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

The old devil, unusually lost in thought, began to mutter to himself.

His voice was ethereal, as if it came from another era.

"In ancient times, there was indeed a lineage in the myriad realms that fed on the corpses of stars and drank the essence of the world to survive."

"Elders of the sect, if you can single-handedly remove all the foundations of a small world, you will be granted the title of 'Half-City'..."

The remnant soul of Ye Futian was taut and straight, yet somewhat unsteady.

"How could the bloodline of such a figure have been lost in this realm?"

Zhou Ran ignored the noise in his mind and strode upstairs.

Su Qingling tore off the ribbon soaked with sweat, her fair cheeks still flushed.

Watching Zhou Ran's departing figure, she asked her sister beside her, still somewhat unsatisfied.

"Training...is it over already?"

Su Qingwu closed her eyes tightly, resting her head weakly on her sister's soft shoulder, not wanting to move a single finger.

"Shut up, let me die for a while."

……

Outside the main gate of the Xiao Family Manor.

A dilapidated white Iveco van was parked on the side of the road, with large patches of paint peeling off, revealing rusty sheet metal underneath.

The safety bar at the rear of the car was just haphazardly tied with thick iron wire and could fall apart at any moment.

A man was standing next to the car.

thin.

black.

Its spine is straight, like a javelin stuck in the ground.

His cheeks were sunken and his cheekbones were high, the kind of face that had never seen oil or sunlight for many years.

He wore a faded military green jacket, and on his feet were a pair of liberation shoes, the surface of which was covered with hardened yellow mud.

The smell of aged grave soil mixed with the oxidized metallic odor emanated from him.

Zhou Ran looked down and glanced at the shoes.

The man's posture was relaxed, but his center of gravity was firmly on his heels, and his shoulders were slightly drooping.

The body developed this instinct by walking on narrow tomb passages and slippery walls year after year.

It's an underground operation.

"Feng Bancheng?"

"Mr. Zhou."

The middle-aged man bowed slightly, his movements concise and without any unnecessary formalities.

"It's really unconventional of me to come here..."

There's nowhere left to go.

When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, and every word carried the pungent smell of the dust and smoke from the tomb.

Zhou Ran leaned against the iron door frame, showing no intention of inviting him in.

"You're saying you dug something up?"

Feng Bancheng did not answer immediately.

He turned around and went through the Iveco's dilapidated back door.

With great difficulty, they carried out a long, narrow object that was tightly wrapped in oilcloth and an old cotton quilt.

He placed the items on the ground and peeled them off layer by layer.

Beneath the tarpaulin was a piece of bone the size of a palm.

It is grayish-white, loose in texture, and covered with fine, spiderweb-like weathering cracks.

It looks completely unremarkable.

The bone fragments were completely exposed to the air in that instant.

Zhou Ran's left arm, the one with the black jade unicorn bone implanted in it, suddenly emitted a very low, muffled sound from beneath the skin and flesh.

It's not spiritual resonance.

It's bloodline.

It is an echo from an ancient, wilder source.

Is this the source of Li Chengfeng's legacy?!

Zhou Ran reached out and picked up the bone fragment.

It feels cool to the touch, yet its weight is strangely heavy.

He turned the bone pieces over.

On the back, a line of small seal script is engraved using a style of calligraphy that has long been lost.

The handwriting was faded and only a few broken characters could be barely made out.

"Too...desolate...tomb."

Zhou Ran's eyes suddenly narrowed, and the look in his eyes was terrifying.

Within the sea of ​​consciousness.

The remnant soul of Ye Futian, nailed to the void by the Soul-Suppressing Nail, suddenly straightened up!

The 108 black nails were shaken by this force and made a clanging sound in unison!

"The desolate tomb!"

The old devil's voice completely changed, filled with the horror of encountering his natural enemy.

"Absolutely impossible!"

That ominous tomb, which buried all the taboos of the Primordial Era, was cast into a void rift during the final ancient war ten thousand years ago!

Zhou Ran expressionlessly put the bone fragment into his thumb ring, looked up, and re-examined Feng Bancheng.

"The stuff looks good. What would you like?"

Feng Bancheng rubbed his rough, sandpaper-like hands together vigorously, speaking rapidly as if he wanted to pour out all the fear and despair that had been building up for months in one breath.

Three months ago, I led a group down Mangshan Mountain in Henan Province.

They took a waterway that no one else in the area had ever traveled before, thinking they had struck gold.

"Only after going down did I realize that this was no ordinary battle between kings and nobles!"

