Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God #Chapter 427: Archmage Claude - Read Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God Chapter 427: Archmage Claude Online - All Page - FREEWN
Atalante was a pretty lively main plane, as it was the main quest map for players when they first entered the game a few decades ago.
From this, Gu Nan could also infer that the timeline of the World of Gods was likely the same as in the game.
The day he transmigrated into the Myriad Heavens, the World of Gods was also at the same point in time when the player first entered the game.
But Gu Nan spent several decades in the Myriad Heavens, resulting in the main storyline of Atalante having ended by the time he came over here.
Just like the outcome if the player did nothing but watch the entire time, the Dark Faction achieved total victory.
The absolute protagonist of the storyline, "Dark Warrior" Goro, rose abruptly, and at less than fifty years old, he had gone from an ordinary person to a god, successfully igniting his divine fire.
And as the god who led the charge in this continental war, it was only logical for Lewis to get the largest gains since he achieved full results.
Lewis, who was already a Tier 10 god, saw his status within the Dark Faction rise once again.
The position of strongest under the greater gods was originally occupied by Rolensia, but now that she successfully ascended, Lewis was favored to take over this position.
But it was precisely against a Lewis with this kind of status that Gu Nan had no intention of giving face at all.
He stabbed the guardian of the Garden of Spirits to death, causing the protective laws of this grotto heaven to instantly collapse and revealing the garden's true appearance.
After losing the laws disguising it, the Garden of Spirits soon lost that mysterious and enigmatic aura, reverting back into an ordinary garden.
More and more people began to flee in all directions. When faced with an enemy they couldn't possibly defeat, most people didn't have the courage to fight back.
Gu Nan walked ahead of the others, mercilessly trampling the precious plants in the Garden of Spirits underfoot.
It wasn't as if no one tried to fight back at all. After the garden manager's instant death, Gu Nan could sense the two other Legend Ranks having a disagreement of opinion.
One of them fled quickly, presumably to report back to the empire, while the other activated the defensive magic formation within the garden in an attempt to stall for a bit of time.
The result was certainly nothing to write home about. With such a low level, it was impossible for those laws to trap even David—the other party clearly didn't realize the level of the opponents he was facing.
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"Your Excellency Gu Nan…" David followed Gu Nan, his face somewhat troubled. "Since you have the divine spear in hand, finding the Blacksmith God's treasure shouldn't be too difficult, so why don't I take my lea—"
"This is part of your assessment, Mr. David," Gu Nan revealed a strange smile as he replied unhurriedly.
David stiffened, only then remembering that although his trip was an exam in name, his mind had already tacitly acknowledged it as a deal.
Since Gu Nan didn't want to let him go, he had no choice but to continue to follow along.
After all, he was also someone who had been hunted down for so many years. The God of Labyrinths gritted his teeth and finally adjusted his mindset, not uttering another word.
Even if he had never offended someone on the level of Lewis, the God of Tenebrosity, before.
"Hey, didn't you say you brought me here to fight?" Karina was even less afraid of Lewis and asked bluntly.
This Wrestling Goddess claimed she didn't fear anyone who wasn't a greater god, and it wasn't as if she hadn't fought Tier 10 gods before. The outcomes were all the same—no one could beat her super-durable divine body.
Although the law of wrestling was called "wrestling," among players, it was called the law of "taking a beating" or the law of "iron skin."
Because it wasn't just Karina. Players who picked a defensive build could also choose the law of wrestling and ultimately arrive at a similar route.
Superb defense combined with the Evil God phyqisue's own superb recovery, but lacking in damage output.
"You'll get to fight someone soon." Gu Nan said flatly, "The first Blacksmith God wasn't just good at hammering iron; he was also good at hammering people."
……
Busy figures could be seen everywhere in the Dark Empire's imperial palace, many of them government personnel dealing with official matters within the various palaces.
At the time when they just unified the continent, there were many matters to be dealt with and missions to be dispatched, and unexpected situations were occurring all over the place.
However, the number of unexpected situations that popped up today seemed especially high.
"Lord Claude, a mutiny broke out in the borderlands…"
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"Lord Claude, a letter from Archduke Vanstorf…"
"Lord Claude…"
"..."
Archmage Claude was the figure that held the position of Chancellor within the Dark Empire. Almost all internal affairs had to be handled by him, and at the same time, he was also the Dark Emperor's strategist.
However, this wise counselor was a bit frazzled today. He felt that situations everywhere seemed to have all erupted on the same day, and there were so many matters to deal with all of a sudden that even he found it hard to accept.
For a moment, Claude even suspected that someone was constructing a large-scale conspiracy whose first phase was bogging down the entire internal affairs department of the empire with a large number of burdensome political affairs.
But he quickly ruled out this idea. After all, the geographical area where things had gone awry was too large and the types of situations were too complex, it really didn't seem man-made.
If it was truly man-made, then just how much time and energy had the other party spent to set up such a plot?
As the strategist of the Dark Empire that had just unified the world, Claude couldn't think of any force that could have done this.
"Lord Claude, there's a situation in the Garden of Spirits," another official hurriedly came in and walked to the Archmage's table, quickly reporting.
He didn't even have time to hand over the report and directly reported it himself, obviously feeling that this piece of news was too urgent and had to "jump the queue."
Claude, who was originally scribbling rapidly on documents, looked up when he heard these words, and his eyes were fixed on the messenger who just entered.
"Who did this?" The Archmage stopped the pen in his hand, a deep indifference in his voice.
This world was ultimately a world that belonged to the top powerhouses, and an army of mortals actually didn't have much power to oppose a Legend Rank expert.
The fact that the Garden of Spirits was easily breached despite having the protection of three Legend Ranks—and even the news had to be passed on by officials—meant the enemy's power was beyond imagination.
'Does a certain side's remaining forces still have top-notch combat power left?'
Claude furrowed his brows. This situation could be much more troublesome than those small matters from earlier.
"It's not forces from the continent." The official seemed to know what Claude was thinking and took the initiative to say, "It's gods… The last message we received from that side is that the invader is Her Highness Karina, the Wrestling Goddess." historical
The official's face was pained as he said this, but he also looked a little relaxed—after all, bigshots on that level were way above what he was expected to handle.
However, there was nothing relaxing about this for Claude, who was already neck-deep in governmental matters. For a famously powerful goddess to suddenly appear on top of that was the last straw.
"Go inform His Majesty of this. I will personally head to the Garden of Spirits," the Archmage pondered for a moment before quickly making a decision.
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The Garden of Spirits covered a large area.
From Gu Nan's understanding, this seemed to be an official place set up by the Dark Empire dedicated to growing rare plants, but the government didn't admit this.
There were even missions in the game digging into this matter, but it no longer held much appeal to Gu Nan at this point in time.
Gu Nan wasn't too familiar with the interior of the garden, but there was really no chance of getting lost with the divine spear guiding them, and they headed straight for their goal.
"Is this the treasure?" As Gu Nan finally stopped at a place, Karina couldn't help looking around suspiciously.
Because there was nothing around them; their surroundings were completely empty.
There didn't seem to be anything strange underneath the ground either. It was a breeze for gods like them to determine whether the ground was hollow or solid.
"It's indeed here," David confirmed instead. Although this God of Labyrinths was a little cowardly and a little too good at attracting aggro, he still had an extremely strong control over his divine authority.
However, he was similarly puzzled as to where exactly the first Blacksmith God had hidden the so-called treasure.
While the God of Labyrinths was responsible for leading the way, he wasn't responsible for digging up the treasure.
Gu Nan, on the other hand, was very familiar with the process. Although he hadn't personally dug up this "treasure" in the game, there were bound to be players who did.
A large advantage players held was their ability to communicate with each other, and Gu Nan had also seen the process on forums and guides.
He took out the two broken spears, then ruthlessly plunged them into the ground.
The reason the word "ruthless" was used was because Gu Nan's movements and demeanor were indeed vicious, as if he was stabbing into an enemy's body.
And to the surprise of the two beside him, right after Gu Nan finished, the ground cracked in a very strange way.
It didn't look like the cracks that naturally formed on the ground. Instead, it felt a bit like a needle piercing into skin, and even after the spear entered the ground, some black, sticky fluid started oozing out of the ground.
"This is…" David stared at the ground in shock. He felt an extremely familiar energy from the black fluid.
This familiarity didn't come from having seen it in the distant past, but rather… he'd seen it just seconds ago.
"The ground of the Garden of Spirits is particularly hard and also particularly fertile, so it's very suitable for plant growth." Gu Nan explained with a faint smile, "Few people know… that this is because this is not the ground at all, but the skin of a god."
As Gu Nan's words slowly fell, the three of them felt the ground shake, as if something under the ground had awakened.
No, it wasn't quite right to call it under the ground. It was more accurate to say the ground itself was awakening.
"The first-generation Blacksmith God died at the hands of the second-generation God of Death, and he wasn't even a greater god at that time." Gu Nan's voice continued, "The very same God of Death who's the ancestor of all necromancers."
……
In the eastern part of the Atalante continent, Daoist Lingyang slowly walked into a dilapidated church, which was covered in dust and seemed to have been untouched for a long time.
However, Daoist Lingyang was completely unconcerned, as if speaking to the empty church, "Lady Maria, please show yourself."
No one responded.
Daoist Lingyang gently drew a Daoist symbol with his finger and imprinted it on top of the church. A green light fell, and everything inside the church was revealed before his eyes.
Many officers and soldiers were lying strewn about in a corner of the church. Some of them were no longer breathing, but more were still letting out moans of pain.
After this scene was exposed, one of the head nuns finally got up helplessly and walked over to Daoist Lingyang.
"Your Excellency, I greet you with the highest respect." Sister Maria said with a lowered gaze, "We would love to serve you, but…"
"I don't need anything from you." Daoist Lingyang interrupted her, "I just need you guys to come forward."
……
Of course the Dark Empire had teleportation spells, so Claude could rush to the Garden of Spirits immediately.
However, when he actually arrived, he realized that things were not at all what he expected.
"What is… this?!"
In front of Claude was a dark-skinned giant hundreds of meters tall, holding an enormous hammer. He couldn't sense any signs of life from it.
As one of the highest echelons of the Dark Empire, Claude was all too familiar with this kind of aura.
This was an undead creature!
But… How could there be such a powerful undead creature? historical
Every swing of the black giant's hammer caused Claude's heart to palpitate. This Archmage, who was called a "demigod" by the world, felt that just one swing of the hammer was enough to shatter all the bones in his body.
Of course, this feeling wasn't an illusion, because he could clearly see who was fighting the black giant on the other side.
That athletic figure holding a golden spear was none other than the Wrestling Goddess!
'An undead creature that can fight on equal ground with the Wrestling Goddess… How great would it be if we can control this undead?'
Claude couldn't help harboring such thoughts. Not even the Dark Emperor could possibly be a match for an existence of this level.
If handled properly, this would become the Dark Empire's incredible trump card, laying the foundation of the empire's rule for thousands of years.
However, right at this moment, a figure appeared behind Claude.
"Archmage Claude?"
Claude suddenly turned his head, only to find a white-robed youth looking at him with a smile. He couldn't discern the other party's power level at all, but someone capable of silently appearing behind him couldn't be weak by any stretch of the imagination.
"Your Excellency is…"
Gu Nan chuckled. "Don't look at something you shouldn't see."
As soon as Gu Nan's voice fell, Claude felt his vision go dark, his head instantly blasted apart as a sliver of his soul awakened in another location.
This location was extremely hidden. It was neither the Dark Empire's palace nor Claude's own magic tower, but a place that seemed completely unrelated to him.
"What a close call…" Claude's consciousness, which woke up inside a body he prepared long in advance, still felt lingering fear.
He recalled the white-robed youth but couldn't figure out who it was at all. Was there such an existence among the gods who was also an acquaintance of the Wrestling Goddess?
Claude had no clue. But no matter what, with at least two gods descending on Atalante and that powerful undead creature, he had to send a message back as soon as possible.
However, a familiar voice rang in his ears just as he tried to get up.
"Lich?"
Claude's entire body jumped up. His face looked like he'd just seen a ghost, because this voice was exactly the same as the one from earlier.
Claude's mind raced as he said quickly, "Your Excellency, you cannot kill me! If I die, that one one will—"
The next second, he felt a sharp pain coming from the depths of his soul as his soul was instantly ripped to shreds.
Back at the Garden of Spirits, Karina was still fighting to her heart's content, while David shot Gu Nan a suspicious look.
"Where did you go just now?"
Gu Nan stared at the black giant in front of him and said quietly, "The situation is a little different from what I expected… Time to call Lewis over for a stroll."
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Chapter 429: Crusaders
The first-generation Blacksmith God undead in Gu Nan's impression wasn't this strong.
Although he hadn't personally done this mission before, it was impossible for him to make a mistake in judging the minimum player level required for this quest—this was the basic ability of a top player.
At least in the walkthroughs he saw in his past life, he'd never heard of this mission requiring a player's battle strength to reach Tier 9 or even higher.
That's right. This dark giant's combat power was already close to Tier 9.
The first Blacksmith God wasn't just a great blacksmith; he also possessed power that matched his level and was a veritable Tier 10 god.
After his death at the hands of the second-generation God of Death, he was successfully turned into an undead creature by this first-ever necromancer, and his strength also declined compared to when he was alive.
After all, it was impossible for the undead to possess any laws, so the undead was relying solely on the physical body left behind by the Blacksmith God to fight.
Fortunately, it was the corpse of the Blacksmith God. If it was any other god, their undead version would most likely be even weaker.
But on the flip side, even if it was the first Blacksmith God, this undead giant was still too overpowered—to be able to fight on even ground with Karina meant it would be very difficult for almost any player to kill him.
"You... You lured Lewis over as well?" David stared at Gu Nan with wide eyes, completely flummoxed by Gu Nan's actions.
'Even if this person doesn't fear powerful gods, there's still no need to voluntarily provoke them, right? What good would this do him?'
Gu Nan remained silent, or perhaps he couldn't be bothered to explain to David—after all, the latter no longer had any use. Instead, his gaze landed on the dark giant.
What was the benefit of luring Lewis over? Of course there were benefits, the biggest one being accumulating enough damage output.
The skin of the Blacksmith God undead was even tougher than expected. Gu Nan even tried a few attacks himself, but neither his fists nor the sword of shadows inflicted deep damage on the dark giant.
He briefly estimated that it would take him at least half a day to kill this powerful undead—the damage from Karina was basically negligible. historical
But if he caused such a big commotion in Atalante, he was afraid he would attract the attention of everyone in the World of Gods. By that time, everyone will know that there is a peculiar existence called Gu Nan.
He had no intention of exposing himself on such a large scale before he advanced to Tier 9 or even Tier 10.
"Let's go." So Gu Nan stood up and repelled the pouncing giant with a single punch before grabbing Karina's shoulder.
Karina still couldn't get enough of the fight; it had been a long time since she stumbled upon an opponent she could fight to her heart's content.
The two of them had met their match—neither could kill the other.
"You can leave if you want!" Karina refused rudely. She wasn't Gu Nan's subordinate. She didn't even fear Lewis, so she certainly didn't take orders from Gu Nan.
Gu Nan also didn't bring up Austin to pressure her. The fact that this Wrestling Goddess wanted to stay behind and fight wouldn't hinder his plans.
So with a shrug, Gu Nan's figure quickly disappeared.
...
In the east.
Daoist Lingyang was sitting calmly in his tent, issuing orders as the general. He was actually mobilizing soldiers and horses to quickly set out, attacking cities at an astonishing speed and quickly seizing the Dark Empire's territory.
And the banner they fought under was none other than the Church of Light, as well as gods of the Light Faction.
The Church of Light's banner was still very useful. The Dark Empire only recently unified the continent, and to say it had gained more popularity in territories that originally belonged to the Church of Light was obviously impossible.
As a matter of fact, a few decades ago, the Church of Light was far stronger than the Dark Empire on the continent of Atalante.
To a large extent, the reason the empire ultimately emerged victorious was thanks to the Dark Warrior Goro. This newly-ascended god's rise to power was basically the Dark Empire's path to victory.
So when Daoist Lingyang's people captured those territories, they won the support of the local populace almost effortlessly, amassing even more power.
This army that started in the east had gathered an enormous force in a very short time, snowballing like a prairie fire.
At least within the Eastern realm, they already had the ability to threaten the empire's rule.
Of course, as more and more former soldiers of the Church of Light joined, it wasn't without some problems.
For example, at this very moment, Maria was surrounded by several blond-haired, blue-eyed former Crusader commanders in white armor.
"Lady Maria, how can the Holy Church's army be commanded by an outsider?" One of them protested righteously. The armor on his body was the most worn out. Clearly, he didn't have an easy time in the post Holy War era.
This man's name was Ramiro. He was originally the commander of the Third Crusader Regiment and one of the top ten bigshots in the Church of Light. He hurriedly rushed over as soon as he received news of the Church of Light's resurgence.
But Ramiro didn't see a single Crusader when he arrived, and he himself was quickly placed under house arrest, his treatment completely lacking the expected courtesy and military authority he deserved.
"Lord Ramiro, I can understand your feelings." Maria showed a helpless look as she tried to placate the people around her, "But all the troops here are that... Daoist priest's people. There's nothing we can do about that."
"Daoist priest" was a bit of a mouthful for these natives, but Daoist Lingyang insisted that he be addressed as such.
"Perhaps that was true at first." A proud look appeared on Ramiro's face. "But it's different now. Many of My Lord's followers have rejoined us, so how can the army still be under that person's control?"
"That's right. He wants to use the Holy Church's name to recruit people easily, yet he doesn't want us to intervene in military matters. How can there be such a good thing?" Another commander beside him also chimed in supportively.
Lady Maria's eyebrows were knitted together. To be honest, she also wanted to revive the Holy Church's glory and didn't want to be taken advantage of by someone who was clearly just using their flag.
However, the forces resisting the Dark Empire had just picked up a bit of steam right now, so she really didn't want any internal conflicts to occur.
After thinking for a long time, Maria sighed softly and relented, "Tell you what, I'll take you guys to meet the Daoist priest."
When they met Daoist Lingyang, the latter was reading a document, his expression one of deep thought. Nobody knew what he was pondering.
Maria explained her group's intention, and to her surprise, Daoist Lingyang didn't show any dissatisfaction. Instead, he laughed and said, "No problem. This humble Daoist just happens to be up to my ears in work and needs some help."
He spread out a map in front of the crowd and pointed to one spot. "I just received word that a very powerful undead creature has appeared here, so why don't a few of the commanders lead the army to exterminate it?"
Maria wasn't familiar with military affairs and could only look back at Ramiro.
Ramiro and his several companions glanced at each other and instantly spoke, "With honor. What is the exact location we are going to?"
"The Garden of Spirits."
Chapter 430: Darkness and Opportunity
Ramiro quickly left with a few companions after confirming the location.
Regarding the powerful undead Daoist Lingyang mentioned, they didn't give it a second thought. In the many years they led the Holy Church, they'd killed countless undead and were more than familiar with this.
'Just how powerful can an undead possibly be?'
With several Crusader commanders joining forces, they could even take on a half-god lich.
After the Church of Light's former troops left, Xue Ren's figure slowly appeared next to Daoist Lingyang. ''Sending them to their deaths? You really are two-faced."
Daoist Lingyang smiled coyly. "There are still quite many people in the Church of Light, and it would be too ugly to kill them directly... Sending them to their deaths is a small matter. The undead that can fight Karina to a standstill, on the other hand, is a much bigger matter."
Towards the end, his expression subconsciously turned serious.
The intelligence report Daoist Lingyang was reading when Maria entered with her group just now was precisely news about the emergence of a powerful undead fighting the Wrestling Goddess Karina in the Garden of Spirits.
"This was Gu Nan's doing, wasn't it? He really stirs up trouble wherever he goes." Xue Ren revealed an amused expression as he shook his head.
He knew who Karina came along with, so it certainly wasn't difficult to deduce Gu Nan's involvement.
"If Gu Nan was the one who lured out that undead, then that's a good thing." Daoist Lingyang also smiled.
To him, it was a good thing as long as the situation wasn't created by the Dark Empire itself and was instead an unexpected crisis the empire had to deal with. This was because his ultimate goal had always been to create a crisis the empire couldn't handle.
"I'm just afraid the commotion will be too big and will inadvertently alert the enemy, making him more cautious," Xue Ren, however, poured cold water on their conversation as he handed over another piece of information.
Daoist Lingyang frowned as he took it. The information contained within the intelligence report caused his pupils to shrink slightly.
Clearly written on it was the sentence: "Archmage Claude is dead, and the Dark Emperor is personally heading to the Garden of Spirits."
Knowing that god-level existences were fighting and facing an existence that easily killed Claude, if one still believed the Dark Emperor would head there alone, then one would be looking down on this emperor's intelligence too much.
Daoist Lingyang took a deep breath.
He knew that his target was about to appear as well.
...
After realizing the Blacksmith God undead was stronger than he imagined and could not be killed quickly, Gu Nan was actually in no hurry to make his move.
In any case, the item he wanted would appear as soon as the Blacksmith God undead died, and he didn't care who killed the undead. More importantly, that item was probably not something other people had much use for, and it was highly unlikely that they would even fight over it.
The Blacksmith God undead would drop a blueprint used specifically for constructing a structure inside the Divine Kingdom.
That structure was something Gu Nan had a use for, but neither Karina nor Lewis—who had already reached Tier 10 and whose Divine Kingdom was close to being perfected—needed it much.
That was why Gu Nan killed Claude, hoping to use his death to draw the Dark Empire's attention.
As long as Lewis's attention was drawn this way and he noticed the existence of the Blacksmith God undead, there was a high likelihood of Lewis showing up in person. At the very least, Lewis would consider subduing this undead and putting it under his control.
However, Gu Nan didn't expect for the first to arrive to not be the Dark Empire's army, but the Crusaders.
...
"Too undisciplined. They have no sense of honor as a Crusader at all!" A Crusader commander couldn't help complaining during the march. historical
"They should be honored to fight for the Holy Light. They'll understand sooner or later," Ramiro, on the other hand, wasn't too anxious and said to the companions around him.
Although Daoist Lingyang didn't form the Crusaders, when Ramiro and the other commanders stepped forward, an army called the "Crusaders" was quickly formed.
Of course, the result of forcibly bringing a new army to battle was that the troops were extremely undisciplined, which was unacceptable to the several commanders.
"We're almost there. Everyone, be on your guard!" Ramiro suddenly glanced at the ground, as if sensing something, and shouted loudly.
The remaining few commanders also straightened up. As veterans in fighting the undead, they all knew exactly what Ramiro sensed.
Where powerful undead creatures exist, the death aura from their bodies tend to spread naturally, affecting the surrounding space and land.
Land eroded by death aura was especially prone to producing new undead, so every powerful undead creature often represented an undead army.
As expected, they didn't travel for too long before the Crusaders ran into a large number of weak undead, but they were easily cleared away.
"Didn't they say that the undead was just born? How come there are so many undead soldiers?" Ramiro furrowed his brows as he ordered the troops to march with more caution.
In any case, the caliber of the several commanders leading the troops was still very high, and as the Crusaders slowly advanced, more and more undead died at their hands while their casualties were quite limited.
However, the unease in Ramiro's heart grew heavier, because not only was the number of undead far beyond imagination, the size of this dead land also seemed a bit too large.
'Exactly how powerful is this so-called powerful undead?'
Ramiro soon saw him. The Crusaders didn't have to march much further before the dark giant's enormous figure appeared in everyone's sight.
A golden light was also moving rapidly near the black giant. Every time the golden light collided with the giant, it would generate unimaginably powerful aftershocks.
"What... What kind of undead is this?!" Ramiro stared at this scene with his jaw dropped. This dark giant had already surpassed his understanding of undead creatures.
"It's an undead god..."
A soft sigh rang out beside him. Ramiro turned his head suddenly, only to see a youth with gentle features dressed in a dark purple robe just standing there.
Ramiro didn't recognize the youth, but he recognized the person standing next to the youth—that middle-aged man in black standing behind the youth was someone whose appearance Ramiro would never forget in his life.
The Dark Emperor!
The founder of the Dark Empire, the man who single-handedly led countless troops and destroyed the thousand-year foundation of the Church of Light!
"Glory to the Holy Light!" Ramiro let out a roar, drew the longsword at his waist, and quickly rushed at the Dark Emperor.
As long as he could kill this man, Ramiro would gladly give his own life in exchange!
However, he was only greeted with an indifferent look from the Dark Emperor. This emperor didn't even deign to move, as he knew very well that it was impossible for the other party to come closer.
The commander began to charge, and the Crusaders naturally followed suit, but they quickly realized something was wrong.
The path in front of them darkened, and the sky above their heads and the ground under their feet also darkened further. Their charge seemed to have fallen into boundless darkness.
The purple-robed youth was just standing in place, but it was as if there was endless darkness behind him.
"Sleep for all eternity inside the darkness," the youth's soft sigh rang out, and the entire Crusader army was instantly buried in darkness.
The Dark Emperor didn't even spare them a glance. He just stared at the dark giant and asked in confusion, "Ancestor, who is this?"
"The first God of Blacksmiths," the youth in purple answered softly, a strange light flickering in his eyes. "This is an opportunity."
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Chapter 431: Helper
"This is an opportunity," Daoist Lingyang murmured as he stood in the sky, his gaze landing on the Dark Emperor below.
Of course Daoist Lingyang recognized the two figures below. The Dark Emperor, as well as his ancestor—the God of Tenebrosity Lewis.
Daoist Lingyang struggled to keep his gaze from landing on Lewis.
Tier 10 powerhouses were very sensitive to their surroundings and could even sense any gaze directed at them.
Especially such a... malicious gaze like Daoist Lingyang's.
"Him showing up in a main plane is indeed your best chance." Xue Ren similarly didn't look at Lewis. In fact, he didn't look at any of them because this didn't concern him.
After saying that, he added with some amusement, "You've been plotting for today for a thousand years, but your plan hasn't even unfolded yet when your target was already lured out by Gu Nan... How do you feel about that?"
Xue Ren nearly laughed out loud towards the end, only refraining to save his old friend some face.
The old Daoist's story was actually not complicated at all. As a good friend, Xue Ren was quite familiar with it.
Before he even became a Star Ruler, Daoist Lingyang had come to the World of Gods to explore, and it was precisely this experience that helped him stand out from his competition for Clear Profundity Sect's Sect Master position later on, ultimately allowing him to take control of Clear Profundity Realm.
It was also during his journey in the World of Gods that he befriended a goddess who helped him greatly. historical
Later on, he still hadn't forgotten that goddess even after he became the Star Ruler of Clear Profundity Realm. Unfortunately, by the time he freed up some time to visit the World of Gods again, she had already fallen, dying at the hands of none other than Lewis.
Azure Water Goddess Margaret.
After a thousand years, not even her descendants could remember that their ancestor had once been a god, but Daoist Lingyang still remembered.
Even if there were only a few simple encounters between them and they were far from lovers, and even if not even Daoist Lingyang himself was sure whether Margaret would still remember him.
But none of that mattered. She was dead and he wanted revenge—it was as simple as that. This old Daoist was precisely such a stubborn person.
