Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God #Chapter 459: Blade Of Night - Read Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God Chapter 459: Blade Of Night Online - All Page - FREEWN
Diana and the others had reason to believe Gu Nan because like he said, why would he deceive them?
Sylvia's introduction of him was very clear—as a person from a foreign land who held no grudges against anyone here, Gu Nan had come to help solely because of Sylvia.
Therefore, after Gu Nan's "testimony", the focus of the search would undoubtedly shift to Atalante.
Of course, that wasn't to say they wouldn't search the other main planes. After all, Goro was still alive, so it was entirely possible that he was in Atalante a while ago and then ran off to somewhere else.
Gu Nan only encountered him by chance earlier; it wasn't as if he predicted what would happen in advance and then kept an eye on Goro all the way.
However, it wasn't like no one suspected him.
"Hey, did you really see Goro?" Sylvia asked, looking at Gu Nan with a face full of disbelief.
At this time, everyone else had already left after being assigned search areas, so Sylvia finally had a chance to voice her unspoken doubts from earlier.
"Of course," Gu Nan replied firmly, not ashamed at all at telling a lie, "I previously investigated some mortals, and the focus was on Atalante. Lingyang can testify to that."
Sylvia naturally didn't have the time to find Daoist Lingyang to corroborate those claims and was forced to leave skeptically.
There were a lot of main planes, and every main plane needed a god to search it, so even if Atalante was the focus of the search, only four gods were on this plane.
Gu Nan himself didn't need to be mentioned, and with Diana going to a nearby plane, among the three remaining gods in Atalante, only one was Tier 8—Luke, the God of Recovery.
As for the last two, Sylvia was not one of them. Diana herself assigned the gods to various search areas, distributing the power as evenly as possible without any time to take into account their respective relationships.
"Only one Tier 8—it's just right." Only when Sylvia left did Gu Nan reveal a smile.
For gods, crossing between planes wasn't a difficult task, but going from one main plane to another always took some time.
There was only one Luke in Atalante, which was undoubtedly Gu Nan's favorite situation.
Goro was at most Tier 7 right now, perhaps still Tier 6 even, and this bit of meat on a mosquito's leg certainly couldn't satisfy Gu Nan. From the very beginning, his target was the group of gods that came to search for Goro.
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Among these gods, no one could've imagined that Gu Nan was actually targeting them, because they couldn't find a motive.
What kind of case was the most difficult to solve? Of course it was the kind where no real motive for the crime could be found.historical
However, Gu Nan still needed to make some preparations before he could actually do anything—the current him didn't plan to completely expose his identity.
……
Atalante, Ian City.
Ian was the capital of the Dark Empire, and with the Dark Empire's unification of the continent, this place had rightfully become the political center of the entire continent.
Gu Nan calmly strolled through the streets, his eyes skimming over the familiar streetscape.
Of course he was familiar with this place. As the continent with the most substantial plotline in the game, Atalante was the main plane that 70% of players first came into contact with, while 100% of the players had done missions in this plane.
Gu Nan had also started from the Dark Empire map on more than one occasion, so not only was he familiar with Ian City, he was also very familiar with Goro.
This predetermined protagonist of the game's storyline had been screwed over by players countless times, and some players even took pleasure in bullying Goro.
Gu Nan wasn't so bored as to bully Goro for fun, but he definitely knew Goro's weaknesses better than that group of high and mighty gods.
Just like this, Gu Nan walked through the streets step by step until he slowly entered the palace, but none of the guards or passersby around him noticed his presence, as if he didn't exist at all.
Only when he walked up to a woman did everyone suddenly come back to their senses, feeling as if a silhouette had flashed through their minds, but for the life of them, they couldn't remember what this person looked like.
"Your Excellency… who are you?" Natasha did her best to keep herself calm and asked in a low voice.
Even though she wielded great authority for a long time and the entire empire had been under her control ever since her father left, authority and power in the mortal world was ultimately a mere illusion.
Natasha, who was a Legend Rank powerhouse herself, was perfectly aware of this.
Therefore, she also knew that the person before her was absolutely not someone she could oppose. Resistance was futile. All she could do was to figure out the other party's goal as soon as possible.
"No need to be nervous, I'm not looking for you," Gu Nan replied with a smile.
Before Natasha could return to her senses, a small pitch-black dagger emerged out of thin air and shot straight at Natasha's forehead.
Natasha was completely unable to guard against this dagger. She only felt a flash in front of her eyes as the tip of the dagger shot over, and then a curtain of night jumped out in front of her, barely blocking the dagger.
It wasn't accurate to say it blocked it, because the curtain of night only blocked the dagger for a split second before it shattered.
But thanks to this delay, Natasha had time to leap to the side in a hurry, glancing over in fright.
"Your Excellency, who are you?"
It was the same question, but this time, it didn't come from Natasha's mouth, but from a male voice from the depths of the room—it was Goro's voice.
Of course Gu Nan couldn't possibly know where Goro was, and he didn't have the time to search all over Atalante, but he knew how to find Goro.
The reasoning was also simple: as a key figure in the rise of the Dark Empire, Goro was none other than the husband of Imperial Princess Natasha. This sentimental and righteous Dark Warrior could never sit back and watch his wife die.
By relying on the locator spell he placed on Natasha in advance, Goro rushed to the palace as soon as possible and stared at Gu Nan with a dark expression.
He was indeed in Atalante, but he was hiding in an obscure corner. A cunning rabbit had three burrows; searching for him was most certainly not an easy task.
Now that Gu Nan forced him to show himself, the risk of his exposure was much greater.
"Give me the Blade of Night," Gu Nan said calmly.
Without any half-hearted hesitation at all, Goro drew the long blade from his waist and threw it in front of Gu Nan before saying, "Can I take her away now?"
"I'm afraid not yet." Gu Nan took the Blade of Night and sensed the law of night inside, then smiled.
"In the end, you still affected the law of night inside it. I'll have to wait for Diana to see it herself. She can decide what to do with you." Gu Nan had an It's not up to me; I was just entrusted with this look.
Goro didn't really suspect him. Of course his punishment had to be decided by Diana, the victim herself—this was a matter of course.
He just felt that he was too unlucky. There was actually such a shameless person among these high and mighty gods who knew so much about him and knew to threaten him with Natasha.
Gu Nan waved his hand and summoned a shadow to trap Natasha in place, ensuring that no one could break through and take her away, before he leisurely disappeared with the Blade of Night.
The next second, he appeared at the other end of Atalante, in Luke's search area.
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Gu Nan arrived so quickly that even Luke was a little surprised.
"You found Goro's trail?" Luke asked Gu Nan as he tilted his head of messy hair.
"Yup, I was lucky." Gu Nan nodded and took out a long blade from behind him. "Do you recognize this?"
At the very least, Luke was still a Tier 8 god, and although his law wasn't very strong in terms of both grade and combat power, he could still recognize the law aura on the Blade of Night at first glance.
"This is… the Blade of Night?" He found it a little hard to believe. He and the others hadn't even done anything yet, but someone already obtained the item that Diana needed just like this.
"How can it be that simple?" Gu Nan revealed a helpless look and said, "There are still some problems with this Blade of Night."
Only then did Luke nod in understanding. Goro had always been known among the gods for his cunning and resourcefulness, so he didn't really believe Gu Nan was able to get his hands on the Blade of Night that easily.
On the contrary, it was more plausible that Gu Nan suddenly discovered Goro's whereabouts, so he had to leave the Blade of Night behind in a hurry, but also left them some trouble inside the weapon.
Luke's imaginative brain filled in all the details for him while Gu Nan held up the Blade of Night in front of Luke.
"What's wrong with the blade?"
"See the edge?" Gu Nan pointed at the blade of the Blade of Night, which was radiating a rich darkness.
Luke stared at the blade with unblinking eyes, as if he wanted to find some clues from it.
However, in the next instant, the Blade of Night suddenly shot up and viciously slashed at his neck!
Golden divine blood spurted out violently as a large portion of Luke's neck was severed. Only then did he look at Gu Nan in disbelief.
With his divine body critically damaged in an instant, it was already too late for him to mobilize his own laws.
"Why…?"
Gu Nan had no intention of giving Luke a chance to recover at all, much less answering his question, and slashed down several more times.
The Blade of Night, a weapon that once belonged to a Tier 10 powerhouse, was utilized to astonishing effect in Gu Nan's hands.
The curtain of night easily tore through Luke's defenses and chopped his body into several pieces.
This God of Recovery, who was supposed to be the hardest to kill, was put down without any resistance by Gu Nan's shameful sneak attack.
The law he was so proud of didn't come in handy at all, as Gu Nan's burst damage was too high and didn't give him a chance to heal his HP at all.
"Next…"
Gu Nan's gaze flickered as his mind recalled the geographic distribution of the remaining Tier 8 gods.
The main plane closest to Atalante had a Tier 8 god, and that was the Sky God Cliff.
Although the cautious Cliff would be harder to deal with compared to Marshall, there was no other choice at the moment.
After all, if he deliberately made a detour, his plan to frame Goro wouldn't hold up under scrutiny, and Gu Nan's special trip to get the Blade of Night would become meaningless.
Gu Nan organized Luke's corpse and put it in a pile to the side, then quickly left Atalante.
He was on a very tight schedule. After all, Luke wasn't an invisible person like the Love God. His death would soon be discovered, so the next kill had to be done as soon as possible.
The Evil Value contributed by Luke—which was a bit higher than the God of Love—had already reached 3,500, and it would be enough to just kill one more Tier 8 god.
……
The main plane Cliff was in charge of searching belonged to the Light Faction and had an interesting name: it was called Sanctuary Continent.
Sanctuary Continent was the main plane that produced the greatest number of light attribute creatures, including all types of angels, light elementals, holy unicorns, and so on.
However, Sanctuary Continent wasn't a unified continent. Rather, it was divided into three empires on the outer edge, with a large number of small- and mid-sized kingdoms in the center.
The main fighting forces of the various kingdoms were the elite knight orders that shared a common faith and even had similar doctrines.
Unlike Luke, who was hiding in Atalante, Cliff was openly staying in one of his temples, as he was one of the gods worshiped in Sanctuary Continent to begin with.
But that didn't mean Cliff wasn't being cautious—in fact, he was far more careful than Luke. It was absolutely necessary for gods to remain vigilant at all times whenever they were in a main plane.
The existence of his temple also ensured that no one could sneak in at will; this was a god's home turf.
However, Gu Nan knew Cliff's personality equally well and naturally found a solution.
Cliff sat in silence inside the temple with his eyes closed, waiting for information from the search parties, but his eyes suddenly flew open.
In his senses, a distinct aura emerged outside the temple—it was precisely the law of night!
However, Cliff, who was cautious by nature, didn't act rashly. Instead, a trace of mockery appeared in his eyes.
"Such an obvious diversion. Are you trying to trick me into calling the others over?"
The law of night appeared too close to him, which made him suspicious instead, so he decided to wait and see.
That aura hovered outside the temple for a while and, seemingly slightly anxious at Cliff's lack of response, actually rushed towards the temple.
