rock wall.

Low-pitched.

continued.

Getting closer.

"Bang."

"Bang."

"Bang."

Countless mounds of earth were broken open from the inside.

A withered arm stretched out from the black soil.

Next comes the head, then the shoulders, then the whole body.

A tattered crimson mask, complete with the essence of the world, a mask of a demon.

There were no eyes behind the mask, only two pulsating black flames.

Those were eyes filled only with murderous intent.

With his katana in hand, he leaped down from the rock wall into the bottom of the underground palace.

It landed without making a sound.

Zhou Ran scanned the area with his divine sense and found over a thousand bodies.

He stretched his knuckles and swept them around.

They were not taken seriously at all.

Now, he's a Foundation Establishment Stage 7 cultivator, and his ego is swelled up!

"Is this all the foundation you have?"

"kill!"

The thousand jade-shattering warriors spoke at the same time.

They formed an ancient battle formation, their samurai swords slashing down in unison, the blade energy forming a crimson wall that swept across the sky.

Zhou Ran stood in front of Li Zhiyao and unleashed a barrage of punches.

The fist, as thick as a bucket, smashed into the group of warriors.

The first few dozen men, armor and all, were blasted to pieces, limbs flying everywhere, and fragments of armor clanging and clattering on the ground.

But the fragments began to wriggle as soon as they hit the ground.

A flash of black flame.

The broken bones were pieced back together, the armor was put back in place, and the shattered warriors were molded back into their original form by an unseen hand, stood up, picked up their swords, and continued to charge.

Zhou Ran frowned.

Li Zhiyao quickly retreated behind him, lightly stroking her brow with two fingers, and activated her Yin Eye.

Don't waste your energy.

Her throat was hoarse, and she spoke very quickly.

"These things have no souls; they are killing machines created by Japanese Onmyoji using the resentment of shikigami mixed with death energy."

Physical crushing is useless; even if you grind it into powder, it can still be reassembled.

"How do we kill him?"

Zhou Ran kicked over three approaching warriors without turning his head.

"The Underworld".

Li Zhiyao tossed the white paper lantern high into the air.

He bit his right middle finger and drew a blood talisman in mid-air.

"I offer up a thousand years of virtuous deeds as a sacrifice to open the gates of the underworld."

Zhou Ran gasped.

This crazy woman is risking her life to protect her brother's body!

Although Li Zhiyao was completely lifeless.

From Zhou Ran's perspective, it can be seen through the eyes of his Demon Eye.

Her negative karma and deathly aura were rapidly dissipating.