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

Zhou Ran stared at the line of text for a moment.

"Then let it see clearly."

He turned around, and the true form deep within the heart of the Heavenly Corpse raised its hand, its five fingers gripping the hilt of the Primordial Black Blade.

Above the manor in the mortal realm, a black-gold projection of law is gradually taking shape.

In the blink of an eye, Zhou Ran used the Grand Commander's Order, the Yin-Yang Communication Bone Fragment, and the Earth Vein Array Eye to build a bridge, forcibly tearing a short passage between the two realms.

This is not a return; it is merely a projection descending to the mortal realm using the power of the original body.

The projection and the original body are connected by the same line. Once the projection is broken, the original body will suffer a backlash, and he will also bleed in the Void Realm Holy Mountain.

That's enough.

A streak of black and gold light shot out from above the manor, making the sky over Jiangcheng appear lower and the clouds split open.

Monsters, left behind by the chaos of broken rules, still roam the streets.

A humanoid figure, half-weak and stuck in a lamppost, was twitching there.

A bus wrecked with teeth slowly moved, while a boneless mass of flesh lay at the intersection, burying its head and devouring the yin energy on the ground.

Zhou Ran flew over their heads without stopping for a moment.

The pressure from the Nascent Soul swept downwards.

The monsters shattered one after another, without even having time to let out a single wail.

Wang Pangzi stood on the top floor of the manor, staring wide-eyed.

"This is the Nascent Soul stage?"

Qin San gripped the ring-pommel sword tightly, staring at the black and gold light, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"This is the boss."

The Dongcheng Cultural Center quickly came into view.

The once abandoned building has been completely transformed.

The walls undulate like the flesh of a living thing, gray veins emerge from the roof, and the entire building is wrapped in a semi-transparent membrane of light.

From inside the light membrane, the woman's screams could be heard intermittently.

Xu Youwei.

A layer of frost settled in Zhou Ran's eyes.

Outside the light membrane, dozens of elite Penglai warriors stood in formation, each with ancient runes running through their bodies.

This is not a hastily assembled rabble.

Penglai has dared to guard the Heavenly Corpse for 30,000 years, its foundation is indeed solid.

At the highest point stood an old man, holding a bronze ruler horizontally in his hand.

That wasn't Elder Xu, but his aura was also at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

Xu Zhenhai.

He looked up and saw Zhou Ran, without the slightest surprise in his eyes.

"You've arrived."

Zhou Ran hovered in mid-air, with the Taihuang Black Blade hanging at his side.

Release them.

Xu Zhenhai shook his head.

"It's too late."

Zhou Ran turned his gaze to the inside of the light membrane.

Xu Youwei was locked on a bronze altar, with silver needles stuck in her wrists, between her eyebrows, and in her heart.

Beneath her was a huge eye socket that had not yet opened.

The eye sockets were underground, yet they cast shadows above the light membrane.

Pale white blood seeped from Xu Youwei's body, being absorbed inch by inch into her eye sockets.

Zhou Ran lowered his voice.

"Where is Old Xu?"

Xu Zhenhai spoke in a flat tone:

"The Pavilion Master is soft-hearted and cannot make the final decision."

"So you do it for him."

"Penglai does not belong to any one person."

Xu Zhenhai raised the bronze ruler,

"We have guarded the Heavenly Corpse for 30,000 years, not to stand by and watch an outsider destroy our entire plan."

Zhou Ran chuckled.

"Outsider?"

He raised his hand, the tip of the knife pointing at Xu Zhenhai.

"When I saved Jiangcheng, you were attacking your own people."

When I slew Yama, you were plotting against Yue Zhao.

While I was cutting the gray thread, you were all busy opening my left eye.

He took a step forward, and the void trembled.

"Is this what you call protecting?"

Xu Zhenhai's eyes remained unmoved.

"Protecting comes at a price."

Youwei possesses a pure Yin constitution and cultivates the ancient laws of Penglai, making her the most suitable candidate to open her left eye.

With her death, Earth gains a greater chance of survival.

