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

3:17 a.m.

The black van drove out of the manor gate and merged into the empty intercity highway.

Fatty Wang was driving.

Zhou Ran sat in the passenger seat with his eyes closed, but his consciousness had already spread out silently, taking in every rustle of wind and grass within a hundred miles.

In the back row, Su Qingling was dozing off, leaning on her older sister Su Qingwu's shoulder, drool smeared on half of her face.

Miao Yingying didn't sleep.

She clutched the ancestral silver bell in her palm, the clapper pressed firmly against the tender flesh of her hand.

Even so, the bell tongue continued to tap against the tender flesh of the palm at a weak but uninterrupted frequency, carrying the sense of exhaustion as life comes to an end.

The car traveled for another forty minutes.

The skyline in the direction of the Yangtze River has changed.

Thick, purplish-red clouds were swallowing the stars in the sky and gathering inward. At the bottom of the clouds, dark red bands of light flowed silently, a strange phenomenon caused by a colossal creature turning over underwater and scraping its scales.

Miao Yingying's hand holding the silver bell suddenly clenched tightly, her knuckles turning white.

The bell in her palm was no longer tapping lightly, but spinning rapidly.

The entire silver bell vibrated violently in her palm, as if an invisible force was penetrating through it, emitting a sharp and piercing metallic friction sound.

"squeak--"

The shriek jolted Su Qingling awake from her dream. She grabbed her sister's arm, her eyes wide with horror.

"What was that sound?!"

Miao Yingying's face was deathly pale.

"The old dragon... it's become restless ahead of schedule."

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhou Ran opened her eyes.

Two unfathomable points of purple-gold light shone in the darkness, and his gaze pierced through the windshield, looking directly at the Yangtze River a hundred miles away.

He could "see" that the turbulent flow of spiritual energy in the distance had distorted the light.

The vegetation on both sides of the highway swayed violently in the absence of wind, and the moisture seeping from the cracks in the road surface carried a pungent, rusty smell.

He picked up the encrypted phone and dialed Zhang Xuansu's number.

The call was connected immediately.

On Zhang Xuansu's end, a howling wind cut through his voice, making it sound fragmented: "Zhou Ran! Something's happened on the river! The water temperature has plummeted twelve degrees in an hour, and the fish are leaping and thrashing against the current—the entire river is trembling!"

"The coaching staff has made a move?" Zhou Ran's voice was completely calm.

"Yes! Their 'Nine Dragons Sea-Suppressing Formation' has activated at least three of its key points, deliberately using the power of the formation to stimulate what's beneath the water's edge!"

Zhou Ran's idea took shape in half a second.

The early intervention by the cult was not intended to force the dragon out of its lair.

They are afraid of him.

"It's five days ahead of schedule." Miao Yingying's voice trembled as she stared intently at the scalding silver bell in her palm. "The water eye... is already starting to loosen!"

In the back row, Su Qingwu sat up straight and held her sister's hand even tighter.

She had just broken through to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, and the power within her body was still being refined. Going into battle at this moment would be tantamount to throwing a raw recruit directly into a meat grinder.

But she didn't say a word.

Fatty Wang glanced at Zhou Ran's profile in the rearview mirror, and without saying a word, slammed the accelerator to the floor!

The engine roared suddenly higher, and the speedometer needle swung sharply toward the 200 mark!

Zhou Ran dialed a second number.

Xiaorou answered the phone.

"Take action in advance."

He only said four words.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Xiaorou's labored and rapid breathing, tinged with a kind of morbid excitement.

"Not a single one left alive?"

"Not keeping them."

The phone hangs up.

Zhou Ran put away his phone and looked out the car window at the rapidly receding night.

His voice wasn't loud, but it made everyone in the car tense up.

"Miao Yingying, once we reach the riverbank and find the water source, how long will it take you?"

"If the water eye is already active... Silver Bell can lock on directly! In as little as fifteen minutes!"

That's enough.

Forty minutes later, the van plunged off the highway and onto a bumpy county road.

The composition of the air has changed.

The air was so thick it was sticky, and every breath carried the stench of rust and mud mixed with a rotten sweetness.

It smells like millions of fish carcasses fermenting at the bottom of the river.

The car headlights pierced the darkness, illuminating the riverbank ahead.

The reeds lay flat and bent over, as if crushed from the roots by an unseen giant hand.

The mudflats were damp, but no water was flowing.

The water seeps out from underground.

Black water.

On the river surface, a layer of shattered blue light floated on the water, the aftershocks of the chaotic spiritual energy dissipating from the bottom of the river.

In the distance, rumbling thunder rolled by.

A pale white bolt of lightning struck the center of the river.

Zhou Ran's demonic eyes detected several water columns shooting into the sky from the center of the river, only to be forcibly pulled back underwater by an even greater force.

Below, something is churning violently.

"get off."

Five people stood on the dark mudflats, facing the river wind.

The wind blew from the river, carrying biting moisture that stung my face.

Miao Yingying dragged the silver-armored corpse out of the trunk and patted her chest.

With a series of "clicking" sounds, the stiff body returned to normal, and two eerie green phosphorescent flames ignited in the empty eye sockets.

Fatty Wang stretched his neck, and his joints made a series of popping sounds.

"Brother Ran."

"explain."

"If I die here tonight, I'll just give my old house back home, which was slated for demolition, to my mom."

Zhou Ran did not turn around.

"He won't die."

"Your life is worth more than that house."

He crouched down and pressed his palms against the wet, cold mud and sand.

The primordial energy and blood, like a probe, silently penetrated the earth's strata.

ten meters.

Thirty meters.

Fifty meters.

Deep within the earth's strata, a powerful life force resided, its oppressive aura enough to make even the soul tremble.

At the very bottom of the eye, an ancient heart, older than any dynasty, beats with an extremely slow rhythm.

Each strike pulls the water flow of the entire river section.

Zhou Ran stood up and brushed the black grime off his palm.

"It's right down here."

He looked at Miao Yingying.

Miao Yingying nodded emphatically, the direction of the silver bell never changing, pointing straight to the riverbed beneath her feet.

Zhou Ran was about to speak—

The mud and sand beneath my feet suddenly trembled!

Immediately afterwards, a crack as thick as a water bucket burst open beneath their feet!

The cracking sound was dull and terrifying, not like soil being torn apart, but more like the bones of the earth's crust being forcibly broken!

The cracks stretched straight towards the center of the river.

Icy, bone-chilling black water gushed out from the crack!

There's something in the water.

It was white, about the size of a fist, and was wriggling and churning in the black water.

One.

Two.

Hundreds, thousands!

They poured out of the cracks and covered the mudflats, their mouthparts gleaming a pale white light under the car headlights.

Inside that mouthpart were two rows of neat, human-like teeth.

Miao Yingying's scream had changed tone.

"It's the 'Bone-Eating Leech Formation' of the Pai Sect!"

"The water eye... the water eye has completely burst open! All of this stuff is surging up from underground!"