But killing Lewis was absolutely not a simple matter.
Setting aside the fact that the God of Tenebrosity was a Tier 10 god, there was still a very basic issue in his way—Daoist Lingyang was unable to mobilize the power of his astral world in the World of Gods.
The dimensional walls had a great impact. Except for people like Gu Nan who fought with their physical bodies, normal Star Rulers couldn't even utilize 80% of their power.
Fortunately, there were still places like main planes here.
Main planes were very special existences in the World of Gods. The spatial laws of the World of Gods were very stable, and among them, the ones in main planes were especially stable.
Existences stabilized at the level of a greater god were completely unable to enter main planes using their true bodies. Even normal gods could barely use the power of their Divine Kingdoms in main planes.
Here, Lewis's combat power wasn't much stronger than Daoist Lingyang, which was why Xue Ren said this was his best chance.
What was rather awkward, however, was that this opportunity wasn't of his own making—rather, Gu Nan had created it for him.
"Laugh if you want." Daoist Lingyang also didn't expect for this undead to be such a strong temptation for Lewis, but all in all, this wasn't a bad thing.
As long as his purpose was achieved, what did it matter even if his thousand years of scheming was mostly discarded?
Xue Ren coughed dryly, sort of easing the embarrassment. ''Let's not talk about that. Now that Lewis has come out, just how much certainty do you have? Do you need my help?"
In Xue Ren's opinion, they only had one shot at this. Once they startled Lewis and alerted him to their intent, it would be very hard to kill a Tier 10 god.
Daoist Lingyang's gaze was still directed at the ground below. "Wait just a little longer..."
...
Lewis was studying the dark giant.
He felt some vague unease in his heart, but this didn't make him vigilant. If he didn't feel threatened at all even when facing the undead made from the first Blacksmith God, then that would be a sign that something was wrong with his intuition.
The God of Tenebrosity was also a god who lived for countless years, so he was familiar with the first Blacksmith God's death. He just didn't know that the Blacksmith God had died in Atalante.
"Karina," he directly showed up and spoke without any intention of hiding himself.
The ruckus created by the Wrestling Goddess was too great. It wouldn't be long before countless gods noticed this scene, and by then, there would be a whole lot more contenders if they wanted to capture this undead.
Karina and the dark giant had already fought for a while, and the first three minutes of excitement was more or less over by now, so she turned her head back when she heard the shout.
"Oh, it's you. Something the matter?" Karina's hand movements did not stop, and she casually replied as she viciously stabbed her spear into the dark giant's palm once again.
This Wrestling Goddess seemed completely unaware that two of her teammates had already escaped.
Lewis didn't actually want to provoke this crazy woman, so he first asked, "Is the Blacksmith God undead your target? I want a living undead. We can cooperate if our goals don't conflict."
Karina's eyes lit up at once. "Can you capture him so I can fight him from time to time?"
She was a little tired now, but it was a bit of a shame to let this opponent go. It would be great if someone could keep it under control for her to fight whenever she had time.
"Sure." Lewis flashed a smile. He wasn't surprised in the slightest by Karina's answer. Every single senior god knew what kind of person the Wrestling Goddess was.
"Deal!" Karina agreed without hesitation.
She wasn't afraid of Lewis reneging or backstabbing her—in any case, if there was no undead, then she would simply find Lewis for a fight.
"Cooperation? Count me in as well," another voice interjected. The voice sounded dry and gloomy, as if iron sheets were being scraped together, making people's hairs stand on end.
Another person appeared out of thin air beside the two. It was a bone-thin old man with a wrinkled face.
Skeletal Sage Stevenson, another bigshot within the Dark Faction and one of the rare undead creatures to ascend to godhood.
Legend has it that Stevenson was initially just an ordinary skeleton soldier born in the Undead Kingdom but ultimately reached his current level. He was definitely not to be underestimated.
"Stevenson." Lewis's gaze lingered on him for a moment, and he said in a low voice, "I want the undead himself, and Karina wants to fight him. What do you want?"
A cold smile tugged at the Skeletal Sage's old face. "I need him for some research. It won't affect his vitality."
The Skeletal Sage ultimately chose the path of a Skeleton Mage, which was actually very similar to a human Necromancer, so he had no reason to let the masterpiece of the second-generation Death God slip through his fingers.
Lewis contemplated for a moment and eventually nodded in agreement.
Only Xue Ren, who was in the sky above them, leveled a meaningful gaze at Daoist Lingyang. "So you still had a helper."
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Chapter 432: Goro
Once the three gods reached a consensus, dealing with the undead became a breeze.
After all, there was the Skeletal Sage, an expert in undead creatures, and their aim was not to kill the undead but to find a way to control or even subdue him.
After an extraordinarily long time, the Blacksmith God undead had completely lost its self-awareness, acting entirely on instinct.
"Time has worn away the Blacksmith God's consciousness. Now he only has his undead instincts left, so it's not hard to control him." Stevenson said, "But I'm rather curious: how did he awaken?"
An undead that had been slumbering for tens of thousands of years wouldn't have woken up on its own—so the Skeletal Sage looked at Karina.
If the two of them knew that someone deliberately released this undead, they would probably be more vigilant.
But Karina didn't care about that. She just urged them to capture the other party as soon as possible.
Stevenson shook his head. "I'll set up a magic circle. You guys keep him inside the circle and weaken his soul fire as much as possible. Everything will be settled once the magic circle is completed."
Weakening the soul fire of an undead actually just meant injuring him as much as possible.
Karina shrugged, indicating that she couldn't do anything about that, so Lewis said, "Leave that to me."
Even though the law of tenebrosity didn't specialize in offense or defense, he was after all a Tier 10 god, and the level suppression helped him deal enough damage.
Many people felt that Karina's attack power was very weak, but they actually ignored her true level.
With her Tier 8 power, this was naturally the result when going up against a Tier 9 or 10 enemy. But once she advances to Tier 10, she would truly become invincible besides attacks from greater gods.
The Skeletal Sage busied himself with setting up the magic circle while the other two began to attack the undead. Karina was in charge of holding it back while Lewis was in charge of dealing damage.
Compared to the Wrestling Goddess, Lewis actually knew more about how to kill undead creatures, or rather, he had more methods for dealing with them.
The sharp blade of tenebrosity fell and directly sliced through a small part of the dark giant's head, revealing the soul fire burning within.
The dark giant, on the other hand, didn't feel anything until the darkness landed on that flame, causing him to let out an astonishing roar.
"A very tough soul." Lewis couldn't help sighing with emotion, actually looking more pleased than troubled.
Even though such a soul was causing him trouble right now, the undead would be able to remain for a long time once he subdued it.
It was as if Lewis could already see himself easily occupying a main plane for ten thousand years and accumulating a huge amount of faith.
One blade of darkness after another hit the soul fire continuously, causing the dark giant to constantly roar in pain, but it was powerless to resist the two's siege.
Karina could easily block all of his attacks, and the God of Tenebrosity was even less likely to be affected by them.
Finally, as the aura of the Blacksmith God undead gradually weakened, Stevenson finished his spell.
The deathly aura that rose up to the sky satisfied Lewis. The Skeletal Sage had also put his heart into it, otherwise it would be hard to set up a grand magic circle of this level in a short time—
unless he already prepared this in advance.
Lewis felt a violent jolt in his heart when he had this thought, as if he realized something, but his realization had come too late.
A staff made of bones pointed at his back, and the characteristic gloomy voice from the Skeletal Sage rang out.
"Now then, fall into the trap, Lord Lewis."
A ball of white flames erupted from the tip of the bony staff, instantly engulfing Lewis's entire being.
Such an attack couldn't truly hurt Lewis, but it could make him fall into the magic circle that had just been laid out.
Lewis wasn't wrong—the Skeletal Sage had indeed prepared in advance, and it was a trap prepared just for him. historical
The instant Lewis fell, a Daoist talisman seemed to fall from the sky and instantly land on top of Lewis' head.
A dazzling green light radiated from the Daoist talisman and began to crazily drill into Lewis's body. But trapped inside the skeletal magic circle, Lewis was unable to free his hands to block it and could only watch the green light entering his body.
Daoist Lingyang slowly stepped out. He was finally able to recklessly cast his gaze upon the purple-robed youth in front of him.
Seemingly sensing the new arrival's malice, Lewis also finally figured out the mastermind behind this trap.
He didn't recognize the other party, but that was normal. Lewis had killed too many people in his life. How could he remember every single enemy?
But he never expected for the other party to get the help of the Skeletal Sage.
"Stevenson, this won't do you any good." After the unavoidable green light entered his body, Lewis simply chose not to resist and instead looked at the Skeletal Sage.
"You can't give me what I want. But this… Mm, His Excellency Daoist priest, can." Stevenson obviously didn't know much about the Myriad Heavens, and the way he addressed Daoist Lingyang was a bit ridiculous.
Lewis's gaze turned slightly cold. He began trying to mobilize the law of tenebrosity, but to no avail. Instead, it made the green light enter even faster.
The man with the strange attire was obviously using his full power to control the green light in order to finish in the shortest possible time.
Lewis didn't know what this green light was, but it wasn't anything good.
His gaze moved to Karina. The Wrestling Goddess wasn't trapped inside the magic circle. In other words, she still had strength to spare if she stepped in to help.
However, without waiting for him to open his mouth, Stevenson already said, "Lord Karina, I will give you a complete and controllable Blacksmith God undead once we finish off Lewis."
And so Karina stopped moving as well, revealing a disinterested expression. Anyhow, she wasn't afraid of people reneging.
Another option was snuffed out, but the expression on Lewis's face didn't change much. Instead, he became silent.
As for the Blacksmith God undead beside Lewis, his soul fire was already close to sputtering out and was being continuously exhausted inside the skeletal magic circle.
If Daoist Lingyang's movements were any slower, perhaps even before Lewis fell, the Blacksmith God undead would be the first to perish.
Right at this moment, the Dark Emperor standing below them suddenly sighed and said to one of the people in the group behind him, "Goro, it's up to you now."
A man holding a black greatsword, his body hidden in pitch-black armor, slowly stepped out as he smiled lightly. "It seems that Lord Lewis's caution was correct."
"I didn't expect for me, his trump card," the armored warrior Goro couldn't avoid it.
A sword cloud fell from the sky, precisely blocking the way to lifted his greatsword slightly, "to actually come in handy."
In the next second, the pitch-black silhouette instantly appeared in midair. Now on the same level as the many gods, his sword chopped down.
At the same time, Lewis, who'd remained silent until now, suddenly raised his head, and two purple rays of light shot out from his eyes, heading straight for Daoist Lingyang.
The last of the power of tenebrosity broke out of the magic circle, and since Daoist Lingyang had to control the talisman, he naturally couldn't avoid it.
A sword cloud fell from the sky, precisely blocking the way to Daoist Lingyang, before revealing Xue Ren's figure.
However, there wasn't much triumph on his face, because after saving his old friend, he could no longer stop that pitch-black warrior in time.
Lewis finally revealed a cold smile and shouted, "You can't deal with them. Break this magic circle for me and release the Blacksmith God undead!"
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Chapter 433: Dividing the Spoils
In every sense, Lewis made the right call.
By ambushing someone who'd been entirely unaware until then, Daoist Lingyang had already taken this trap to the extreme, utilizing every condition that could be utilized.
With the Skeletal Sage's magic circle to trap him, Daoist Lingyang's Daoist talisman as a killing move, and Xue Ren as a trump card to prevent Lewis from making any last-ditch moves—this was a very strict plan.
In other words, Lewis only needed to cut off one link in the entire plan to escape.
The only difficulty was that Lewis had almost no cards left in his hand.
After failing to persuade Stevenson, and with Karina's disinterest in intervening and his own counterattack being blocked, the only card left in his hand was the Dark Warrior "Goro."
Goro was truly a very promising young man, and to Lewis, he was even a direct descendant.
Because Goro was the son-in-law of the current Dark Emperor. As early as when Goro first started showing potential, the Dark Emperor keenly discovered his potential and decided to marry his favorite daughter to him.
But even Goro, who rose as abruptly as the rising sun, still lacked time. The current him was only a Tier 6 god who had just ignited his divine fire.
Perhaps using some of his trump cards, he had the ability to threaten even Tier 7 gods, but to say that he could oppose the likes of the Skeletal Sage was still too much.
However, it was enough to have him interfere with Stevenson's grand spell.
As long as even the slightest flaw appeared in the magic circle, the Blacksmith God undead, who was no longer being held back by Karina, would immediately expand the flaw indefinitely, and the entire grand spell would be broken without Lewis having to attack.
Hearing Lewis's reminder, Goro's greatsword changed direction and pointed decisively at the magic circle under his feet.
The tangle of relationships here was quite complicated, but it was as clear as day in the eyes of the several parties involved.
But Stevenson couldn't free himself while operating the magic circle, Daoist Lingyang also couldn't free himself, and in order to block Lewis's attack, Xue Ren could no longer stop this in time…
Many times, the fight between two sides was like playing cards. Whoever has more cards and whoever hides their cards better will be the final victor.
Daoist Lingyang felt that he had forced out all of his opponent's trump cards, but he never imagined that Lewis still had a mere Tier 6 card, which at this point was more than enough to determine victory or defeat.
Of course, Lewis similarly couldn't have imagined that he wouldn't actually be able to play this card.
Just when the jet black sword was about to break through the magic circle, a hand appeared out of thin air and held the sword's blade, trapping it in place.
Goro was slightly stunned, and in an instant, his sword changed direction as black flames quickly flared up on his black armor, and he swung the sword with all his might at the newcomer.
Although he only experienced a few decades of life, Goro's combat experience was already incomparably rich.
He concluded that as long as he forced his opponent back a step, the aftershock from this blow would be enough to interfere with the grand spell… 'And even a Tier 7 god has to avoid a strike at my full power, so there's no reason I'll fail.'
Gu Nan's figure slowly stepped out from the void, and after blocking the greatsword with one hand, he didn't even raise his head in the face of a renewed attack from the same sword.
He allowed the sword to hit his arm, then nonchalantly dusted off the place that just got hit—the sword didn't even leave a mark; all Gu Nan dusted off was some dust.
The next second, Gu Nan casually raised his foot and threw a kick. The terrifyingly monstrous force instantly extinguished all the black flames, and even the sound of armor breaking could be heard.
Goro was like a meteor that cut through the sky, then slammed heavily into the ground, smashing a deep hole in the ground.
Daoist Lingyang and Xue Ren exchanged a glance, relief clear in each other's eyes.
Of course they knew Gu Nan was nearby, but they weren't sure at all if Gu Nan would step in to help, or even which side he would help if he did.
Mad Fist was crazy, and Karina was also crazy, but there was a method to their madness.
Gu Nan, on the other hand, was even crazier, and his madness was something that others couldn't understand. Or rather, neither Xue Ren nor Daoist Lingyang had found what Gu Nan actually wanted yet.
"And who are you…?" Lewis asked, fixing Gu Nan with a deathly glare. His voice was a little hoarse, because he knew he was most likely going to die this time.
"You don't recognize me?" Some surprise seemed to surface on Gu Nan's face.
Lewis shook his head very honestly.
"That's great," Gu Nan said with satisfaction.
...
Lewis died.
For a god of this level, even the description of "falling" couldn't do justice to his power, but he died so easily.
As he neared his death, this God of Tenebrosity thought of every possible method to survive.
He tried to persuade every god present, even Daoist Lingyang, all to find even the slightest chance of survival, but unfortunately, only Karina chatted with him for a few moments.
He tried to use his own power to break out of the situation, but unfortunately, both Stevenson and Daoist Lingyang were all too familiar with his methods, and there was absolutely no chance of success.
"Since you dared to enter a main plane, you're already prepared to fall, right?" Karina was a little puzzled that the God of Tenebrosity protection of their Divine Kingdom, it was tantamount to giving up their greatest advantage.
tried so many tactics. The phrase "pleading for one's life" never even existed in her dictionary.
When a god's true body entered a main plane and lost the protection of their Divine Kingdom, it was tantamount to giving up their greatest advantage.
That was why main planes were the most common place of death for powerful gods who'd fallen throughout the ages. This was true even for the several Great Wars. historical
Since they took this step for the sake of benefits, they shouldn't expect to come back unharmed every time.
The fall of the God of Tenebrosity was too fast, and Daoist Lingyang was also way too prepared, not giving anyone the slightest time to react.
By the time all the gods in the World of Gods came back to their senses, all traces of gods had long since vanished from Atalante, and even Lewis's corpse had been taken away by the Skeletal Sage.
"No matter what, I still have to thank you this time," Daoist Lingyang stood in front of Gu Nan and said with the most official Daoist bow.
Gu Nan looked at the old Daoist and thought for a long time. "You don't seem to have anything you can thank me with, so let's talk about it later."
Daoist Lingyang was probably shocked by Gu Nan's bluntness and didn't say anything for a while, but Karina spoke up, disgruntled, "You killed that undead, so will you fight with me in the future?"
The Blacksmith God undead was naturally also dead, and the remains it left behind were held in Gu Nan's hand, which was an odd-looking finger bone.
"Didn't someone guarantee you a completely intact undead?" Gu Nan pointed his head towards Stevenson and said quite rudely, "Go find him!"
The Skeletal Sage almost choked to death; this was the first time he experienced Gu Nan's shamelessness, and for a moment, he didn't know what to say.
Based on his previous agreement with Daoist Lingyang, this Blacksmith God undead that unexpectedly appeared should've been his as well.
It was only because of Gu Nan's critical intervention and his long acquaintance with Daoist Lingyang that Stevenson allowed the spoils from the Blacksmith God undead to go to Gu Nan, yet now he actually had the face to say such a thing?
Then he saw Karina walk up to him.
"He has a point," Karina said seriously.
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Chapter 434: Blacksmith Temple
The scene at the division of spoils suddenly turned a bit awkward.
The Skeletal Sage glanced at Daoist Lingyang but realized the latter didn't have any reaction—their cooperation was limited to Lewis, and there was no personal friendship between them.
Thus, a cold smile appeared on Stevenson's old face. In his opinion, the other side was clearly trying to backstab their former ally once they saw that he was alone.
However, he was a little surprised Karina would also cooperate with them on this.
"He's the one who killed the Blacksmith God undead, so why are you coming to me instead of looking for his trouble?" The Skeletal Sage tried to persuade her and even provoked her with amusement, "What, is he a better fighter than you?"
"He… more or less can fight as well as me!" Karina paused for a moment, then said decisively, "If you won't compensate me with an opponent, then fight me yourself!"
As soon as her words fell, she thrust her divine spear forward without giving Stevenson the chance to respond.
Stevenson was a bit stunned. He finally understood this Wrestling Goddess's intention—she was simply bullying the weak while fearing the strong!
Karina's statement that Gu Nan "more or less can fight as well as her" was basically no different from admitting he was a better fighter than her.
The Skeletal Sage didn't know whether to laugh or cry. At the very least, he was still a pillar of the Dark Faction and was only slightly weaker than Lewis, yet someone was actually picking on him because he was the "weakest."
Daoist Lingyang very unrighteously ignored him. This old Daoist was carrying a bag in his hand containing Lewis's head.
The old Daoist decided to follow the custom of his hometown and bring the head of Margaret's enemy to her grave.
Gu Nan had even less to say. He decisively turned and walked away. He already got the item he wanted, so there was nothing more he cared about here.
Be it Karina or the Dark Warrior who disappeared a while ago, neither was of any concern to Gu Nan.
...
Gu Nan sat in his room inside the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, playing with the crystalline finger bone in his hand.
This finger bone was Gu Nan's spoils of war and the target item he had gone to great lengths to obtain.
The finger bone from the first-generation Blacksmith God was actually a blueprint that could be used to construct a miracle structure called the Blacksmith Temple.
Miracle structures constructed with blueprints couldn't be upgraded and didn't count as a structure required for the Divine Kingdom's advancement, so there was basically no extra benefit.
In exchange, the structure itself had a powerful function.
The role of the Blacksmith Temple was to create equipment that could provide apostles with the weapons or armor most suited for them, and it was fully automatic.
The Blacksmith Temple would have one free crafting slot every month, and one could also use it by paying points, but it wasn't cheap.
The Blacksmith Temple was a highly popular structure among players because it produced equipment with very good effects that didn't even lose out to the Evil God Temple.
In other words, once the Blacksmith Temple was in place, the combat abilities of apostles would be greatly enhanced, and it wouldn't be impossible for them to challenge higher level enemies.
As a veteran player, Gu Nan was well aware that the entire First Round Divine Kingdom playstyle was not too difficult in and of itself.
Regardless of the player's speed of development, it was always possible to trounce the gods without feeling any pressure.
However, it was clearly not in the game officials' best interest to merely make the game a grind without any difficulty whatsoever, so there was bound to be an actual crisis that could lead to a total game over.
After the player advances to Tier 9 or even Tier 10, the possibility of the Evil God's identity being exposed increases greatly, especially in the eyes of greater gods.
Often, 90% of newbies died because they were too arrogant during the First Round, drawing too much attention, and were then caught and exterminated as soon as they reached Tier 10.
Seasoned veterans, on the other hand, would make preparations in the early stages to ensure the success rate of Divine Kingdom Wars.
They would wait until their Evil Value reached a critical point, then rapidly accumulate points in an attempt to step into the Second "You lost again!" Sylvia's voice rang in Gu Nan's ears, and what entered his sight immediately afterward was none other than the Round in one fell swoop.
"You lost again!" Sylvia's voice rang in Gu Nan's ears, and what entered his sight immediately afterward was none other than the Shadow Goddess's smug smile.
The one she just defeated was naturally not Gu Nan, but rather Lan Si, who was currently filled with chagrin.
After officially losing 50 consecutive matches, Sylvia finally abandoned her "dignity" and turned to challenge the people around Gu Nan.
Every member of the player army who came back to "report on their route" would be asked to play black cards with her, and when even they started avoiding her, she could only try for Lan Si.
Gu Nan ignored this boring goddess; he was busy with his player army.
With attempt after attempt, the player army was gradually on the verge of taking shape.
Seven out of the nine had already gotten their classes and were constantly improving themselves based on the plan Gu Nan drew up.
They were already some of the best among Tier 3 experts, and after changing to player classes, they quickly entered Tier 4.
The gap between Tiers 3 and 4, which was like an insurmountable chasm for mortals, was particularly powerless in front of player routes.
Among them, the one who advanced the fastest was An Tiansheng.
This little fellow was indeed a natural-born bandit. He was way too suitable for the "Bandit" route.
After he realized that robbing others could improve his cultivation, he spiraled out of control.
Not only did he successfully complete the missions Gu Nan gave him, but he also robbed a bunch of gods' children, apostles, Legend Ranks, and even ancient beasts along the way.
He was now running to another main plane, living a life of incomparable fulfillment since gods rarely entered main planes.
As for the two who had yet to complete their class change, one was Liang Ruxin, who hadn't been heard from again ever since he started studying under the Phantom Sword Saint, and the other was Xie Yun.
The Phantom Sword Saint was by no means an easy route to acquire, so it was only natural that there was no news from Liang Ruxin for the time being.
Gu Nan wasn't afraid that someone would dare to betray him; there were simply too many methods of controlling people in the World of Gods.
He originally wanted to go and find a random item himself, but An Tiansheng just happened to deliver the crystal ball from the Daughter of God right to his door. Since it could resurrect apostles, it naturally also had the ability to control their life and death. historical
This was all possible because Gu Nan's power far exceeded theirs. Only with absolute power can one easily accomplish many things. The World of Gods has always operated under that rule.
And just as Gu Nan was traveling east and west, plundering the resources he wanted to his heart's content, the opportunity for them to return to the Myriad Heavens finally arrived.
On this day, everyone in the World of Gods simultaneously felt a palpitating sensation without warning.
Immediately following that was the simultaneous awakening of the twelve greater gods, who all cast their gazes at the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, Rolensia's location.
Rolensia was silent. She merely sealed up her Divine Kingdom completely, blocking all outside gazes.
Under these circumstances, if anyone still dared to spy on her, it would be the same as making a complete enemy of Rolensia.
Thus, at this moment, the true high-level figures of both worlds realized that another greater god level figure was about to be born.
Perhaps it couldn't be called a birth, but rather a return.
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Chapter 435: Pay to Win Expert
Myriad Heavens Universe.
Two figures were wandering around the vicinity of Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, exploring the surrounding space and seemingly searching for… a suitable ambush location. historical
"Zi Luo Elder will return sooner or later, and so will Gu Nan. Our best chance to strike will be when he's just returned to the Myriad Heavens and hasn't had time to take control of anything yet."
These two were clearly a monk and a Daoist priest, and it was the Daoist who spoke just now.
However, they were a bit odd. The monk had short hair and even carried a longsword on his back, resembling a sword cultivator more than a monk.
The Daoist, on the other hand, was holding a hossu and had a Daoist hat on his head, but he wore a neat Buddhist robe. The gold and red colors reflected each other, looking very eye-catching.
The monk didn't resemble a monk, and the Daoist didn't resemble a Daoist. This monk-Daoist pair was quite famous in the Myriad Heavens—the Sword Arhat and the Buddhist Daoist.
The Sword Arhat also agreed with the Buddhist Daoist's words, but he still felt a bit stifled. "That person surnamed Duan is the one who has a grudge against Gu Nan, but he's using us as pawns."
"It can't be helped." The Buddhist Daoist sighed. "Who let the Cult Master be about to return, yet we even got the wrong Saint and allowed the real Saint to die at Gu Nan's hands?"
The Sword Arhat sneered, "Isn't that all thanks to Lu Wen? If it wasn't for him swapping the two back then…"
"Forget it," the Buddhist Daoist interrupted with a flick of his hossu. "Only by killing Gu Nan will we have a chance to remedy the situation. Make preparations; we must not allow him to return to his astral world."
The Sword Arhat nodded silently.
Before Rolensia ascended to Unified Dao, Gu Nan was already able to stand up to Graceful Heaven's Fang Chaoyun with his own strength while inside his astral world.
Since then, no one under the Thirteen Heavens dared to claim they had a solid chance of defeating Gu Nan, because no one could do anything about him as long as he hid inside his astral world.
...
Xie Yun had failed once again.
As one of the nine people who came to this side from the Myriad Heavens, Xie Yun's qualifications could be said to be one of the best; An Tiansheng was probably the only one who could compare to her.
Liang Ruxin had the most seniority amongst the nine and was also the most composed, but in terms of qualifications, he still couldn't compare to these two children.
But even so, the 16-year-old Xie Yun was destined to be the last of the nine to acquire a class—it was even possible that she wouldn't be able to obtain a class, because Gu Nan was returning to the Myriad Heavens soon.
"Firearms Expert doesn't suit you," Gu Nan stated indifferently as he placed a data sheet in front of the young girl.
After several failed attempts, Gu Nan had long since realized the problem, but he never spoke to Xie Yun about it until she personally came to ask for advice.
"Why?" Xie Yun asked stubbornly as she glanced down, then was blinded by the paper full of information she couldn't understand.
"Your knowledge of firearms is severely lacking, whether it's their manufacture or assembly and application, not to mention making modifications that best suit you."
