Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God #Chapter 363: Outcome - Read Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God Chapter 363: Outcome Online - All Page - FREEWN

The atmosphere outside the sanctuary had fallen into a strange sort of silence.

No vampire present recognized either Shana or Zi Dian.

Nothing needed to be said about Zi Dian. And although Shana was a member of the Raymond clan, she was listed as a "defector," and she was also an insignificant nobody within the clan even before she defected.

The inability to identify the two hostages meant they couldn't make a decision.

Lady Mara was already regretting this a little. Had she known this, she wouldn't have personally come out to deal with Lu Xinhuan in order to curry favor with that one.historical

If the vampire who received Lu Xinhuan was just a junior, then they would've been able to let Lu Xinhuan in without even having to think. At worst, they would've been tricked by Lu Xinhuan once but wouldn't have lost much face.

But since Mara herself was standing here, she'd lose all her face if she let Lu Xinhuan in, only to have Gu Nan ask, "Who are these two?"

Vampires were a very special race. They could commit unimaginably depraved acts in private, but they also incomparably valued face when in public.

Lu Xinhuan saw the predicament the vampires were in, and a trace of anxiousness flashed through her cold eyes. Without time for further thought, she launched a palm strike directly at Lady Mara's back.

There was no way she wasn't anxious—Qinghe Pavilion paid an astronomical price in order to hold up Wu Gui.

To put it bluntly, Lu Xinhuan was currently using the lives of her own people to buy time. How could she have time to waste on Mara?

However, her attack saved Lady Mara from her dilemma—since there was already a commotion, she could just take advantage of the situation to inform Gu Nan, which was also what she intended to do earlier.

"What is it?" Gu Nan arrived sooner than they thought, accompanied by a blonde girl who stood behind him with a reserved expression.

Lu Xinhuan couldn't help taking a deep breath when she saw Gu Nan.

She was well aware that the one before her had the ability to kill her easily, but she had come with the determination to face death, so she didn't have much fear.

If she didn't even have the courage to put her life on the line, how could she bring Zhong Die back?

Lu Xinhuan secretly encouraged herself and said in a low voice, "My Lord must surely recognize these two, right? They have already taken the special gu of Qinghe Realm. The gu worm has entered their hearts—they'll die within two days without the antidote."

Lu Xinhuan said this with confidence.

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No one in this world was completely free of weaknesses. Although Gu Nan was certainly powerful to a terrifying extent, as long as there was still something he wanted, then he would have a weakness.

As someone who could become one of Qinghe Realm's managers, Lu Xinhuan was fully aware of this.

Since she accompanied Gu Nan all the way to the World of Gods, she concluded that he needed Wu Gui and Zi Dian's help. On the other hand, she also investigated Gu Nan's behavior in the Capital of Blood, from the flower girl to Shana. Thus, it was logical to also capture Shana.

If even these two were unable to "move" Gu Nan, then Lu Xinhuan really would be out of options—she did her best; the rest was up to fate.

Lu Xinhuan recited that sentence in her heart and stared at Gu Nan with a bright gaze. "My Lord, as long as you promise to return Zhong Die to Qinghe Realm, everyone present will be yours to punish, including me."

Lu Xinhuan really was smart. She knew how to get along with Star Rulers. One of the core principles was to use the humblest attitude possible.

But she never could've expected for Gu Nan's response to simply be to turn around and pat the blonde girl's shoulder.

"Go say hello."

Gu Nan's voice suddenly made Lu Xinhuan feel panicked.

"Big Sis Lu," the blonde girl, Zhong Die, shouted in her familiar crisp voice and even skipped over to Lu Xinhuan's side like nothing had happened.

Zhong Die, who grew slightly, was already a little taller than Lu Xinhuan. With the vampires' standard high heels, the two's heights became reversed.

Lu Xinhuan raised her head to stare at the Zhong Die who was already a complete stranger. She could only find a shadow of Zhong Die's former self from the outline of her face.

"You… already underwent the siring?" She asked, stupefied.

"Yeah!" Zhong Die still had an innocent expression.

Even Gu Nan didn't expect for Zhong Die to be ready for the siring so quickly, so Lu Xinhuan was even less likely to consider it—thus, she screwed herself over.

She came here almost exactly after two months had passed since the Ceremony of Blood. Only with this much time was she able to make sufficient preparations to kidnap Zi Dian.

But now, Zhong Die smashed all her schemes and plans to pieces with only one word, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

"How could this be…" Classmate Lu's mind was a mush. She was completely speechless.

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"Let's go, we'll continue training," Gu Nan's unhurried words traveled over.

Zhong Die, who hadn't had a chance to catch up with Lu Xinhuan, could only pout and walk back obediently.

Ever since she woke up, she never disobeyed Gu Nan's orders. Gu Nan's orders were even more effective than Christina's.

This was also very normal. Christina was her direct sire, while Gu Nan was the one who imparted the origin blood to her.

In terms of her origin as a vampire, if Gu Nan was her real father, then Christina would be a surrogate mother at best, or perhaps even a test tube.

"No!" Lu Xinhuan seemed to be startled awake and let out a loud shout.

She grabbed Zhong Die's wrist and said in a heavy voice, "Even if you already accepted the siring, I still have to take you back. Maybe—"

Lu Xinhuan didn't get to finish before countless black tentacles suddenly lunged out from her shadow and completely wrapped her up.

The hand she used to grab Zhong Die's wrist was also forcibly pried off by those tentacles, and then her entire person quickly fell into her own shadow.

Lu Xinhuan, who was dragged into the ground and whose entire body save half her face was already swallowed up by her shadow, was still able to see this scene.

'Why…? Does he not care about these two's lives at all?'

But Lu Xinhuan could no longer see the result, because she had completely fallen into her shadow.

This incomparably eerie scene made everyone present feel their scalps tingle. Not even the vampires had seen such a method of killing people before.

What was even more eerie was that not long after, a ball of black shadow began to churn in the shadow and soon formed a new human figure.

"What's the method to remove the gu worms?" Gu Nan casually asked.

The shadow began to dutifully report the "recipe": "Blue Heart Grass, Silver Moon White Frost, hind claws of the Great Eagle…"

Gu Nan rarely used the law of resurrection ever since he reached Tier 6, but this didn't mean he couldn't use it anymore.

On the contrary, as his strength grew, the law of resurrection also became much more effective than before when used on lower-leveled opponents. The shadow servants were able to retain most of their memories from life.

Of course, it was almost completely useless against gods.

"Is this also an application of shadows?" Sylvia, who had appeared beside Gu Nan at some point, stared at the shadow servant in surprise.

Gu Nan didn't know how to explain that players had several law slots, so he thought about it and answered, "It might sound unbelievable, but this is called Shadow Resurrection. It's one the ultimate arcana of our law of shadows."

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Sylvia was always by Gu Nan's side recently. She was still worried about Gu Nan's plans for the Mirror God.

After learning that Gu Nan would use Cain's Left Hand soon, she simply started following him to see what he was actually going to use the staff for.

On the other hand, she was also very curious about this other controller of shadows.

Her efforts finally paid off. Classmate Sylvia eventually saw Gu Nan make a move, and his first move was using a power she'd never seen before.

"So the power of shadows can also be used to create life?" Sylvia murmured. Her mind was already filled with "Shadow Resurrection"—a term Gu Nan made up on the spot— there was no room for anything else in her head.

Gu Nan gave a somewhat strange smile. He didn't mind leading Sylvia astray. Anyhow, regardless of whether it was the right or wrong path, this Goddess of Shadows wouldn't be able to grow stronger even after tens of thousands of years.

Maybe she could even discover an entirely new path if he directed her down a nonsensical path?

Gu Nan shook his head and threw both Zi Dian and Shana to Lady Mara, asking her to help find the antidote.

The information revealed by the shadow servant of Lu Xinhuan wasn't completely exact. There were still some vague places in the formula.

But this didn't matter. In any case, Qinghe Pavilion still had lots of these kinds of gu worms lying around, so they could simply find some random people to test the antidote on. Two days was enough time to determine the correct antidote.

Of course Gu Nan didn't know if the shadow servant's information was complete or not, but he didn't care all that much if the two hostages died.

Zi Dian was merely a bonus that came with Wu Gui, and while it would naturally be best if Shana could survive, Gu Nan also had Christina as a substitute if she died, so Shana wasn't a must-have either.

If not for the fact that he was in a hurry, then a conventional genius like Christina would actually be more suited to being the clan head, both in terms of personality and prestige.

……

Gu Nan didn't have to wait too long. Just two days later, a perfectly intact Zi Dian and Shana stood in front of Gu Nan.

The Raymond clan was quite competent when it came to handling matters, especially since they wanted to request something from Gu Nan.

And someone else who also arrived at the same time was the maiden Wu Gui, whom Gu Nan hadn't seen for a long time.

Wu Gui currently looked a little disheveled. Her exquisite kasaya was slightly tattered, and she even put away the lotus pedestal she always sat on, instead electing to rush here on foot.

Indeed, Qinghe Realm's power couldn't be underestimated. Just a single Lu Xinhuan could call over a helper of Sylvia's level and even stall Wu Gui for a while.

"You sure have it easy, leaving us behind in Skeleton City and then arbitrarily falling out with the people from Qinghe Realm." Wu Gui saw Gu Nan's calm expression and was instantly furious.

With her and Zi Dian's patience, waiting for two months was nothing, but the people of Qinghe Pavilion suddenly turning on them was truly unexpected.

It could be said that Gu Nan's act of abducting Zhong Die indirectly screwed Wu Gui and Zi Dian over.

But Gu Nan shrugged, entirely unconcerned. He'd always acted without regard for what others thought. As long as it didn't affect his plans, who cares who died?

"You're just in time. I had these vampires investigate the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead. We'll leave as soon as there's a result," Gu Nan told Wu Gui.

In his original plan, he was already planning to have the vampires search the entrance to the Sacred Catacombs. Lu Xinhuan and her group were actually an accident.

"I hope we won't have to wait too long this time," Wu Gui couldn't do anything about him, so she could only throw down such a sentence.

Gu Nan naturally ignored her. His daily routine continued to be training Zhong Die. Oh, and there was one more task, which was to help Shana run for clan head.

Because the God of Iron was also behind the Raymond clan, Gu Nan couldn't just kidnap the entire clan—not if he didn't want to completely expose his existence to this side.

The way he helped Shana was also very simple—he gave her Cain's Left Hand.

Shana fused her own origin blood with it as soon as she received this staff, turning this divine weapon into her sole possession.

From then on, unless she died, she was the only one who could use this staff.

This was too much of an advantage in the clan leader election!

The Ancestor's Staff was able to directly enhance the purity of a vampire's bloodline and indirectly increase the strength of the vampire clan.

Now that it fell into Shana's hands, even if the entire clan could use it, it would only be through Shana.

And since there were so many people in the clan, there had to be a line, right? Who could go first and who would be next, as well as who could use it for a longer time—as the owner of the divine weapon, Shana undoubtedly had an extremely large say in it.

Even if she gave off the impression of treating everyone equally on the surface, it was quite a simple matter for her to tamper with the actual process slightly.

Day by day, Shana stabilized her position in the Raymond clan, and voices supporting her to become the next clan head also grew.

It was at a time like this when they found one of the entrances to the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead.

The Sacred Catacombs of the Undead was indeed a mystical place. Not only did it have nine entrances, but each one's location was in constant flux.

Almost every once in a while, an entrance would appear in a different place.

Gu Nan's luck was pretty good this time. One of the entrances wasn't far from the Capital of Blood, and he could get there in two days while traveling on foot.

Three figures slowly appeared at the entrance to Yorktown, the location of the current entrance.

"It's on that mountain," said the white-robed young man among the trio.

Beside him were two women. One was dressed in a gold kasaya, but with an expression as cold as frost. The other one wore a black dress, and her gaze kept wandering around.

The three quickly headed for the mountain peak, but a few people at the foot of the mountain immediately stepped forward, blocking their way.

"Who are you three? Up ahead is—"

Before their voices fell, the white-robed youth had already swallowed them all into the shadows with a gentle wave of his hand.

These three newcomers were naturally Gu Nan and his party. He brought Wu Gui to the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead, and Sylvia also followed them.

"How cruel!" Sylvia shook her head, expressing her distaste of Gu Nan's action.

Wu Gui cast her a puzzled glance. In the former's eyes, this girl in black was clearly also a Star Ruler existence. By all rights, she really shouldn't be so sentimental.

Gu Nan, however, just smiled. He knew that the gods in the World of Gods had a closer relationship with mortals than Star Rulers did. After all, they still required faith.

Gu Nan and his group clearly weren't the first to discover the entrance to the Sacred Catacombs. The entire road up the mountain was guarded by people.

But news of a strong enemy attack spread quickly, and no one dared to come up and stop them again after a few waves of people died at Gu Nan's hands.

When the three of them reached the top of the mountain, they saw a faintly fluorescent cave entrance surrounded by groups of powerful figures from various sides.

This was clearly not the one "real" entrance everyone knew how to open, so everyone was blocked outside, while a few who refused to give up were still trying to use their own methods to open it.

Gu Nan merely glanced at the sign outside the cave, then told Wu Gui with a smile, "Your luck isn't bad."

Wu Gui's luck really was good. The random entrance they found just happened to correspond to the tomb of the Living Dead.

Perhaps some of the surrounding people overheard Gu Nan. Immediately, someone walked over with a smile. "Do you want to try solving the entrance's puzzle? Just pay three hundred divine gold coins each."

Sylvia stared at this person somewhat speechlessly, not expecting that even a Sacred Catacombs they couldn't open could be turned into a means of raking in money.

But she also didn't care about such a small amount of gold coins. For a place like the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead, it was obviously better to sneak in rather than cause a commotion.historical

But Gu Nan continued walking forward by himself. The man who came up to talk leisurely blocked Gu Nan's way, still smiling.

Several commerce guilds joined forces to control the entrance. They were strong enough to bully normal experts, and the truly strong powerhouses wouldn't care about this meager amount of money anyways.

After all, the fewer people who knew about the Sacred Catacombs, the better. He believed that no one wanted information on this place to be made public.

However, the next moment, his head flew up into the sky and landed heavily to the side, while Gu Nan didn't even spare him a glance.

As far as players were concerned, money that can be saved by killing people definitely should be saved—Gu Nan said so in his heart, making it sound like he actually had any money in the first place.

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"Who are you three?!"

"The Sacred Catacombs is guarded by our four organizations. What do you intend to do?"

"We are…"historical

Gu Nan naturally wasn't interested in knowing who exactly was guarding the Sacred Catacombs. Anyhow, his goal was inside; it had nothing to do with the people guarding it outside.

Gu Nan practically slaughtered everyone who tried to block his way. Finally, Sylvia couldn't bear to watch this anymore and revealed a trace of her divine aura. From then on, no one dared to trouble them.

But now they were curious about a new question—exactly which Highness would actually be interested in the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead?

No matter how "legendary" Legend Rank necromancers were, they were still mere mortals. How could they be important enough to warrant a god descending here?

In a place like the Undead Kingdom, it was very likely that the god would be using their true bodies to descend rather than just a saint clone!

Gu Nan didn't pay any attention to these people's attitude. He reached the entrance of the Sacred Catacombs and created a strange symbol with the power of shadows, which landed on the cave entrance.

This symbol perfectly combined with the original symbol on the entrance, forming a brand new inscription.

Then Gu Nan gently waved his hand and actually divided that inscription in two, sending one to either side of the entrance so that the cave's luminescence slowly dimmed.

Only when Gu Nan and his two companions entered the cave did he casually close the door.

"Is that the Tatton language?" After entering the Sacred Catacombs, Sylvia searched her memory for that previous inscription and finally remembered. It was the superimposition of the Tatton characters for "life" and "death."

"To be precise, it's the ancient Tatton language," Gu Nan corrected absentmindedly. "The Living Dead, Count Fersen, was a Tattonian. He was the one who left that character at the entrance."

Fersen was from the Middle Ages, so the language he used was already considered ancient. But in Sylvia's eyes, of course there was no difference between ancient and modern Tatton languages.

She already existed long before the first Tattonians appeared.

Of the nine entrances, the entrance corresponding to the Living Dead's tomb was considered relatively easy to unlock. To put it bluntly, it was just superimposing two characters, then artificially removing part of the lines.

As long as someone knew Count Fersen was a Tattonian and then guessed this puzzle's general train of thought, it wasn't hard to solve.

Wu Gui remained silent, but her gaze gradually turned serious as she looked around cautiously. According to Gu Nan, what she needed was inside here.

But her caution was basically useless because Gu Nan knew this place like his own backyard.

The Tattonians were very famous for their necromantic technology. They were necromancers who specialized in alchemy, so Fersen's tomb had a large number of alchemical creations.

Traps, stone statues, and even homunculus maids—one after another, a whole bunch of things that couldn't be seen in the Myriad Heavens Universe appeared in front of Gu Nan and his group.

But these defenses were as useful as a piece of paper. Under Gu Nan's "brilliant leadership," the three didn't even pause their footsteps and reached the deepest part of the tomb as if they were taking a stroll.

"This is it." Gu Nan pointed to the coffin on the ground.

Fersen's coffin was very strange. The left and right sides were actually different: the left side was made of dark red wood, while the right side was made of some sort of special crystal.

"Fersen was half-living and half-dead. Half of his body was human, but the other half had already started turning into an undead, and he actually remained in this state for years on end," Gu Nan knew Fersen's situation like the back of his hand.

Living Dead Fersen was quite a legendary character in the game's backstory. He wasn't at all inferior to Sandro, the necromancer people worshiped as a demigod.

When Fersen was alive, he practically conquered the entire plane by himself. His undead empire had already taken control of half the continent. Although he ultimately lost to the Lionheart Queen, it wasn't entirely his fault.

In contrast, although people made Sandro sound so incredible, the largest territory he ever had was only the size of three dukedoms. Most of his merits were academic in nature.

Merely in terms of pushing forward the progress of necromantic magic, Sandro was indeed number one since time immemorial, with seven or eight different milestones, each in a different field.

Wu Gui had little interest in the history of the World of Gods. Her gaze never left that coffin, while Gu Nan had already opened it with a flourish.

Like he said, a corpse with distinctly different left and right sides was laid out in front of the trio.

"Do I take his origin?" Wu Gui stared at Fersen's corpse and asked after some thought.

She no longer doubted that this person possessed the law of fusion she wanted, but she still wasn't sure how to extract it.

"The dude has been dead for almost 100,000 years, what origin is there?" Gu Nan rolled his eyes. "You can just take the whole coffin away. But be careful—the corpse will quickly decay after leaving the Sacred Catacombs."

Wu Gui didn't retort and just nodded silently. She wasn't worried about the corpse rotting away. Since the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead could preserve the corpse, so could she.

After getting Fersen's corpse, Gu Nan didn't dally any longer and walked directly towards the back of the tomb.

"Norris has slept for so many years. It's time to wake him up," Gu Nan mumbled while walking.

Sylvia was suddenly wide-awake. She pointed at Gu Nan and exclaimed, "So you really do want to wake up Norris!"

Gu Nan turned his head back with a smile. "I never denied it either."

Sylvia's expression sank slightly when she heard that. "Since you know Norris is here, you should've informed the public. Norris is the gods' public enemy. Unless… Unless you want to cooperate with him?!"

This Goddess of Shadows really did have a wild imagination. Gu Nan couldn't help correcting her, "I'll kill him."

In fact, in terms of identity, Gu Nan was more suited to be called the gods' public enemy rather than the Mirror God—after all, he was the gods' natural enemy, while Norris only became an enemy later in life.

But for the sake of Gu Nan's Evil Value, he could only wrong the Mirror God a little and have him become exp.

Sylvia didn't speak again, but her gaze shifted slightly. She clearly didn't believe Gu Nan, or at least she didn't believe he had the ability to kill Norris.

She was already mulling over the possibility that if Norris truly was still alive and if Gu Nan died in the other party's hands, then she would escape this place immediately and spread the news.

If it wasn't for the fact that the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead was a special place, she would've gone outside to deliver the news right then and there. But she also knew that Gu Nan most certainly wouldn't let her go out now.

They didn't even take two steps further when she saw Gu Nan suddenly stop, take out the Cain's Left Hand he retrieved from Shana, and stab it into the ground.

Just how terrifying was Gu Nan's strength? A crack actually appeared in the Sacred Catacombs, which was built from countless mysterious runes, while the somewhat withered Cain's Left Hand showed signs of fracturing.

But this was already enough.

An inexplicable aura circled around the interior of the Sacred Catacombs, followed by a faint sigh. "I never thought someone would actually find this place…"

"Norris!" Sylvia instantly recognized this voice—young and calm, yet with a hint of madness.

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Where was Norris hiding? This was something many gods tried to find out, but no one ever found any results.

Even Sylvia didn't expect for him to be hiding in an abandoned main plane, and in a place like the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead to boot—a place countless people ventured inside, often overturning everything inside to search for treasures.

Perhaps this was called "the darkest place is directly underneath the lamp[1]."

When too many adventurers were captivated by the treasures in the Sacred Catacombs, they naturally wouldn't notice the other tombs, much less the space between the tombs.

In fact, Norris hid very well. His hiding place was just a single point in the entire Sacred Catacombs. If one didn't smash apart the Sacred Catacombs bit by bit, nobody would be able to discover him.

Moreover, the explorers also must've guessed at his existence and brought along an item containing the law of mirrors he left behind in the past in order to break through the Mirror World and awaken the remains of his soul ahead of schedule.

Both of these conditions had to be met to awaken him, which practically formed a perfect defense. But what Norris couldn't imagine was that even with all this, someone still found him.

Of course NPCs wouldn't understand that there was a group of people called players. When they were bored, they liked to take the whole world apart for fun.

And while dismantling the world, they discovered that there was still a god hidden here. Only then did they start analyzing his origin to look for a way to awaken him.

Norris wore transparent glasses and had a scholarly air about him. His short silver-gray hair covered half of his forehead, and he held a thin book in one hand.

"You're the one who woke me up." Norris's gaze fell on Gu Nan, looking serene and calm. No semblance of madness could be seen from his face.

Just from appearance alone, no one would ever be able to connect Norris with the impression the world had of him.

Sylvia pursed her lips tightly, having already tensed up. She would immediately take action as soon as Norris made a move.

Norris had long gotten used to eliciting this kind of reaction from people. Rather, Gu Nan's always-calm expression made him a little curious.

"Why did you awaken me? Oh, no need to answer—let me guess. To borrow my power? To use me to look for some old fellows from back then? Or is it…"

With a charming smile on his face, Norris said it one word at a time, "You want to finish what I started?"

He didn't even entertain the possibility of "eliminating evil to protect the people." If this was the goal, then there was no way only three people would come.

Sylvia quickly turned her head, nervously watching Gu Nan, fearful that he'd say, "Yup."

Gu Nan didn't let her down. He didn't even have any intention of responding to Norris. He patted Wu Gui's shoulder and told her, "You're up first."

Gu Nan's attitude stunned both Norris and the Goddess of Shadows.

No matter how detested Norris was and how many disasters he caused, he was once a figure that influenced the entire World of Gods.

Whether he was hated, mocked, or praised, no one could ignore his existence—but Gu Nan did.

It was probably very hard for them to understand that Norris was nothing more than a monster to Gu Nan.

No matter how rich a backstory or how many legendary experiences a monster had, a monster was just a monster, and monsters were meant to be killed.

Like Gu Nan, someone else who could also ignore Norris was Wu Gui—she flat-out didn't recognize him.

But since she already acquired the coffin of the Living Dead, Wu Gui didn't mind fulfilling her end of the bargain.historical

So Wu Gui struck without hesitation. A palm print carrying both demonic and Buddhist intent smashed towards Norris.

Norris laughed involuntarily. He gently raised the book in his hand, and a silver mirror appeared in front of him.

Wu Gui saw her own reflection in the mirror before her. The closer she got to it, the clearer the palm print in the mirror became.

When Wu Gui's strike finally landed on the silver mirror, almost the exact same power hit her back instantly.

The silver mirror immediately shattered, while Wu Gui herself grunted in pain—anyone who blasted herself once with her full strength wouldn't feel too good.

However, Norris just chuckled. He'd seen too many such opponents in his ten thousand years of war.

'Even if I've just awakened from the seal, I'm still not someone who… Hm?'

Silver mist once again burst out in front of Norris. Another mirror was blown apart—this time, it was Gu Nan who attacked.

Gu Nan's fist was covered in blood, and ghastly white bones could even be seen, but he seemed as if he couldn't feel it at all.

Norris's eyes narrowed slightly as he placed silver mirrors one after another in front of him, but Gu Nan blasted each of them apart with a punch.

When the two were finally facing each other, Norris suddenly revealed a faint smile as a thin, frameless mirror appeared behind him.

The thin mirror reflected Norris's figure. Gu Nan's punch landed and shattered Norris's body, but the Norris inside the mirror remained perfectly intact.

Gu Nan didn't even pause for a second and threw another punch at the mirror.

The sound of impact came again, and the thin mirror was also shattered, while Gu Nan had an additional wound on his hand that quickly started to heal.

But it was clear that Norris couldn't be killed so easily.

"It's useless." A clear madness began to seep through his voice, "Although you can kill one of me, what about hundreds of me?"

As Norris's words fell, hundreds of mirrors actually appeared in front of Gu Nan, with the Mirror God's figure in the center of each one.

However, Gu Nan just smiled silently. He instantly rushed into a mirror while telling his companions, "You two guard the center."

Sylvia and Wu Gui didn't dare to delay and quickly reached the center of the hundreds of mirrors, waiting for further instructions. Only then did they see a scene that made their jaws drop.

Gu Nan, who had entered the mirror, rapidly flew between different mirrors like an agile monkey and quickly killed hundreds of Norris reflections.

"You're not a god," there was an inexplicable meaning in Norris's crazed voice.

The Mirror World was his foundation. Here, he could alter the laws at will, so any god who fell into this world would inevitably be helpless.

Not even the Ruler of Light and Justice would be able to use half of his original power after entering a world made purely of the law of darkness.

But this was completely meaningless to Gu Nan, because he was only using his physical body to fight, so he wasn't dependent on any laws at all!

It was precisely because of this that Norris was certain he wasn't a god—no god would have such a powerful physical body.

Gu Nan smiled wordlessly. If this was in the game, then perhaps his identity as an Evil God would already be seen through by now. But fortunately, the Myriad Heavens Universe existed in this world.

The gods' understanding of the Myriad Heavens Universe was far from deep, not to mention there were indeed body-refining cultivators in the Myriad Heavens Universe.

Norris didn't have time to ponder this too much. He'd just awakened and was already in his weakest state. Faced with an enemy who knew him incomparably well, he could only choose to flee for now.

He instantly vanished from the Mirror World. Sylvia reacted extremely fast and immediately attacked with her shadow divine power, which was boosted with the power of her Divine Kingdom. She was already going all-out from the start.

Wu Gui also materialized her true body. Her half-Buddha and half-demon form had eight arms that carried eight kinds of weapons, which all struck Norris at the same time.

Norris's expression remained unchanged. Since he dared to leave the Mirror World, he was naturally prepared to deal with these two. 'A weak god and a mere demigod… Huh?'

Norris suddenly froze as he looked up in astonishment and saw a Buddhist staff hovering horizontally over the top of his head, flickering with a stunning golden light.

"A real god?!"

Even Sylvia couldn't help glancing at Wu Gui, surprised that this person wasn't actually much weaker than her… Now that Norris miscalculated, he would have a hard time.

In fact, it wasn't a matter of having a hard time. Rather, as long as Norris was delayed by even an instant, he would most certainly die.

Norris, who was incomparably mysterious, powerful, and unhinged in the eyes of countless gods, was merely a Tier 8 monster to Gu Nan.

Just like how he crushed Norris's clones, Gu Nan's extremely plain fist smashed the top of Norris's head, instantly shattering the Godhead of this extremely weakened Tier 8 god.

All the mirrors around them disappeared at once as Gu Nan's group was returned to the Sacred Catacombs.

Gu Nan glanced at the corpse on the ground and smiled in satisfaction. "All in a day's work."

"Wait!" Sylvia saw that he was about to leave and rushed up while grumbling, "This is Norris! How can you be sure he's actually dead?"

"It might sound unbelievable," Gu Nan glanced at his own skyrocketing 2,500 Evil Value and answered, "but I'm sure."

T/N:

[1]"The darkest place is directly underneath the lamp" - People often neglect what's right under their nose

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The trip to the Sacred Catacombs of the Undead seemed uneventful. In fact, Gu Nan's entire trip after reaching the World of Gods was methodically arranged.