The layout of the underground palace, the funerary objects, and the tomb-guarding runes—none of them are from the mortal world!

He was lost in reminiscence and gasped for breath.

"To be precise, it doesn't exist in this world!"

"I've been in this line of work for twenty years. I've even stood guard around the mausoleums of Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han, but those places are just too eerie!"

"Touching one thing will kill someone!"

The forty brothers I led down all perished in there; their bodies were never recovered!

As he said this, his tone lowered and his fists clenched tightly.

"The only one who made it up alive went mad."

"He would hold his head in his hands all day, saying he saw a skinless dragon gnawing on its own bones."

Zhou Ran's fingers gently caressed the surface of the ring.

"So, you came to find me?"

"I've inquired about it."

Feng Bancheng stared straight back at him, without flinching.

"On the grounds of Jiangcheng, matters of feng shui can be understood by outsiders."

But only you, Mr. Zhou, can subdue this evil influence tainted by "something big."

"inquire about?"

Zhou Ran smiled.

"Who showed you the way?"

Feng Bancheng hesitated for a moment, as if weighing his options.

"Zhao Qian".

"That spineless Zhao family guy has been dealt with by you. He was blinded by losses in Macau the other day and used that as bragging rights, so I followed his lead and came here."

Zhou Ran didn't say anything.

He only looked Feng Bancheng up and down for a few seconds.

Then, he raised his hand and pointed a finger at Feng Bancheng's forehead.

This finger strike was swift, yet Feng Bancheng was completely unable to react.

He felt a blur before his eyes, and his body was bound by a force, unable to move an inch.

That finger landed lightly on his brow.

The pure and domineering energy probed in, without any killing intent, but transformed into the most precise probe, dissecting his meridian diagram and revealing his blood, qi, and bone structure.

one second.

two seconds.

Zhou Ran withdrew his hand.

A playful expression appeared on his face as he examined the rare collectible.

"Your constitution is good."

Feng Bancheng was completely stunned.

"His bone and muscle density is three times that of an average person, his blood and qi flow in reverse, and his cardiopulmonary function is different from that of an average person."

"You've been in this line of work for twenty years and haven't died a violent death in a tomb; it's not all thanks to your skills."

Feng Bancheng's expression gradually changed.

"You were born with the foundation of an ancient, flawed, and domineering body."

Unfortunately, without guidance, his physique was wasted due to unchecked growth.

These words made his mind go blank.

Feng Bancheng himself was well aware that he was different from others.

He was very strong; he broke six ribs after falling off a cliff, but was able to get out of bed after lying down for half a month.

In an oxygen-deprived ancient tomb, he could stay for three days and three nights without any equipment.

He always attributed this to the blessings of his ancestors and his own good fortune.

"I'll take that grave."

Zhou Ran turned and walked back, his voice coming from ahead.

"But it's not about cleaning up your house or performing rituals."

Feng Bancheng didn't react.

"Next time, take me to that grave."

Zhou Ran's figure was about to disappear behind the door.

"You lead the way, I'll handle the fighting; what's inside is a 50/50 split."

"in addition."

Zhou Ran paused in his steps.

"The things in the tomb are bigger than you can imagine."

So much so that... you couldn't spend it all in ten lifetimes.

Feng Bancheng stood there, his hands and feet numb, still clutching the oilcloth in his hand, which was covered in sweat.

The fat man poked his head out from behind the door and called out in a low voice.

"Hey bro, what are you spacing out for?"

Nod quickly!

"By following our Ran-ge, you've made it in life!"

Feng Bancheng came to his senses.

He glanced at the heavy iron gate that was already closed, then looked down at his own pair of liberation shoes that had been worn through the yellow earth.

Twenty years of experience licking blood from the edge of the underground had taught him that the young man inside the door was more cunning than all the large tombs he had ever been to combined.

"OK."

He bent down, carefully folded the oilcloth again, and stuffed it back into the broken-down car.

"However, Mr. Zhou, there is something I must say upfront."

Feng Bancheng closed the trunk and turned around, his weathered face showing a numbness born from having witnessed too much death.

I didn't go into the main chamber of that tomb.

It's not that I don't want to, it's that I can't get in.

Above the entrance door, there is an inscription:

He kept his voice very low, as if afraid of disturbing something.

"Imperfect in the face of a powerful body, impervious to all laws."

The fat man was completely confused.

The curtains on the second floor of the manor began to sway gently.

Zhou Ran stood behind the window, his purple-gold demonic eyes gleaming with brilliance.