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

Hermann's brow twitched.

"third--"

Zhou Ran withdrew the illusory image of the white bone pen and switched to his other hand.

He took a stack of papers from his pocket and threw them on the table.

That was the complete chain of evidence for White Pagoda Island compiled by Chen Ya.

Records of deaths caused by human experimentation.

Sales contracts for individuals with special physical conditions.

List of implanted virtual chips.

Imperial son sample data tampering log.

Members of the White Pagoda Council used the experimental results to create personal medical records for life extension.

The last one was a photograph.

The photo shows Herman himself, who received an "Imperial Bone Factor Injection" seven years ago in an operating room on the sixth basement floor of White Tower Island.

"You are not the guardians."

Zhou Ran's voice was completely calm.

"You are parasites."

"They parasitize the remains of the emperor's son, stealing his power to prolong their own lives, while using the guise of 'guarding the blue planet' to treat living people as waste."

He looked at Herman.

"Judging Earth?"

"You should wash yourself clean first."

The bone-tipped brush materialized once more, its tip falling heavily through the air to form a line of characters:

[The minutes of the White Pagoda meeting are archived as evidence.]

The black and gold lettering, like a red-hot branding iron, was imprinted on the dome of the hall.

The lights throughout the space flickered violently, and all the imperial bone patterns and monitoring systems within the walls received this command at the same moment.

From this moment on, everything that happens in the hall will be automatically recorded and stored in the underlying data connected to the Emperor's Bone.

Unalterable.

Cannot be deleted.

For the first time, a crack appeared in the composure on Hermann's face.

He anticipated that Zhou Ran would draw his sword, use his Nascent Soul, and engage in a fierce battle with him on a power level.

He never imagined that the young man was using a pen.

It is evidence.

It's the rule.

"What are you doing?" Herman stood up, his voice filled with alertness.

"Do what I'm here to do." Zhou Ran put away the bone pen. "Audit."

He took a step back, giving the seat of honor to Chen Ya.

Chen Ya took out all the remaining documents from the briefcase and arranged them neatly on the table, stack by stack.

"Mr. Hermann." Her voice was professional and cool.

"Next, we will verify the specific uses of the funds that White Tower Island has received from Sheng Hui over the past eleven years. Please cooperate with your legal director."

Herman did not look at the document.

He stared intently at Zhou Ran.

There was a five-second silence.

Then, he placed his hand on the table and tapped it lightly twice.

That was a signal.

At the same time, twelve hidden doors appeared in the walls around the hall.

Behind the door was a bottomless passage, from which a faint humming sound emanated—the refrigeration system was operating at full capacity.

The pity on Hermann's face vanished, replaced by a frank, undisguised arrogance.

"Mr. Zhou Ran, if you want to judge me, then so be it."

"But you must judge it faster than it awakens."

He raised his hand and pointed to the ground.

"Imperial Prince Sample Number One, awakened at 30% progress 30 minutes ago, now—"

He glanced at the wrist terminal.

Thirty-five percent.

The vibrations from beneath the floor returned, stronger and more rhythmic than before.

one more time.

Like a heartbeat.

Hermann's white robe swayed slightly with the tremors.

"You can continue the audit."

"But what if it wakes up before you finish your interrogation—"

He looked at Chen Ya.

"It will act according to the rules left by the imperial prince."

"And its first judgment object—"

The shaking of the floor suddenly stopped.

A voice came from the deepest part of the black tower.

It's not a synthesized voice, and it's not an adult's voice.

It was a child's voice.

It was very light, very clean, and had an echoing emptiness like the bottom of a well.

"Zhou Ran".

That's what the voice said.

"Hand Chen Ya over to me."

The hall was deathly silent.

The imperial bone evidence box trembled violently, and the three characters "Wait, Trial, Kill" on the box wall flashed wildly.

Chen Ya's fingers, gripping the briefcase handle, turned white.

But she didn't back down.

She looked down at the floor.

"The inventory of the estate has not been fully verified yet."

She sat down again and opened the document to the first page.

"continue."

Hermann stood at the other end of the long table, without speaking immediately.

The heartbeat beneath the floor became more and more regular, as if something was gently tapping the earth's crust with its fingers through the nine-story black tower.

The legal director of White Tower quietly took half a step back, unable to hold the tablet firmly in his hand.

The large black and gold characters above the hall had not yet faded.

[The minutes of the White Pagoda meeting are archived as evidence.]

This means that every word Herman just said, including "destruction" and "cleansing," has been recorded by the Emperor's Bone system.

The White Pagoda's most prized closed system was unveiled by Zhou Ran with a single pen.

Herman stared at Zhou Ran.

"Do you think archiving will change the outcome?"

Zhou Ran leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the table.

"cannot."

"But it will make it impossible for you to deny it later."

Hermann's lips slowly curved into a smile.

Just then, the spherical light in the center of the hall suddenly went out.

The twelve hidden doors on all sides slid open simultaneously.

Cold air rushed out from behind the door, carrying a pungent smell of disinfectant, metal, and old blood.

Xiao Rou stood to the side and slightly behind Chen Ya, the Gu worms in her collar chirping uneasily.

"The coolant is being removed."

She looked up at the dome.

"Not this floor."

"Seven underground floors."

The silver eye in Xu Youwei's palm spun wildly beneath the bandages.

She pressed down hard on the broken hairpin, her face deathly pale.

"It's not the seventh floor."

"It's rising!"

Hermann raised his hand, as if presiding over a sacrifice.

"Since you all want to audit the White Pagoda, you should first look at what the White Pagoda is actually guarding."

He gently pressed the silver button on the desktop.

The wall at the back of the hall split open, revealing a transparent shaft running vertically downwards.

Deep inside the shaft, a black circular platform is slowly rising.

On the round platform stood a cryogenic chamber.

The outer walls of the cabin were covered with a thick layer of white frost, and countless pipes extended from the cabin, deeply penetrating the body of the black tower.

The coolant flowed back through the transparent pipe, emitting a low hum.

As the truncated cone rose, the outline of the cryogenic chamber became increasingly clear.

A very small body.

A baby.

The limbs were intact, the skin was pale, but the bones were more delicate than those of a normal baby, and the joints were covered with black and gold lines.

It has no head.

The neck fracture was smooth and even, as if it were naturally so.

And in the center of its chest, there is a vertical black and gold eye slit.

A tightly closed eye is a wound that will never heal.

The evidence box next to Chen Ya suddenly shook.

The pale finger inside the box was gently bent.

Herman stared at the cryo-chamber, his eyes blazing with barely suppressed fervor.

"Imperial Son Sample Number One".