He was way too familiar with this place, so familiar that even if some unexpected events occurred, he could still turn the situation around easily with his experience—and of course, power.

So Gu Nan didn't feel much about Norris's death and soon left the Sacred Catacombs as usual.

On the contrary, Sylvia was troubled ever since the battle. The Norris who once stirred up such great chaos actually died so quietly. This was a little hard for her to accept.

In a sense, Sylvia didn't seem like a god who lived for tens of thousands of years, but like a normal adventurer with considerable strength.

There was a reason for this.

Compared to the Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens Universe, who gradually broke away from the category of humans ever since they entered Star Ruler Realm, the gods here clearly seemed more "human."

Due to the different laws of space, the Legend Ranks here—which correspond to Void Cutter Realm—didn't have the ability to break through space, so naturally they couldn't develop a high-and-mighty mentality.

Legend Rank powerhouses living in the mortal world still had to face the aging, illnesses, and deaths of their loved ones and friends. They still had to endure the distance of space, so how could they be high and mighty?

That was why gods here used the expression "divinity."

But in the Myriad Heavens Universe, all the Star Rulers had long since accepted the gap between themselves and mortals. The reason they climbed step by step from Void Cutter Realm to their current position certainly wasn't to live together with mortals.

When Gu Nan's group of three stepped out of the Sacred Catacombs, the onlookers outside had almost dispersed.

The reason was also quite simple. Two men in red robes were standing at the entrance, respectfully waiting for the people inside to come out.

As soon as the three showed themselves, the two red-robed men immediately greeted them while performing an odd salute, "Your Esteemed Highness Sylvia, on behalf of My Lord, I would like to send you the sincerest… Eh?"

Their voices faltered mid-sentence, because they realized the one walking at the head of the trio wasn't Her Excellency the Goddess of Shadows like they expected, but a young man they didn't recognize.

"Mishra's apostles?" The youth raised his head to glance at the two, then at the symbol on their chests, and wondered, "Don't even know how to say a greeting?"

Mishra was the God of Minotaurs and one of the subordinate gods of the Beast God. These two were clearly his apostles.

The two men's faces instantly turned beet red. When an apostle representing a god greets another god, that greeting is naturally of the utmost importance.

The two apostles rushed over to pay their respects when they heard that Sylvia appeared in this place, but they didn't expect to run headfirst into Gu Nan instead.

"W-Who are you? Why do you address My Lord directly by his name?" One of the apostles came back to his senses and instantly glared at Gu Nan furiously.

Compared to the problem of botching a greeting, referring to a god directly by their actual name was naturally a greater offense. It was normal for this apostle to try to use this as an excuse to change the subject.

Gu Nan didn't even spare the two another glance and walked forward by himself.

The apostle blocking his way was directly grabbed by his hair and tossed to the side, where not even his shadow could be seen anymore.

The other apostle stared blankly at this scene and just watched as the trio walked past him.

The two apostles were just a brief interlude. Gu Nan's journey wasn't affected by them at all, and he soon returned to the Capital of Blood.

At this stage, Gu Nan basically achieved all his goals for this trip to the World of Gods.

His Evil Value successfully reached 5,000, and in the process of incorporating the vampire clan into the ranks of his apostles, Cain's Left Hand also came in handy. He even discovered an unexpected pleasant surprise along the way.

He experimented to see whether Zhong Die, a native from the Myriad Heavens Universe, could take the player route, creating player-type NPCs that originally couldn't have possibly existed.

In the following days, Shana, with Gu Nan's full support, quickly ascended to the position of the Raymond clan's leader, then set off a wave of bloodshed in the Capital of Blood.

Under Shana's leadership, the Raymond clan suddenly became very aggressive, almost annexing the entire Capital of Blood into their sphere of influence and invading the territories of all other forces.

Such a move allowed the Raymond clan to harvest a large amount of resources at the very start, but it also brought down the wrath of the entire public upon them.

A large number of vampires died in the war. The Raymond clan's former glory could no longer be maintained.

But vampires really were a rule-abiding race. Even in such a situation, Shana still maintained considerable control over the clan.

Of course, this was also thanks to her possession of the Ancestor's Staff.

If not for the existence of this divine weapon, with the vampires' "wanton" acts during this period, they probably would've been wiped out by now.

The chaos in the Capital of Blood lasted only half a month or so. Before the God of Iron could react, Gu Nan had Shana throw out the trump card.

"All clansmen, prepare to move," Shana announced from her seat at the head of the round table, overlooking the crowd below.

Her expression was solemn and unperturbed. After using the power of the Ancestor's Staff, Shana was no longer a weakling among Legend Rank experts. She was now strong enough to force her clansmen into submission.historical

"Move to where?" The crowd of vampires revealed a stunned look. For a race that accepted a god's protection, clan migration was not a trivial matter.

"Of course it's… to My Lord's Divine Kingdom." Shana revealed a faint smile and stood up while Gu Nan slowly walked out from behind her.

……

The migration of the Raymond clan went more smoothly than expected.

This race living in the Undead Kingdom really didn't have much faith to speak of in any god, so much so that they didn't even hold much loyalty to the gods.

Shana used only one sentence to convince the vast majority of people: "Stay here and be annihilated by the furious enemies, or come with me and enjoy the blessing of the Ancestor's Staff."

Gu Nan and the others were originally from the Myriad Heavens Universe, so they wouldn't feel any obstruction from leaving the dimensional wall of the World of Gods. It was the same for re-entering the Myriad Heavens Universe as well.

But the group of vampires were different. They themselves were natives of the World of Gods, so it wasn't too hard to leave this place, but to enter the Myriad Heavens Universe, they would need to cross the dimensional wall as well.

Crossing the dimensional wall would require space-time crystals, which could be smuggled in if the scale was small. However, the Raymond clan had nearly 200 people that needed to enter, which was a bit of a problem.

In fact, Gu Nan and the others were now staying in the gap between the two worlds, staring at the crystalline dimensional wall somewhat speechlessly.

Gu Nan initially didn't consider this. Although he was a top player, he wasn't the kind of genius schemer who could predict everything. There would always be times when he overlooked matters that weren't as important.

"Do you know where to get space-time crystals?" Gu Nan asked Wu Gui, who was next to him. Right now, Wu Gui was the only person nearby he could discuss this with.

Of course it was impossible for Sylvia to follow him all the way here. Little Zhong Die did follow him, but she might not even know what a space-time crystal was.

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"It'll be very difficult if it's on such a large scale." Wu Gui continued hesitantly, "Privately sending so many people into the Myriad Heavens Universe will be tantamount to openly provoking the Thirteen Heavens."

The prestige of the Thirteen Heavens couldn't be sullied. It was one thing for Gu Nan to privately not give Lu Wen face—not many people knew about it anyways—but if he sent 200 people into the Myriad Heavens Universe, then he was afraid the Thirteen Heavens would send people to hunt him down.

If they didn't do this, then it wouldn't be long before this ban became as useless as a piece of paper, and the Thirteen Heavens would no longer have any face to speak of.

Gu Nan fell silent. While it was true that he acted unbridled, he wasn't stupid.

Even when killing monsters, there was no reason for a Level 30 player to try to kill a Level 70 monster. The newbies who had nothing better to do and ran to the high-level monster area to hang out had only themselves to blame if a monster one-shotted them.

Gu Nan didn't know why the Thirteenth Heavens restricted travel between the two worlds, but since he was no match for them right now, he couldn't resolve this using force.

He said after some thought, "If all else fails, I can only leave everyone in the gap first and transport a small group of people back every once in a while."

The Thirteen Heavens mostly turned a blind eye to illegal entries in smaller numbers, or else an organization like the Heaven-God Alliance wouldn't be able to exist.

'Wait, the Heaven-God Alliance!'

Gu Nan's eyes lit up when he suddenly remembered that he was now part of the Heaven-God Alliance. Why not try asking someone from the Heaven-God Alliance?

They were bound to have engaged in more human smuggling matters between the two worlds and may even have experience transporting a large number of people.

It just so happened that he needed to pay Extreme Sword Heaven a visit anyways after returning to the Myriad Heavens Universe—he needed to "check in" with Xue Ren, one of the leaders of the Heaven-God Alliance.

"Do you know anything about the situation inside Extreme Sword Heaven or Xue Ren?" Gu Nan turned to Wu Gui and asked.

Since it was one of the top-tier Heaven Level planes, the outside world certainly knew some information regarding the state of affairs and changes in Extreme Sword Heaven.

But this information wouldn't possibly touch upon Star Ruler Xue Ren himself. Information concerning the major astral worlds' Star Rulers was top secret and rarely made public.

At most, people knew his name was Xue Ren, he was a swordmaster, and a very powerful swordmaster at that. More detailed information would only be known by someone at Wu Gui's level.

"Xue Ren… is very young, a few generations younger than me." Wu Gui frowned in contemplation.

She and Xue Ren could barely be considered contemporaries, but that was already her memories from nine thousand lifetimes ago, so it wasn't easy to recall.

"He's not a very typical swordsman. Although he also has a slight obsession with martial arts, he's more like a scholar."

"Scholar?" Gu Nan raised an eyebrow. The distinguished Star Ruler of Extreme Sword Heaven, one of the most powerful swordmasters in the Myriad Heavens Universe, didn't seem like he'd have anything to do with the word "scholar."

Wu Gui's expression was also a bit strange. "I don't understand his sword Dao, and neither did anyone else at that time. Other people's sword styles pay attention to the unity of essence, qi, and spirit, but he never cared about those."

"Then what did he care about?"

"I can't explain it very well either, but I still clearly remember the name of the first sword manual he wrote after achieving Star Ruler Realm— 'The Wave Properties of the Sword'."

……

Nothing seemed to have changed much when Gu Nan re-entered the Myriad Heavens Universe.

It was still a calm situation with violent undercurrents. All the forces were moving towards their respective goals. Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom was naturally no exception.

White Mist was developing well in White Bones Realm. The brand-new White Mist had both a Star Ruler's backing and its own impressive strength, so naturally it would be able to prosper anywhere.

Several highly promising mission experts even emerged from this side. If Gu Nan activated a new personal dungeon, they would certainly come in handy.

Everything was running smoothly inside the Divine Kingdom. The group of apostles continued to accumulate funds at a steady rate, while the management of the kingdom's populace also underwent some changes.

After learning about the management system of White Bones Realm, Lan Si and Yan Xiaoxiao started trying to integrate what they learned into Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom after a few rounds of trial and error.

Gu Nan was aware of this and didn't intend to oppose it at all. Even in the game, the Divine Kingdom's administrator would make a similar request after the Divine Kingdom reached a certain level.

All the player needs to do is to enjoy the benefits they brought about.

His Evil Value already satisfied the requirement for advancing to Tier 7. Now, he only needed to slowly accumulate points to successfully level up to Tier 7.historical

But the accumulation of points also had to be efficient. To only have a supply of points from one personal dungeon was naturally the most inefficient method, and to have an additional supply from the second Crescent Moon World dungeon was the second-most inefficient method.

The only way to further improve efficiency would be to launch a Divine Kingdom War. Evil Value along with points could be earned with this method, but the starting requirements were relatively high.

At the very least, he had to wait until the Divine Servants Institute was leveled up once or even after a few more of those structures were built to reach the best opportunity to launch a Divine Kingdom War.

'Crescent Moon World's difficulty level isn't low. If we can maximize its production capacity, then we'll be able to afford some small-scale wars.' Gu Nan calculated in his mind, trying to figure out the most efficient level-up route.

He quickly arrived at the decision to pay Extreme Sword Heaven a visit first and see if there was a way to bring all the vampires over at once.

If that couldn't be done, then he at least wanted to bring over that group of Legend Rank vampires first so that they could start raiding the personal dungeons as soon as possible.

……

Extreme Sword Heaven.

As a large plane that could be ranked firmly within the top twenty planes in the Myriad Heavens Universe, one could imagine how prosperous Extreme Sword Heaven was.

What was a little out of Gu Nan's expectations was that the buildings in this plane famous for its swordsmanship didn't actually have an ancient martial arts style. Instead, it looked like a modern city.

A modern city with the sword Dao as the highest pursuit.

"Quite interesting," Gu Nan gave such an evaluation.

"Many people say that!" A young girl walking in front of Gu Nan smiled while pursing her lips.

Gu Nan was on his way to visit Xue Ren, and this young girl was his temporary guide.

Like all large planes, Extreme Sword Heaven monitored every powerful visitor above Void Cutter Realm rather strictly.

Not only would they try to sound out these visitors' true intentions, but they also wouldn't let them out of sight easily.

After all, the destructive power of Void Cutters was too great for astral worlds that took the route of peaceful governance.

"We're here, My Lord." The young girl led Gu Nan to a pavilion facing the sea. "This is Lord Hongye's residence."

Gu Nan nodded and stepped forward wordlessly.

It's true that he was here to pay a visit to Xue Ren, but of course the grand Star Ruler of Extreme Sword Heaven wasn't someone he could meet so easily.

For a visitor like Gu Nan, Extreme Sword Heaven handled it by finding a spokesperson to meet the visitor first, verify the identity and goal of the visitor, and then decide which ones could meet Xue Ren.

The person Gu Nan was going to meet now was Qu Hongye, who was considered Xue Ren's Martial Niece based on seniority and was responsible for receiving a portion of the visitors like Gu Nan.

There were already four or five cultivators sitting inside the seaside pavilion when Gu Nan entered. There were both men and women, and even a young boy with a buzz cut.

Seeing Gu Nan enter, a young man immediately went up to him with a standard smile on his face. "Lord Hongye is currently taking an afternoon nap. Please wait here for a moment."

His tone was very polite, but his expression was extremely calm, clearly having received many guests like Gu Nan and not really taking this seriously.

"She's upstairs?" Gu Nan raised a brow.

The young man stared blankly, then realized the other party's intentions. This wasn't the first time he'd seen such a guest either, so he sneered, "Lord Hongye's whereabouts is not something we can know."

Although he said "we," his gaze landed straight on Gu Nan. It was obvious that he actually meant "you guys."

To his surprise, the other party's face didn't turn angry. Gu Nan just nodded, then gently waved his hand.

The shadows began to spread; the pavilion began to shatter.

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Inside the small seaside pavilion, shadows emerged from under Gu Nan's feet. Any person or object touched by the shadows was instantly ground into powder.

The youth in front of Gu Nan bore the brunt of the attack and was swept under the shadows. His entire person seemed to shatter inch by inch like glass, ultimately leaving no trace behind.

What also disappeared along with the youth were the floor under everyone's feet and the surrounding walls, sofas, coffee tables, and other objects.

Fortunately, the shadows didn't spread so quickly that people couldn't react in time. The other four or five guests scrambled to get up and retreated backwards at lightning speed.

These guests weren't normal people either. Almost every single one of them had Void Cutter Realm strength. One person even tried to block the shadows with their own law.

Unfortunately, the person's law was already crushed to pieces by the shadows before it even had time to leave their body.

This terrifying result scared that guest so much that they didn't dare linger any longer and fled in the blink of an eye, even abandoning any thought of visiting Xue Ren.

Not every visitor necessarily wanted to meet Xue Ren. Most of them just came to pay their respects to the Sword Sect's higher-ups, which wasn't anything urgent.

On the other hand, they were also eager to see what would happen to Gu Nan, the guy who dared to cause trouble in Extreme Sword Heaven.

Completely engulfed in Gu Nan's shadows, most of this pavilion was corroded in the blink of an eye. A few beams on the second floor were also damaged, causing the second floor to collapse.

Miss Qu Hongye, who was supposedly taking a nap, naturally couldn't continue sleeping any longer.

"You dared to make trouble in my Extreme Sword Heaven. You must be tired of living!" A delicate shout came from above Gu Nan's head, and along with it was a flash of sword light headed straight for him.

Qu Hongye's words carried a martial arts flavor that stood in stark contrast with this obviously modern city, which made Gu Nan feel a little strange.

The first thought he had was: 'The NPC's lines are so out of sync with the setting. The game designer for this is going to get his pay docked!'

Then he shook his head again, tossing aside all irrelevant thoughts to observe the sword beam.

Based on the information Wu Gui provided, Xue Ren would probably resemble a physicist disguised as a swordsman, so Qu Hongye, his Martial Niece, should also share this characteristic.

Scientific cultivation didn't exist in his previous life's game, so Gu Nan was quite interested in it.

Qu Hongye's sword beam was indeed very strange. It was clearly a direct stab, but it appeared to be a sword cloud in Gu Nan's perception.

There was no mistake. It felt as if her sword scattered and turned into a cloud of fog, all surging towards the enemy.historical

"So this is the wave properties of the sword?" Gu Nan couldn't help revealing a faint smile.

It looked like Extreme Sword Heaven's so-called "wave properties" were at least on the level of quantum theory, which maintained that all matter has intrinsic wave properties. The attacks weren't as basic as the wave crests and troughs of middle school physics.

The next moment, Gu Nan grabbed the sword beam with his hand.

Qu Hongye originally looked very confident, but her smile suddenly froze on her face.

Her wave sword already reached minor attainment, and her own strength was also Void Cutter Realm. Even top-tier Void Cutters would still have to block this carefully, but… 'This person actually grabbed it with his bare hand?'

If you asked a swordmaster what kind of opponent was the most annoying, then enemies with great speed, strength, or cultivation realm ranked further down. The answer was an opponent whose defense they couldn't break through.

Gu Nan belonged to this category.

Let alone Qu Hongye, even many enemies in the same realm as Gu Nan found it hard to break through his defense. The Evil God physique of an Evil God who took the pure combat route was too strong.

Gu Nan studied the longsword in his hand but found it to be no different from a normal sword. Of course a sword that was forcibly held could no longer oscillate.

After studying it for a while longer and confirming that he really couldn't see anything special, Gu Nan lost interest in further observations.

Be it his past or present life, Gu Nan wasn't someone suited to be the top student. He only knew how to play games.

"I'm looking for Xue Ren," Gu Nan slowly walked up to Qu Hongye and said flatly.

After taking a good look, one would find that Qu Hongye's appearance was very interesting. A small handful of hair on her forehead was dyed red, and her right ear had ear piercings. She looked like a female delinquent.

But she was also wearing an incomparably standard Daoist robe and had a wooden scabbard slung over her back. Her attire and aura were perfectly mismatched.

The Daoist-robed delinquent girl didn't look scared at all. Rather, she stared at him with an interested look and asked, "Why are you looking for my Martial Uncle?"

Information about the Heaven-God Alliance shouldn't be revealed to outsiders, and Gu Nan was also too lazy to make up a reason, so he bluntly replied, "Can't say."

Qu Hongye's expression suddenly darkened. She thought about it and asked a new question, "Then what's your name? Even if I take you to meet Martial Uncle, I still need to give him a name…"

"Just tell me where he is. I'll find him myself," Gu Nan refused blandly.

He found the entire process of informing someone to inform someone else too troublesome. Even meetings between Star Rulers seldom had use for messengers—because as long as the visiting Star Ruler knew the location, their arrival would quickly alert the local Star Ruler.

When had Qu Hongye ever seen a visitor like Gu Nan before? It just so happened that she herself had a fearless personality, so she immediately turned her head away. "Want me to lead the way? Then beg me!"

Crack!

The girl delinquent immediately felt a sharp pain from her leg as a numbing crack traveled over. Gu Nan had stomped down on her leg, breaking the bone.

"Where is Xue Ren?" Gu Nan didn't even bother adding any inflection to his voice.

"Y-y-y-you! If you're so incredible, then kill— ah no, wrong line. W-w-w-wait!" Qu Hongye was in so much pain that she even started stammering, but she changed her tune quite fast.

So Gu Nan slowly withdrew the shadows that had already reached out. If Qu Hongye refused, he certainly didn't mind refining her into a shadow servant first and then slowly asking questions.

But since she was willing to lead the way, Gu Nan could save energy and skip this step.

Of course players preferred the simplest, most efficient method. If they could be idle during something, then even one extra click of the mouse was considered a waste of energy.

"Lead the way."

Qu Hongye struggled to stand up, not even having the time to care about her broken leg. She revealed a strange smile and giggled. "Then follow me!"

While saying this, she flicked her hand and sent a message through the rune in her hand.

……

Outside the Sword Sect's mountain gates, a young man and woman dressed in Daoist robes were surveying the scene from above.

"Junior Martial Sister Qu is in the Wutong District. She should've already arrived by now if she was bringing someone over. Why isn't she here yet?" The man sounded a little anxious.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" His female companion grumbled, "Junior Martial Sister said that person can catch her wave sword barehanded, so he's likely to be a Star Ruler powerhouse. That's why we need to retreat quickly when they arrive."

The man revealed a bitter smile. "The only reason we're still here is because I can't restrain the sword beast any longer… I would've asked Master for help if I'd known this earlier."

The woman was almost driven mad by him. She poked his head angrily. "Think with your head! If you asked Master, would Master let us both out? Would he be willing to avenge Junior Sister Qu?"

"Hey! Don't push me…" The man lost his balance from her jab. His movements suddenly became flustered, and the hand seal he was maintaining also dissipated.

His heart froze slightly as he subconsciously glanced behind him, only to see a giant ape as tall as ten people rushing forward with a great roar.

"It's over…"

Star Rulers were completely independent existences. Outside of the Thirteen Heavens, it was almost impossible to see a certain Star Ruler living in someone else's astral world as a subordinate.

In other words, even in a large plane like Extreme Sword Heaven, the only Star Ruler who truly belonged here was Xue Ren.

The other Star Rulers here were at most visiting or living in seclusion, or perhaps even seeking revenge, but they had absolutely no affiliation with Extreme Sword Heaven.

Only at the level of the Thirteen Heavens, where the Star Ruler merged with the great Dao and their astral world experienced a fundamental breakthrough, would a Star Ruler have a basis for recruiting other Star Rulers.

Because of this, there was a group of Star Rulers below the Thirteen Heavens who used all kinds of methods in their attempts to create Star Ruler Realm fighting strength.

Extreme Sword Heaven was a very typical example.

Xue Ren's own cultivation was more like conducting research, so he came across some peculiar methods that could be used to create soldiers during his research.

After all, science and technology are a primary productive force[1, and the production of a fighting force was also considered production.

Gao Xiaowen's face was ashen as he stared at the "fighting force" rapidly flying away in front of him, his heart frozen in fear.

It was already a heavy crime to secretly take a sword beast outside the sect. It would be fine if he could resolve it perfectly, but he'd be implicated if the problem escalated.

And now, he actually lost control of a Star Ruler Realm sword beast… Gao Xiaowen didn't know how he'd explain this to the sect. He might even be expelled for this.

Wang Qiu, his companion, also froze when she saw the roaring giant ape disappear into the distance. When she recalled the terrible consequences of an out-of-control sword beast, she couldn't even speak for a while.

"W-What do we do…?" Wang Qiu's voice trembled.

"Hurry! We must go back and find Master!"

……

Gu Nan held Qu Hongye by the neck with one hand and slowly walked through a dense forest.

Ever since they approached the Sword Sect's mountain gate, Gu Nan never allowed Qu Hongye to leave his grasp.

The "physics sword Dao" was a field he'd never seen before. Who knew what kinds of strange abilities they had?

If Qu Hongye successfully wormed into a spatial passage just because he was careless, it'd be hard to find her again.

Laws could be cut off and abilities could be restricted, but the Evil God physique was unstoppable.

Gu Nan believed that as long as he was willing, not even Xue Ren himself would be able to stop Gu Nan from snapping Qu Hongye's neck.

"Hey! Can't you put me down?" But Qu Hongye didn't have the same considerations as Gu Nan. She was currently asking in annoyance.

"Why?"

"I can walk by myself!" She said as she stomped her one good leg.

Gu Nan cast her a glance and unhurriedly placed her on the ground, then slammed his foot down on her good leg.

Crack!

The sound of bones breaking came again. Qu Hongye immediately cried out in pain. "What are you doing?!"

Gu Nan coldly swept her a glance. "Can you still walk now?"

"I-I… No." Qu Hongye wanted to draw her sword and cut this fellow, but the harsh reality made her give in.

"Just you wait…" Qu Hongye glared viciously at Gu Nan while wondering, 'Why aren't my senior brothers and sisters here yet?'

At that moment, an enormous roar traveled over from their front. A giant ape was giving a long roar while looking up at the sky, wreaking havoc on everything around it.

Qu Hongye's face paled. Of course she knew that a sword beast would never make such a move under normal circumstances.

This was clearly a sword beast they lost control of!

"A Tier 5 divine servant? Not bad," Gu Nan, however, just glanced in that direction and commented offhandedly.

Divine servants were a type of existence with the Divine Kingdom distinct from apostles and the populace, and generally, their responsibility was to conquer foreign planes.

To use the concept of base building games as an analogy, the Divine Kingdom's populace were the normal residents, the apostles were the various types of heroes, and the divine servants were the soldiers.

Different types of heroes specialized in different fields, but different levels and types of soldiers all played the same role—to fight wars.

Divine servants were generally artificial creations, and most of them weren't even living beings. They belonged to a relatively rare category of existences.

This was the first time Gu Nan had seen a divine servant since he transmigrated here.

"Get out of the way! Quick, get out of the way!"

A white-bearded old Daoist was chasing the giant ape. When he saw Gu Nan and Qu Hongye, he immediately shielded them protectively behind him.

"H-Hurry up and let go of me!" Gu Nan was still carrying Qu Hongye by the neck, but she couldn't help shouting right now.

Qu Hongye knew exactly how terrifying the sword ape's power was.

This was originally the product of her Martial Uncle's experiments on making beasts take the path of traditional sword cultivators. Reality proved that beasts could also cultivate swordsmanship, and apes were the best among them.

The power of this sword ape was already enough to fight against a newly-advanced Star Ruler!

But what made her helpless was that Gu Nan didn't move at all and just watched as the ape rushed forward, chopping its palm down.

This chop was as fast as lightning. It actually used its palm as a sword without scattering any sword intent contained within the strike at all. This chop alone was enough to prove the giant ape's extraordinary sword Dao attainment.

One had to wonder what the cultivators who wholeheartedly dedicated themselves to swordsmanship would feel if they saw this scene—man was inferior to ape.

Gu Nan just stood in front of the giant ape and raised his left hand.

He steadily caught the giant ape's palm, yet his hand didn't even shake from the impact. On the contrary, the gales generated by the collision almost blew Qu Hongye away.

The giant ape's palm was the size of Gu Nan's entire body, but Gu Nan casually grabbed it with his hand. The small and large figures faced each other just like this, looking very bizarre.

The other people in the forest also fell silent. The giant ape, however, gave another roar as it tried to use all its power to break free.

The hand Gu Nan used to grab it didn't budge. Only then did he violently fling it to one side. The giant ape was actually swung around like a ball, smashing into the ground.

With a loud rumble, the giant ape's head hit the ground, and it let out a wail of pain.

The sword ape's true power was entirely in its swordsmanship, but its actual body wasn't very strong, so Gu Nan's frightening strength caused it to lose consciousness.

"This… Don't tell me it died from that throw?" Gao Xiaowen stared at the motionless sword ape on the ground and couldn't help asking.

"How can it die so easily from just a throw? This is a sword beast!" Wang Qiu denied vehemently, but she didn't sound very confident.

"It's not dead, but it's almost there." Their master, the old white-bearded Daoist, sighed. "You guys drag the sword beast back first."

"No need, leave it to me," a gentle voice rang in everyone's ears. Only then did they realize that an additional figure had already appeared beside them at some point.

It was a young man dressed in light green Daoist robes. As soon as the old Daoist saw him, he immediately bowed and greeted, "Sect Master, Senior Martial Brother."

"Martial Uncle! Martial Uncle, save me!" Qu Hongye, who was beside Gu Nan, even shouted hurriedly.

The person who just arrived was clearly the target Gu Nan wanted to meet, the strongest Sword Saint of the Myriad Heavens—Xue Ren, the Star Ruler of Extreme Sword Heaven.historical

Gu Nan raised such a ruckus here. If Xue Ren still couldn't sense that, then he wouldn't be called a Star Ruler.

Xue Ren greeted the old Daoist, then took another step to arrive in front of Gu Nan and Qu Hongye, smiling gently. "Your Excellency Gu Nan, I've wanted to meet you for a long time."

As he said this, he also patted Qu Hongye's head gently, signaling for her to keep quiet for now.

"What did you want to meet me for?" Gu Nan asked the follow-up question.

"To test my sword." Xue Ren's voice was still as warm as jade, but there was a touch of fervor on his face. "I heard that your physical body is invincible. If you can block this strike of mine, I can grant a request of yours."

Swordsmen were usually martial arts fanatics, and Xue Ren was no exception.

