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

Zhou Ran gripped the Guiyang Token tightly and gave the throne a lazy bow.

He turned and stepped towards the massive bronze gate.

The wind from the River of Oblivion outside the door made one's bones itch.

Zhou Ran stepped out of the threshold and ran wildly across the White Bone Bridge.

The array's core on the white jade altar lit up again.

Zhou Ran leaped in.

Enveloped in white light, a feeling of weightlessness surged from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

The dizzying sensation of the folded space lasted only three breaths.

When the soles of my boots touched the hard ground again, the pungent smell of gunpowder and dust filled my throat.

Zhou Ran stood firm.

What lay before them was not the main hall of the underworld, but the ruins of the Mangshan Black Mountain Inn, which had been blown to pieces.

The wind swirled up the fragments of the ruins.

Five meters away, Xiao Rou was kneeling on the pile of rubble.

His body was covered in mud and dried blood, and his ten fingers were gripping the ground tightly.

Upon seeing Zhou Ran appear out of nowhere, his abnormally large eyes instantly welled up with a frantic mist.

The lingering chill and cold wind swept through the ruins, the cold seeping straight into their collars.

Zhou Ran spread his fingers and shook his stiff joints.

The air here is rough and murky; breathing it into your lungs fills you with the smell of smoke and mud.

Without the constraints of the Yin Realm rules, the three-colored embryo in his dantian was pulsating at a high frequency.

With each jump, the force propels the energy outwards along the meridians.

The heavenly tribulation could strike at any moment.

He cultivated the Overlord Body to the third level, and also refined Ye Futian's origin.

Zhou Ran knew all too well that his physical body was about to give way.

We need to find a way to break this deadlock quickly.

"Owner!"

A sharp scream abruptly cut off Zhou Ran's thoughts.

Xiao Rou used both her hands and feet to rummage over the pile of rubble, scraping her knees on the broken bricks until they bled, but she didn't care at all.

You're not dead...

You're really back.

Those useless guys all said you couldn't get out, but I don't believe them!

I killed them all.

Xiao Rou pressed her face against the mud-covered boots, trembling like a leaf, tears mixed with grime streaming down her face.

Zhou Ran didn't kick her away, but just coldly glanced around.

This mad dog killed all the tomb raiders because of one sentence?

Not far away, Fatty Wang squatted on a section of broken wall, panting heavily, his clothes torn to shreds.

Seeing Zhou Ran standing there, his Luoyang shovel slamming into the ground with a clang, he cursed loudly, his mouth full of grime:

"Damn, bro, if you had come out even half a day later, I would have been eaten by her Gu worms."

Miao Yingying, wielding the silver-armored corpse, kept watch around the area. She glanced back, her mouth not opening, but the fingers gripping the corpse-controlling bell loosened.

Beside the pit on the other side, Aning's hands were tied behind her back.

When this female bandit leader from the Southern School of Tomb Raiders saw that Zhou Ran had not only returned alive but also possessed an aura more than ten times stronger than that of the underground, she lost all strength in her legs and collapsed into the ground.

"Is it all cleaned up?"

Zhou Ran asked Fatty Wang.

"Brother, two of them escaped, and I broke the legs of the rest and threw them into the ditch behind the mountain."

This woman refuses to leave; she's waiting for you to deal with her.

Zhou Ran nodded, lifted his foot, and dragged Xiao Rou a couple of steps.

He walked up to Aning, lowered his eyes and looked down.

Without hesitation, Ah Ning's forehead slammed directly into the ground.

"I've failed."

Her forehead hit the gravel, and her vocal cords were trembling.

"I've been in this line of work for twenty years, and this is the first time I've ever recognized someone."

She pulled a warm jade pendant from her collar and held it above her head with both hands.

"According to the Southern school of thought, seeing the cards is like seeing the person."

The men under my command, and even my life, are all at your disposal.

I only ask that you...

Please be lenient.

Zhou Ran didn't take the jade pendant, but glared at him with a sharp look:

Where is your employer?

"He has always been in Jiangcheng."

and……"

Aning immediately took out her phone.

He relayed a message to me, saying he wasn't the enemy, and that he would stop at nothing to get that jumping bone.

"At all costs?"

Zhou Ran scoffed.

"You've become quite capable."

Arrange a flight back to Jiangcheng overnight.

Zhou Ran didn't stay in the mess at Mangshan for even a second longer.

A few hours later.

A black private jet landed at an airport on the outskirts of Jiangcheng.

The convoy sneaked into the underground parking garage of the Xiao family manor under cover of night.

The entire manor was quiet.