Gu Nan paused for a moment and pointed at the paper. "This has the names of every single firearm you've ever used. How can you play as a gunner when you don't even know what they're called or what properties they have?"
"I love firearms!" Xie Yun said loudly, "And aren't guns more powerful the more expensive they are?"
Gu Nan shook his head. Her playing with guns this way was undoubtedly a very embarrassing thing… Hm, that said, there really was a route that suited her.
This slight pause made him remember a very special route.
There were so many routes players could choose in the game that not even Gu Nan could remember them all. The list he wrote down and gave to the nine earlier just had some of the routes that he remembered as being more cost-effective and easier to acquire.
"If you simply like playing with guns, you can try this route." Gu Nan quickly lowered his head and wrote down something before handing it over to Xie Yun.
Xie Yun looked down in confusion, only to see the words "Pay to Win Expert" written at the top of the paper.
The official name for the Pay to Win Expert should be "Gold-Devouring Expert." This route was very peculiar. The player could select a natal weapon, then enhance it by means of "gold."
The natal weapon can be whatever the player wants it to be, but it can't be changed after the route is chosen, only evolved. Improvement of the weapon also improves the player's own strength.
To put it simply, it was paying money to become stronger.
"Strengthening yourself by devouring gold?" Xie Yun did understand this time, because the upgrade logic of a Pay to Win Expert was indeed very simple—just pay gold.
Moreover, the "gold" it referred to really was just the metal itself; any other form of currency or valuables was ineffective.
Xie Yun's eyes lit up when she read the natal weapon's introduction. "Can I choose a gun?"
"Of course."
"Then I choose this route!"
...
Xie Yun came and went in a hurry, but her visit didn't affect much.
Gu Nan was sitting inside the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, about to personally witness the second Unified Dao ascension.
Almost two days had passed since the abnormal phenomenon started inside the Divine Kingdom, and now the signs in the World of Gods were so intense that even Tier 4 mortals could feel them.
Zi Luo Elder was making a breakthrough, while everyone outside was silently waiting for that tipping point to arrive.
Breaking through was a slow and lengthy process, and it wasn't as if one could immediately break through by shouting, "Break through for me!"
It was like adding one straw after another to a camel's back. While it seemed like the final straw caused the qualitative change, in reality, it was no different from the previous straws.
"It's coming," Xue Ren's voice rang in Gu Nan's ears. The world's number one swordsman, who had already reached Gu Nan's side at some point, wore a relieved smile on his face.
"You seem very nervous?" Gu Nan, however, could see the worry in the depths of his eyes.
"Of course." Xue Ren smiled freely. "If the old man's breakthrough fails, then I'm afraid we'll have to rebuild our astral worlds on this side… The matter of ascending to Unified Dao has never been a surefire success."
No one dared to claim they would definitely succeed in breaking through to Unified Dao.
With Xue Ren and Gu Nan's situation where they blatantly offended the Thirteen Heavens, once news of Zi Luo Elder's failed ascension reached the Myriad Heavens, the two of them would probably be the first to have their astral worlds destroyed.
Even if Song Fei himself didn't do anything and didn't issue such an order, there was absolutely no need for him to personally give the word.
Almost at the same time that Xue Ren opened his mouth, Gu Nan saw a purple pillar of light shoot up into the sky, as if something had awakened in the depths of the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom and was heading straight for the sky.
However, at this very moment, a ray of light came from the far east, falling straight towards that purple pillar.
The light from the east seemed to pierce through space itself, having already struck the purple pillar as soon as it lit up. Only then did people have a chance to see what the light was.
It was clearly a ruler, as simple and outdated as those used in private schools in the countryside.
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Chapter 436: Ten Years Time Limit
This ruler naturally wasn't a normal ruler. It was Academic Heaven Song Fei's famed weapon: Measuring… It wasn't actually called the Measuring Heaven Ruler; its name was just Ruler.
Song Fei started cultivating in a private school in a small plane, and the ruler he used back then was none other than this one, so this ruler didn't really have a name.
Later on, a disciple asked Song Fei for the name of this ruler—his most famous weapon—and Song Fei said exactly these four words: "Its name is Ruler."
At the most critical moment when Zi Luo Elder was about to break through to Unified Dao, Song Fei finally struck brazenly, using his own weapon to attack from a distance and forcibly piercing the dimensional wall.
"Song Fei…" Xue Ren looked in that direction with a somewhat cold and dark gaze.
He wasn't surprised that Song Fei would make a move; it was obvious. On the contrary, if the other party did nothing, Xue Ren would instead have to wonder if there was some kind of conspiracy behind it.
What really made Xue Ren's heart sink was the fact that Rolensia didn't try to stop it.
This was her Divine Kingdom. It was impossible that she didn't sense Ruler's arrival. Of course, it was also unlikely that she had betrayed the organization.
If she truly betrayed the organization, she could simply kill everyone here; there was no need to go to all this trouble.
So there was only one possibility.
...
"Daphne." Rolensia glared coldly at the graceful noblewoman in front of her, having fallen into a field of verdant green.
Even though this was her Divine Kingdom and she could break through her opponent's restriction in an instant, she already missed the most crucial moment.
The other party appeared at the exact instant the ruler appeared.
Goddess of Nature, Daphne.
There ought to be no communication between the highest levels of the Myriad Heavens and the World of Gods. historical
That was why Rolensia had completely failed to anticipate that someone would collude with the Myriad Heavens and join forces to prevent Zi Luo Elder's ascension to Unified Dao.
"Why?" Rolensia asked coldly.
A sea of blood immediately destroyed the emerald green barrier, but it was meaningless. The ruler had long since disappeared without a trace, while the influence it left behind festered.
"It's quite simple," Daphne, a mature woman with a dignified aura, answered softly.
"No one wants to see you all rise peacefully and form a behemoth that not even greater gods can restrain."
The existence of the Heaven-God Alliance was something that had It had jumped from a small, obscure organization to a super organization with a greater god at its helm, and now a second never existed before, or at least, it was the first time something like this entered the sights of the greater gods.
It had jumped from a small, obscure organization to a super organization with a greater god at its helm, and now a second Unified Dao member would appear.
As long as the greater gods weren't blind, they wouldn't just sit back and watch the Heaven-God Alliance grow stronger.
Of course, there were also interests entangled between the greater gods, and wanting them to join forces was likewise a joke. At best, they'd just agree on having someone make a move.
And now, Daphne made that move. The reason she was the one making that move was also simple—she wasn't afraid of offending Rolensia at all.
Back when Rolensia was still the God of Luxuriant Blossoms, this Goddess of Nature was an obstacle blocking her path.
Conversely, Daphne also regarded the former as a strong pursuer and made frequent attempts to suppress her both openly and secretly, so the relationship between the two had never been good.
Since there was never any friendship, there was no fear of offending the other party.
"Your power is very interesting." The Goddess of Nature waved with a smile before her figure slowly disappeared.
...
"Song Fei is still the same Song Fei." Lu Wen gently took a sip of the clear wine as a trace of realization appeared on his face.
Lu Wen's generation was relatively new, so he never witnessed the conflict between Song Fei and Zi Luo Elder back then, but he had seen Song Fei's decisive style.
This sage-level figure, who was known as the "Teacher of All Worlds," struck like a genius swordsman, breaking through all illusions and hitting the opponent's vital point with a single blow.
"Whether it's the Heaven-God Alliance or that greater god they have, they're ultimately just external strength." Duan Wenqi also sighed softly. "As long as Zi Luo Elder doesn't enter Unified Dao, Song Fei's position will be as stable as Mt. Tai."
His earlier silence was all for today's fatal strike—this was Song Fei.
"Others only saw the strength of the Heaven-God Alliance, but he saw its fragility." Lu Wen shook his head with a smile. "But then, won't your arrangements have been in vain?"
Duan Wenqi shrugged. "That's even better."
...
Of course, while the Myriad Heavens marveled at Song Fei's acumen, the atmosphere inside the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom was incomparably heavier.
Daoist Lingyang had long since reunited with the crowd, but even Mad Fist no longer had a casual look on his face, his expression grim.
When he first followed Zi Luo Elder to this side, it was to avoid the slim chance of unexpected events happening, but he hadn't expected for an even slimmer possibility to occur.
Gu Nan was likewise present, although he was a bit more composed than the others.
Or perhaps he had already been through countless battles and was experienced as hell. It wasn't like he hadn't encountered situations in the game where his Divine Kingdom was destroyed—it was just a matter of starting from scratch again.
There were even players who felt underprepared and believed their identities would be easily exposed after reaching Tier 10, so they actually destroyed their own Divine Kingdoms to start over.
"We still have a chance," Zi Luo Elder's voice finally rang out and gave the crowd hope as it did so.
This old man slowly walked out from the void, his appearance not much different from earlier, except that there was a bit more flamboyance in his demeanor.
"Elder, you succeeded?" Daoist Lingyang couldn't help blurting out.
Rolensia also appeared, but she didn't say much, only frowning slightly as she looked at Zi Luo Elder.
"I succeeded, and also failed." Zi Luo Elder greeted the crowd and sat down before answering, "Ten years."
He looked at Xue Ren. "I only have ten years. In these ten years, I can protect you from Song Fei and Zou Jiming. You must ascend to Unified Dao within ten years."
"Ten years?" Xue Ren's gaze flickered slightly as he repeated Zi Luo Elder's words in a low voice.
Adding a time limit to the words "Unified Dao" was a matter of immense pressure for anyone, even Xue Ren, who was known to be the closest to Unified Dao Realm.
Zi Luo Elder nodded gently. "I will place the headquarters of the Heaven-God Alliance in Zi Luo Heaven. If you can successfully ascend to Unified Dao, I will also obtain a chance of survival, otherwise, everything will be over."
Xue Ren lowered his head wordlessly at those words, and Zi Luo Elder looked at Gu Nan and the other three again.
"At that time, if things don't go as planned, I'm afraid it'll be difficult for you all to leave the Myriad Heavens again. If you are unwilling to take this risk, you can simply stay on this side."
If they stayed in the World of Gods, at least they already had Rolensia as a powerful backer. The natural organizational relationship between the two sides gave them a basis for an alliance.
Without much hesitation, Mad Fist directly said, "I've fought everywhere on this side. It's time to go back and see my old friends."
He came over at first because he didn't want to take any chances, and as a result, he was faced with an even more difficult choice, so this time, he didn't want to be cautious.
Instead, Daoist Lingyang was silent for a moment before saying, "I'll stay."
Xue Ren looked up in surprise, seemingly not understanding why his old friend would make that decision.
Daoist Lingyang explained with a laugh, "I fear death."
Xue Ren could only shake his head slightly in response, clearly not believing him.
"What about you?" Zi Luo Elder finally turned his gaze towards Gu Nan.
"Can we set off now?" Gu Nan asked. "Ten years—that's cutting it a little close."
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Chapter 437: Ambush and Reorganization
To the true higher-ups of the Myriad Heavens, the ruler that inexplicably appeared in the World of Gods was no secret.
So just when everyone believed that old man would never appear in the Myriad Heavens again…
He came back. Bringing along all the Star Rulers who left with him in the first place, he returned to Zi Luo Heaven bombastically, establishing the headquarters of the now well-known Heaven-God Alliance in Zi Luo Heaven.
Zi Luo Heaven had been an ownerless plane for tens of thousands of years, but the moment Zi Luo Elder returned, it now had a master.
Also from this moment onwards, the term "Thirteen Heavens" officially became a thing of the past. Now, they should be called the Fourteen Heavens.
But what really baffled people was that Academic Heaven's Song Fei didn't express any opinion—let alone make any move—regarding Zi Luo Elder's return.
Similarly, that old man also didn't express any dissatisfaction with the ruler that appeared that day. Both parties acted as if nothing had happened.
This bizarre attitude couldn't help but cause the onlookers to fall silent as well.
If not for the fact that Zi Luo Elder's power couldn't be faked, unintentionally revealed something in a conversation, that the time limit of "ten years" was gradually spread around the world.
people would've thought this was actually a dream.
It wasn't until one day, when one of Song Fei's disciples seemingly unintentionally revealed something in a conversation, that the time limit of "ten years" was gradually spread around the world.
Subsequently, because of the tacit confirmation from the rest of the Unified Dao powerhouses, the news increased in authenticity.
However, these were all later events focused on Zi Luo Elder and had little to do with Gu Nan.
What was truly related to Gu Nan was another matter.
As soon as he re-entered the Myriad Heavens, he returned to his Divine Kingdom, yet the moment he was about to descend, a sword and a hossu hit him simultaneously.
The ambushers, who'd been lying in wait for a long time, hit Gu Nan head-on without any warning—of course, he also had no intention of dodging it.
The longsword instantly pierced Gu Nan's neck, while the hossu struck him hard on his forehead, the strong impact causing space to shatter… Only Gu Nan remained unmoved.
The scene seemed to freeze all of a sudden, and Gu Nan's unresponsive appearance caused the hearts of the two ambushers to turn slightly cold.
"Go!" The Sword Arhat quickly pulled back his sword as he swiftly retreated, already realizing that the ambush was a failure, but he saw his companion lag behind.
The Buddhist Daoist was merely one step slower, yet it was already too late for him, all because the hossu in his hand was already grasped by Gu Nan.
The Buddhist Daoist, a Star Ruler who already possessed Tier 7 strength despite his astral world not reaching Realm Level yet, was powerless before Gu Nan.
All of his laws, attainment, and astral world's power became a joke when he delivered himself to Gu Nan in close combat.
The Sword Arhat was already regretting their decision. They thought only Gu Nan's astral world was special and that the person himself wasn't too strong since he'd only just taken control of an astral world.
However, they didn't realize that merely in terms of personal strength, the other party was also far beyond the two's imagination.
In order to ambush the opponent, they purposely chose to fight in close combat, delivering themselves right to Gu Nan's door.
Gu Nan grabbed the hossu with one hand, a cold smile already on his face as he swung a fist straight at the Buddhist Daoist's head. At the same time, he aimed a kick at the enemy's stomach while his other leg bent, his knee heading towards the Sword Arhat.
This set of movements was done in a natural, flowing manner, causing Gu Nan's entire body to twist into an odd posture, yet it was full of mechanical beauty. historical
Gu Nan was at least a virtual reality wrestling master, so his understanding of small-scale fighting really wasn't inferior to these Star Rulers who fought with laws for years on end.
After his initial shock, the Buddhist Daoist didn't hesitate any longer and directly let go of the hossu in his hand, his figure retreating explosively.
However, he clearly couldn't beat Gu Nan in terms of speed, so the Buddhist Daoist could only barely incline his head to avoid Gu Nan's fatal punch, although his stomach was inevitably subjected to that kick.
The Buddhist Daoist felt like his stomach had been hit by a star. He'd never experienced such a hard hit ever since he entered Star Ruler Realm, so this kind of pain was especially unfamiliar to him.
Gu Nan, however, gained momentum and avoided the Sword Arhat by virtue of an earlier knee strike, immediately chasing after the Buddhist Daoist and raining down two more punches.
"Wait!" Seeing that he was unable to stop the other party, the Sword Arhat instantly shouted, "Don't you want to know who sent us here? Someone is secretly scheming you—"
Wham!
Gu Nan's fist struck the head of the Buddhist Daoist, instantly blasting the latter's head to pieces and destroying his soul.
"Not really," Gu Nan shook off the blood on his hand and turned to reply.
...
The ambush near his Divine Kingdom wasn't taken seriously by Gu Nan.
As players leveled up and attracted more and more enemies, this sort of thing had long since become commonplace.
The two's ambush ended with the instantaneous fall of the Buddhist Daoist and the escape of the Sword Arhat; the two didn't die together.
True, the Evil God physique was powerful, but not to the point of omnipotence. Simply put, the goal Gu Nan pursued was invincibility within five meters, and anything outside that range was none of his business.
If the Star Rulers kept enough of a distance from him, it would be very hard for Gu Nan to pursue and kill them. After all, all of these people had many methods of preserving their lives.
Instead, the apostles who were about to welcome Gu Nan's return collectively entered a state of explosive productivity after this incident.
In the days of Gu Nan's absence, both the group of veteran apostles led by Red Tail, who had always been loyal to Gu Nan, and the group of new apostles led by Bai Xi, who had returned from White Bones Realm, all realized Gu Nan's importance.
Normally, it seemed as if the Divine Kingdom could function as usual without Gu Nan, and his absence wouldn't have much of an impact, but the actual situation wasn't so simple.
Without Gu Nan, the Divine Kingdom had no goal. With no one to launch Divine Kingdom Wars and no one to spend the points that piled up, the Divine Kingdom's development was far slower than it had been before.
And when the development of the Divine Kingdom came to a standstill, the apostles naturally couldn't enjoy the benefits of development, be it the pursuit of power or authority.
Thus, with everyone competing to perform their best, a mere two quite obvious among the Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens. They also made no attempt to hide themselves," Red Tail quickly hours later, information about the monk-Daoist pair was placed in front of Gu Nan's table.
"Pretty fast," Gu Nan couldn't help commenting as he glanced at it.
"The Sword Arhat and the Buddhist Daoist's characteristics are quite obvious among the Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens. They also made no attempt to hide themselves," Red Tail quickly explained.
Gu Nan nodded and started reading the information. He was actually quite unsuited for the role of a leader or even a manager—
after all, he was just a gamer.
He only knew how to play games and, in passing, learned how to kill people in the game—that was all.
Thankfully, as long as he had enough power, Gu Nan didn't need to fear anyone's betrayal, and there would even be a group of people who would spontaneously gather around him.
All the abilities in this world were important, and among them, the ability to control people's life and death was the most important of them all.
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Chapter 438: A New Target
There was nothing unexpected about the monk-Daoist duo's information.
Two Star Rulers whose strength had already reached Tier 7, but who'd been slow to raise their astral worlds to Realm Level planes.
As for why they ambushed him, Red Tail and the others weren't able to dig too deeply yet and only knew it was related to Duan Wenqi of Astral Gate.
"I'll have to have a chat with this Old Duan sometime," Gu Nan tossed the information aside and said casually.
Gu Nan's mindset in playing games had always been optimal, never letting NPCs' provocations affect his development plan.
After all, if players were led by the nose by NPCs, wouldn't they fall into the game designer's trap?
Gu Nan, who held such a view long ago, could naturally ignore ambushes of this caliber.
In contrast, his long absence from the Divine Kingdom had resulted in a whole pile of matters waiting for Gu Nan to deal with.
The first was that no Divine Kingdom Wars had been launched, but the two dungeons were still being farmed nonstop, and a whole bunch of points had accumulated, so the raw materials for the next war were already prepared.
As long as a suitable invasion target was identified, the points could immediately be invested into troop production, launching an all-out strike with the most suitable troop types.
Another matter was that he already brought back seven members of the player army, and the next step would be their debut in the Myriad Heavens. It was time to verify the might of the player army.
Xie Yun and Liang Ruxin remained in the World of Gods while Lan Si also stayed over there to wait for them. In any case, Gu Nan wasn't worried about any accidents since Rolensia and Daoist Lingyang were looking after them.
It was already afternoon by the time Gu Nan finished dealing with matters inside the Divine Kingdom, and Red Tail handed over a new report just in time.
It pertained to the selection of the next invasion target for their Divine Kingdom, and the top target made Gu Nan pause slightly.
Star Realm.
Noticing Gu Nan's expression, Red Tail, who was also born in Star Realm, revealed a light smile as she explained, "This is a suggestion from the Cabinet, and most of its members have no connection to Star Realm."
Gu Nan knew Red Tail was worried that he would think she was taking advantage of the opportunity to avenge a personal grudge. After all, there was still an unsettled score between her and her fellow tribemates back in Star Realm.
But this wasn't what Gu Nan cared about. Instead, he asked with interest, "The Cabinet has already been built?"
"Yes, about three years after you left… Well, three years inside the Divine Kingdom."
The Divine Kingdom couldn't be left unmanaged for too long, nor could it be left entirely in the hands of a single person, and that was the reason for the Cabinet's existence.
In fact, the intention to establish a Cabinet had already appeared before Gu Nan left, and even the name was given by Gu Nan, with its main duty being managing the Divine Kingdom's internal affairs.
The Cabinet was headed by Yan Xiaoxiao and Red Tail, with a large number of political talents as well as think tanks to assist in the construction of the Divine Kingdom.
Of course, a significant portion of the military generals under Red Tail's command also held positions in the Cabinet.
After all, Divine Kingdom Wars were the main source of revenue for the Divine Kingdom.
"The Cabinet brainstormed over a dozen planes worth attacking and gave evaluations in aspects such as profit, difficulty, casualty expectations, etc. for each target… Star Realm's overall score far exceeds that of the other astral worlds."
Red Tail also read the report and eventually sent it on to Gu Nan, evidently agreeing with the Cabinet's suggestion.
Gu Nan nodded wordlessly as he continued reading the report from the Cabinet.
Just as Red Tail said, the report analyzed the specific situation of several planes in detail and made a judgment on them.
Among them, Star Realm's situation was indeed very much in line with Gu Nan's impression.
According to the report, Star Realm's Star Ruler had been injured ever since ten thousand years ago and was in a state of slumber for a very long time, resulting in extreme chaos inside the plane where multiple parties tried to set up independent regimes.
Compared to White Bones Realm, Clear Profundity Realm, and other iron-clad astral worlds, the difficulty of attacking Star Realm was simply at the level of a newbie village.
And a little over a decade ago, Zuo Zuo's invasion of Star Realm made matters worse, exacerbating Red's injuries.
With its Star Ruler badly injured and the astral world weakened, Gu Nan could hardly find any drawbacks to attacking Star Realm, except for the somewhat troublesome issue of communication inside the plane's starry sea.
"Then let's attack Star Realm," Gu Nan readily accepted the sound advice and agreed without any semblance of pressure.
"Yes," Red Tail immediately answered.
The Cabinet also attached required troop types at the bottom, which Gu Nan had no comments on. The Divine Kingdom already possessed virtually all of the common troop types, and there were basically no mistakes in the Cabinet's choices.
"Before we leave, pick three apostles from the group who will set out on the expedition who pass the test in terms of strength and loyalty," Gu Nan suddenly added.
Red Tail nodded in response, then inquired, "Do you need them to do anything?"
"No." Gu Nan waved his hand. "It's to equip you guys with some equipment."
...
The day after Gu Nan's return, a brand new structure was erected inside the Divine Kingdom.
It looked extraordinarily majestic and spectacular compared to the other structures, both in terms of appearance and size.
It was a palace that, when fully completed, was almost as large as half of the Evil God Temple; after all, it was a miracle structure that couldn't be built without an external blueprint.
On the first day of the Blacksmith Temple's completion, Shana, currently the number one general under Gu Nan's command, received her first weapon from it.
Shana's talent was truly unrivaled, and her strength progressed extremely quickly, leaving the other vampires in the dust in just a few years.
As for Lan Si, the possessor of a Godhead, she was far away in the World of Gods at this time, so this vampire got the first weapon.
After investing a considerable amount of points, what Shana got from it was a dagger.
"Komofil Dagger." Gu Nan instantly recognized the dagger's origin after just a glance. "High damage and high agility, and the self-inflicted damage buff trait goes well with the vampire race."
When one activates this dagger's unique skill, it can spontaneously inflict damage on the user in exchange for an extremely high increase in attack in the next strike. historical
Shana played with the dagger in her hand for a while, feeling the abundant power contained within. For a moment, she actually loved it too much to let go.
The quality of the equipment produced by the Blacksmith Temple was very high. It wasn't any inferior to players' equipment, and almost all of them were famous divine weapons in the game.
The first batch of divine weapons only went to a select few. Apart from a few apostles such as Shana, only a few people with outstanding military service received them.
And combined with the news that Red Tail was going to pick three apostles next, it would undoubtedly mobilize the apostles in the best way possible.
Gu Nan could ignore this in the past, but now he was in a hurry.
The Divine Kingdom War was the most time-consuming gameplay, and in order to accumulate enough points within ten years, he had to do everything he could to increase his efficiency.
"Then let's set off. Target: Star Realm."
A mere three days later, Gu Nan stood in front of a group of apostles and divine servants in formation and calmly uttered these words.
After many years, Gu Nan finally stepped onto Star Realm's land once again, returning to this large astral world that he first transmigrated to.
It's just that this time, his arrival was full of malice.
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Star Realm.
Red stayed in her palace as usual, gazing sedately at the boundless starry sky.
Compared to back when Gu Nan was still in Star Realm, Red looked much more haggard. Clearly, the battle with Zuo Zuo back then affected her more than expected.
On this day, a figure slowly appeared in the silent and deserted Sky Palace.
Several shadows simultaneously showed themselves as soon as this figure emerged, blocking the newcomer's way. They were none other than the guards of Sky Palace. historical
However, the guards quickly retreated again after they saw the figure's face, evidently already quite familiar with the newcomer.
"Someone has come again?" Red was still sitting on her throne, calmly looking ahead, as Wu Gui slowly walked over.
Ever since that battle back then, these two had become good allies.
The weak Star Realm actually attracted many covetous invaders before, and Red's power couldn't withstand too much depletion, so it was only with Wu Gui's assistance that she was able to repel the incoming enemies every time.
Wu Gui didn't answer her directly, instead remarking, "Your guards are getting much better at hiding themselves."
Wu Gui didn't notice these guards revealing themselves even when she just descended. Red had clearly invested a lot of energy in this area.
Red smiled. "Only after spending many years in silence did I realize that I like this kind of environment."
In the past, Red's palace was very lively. But after Zuo Zuo descended and Qian Han's betrayal turned all of her guards against her, only then did the term silence come into being.
Wu Gui, however, didn't smile as she said with a dark expression, "Whether or not you've recovered from your past battles, we are in trouble this time."
The expression on Red's face didn't change much, appearing indifferent. "Who's coming?"
"Gu Nan," Wu Gui spat out these two words with force, her expression a little strange.
Red fell into a very long silence, and only after a long time did she slowly open her mouth, "So it's him…"
When Red heard this name, what came to mind first was still Gu Nan's fleeing figure as he panickedly escaped after blocking a long-distance blow from her many years back. He was barely considered a Star Ruler back then.
But in a little over a decade—the length of a mere nap for Star Rulers—this person had already slaughtered his way back here, with a very different status this time.
Red didn't ask Wu Gui where she heard the news from, because if it was really Gu Nan, the entire Myriad Heavens would know about it as soon as he made a move.
What was Gu Nan's current status?
A powerful core member of the Heaven-God Alliance, the youngest Star Ruler in history, someone who could fight Graceful Heaven's Fang Chaoyun to a standstill…
In a sense, the pressure Gu Nan brought to the two was even greater than the former Zuo Zuo.
At least Zuo Zuo had obvious weaknesses, and Red had prepared a trap to deal with him long in advance, but what weakness did Gu Nan have?
Those who read his background would discover that ever since Gu Nan's debut, he hadn't really suffered any genuine defeats—to still manage to retreat even when facing an opponent whose strength far surpassed his own was undoubtedly a glorious victory.
And due to the existence of the Heaven-God Alliance, even more people would praise Gu Nan if not for the "ten years time limit."
"Have his people already arrived?" Red's gaze swept across the starry sky, and all she saw was divine servants descending from the sky onto every single region.
