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

Either they don't care.

Or perhaps...

There's absolutely no need to care.

King Yama put away his judge's pen.

He looked at Zhou Ran with a mixture of scrutiny and admiration in his eyes.

It's like looking at an exquisite object, admiring its craftsmanship, but not intending to take it seriously.

"Kid."

Yama, the King of Hell, spoke.

"Do you think I brought 30,000 troops here to fight?"

Zhou Ran frowned.

Yama, the King of Hell, gently drew a circle in the air with his judge's pen.

The movements were very casual, as if he were teasing a child.

"I'm just here to buy time."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ran's pupils contracted sharply.

He suddenly turned around and looked south.

The direction of the Third Hall.

A gray beam of light.

Almost invisible to the naked eye, but Zhou Ran's Purple-Gold Demon Eyes detected it.

The light shot from the depths of the earth into the sky, piercing the darkness of the eternal night in the underworld, like a needle piercing the firmament.

That was the fluctuation of the Heavenly Corpse.

It didn't come from Jiangcheng in the mortal realm.

Instead, it comes from the underworld.

At the foot of the Third Hall.

The voice of the Song Emperor exploded in Zhou Ran's mind.

"The root of the Heavenly Corpse..."

Not just in the mortal realm!

His voice was trembling.

Its spine runs through both the realms of Yin and Yang!

This section of the underworld is located beneath the Third Palace!

The true purpose of Yama's siege of the Three Courts was never the Seal of Reincarnation.

Zhou Ran clenched his fists.

"What he wants is the heart of the Heavenly Corpse."

The Song Emperor's voice deepened.

"The heart of the Heavenly Corpse is located directly below the Third Hall."

Zhou Ran turned back and stared at Yama, the King of Hell.

The old man bowed slightly and paid his respects to Zhou Ran.

Satire.

And its irony.

It's like thanking a dutiful watchdog.

"You've worked hard, Grand Commander."

Yama's voice was neither hurried nor slow.

"During the few hours you spent playing with my vanguard."

He paused.

"I have found the location of the Heavenly Corpse."

The black-gold scales of the Primordial Overlord Body exploded, and Asura Demonic Flames shot out three feet high from its body.

The Golden Elixir of the Mind circulated wildly, and a hundred-foot-long domain of laws pressed down on Yama, the King of Hell.

But Yama, the King of Hell, merely smiled, and his figure transformed into black mist.

The speed of a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator is something that even a late-stage Golden Core cultivator cannot catch up to.

The black mist swept across the entire battlefield in an instant, crossed the River of Oblivion, crossed the Road to the Underworld, and disappeared into the darkness of the south.

Zhou Ran didn't chase after him at all.

We can't catch up.

He stood on the ice, his chest heaving violently.

The Asura Demon Fire burned for a few breaths before slowly receding.

Qiao Kun jogged over, his face still showing excitement at having won over the enemy:

"Grand Commander!"

It's dropped by more than three thousand!

It's still increasing.

"Never mind the surrendered soldiers."

Zhou Ran spoke slowly and deliberately.

"All troops, retreat to the three palaces. Now."

Qiao Kun was stunned for a moment, and when he saw Zhou Ran's expression, he swallowed back all the words he was about to say.

"yes!"

Zhou Ran turned and flew towards the south bank.

In mid-air, he took out the Yin-Yang Communication Bone Fragment.

"Li Zhiyao".

There was a brief silence on the other end of the bone fragment, then Li Zhiyao's voice came through, tinged with barely suppressed tension:

"I know what you're going to ask."

"The heartbeat underground has accelerated."

Li Zhiyao interrupted him.

"Starting just now, the frequency has doubled."

Lin Qingxue said that the number of gray silk threads increased from 4,200 to 5,800 within an hour.

The tidal suppression array set up by Su Qingling and the others...

"I can't hold on much longer."

Zhou Ran gritted his teeth.

"What about the manor?"

"It's still there."

But my demonic barrier was compressed.

It used to cover three kilometers, but now it only covers one and a half kilometers.

Li Zhiyao paused for a moment.

