After putting on the skull, the Nine-Tailed Fox calmed her heart, closed her eyes to eliminate distractions, emptied her mind, and focused on sensing the spiritual essence remaining within the skull.

Soon, through the mutual resonance of spiritual essence between members of the same clan, she felt a slight resonance occurring between the two overlapping skulls.

The Qingqiu Fox’s spiritual essence sank down while her spiritual essence rose up, the two meeting in convergence.

The moment the two spiritual essences met, the devouring began.

“Roar!”

As the spiritual essence within the Qingqiu Fox’s skull sank, it condensed into a white figure within the Nine-Tailed Fox’s sea of consciousness. At first, it was blurry and unstable.

Shortly after, its body solidified, transforming into a white fox several zhang long, with nine tails raised behind it like a peacock’s display.

It was so elegant and noble, like a spirit nurtured by heaven and earth, filled with sanctity.

It was so bewitching and enchanting, like the incarnation of desire—any living being, male or female, who saw it would submit to Its charm.

The Qingqiu Fox is one of the ancient gods and demons.

Legend had it that the Qingqiu Fox was a beauty of ancient times, Its charm could conquer all, whether gods and demons, humans, or god-demon descendants, all coveted Its beauty.

It was one of the most influential gods and demons.

With a thought, the Nine-Tailed Fox’s spiritual essence materialized within her sea of consciousness as an elegant and noble white nine-tailed fox.

She was relatively smaller in size and looked very different from the Qingqiu Fox, but was equally pure white and possessed incomparable charm.

The two white foxes faced off across space, baring their teeth, their nine tails suddenly spreading out like fluttering banners.

They pounced at each other without hesitation, engaging in mortal combat.

In the Nine-Tailed Fox lineage, clan members could plunder each other’s spiritual essence to complete themselves. While the silver-haired beauty demon wanted to devour the Qingqiu Fox’s remaining spiritual essence, the latter would also instinctively devour the same-source spiritual essence.

In other words, if the Nine-Tailed Fox couldn’t defeat the power left by her ancestor, she might be devoured instead.

The silver-haired beauty demon maintained her empty mind state, eliminating distractions including fear, joy, nervousness, and so on, leaving only the instinct to devour.

Thus, she was no longer elegant, baring her teeth like a true beast, devouring the Qingqiu Fox like a mad woman, biting off its tails, tearing at its “flesh,” eating it mouthful by mouthful.

During this process, the Demon Kingdom Master’s “body” was also being devoured by the Qingqiu Fox.

You in me, I in you, merging.

Outside the sea of consciousness, Xu Qi An silently stepped back a few paces, looking up at the huge white fox before him. It stood two zhang tall, over six zhang long, and was still growing larger.

The fox spirit had revealed her true form.

At this moment, she wasn’t elegant or beautiful at all. Her eyes were completely red, the flesh of her long face wrinkled into a mass, revealing sharp canine teeth.

She crouched low, ready to pounce, as if she might attack at any moment.

What a pity that there are no smartphones in the Nine Provinces. Otherwise, I’d take a picture of her current appearance—it would be the kind of embarrassing reveal that would make a goddess die of shame if it got out… Xu Qi An observed while feeling regretful.

If the Nine-Tailed Fox couldn’t match the Qingqiu Fox, he would immediately intervene to break up the fusion.

So far, the fusion seemed to be going well.

Violent and complex power surged from within the Nine-Tailed Fox. It was complex because this power combined vast blood qi force, charm power that could seduce minds, and ethereal sounds that could make souls collapse.

Advancing to First Rank wasn’t just about strengthening innate divine abilities—her physical power was also rapidly surging, reaching the standard matching First Rank.

However, in the eyes of Xu Qi An, a ranked martial artist, while this power was thorny and powerful, it wasn’t enough to match him.

In terms of brute force, martial artists had always been existence that looked down upon the world.

Time flew by, and a month passed quickly.