"It's the same as the rumors said." Wu Gui sighed. "They fear neither injury nor death, and most of them aren't human."
"Where in the world did he find these fellows…? Forget it, I still have to try."
……
Gu Nan stood in the space above the Central Region, accompanied by none other than Red Tail.
"Aren't you going to meet your fellow clansmen?" Gu Nan looked at Red Tail, who was commanding the divine servants to land and start their slaughter. "Guan Hongchen has gone to pick up her family?"
"Yes." Red Tail nodded. "It's not just her… The apostles from Star Realm are all planning to bring some of their friends and family back to the Divine Kingdom."
Gu Nan didn't have much of an opinion on that. He wasn't that short on points, and having the apostles bring back their relatives would obviously be a better way to motivate them.
Only after she finished issuing orders to all the divine servants did Red Tail let out a deep breath. "I… don't know what to say if I see my tribe again."
She certainly did have a few close friends in the tribe, but in theory, these people were all targets to be slaughtered.
"You're the victor now, so say whatever you want." Gu Nan patted her shoulder. "Go on, remember to leave a group of children alive."
Red Tail was stunned, as if she couldn't believe these words were coming from Gu Nan's mouth—when had this one ever shown consideration for others? And he even specifically asked her to spare the children?
"Your Indigo Mound tribe reproduces at a pretty good rate, so we can come back in a few years," Gu Nan added matter-of-factly.
……
Red Tail ended up going to Indigo Mountain, although Gu Nan didn't really care whether she'd heed his words or not.
The claim of leaving children alive was just something he said offhandedly. Who knew what would happen in a few years' time? Besides, whether or not Star Realm would still exist after today depends on Red's attitude.
Just as Gu Nan was thinking, Red's figure unsurprisingly appeared.
"You two actually became a team?" Gu Nan glanced at Wu Gui, who appeared alongside Red, with some surprise.
The current Wu Gui's strength had improved quite a bit from back then. At the very least, she already acquired her own astral world and was Tier 6 at the lowest.
Of course, it was more likely that her astral world always existed, only she finally succeeded in remodeling it, turning it into a Demonic Buddha Kingdom that belonged solely to her.
Even as the reincarnation of a great power, Wu Gui's advancement speed was still ridiculously fast.
It was only when compared to Gu Nan, an even more outrageous fellow, that she was left far in the dust.
Faced with Gu Nan's surprise, Red didn't respond immediately.
Instead, Wu Gui asked, "What do you want? We can give it to you. Must you attack Star Realm?"
"I want human lives." Gu Nan shrugged indifferently. "If you're willing to provide them, I will gladly accept such cooperation."
Red finally revealed a sneer. "Meaning I work hard to raise cultivators and then give them to you to slaughter?"
"No." Gu Nan waved his hand and earnestly corrected her, "It's that you can raise cultivators all you want, and my people can kill them all they want. I don't mind if they resist."
Red's gaze gradually turned icy as it landed on Gu Nan. "Then try it."
Even if she was already heavily injured and had yet to recover; even if Star Realm was merely inherited; even if she hadn't actually managed this plane in a long time… This was ultimately her astral world.
Not just anyone could come and wreak havoc!
Answering the remaining dignity of a Realm Level Star Ruler, an endless red began to descend, enveloping Gu Nan's entire being, as if his world had turned completely red.
"Try it," two calm words traveled out from the red barrier.
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Red wasn't the type of Star Ruler that specialized in offense.
Her abilities were related to blood and the color red, which were more suited for large-scale battles, and if she was commanding a legion, she would be able to have an unimaginable impact.
It was a pity that she was forced to fight against an individual, and Gu Nan happened to be an expert in this area.
The red color was getting thicker and thicker, almost wrapping Gu Nan in a cocoon, and it was already completely impossible to see his figure anymore.
The next second, a loud sound traveled out from within the crimson cocoon, as if something had smashed against the outer shell, and even space shook with a burst of tremors.
Wu Gui actually felt some relief when she saw Gu Nan getting trapped so easily, but at that moment, she glanced at Red in shock.
"Go help," Red spoke laboriously as beads of sweat started to fall from her forehead.
"Help whom?" Wu Gui asked quickly. She believed that with this scene at hand, Red wasn't trying to ask her to help fight against Gu Nan.
Bang! Bang! Bang…
The loud bangs from inside the cocoon grew louder, and the two could already imagine the scene of Gu Nan's fists smashing heavily against the walls.
"Ying Ge," Red seemed to have used up all her strength to utter those two words.
……
Bang!
Accompanied by some kind of sound similar to glass breaking, the crimson cocoon finally shattered, and an unharmed Gu Nan slowly stepped out from it.
"Your power declined way too much." Gu Nan calmly looked at Red.
He wasn't injured, just stained with some red color. This meant Red's control over her power was no longer able to achieve even the most basic materialization of her laws into physical form.
In a little over a decade, Gu Nan had broken through two consecutive levels and his power had skyrocketed, whereas Red had regressed instead of advancing and couldn't even compare to her former self from ten years ago.
More importantly, since Star Realm was an outer space-type plane with great distance between planets, the Star Ruler's control was far weaker than that of an ordinary astral world.
The power that Red could borrow from Star Realm was even weaker than that of some Tier 6 Star Rulers, and she was fighting more with her own strength.
"You told Wu Gui to save Ying Ge?" Gu Nan revealed a smile. "Looks like your relationship isn't that simple."
To think that Ying Ge and Zi Dian were still staying in Star Realm. Moreover, with their levels, they couldn't pose a threat to Gu Nan at all.
……
Indigo Mountain.
Groups of Dark Knights descended from the sky and started charging while in midair, aiming straight for the peak of Indigo Mountain.
The skeletal warhorses the knights rode galloped wantonly in the air while making loud rumbles that shook the ground.
The leader of the Dark Knights was also a knight, except he was covered in crimson armor, making him particularly conspicuous in the crowd.
Ren Dongzhan, one of the nine members of the player army. The route he chose was the Blood Knight Commander.
The Blood Knight Commander was a so-so route that didn't have many amazing powers, but every ability was very practical.
First, it had the abilities shared by all Knight Commander classes that augmented the user's commands and strengthened the cavalry, and then it also had the special laws related to blood.
Blood Resurrection, Blood Strengthening, Blood Tracking, and so on—it was quite like a combination of vampires and undead.
This time, he led the Dark Knight Cavalry, and his target was none other than the gathering place of special cultivators, such as Indigo Mountain.
"Who goes there?!"
As the first Dark Knight landed, a clear and delicate voice rang out. There were already quite a few fox ladies standing below.
All the apostles descended as soon as the invasion started, so these natives obviously didn't realize what was happening.
Ren Dongzhan coldly surveyed the fox ladies below. The delicate faces of the Indigo Mound Tribe didn't move his expression at all under his helmet.
And without any new commands from him, the Dark Knights naturally only carried out their original order.
Charge! Continue charging!
The skeletal warhorses galloped on the void, and each step caused the knights' speed to increase, their charge to pick up momentum, and the converging laws to solidify even further.
That's right. These Dark Knights, who generally only had Tier 3 strength, were already able to materialize laws because of their characteristics as divine servants.
"Stop now! To dare trespass into my Indigo Mountain, you—"
Before a fox lady could finish her shout, the lance from Ren Dongzhan had already arrived, instantly impaling her skull.
Following closely behind him were the Dark Knights in an extremely fast charge. They had no intention of slowing down at all, stabbing the enemies in front of them before stepping over their corpses.
The knights directly landed on the peak of Indigo Mountain, then headed towards the middle of the mountain, where the fox clan lived.
The six Indigo Mound elders had already shown themselves. All of them were astonished at these enemies that appeared out of nowhere.
However, right at this moment, a layer of mist began to gradually emerge, blocking the path of the Dark Knights' advance.
As soon as the knights entered the mist, their charge slowed down at a speed visible to the naked eye.
No, it wasn't that their charge was slowed down, but rather, it was as if an extremely long distance had been added between them and Indigo Mountain.
"Our utmost gratitude to you, Lord Di Wen. We'd be in trouble this time if you weren't here," an Indigo Mound elder gave a full bow, expressing her gratitude towards a youth beside her.
"It's a trivial matter." Di Wen waved his hand and laughed. "With me and Xian'er's relationship, how can I sit back and watch the Indigo Mound tribe suffer?"
By his side stood a beautiful-looking young girl, and a blush surfaced on her face when she heard this.
"I don't know where these vicious invaders came from… But since they dared to act so unbridled in the Central Region, Starry Ocean Pavilion will teach them a lesson," another Indigo Mound elder also spoke confidently. historical
The words "Starry Ocean Pavilion" still held a lot of weight in Star Realm, calming the hearts of the crowd.
Di Wen even laughed. "Although these fellows look powerful, they're only at Prodigious Realm. I'm afraid it won't take more than a few minutes for them to run out of strength."
A few minutes passed.
Ren Dongzhan was still leading the charge at the forefront of the cavalry instead of relying on his own strength to move forward quickly, while Di Wen's expression turned a little stiff.
A few more minutes passed. The army had already charged through over half of the mist, yet the cavalry didn't have the slightest intention of slowing down. Di Wen began to exert his full strength.
The mist space was once again stretched, but the cavalry accelerated even faster!
"They're coming!" Di Wen couldn't manage to stall them any longer and could only reluctantly shout, signaling for the people around him to take shelter.
But what he didn't expect was that the instant his voice fell, a blood-red figure had already taken the lead and arrived in front of him in the blink of an eye!
Blood Knight Commander, Ren Dongzhan!
The blood-red lance in Ren Dongzhan's hand gently reached forward, but it was like a violent ram from some ferocious beast, and Di Wen, who had been hit in the chest, instantly exploded into a cloud of bloody mist.
Immediately following Ren Dongzhan and charging out of the mist was one black hurricane after another. Di Wen's mist was like a perfect acceleration belt, accelerating the Dark Knights' speed to the extreme.
The Indigo Mound elders who showed up didn't even have time to grunt in pain before all of them perished in the blink of an eye.
Ren Dongzhan glanced down at the corpses on the ground and led along his warhorse. "Continue charging. By His Excellency's order, leave none alive."
On this day, blood flowed like rivers on Indigo Mountain, while similar scenes played out all over Star Realm.
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Crash!
After another crisp fracturing sound, a layer of red shattered in front of Gu Nan, revealing Red's pale face behind it.
Just as Gu Nan initially guessed, Red's peak power was probably around Tier 8 and had declined after being injured in her early years, falling between Tiers 7 and 8.
But after finally recovering a little through many years of recuperation, she had to fight off Zuo Zuo's invasion, which was like a leaky house suffering a night of nonstop rain.
And now, her realm was similar to Gu Nan's, although her power was far from enough to compete with the Evil God physique.
Star Realm's current weak state prevented Red from borrowing too much power to kill Gu Nan in one go, which meant she could only be worn down by him bit by bit.
Gu Nan stepped out fiercely, landing a punch on Red's left shoulder. The latter reacted extremely quickly, and a flash of red covered her shoulder, somewhat blocking the punch.
However, the terrifying force was still transmitted over, causing Red's body to tremble slightly as the bones in her shoulder fractured and broke.
In the next second, her figure instantly disappeared, leaving only a red shadow in its place.
"Can you escape?" Gu Nan laughed silently and soon vanished right after her.
……
On Indigo Mountain, the Dark Knight Cavalry under the leadership of Ren Dongzhan charged again and again, and the entire scene was filled with only the sounds of hoofbeats, screams, and cursing, but not a single sound could be heard from these knights.
They were like a group of ghosts whose sole reason for existence was to kill.
"What in the world are these things?" Ying Ge looked down with a heavy frown from the top of Indigo Mountain. The existence of the Dark Knights struck her as strange.
"They seem to be some sort of ghost or undead, like the thousand-year zombies that awaken in mass graves," Zi Dian held the hilt of his sword with one hand and answered in an uncertain tone.
The two of them only came to Indigo Mountain because of a coincidence, not realizing that they had stumbled right into the middle of the Dark Knight Cavalry's invasion.
"Let me try." Ying Ge drew a blood-red scimitar from her waist.
Ultimately, these two were not as shameless as Gu Nan and couldn't bring themselves to abandon a mountain full of Indigo Mound clansmen.
Despite the earlier gruesome deaths of the Indigo Mound elders, the two were not deterred. They could be considered highly skilled, and instead of feeling intimidated, they analyzed the enemy's weaknesses from that encounter.
"That idiot Di Wen, he actually used a spatial distancing technique on ghosts, allowing them to accelerate to their limits," Ying Ge sneered.
Zi Dian also nodded. "Those black-armored knights are only at Prodigious Realm. Let's cut in from their flank."
"Okay."
The instant she responded, the two figures disappeared simultaneously. Years of cooperation had given them a tacit understanding, and they appeared beside the Dark Knight Cavalry's left flank at the same time, each selecting a knight as their target.
Ying Ge's scimitar and Zi Dian's longsword hit their targets simultaneously, and one of the two knights had half of his body sliced off, while the other was impaled through the throat.
"They're indeed only at Prodigious Realm…" A trace of astonishment surfaced on Ying Ge's face. She still felt that these monsters weren't that simple. historical
"Watch out!"
Ying Ge shifted her body to the side without hesitation as soon as she heard Zi Dian's warning. Only then did she see the blood-red knight in the lead stabbing her original position with a spear.
'This is a Void Cutter…'
Before Ying Ge finished such a thought, she suddenly felt something clamp around her from behind, as if she was being tightly bound by steel, while Ren Dongzhan's lance aimed straight for her face.
She couldn't help turning around in surprise and saw that the Dark Knight whose body she cut in half was actually using his only remaining arm to hug her in a deadly embrace!
Clang!
Ren Dongzhan's lance was precisely deflected by Zi Dian before it could even hit Ying Ge. Zi Dian then chopped off the Dark Knight's arm with his sword and grabbed Ying Ge's arm as they flew back, retreating sharply.
Ren Dongzhan glanced at the two coldly but didn't order the knights to give chase. Having the Dark Knight Cavalry chase after two Tier 4 powerhouses was fine in terms of speed, but they were bound to change directions repeatedly, making it extremely difficult to catch up.
He was a well-known battlefield general before he became Gu Nan's apostle, so of course he wouldn't make such a mistake.
As for the two who escaped, it wasn't until they retreated all the way back to the top of the mountain before Ying Ge spoke with lingering fear, "Not even a General Rank zombie can move freely after its head is gone…"
"I'm afraid that those aren't living beings at all." Zi Dian's expression was slightly dark. He also didn't expect Ying Ge to be almost injured as soon as they exchanged blows.
He thought for a moment and said, "Let's go back to meet… that one first and see what exactly happened?"
With these two's low levels, major events in the Myriad Heavens were a little too far removed from them, so they normally didn't pay much attention to the news. Naturally, they didn't know what just happened this time.
Ying Ge gritted her teeth, thought carefully for a while, and ultimately said in a low voice, "Let's try one more time."
……
"Ren Dongzhan."
A voice came from the back, causing the Blood Knight Commander to frown slightly and turn around.
Red Tail slowly walked over, holding the hand of a little girl from the Indigo Mound tribe. This little girl had messy hair and a dirty face. She hastily shrunk back as soon as she saw the Dark Knight Cavalry.
Red Tail gently patted her head, signaling that she didn't need to be afraid, before leisurely opening her mouth.
"My Lord ordered us to leave the young children of the Indigo Mound tribe alive."
Ren Dongzhan's gaze turned a little serious, and he said in a deep voice, "The order I received was… slaughter everything."
While speaking, he also glanced down slightly at the little girl, his icy gaze causing the latter's body to tremble slightly, almost crying out.
"The order has changed!" Red Tail suddenly raised her voice. She was the chief commander of this operation; even Ren Dongzhan's team was dispatched under her orders.
However, Ren Dongzhan only revealed a cold smile, not even sparing Red Tail another glance as he leapt onto his horse.
"Charge!"
As his command fell, the Dark Knight Cavalry once again charged upwards. They had already slaughtered their way through the entire Indigo Mountain and were now about to return to the mountaintop.
Even until the Dark Knights' figures disappeared, Ren Dongzhan didn't even look back for a second.
Red Tail crushed a talisman with a dark expression as she issued an order to a few other apostles, who were none other than the subordinates she originally recruited from White Mist.
"Immediately bring people over to Indigo Mountain!"
Just as Red Tail issued her order, a red light suddenly lit up at the top of Indigo Mountain. Ying Ge's scimitar had reappeared, this time pointing straight at Ren Dongzhan.
Ying Ge and Zi Dian had realized that gradually wearing down the enemy troops wasn't very realistic, so it was better to capture the leader first!
The same time the scimitar appeared, a purple sword energy also surrounded Ren Dongzhan's body, actually separating him from the surrounding Dark Knights.
The two of them had a clear division of labor, and they were also certain that Ren Dongzhan's strength was inferior to Ying Ge's, so even a single exchange would be enough to seriously injure him!
What they didn't expect, however, was this Blood Knight Commander's response.
"Charge! Charge!"
A sharp command rang out in the military formation, and the entire Dark Knight Cavalry once again picked up speed—Ren Dongzhan actually had no intention of retreating at all and instead chose to continue charging!
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The military formation crashed into Ying Ge and Zi Dian with unparalleled might.
The crimson scimitar and the longsword named "Purple Lightning" easily struck Ren Dongzhan, but the latter's face was as hard as iron, and his expression didn't even change.
Strengthened by the Blood Knight Commander, the charging Dark Knights displayed an unimaginably powerful force of impact.
Over a dozen consecutive collisions knocked Zi Dian back to the point of coughing up blood, and he could only hurriedly disengage from the battle formation and look down with shock.
One should know that his sword energy wasn't just a normal sword technique. Rather, it contained a powerful law that belonged exclusively to Void Cutters, yet it was actually shattered by the charge of a group of Prodigious Realm soldiers.
On the other side, as Ying Ge pulled her scimitar out of Ren Dongzhan, the charging battle formation also reached her.
In the end, she was still a top-notch Void Cutter, and at this most critical juncture, her body actually loosened up as her entire body turned into blood, scattering onto the ground.
This was her very final life-saving trump card. She would be able to revive herself as long as even a drop of blood remained.
But it was rather unfortunate that the enemy Ying Ge ran into this time held the class of Blood Knight Commander.
As soon as he saw his opponent turn into blood, Ren Dongzhan gave a sharp tug on his horse's reins, whereupon the Dark Knights behind him stopped on the spot without taking a half step more.
The image looked incomparably bizarre, with all the knights stopping in an instant, as if inertia didn't exist at all.
Ren Dongzhan planted his lance on the ground, and a bright light emitted from the crimson armor in front of his chest, to the extent that the strange patterns painted on it gradually lit up.
Attracted by the crimson light from the armor, all the blood in the surroundings began to spontaneously rise up and head in Ren Dongzhan's direction.
Even Red Tail, who was in the back, felt a suction force, as if all the blood in her body was about to be pulled out, let alone Ying Ge, who bore the brunt of the attack.
"No!" Zi Dian seemed to realize something and screamed furiously, his entire body rushing towards Ren Dongzhan like he'd gone mad.
Ren Dongzhan's face was expressionless, yet he seemed to suddenly sense something and glanced up at the sky in confusion.
All the way at the end of the horizon, a palm print laced with gold and purple seemed to be descending.
……
Deep in the starry sky in Red's palace, one guard after another appeared from the void, fiercely stabbing at Gu Nan, only to disappear an instant later.
"Quite the interesting guards, but they can only delay your defeat." One of these unpredictable attacks stabbed Gu Nan in the stomach, but his expression didn't even change.
Red's true power lay in the fact that she could buff her subordinates—that was the greatest use of her astral world's power.
That was why she had a thousand guards in her palace back then, only to be betrayed by Qian Han and her guards slaughtered thanks to his schemes.
Now, however, she changed her mindset and made all the guards hidden servants. Under the red curtain's enhancement, their offensive and defensive abilities increased dramatically, becoming the most terrifying assassins.
It had to be said that even against Zuo Zuo, her current method was far more effective than her former method, but it was a pity that she was now dealing with Gu Nan.
Thud!
Another knife stabbed into the right side of Gu Nan's stomach, and this time, Gu Nan finally grabbed the opportunity and suddenly stretched out his right hand and punched the space directly in front of him.
A cloud of bloody mist exploded violently in front of him as half of a corpse fell out of the void; it was the guard who had most of his body blasted apart.
At the same time, the wound on Gu Nan's body healed rapidly, completely recovering in the blink of an eye.
Normal Star Ruler invasions prioritized finishing the battle in the shortest time possible, as they couldn't possibly fight a war of attrition on the enemy's own turf, which was equivalent to courting death.
But Gu Nan was only using his physical body to fight, which allowed him to choose the strategy to stall the opponent while his divine servants went on the offensive and invaded territories—which was his goal to begin with.
But this time, Red was very calm. "I prepared three thousand guards for you, so you can take your time playing with them… I hope those subordinates of yours can survive against Wu Gui."
What Gu Nan didn't expect was for Red's intentions to be the same as his. As long as Gu Nan, the strongest combatant, was stalled, Wu Gui could completely wipe out his underlings.
Gu Nan's movements suddenly stopped for a second, which caused him to be stabbed two more times, but he didn't care.
"Thanks for the reminder." He nodded at the deepest part of the palace, then tanked the assassination attempts of countless guards as he forcibly opened a spatial passage and slowly walked in.
……
Wu Gui's palm strike landed on Indigo Mountain, instantly slapping Ren Dongzhang into the ground and interrupting the blood extraction.
The droplets of blood belonging to Ying Ge took advantage of that opportunity to escape and manifested her form next to Wu Gui, gasping for air with an expression full of fright. historical
She never imagined that the other party would be so decisive. If she was given a chance to do it over again, she would never choose to attack Ren Dongzhan again.
"Are you alright?" Wu Gui's gaze lingered on Ying Ge for a moment and asked blandly.
Ying Ge shook her head slightly as she sheathed her scimitar. "I'm fine… Hmm? He's still alive."
Ren Dongzhan was still crushed flat on the ground, but a few drops of blood were converging towards the center.
The next moment, the blood swelled up violently, transforming into a new Ren Dongzhan who swiftly mounted his horse.
"Wait!" A voice interjected. Red Tail had rushed over.
She cast Ren Dongzhan a glance, signaling for him to back off for the time being. Red Tail was a person who came from Star Realm and was fully aware of what kind of identity the one before her held. Wu Gui was by no means someone the Dark Knight Cavalry could oppose.
"Buddhist Ancestor Wu Gui." She then looked at Wu Gui and said, "This time, His Excellency is pouring all his efforts into attacking Star Realm. The destruction of this realm is imminent, so why must you involve yourself in this mess?"
But what kind of personality did Wu Gui have? When had she ever cared about a mere mortal's words? She immediately sneered, "It's not your place to lecture me."
Red Tail gritted her teeth and was about to say something else, but a loud sound came from behind her.
"Charge!"
"Have you gone mad?!" Red Tail couldn't help turning around and cursing, but what entered her sight was the image of the Dark Knight Cavalry without a single person retreating.
She turned back again and saw Ren Dongzhan's figure charging forward without hesitation even though he couldn't withstand even a single blow from Wu Gui.
The sneer on Wu Gui's face became more pronounced, and she casually sent out a palm strike. The Buddhist and demonic intent intertwined, all of a sudden swelling up into a huge handprint that destroyed most of the Dark Knights.
But even so, Ren Dongzhan still revived again and led the remaining Dark Knights, charging at Wu Gui and picking up speed.
But anyone could tell that Ren Dongzhan's power had started to wane; it was clear that his resurrection wasn't without cost.
"Why…?" Red Tail was speechless for a while, completely unable to understand this senseless act of throwing his life away.
"Good job."
Just then, however, she heard an appreciative voice near her ears. She hurriedly turned to see Gu Nan already standing beside her.
"Learn from him." Gu Nan pointed at Ren Dongzhan in front of her and said to Red Tail, "Divine servants are meant to be sacrificed. Sooner or later, you'll have to kill a Star Ruler by throwing waves of expendable troops at them. You're too softhearted."
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The current Gu Nan could shrug off the points needed to create the Dark Knights.
Divine Kingdom Wars were a type of large-investment, large-gain playstyle, and the most difficult part was undoubtedly the initial accumulation of points.
By the time a player successfully formed an army and managed to conquer a plane, the points earned would often be more than what they invested.
The hardest part of the First Round wasn't players not knowing how to make money; rather, it was players not knowing how to spend money. Newbies tended to make the mistake of conserving their points, which actually lowered their efficiency.
That was why Gu Nan was quite appreciative of Ren Dongzhan's approach.
Even if he was just throwing his life away, it could nevertheless serve as an example to others—anyhow, resurrecting mortals was no longer a difficult task after obtaining Macefield's crystal ball.
As subordinates, they need only carry out orders meticulously. Weighing the gains and losses wasn't something they should do, especially when Gu Nan himself didn't care about the losses.
Regardless of Gu Nan's war policy, his arrival was a turning point for the battlefield.
Wu Gui was the first to sense that something was wrong, and she didn't have any intention of fighting Gu Nan. She casually slapped Ren Dongzhan down, while her other hand had already swept Ying Ge and Zi Dian into her kasaya with a light wave.
However, she felt a blur in front of her eyes just as she was about to retreat; Gu Nan was already standing in front of her at some point.
Wu Gui launched a palm strike without hesitation, and boundless Buddhist chants instantly enveloped their surroundings, making Gu Nan feel as if he was in the Kingdom of Three Thousand Buddhas.
It was the same Buddhist kingdom as the one she created in the past, but Wu Gui had to make sufficient preparations to call it out back then, while she could casually create it now, so she clearly made tremendous progress.
Unfortunately, Gu Nan's changes were even greater, and with his current realm, he was able to tank Wu Gui's attack without any pressure.
Gu Nan's fist smashed into Wu Gui's palm, whereupon all the Buddhist chants disappeared in this instant and all the Buddhas crumbled and disintegrated, while Wu Gui's entire body flew backwards.
"Mm, you guys continue." Gu Nan glanced down at them. Then his figure instantly disappeared, actually returning to the depths of the starry sea.
……
In the blink of an eye, Gu Nan had traveled back and forth between the Sky Palace and Indigo Mountain, and after severely injuring Wu Gui, he once again stood in front of Red.
Based on his estimate, after Wu Gui received a direct punch from himself, even if she didn't die on the spot, she wouldn't have much fighting power left.
Even if she could still attack, he could simply give her a second punch.
Red's face, however, was pale. Her ghostly guards continued to gather one after another, surrounding Gu Nan on all sides. Having already learned her lesson, she didn't want to make the mistake a second time.
Red's initial plan was to lure Gu Nan here and utilize her home-field advantage and her own power to the extreme as a means of stalling her opponent.
Apart from that, her other words and actions were nothing more than psychological warfare.
It's just that she hadn't expected Gu Nan to be so tough to the point that he could withstand all the attacks from the Crimson Guards and still leave her palace.
But in Gu Nan's view, there was nothing remarkable about it. It was nothing more than a tactical contest between the two sides. historical
Red wanted to utilize her own advantages by using an army to slow him down, so of course he could do the reverse, utilizing the army's shortcomings of being too bulky and far less agile than himself to counterattack.