But Xue Ren was a very special swordsman—he paid special attention to etiquette, or rather, going through the proper procedures first. Surprisingly, he didn't have any intention of making a move before he received Gu Nan's reply.

It was the first time Gu Nan had seen such a polite person, so he nodded. "Alright."

While saying that, he raised Qu Hongye in front of him like a shield, squarely blocking him from Xue Ren.

T/N:

[1]"Science and technology are a primary productive force"- Famous quote from Deng Xiaoping

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Everyone in the forest fell silent once again.

Qu Hongye was raised in front of Gu Nan like a shield and could feel the faint murderous aura coming from behind her. She could only stare at Xue Ren tearfully, not daring to make the slightest move.

The old Daoist and his two disciples stared at Gu Nan speechlessly. They'd already realized that the one before them was most likely a Star Ruler powerhouse.

But it was the first time they'd seen such a shameless Star Ruler.

Xue Ren was also dumbfounded. He laughed involuntarily, and the sword Qi that coalesced in front of him slowly dissipated.

……

A few minutes later, Gu Nan and Xue Ren sat across from each other.

Their meeting place was very special. It was a three-story pavilion built entirely from bamboo. The pavilion had a unique style, with a thin layer of woven mats on the floor. It was somewhat reminiscent of the Japanese style Gu Nan remembered.

Xue Ren even assumed a seiza posture, and Qu Hongye, who was waiting upon them from the side, also did the same.

"Where did you guys learn this?" Gu Nan looked at the two curiously. He didn't seem to recall hearing about any Japanese swordsmanship schools in the Myriad Heavens Universe.

"You mean this?" Xue Ren gestured to their surroundings. "It was left behind by my Master. It's a swordsman friend's residence. His swordsmanship is very interesting."

Gu Nan nodded and didn't ask further questions, instead explaining the purpose of his visit.

"You want to bring 200 people into the Myriad Heavens?" Xue Ren rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Lingyang told me you just came back from that side, but if you want to bring so many people over, smuggling them all isn't very feasible. The Thirteen Heavens aren't blind."

Xue Ren was one of the upper echelons of the Heaven-God Alliance. Both his personal strength and seniority were sufficient to qualify for this position.

So after Gu Nan joined the Heaven-God Alliance, Daoist Lingyang quickly informed this side of the news, and Xue Ren naturally knew about it.

Although the Thirteen Heavens couldn't boast of having absolute control over the Myriad Heavens Universe, their control was by no means weak. They could turn a blind eye to human smuggling in relatively small numbers, but that was all.

"What about splitting it into smaller groups?" Gu Nan could easily think of this problem.

"That's also a little difficult." Xue Ren explained with a smile, "Many of those engaged in human smuggling are actually people from the Thirteen Heavens. If you frequently send small groups over, then you'll be discovered sooner or later."

Gu Nan couldn't help frowning slightly. He didn't expect for the Thirteen Heavens to actually have control over both the legal and illegal channels. Sure enough, forces at that level really wouldn't leave many loopholes.

Seeing his expression, Xue Ren suggested, "But you just want to bring people over to this side. In fact, that's easier than smuggling people out… Have you considered going through the official channels?"

"You mean, bring them to this side through the Thirteen Heavens?" Gu Nan raised an eyebrow. He was used to acting alone, so this actually never occurred to him.

"That's right." Xue Ren replied with a smile, "If you don't mind the Thirteen Heavens knowing about the people you're bringing in, I can do this favor for you."

There were naturally many advantages to bringing the vampires over through the Thirteen Heavens' official channels. For one, there was no need to hide anything, and it was also stable and efficient.

The downside was that the people brought in would need to go through a background check. Their identities, origins, and whereabouts would all be recorded by the Thirteen Heavens.

Gu Nan thought about it and decided on this approach. After all, Shana's group of vampires didn't really have anything to hide. Moreover, after they entered the Myriad Heavens and went inside his Divine Kingdom, the Thirteen Heavens would lose sight of them all the same.

"Okay," so Gu Nan agreed with a nod.

"Then it's a deal." Xue Ren didn't act like a Star Ruler with a high status at all. He was as easy-going as normal people. "In exchange, I hope you can also help me with a small favor."

Gu Nan was all too familiar with the model of completing a mission to earn rewards, so he naturally had no objections.

"Want a fight?"

"No." Xue Ren smiled as he patted Qu Hongye's head. Under the latter's resentful gaze, he leisurely said, "Help me look after a child."

……

Although Qu Hongye was Xue Ren's Martial Niece, her master passed away when she was young, so she was actually brought up by Xue Ren from childhood. Thus, it wasn't such a stretch to say that they had a master-disciple or even father-daughter relationship.

More importantly, Xue Ren only had a few disciples in total, and among them, Qu Hongye was the one who showed the most promise of inheriting his mantle.

With that, it was easy to imagine Qu Hongye's status inside the Sword Sect.

But that same Qu Hongye was currently walking behind Gu Nan with a wary gaze, sizing him up.

The condition in exchange for Xue Ren's help was for Gu Nan to help look after a child for a period of time, and this child was precisely Qu Hongye.

The period was around three to six months, and Gu Nan only needed to hand back an alive Qu Hongye upon Xue Ren's return.

A few injuries were really nothing for a cultivator at this level—just like Qu Hongye's broken legs, which were treated in no time.

"Why does Xue Ren want me to look after you? Will someone come to kill you?" Gu Nan turned his head and asked Qu Hongye.

In his opinion, this was nothing more than a protection mission, and predicting possible crises was naturally what the player needed to do.

Gu Nan didn't mind staying in Extreme Sword Heaven for a while. In any case, after moving the vampire clan into his Divine Kingdom, he still needed to wait for a while for enough points to be accumulated.

Even if he planned to launch a Divine Kingdom War, the points that needed to be invested in the early stages were quite sizable.

It wasn't like he wouldn't be able to visit his Divine Kingdom at all while staying at Extreme Sword Heaven to babysit a child, so it wouldn't affect his plans there.

Qu Hongye glanced at Gu Nan and said with some embarrassment, "I'm not very dangerous, but I'm prone to attracting dangers…"

……

Void Grotto Heaven.

Void Grotto Heaven was one of the Thirteen Heavens. Not only was it powerful, but it was also one of the first astral worlds to enter this level. Among the astral worlds, it was a veritable veteran Heaven Level plane.

In ancient times, Void Grotto Heaven was once known as the Daoist Sect, and the current Daoist Lingyang's Clear Profundity Realm was actually one of the branches of the ancient Daoist Sect.

Void Grotto Heaven was also passed down from each sect master through many generations, but surprisingly, every single generation's ruler was an extraordinary pedant who successfully stepped into Unified Dao Realm. Thus, Void Grotto Heaven never once fell out of the ranks of the Thirteen Heavens.

Of course, perhaps it wasn't even called the Thirteen Heavens back then.

Void Grotto Heaven's current Star Ruler was a woman, which was quite rare. She was known in the mortal world as Nun Yu Lian, because her real name was Yu Lian.

At this time, Yu Lian was sitting across from Xue Ren, making small talk.

"Then I'll leave this matter to you." Xue Ren smiled lightly and took a sip of the clear tea. The Daoist Sect's unique tea had an indescribable fragrance lingering about.

Yu Lian had an average appearance. She was neither beautiful nor ugly, yet her features were extremely symmetrical and orderly, giving people a comfortable impression.

"A small matter," was her response to Xue Ren's request.

It was just a matter of receiving a group of people into the Myriad Heavens—it was indeed a small matter. As long as the other party was willing to accept the background check, there was actually no price that the Thirteen Heavens needed to pay in return.

Some space-time crystals weren't much of a big deal at all for the Thirteen Heavens, which controlled the resources of the entire Myriad Heavens Universe.

"The one who wants to bring people over is Gu Nan, right? Is this person worth going to all this trouble to win him over?" Yu Lian naturally knew who Xue Ren was doing a favor for.

"He's a very interesting person." Xue Ren smiled, his gaze suddenly becoming somewhat meaningful. "He should be related to that side."historical

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Of course Yu Lian knew what Xue Ren meant by "that side," so she frowned slightly.

"It's true that I've never seen someone with those kinds of powers before… but it's even less similar to that side." Yu Lian thought about it, then shook her head.

As one of the Star Rulers of the Thirteen Heavens, Yu Lian was certainly no stranger to the gods. She'd even personally fought that side's greater gods before.

If the power system of the Myriad Heavens could barely be considered diverse, then the power system of the World of Gods could only be described as having only a single path.

Putting aside the differences in the gods' divine authorities, it could be said that all gods followed the same path—that is, using the power of faith as a basis to control their powers through their Godheads.

Yu Lian didn't really believe that Gu Nan was related to that side, but she didn't entirely disbelieve it either—after all, this came from Xue Ren.

Leaving aside the fact that Xue Ren was also one of the top Star Rulers in the world who was just one step away from joining the Thirteen Heavens and may take that step at any time, just based on the personal friendship between the two, it was enough for Yu Lian to pay attention to Gu Nan.

"If there's an opportunity, we can pull him to our side," she said.

"I will wait and see." Xue Ren was still smiling. Then he changed the subject, "The child Lu Wen found will go to the Void Ruins in the near future. You don't need to make any preparations? I have to leave for a while, so I might not be able to help you."

"I didn't need your help to begin with," Yu Lian replied decisively, her gaze turning a little cold. "Lu Wen is overstepping his bounds."

……

The Thirteen Heavens worked a little faster than Gu Nan thought. Less than two days later, there were already people there to extradite the vampires.

Shana and the others naturally didn't care about the background check, and as for Zhong Die, whose identity was a bit problematic… She was originally from the Myriad Heavens Universe and wasn't affected by the dimensional walls at all, so she didn't need any background check in the first place.

Gu Nan sent the vampires inside his Divine Kingdom and assigned them a separate territory to develop. He had Shana lead two Legend Rank vampires and start raiding the Crescent Moon World dungeon.

However, Gu Nan decisively tossed Zhong Die into White Bones Realm, not giving her any chance to enter his Divine Kingdom.

After all, she was Zhong Qinghe's daughter. Who knew if Zhong Qinghe left any tracking spells on her? Letting her enter his Divine Kingdom was too risky.

If she wanted to enter the Divine Kingdom, then she at least had to wait until Gu Nan felt his Divine Kingdom was powerful enough, or until after he killed Zhong Qinghe.

The Raymond clan, which lived in the Undead Kingdom for years, wasn't quite accustomed to the environment within Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, but they were still quite satisfied.

There weren't too many powerful forces here, and most of the resources were in an undeveloped state, which was very suitable for their survival.

Besides the somewhat different culture and social customs, as well as the fact that Legend Rank experts would occasionally be pulled away to do hard labor, there was really nothing else to be dissatisfied about.

After settling the vampires inside the Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan supervised the progress of the Crescent Moon World dungeon raid while his main body stayed in Extreme Sword Heaven.

He soon understood what Qu Hongye meant by "attracting danger."

"Senior Gu Nan, someone is knocking on our doors again because of Junior Sister Qu…" Gao Xiaowen ran to Gu Nan's side and reported with a troubled expression.

In just half a month's time, this was already the fourth time he ran over to ask for help. If possible, Gao Xiaowen definitely didn't want to do this.

He was well aware of how horrifying the one before him was—or rather, how brutal he was.

Qu Hongye really was a trouble magnet. Her default expression was always mocking. She could always pull aggro no matter where she went. Every few days, people would knock on their door demanding an explanation or apology.

"Oh, you can't blow them off this time?" Gu Nan asked unhurriedly while leisurely sunbathing, an open book covering his face.

The last three times he was approached, Gu Nan didn't even have any intention of showing himself or resolving the problem and simply let the Sword Sect deal with them.

It was nothing more than apologizing when an apology was warranted or paying for damages—it wasn't the first time the Sword Sect had cleaned up Qu Hongye's mess.

"Yes, Junior Sister Qu killed someone this time…" Gao Xiaowen answered helplessly, "and it was the wife of a Star Ruler. That Star Ruler is now looking for Junior Sister Qu."

The Star Ruler in question came from a small plane. Even his astral world was established only recently, so he wasn't very strong. But at the very least, he was still a Star Ruler, so Extreme Sword Heaven couldn't be unreasonable.

The bigger the plane, the more it valued its face. Large planes couldn't just openly bully others.

"Senior, it would be better to place Junior Sister Qu in confinement." Gao Xiaowen couldn't help suggesting, "If you don't manage her, then she's just too much of a troublemaker… The several Seniors who looked after Junior Sister Qu previously all ended up doing the same thing."

This clearly wasn't the first time Qu Hongye had been left with someone else. Whenever Xue Ren went out to attend to a matter, he needed someone to babysit Qu Hongye.

But Gu Nan revealed an interested smile. "Let's go take a look."

……

Gao Xiaowen quickly led Gu Nan to the main hall, where Qu Hongye, several senior members of the Sword Sect, and a burly man with a scruffy beard were all gathered.

"This is Lord Qiao Deyu," Gao Xiaowen pointed to the large man and introduced him to Gu Nan.

Qiao Deyu sized Gu Nan up with cold eyes, uninterested in greeting him. His expression remained icy from beginning to end—he came here to demand , not to make friends.

"Your Excellency Gu Nan, you're just in time. Help us persuade Mr. Qiao together," nearby, an old man in Daoist robes said with a bitter smile. He was none other than Gao Xiaowen's master, an elderly Daoist named Zhang Hui.

Beside him was a female Daoist who was also a cultivator from the same generation as him. She was called Wu Yun and was also one of Qu Hongye's Martial Aunts.

Wu Yun was currently busy wiping Qu Hongye's ass for her. Plus, she also didn't recognize Gu Nan, so she naturally didn't have time to pay any attention to him.

But no matter how she persuaded and how much she promised to compensate, Qiao Deyu always had a frosty expression and said coldly, "I don't need any compensation, nor is it possible for you guys to compensate for my wife's life."

As he said that, he turned to look at Qu Hongye. "I just want to ask one thing—my wife had no enmity against your Extreme Sword Heaven, so why did you kill her?"

Everyone turned their heads to Qu Hongye, who just shrugged with a Hmph. "Her chest was bigger than mine. I hate big-chested women the most, so I killed her~"

Everyone was stunned by that answer. Qiao Deyu's eyes turned bloodshot, and the laws around him surged crazily, all directed at Qu Hongye.

"You're courting death!"

The next second, a hand waved in front of Qu Hongye, instantly extinguishing all attacking laws—Gu Nan had appeared in front of Qu Hongye.

At the very least, Qiao Deyu was still a Star Ruler with an astral world, so he shouldn't have been this weak, but the one who actually came to Extreme Sword Heaven was just a clone.

Qiao Deyu wasn't stupid. If he still came with his true body despite knowing full well that Extreme Sword Heaven was powerful and that they'd just become enemies, then he was simply looking for death.

Looking at Gu Nan's expressionless face, Qiao Deyu was so furious that he laughed. "Good! Very good! What a tyrannical and lawless Extreme Sword Heaven!"

After throwing down these words, he disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

Qiao Deyu's disappearance left Gao Xiaowen and the others with faces full of worry. It was clearly impossible for the other party to give up on his revenge, which meant that Junior Sister Qu would have to face the threat of a Star Ruler whenever she went out in the future.

"You're quite good." Gu Nan, however, smiled and patted Qu Hongye's head. This action was identical to Xue Ren's. "Xue Ren said you have the most hope of advancing to Star Ruler Realm. Indeed, that's true."historical

"Ah? Why do you say so…?" Next to them, Gao Xiaowen was dumbfounded. He couldn't understand why the Junior Sister Qu who made trouble for no reason would actually show the most promise of advancing to Star Ruler Realm.

In a certain sense, this was already considered complete disregard for human life.

Gu Nan looked at Qu Hongye with a light smile, as if looking at a highly promising beginner teammate in his past life's game.

Qu Hongye wasn't actually stupid, and it was impossible for that to be the first time Qiao Deyu asked her why she killed his wife. Her words were spoken deliberately for Gu Nan to hear.

As for her goal… She probably wanted to find some trouble for Gu Nan?

In any case, she could casually kill innocent people for her own goal—this was one of the marks of a Star Ruler.

In the World of Gods, this was called "divinity[1]."

"A clear-cut goal and sound logic, very good." Gu Nan said to Qu Hongye with a smile, "But you'll have to clean up the mess you made."

Qu Hongye panicked slightly and subconsciously asked, "How to clean it up?"

"Wipe out that Qiao Deyu's astral world."

T/N:

[1] Divinity: Has more to do with personality here than actually being divine

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Gu Nan admired Qu Hongye greatly. This kind of admiration was similar to finding a card with low stats but very special attributes while playing a card game.

If you happened to have a powerful card in your hand that could work with it, then even better.

Gu Nan saw a little of Zhong Die's shadow in Qu Hongye—no, she actually surpassed Zhong Die in terms of her compatibility as a player.

Zhong Die was just an experimental candidate for Gu Nan, who gave her the vampire quest line only because she was suited for becoming a vampire.

Gu Nan didn't even do the preliminary work to make sure Zhong Die would be under his complete control.

But armed with experience from Zhong Die's matter, Gu Nan already had other ideas—he wanted to make use of all player quest lines in the World of Gods to create a "player" army for himself!

Inside the Divine Kingdom, the populace could be born naturally and divine servants could be produced, but only apostles had to be recruited from outside.

Divine servants may have power exceeding Tier 5, but their intelligence would never reach that level, let alone their laws.

Only the apostles, who possessed complete intelligence from the start, could learn and evolve by themselves and could also be strengthened by the Apostle Hall.

So who better to fill the role of apostles than players?

'If I can really control a player army, then Kingdom Wars would be too easy.' Gu Nan sat in the room and watched Qu Hongye write furiously, while thoughts ran through his head.

Kingdom Wars was the players' abbreviation for Divine Kingdom Wars, and it was also the main gameplay for players advancing from the First Round to the Second Round.

The earlier construction and management of the Divine Kingdom were essentially all to pave the way for the Divine Kingdom Wars.

And Qu Hongye was currently doing the same thing.

"I finished writing out the plan." With an impatient look on her face, Qu Hongye handed over a thin piece of paper with a few lines written sporadically on it.

These lines could roughly be summed up in one sentence: "Everyone follow me and charge."

"Are you planning to take this to Gale World?" Gu Nan placed the paper down on the table and looked at Qu Hongye.

Gale World was Qiao Deyu's astral world. It was originally a naturally developing plane that Qiao Deyu just took control of for less than a few decades, so it was considered a newborn astral world.

"Is there a problem?" Qu Hongye asked with a glare.

Gu Nan shook his head. Gale World was only just starting out and had only one or two Void Cutters protecting it, so of course handling it through brute force wasn't a problem.

But the purpose behind having Qu Hongye write out a plan wasn't really for her to create a plan—rather, he wanted to analyze her attributes and personality.

As far as players were concerned, any NPC could be won over or subdued.

Since Gu Nan was considering having Qu Hongye join his "player army," of course he had to assess her ability stats in various aspects. It would be convenient if he directly accepted her as an apostle, since he'd be able to see her stats in the Apostle Hall.

But out of the same concern as Zhong Die, Gu Nan wouldn't allow her to enter his Divine Kingdom for the time being.

Gu Nan even started considering whether he should set up another organization outside the Divine Kingdom to specifically place these people in if there were too many talents from large planes.

Anyhow, these "heroes" mostly needed to command the troops when invading foreign planes, so whether they were ever allowed inside his Divine Kingdom or not made no difference.

"Then I'm off!" Qu Hongye saw Gu Nan's lack of response and said in an uncertain tone.

She was restless by nature and had always been interested in exciting things like this. It was impossible for her to get such an opportunity when Xue Ren was around.

Gu Nan waved his hand in dismissal. He wanted to see what Qu Hongye would be able to accomplish with this much freedom of command.

Her personality was very suited for joining the "player army," but unlike the experimental Zhong Die, if she was too weak, she would be abandoned by Gu Nan all the same.

In fact, after Qu Hongye's example, Gu Nan's thinking had already broadened—if it was hard to meet such people, then he could simply raise them himself.

'Let's try it first. There's nothing else to do here anyways.' Gu Nan looked at Qu Hongye's disappearing figure and thought casually.

……

While Qu Hongye was gathering troops to level Gale World, new developments occurred inside Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom.

The changes came from two places. One was that Red Tail, who stayed in White Bones Realm to manage White Mist, finally advanced to Void Cutter Realm after a few times in the Apostle Hall and years of accumulation.

Don't be fooled by how Gu Nan killed Star Rulers so casually. Nevertheless, the degree of difficulty in breaking through to the next realm remained unchanged.

The Myriad Heavens Universe wasn't a place where people could level up just by taking pills or elixirs. Even if someone advanced to a high realm, chances of that person's family doing the same were very slim.

The second development was that the progress of Shana and the other vampires' raid on Crescent Moon World went faster than Gu Nan expected.

In the boss battle, they were already able to cut off all of the Silver-Robed Ancestor's escape routes before their party could suffer any casualties.

After limiting the Silver-Robed Ancestor's ability to escape, the rest was nothing more than a slow grind. As long as the three mission experts were familiar with the boss's fighting style, killing him was not a problem.

In the end, the Silver-Robed Ancestor inherited only part of Gu Nan's power, as well as his keen combat instincts.

But in reality, Gu Nan's most powerful weapon was his familiarity with the various kinds of powers, as well as the targeted tactics derived from them.

The Silver-Robed Ancestor didn't have these memories, so sooner or later he would be killed.

In any case, Gu Nan still paid close attention to this. He even organized three additional Legend Rank vampires and had them start farming Crescent Moon World in two shifts based on the experience of Shana's party.

As long as Crescent Moon World was farmed continuously, Gu Nan would experience a large leap in the speed at which points accumulated. The initial capital needed to launch a Divine Kingdom War depended on this.

On this day, Gu Nan was still in Extreme Sword Heaven, but his gaze was focused on the rather distant other side of the Myriad Heavens, which was where Gale World was.

Qu Hongye's attack against Gale World had already begun.

Although the plane invasion she organized was, in Gu Nan's opinion, highly unskilled, extremely inefficient, and utterly lacking any sense of beauty, in the end, it was still an invasion.

Countless cultivators from Extreme Sword Heaven poured into Gale World, led by a few Void Cutter experts. They hunted down the experts native to Gale World with all their might.

Gu Nan, who was watching from the sidelines, couldn't help secretly nodding in approval.

Although Qu Hongye's strategic arrangements were crude, Extreme Sword Heaven's cultivators were all quite good. They carried out the blockade and slaughter very smoothly… Mm, it was obvious from a glance that this wasn't their first time doing something like this.

On the other hand, it also fully illustrated just how weak Gale World's foundation was.

The Void Cutter cultivators who came along didn't even have to step in at all. This invasion didn't meet any decent resistance.historical

Simply put, the civilization of Gale World was still stuck in the feudal era where most people were farmers. Qiao Deyu didn't have time to advance this world's civilization before the invasion happened.

Let alone facing cultivators of a higher realm, the natives of Gale World even lost against enemies of the same level.

Finally, the two Void Cutters of Gale World tried to make a move and were easily killed by Qu Hongye herself. Shortly after, the entire Gale World was razed to the ground.

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Gale World fell faster and more smoothly than imagined.

Gu Nan never even got a chance to attack. Instead, he found another difference between the Myriad Heavens Universe and the World of Gods while observing from the sidelines.

There was no doubt that this wasn't the first time cultivators from Extreme Sword Heaven had invaded another plane, so Gu Nan was able to learn valuable information from their overall invasion strategy.

In this regard, the Myriad Heavens Universe was quite different from the World of Gods.

People from the Myriad Heavens Universe were all about "targeting the leader." They headed straight for the target plane's powerful cultivators in order to destroy the enemy's forces as quickly as possible.

But it was different in the World of Gods. There, the highest-priority targets were apostles, followed by the fanatics.

The reason behind this difference lies in a single word—faith.

The source of power that gods obtained through their Divine Kingdom was the faith of their Divine Kingdom's inhabitants, while Star Rulers were more like Gu Nan—they just needed the inhabitants' power.

So he was bound to make strategic adjustments to any future Divine Kingdom Wars to target this point.

After all, the ultimate goal of a Divine Kingdom War was still to kill the enemy Star Ruler or god. Attacking their plane was just a way to weaken their power.

Observing this battle allowed Gu Nan to figure out the differences between the two sides' Divine Kingdom Wars, so he was still quite satisfied.

The only unsatisfying thing was that from beginning to end, Qiao Deyu never appeared.

While they didn't experience any surprises during the entire invasion, Qiao Deyu's failure to show himself could be considered the biggest surprise.

"He actually didn't come out. What should we do now?" Qu Hongye returned to Gu Nan, looking as if she'd just gone out for a stroll.

The entire invasion didn't even last one week. It was indeed no different from going on vacation.historical

Gu Nan was silent for a while, then asked Gao Xiaowen beside him, "Did you find Qiao Deyu's whereabouts yet?"

"Not yet. Our people are stepping up their investigations…" Gao Xiaowen wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and quickly reported.

The fact that Qiao Deyu never showed himself really was strange. After all, no matter how one looked at this, he had no reason to hide.

The destruction of his astral world would greatly weaken his power, returning him to the level of a normal Star Ruler overnight.

But if Qiao Deyu didn't show himself because he was biding his time for a sneak attack, Qu Hongye even ended up using herself as bait and still failed to lure him out.

If there was still a slim chance that Qiao Deyu could take advantage of the chaos to kill Qu Hongye right now, then his chances would drop to zero after Xue Ren returned.

So what exactly was Qiao Deyu planning?

"Found him." Zhang Hui, the old Daoist, walked in from the door and said to the group, "Someone found Qiao Deyu's traces in the Void Ruins."

"So he was in the Void Ruins!" Gao Xiaowen exclaimed in sudden realization, "No wonder he didn't come back even when his astral world was destroyed—it was simply impossible for him to leave!"

There were many strange places in the Myriad Heavens Universe. Some were formed naturally, while others were special zones created by ancient cataclysms.

The Void Ruins belonged to the latter category. It was the ruins of the ancient Void Grotto Heaven.

Void Grotto Heaven was one of the Thirteen Heavens, and it was also a rather legendary plane.

Void Grotto Heaven had an extremely long history, having already been one of the largest planes in the Myriad Heavens since ancient times. Furthermore, it always remained within the ranks of the Thirteen Heavens and never fell out of that level.

But it wasn't all smooth-sailing. Void Grotto Heaven also experienced several major cataclysms.

During one of those cataclysms, a piece of the astral world even broke off and landed outside Void Grotto Heaven, forming today's Void Ruins.

Many people knew the location of the Void Ruins, but it was so mysterious and treacherous that even people from Void Grotto Heaven didn't dare to casually enter and explore.

Nobody expected Qiao Deyu to actually appear in the Void Ruins.

"He went in of his own accord?" Gu Nan raised his eyebrows. To think that Qiao Deyu would still be in the mood to go treasure hunting after starting a blood feud. This really was odd.

"No," Zhang Hui, however, said, "we couldn't find any trace of him at the entrance to the Void Ruins, so he was most likely pulled directly inside."

While speaking, Zhang Hui also explained the special characteristics of the Void Ruins.

The Void Ruins was a very special place. The law of space inside was different from the outside, forming a unique set of laws.

Legend has it that the Void Ruins was a place where one can never leave after entering, but this wasn't entirely accurate.

The Void Ruins wouldn't stop anyone from entering or leaving. If someone wanted to, they could even take a stroll inside twice every day and still be on time for dinner after returning home.

But the peculiarity of the Void Ruins was that many things inside would leave a mark on the cultivator, and these marks would be triggered randomly. Once the mark was triggered, the cultivator would immediately be sent back inside the Void Ruins.

But this time, it wouldn't be so easy for the cultivator to leave. They must first deal with the event that triggered the mark, or else they would remain trapped inside forever.

Not even a Star Ruler like Qiao Deyu was immune to the laws that teleported people back inside. This was indeed frightening.

"How interesting." Gu Nan couldn't help revealing a slight smile after learning about this set of laws.

However, his eyes continued to read the rest of the document and unexpectedly found a familiar name in the information—Lou Wanying, the youth that Lu Wen was painstakingly raising.

The person who triggered the mark and pulled Qiao Deyu back inside the Void Ruins was none other than Lou Wanying.

Gu Nan's eyes narrowed slightly. To say that this was a coincidence—he didn't really believe that.

But if it wasn't a coincidence… Then who had the ability to set it all up? Qu Hongye's level wasn't high enough where she'd be able to know the situation in the Void Ruins, so Xue Ren was probably the only one who could have her "accidentally" find Qiao Deyu.

Gu Nan also recalled Xue Ren's extremely normal smile when "entrusting" Qu Hongye to him, and then… he set the documents aside.