The sneer in Cliff's heart intensified, and while ordering his apostles to surround the intruder, he himself also rushed that way.
Since Goro dared to intrude into his sacred temple, would Cliff still actively avoid him? To put it bluntly, Goro was just a talented junior.
However, Cliff abruptly came back to his senses when the two started to make contact.
The one standing in front of him was not Goro!
The intruder was too fast and had too clear of a target, arriving in front of Cliff almost in the blink of an eye. It was none other than Gu Nan, who was holding the Blade of Night.
The current Gu Nan had wrapped his entire body pitch-black shadows, looking like a demonic creature.
Alarm bells started ringing in Cliff's head, but at the same time, the identity of the visitor made him suspicious.
The power of the Blade of Night had been brought out to the extreme, and the overly dense law of night masked Gu Nan's own power of shadows.
Moreover, the law of night and the law of shadows bore a certain resemblance to begin with, making it all the more impossible for Cliff to judge. But he knew at least one thing: this person was not Goro.
Gu Nan's cold gaze landed on Cliff, and without even saying anything, his hand rose up and was already swinging the blade at Cliff's body.
However, Cliff was prepared, and the Blade of Night didn't cut into his divine body but was instead firmly blocked.
A light blue luster emerged in front of Cliff, as if he had set up the entire sky in front of him.historical
The Sky God was known as the god with the strongest defense; very few laws could break through his defense.
However, Gu Nan only smiled coldly without saying anything as his left hand threw another punch without hesitation. Could a strong defense be stronger than Karina?
The Blade of Night couldn't bring out Gu Nan's full power at all because he was afraid it would break within a few strikes if he swung it with all his might.
The punch containing monstrous strength blasted apart the space in front of Cliff, directly shattering the sky in front of him.
The next instant, the Blade of Night stabbed into his body without any resistance.
Accompanied by the natural eruption of the law of night, another Tier 8 god died easily at Gu Nan's hands.
Reality proved that once an Evil God got close to them, gods weren't actually much harder to kill than mortals.
And only now did the other gods searching for Goro finally arrive, beginning to gather on Sanctuary Continent—they were attracted by the erupting law of night.
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While Gu Nan was killing Cliff, he intentionally emitted the Blade of Night's aura.
On one hand, it was to hide himself and prevent his identity from being seen through by Cliff at a glance, and on the other hand, it was a deliberate ploy to alert Diana and the others to the commotion here.
Gu Nan glanced at Cliff's corpse at his feet, a faint smile appearing on his face. Unlike Luke, Cliff's corpse hadn't been destroyed by him and only had a bloody gash in his chest.
The blame was ready, now he just had to pin it on Goro's head.
Gu Nan's figure quickly disappeared before the other gods arrived, rushing back to Atalante.
……
This was the scene that greeted Diana and her group of gods by the time they arrived—Cliff's corpse was lying quietly inside the Sky Temple, with the law of night still lingering all over his body.
"Was it Goro?" Marshall gazed at the ground incredulously. Cliff's corpse made him feel a stab of pain.
Cliff was very strong, so much so that even Marshall believed Cliff to be the strongest god in this group. If even Cliff could be killed, then wasn't everyone else—including himself—also in danger?
Diana's expression was also extremely ugly. In any case, Cliff had been killed while helping her, and it made her feel very bad inside.
"It's possible that it's Goro… but how the hell did he do it?"
"Even Cliff died at his hands. As expected of a fellow who grew stronger alongside his main plane…"
"…Wait!" Sylvia snapped back from the shock of Cliff's death. "Why hasn't Gu Nan come over yet? Luke hasn't either!"
Accompanied by this cry of shock from Sylvia, the gods who arrived from all directions realized that there were two members missing among them.
As if she understood something, Diana blurted out, "Quick! Let's head to Atalante!"historical
……
Atalante.
Gu Nan returned to the palace inside Ian City, where Natasha was still being held captive by him; Goro didn't even have the time to hide himself yet.
In fact, Gu Nan's round trip didn't take much time. His god-slaying journey moved very quickly. Goro had just finished placating his wife when Gu Nan returned.
Of course, it wasn't as if Goro hadn't tried to break Gu Nan's restraints on Natasha during this period, but with his mere Tier 6 power, he couldn't do such a thing yet.
As soon as he realized Gu Nan had shown up, Goro quickly stood up and glanced at him warily.
Gu Nan, however, merely smiled, casually tossing aside the Blade of Night before lifting the restraints on Natasha.
"What do you want? Are you letting us go?" The vigilance on Goro's face didn't diminish. He didn't even bother to pick up Blade of Night, shielding Natasha protectively behind him in the process.
"That's right." Gu Nan said calmly, "I'll add on a piece of advice as well: take this blade with you and get out of here as soon as possible."
Gu Nan's figure instantly vanished after saying that, as if he'd never been there in the first place.
The palace turned quiet again. Goro slowly walked forward and picked up the Blade of Night. The law of night within it was still strong and didn't seem to have suffered any damage to the weapon itself.
"He must've done something evil with this blade and pinned it on your head," Natasha couldn't help speaking up as she watched Goro's movements.
She grew up in the palace and assisted her father the emperor with political affairs when she was young, so she was all too familiar with such tactics.
It was also because Gu Nan made it very obvious, not bothering to hide it from the two at all.
Goro took a deep breath and put the Blade of Night back in its sheath. "Even if I know that's the case… I still have to accept this blade."
Natasha was stunned. "Is it really that valuable?"
She wasn't a god, so of course she couldn't tell the Blade of Night's exact value at a glance. She just felt that since Gu Nan had gone to such lengths to make Goro the scapegoat, the blame he was pinning on Goro would definitely be heavy.
"The fact that this is a valuable weapon is one factor…" Goro said helplessly, "More importantly, this blade is something I stole from someone. Would anyone believe me if I went out now and told them someone else stole it from me?"
……
Diana also didn't believe it. Nobody who could become a god was stupid… Well, except for Karina.
After searching Atalante thoroughly, there was still no sign of Gu Nan and Luke, which was enough for the crowd to understand what had happened.
Goro suddenly gained a great deal of strength or temporarily gained some other kind of leverage and killed two of Atalante's searchers—this leverage, of course, was most likely the Blade of Night.
Then he ran to Sanctuary Continent and killed Cliff inside the Sky Temple, but because the latter was already prepared, Goro had to bring out all the power hidden inside the Blade of Night, alerting the other gods in the vicinity and causing him to flee in a hurry.
The most typical evidence was, of course, that Cliff's corpse hadn't been disposed of in time and was left behind as evidence.
Granted, although gods didn't trust people easily, this was already the most likely scenario based on the evidence they found so far.
In order to disprove this claim or argue for other possibilities, the first step was to find Goro—so the question arose again: Who still dared to stay in the main plane after all this?
One Tier 8 god had already fallen and two other gods were missing, so who dared to claim that they were infallible?
Even Diana herself was too embarrassed to open her mouth and ask the crowd to venture forward to search for Goro.
"I've troubled everyone this time." With a helpless smile, Diana urged everyone to leave, as long as they could occasionally keep an eye out for Goro.
Of course, if they could find Gu Nan or Luke, she also requested the gods to help ask those two what happened to them.
One by one, the gods left helplessly, except for Sylvia, who left deep in thought—she didn't have much evidence, but intuition didn't need evidence.
……
"What? You're saying Gu Nan hasn't returned?" Sylvia looked at Daoist Lingyang in surprise, as if the answer was quite unexpected.
She, who originally thought that Gu Nan would return secretly, couldn't help feeling a little more worried. "Could it be that… Gu Nan really met with an accident?"
Sylvia wasn't actually very concerned about Gu Nan. Rather, since she was the one who asked the other party for help, she more or less shared some responsibility if Gu Nan died at Goro's hands.
"What happened?" Daoist Lingyang couldn't help asking.
Sylvia didn't hide anything and recounted what happened after they started searching for Goro.
After understanding the entire matter, Daoist Lingyang revealed a strange smile and said, "So that's it… You don't have to worry about him. Gu Nan has great fortune, so he'll be fine."
"Do you know something?" Sylvia sized up the other party with a skeptical gaze and asked suspiciously.
Daoist Lingyang, however, just shook his head in silence. After a long time, he replied, "If you want to confirm Gu Nan's status, wouldn't it be better to take a look yourself?"
"Take a look how?"
"His astral world is still in the Myriad Heavens…" Daoist Lingyang said matter-of-factly.
Sylvia's eyes instantly lit up.
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When Gu Nan finally reappeared, he was already inside his own Divine Kingdom back in the Myriad Heavens.
He was considered someone from the Myriad Heavens in this life, so he needed a space-time crystal to enter the World of Gods but naturally didn't need one to go back.
When Gu Nan returned, not much time actually passed since Lan Si and her group came back. However, because of the time flow difference unique to the Myriad Heavens, quite a bit of time went by in the Divine Kingdom.
At least, Xie Yun had already reached Tier 5 by now!
The special law of time in the Myriad Heavens made it so that the smaller the plane, the easier and more efficient it was to develop.
This was especially true for people like Xie Yun, who needed special resources—regardless of whether it was a large or small plane, gold was always the same.
"Her breakthrough was too fast. Will it leave any problems?" More than one person expressed concern about this, but Gu Nan himself was the only one who had no such worries.
Player routes were originally prepared to serve the players, and the benefits they brought were completely free of side effects. This was what made the player army so powerful.
Utilizing resources meant for players to create NPCs that were beyond imagination.
Of course, it wasn't like a Pay to Win Expert was invincible. After all, this class could only make the player themselves stronger, but the astral world still had to be developed entirely by the player.
In other words, perhaps in the near future, Gu Nan would have a group of oddball underlings who already reached Tier 6 or 7 themselves but didn't even possess an astral world yet.
It was naturally inconceivable for anyone else, but player routes could indeed bring about this kind of advancement that went beyond common sense.
Instead, it was Lan Si who looked a little depressed. She was originally the strongest apostle under Gu Nan, but she didn't expect to be surpassed by a little girl like Xie Yun in the blink of an eye.
She even somewhat regretted not taking the opportunity to join the player army as well back in the World of Gods—at that time, she felt that since she had a Godhead, other paths couldn't even compare to her rate of progress.
This was the limitation in an NPC's viewpoint. They could never understand the power of players.
Fortunately, Pay to Win Expert only gave Xie Yun a high cultivation realm; her combat skills and experience still had major flaws.
As a result, she couldn't beat Lan Si—who'd been making steady progress in contrast—for the time being, and she would even lose two to three out of ten rounds to Liang Ruxin.
But again, this was much stronger compared to before.
……
Gu Nan sat alone on the throne in the Evil God Temple, calmly operating the panel as he upgraded structure after structure, with Tier 8 already close at hand.
After killing Cliff, Gu Nan's Evil Value exceeded 16,000, satisfying the requirement for Tier 8.
As a well-known Tier 8 God, Cliff gave a lot of Evil Value and was practically the peak of all Tier 8 gods.