At this point in time, Red no longer had many trump cards left.
She wasn't a Star Ruler who had a wide network of friends to begin with. She couldn't even manage her own astral world all these years because all her time was spent trying to recuperate from her injuries.
If the script went on like this, Red would have to helplessly watch her astral world be invaded and completely destroyed by Gu Nan's army of divine servants.
And the divine servants did indeed do so. Under the leadership of their respective apostles, they simultaneously launched attacks on all nine major regions, and the flames of war instantly engulfed Star Realm.
Gu Nan could also use this to gain a large amount of points. Based on earlier estimates, he would likely be able to save enough points to advance to Tier 8 this time.
After all, although Star Realm was internally weak, largely due to the characteristic of an outer space-type astral world making it impossible to centralize high-end power, the total value of points wasn't low.
But reality was never as rosy as the script.
Just as Gu Nan was leisurely dealing with the Crimson Guards' attacks in the Sky Palace, he and Red's expressions changed simultaneously.
"So there were more helpers?" Gu Nan glanced at Red with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
In his senses, a Star Ruler was descending from the Myriad Heavens, going directly to a region in Star Realm and sniping Gu Nan's army of divine servants.
However, this Star Ruler wasn't very strong and appeared to have barely reached Tier 6. He most likely hadn't even chosen an astral world yet.
But instead of a look of understanding, Red's expression seemed equally puzzled. However, such an emotion only flickered for a second before disappearing. She was fully aware that the most important thing right now was to prevent Gu Nan from seeing through her bluff.
Gu Nan didn't think much of it as his figure vanished once again. This time, the Crimson Guards couldn't even delay his departure at all; it was clear that he'd already familiarized himself with their attack patterns.
Gu Nan's figure instantly appeared in front of that Star Ruler and swung a punch down without another word. The terrifying force behind that punch caused the Star Ruler to instantly change color.
But at that instant, an inexplicable sense of danger rose up in Gu Nan's heart, as if there was a thorn in his back, causing him to subconsciously pull back his punch.
The warning from the Evil God physique was indeed accurate. At the same time Gu Nan withdrew, a solemn and rigid "kill" character appeared out of thin air in his original position.
An old man with white hair and beard slowly appeared. There was no expression on his face, but his gaze was firmly fixed on Gu Nan.
"Fang Chaoyun?" Gu Nan couldn't help raising an eyebrow when he saw the new arrival.
This person was none other than Graceful Heaven's Fang Chaoyun, who'd previously been injured at Gu Nan's hands. He was Song Fei's disciple as well as a powerful Tier 10 Star Ruler, and was considered a bigshot even in the Myriad Heavens.
Gu Nan laughed involuntarily, not expecting someone with this person's status to actually pay a special visit just to look for his trouble.
But Fang Chaoyun's next words made Gu Nan realize that the other party not only came to find trouble for Gu Nan, but that he intended to keep finding trouble for him.
"Gu Nan." Fang Chaoyun slowly stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Star Realm's Star Ruler has no grudges against you, so why are you invading this plane?"
"None of your business," Gu Nan shot back rudely.
Fang Chaoyun, however, sneered. "If the chaos of war rages on endlessly, then it will devastate all living beings. This humble one lives life holding the Confucian teachings in the highest regard and accepts the responsibility of protecting the safety and security of all common people, so how can I sit back and watch you run amok?"
This erudite speech gave Gu Nan a slight headache, but he got the meaning.
To put it simply, it was just one sentence: "If you, Gu Nan, want to invade other astral worlds in the future, you'll have to ask me, Old Fang, first."
After all, Old Fang was a Tier 10 Star Ruler. The only reason he suffered injuries at Gu Nan's hands previously was because he courted death by running inside Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom. But if they fought outside, he really didn't fear Gu Nan.
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Gu Nan was also facing a dilemma.
Sooner or later, invasions of other planes would give rise to a collective resistance towards the end; this was inevitable. It was impossible for the Star Rulers to not understand the principle of "if the rabbit dies, the fox will also grieve," as any of them could become the target of the next invasion.
But someone like Fang Chaoyun, who made it clear that he wanted to oppose Gu Nan under the excuse of righteousness, was still a bit troublesome.
This old man had strength, connections, and a strong backing, so he really was pretty much invulnerable. It was almost impossible to find any weaknesses of his.
However, it wasn't just once or twice that Gu Nan encountered high-difficulty missions, so of course he wouldn't just give up like this. He already swung a fist at Fang Chaoyun without another word.
A familiar "suppress" character appeared, easily blocking Gu Nan.
"Weaker than last time, but not much weaker…" Gu Nan wasn't in a hurry to follow up with another attack after his first blow was ineffective, instead analyzing the enemy's situation.
Normally, it would take Fang Chaoyun at least a hundred years to recover from the injuries he sustained last time, but now it looked like even though he was still injured, it was no longer as serious.
This was undoubtedly Song Fei's doing.
Even more unexpectedly, nearly ten Star Rulers appeared simultaneously in the blink of an eye, entering Star Realm from various places and targeting the divine servants who were in the midst of slaughter.
Gu Nan frowned slightly, giving up the plan of killing the enemies by sacrificing a large number of divine servants, and decisively sent an order to his Divine Kingdom.
"Full retreat. Save as many divine servants as possible."
His voice rang out simultaneously in the hearts of all apostles, so the army of divine servants that entered Star Realm instantly changed formation, fleeing inside Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom in unison.
Of course, losses were inevitable with the intervention of Star Rulers. A Star Ruler was still too powerful for most of the divine servants under Tier 4.
Divine servants obeyed orders unconditionally, and there was no such thing as distance when traveling through the void, so the retreat was extremely fast.
Fang Chaoyun's senses were similarly scanning the whole Star Realm. He made no move to stop Gu Nan's troops from withdrawing en masse, instead making a lot of posturing before speaking.
"It's not too late to recognize your mistakes and reform yourself." Fang Chaoyun stroked his beard and laughed. "I hope that you'll be able to restrain yourself after this, or else I don't mind taking further disciplinary action."
After announcing that, he actually turned and returned to his own astral world without waiting for Gu Nan's response.
This was probably the cultured person's version of a threat. And at the same time Fang Chaoyun disappeared, those individual Star Rulers also cleanly vanished in the blink of an eye, as if afraid Gu Nan would catch them.
"How interesting." Gu Nan revealed an odd smile.
……
"That wasn't a wise decision," Lu Wen said bluntly while sitting across from Duan Wenqi inside Clockwork Heaven.
But Duan Wenqi wasn't angry. He knew that he often couldn't see things as clearly as his old friend did, so he didn't mind listening to Lu Wen's opinion.
Lu Wen didn't even give Duan Wenqi a chance to open his mouth and continued straightforwardly, "It's fine to incite those two idiots to find trouble for Gu Nan—that's just a trivial matter. But cooperating with Fang Chaoyun…" historical
Towards the end, Lu Wen couldn't help letting out a deep sigh. "Everyone else is trying to avoid getting dragged into the fight between Zi Luo and Song Fei at all costs, so why did you voluntarily stick your nose into that mess?"
That's right. The fact that Fang Chaoyun would personally oppose Gu Nan and even enlist the help of over ten Star Rulers was largely due to Duan Wenqi.
He was the first to bring up Gu Nan's wanton behavior and gain Fang Chaoyun's approval, and he was also the one who personally went out and contacted the Star Rulers connected to Academic Heaven to join forces against Gu Nan in Fang Chaoyun's name.
It could be said that after this incident, Duan Wenqi had completely taken Song Fei's side.
Duan Wenqi's status and strength weren't low, so the fact that he was in such a hurry to pick a side was what Lu Wen found incomprehensible.
Faced with Lu Wen's question, Duan Wenqi just smiled. "As long as you choose the right side, you can gain more benefits than if you don't help either side, isn't that right?"
Lu Wen frowned slightly, but in the end, he didn't try to persuade him any further and could only let out a helpless sigh.
……
Inside the Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan was already sitting in the Evil God Temple, waiting for the results of this tally.
"How are the losses?"
"We lost over 80% of divine servants, and 10 apostles died in battle, all of whom ended up dying at the hands of Star Rulers." Red Tail's expression was grave, even a little gloomy.
She couldn't see the existence of points, but she was well aware of how much time Gu Nan had spent preparing for the sake of this batch of divine servants, and she hadn't expected to lose over half of them in the blink of an eye.
Simultaneous attacks from over ten Star Rulers was a little too strong. Every single one of them seemed to be here to kill and maim the army. They struck mercilessly without any regard to protecting Star Realm.
The apostle side was still alright. Although the losses weren't small either, at least no important figures were killed in action.
And after this setback, Red Tail, who originally planned to teach Ren Dongzhan a lesson, was no longer in the mood.
Gu Nan merely nodded lightly, not as worried as Red Tail. The first batch of divine servants took a long time to manufacture largely due to having to construct and upgrade structures. It didn't actually take many points to manufacture divine servants.
On the other hand, although this invasion wasn't perfect, the harvest was still good.
They only conquered roughly 70% of Star Realm, but the points gained were quite substantial. It wasn't far from reaching the point requirement for Tier 8, and it was entirely possible to make up the remaining points by farming dungeons. At most, it would take a few months in real time.
But on the flip side, if he could take down Star Realm in one fell swoop, Gu Nan's points could completely explode in an instant, so Fang Chaoyun and his group still caused significant losses.
"Teacher, a secret message from the Heaven-God Alliance." At this moment, Yan Xiaoxiao's figure appeared.
Gu Nan accepted the secret message with a nod, unsurprised. Fang Chaoyun was targeting him, and if one was to claim that Song Fei and Zi Luo Elder's feud didn't play a role in this, not even Gu Nan himself would believe that.
Of course the Heaven-God Alliance would respond in this situation.
Unsurprisingly, the secret message explained the cause of this matter in detail, naturally focusing on the person who convinced over ten Star Rulers to strike at the same time.
The letter didn't contain any suggestions on how to respond to this matter, but instead, it invited him to visit Clear Profundity Realm to catch up.
The inscription was the new ruler of Clear Profundity Realm, Daoist Zhuangxuan.
"Duan Wenqi," Gu Nan softly recited the name.
From his memory, the conflict between him and this Astral Gate elder wasn't really that big. He didn't expect for this side quest that he hadn't freed up time to resolve to lead to a much larger side quest.
In any case, the Tier 10 Fang Chaoyun was not someone he could deal with for the time being. Gu Nan's plan had changed to waiting for enough points to accumulate, traveling to the World of Gods to harvest Evil Value, and advancing to Tier 8 before doing anything about this.
He had to lay low when it was necessary to lay low. Brainless brute force was not wise. At least he would no longer fear Fang Chaoyun in direct combat after reaching Tier 8, so it wasn't as if he didn't have a way to deal with this group of people by then.
He also needed to make a trip to Clear Profundity Realm to see the Heaven-God Alliance's internal stance on this matter, since its essence was still a fight between Zi Luo Elder and Song Fei.
But before that…
"Duan Wenqi," Gu Nan repeated the name once more, a cold smile on his face as a transparent crystal orb appeared in his hand, "you think Lu Wen can protect you?"
Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb.
Duan Wenqi left Clockwork Heaven and subconsciously headed towards Zi Luo Heaven, but he immediately stopped in his tracks.
Only after letting out a small sigh did he turn around and head to another astral world, which was his own—Savage Beasts World.
Speaking of which, Duan Wenqi hadn't been here for a long time. This was truly an inconceivable thing for a Star Ruler.
The astral world was a Star Ruler's foundation and the cornerstone of their power. Even if one felt that their astral world was terrible in every aspect, they could simply switch to a different astral world. There really was no need to make life difficult for themselves.
Back when Gu Nan first met him, he sensed that Duan Wenqi's power was almost on par with Red's.
In terms of just his own cultivation, Duan Wenqi wasn't any weaker than Red, but his astral world was still a World Level plane. No matter how weak Star Realm was, it was a genuine Realm Level plane, so the two weren't on the same level at all.
Savage Beasts World's slow development also had a lot to do with the fact that Duan Wenqi invested much of his time into Astral Gate.
Savage Beasts World was a typical uncivilized plane where civilization stopped at a very backward level, similar to the ancient eras in many planes' legends.
And the origin of the name Savage Beasts World was precisely due to the fact that this place was filled with a large number of beast races.
Great beasts of all shapes and sizes wantonly roamed this vast wilderness, engaging in the most primitive forms of predation and survival.
Only when he returned to his own astral world did Duan Wenqi truly lower his guard, slapping a palm down as if he was venting and slicing off half of a mountain in front of him. The irritation in his heart was evident.
"That damned Zi Luo…"
Duan Wenqi's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulged out on his forehead, and he was breathing heavily, unable to calm down for a long time.
Star Rulers rarely lost their tempers to this extent.
Lu Wen had trouble understanding Duan Wenqi's deliberate targeting of Gu Nan—this was natural, because Duan Wenqi wasn't trying to target Gu Nan at all; he was trying to target Zi Luo Elder.
From the very beginning, Duan Wenqi had to be on Song Fei's side, so did he still need a reason to target Gu Nan?
He, Duan Wenqi, had toiled away for tens of thousands of years to manage Astral Gate, so much so that he didn't even have time to manage his own astral world. Now that Astral Gate became a dowry for someone else overnight, how could he not be annoyed?historical
The first thing Zi Luo Elder did after returning to the Myriad Heavens was to station the Heaven-God Alliance in Zi Luo Heaven, while the second was to incorporate all pre-existing organizations inside Zi Luo Heaven into his own forces.
Regardless of their size, all of these organizations must come under the banner of the Heaven-God Alliance and become subsidiary organizations of the Heaven-God Alliance, or else they would be expelled from Zi Luo Heaven.
This move was incomparably tyrannical, but the major organizations had no choice but to accept it.
For one thing, the other party was a Unified Dao powerhouse and the rightful owner of Zi Luo Heaven, so they were simply powerless to resist. Additionally, after so many years of operation, everyone's roots were already firmly planted in Zi Luo Heaven, making it impossible for them to move to another location.
Many people didn't understand Zi Luo Elder's motives behind this, but only Duan Wenqi knew—it was because Zi Luo Heaven's origin law was none other than the law of organizations.
Every Star Ruler had their own law, and the existence of such laws would inevitably affect their astral world.
It was just like how it was easier to cultivate swordsmanship in Extreme Sword Heaven and how opening a school in Academic Heaven would benefit both teachers and students alike. The core law of an astral world genuinely influenced that world.
The core law of Zi Luo Heaven was organizations, so when Zi Luo Elder disappeared, this place became the perfect place for all major organizations to develop.
It was precisely because it was a special law like "organizations" that it overlapped with Song Fei's law of "education."
Both of them needed to mentor later generations in order to advance their own cultivation, which was why Zi Luo Elder blocked Song Fei's path back then.
That was exactly why Zi Luo Elder went to all the trouble to manage the Heaven-God Alliance and spared no effort to help Rolensia, Xue Ren, and the others reach Unified Dao.
To him, helping others was helping himself.
However, this kind of move was extraordinarily unacceptable to Duan Wenqi… because his law was also organizations!
He'd managed Astral Gate for so many years, even secretly taking over some small external organizations, so his power in Zi Luo Heaven had swelled to a rather terrifying degree.
If he was given another few thousand years, perhaps he really would be able to take the entire Zi Luo Heaven into his own hands through the means of peaceful developments.
"Representative," a voice rang out beside Duan Wenqi. The newcomer was a young man in blue.
This person's name was Fang Tun, Duan Wenqi's trusted aid from the former Astral Gate.
Under Duan Wenqi's orders, Astral Gate was one of the few organizations that flat-out refused to be incorporated and decisively moved into Savage Beasts World—it was also fortunate that Astral Gate's main business was reincarnation, or else the losses would've been too great to accept.
Hearing this familiar title, Duan Wenqi slowly gathered his emotions and nodded. "How is the transfer of members going?"
Fang Tun reported with a bitter smile, "There's not much of a problem in other areas, it's just that the reincarnation work has all but stopped… This isn't a Realm Level plane yet."
If it wasn't a Heaven or Realm Level plane, it was naturally impossible to reincarnate into other planes.
Duan Wenqi was taken aback. Living in Zi Luo Heaven all these years nearly made him forget this rule. If everything had gone smoothly, he wouldn't even have to consider this problem in the first place, but…
His hatred towards Zi Luo Elder increased a little more. Duan Wenqi could only say, "Arrange for them to reincarnate from inside Clockwork Heaven for the time being. I'll think of a solution for this side."
Fortunately, Le Wen was his close friend, so he didn't have to worry too much.
Only, Duan Wenqi never could've imagined that the greatest calamity of his life since he became a Star Ruler was about to arrive.
……
"Who are you?"
Inside the Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan looked at the tall, thin Daoist standing in front of him and asked suspiciously.
"This humble Daoist is Zhuangxuan. I'd like to trouble you to accompany this humble Daoist to Clear Profundity Realm," the Daoist bowed his head and answered in a voice devoid of emotion.
Gu Nan finally remembered him. This was the one who wrote the secret letter on behalf of the Heaven-God Alliance. Daoist Lingyang had stayed behind in the World of Gods, so it was only natural for someone to inherit Clear Profundity Realm.
It's just that this succession was so swift that the successor even inherited Daoist Lingyang's responsibilities inside the Heaven-God Alliance, which was a bit too decisive. This hinted at only one possibility—Daoist Lingyang intended to step down a long time ago.
That old Daoist's face emerged in Gu Nan's mind. He had indeed arranged everything in advance.
"Daoist Lingyang is…"
"My revered master."
Although Daoist Lingyang appeared quite normal, Gu Nan didn't expect him to raise such an old-fashioned disciple.
Shrugging this off, Gu Nan nodded and put away the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb in his hand as he casually said, "I'm dropping by somewhere else first. I'll visit Clear Profundity Realm after I'm done."
After saying this, he was about to turn and leave, but Zhuangxuan frowned slightly and blocked his way. "Please wait, esteemed one. You may not have understood what has happened… This time, not only your affairs were targeted. Senior Xue and Senior Mad Fist also received simultaneous attacks."
Gu Nan was slightly taken aback. He truly didn't expect for the enemy's plan to be so grand as to affect all three core members of the Heaven-God Alliance whose identities were already exposed.
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When Gu Nan arrived at Clear Profundity Realm, a few core members of the Heaven-God Alliance were also there, namely Xue Ren, Mad Fist, and Imperial Glory Heaven's Immortal Empress Taisheng.
The Immortal Empress ultimately decided against leaving the Myriad Heavens back when Zi Luo Elder planned to bring a group to the World of Gods, but now she was present here.
This time, she wasn't afraid of being exposed anymore. The reason was simple—her left hand was wrapped in white bandages.
"Looks like quite a few people were attacked." Gu Nan scanned the circle. Xue Ren and Mad Fist's expressions didn't look very good, so it was clear that this was a meeting for people who were attacked. Evidently, the situation was a bit serious.
Xue Ren only had ten years to reach Unified Dao, yet even he took time away from cultivating to run here. It was clear that this problem had reached the most critical stage.
"The old man was also attacked," Xue Ren announced in a low voice upon seeing Gu Nan arrive, then pointed upwards.
This finally surprised Gu Nan. He didn't expect for Zi Luo Elder's return to the Myriad Heavens to be more powerless than expected.
"Song Fei?"
"It would still be alright if it was him… It was Jiu Po," Xue Ren's voice sounded heavy. Compared to Academic Heaven's Song Fei, who always stood in the center of the stage, Star Ruler Jiu Po was a much tougher nut to crack.
This Star Ruler was likewise one of the oldest Unified Dao cultivators, and he was precisely the one who helped Song Fei back then, knocking Zi Luo Elder into the ground.historical
Moreover, although Song Fei's actions weren't considered upright, at least they were laid out in the open, whereas Jiu Po was different.
Even the fact that he had secretly attacked Zi Luo Elder was only known by the two parties involved. The rest of the Myriad Heavens never heard anything about it at all.
In a sense, this was the poisonous snake that lurked in the shadows, biting its enemy's weakest spot as soon as it opened its mouth.
Immediately following that reveal was the exchange of information among the members present.
Gu Nan's invasion of other astral worlds was hindered, Mad Fist had been ambushed while challenging others, and internal instability appeared in Xue Ren's Extreme Sword Heaven as the conflict between traditional swordsmanship and Xue Ren's new swordsmanship resurfaced.
The most bizarre situation of all was Immortal Empress Taisheng. A bunch of dragon Qi suddenly appeared inside her Imperial Glory Heaven, and it was completely out of her control.
For an astral world like Imperial Glory Heaven, this phenomenon signified the rise of a new immortal empire, and Immortal Empress Taisheng, who also used dragon Qi as her foundation, was practically helpless to stop it.
The four of them simultaneously encountered problems tailored to their situations, and Zi Luo Elder was even ambushed by Jiu Po Heaven's ruler himself, so it was clear that the enemy didn't have good intentions.
At this time, Daoist Zhuangxuan suddenly coughed lightly and spoke up, "Everyone, the situation may be more complicated than you think."
"Oh?" Immortal Empress Taisheng raised an eyebrow. Even though she only spat out a single word, one could still hear some dissatisfaction in her tone.
She was dissatisfied with Daoist Zhuangxuan's unauthorized interjection, which stemmed from the fact that she didn't have a very good impression of this junior to begin with.
Originally, Daoist Lingyang played the role of the head manager in the Heaven-God Alliance and had always been the one who handled the day-to-day affairs.
With Daoist Lingyang staying behind in the World of Gods, it was only natural for someone to take over the vacant position on this side.
Xue Ren was busy preparing for his ascension to Unified Dao, so according to seniority, Immortal Empress Taisheng was undoubtedly the most qualified after him. Unfortunately, before she could take her rightful position, this disciple of Daoist Lingyang popped up out of nowhere.
Unaffected by her attitude, Zhuangxuan explained, "The attacks on the four seniors and Zi Luo Elder all appear to have been planned by the same person, but among them, senior Xue Ren's situation is slightly different."
He paused for a second, then continued without giving Immortal Empress Taisheng any chance to respond, "I've looked at everyone's crises. It might've been possible that other matters were planned at the last minute, but not the swordsmanship dispute."
Xue Ren was slightly taken aback, then nodded. "That's right. The ones who stepped forward this time are my two senior brothers, both of whom have laid low for thousands of years and are very well prepared this time."
The struggle over the dominant swordsmanship ideology could only be done by those inside Extreme Sword Heaven, and a plan requiring such intense preparation would've been very troublesome for an outsider to set up, so it was impossible to resolve it quickly.
Immortal Empress Taisheng frowned at Zhuangxuan. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that there might be two groups of people secretly making moves," Zhuangxuan's young face remained stoic and expressionless, but his words were enough to surprise the crowd.
Xue Ren narrowed his eyes slightly. "One group is indeed acting on a last-minute decision, striking at us through various methods, while the other group has been plotting for a long time, specifically targeting me?"
"That's right." Zhuangxuan finally nodded. "That's why I think that our immediate strategy should be to pull back our battle lines across the board in order to not give the first group any chance."
No one present was a fool. After Zhuangxuan pointed out the main point, the strategy he subsequently proposed seemed logical.
Impulsively-planned attacks could be dealt with by avoiding battle. Instead, Xue Ren was currently the Heaven-God Alliance's top priority, so it was only right to focus resources on helping him solve his problem first.
Crazy Fist immediately stated, "Got it, I'll stay in my astral world for a while… But don't blame me if I beat up the enemies who come knocking on my door!"
Zhuangxuan replied, "If an enemy comes to your door, I would also like to request that Senior Mad Fist doesn't hold back."
Immortal Empress Taisheng's expression was a bit strange. She was also able to see the big picture clearly now. It's just that having to rely on a junior's help to realize this really made her feel odd.
When it comes to oneself, even Lu Wen inevitably had times when he failed to see the big picture, let alone them.
However, she also knew that this was by no means the time to let emotions sway her actions, Plus, the advice given by Zhuangxuan did have merit.
"I will handle those dragon Qi in my astral world myself." Immortal Empress Taisheng looked towards Xue Ren and said, "Just speak up if you need my help."
This Immortal Empress was able to seize the throne and win against all other princes and princesses. Her personality was even bolder than a man's.
Zhuangxuan, however, replied, "Dragon Qi cleansing is not a difficult task, but I also ask that Senior Taisheng focus on treating the symptoms and refrain from tracing the problem to its roots for the time being."
Simply put, it was to maintain the status quo.
After Immortal Empress Taisheng nodded in acquiescence, Zhuangxuan then looked at Gu Nan. "Senior Gu Nan's matter is the easiest to resolve. As long as you suspend invasions of other astral worlds for the time being and tightly guard the entrance to your own astral world, you won't have anything to fear from Fang Chaoyun's group."
Zhuangxuan kept talking nonstop, listing out all of the enemy's possible moves as well as what his side should do in response.
This young man appeared somewhat dull, but only at this moment did his eyes radiate a strange luster, as if he was born to do this.
After he finished speaking, the scene turned silent—everything that needed to be said had already been said by Zhuangxuan.
Xue Ren subtly scanned the circle, taking in everyone's reactions.
Daoist Lingyang had naturally asked Xue Ren to take care of his heir beforehand, and today was also the stage Xue Ren had designed for Zhuangxuan.
As long as he won the approval of everyone present, coupled with Xue Ren's own support, Zhuangxuan would be considered to have gained a complete foothold in his new position.
'From their reactions, the effect is still quite… Wait a minute.'
Xue Ren's gaze landed on Gu Nan, whose expression seemed to be a little different from what he imagined.
"Done?" Gu Nan's expression looked like he'd skipped the entire story dialogue. "Then I should go and talk to Duan Wenqi now."
"Senior Gu Nan." Zhuangxuan frowned slightly and stood up. "You don't have any justification…"
"I don't need a justification," Gu Nan interrupted him. "All I know is, fight back if you don't like it."
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From the start, Gu Nan never paid much attention to Zhuangxuan's explanation.
After all, in addition to his initial analysis, he also brought up a cumbersome list of subsequent causes, and players just happened to have very little patience.
Being able to understand the NPC's general attitude was good enough for players; the rest of the story dialogue was skippable.
Gu Nan didn't have any objection to Zhuangxuan's suggestion to suspend Divine Kingdom Wars. In any case, he was unlikely to accomplish anything when Fang Chaoyun was so set on thwarting him, and it would be a waste of divine servants for nothing.
To resume Divine Kingdom Wars again, he'd at least have to wait until he advanced to Tier 8 and beat up Fang Chaoyun and the others.
But before that, Duan Wenqi was also someone who had to be dealt with. If he wasn't taught a lesson, wouldn't any random person dare to scheme Gu Nan from behind the scenes in the future?
"Senior Gu Nan." At some point, Zhuangxuan had walked up to Gu Nan, blocking his path and meeting his gaze without flinching.
Even if Gu Nan had a vicious reputation outside, it didn't seem to be enough to make Zhuangxuan fearful.
This young man actually acted with great delicacy.
Earlier, when he wanted to persuade Gu Nan to visit Clear Profundity Realm, he didn't use the more respectful address of "Senior", as he wouldn't have been able to get Gu Nan to take him seriously if he had taken too low a stance.