There was no alternation of day and night here, but Xu Qi An’s Book of Earth fragment contained a water clock—in this era, only the wealthy could carry portable timepieces!

Each day that passed, Xu Qi An carved a “正” character on the ground.

In the sea of consciousness, Qingqiu Fox’s figure fell heavily. It was already incomplete, letting out a whimper that only the Demon Kingdom Master could hear as if begging for mercy.

She pressed down hard with her front paws, coldly looking down at the Qingqiu Fox, opening her fangs and lowering her head.

Xu Qi An saw the nine tails hanging behind the Demon Kingdom Master suddenly rise together, each tail emanating different women’s laughter—sweet, soft, clear, cold, coquettish…

Interweaving like the twitter of orioles and swallows when women giggled.

Finally, all these sounds vanished, and the nine-tailed fox, now over ten zhang long, transformed back into human form in a flash of white light.

The silver-haired beauty demon opened her beautiful eyes, first seeing Xu Qi An standing with a smile not far away.

“Congratulations, Kingdom Master, on advancing to First Rank!”

Xu Qi An cupped his hands in congratulation.

The silver-haired beauty demon showed a pure, genuine smile without any impurity, for a moment displaying incomparable beauty and grace.

But then, she noticed Xu Qi An’s gaze wasn’t on her face, but lingering on her body and chest.

She immediately realized her current state—completely naked.

Her dress and beast-skin breast wrap had burst when she revealed her true form.

A flash of shame and anger passed, and the silver-haired beauty demon used her fox tail to cover her lower abdomen while her arms wrapped around her chest, making the snowy softness squeeze and deform, as she said coquettishly:

“How naughty, you mustn’t look at your servant like this.”

While acting shy and coquettishly angry, the Nine-Tailed Fox activated one of her innate divine abilities—charm magic.

After advancing to First Rank, her charm magic had improved dramatically compared to before, giving her the confidence that all males in the world should fall at her feet.

Xu Ning Yan happened to be a lecher, and a First Rank martial artist—he was the perfect test subject.

If even he couldn’t resist her charm, then below First Rank, including some First Rank systems, none could ignore her enchantment.

Xu Qi An calmly nodded:

“Well, I’ve seen enough anyway.”

He rationally withdrew his gaze, indeed no longer stealing glances at the Nine-Tailed Fox’s alluring jade body.

The silver-haired beauty demon’s coquettish expression suddenly froze, and she asked blankly:

“Am I… am I not beautiful?”

Xu Qi An glanced at her:

“To be honest, your true form is more tempting to me—my heart poison is already getting impatient.”

The human form was charming.

The true form was “charm + heart poison’s impulse”—which was more tempting was obvious.

The Demon Kingdom Master nonchalantly took out a set of clothes and put them on, her face calm as if nothing had happened, saying:

“Let’s go, we don’t have much time.”

Are you trying to show me what “if I’m not embarrassed, then the embarrassed one is someone else” means… Xu Qi An expressionlessly nodded:

“Let’s go!”

His palm pressed on the Nine-Tailed Fox’s fragrant shoulder, the glass bead on his left wrist flashed once, and the two disappeared from the spot.

…

In the core region of God-Demon Island.

After three days of “long trek,” a light finally appeared before the monster with a human face and sheep body, bearing six curved horns.

That light was so brilliant and pure, yet quite gentle—looking directly at it didn’t hurt the eyes.

Huang’s human-like face showed a slight stupor, staring blankly at that light. After a while, He showed an extremely human-like expression—wild joy and excitement!

The light reflected in His golden pupils as if nothing else existed in the world.

This light silently bloomed in the dead wasteland, its core was a door—a light door a hundred zhang tall.

Worth mentioning was that this light door stood upon countless corpses, layers upon layers of god-demon bones. Some were well-preserved, others had been worn by time into bone fragments and dust.

