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

It took four hours to travel from Wuxi to the border of the Heihe region.

The higher you go, the thinner the gray fog becomes. Something moving appears in the air.

It's not the wind, it's life.

The inkstone's ripples brightened slightly. The pace of the silent figures behind her quickened as well.

Zhou Ran noticed that the ground beneath his feet had changed from grayish-white bone fragments to dark brown hard rock.

The rock surface has patterns. Those patterns are exactly the same as the outer walls of the blood vessels inside the corpse.

They are still inside the Heavenly Corpse.

It simply climbed from the garbage heap to the middle layer, which is like an intestine.

"The outer perimeter of the Heihe tribe is just ahead."

The inkstone stopped.

Zhou Ran looked up.

Where the gray fog dissipates, a city stands.

The city wall was built of black bone stone and was about ten zhang high.

The wall was covered with countless bone spears, each with a dried human skin hanging from its tip.

The city gates were wide open, and there were no guards at the gates.

Zhou Ran frowned slightly.

The Black River tribe, the strongest of the four tribes, had its city gates wide open and undefended.

Yan also sensed something was wrong.

She raised her bone spear, signaling the group to stop.

"This is not normal."

Normally, at least two teams of Grey-Eyed Hunters patrol outside the city gates.

Zhou Ran activated his Purple-Gold Demon Eyes.

The scene inside the city walls is peeled back layer by layer.

His eyelids drooped.

The streets of the city were deserted.

All the doors and windows of the houses were tightly closed.

A long table was set up in the middle of the street, piled high with emerald green fruits and liquids emitting a vibrant white mist.

This is a banquet.

But the people sitting at the table were not indigenous.

Zhou Ran saw the first face clearly.

Wearing a black and gold python robe and a dark iron mask, he sat steadily in the main seat of the table, exuding the aura of a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator.

Yama, the King of Hell.

To his right sat a middle-aged man in a gray official robe, with the City King's token hanging from his waist.

To the left, a towering ghostly aura hovered above the chair.

That was the afterimage of the transformed divine form of the Ghost Emperor Du Ziren.

The three factions sat neatly in the guest seats of the High Priest of the Black River Tribe.

Across the table stood the High Priest of the Black River Tribe.

An old man with a head full of white bones was personally pouring wine for Yama, the King of Hell.

The wine glass contained concentrated vitality fluid.

While the people of the Silent Land were risking their lives for a single fragment of life, the upper tribes drank it like wine.

Zhao Tao, dressed in a judge's robe, stood behind Yama, the King of Hell, forking a piece of emerald green fruit and stuffing it into his mouth.

Zhao Shijiang sat at the end of the side seat, his hands neatly placed on his knees, displaying the humble posture typical of a mid-level businessman attending a banquet.

Zhou Ran slowly clenched his teeth.

He fought for his life against the sea of ​​flowers inside his spinal canal.

He was being hunted down by the Gray-Eyed Hunters deep within the Void Realm.

He fell off a cliff into the Nowhere, his bones and armor shattered, and he nearly died in a garbage dump.

And these people.

Drinking and eating meat here.

"Those ones……"

Yan also saw the situation inside the city.

Although she couldn't discern their cultivation levels, she could tell that the people sitting next to the High Priest were all outsiders.

"People from outside?"

"right."

Zhou Ran's voice was very flat.

It's gone too far.

The hairs on Yan's arms stood on end.

"Do you know them?"

"An old acquaintance."

Zhou Ran smiled and withdrew his demonic gaze.

He stood outside the city gate, neither ordering the troops to retreat nor rushing forward.

He's calculating.

The aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator can be seen within the city.

Yama is a half-step deity, Du Ziren is a late-stage deity, and Dushi Wang is an early-stage deity.

High Priest of the Heihe Tribe, late stage of Deity Transformation.

Including the large tribal warriors who served as guards around the banquet, there were at least seven or eight Nascent Soul stage to mid-stage cultivators.

In total, there are twelve to fifteen Nascent Soul level combatants.

The strength is completely unequal.

But Zhou Ran looked down at his dantian.