After he upgraded all the basic structures and even a few Divine Servant Institutes to meet the minimum requirements, all the conditions for Gu Nan's advancement were in place.
Without much hesitation, he directly chose to upgrade the Evil God Temple.
Similar to earlier advancements, the Evil God Temple inside the Divine Kingdom swelled violently in size, expanding to the point where it was as big as a small city.
Boundless power of shadows poured into Gu Nan's body, while he had long since grown accustomed to this.
Instead, the strange phenomena happening outside the Divine Kingdom caused a stir.
……
As a famous person in the Myriad Heavens, Gu Nan and his Divine Kingdom were also watched by countless forces.
Therefore, many people noticed as soon as changes started occurring to the Divine Kingdom and immediately reported the situation to their superiors.
In the Myriad Heavens, Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom began to leap towards the center at a rapid pace. The power of the law of time gradually weakened, and space itself was further strengthened instead.
Time and space were originally two sides of the same coin, and now that one was strengthening and the other weakening, many people realized what was happening.
"This means… it's about to ascend to a Realm Level plane?!"
Once the astral world leapt to the center of the Myriad Heavens, the flow of time would no longer be any different from the main world. Space became extremely stable, and living beings could now reincarnate from the astral world to other worlds, while the reverse became impossible.
From all angles, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that this was as monumental a step as a carp leaping over the Dragon Gate[1]!
Countless intelligence officers caught wind of this astonishing news and reported it to their superiors at the first opportunity.
……
"It's ascending to a Realm Level plane so quickly?" Xue Ren was staying in his own astral world at the moment and couldn't help his slight surprise at hearing the news.
It had taken him quite a bit of effort to suppress the internal strife within Extreme Sword Heaven and once again devote himself fully to his own cultivation.
However, Xue Ren wasn't completely oblivious to external events, so of course a major commotion like Gu Nan's ascension immediately reached his ears.
Gao Xiaowen was the one who passed on the news, and he was also referred by Xue Ren into the Heaven-God Alliance.
"Martial Uncle, should we invite Lord Gu Nan over…"
"No need." Xue Ren waved his hand. "Just go and congratulate him on my behalf. He will naturally speak up if he really wants to get involved with matters here."
"Yes."
……
Not only did Xue Ren get the news, all major forces received first-hand information at practically the same time!
The ascension of a new Realm Level plane was considered a big deal no matter what when.
In Clockwork Heaven, Lu Wen tapped his fingers on the desk, his gaze slightly cold.
In Void Grotto Heaven, standing in front of Yu Lian was none other than Daoist Heir Qin Ning, recounting his encounter with Gu Nan in the World of Gods.
In Zi Luo Heaven, the old man who no longer made frequent appearances in public showed a rare hint of a smile and even ordered someone to send a congratulatory gift to Gu Nan.
The biggest reaction was naturally still inside Academic Heaven.
Fang Chaoyun personally rushed to Academic Heaven to meet his teacher as soon as he received the news.
"Teacher, Gu Nan's astral world ascended to a Realm Level plane," Fang Chaoyun was still a powerful Tier 10 Star Ruler, so he didn't lose his cool and just spoke of the matter like a routine report.
Song Fei, on the other hand, still had that calm demeanor, as if nothing in the world could move him.
It's just that he knew very well that the fact his own disciple paid a special visit to Academic Heaven was in itself proof of the importance he attached to this event.
So Song Fei let out a small sigh and responded, "Since that's the case, let's stop the operation targeting him."
Fang Chaoyun didn't answer for a long time before finally replying somewhat unwillingly, "He's just at Realm Level. In a fair fight, your disciple has nothing to fear."
He was one of the strongest people under Unified Dao Realm, so he naturally didn't feel like a mere Realm Level Star Ruler was much of a threat.
Song Fei, however, only chuckled slightly. "Gu Nan is nothing to worry about. But we are about to focus on dealing with Zi Luo and Xue Ren right now. By getting entangled with Gu Nan's matter, you will have fallen into their trap."
Fang Chaoyun was slightly stunned. "Gu Nan is those two's pawn?"
"It matters not whether he is or isn't." Song Fei said noncommittally, "Ten years from now, as long as Xue Ren doesn't enter Unified Dao, Zi Luo will naturally die, and it won't be too late to circle back and deal with Gu Nan at that time."
Only after Fang Chaoyun heard this did he slowly nod. "A gentleman can wait ten years to take revenge. In that case, I will follow Teacher's wishes."
Song Fei once again revealed a smile. "There just happens to be something I want you to do right now."
"What is it?"historical
"Join the Heaven-God Alliance."
T/N:
[1]Carp leaping over the Dragon Gate: Chinese mythology where a carp swimming upstream and leaping over the Dragon Gate at the top of a legendary waterfall would be able to become a dragon
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The ascension of Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom to Realm Level was naturally the most important event in the Myriad Heavens right now, but the person who started all this uproar was currently staring at Yan Xiaoxiao, whose appearance had changed.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't a change in appearance but rather a younger-looking Yan Xiaoxiao, only she was a little too young.
Gu Nan looked at this little girl in a light blue dress—who looked at most thirteen or fourteen years old—and almost couldn't recognize her as Yan Xiaoxiao.
"Is this what you used to look like?" Gu Nan's memory was quite good, vaguely recalling that Yan Xiaoxiao looked somewhat similar to the person before him when he first met her.
"Yup." Yan Xiaoxiao smiled lightly and even twirled in passing.
The sunlight shone on her body, but it just passed straight through, leaving no trace of a shadow on the ground—the current Yan Xiaoxiao no longer had a tangible form.
From the moment Gu Nan advanced to Tier 8 and his Divine Kingdom jumped to a Realm Level plane, the world's origin was strengthened again, and Yan Xiaoxiao could no longer escape her destiny.
She was originally created when Zuo Zuo extracted a portion of Immortal Demon World's origin, and only after reincarnating over and over again did she end up in her current state.
Now that Gu Nan planned to ascend his Divine Kingdom to Realm Level, unless Yan Xiaoxiao was willing to go far away, this day would come sooner or later.
The current Yan Xiaoxiao had completely fused with the Divine Kingdom, and it could be said that she was the embodiment of the world's will and also possessed the highest authority to manage the Divine Kingdom.
In the words of the Myriad Heavens, Yan Xiaoxiao had become the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao of this world.
Gu Nan glanced at her again and said, "You will forever exist alongside the Divine Kingdom in this world, and in the future, perhaps you'll even become the embodiment of the will of the entire Myriad Heavens, but… you will never be able to exist in real life either."
The current Yan Xiaoxiao was the world itself, and the world was her. The person in front of Gu Nan was nothing more than a projection.
Unless the Divine Kingdom was destroyed, she would never die.
Yan Xiaoxiao, however, just nodded with a smile. "Eternal life doesn't feel bad either. Then, Teacher, please don't let me disappear… Oh right, there's one more thing."
Yan Xiaoxiao sent Red Tail to Gu Nan after she said this.
"Is there a problem with the Divine Kingdom War's target plane?" Gu Nan looked at her with puzzlement. At the moment, Red Tail was responsible for matters related to the Divine Kingdom War.
"That's not it…" Red Tail shook her head with an awkward smile. "My Lord, you seem to keep forgetting one thing—this Divine Kingdom still doesn't have a name yet."
Red Tail's words caused Gu Nan to stare blankly, and then he remembered that this really was the case.
The various astral worlds of the Myriad Heavens, from the largest astral worlds at the level of the Thirteen Heavens to the smallest planes that had yet to be controlled by anyone, definitely had names—as long as they were discovered.
Some astral worlds were named after the plane's special characteristics, some had names that came from the personal preferences of their Star Rulers, and others were simply named after the Star Rulers themselves.
For example, if Gu Nan put off naming his Divine Kingdom any longer, people would have to call it "Gu Nan Realm"—the first Realm Level plane ever to be named so casually.
Normally, when a plane was first discovered, there was no need to rush to name it.
This was because nobody knew exactly what special characteristics it had and how its future Star Ruler would go about naming it. It would probably take tens or hundreds of years before a recognized name would emerge for this astral world.
However, Gu Nan had developed a little too fast, raising his astral world to a "Realm" Level plane in almost the blink of an eye.
It wouldn't make sense for an astral world at this level to still be unnamed.
"Do you guys have any suggestions?" Gu Nan thought for a moment and looked at Red Tail and Yan Xiaoxiao.
He really didn't have any ideas himself, and it wasn't like the Divine Kingdom had many special features to speak of. To put it bluntly, its only special characteristic was having an Evil God Temple—but including Evil God in the name would be a bit too stupid.
Wasn't that blatantly announcing his identity to the gods next door?
"How about calling it the Hundred Wars Realm?" Red Tail didn't try to be polite with Gu Nan and suggested directly, "We rose up by waging one war after another, which precisely fits the description of 'elite troops forged through a hundred wars'."
"I'm just sending you guys to slaughter other planes, what's so warlike about that?" Gu Nan vetoed the suggestion without thinking.
Yan Xiaoxiao also piped up, "If there aren't any good suggestions, why don't we just use the previous 'Immortal Demon'? In any case, it's just a name."
Before Gu Nan could respond, Lan Si had also walked in at some point and interjected, "I think it's better to call it the 'One God Realm', as Your Excellency can be considered the only god here."historical
Along with the first three, the number of people who subsequently entered the Evil God Temple increased, and after hearing about the important matter of naming this world, the suggestions also multiplied.
However, none of these names could satisfy Gu Nan, and in the end, it was he himself who made the final decision.
"Just call it 'No Name Change til Unified Dao' Realm."
……
The ascension of Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom to Realm Level caused a sensational impact in the Myriad Heavens, so much so that even the latest news from inside the Divine Kingdom quickly spread throughout the major planes.
"That name really is like him." Xue Ren didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he sat across from Zhuangxuan.
Xue Ren was running out of time, so he couldn't even spare time to personally visit Gu Nan and congratulate him on his astral world's ascension. This time, it was still Zhuangxuan who specially rushed over to bring him the latest news.
Only Gu Nan would treat a matter as serious as the name of one's astral world so flippantly.
On the contrary, Zhuangxuan wasn't surprised by this, or even if he was, his face still wouldn't show anything.
"The name will not affect Senior Gu Nan's power." Zhuangxuan said calmly, "As long as the organization can survive this ten-year calamity, he will undoubtedly be the next target we will focus all our resources on raising."
The Heaven-God Alliance had developed in secret for many years, and it also saw explosive growth just recently, so it had considerable resources under its control.
Pouring out the entire organization's strength to help a certain Star Ruler might not be of much help in terms of ascending to Unified Dao, but it had an all-encompassing effect in other areas.
Zhuangxuan was like the calmest of managers, always making choices in the organization's best interest.
Xue Ren agreed with him, so he calmly waited for Zhuangxuan to continue—a mere controversial name was not worth Zhuangxuan's trip here.
Without disappointing Xue Ren, Zhuangxuan indeed added, "I came over this time because I received Fang Chaoyun's membership application."