"Since Qiao Deyu is in the Void Ruins, let's wait for him to return," Gu Nan said casually, his gaze falling to the distant sky. "It shouldn't take long."

……

As expected, not long after the destruction of Gale World, all the major newspapers suddenly published a piece that triggered a lively discussion throughout the entire Myriad Heavens Universe.

A huge alteration occurred in the Void Ruins—the emergence of the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance had already led to the deaths of six Star Rulers. And now, the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance fell into the hands of a person named Lou Wanying.

"Lou Wanying! It's him again!" Countless similar exclamations resounded throughout the Myriad Heavens.

Counting the previous Time Arena, Lou Wanying's name entered the eyes of all major powers for the second time.

But while the rest of the world was lamenting this turn of events, Lou Wanying himself was accompanying his two companions in Extreme Sword Heaven, making their way towards the Sword Sect's mountain gate.

Lou Wanying was a little different from when Gu Nan last saw him. The old him still looked a little young and inexperienced, but now he seemed mature and calm. He wore a light green Daoist robe and possessed an extraordinary bearing.

His two companions also weren't ordinary. One of them had a pair of wings on his back and two strange horns on his head. He looked wild and headstrong.

The other was a plain-clothed young girl with a longsword strapped to her back. She was holding a corpse in her hand—it was none other than Qiao Deyu.

"Who are you?" The disciple guarding the Sword Sect's mountain gate asked in a heavy voice—no matter how he looked at it, these three didn't seem like guests.

The young girl looked cold and detached as she gently placed Qiao Deyu's corpse on the ground and unsheathed the longsword from her back. "Senior Qiao died for me, so I will shoulder his grudge."

As soon as her words fell, a cut instantly appeared on the guard disciple's neck, and his body collapsed to the ground.

The young lady stepped forth and walked towards the mountaintop step by step. Lou Wanying glanced at the dead disciple. His expression looked a bit uncomfortable, but he could only sigh helplessly in the end.

The wild man with two wings on his back, however, shouted to the crowd that had gathered, "Listen up, you people!"

"Our Boss Yin Qing is destined to become the strongest swordsman in the Myriad Heavens!"

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Although Xue Ren had yet to return, someone who wanted to surpass him and become the strongest swordsman in the Myriad Heavens had already arrived.

However, even though many people set this as their lifelong goal, not many actually had the ability to achieve it.historical

Qu Hongye, Gao Xiaowen, and Zhang Hui were sitting high on the mountain peak with ugly expressions as they watched Yin Qing walk up, step by step and strike by strike. Sword in hand, she approached the summit just like that.

Yin Qing was the most traditional kind of swordsman. Every move and every style contained strong martial arts vibes. She was no different from the mortal world's martial artists.

Due to Xue Ren's unique sword path, the Sword Sect he controlled naturally also had a biased opinion of swordsmanship.

For example, Qu Hongye, his heir, had never been a fan of traditional swordsmanship, and a look of disapproval had already formed on her face.

"Stop!" Zhang Hui halted Qu Hongye, who wanted to go down the mountain. "What are you doing?"

Qu Hongye turned around and replied matter-of-factly, "To teach her a good lesson!"

Zhang Hui pulled her behind him and instructed Gao Xiaowen, "Go find another sword ape."

Gao Xiaowen hurriedly nodded and swiftly ran down. Since the Sword Sect had the ability to cultivate sword apes, of course they didn't only raise one. Plus, now that Zhang Hui was present, there was no need to worry about losing control of the sword ape.

On the other hand, Qu Hongye could only bristle resentfully. Zhang Hui was also her Martial Uncle, so she had no way to disobey the other party's wishes.

As for Gu Nan, he was treated more like Qu Hongye's babysitter. It wasn't like Xue Ren entrusted the entire Sword Sect to him. Yin Qing's current actions were tantamount to provoking the whole Sword Sect.

Judging by strength alone, Yin Qing was also considered a top-tier Void Cutter, so Zhang Hui directly dispatched a Star Ruler level sword ape without another word.

Sword apes didn't have any laws, nor were they a higher-level lifeform, but their power was genuinely at Star Ruler Realm.

Even though a sword ape might be completely trounced when fighting a normal Star Ruler, it would still be enough to deal with a Void Cutter cultivator.

However, contrary to Zhang Hui's expectations, the sword ape lost, and it was even lost very thoroughly, without any suspense at all. This wasn't because the young lady could challenge opponents at a higher realm than her, but because… she was a Star Ruler!

This Star Ruler level sword ape was simply no different from the earlier Sword Sect disciples and was cleanly decapitated with a single swing of her sword.

"Tsk tsk, as expected of Boss." The winged man, who was following her alongside Lou Wanying, couldn't help chuckling as he watched the scene. "I'm afraid neither of us would've been able to defeat this big ape."

Lou Wanying nodded wordlessly. Unlike normal Star Rulers, the sword ape's power was almost completely exposed, so the two of them could easily discern how strong it was.

Because of this, Lou Wanying acknowledged that it would be quite a troublesome opponent for him without resorting to some of his trump cards.

On the mountaintop, Zhang Hui and the others' expressions didn't look very good. Qu Hongye flattened her mouth and no longer brought up the topic of "teaching her a lesson."

She was very confident in her own swordsmanship, but not enough to ignore the gap between a Void Cutter and a Star Ruler.

Star Ruler meant one's laws were complete and self-contained enough to create its own world, and until she could do the same, she lacked the power to challenge the other party for the time being.

Unfortunately, it just so happened that this step was the hardest to achieve in Xue Ren's swordsmanship—taking this step meant the establishment of an entirely new worldview. This wasn't an easy feat even for Qu Hongye, who was raised with such ideas from the start.

"I'll do it," Gu Nan's voice rang in everyone's ears.

Zhang Hui's expression changed slightly, but he ultimately shook his head firmly. "There's no need to trouble sir yet. We must win back the Sword Sect's face by ourselves."

Xue Ren managed Extreme Sword Heaven for tens of thousands of years. He naturally had more than a couple of trump cards in his lair.

Otherwise, any random Star Ruler would be able to bully his astral world whenever he was gone, which would bring chaos to Extreme Sword Heaven.

Zhang Hui's gaze was fixed on Yin Qing below. The latter was already halfway up the mountain. 'As long as she takes another step forward…'

Gu Nan, however, smiled. "I'm afraid it's too late."

Right as his words fell, Zhang Hui and the others' expressions changed simultaneously, because an indistinct sword intent had already reached them.

Yin Qing remained in the same spot and didn't actually take that fatal step forward, yet her sword intent had already reached her enemy.

"Qu Hongye." Her will was composed entirely of sword intent, yet it clearly conveyed this message, as if there really was a person standing in front of them.

Qu Hongye's face paled slightly. The education she received never included sword intent, much less actually conveying a will through something like sword intent.

However, Gu Nan stepped forward at this time and appeared in front of Qu Hongye, blocking the attack and instantly severing all the sword intent.

The sword intent that seemed incomparably metaphysical to others was as clear as a beacon to Gu Nan's eyes.

However, he was secretly shaking his head at this time. Qu Hongye's performance wasn't satisfactory enough for him.

Xue Ren used the method of cultivating scientists to train his heir, resulting in Qu Hongye's ability still having flaws. Perhaps time could be used to make up for it, but Gu Nan didn't have that time.

In contrast, Gu Nan much preferred to use probability to select his apostles—if he raised a hundred people, then at least one person among them would stand out.

If a hundred wasn't enough, then a thousand or even ten thousand. Human life was the most worthless thing in this world.

After making up his mind, Gu Nan no longer cared about Qu Hongye so much anymore. His gaze shifted down the mountain, turning somewhat cold and ruthless.

He didn't want to waste any more time here.

Lou Wanying and the winged man—Yan Yang—also reached Yin Qing's side by this point. The latter warned coldly, "Do not take another step forward."

Before Lou Wanying could respond, Yan Yang had already stepped back with a swish. His movement was so exaggerated that it gave people a theatrical feeling.

"Hmph! I already knew that this Sword Sect isn't a good place! To think there was actually a trap, how despicable and shameless!" Yan Yang muttered quickly under his breath. The speed of his words made Lou Wanying feel that it was perhaps even faster than his sword speed.

Yin Qing, however, wasn't in the mood for jokes and told them in a heavy voice, "It's very dangerous. You two go back."

Only when she said these words did Lou Wanying and Yan Yang truly feel stunned. Even with Yan Yang's personality, he was still surprised to hear this from the mouth of his Boss.

The next moment, Yin Qing brazenly drew her sword. The surging sword intent almost seemed to sever the sky and cut down the sun, moon, and stars.

But what descended from the sky was simply a fist.

The collision was entirely silent. Lou Wanying and his friend only felt their hearts sink, as if a heavy weight was pressing down on them, leaving them unable to breathe.

Yet the sword containing Yin Qing's full power also impaled that fist, traveling through the wrist, bones, and all the way to the shoulder before it tore out of the opponent's body.

But even so, a small portion of the fist's terrifying strength remained.

Yin Qing's sword-wielding right hand instantly burst apart, and blood spurted wildly from her mouth. Gu Nan's figure was standing there quietly in front of her.

His right hand had a longsword stuck in it, which looked a bit comical, but no one could laugh right now.

Because Gu Nan was currently casually raising his left hand, pulling the longsword out, and then casually tossing it onto the ground.

Immediately after that, the injury on his right hand started to heal.

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Yin Qing's swordsmanship was very strong.

This kind of powerhouse who focused on one path had a system that was inherently more logically consistent than other Star Rulers.

So Yin Qing was still considered a powerful figure even among Star Rulers, unless she happened to run into a Star Ruler with an astral world.

But it was extremely unfortunate that Gu Nan's abilities completely countered any powers that relied on sword intent or will.

As long as the attack couldn't destroy his Evil God physique, Gu Nan was equivalent to an immortal existence. Moreover, he also didn't fear consecutive hits, because no one could catch up to him.

"Gu Nan!" Lou Wanying naturally recognized the other party in one glance, and the flames of rage in his eyes almost spewed out.

He and Gu Nan had crossed paths many times before.

He still considered the other party a teammate back when they went to Nirvana Heaven together, and later, he even wanted to invite Gu Nan along when heading to the Time Arena.

Despite being rejected at that time, the relationship between the two didn't deteriorate—that is, until Gu Nan struck and killed Luo Ze, then beat up Lou Wanying to within an inch of his life and stole the sand of time.

Gu Nan had already become a bandit in the current Lou Wanying's eyes—an enemy he held an extremely deep grudge against.

And in Gu Nan's words, his favorability with the other party had already fallen into the negatives.

Lou Wanying didn't expect to see Gu Nan again in Extreme Sword Heaven's Sword Sect. Even worse, he didn't expect that not even Yin Qing could stop the other party!

"Boss!" Yan Yang's expression changed wildly as he ran forward to help Yin Qing up and shot Gu Nan a vicious glare.

While Yan Yang did have a nasty personality, his many years of friendship with Yin Qing wasn't fake.

Lou Wanying even shouted, "Gu Nan, whatever attacks you have, just direct them all at me. Those two have nothing to do with this matter!"

After Lou Wanying finished, he rushed forward without hesitation and pulled out a small box from his clothes and threw it out. A layer of fine powder started to drift in the air.

"You guys get out of here!" Lou Wanying told the two behind him.

Yan Yang didn't have time to think. He opened a space passage with a wave of his hand and helped Yin Qing inside.

"You will all die." Gu Nan, however, only had a cold smile on his face as he stepped into that powder with one step. His figure was actually completely unhindered.

Yin Qing was only injured and had yet to lose consciousness, so she immediately stopped in her tracks when she saw this, planning to turn back and aid Lou Wanying.

But Yan Yang hastily dragged her back while urging, "Boss, what are you doing? That Lou Wanying kid is blessed with great luck. Normal people can't hurt him."

It wasn't like they've only known Lou Wanying for a day. They knew a long time ago that he enjoyed profound luck and fortune. Who knows which powerful figure was secretly backing Lou Wanying? So he wouldn't be killed that easily.

Of course, Lou Wanying himself didn't know this. He was currently watching Gu Nan's punch fall down with a bitter smile on his face.

'Brother Yan, Big Sis Yin, it seems that your little brother will be the first to leave this world…' Lou Wanying thought helplessly in his heart.

However, right at that time, a white light suddenly flashed on his chest. Nine bright dots floated up out of thin air, forming a strange array.

……

Lu Wen sat in a chair above the endless sky, while a woman in Daoist robes stood in front of him.

She was none other than Yu Lian, the Star Ruler of Void Grotto Heaven. However, the two were currently inside Lu Wen's Clockwork Heaven.

"Your people took my sect's inheritance. Lu Wen, you went too far!"

Yu Lian glared at Lu Man coldly. Her words weren't polite at all. In terms of seniority, she was much older than Lu Wen, and she was also quite strong, so there was naturally no need for her to be polite.

Lu Wen, however, just replied with a smile, "Lou Wanying is just a friend of mine. How is he one of my people?"

Of course Yu Lian wouldn't bother to argue over sophistry with him here and sneered, "Good. I hope you can still say that when I kill him."

When it came to Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance, even someone with Yu Lian's status no longer had the leisure to worry about losing face from bullying those weaker than her.

In fact, when one reached the level of the Thirteen Heavens, it was more about whether they themselves felt something was worth doing rather than what onlookers would think.

They could simply kill anyone who objected.

But Lu Wen's expression remained unchanged as he shook his head slightly. "I'm afraid normal people won't be able to harm him… And Xue Ren also has a matter to attend to recently, doesn't he?"

Xue Ren and Yu Lian's relationship wasn't really a secret. But since Lu Wen brought Xue Ren up at this juncture, it was clear that Lu Wen was the one who created the trouble that Xue Ren had to deal with.

Yu Lian remained silent for a while when a smile suddenly appeared on her formerly blank face.

"Xue Ren has been called the Sword Saint for so many years. I'm afraid you all forgot that he was known for his infallible schemes when he was young."

After saying that, Yu Lian's figure vanished from Clockwork Heaven, returning to the spot within Void Grotto Heaven where she and Xue Ren conversed earlier.

Of course Xue Ren was no longer here, but the note he left behind was still there.

[Capture Lou Wanying when nine stars appear to obtain the inheritance]

"Regarding this matter, please ask Junior Martial Brother Xu to make a trip," Yu Lian's voice echoed within Void Grotto Heaven.

"Yes."

……

In Extreme Sword Heaven, the nine bright dots in front of Lou Wanying glowed brightly and actually formed a strange array, shielding him from Gu Nan.

And as the array took shape, the true appearances of these nine bright dots were also revealed.

They were nine people, all with different appearances. Children and adults, men and women, young and old—all of them could be found here. The common feature was that they were all Star Rulers.

Nine veritable Star Rulers!

Among these nine figures, Gu Nan saw the recently-deceased Qiao Deyu and also Rendering Mountain Venerable, the Star Ruler of Mountain River World.

Although he didn't recognize the others, from this alone, it wasn't difficult to conclude that these nine people all crossed paths with Lou Wanying at some point.historical

The nine spirits all had blank expressions as they entered a formation of five in front and four at the back, protecting Lou Wanying from harm.

Yan Yang couldn't help exclaiming from the back, "Amazing! So the 'Protection of Nine Stars' that old man mentioned actually refers to nine genuine Star Rulers!"

After witnessing this, Yan Yang was longer in a hurry to escape with Yin Qing. Sure enough, Lou Wanying didn't let him down and summoned nine Star Rulers at once. Was there any place he couldn't visit now that he had this power?

What he didn't notice was that a man in black Daoist robes was already standing in the shadows, gazing coldly at Lou Wanying.

As long as Lou Wanying took a step back and left the protective formation's range, he would be captured in one fell swoop.

Among the nine stars, the leader was none other than Rendering Mountain Venerable, a Star Ruler whose peak power once approached that of a Realm Level plane.

In his spirit state, he no longer recognized Gu Nan, but he still possessed Rendering Mountain Venerable's strength and personality.

"Protection of Nine Stars!" Rendering Mountain Venerable shouted coldly as he smashed his fists down on Gu Nan, carrying the terrifying power of entire mountains behind them.

The remaining eight Star Rulers also didn't remain idle. Almost simultaneously, they also attacked with their signature moves.

Gu Nan's eyes were indifferent as he watched Rendering Mountain Venerable's fists fall with unparalleled momentum and suddenly raised his foot, kicking his opponent squarely in the abdomen.

Back then, a Tier 4 saint clone paired with Tier 6 laws was enough to shut Rendering Mountain Venerable down.

But now Gu Nan's true body was here, and the power of the Evil God physique was even stronger than laws. How could Rendering Mountain Venerable resist?

The enemy who seemed to have the momentum of a crushing mountain mere seconds ago flew backwards at an even faster speed in the blink of an eye.

On the other side, Gu Nan's figure flickered a little as he vanished. When he next appeared, he'd already bypassed the remaining eight Star Rulers and pounced on Lou Wanying.

Lou Wanying hurriedly retreated in shock. Thus, the figure of the black-robed Daoist also emerged behind him and caught him with one hand.

A cold laugh rang from his mouth. "You sure have a lot of guts to steal my Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance… Why don't you come with this Daoist for a trip?"

He knocked Lou Wanying unconscious with his palm, then smiled at the Gu Nan who was rushing over. "Many thanks for your help today, Daoist Friend. Void Grotto Heaven will prepare a generous reward in the future… Bastard!"

The black-robed Daoist's words turned sharply, but Gu Nan didn't even spare him a glance as he threw a punch at Lou Wanying's head. The latter's head instantly burst open. The bloody mist splashed the black-robed Daoist square in the face.

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"The kid that Lu Wen is raising is dead."

"Lou Wanying?"

"Yeah."

This was the first thing Xue Ren heard when he returned to Void Grotto Heaven. This Sword Saint whom Yu Lian described as having "infallible schemes" missed the mark this time.

It happened inside his Extreme Sword Heaven, so it took Xue Ren very little time to learn what had transpired there.

"Gu Nan? How interesting." Xue Ren couldn't help chuckling involuntarily after he understood the full picture. "Lu Wen really suffered a big loss this time."

He originally thought that by letting Gu Nan force out Lou Wanying's trump card, Yu Lian's subordinate would then be able to take advantage of the opportunity to capture Lou Wanying and acquire the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance.

Of course it was impossible for Yu Lian to personally make a move. People at their level were too powerful—every move they made was sure to be sensed by powerhouses of the same level.

As soon as Yu Lian tried to attack, Lu Wen would most certainly stop her immediately, and vice versa. It wasn't easy to say what the outcome would be, but once matters escalated to that point, a lot more people and forces would be drawn into the conflict.

However, now that Lou Wanying died at Gu Nan's hands, the inheritance Yu Lian wanted also disappeared, but she wasn't too concerned about that.

It wasn't like there was only one inheritance inside the Void Ruins. Besides, wasn't Void Grotto Heaven still one of the Thirteen Heavens, even after all these years? Their ancient predecessors' inheritance might not necessarily be strong.

The crucial point was that it must not fall into an outsider's hands. This was a matter of face, as well as maintaining the secrecy of her sect's core techniques.

More importantly, as Xue Ren said, Lu Wen really lost a lot from Lou Wanying's death!

"Lu Wen prepared a lot of things for that kid over the years." A rare smile appeared on Yu Lian's usually indifferent face. "There's only a one-third chance—how is he so sure that Lou Wanying is that person's son?"

Someone on Yu Lian's level naturally understood why Lu Wen took such pains to raise Lou Wanying while never personally coming into contact with Lou Wanying at the same time.

It was precisely because of this that Lou Wanying actually died for real this time. Lu Wen wasn't a god capable of casually resurrecting a person he'd never met before.

"She was still alive back when Lu Wen ascended to the ranks of the Thirteen Heavens. It's not impossible for him to know some inside information." Xue Ren said, "Besides, the other two possible candidates are a little too unreliable."

Yu Lian didn't care too much about it. Anyhow, even if that person really did revive and return from the River of Time, then she'd only be marginally stronger than Yu Lian. This wasn't enough reason for Yu Lian to fear the other party.

No one at the level of the Thirteen Heavens would actually die that easily. Even for powerhouses like them, killing an enemy at their level would still be exceptionally difficult.

"Pay attention to that Gu Nan and protect him." Yu Lian then said to Xue Ren, "Don't let anyone kill him. I will keep an eye on Lu Wen."

Lu Wen suddenly made a move on the Void Ruins and plotted to steal the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance—this was simply slapping the entire Void Grotto Heaven in the face.

Now that his plan was ruined by Gu Nan, of course Yu Lian was happy to protect Gu Nan to disgust Lu Wen from time to time.

"Okay." Xue Ren nodded. His gaze flickered slightly in thought.

……

Lu Wen sat alone in a place atop Clockwork Heaven. Neither joy nor anger could be seen from his face.

But the mere fact that he was "alone" was enough to indicate there was a problem—even when conversing with Yu Lian, a huge dragon was still perched on his shoulder, but now Long Ling'er was sitting obediently below him.

"Is the problem very serious?" Long Ling'er looked at Lu Wen's expression, then glanced at Duan Wenqi beside her, and couldn't help asking.

Duan Wenqi was one of the representatives of Astral Gate, a powerful Star Ruler, and also Lu Wen's close friend.

As a matter of fact, he was the one who handled a lot of the matters involving Lou Wanying, so he was the first to sense that something had happened to Lou Wanying.

Then he immediately rushed over.

"It's very serious." Duan Wenqi revealed a bitter smile and told Long Ling'er, "It's not as simple as a problem anymore. It's now a calamity."

Problems could be solved, but calamities couldn't—they could only be endured.

Duan Wenqi knew just how much preparation Lu Wen had made for Lou Wanying and over how many years his plans spanned.

Only then was he able to hide this from others in the Thirteen Heavens and bring Lou Wanying under his control, and only when he was close to success right now did he finally allow everything to come out into the light.

But all of this was ruined because of one Gu Nan!

Lou Wanying was dead. Even if they resurrected him, because they never came into contact with his true spirit, it was impossible for the revived Lou Wanying to be the same as the original.

When that woman returned, would she still recognize the resurrected Lou Wanying as her son?

Thinking of this, Duan Wenqi couldn't help remarking, "Gu Nan killed her son. When she returns, not even Yu Lian will be able to protect him."

But his voice only echoed in the hall. Lu Wen didn't respond, while Long Ling'er stared at them curiously.

Their conversation was incomprehensible to Long Ling'er. Perhaps she had enough information to understand, but she never bothered to spare the effort to analyze it.

Duan Wenqi mistook Lu Wen's silence as being unable to hold back the anger in his heart, so Duan Wenqi stood up and said, "Since we can't find Gu Nan, we can start with his people in White Bones Realm first!"

Only then did Lu Wen's gaze gradually regain focus. He replied slowly, "No need."

Duan Wenqi was also relieved to see him finally willing to speak. However, he still felt bad for his old friend, and his tone was tinged with some indignation, "Don't tell me we'll just allow Gu Nan to go on like this?"

"Of course… not." There was a strange glint in Lu Wen's eyes, "Not only can we not harm Gu Nan right now, but we must also protect him carefully. We absolutely mustn't let him die."

"And why is that?" Now Duan Wenqi was truly shocked.

"Since he killed Lou Wanying, he now inherited this karma." Lu Wen explained unhurriedly, "When she returns, perhaps this Gu Nan might have a better effect on her than Lou Wanying."historical

……

Setting aside the two Thirteen Heavens level Unified Dao Realm Star Rulers who both decided to protect Gu Nan, the culprit himself immediately slipped back inside his Divine Kingdom as soon as he killed Lou Wanying.

True, he didn't have to put the Thirteen Heavens in his eyes—in any case, as long as he didn't cause a commotion, no one would know which plane he was in.

But if he still courted death by remaining in the same place after killing someone, then that would be just dumb.

As for Qu Hongye, Gu Nan already added her to the list of abandoned candidates after he determined that she had insufficient potential.

Unlike experimental test subjects like Zhong Die, the members of a real player army had to be strictly selected, and even their origins had to be screened.

Because it would naturally be the most convenient for members of the player army to become Gu Nan's apostles. Be it the Time Arena or the Apostle Hall, both could significantly strengthen their powers.

After settling the matter in Extreme Sword Heaven, Gu Nan heard some good news not long after he returned to the Divine Kingdom.

The two groups of vampires raiding Crescent Moon World both cleared the Crescent Moon World dungeon on the same day, which meant Gu Nan finally had a second stable source of points!

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The points earned from Crescent Moon World would be much higher than from Splendid World.

This was something Gu Nan had long anticipated. After all, Crescent Moon World was a Tier 4 dungeon, and the difficulty was also much higher than Splendid World, almost reaching the limit of difficulty levels for Tier 4 dungeons.

But Gu Nan was still surprised when the results were presented in front of him.

The profit from clearing Crescent Moon World once was ten times higher than Splendid World!

Now that the Divine Kingdom had already reached Tier 6 and the Evil God Temple had reached Level 1, if he wanted to advance, then six Level 1 structures were needed, as well as one miracle structure.

Getting six Level 1 structures was relatively simple. The previously constructed Level 0 structures could all be upgraded to Level 1 by spending 20,000 points.

But a miracle structure was slightly more troublesome. Launching a Divine Kingdom War was inevitable.

It took several months for Gu Nan to construct six Level 0 structures earlier, but now, he could upgrade one structure to Level 1 almost every three days.

Even if he had to build a completely new Level 1 structure, it would take at most five days.

Only this order of magnitude of points was enough to sustain the expenses of a Divine Kingdom War.

The second dungeon was enough to bring the logistics up to par, which made Gu Nan relatively cheerful. In the game, a large number of people sometimes couldn't afford to launch a war, even after building almost ten dungeons.

So the wealthy Classmate Gu Nan waved his hand and sent all six meritorious vampires into the Time Arena, spending a large amount of points on them to help them improve their strength considerably.

But neither did Gu Nan forget the Tier 3 mission experts clearing Splendid World because of this.

After all, the vast majority of dungeons didn't test one's strength. Crescent Moon World was just a special case.

If there were new high-difficulty dungeons in the future, they might still be needed to clear those.

After dealing with his subordinates, Gu Nan's gaze soon fell on the "Divine Servant Institute" structure. The Divine Servant Institute was the core of the Divine Kingdom Wars, because divine servants were the soldiers.

To fight a proper Divine Kingdom War, selecting the right types of soldiers and the precise ratio of soldier types was sometimes more important than the tactics on the battlefield.

Theoretically, as long as the quantity and quality of soldiers were up to par, even a pig could win a war.

Gu Nan sat in the middle of the Divine Kingdom. The ones who should be farming dungeons were farming, while the ones who should be managing the Divine Kingdom were busy managing it. Only Gu Nan rifled through documents for several days in a row.

The information was sent over by Red Tail from White Bones Realm. They all pertained to some small planes.

But even if they were small planes, these planes all shared one common feature—they were controlled by Star Rulers!

An astral world with an owner was completely different from an ownerless plane.

With an ownerless plane, no matter how much you messed it up, nobody would come after you. After all, the world's will was just a will.

And a will couldn't interfere with reality. This was the socialist materialistic view.

But an astral world with an owner was different—if you caused even a small commotion, the Star Ruler would probably find you directly.

For Star Rulers of small planes, the death of every single one of their inhabitants or cultivators may directly affect their power.

Killing their people was equivalent to weakening their power. It was no different from killing their father.

But it was extremely unfortunate that the target of the Divine Kingdom War could only be a Star Ruler's astral world.

After all, the ultimate goal of the war was to slay a god. If the plane didn't even have a god in the first place, then what would be the point of a war?

Even in the Myriad Heavens Universe, it was still the same.

Gu Nan was now looking for the right plane to be his next target.

As long as he could successfully destroy the target plane and kill the reigning Star Ruler, he would be able to earn a large quantity of points and Evil Value from the Divine Servant Institute.

This was the role of the Divine Servant Institute, the core structure of the Divine Kingdom War gameplay.

But Gu Nan had yet to decide on exactly what type of divine servants to train. It depended on the target plane; he would try to pick soldier types that held an advantage against the plane's inhabitants.

Gu Nan still didn't find a perfect target even after a few days, only a few he could try.

"In the end, this is too rushed." Gu Nan couldn't help shaking his head a little.

Normally, there were very few players who could fight a war so quickly. Many would only have the chance to launch their first war upon reaching Tier 8.historical

The reason was simple: while there was certainly a difference in the types of soldiers divine servants could be, their absolute strength was limited by the structure's level.

At most, Gu Nan could only build a Level 1 "Barracks" right now, so the soldiers produced by it naturally weren't too strong.

