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

Mingcang jotted down the details of the plan with lightning speed, then suddenly stopped writing.

"Your Majesty, what if the Imperial Prince sees through the illusion? How will this be handled?"

"Its rules are on a much higher level than ours. What if it finds a way to see through the illusion..."

Zhou Ran didn't beat around the bush.

"The use of false information has never been expected to fool the Emperor's true form."

He drew a curve on the military register that led from the Nine Nether Well to the main hall of the Devouring Heaven Demon Palace.

"The famous official descended and took the road."

"If it sees that the Nine Nether Well is heavily guarded, it will take a detour."

"There are only a few detour routes. I have already had Qin San bury the remnants of the Primordial Black Blade's killing formations in the ley lines of the three inevitable routes."

Qin San stepped out from the side of the hall, the scabbard of the Taihuang Black Blade still covered in fresh mud.

"The three killing formations are in place."

"The sword energy is hidden in the fourth layer of the earth's veins. Even a Tribulation Transcending stage cultivator wouldn't be able to detect it unless it's activated."

Zhou Ran pointed towards the end of the curve.

"It doesn't matter which path it chooses."

"As long as it avoids the Nine Nether Well, it will inevitably step on one of these three places."

"This isn't exactly a trap, it's more like a tripwire."

"It won't kill the corrupt official, but it can slow down his arrival and give us more time."

Bloodlust hoisted the spear onto his shoulder, a look of satisfaction appearing in his red eyes.

"Lure it around, then trip it up halfway."

"You've really mastered the entire Lieshan technique."

Zhou Ran closed the military register.

"Lieshan used others as shields for himself."

"I will let the enemy choose their own path to destruction."

The deployment was completed in just two hours.

Huan Yin led 30,000 elite Illusionary Demon Guards to spread out the Formless Illusion Array around the Nine Nether Well.

Hundreds of phantom figures weaved back and forth within the earth vein projection, each displaying cultivation fluctuations of at least the Integration Stage.

Bloodlust extracted twelve portions of Tribulation Transcending stage blood energy from the Blood Sea Ancestral Pool and poured them into the Illusion Core one by one.

Judging from a distance, there are at least 50,000 troops stationed near the Nine Nether Well.

The aura emanating from the dozen or so powerful individuals inside was enough to make any external enemy think twice.

Zhou Ran placed the reawakened, half-finished eyeball on the fifth-level array platform of the Nine Nether Well.

The black-gold vertical pupils circled back and forth, sending the training formation deeper into the earth's veins.

On the other side, Tu Huai's intact eyeballs were removed from the coffin and placed next to the military register in the main hall of the Devouring Heaven Demon Palace.

It could see the daily routine of the underworld warehouse allocating supplies, and it could also see Qin San and Gu Ji patrolling outside the palace.

There were no flaws or unusual features.

The location of the Nine Nether Well alone conceals a deception.

Xiao Rou led twelve golden Gu worms down the array passage of the Nine Nether Well.

Her mission was to go to the ninth floor to harvest the core cold algae used to strengthen her primordial spirit, and incidentally find out the details of the black gold fragments left behind by Chi Lin.

The deeper you go into the Nine Nether Well, the colder it gets.

The deathly aura condensed from the thin mist into solid ice crystals, which hung on the stone walls and formed white frost.

Xiao Rou wrapped her robes tighter, her natal Gu (a type of venomous insect) perched on her shoulder, its six wings pressed against her body to keep warm.

The seventh level is the area where the Crimson Scales had previously set up their formation.

The stone platform still bears the scorch marks left after the collapse of the causal anchor, and a black and gold aura wafts around it.

The Gu worm marked the locations of seven fragments that had merged into the earth's veins, but no new living observation device was found.

Ancient inscriptions emerged from the eighth floor.

The writing on the stone wall was not in the common language of the demon realm, but rather shared the same lineage as the bone patterns on Zhou Ran's broken pen.

Xiao Rou didn't dare to look around too much, and kept walking straight to the ninth floor.

The ninth floor is surprisingly small.

The entire floor consists of a single natural stone chamber, its four walls sealed shut by ice formed from the condensation of deathly energy.

There was no sign of Hanzao or any formation in the center of the stone chamber; only a skeleton was sitting cross-legged.

