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

The ice block was half a person tall, with a slowly flowing light inside, sealing off an entire starry sky.

Zhou Ran walked over.

With a flick of his golden eyes, he saw through the inside of the ice stone.

He stopped in his tracks.

In the center of the ice stone, a person lies asleep.

A woman was curled up with her eyes closed, her full head of silver hair spread out in the ice, each root clearly visible.

That face—

Zhou Ran's breathing stopped.

He recognized that face.

She looks exactly like the woman in the manor who is dressed in white and can see through everything with her magic eyes.

Lin Qingxue.

Zhou Ran didn't move.

The purple-gold demonic eyes were fixed on the face inside the ice stone.

It is Lin Qingxue.

No, it isn't.

Lin Qingxue has black hair.

The woman had a full head of silver hair, which was spread out in the ice.

But the brow bone, bridge of the nose, and lip shape are exactly the same.

Even the curve of his eyelashes when he closed his eyes matched that of the woman in the manor who kept watch over the gray lines for him.

Zhou Ran squatted down and placed his palms on the ice.

Ice is cold.

It's not the annihilating, deathly cold of the illusory realm, but a clean, living coolness.

The demonic eye pierced through.

There is no spiritual power, no demonic energy, and no yin energy inside the ice stone.

There was only a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer of life.

Weak, but stable.

Zhou Ran listened intently.

The rhythm was in sync with the frequency of the six gray lines in his dantian.

It also beats in unison with the heartbeat of the celestial corpse underground.

The anxiety that had just been suppressed deep within his dantian surged up again.

But Lin Qingxue is just a creature on Earth.

But now, deep within the heart of the Heavenly Corpse, at the core of the Moon Emperor's body, is sealed a person who looks exactly like her.

Silver hair.

slumber.

Artifacts from 30,000 years ago.

Zhou Ran stood up but didn't rush to touch the ice stone.

The more familiar something looks in a place like this, the more careful you should be.

He raised his hand, and the Taihuang Black Blade was held horizontally in front of him, its tip pointing vaguely at the ice stone.

"If Bai Xuan were here, that would be great."

He muttered to himself.

That fungal demon's sense of the laws of the void was even more acute than his demonic eyes.

But Bai Xuan was left outside by him.

Zhou Ran tried a different approach.

He took out the natal Gu shell that Xiao Rou had given him before she left.

The shell of the Gu was mostly broken, leaving only a piece the size of a fingernail.

He held the shards in his hand and brought them close to the ice stone.

The Gu shell didn't react.

It's not dangerous.

This piece of ice doesn't respond at all to any probing of living things.

It is isolated in its own time.

Zhou Ran then tried the ancient law rune that Li Zhiyao had given him.

Runes are used to sense specific individuals.

Li Zhiyao said that she could sense the existence that was connected to the River of Oblivion and the ancient laws.

The moment the rune was affixed to the ice stone.

Suddenly, a bluish-white light burst forth, so hot that Zhou Ran's fingertips recoiled.

Two ancient characters emerged from the rune.

Zhou Ran recognized him.

It was the ancient regulated verse that Li Zhiyao had taught him, the oldest branch of it.

Zhou Ran's pupils contracted slightly.

He stared at the silver-haired face in the ice stone, his mind racing through the images.

Moon Emperor.

Lord of the Void Realm.

Thirty thousand years ago, a wisp of her divine consciousness underwent tribulation. Her physical body shattered into a celestial corpse and fell to Earth, but her will remained in the void realm.

And deep within the heart of this celestial corpse lies the Moon Emperor's sister.

A woman who looks exactly like Lin Qingxue.

Zhou Ran suddenly remembered something.

Lin Qingxue's eyes could not see through the three underground floors of the Dongcheng Cultural Center.

At the time, he thought that the Void Realm Laws of the Heavenly Corpse were too strong, blocking her view.

Now he's not so sure.

Perhaps it's not that we can't see through it, but that we dare not look.

Or perhaps something in that place was instinctively rejecting her, or calling to her.

Zhou Ran carefully put away the ancient rune, which was still hot.

He did not touch the ice stone immediately.

The words left by Meng Po on the broken porcelain surfaced again.

"Those who have passed through the sea of ​​flowers must not turn back."

Meng Po guarded the place for 30,000 years, refining herself into a seal to suppress the heart of the Heavenly Corpse.

