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

"I want to go up the mountain."

The three dukes raised their heads simultaneously.

"grown ups……

"I am willing to go with you!"

"Take your five hundred most elite men and come with me."

Zhou Ran walked towards the city gate, his scales dragging on the bone stones with a sandy sound.

"The rest are broken down into smaller parts and scattered to the boundaries."

Do not attack any tribe first. If you encounter scouts, drive them away; do not engage in a deadly battle.

He paused and turned around.

There is only one core principle.

Guard all the passages in this area.

Especially those unstable gaps connecting to the mortal realm.

Anyone who tries to send something from the mortal realm to this side, or tries to sabotage the mortal realm from this side, will have their plans cut off.

"Yes, sir!"

The other grand duke hesitated for a moment:

"The Demon Emperor's spine is the shortest distance from his heart, but the laws of the Void Realm are the densest there, making his elimination extremely risky."

Going around the perimeter, looking at the left and right eyes, is safer, but it takes three times longer.

"Follow the spine."

Zhou Ran didn't give a second word.

"I'll clear the way."

Follow me and clear out any ambushes along the way.

Destination—the mountaintop.

"yes!"

He stepped out of the hall.

Five hundred elite demons followed silently behind, their black and gold demonic armor casting long shadows.

The words that Yama, the King of Hell, uttered before his death were still etched in his mind.

The Holy Radiance Foundation has begun the final awakening ritual for the heart of the Heavenly Corpse.

It's not a little bit of extraction, it's complete activation.

Once completed, the Heavenly Corpse's heart will resonate directly with the projection in the mortal realm.

At that point, not only Jiangcheng, but the entire eastern part of Xia Kingdom would be dragged into the rules of the Void Realm and assimilated.

Twenty-nine days.

It may be shorter.

Half an hour later, five hundred demon soldiers set off on the rugged stone path leading to the holy mountain.

Upon closer inspection, the dark purple patterns resemble the skin of a living person, gently undulating.

The purifying aura in the air was so thick it was visible to the naked eye, forming a pale gray mist that silently turned even bones and stones into dust wherever it passed.

Zhou Ran walked at the front.

The purple-gold law stretched out along the outer edge of the body, and the gray mist that came up was pushed back an inch away.

He looked up at the mountaintop.

Within that mass of ash, something is slowly opening its eyes with each heartbeat.

Zhou Ran stopped.

"It's awake."

The highest-ranking duke followed his gaze and let out a low, hoarse groan.

"Demon Emperor, that thing on the mountaintop..."

It's not a rule.

"It is will."

Zhou Ran added half a sentence.

The tiny thing that had opened its eyes in the gray fog was staring at his chest.

The six gray lines were burning hot, as if someone had set them on fire from the inside.

He didn't back down.

He raised his hand, and the footsteps of the five hundred demon soldiers stopped behind him.

"I'll go first, starting from here."

Zhou Ran spoke,

"You are three zhang apart."

If you get covered in the ash fog, retreat immediately; don't try to tough it out.

"The Demon Emperor leads the way alone—"

"I'll be fine."

He took a step up the mountain.

As the foot stomped down, the dark purple patterns suddenly contracted, as if a living thing had been hurt by being stepped on.

The entire sacred mountain's heartbeat faltered by half a beat.

Zhou Ran stopped in place, waiting for the half-beat to be caught up.

It's been made up, but even more urgently than before.

He smiled.

"You're afraid of me."

A deep, resonant sound echoed from deep within the mountain.

It wasn't a sound, but a vibration that climbed up the bones and stones under his feet and entered his dantian.

At the edge of the sixth gray line, a finer crack appears, which is growing into the seventh line.

Zhou Ran pressed his hand to his chest, and the purple-gold law pressed down, stopping the new pattern halfway.

The 29-day countdown, compressed by this, jumped one step faster.

He looked up.

A thin sliver of gray mist parted at the mountaintop, revealing the dark outline of the area below.