The skeleton was draped in a black robe, the patterns on which perfectly matched the demonic veins of the Devouring Heaven Demon Palace.

The skeleton was perfectly intact, with not a single finger bone missing.

It sat there upright, looking exactly like a living person resting with its eyes closed.

Xiao Rou stopped herself.

The natal Gu flew up from her shoulder, circled the corpse once, and fell back to its original place.

The details revealed on the shell made her gasp.

The skeleton was clutching an object in its right hand.

The broken bone fragment, with its textured surface, perfectly matched the broken bone pen of Zhou Ran, indicating they originated from the same source.

Xiao Rou didn't touch the bones. She squatted down and let the Gu worms get closer to examine the bone fragments.

The surface of the fragment still bears ink marks, but over the years, the writing has been worn away by time, leaving only an outline.

The shadow of the remaining writing was reflected on the abdomen of the Gu worm.

Although the strokes were missing parts, Xiaorou recognized two of the radicals.

"Door" and "return".

The two characters together are exactly the same as the two characters "return path" that Zhou Ran wrote on his broken pen.

Her natal Gu suddenly retracted to her shoulder, its six wings tightly pressed together, emitting a low hum.

This commotion was not a warning, but purely out of awe.

The skeleton didn't exude any aura, but the way it held the bone fragments was too steady, clearly waiting for the rightful owner to come.

Xiao Rou calmed herself down and sealed all the details that the Gu worm had recorded into the communication jade.

He stood up and took three steps back, without touching any of the objects in the stone chamber.

She turned and walked uphill, her pace twice as fast as when she came.

On the fifth level of the Nine Nether Well's array platform, the disguised black-gold eyeballs are still sending out illusionary array images.

As Xiao Rou passed by it, its vertical pupils turned and stared at her.

Without stopping, she ran all the way back to the main hall of the Devouring Heaven Demon Palace.

Zhou Ran stood before the military register, checking the tracing of the Imperial Son's rules.

Xiao Rou moved closer to him, put the communication jade into his hand, and spoke in a low voice.

"Your Majesty, there is a skeleton on the ninth floor."

Zhou Ran took the communication jade and probed it with his divine sense.

The images recorded by the Gu worm unfolded in the sea of ​​consciousness, with the broken lines of the bone fragments clearly visible.

The half-bones clutched in the skeleton's hand and the broken pen he had snapped were originally one and the same.

Zhou Ran glanced down at the completely dead remnant of the pen in the storage space.

The two broken pieces, one above the other, if pieced together, would form a complete bone pen with both ends intact.

Zhou Ran asked a question.

"How long has it been there?"

Xiao Rou shook her head.

"The Gu worms cannot be isolated."

"Judging from the thickness of the deathly aura crystal layer in the stone chamber alone, it must be at least 100,000 years old."

One hundred thousand years.

It was even earlier than when Ye Futian established the Devouring Demon Palace.

It's been longer than the years recorded in the accounts of the Six Heavens of the Demon Realm.

Zhou Ran put away the communication jade and turned towards the location of Jiu You.

The Nine Nether Well is her territory, and the ninth level is a forbidden area that even Chi Lin has never set foot in.

The remains had been sitting deep within her territory for tens of thousands of years. Did she know that?

He didn't rush to ask.

The three black and gold eyeballs on the table were still doing their own thing.

Huan Yin's formless illusion array was creating the oppressive aura of a Tribulation Transcending stage expert around the Nine Nether Well.

The bloodthirsty source of the Blood Sea steadily nourished the Phantom Core.

The prince's eyes were fixed on the bewildering array they had set up.

The seven-day deadline has passed, with only four days remaining.

Zhou Ran tucked the communication jade into his sleeve and turned to walk towards the side hall.

The black coffin stood in place, its lid half open.

The words "This coffin is for the burial of only one person" on the inner wall flickered in the dim light.

He didn't step into the coffin.

He stood before the coffin, staring at his own name, formed from the deathly aura of the Netherworld deep within the inner wall.

He obtained the broken bone pen from the Gate of Cause and Effect.

The Gate of Cause and Effect connects Earth to the Demon Realm.

Half of the pen broke in his hand.

The other half, however, was held in the hands of the ancient skeleton deep within the Nine Nether Well.

Zhou Ran stroked the broken brush in the storage space, his gaze piercing through the eerie light of the black coffin.

Who broke this pen?