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

The air in the main hall of the Heihe tribe was thick, and the cracks in the bone stone floor had not yet healed.

The faint light from the dark red magic runes flickered, illuminating the profile of the figure on the throne.

Zhou Ran didn't rush to look at Yama's corpse.

His gaze fell on the corner.

Zhao Tao and Zhao Shijiang were tied up like rice dumplings and thrown next to a pile of broken animal bones.

Zhao Shijiang's eyes were vacant, and there was still drool left from the soul search at the corner of his mouth.

The stitches on Zhao Tao's mouth came undone, and he lay there slumped, as if his spine had been removed, his shoulders twitching.

"Bring it over."

Two demon soldiers stepped forward, each grabbing one of the Zhao family members and throwing them onto the floor of the hall.

Zhao Tao shivered as his face touched the cold bone stone.

He raised his head, his eyes darting around, not daring to look at the throne, nor at the three towering demon dukes behind him.

Zhou Ran didn't ask about Yama's backup plan.

They didn't even ask him how he got involved with the Shenghui Consortium.

"Where is Li Zhiyao?"

Zhao Tao's body stiffened.

He thought Zhou Ran's first question would be about the defenses in the underworld, about those bargaining chips that he knew by heart.

Unexpectedly, the person asking the question was a woman.

"Are you mute?"

Zhou Ran tapped his finger on the armrest of the throne.

It wasn't heavy, but the bone stone echoed dully, as if it were striking Zhao Tao's heart.

"exist……

In the world of the living!

Zhao Tao blurted it out, his voice high-pitched and thin, tinged with tears.

"None of your people have been touched by the King of Hell."

The old man from Penglai saved them.

Then, that mushroom sent all your people back to the world of the living.

besides......

Beneath the Dongcheng Cultural Center, the Shenghui Consortium's people haven't stopped!

Marcus has been in Jiangcheng all along...

He's not dead at all!

Zhou Ran's eyes turned cold.

"Explain in more detail."

"They're building a huge piece of equipment!"

Zhao Tao nodded repeatedly, unable to move due to the ropes binding him, and could only bang his forehead against the ground.

"That place is the coordinates given by our rebels, the clearest point of the Heavenly Corpse's projection in the mortal realm!"

That device can directly extract the 'life force' from beneath Jiangcheng's earth and feed it to the Heavenly Corpse...

The gray lines connect all the lives of living people.

How much?

"N-no... I don't know!"

Zhao Tao's face turned pale.

"All I know is that every time it's activated, Jiangcheng will lose several hundred breaths of air!"

Last time it was activated, a building collapsed in the west of the city, everyone died, and even their souls were sucked into the gray lines...

Zhou Ran stopped pointing.

The hall was quiet for a few moments, with only the soft sound of demonic soldiers' armor rubbing together.

"How many cases of forced soul-snatching have you handled?"

Zhou Ran suddenly changed the subject, his tone as calm as if he were asking about the weather.

Zhao Tao was stunned.

"I heard the name and the date your father uttered."

Zhou Ran leaned forward slightly, the purple-gold radiance of his nascent soul flowing deep within his pupils.

"Were those souls fed to the Heavenly Corpses, or sold to the Holy Radiance Consortium?"

Zhao Tao's lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a single word.

Zhao Shijiang lay on the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Zhou Ran didn't ask any further questions.

He raised his chin.

The fragmented images that had just been extracted from the soul search still lingered in the air inside the hall.

A dark hall, a mountain of chains, whipped souls, and a stack of contracts covered with blood-red marks.

The final frame focuses on a bottomless gray vortex, in the center of which a huge, slowly beating heart can be vaguely seen.

Zhao Tao's hand can be seen in those images.

Recording, transmitting.

Zhao Tao was completely paralyzed with fear upon seeing this.

He wanted to cry out for justice, to defend himself, but no sound came out of his throat.

"Did you see that?"

Zhou Ran spoke to Zhao Tao, and it seemed he was speaking to everyone.

"Your life isn't enough to compensate."

He stood up and stepped down from the throne.