However, at this meeting, he placed himself in a lower status as a junior, not wanting to make Gu Nan feel like he was isolating him.
Zhuangxuan's dull demeanor didn't make him look like a crafty person by any stretch of the imagination. However, his actions seemed to have a very clear goal, which was doing as much as possible to unite as many forces as possible.
In terms of being the Heaven-God Alliance's head manager, Zhuangxuan had almost done as much as humanly possible. There was nothing to nitpick about.
"Gu Nan." Xue Ren paused briefly before speaking as well, "The big picture is more important."
However, even faced with these two's dissuasion, Gu Nan continued forward without looking back, walking straight past Zhuangxuan and casually waving a hand behind him.
Only when Gu Nan's figure had completely disappeared did Immortal Empress Taisheng helplessly shake her head. "His entire journey has been too smooth-sailing. He hardly suffered any setbacks, so it's inevitable that he's like this."
"Lu Wen is standing behind Duan Wenqi. This is not a good target to use to regain his confidence." Xue Ren similarly shook his head.
Gu Nan's miraculous feats had obvious problems in the eyes of many. Advancing too fast inevitably led to an unstable foundation, and this world had never been one where whoever went the fastest would go the furthest.
In particular, it was all too common for geniuses who had a smooth life up until then to fall flat on their faces because of a single setback.
Ever since Gu Nan's debut, he had been the one gaining things from almost every battle—even when he faced Song Fei, Gu Nan had similarly achieved his goal.
But such a person practically suffered total defeat this time, losing the vast majority of his army in one fell swoop, so it was only natural for his mentality to become unstable.
From the perspective of Immortal Empress Taisheng and Xue Ren, they could actually understand Gu Nan's feelings.
Similarly, Zhuangxuan could also understand those feelings, but that didn't prevent him from making the best choice.
"Since Senior Gu Nan is adamant about this, let him do what he wants. Everyone else can just act according to the plan… The other party only made one move so far, so we cannot fall into disarray on our own."
After saying this, he made the most official salute and turned to leave. The mobilization of the Heaven-God Alliance's resources was not something that could be clarified in one or two sentences, and it still required Zhuangxuan to plan the specifics.
"This brat is a little interesting." After Zhuangxuan left, the first person to make a comment was actually Mad Fist, who was standing at the side.
Immortal Empress Taisheng also remarked, "He and Lingyang are the same type of people… although they don't look like it."
Daoist Lingyang had a gentle personality, treated people with humility and courtesy, and had keen insight regarding worldly affairs, making him an excellent candidate to manage the Heaven-God Alliance.
But this disciple he taught probably only had half of Lingyang's courtesy and character.
However, no matter how it looked on the outside, at least there wasn't much of a problem in terms of ability. Even Immortal Empress Taisheng was satisfied with him and temporarily dismissed her thoughts of competing for that position.
For someone of her status, while fighting for some authority was certainly useful, it wasn't to the point where that position was an absolute necessity.
Xue Ren revealed a faint smile. Even though Gu Nan's reaction was a bit unexpected, Zhuangxuan was still able to establish his position, so this trip wasn't in vain.
……
Savage Beasts World.
The transfer of the Astral Gate members went quite smoothly. They were sent to Clockwork Heaven without many issues, which allowed Duan Wenqi to finally feel slightly consoled.
Before Savage Beasts World ascends to a Realm Level plane, these personnel can only stay in Clockwork Heaven for the time being.
With years of experience in managing Astral Gate, Duan Wenqi's ability in actually running a plane was no inferior to some top-tier Star Rulers.
If he hadn't tried to reach the heavens in one fell swoop with Astral Gate and Zi Luo Heaven, perhaps Savage Beasts World would've advanced to Realm Level a long time ago or even qualified to break through to a Heaven Level plane.
Now, with Duan Wenqi's center of focus shifting back, Savage Beasts World instantly entered a phase of rapid development.
By relying on a time flow far faster than that of the outside world, Savage Beasts World underwent rapid changes day by day, and in a very short time, it went from savage wilderness to a semi-technological era.
During this, of course the influx of a large number of Astral Gate members was also indispensable. After all, Astral Gate was a top-tier organization in the Myriad Heavens, so its technology was equally top notch.
Inside the current Savage Beasts World, structures inscribed with strange runes could already be seen, sitting on top of a foundation surrounded by the same runes.
Duan Wenqi calmly presided over all of this, and the blue-clothed youth Fang Tun was standing in front of him, reporting on the mission progress one by one, just as he had done in Astral Gate.
"Continue to support the human race and teach them the method to capture and rear the beast races." Duan Wenqi said as such, "The human race's civilization potential isn't something that beasts can compare to."
"Yes," Fang Tun respectfully answered and was about to continue his report when he saw Duan Wenqi's expression change.
"My Lord?"
Duan Wenqi frowned slightly, as if he was trying to sense something with his eyes closed, but in the end, he shook his head. "It's nothing, continue."
And so Fang Tun resumed his report. Actually, what Duan Wenqi sensed just now was a vague feeling that someone had entered Savage Beasts World, but then the feeling disappeared without a trace.
His first thought was that Gu Nan had come, but then he dismissed the thought.
This was because, by definition, other Star Rulers were unable to hide their presence inside someone else's astral world.
It had nothing to do with the strength or characteristic of the foreign Star Ruler's power. As long as the enemy Star Ruler was inside this environment and still interacted with the outside world, they would inevitably expose themselves.
Perhaps they might be able to hide themselves from other people, but they definitely couldn't conceal themselves from the owner of the world itself, who was one with their astral world.
Duan Wenqi knew this very well, so he ultimately chose to trust himself and his senses.
However, there was one situation that was an exception—that was when the one who entered the astral world wasn't a Star Ruler.historical
On the other side of Savage Beasts World, a silver-robed figure slowly manifested, wrapped in a layer of shadow that concealed all of his energy signature.
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Duan Wenqi never could've imagined that Gu Nan would choose to throw a Tier 4 clone into his astral world.
This saint clone, which Gu Nan rarely had a use for ever since he reached Tier 7, was once again put to good use.
Tier 4 mortals were able to hide themselves better than Star Rulers, but this wasn't to say that Tier 4 cultivators were hard to detect because they didn't interact with their environment at all.
Rather, it was because there were many Tier 4 existences in the astral world. Star Rulers were also human beings, and their senses were also based on their own judgment; they weren't radar.
An extra drop of ink on a piece of white paper could naturally be detected at first glance, but it would be much more difficult to detect if that ink drop was painted over with white paint—even if the other party's eyesight was as high as 20/20.
Gu Nan's saint clone descended onto Savage Beasts World, still holding the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb in his hand, and walked unhurriedly on the land.
Duan Wenqi's transformation of Savage Beasts World was quick, but it wasn't considered thorough. While the central region where Gu Nan's clone landed already displayed some signs of metaphysical technology, the remote areas were still undeveloped wilderness.
For example, in Gu Nan's current area, rampaging beasts and giant birds could be seen everywhere. Nine suns hung in the sky overhead, and the earth seemed to also be evaporating from the heat.
"What a nice place," Gu Nan, however, said with a smile.
This was indeed a good place to place the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb.
The function of the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb was to stow away a plane. Although it sounded very powerful in theory, there were still some troublesome conditions in practice.
For example, the player must enter the target plane and give the orb a certain amount of time to function before the plane could truly be swallowed up.
After all, the initial purpose of this item was for players to capture and farm Divine Kingdoms, not as a weapon to fight enemies.
Gu Nan buried the orb in a random place deep in the savage wilderness and then had the saint clone sit nearby.
Almost as soon as the orb entered the ground, an inexplicable suction force appeared, as if there was a black hole buried in the ground, and its range was rapidly expanding.
Even the saint clone could feel the obvious force. Based on this speed, it would be able to swallow up the entire Savage Beasts World in an hour at most.
But such a large commotion would never be able to escape Duan Wenqi's eyes, and in fact, he should be able to sense something by the time half an hour passed.
In order to stop Duan Wenqi from interfering, Gu Nan didn't choose to put up any protective measures, but instead planned to use another matter to attract the other party's attention.
……
In the center of Savage Beasts World, Duan Wenqi was still diligently directing his subordinates to do their work, even assigning Fang Tun on a task.
As long as he could ascend Savage Beasts World to a Realm Level plane in the shortest time possible, all his early investments would be worth it.
However, right at this heated moment, a giant palm suddenly fell from the sky, completely destroying a building's foundation that had just been built.
"Who is it?!" Duan Wenqi was furious and fiercely rushed over.
Duan Wenqi had chosen rune technology for his astral world, and the construction of foundations was more difficult and valuable than the actual building itself.
This time, the location of the intruder was clearly visible in Duan Wenqi's senses, and the enemy didn't feel weak.
But Duan Wenqi wasn't afraid at all. With his experience and strength, there was nothing that could make him retreat without a fight—not to mention, this was Savage Beasts World!
Strengthened by the power of his astral world, Duan Wenqi instantly locked onto the enemy's position, and the longsword in his hand pointed straight at the other party.
But only when he got closer did he realize the enemy's true identity—it was Gu Nan!
"So it's you!" When Duan Wenqi saw Gu Nan, old and new grudges surged up in his heart, and he immediately gritted his teeth.
However, his thoughts were incomparably clear. The other party was someone who could force Daoist Sect Realm to bow their heads. Even though he could defeat the other party, he couldn't stop Gu Nan from entering or leaving the astral world.
The thought of this caused Duan Wenqi to calm down instantly. It was pointless to blindly chase after Gu Nan; instead, it was more important to figure out the other party's intentions.
However, Gu Nan didn't intend to give him this opportunity, having already swung his fist out without another word.
"How foolish." Duan Wenqi snorted disdainfully, his hand casually blocking Gu Nan's attack.
He wasn't weak to begin with, and inside his own astral world, he was on par with a Tier 9 existence, so he didn't fear a direct confrontation with Gu Nan at all.
And Gu Nan's decision to give up his own speed advantage and run here to fight Duan Wenqi was undoubtedly courting death.
Duan Wenqi no longer had any intention of holding back, and a large beast's shadow began to emerge behind him. It was a half-fish, half-bird beast.
The great beast's shadow spread its wings slightly, and a terrifying might immediately landed on Gu Nan's head. Wielding thousands of beast clans' powers, this was Duan Wenqi's fearsome strength.
However, Gu Nan laughed heartily and actually… ran away without looking back.
Duan Wenqi was slightly taken aback, then immediately heard the sound of explosions coming from the distance again, which was obviously Gu Nan's handiwork.
The other party was so fast that not even the great beast's shadow could catch up… Duan Wenqi gritted his teeth and quickly caught up to Gu Nan, but his enemy changed places again.
"Gu Nan, what exactly are you trying to do?" In the end, Duan Wenqi simply didn't bother chasing after him anymore, stopping in place to ask.
If the other party wanted to rely on wanton destruction of his astral world to force his hand, that would be too naive.
The construction work of Savage Beasts World had only just begun, so Duan Wenqi wouldn't lose much even if things were destroyed.
It seemed that his words had an effect, as the other party actually turned back to attack him again, and this time, Gu Nan adopted the tactic of exchanging injury for injury, not caring about himself at all.
Duan Wenqi was more than happy to oblige. The terrifying power he gained from his astral world was still able to inflict damage on Gu Nan, who was unable to recover quickly.historical
'At this pace, I only need half a day at most to…'
'Wait a minute!'
Duan Wenqi still had ample experience, so he immediately realized— 'Could the other party's intention be to stall for time?'
Duan Wenqi instantly noticed the abnormality within his astral world as soon as such a thought occurred to him. Somewhere at the edge of his astral world, a powerful suction force was wantonly sucking in everything around it.
"Damn it!" Duan Wenqi longer had time to worry about the Gu Nan in front of him. WIth a single thought, he opened up a portal and landed on the edge of Savage Beasts World.
If not for Gu Nan's interference, he would've discovered this location's abnormality long ago. Clearly, this was Gu Nan's true purpose.
"What the hell is this?" Duan Wenqi stood near the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb. Although the strong suction force continuously tried to pull him in, it wasn't enough to affect a Star Ruler like him.
On the contrary, the wondrous sight in front of him attracted his attention, and he gradually realized that the item before him was most likely an extremely precious treasure.
A treasure capable of sucking up worlds was completely unheard of!
Duan Wenqi didn't hesitate any longer and headed directly towards the center of the suction force—he didn't choose to destroy it to stop the vortex. Instead, he wanted to directly snatch the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb!
"How greedy." Gu Nan stood high in the sky, a cold smile on his face.
Of course Duan Wenqi didn't forget about Gu Nan's existence. He dared to act in such a manner only because he was completely certain that he could defeat Gu Nan inside his own astral world.
After all, the suction force had already grown to a terrifying level at Duan Wenqi's current location.
Aside from Duan Wenqi, who was able to stand his ground by relying on the power of his astral world, not even Gu Nan could get close—not unless he was willing to die together with Duan Wenqi.
Gu Nan shook his head lightly and turned to leave Savage Beasts World.
And down below, near the orb, a ray of silver light cut through space and slammed into Duan Wenqi with great force.
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By the time Lu Wen received the news, the entire Savage Beasts World had already vanished.
Disappearing along with it was Duan Wenqi himself, as well as some of his Astral Gate members—they all vanished without a trace.
"What the hell happened?" Lu Wen's face was horribly gloomy, and half-kneeling in front of him was a group of people from various organizations.
However, they all had one thing in common—they were the last ones to have contact with Duan Wenqi before his disappearance.
Fang Tun was one of them. This blue-clothed kid was very lucky that he had to leave Savage Beasts World for his last mission right before Gu Nan showed up, so he happened to avoid a disaster.
If he was still in Savage Beasts World, he would've disappeared along with it.
"His Lordship, he… he seems to have discovered something." Fang Tun carefully recalled the scene, even mimicking Duan Wenqi's expression at the time.
Unfortunately, he couldn't provide much information at all, as he didn't even know whether what Duan Wenqi had discovered was a person or a thing.
Lu Wen's expression was still dark. He had already gathered everyone who last had contact with Duan Wenqi and interrogated them, but he still couldn't get any useful information.
What exactly happened in Savage Beasts World?
After hearing news of Duan Wenqi's accident, Lu Wen's first reaction was that someone was seeking revenge, and it was even likely that Gu Nan, who had just been attacked, was the one behind this.
However, he also couldn't be sure. After all, Duan Wenqi was a well-known Star Ruler, and Astral Gate had also made quite a few enemies over the years.
Now that Astral Gate had been driven out of Zi Luo Heaven, it would make perfect sense for an old enemy to take advantage of the situation to take revenge on Duan Wenqi and frame Gu Nan and the others as scapegoats.
Lu Wen waved his hand to dismiss the crowd, while he himself sat back in his seat with a frown.
The silver dragon on his shoulder soared up and circled around in midair before slowly transforming into her human form.
As she gradually gained experience, Long Ling'er seemed to have grown more accustomed to her human form as well and would often maintain that form and imitate other people's behaviors when discussing matters with Lu Wen.
"It's not possible to look back in time?" Long Ling'er asked. She heard the entire message and naturally understood what had happened.
Lu Wen shook his head and replied, "Even time has been swallowed up. A piece of the River of Time disappeared and was quickly patched up… but the section that went missing is gone forever."
As one who controls time, there were actually very few things in this world that Lu Wen didn't know. He could see practically everything he wanted to see by tracing along the River of Time.
But this time, even the law of time had disappeared, so there was nothing Lu Wen could do about it.
Long Ling'er was flabbergasted, then pondered seriously, ''Could it be a plane collapse? I took a look at the situation in Savage Beasts World, and there is indeed a collapse point present."
The spatial collapse point was so obvious that it was impossible for Lu Wen to not have considered it, only he quickly ruled out the possibility.
"A natural spatial collapse would last for a very long time. Old Duan would never sit back and watch his own astral world suffer," Lu Wen patiently explained to Long Ling'er.
Lu Wen thought much further than Long Ling'er.
Spatial collapse was indeed the most likely scenario. If someone artificially triggered the collapse and found a person to stall Duan Wenqi, wouldn't it be possible to bring about this situation?
But while inside Savage Beasts World, just how many people were capable of stalling Duan Wenqi?
Lu Wen knew his old friend's ability very well. Gu Nan couldn't do such a thing. He was afraid that it would take someone on Fang Chaoyun's level to achieve this.
And even if such a person did make a move, how would they drag Duan Wenqi into the spatial collapse?
Lu Wen knew Duan Wenqi's character all too well. Although the latter was sometimes very irritable, he was also an extremely calm person who would never let emotions affect his decisions.
Once he realized that the situation couldn't be salvaged, he would definitely flee at the first opportunity. There was no reason for Duan Wenqi to die alongside Savage Beasts World.
'It's just a small astral world. With my old friend's ability and my help, how hard would it be to find another one?'
All sorts of questions surfaced in Lu Wen's mind. No matter how much he thought about it, there would always be something that couldn't be explained, causing Lu Wen to feel an incomparable headache for a while.
It was Long Ling'er who, after a long period of silence, suddenly opened her mouth, "Is he really dead though?"
Lu Wen stared blankly, then stood up with a start.
……
Duan Wenqi actually wasn't dead yet.
This Star Ruler who'd been consumed by greed was now trapped inside the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb along with the entire Savage Beasts World… and also trapped in Gu Nan's hands.
Inside the Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan tossed the orb in his hand up and down, a light smile on his face.
"Ah, Old Duan! In order to seal you away, I paid the price of a saint clone."
Gu Nan's original intention was simply to seal away Savage Beasts World and take advantage of Duan Wenqi's loss of astral world power to ruthlessly teach him a lesson. After all, with Lu Wen around, it wouldn't be easy to truly kill Duan Wenqi.
Unexpectedly, Duan Wenqi was calmer than he thought and discovered the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb in advance.
As a result, before Gu Nan could even activate his backup plan, Duan Wenqi tried to take control of the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb out of greed.
Gu Nan then used the saint clone to knock Duan Wenqi into the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb.
However, with Gu Nan's current points, a mere saint clone wasn't actually a big deal anymore. Instead, trapping Duan Wenqi in the orb gave him some new ideas.
At the very least, Duan Wenqi was a Tier 7 Star Ruler. If used well, the Round Two phase would be much safer.historical
"Teacher, everything is ready," Yan Xiaoxiao's voice came from the side, reminding Gu Nan that it was time to head to the World of Gods once again.
This time, he was heading over to slaughter some gods to accumulate Evil Value while also bringing Lan Si, Xie Yun, and Liang Ruxin back in passing—but only if the latter two had already successfully changed classes.
Gu Nan nodded and got up. His gaze landed on Yan Xiaoxiao again, and he couldn't help sighing slightly. ''You still decided to take this path? By the time I return, you'll never be able to go back."
Yan Xiaoxiao's face, as in years past, flashed a light smile. "I was destined to take this step from the moment I was born."
Perhaps in the eyes of others, Yan Xiaoxiao was no different from her former self, but Gu Nan, the owner of the Divine Kingdom, was perfectly aware.
In a sense, the current Yan Xiaoxiao could no longer be considered human.
While her former companions broke through one by one, she had always remained at the peak of Tier 3. It wasn't that she was unable to take that step, but that she was unwilling.
She had taken a different path—she gradually fused herself with the Divine Kingdom, allowing herself to become part of its origin.
Because from the very beginning, Yan Xiaoxiao was a part of the origin of "Immortal Demon World"—the predecessor to the Divine Kingdom—and was forcibly pulled out by Zuo Zuo.
All she was doing now was reversing the process.
By the time Gu Nan advances to Tier 8 and the Divine Kingdom fully ascends to a Realm Level plane, the human part of Yan Xiaoxiao would completely disappear, and she would become the manifestation of the Divine Kingdom's will.
If the Divine Kingdom was compared to an enormous artifact, then Yan Xiaoxiao would become the artifact's spirit.
At that time, Gu Nan's control over the Divine Kingdom would also rise to an indescribable level.
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After coming here a few times, Gu Nan was already familiar with the process.
However, this time was a bit different from the past, as Gu Nan finally entered the World of Gods through official channels instead of smuggling himself in.
After Zi Luo Elder's ascension, although no one called him the "Fourteenth Heaven" for the time being due to the ten years time limit, at least the members of the Heaven-God Alliance no longer had to hide themselves.
As long as it wasn't confirmed that Zi Luo Elder's realm had fallen, the Heaven-God Alliance would still be a tremendously popular organization in the Myriad Heavens, at least for the time being, and Gu Nan and the others were able to travel unhindered.
"Lord Gu Nan, please wait here. We will arrive at the World of Gods tomorrow evening," an attendant stood respectfully in front of Gu Nan and said.
Gu Nan, who had gone through the official channels, was currently inside a giant cruise ship.
The cruise ship wasn't sailing in water, but traveling directly through the void between the two worlds.
It had to be said that this kind of giant cruise ship, which transported thousands of people at once, was indeed much more efficient than smuggling.
But that wasn't necessarily the case when it came down to the individuals themselves. At least Gu Nan wouldn't need to go through layers of vetting and gatekeeping if he entered through more illegal channels.
And since they had to transport thousands of people at a time, the speed of the cruise ship naturally had to slow down, which was the main cause of the delay.
The attendant bowed and left, so Gu Nan took a stroll alone on the top floor of the cruise ship, pondering which god he should hunt this time.
Now that he'd already leveled up to Tier 7, there were more targets to choose from. It wasn't like when he was at Tier 6 earlier, where he had to specifically look for the Mirror God's trouble.
Theoretically, he would have to kill a Tier 9 god to accumulate enough Evil Value, but killing a Tier 9 god right now might cause a bit too much commotion.
If possible, Gu Nan didn't mind killing a few more Tier 8 gods, or even Tier 7 and Tier 6 ones.
If bosses didn't drop equipment but only experience, then farming normal monsters was undoubtedly more efficient.
Gu Nan's mind went through suitable candidates, each with a corresponding event to trigger in order to get these gods to appear alone.
Just as Gu Nan was leaning on the railing with one hand, deep in thought, footsteps sounded by his ears.
"Save me! My Lord, please save me!"
Along with the sound of footsteps was a woman's cry for help.
Gu Nan turned to look, and what entered his sight was a young blonde girl. She was wearing a conspicuous pink dress that looked a little wrinkled, and it seemed like she hadn't changed it in quite a while.
Gu Nan, however, was slightly taken aback when he saw her and subconsciously blurted out, "Elise?"
The blonde girl froze as well, as if she didn't expect to run into someone who recognized her in a place like this.
From the expression on the young girl's face, Gu Nan could tell that the other party was indeed the Elise he remembered.
It's just that she was supposed to be from the World of Gods, so how could she appear in such a place? Gu Nan felt that many things seemed to be disturbed again.
The sound of footsteps behind Elise became more and more urgent, and she no longer had the luxury to ask more questions, so she hurriedly hid behind Gu Nan.
Several uniformed men quickly arrived, their eyes landing on the Elise behind Gu Nan.
One of the younger ones glared and reached out to grab Elise but was pulled back by the older one next to him.
This was the top floor of the cruise ship. All the people living here were true powerhouses, none of whom they could afford to casually offend.
However, he also had no intention of backing down, believing that with his master's identity, the other party would be willing to give them face.
"This woman is the favorite concubine of Daoist Heir Qin Ning. Please hand her over, and Void Grotto Heaven will definitely reward Your Excellency generously," after stopping the young man, the elder said to Gu Nan in manner neither servile nor overbearing.
Gu Nan's reputation at this point was considered to be sky-high, but not many people actually recognized his face. After all, he'd only ever been in contact with bigshots.
Gu Nan didn't take the other party seriously at all.
The so-called Daoist Heir was nothing more than the next-generation successor that Void Grotto Heaven was looking for. In case Yu Lian met with a calamity, Void Grotto Heaven wouldn't have a break in leadership or inheritance.
However, there were at least dozens of such Daoist Heirs, and in Gu Nan's eyes, they were completely insignificant.
Gu Nan flat-out ignored the person in front of him and turned to look at Elise. "Why are you here?"
"I… came to the Myriad Heavens with my Lord Father," Elise didn't dare to hide anything when she saw Gu Nan's serious expression.
"Later, Lord Father wanted to marry me off to Mr. Qin Ning…"
"I see." Gu Nan nodded and asked, "Where's your father?"
Elise shook her head. "I snuck out alone."
The conversation between the two ended here. Gu Nan had nothing more to ask for the time being, only a strange feeling in his heart.
Elise had a linked quest on her, and the trigger mechanism was her father wanting to marry her off. But in the original game, she definitely wasn't supposed to be married to some Daoist Heir.
In other words, the storyline was misplaced.
Instead, Elise came to the Myriad Heavens, and the target of the mission had also changed to someone from the Myriad Heavens.
This change intrigued Gu Nan, and he wanted to know what had prompted it all. But before that, he had to deal with these fellows in front of him.
"Your Excellency, you also heard her." The man from earlier spoke again, "This is a family matter between this girl and my family's Daoist Heir. You—"
"Go back and tell her old man that if he wants his daughter back, he'll have to come find me in the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom." Gu Nan patted Elise's shoulder, signaling for her to follow him.
"Stop!" The young man who looked hot-tempered finally couldn't stand this blatant disregard any longer.
He drew a long blade from his waist and glared ahead with a deep, cold gaze… The next instant, he was immediately swatted aside by a shadow, and his figure crashed through the skylight and fell into the endless void.
Countless void substances harmful to ordinary people quickly poured in, and the location of the skylight was already covered with a layer of black fog. The older man from earlier couldn't help feeling his heart skip a beat.
'This matter just got very out of hand…'
Alarms immediately began ringing inside the cruise ship, and several cruise ship guards swiftly arrived, already skillfully starting to patch up the broken skylight. Evidently, this wasn't the first time they had done this kind of thing.
But Lu Tao, one of the vice captains who arrived immediately afterward, was still very annoyed. He couldn't believe that someone was already causing violent incidents when the cruise ship had just departed—and even stirring up such a big commotion to boot!
Wasn't this showing complete disregard for the owner of the cruise ship—Weapon Martial Heaven's Lord Zou Jiming?
Lu Tao looked at the older man with a dark expression. ''Which family are you from? Personal fights are strictly forbidden on the cruise ship. Weren't you warned before boarding the ship?"
One of the older man's companions had just died, yet here he was still being pelted with beratings, so his expression didn't look good either.historical
But he also knew that the other party's status far outranked his own, so he forced down his anger and responded, "I am the Sixth Guardian under Daoist Heir Qin Ning. Just now, it was that person who attacked first. My Lord, I beg of you to investigate this matter."
"Who attacked?" Lu Tao asked darkly.
The Sixth Guardian quickly pointed to the side, to the very room that Gu Nan had brought Elise into.
At the same time, he felt a little smug: 'Even for a noble guest living on the top floor, offending two of the Thirteen Heavens at the same time is still…'
"Are you guys looking for death?!" Unexpectedly, Lu Tao blurted that out as soon as he saw which room it was.
Immediately afterward, he waved his hand with a wretched expression. "Tell your Daoist Heir or whatever to hurry up and get off the ship lest he dies without even knowing how he got killed!"
