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

The Xiao Family Manor is located deep underground.

This air-raid shelter, which cost hundreds of millions to build back then, has now been transformed by Zhou Ran into a battlefield.

The ground was covered with spirit stones, and spiritual energy seeped out from the cracks in the stones, flowing along the blue bricks.

At the four corners of the formation, four battle flags were planted.

Above their heads, the loops of the Spirit Gathering Array lit up in circles.

The array patterns spread along the dome, pressing the entire basement into a misty aura.

Zhou Ran sat cross-legged on the jet-black meteorite iron in the center of the great formation.

With his eyes closed, he mentally reviewed the body tempering and reshaping methods left behind by the Demon Emperor Ye Futian.

Mercy does not control soldiers, and justice does not control wealth.

The gap between the Yin and Yang realms has been torn open, and the rebel army of the underworld, the Western financial groups, and the henchmen of the void realm have all set their sights on Blue Star.

Relying on ordinary breathing exercises to heal injuries is tantamount to waiting to die.

If the people around him remain at the same level...

The next time the enemy breaks in, they won't even have the chance to hold them off for half a moment.

To survive, one must throw one's flesh, veins, and soul into the fire to be refined.

Without peeling away the old shell, you can't forge a blade capable of slaying ghosts and immortals.

"Chen Ya, come here."

Chen Ya walked over, dragging her injured left arm.

The wound from her shoulder to her elbow had just been sealed, but grayish-white corpse poison was still seeping out from under her skin.

Zhou Ran put his index and middle fingers together and touched her forehead.

The next moment, her natal demonic fire surged into Chen Ya's body through her fingertips.

This fire doesn't burn flesh and blood, but specifically burns the putrid toxins, death energy, and impurities within the spiritual veins.

The wood-elemental spiritual power within Chen Ya's body, which had been corrupted by the necromancer, began to dissipate as soon as it came into contact with the true fire.

The fiery energy traveled through his limbs and bones.

His meridians were opened inch by inch, and then forcibly reconnected by elixirs and Zhou Ran's primordial energy and blood.

"Well!"

Chen Ya tilted her head back, revealing prominent veins on her neck.

Her fingers dug into the blue bricks, and the red nail plates fell off.

This is not healing.

This involves dismantling the old meridians and then reconnecting them using an even more drastic method.

She bit her lower lip until blood dripped down her chin, but she didn't cry out in pain.

Zhou Ran observed the changes in her spiritual meridians, but the true fire did not diminish.

"If it hurts, just bear it."

"If you want to be the sharpest knife in my hand, Zhou Ran, this little bit of pain isn't enough."

"Destroy the old and then rebuild the new."

A fierce look flashed in Chen Ya's eyes.

She was a ruthless and decisive female CEO, capable of climbing the corporate ladder by stepping over corpses, and equally ruthless to herself on the path of cultivation.

She no longer passively endured it, but instead actively drew that true fire into the hidden acupoints.

Those impurities that were usually hidden deep inside were forced out one by one by her, and then burned away by real fire.

Zhou Ran stared at the spiritual meridians in her body to make sure they hadn't gone astray before stopping.

He turned to look at Su Qingling and Su Qingwu lying beside him.

"Qin San, activate the formation."

At the control panel, Qin San raised his hand and pulled down three giant metal gates.

The ground on the east side of the secret room cracked open.

A round vat with a diameter of three zhang (approximately 10 meters) rose from the ground.

A small, palm-sized piece of broken ceramic tile was embedded in the inner wall of the round jar.

Those were fragments of magical artifacts that Qin San had acquired from the black market.

The fragments were placed at the bottom of the jar, which was filled with extremely cold, heavy water.

The water was as viscous as silver paste, and each drop carried an astonishing weight.

If an ordinary person falls in, their bone marrow will be frozen and shattered before they can even struggle, and their internal organs will be crushed by the water pressure.

Zhou Ran stood up, picked up one of the unconscious Su sisters in each hand, and threw them into the heavy water vat.

thump!

Two thick ripples rose on the water's surface, then quickly closed up again.

Extreme cold and water pressure come down at the same time.

The twin sisters awoke in agony.

They opened their mouths to shout, but the heavy water poured into their mouths and noses, choking them and causing them to cough.

The chest cavity was compressed and contracted, and the internal organs also twisted together.

Zhou Ran stood on the edge of the vat, pressing down on the array's core with two fingers.

He will stop once their spiritual cores are truly on the verge of collapse.

But now is not the time to back down.

"Don't come up here."

His voice pierced through the heavy water and pressed into the minds of the two.

