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

The eastern grain transport route is the main artery of logistics in the four regions.

Half of the grain and 30% of the medicinal herbs were allocated through this route.

When the Emperor's son arrived, the road surface was riddled with craters from spatial debris, and it had only been 70% repaired.

At this moment, the earth veins beneath the entire grain transport route lit up like a fiery dragon.

Zhou Ran asked.

"How long did it stay lit?"

"Less than 15 minutes have passed since the fragments were buried."

Gu Ji reported, panting heavily.

"The light from the earth veins is not the dark gold that is native to the four regions; it is the cold white light of the Imperial Court system."

Cool white light. The same color tone as the Imperial logo signal.

Zhou Ran stood up, supporting himself with the Taihuang Black Blade. His primordial spirit was still weak, but his mind was working faster than ever before.

Huan Yin spoke first, and the light in her dark red pupils was received most subtly.

"He is activating the communication node."

The observers of the Imperial Court do not rely on Imperial Marks to transmit signals; Imperial Marks are a communication tool within the Imperial Sons system, and the observers have their own covert networks.

She walked to the military register and drew a thick line on the paper with Zhou Ran's pen.

"The fragment of the Emperor's son does not belong to the Emperor; it is a listening device that the Imperial Court planted in the Emperor's son's armor."

After the fragment landed, Zang Yuan buried it in the earth's veins, activating the Imperial Court's old communication network deployed in the Sixth Heaven.

The bloodthirsty red eyes moved from Huan Yin to Zhou Ran's face.

"That sounds like a lot of trouble. Why not just chop up the pieces?"

"With the fragments cut off, the Imperial Court's communications were severed, and Burial Ground was exposed."

Zhou Ran shook his head.

"Once the burial ground is exposed, the Imperial Court will replace it with another pawn."

The real trouble is when we don't recognize the new chess pieces.

Bloodlust's lips twitched; she hated this kind of roundabout work the most.

Zhou Ran turned to look at Qin San.

"After the ley lines along the eastern grain transport route lit up, what data was transmitted?"

Qin San retrieved the surveillance footage of the Dark Gu.

The Gu worm's probe cannot detect signals at the Imperial Court level, but it can record the direction of the signal flow.

"The signal travels upwards along the earth's veins."

Passing through six layers of celestial canopy, they disappeared into the mending layer of the dome's cracks.

Upwards. Not towards where the imperial prince is, but towards the imperial court.

"The burial site is currently sending a report to the Imperial Court."

Zhou Ran lowered his voice by half an octave.

"The battle situation after the arrival of the Emperor's Son, the losses in the four regions, and my condition—all the information he had been studying for half a year was packaged into this one signal and sent out."

Ming Cang huddled behind the military register, wiping away layers of cold sweat from his forehead.

"Your Majesty, has he already revealed all our secrets?"

"uncertain."

Zhou Ran turned to the page of the causal detection array in the military register.

"The rules for the Imperial Court Observers are different from those for the Imperial Princes."

The imperial prince is a law enforcer; he will take action if he sees something wrong.

The observers are only responsible for recording; the information transmitted back needs to be analyzed by the Imperial Court before a decision is made on the next step.

He drew two lines on the page.

"There is a time lag between when the signal is sent and when the Imperial Court makes a decision. This time lag is my window of opportunity."

Bloodlust suddenly looked down at his collarbone.

The imperial blood mark glowed with a dark golden light as she pressed it, flickering on and off at an odd frequency.

The mark started jumping the moment the Imperial Court signal arrived.

"Zhou Ran".

The bloodthirsty voice changed tone.

It's not anger, it's not anxiety, it's just complete bewilderment.

She raised her hand and pulled her collar down half an inch, revealing a dark gold mark the size of a thumbnail on her collarbone.

The surface of the mark is covered with extremely fine lines that flicker on and off.

The frequency of the imperial markings on the three divine envoys in the center of the hall was exactly the same.

Mingcang leaned over for a look, and his face turned pale instantly.

"This...this is the waveform received by the Imperial Mark!"

The patterns on the Bloodthirsty Emperor's Blood Mark are synchronously receiving communication signals from the Imperial Court.

All eyes were fixed on the bloodthirsty collarbone.

Zhou Ran's knuckles dug into the leather wrapping on the knife handle.

The Emperor's blood seeped back into the Bloodthirsty body along the Ancestral Blood Channel. The black-gold liquid remaining in the Emperor's Son Dark Nail within his body carried the communication permissions of the Emperor's Son system's underlying layer.

Once activated by the bloodthirsty ancestral blood and the origin of the blood sea, this authority formed a natural signal receiver.

He infused her with imperial blood, which was tantamount to unintentionally installing an imperial radio for her.

"What do you see?"

Bloodlust closed his eyes, his red pupils darting around under his eyelids twice.

The frequency of the Emperor's Blood Mark gradually stabilized after she focused.

A few breaths later, she opened her eyes.

"Fragments. All fragments."

Bloodlust frowned, as if he had swallowed a bone stuck in his throat.

"I can't see all the characters, but I can make out a few words."

She stretched out her finger and carefully wrote three words in the blank space of the military register.

"Forbidden items."

"Awakening".

"Famu."

The temperature inside the hall dropped even further.

The words "forbidden items" appearing in the Imperial Court's official communications carried the weight of a cataclysmic event.

Ye Futian's lingering shadow once said that there was a forbidden artifact of the Imperial Court on Blue Star.

The reason why the Emperor's son is so fixated on Earth lies in this thing.

As for the "Dharma Eye," Zhou Ran only knows of one person on the entire planet Earth who possesses the Dharma Eye.

Lin Qingxue.

Zhou Ran's ancient inscription on his left wrist twitched. Heat seeped from under his skin into his bones, and the meridians in his left arm spasmed simultaneously.

He pressed his left hand under his knee so that no one could see it.

The three words swirled in his mind for a couple of breaths.

The forbidden object is awakening, and the Imperial Court's attention is turning towards Blue Star. Lin Qingxue possesses the Eye of Law, making her the Imperial Court's most direct clue to locking onto Blue Star.

"Mingcang".

"Your subordinate is here."

"Record all the signal fragments received by Bloodlust."

Every word, every waveform, will be categorized and archived. From this day forward, Bloodlust will be my second Imperial Mark receiver.

Bloodthirsty red eyes looked over.

Zhou Ran greeted her.

"The imperial blood mark on your body belongs to this emperor."

What it receives and sees is entirely under the jurisdiction of this Emperor's military register.

The bloodthirsty man's fingers, gripping the gun barrel, loosened and then tightened again.

"You really are using me as a tool."

"Not a tool."

Zhou Ran's tone remained unchanged.

"You are the second heart I have placed in you. You help me hear voices that others cannot hear."

His bloodthirsty red eyes flickered. The fingers gripping the gun loosened completely.

She turned her head toward the wall and squeezed out two words in a muffled voice.

"what ever."

Huan Yin watched this scene from the side, her dark red eyes narrowing slightly.

She didn't speak, and the white marks on the long table, made by her fingernails, deepened a bit.

Jiuyou remained hidden in the shadows, without uttering a word.

Zhou Ran turned his gaze away from the bloodthirsty man.

"Qin San, pass down the order: the eastern grain transport route will continue to operate as usual."

The three thousand grain transport soldiers at Zangyuan did not move, and they did not exchange a single head for them.

The Dark Gu continued its surveillance, monitoring who he contacted, what routes he took, and what he did after the fragment was activated, recording every detail in the daily military report.

Qin San accepted the order.

"Illusory Sound".

"exist."

"Could your illusionary magic create a false intelligence scenario within the eastern supply route?"