Zhou Ran ordered that no one should disturb him, and went alone into the lowest-level explosion-proof chamber.

The lights came on.

Zhou Ran raised his hand and pulled out the Yin-Gathering Banner from his waist, the black flag fluttering in the wind.

He held the "Guiyang Order" he had taken from the Song Emperor and pressed it directly onto the flag.

The pale blue light seeped into the Yin-gathering Banner along with the Guiyang Decree.

A white shadow floated out from the banner.

Li Zhiyao's feet landed on the floor of the secret room.

With the Guiyang Decree's laws providing a safety net, her originally luminous soul rapidly solidified, transforming into a fleshy texture indistinguishable from that of a living person.

No longer will they be driven away by the underworld, no longer will they be chased away by the Heavenly Dao.

She can appear in broad daylight in the mortal realm.

Li Zhiyao looked down at her own hands.

Turn it over, then turn it back.

Fingertips cast solid shadows under the lamplight.

This aloof female judge, who had been cold and arrogant for four thousand years, turned around and stood there silently for a long time.

When she turned back, all traces on her face had been wiped clean.

Looking at Zhou Ran, he didn't utter a single word of thanks, but simply slowly bent down and performed an extremely old-fashioned clasping gesture.

"Take it easy, I still prefer your rebellious side."

Go rest in the secret room next door, and don't come out unless I'm there.

After Li Zhiyao left, the door to the secret room closed.

Only Zhou Ran and Xiao Rou remained in the room.

From the moment Xiao Rou got out of the car, she clung to Zhou Hou like a tail that she couldn't shake off.

She huddled against the wall near the door of the secret room.

The prolonged fear, the extreme anxiety, and the demonic energy emanating from Zhou Ran made her tremble even in her bones.

That's not fear.

It's a kind of thirst that's been pent up for too long, a thirst that's almost burning a person alive.

Zhou Ran turned around.

He stared intently at the pair of eyes gazing at him from the base of the wall, and he knew exactly what was going on.

What kind of bone does this "dog" need to calm its restlessness?

This is a self-reward request.

Zhou Ran raised his hand and ripped off his tattered shirt.

His chest was as solid as if it had been cast, and the black and gold primordial totem pulsated and crawled under the lamplight.

He strode over to Xiaorou, and without saying a word, grabbed the back of her neck with his large hand.

Xiao Rou let out a muffled groan.

Zhou Ran tightened his grip, lifting the person off the ground and roughly slamming him against the window of the secret room.

Outside the window, the lights of the Xiao family manor shone late into the night, while the distant skyline of Jiangcheng was blurred into a band of light.

There was no build-up whatsoever.

Only the most primitive form of conquest.

Zhou Ran mobilized the demonic energy that had just been integrated into his body and poured it into Xiao Rou's body through the base of his palm.

The overwhelming force instantly shattered her fragile meridian defenses.

The spiritual energy and blood qi worked together, churning inside her internal organs in a manner that was almost like smashing and then reassembling.

Xiao Rou's back pressed against the freezing glass, and she was in so much pain that she craned her neck.

But beneath the deepest pain lies the maddening fullness of the body when the primordial energy fills the entire being.

Tears streamed down her face, mingling with the sickly smile on her lips.

"Give me... Master... more of that."

The natal Gu within her body began to mutate under the infusion.

The originally pitch-black Gu worm was now covered with fine golden lines, and its aura became increasingly evil and tyrannical.

She has completely become a unique "weapon" that can only live by hanging on Zhou Ran's blood and qi.

The temperature inside the sealed room soared, and spiritual energy fluctuations pounded against the sound-absorbing material on the walls.

I tossed and turned all night.

The early morning sun peeked into the sealed room through the louvered windows of the ventilation vent.

Xiao Rou nestled at Zhou Ran's feet, her breathing steady.

His cultivation level was unknowingly increased significantly, and he faintly exuded an aura of primordial desolation.

Zhou Ran leaned back on the sofa shirtless, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, his mind perfectly clear.

He was frantically rummaging through the pile of fragmented memories left behind by Ye Futian.

He was picking out and categorizing the fragments of ancient formations and high-level techniques one by one.

"Old man, you've got quite a few tricks up your sleeve to keep things from me."

Zhou Ran exhaled the smoke and stood up.

He pushed open the door to the secret room and walked towards the backyard of the manor.

Just outside the main building, a sound like a tractor exhaust pipe leaking air came from the greenhouse in the backyard.

Boom—Pfft!

Boom—Pfft!

Zhou Ran frowned and opened the glass door of the flower room.

"You little rascal, you're finally awake!"