The door’s holiness and the mountain of corpses formed a stark contrast, creating a powerful visual impact.

Strangely, even with the mountain of god-demon bones, there was no spiritual essence residue near the light door.

The center of God-Demon Island was the only place without spiritual essence.

“Do you hear it? It’s calling me!”

Huang gazed at the light door in a daze:

“After endless years, it’s calling me again.”

The Supervisor sneered.

He stopped His steps. Though excited and eager, He deliberately stopped, showing an expression of anxiety, as if afraid it was just an illusion.

After a while, Huang sighed:

“Pity that it can no longer be opened.”

“In ancient times, during the first catastrophe, gods and demons could open it. Now, after endless years, gods and demons have lost the qualification to open it.”

The Supervisor laughed:

“Indeed, you didn’t grasp the first opportunity. Now is no longer the era of gods and demons.”

Huang wasn’t angry, His deep voice echoing in the world:

“But I think the Gatekeeper can open this door.”

“Originally, I wanted to devour you, take your spiritual essence, take the Gatekeeper’s identity. That way I could return here, open this door, and complete what the gods and demons couldn’t.”

“But I underestimated your tenacity—as long as Great Feng doesn’t fall, you won’t die.”

“However, it’s the same now. You’re a fish in a barrel. Though I can’t usurp the Gatekeeper’s identity, I can use you to open this door.”

His horn atop His head glowed faintly, transmitting the Supervisor’s voice:

“A Gatekeeper guards doors and doesn’t open them. Your calculations have failed.”

“No matter!” Huang wasn’t disappointed, saying cheerfully:

“The Gatekeeper and door must have a connection. As long as I can control it through you, that’s half the victory. At worst, after I return to my peak, I’ll go to the Nine Provinces to compete for fate with the Beyond-Mortal realm experts.”

Compared to other Beyond-Mortal realm experts, He who controlled this door had an advantage that Buddha and others couldn’t match.

Having said this, He continued moving forward slowly. He could see that light door because of His huge size allowing Him to see extremely far.

In reality, that light door was still very distant from Him.

…

Xu Qi An grabbed a handful of soil and threw it forward forcefully.

The black soil flew a distance, then suddenly “stopped” when it entered that area, becoming slow-falling.

Xu Qi An focused intently on the black soil, and after a moment, said:

“Time flows about ten times slower—one day inside equals ten days outside.”

The Nine-Tailed Fox made a sound of agreement, her tails unconsciously swaying, her pleasant voice saying:

“A month has passed outside, meaning Huang has only experienced three days inside. We have seven days left—hopefully, we can make it.”

The ten days the Supervisor mentioned referred to the time needed to cross that space, using the time flow rate of the “slow” space as a reference.

Without further words, both entered the area.

Just taking one step took them a quarter-hour.

Xu Qi An looked at the Nine-Tailed Fox beside him and said:

“How strange—I feel time is flowing normally, but my reason tells me the time flow here is abnormal.”

This sentence took him a full incense stick’s time to complete.

The silver-haired beauty demon “slowly” looked up, appearing thoughtful, and replied:

“Perhaps it’s because thoughts are the only thing in the world unaffected by time, so your thoughts remain normal.”

After she finished speaking, they had fully entered the area.

Xu Qi An slowly raised his left hand, activating the bracelet on his left hand. The glass bead “slowly” lit up, and after ten breaths, they appeared in the distance.

Here, any flight magic would be restricted—only space could race alongside time.

But even spatial transfer magic was suppressed by the local spiritual essence, everything becoming ten times slower, including distance and casting time.

However, compared to Huang walking on four hooves, their speed was like the difference between an ox cart and a rocket.

Though they had the advantage in speed, Xu Qi An and the Nine-Tailed Fox didn’t become careless, because the Supervisor’s ten-day limit referred to normal conditions.

It was based on Huang’s not having special methods.

No one could be certain that a god or demon who had lived for endless years wouldn’t have some special means.