The nascent soul sat cross-legged on the lotus platform, the purple-gold laws flowing around it, and the six gray lines were tightly clenched in its hands.

There is no interest from the Heavenly Dao.

The idealistic law is at full power output.

On Earth, he has to pay 30% tax for every punch he throws.

After ten punches, only half of his strength remained.

Here, ten punches means ten punches.

A hundred punches is a hundred punches.

"Inkstone".

"Um?"

"Take your men and wait outside the city."

Yan's expression changed.

"Are you going in alone?"

Zhou Ran didn't answer, and started walking towards the city gate.

He stopped at the city gate.

He took the deep blue token out of his pocket and slapped it against the city gate.

boom!

The bone stone city gate exploded in the middle.

Gravel flew into the street, overturning three long tables, and lush green fruit pulp rolled all over the ground.

The life-giving white mist was dispersed.

The banquet was abruptly ended.

Everyone's eyes turned to the city gate at the same time.

Amidst the smoke and dust, a figure covered in black and gold scales stepped over the rubble and walked step by step toward the main table.

The wine cup in Yama's hand paused at his lips.

Du Ziren's illusory divine form slowly turned its head.

City King stood up from the chair.

The High Priest of the Black River Tribe narrowed his eyes to slits, and nine silver breath patterns lit up on his chest.

The fruit in Zhao Tao's mouth fell to the ground.

The smoke and dust dissipated.

Zhou Ran stood on the ruins of the city gate, his Taihuang Overlord Body scales gleaming with a cold, dark gold luster.

He glanced around the banquet table.

His gaze swept past the high priest and landed on Yama's face, where it remained fixed.

"You ate quite well."

Yama, the King of Hell, slowly put down his wine cup, the cup's surface covered with cracks.

He stared at the six gray lines on Zhou Ran's chest, then at those purple-gold pupils.

Then he noticed the aura emanating from Zhou Ran's body.

It's not a golden elixir.

It is a Nascent Soul.

Then, he crushed the cup.

The green vitality liquid splashed onto the cuff of the python robe, leaving a small wet patch.

Yama, the King of Hell, sprang up from his chair.

"Not only are you not dead, you've even reached the Nascent Soul stage?!"

As soon as he said this, everyone's eyes turned to Zhou Ran.

The words of Yama, the King of Hell, are still hanging above the square.

The high priest put down the wine jug, his white eyebrows lifting slightly.

The way he looked Zhou Ran up and down was no different from inspecting goods.

"Is this the key you were talking about?"

The high priest had a deep voice, and the words were scraped out one by one from his throat.

Yama, the King of Hell, has already sat back down.

He pinched the corner of the cloth on his sleeve that was soaked with the life-giving liquid and slowly smoothed it out.

"Yes, that's him."

Zhou Ran's eyes darted around the square.

The high walls of bone and stone sealed off all four sides.

A bone tower stands on the east and west sides.

The wall was filled with Black River warriors, each with at least three deep blue breath patterns on their bodies.

The plaza floor is engraved with layers upon layers of patterns, each one piercing deep into the earth.

Killing formation.

This is a pre-arranged killing formation.

The city gates were wide open and undefended.

It was prepared entirely for him.

Zhou Ran glanced down at the pattern on the ground, then looked up.

Tell me about it.

What did you offer in exchange for those seats?

King Yama picked up a freshly poured cup of vitality wine and touched his lips to the rim of the cup.

"Thirty million lives for one admission ticket."

His tone was excessively relaxed, almost as if he were discussing the price of tea next door.

Do you think it's expensive?

Zhou Ran clenched his right hand, and his knuckles cracked.

The high priest chimed in.

"Outsiders, what you have on you does not belong to you."

The key is part of the Moon Emperor's physical body.

Hand it over, and I'll leave you with a whole corpse.

Zhou Ran ignored the high priest.

He stared at Yama, the King of Hell.

Staring at Zhao Tao, whose mouth was still stuffed with fruit, behind Yama.

Zhao Tao, dressed in a judge's robe, had half a piece of emerald green fruit stuck between his lips and teeth, eating like a thieving rat.