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

Zhou Ran leaped out of the palace gate.

The night wind whipped through my sleeves, and the demonic energy, carrying a chill, seeped into my bones.

Without stopping, he headed straight for the observatory at the highest point of the Devouring Heaven Demon Palace.

There was no one on the stage, only the sound of the wind.

Zhou Ran sat down cross-legged, raising his left arm and holding it out in front of him.

The black stripes under the cuffs have indeed faded considerably compared to before.

It was at least one layer lighter than the area in front of the hall.

This is a good thing.

The inside of that pattern was still glowing, flickering on and off, like a light bulb that was about to run out of power.

The remaining magical power of the bone-swallowing sound transmission array beneath their feet surged upwards, barely supporting the thin, almost broken thread between the two realms.

Lin Qingxue's presence could be felt on the other end of the line.

I could sense it, but it was like being through several layers of fog, impossible to grasp firmly.

Zhou Ran activated the Devouring Heaven Seal, pouring all the remaining power that could be squeezed out from the four domains' earth veins into the sound transmission array.

The array patterns barely lit up for a moment before a sound finally emerged from the barrier between the two worlds.

Zhou Ran could sense that the sound array was very weak and the barrier between the two worlds was very tight.

Lin Qingxue was holding back something.

"The Soul-Stabilizing Sand has been applied to the third layer, and the door frame is temporarily stabilized."

She spoke in a military-style report, but Zhou Ran could hear the underlying tension in her voice.

"But the brushstrokes of the name-erasing official are changing paths, cutting in from a new direction every half hour."

I block one line, it goes around and cuts off another.

She paused for a moment.

Lin Qingxue seemed to be organizing her thoughts, or perhaps she was just gritting her teeth.

"Zhou Ran, it's not dismantling the formation."

She spoke very slowly.

"The foundation of the formation is very good."

The suppressive power of the Soul-Stabilizing Sand is also sufficient.

But the black markings are still fading.

Xu Youwei's voice followed closely behind, and the unique, clear, and powerful aura of the Silver Eye Law could be felt even across two realms.

"I used my silver eyes to trace the direction of every stroke."

They didn't touch the door frame, the Soul-Stabilizing Sand, or even any of the protective layers laid down by the Snow Clearing.

"It went straight around it."

Chen Ya's voice came from the White Tower control panel.

In the background, there are the sounds of pages turning and the hum of data flowing.

"The data from the White Tower has been generated."

The attack target was neither the physical structure of the Return Path Black Mark nor the mana circuits that sustained it.

She turned a page, and the sound of the paper rubbing together could be clearly heard even across the barrier between the two worlds.

"It's dissolving something more fundamental."

Chen Ya paused, as if searching for an easier-to-understand analogy.

"Cause and effect itself."

It's like the attraction between two magnets being gradually pulled away.

The stone is still there, but its power is gone.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ran frowned.

The black lines on his wrist remained unchanged in shape, width, and position.

But the color has faded.

The pitch black turned into dark gray, and the dark gray is now sliding towards a lighter shade.

This means it wasn't smashed from the outside by something; it rotted from the inside.

A sudden burst of intense noise erupted from the sound transmission array. A bone-chilling aura crashed in, enveloped in the frost unique to Jiangcheng's Ice Sealing Array.

Yue Zhao.

Her voice was weaker than before. Each word she uttered seemed to be forced out from a crack in the ice.

"Zhou Ran, don't waste your energy on the door frame."

There were no pleasantries, no preamble.

"The Soul-Stabilizing Sand can't suppress it. The Silver Eyes can't catch it."

She gasped for breath, her breath crackling like shards of ice.

"Because it's not attacking the formation at all."

The night breeze on the observatory stopped at that moment.

"I control the fate of the moon and can see the course of cause and effect."

The black markings originated from your cuff. The Emperor's smear—was a testament to the bond between you and Lin Qingxue.

Zhou Ran's fingers didn't move, but his whole body froze for a moment.

Yue Zhao's voice grew fainter and fainter, like a candle flame about to go out.

"It chose the deepest one. Not Chen Ya, not You Wei, not Xiao Rou."

It's her.

"Because she wove the entire essence of the Dharma into this pattern. The bond between you is the strongest. The Imperial Prince touched this very thread first."

The sound is almost gone.

Yue Zhao's last words were almost uttered as she faded away.

"The Name Erasure Order doesn't need to destroy the black markings themselves. It only needs to make you feel... that you no longer need to go back. Once that thought is severed, the black markings will disappear on their own. The coordinates of Blue Star will then be completely open to the Imperial Prince."

The transmission was interrupted.

The ice formation couldn't hold out any longer.

Zhou Ran sat on the stargazing platform. The night was dark and heavy, and the wind blew from all directions.

He looked down at his left wrist.

A picture suddenly popped into my head.

Lin Qingxue stood before the White Pagoda array's core. Her divine eyes were fully open, and silver light enveloped her entire arm, as well as his wrist. That day, her voice wasn't loud, but every word was etched into her meridians—

"It won't break as long as you want to come back."

This stuff is fading now.

Zhou Ran clenched his fist.

It's not that he doesn't want to.

Those memories are still in my mind. Every single frame is still there.

The bubbling hot pot broth in Chen Ya's pot, the gentleness revealed behind Xu Youwei's silver eyes, the buzzing of the Gu worms on Xiao Rou's shoulder when she saw him off, and Lin Qingxue's back as she waited for him in front of the Return Path Formation.

He wanted to go back.

But this thought—how should I put it?

It's like someone diluting a glass of ink with water.

Drop by drop, the color is fading.

He knew he wanted to go back; his mind was perfectly clear.

But the intensity of this "thought" itself is being diluted layer by layer from the bottom up by something.

The Emperor's son's brushstrokes did not fall on anyone, nor did they touch any formations.

It reached directly into the deepest part of Zhou Ran's sea of ​​consciousness.

Unbeknownst to him, he meticulously altered the weight of the three words "want to go back."

Zhou Ran clenched his left wrist. His knuckles dug into the black patterns, and he poured his mid-stage Nascent Soul power into the patterns.

It lit up for a fleeting moment.

It's dark again.

It won't go in.

It's not that we lack strength. It's that what we're lacking isn't strength at all.

Footsteps came from below the steps.

Illusory sound.

She stood at the entrance to the observatory, a corner of her dark red dress billowing in the night wind. She didn't come up, but leaned against the stone railing, her gaze fixed on Zhou Ran's clenched left wrist.

Looked for a long time.

"The Emperor's rules are even more vicious than I imagined."

She didn't speak with her usual teasing tone.

"Do not kill, do not destroy. Only extinguish thoughts."

It paused for a moment.

"The rules of the military roster can't stop this kind of fighting."

It paused again.

"But I see a loophole."

Zhou Ran raised her head.

Huan Yin stepped onto the last two steps and stopped three steps in front of him. Dark red magic power flickered and danced around her fingertips.

"Yue Zhao said that the Name Erasure Order should first attack the most serious cause and effect."

Her tone was flat, as if she were stating some self-evident law.

Have you ever thought about why it chose Lin Qingxue?

It's not Chen Ya.

Chen Ya is just as important to you as anyone else.

Zhou Ran knew the answer.

"The black markings on the path of return were written with ink from Lin Qingxue's Dharma Eye Origin. The Imperial Prince used this cause and effect to weaken the black markings in the process. A double kill."

Huanyin shook her head.

Not entirely correct.

She broke down her words.

"The prince chose the one with the deepest affection."

If the karmic connection between you and Chen Ya is stronger, then it should attack Chen Ya first.

But it chose Lin Qingxue.