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

Zhou Ran's golden core suddenly tightened.

An alarm blared in my mind.

Transformation into a deity.

These two words were so oppressive they made it hard to breathe.

One of the pinnacles of cultivation on Blue Star, a whole step higher than Yama's half-step Nascent Soul stage.

The figure sitting on the bone chair did not open its eyes, did not move, and did not release any pressure.

But every inch of Zhou Ran's muscles and bones was sending out warnings.

This thing will fall apart if you just blow on it.

On the other side of the space, the three people in Penglai Pavilion were in very bad shape.

Old Xu's bamboo cane was missing a section, and his gray cloth jacket was torn in several long rips.

Shen Zhui knelt on the ground, the unsheathed longsword stuck in the fleshy wall in front of his feet, three cracks on the blade gaping open.

The youngest, Xu Youwei, was still standing, but the whisk in her hand was only half intact, and her white robe was stained dark red from her shoulders to her waist.

Three people, all Nascent Soul cultivators, were locked in a cage in the corner.

The cage was made of twelve black iron pillars interlocked, and the pillars were engraved with patterns of punishment.

The laws within the cage were as sticky as glue, and the spiritual power of the three was being drained away little by little, leaving their faces ashen.

Penglai is finished.

Zhou Ran stood at the exit of the passage, his gaze sweeping from left to right.

Orthodox faction, rebels, Ghost Emperor, Penglai.

Those who should have come and those who shouldn't have all crowded into the space in front of the Heavenly Corpse's heart.

The moment he appeared, everyone turned their heads.

The old emperor's face remained unchanged, only something in his eyes seemed to relax slightly.

Yama, the King of Hell, turned his head to the side and snorted.

Du Ziren, sitting on the bone chair, didn't even lift his eyelids. Those standing in front of him were all ants.

Only Zhao Tao lost his composure.

He emerged from behind Yama, raised his judge's pen, and pointed the tip directly at Zhou Ran, his voice echoing in the hollow cavity.

"Zhou Ran".

"You're late."

He grinned.

"There's no place for you on this ladder to heaven."

Zhou Ran didn't look at him.

His gaze swept over Zhao Tao's head and brushed past Yama's shoulder.

It passed over Du Ziren's blue-faced, fanged statue and finally nailed to the gray membrane in the very center.

Behind the membrane, a heart hundreds of feet in size is beating.

Gray threads hung down from beneath the heart, pierced through the flesh, and stretched all the way towards the mortal realm.

Eight thousand, at least eight thousand.

The golden core in his chest vibrated in rhythm with that.

Six gray lines burned up at the same time, and the veins under the skin turned black from the heat.

Twenty-nine days.

"Zhou Ran!"

Zhao Tao raised his voice,

"I'm talking to you—"

"Shut up."

Zhou Ran uttered two words, and the Primordial Blood Qi, wrapped in the Law of the Mind, spread out and directly pressed down on Zhao Tao's throat.

Zhao Tao's face turned bright red, the runes on his judge's pen flashed wildly, but he was forced back half a step by that invisible force.

Zhao Shijiang tried to step forward, but was stopped by Yama, the King of Hell, who raised his hand to stop him.

Zhou Ran completely ignored the two clowns and focused his gaze on Emperor Song.

You arrived before me.

"King Yama has arrived first."

Yama, the King of Hell, spoke as calmly as if he were drinking water.

"I have been here for three days."

Zhou Ran took a breath and slowly exhaled.

"So you all squeezed in, and no one can open that membrane."

No one responded.

Silence is an answer.

That thin gray film is the last barrier protecting the heart of the Heavenly Corpse.

It was compiled from the laws of the virtual realm.

Even a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't break it open, a Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't break it open, and even a Nascent Soul cultivator's sword intent couldn't pierce through it.

It is not a wall built by force, it is a "definition".

The laws governing thin films only recognize one rule.

There is no entrance here.

No door, you can't get in.

Unless someone can change this rule.

All eyes finally fell on the spot on Zhou Ran's chest where a gray light emanated.

The Golden Elixir of the Mind.