"The Tide Sacred Body is born of water, and must also be able to live in water."

"If they can't even withstand this little water pressure, how will they withstand the waters of the River Styx in the underworld!"

Deep underwater, Su Qingling and Su Qingwu held each other's hands.

The survival instinct was pushed to its limit.

The Tidal Sacred Body began to recover on its own.

A faint blue glow emanated from their bodies.

They were forced to stop breathing through their mouths and noses, and instead used their pores and veins to absorb the spiritual energy from the heavy water, which circulated within their bodies.

Each cycle feels like someone is scraping along the meridians with a knife.

But as long as they can hold out for one round, their sacred bodies will become more stable.

After dealing with the Su sisters, Zhou Ran turned to Xiao Hongli.

Xiao Hongli's sleeves still had undried blood on them.

She didn't ask which formation she was going to enter; she simply held her sword horizontally in front of her.

Zhou Ran waved his sleeve.

On the other side of the basement, the array plate lit up.

The Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul Devouring Array is activated.

Thousands upon thousands of imprisoned malevolent spirits and vengeful ghosts burst out of the array's core, transforming into a black tide that engulfed Xiao Hongli.

These vengeful ghosts were all summoned by Li Zhiyao.

Although its mind has been erased, its instinct to devour souls remains.

Zhou Ran gripped the array plate with his fingertips, suppressing the upper limit of the myriad ghosts and preventing them from truly tearing Xiao Hongli into a cripple.

"Kill them all."

"Sharpen your sword heart."

From the depths of the ghost tide, Xiao Hongli's response rang out.

"Yes."

The sword light rose.

The first sword strike cleaved three evil spirits in two.

The second sword strike protected his own soul fire.

The third sword strike was already imbued with a killing intent that wouldn't allow him to retreat even half a step.

In a corner of the secret room.

The newly hatched black-gold dragon lay in the pile of spirit stones, its belly rising and falling, pretending to be quite serious.

This little thing is very clever. It knows that no one can escape Zhou Ran's methods tonight, so it simply lies down and pretends to be dead.

Zhou Ran walked over and kicked it in the butt.

"Awoo!"

The young dragon let out a cry, its body soaring into the air and sweeping across half of the basement.

On the west side, a lava pool was bubbling with fire.

A pungent sulfurous smell emanated from the pool.

This is an underground fire vein that Zhou Ran summoned using the Earth Fire Array, specifically for tempering the body and scales.

With a thud.

The black gold dragon fell into the lava pool.

The high temperature caused the scales to stick to the young dragon, which was in pain and scratched wildly with its claws, splashing lava everywhere with its tail.

Just as it was about to dart out, Zhou Ran raised his hand and pressed it down.

The primordial energy and blood condensed into a giant hand, pressing it back to the bottom of the magma.

"Your father dared to withstand the heavenly tribulation in order to transform into a dragon."

"If you can't even withstand this little bit of subterranean fire, don't call yourself a dragon, call yourself an earthworm."

The black gold dragon thrashed about in the lava pool.

Zhou Ran did not let go.

The dragon scales, not fully hardened, were burned red by the earth fire, and then closed up again under the self-healing effect of the true dragon's bloodline.

Each round of burning makes the scales even tougher.

The entire basement had become a hellish furnace.

Screams, the whistling of swords, the churning of heavy water, and the crashing of lava against the shore mingled together, causing the array patterns on the walls to flicker erratically.

Qin San glanced at Zhou Ran, then looked at the women who were fighting desperately.

"Damn it, I'll risk it!"

He gritted his teeth and walked to the special training platform he had built for himself.

Hundreds of high-speed rotating mechanical hammers were activated simultaneously.

Qin San, shirtless, charged into the mechanical hammer array.

boom!

The first blow struck his chest, sending him flying backward. His back slammed against the alloy wall, and he coughed up half a mouthful of blood.

He pushed himself up, wiped the blood from his lips, and rushed back.

The second blow struck the shoulder, dislocating the shoulder bone.

He gritted his teeth, twisted the bone back into place, and then rinsed it again.

The third hammer blow, the fourth hammer blow, the fifth hammer blow.

Every time he was knocked down, he got up again.

He didn't understand the overall situation of the underworld, nor did he understand the laws of the void realm.

All he knew was that Wu De was dead.

He didn't want to be left kneeling on the ground waiting for his boss to come back and save him if enemies invaded the manor again.

In the blink of an eye, a month has passed.

Under Zhou Ran's cold yet meticulous guidance and protection of his true energy, these people who had been driven to the brink of life and death finally began to transform.