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

You've miscalculated one thing.

"Whether there are problems in the underworld is none of your business."

He raised his hand and placed it on the mask of Yama, the King of Hell.

The mask cracked, shattering into several pieces with a snap and falling to the ground.

The face of Yama, the King of Hell, was revealed. It was ashen, with stiff lines, bloodshot eyes, and two thin black lines around them.

Black blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, and he still tried to speak.

As Zhou Ran finished speaking, the power of the Taihuang Fist traveled from the base of his palm, piercing through his face.

One punch.

There was a hole in the ground.

Zhao Tao knelt in the corner of the square, the stitches on his lips long since come undone, but he remained silent.

He stared in the direction where Yama had fallen, his legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground, his forehead pressed against the bone stone floor, trembling uncontrollably.

Zhou Ran glanced at him.

"Wait until I emerge from the gate of my heart."

He paused for a moment.

You still have accounts to pay.

Your dad has one too.

He turned around.

The three demon dukes stood at the back, their demonic power pressing down on the entire square, remaining motionless.

The battle in the square was over, and the remaining Black River warriors knelt on the ground.

Zhou Ran spoke.

"Keep this area under control and wait for me to come out."

Then he went down the spinal canal, down to the heart, down to a deeper place.

The ground beneath their feet resonated with the continuous beating of the Heavenly Corpse's heart, one beat after another.

Six gray lines on his chest burned, radiating heat.

Twenty-nine days.

enough.

The sounds in the square were silenced.

Of the two hundred warriors in the Heihe tribe, the strongest was only at the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm.

After the demon army swept through, only shattered armor and dark red stains seeping into the cracks remained on the bone stone ground.

The smell of rust mixed with the pungent odor of sulfur swirled in the air above the ruins.

Zhou Ran looked away.

Five steps behind them, three demon dukes stood with their hands at their sides.

The dark red marks on their necks rose and fell, their frequency perfectly synchronized with the Night Demon Emperor's essence deep within his nascent soul.

Outside, a dark mass of demonic soldiers were clearing the battlefield, bending down, dragging, and throwing into the piles of rubble. Their movements were synchronized and without any extraneous noise.

"Demon Emperor."

The leader spoke loudly, his voice rough.

"The spatial structure of this area is unstable; if a large army stays here for too long, it will cause the area to collapse."

Zhou Ran nodded.

The crack above their heads, torn open by the six-pointed blood array, was slowly healing.

The gray sky resembled scalded skin, its edges still twitching and curling.

In this garbage dump called "Lower Boundary," the rules at the bottom are gritting their teeth and barely holding on.

"Conceal your aura and disperse into groups."

He spoke, and his voice, transmitted through the Nascent Soul Law, entered the consciousness of every high-ranking demon.

"Teams of three or five are scattered to all key nodes in the surrounding area."

Don't provoke trouble. If you encounter a tough opponent, kill them.

"Yes, ma'am."

"The three of you come with me."

He turned to the three grand dukes,

"Take stock of this city."

The prisoners were taken to the central square.

Those who resist should not be spared.

He turned around, stepped over the broken bones and black stones, and walked into the city.

The main hall of the Heihe tribe was emptied.

The throne was carved from a single piece of dark, ethereal metal, its surface covered with tribal totems.

Zhou Ran sat down, and the purple-gold laws emanating from his nascent soul automatically repelled the aura of the former owner that remained in the throne.

His gaze fell upon His Highness.

The body of Yama, the King of Hell, was dragged in and placed in the very center.

A charred, black fist-shaped mark ran through his chest; the skin and flesh were shrunken and grayish in color.

Zhao Tao and Zhao Shijiang were tied up, their hands and feet bound, and thrown into a corner.

The City King was carried in by two demon soldiers, barely clinging to life.

The two legs below the knees were gone, and the charred, tender flesh burned by the demonic flames at the severed ends was writhing and twitching eerily.

Zhou Ran didn't look at it much.

Half an hour later, the high priest's mutilated body was carried in.

That can no longer be considered human.

All nine silver breath patterns were extinguished, and the body was repeatedly crushed into something that barely maintained a human shape, with only the left eyeball still able to move turbidly.

The Grand Duke stepped forward, pressed the hilt of his sword against the man's collapsed chest, and channeled a stream of pure demonic energy through him, keeping him clinging to his last vestiges of consciousness.

The high priest's eyes slowly turned to the throne, his gaze filled not with fear, but with astonishment:

"How...how...outside of Earth...to the Demon Realm..."

"I only ask one question."

Zhou Ran interrupted him.

How do I get to the door of my heart?

What other arrangements exist between the four tribes?

The high priest's eyes burst open, revealing the last glimmer of light.

"Only by collecting all four 'Life Tokens' can you be guided."

"You have the Bone Cutter, and there are three more..."

He coughed up a mouthful of black blood, his voice suddenly rising in pitch, sharp and piercing:

"They've already reached an agreement with the people 'outside'!"

If you kill me, they'll just applaud.

One less person to share the food!

key……

Hahaha……

The key is merely a sacrifice to open the door…

The sound abruptly stopped.

The murky eyeball went completely out.

Zhou Ran tapped the armrest of the throne twice with his fingertips.

Four tokens.

Three priests at the peak of the half-step Nascent Soul stage.

In addition, there were Song Diwang, Du Ziren and their group who had already entered.

He left out at least half the information; even on his deathbed, he wanted to plant a seed of doubt.

"Soul Search".

Zhou Ran looked at the Grand Duke.

"Dig out the rest."

"Yes."

Zhao Tao and Zhao Shijiang were dragged to the prince's side.

Zhao Tao glanced down at the corpse of Yama, the King of Hell, in the hall, his legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

The face was still the same, only the person on the throne had changed, replaced by a monster he couldn't understand no matter how hard he tried.

Zhou Ran ignored him.

"Zhao Shijiang".

Zhao Shijiang raised his head, his throat making a hoarse sound, and his legs trembled so much that he could not stand.

"How many cases of forced soul taking have Zhao Tao handled as a judge in the underworld?"

Where was the soul sent?

He doesn't need to answer.

With a flick of his fingertip, Zhou Ran caused the Golden Core of the Mind to rotate slightly, and a wisp of purple-gold law emerged and entered Zhao Shijiang's brow.

Zhao Shijiang's body jerked violently, his eyes went blank, and his mouth opened and closed unconsciously.

He murmured a long list of names, dates, and locations.

Zhao Tao knelt beside him, his head drooping lower and lower until his forehead almost touched the cold ground.

Zhou Ran listened for a while, then raised his hand and withdrew the law.

Zhao Shijiang's gaze refocused, but it was more unfocused than before, as if something had been hollowed out from within him.

"These accounts,"

Zhou Ran looked at Zhao Tao,

"The laws of the mortal world have no effect on the underworld, and the rules of the underworld have no effect on the rebellious King Yama."

He paused.

"But your father is a living person."

I will send him back to those wandering souls who were handled by you and are now stuck in the gap between life and death.

"I'm alive, but I'll keep seeing them."

"you."

He glanced at Zhao Tao one last time.

"I want you to live first."

The sound of Zhao Tao kowtowing stopped.

It was much more muffled and subdued than the wailing from before.