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

The light in the corridor was distorted.

The air was so thick it was suffocating, like a stagnant pool.

That clump of gelatinous substance was not only eroding, but it was also as if it was implanting another set of rules into this space.

The longsword in Elder Zhang Yunqing's hand rang out.

With a flick of his fingertips, pure Yang thunder and fire exploded in his palm.

The lightning struck the filthy object without causing any reaction.

Not even a trace of smoke was emitted; it vanished completely.

"it's useless."

Zhou Ran stood with his hands behind his back at the edge of the gelatinous substance.

He watched Zhang Yunqing make a fuss with a cold eye.

What do you know!

This is a demonic entity; it must be treated with the Nine Revolutions of Qian Yuan…”

Zhang Yunqing roared angrily.

Several disciples behind him simultaneously summoned their magical artifacts, preparing to form an array.

"Noisy."

Zhou Ran did not use his qi and blood.

He held the Void Crystal between two fingers and simply made a light stroke across the void.

There was no fluctuation of magical power.

There was no spiritual energy whistling.

With this simple action, a section of the air in front of the elders was wiped away.

It's not tearing.

It didn't shatter.

It is completely non-existent.

Whether it was top-grade magical artifacts or protective formations, they all turned into a "blank" the moment they touched that invisible line.

The ritual implements vanished into thin air.

The elders were struck dumb.

The backlash from the magical artifacts forced them to their knees on the spot, their faces pale, staring in horror at their hands that had been holding the artifacts but were now empty.

"you……

You have destroyed the very foundation of Longhu Mountain!

Zhang Yunqing's teeth chattered as he stared intently at the black hole that exuded the aura of an endless abyss. It was absolutely silent, enough to make one's soul tremble.

Zhou Ran didn't look at him.

His gaze pierced through the center of the black hole, and he spoke coldly:

"I'm saving you."

"The formations you are so proud of are based on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth."

"And this thing is a rule called nothingness."

"The more you nourish it with spiritual energy, the faster it expands."

"If I hadn't intervened and covered it up, half of Longhu Mountain would be dead by now."

An aged aura rushed over.

"stop!"

Master Xuyun landed.

His pupils contracted as he stared at the shockingly empty area in the corridor.

He did not blame Zhou Ran.

Instead, he walked towards that deep "nothingness," and as soon as his divine sense touched it, he groaned and black blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

"Yun Qing, step back."

Xu Yun's voice was hoarse, and his eyes were filled with apprehension as he looked at Zhou Ran.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, are you saying that these are the rules outside this realm?"

"Yes, this is a plane overlap."

Zhou Ran's tone was solemn.

"I saw him before in the prison."

He pointed his finger at the black hole, and various strange phenomena in the southern border region flashed through his mind, causing his heart to sink.

Longhu Mountain and Laoshan Mountain are separated by a distance of 108,000 li.

There's only one possibility!

That is, the overlapping areas between planes are getting larger and larger!

"It's not just Longhu Mountain."

"This thing is expanding."

"Once this rule completely covers the Blue Star, everything in this world will just be a fictional symbol."

Xu Yun remained silent.

He looked up at the empty void, and the oppressive feeling of his soul falling into the abyss made the leader of Longhu Mountain feel a bone-chilling cold.

Earth is beyond saving.

At least under the current system, it's a dead end.

To survive, and even fight back, in this dimensional merging...

Zhou Ran took a deep breath and gripped the Void Crystal in his hand tightly.

A murderous intent was revealed in his eyes.

"Old Celestial Master, please protect me."

"I want to explore the Void Realm again!"

In his mind's eye, Zhou Ran seemed to hear the roar of the old demon Ye Futian.

"Zhou Ran! Are you crazy?"

"To use one's divine sense to sneak across using a mortal body is tantamount to suicide!"

"If I hadn't covered your breath, you would have been dead!"

Zhou Ran shook his head and remained seated cross-legged.

I'm afraid that all the cultivators on the entire Blue Star combined are not as knowledgeable as this Demon Emperor Ye Futian.

The extent to which the dimensions overlap and how to break this deadlock are currently unsolvable problems.

He lowered his eyes and looked at his empty palms.

There, there exists a Void Crystal.

He pointed a finger at his brow with his other hand.

The rule of "emptiness" that I had comprehended from the rift in the void that day surfaced in my mind.

What is the virtual realm?

He whispered.

In my memory, the words "hope" and "Yi" from the southern border region echoed in my mind.

If you can neither hear nor see, that is "emptiness".

Since they do not exist, all physical entities are illusions.

Zhou Ran began to circulate the Yin-Yang Technique.

It no longer gathers energy.

He's turning the tide.

Actively move every inch of flesh and blood, every trace of soul's presence, toward "zero".

"To abandon existence is to exist."

The heartbeat stopped.

Breathing stopped.

Even the body's internal heat was wiped out in that instant.

Zhou Ran's body, which was sitting cross-legged, seemed to have lost its gravity.

The gray, chaotic mist seeped in bit by bit through the crack in the Void Crystal at Zhou Ran's fingertip.

It enveloped his entire body, turning him into a blurry shadow.

The golden light barrier outside the main hall of Longhu Mountain froze at this moment.

It wasn't broken.

Instead, it was ignored.

In the rules of that dimension, Zhou Ran no longer exists.

"It's done."

He abandoned the constraints of flesh and blood.

The last remaining wisp of divine consciousness plunged fiercely into the viscous, swamp-like dimensional barrier!

There was no sound.

The divine thought penetrated the "barrier" that blocked everything.

In the real world, his body remains in a meditative posture.

It has become an empty shell.

On the other side, the gray chaos suddenly opened up.

He returned to that realm where all five senses were lost.

The virtual world.

Zhou Ran felt as if he had fallen into a pool of ink.

Thick, cold, and lacking in texture.

Before me lay a modern metropolis of unparalleled prosperity.

Neon lights flashed.

High-rise buildings stand tall.

Bustling with traffic.

"This is……

Jiangcheng?

Zhou Ran was surprised.

The next second, countless illusory threads extended from these buildings.

It frantically entangled his divine thoughts.

It carries a fatal allure, the deepest desire in the human heart.

Nascent Soul cultivator...

The supreme emperor...

There's even an endless supply of money...

Protein powder was something I couldn't afford during my student days...

It's utterly incongruous, yet perfectly reasonable.

Whatever he's thinking, that's what appears here.

This is not the real world.

This is a breeding ground for "emptiness".

If one's consciousness relaxes even slightly and accepts the fabrication of this place, one's divine sense will be instantly assimilated and become part of that endless gelatinous substance.

"I see."

Zhou Ran let out a cold snort in his divine sense.

The Purple-Gold Demon Eyes were activated with a roar.

Two black, blazing suns erupted from this void.

Then, he abandoned all distracting thoughts.

From this moment on, he is these eyes.

What he sees is what he thinks.

Click!

The bustling cityscape shattered like a mirror under the demonic light of the Demon Eye.

The once dazzling neon lights collapsed.

It revealed the truth at the very bottom of the world.

An endless expanse of gray ruins stretches to the edge of the universe.

There is no sky here.

There is no earth.

Floating in the chaos are pieces of shattered, broken continents.

It is a Milky Way that has dried up like withered bones.

It also contains the remains of countless gods, so enormous they surpass even the stars.

It floats silently among the ruins.

Dead silence.

A nauseating, deathly silence.