"Zhou Ran, what about the mortal realm..."

There's at most one more day.

one day.

In the underworld, the River of Oblivion will be sealed off in just over a day.

Yama's men have located the heart of the Heavenly Corpse.

If they activate the heart of the Heavenly Corpse from the underworld side, it will resonate with the Heavenly Corpse on the mortal side.

Zhou Ran dared not think any further.

He put away the bone fragments and hurried toward the Third Hall.

Behind him, Qiao Kun was organizing the retreat.

The surrendered soldiers were incorporated into the ranks, and the wounded were carried onto stretchers.

The entire south bank is in complete chaos, but at least it's moving in the right direction.

After flying for half an hour, the outline of the third hall came into view.

Then he saw it.

A crack appeared on the Reincarnation Barrier of the Third Hall.

This crack was created from the inside.

The crack was small, only about one person wide.

But the edges are constantly expanding, as if something is pushing them from inside.

Zhou Ran stopped in his tracks.

The sounds coming from the crack were not the shouts of rebels.

It wasn't the sound of ghostly soldiers' footsteps.

It was not a heartbeat buried deep underground.

"Thump."

The gray crack in Zhou Ran's dantian jumped simultaneously.

"Thump."

Second tone.

It is heavier than the first tone.

Zhou Ran felt his golden core being squeezed.

Like two hearts beating against each other through a wall, their frequencies getting closer and closer, becoming more and more synchronized.

He looked down at his chest.

Beneath the black and gold scales, a wisp of gray light emanated from the dantian area.

It was faint, but it was particularly glaring in the eternal night of the underworld.

The three gray cracks on the surface of the Golden Elixir of the Mind were wriggling.

"Grand Commander!"

Yan San rushed out of the palace gate.

The Third Warden's face was covered in blood, his left sleeve was empty, and the cut was sealed with smoldering fire.

"His Highness is inside!"

Something happened underground.

Something is pushing upwards!

Zhou Ran strode into the palace gate.

The main hall of the Third Hall was in a mess.

Most of the floor tiles were broken, and gray mist was seeping out of the cracks.

Emperor Song stood in the center of the hall, his hands pressed on the ground. Black Yin runes spread outwards from his palms, as if he were suppressing something.

The projection of King Qin Guang hung in mid-air, his expression solemn.

"You're back."

The Song emperor did not raise his head; his voice was deep.

"Where are Yama's men?"

Zhou Ran went straight to the point.

"The seventh underground level."

Emperor Song's fingers trembled slightly.

"Three hours ago, an elite force infiltrated from the abandoned mine tunnel on the east side of the Third Hall."

When I discovered them, they had already broken through the first six layers of the seal.

Zhou Ran narrowed his eyes.

Three hours ago.

That was when he was fighting to the death with Black Impermanence on the north bank of the River of Oblivion.

The entire battle, from beginning to end, was a diversionary tactic.

The lives of Hei Wuchang and the 30,000 rebels were all bait thrown out by Yama, the King of Hell.

"How long can the seventh layer of the seal hold?"

Emperor Song remained silent for two breaths.

"Half an hour."

Zhou Ran swore.

He walked quickly to Emperor Song's side, squatted down, and placed his hands on the ground.

The Primordial Bone's perception penetrated the floor tiles and the six layers of broken seals, probing downwards.

The first floor is empty.

Fragments of the seal were scattered all over the ground.

The second layer is the same as above.

The third to sixth floors were all forcibly broken open.

The remaining Yin Law runes were still smoking, indicating that the formation had been broken within two hours.

Zhou Ran's divine sense touched the outer wall of the seventh layer of the seal.

The seal is still there.

However, it was covered with cracks, and three array hubs were being attacked simultaneously.

The scent of an attacker...

Two are at the late stage of the Golden Core realm, and one is at the great perfection of the Golden Core realm.

"One of the City King's people?"

Zhou Ran asked.

"The elite of the Eighth Hall."

Emperor Song nodded.

"The leader is the first executioner under the throne of the city, 'Peeling Skin'."

At the peak of the Golden Core stage, specializing in breaking formations.