"Who?" Xue Ren raised his eyebrows slightly and almost thought he had heard wrong.
"Fang Chaoyun," Zhuangxuan's voice was still calm, but it also seemed to contain a trace of helplessness.
Xue Ren froze for a long time, then slowly came back to his senses as he realized the malicious intent behind this application. After a long time, he couldn't help sighing softly. "Sure enough, this is Song Fei's handiwork…"
Upright and frank Song Fei. When it came to Academic Heaven's Unified Dao powerhouse, every single move was laid out in the open for all to see, and now it was the Heaven-God Alliance's turn to make a choice.
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News that Fang Chaoyun wanted to join the Heaven-God Alliance undoubtedly stunned many people as soon as it came out.
Fang Chaoyun was a top-tier Star Ruler and was even a disciple of Academic Heaven's Song Fei, so how could he join Zi Luo Elder's Heaven-God Alliance? Weren't the two sides irreconcilable enemies?
So lots of people initially scoffed at this. Coupled with the fact that the Heaven-God Alliance didn't give any comment about it, people thought it was fake news.
However, Fang Chaoyun himself soon stepped forward and spoke out, proving that he truly did submit an application to join the Heaven-God Alliance, and that he did indeed want to join the Heaven-God Alliance.
"The Heaven-God Alliance is an organization that belongs to the gods and Star Rulers. It's not one person's sole possession, so why can't I join?"
Elder Fang's powerful question was like a sharp spear that tore through the layer of protective excuses in front of the Heaven-God Alliance.
The Heaven-God Alliance was founded entirely by Zi Luo Elder, and he also wielded the most authority inside the organization, but that didn't mean he could openly proclaim that the Heaven-God Alliance was his sole possession.
The current Heaven-God Alliance was flourishing mainly due to the fact that some Star Rulers wanted to cling onto a powerful organization. They would be able to tap into the strength of a group, which was why they wanted to join an organization that seemed incomparably powerful.
After all, an organization with a Unified Dao powerhouse sitting at its helm had never appeared in the entire Myriad Heavens before.
Previously, Zhuangxuan and the others had always been promoting the organization as being open to everyone, so people didn't realize something was wrong. Only Song Fei saw the weakness hidden in the deepest part of the organization.
The organization may be open to everyone, but Unified Dao cultivators had their own stances.
If Fang Chaoyun's membership application was rejected, then all those who had a grudge against Zi Luo Elder's people would have to reconsider their own stances.
In other words, from the moment Fang Chaoyun acknowledged his own application, the attitude of the Heaven-God Alliance became less important.
Even if onlookers could still apply enthusiastically, the Heaven-God Alliance wouldn't dare to accept people as recklessly as before, because Fang Chaoyun's move was likewise a warning to the Heaven-God Alliance.
It didn't matter if his own application was accepted or not, but who knows if there were spies from Academic Heaven among the subsequent applicants?
Song Fei's move pretty much brought everything that was originally buried deep in people's hearts to the surface.
"I've already rejected Fang Chaoyun's application without giving a reason," Zhuangxuan said as such.
Xue Ren nodded slightly. At times like this, rather than finding some specious excuses, it was better to not give an explanation. In any case, everyone already knew why.
However, Zhuangxuan then continued, "Of the people who joined the Alliance in the past two days, two have already withdrawn, and a few now need to be re-examined. There's even an old member who was found to have originated from Academic Heaven."
Xue Ren fell silent for a moment. "Many of the older members didn't know about the old man's existence when they joined the Alliance…"
"But no one can guarantee that they won't be incited into betraying us in the future." Zhuangxuan was still filled with indifference, completely unconcerned that everyone he was talking about was his senior. "We can't take any chances right now."
Xue Ren could only sigh again.
He knew Zhuangxuan was right. Although Song Fei could make his moves with ease, they couldn't afford to take any risks, especially at this juncture.
The ten-year time limit was close at hand, and the entire Heaven-God Alliance could be destroyed if they slipped up right now.
However, Gao Xiaowen suddenly knocked on the door urgently and walked in, bringing a slightly frightening piece of information.
"Martial Uncle, Senior Gu Nan, he… went to seek revenge against Fang Chaoyun!"
……
It was true that Gu Nan had gone to seek revenge.
Although Fang Chaoyun intended to let Gu Nan go for the time being, Gu Nan had no intention of letting the other party go.
Without beating Fang Chaoyun into submission—beating him to the point where other people wouldn't even dare to think about hindering Gu Nan—how could he continue his Divine Kingdom Wars?
And what Gu Nan did was also very simple, hardly much different from earlier.
He ran to Graceful Heaven and wreaked havoc before leisurely taking his leave, leaving behind an enraged Fang Chaoyun.
However, what was different from back then was that this time, Gu Nan did not return to his Divine Kingdom but stayed in the vicinity of Graceful Heaven instead.
"How dare you, impudent whelp!" Fang Chaoyun was the first to discover Gu Nan's whereabouts and struck without any hesitation.
Song Fei had told him not to provoke Gu Nan for the time being, but he hadn't forbidden him from fighting back.
A huge word "kill" character emerged from the void and quickly fell towards Gu Nan, which showed the murderous intent in Fang Chaoyun's heart.historical
However, Gu Nan just chuckled and casually threw a punch at the character. The giant character shattered while Gu Nan was sent flying, his right hand already a bloodied mess.
Gu Nan, who already advanced to Tier 8, finally had the ability to fight Fang Chaoyun head-on.
Although he still couldn't really fight back, as long as he survived the encounter, Gu Nan had already achieved his goal.
Gu Nan revealed a trace of mockery as his figure instantly plunged into a spatial rift, having already gone to another plane.
His movements appeared hasty, and before he could close the spatial passage, Fang Chaoyun rushed over in the spur of the moment.
He could tell that the destination wasn't Gu Nan's bizarre astral world, so he had nothing to fear.
However, Fang Chaoyun had just arrived when he heard cries for help.
"Elder Fang, please help! This thieving Gu Nan is here for my Origin Martial Realm!"
The one who opened his mouth was Origin Martial Realm's Star Ruler Cao Yu, who was struggling to hold on under Gu Nan's frenzied attacks. When he saw Fang Chaoyun's arrival, it was as if he'd seen his savior.
Origin Martial Realm's Cao Yu, one of the Star Rulers who previously obstructed Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom War, was Gu Nan's target this time.
Fang Chaoyun realized what Gu Nan was trying to do: he was clearly using this to warn all the Star Rulers who opposed him!
Cao Yu was considered the weakest of the Realm Level Star Rulers—not much better than Red—but he was still a Realm Level Star Ruler nevertheless.
If even he suffered heavy losses under Gu Nan's rampage, who else would dare to participate in the war against Gu Nan?
All these thoughts instantly flashed through Fang Chaoyun's mind, and without any further hesitation, he wrote out nine consecutive large characters.
However, Gu Nan just laughed, tossing Cao Yu aside and running away without another word, heading for Cao Yu's lair below.
The nine large characters naturally followed him and were forcibly smashed apart by Gu Nan one by one, erupting with terrifying aftershocks that destroyed almost all of Cao Yu's lair.
Cao Yu looked like he wanted to cry but had no tears. "Elder Fang, this…"
Fang Chaoyun's expression was similarly ugly. Not long ago, he was able to easily defeat the other party and force Gu Nan to flee into his own astral world, but now he could no longer do anything to Gu Nan.
In the end, the Dao of literature that he specialized in was not the Dao of slaughter, so it was very difficult to kill Gu Nan.
But that didn't mean Fang Chaoyun was out of options.
"No need to be anxious," he said in a low voice.
Fang Chaoyun began to write out characters quickly, and one "suppress" character after another appeared under his brush.
"As long as this person is suppressed, I'm confident I can…"
"Next, Black Dragon World." After Gu Nan destroyed Cao Yu's lair, he nonchalantly waved at them. "Old Cao, I'll come back again after I finish teaching everyone the first round of their lessons!"
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Gu Nan was always true to his word.
Because of Fang Chaoyun's interference, it was too late to cause more damage to Cao Yu's Origin Martial Realm, but Gu Nan could always find the next "victim".
In Black Dragon World, the Star Ruler's true form was a large black dragon, but normally he preferred to take on human form, and he especially liked to wear a black dragon robe.
When Gu Nan arrived, this black dragon emperor was sitting majestically on his throne, looking down on the humans and dragons under his command.
A white-haired old man standing below bowed. "Your Majesty, this year…"
The sky suddenly lit up with a black light, and a terrifying pressure descended from the sky, directly smashing onto the entire palace.
The old man in front of the black dragon—along with all the officials below him—were all completely annihilated by this strike, and the palace toppled over.
"Who?!"
The black dragon instantly transformed back to his original form, his angry roar reaching the horizon and almost piercing through the clouds.
However, a fist came from the void and mercilessly smashed into his head. This black dragon, who'd always been known for his strong physique, felt his skin split open as his flesh was torn apart.
The black dragon whose head was smashed open immediately released a series of miserable roars before he realized who the visitor was.
"Your Excellency Gu Nan… please stop!" The black dragon shouted loudly, his figure rapidly shrinking to reduce the surface area where he could be hit.
Of course Gu Nan ignored him. Even in his own astral world, this kind of Star Ruler who merely had a World Level plane couldn't possibly be Gu Nan's match.
After a few more consecutive punches landed, the black dragon's human form was already frantically coughing up blood. If it wasn't for his strong physique as one of the dragon race, he probably would've perished under these punches.
Fang Chaoyun finally arrived belatedly, but Gu Nan had no plans of engaging him and ran away again without another word, not even sparing a second glance at the already dying black dragon.
Cao Yu also sneakily followed over. He was an old friend of the black dragon, so he hurriedly ran up to his injured friend.
Gu Nan couldn't help feeling amused when he saw Cao Yu show up. ''You still have the leisure to worry about others? Looks like I haven't wrecked Origin Martial Realm enough."
After saying that, he suddenly changed direction and instantly returned to Origin Martial Realm.
"No… Don't!" Classmate Cao Yu's face almost turned green. He really wanted to give himself a hard slap right now— 'Why did you have to stick your nose in something that wasn't your business?'
But Gu Nan had always been true to his word, and even if Fang Chaoyun followed him back, he still tanked Fang Chaoyun's attacks and forcibly smashed Origin Martial Realm to pieces before leaving leisurely.
Thus, in just a few short hours, Gu Nan had visited all of the ten or so Star Rulers who blocked his invasion of Star Realm and killed a large number of his divine servants.
Among them, more troublesome enemies like Origin Martial Realm's Cao Yu even had the pleasure of enjoying repeat visits, causing corpses to be strewn everywhere and rivers of blood to flow in his astral world.
And through all this, Fang Chaoyun, who was a Tier 10 Star Ruler, could only chase after Gu Nan's dust, unable to pose any threat to him at all.
Having already broken through to Tier 8, Gu Nan's speed reached an unrivaled level, and the power of laws was completely unable to restrict him.