The scales dragged on the bone stone ground with a sandy sound.

He walked up to Zhao Tao and squatted down.

"You are more useful alive than dead."

Zhou Ran stared at his pale face.

"Return to the underworld, return to the Third Court, return to Emperor Song's side."

Tell him that I've taken over the affairs of the mortal realm.

If he still wants to use the title of "orthodox" to intimidate people, let him think about how the King of Hell died.

Zhao Tao looked up abruptly, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"Take your dad with you."

Zhou Ran stood up and turned to the Grand Duke.

"Untie them, send them to the gates of hell, and watch them pass through."

"What if they run away, or say something they shouldn't?"

He paused.

"No need to bring it back, just dispose of it directly."

"Yes, ma'am."

Zhao Tao was untied, his body went limp, and he was practically dragged out by two demon soldiers.

Zhao Shijiang was also dragged away.

After the father and son were taken away, the main hall became even emptier.

Zhou Ran sat back on the throne, his hands on the armrests, and the Nascent Soul Law sank into his body.

The six gray lines on his chest were burning hot.

But deeper inside, a cold, shattering sensation came up without warning.

He lowered his head and pulled open the front of his shirt.

The jade pendant placed against the skin.

Before leaving the mortal realm, Li Zhiyao used the ancient law authority to create a sensing jade pendant for him, which could detect the stability of the manor's magic array in real time and was connected to a trace of the earth vein's fortune in Jiangcheng.

At this moment, the cracks on the surface of the jade pendant are spreading rapidly.

It covered the entire piece of jade like a spider web.

"Click."

It crumbled into dust and fell softly through his fingers.

Broken.

The connection was lost.

It wasn't that the magic was broken; it was that the life force signal carried by the jade pendant was overloaded and shattered directly.

Lin Qingxue once said that the jade pendant was connected to the manor's protective barrier.

The barrier shrinks, and the sensing becomes weak.

There is only one explanation for its collapse.

The barrier's coverage area has fallen below the critical point needed to sustain living beings.

The gray lines beneath Jiangcheng's ground have exceeded ten thousand.

Ten thousand means ten thousand lives were directly taken away by the Heavenly Corpse.

Thirty million people sounds like a lot.

But death will spread like a plague.

First, it was the people entangled in the gray thread, then their families and neighbors.

Panic itself is the best nourishment.

Zhou Ran crushed the jade pendant fragments, and powder leaked through his fingers.

"Grand Duke".

The tallest demon prince stepped forward and bowed his head.

"The Black River tribe has been wiped out. What's the status of the other three tribes?"

"Demon Emperor."

The Grand Duke's voice was rough.

"Red Bones, White Teeth, and Broken Forehead—we sent people to spy on them during the battle."

With Bone Cutter dead and two hundred elite soldiers of the Black River slaughtered, they were more fearful than angry.

Right now, we should all strengthen our defenses and be wary of us.

"Will they join forces?"

"Not in the short term."

The four factions have a long-standing grudge, with Heihe being the strongest. They are eager for Heihe to be destroyed so they can divide up their territory.

We won't be cornered unless we expand to the point of touching their core.

Zhou Ran nodded.

Just as he thought.

The inhabitants of the Void Realm prioritize profit above all else.

He turned around and faced outwards from the city.

Beyond the dilapidated city walls, a colossal mountain pierces the gray sky.

Dark purple veins flow across the surface of the mountain, like the blood vessels of a living creature, rising and falling with each stroke.

The mountaintop was buried in thick ash and could not be seen clearly.

But the sound of his heartbeat, heavy and pounding, came from the direction of the mountain, in sync with the six gray lines on his chest.

Holy Mountain.

The core hub of the Heavenly Corpse's heart.

Zhou Ran only went through the thought once before stopping.

Smashing the equipment back in the living world is only a temporary solution.

Once the Sheng Hui Consortium has its first machine, it will have a second and a third.

As long as the source of the Heavenly Corpse's heart continues to beat, the gray threads can never be completely cut off; they will grow back tomorrow even if you sever them today.

If you're going to cut it off, cut it off at the root.