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

Zhou Ran sat at the cave entrance, his legs dangling outside, with gray mist slowly rolling beneath his feet.

The bone fragments were burned clean.

There was nothing thirty feet outside the cave; the gray mist swirled far away, making one afraid to approach, as if scalded.

Yan sat to his right, with the bone spear resting on his knees.

Ashi crouched behind her, clutching a fragment of the Bone Demon's giant white bone pestle in his hand. When no one was looking, he picked out a piece of the fragment and stuffed it into his mouth, only to be slapped on the back of the head by Yan.

Why are you eating that?

"It's bitter."

Ashi smacked his lips.

"But there is hope."

Yan was too lazy to bother with him anymore.

Zhou Ran glanced sideways at the dark blue token in her hand.

"Tell me about it."

"What did you say?"

"A map of this wretched place of yours."

Yan didn't say anything, and after a while, he took the tip of the bone spear and poked a crooked circle on the ground.

"The Void Realm is divided into three layers."

She drew a bunch of tiny dots at the bottom of the circle.

"At the very bottom is the land of no breath."

The rules are incomplete, there is no river of life, and nothingness erodes everywhere in the gray fog.

We, the people living at the bottom of society, survive by scavenging the scraps that fall from above.

She drew a horizontal line upwards.

"The middle layer is called the regular mountain range."

The laws are complete, and the river is full of life.

The large tribes were all settled there.

The Black River Tribe, the Red Bone Tribe, the White Teeth Tribe, and the Broken Forehead Tribe each occupied a tributary.

With Nascent Soul stage experts in command, gray-eyed hunters serving as soldiers, and a full complement of killing formations and bone towers, the area was well-equipped.

The inkstone has an additional layer above the horizontal line.

"At the very top is the door to the heart."

Zhou Ran's eyebrows twitched.

"Is the gate to the heart at the very top?"

"right."

Yan lowered his voice.

"Legend has it that behind the Heart Gate is where the Moon Emperor sleeps."

No one has ever gone up there.

The priests of the four tribes said that only the one who possesses the key can open the door to one's heart.

"The priests of the four tribes joined forces to seal off the only route to the heart."

That path leads to the spinal cord.

Zhou Ran mentally went through the route.

He entered through the spinal passage, walked to the periphery of his heart, where he was blocked by the red spider lilies. After passing through the sea of ​​flowers, he continued deeper into the area, eventually falling into the Land of No Return.

He is now squatting at the very bottom.

To return to the central plane of the heart, one must cut through the middle layer from the bottom layer and climb upwards.

How are the four major tribes ranked in terms of strength?

Yan thought for a while.

"The bottom of the group is a leader at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, with six leaders at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm."

The Crimson Bone Division and the White Teeth Division are evenly matched, each with two mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

She bit her lip.

"The Heihe tribe is the most formidable."

Headhunter Bone Cutter is at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, but he is still under the control of the High Priest and two War Chiefs.

High Priest, late-stage Nascent Soul realm.

Zhou Ran had a plan in mind.

The four major tribes combined have more than a dozen Nascent Soul cultivators.

He had just kicked open the threshold of the Nascent Soul stage, and was more than capable of fighting a mid-stage Deity Transformation cultivator one-on-one.

In the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, one has to risk their life to save others.

If a group of Nascent Soul cultivators surrounds you, then it's not a question of whether you can win or not.

However, there's no Heavenly Dao watching over this place to collect money.

Each time the idealistic laws are activated, 30% of the true essence is used as a toll?

nonexistent.

The conditions there are hundreds of times better than those on Earth.

Given enough time to solidify his skills, he can continue fighting even in the late-stage Nascent Soul realm.

The problem is, time waits for no one.

Six gray stripes, 29 days to go.

If he fails to touch the heart of the Heavenly Corpse and resolve the gray markings by the deadline, his soul will be automatically dragged into the Heavenly Corpse, becoming a second living zombie.

"How long does it take, at the fastest, to travel from the place of silence to the door of the heart?"

He pondered the inkstone for a moment.

"It's impossible to get there."

"I'll ask the fastest."

Three days.