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Elise was also a pretty interesting mission character.
In the game, she was famous throughout the World of Gods for being a bad luck charm.
Her father married her off thrice—once to a Legend Rank expert, once to the son of a god, and once to a genuine god.historical
But none of these three could last until the day of their marriage. From the time they became engaged to Elise, they were destined to die a violent death.
This phenomenon attracted many people's attention, and some thought that it was because she possessed something related to "misfortune", but the Three Misery Sisters denied it.
Many people didn't believe that at first, but when Elise's third fiancé—that is, the god—also died inexplicably, no one suspected the Three Misery Sisters anymore.
To be able to directly curse a god to death—even if the Goddess of Misfortune herself acted, it would still be impossible to do so without leaving a trace.
So in a sense, Gu Nan actually saved that Daoist Heir Qin Ning's life, although the latter might not appreciate it.
"How many fiancés have you had?" Gu Nan asked this first after bringing Elise to a place without other people.
The storyline on Elise was likewise not fixed in time, and how far her storyline had progressed determined how much was still left for Gu Nan to take advantage of.
"T-three," Elise answered with some stuttering.
When she heard Gu Nan ask this, she also knew that this person was aware of her reputation, and she immediately felt a sense of shame at having her history revealed.
Gu Nan nodded with slight disappointment. Elise had already cursed that god to death, which meant that she didn't have much value left… Oh, there was still one last point left.
The content about her life was something that could lure out a Tier 8 god, which was better than nothing.
But the fact that Elise appeared in this place still made him a little curious. "Your father… I recall he's called Donald, right? Why did he go to the Myriad Heavens?"
"My father is Fox, Alexander Fox…" Elise gave an angry huff as she glared at Gu Nan, then deflated. "He thinks that no one on that side is willing to marry me anymore and wants me to try this side."
Elise's father, Don…. no, Fox, the old man whose name Gu Nan couldn't even remember, was also a pitiful fellow.
His wife died at an early age, so he doted on his daughter immensely, wholeheartedly trying to find her a good husband. But as a result, he raised the number one bad luck charm in the World of Gods.
With this kind of embarrassing situation, her father probably wouldn't feel too good either.
"So, do you need my help?" Gu Nan looked at the young girl with a faint smile. "If nothing goes wrong, it won't be long before you can marry normally."
"Really?!" Elise looked at Gu Nan in surprise. With her not-so-rich worldly experience, she had yet to learn to be skeptical of strangers.
Gu Nan nodded with a smile. True, he wasn't lying. It's just that by that time, she herself might not be so willing to marry anymore.
……
"Daoist Heir." The Sixth Guardian stood stiffly in front of Qin Ning, the expression on his face still a little ugly. "Old Nine, he—"
"I know about this matter." Qin Ning waved his hand to interrupt the Sixth Guardian's words and sighed.
Daoist Heir Qin Ning appeared to be a teenager with fair skin and a youthful appearance, only with a touch of indifference in his demeanor, making it impossible for anyone to believe that he was just a teenager.
The Old Nine the Sixth Guardian mentioned was precisely the youth who previously died at Gu Nan's hands. They, the Nine Guardians, hadn't been bullied like this since they started working under Daoist Heir Qin Ning!
It's just that from Qin Ning's attitude, he clearly didn't intend to pursue this matter any further.
The Sixth Guardian felt a slight chill in his heart but didn't dare say anything else. Instead, one of the people next to them asked, "Daoist Heir, should we notify the Sect Leader?"
This person was also one of the Nine Guardians. Although Old Nine was hot-tempered, he was well-liked in general, and now that he had been killed for no reason like this, of course his companions would be filled with righteous indignation.
Daoist Heir Qin Ning, however, glanced at the man coldly. "What? You want to ask the Sect Leader to avenge Old Nine?"
The Daoist Heir's attitude caused the man who opened his mouth to pause slightly, but he still managed to force himself to say, "That person looked down on our Void Grotto Heaven so much—"
"Do you know who that is?" Daoist Heir Qin Ning's words caused the people around him to quiet down at the same time. Vice Captain Lu Tao had only exchanged words with Qin Ning after he came here.
Daoist Heir Qin Ning scanned the circle. When he saw everyone's faces say Just say the name. We're not scared no matter who it is, he couldn't help but secretly shake his head.
These people had been following him for so long that they even forgot to exercise the most basic caution. They really thought they'd be able to run amok in the Myriad Heavens just because they were from one of the Thirteen Heavens.
Qin Ning pointed at the Sixth Guardian and asked, "What is the purpose of my trip to the World of Gods this time? Old Six, do you remember?"
The Sixth Guardian instantly answered, "To visit Star Ruler Lingyang and join the Heaven-God Alliance."
"That's right." Qin Ning said, "The Sect Leader forbid us from meddling in matters related to the Heaven-God Alliance, but there are nearly a hundred Daoist Heirs in this world, so how was I able to stand out? It's all because I dared to gamble."
After saying that, Qin Ning gave the Sixth Guardian another cold look. "If all goes well, that person might be one of my examiners. Do you understand?"
……
The little episode on the cruise ship didn't cause Gu Nan any trouble, and no one dared to question him.
The captain even personally ran up to Gu Nan afterward, apologizing for allowing such scoundrels to come to the top floor and disturb the honored guest.
Gu Nan had little interest in this kind of shallow statement and waved his hand in dismissal.
With Gu Nan's current status and strength, no one would doubt his ultimate accomplishment. Other than people whose levels were too far apart, how could anyone else be unenlightened enough to court death by offending him?
After all, even if Zi Luo Elder fell and Gu Nan ran to join another one of the Thirteen Heavens, the latter would definitely accept him with joy—even Song Fei was the same.
The next night, the cruise ship arrived at the World of Gods.
Gu Nan naturally took Elise to the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, first checking on the progress of the two remaining player army members and triggering Elise's quest in passing.
Gu Nan already had a rough idea of which gods he wanted to hunt, but no matter who he was going to kill, the one that was delivered straight to his door should always be dealt with first.
"Mr. Gu Nan, will my father come here as well?"
"Of course. I've already sent someone to notify him," Gu Nan casually answered Elise, and as his feet stepped inside the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, he saw a familiar figure.
Daoist Lingyang—actually, he probably couldn't be called a Daoist now. He had changed into clothes native to the World of Gods and had the appearance of a countryside nouveau riche.
Not only was he dressed up, but even his appearance looked much younger than before. He seemed like a regular person in his early thirties at best, and by virtue of his temperament, his class was forcibly pulled up.
"What do you think of this appearance of mine?" This outsider from the Myriad Heavens even earnestly asked Gu Nan for advice.
"Pretty good." Gu Nan nodded seriously. "It only lags behind mainstream fashion by 300 years at most."
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Although Daoist Lingyang frequently visited the World of Gods and even spent a long time here in his early years, culture wasn't something that could be accepted so easily.
It was the same as a foreigner in imperial China—no matter how many years he spent there, people would still recognize him as a foreigner as soon as he opened his mouth. That was culture.
The World of Gods also had its own unique culture, which came from wars among the gods in ancient times and developed step by step until now.
For instance…
"Will playing this really help me integrate here?" Daoist Lingyang held some black cards. After several rounds of crushing defeat at Gu Nan's hands, he finally asked with a face full of confusion.
"Of course," Gu Nan replied without hesitation. "At least you can use this to communicate with Sylvia more often. Culture can be learned through communication."
Daoist Lingyang thought about it for a moment before finally nodding. "You have a point."
……
Xie Yun was able to acquire the Pay to Win Expert route, while Liang Ruxin also seemed to reach the end of his quest and was about to undergo his final exam.
The two's progress wasn't out of Gu Nan's expectations, but Xie Yun's compatibility with Pay to Win Expert surprised Gu Nan a bit.
According to Lan Si, Xie Yun barely encountered any troubles before she successfully changed her class.
Moreover, Xie Yun seemed to have an innate talent for exchanging everything she could think of into gold and investing it all into her class.
"She ran off to Atalante, where the ore deposits are richer," Lan Si said with a helpless look.
There were a large number of gold mines within Atalante, and it was clear that Xie Yun was no longer satisfied with ordinary trade and was determined to directly plunder the gold mines.
Gu Nan nodded in understanding. Pay to Win Experts tended to experience skyrocketing power shortly after they acquired that class, but they would soon fall into a bottleneck as well.
This was because this route requires a terrifying amount of gold upon reaching the mid- to late-stages. Not even emptying all the gold in a few main planes would be enough.
But then again… This route seemed well-suited for the Myriad Heavens.
Unlike the artificially-created Divine Kingdoms here, the planes in the Myriad Heavens all occurred naturally, many of which contained gold mines ripe for plunder.
"Just bring her along when we leave. Leave her to her own devices for now."
After Gu Nan made up his mind, he stopped paying attention to Xie Yun's situation and focused on preparing Elise's matter.
In theory, Elise had already lost much of her value after her reputation as the "three-time fiancé killer" spread.
Because by this point, most of the missions related to her were already completed, and there were only a few minor subplots left that didn't give good rewards.
But players were players precisely because they could turn the impossible into possible.
"Lan Si." Gu Nan called his apostle to his side, "Spread the news."
……
By the time old Fox arrived, news of Elise finding a husband through "ball tossing" had already spread throughout the entire World of Gods.
If it was the original Fox, he probably wouldn't have understood what an "embroidered ball" was. But after traveling to the Myriad Heavens, this was not the first time he had seen this custom.
'Sure enough, a powerful figure from the Myriad Heavens snatched Elise away!'
Old Fox couldn't help clenching his fists, his eyes full of indignation— 'That damned fellow even wants to tarnish Elise's reputation!'
As someone who personally married his daughter off three times, old Fox knew all too well how his daughter's reputation was nowadays.
If not for the fact that Elise's godly fiancé didn't believe in bad luck, there would actually be no one willing to marry his daughter for the third time.
But now that person actually wants Elise to publicly solicit marriage. This… this was simply rubbing salt in the wound!
"Where is that damned fellow? I want to see him!"
"That one invited you to the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom to see him…"
"What a joke! How am I supposed to go to the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom?!"
……
For mortals, the main plane they lived in was their entire world, and the greater gods' Divine Kingdoms were existences they could never hope to set foot upon.
Unless one was guided by a god's apostle, there was no way to enter the Divine Kingdom.
Regardless of Gu Nan's intentions, news that Elise planned to "toss the ball" had already spread.
People didn't know there was a mastermind behind Elise and only believed this "bad luck charm" had gotten so desperate that she came up with such a stupid move.
Did she really think that people would be willing to come to her door if she openly looked for a partner?
Many people treated this as watching a show, and the reality was also similar to their expectations.historical
The place where Elise threw the ball was also in Atalante, a new continent that was still in turmoil, so even fewer people showed up.
It's just that amidst the jokes about it, a new piece of news came out.
Even though Elise didn't manage to find a husband, her embroidered ball was still thrown out, and it had strayed to who knows where.
It was said to have been unintentionally picked up by a man who was already engaged, whereupon this gentleman, who didn't even know Elise, similarly died a violent death.
When this rumor began to circulate, the World of Gods finally boiled over—this was practically a divine weapon that could kill people tracelessly!
And the men who were already engaged but hadn't gotten around to consummating their marriages yet felt a sense of crisis.
Who didn't have a few enemies? No one wanted to wake up with a big red embroidered ball in their house and live in fear of a violent death.
A wave of marriages and withdrawals spread among the young men of Atalante.
Whether they got married or withdrew their engagement, the purpose was the same: to free themselves from the status of being a "fiancé".
And due to factors like cumbersome procedures and the required approval of the bride's side, marriage was naturally far more troublesome than withdrawing an engagement, so countless scenes of "don't look down on me just because I'm a poor girl" repeated across the entire continent.
Even more terrifying was that in a few days' time, a big red embroidered ball really did appear in some young men's homes.
Just like that, the horrifying legend about the "red embroidered ball" spread among mortals.
"Why on earth are you doing this?" Daoist Lingyang, who was dressed as a nouveau riche, looked at Gu Nan curiously.
The two of them were sitting comfortably in a remote manor in Atalante. On this rare occasion, Gu Nan had also changed his clothes, putting on a flashy outfit that made him look like a wealthy young master.
It had to be said that Gu Nan's taste was still a bit better than Daoist Lingyang's.
Daoist Lingyang was extremely curious about Gu Nan's actions, especially after seeing him organize a husband-recruiting ceremony for Elise where a grand total of zero candidates showed up, then creating the embroidered ball himself.
That's right—the vast majority of the embroidered balls that were secretly circulating on the continent today came from Gu Nan's hands, and every single one of them sold for a high price.
Sometimes he even specifically arranged for people to kill the youths who received the embroidered balls in order to corroborate the curse's authenticity.
It could be said that a large part of the reason why Atalante was in a state of panic nowadays was due to Gu Nan.
"I need to kill some gods." Gu Nan had no intention of hiding it, and it wasn't like he could hide it from Daoist Lingyang anyway.
"Revenge?" This was Daoist Lingyang's first thought, as he had done the same himself.
"No, no." Gu Nan, however, waved his hand. "I just want to slaughter gods, doesn't matter which ones."
Daoist Lingyang was slightly taken aback, then asked, "So, you can lure over a god by doing this?"
He had personally proven just how difficult it was to lure a god down to the main plane.
Of course, he seemed to have also forgotten that the last time Gu Nan had done something similar, it was likewise a very easy process for Gu Nan.
"It's here," Gu Nan didn't answer him, but merely smiled and said.
Outside the manor, a woman in a light red cloak was slowly walking up to the entrance.
"In the name of My Lord, Her Majesty Emma." The woman's pretty face was filled with frost. "Stop these foolish acts immediately, vile merchants!"
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"Which god is Emma?" Daoist Lingyang asked with slight surprise.
He'd also traveled through almost half of the World of Gods, but he had never heard of the name Emma before.
There were only a few hundred gods in the entire World of Gods, so for Daoist Lingyang, who was also at this level, there shouldn't be any that he didn't recognize.
However, Gu Nan knew Emma was an exception. As a matter of fact, let alone Daoist Lingyang, very few gods native to the World of Gods knew of Emma's existence.
To be more accurate, ever since the first Great War of the gods, she had vanished without a trace, and very few people had contact with her after that.
What was even more interesting was that Emma didn't intentionally hide herself. She simply detached herself from both the Light and Dark Factions after that year, announcing that she wouldn't get involved in future godly wars.
But she wasn't adverse to showing herself if it was necessarily for fulfilling her divine duties. It's just that for tens of thousands of years, there were very few situations that required her to step in.
She was Emma, God of Love Emma.
"God of Love?" Daoist Lingyang carefully searched his memory and confirmed that this was the first time he heard this name.
"Emma's divine authority is love." Gu Nan explained succinctly, "But since there is no God of Marriage, the marriage part is also in her hands."
This was why an apostle of the God of Love appeared outside the manor.
Gu Nan's series of actions had severely disrupted the normal matrimonial cycle of Atalante and harmed Emma's operations, which was why she sent an apostle to stop them.
Of course, under Gu Nan's deliberate arrangement, this God of Love who was already somewhat muddle-headed to begin with didn't realize that this was all a conspiracy.
In the news she received, it was just a rich mortal merchant who had the sudden urge to sell embroidered balls to make money after hearing about Elise's story.
Even though it wasn't the other party's intention to make Atalante's people tremble in fear and cause the marriage rate to plummet, it was still necessary to send an apostle to punish the other party and make them stop this.
After roughly understanding the entire process, Daoist Lingyang couldn't help revealing an odd expression.
"How did you know that this would lure out Emma?" Gu Nan's actions were too purposeful. Daoist Lingyang didn't get the feeling that he was trying things out at all; rather, he felt that Gu Nan was already sure of the outcome in advance.
Gu Nan shrugged without replying.
It wasn't like he could say this was a storyline that a certain bored player accidentally triggered in his past life while tormenting the mission called Elise.
Gu Nan also didn't meet that God of Love's apostle, or else it would be easy for Emma to notice something was off.
Following his plan, he already prepared a Legend Rank expert in advance to step in and kick that apostle out in an extremely rude manner.
Even when the other party identified herself as an apostle, the Legend Rank powerhouse still used vulgar words to swear at her and make her leave.
"My Lord, what you commanded has been done…" Legend Rank powerhouse Jotun said with a rather nervous expression as he stood in front of Gu Nan.
Not only was he scared of Gu Nan, he was even more terrified of retaliation from the gods—after all, his earlier behavior had truly angered a god.historical
Gu Nan was leisurely playing black cards with Daoist Lingyang and crushing him without much effort. He casually replied, "You're afraid? No need to be nervous. Emma is an extremely hot-tempered god, so she'll come over very soon."
Jotun was on the verge of tears. Who reassured people like this?
Daoist Lingyang, however, understood what Gu Nan meant—since she would arrive very soon, she would naturally also die very soon.
……
Old Fox was currently in Atalante.
Days of rushing around had left him with a weathered look on his face. As a mortal, he didn't have the ability to travel through planes, but luckily, the cruise ship from the Myriad Heavens happened to place him in Atalante.
"Mr. Fox, I must warn you… that what you are doing right now is very dangerous," a man stood by old Fox's side and cautiously reminded for the twentieth time.
This man was a subordinate of Daoist Heir Qin Ning and was none other than the Second Guardian, who had been specifically sent to Fox's side by Qin Ning.
Fortunately, the Second Guardian was here, or else old Fox would've been killed a long time ago due to Elise's current infamy.
Now the two of them were on their way to the place where Elise "tossed the ball".
If the Second Guardian's guess wasn't wrong, then that powerful figure would most likely be paying close attention to that place or might even be there in person. It was truly a perilous place where it would be difficult to survive.
"My daughter is there." Old Fox gazed firmly ahead. At this time, they were almost at their destination.
Due to his orders, the Second Guardian couldn't stop Fox from acting and could only dissuade Fox, which filled him with helplessness.
However, he didn't want to follow Fox and throw his life away as well, so he could only try his best to dissuade him, "That one obviously has plans. You might as well wait until this matter is over…"
"Who knows what he'll do to my daughter!" Old Fox displayed the characteristic stubbornness of the Atalante people and glared at the Second Guardian.
The Second Guardian couldn't help but bristle. He was very tempted to say that with that one's status, if he really wanted to do something to your daughter, no one would be able to stop him at all.
While the two were talking, a sudden throbbing came from the front, as if a heavy force was pressing down on their hearts.
Old Fox stared blankly ahead, not understanding what was happening, but the Second Guardian was familiar with this as panic entered his expression.
"A god…"
……
The God of Love had arrived.
As previously stated, this god with a very artful divine authority actually had a personality that was not at all low-key and could even be said to blow up at the slightest grievance.
It's just that she had very few friends, and after the first Great War, even fewer people recognized her. Combined with the fact that gods who overlapped with Emma's divine authority were extremely rare, she became an invisible person among the gods.
But today, the invisible person was aggroed out by Gu Nan.
Emma was a blue-haired girl who wore a light red robe. She stepped out of the void and announced, "Mortal, you will be punished for your foolishness, shallowness, and—"
Shadows emerged from behind Emma, bringing the God of Love's words to an abrupt halt as the sense of danger that penetrated her bones caused her entire being to involuntarily tremble.
It had been way too long since she experienced something like this.
Ever since the Great War tens of thousands of years ago, she rarely had the chance to fight anyone, and normally, no one was willing to mess with a Tier 8 god either.
But at this moment, her opponent was completely oblivious to all of this and went for a fatal blow as soon as he appeared!
Gu Nan's fist smashed down from behind Emma's head, while his power of shadows wrapped around the both of them, isolating the aura of gods fighting.
In the eyes of outsiders, they could probably only see a ball of shadows.
Daoist Lingyang stood in the manor, calmly gazing at the scene taking place in the sky above.
He was perfectly aware that not even Gu Nan could maintain this level of shadow concealment for long—in other words, Gu Nan was certain that he could resolve the fight in a very short time.
A puzzled expression appeared in Daoist Lingyang's eyes: 'The other party is a Tier 8 god. What will you do?'
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Although ripping apart a Tier 8 god with one's bare hands seemed a bit absurd in Daoist Lingyang's eyes, Gu Nan had done it many times before.
Azure blood splashed out from the back of Emma's neck. Thanks to Gu Nan's monstrous strength, cracks began to appear all over Emma's divine body.
"Who… are you?" Emma couldn't catch her opponent's figure at all and only felt pain coming from her entire body, which was enduring a frenzy of blows.
Of course her question went unanswered.
Emma tried to escape, attempting to get away from Gu Nan's crazed attacks, but she, who had never been good at combat, simply couldn't do it.
However, no matter how slow-witted she was, at this time, she also realized that this incident was never a simple matter of a merchant's underhanded profit-making scheme, but rather… an outright conspiracy!
A conspiracy completely aimed at her in an attempt to kill her in a main plane!
Emma hadn't been in such a sorry state ever since the first Great War.
Her laws were easily shattered by her opponent, and her supreme divine power was completely useless, like a pebble sinking into the sea when she hit her opponent with it, unable to elicit even the tiniest reaction.
"Who in the world is this person?" Although she was in such a desperate situation, Emma was still in the mood to ponder this question.
Of course it wasn't because this Love God didn't fear death, but because she didn't believe she was going to die here, even if her enemy was exceedingly powerful.
"You cannot kill me, Your Excellency." Emotion gradually faded from Emma's voice, "I think we should put aside our prejudice and talk."
Even faced with an assassin who launched a sneak attack, the god was still able to make rational judgments. The Love God was just hot-tempered, not a nutjob like Karina.
However, Gu Nan didn't react to her gesture of kindness at all and even intensified his attacks.
The scars on Emma's divine body were increasing, and blue blood flowed all over her body, resembling a porcelain filled with blue pigment.
"It's useless." Emma finally gave up resisting altogether and let her divine body be destroyed. "Why do you want to kill me? Why don't we sit down and talk? I can help you."
She looked like a knowing older sister at this point. "For love? Your lover left you? Or fell in love with someone else?"
"As long as no other gods are involved, I can make any young girl fall in love with you unconditionally."
Wham!
Gu Nan's fist finally struck Emma's head, smashing her skull apart. He seemed to have completely ignored her earlier words.
"I told you, it's useless," Emma's voice remained calm, even if it was beginning to distort due to the damage to her vocal cords.
She seemed to have faced such a scene many times before, so she was able to appear unperturbed.
The next second, a pink mist rose up and began to envelop Emma's entire body, gradually restoring her body to its original state.
The process wasn't fast and was nowhere near as quick as some actual resurrection abilities. It could even be forcibly interrupted.
Gu Nan, however, knew how frightening this ability was. It could only be interrupted, but would never lose effectiveness.
In other words, the God of Love was immortal. It was because of this ability that she was able to survive the Great War, which had the heaviest death toll.
Love was immortal, and as long as love still existed in the world, the God of Love would not perish.
"Love exists forever in the world." Emma's head had fully regenerated. "Please stop your meaningless attacks, Your Excellency."
The God of Love could not be destroyed, even by a super powerful greater god like the Ruler of Light and Justice or by a player who finished Round Two.
Gu Nan didn't know what the significance of this setting was, or perhaps it was just bad taste on the part of the game designers, but he knew how to crack it.
To be precise, it wasn't by cracking the "love is eternal" point, but bypassing this point to kill the God of Love.
Elise appeared in Gu Nan's hands, or rather, in front of Emma.
Emma stared blankly, not understanding what this meant. "Your Excellency…"
"Go on, take back your birthright." Gu Nan, however, simply gave Elise a gentle push, and the little girl suddenly rushed towards the Love God with a face full of bewilderment.
Emma, who was in the middle of recovering, was powerless to resist and could only watch as the little girl crashed into her.
"I don't know if love is eternal, but you certainly aren't."
A shadow longsword coalesced in Gu Nan's hand, which he stabbed into the center of Emma's forehead without hesitation, and a flash of golden light began to flicker.
That was where the Godhead was located.
Normally, the Godhead would only be exposed when a god died and could not be attacked at any other time.
Not even Emma herself knew why her Godhead would appear at this time.
"It's because of love." Gu Nan pointed at Elise, who was being pulled forth by the light emanating from the Godhead and slowly walking forward.
Her body gradually overlapped with Emma's. Only then did Emma realize that the young girl was extremely similar to her in height, silhouette, and physique.
"There has only ever been one generation of the God of Love, and that was the case since you first emerged, but that is not the complete truth," Gu Nan continued to speak, his words piercing straight through Emma's heart like the sharpest blade.
As if Emma had realized something, a low scream of terror came out of her mouth, "No…"
Elise gradually merged with the golden light, and a strange radiance began to emerge on her face. Gu Nan was very familiar with this—it was divinity.
For mortals, becoming a god was a very difficult thing. But for some people, they only needed to take one step to become a god.
Love might be eternal, but when the God of Love's divine authority was stripped away, Emma would no longer be eternal.
Bang!
Gu Nan landed another punch, and this time, Emma's head exploded like a watermelon, disappearing completely from the world.
In the air, the golden glow from Elise's body grew brighter and brighter.
On the ground, old Fox finally arrived, and he shouted into the air like a madman, "Elise! Elise!"
Elise slowly opened her eyes and looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure below, pausing for a while before she vacantly responded, "Father."
Old Fox sighed heavily in relief. No matter what happened, it was fine as long as Elise was fine.historical
But Elise wasn't really fine. She was no longer the mortal maiden of the past; she was now the new God of Love.
There weren't many instances of a mortal ascending to godhood in one fell swoop, and Elise happened to be one of them. The reason for that was due to her mother.
Even old Fox himself didn't know that the girl he met by chance in his early years was actually the incarnation of another God of Love.
She died at Emma's hands in the first Great War, and from then on, the divine authority of the God of Love was held solely by Emma.
But again, due to the characteristics of the God of Love's eternal existence, that fallen goddess's divine power did not die out, but remained in the main planes and was even absorbed by some mortal women to create incarnations.
"Elise, are you alright?!" The old man pulled his daughter in front of him and carefully examined her to make sure she wasn't hurt.
"She's never been better." Gu Nan's voice came from the side while looking at Elise, "You can marry now, but I must warn you."
"The person who becomes the husband of the God of Love may run into some strange events, so you'll have to help him."
Having a romantic relationship with the God of Love was actually equivalent to interfering with her divine duties, so the violator would be admonished and punished by the laws of the world, unless the God of Love herself was willing to influence the world in turn.
"Plus… no one dares to marry me anymore, right?" Elise asked calmly.
After Gu Nan's publicity stunt, her infamous reputation had become even more entrenched in people's hearts.
"Theoretically, that's true." Gu Nan nodded and looked at Daoist Lingyang again. "Oh right, didn't you say yesterday that some Daoist Heir or whatever wants to join the Heaven-God Alliance?"
"Daoist Heir Qin Ning."
"He's not married yet, is he?"
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Gu Nan was no longer interested in knowing what kind of story would happen when Daoist Heir Qin Ning met Daoist Lingyang and what this Daoist Heir would do in response.
For him, successfully hunting the God of Love and harvesting nearly three 3,000 Evil Value was the most important thing.