Fortunately, after taking control of the Raymond clan, he had quite a few Tier 4 subordinates. Otherwise, it would be even harder to fight a Divine Kingdom War—after all, this was an event he couldn't directly intervene in.

The gameplay for a Divine Kingdom War was to conquer other planes through the Divine Servant Institute. The player could only join the fight when it was "king against king" time, or else the earnings would be greatly reduced.

Since they couldn't find a suitable plane to attack, Gu Nan could only tell Red Tail to continue narrowing down possible planes, while he himself began to prepare the player army plan.

The core of the player army vision was to create a group of people with great potential and under Gu Nan's control, preferably with a player's mentality.

The last point was harder to accomplish, but it was also fine to just have the first two.

It was just like how normal forces picked good seedlings. Gu Nan quickly communicated the requirements to his many apostles, asking them to collect suitable candidates.

What Gu Nan didn't expect was for Yan Xiaoxiao to be the first one to speak up.

"There's a very good seedling in the Divine Kingdom. He's from the Western Continent," Yan Xiaoxiao recommended calmly.

Because of Gu Nan's influence, they were now getting used to the term "Divine Kingdom."

Gu Nan showed some interest and asked, "How good?"

"He's the champion of the latest Continental Martial Arts Tournament and is 29 years old."

"A late bloomer, huh?" Gu Nan commented with a raised eyebrow.

In the Immortal Demon World that became Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, the power system wasn't very high, so those who reached the peak of their power here were often younger.

Gu Nan recalled that in the previous several Continental Martial Arts Tournaments, let alone the champion, the top three were rarely over 25 years of age.

Yan Xiaoxiao, however, seemed to have great confidence in this person. She revealed a small smile and replied, "Teacher, you'll definitely be satisfied after you see him."

……

This world had never lacked talents, even more so when the population had swelled to the point where "world" was used as a unit of measurement.

Liang Ruxin stood in front of the doors to the Evil God Temple. His middle-aged face contained some surprise, but for the most part, he was calm.

He had good reason to be calm. In his under thirty years of life, he'd already experienced several ups and downs. Now that he'd won the Continental Martial Arts Tournament again, he could say that his life was complete.

If there was still one thing he wanted to know, then it would probably be…

Before Liang Ruxin had time to think more, he suddenly felt his vision go dark as his consciousness was instantly extracted. By the time he woke up again, it was inside a very different world.

"Teacher?" Yan Xiaoxiao stood beside Gu Nan, staring at the scene in shock. She personally witnessed Gu Nan send Liang Ruxin directly to another plane without even meeting him first.

"To see a person's true nature, nothing is better than a completely unfamiliar environment." Gu Nan turned his head and smiled lightly. "By the way, start looking for someone to write some novels and spread them among the Divine Kingdom's inhabitants."

"What kind of novels?"

"Transmigration novels."

The fundamental goal behind having people spread transmigration novels inside the Divine Kingdom was to disseminate the concept of "transmigration."

In the current Divine Kingdom, the antagonism between the Eastern and Western Continents had been completely established. The arrangement Gu Nan conceived back then was carried out by Yan Xiaoxiao and the others without fail.

From the time the inhabitants were born—before they could even read and write—the concept of "Martial Arts Tournaments" was constantly instilled in them.

Victory in a Martial Arts Tournament was both an individual and collective honor bestowed by society. In the Divine Kingdom, everyone's goal was to win, win, and win again.

If one was strong enough and defeated enough opponents, they could gain social status, cultivation resources, and the power to control others.

Anything else was merely a derivative of those three things.

People who grew up in this kind of society hardly had time to ponder the meaning of their lives and the identity of the mastermind behind all this.

Many people believed the legend that a god was using this method to select the strongest person in the world.

As for why such an Eastern society had the concept of a "god," one would have to ask Lan Si.

Loyalty to Gu Nan would be guaranteed for talents cultivated in this environment. At least to a large extent, they had no room to refuse.

Which was why Gu Nan dared to use the "transmigration" method to test Liang Ruxin's "quality." In fact, this kind of method might even work better.

Of course, in order to ensure that all future candidates immediately understand what to do in this kind of situation, it was essential to spread the concept of "transmigration."

The plane Gu Nan picked for Liang Ruxin wasn't just randomly selected. Rather, it was one of several alternative target planes for the first war.

……

Jin Lin World.historical

Liang Ruxin stared blankly at the scene before him. He was in the middle of a mountainous forest. Birds chirped overhead, and human figures could even be seen up ahead.

But he could confirm that he most certainly wasn't in his original world anymore. The reason was simple—the Divine Kingdom didn't have three suns.

Harsh sunlight shone down from the three suns in the sky, making Liang Ruxin feel like he couldn't open his eyes for a while.

That was when a cold female voice rang in his ears.

[Ultimate Mission: Become the king of this state within one year

Mission Reward: Unknown

Mission Failure Penalty: Death]

……

After giving Liang Ruxin an "ultimate mission," Gu Nan calmly continued his work.

Gu Nan wasn't a real system, nor did he have time to observe Liang Ruxin's every move, so he only gave Liang Ruxin an ultimate mission and then watched it gradually take effect.

Jin Lin World was an even smaller plane than the Divine Kingdom, so time flowed faster over there. A year over there might only be two or three months in the Divine Kingdom.

Speaking of which, as the Evil God Temple leveled up, Yan Xiaoxiao and Lan Si informed Gu Nan several times that the flow of time inside the Divine Kingdom showed signs of slowing down.

If the time flow ratio with the main world was 10:1 at first, then it was probably 9:1 now or even 8:1.

This wasn't a bad thing. Perhaps once Gu Nan advanced to Tier 8 or Tier 9, the Divine Kingdom would ascend to the ranks of a Realm Level plane and could also be transformed into a main world.

At that time, the Divine Kingdom's coordinates would naturally be exposed. It was impossible to hide Realm Level planes from everyone's eyes. Of course, at the same time, his Divine Kingdom would also enjoy all the conveniences of being a main world.

The most typical advantage was naturally the possibility of initiating reincarnation directly from inside the Divine Kingdom, so there would be no need for the White Mist branch in White Bones Realm to exist.

"There's still a long way to go with the Divine Kingdom's construction!" Gu Nan took in the entire Divine Kingdom's situation with a glance and lamented.

This was, after all, the core gameplay for players who finished the First Round. It was also the most time-consuming stage for players, so of course the process couldn't be simple.

Launching an outward invasion was inevitable, or else let alone points and Evil Value—he might not even have enough materials needed for construction.

The materials needed for certain Level 1 structures weren't just limited to basic resources.

In order to find a suitable plane to invade, Liang Ruxin wasn't the only "transmigrator" Gu Nan appointed.

In fact, Gu Nan first selected nearly ten planes, then sent out the candidates Yan Xiaoxiao and the others selected to scout these planes.

Of course Gu Nan didn't have time to keep an eye on them all the time, but as the big boss, he had no problem telling his subordinates to handle it.

So he made use of the White Mist members in White Bones Realm once again, who became stalkers one after another, regularly reporting on these people's situations.

There was no other way to deal with this.

All the planes Gu Nan selected had Star Rulers watching over them. Whether Gu Nan went in person or sent a Void Cutter, the local Star Ruler would immediately sense them.

Don't be fooled by how casually Gu Nan could kill normal Star Rulers—Star Rulers with and without an astral world were on two completely different levels, especially if fighting on that person's home turf.

Many considered Star Rulers without an astral world to simply be powerful Void Cutters, and there really was nothing wrong with that statement.

But having an astral world meant they could easily mobilize the whole astral world's power, and with an almost endless source of power, their explosive power would increase dramatically.

For example, if Gu Nan had forbidden Qu Hongye from taking people from Extreme Sword Heaven with her, overwhelming and slaughtering the native cultivators of Gale World, then Qiao Deyu would've been very powerful.

Even if Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom was stronger than Qiao Deyu's and he could receive a higher power boost, that only applied to a fair battle between the two; the battle absolutely couldn't take place in Gale World.

Just like how the former Zuo Zuo, who was at the peak of Tier 10 back then, ran to Star Realm to deal with a half-dead Red—the level gap between them was close to 2.5 tiers, yet he only managed to suppress her and couldn't actually kill her.

Star Rulers received too much of a power boost in their own astral worlds, so much so that any battles between gods must first go through a Divine Kingdom War first. It was impossible for a direct fight before then.

Otherwise, things would get pretty troublesome once the enemy hid inside their own astral world.

Of course, it wasn't like Star Rulers could mobilize the power of their astral worlds whenever they wanted. Every use was an enormous loss for the astral world. Unless it was a matter of life and death, nobody was willing to use such power casually.

Due to this series of reasons, Gu Nan couldn't directly deal with the astral world's Star Ruler and could only slowly chip away at them through weaker methods first.

Divine Kingdom Wars had never been about a group of soldiers shouting battle cries as they rushed into battle.

Preliminary investigation, soldier type selection, undercover infiltration, provoking civil unrest, and even internal and external cooperation were all a matter of course.

From the instant Gu Nan decided to fight, the war had already begun.

But just as Gu Nan sent a bunch of people out and waited for news, Red Tail sent him a message first.

"Xue Ren wants to see me?" After Gu Nan received this message, he considered for a moment but didn't refuse.

He had to hide from the "furious" Lu Wen for a while, so of course his true body couldn't show up, but it wasn't a problem to use a clone to meet up.

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Extreme Sword Heaven.

Xue Ren was still the same Xue Ren, and Qu Hongye was still the same Qu Hongye, but Gu Nan had changed bodies.

Now he was dressed in a silver robe, having arrived using the saint clone.historical

"Quite an interesting clone." Xue Ren couldn't help chuckling when he glanced at Gu Nan's saint clone. With his insight, it wasn't hard to discern some of the saint clone's origins.

"Someone said you came from that side. Looks like it's true." Xue Ren, who was familiar with the World of Gods, was able to glean even more information from the saint clone.

Since Qu Hongye wasn't here right now, this was the first time the two discussed matters related to the Heaven-God Alliance.

Gu Nan raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did Wu Gui tell you that?"

Xue Ren, however, shook his head. "I am acquainted with the Buddha of Ten Thousand Samsara, but we don't know each other well."

With the other party's status, he was unlikely to lie about such things. Thus, another person's name popped up in Gu Nan's mind. "Then it's Zi Dian?"

Sure enough, Xue Ren revealed a small smile. "More accurately, it was his mother, Zi Yi, who relayed this to me. That I was able to become a cultivator back then was also thanks to Senior Zi Yi."

Gu Nan frowned slightly, although his brain was already trying to sort out the relationship between all these Star Rulers… Forget it, the relationship was too complicated; he was too lazy to think.

But figuring out the approximate timeline was still pretty easy.

On Zuo Zuo's side, he was contemporaries with Zi Yi and Red. Xue Ren, on the other hand, was in almost the same generation as the Buddha of Ten Thousand Samsara, which meant they were both a bit younger than Zi Yi and the others.

As for how many generations of a gap existed between the two groups or how many tens of thousands of years the gap was, those were of no concern to Gu Nan.

"What did you want to see me for?" Gu Nan asked, changing the subject. He wasn't interested in elaborating on his own origins.

Let them guess. No one would guess it anyway.

Xue Ren's expression turned serious. "Since you've joined the Heaven-God Alliance, I must tell you the reason this organization was established."

Gu Nan also became slightly serious as well. Matters concerning the Heaven-God Alliance had always been of great interest to him.

"Simply put, the Heaven-God Alliance has only one goal, and that is to reach Unified Dao Realm." Xue Ren explained calmly, "To use the term over there, it's to ascend to a greater god."

Without waiting for Gu Nan to respond, Xue Ren added, "You should know that there are many paths in the world that lead straight to the great Dao, but only one person can take each path."

Gu Nan nodded. Of course he knew that. The vast majority of conflicts between the greater gods stemmed from this.

Because of this, the Beast God was even replaced multiple times.

There was no other way. Compared to other gods who could still become a greater god by taking a detour, there was only one path for every generation's Beast God who wanted to reach the top, which was to kill their predecessor.

The problem of overlapping fundamental laws wasn't so easily resolved by something as simple as just a slight deviation.

For example, if the God of Wind wanted to advance, but if there was already a God of Air among the greater gods, then it was bound to be extremely hard for the former to ascend.

"Among the Thirteen Heavens, there is one called Weapon Martial Heaven." Xue Ren's voice became somewhat heavy, "Weapon Martial Heaven's Zou Jiming controls all the weapons and martial arts in this world."

"All martial arts cultivators and weapon cultivators are subject to his influence when they attempt to break through to Unified Dao Realm, including me."

Gu Nan instantly understood what he meant and blurted out, "So you want to run to the World of Gods to enter Unified Dao Realm?"

"That's right." Xue Ren grinned. "The God of War on that side isn't in the same power system as us at all. At the very least, his influence would be far less than Zou Jiming."

Gu Nan laughed involuntarily. It had to be said that none of these famous Star Rulers were fools.

The two sides' respective differences and advantages had long been thoroughly analyzed by them, and they even thought of using such loopholes to strengthen themselves.

"So you're going to break through now?" Gu Nan asked in amusement.

With Gu Nan, something as momentous as becoming a greater god sounded as simple as eating a casual meal.

But Xue Ren didn't care. He just replied, "I'm not that fast… But it's true that someone is going to ascend, and you might even know this person."

"Who?"

"Rolensia."

……

Frontline plane, Heavenly Province World.

It wasn't the first time Gu Nan visited Heavenly Province World, so he was slightly familiar with it.

However, he didn't visit in his original body this time, but in an extremely well-hidden clone.

The saint clone was fully wrapped in a black robe, while a familiar silver mask covered his face. If he didn't attack, almost no one would recognize Gu Nan.

Gu Nan made this trip over to meet Rolensia.

The God of Luxuriant Blossoms Rolensia, a powerful Tier 10 god on the same level as Xue Ren, was unexpectedly preparing to ascend. This was very much out of Gu Nan's expectations.

Because Rolensia advancing to a greater god had never happened even once in his years of gaming history.

In other words, what caused Rolensia to make this choice was entirely due to the existence of the Myriad Heavens Universe.

It would be extremely difficult for her to advance in the World of Gods because among the twelve greater gods, there was one called the Goddess of Nature.

The Goddess of Nature controlled all natural living beings and was also known as the "God of Flowers and Leaves" in ancient times, which was in direct conflict with Rolensia's divine authority.

Although it wasn't so bad as to completely block Rolensia's path to advancement, it still made it much more difficult.

In contrast, coming to the Myriad Heavens Universe to advance was a good choice.

But with Rolensia's power and status, it wasn't an easy task to quietly enter the Myriad Heavens Universe.

As long as she made any abnormal movement, the greater gods would immediately become aware of it. And once she entered the Myriad Heavens Universe, she would also be noticed by the Thirteen Heavens.

Who knows if someone in the Thirteen Heavens would leak this information to the greater gods?

This was a matter of course. If Rolensia broke through to Unified Dao Realm inside the Myriad Heavens Universe, then wasn't that the same as stealing a limited spot from this side?

This matter could be said to be detrimental to the collective interests of the Myriad Heavens Universe, so only people who belonged to the same Heaven-God Alliance would be willing to help her.

Heavenly Province World was a highly modernized technology plane. Gu Nan was now sitting in a delicately furnished cafe. The drink in front of him was steaming hot but hadn't been touched.

Combined with his all-black robe, he really looked out of place.

But Gu Nan just sat there calmly until a man in a black suit hurriedly walked in and saw Gu Nan at a glance.

It couldn't be helped; Gu Nan's getup really was a bit flashy.

The corners of the man's mouth twitched slightly as he reluctantly walked up to Gu Nan and whispered, "Mr. Gu?"

"Mm." Gu Nan nodded, spoke a string of numbers, and gently scratched out a seal with his hand.

The man breathed a sigh of relief and also nodded slightly. This was the secret code the two sides agreed upon. The numbers and seal both had to match before he could hand over the item to the other party.

What Gu Nan received was a small box wrapped up in black cloth.

He stared down at it. It was hard to imagine that a powerful Tier 10 god was hidden inside this box, even if it was just a part of her.

"Where are the other two?" Gu Nan's gaze shifted slightly and landed on the man's face.

"With my companion. She'll be over soon… Damn it!" Halfway through the man's sentence, he suddenly paused, because voices were coming in continuously from his wireless headset.

A short while later, he looked at Gu Nan again and said, "I'm very sorry. There's a little situation on my companion's side, please—"

"It was robbed? Does someone know what you're transporting?"

"No, no." The man hastily waved his hand. "It should be a habitual bandit. Sometimes they don't even need to know what the cargo is. As long as it's something important, they can always sell it for a good price after snatching it."

Gu Nan's eyes narrowed as he said in a cold voice, "That makes sense… Take me there."

The man immediately revealed a troubled look and stood up. "Sir, the members and routes are our company's internal secrets."

Gu Nan looked up indifferently. That gaze was as if he was staring at a dead person.

A few moments later, Gu Nan walked out of the cafe, a shadowy figure leading the way in front of him, while the cafe was already dead silent. No sounds of life could be heard anymore.

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Scenes of the bustling city kept passing by Gu Nan on the noisy street. Still hidden within a strange black robe, he walked quickly through the crowd.

Neither did Gu Nan intentionally look for trouble—the shadow servant had turned into a lump of shadows, quietly sticking to the ground, unbeknownst to anyone.

As for Gu Nan himself, his dress was a bit eccentric, but a frontline plane like Heavenly Province World saw its fair share of people who dressed oddly or even looked strange.

Gu Nan followed the shadow servant through the streets and alleys and soon came to an isolated corner, but just as he turned into it, a shout came from behind him.

"Halt!"

Gu Nan turned his head and saw two police officers patrolling in plain clothes walking towards him with dark expressions. One of them had a hand on his waist, while the other was holding a cell phone, quickly talking into it.

Heavenly Province World was a very interesting place. Although its technology was advanced, it was metaphysical technology, which was a little different from pure scientific technology.

For example, the pistol that the policeman was about to pull out didn't operate on the principle of gunpowder, but a high energy explosive bullet instead.

And the other person's cell phone was even more different—in fact, this was the first time Gu Nan saw something like a cell phone outside of Star Realm.

It wasn't that people didn't like to use convenient things like cell phones. Rather, most of the planes in the Myriad Heavens Universe weren't planets.

These planes' structures all operated on the flat earth principle, so there were no satellites or base stations. Where would a cell phone get its signal?

Even the cell phones in Heavenly Province World didn't necessarily use the principle of electromagnetic waves, but something more metaphysical.

Gu Nan's gaze swept over the two police officers… Technology wasn't the only interesting thing in Heavenly Province World. Even the people here were interesting.

The two policemen in plain clothes were real plainclothes policemen. They wore identical uniforms with the word "plainclothes" written on them.

"Put your hands up." The plainclothes officer who had his hands at his waist said in a low voice, "We mean no harm, we just need to check your identity. Please cooperate with us, sir."

The next second, Gu Nan cooperated by throwing a punch, and two headless corpses slowly fell down.

"Very shoddy phones." Gu Nan picked up the phone from the corpse and glanced at it, then casually tossed it aside.

This thing wasn't so much a cell phone as a walkie-talkie in the nature of a local area network. It was far less convenient than the instantaneous telepathic messages high-ranking cultivators could send.

After casually dealing with his two tails, Gu Nan looked up again. The shadow servant had stopped outside this courtyard wall, motionless.

So Gu Nan walked up, smashing through the wall without hesitation—although it wasn't all that troublesome to take two extra steps to walk through the door, why would players take the door when they could demolish the wall instead?

The huge commotion Gu Nan made immediately startled the people inside.

A woman was hanging upside-down from a tree in the courtyard. She was covered with blood, and her entire body was tortured beyond recognition.

Her right hand was severed from the joints, and the flesh of her arm was also scraped away, leaving only ghastly white bones; her face was covered with knife cuts, and even half of her scalp had been torn off.

Several men were drinking wine in front of her, looking lively. Just as Gu Nan crashed in, one of them was still bellowing, "Where's the item?!"

"Where's the item?" Gu Nan's question was almost exactly the same as the man's, except his tone was a bit more bland.

No matter how one looked at it, the black-robed Gu Nan didn't look like he was one to be messed with. The four men sitting together exchanged a glance, then simultaneously scattered and fled.

They'd long developed a tacit understanding—they had a tacit understanding when it came to killing the enemy, and even more so when it came to running for their lives.

But this was completely meaningless in front of Gu Nan. Four shadows simultaneously emerged behind them, grabbing them and throwing them into the endless shadows.

Gu Nan could deal with four measly Tier 3 opponents at will.

He leisurely walked up to one of the shadows, and on the ground beside it was an exquisite box.

Gu Nan didn't actually need to ask. The purpose of his inquiry was simply to confirm whether the item was in the four's possession—if not, then surely they wouldn't have fled so decisively.

However, just as Gu Nan was about to pick up the box, a blinding figure suddenly flashed across his eyes and snatched the box away.

"Hm?" Gu Nan raised his eyebrows slightly and turned. He saw a young girl wearing light yellow casual clothes standing to the side. She waved the box in her hand at him.

This young girl looked at most 15 or 16 years old. She definitely fit the description of youthful and beautiful and even had a playful look on her face.

Even more surprising, her cultivation was already at the peak of Void Cutter Realm—the genuine peak; her laws were already close to complete, and she was only a step away from Star Ruler Realm.

But her strength had nothing to do with Gu Nan. He only knew that the woman in front of him stole his item.

So this young girl who gained a reputation for her speed watched as Gu Nan's figure flickered and instantly appeared in front of her. His left hand went to grab the box in her hand, while his right hand swung a fist down towards her abdomen.

The young lady in yellow had a stunned look on her face, but her reaction was also extremely fast, and her body responded simultaneously.

Her waist twisted strangely, and her whole body seemed to twist into a curve, forcibly dodging Gu Nan's punch, but she lost the box in her hand.

Gu Nan casually snatched the box away and also stared at her with some surprise.

At his level, people who could match him in close combat could be counted on one hand, even if they could only withstand one of his punches without dying.

After speed reached the extreme, any moves or techniques all seemed very meaningless.historical

But to put it bluntly, the only reason this girl could dodge his punch was because he was using a clone, so his cultivation was the same as the other party's. If his main body came, then he most likely wouldn't even need to use the Evil God physique.

"What's wrong with you? I'm also a member of the organization. How can you make a move without even asking a single question?" The young girl was still in shock, and seeing Gu Nan snatch the box back, she immediately exclaimed angrily.

"The organization even recruits Void Cutters?" Gu Nan indifferently swept her a glance and replied disdainfully. With his current realm, of course he could tell whether the other party was the true body or a clone.

And as a joint organization of Star Rulers and gods, it was only logical that there would be no members below Tier 5 in the Heaven-God Alliance.

"I… I am a reserve member!" The young girl glared back, then glanced at Gu Nan again. "Aren't you the same? You also received news that some goods were lost and rushed here to help, right?"

The young lady in yellow certainly couldn't tell Gu Nan's identity as a clone and immediately made up an origin for him in her head.

Of course Gu Nan wouldn't be so bored as to explain things to her. He walked straight to the woman who was hanging upside-down and asked, "Where's the other box?"

This woman was at Prodigious Realm, so she didn't die that easily, but the words that came out of her mouth made Gu Nan and the girl frown.

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"All I got was a box," the almost-dead woman uttered these words with considerable difficulty.

"We're the client." The young woman in yellow was a little anxious and even thought the other party didn't believe their identities, so she added, "My name is Yu Shuyun. I— Are you crazy?!"

Classmate Yu Shuyun didn't get to finish introducing herself when a shadow impaled the woman through the chest and dragged her corpse into the ground.

Gu Nan didn't even spare Yu Shuyun a glance and quickly summoned a new shadow servant, asking it the same question.

But the answer left him very dissatisfied. This woman really only received one box.

"What… What in the world is going on here…?" Yu Shuyun roughly figured out what Gu Nan was doing, but she was equally unable to understand the result.

The gods on that side should've sent people to deliver the items to the gap between the two worlds, and their side then arranged for people from this company to take over.

Throughout the entire process, neither the gods nor the Star Rulers, as well as their subordinates, had too much direct contact to prevent the big shots above from noticing anything.

After all, their current operation would lead to an outcome that 25 powerful figures across the two sides didn't want to see.

But now they lost a few boxes, so where did things go wrong?

"Hey, where are you going?" Yu Shuyun's brain was a muddle, but she quickly asked when she saw Gu Nan turn to leave.

"The rendezvous."

……

In a remote alley in Heavenly Province World, a skinny teenager was curled into a ball, hugging his knees while tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.

He was covered in filth and footprints. He'd just been bullied by some "old friends," but his tears weren't because of this.

A big yellow dog was lying at his side, but now it was already dying.

"Oh Da Huang, Da Huang! I never thought I would live longer than you," the teen murmured as he stretched out a hand and petted the big yellow dog's head.

The big yellow dog whimpered but could only make a weak sound, then used its remaining strength to push the object between the two.

Clearly laid out there was a small box of exquisite workmanship.

"You mean, this is for me?" The teenager spoke in a slight daze.

Although it looked quite expensive, he actually didn't like this box very much, but after all, this was something Da Huang used his life to get.

Since this was Da Huang's will, it should be inherited properly. So the teen nodded his head forcefully. "I understand."

He stretched out a hand and opened the box without much effort, but there was nothing inside after removing the packaging.

"It's actually empty…" The youth was a little disappointed. In that case, its only remaining value was the box itself.

However, just then, an inexplicable power burrowed into the teen's body, and a voice rang out in his head.

"What's your name?"

"Huh?! Me? My name is Dong Xun…"

……

"They lost them during the entry into Heavenly Province World."

A group of solemn-looking people stood around a pile of small boxes in a small hut, and the one who spoke was an old Daoist.

Gu Nan and Yu Shuyun were among them, while the one who spoke was Daoist Lingyang.

Of course, Daoist Lingyang's face was also masked. Gu Nan wouldn't have recognized him if he didn't meet Daoist Lingyang before.

The current group was none other than members of the Heaven-God Alliance. They were responsible for retrieving Rolensia's scattered divine body and finding a way to reassemble her.

Everyone present wore masks, and all the official members came using clones. This was to prevent everyone from being taken out all at once in case there were traitors.

Now that box after box was retrieved, they discovered the problem—some boxes were missing, namely three.

"What kind of lousy security company is this? We must wipe them all out once this matter is over!" A burly man next to Daoist Lingyang exclaimed angrily.

After he said that, a silver-haired woman next to him laughed. "We never intended to let them live in the first place."

"Now is not the time to argue about this." Daoist Lingyang said in a heavy voice, "Let's split up and look for them. If someone opens the box, the aura will be obvious."

Be it her Tier 10 power or her distinctive godly aura, both were a beacon to this crowd.

"We don't have much time," another person said. This person was similar to Gu Nan, wrapped in black robes. Not even their gender could be seen.

Judging from the voice alone, this should be a woman.

Daoist Lingyang nodded. "That's right. We have to leave in two days regardless of whether we can find all the boxes or not."

"What if we can't find all of them?" Someone asked from the back.

Daoist Lingyang was silent for a moment. "Losing a wisp of soul wouldn't affect much."

……historical

After receiving Daoist Lingyang's instructions, members of the Heaven-God Alliance collectively went out to search for the three boxes whose whereabouts were unknown.

Since one of the boxes was lost in their area, Gu Nan and Yu Shuyun naturally followed this clue and started searching.

"Hey, wait," Yu Shuyun shouted from behind Gu Nan, "I have a friend… Just wait up!"

From what Yu Shuyun could see, Gu Nan had no intention of waiting at all and quickly walked forward, ignoring her words as if he heard nothing.

Yu Shuyun stomped her foot in anger. She was a pampered genius who came from a large plane and was also quite young, so her personality was certainly not that calm.

"Shuyun, what's wrong?" A voice asked from beside her. A teenager had reached her side.

This teenager could be described as having red lips and white teeth, and with a flowing white coat. He looked like a fluttering beautiful boy.

"Ah Bu, you came just in time!" Yu Shuyun had always been energetic and pointed to Gu Nan. "Let's hurry. That guy is almost gone!"

The teenager followed Yu Shuyun's finger and could only see a blurred back.

"Didn't you tell him to wait?" The teenager asked in surprise.

"I shouted! He ignored me…"

"What an impolite fellow," the teenager muttered as he took a step out, his figure appearing in front of Gu Nan.

Someone who could do such a thing without fanfare in this crowded street either had incredible speed or the ability to manipulate space.

Gu Nan raised his head. This was the second time he ran into someone who controlled space. The first time was the Dragon of Space.