Before his death, he sent him broken porcelain and a soul-soothing pearl through Penglai, and left two gatekeepers with the order to "stop everyone".

What exactly is Meng Po trying to stop?

Zhou Ran originally thought that the ones who were being stopped were Yama, who wanted to seize power; Du Ziren, who wanted to undergo tribulation; and Emperor Song, who wanted to maintain balance.

But now, looking at this piece of ice, he had a different guess.

Perhaps what Meng Po truly guards is not the power over the heart of the Heavenly Corpse.

They are the people inside this block of ice.

She is the Moon Emperor's younger sister.

Zhou Ran felt a sudden sharp pain in the six gray lines in his dantian.

Inside the ice and stone, that faint glimmer of life seemed to leap into a sudden, rapid beat.

The silver-haired woman's eyelids twitched.

It's not about opening your eyes.

It was just a very slight tremor.

Something that had been dormant for 30,000 years was disturbed.

Zhou Ran immediately took three steps back, holding the Taihuang Black Blade horizontally in front of his chest.

The laboratory was deathly silent.

The screen went completely black, the alarms stopped, and two puddles of ash were piled up on the split wall.

Only that piece of ice stone, shimmering with light, quietly glowed in the deathly silence.

Zhou Ran stared at the face that resembled Lin Qingxue's and slowly spoke.

"Who are you."

no answer.

The woman inside the ice stone stopped fluttering her eyelids and fell asleep again.

That glimmer of life subsided, returning to a slow, rhythmic beat in sync with the heart of the Heavenly Corpse.

Zhou Ran didn't ask any more questions.

The answer isn't in this piece of ice.

The answer lies with the woman dressed in white, who is currently guarding the gray line for him in the manor in the mortal realm.

It also lies in Meng Po, who watched over this celestial corpse for 30,000 years and, on her deathbed, broke the secret into pieces and entrusted them to Meng Po separately.

Zhou Ran put away the Taihuang Black Blade.

He crouched down and placed his palms on the ice stone again.

This time, he used the laws of idealism to gently carve a word on the ice.

--"seal up".

It was not an attack.

He added his own rules to this piece of ice.

Before he returns, no one is allowed to touch it, whether the person inside is awake or not.

After he finished carving, he stood up.

Underground, the Heavenly Corpse's heart continued to beat, only slower and gentler than before, losing the frenzied urge to awaken.

Marcus's equipment is gone.

The reverse assimilation wave stopped.

The catastrophe that claimed millions in Jiangcheng has been averted.

But the Heavenly Corpse's heart was still beating.

The secret of Meng Po has not yet been solved.

And inside this block of ice, there was a face that made his heart sink.

Zhou Ran turned around and walked towards the laboratory door.

Outside the door, more than three hundred wounded elite demons were still guarding the "void".

He walked to the door, turned back, and took one last look at the ice stone that shimmered with iridescent light in the deathly silence.

"Lin Qingxue".

He repeated the name in his mind.

Then, he stepped out of the gray metal door.

Behind her, amidst the seven-colored ice stones, the silver-haired woman's fingertips twitched very slightly.

A faint bluish-white light, the same as Lin Qingxue's Dharma Eyes, seeped from the ice.

Zhou Ran stood under the split control panel, his fingertips still pressing against the ice.

The silver-haired woman in the ice is asleep.

That face belonged to Lin Qingxue.

He didn't rush to make a move. In places like this, the more familiar they are, the more likely they are to be a trap.

He took out the Yin-Yang Communication Bone Fragment and poured in a wisp of true essence.

The bone fragments emitted a faint, grayish-white glow, intermittently.

The laws within the Heavenly Corpse were too dense, and the signal was gnawed away, leaving only a thin line.

"Zhiyao".

There was a three-breath silence on the other end of the bone fragment before Li Zhiyao's voice came through, her voice tense.

"Over there..."

Something happened?

"Let me ask first."

Zhou Ran stared at the ice stone,

"What's the situation at the manor?"

"Jade pendant".

Li Zhiyao's voice trembled slightly.

"The jade pendant you left for Qingxue, which was meant to sense life, broke half an hour ago."

At the same moment, her eyes went out of control, and blood flowed from them—not red, but bluish-white.

Blood was seeping from her fingertips, the same color.