The God of Love was worth more than the Mirror God. Even though she looked a bit weaker and was actually also a bit weaker, how much Evil Value a god was worth wasn't entirely determined by strength.historical
Just as monsters didn't necessarily give more EXP the harder they were to fight, there were always other factors involved.
The first thing that determined a god's value was, of course, their level. Gu Nan needed to collect another 10,000 Evil Value to advance to Tier 8, and killing one Tier 9 god was perfectly sufficient.
However, if it was Tier 8 gods, it could be anywhere from three to four. This range was due to the different Evil Values each god was worth.
The god's level determined the order of magnitude, while the amount of faith the god amassed within their Divine Kingdom determined the specific gain from slaughtering that god.
A god like the Mirror God who'd been slumbering for countless years and even needed to rebuild his Divine Kingdom was naturally unlikely to be worth too much Evil Value.
Likewise, the God of Love rarely appeared in public, so the amount of faith she could gain was by no means high, and it wasn't even close to the average level of a Tier 8 god.
'Not bad. At this rate, we'll reach the requirement after two more kills.' Gu Nan roughly estimated in his mind the average level of a god in this period.
There was actually quite a big difference between killing three gods and killing four.
The most convenient place to hunt gods was naturally main planes. If he had to run to a god's Divine Kingdom to kill them, neither the difficulty level nor the success rate would look too favorable.
However, gods weren't fools, and if there were consecutive incidents of gods dying in main planes, no one would casually descend here anymore.
This was also why Gu Nan enveloped the entire battlefield in the power of shadows, doing his best to conceal the battle.
"Qin Ning has agreed," on this day, Daoist Lingyang came to Gu Nan's residence, and this was the first thing he said.
"Oh, that's nice." Gu Nan casually replied, "Did you tell him the consequences?"
"Of course… Did you think everyone is like you and likes to screw over their own people?" Daoist Lingyang cast him a disdainful glance. "He's going back to the Myriad Heavens soon, so the impact won't be as great."
Gu Nan nodded. It was true that Qin Ning wouldn't be too afraid of backlash from the laws of the world if he returned to the Myriad Heavens, since there was no God of Love over there.
However, Elise would be busy taking charge of the previous Love God's inheritance, so she probably wouldn't be able to go with him. The young couple was destined to be separated.
"By the way, Qin Ning would like to pay you a visit," Daoist Lingyang added.
……
This was Gu Nan's first meeting with Qin Ning, although Gu Nan's name wasn't unfamiliar to the latter. After all, Gu Nan was too famous right now.
Daoist Heir Qin Ning had a very good excuse for the visit. Naturally, it was to apologize to Gu Nan for the earlier offense of his underling Guardians.
Speaking of which, the whole matter was quite ironic.
Originally, Elise ran away by herself because she didn't want to marry Daoist Heir Qin Ning and ended up meeting Gu Nan, yet she still ended up going down this path.
However, she was unwilling to marry back then because she didn't want to harm Qin Ning, but that might not necessarily be the case anymore. Just from outward appearance alone, this Daoist Heir Qin Ning was still quite good, and his speech and demeanor were flawless.
More importantly, he wasn't a Void Cutter, but a Star Ruler.
Of course Void Grotto Heaven, one of the Thirteen Heavens, would never cultivate dozens of Void Cutter Realm successors—even if Yu Lian was willing to step down, what qualifications would they have to ascend to the heavens in one fell swoop?
Therefore, although there were nearly a hundred Daoist Heirs in Void Grotto Heaven, there were currently less than ten Daoist Heirs who had already broken through to Star Ruler Realm and were therefore qualified to compete for the inheritance.
Qin Ning was one of them. He was already ahead of many others, but he wasn't satisfied; he wanted to be ahead of everyone.
Having a god as his wife would make certain matters much easier. As long as he could withstand the consequences, this deal was worth it.
"Lord Gu Nan." Daoist Heir Qin Ning respectfully sat in front of Gu Nan, humbling his demeanor as much as possible. "In addition to apologizing, this subordinate actually came here for another matter."
Gu Nan knew that this was the other party's true intention, so he said flatly, "Speak."
Qin Ning straightened his expression and said solemnly, "Recently, some in Void Grotto Heaven have voiced concerns… about His Excellency Xue Ren."
The relationship between Void Grotto Heaven and Extreme Sword Heaven had always been very good thanks to the excellent personal relationship between the two planes' Star Rulers.
But now that Xue Ren had become a high-ranking member of the Heaven-God Alliance, would the relationship between him and Zi Luo Elder be even closer than that of Void Grotto Heaven?
If Xue Ren ascended to Unified Dao one day and Void Grotto Heaven became enemies with the Heaven-God Alliance, which side would he favor?
As long as this kind of suspicion exists, it would inevitably affect Void Grotto Heaven's attitude—unless Xue Ren made a public statement.
After all, Void Grotto Heaven was not completely Yu Lian's, as she had gotten it by inheritance, not by her own power.
Gu Nan understood the root cause of all this, but he wasn't very interested in it and just smiled. "You should talk to Lingyang or Xue Ren himself about something like this. There's no use telling me."
"No, My Lord." Qin Ning, however, said firmly, "You are the only one left who can help His Excellency Xue Ren right now."
Without waiting for Gu Nan to respond, he continued, "As long as you're willing to stand up and declare His Excellency Xue Ren's position on his behalf, the Sect Leader will be able to easily suppress the voices of dissent. This is also the best opportunity for the Heaven-God Alliance and Void Grotto Heaven to make direct contact!"
Daoist Heir Qin Ning's face was filled with excitement when he said this.
In a sense, this was the real reason why Daoist Heir Qin Ning traveled all the way to the World of Gods and now requested a meeting with Gu Nan.
If he didn't want to directly connect Void Grotto Heaven with the Heaven-God Alliance, he could've simply found a way to join the Heaven-God Alliance in the Myriad Heavens. Why would he need to run all the way here?
In the end, he needed someone with great weight inside the Heaven-God Alliance and who also had a close relationship with Xue Ren to come forward and make a stand for Xue Ren.
This way, not only could the suspicions between the two sides be resolved, but with the Heaven-God Alliance and Void Grotto Heaven being in direct contact, the contact points on both sides would undoubtedly gain great benefits.
These two contact points were naturally Gu Nan and Qin Ning himself.
Qin Ning didn't explicitly spell this out, but he believed that Gu Nan could understand and that it was a win-win situation the latter had absolutely no reason to refuse.
Even if Xue Ren really wanted to alienate himself from Void Grotto Heaven, that still wouldn't prevent Gu Nan from taking action.
The calculations and speculations about the human heart involved were extraordinarily delicate and tedious, and Qin Ning had also spent a long time planning this before finally standing in front of Gu Nan.
That was why he was confident in himself.
"Why?" Gu Nan asked with a puzzled expression.
Qin Ning's heart full of schemes froze on his face, and he could only force himself to say, "My Lord, if this matter comes to fruition, it will be good for all parties. Whether it's the Heaven-God Alliance or Void Grotto Heaven, or you yourself…"
"Oh, you can talk to Zhuangxuan about these kinds of matters." Gu Nan waved his hand dismissively and added, "The disciple of that old man outside, you can find him in Clear Profundity Realm."
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Daoist Heir Qin Ning left reluctantly, his heart full of bewilderment.
Even until he left, he still believed that Gu Nan had some deeper meaning for doing this and even sought out Daoist Lingyang to test the waters.
However, Daoist Lingyang just laughed involuntarily after hearing this. "Even if you want to give a gift, you still need to know what the person actually wants, right?"
A few moments later, Daoist Lingyang came back to Gu Nan's side and said with a smile, "This little fellow was originally supposed to talk to me."
Of course it was impossible for Daoist Heir Qin Ning to predict that Gu Nan would come to the World of Gods right now. His initial target was definitely Daoist Lingyang.
After all, even if the latter wasn't in the Myriad Heavens, his status within the Heaven-God Alliance still wouldn't drop too much. He would still be one of the elders, just responsible for different matters.
Gu Nan shook his head. He was completely uninterested in Qin Ning's so-called benefits. Status inside the Heaven-God Alliance? The opportunity to directly interact with Void Grotto Heaven? None of it was worth mentioning in Gu Nan's eyes.
Most of the interactions between players and NPCs were limited to the "mission-reward" pattern. Besides a few with special hobbies, no one would bother to have deeper interactions with NPCs.
As for seeking status within an NPC organization, that was even more laughable.
Players only knew to beat up disobedient NPCs until they obeyed and beat up those who still refused to obey until they died.
"So, do you have a grudge against any other gods?" Gu Nan turned to look at Daoist Lingyang again. He still hadn't forgotten that last time, Daoist Lingyang's schemes to kill Lewis were still quite remarkable.
Daoist Lingyang replied a little curtly, "No!"
……historical
After Daoist Lingyang left as well, Gu Nan finally started to focus on considering which god he would be better off going after.
If a player had developed normally, they wouldn't actually have these kinds of worries at all. This was because if one took the normal route to becoming a god, they would inevitably make some enemies and friends, so it was much more convenient to lay out a plan around them than going after someone out of thin air.
Just like how he used Elise to lure out the God of Love, there were quite many lures similar to Elise. It's just that trying to find such lures wasn't an easy task.
Of course it wasn't like there weren't any upsides to Gu Nan's current situation. At least he was like an invisible person in the World of Gods, ensuring that as long as he didn't do anything too eye-catching, very few people would pay attention to him.
A few moments later, Lan Si was called before Gu Nan.
Lan Si's life was very peaceful lately. As long as she kept an eye on both Xie Yun and Liang Ruxin, she only needed to focus on her own cultivation, which was much easier than in the Myriad Heavens.
However, she knew her peaceful days were finally coming to an end when Gu Nan placed a document in front of her.
"Here's a list." Gu Nan pointed to the list and said, "Find out what these people are up to and if they've encountered anything strange recently."
Lan Si skimmed through the names on the list and realized they were basically all mortals—it was rare to see even Legend Rank experts on that list—and all of them lived in the main planes.
"Understood," Lan Si didn't ask further questions and immediately agreed. "But we're understaffed here, time-wise…"
Actually, it wasn't just a lack of manpower. Gu Nan simply had no manpower to speak of in the World of Gods.
"Ask… Lingyang for help. Atalante is already mostly his anyway. Since he's going to rebuild his astral world, there's no way he doesn't have forces in the other main planes."
Gu Nan thought about it and ultimately decided not to seek Rolensia's help.
Now that she was already a greater god, openly seeking her assistance to kill other gods might cause her to see some clues and discover his identity as an Evil God.
As for Daoist Lingyang, it seemed that he made up his mind to establish his astral world in the World of Gods. Nobody knew what exactly he was thinking.
Lan Si took the list drawn up by Gu Nan and started investigating the situation of all the baits listed on there, but only two days later, Gu Nan received a different piece of news first.
Liang Ruxin had returned.
"My Lord." Liang Ruxin, who was carrying two swords on his back, met Gu Nan with a very different appearance. If it wasn't for some similarities in his facial structure, Gu Nan wouldn't have been able to recognize him.
The former Liang Ruxin had gone through the vicissitudes of life, so his face appeared older, resembling a middle-aged uncle with a face full of scruff.
But now his skin was as white as a woman's, with no calluses visible on the palms of his hands. His long hair fell down to his shoulders, and his entire person exuded a decadent and demonic aura.
"Are you sure the class you changed to is Phantom Sword Saint and not Sunflower Successor[1]?" Gu Nan asked while rubbing his chin. Even Chamberlain himself didn't have this appearance after creating this class.
Liang Ruxin, however, revealed a troubled smile. "Master's sword art is too profound for this humble one to comprehend directly, so I had to divide it into two and cultivate them one after the other."
"How did you divide it?"
"I divided the sword art into Yin and Yang." Liang Ruxin instantly straightened up when he started discussing swordsmanship. "I first obtained the Yin Sword. I will learn the Yang Sword after that, entering major attainment only after I master both parts."
Gu Nan's expression couldn't help turning a little strange. Although he himself had never gone the Phantom Sword Saint route, he knew that there was absolutely no such thing as Yin and Yang in this route.
In fact, this was entirely Liang Ruxin's own understanding, a theory of swordsmanship from the Myriad Heavens.
This was also an issue Gu Nan had overlooked. In the end, people of the Myriad Heavens weren't players. They had their own set of worldviews, as well as their own understanding of power systems.
Young people like An Tiansheng and Xie Yun were still fine, but Liang Ruxin's three views had already been formed, and his talent and understanding were equally high, so it was too much to ask him to honestly follow the unfamiliar new route to the letter.
However, being able to have his own understanding might not necessarily be a bad thing, and he might achieve more in the future.
Gu Nan was more interested in the so-called "Yin Yang Swords" and casually said, "Try attacking with it."
Liang Ruxin nodded and pulled out a sword directly from behind him. He knew that the gap between himself and the one before him was so great that it was impossible to injure the other party, so he had nothing to worry about.
Moreover, now that he'd broken through to Void Cutter Realm, he was eager to test his newfound strength.
The longsword Liang Ruxin held was a strange sword that glowed faintly, but for some inexplicable reason, the light seemed to capture people's hearts and minds.
There was nothing strange about the sword itself. Rather, it became like this only after Liang Ruxin infused it with his power.
In the next moment, the Yin Sword instantly cut through space and arrived straight in front of Gu Nan—to be in front of Gu Nan and still be able to easily tear through space was something that even many gods couldn't do!
Gu Nan's gaze turned slightly serious. Already, this was not an ability that belonged to the Phantom Sword Saint class, but rather created through Liang Ruxin's own understanding of the route.
Just as the Yin Sword was about to land on Gu Nan, Liang Ruxin moved his body again, actually splitting into six images of himself who all simultaneously attacked from six different directions. This was the Phantom Sword Saint's signature ability.
"How interesting." Gu Nan grabbed one of the longswords with one hand but allowed the others to stab his body, a small smile appearing on his face.
The illusory swords instantly disappeared, while only a few white spots were left on Gu Nan's body. Liang Ruxin was slightly taken aback, but he came back to his senses and hastily sheathed his sword. "I've offended you."
Gu Nan waved his hand with a smile. "Do you know what role your current abilities are best suited for?"
"What?"
"Assassin."
T/N:
[1] Sunflower Successor- Reference to the Sunflower Manual from the Wuxia novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer where anyone who cultivates it must first castrate themselves
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For Gu Nan, the benefits of Liang Ruxin's peculiar interpretation of his route still outweigh the losses.
Phantom Sword Saint was a melee class that specialized in direct combat, and the class change wouldn't affect Liang Ruxin's role as a close-range fighter, but it was different now thanks to his new ability—assassin-type characters could sometimes play unimaginably critical roles.
Because both the Myriad Heavens and the World of Gods were ultimately worlds where organizations were held up by a few powerful people, the destruction of high-end combatants often meant the collapse of the group.
More importantly, Gu Nan didn't have a shortage of melee fighters under his command. Instead, he was very short on such specialized talents.
Early the next morning, Gu Nan called Xie Yun over as well, asking her to try her hand against Liang Ruxin.
The outcome was unsurprising. Xie Yun, who'd been searching for gold mines all over the world just now, completely underestimated Liang Ruxin, who had just broken through to Void Cutter Realm, and she lost five out of five battles.
Towards the end, even Xie Yun herself felt a little dizzy and made several low-level mistakes in a row, leading to an almost overwhelming defeat in the last fight.
After the two left, Gu Nan looked at Lan Si. "What do you think of the two of them?"
Lan Si answered without much hesitation, "Xie Yun is stronger in terms of pure strength, but Liang Ruxin has more tricks up his sleeve and more experience."
Gu Nan nodded slightly. With Lan Si's current insight, her evaluation of the two was basically spot on.
Using the game's terms, Xie Yun was like a normal player with all purple rarity equipment. She was only able to play the game and was far from highly skilled in terms of technical skills.
Liang Ruxin, on the other hand, was like a professional player with all white rarity equipment. Although his stats weren't as good, he had far more skills than his opponents, and his experience was also more sophisticated.
However, the issue of experience varied from person to person. What Gu Nan wanted to tell Lan Si was actually the difference in routes.
"You shouldn't think that Liang Ruxin is more valuable than Xie Yun just because of this," Gu Nan said as such. "No matter how fast Liang Ruxin can comprehend his sword art, he still has to rely on himself to reach enlightenment."
Lan Si seemed to understand something and asked somewhat incredulously, "Don't tell me that Xie Yun can break through to Tier 5 as long as she has enough gold?"
In fact, even she herself was still stuck at the threshold of Tier 5. This was, after all, the difference between a god and a human.
It's just that Lan Si possessed a Godhead, so it was far easier for her to reach that threshold than others, and even if she was stuck at the threshold, she was still able to wield power stronger than others her level.
But Xie Yun… didn't even have a threshold.
"That's right." Gu Nan smiled. "As long as you pay money, you can become stronger—this is the only conscience greedy game developers have."
In terms of overall strength, the Pay to Win Expert could only be considered an average route. After all, players just needed Evil Value and points to level up, so it wasn't really that difficult.
Moreover, this route hardly provided any combat-oriented skills, and all its class-specific skills just made it easier to get gold.
But for NPCs who had to cultivate on their own, the advantages of a Pay to Win Expert were immense. No bottlenecks, no need for enlightenment, leveling up by paying money—this was the dream of countless NPCs.
"I'll take her back to the Myriad Heavens as soon as possible." Lan Si had already realized Xie Yun's enormous potential, especially when paired with the near-infinite resources of the Myriad Heavens.
Gu Nan nodded and instructed, "Take Liang Ruxin with you as well. Have them familiarize themselves with their abilities as soon as possible. I will most likely launch a new Divine Kingdom War soon after I return."
Lan Si nodded and left, getting to work on Gu Nan's list.
This was the only mission left for her on this side. As long as she delivered the information to Gu Nan, she could return to the Myriad Heavens as soon as possible.
……
However, Gu Nan didn't expect a perfect opportunity to deliver itself right to his door before he even heard news about that list.
"There's a little bit of trouble, I might need help from you guys," Sylvia said calmly while holding a cup of green tea.
This cup of clear tea naturally came from the Daoist Lingyang next to her. The World of Gods didn't have a drink like green tea.
"Oh?" Gu Nan couldn't help raising an eyebrow, a little curious. In his impression, Sylvia had never been a god with a lot of missions on her. Instead, she could be considered the type that really didn't make many enemies.
However, it was true that Sylvia rarely showed up recently and seemed to have something on her mind.
Daoist Lingyang looked like he already knew what was going on and chuckled from the sidelines. "Speaking of which, this actually has something to do with this old Daoist."
Sylvia glared at him in annoyance before slowly explaining what happened.
This matter was indeed related to Daoist Lingyang. Earlier, he schemed to kill Lewis. Though the process was a bit different from what he expected, the result was still quite satisfactory.
Lewis was most certainly dead after that battle, and the Dark Empire on Atalante began to fall apart, but one person survived.
Dark Warrior Goro, this genius character who had risen like a comet from mortal beginnings to godhood step by step, was still active in the main planes.
Back then, not even Daoist Lingyang attacked him. Not only were there numerous secrets on this person, but he was also rumored to have a connection to a certain bigshot in the Dark Faction and was by no means someone who was easy to deal with.
Of course, no one could compare to Sylvia when it came to having a backer, but it wasn't her personal matter this time.
Diana, Goddess of the Night and the Moon and one of Sylvia's few close friends, was now practically archenemies with Goro.
"After Lewis died, Goro left his faction and went solo." Daoist Lingyang helped explain, "There was a treasure that was originally offered to Diana by an apostle in a main plane, but Goro stole it."
Gu Nan frowned in thought for a while but failed to recall any entanglements these two had.
If memory served him, then Goro and Diana shouldn't have crossed paths, even if their laws were indeed quite similar.
Or rather, putting aside the part of Diana's divine authority related to the moon, it was even reasonable to say that those two had the exact same divine authority.
Gu Nan, who was familiar with the game's backstory, knew that Goro's law was precisely the law of night, and there was even a plotline that helped Goro become the greater god ruling over night.
"It's something from that side," Daoist Lingyang added, naturally referring to the Myriad Heavens. "It was originally supposed to be gifted to Lewis."
When Daoist Lingyang said this, Gu Nan understood.
The present was originally supposed to be given to Lewis, but Lewis had already died at Daoist Lingyang's hands by the time it was delivered. However, how could a treasure capable of tempting even Lewis truly be gifted without wanting anything in exchange?
Since it was no longer possible for Lewis to return this favor, the item was naturally gifted to someone else who needed it.historical
Gu Nan figured this out and asked, "Is it a treasure related to the law of night?"
"Yes." Daoist Lingyang nodded. "The Night King's blade from 7,000 years ago. Who would have imagined that it would become an item no one wanted, so it could only be sent here?"
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The Night King was quite a famous Star Ruler in the Myriad Heavens, having made a legendary reputation for himself 7,000 years ago, only to fall quickly afterwards.
He didn't die at the hands of his enemies but lost to the Great Dao—back then, the Tier 10 Night King failed in the final step of breaking through to Unified Dao.
After the Night King, no other famous cultivators using the law of "night" appeared in the Myriad Heavens, so the person who obtained the Blade of Night had no choice but to sell it to this side.
Perhaps some weaker Star Rulers who just entered that realm might have the right law, but they couldn't afford the exorbitant price.
"Perhaps this blade was also the reason Goro fell out with Lewis's former subordinates," Gu Nan said with a smile, already imagining the big drama that happened.
Lewis was already a Tier 10 god himself, so he had very little need for the Blade of Night. There was an 80% chance that he bought this blade for Goro as a way of roping him into his faction.
"Exactly." Daoist Lingyang also added, "That's why Goro openly set out to steal it. In any case, Diana hasn't paid for it yet."
"But Diana doesn't want to give up that blade," Sylvia said stiffly from the sidelines.
Of course she was siding with her friend. From Diana's point of view, she didn't care about all these reasons—all she knew was that someone had stolen her stuff.
Unlike Sylvia, Diana was definitely a god with a very good social network.
She belonged to the Light Faction, but because of the nature of her own laws, she also had friendships with many Dark Faction gods. Goro stealing her item was akin to stirring up a hornet's nest.
Sylvia wanted to help, but Goro's strength grew too fast and was probably almost at Tier 7 by now. She wasn't sure she could handle Goro, so she wanted to invite Gu Nan and Daoist Lingyang to join her.
"If you guys have locked onto Goro's location and need anything from this old Daoist, just say the word," Daoist Lingyang was a good person, so he naturally wouldn't refuse such an easy request.
Rather, it was Gu Nan's reaction that was somewhat out of their expectations.
"How can you guys leave me out?" Gu Nan's expression seemed to indicate he was honor-bound to do this. "As long as there are any traces of Goro, please be sure to notify me. I will help confirm Goro's whereabouts."
Daoist Lingyang stared at Gu Nan strangely. In his impression, Gu Nan didn't seem like someone with an overwhelming sense of justice at all.
Sylvia, on the other hand, was happy. She was too lazy to think about Gu Nan's actual motives; she was just satisfied with his statement.
"Excellent! Diana is trying to organize gods who are willing to contribute. Do you want to come along?"
Gu Nan nodded vigorously. "Naturally."
……
Daoist Lingyang sent Lan Si and her group away. Along with Xie Yun and Liang Ruxin, they returned to the Myriad Heavens.
Gazing at their departing figures, the now younger-looking Daoist Lingyang revealed a thoughtful expression.
Gu Nan never actually had any intention of hiding his actions from Daoist Lingyang and even asked for Daoist Lingyang's help when tasking Lan Si with finding that list of mortals.
Especially after learning that Gu Nan's goal was to hunt gods, Daoist Lingyang felt more and more puzzled.
He couldn't figure out how Gu Nan's actions would help him accomplish his goal, not to mention the fact that he actually showed such keen interest after hearing about the Blade of Night.
The fact that Gu Nan then asked him to send Lan Si and the others away undoubtedly meant he saw no need for Lan Si to stay here any longer.
"Could it be that he wants to kill Goro?" Daoist Lingyang thought about it and eventually came up with this conclusion.
Gu Nan's origins had always been mysterious. Perhaps others were afraid of Goro's possible backer, while Gu Nan had no such scruples at all and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to strike.
Of course, what he didn't know was that Gu Nan still needed to kill at least two Tier 8 gods. His appetite simply couldn't be sated with a mere Goro.historical
……
The Divine Kingdom of Night and Moon.
"I'm very grateful to everyone for coming. The night sides with justice, and the night will remember your help," Diana smiled gently as she thanked the arriving helpers.
This time, ten gods had converged here, and that was just the vanguard responsible for locking onto Goro's location. Clearly, Diana was very popular.
However, since Diana herself was only a Tier 8 god, there were no characters beyond that level among the people who came to help this time.
Including Gu Nan and Sylvia, there were a total of ten helpers here, and the strongest among them were the three Tier 8 gods.
God of Paper Marshall, God of Recovery Luke, and Sky God Cliff, who had met Gu Nan once before and was also a member of the Heaven-God Alliance.
These three were all gods from the Light Faction. While it showed that Diana was well-liked, it also showed that a divide still existed between gods of different factions.
Cliff was slightly taken aback when he saw Gu Nan and Sylvia, then took the lead in nodding at them in greeting.
"We're all here to hunt down Goro, so let's not be too polite," Paper God Marshall was the first to speak. "Goro undoubtedly stole the Blade of Night for his own enlightenment, leaving us with little time."
With the Blade of Night in Goro's hands, every additional day that passed increased the likelihood of him completely comprehending the law contained in the weapon, and by that time, the weapon will lose some effectiveness even if they manage to recapture it.
It was practically common knowledge that Marshall was a devoted suitor of the Goddess of Night and Moon, so it was easy for him to say the things that were inconvenient for Diana to say.
"That's right, we need to find Goro as soon as possible," Luke, who was on the sidelines, nodded as well.
Luke looked like an uncle with messy hair; the word unkempt was practically made for him.
However, he himself didn't think so and had always regarded his grooming as trendy, believing that he could win some goddesses' favor with it, and he was likewise Diana's suitor.
If Marshall was a true fan of Diana's, then Luke was purely wooing her to prove his own charms.
The two always liked to follow Diana everywhere, and this time was no exception.
Gu Nan's gaze swept over the two and continued the conversation, "Goro is likely hiding in Atalante."
"How so?" Seeing that a third person had finally spoken up, Marshall didn't want to go toe-to-toe with his old rival at a time like this, so he hurriedly asked while looking at Gu Nan.
Luke also rubbed his disheveled hair and stared at Gu Nan. "Goro is definitely hiding in a main plane—this we all know, but what makes you say he's in Atalante?"
Only the spatial limitations of main planes would make it hard for the gods to quickly find Goro, and they were also the most suitable hiding places. This point needed no further explanation.
But there were so many main planes, and how to determine which one Goro was hiding in became the most important thing.
"Because I saw him there recently," Gu Nan, who'd been staying inside the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom all this time, said shamelessly.
"Really?" Diana was instantly pleasantly surprised. It was the best of luck to have a god who had once stumbled upon Goro by chance.
"Of course." Gu Nan smiled inscrutably. "Do I have any reason to lie to you guys?"
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