Zhou Ran nodded.

"Understood."

"What do you know?"

Xu Zhenhai frowned.

Zhou Ran gripped the black knife tightly.

"You old fogies, you've lived too long."

It's been so long that people have treated human lives as bargaining chips, forgetting that they were originally lives.

He raised his sword, and his words echoed throughout the entire East City.

"Old Xu, you've crossed the line."

Release him, and I'll leave you with a whole corpse.

As soon as the words were spoken, a figure in gray cloth slowly walked towards them from the distant horizon, using a bamboo cane.

The bamboo bend is empty, each step is ten feet.

Old Xu has arrived.

He first glanced at Xu Youwei on the altar, then turned to Zhou Ran, his wrinkles deepening.

"Zhou Ran".

He let out a long sigh.

You are too young.

If the Heavenly Corpse's left eye doesn't open, the entire Blue Star will perish.

"Youwei's life was a price that had to be paid."

Zhou Ran stared at him.

"This is your granddaughter."

Old Xu closed his eyes.

"So I came personally to see her off on her final journey."

Xu Zhenhai couldn't bring himself to do it, fearing it would give others ammunition against him later.

I will bear this infamy myself.

Inside the light membrane, Xu Youwei heard those words clearly, and her scream paused for a moment.

She raised her head and looked at Old Xu. There was no hatred in her eyes, only a hint of disbelief that she couldn't express.

The murderous intent in Zhou Ran's chest finally snapped.

Just as he was about to strike, a deafening dragon roar erupted from within the light membrane.

That wasn't a dragon; it was the sound of the laws compressing space when the left eye of the Heavenly Corpse revived.

A huge gray vertical eye slowly opened above the East City Cultural Center.

The image reflected deep within the pupils had nothing to do with the street scene of Jiangcheng.

That was the sacred mountain far away in the virtual world, and Zhou Ran's true form standing in the laboratory on the sacred mountain.

The moment the gray vertical eye opened, the sky above the eastern city fell silent.

All sounds were silenced.

The wind stopped, the fire went out, and even the distant alarm seemed to have been silenced.

The black-gold light membrane on Zhou Ran's body surface suddenly contracted.

A soft crack came from the shoulder bone.

The left eye, the right eye, the nascent soul, and the gray patterns were all being stared at by that vertical eye at the same time.

That single glance, far beyond the ordinary gaze, froze him in place.

The original body within the Void Realm Sacred Mountain experienced the same pressure at the same instant.

Zhou Ran's Taihuang scales peeled off piece by piece, and blood beads seeped from under his skin.

The two realms are connected by a single line; the more the projection touches, the more the original body is divided.

He couldn't afford to gamble on this line breaking.

Old Xu raised the bronze ruler, and its body emitted a burst of blue light.

Dozens of elite warriors from Penglai sat cross-legged, chanting ancient incantations.

"Heaven has its order."

"The land has boundaries."

"Man's fate is predetermined."

"An anomaly in the town."

A blue light rose from beneath their feet, forming a large array.

The Heavenly Corpse's left eye was above, and the Ancient Law of Penglai was below, with the two forces sandwiching Zhou Ran in the middle.

The next instant, thunderclouds emerged from the depths of the sky above Jiangcheng.

Zhou Ran's brow furrowed.

Heavenly Punishment by Thunder.

In the virtual realm, he is not subject to the control of the Heavenly Dao.

But right now, Old Xu is using his left eye to lock onto his projection in the mortal realm, and then using the ancient laws of Penglai to trace the Heavenly Dao of Blue Star.

This old fox had no intention of competing with him in cultivation; his plan was to drag him back into the shackles of the Heavenly Dao.

Once the projection is suppressed by the Heavenly Dao, the thread connecting the original body in the virtual world will also be severed.

Old Xu held a bronze ruler in his hand, and his voice came through.

"Zhou Ran, your idealism is too dangerous."

You can alter the laws of Yin, devour the void, and sever the main vein of the Heavenly Corpse.

If we don't control you today, no one will be able to control you tomorrow.