The outline was so large that it was impossible to tell what it was at first glance; it just felt like the entire sky was being pressed down by it.

"Walk."

Zhou Ran took the second step.

Five hundred demon soldiers followed silently behind, the torrent of black and gold climbing up the mountainside.

My heart pounded against everyone's feet.

The higher you go, the thicker the ash fog becomes, and the faster the bone stone turns to ash.

Two demon soldiers walking on the outer edge had their armor pieces silently peel off at the edges, and were pulled back to the center of the formation by their companions.

Zhou Ran walked at the front, the purple-gold law membrane pushing against and erasing the aura, forcibly carving a path through the gray mist.

Halfway up the mountain, the first thing rose from the gray fog.

They were neither natives nor hunters.

It was a gray-white human figure the same color as the mountain, its body covered with patterns similar to the scales of the Heavenly Corpse.

It has no eyes, no mouth, only a slowly rotating gray pupil embedded in the place where a face should be.

It raised its hand and aimed it at Zhou Ran.

The gray pupil did not reflect Zhou Ran's face at this moment—

That was how he turned into a corpse twenty-nine days later.

The five hundred demon soldiers on the outermost edge were all experts at the late Golden Core stage or above.

However, in this environment, the protective demonic energy is also being slowly eroded.

They formed a cone-shaped formation, protecting Zhou Ran in the center, and advanced step by step towards the mountainside.

Zhou Ran walked at the front.

The fourth level of the Primordial Overlord Body was fully activated, black and gold scales covered his entire body, and the Purple-Gold Nascent Soul Law formed a flowing light film on the surface of the scales.

With each step, the gray mist beneath one's feet is forcibly pushed aside, creating a brief vacuum zone.

But he could sense that the "weight" of the mountain's laws was increasing.

With each step upwards, the most primal "erasure law" of the virtual realm becomes denser.

This is not an attack; it is indiscriminate environmental erasure.

Walking inside, every inch of flesh and blood, every trace of true essence, is being constantly corroded.

The pain penetrated to the bone marrow.

It's not a physical injury, but the pain of having one's very existence denied.

When they reached the halfway point of the mountain, the demon soldiers began to suffer casualties.

Several demon soldiers at the late Golden Core stage suddenly had their protective demonic energy dissipate, their bodies crumbling from their feet down into dust. They didn't even have time to scream before they vanished into the wind.

"Shrink the formation!"

Abandon the outer perimeter!

Zhou Ran gave a low shout, and the purple-gold light membrane suddenly expanded, covering all the remaining demon soldiers.

The light film made a hissing sound when it came into contact with the gray haze, and white vapor rose up.

Zhou Ran's nascent soul trembled slightly, and his energy consumption increased sharply.

He ignored it and kept going upwards.

As the mountain slopes become steeper, the concentration of the law increases exponentially.

The gray fog converged into a flowing river of gray light, cascading down from the mountaintop, causing even space itself to slightly distort in its path.

The demon soldiers gritted their teeth and persevered, but their protective demonic energy was eroded by the river of light in just a few breaths.

Zhou Ran gritted his teeth, and his Taihuang Qi and blood erupted.

Black and golden qi and blood smoke rose from the top of his head, merging with the purple-gold light membrane, forcibly opening a channel in the gray light river.

At the edge of the passage, space constantly annihilates and reassembles, emitting a sharp friction sound.

He led his demonic soldiers, forcibly carving his way through the destructive torrent, leaving behind a constantly closing passage.

When they were less than 300 feet from the summit, Zhou Ran stopped.

It wasn't that he wanted to stop, it's that he couldn't go any further.

The entire summit of the sacred mountain was enveloped in a layer of almost solidified "nothingness".

That was neither fog nor light; it was pure "non-existence."

Looking at it will sting your eyes and shatter your consciousness.

Anything that tries to approach it will be instantly defined as "nothing" and completely disappear.

"This is it."

Zhou Ran turned around and glanced at the demon soldiers behind him, who numbered only about three hundred.