It wasn't as if Fang Chaoyun hadn't thought of an ambush. He calculated Gu Nan's route several times and set up the suppressing formation in advance, waiting for Gu Nan to come right to his door.
However, his ambush couldn't confine Gu Nan at all. The 99 "suppress" characters that Mr. Fang wrote down with all his heart and soul only stopped Gu Nan for an instant before he easily broke through with his Evil God physique.
Later, Fang Chaoyun attempted to pursue Gu Nan relentlessly, not giving him a chance to catch his breath at all. He was trying to launch a barrage of attacks without giving Gu Nan time to recover.
Unfortunately, just as he was about to succeed, Gu Nan turned around and returned to his Divine Kingdom, then ran back with great vigor an hour later.
As for Mr. Fang, he could only glare from outside the Divine Kingdom with bloodshot eyes—he had already suffered a loss in Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom once. He didn't dare enter again.
All in all, the ruckus Gu Nan personally caused was an eye-opener for the entire Myriad Heavens, which normally wasn't able to see so many Star Rulers fighting at once.
But what even more people saw was the terrifying destructive power of Gu Nan, this Demon King.
Over ten astral worlds had been vandalized and looted, and some of the Star Rulers themselves were even missing—not daring to remain in their astral worlds waiting for death—while Gu Nan himself was completely uninjured.
The Tier 10 Star Ruler Fang Chaoyun, on the other hand, had become a complete backdrop, and his frantic pursuit only contributed to Gu Nan's great fame—even such a powerful Star Ruler couldn't do anything about Gu Nan.
Zi Luo Elder's presence deterred Song Fei from making the first move in this ten-year timeframe. Thus, no one under Unified Dao Realm could stop Gu Nan anymore.
Interestingly enough, the ruckus Gu Nan created counteracted some of the effects of Fang Chaoyun's membership application.
While everyone now understood the Heaven-God Alliance's stance thanks to Song Fei, it still managed to attract a group of Star Rulers because of Gu Nan's undefeated reputation.
These people might not necessarily be as loyal to the Heaven-God Alliance, but as long as the Heaven-God Alliance didn't show any signs of decline, they were happy to become cornerstones of the organization.
Illusory prosperity was still prosperity, and as long as the core wasn't damaged, even illusions could be turned into truth.
……
The battle against ten Star Rulers caused Gu Nan's reputation to resound throughout the Myriad Heavens once again, and some even began to claim he was the strongest person under Unified Dao Realm.
Gu Nan was only a Realm Level Star Ruler at this time, but he was able to directly fight with such a powerful Star Ruler like Fang Chaoyun, and he even dared to run into Graceful Heaven to cause trouble, while Fang Chaoyun, on the other hand, didn't even dare step foot into Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom.
Comparing the two, wasn't it enough to show who was stronger? With such a comparison, more and more people began to participate in the discussion of Gu Nan's strength.
In today's Myriad Heavens, there were only a few people at the same level as Fang Chaoyun and Xue Ren.
There was no need to discuss Red Candle Heaven's Green Lantern Fairy, the most recent junior to ascend her astral world to Heaven Level. Her strength was recognized as the weakest and couldn't even compare to Fang Chaoyun.
Xue Ren himself certainly wouldn't become Gu Nan's enemy, and because of the characteristics of his own laws, the Cult Master of Three Corpses Heaven's Holy Luo Cult was naturally at a disadvantage against a cultivator with a strong physical body like Gu Nan, so he was also considered slightly weaker than Gu Nan.
The only other person who might be a match for Gu Nan was Severing Dao Heaven's Wang Li, who briefly sparred with Xue Ren back when Xue Ren was holding a fake Unified Dao ceremony.
The two had exchanged sword and blade in that battle, fighting a battle onlookers couldn't even understand, so much so that they couldn't even estimate those two's realms, so people could only evaluate Wang Li as "profound and unfathomable".
But precisely because of this, regarding the question of whether Wang Li or Gu Nan was stronger… More accurately, regarding whether Gu Nan could escape from Wang Li's hands, this question set off countless disputes.
Gu Nan was entirely noncommittal on this. Furthermore, he didn't even allow any Star Ruler to step foot into his "No Name Change til Unified Dao" Realm, slaughtering any who dared to enter.
In the end, only a personal statement from Wang Li himself managed to put an end to the fervent public debate.historical
"I can't capture him in a head-on fight."
When this comment appeared, the claim that Gu Nan was invincible against everyone under Unified Dao finally became widespread.
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Regardless of what the onlookers were saying, Gu Nan himself wasn't interested in it, as he was busy organizing a new round of Divine Kingdom Wars.
After leveling up to Tier 8, many brand-new structure choices started appearing, and he had to select some more useful ones, organizing their functions and expenditures for the Cabinet to analyze.
At the same time, the Cabinet also needed to analyze the average strength of the major astral worlds, the invasion difficulty, the expected earnings, and so on.
Only by combining information from all aspects could Gu Nan choose the most suitable astral world to attack.
Of course, considering that there were fewer and fewer targets to choose from nowadays, by removing some of the obviously unsuitable ones, one might even be able to make a blind guess as to which one was the most suitable.
In the end, the only name left in the report handed over by the Cabinet was Daoist Sect Realm.
Daoist Monarch Wu Tian's Daoist Sect Realm had once been at odds with Gu Nan, and he was also the target of Gu Nan's earliest demonstrations of his appalling power.
Later on, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian realized that there was nothing he could do to Gu Nan, and he was forced to concede and apologize in order to avoid further losses.
However, the grudge between the two sides wasn't actually resolved, and Wu Tian's apology was more like hanging up a non-aggression waiver, so if there was a good opportunity to strike, neither side would let it go.
And the time was now ripe.
After the Divine Kingdom ascended to Realm Level, Gu Nan's own power was enough to counteract Wu Tian's home turf advantage in Daoist Sect Realm, so the conditions for invading Daoist Sect Realm were already in place.
More importantly, Daoist Sect Realm had a grudge against Gu Nan, which was the core reason the Cabinet made such a decision.
Of course it wasn't as simple as just venting some anger; the fact that the two sides already had a grudge meant there was a justifiable cause.
The previous skirmishes were still fine, but attacking a Realm Level plane with or without a justifiable cause were completely different matters.
If Gu Nan's wanton invasion was only targeted at astral worlds he already had a feud against, then at worst, he would have a reputation of being a vindictive person, which was no big deal.
However, if he attacked other astral worlds for no reason, it would easily cause everyone in the Myriad Heavens to feel a sense of danger, ultimately triggering a collective resistance against Gu Nan.
If everyone was worried about being attacked by Gu Nan, it wouldn't make much sense to threaten people with damage to their astral worlds.
Gu Nan might not care much about this sort of thing, but the Cabinet definitely had to do its best.
"Daoist Sect Realm? Let's go with that then." Gu Nan didn't have much of an opinion on this and quickly adopted the Cabinet's proposal before beginning to set up the divine servant army.
On the other hand, he himself visited Daoist Sect Realm a few times over the next few days and started to wreak havoc in advance, causing Daoist Monarch Wu Tian to be buried in work.
He even consumed most of Daoist Monarch Wu Tian's astral world power in a very short time. This Daoist Monarch would probably be dirt poor by the time the war officially started.
However, what Gu Nan didn't expect was that just when the Divine Kingdom War was in the tense preparation stage, an "uninvited guest" suddenly came to his door.
……historical
"So you really are alive!" Sylvia glared at Gu Nan in annoyance and questioned sternly, "Since you're fine, why don't you come out and explain everything!"
"Explain what?" Gu Nan didn't feel ashamed at all and smiled instead. "Isn't it already very clear who killed them? What else do you need me to prove?"
Sylvia clenched her hands into fists and pursed her lips.
She followed Daoist Lingyang's advice and rushed over here from the World of Gods just to see how Gu Nan was doing. Unexpectedly, she immediately heard news about Gu Nan as soon as she arrived.
With Gu Nan's current fame, she didn't even need to inquire—the news came to her on its own.
"You… killed both Luke and Cliff, didn't you?" The Goddess of Shadows forced out this sentence through gritted teeth.
Gu Nan sat on the throne high above, calmly looking down at Sylvia without replying.
An eerie silence fell over the Evil God Temple, and Sylvia suddenly felt a slight chill on her back, while Gu Nan abruptly stood up at that moment.
"If you knew that, why did you dare to come here?" Gu Nan's voice was very tranquil, but it seemed to carry a trace of regret.
The next second, shadow tentacles drilled out from the ceiling of the Evil God Temple, instantly binding Sylvia's limbs and rapidly dragging her upwards.
Sylvia was caught off guard, and her entire body was quickly dragged up. A look of panic crossed her face as she tried to turn into a shadow to escape, but she discovered that all her laws were suppressed.
Their laws originated from the same source in the first place, and since Gu Nan was also inside his Divine Kingdom, Sylvia was certainly powerless to resist.
She thought that as long as she remained vigilant, the shadows would be able to help her escape, but she hadn't counted on Gu Nan reaching Tier 8.
If this was before his advancement, Gu Nan really wouldn't have been able to capture her, not unless they fought in close quarters.
"Let go of me—" Sylvia's voice ended abruptly, because the shadows had already gagged her.
This Goddess of Shadows was thus firmly affixed to the ceiling, her body covered in pitch-black shadows. Not a single trace of her could be seen from the outside.
Gu Nan shook his head with a wry smile. Of course it was impossible to kill Sylvia. If he did that, her brother Austin would definitely be the first to notice.
The wrath of the Ruler of Light and Justice wasn't so easy to withstand, not even if he was hiding in the Myriad Heavens.
But the probability of him being discovered would be much smaller if he merely trapped Sylvia here for a few years. After all, for gods, that was just the blink of an eye.
……
The current Sylvia was very regretful, but also very calm.
As a god who survived for tens of thousands of years, it wasn't like she hadn't experienced dangerous situations before, so she knew that the more dangerous the situation, the more she needed to calm down.
It was as if she was sealed inside boundless shadows, her body unable to move and her mouth unable to speak, but she could still hear the movements of the outside world.
She heard the sound of someone walking into the temple and reporting to Gu Nan, and the content was about the upcoming Divine Kingdom War.
"Divine Kingdom…" At this point, Sylvia was finally able to confirm that Gu Nan was indeed from the World of Gods, or else his subordinates wouldn't be referring to this place as a Divine Kingdom.
But something about this also didn't make sense. Since Gu Nan had established a Divine Kingdom instead of an astral world, why didn't he require the power of faith?
'Could it be that after he reincarnated into the Myriad Heavens, what he re-established was also an astral world and not a Divine Kingdom?'
'And why did he make a special trip to the World of Gods to kill both Luke and Cliff?'
Although Sylvia couldn't move, her thoughts were still churning, one question after another surfacing in her mind.
As the god most familiar with Gu Nan, a terrifying thought appeared in Sylvia's mind when she connected all the dots.
It was an ancient legend that already existed long before even the first Great War, and if it hadn't been for her brother offhandedly mentioning it, perhaps Sylvia wouldn't have even known there was such a thing.