He fought his way through four major tribes, traversing the spinal cord to reach the heart area in three days.

Three days.

Zhou Ran mentally reviewed the cards in his hand.

In the early stages of the Nascent Soul realm, there are no constraints from the Heavenly Dao.

The idealistic laws are operating at full power, reaching the fourth level of the Primordial Overlord Body.

The Asura Demon Flame, the authority of the Black and White Impermanence, the Seal of the River of Oblivion, and fragments of the Void Realm Laws refined in reverse by six gray lines.

In addition, a girl with a missing arm led the way.

"How many of those people without income are left in total?"

The inkstone looked up.

"The small tribes scattered throughout the land of Wuxi number about three hundred people in total."

"What about those that you can type by hand?"

"Forty-seven."

Yan gave an exact number.

"But the most capable fighter is only the one you mentioned..."

Golden Core?

"Not even at the Golden Core stage."

Zhou Ran glanced at her.

Yan's jaw tightened.

"We've already given it our all just to stay alive."

Zhou Ran did not refute.

He stood up and looked down at the silent land where the gray fog churned.

"I'm helping you not out of kindness."

The bones in his fingers, gripping the inkstone like a spear, creaked.

"I know."

"Lead the way and distract the larger tribes; I need you to do these things."

Zhou Ran doesn't beat around the bush at all.

"In exchange, the Life Token of the Bone Cutter is already in your hands."

The life-giving wells on the outskirts of the Heihe region should be enough to sustain you for a while.

Yan stood up and stood opposite him.

The one-armed girl was half a head shorter than him, but her spine was as straight as a bone spear.

"Fair trade".

She paused for a moment.

"I have one more condition."

"explain."

"If you can really kill me at my heart."

The sound of the inkstone was kept very low.

"Take us with you."

Zhou Ran sized her up.

There was no pleading in Yan's eyes.

There was only a lump that had been pressed for too long and was pushing out of the skin.

"And then what?"

Yan shook his head.

"have no idea.

But it's still better than waiting here to turn into stone.

Zhou Ran extended his right hand.

Yan paused for a moment, then moved the bone spear to the armpit of the severed arm and tucked it tightly, freeing his right hand to grab his palm.

My hands were covered in calluses, so hard they hurt my bones.

"make a deal."

Zhou Ran let go and turned to walk into the cave.

"We will depart in half an hour."

Direction: Heihe District.

Yan followed.

"Should we attack the Heihe tribe first?"

"With the Bone Cutter dead, the group is leaderless."

Pull out the hardest nail first.

"The High Priest of the Black River Tribe is in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm."

"So we have to get there before he can recover."

Yan shut her mouth.

Ah Shi came running up from behind, holding the half-broken white bone pestle fragment in both hands.

"Chief, this thing..."

Can I bring it?

He didn't even return the inkstone.

"Throw it away."

Ashi looked at Zhou Ran expectantly.

Zhou Ran glanced at the piece of white bone.

"Sharpen it to make a dagger."

Ah Shi's eyes lit up, and he ran back to the cave with the skeleton in his arms to turn over the millstone.

Yan turned her head and glanced at Zhou Ran.

"You spoil him."

"He's still a child."

Half an hour later.

The forty-seven weaklings from the Gray Inkstone Division who could lift weapons were all piled up at the cave entrance.

The team was so shabby it was unbearable to look at.

Bone spear, stone knife, animal sinew bow—the most respectable weapon was the bone spear that Yan held, passed down through generations.

The lines on everyone's skin had almost disappeared; the weakest old man could barely stand, swaying after taking two steps.

Zhou Ran glanced around.

In the cultivation world of Earth, these people wouldn't even be a fraction of the number of rogue cultivators.

But every one of them kept their eyes fixed on the gray fog.

Light was shining through there.

It was the direction of the river of life that they had never encountered since birth.

Zhou Ran turned around and took his first step out of the gray fog.

The nascent soul's true essence expanded, and the laws of the mind pushed out a path three zhang wide beneath its feet.

The gray fog retreated to both sides, and the void eroded the roadside.

The silent man followed after him, stepping on his back.

For the first time in their lives, the gray fog made way for them.