The pill that can define itself.

Zhou Ran suddenly burst out laughing.

"So you didn't come here to fight after all."

"You're here to collect the keys."

The moment the words left his mouth, the Heavenly Corpse's heart skipped a beat.

It was more intense than ever before.

The shockwave exploded, and everyone's feet swayed.

The surface of the gray film rippled.

Within the ripples, a hunched shadow slowly seeped out from the fleshy walls of the heart.

The shadow grew increasingly clear: gray hair, a tattered gray robe, and fingers as thin as withered tree branches.

He was holding half a bowl between his fingers; a piece of the rim of the bowl was missing.

Meng Po.

She raised her old face, her cloudy eyes piercing through the thin membrane, staring straight at Zhou Ran. Her chapped lips moved.

The sound came from the deepest part of the earth.

"Kid."

"You shouldn't have come."

Meng Po's voice rolled around inside the cavity before falling down.

The statue behind Emperor Song trembled.

King Qin Guang's appearance immediately faded by half a breath.

Yama, the King of Hell, tightened his grip on the judge's pen, his knuckles cracking. Even Du Ziren, who had been dozing, opened one eye a crack.

No one expected Meng Po to be here.

Her river was exhausted when it froze over.

According to the rules of the underworld, those underworld officials who have dried up their original essence disperse on their own and are not even entitled to reincarnation.

But she stood there, inside the membrane.

Directly in front of the Heavenly Corpse's heart.

Zhou Ran stared at the half bowl in her hand.

The shape of the gap fit perfectly with the shard of porcelain in his arms.

"You've always been here."

Zhou Ran said.

Meng Po did not answer this question.

She shifted her gaze from Zhou Ran, scanned everyone inside the cavity, and finally fixed it on the face of Yama.

"Fifth brother, you're here too."

Yama, the King of Hell, had no expression on his face.

"Grandma, you're blocking the way."

Meng Po nodded, her voice filled with a sense of destiny.

"I'm here to block your way."

She turned her head to look at Emperor Song.

"Third brother, you want to get in too?"

Emperor Song remained silent for a few moments before speaking.

"Grandma, this is no longer a situation that any single palace can handle alone. The Heavenly Corpse's heart is about to activate; if we don't gain core control..."

"control?"

These two words completely shut down what Emperor Song was about to say.

Meng Po coughed twice and bent her waist even lower.

"Thirty thousand years."

Her voice lowered.

"I have guarded this heart for 30,000 years."

Only the sound of a heartbeat remained inside the cavity.

thump.

thump.

thump.

The golden core in Zhou Ran's chest jumped along with it.

Thirty thousand years.

Instead of 417 years.

His mind works incredibly fast.

The Mandarajuhua and Mandarashahua have guarded this place for 417 years.

Meng Po said it would be 30,000 years.

That means Meng Po has been here ever since the day the Heavenly Corpse was smashed down.

She is not a subordinate of the Ten Kings of Hell.

She predates the Ten Kings of Hell.

She was the first guardian of this heart.

"When the first Yama King comprehended the authority of the Yin Laws from the scales of the Heavenly Corpse,"

Meng Po seemed to know what he was thinking.

"I have lived in this heart for eight thousand years."

"It was the soup I brewed to feed the first batch of souls to cross the Bridge of Helplessness."

"The River of Oblivion wasn't created by the Heavenly Dao; I poured it in using the Law of Oblivion seeping out from the Heavenly Corpse."

"The recipe for Meng Po soup was also scraped from the blood vessel walls of this heart."

Yama, the King of Hell, twitched at the corner of his eye.

Zhou Ran saw it.

Even the Ten Kings of Hell had never heard this before.

"So you're not a messenger from the underworld."

Zhou Ran said.

Meng Po grinned, revealing a few teeth that were almost all gone.

"I am the will of this heart."

She raised her hand and patted the gray film, but the film didn't move.

"Thirty thousand years ago, when this thing crashed down, I was the only sentient being in this heart."

A blade of grass, a cluster of fungi, a seed—I can't remember.