But now that she thought about it, Gu Nan seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to the existence described in that legend.
Sylvia, who knew she had discovered a terrifying secret, suddenly felt a sense of urgency.
"I have to get out of here!"
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Even in today's World of Gods, not many people knew about the legend of the Evil God.
In fact, similar legends weren't uncommon during the ancient era of the World of Gods. All sorts of creatures that were enemies of the gods and even all humanity—with a strong penchant for self-destruction—were said to exist.
But how many people had actually seen such an existence with their own eyes? The answer was zero.
In fact, these legends didn't really seem realistic. Be it the World of Gods or the Myriad Heavens, the path of development for gods and Star Rulers was essentially the same.
They strengthened themselves by developing their own planes, eventually reaching Unified Dao, merging themselves with the laws of the great world, and from then on, they would exist alongside the world for all eternity.
Since this was the case, how could there be beings in this world who made it their mission to kill gods? What was the meaning of their existence? What benefit would killing gods give them?
There was always a profit motive incentivizing living beings' actions, and no one had ever heard of someone who benefitted by killing other gods.
But Gu Nan's appearance made Sylvia realize that such a person might actually exist.
Sylvia personally witnessed Gu Nan seeking out the Mirror God in an unheard-of place and then killing him, and this time, he even made a special trip to kill Luke and Cliff.
And it seemed that his power grew every time he killed a god…
As she replayed past scenes in her head, the conjecture in Sylvia's heart grew firmer—Gu Nan was definitely some sort of ancient evil creature that came to the Myriad Heavens for some inexplicable reason and took on a human form.
Not even Sylvia had ever seen such a peculiar existence before, and she suddenly felt as if her heart was gripped by something, feeling like she was duty-bound to save the world.
She was indeed trying to save the world, because those kinds of legendary evil creatures were all bent on destroying the world!
"Escape, I must find a way to escape." Sylvia forced herself to calm down. Despite the fact that most of her senses were sealed, the voices from outside were still coming through.
There was no break in the reports she heard. It seemed that many individuals had already entered and left, and their conversations with Gu Nan were all centered around an upcoming Divine Kingdom War.
The term Divine Kingdom War was one that Sylvia hadn't heard in a long time. This was because most gods in the World of Gods would never casually start a war; they preferred to fight battles as individuals.
This was unlike the Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens. As long as they defeated other Star Rulers, they could plunder resources from other people's territories, strengthen their reputation, and attract more powerful subordinates.
If the gods of the World of Gods waged wars, it was basically just for the sake of "doctrine", and there would hardly be any real benefits—believers couldn't be plundered; they could only be raised.
Sylvia endured the discomfort of not being able to sense the outside world and listened carefully to Gu Nan's conversation with his subordinates, but the more she heard, the more alarmed she became.
Unlike the wars she was familiar with, Gu Nan didn't seem to care about resources or territory and wanted to send his army out purely to kill people.
All his arrangements were to kill people more efficiently. His targets ranged from mortals to all cultivators weaker than gods, with no exceptions.
Sylvia secretly noted down this detail, then tried to empty her thoughts as much as possible, quietly waiting for a chance to escape.
After a while, she sensed that the outside had been silent for a long time, and Gu Nan seemed to have left long ago.
So this Goddess of Shadows began to cautiously test the waters, mobilizing the divine power in her body bit by bit, seemingly breaking through the shackles from outside.
Unfortunately, the same power of shadows was outside, and her divine power was completely assimilated the moment it left her body, in turn making her restraints even stronger.
"Damn it!"
Sylvia had never hated shadows so much. If not for the fact that the other party also controlled shadows, it would've been impossible for anyone else to imprison her like this.
As the goddess who controlled shadows, she was confident in breaking free from her bonds in any situation, as shadows themselves couldn't be bound—unless the other party also used shadows to bind her.
In the past, Sylvia might have given up hope at this point, praying with all her heart that her brother would quickly realize she was missing and find her.
But now that she believed she was carrying the hopes of the entire world, she was driven by the heavy sense of duty and actually didn't have the slightest intention of giving up.
"Must… get out!"
The Shadow Goddess launched herself viciously, giving up on the idea of escaping using the power of shadows, and actually started to smash her body against the law of shadows.
Apart from monsters like Gu Nan, the divine bodies of normal gods couldn't be considered powerful, but they weren't weak either. The essence of a god's divine body was stronger than laws, but it was very hard to heal injuries to their physical bodies, so few gods would ever fight with it.
But at this moment, Sylvia couldn't care less.
The power of shadows invaded from the surface of her body, causing Sylvia to feel vague stabs of pain, but she forced herself to endure it and instead became somewhat excited inside.
This was because she could sense the power of the laws binding her outside being worn down slightly as well.
Even if it was just a very tiny bit, these laws that had left Gu Nan would not be replenished. As long as she kept on doing this, sooner or later, she would be able to free herself.
"Hang in there!" Sylvia encouraged herself.historical
She began to try again and again, pausing for a short rest when her divine body was damaged too seriously, and soon began the repetitive work of "trying to puncture stone with drops of water" once again.
It was only when she heard the sound of footsteps that she hastily stopped moving, fearing that Gu Nan would notice her actions.
Her caution was completely necessary, as Gu Nan's voice soon traveled over.
"Target: Daoist Sect Realm. Set off."
……
Daoist Monarch Wu Tian of Daoist Sect Realm had been tormented miserably by Gu Nan recently.
The thought of Gu Nan specifically targeting the living beings in Daoist Sect Realm never occurred to him; he just believed the invasion was due to the past grudge between them, and Gu Nan came back to seek revenge now that he ascended to a Realm Level Star Ruler.
But he couldn't even do anything about Gu Nan back in the day, so of course he could only endure the current disaster. Turning the tables and going to Gu Nan's house to wreak havoc was something he could never do.
Who was he kidding? Even Fang Chaoyun suffered a loss in Gu Nan's lair, and now the Star Rulers who had a grudge against Gu Nan all regarded it as a tiger's den.
Therefore, when a group of divine servants descended from Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom and landed directly on various parts of Daoist Sect Realm, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian was still in a trance and hadn't regained his senses.
'Didn't you just want to vent some anger? How did it turn into an all-out war?'
"The… Lady Sylvia in the Divine Kingdom, do you need me to dispose of her?" In the Divine Kingdom, Yan Xiaoxiao projected a figure next to Gu Nan and asked.
Sylvia probably never imagined that everything she did in the shadows was actually all under Yan Xiaoxiao's watchful eye.
"No need." Gu Nan waved his hand. "If she plans to escape like this, even the monkey would've freed himself from Five Elements Mountain before then[1]."
T/N:
[1] Reference to Journey to the West, where it took Sun Wukong 500 years to escape the mountain
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Daoist Sect Realm was finished.
The observers who witnessed Gu Nan's grand army descending knew that Daoist Sect Realm most likely wouldn't be able to put up much resistance any longer.
Even though Gu Nan's army suffered staggering losses after being ambushed by ten Star Rulers last time and its overall strength still hadn't recovered, the enemy still couldn't resist the completion of the player army.
The addition of two fresh troops—Xie Yun and Liang Ruxin—meant the Divine Kingdom wasn't inferior to any Realm Level plane at all in terms of high-end combat power.
The remaining seven members of the player army were also growing rapidly, with An Tiansheng being the most prominent among them.
This teenager who'd taken the "Bandit" route had a growth curve not much worse than Xie Yun's, and because of the nature of his route, he would enjoy even more flexibility in the future.
Although Pay to Win Experts were indeed incredibly strong at the start, by the time they reached Tier 6 or 7, the amount of gold needed for leveling up would reach a despair-inducing level.
But the Bandit route had no such problems; at worst, he would just steal objects of a higher rank as he leveled up.
In any case, from the Star Rulers to the Void Cutter combat power to the ordinary armies below, Daoist Sect Realm was completely outclassed, with almost no hope of turning the tide.
And due to Gu Nan's earlier actions, none of the Star Rulers, including Fang Chaoyun, dared to come to Wu Tian's aid anymore.
This was also the case with Daoist Monarch Wu Tian's friends—whoever helped right now would be the next to suffer.
Gu Nan himself was like a bugged existence. He could casually run into other people's houses to cause trouble, but others didn't dare to throw their lives away by running over to his.
Of course, it wasn't like there were no headstrong people at all. There were always one or two righteous people in this world.
"Old friend Wu Tian, I've come to help you!"
With a loud shout, a burly man holding a double bladed axe appeared as he descended to Daoist Sect Realm.
Daoist Monarch Wu Tian was like someone who'd been in a long drought, so he was extremely touched to receive a helping hand at a time like this.
However, he also knew that this burly man with the double edged axe was, in essence, merely a weak Star Ruler who just obtained an astral world and could never be Gu Nan's match.
Instead of letting him run to his death here, it would be better for him to deal with Gu Nan's army. Having a Star Ruler intervene would undoubtedly buy Wu Tian a lot of time.
Thinking of this, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian hurriedly shouted, "Don't come here, hurry to—"
Bang!
Though he spoke up quickly, Gu Nan reacted even faster. He slammed his fist out without thinking, punching the burly man in the back of his head, and his body slowly collapsed.
"You evil wretch!" Daoist Monarch Wu Tian couldn't help letting out an enraged roar, but Gu Nan turned around and swung another punch at him, knocking down his temper.
Strictly speaking, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian shouldn't be any weaker than a normal Tier 10 powerhouse when inside Daoist Sect Realm.
The astral world could only strengthen his laws. Even so, he was still unable to deal a fatal blow to Gu Nan, so the scene fell into a stalemate.
As long as the power of his astral world was used up, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian's defeat would be imminent, and besides, Gu Nan's goal in this battle wasn't to kill Wu Tian in the first place.
With no external Star Rulers intervening, Daoist Sect Realm's native cultivators were losing ground, and there was absolutely no one who could withstand Gu Nan's army.
Especially Xie Yun, Lan Si, and the others—all of them were the strongest people under Star Ruler Realm, and there was hardly a single enemy who could be their match.
The divine servant army massacred enemies at an extremely swift speed, and in just over a day's time, the entire Daoist Sect Realm had been wiped clean. Even now, Gu Nan and Wu Tian had still yet to decide victory or defeat.
In fact, there was absolutely no need to decide the winner and loser. If Wu Tian was unable to kill Gu Nan in the beginning, then he was already doomed to lose.
And right now, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian was indeed very spent. His attacks seemed mechanical, no longer containing the spirit he seemed to have a day ago.
Anyone who'd been stalled in battle by Gu Nan for a day and a night and had to watch their own astral world being destroyed in the meantime would probably end up like this.
This was the complete destruction of one's mental state.
What was even more frightening was that Gu Nan didn't seem to have changed at all, as if the previous battle hadn't caused any wear and tear at all.
With ten thousand years of hard work destroyed in a day, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian slipped up and was finally punched squarely in the stomach by Gu Nan, and his entire body immediately flew out.