But the other party's identity didn't affect his attitude.

"Something the matter?"

The teen frowned slightly. The other party's attitude displeased him, but his fine upbringing made sure none of that displeasure showed on his face. "This humble one is Qi Bu, from Academic Heaven."

After saying this, he stood straight and waited for the other party to introduce himself, after which both sides would salute—according to the education he received, it had always been like this.

However, the Gu Nan in front of him didn't even spare him a glance and walked straight past, even leaving a puzzled sentence, "This kind of organization still has dumbasses who give away their real names?"

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Gu Nan stared at Qi Bu the same way one would look at a fool.

A special organization like the Heaven-God Alliance practically made enemies of the greater god-level existences in both the Myriad Heavens Universe and the World of Gods. Did hiding one's identity require any thought?

Gu Nan didn't feel much when Yu Shuyun introduced herself because he didn't even recognize a mere Tier 4 as a member of the Heaven-God Alliance.

But the Qi Bu before him was different. With Gu Nan's insight, he could naturally see that Qi Bu was a Star Ruler.historical

An inexperienced Star Ruler who just advanced not long ago and didn't have time to acquire his own astral world—perhaps he hadn't even entered the Inner World yet.

Of course, even the most inexperienced Star Ruler was still a Star Ruler, so in Gu Nan's eyes, he was qualified to be an official member of the Heaven-God Alliance.

But to Qi Bu, this sounded like an insult.

In all honesty, Yu Shuyun forcibly dragged him into the Heaven-God Alliance decades ago, when he hadn't even advanced to Star Ruler Realm yet.

But Qi Bu had never cared much about this organization, while Yu Shuyun was habitually ignorant, so to this day, both of them still didn't even know the organization's name.

For Yu Shuyun, joining a secret organization was more about experiencing a sense of excitement from the clandestine operations.

The two glared angrily at Gu Nan, while Gu Nan completely ignored them. His figure vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"Truly… such poor upbringing!" The young Qi Bu watched Gu Nan disappear but was at a loss for words. Finally, he could only leave such a sentence.

He came from Academic Heaven's Confucian Academy, so he paid particular attention to etiquette with regards to his speech, actions, and bearing. Usually, he never even swore.

Academic Heaven was also one of the Thirteen Heavens, and it was probably the most famous of the Thirteen Heavens and the most well-known plane in the world.

The reason for this was that, as the name implied, this plane contained the greatest number of academies, which were the most sought-after places of learning for students all over the Myriad Heavens Universe.

Because of this, Academic Heaven had the highest number of Star Rulers stationed in the plane—some were outstanding students like Qi Bu, but many more were teachers.

Yu Shuyun also came from Academic Heaven, but she was clearly not from the Confucian Academy.

"Ah Bu, we must find him and teach him an unforgettable lesson!" Yu Shuyun chimed in from the side, waving her little fist hard.

Didn't she drag Qi Bu along precisely to teach that self-important guy a lesson?

Yu Shuyun, who hadn't suffered a loss at the hands of someone on her same level ever since she graduated from the academy, was always thinking about winning back some face for herself.

……

Dong Xun panted heavily. His face was splattered with blood, but the warmth that surged through his body felt unusually pleasant.

"I still want… more… power." He ruthlessly plunged the dagger into the chest of a young man on the ground.

The youth on the ground didn't even twitch. Only a small amount of blood was still gushing out, because he was already dead.

There were nearly ten corpses scattered throughout the alleyway. It was the same group of youths who often bullied Dong Xun, but now they could never do that again.

Dong Xun stabbed the corpse hard a few more times, then stood up with a big pant and a deranged smile on his face.

"What… What are you doing?" A slightly panicked voice came from behind him.

Dong Xun swiveled back and saw an impeccably-dressed man in a suit who happened to pass by and was currently scrambling backwards in horror.

He was just a normal office worker who never even practiced martial arts before and had never seen such a bloody scene in his life.

Yet Dong Xun, who just turned fourteen, curled his lips into a strange smile as his body lunged forward like a leopard.

In fact, he wasn't very fast at all, and his already-frail body was weary and exhausted, but this was enough to take care of a normal person.

The dagger stabbed straight into the man's abdomen, but Dong Xun had no intention of stopping at all. His right hand spasmed wildly, the dagger flying in and out, and blood gushed out continuously.

The man struggled with all his power, but Dong Xun's arms caught him with a vice-like grip. He couldn't break free at all.

The next moment, the dagger slashed across the man's carotid artery. Dong Xun, who wasn't very skilled at this, used more force than necessary, so more blood sprayed out.

Dong Xun didn't have the slightest intention of avoiding it. Instead, he moved his face closer and let the blood pour down from his head and cover his entire body with a look of pure bliss on his face.

In just two days, he'd already turned from an ignorant teenager into a psychopathic serial killer.

This couldn't be helped. He was destined to take such a path the moment he accepted Rolensia's power.

Perhaps the title of the God of Luxuriant Blossoms sounds very beautiful, but don't forget that Rolensia is a god belonging to the Dark Faction—she was that from the moment she became a god.

Although luxuriant blossoms were a type of flower, in Rolensia's hometown, luxuriant blossoms were a strange flower that fed on animals.

Once a luxuriant blossom was "full," it would spray out the excess blood it ingested to form an extremely beautiful blood flower. This was the origin of the name "luxuriant blossom."

Therefore, luxuriant blossoms could also be referred to as blood flowers.

"You're progressing quickly," a cold voice similar to Rolensia's echoed in Dong Xun's head.

Dong Xun slowly opened his eyes, his exhaustion greatly alleviated. He grinned. "If I can obtain power, I… do not fear anything."

Of course he wouldn't know that just as he was enjoying the fountain of blood, a figure was standing in the shadows, calmly watching all of this.

"He actually fused with a wisp of Rolensia's soul? Or rather, it's more accurate to say that this wisp of soul underwent a mutation… How interesting."

……

"It's extremely difficult to find the three lost boxes. Heavenly Province World is very chaotic to begin with, and we don't even know what's in those boxes," Qi Bu couldn't help complaining under his breath as he walked down the street with Yu Shuyun.

Classmate Qi Bu had always been a very earnest person. Since they were looking for the lost objects, he was even trying to find all three by himself.

'It's the very act of accomplishing what ordinary people cannot that fully demonstrates the excellence of my Academic Heaven's pupils!'

But it was extremely unfortunate that they were completely stuck at the first step.

Where exactly did the box get lost? Don't know. In whose hands was the box lost? Don't know. What was in the box and what impact would it have if it was stolen? Don't know either.

'How can I start looking without any information? Ahh!'

The originally ambitious Qi Bu was at a standstill, completely clueless. On the contrary, Yu Shuyun wasn't anxious at all, still cheerfully dragging Qi Bu around on a lazy stroll.

According to her: "Maybe the clue will appear on its own?"

"How can a coincidence like that exist!"

It hadn't even been that long since Qi Bu's retort when the roadside news broadcast mentioned a wanted notice—it was about a vicious, psychopathic serial killer.

"You saw that news just now, right? Hey, the killer first appeared only two days ago!"

Qi Bi nodded slowly and said seriously, "I take back what I just said."

T/N:

Fan Hua = Luxuriant Blossoms

Gu Nan was still following Dong Xun, observing his every move, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

Certain thoughts did occur to him when faced with a pile of fragments of Rolensia's divine body, such as whether to steal all the boxes, reassemble Rolensia himself, and eat her for exp.

But such a thought only lingered for an instant before it was directly kicked out of his mind.

The reason was very simple—Rolensia's level was too high; she'd give him indigestion.

Gu Nan gradually had to start considering a problem as his Evil Value and level increased, which was concealing his identity as an Evil God.

In the game, the player's identity would be exposed as soon as they completed the Second Round. There was absolutely no possibility of hiding it further.

Even before the Second Round, at Tier 9 or Tier 10, there was still a chance of being discovered if the player ran into some of the more powerful greater gods.

After players looked into this, they realized that the decisive factor in determining when the player's identity would be exposed was none other than Evil Value.

The higher the Evil Value, the more likely it was for the player's identity as an Evil God to be exposed.

So even though Gu Nan could already travel to the World of Gods and knew the weaknesses of a large number of gods, he still had no intention of going on a killing spree.

In his previous life's game, this was originally designed to prevent players from ignoring the gameplay altogether and directly farming levels on a large scale.

If players slaughtered too many gods, yet the construction of their Divine Kingdom had yet to keep up, they wouldn't have enough points to upgrade the Evil God Temple, which meant they wouldn't be able to level up… Then their only option would be to wait for the gods to discover their identity, leading to game over.

So although it wasn't much of a problem that Gu Nan killed some small Tier 7 or 8 gods, his identity would likely be exposed once he swallowed a Tier 10 god, so the losses outweighed the benefits.

On the other hand, Gu Nan was also eager to see what kind of scene would play out in the World of Gods if Rolensia succeeded in breaking through Unified Dao Realm in the Myriad Heavens Universe and then returned to that side?

The emergence of a new greater god would probably instantly upset the balance of power between the two godly factions, perhaps even setting off a war between the gods.

If a war really broke out among the gods, then Gu Nan would be all too happy. He'd be able to fish in troubled waters, greatly improving the efficiency of Divine Kingdom Wars.

But this was his earlier plan. After seeing the fragment of Rolensia's soul on Dong Xun suspected of having awakened self-awareness, Gu Nan's thoughts changed.

If Rolensia really ascended to a greater god, then this sliver of soul in front of him would hold an unimaginable value.

"Let's take him away first, then slowly confirm the split soul's situation… Hm? There are two children here, perfect for being scapegoats."

……

"This murder method again," Qi Bu muttered in disgust as he looked at the corpses and blood strewn all over the ground.

This was already the third time they stumbled upon such a scene in their pursuit of the fugitive.

It wasn't like the two had never seen corpses before, but this kind of grisly scene would always make people uncomfortable.

But Yu Shuyun's footsteps paused, as if she was listening intently to something.

"What's wrong?" Qi Bu turned his head in confusion.

"The organization just sent out a message." Yu Shuyun replied quickly, "Two boxes have already been found, and they suspect that the third box is in the hands of the fugitive who mysteriously appeared."

"They already found two?" Qi Bu huffed, "In that case, we also need to speed up our investigation!"

Classmate Qi Bu, a model student from Academic Heaven, immediately felt his heart light up with fighting spirit.

Just then, an abnormal energy fluctuation came from up ahead. Qi Bu, whose ability could manipulate space, blurted out, "Someone is opening a spatial passage!"

The two didn't waste time on further words and swiftly rushed forth, but by the time they arrived, a comatose Dong Xun was slowly being placed inside the spatial passage.

Although Void Cutters had the ability to tear through space, there was a certain degree of difficulty involved if they wanted to take others with them.

This difficulty lay in the fact that the spatial passage wasn't stable enough, so the transport speed was slow. This delay allowed Qi Bu and his companion to sigh in relief.

They made it in time!

As long as they dealt with the person maintaining the spatial passage… Qi Bu's eyes suddenly glared as he stared ahead.

"It's you!" Qi Bu couldn't help shouting furiously, "You traitor!"

A familiar black-robed figure was in front of him; his features were hidden under a silver mask.

Even if he didn't know much about this mysterious organization, Qi Bu knew that now was the time for everyone to unite and find the missing boxes, yet this fellow wanted to send the box away!

Yu Shuyun also stared at this scene with a bewildered expression. She still had a hard time accepting this.

But Gu Nan shattered her fantasy the next second. His figure moved, and his fist was already in front of the two.

"Watch out!" Qi Bu pushed Yu Shuyun away as a spatial ripple surfaced in front of him.

These ripples shifted and rotated horizontally in space, eventually forming seven large characters— "Righteous Qi exists in Heaven and Earth!"

The moment the seven large characters appeared, it was as if there was some kind of will attached to them, and an aura of righteousness emerged out of thin air.

Although Qi Bu already advanced to Star Ruler Realm, he didn't underestimate his opponent at all, having clearly attacked with his full power.

The power of space was the ability he was naturally born with, while Confucianism was the essence of what he learned in his life. Only when he perfectly combined the two did he enter Star Ruler Realm in one fell swoop!

Qi Bu formed his right index and middle fingers into a pen and quickly traced over the seven characters before pushing them forward.

Although he wouldn't underestimate his opponent, he also wouldn't underestimate himself either…

Crack.

With a light sound, Qi Bu's careful arrangement was instantly blown to pieces by Gu Nan's fist.

"Too weak." Gu Nan couldn't help shaking his head. However, this was within his expectations.

This punch contained his full strength and was different from the casual attack Yu Shuyun dodged earlier. The strength behind the punch had reached an astonishing level.

Even if Qi Bu was a Star Ruler and Gu Nan was just a clone, the result of a direct clash was never in question—though they were Star Rulers who both used the law of space, Qi Bu was much weaker than the Dragon of Space.

To deal with the Evil God physique, one must either have overwhelming strength or some other strange methods.

Gu Nan rushed forward directly. Qi Bu's expression shifted slightly, but his hands didn't tremble in the slightest as they wrote out one character after another, blasting them on Gu Nan's body.

The instant these characters appeared, they hit Gu Nan's body directly, giving him no chance to react.

This was what made Qi Bu so terrifying as a spatial ability user.

But to his surprise, Gu Nan had no intention of dodging, simply letting the characters hit him.

The next moment, Gu Nan had already reached Qi Bu and swung a fist down, aiming for none other than the top of Qi Bu's head.

With Gu Nan's terrifying speed, even Qi Bu himself was unable to react, so who could save him? Actually, there really was someone like that on the scene.

Yu Shuyun's law was precisely related to speed. In this lightning-fast split second, she ran out without hesitation and blocked the attack for Qi Bu.

"No!" Qi Bu reacted this time and watched as the punch fell. A roar filled with grief and rage tore out of his mouth.

He never hated his own incompetence so much. If he could, he would definitely choose to die in Yu Shuyun's place!historical

Bam!

Gu Nan's fist tore through Yu Shuyun's chest, then blasted Qi Bu's head to pieces.

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After impaling the two like a skewer, Gu Nan didn't spare them another glance and casually flung Yu Shuyun aside, instead focusing on sending Dong Xun away.

He had to send Dong Xun to a small, obscure plane and was a little rushed for time. Qi Bu's attack had already attracted the attention of the powerful figures in Heavenly Province World, including Daoist Lingyang and the others.

So Gu Nan must send Dong Xun away as soon as possible, or else he would face more and more setbacks.

A few moments later, when Daoist Lingyang and the other members of the Heaven-God Alliance rushed to the scene, Gu Nan's figure was long gone, leaving only a headless corpse, as well as Yu Shuyun, who had a bloody hole in her chest.

"This one is one of our people," a member of the Heaven-God Alliance said heavily after lowering his head to examine Yu Shuyun, whose eyes were blood-red in anger.

"A reserve member?" Daoist Lingyang glanced down slightly. Yu Shuyun didn't hide her face, but he had no memory of this person.

"Yeah."

Daoist Lingyang was silent for a while. Finally, he shook his head. "Someone snatched the box—let's forget about it. Recall everyone."

……

Academic Heaven, inside a strangely-shaped tower, an old man opened his eyes and sighed slightly.

"Mingxuan."

The old man called out to the door, and immediately a youth walked in and bowed. "Master."

"Make a trip to Heavenly Province World and bring your Junior Sister back." Some helplessness appeared on the old man's face, as if this wasn't the first time he'd ordered such a thing.

Sure enough, Chu Mingxuan looked unhappy and complained under his breath, "Has Junior Sister caused trouble again? Like I said, that kid Qi Bu may seem fastidious, but he's incompetent and completely unreliable."

The old man gave another light sigh and gently waved his hand, causing some lines to suddenly appear on the canvas in front of him.historical

The lines tangled and curled, forming a rough human shape, and then colors began to appear on it. A short while later, an exact copy of Yu Shuyun was sketched out.

But what made Chu Mingxuan's jaw drop was that his familiar junior sister was staring wide-eyed, with a grisly hole in her chest. Her entire expression was lifeless.

"Who did this?!" Chu Mingxuan only felt a wave of white-hot anger rush straight to his head and blurted out words that promised violence.

Their youngest martial sister was their master's favorite and was also treasured by himself and several other senior brothers. Usually, they couldn't even say anything harsh to her. Yet someone actually hurt her this much?

The old man said with a heavy face, "We can look for the murderer later. Go bring her back first. If it takes too long, even if I'm preserving her true spirit right now, I still may not be able to save her."

"Yes!" Chu Mingxuan said solemnly, and his figure quickly disappeared.

……

Three days later, the saint clone reentered White Bones Realm, while Gu Nan's original body remained inside his Divine Kingdom.

He didn't intervene again in Rolensia's matter after that. In fact, Star Rulers like him and Xue Ren, who were under too much attention from the Thirteen Heavens, were long since unsuited to being involved in such secret matters.

Especially Xue Ren—as soon as he made a move, all the powerhouses in the Thirteen Heavens would immediately know. None of his moves would be a secret.

On the contrary, Daoist Lingyang's identity hadn't been exposed yet and was more suited to taking charge of this kind of matter.

In all likelihood, the reason Xue Ren deliberately had Gu Nan join this event was to force him to throw in his lot with the Heaven-God Alliance.

Having participated in "smuggling" Rolensia meant he stood on the opposite side of the Thirteen Heavens, and it would be impossible to defect back to that side again.

After all, given the nature of the Heaven-God Alliance, the group had to be extremely cautious about the addition of any new members. Gu Nan wasn't stuck on this step when he joined because of his clear origins, but it was also impossible for the organization to immediately give him access to their core members and matters.

Only a powerful Star Ruler like Xue Ren, who didn't fear having his identity exposed, could make contact with Gu Nan.

"Rolensia's advancement can't be done overnight. There's no telling how long it'll take," Gu Nan withdrew his gaze from a certain small plane and muttered to himself.

Of course he was staring at Rolensia's location. This powerful god who was ruthless to the point of slicing herself into pieces had now reassembled her divine body and was currently trying to make contact with her own Divine Kingdom from within the Myriad Heavens Universe.

Speaking of which, in all his years of gaming history, Gu Nan had never really seen a god ascend to a greater god by themselves.

There were quest chains that allowed gods to level up into greater gods, but they all required the player's help, and none of the gods in the several quest chains were Rolensia.

Rolensia's advancement to a greater god was entirely up to her now, and Gu Nan also didn't have time to stare at that plane all day.

In the next few days, he was finally about to take a step towards Tier 7 and wage a Divine Kingdom War.

……

"My Lord, preparations in Jin Lin World are finished. Liang Ruxin launched an armed rebellion and overthrew the state of Zhao's royal family in one fell swoop. He ascended the throne as emperor two days ago local time," inside the Divine Kingdom, a white-haired young man with an enchanting face reported respectfully as he stood before Gu Nan.

This man was named Bai Xi and came from White Bones Realm. He first joined the White Mist organization based in White Bones Realm and was later recommended over by Red Tail due to his outstanding performance, ultimately becoming one of Gu Nan's apostles.

It was worth mentioning that due to the Time Arena's powerful effect, White Mist's strength swelled even further after Red Tail's advancement to Void Cutter Realm.

More and more strong experts joined White Mist, and a portion of them entered the ranks of Gu Nan's apostles.

Since then, the replenishment of apostles entered a virtuous cycle, and Gu Nan's Apostle Hall already had over two dozen names recorded in it.

And the special characteristic of apostles meant Gu Nan didn't have to worry about their loyalty.

As long as someone had second thoughts, the Apostle Hall would give a clear notification, and their loyalty stat would immediately drop dramatically, so Gu Nan had plenty of time to kill traitors.

"Good." Gu Nan sat high on the throne in the Evil God Temple and said calmly, "Notify Shana: have the vampires get ready and raise their spirits for battle."

"On Jin Lin World's side, have Liang Ruxin send troops to attack the state of Qi. Doesn't matter if he can win or not—just keep fighting till the last troop standing, no matter what."

Bai Xi bowed in response, but Gu Nan spoke once again, "Notify all the apostles that the invasion of Jin Lin World will take place in half a month. All apostles at or above Void Cutter Realm must participate."

……

Bai Xi had just left the Evil God Temple, keeping Gu Nan's several orders in mind, when he saw Lan Si quickly walking over.

"Lord Lan Si." Bai Xi hurriedly saluted. He was a very careful person. Lan Si was far above him in terms of both strength and status, so Bai Xi naturally didn't dare to be rude.

Lan Si nodded as a greeting to Bai Xi.

Ever since that year, Lan Si's character became increasingly taciturn, somewhat approaching Gu Nan's mannerisms. This was actually a form of imitation. People always subconsciously imitate those they idolize.

Bai Xi also didn't mind, since he knew Lan Si had always been like this, and just added, "My Lord ordered an invasion of Jin Lin World in half a month. Everyone at or above Void Cutter Realm must participate."

"Got it," Lan Si replied casually, but her feet were already walking forward again.

But as she stepped into the Evil God Temple, she saw a new structure forming. It was different from anything she'd seen before and was clearly a huge black portal.

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Gu Nan ultimately decided to target Jin Lin World.

It wasn't only because Liang Ruxin completed his mission splendidly, but also because the situation in Jin Lin World was a war between four states, and the power system was more suited to their troops.

Lan Si stared at the black portal that just appeared and couldn't help wondering, "This is…?"

"Dark Warrior Portal. It produces Dark Warriors." Gu Nan explained from the side, uncaring as to whether Lan Si could understand or not, "The current production capacity is around a thousand a week, enough to fight a small war."

Dark Warrior Portal, this was one of the upgraded structures of the Divine Servant Institute.

The Divine Servant Institute was the most basic barracks structure, which could produce divine servants, a basic type of soldier. But the simple divine servants were basically no different from the "peasants" in typical strategy games, so Gu Nan didn't even bother making any.

In contrast, the type of troops produced became a bit interesting once the Divine Servant Institute was upgraded to a Level 1 Dark Warrior Portal.

Dark Warriors was one of the frequently selected soldier types in the early stage and were half-living, half-dead darkness attribute creatures. They were relatively hard to kill and also had high resistance against a large portion of laws.

Moreover, Dark Warriors were good at assaulting fortified positions, and their overall stats were more comprehensive. They were already a very good choice when there were only enough points to build one type of barracks.

Finally, the Dark Warrior's special ability was also very suited for early-stage wars.

The Dark Warrior's ability was "Death Sacrifice"—that is, after killing the opponent, they can harvest a certain amount of dark energy to strengthen themselves. They belonged to the category of troops that grew stronger the more battles they fought.

As Gu Nan kept investing more points, one Dark Warrior after another walked out of the portal.

They were all clad in black armor, holding a broadsword in their hands. Their faces were obscured by their helmets, revealing only a pair of cold, emotionless eyes.

"Their power is somewhere between Innate and Prodigious Realm." Lan Si couldn't help frowning after she found a random Dark Warrior and briefly tested its power.

However, Gu Nan replied, "It's enough. Once these 2,000 Dark Warriors die till roughly 500 remain, the survivors will all be able to reach Tier 3. How many people would it take to crush everyone in an insignificant small plane?"

……

Jin Lin World.

Liang Ruxin sat high on the throne, looking down at the group of ministers slowly retreating, and actually felt as if everything happened a lifetime ago.

In a short half year or so, he'd managed to ascend from a penniless stranger to this exalted throne, where one word of his could decide the fates of tens of thousands of people.

Although there were still three other existences like him in this world, Liang Ruxin had complete confidence in his ability to sweep away all three of those states.

After being in this world for so long, he'd long since grown used to his new identity.

But Liang Ruxin never imagined he'd still have the chance to meet people from his previous life.

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely not a good time to send troops to attack Qi!" A middle-aged man dressed as a strategist hurriedly walked up to Liang Ruxin and earnestly advised.

Not only did the middle-aged strategist say this, he also took out a piece of paper, on which he clearly wrote ten disadvantages of sending out an army at this time.

He was about to give Liang Ruxin an analysis one by one when he saw Liang Ruxin say expressionlessly, "Tian Yuan has disturbed the troop's morale. Capture him."

Immediately, people rushed up and took the strategist named Tian Yuan away, throwing him into prison.

Liang Ruxin had risen to power through a bloody coup d'etat, so he had extremely high control over his subordinates, which was why he dared to do such a thing.

But Liang Ruxin couldn't help sighing after Tian Yuan was taken away. In fact, with his knowledge and experience, how could he not know that attacking Qi now would be completely detrimental?

But Liang Ruxin had no way to resist, not only because the voice in his head gave a new order, but also because of the person from his previous life that he'd just met.

"Send troops to attack Qi—this is your mission," the words spoken by that bewitching white-haired man were still fresh in his ears.

Liang Ruxin accepted the mission very decisively, not simply because the voice in his head also had the exact same order, but also because he was completely powerless to fight back against the stranger.

With his martial arts cultivation, he was only one step short of that legendary realm capable of shattering space, yet there was still someone who could toy with him like he was in the palm of the mysterious stranger's hand. One could well imagine just how high the other party's cultivation was.

More importantly, Liang Ruxin clearly sensed that this wasn't the other party's true body at all and was merely a wisp of his soul, weakened to the point where his realm was similar to Liang Ruxin's when they fought.

Thus, the newborn state of Zhao, under Liang Ruxin's "tyrannical order," commanded an army of 200,000 troops north to attack Qi, shocking the entire world.

Even more shocking was that in just half a month, Liang Ruxin personally joined this war, and the fighting became so fierce and desperate to the point where they were practically using human lives to fill an entire city just to capture it.

With the way he was fighting, people were afraid that the Zhao army would only manage to capture ten borderline cities at most before they exhausted all their troops.

Of course, Qi also suffered from such a mad strategy. Countless cultivators and soldiers died on the battlefield, and both sides were said to be greatly diminished.

Rumors had it that the king of Qi had already lost his temper several times in the imperial court, cursing Liang Ruxin as a lunatic.

Until one day, two men who called themselves "angels" came to the imperial court of Qi and ordered the king of Qi to stop the war immediately.

As one of the most powerful people in the world, the king of Qi wasn't ignorant of the existence of angels, but he was concerned about another matter.

"What about Liang Ruxin?" The king of Qi asked with a livid expression.

"Naturally, someone will inform him." The angel remained expressionless from beginning to end.

The king of Qi, however, wasn't placated by this half-hearted response and said furiously, "He sent troops to attack Qi, causing us to lose so many generals for nothing. Should we just let it go?!"historical

The man looked at him coldly but didn't say anything, only revealing an icy smile.

……

Liang Ruxin's military tent also welcomed two "angels," but it was a man and a woman this time—a slightly different configuration.

"Who are you?"

"You don't need to know who we are. You just need to obey orders." The man had a mocking smile on his face.

"Order the immediate withdrawal of your troops and fetter yourself. My Lord wants to see you," the woman instructed. Her expression was like ice, and her tone contained even more high-and-mighty indifference.

Liang Ruxin wasn't a stranger to this tone. The man from his previous life who visited him earlier also spoke this way.

So Liang Ruxin gently clenched his fists. No one liked to be treated like this, but he was extremely aware that he had no room to resist.

As if seeing through his emotions, the man said again, "Hurry up. If not for the fact that you actually have some talent and the Lord wants to train you, we wouldn't be merely taking you away."

Liang Ruxin relaxed and asked in a low voice, "May I ask, who exactly is the Lord you're talking about?"

The man and woman glanced at each other, finding it hard to suppress the laughter on their faces. It was as if they just saw an ant ask a question with utter seriousness, which was always a comical sight.

However, what the two didn't expect was for a voice to echo softly, answering the question for them.

"Jin Lin World, Star Ruler Jin Lin?"

In Liang Ruxin's line of sight, a golden-haired, blue-eyed, blood-red figure appeared in front of them. All she did was pass by the two angels, yet her crimson nail, which was as long as a finger, had already sliced off their heads.

And immediately after that, Liang Ruxin saw a scene that he would never forget in his life.

As far as the eye could see, warriors in pitch-black armor were descending from the sky in an orderly formation, walking down from the sky step by step.

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The army of Dark Warriors descended to Jin Lin World, taking advantage of the golden opportunity presented by Liang Ruxin attacking Qi with his entire kingdom's troops, giving the divine servants the best chance to grow by killing enemies.

The invading force descended upon the frontlines of the battlefield between the two armies. The two thousand Dark Warriors headed straight for the Qi army from the moment they descended.

Of course, neither did the Dark Warriors avoid any Zhao troops who just happened to be in the way, killing them almost in passing—in any case, killing any soldier here would increase their strength.

"Are you guys planning to kill everyone here?" Liang Ruxin asked as he helplessly watched his subordinates being slaughtered, barely keeping his expression calm.

