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

An abandoned chemical plant in the eastern suburbs of Jiangcheng.

The air is filled with the acidic fumes of old chemical waste and the fishy smell of rusted metal, which can knock you over if you enter your nostrils.

On the second floor of the main workshop, a slender figure stood barefoot on the rusted steel corridor.

Her name is Xiaorou.

Her long, jet-black hair was braided into countless thin braids, with tiny silver ornaments hanging from the ends, swaying gently with her breath.

She wore a light black gauze dress, and on her snow-white ankles and calves, there were intricate and eerie dark red tattoos that snaked upwards and disappeared into the shadows beneath the dress.

That face was unique to southern Xinjiang, a stunning blend of innocence and ruthlessness.

At this moment, those eyes, which should have been clear, were burning with a morbid flame.

Below the workshop, twelve figures wearing wooden masks with animal patterns stood like twelve silent stone statues, each occupying a load-bearing pillar.

They are the Twelve Witches of Black Witch Village, the Holy Maiden's most loyal dogs.

"Saintess".

The snake-faced witch spoke in a hoarse voice, like a python flicking its tongue.

"Is that intelligence truly reliable?"

Xiao Rou did not answer.

She slid a jet-black jade cicada from her sleeve. It was about the size of a thumb, with a tiny crack on its abdomen that was gleaming with a faint red light.

That was the last image transmitted back by the larvae she had planted herself, before they were crushed.

In the video, the man is pale, pressing his temples, and says he is going to the western suburbs for seclusion.

"I believe it is true that he suffered a backlash and his soul was damaged."

Xiao Rou's voice was very soft, as if she were savoring an exquisite delicacy.

"Then...why did the Holy Maiden choose this location for her ambush?"

The toad-faced sorcerer asked in a muffled, gruff voice.

"Because I changed my mind."

Xiao Rou put the jade cicada back into her sleeve, and with a flicker of her figure, she gracefully descended from the corridor, which was more than ten meters high.

Her crescent-shaped toes touched a fallen steel pipe without making a sound.

"I don't believe the claim that he chose the western suburbs."

She placed her delicate hand on her lower lip, tilted her head slightly, and her tone revealed a hint of girlish naiveté.

"But what he left inside me doesn't lie."

Xiao Rou closed her eyes and gently placed her fair palms on her flat stomach.

There, a faint, almost non-existent primordial energy was relentlessly clashing.

That's the mark he left behind.

She couldn't bear to refine it, nor could she bear to expel it.

She nurtured it like that, like a seed that could sprout at any moment.

"He's right here."

Xiao Rou opened her eyes, and the moonlight filtering through the hole in the workshop ceiling was reflected in her pupils.

"I could feel him getting closer."

The snake-faced witch fell silent for a moment before speaking.

"The Grand Elder has ordered that this person must die."

The chieftain's demonic avatar needs his primordial essence as nourishment.

"I know."

"After capturing him alive, sever his limbs, seal his consciousness, and escort him back to the Southern Frontier headquarters, where he will never be able to rise again—"

The snake-faced witch continued.

"I said I know."

Xiao Rou's tone remained gentle, but the temperature in the workshop suddenly dropped.

The twelve witches all felt a chill creep up their spines to the back of their heads.

"but……"

Xiao Rou extended her index finger and gently touched her full, red lips.

"Before sending it back, I thought..."

Spend some time alone with him.

"Hehe, just for a little while."

The twelve witches fell silent, as if shivering in the cold.

They knew all too well what the saint meant by "a little while".

The last traitor she "spent some time alone" with.

She still keeps the head in a flowerpot by her bedside, watering and fertilizing it every day.

"Bone-Eating Black Beetle, are you ready?"

Xiao Rou's voice returned to its usual businesslike indifference.

"Three thousand six hundred of them can devour flesh and blood in an instant, leaving only bones."

"What about the Myriad Poisons Devouring Heart Formation?"

"The formation has been set up and activated. Seventy percent of his spiritual power has been depleted."

"it is good."

Xiao Rou nodded in satisfaction and walked into the deepest shadow of the workshop.

There, a half-human, half-machine figure leaned against the wall.

A clone of Song Zhentian.

A ghostly blue prosthetic eye gleamed in the darkness, and a newly forged demonic sword lay across his lap, its blade dripping with blood.

"Your junk, is it even usable?"

Xiao Rou's tone was filled with undisguised contempt.

Song Zhentian ignored him and said nothing at all.

"The Master has ordered that no price should be spared."

Xiao Rou chuckled softly and said nothing more.

She found a corner, leaned against a cold concrete pillar, hugged her knees, and slowly sat down.

Then, I started to wait.

The array patterns of the Myriad Gu Devouring Heart Array flowed with a faint light on the oil-stained ground, like a giant net spread out.

The hunting grounds are ready.

Xiao Rou buried her face in her arms, her shoulders trembling slightly.

It looked like she was crying, but it also looked like she was laughing.

"Come quick..."

"I've been waiting so long, it's been so agonizing..."

Eleven fifty-eight.

A soft footstep was heard outside the wall on the north side of the factory area.

That was the sound.

The twelve witches opened their eyes simultaneously!

Song Zhentian's prosthetic eye shone with a scarlet light!

Xiao Rou suddenly looked up, her eyes brimming with tears, but a horrifying smile spread across her lips.

he came.

Then, the load-bearing wall in front of her exploded.

It wasn't pushed over, it wasn't smashed.

It was from the inside out, blown away along with the foundation by a pure, savage force!

Boom! ...

Tons of concrete fragments and twisted steel bars were transformed into deadly shrapnel, spraying wildly into the workshop.

The two witches were unable to dodge in time and were struck in the chest by the boulder. Their protective Gu armor shattered instantly, and they were blasted away, their fate unknown.

Amidst the billowing dust, a figure walked in.

Hands in pockets, walking leisurely.

Zhou Ran.

His black trench coat was spotless, and his face showed no sign of weakness or damage to his spirit.

The blood and qi of the Primordial Overlord Body surged beneath his skin, emitting a muffled thunderous sound, and his bronze skin gleamed with a metallic luster.

Those purplish-gold demonic eyes swept across the entire area, like a god examining its offerings.

"The Myriad Poisons Devouring Heart Formation?"

Zhou Ran looked down at the frantically flashing array patterns beneath his feet, his tone revealing undisguised disappointment.

"this one?"

He lifted his foot.

Fall.

boom!

His vital energy, like mercury, surged from the soles of his feet into the earth!

The array of light flowing on the ground emitted a shrill shriek the moment it came into contact with that power, and was then burned to charcoal inch by inch!

The energy circuit of the entire array was instantly overloaded, and the chain reaction devoured all the array eyes within half a second!

Centered on his landing point, the ground cracked like a spider web, with the cracks spreading wildly in all directions!

The faces of the Twelve Witches turned deathly pale instantly.

"We've fallen for their trap!"

He wasn't injured at all!

The snake-faced witch let out a heart-wrenching roar.

"Release the insects!!"