Of course Gu Nan wouldn't be polite to him. Since his opponent wasn't in a good condition, Gu Nan naturally had to give him a thorough thrashing.
However, at this time, a flash of teal light hovered in front of Gu Nan, slowly transforming into human form.
This person was a young man with delicate features and a black Daoist robe, quite similar to the original Daoist Heir Qin Ning.
"Disciple Fang Keming under Void Grotto Heaven's Radiant Jade Cave Sect Leader greets Senior Gu Nan."
The youth who called himself Fang Keming made his attitude very humble, addressing Gu Nan as "senior" as soon as he appeared.
Contrary to expectations, Gu Nan stopped his attacks in time. The youth in front of him was only around Tier 5, but the person he represented had to be given face.
Void Grotto Heaven's Daoist Heir Fang Keming, the closed door disciple[1]
of Daoist Venerable Yu Lian. He cultivated for less than a hundred years, yet he'd already stepped into Star Ruler Realm.
He far surpassed Qin Ning in terms of both talent and status.
Strictly speaking, it really wasn't a problem for him to call Gu Nan his senior—this was a rare occasion where Gu Nan ran into a cultivator younger than himself.
"Yu Lian sent you?" Gu Nan didn't have much intention of chatting with his junior and asked directly.
Fang Keming bowed and saluted. "The Sect Leader said that Daoist Sect Realm is of the same origin as my Void Grotto Heaven, so she asks Senior to please be merciful."
"Sure," Gu Nan seemed to be particularly amenable this time and agreed without any hesitation at all. "I'll return Wu Tian to you, and my people will withdraw today."historical
Daoist Sect Realm had gone through a round of massacre, and all the points that could be harvested had pretty much been collected, so it wasn't like there was any benefit to killing Wu Tian.
Fang Keming hurriedly revealed a look of gratitude, shielding Daoist Monarch Wu Tian behind him as he once again saluted and thanked him.
As Daoist Monarch Wu Tian followed behind Fang Keming, he was barely able to recover some of his spirit. At the very least, he was a grand Star Ruler who had weathered great storms.
Although the forces of Daoist Sect Realm had been thoroughly purged, their foundation hadn't been destroyed—Gu Nan hadn't laid his hands on the origin.
Because of this, Daoist Monarch Wu Tian believed that the other party might have done this just to vent some anger and didn't necessarily want to kill him… It's just that this venting was a bit extreme.
Wu Tian took a deep breath and took one last look at his tattered Daoist Sect Realm, then helplessly followed Fang Keming to Void Grotto Heaven.
"He's going to rejoin Void Grotto Heaven, congratulations!" Gu Nan revealed a smile and chuckled lightly.
If Daoist Sect Realm wanted to rebuild, it would never happen overnight, and Wu Tian's willingness to follow Fang Keming back represented an attitude in and of itself.
After holding on so stubbornly for so many years, this loser from back then was finally going to bow down to Void Grotto Heaven.
Red Tail was the chief commander of the Divine Kingdom War and finally reached Gu Nan's side at this time. "Then it'll be hard for us to invade this place again… My Lord, who are we going to fight next?"
Gu Nan glanced at her and laughed involuntarily. "How did you become so belligerent as well?"
Without waiting for Red Tail to respond, he shook his head again. "We're going to do something big next time."
T/N:
[1]Closed door disciple: A master's final disciple
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After the battle in Daoist Sect Realm ended, Gu Nan immediately checked the losses and gains, and the results somewhat exceeded his expectations.
Perhaps because Gu Nan's earlier actions had indeed frightened many of the Star Rulers, not many dared to intervene, even until the end.
This also resulted in very little casualties to the divine servants, and there was even a 0% casualty rate amongst the apostles, with only a handful of them suffering some injuries.
However, the gains this time were far greater than any other time in the past. Even compared to the earlier attack on Star Realm, this battle still yielded far more points.
After all, Star Realm was merely the weakest of the Realm Level planes, and because of the vastness of its geography and the meddling of other Star Rulers, the war hadn't been fully successful, so the amount of points gained naturally couldn't be maximized.
After collecting his thoughts, Gu Nan started considering his next move.
Judging from the current situation, choosing the "reaching heaven in one fell swoop" method by directly advancing to Tier 10 was the more reliable option.
After making such a mess in the World of Gods, it would be inappropriate for him to appear in public again, not unless he was prepared to be interrogated and exposed in front of people.historical
In that case, rather than making two trips to the World of Gods when advancing to Tier 9 and Tier 10, it would be better to do it all at once.
In terms of points, Gu Nan did some rough calculations. If he followed the simplest route of operating the Divine Kingdom, choosing all structures with the aim of leveling himself up, Tier 10 was actually close at hand.
At most, he would get enough points after slaughtering one more plane with half the population of Daoist Sect Realm.
There were often players who became addicted to the later stages of the Divine Kingdom playstyle after the First Round and couldn't extricate themselves, because there were simply too many structures to choose from from Tier 8 onwards.
They each had their own peculiar uses, and from the perspectives of both appearance and functionality, these structures were all worth building.
Some players even turned their Divine Kingdoms into impenetrable fortresses, so that even a greater god-level powerhouse couldn't easily break in.
For the game's developers, the large variety of structures undoubtedly satisfied the portion of players who loved to build bases while also extending the game's lifespan.
But for a top player like Gu Nan who pursued efficiency, a large number of structures would be of little use; instead, picking out the cheapest structures to meet the upgrade criteria was top priority.
"But even so… the Myriad Heavens is still really efficient in terms of points!" Even Gu Nan couldn't help sighing with emotion.
In the game's terms, Daoist Sect Realm was only a Tier 8 Divine Kingdom, yet the amount of points that could be harvested surpassed even that of a Tier 9 Divine Kingdom.
In the end, it all came down to the source of points, which mainly came from fanatical worshippers in the World of Gods, so the harvesting—be it efficiency or total amount—was far inferior to directly hunting powerful people in the Myriad Heavens.
The shortfall in terms of points wasn't too large, and it could even be said that because of the characteristics of the Myriad Heavens, he could gather enough without too much difficulty, but there was no possibility of such a loophole when it came to Evil Value.
One needed to kill at least three Tier 10 gods to advance to Tier 10. Of course, the player could also choose to make up for the number with lower level gods, but the number needed would be several times greater.
"It seems like this is the only way." Gu Nan sat calmly inside the Evil God Temple, his gaze falling to the horizon.
……
"What is… this?" Red Tail was slightly surprised when she saw the stack of documents placed in front of her.
The documents detailed a method of cultivating underlings—the Godhead Cultivation Method.
To describe it in the simplest of terms, by using a Godhead as the raw material and a mortal with excellent talent as the culture medium, one could easily cultivate a subordinate who was at least Void Cutter Realm.
Red Tail was perfectly aware that this was by no means false information, as an example was laid out in front of her—Lan Si had been cultivated using a similar method.
More importantly, there was only one Lan Si, but with this cultivation method given by Gu Nan, the Godhead could be utilized over and over again.
Once the subordinate was cultivated to the point of satisfaction, the Godhead could be directly removed. Unlike Lan Si, who became Gu Nan's apostle, this cultivation method merely utilized the sublime laws contained within the Godhead.
Of course, the more the Godhead was used, the less laws would remain within. But in this state where the target semi-fused with the Godhead, it still wasn't much of a problem to use the Godhead like this ten or so times.
"I know that the birth of a Void Cutter is, in a sense, harder than making a Legend Rank powerhouse." Gu Nan said with a smile, "The level-up route over there is smoother, and they have no need to comprehend the law of space."
"That's why many Star Rulers—especially the weaker ones—have a high demand for Void Cutters."
To a large extent, the number of Void Cutters in an astral world represented the Star Ruler's overall power, but unfortunately, Void Cutters couldn't be cultivated just because they wanted to and demanded a high level of enlightenment and talent from mortal candidates.
But now, Gu Nan had placed a cultivation plan with an extremely high success rate in front of Red Tail.
Having followed Gu Nan for many years, Red Tail was familiar with his style, so she already realized what Gu Nan was trying to do as soon as she saw this information.
"Are you planning to… publicize this information?"
"Yes." Gu Nan nodded and said with a light smile, "And it can't be openly publicized; it has to be secretly spread around."
He wanted the information to be secretly circulated in the circle of weaker Star Rulers. It wasn't as if Red Tail hadn't done similar things before, so it wasn't very hard, and she quickly nodded.
It's just that her current knowledge was also far superior to the past, so she could see where the real difficulty lay for this plan.
"But the difficulty of obtaining a Godhead is quite high, isn't it?" Red Tail asked carefully.
Quite many Star Rulers actually knew the situation of the World of Gods, but the two sides had always lived together in harmony. To put it bluntly, it was because there was no conflict of interest. Although Godheads were great, the benefits weren't really proportional to the effort expended to get them.
Gu Nan smiled and took out another piece of information from the drawer. "This one, on the other hand, can be publicized."
Red Tail hurriedly accepted the document, and when she saw the title alone, she couldn't take her eyes off it anymore.
Clearly written on it were the words: Weak Gods Hunting Manual.
……
Geng Chengyun was a Star Ruler who just broke through not long ago and hadn't had the chance to take control of an astral world yet.
He did find a suitable target in the Inner World, but because of his own lack of strength, he wasn't in a hurry to try and instead chose to stabilize his foundation first.
On this day, he was planning to go out for a relaxing stroll after just finishing a round of secluded cultivation when he received a letter from an old friend.
"Extremely urgent, come to Nine Islands World as soon as possible." The sender of the letter was none other than Geng Chengyun's old friend, Nine Islands World's Star Ruler Mai Cheng.
Geng Chengyun, who was familiar with his old friend's style, felt slightly alarmed. He knew Mai Cheng would never send him such a letter if there wasn't a genuine emergency, so he hurriedly rushed to Nine Islands World.
Mai Cheng became a Star Ruler about two thousand years ahead of him, so they could barely be considered as the same generation. In the past, Mai Cheng often looked after him.
When Mai Cheng sent out the "extremely urgent" letter, Geng Chengyun had already decided that he would help his old friend in any way he could.
Only when he arrived at Nine Islands World did he realize that the situation wasn't what he expected.
"Brother Geng is here? Come quickly, come quickly, we were all waiting for you!" As soon as Mai Cheng sensed Geng Chengyun's appearance, he hurriedly guided him down and said excitedly.
Only then did Geng Chengyun realize with surprise that four Star Rulers were already waiting for him inside the tiny Nine Islands World.
Besides Mai Cheng himself, there were two more that he recognized, both of whom were weak Star Rulers at a similar level as himself and the others.
"Brother Mai, what are you guys…?"
Mai Cheng slapped Geng Chengyun's shoulder and laughed. "Brother, our chance has come!"
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Geng Chengyun glanced at Mai Cheng with a baffled expression, incomprehension clear on his face.
The people next to him couldn't help revealing friendly smiles when they saw this. One of the people acquainted with Geng Chengyun asked with a smile, "Old Geng, did you just come out of secluded cultivation? You never even heard about such a major event?"