Shana flung her blonde hair and gave a charming smile. "If by 'here' you mean this Divine Kingdom, then…… yes."

……

In Jin Lin World, despite the chaotic situation of four states vying for supremacy, the people of the four kingdoms had all heard of a legend.historical

It was said that at the center of the continent existed a sacred mountain where immortals lived, and if one could be accepted as an immortal's disciple, they would have the chance to also gain immortality in the future.

Some people questioned the authenticity of the immortals, but even more people believed it without a doubt, because the monarchs of the four states would also periodically send people to the sacred mountain to make offerings to the immortals.

For an intruder like Gu Nan, the sacred mountain represented something all too obvious—it must be the residence of the Star Ruler, Jin Lin.

The name Jin Lin World came from the fact that six hundred years ago, Jin Lin took control of this world and named his astral world after himself.

Actually, many Star Rulers did this, and in fact, this practice was more conducive to establishing a branding effect that would better attract Void Cutters from other planes to work under them.

The "profession" of Star Rulers was indeed somewhat similar to that of the lord of a territory. Not only did they need to develop their own "territory," but they also had to find ways to recruit outside talents.

In reality, Void Cutters were the most important talents working under most Star Rulers.

It was to the extent where even the strength of an astral world was measured—to a large extent—by the number of Void Cutters stationed in it.

For example, Qiao Deyu's Gale World was only a recently-established astral world, so only one to two Void Cutters who were already his friends pledged their loyalty to him.

Even if other Void Cutters went there, they still wouldn't use Gale World as their main base.

In contrast, Jin Lin World was a little better. The Star Ruler, Jin Lin, had already managed this world for hundreds of years. Not only did he recruit Void Cutter subordinates from outside, even some of the astral world's more powerful inhabitants broke through to Void Cutter Realm.

For example, Jin Lin sent four Void Cutters in one fell swoop to halt the war between Zhao and Qi, which wasn't an insignificant portion of the fighting force for small astral worlds.

But the result clearly wasn't good at all.

Jin Lin stood in the hall with a livid expression, glaring at the white-robed figure standing calmly before him, his gaze cold enough to freeze someone.

"Gu Nan?" Jin Lin wasn't an isolationist and was well aware of what transpired in the Myriad Heavens Universe recently, so he recognized Gu Nan's face at a glance.

"There's no enmity between us, so why are you attacking my Jin Lin World?" Jin Lin asked in a heavy voice as he fixed his stare on Gu Nan's face.

Gu Nan also had no intention of hiding his identity. He simply looked at this Star Ruler with a wordless smile, yet his attack didn't slow down at all.

A lightning-fast fist arrived directly in front of Jin Lin, almost making space itself cave in.

Normally, if Jin Lin had encountered this punch, he might really have fallen victim to this sneak attack and been heavily injured, but he was currently inside his own astral world.

The instant Gu Nan swung his fist, Jin Lin had already seen through the attack's trajectory, and a golden wall appeared out of thin air in front of him.

Gu Nan's fist smashed into the wall, causing a terrifying crash. Outsiders even thought that a landslide had occurred on the sacred mountain.

The two in the hall stood across from each other. Gu Nan pulled back his hand and shook it slightly, revealing an odd smile. "Being buffed by an astral world really is an advantage."

With the characteristics of Gu Nan's Evil God physique, winning against even a Tier 7 Star Ruler outside might not be out of the question.

But in Jin Lin's own astral world, Gu Nan had no chance of winning against a Tier 6 Star Ruler like Jin Lin. At best, all he could do was maintain the current status quo.

Jin Lin sneered as the golden light in front of him turned into several sharp arrows that flew straight at Gu Nan.

His law was the law of gold. When entering Star Ruler Realm, he added supplementary laws such as "sharpness" and "piercing," perfecting impalement attacks.

Therefore, Jin Lin's laws could be described with four words—able to pierce anything.

And with the support of his astral world, Jin Lin's power was strengthened by another level. Golden arrows holding unstoppable power pierced straight into Gu Nan's chest.

And then… There was no "and then," because Gu Nan stood before Jin Lin like nothing had happened.

"You…" Jin Lin watched as Gu Nan patted his chest, the bloody holes disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye as if they never even existed in the first place.

While "able to pierce anything" was certainly very powerful, it first had to break through the opponent's defense.

Jin Lin's expression changed slightly as he received more and more warnings from his astral world. Not only were his inhabitants slaughtered by a mysterious army, but even his sacred mountain was being invaded by a group of Void Cutters.

He couldn't afford to be locked in battle with Gu Nan any longer and wanted to leave immediately, his figure flickering, but Gu Nan's fist descended right at this moment.

The buff the astral world provided for the Star Ruler was mainly reflected in laws, boosting the Star Ruler's law straight up by one to two tiers, but there was little buff for the Star Ruler themselves.

Players had a unique advantage in this regard, because the existence of the Evil God physique allowed them to directly destroy the enemy's physical body.

It was easy to fight laws with laws, but to fight a physical body with nothing but laws, one must first go through the "solidification" step, so the attack power was instantly reduced.

With no other alternative, Jin Lin was forced to stop his attempts to create a spatial passage and prioritize the organization of defensive measures to block Gu Nan's attacks.

But Gu Nan's attacks were continuous and never seemed to let up, forcing Jin Lin to repeatedly take a defensive stance, unable to free himself to do anything else.

At this moment, Jin Lin finally understood Gu Nan's purpose—he never had any intention of defeating Jin Lin; Gu Nan just wanted to stall him.

His opponent had more powerful subordinates, so as long as Jin Lin was tied up fighting Gu Nan, the other party would be free to slaughter everyone in Jin Lin World, no matter the cost.

And as the powerful cultivators in Jin Lin World continued dying off while some Void Cutters even fled without a fight, the power his astral world provided to Jin Lin would weaken even further.

This would continue until a certain critical point when Gu Nan's power would be enough to suppress him.

Jin Lin realized all this, but he couldn't do anything in the face of Gu Nan's combination punches.

Despite having a lifespan of nearly ten thousand years, this was the first time Jin Lin ever faced an invasion of his astral world ever since he took control of Jin Lin World, so he was completely inexperienced in this area.

Even more unfortunate was the fact that the first opponent he faced under such circumstances had to be a terrifying existence like Gu Nan.

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On Jin Lin World's sacred mountain.

After Gu Nan trapped Jin Lin himself deep in the sacred mountain, the invaders cut through this world like a hot knife through butter.

The group invading the sacred mountain was led by Lan Si, but the main force was still the vampires of the Raymond clan. After all, vampires were too good at bullying the weak and cowering from the strong.

They were easily overwhelmed across the board when facing an opponent with stronger overall specs; but when facing an opponent weaker than them, the vampires could bring out 120% of their strength.

"Who are you people?!"

"To trespass upon the sacred mountain, you all… Ah!"

Clouds of bloody mist exploded all over the enemy's body, and they slowly collapsed to the ground. Lan Si had a cold look on her face as she casually said, "If you want to blame something, blame the fact that you chose to follow the wrong person."

As the vampires surged into the mountain, blood instantly flowed like rivers. One after another, the experts and their families here were killed without mercy, no matter whether they begged for mercy or resisted.

In fact, in Gu Nan's order, besides not needing to pursue the Void Cutters who fled of their own accord, everyone else had to be killed to the last person.

Bai Xi was also on the sacred mountain's battlefield, but he didn't quite understand this order.

He came from a large family in White Bones Realm and used to be a genuine heaven-defying genius. However, Bai Xi lacked the arrogance of a typical young master; instead, he was curious about the outside world.

While curious, Bai Xi was also very aware of his own position and never stepped out of bounds, so he was able to become Gu Nan's apostle.

But Bai Xi's obedience and acknowledgement of Gu Nan didn't mean that he didn't have his own ideas and thoughts. In fact, in Bai Xi's perception, all leaders preferred subordinates with creative opinions.

So with little hesitation, Bai Xi expressed his opinion to Lan Si, "Lord Lan Si, isn't it a little unwise for us to slaughter every human here?"

"Why is it unwise?" Lan Si turned her head and looked at him in confusion.

Bai Xi took a deep breath and explained, "If we continue killing like this, I'm afraid that all His Excellency will get in the end will just be an empty shell."

Of course only an empty shell would be left after everyone was killed. Bai Xi knew that there would be invasions among Star Rulers, but no Star Ruler would do what Gu Nan did.

The gains weren't worth the losses!

The goal behind invading other astral worlds should be to kill the enemy Star Ruler and incorporate that astral world into their own territory, so why would anyone want to slaughter all the inhabitants?

But Lan Si shook her head. "That's what My Lord ordered."

Bai Xi said without backing down, "If there's a mistake in His Excellency's orders, we should at least raise it, or else who will advise His Excellency if anything was overlooked?"

Hearing Bai Xi's words, Lan Si glanced deep into the sacred mountain and replied, "I'm afraid it's too late to say that now."

……

Comrade Bai Xi, who wanted to advise Gu Nan if anything was overlooked, was undoubtedly a good comrade, only it never would've occurred to him that Gu Nan gave Shana's side an even more ruthless order.

The Dark Warrior army swept across the battlefield, sweeping away armies, cities, countrysides… In short, anything that could be leveled was leveled without any semblance of reason.

Not only did they kill the cultivators, but they even killed the civilians in passing. No matter how small a mosquito was, it was still meat.

This was actually because Gu Nan's goal for launching this Divine Kingdom War differed from that of normal Star Rulers and gods.

Star Rulers mainly wanted new territory because their astral worlds could be expanded by absorbing conquered planes. Gods, on the other hand, wanted faith. Their Divine Kingdoms could be continuously expanded by recruiting new believers.

Players like Gu Nan were different from both.

The player's goal was Evil Value and points, and the way to obtain both was actually based on how many enemies the player's divine servants killed.

Any lifeform that could provide power to the enemy Star Ruler was the divine servants' enemy.

This strange level-up path was unique to players. That was why players launched frenzied invasions one after another in the mid- to late-stages of the game, biting any Divine Kingdom they caught.

Divine servants earned points through war. Although not much Evil Value could be earned this way, players would also be able to earn a lot of Evil Value if they ultimately managed to kill the god ruling the Divine Kingdom.

Liang Ruxin silently followed Shana, his expression turning colder and more detached.

Anyone who kept sending loyal soldiers right into the path of the Dark Warrior army while seeing the shocked eyes of his former subordinates would become this way.

"Well done." Shana revealed a charming smile and told Liang Ruixin appreciatively, "With your ability, I believe you will soon be rewarded by My Lord."

"And then continue being an undercover agent?" Liang Ruxin asked, but his tone didn't have any inflection, making it impossible to discern happiness or anger from it.

Shana, however, simply replied, "As long as you can advance to Legend Rank, that job will naturally be done by someone else."

Liang Ruxin didn't respond. His gaze was on the army of Dark Warriors. He murmured, "Any army that doesn't fear death, grows stronger with every battle, and possesses unlimited stamina… For such a perfect army, your command is too crude."

Dark Warriors were half-undead divine servants that possessed many of the advantages unique to the undead, which simplified a war that originally should've been quite complicated.

"Then you can be the commander." With an indifferent expression, Shana handed command directly over to Liang Ruixin.

Liang Ruxin stared at her in surprise. "You're not afraid that I'll take advantage of this opportunity to seize power?"

Shana responded with a vampire noble's most standard smile, "When you reach my realm, you'll understand that this doesn't matter at all. Besides… it won't be long before we retreat."

……

Deep inside the sacred mountain, Jin Lin's expression was already ugly. Countless golden arrows shot in all directions, while the walls around him were becoming weaker and weaker.

For Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens Universe, the degree to which their astral worlds boosted their powers mainly depended on the number of high-level cultivators inside their astral world, so Jin Lin's power quickly weakened as the sacred mountain was slaughtered clean.

But Gu Nan's condition wasn't very good either. His body could already be described as being riddled with a thousand holes, and even his head had been hit by several arrows.

On one hand, he had to endure unavoidable attacks, while on the other hand, he also had to think of ways to stall Jin Lin. Gu Nan wasn't invincible after all, so this was the most he could manage.

If too much of the enemy Star Ruler's laws accumulated in his body, it would be enough to interfere with the Evil God physique's self-healing ability.

It was precisely because he sensed this that Jin Lin abandoned defense in favor of offense in an attempt to kill Gu Nan before the power from his astral world disappeared.

'The losses to my astral world are already inevitable, but as long as I kill the other party, I can take over Gu Nan's forces!' Jin Lin's mind was very clear. He found a way to stop the losses or even make a bloody profit in the process.

With Jin Lin's judgment of the situation, if the two of them fought with their lives on the line, both had a 50-50% chance of winning.

But he didn't expect Gu Nan to suddenly stop at a certain moment, his figure already standing outside the hall and muttering to himself, "These guys are really slow…"

As if realizing something, Jin Lin swiftly chased him outside, but Gu Nan had already disappeared without a trace.

Jin Lin couldn't possibly match Gu Nan in terms of speed, even if his astral world wasn't destroyed.

More importantly, by the time Jin Lin was free to observe what was happening outside the sacred mountain, he discovered that those damned invaders had long since vanished.historical

"Gu Nan!" Jin Lin roared frantically in place.

……

Inside his Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan was sitting leisurely in the Evil God Temple, recuperating.

Shana had already brought back the army of Dark Warriors and reported, "My Lord, the Divine Kingdom War has already ended. Shall I arrange for them to continue heading to Crescent Moon World?"

"What's the hurry?" Gu Nan, however, waved his hand and pointed to Jin Lin World in the distance. "Jin Lin himself isn't even dead yet. We'll head over and farm it again after a while."

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A resourceful player will always pursue the playstyle that maximizes profit—unless he thinks there's a risk associated with this playstyle.historical

Unlike all the Star Rulers who invaded other astral worlds, Gu Nan's aim was never to fight over territory, but to kill enough of that world's inhabitants in order to cut off the supply of power to the enemy Star Ruler.

From this perspective, the Myriad Heavens Universe was more convenient than the World of Gods.

Because in the Myriad Heavens Universe, the Star Rulers' source of power was primarily high-level cultivators and secondarily civilians, not believers.

Although it was harder to kill powerful cultivators, as long as Gu Nan could provide a large and powerful enough army, it was definitely easier to simply kill people rather than killing believers.

After all, powerful cultivators were instantly recognizable, while believers were not. Besides the few particularly fanatical ones, the only choice was to wipe out all inhabitants to prevent a particularly big fish from slipping through the net.

It wasn't like the Myriad Heavens Universe at all, where cultivator targets were obvious enough that they couldn't run away in time. As for civilians, the invading army killed as many as they were able to, but it wasn't a big deal if they couldn't kill all civilians. Anyways, they wouldn't lose much.

This was precisely why Gu Nan wouldn't kill the target plane in a single blow. He much rather preferred "sustainable development," farming it over and over.

Perhaps one day, a Star Ruler like Jin Lin would be driven mad by him and simply abandon this plane, searching for a new astral world in a fit of rage. Then Gu Nan would have to give up along with him.

Gu Nan sat in the Divine Kingdom. Almost half a month had passed since his first Divine Kingdom War.

His injuries from the battle with Jin Lin had already healed—when not in combat, the Evil God physique's healing factor was on another level.

Gu Nan obtained substantial gains from this Divine Kingdom War.

Originally, Gu Nan already squandered all his points to create 2,000 Dark Warriors, but now that number directly swelled to nearly 50,000 points.

Merely one Divine Kingdom War that was slightly rushed for time and executed by relatively inexperienced apostles brought in this amount of revenue. War really was something that could return a huge profit with only a small investment.

There was also the fact that Gu Nan couldn't stall Jin Lin for too long, and there were also no Tier 4 divine servants among the invading troops.

The absence of Tier 4 divine servants meant it was almost impossible for the army to kill Tier 4 opponents—enemies killed by apostles didn't give any points.

His Evil Value, on the other hand, probably grew by about 200, a somewhat pitifully small number compared to Gu Nan's current level.

This was also by intentional design. It wasn't like no one in the game had ever tried the same tactic as Gu Nan—leaving the enemy Star Ruler alive—with the intention of repeatedly farming points.

But for one thing, immigrating to a new astral world to escape the invasion was far less troublesome than cultivating new believers from scratch in the same world. For another, it was the above reason—how could players get Evil Value if they didn't kill gods?

This was unlike the current Gu Nan, whose sources of Evil Value and points were separated, which gave him the incentive to farm Jin Lin World repeatedly.

Although the gains were substantial, the losses suffered by the Dark Warrior army were also considerable. Though being unfearing of death was a good quality in battle, one would start hating this quality once they started counting the casualties suffered by the troops.

Of the 2,000 Dark Warriors, after a slaughter that lasted less than a few hours, there were now less than 300 left. The casualty ratio reached an alarming point.

The level of the Dark Warriors wasn't high in the first place, so casualties could easily occur even when facing low-level soldiers from Jin Lin World.

However, divine servants were creatures created from laws and could be mass-produced as long as points were invested, so Gu Nan didn't care how many died.

It was fine as long as his Tier 4 subordinates didn't die—they were still needed to keep an eye on the hostile Void Cutters, since Gu Nan currently lacked a stable source of Tier 4 troops.

Gu Nan, who got 50,000 points, put 30,000 of them into the Divine Kingdom's structures without another word.

This time, he still chose the Divine Servant Institute, as well as the other divine servant structure created after the upgrade, called the "Ghoul Camp."

The second type of soldier Gu Nan planned to select was none other than Ghouls.

If Dark Warriors were still half-human and half-undead, retaining part of the characteristics of flesh and blood creatures, then Ghouls were pure undead creatures.

In the early stages of the Divine Kingdom's development, undead soldiers were indeed the most suitable starting troops.

The reason was simple—the vast majority of troops that could "grow their numbers with each war" and perhaps even grow stronger with every battle belonged to the undead category.

The well-known necromancers all became famous because they built up huge undead empires with their own power.

Dark Warriors had the "Death Sacrifice" ability, able to strengthen themselves by killing enemies, while Ghouls had the "Corpse Eater" ability that allowed them to regenerate and even level up by devouring corpses.

Of the two, one killed enemies and one ate up their corpses. The latter could help kill more enemies after eating corpses and might even grow powerful enough to take over the battle, so they were the perfect match.

But Ghouls were on the weaker side when first starting out, which was why Gu Nan didn't choose them immediately.

As for the remaining 20,000 points, Gu Nan put them into the production of Dark Warriors and Ghouls with a 3:1 ratio.

Although he said he planned to farm Jin Lin World a second time, Gu Nan still had a group of Legend Rank vampires farm the Crescent Moon dungeon to earn points for him.

This wasn't because Gu Nan intended to renege on his promise. Rather, it was because Comrade Jin Lin's "capital construction" was too ineffective.

Time in a small plane flowed even faster than inside the Divine Kingdom, but Jin Lin World already had almost half a year to recuperate, yet the states of Qi and Zhao still looked the same. They didn't appear rebuilt at all.

In other words, if Gu Nan wanted to return and slaughter all the powerful cultivators in the armies again, he could only set his sights on the two other states.

But it wasn't wartime, so those armies were scattered all over the continent, drastically reducing the efficiency of just one massacre.

At the end of the day, Jin Lin World was still Jin Lin's territory, and Gu Nan couldn't stall the other party indefinitely.

Now that he thought about it, the fact that Zuo Zuo was able to suppress Red inside her own astral world for so many years was quite a terrifying feat. If not for Ying Ge's existence creating a weak point in his mind and forcing him to choose self-destruction, the result might still be uncertain.

After all, Zuo Zuo was a powerful Tier 10 Star Ruler, second only to the Thirteen Heavens. He wouldn't be killed so easily.

But in reality, this wasn't much of a setback. If Gu Nan could send one Liang Ruxin to incite a war between two states, he could naturally also send a second Liang Ruxin.

It would only take a little time.

But while Gu Nan was busy farming his points, conversations in the Myriad Heavens Universe exploded again because of his actions.

In fact, in the Myriad Heavens Universe, Star Ruler Realm battles were still relatively rare.

Although there were quite a few Star Rulers and astral worlds in the Myriad Heavens Universe, Star Rulers usually fought each other in the Inner World, so fights that happened in the real world were particularly conspicuous.

Even though Jin Lin World was only a small plane, it still had a certain degree of popularity as an astral world controlled by a Star Ruler.

People noticed as soon as the war broke out, and after inquiring about the identity of the invading Star Ruler, that information attracted even more people's attention.

Gu Nan! It was actually Gu Nan!

Gu Nan, suspected of having already advanced to Star Ruler Realm and perhaps even having his own astral world! The same Gu Nan who killed Lou Wanying and likely stole the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance!

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Gu Nan wasn't an unfamiliar name to those in the Myriad Heavens Universe.

For people below Star Ruler Realm, there were actually two levels that they were most concerned about.

One was the Thirteen Heavens kind of existence. They were the real big shots, the actual rulers of the Myriad Heavens. Their every word and action was eye-catching.

The other was the top-level Void Cutters, as well as recently-advanced Star Rulers.

Void Cutters were the pinnacle of mortals. They belonged to the "present management" category of existences and also received attention, such as the previous Gu Nan.

When Gu Nan first rose to fame in the Myriad Heavens, it was still as a Void Cutter.

It was only his participation in Nirvana Heaven's invasion of Star Realm that brought him to people's attention.

But later, as Gu Nan did more and more things, more and more people knew about him. Someone in a similar boat was Lou Wanying.

Under Lu Wen's manipulation, Lou Wanying had done a lot of earth-shattering things.

The matter with the Time Arena was considered Lu Wen's personal endorsement of Lou Wanying, and the fight over the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance even alarmed people at the level of the Thirteen Heavens.

In this way, Lou Wanying's reputation may actually be above Gu Nan's.

But this didn't matter much, because the moment Lou Wanying died at Gu Nan's hands, all the attention given to the two of them was now focused on Gu Nan alone!

Under certain people's deliberate manipulation, people very logically deduced a piece of information.

Lou Wanying acquired the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance, while Gu Nan killed him, so who currently had the inheritance? Of course it was Gu Nan!

With the exception of Void Grotto Heaven, who knew that it was very difficult to steal the inheritance from Lou Wanying, other people wouldn't really know or care as much.

Even if Gu Nan had a one percent chance of getting this inheritance, it was still a tempting enough reason to go after him.

"Gu Nan invaded Jin Lin World. So it's true that he already has an astral world?"

"But the invasion wasn't really successful? He wasn't able to seize the land, and his losses aren't necessarily smaller than Jin Lin World."

"Who knows! All I care now is where in the world Gu Nan's astral world is…"

Where was Gu Nan's astral world? This was a question many people were curious about. Because finding his astral world was the same as finding Gu Nan himself, which meant also finding the inheritance.

Usually, it wasn't hard to locate the whereabouts of a Star Ruler's astral world.

For example, with Jin Lin World, Jin Lin was all too eager to announce that there was a small astral world here, trying to increase the plane's popularity.

But on the other hand, if the Star Ruler himself wasn't willing to reveal it and didn't use the power of his astral world in front of others, then it was very difficult to discover the whereabouts of someone's astral world.

Even if a person went to that astral world by accident, they still wouldn't know who it belonged to!

Amidst this popular craze where everyone was searching for Gu Nan, someone came knocking on his door.

Of course, it wasn't as exaggerated as finding his Divine Kingdom. Instead, she found Gu Nan's clone in White Bones Realm.

The saint clone sat in a quiet room, studying Long Ling'er with a somewhat thoughtful gaze.

Gu Nan truly didn't expect for the first person to approach him at this juncture to be from Lu Wen's side.

"Lu Wen's looking for me?" Gu Nan didn't bother with pleasantries and asked bluntly.

Long Ling'er was clearly also satisfied with this type of exchange and nodded. "He told me to tell you that since you killed Lou Wanying, you will also inherit his karma."

"And?" Gu Nan raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing else." Long Ling'er, however, shook her head, then excused herself and left as quickly as she came.

This actually puzzled Gu Nan a little. She came all the way here just to say this?

This wasn't the first time Gu Nan had heard the concept of "karma."

As early as his time in Star Realm, a large portion of reincarnators believed that reincarnation was an act that affected karma.

But as his level rose, Gu Nan was more inclined to believe it was nonsense.

But the karma that Long Ling'er had paid a special visit to warn him about didn't seem that simple, no matter how he looked at it.

However, Gu Nan soon realized how this karma manifested.

"My Lord, someone came to our door again. It doesn't seem like we can make them leave very easily this time," in White Bones Realm, Red Tail hurriedly came to report to Gu Nan again.

"Which side are they from again?" Gu Nan asked after some thought.

"It's Daoist Sect Realm this time."

Gu Nan knew what the other party was here for as soon as he heard the name.

Daoist Sect Realm wasn't among the Heaven Level planes, but it wasn't far from it. It was only slightly weaker than top-tier Realm Level planes like White Bones Realm.

Even more importantly, Daoist Sect Realm and Void Grotto Heaven originated from the same source.

Back when Void Grotto Heaven was undergoing a cataclysmic change, it was because of a fight between two martial brothers. In the end, the senior brother succeeded in ascending and took charge of Void Grotto Heaven.

The defeated junior brother left in disgrace and established his own astral world outside, under the name of Daoist Sect.

In this way, the Star Ruler of Daoist Sect Realm, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian, was actually Yu Lian's martial uncle.

So when people from Daoist Sect Realm came knocking on Gu Nan's door, their goal was naturally the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance. After all, to them, this inheritance was no different from their own inheritance, and it might even be more complete than their current inheritance.

"Should we let them in?" Red Tail asked when she saw Gu Nan's look of understanding.

"No need." Gu Nan, however, had absolutely no intention of going out to meet anyone and casually told her, "Just relay my message to them."

"What message?"

"Inheritance, don't have, fuck off."

……

A few minutes later, Red Tail stood outside White Mist's branch office in White Bones Realm, entertaining the two emissaries from Daoist Sect Realm.

She had a somewhat helpless smile on her face and a young girl sitting beside her—the only daughter of Daoist White Bones, Bai Qiaozhen.

With Daoist White Bones' personality, Bai Qiaozhen was the de facto manager of White Bones Realm.

Red Tail was naturally the one who called Bai Qiaozhen over. She didn't dare to actually convey Gu Nan's message word for word. And since Gu Nan made it clear that he wouldn't be accepting meetings with anyone, she could only rely on Bai Qiaozhen to send off the uninvited guests.historical

Fortunately, after the events surrounding White Bones Realm being besieged by seven planes, Daoist White Bones, a Star Ruler true to himself, had always been very kind to Gu Nan and had taken much care of White Mist.

"Honored guests, My Lord is indeed not here right now." Red Tail made a troubled face and suggested, "How about this, I will immediately inform the two of you as soon as he returns?"

The two men from Daoist Sect Realm were both dressed as Daoists. The older one called himself Wen Congdao, and the other was a young man called Guan Feng.

Wen Congdao always had a cold expression from beginning to end. On the other hand, the younger Guan Feng revealed a kind smile. "Why must Daoist Friend Red Tail say such things? Everyone knows that Lord Gu Nan lives here permanently."

Red Tail, now also a Void Cutter, had more courage in her heart and immediately changed her expression. "May I ask where you heard that? My Lord's whereabouts are not something we can inquire about excessively."

Having met two refusals in a row, Guan Feng's expression gradually turned cold.

At the side, Wen Congdao suddenly spoke up, "This matter is easy to resolve. Since Daoist Friend is sure that the person we're looking for isn't there, why don't you let us go inside and search?"

Red Tail immediately replied with a sneer, "Are you two joking?"

If even the organization's headquarters could be casually searched by outsiders, then there would be no need for White Mist to exist.

Wen Congdao's eyes narrowed slightly, and a dangerous glint shone in them, while Guan Feng glanced at Bai Qiaozhen next to him and spoke first, "In that case, this humble Daoist and Martial Uncle will take their leave."

After saying that, Guan Feng actually stood up, and Wen Congdao followed suit.

Seeing their figures fading away, Bai Qiaozhen couldn't help sighing, "From what I've seen, you guys will have to prepare in advance."

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Be it Red Tail or White Mist, of course it was necessary for both to prepare in advance. Daoist Sect Realm wasn't a weak force and was on the same level as Star Realm in its earlier years. It belonged to the second echelon of Realm Level planes.

Based on Gu Nan's level system, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian was probably around Tier 8. The current Gu Nan naturally wasn't capable of defeating him, but running away wasn't a problem.

In other words, Gu Nan wasn't afraid of Daoist Sect Realm.

This was perfectly reflected in his following attitude.

"No need to care about their identities." Gu Nan's saint clone was just sitting deep in White Mist's headquarters. "As long as Wu Tian himself doesn't come, treat any other uninvited guests the same way."

No matter how powerful Daoist Sect Realm was, it was merely a Realm Level plane that couldn't possibly have Star Ruler subordinates, so Wu Tian's underlings were at most Void Cutters.

And if Void Cutters came over to attack White Mist… White Mist might even be able to take care of all attackers itself without needing Gu Nan's help.

Gu Nan spent so much effort raising forces with the Time Arena and recruiting people from Crescent Moon World and the World of Gods precisely because he wanted capable subordinates.

Tier 4 was the highest level for mortals. It was impossible for divine servants to reach this level anytime soon, so he could only rely on apostles.

Today's White Mist included a Void Cutter Realm Red Tail, three Legend Rank vampires stationed here, Crescent Moon World's Transcendent Realm martial artists, as well as locally recruited experts from White Bones Realm…

To put it bluntly, if not for the deterrent called Daoist Monarch Wu Tian standing behind Daoist Sect Realm, Red Tail could've captured Wen Congdao and his companion on the spot.historical

So Red Tail largely agreed with Gu Nan's attitude, but she asked, "What if Wu Tian actually decides to come in person?"

Gu Nan thought about it and answered quite earnestly, "Then I'll take a stroll around Daoist Sect Realm."

……

Although Gu Nan all but ignored Lou Wanying's karma, other people didn't have the same thoughts.

After Bai Qiaozhen left White Mist, she informed Daoist White Bones of the current situation. The latter's comment on this was simply a single sentence: "Help Gu Nan with whatever he wants."

Daoist White Bones had never been a ruler who shied away from troublesome matters. A mere Daoist Sect Realm wasn't enough to make him change his mind.

On the other side, there was another person paying attention to Gu Nan.

Zi Luo Heaven.

Duan Wenqi was quite an interesting person. He was a relatively strong Star Ruler and also one of the leaders of Astral Gate.

Very few people knew that Duan Wenqi was actually one of Astral Gate's founders, and the earliest Astral Gate was established in Zi Luo Heaven.

As the founders from back then either died or entered Star Ruler Realm, the only one still willing to invest a lot of energy in Astral Gate was Duan Wenqi alone.

In a sense, the current Astral Gate was about to become Duan Wenqi's sole possession. If he wanted, it was possible to take over the entire organization with just a little preparation.

Duan Wenqi was now sitting inside Astral Gate, and the documents placed in front of him were all regarding Gu Nan.

From the time he killed Lou Wanying, to his brief appearance in Jin Lin World, to the visit from people of Daoist Sect Realm heading to White Bones Realm—all the information was laid out in full in front of Duan Wenqi.

"Really, what youthful vigor!" Duan Wenqi certainly saw White Mist's response and couldn't help revealing a smile.

In his opinion, since people were already coveting the inheritance in Gu Nan's hands, he should find a way to resolve it.

The best method was naturally to prove that Gu Nan had nothing worth coveting—that is, to prove he didn't have the inheritance, but this was very hard, and there was always bound to be people who didn't believe him.

The next best method was to shift the target, such as handing over the inheritance or seeking a powerful figure's protection. As long as someone else was standing in front of Gu Nan, at least he wouldn't have to face these pressures himself.

But Gu Nan's current solution was undoubtedly the worst kind—he was simply opposing everyone head-on!

"Daoist Sect Realm is merely the tip of the iceberg. So many more people are also interested in the inheritance. How long can you hold out?" A cold smile flashed across Duan Wenqi's eyes.

Daoist Sect Realm actively sought out Gu Nan with the intention of asking for the inheritance because of their claim over it, but they didn't expect to be barred from meeting Gu Nan. The other forces, on the other hand, wouldn't actively expose themselves like this.

In fact, Duan Wenqi had no reason to pay so much attention to Gu Nan; there was no direct conflict between the two.

It's just that the previous several confrontations made Duan Wenqi naturally resent Gu Nan, and if he could see Gu Nan suffer, he would be happy to do so.

"How about adding some more fuel to the fire…"

……

On the third day since the two emissaries from Daoist Sect Realm left White Mist, a suicide team shouting the slogan "ancient inheritance" broke inside White Mist.

Of course, this team, which didn't even have a single Void Cutter, was taken down in a flash, but the implication was significant.

It meant that the first shot in the fight over ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance had been fired.

Early the next morning, Wen Congdao and Guan Feng stood in front of White Mist's gates once again.

"This time, I think Daoist Friend Red Tail will make a wise decision." Guan Feng still had a kind smile on his face, only it looked more mocking.

It was only a few days, but it was already enough for them to gather the information they wanted.

It wasn't just one or two forces eyeing the inheritance. The number of spies currently lurking outside White Mist might even surpass the actual members White Mist had.

With so many astral worlds and Star Rulers watching, not even their Daoist Sect Realm dared to oppose everyone here head-on, so what power did a mere White Mist have to resist to the end?

Even if Gu Nan ascended to Star Ruler Realm and controlled an astral world, his astral world was still far from becoming a Realm Level plane, let alone the fact that there were even a few Realm Level astral worlds currently watching him.

"If she isn't sensible, then someone will teach her to be sensible," Wen Congdao said with an icy expression.

This martial uncle and nephew pair carried out the carrot-and-stick act well. They'd been working together quite well all year long.

But contrary to their expectations, the person who walked out of White Mist this time wasn't Red Tail, but a silver-robed man with a calm face.

The two couldn't help exchanging a smile after recognizing the other party's face—in the end, the other side decided to compromise.

It wasn't easy to meet a Star Ruler's true body. The fact that Gu Nan was willing to meet them through a clone was enough to satisfy their mission. In any case, even if they wanted to make a deal over the inheritance, that wasn't a job for two lowly Void Cutters.

The smile on Guan Feng's face thickened. "Lord Gu Nan, I've been looking forward to meeting you for a long time. This humble Daoist and Martial Uncle—"

"Want the inheritance?" Gu Nan, however, interrupted him bluntly.

Such directness stunned Guan Feng slightly, but he then came back to his senses and smiled. "Exactly."

Gu Nan nodded and shouted behind the two again, "Anyone else who's here for the inheritance, come out. Don't blame me for not warning you. Those who don't show themselves now will never have another chance to get the inheritance."

As Gu Nan's words fell, dozens of figures instantly appeared behind Guan Feng and Wen Congdao, each of them at Void Cutter Realm.

Naturally, only Void Cutters could ensure any urgent messages were sent back immediately.

Wen Congdao still said stiffly, "Hand over the inheritance, and we can try to satisfy your conditions."

His words also represented the attitude of the entire crowd. After all, the one before them was just a clone, so they weren't afraid of sudden attacks from Gu Nan. Moreover, this crowd included dozens of astral worlds…

Before he could finish such thoughts, the crowd felt the sky suddenly darken as a giant hand made of shadows descended from above.

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Gu Nan's true body was standing in the sky above White Bones Realm, and Tier 6 laws gushed out generously, enlarging the giant hand of shadows.

The terrifying and wildly expanding shadow fell like a titanic mountain, stunning dozens of Void Cutters from various forces in this instant.

Even the most radical strategist wouldn't have guessed Gu Nan's move—he truly planned to make enemies of dozens of astral worlds simultaneously and was actually attacking with his main body!

'This, this, this… Isn't this the strong bullying the weak?!'

The ones bearing the brunt of the attack were Wen Congdao and Guan Feng. Their "oh crap" feeling was far heavier than the people next to them.

But faced with the crisis that suddenly struck, no one had time to complain about Gu Nan's lack of manners. Without another thought, the cold-faced Wen Congdao took out an item and threw it on Guan Feng.

"Go!"

A flash of green light suddenly exploded out, instantly blowing Guan Feng away, but it allowed him to escape being locked onto by the laws powering the giant shadow hand, while Wen Congdao himself remained trapped in place.

After all, these laws were Tier 6, and the natural suppression from the higher level alone was enough to make it difficult for this group of Void Cutters to withstand.

"Martial Uncle!" A scream of sorrow tore out of Guan Feng's mouth, but there was nothing he could do except watch as the shadow hand fell and his martial uncle was engulfed.

It wasn't just Wen Congdao; of the dozens of Void Cutters who showed up in response to Gu Nan's shout, less than five ultimately escaped the fate of death.

Gu Nan's palm strike directly slaughtered dozens of Void Cutters!

Even during wars between planes, no one had ever heard of so many Void Cutters dying at the same time.

After all, Void Cutters weren't fools and wouldn't voluntarily gather together in a dangerous situation and send themselves right to their deaths.

Except for this time…

"Gu Nan! Although you can kill all of us here today, the Daoist Monarch absolutely won't spare you!"

Guan Feng's eyes were bloodshot, having lost all of his usual refinement and elegance. Instead, his face was filled with a hideous, sinister expression.

He thought Gu Nan must've gone crazy, or else why would anyone make enemies of dozens of astral worlds simultaneously?

These were major astral worlds with considerable reputation!

The few other Void Cutter survivors were also cursing Gu Nan out, but even more were turning around and fleeing.

Gu Nan going crazy was his own business. However, they couldn't afford to endanger their own lives just for a psycho.

Only Guan Feng felt it hard to suppress the grief and rage in his heart after seeing his martial uncle die right in front of his eyes, and then…

Boom!

Another giant shadow hand fell, and Guan Feng looked like he was also about to be crushed into powder.

His poor martial uncle sacrificed his life to give Guan Feng a chance to live, but now his sacrifice seemed in vain.

"You dare?!" An explosive shout came from the sky just then, and a figure dressed in golden Daoist robes instantly appeared above Guan Feng.

He created a seal with a wave of his hand and flung it out, which collided directly with the giant shadow hand as both attacks simultaneously dissipated.

Having just escaped from death, Guan Feng couldn't help gazing at that Daoist gratefully. "Daoist Monarch…"

"I know." Daoist Monarch Wu Tian nodded with a cold face. "Your martial uncle will not die in vain."

As soon as Wu Tian appeared, another figure also appeared on the scene. This person wore a crown made of bones and had a sickly pale face, his expression grave. He was none other than Daoist White Bones.

Since two outside Star Rulers personally descended to White Bones Realm, Daoist White Bones had to appear no matter what.

Wu Tian looked at him coldly. "White Bones, this matter is our personal feud. Mind your own business."

"I can't mind matters happening right inside my White Bones Realm?" Daoist White Bones questioned back without any hint of politeness.

These two were both addressed as monarchs and had stubborn personalities. At this time, neither gave in.

By this stage, the surrounding Void Cutters had either died or fled, so there were no longer many people at the scene.

But too many people had died under Gu Nan's palm, so much so that countless Star Rulers cast their gazes towards this place.

A dangerous glint flashed through Wu Tian's eyes. He didn't want to make an enemy of Daoist White Bones for no reason, but he couldn't afford to lose face when so many forces were watching.

Next to him, Guan Feng understood this and immediately spoke up, "We have no intention of making an enemy of Your Lordship, but Gu Nan slaughtered my pitiful master uncle for no reason, along with dozens of fellow Daoists. We must seek justice for them!"

"That's right," a gloomy, sorrowful voice added as another person walked over from the horizon. He was a man in gray.

"It's the Star Ruler of No-Other Realm," Guan Feng's eyes lit up as he blurted out.

"Killing people whenever you want—do you believe we're all easy to bully?"

"There were rumors earlier about him being the reincarnation of a Heavenly Demon. Looking at it now, they might not be rumors after all."

"Good timing, then we'll exterminate evil and uphold justice today."

As the conversation picked up, more and more Star Rulers descended to White Bones Realm, their target all being Gu Nan.

Gu Nan, on the other hand, watched all this indifferently from beginning to end, his expression never changing. He didn't care how many people were hostile to him; on the contrary, he was even afraid that there wouldn't be enough people hostile to him.

When it comes to resolving karma, Duan Wenqi understood, but Gu Nan also understood. It's just that he preferred to use his own methods to deal with it.

In just a few short moments, nearly twenty Star Rulers had shown up. Daoist White Bones still faced them with a cold expression. After all, this was his astral world. He had nothing to worry about, even if more enemies came.

Among the group of Star Rulers, one person walked out of the crowd and said to Gu Nan, "Gu Nan, do you dare to change locations to have a fair fight with me?"

The person who stepped forward carried a long blade on his back. He was a burly man with a firm expression.

"Blade King World's Wang He," Red Tail whispered to Gu Nan's clone down below. "Wang He and Jin Lin are close friends."

Gu Nan wasn't surprised. Jin Lin was a veteran Star Ruler of many years, so he naturally had his own network. It's just that Gu Nan's earlier war happened too fast and caught them off guard.

But Gu Nan had zero intention of answering Wang He. With a flicker, his figure had already vanished.

The next second, he reappeared directly in front of Wang He.

This was the first time Gu Nan attacked under the gazes of countless forces. Just his terrifying speed alone already scared the crowd.

Wang He was also startled, but he quickly calmed down. He knew a little about Gu Nan. This understanding mainly came from Jin Lin.

From Jin Lin's description, Gu Nan was just a despicable villain who used a special ability to forcibly hold him up for a few moments and wasn't actually that strong.

Wang He drew his long blade, the action seemingly slow but extremely fast in reality. The power from Blade King World was already working to strengthen him.

Even if he wasn't in his astral world and received less power, Wang He still had enough confidence he could beat Gu Nan.

Because through Jin Lin, he knew one of Gu Nan's greatest weaknesses—he didn't have an astral world strengthening him!

So Wang He already started swinging his long blade before Gu Nan's fist hit while simultaneously calling his opponent's bluff, "Gu Nan, your astral world has yet to form. How can you block this slash of mine?!"historical

His words immediately caused a renewed commotion among the crowd of Star Rulers. The fact that Gu Nan actually hadn't reached that step yet gave them even more confidence.

Only Gu Nan himself wasn't moved in the slightest; his punch fell as usual.

Let alone power from an astral world, he didn't even use any laws, relying on the power of his physical body.

But in precisely such an exchange, the long blade cut into Gu Nan's body without any hindrance, while Gu Nan's fist also hit Wang He in the chest.

The next moment, Wang He's chest cavity cracked open like plastic, inch by inch. He revealed an incredulous look.

Gu Nan, however, acted like nothing had happened as he pulled the long blade out of his chest, then swept his gaze across the crowd behind him, revealing a cold smile.

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The open space outside White Mist was instantly plunged into an inexplicable silence.

Gu Nan's attitude was so fierce that the group of Star Rulers were all flabbergasted—there was no enmity between them!

In fact, even if they surrounded Gu Nan like this, their ultimate goal was only to force him to hand over Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance. Not many actually wanted to kill Gu Nan.

Because they knew it wasn't a simple matter to kill a Star Ruler who might have an astral world—at the very least, they first had to know where his astral world was.

At the Star Ruler level, very few people acted impulsively. The vast majority of them only acted to further their own interests, making the most beneficial choice for themselves.

Because of this, they didn't understand Gu Nan's actions.

How can someone just start a fight to the death without even saying a word?

'We didn't go through all this trouble to climb to Star Ruler Realm, trampling tens of thousands of mortals under our feet, just to engage in fights to the death! There are so many resources; won't it be great if everyone can develop peacefully?'historical

The Star Rulers were puzzled. Classmate Wang He, who received a punch from Gu Nan, was even more puzzled.

Not only did he not understand Gu Nan's attitude, but he also didn't understand why this punch contained such frightening strength and why the other party seemed unharmed by his blade.

Now Wang He knew that his good friend Jin Lin was absolutely bullshitting him— 'What do you mean, average strength? A single punch from Gu Nan almost smashed me apart!'

If not for his own astral world's protection, he really would've died under this punch.

With no time for further thoughts, Wang He's figure directly exploded into a cloud of blade energy, instantly breaking away from Gu Nan's attack and fleeing to the rear in panic.

Then, without waiting for anyone to greet him, he actually opened a portal and darted inside.

"He actually ran back to his own astral world. How cowardly!" Some Star Rulers couldn't help mocking, though their voices sounded a little uncertain.

To be fair, if one were to be targeted by a psycho like Gu Nan, they were afraid they would also have to hide away for a while… 'Yup, this is a strategic retreat.'

On the other hand, Gu Nan's gaze had already fallen on them.

Gu Nan didn't choose to attack the frontmost Daoist Monarch Wu Tian because Wu Tian's strength was around Tier 8. He wasn't someone Gu Nan could kill just because he wanted to.

The targets he chose were a few people standing at the back of the group.

Star Rulers were all smart people and had very accurate judgment of the situation. Of course they didn't mind showing up when they believed Gu Nan couldn't escape from the disaster and there seemed to be hope of getting the inheritance.

But even so, it was impossible for some weaker Star Rulers to be at the front of the group, such as…

"Little Sumeru World's Qin Anqi!"

"Cai Xi!"

"Underworld Star Sovereign!"

Gu Nan listed off one name after another as he swept his gaze across the rear of the group. They were none other than the Star Rulers he was targeting.

Among those Star Rulers, there were newly-advanced ones who just came into possession of astral worlds, as well as normal ones who'd yet to control an astral world and only acted under their real names or Daoist titles.

On the ground, Red Tail stood behind the saint clone and carefully reported these Star Rulers' origins to him—as White Mist gained more power and influence, Red Tail's insight was naturally far superior to her previous self.

The three Star Rulers whose names were called felt their scalps go numb, especially as they watched Gu Nan's figure approach them at an unimaginable speed.

Without even thinking, two of the three quickly fled. Only the middle-aged man nicknamed "Underworld Star Sovereign" stayed behind.

Even Qin Anqi, who had an astral world, ran away, but this Underworld Star Sovereign dared to stay behind—he really was bold.

"Everyone, please help me—"

Bang!

Before the Underworld Star Sovereign finished speaking, he saw Gu Nan's figure blink away, flat-out ignoring the many laws locking him into place and directly appearing behind his enemy.

The punch that immediately followed directly blasted the Underworld Star Sovereign's head to pieces.

A supreme Star Ruler who surpassed the mortal world died at this point.

Even until his death, the Underworld Star Sovereign had a look of disbelief in his eyes, because Gu Nan's fighting style was completely beyond their understanding.

There had never been a Star Ruler who relied purely on their physical body to fight!

Fights between Star Rulers were already purely in the realm of laws. Even for people like Xue Ren and Wang He, who used swords or blades, they were still merely using their weapons to control laws.

Moreover, because their laws were related to weapons—eventually condensing laws into weapons—the power was far greater than ordinary weapons.

As for the legendary body refining cultivators, that was also achieved by strengthening oneself with the power of laws, and then manifesting superb strength.

Either way, as long as one faced laws on a higher level, they were bound to be suppressed—only Gu Nan remained unaffected.

Because the source of his power really was just his physical body.

"You've got guts." A nasty grin appeared on Gu Nan's face as he swung another fist down, shattering the Underworld Star Sovereign's corpse.

The next moment, a large seal suddenly appeared above Gu Nan's head, smashing down on him out of thin air. The words "Daoist Sect" were clearly engraved on the seal.

Daoist Sect Realm's Daoist Monarch Wu Tian finally made a move.

Star Rulers weren't fools who'd stand around waiting to be killed. And it was impossible for them to notify Gu Nan before they made a move.

Wu Tian was certainly not the only person who struck at this most opportune moment. Among the remaining Star Rulers, at least half of them also made their move simultaneously, while the other half still had a wait-and-see mentality.

Various laws emerged, both openly and in the dark. Some were blatantly obvious, while others were insidious and vicious. The number of attacks was almost dazzling.

Daoist Monarch Wu Tian fixed his gaze on Gu Nan, but he was very certain of the outcome. 'No matter how strong your resistance to laws is, it's impossible to escape unscathed when surrounded by so many laws.'

But a cold smile emerged on Gu Nan's face. His figure flickered again and instantly turned into pure shadows.

Surrounded on all sides, it was true that it was impossible for Gu Nan to break through with his Evil God physique, but he still had the law of shadows. Just how good was the law of shadows at running away? One could tell just by looking at Sylvia.

The Sylvia in the World of Gods was also only Tier 6, yet the reason she could survive through several godly world wars wasn't only because she had an overprotective older brother.

After all, when the two major godly factions went to war, her identity was no longer a form of protection. Instead, she became an attractive target for enemy gods.

If she hadn't run into Gu Nan—someone who also controlled shadows—back then, it would've been almost impossible for anyone to catch Sylvia.

Countless laws fell, and the shadows that Gu Nan turned into were wantonly torn apart, as if they were cut apart by a large net, turning into pieces of fragmented shadows.

But the next second, these broken pieces instantly reorganized themselves to form a new Gu Nan.

"Next," Gu Nan's cold voice rang out, causing the hearts of the Star Rulers present to chill in unison. Countless protective measures instantly sprung up in front of them.

Gu Nan's gaze was fixed on one person in the group, and his figure rushed over in a flash.

"Wait! You don't even know me. Why would you single me out?!" That Star Ruler retreated at the fastest speed in his life as he shouted.

"It's not like I know anyone else either," Gu Nan, who was already too lazy to listen to Red Tail's introductions, retorted coldly.

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Duan Wenqi and Lu Wen sat across from each other in Zi Luo Heaven, watching the events unfolding in White Bones Realm.

There was nothing strange about this. Around 80% of the powerful figures in the Myriad Heavens were probably all watching White Bones Realm right now.

"Don't tell me he'll really be able to find a solution just by killing like this?!" Duan Wenqi exclaimed incredulously.

Lu Wen just chuckled without responding.

Long Ling'er still maintained her giant dragon form and stood on Lu Wen's shoulder. Her neck was slightly lowered, and there was some grievance on her face—this room wasn't high enough.

Duan Wenqi wasn't in the mood to pay attention to Long Ling'er's emotions. He slapped the table and continued, "Not even dozens of Star Rulers can suppress this Gu Nan. Looks like there's no need for us to protect him."

"Really now, you still can't let go of that anger in your heart." Lu Wen couldn't help laughing as he pointed at Duan Wenqi.

Of course Duan Wenqi couldn't let it go. He didn't have a superior-subordinate relationship with Lu Wen, and he'd always thought of them as equals in his heart. Because of this, he was extraordinarily angry with Gu Nan.

Because he also put a lot of effort in this entire matter.

If he was simply helping Lu Wen, then while it was unfortunate, there was also no need to dwell on bygone matters for so long.

After a pause, Lu Wen continued, "Gu Nan's trump cards have already been exposed—the law of shadows and an extremely strong physique. Such a combination is indeed very difficult to handle."

The extreme escape ability granted by the law of shadows coupled with the pure use of physical force against the enemy allowed Gu Nan to challenge opponents of a higher level.

Of course Duan Wenqi also understood this, so he also sighed in relief at this time. "To force out his trump cards—this trip wasn't a waste after all."

……

In White Bones Realm, after yet another Star Ruler was targeted by Gu Nan, and after Gu Nan rushed into the crowd in the blink of an eye, the Star Rulers scattered in all directions instead.

Now everyone knew that they couldn't threaten Gu Nan by joining forces, and Gu Nan had the ability to pick off the weaker members of their group.

Instead of staying in the same place and risking friendly fire, they might as well disperse in advance and leave enough room for those capable of dealing with Gu Nan.

Gu Nan merely had strange abilities, but he wasn't invincible. The Star Rulers present all saw through this.

Wu Tian was the first to strike. In a single step, he arrived right in front of Gu Nan, blocking his path—since space wasn't currently sealed by countless laws, the space-shrinking technique could naturally also be used.

But Gu Nan didn't even spare him a glance. His body suddenly disappeared, having turned into shadows again.

When he reappeared, he was already behind the target Star Ruler, stabbing a shadow dagger straight into the enemy's heart.historical

This Star Ruler was an average-looking young man. He was caught off guard and could only barely respond.

This youth wasn't a martial artist to begin with and only used Tier 5 defensive laws, so how could he be Gu Nan's match?

Even if Gu Nan didn't use the Evil God physique's full strength in this attack, the Tier 6 shadow dagger was still enough to deal with him.

The dagger pierced through the youth's defensive laws like thin paper, then sank into his abdomen.

Behind them, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian's face turned bright red, enraged at Gu Nan's reckless abandon and also at his own two failed attack attempts.

But the law of shadows really was too slippery, making him both hard to catch and hard to hit. Plus, it was also extremely lethal in Gu Nan's hands, giving people incomparable headaches.

Seeing Gu Nan injure yet another Star Ruler, Wu Tian's thoughts churned rapidly, his gaze finally falling to the White Mist building below them.

His eyes immediately lit up, as if he'd caught Gu Nan's weakness, and he shouted, "Gu Nan, if you don't surrender right now, this one will start sacrificing your people!"

As soon as he said this, there was indeed a pause in Gu Nan's movements, and then he slowly turned his head.

Only the look on Gu Nan's face wasn't the annoyance of being caught in a painful situation as he expected, but a sneer of disdain.

Gu Nan suddenly announced to his surroundings, "Everyone, come find me in Daoist Sect Realm if you want the inheritance."

After saying that, Gu Nan ignored the Star Rulers around him, opening a portal and stepping inside.

There was no need to even think. Everyone knew which plane was at the other end of this passage.

Daoist Monarch Wu Tian couldn't hide the stupefied look on his face, but he didn't have time to think further and hurriedly followed Gu Nan back to his own astral world.

……

"He ran to Daoist Sect Realm."

In Void Grotto Heaven, Xue Ren said as he gently wiped a longsword placed flat in front of him.

Yu Lian stood next to him with some curiosity on her face. "At his current realm, he actually dares to fight Wu Tian inside Daoist Sect Realm?"

Since they shared the same roots, Yu Lian understood her martial uncle's cultivation realm better than most and knew that Wu Tian's strength was absolutely genuine.

From leaving Void Grotto Heaven after his advancement to Star Ruler and ascending his own astral world to a Realm Level plane, there had been absolutely no luck involved in any of that.

"How can that be?" Xue Ren, however, laughed involuntarily. "In my view, Gu Nan is doing this precisely because he doesn't want to fight Wu Tian."

……

In Daoist Sect Realm, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian stood above the void, overlooking the expanses of ruins below, his face so dark it could be mistaken for a storm cloud.

In just a few short moments, his Daoist Sect Realm was already wrecked by Gu Nan, and three important strongholds in a row were destroyed by two shadow swords.

Yet Wu Tian, as this world's Star Ruler, couldn't even catch the other party's shadow!

The Star Rulers staying in their own astral worlds were also watching this scene and chatting from the sidelines.

"It's Wu Tian's loss this time."

"This Gu Nan is too slippery. The law of shadows is secretive and unpredictable. We simply can't catch him."

"Actually, the most important thing is that we can't find Gu Nan's astral world, right?"

This sentence immediately silenced all the Star Rulers.

At this point, no one had any doubt that Gu Nan was a Star Ruler who already possessed an astral world. But the fact that no one could find his astral world's location was the most awkward factor.

Not being able to find his astral world meant that he could act with impunity, and he also just happened to have the ability to act with impunity!

He ran to Daoist Sect Realm to wreak havoc, yet Wu Tian couldn't even catch him—this was his greatest ability.

The group of spectators put themselves in Wu Tian's shoes and asked themselves if they could do anything against such a Gu Nan?

The answer made everyone fall silent.

"Gu Nan!" Daoist Monarch Wu Tian couldn't help speaking up after yet another failed chase, biting Gu Nan's dust once again.

Although he couldn't see Gu Nan's figure, he knew the other party could hear him.

Wu Tian could only take a deep breath. "Daoist Friend Gu, this humble Daoist was possessed by greed and attempted to take your inheritance. When this matter is over, this humble Daoist will make amends to you, how about it?"

No one expected for Wu Tian, the Daoist Monarch who valued face the most, to admit defeat so readily.

"Okay."

After a long time, Gu Nan's voice came directly from the horizon, but his figure couldn't be seen.

Daoist Monarch Wu Tian, who received Gu Nan's reply, finally let out a sigh of relief tinged with helplessness.

In the Myriad Heavens, countless people also sighed at the same time.

Everyone knew that as long as they couldn't find the coordinates of Gu Nan's astral world, there would be one more demon king in this world.

And on the next day, countless powerhouses' remarks on this matter gradually spread.

"Except for Heaven Level planes, there's nowhere he can't go." This was Weapon Martial Heaven's Star Ruler.

"Even more of a troublemaker than Lou Wanying." This was Lu Wen.

"Whoever ends up finding his astral world, remember to let me know first." This was Void Grotto Heaven's Yu Lian.

……

Countless discussions and rumors rose in all directions until deep in Zi Luo Heaven, an old man who'd been slumbering for eons suddenly spoke.

"Haha, world-renowned with one battle."

The Myriad Heavens Universe's evaluation of Gu Nan was thus determined.

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