Geng Chengyun nodded. "I won't hide it from Daoist Friend Xie… This humble one has indeed just left secluded cultivation."
"Then it's no wonder!" A look of realization appeared on Mai Cheng's face, and he handed a piece of document to Geng Chengyun. "Brother, take a look at this first."
Geng Chengyun took it and realized that a line of large words were written on the first page: Weak Gods Hunting Manual.
Geng Chengyun was naturally aware of the World of Gods and the existence of gods, so he was taken aback on the spot as soon as he saw this name.
Gods were existences on the same level as Star Rulers, yet someone actually dared to talk about hunting gods?
Disdain flickered in his eyes. Geng Chengyun didn't want to humor this nonsense, but considering that it was information given to him by Mai Cheng, he still patiently flipped open the file.
On the title page, Geng Chengyun saw this sentence: "All methods in this manual are only for weak gods below Tier 7. Remember to choose the correct hunting target when using them."
'Yeah right, as if this whole thing isn't just a huge prank.' Geng Chengyun secretly bristled, but was then shaken by the long table of contents on the next page.
"Definition of Weak Gods, Common Locations Where Weak Gods Reside, How to Lure Weak Gods Out, Common Areas Weak Gods Frequent…"
Geng Chengyun saw something even more frightening at the end of the manual.
"Example Demonstration: Detailed Steps for Capturing and Killing a Tier 6 God—God of Smoke and Dust Norfetti."
Geng Chengyun felt his heartbeat speed up as he quickly flipped to the very end, and sure enough, he saw extremely detailed steps written there, telling the reader how to capture and kill Norfetti.
This was a god who had reached Tier 6 and already possessed a Divine Kingdom!
He quickly glanced up at Mai Cheng. "This Norfetti…"
"Dead," Mai Cheng answered lightly. "The method of death was exactly the same as stated in the manual, and the Godhead was also gouged out."
Geng Chengyun only felt a "boom" in his head, as if something had shattered in his heart. He knew that it was the high and mighty status unique to Star Rulers.
Mai Cheng couldn't help chuckling when he saw this. "Don't be nervous. This manual only targets gods—it has no effect on us."
As Mai Cheng and the others recounted what happened, Geng Chengyun soon realized what kind of major event had transpired in the Myriad Heavens during his seclusion.
First, a strange piece of information regarding the use of Godheads to cultivate Void Cutters began to circulate amongst the Star Rulers.
At that time, not many people took it seriously. After all, Godheads weren't cabbages, and the difficulty of obtaining one might even be higher than cultivating a Void Cutter from scratch, so such information was completely useless.
But then this hunting manual appeared out of nowhere, and it wasn't even circulated secretly but rather released openly for all Star Rulers and even Void Cutters to read.
"To think such a method exists…" Geng Chengyun muttered under his breath as he finished reading the Godhead Cultivation Method.
Even though he hadn't reached the stage of running an astral world yet, the lack of Void Cutters under his command was a situation every Star Ruler would face. If one could have a Void Cutter underling, it would undoubtedly save a great deal of energy.
Star Rulers like Mai Cheng would have an even greater need for Void Cutters' assistance and was just short of waving a flag and recruiting Void Cutters from all sides into their own astral worlds.
Moreover, Void Cutters they personally raised would obviously be more dependable than outsiders… Almost without much thought, Geng Chengyun understood the value of these two pieces of information.
His gaze also began to burn with enthusiasm as he looked around him.
According to the manual, the most optimal party for hunting gods was a team of five people. This number could guarantee a fairly high success rate without the loot being poorly distributed due to too many people, making it the most cost-effective configuration.
It occurred to Geng Chengyun that even if the five of them only ended up getting one Godhead, they could still take turns using it…
As long as they found a small plane where time flowed extremely fast, it wouldn't take long at all to cultivate a Void Cutter, and they'd soon be able to squeeze all the value out of a single Godhead.
Seeing Geng Chengyun's expression change, Mai Cheng didn't need to ask much to understand the other party's attitude.
He then spoke again, "There's no time to lose. If Brother Geng is interested in participating in this matter, why don't we set off immediately?"
"Depart immediately? I still want to go back and prepare a little…" Geng Chengyun froze for a second, not expecting Mai Cheng to be in such a hurry.
He originally came out to relax and hadn't prepared too many items suitable for combat.
Daoist Friend Xie next to him said, "Old Geng, you're muddleheaded! This hunting manual is public, so it won't be long before the gods learn about it. How can we have time to wait any longer?"
Geng Chengyun suddenly realized that he'd been so shocked by this series of discoveries that he didn't even consider this. He hurriedly said, "There's no time to lose. Let's hurry up and get going!"
This truly was an extremely urgent matter.
……
Motivating people through righteousness would only last for a while, while motivating people through benefits could last for a long time.
Gu Nan didn't even do anything besides making two pieces of information public and semi-public respectively, and the entire Myriad Heavens completely exploded, with the vast majority of Star Rulers mobilizing.
How could the Star Rulers not be enthusiastic? After all, a single Godhead represented at least ten Void Cutters—and the kind where they could select the candidates themselves. Not even Star Rulers had ever seen such a good thing before.
Those weak Star Rulers who were just starting to develop their astral worlds were definitely grateful from the bottom of their hearts to the person who publicized the information. This really was a timely rain.
As a result, the number of Void Cutters in the entire Myriad Heavens reached its highest peak ever, and after just over half a month, practically every Star Ruler had a Void Cutter attendant in their hands.
The status of independent Void Cutters took a steep dive as a result, and it could be said that because of Gu Nan's actions, the problem of class solidification in the Myriad Heavens worsened severalfold.
Equally unlucky were the weaker gods in the World of Gods. The neutral Void Cutters lost some status at worst, but what these gods lost were their lives.
The sudden death of a large number of gods finally drew the attention of the higher-ups of the World of Gods, and the twelve greater gods sat down together in an unprecedented manner, trying to get to the bottom of the matter—actually, it was thirteen now, since there was an extra Rolensia.
But when the results came out, they could only look at each other speechlessly.
There was no greater god who didn't know about the Myriad Heavens, so they were well aware of this: the conflict between the two sides had become irreconcilable as soon as Godheads were discovered to greatly benefit Star Rulers' astral world development.historical
"Negotiate with that side and have their Unified Dao powers place a ban on Star Rulers coming over here illegally?" The God of Time Valen suggested after some thought.
"It's useless." The Goddess of Darkness Daisy sighed softly. "Even if there is a ban, there will never be a lack of people willing to take risks out of desperation."
The Beast God pressed his greatsword onto the table and looked around. "Everyone, I think it's better to prepare for war."
No one from the crowd of greater gods responded, tacitly acquiescing to his words. No matter how strong the ban, it still wouldn't be able to stop this kind of behavior that brought huge benefits.
Pandora's box had been opened.
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The Goddess of Darkness and the Beast God's words caused the greater gods to fall silent. But not everyone agreed to go to war immediately. Things weren't quite at that stage yet.
The thirteen greater gods sat around a round table, and in front of them was a list of names provided by Daisy, the Goddess of Darkness.
"Take a look at this first." Daisy said to the greater gods, "In less than half a month, over fifty gods were attacked, and most of them died from it… Especially in the first wave of victims, over 80% of them had their Godheads gouged out."
Due to the suddenness of the incident, even the greater gods didn't have time to count the number of victims.
So when such a shocking statistic was laid out before them, even though all of them were supreme beings, they couldn't help but be moved by it.
While the greater gods were certainly aloof and detached from lower beings, it didn't mean they were truly isolated from the world.
Every single greater god's Divine Kingdom contained a large number of mortals and cultivators living there, and there were even subordinate gods residing there. It could be said that the Divine Kingdom of each greater god was a huge world.
And in such a situation, of course the greater gods would be concerned about the survival of the gods below them.
In a sense, the normal gods were their foundation. If all the normal gods were killed, then no new greater god would emerge in the future.
If this continued, then sooner or later, the World of Gods would suffer a full-scale invasion from its next-door neighbor.
This list given by Daisy was like the last straw that broke the camel's back, and Austin, who'd remained silent so far, finally spoke up at this moment.
"Even if we have to negotiate with that side, we must first cut off these hands that have stretched too far," Austin's voice didn't hold much emotion, but it contained an indescribable finality.
As soon as this Ruler of Light and Justice opened his mouth, none of the remaining four members of the Light Faction—including Valen—objected any further. Instead, they all acquiesced to Austin's stance in unison.
This was also a long-standing habit. Compared to the Dark Faction, which now had eight greater gods, the Light Faction was much more united—if they weren't united, they might have been annihilated long ago.
"That's right. Instead of waiting for that side to place a ban, it's better for us to do it," this was Eugene, the Ruler of War and Austin's strongest backer.
The Light Faction already had a clear stance, and on the Dark Faction's side, the Beast God was even the first one to propose going to war, so it looked like the tone of the response had already been set.
"Arrange for a group of Tier 9 and Tier 10 gods to step in and take care of those illegal trespassers." The Goddess of Darkness Daisy finally nodded, her eyes revealing a deep indifference. "Then… let's give them a painful beating first."
……
Geng Chengyun followed Mai Cheng and the others and easily arrived at the World of Gods.
The five in their group were all Star Rulers, so it really wasn't difficult to cross over illegally. With the degree of control the Myriad Heavens had over this aspect, even many Void Cutters were able to smuggle themselves in.
On the contrary, because of the popularity of the "God Hunt" operation during this period, the price of space-time crystals had risen significantly, increasing the cost of smuggling, which led to fewer Void Cutters trying to cross the border illegally.
Geng Chengyun and the other Star Rulers weren't concerned about this insignificant price. The problem in front of them was how to choose the right target.
"We have five Star Rulers, so it won't be too hard to hunt gods as long as we follow what the manual says." Mai Cheng looked very confident. "The problem is that there are too many monks and not enough porridge right now, and it'll be troublesome if we accidentally hunt someone else's target."
If there were two parties hunting the same god, of course the god wouldn't be able to escape, but the distribution of the loot would be a big problem.
Each of the five of them had friendships with each other, and there was a foundation of trust between them, but a rival party was a different story.
For one, a realistic question had to be asked: Who would the Godhead be placed with? Regardless of which party it was placed with, it was impossible for the other party to feel at ease.
Geng Chengyun interjected, "I think we can first poke around and see which gods have already been hunted recently. That way, we can avoid making a trip in vain."
"The manual says that weak gods often create miracles in main planes, so why don't we start by looking in a main plane?"
"That works. As long as they've just created a miracle, they must still be alive."
The party members discussed amongst themselves, while Mai Cheng finally nodded and said, "Then let's split up and scout for information. Everyone should hurry. We'll gather at…"
Just as Mai Cheng was about to set the meeting place, he suddenly felt his heart sink as an inexplicable pressure rose from the depths of his soul.
A white light lit up from behind the crowd, and a silver-haired girl slowly stepped out, her icy gaze sweeping across the several people.
"My name is Quentina." The silver-haired girl held a silvery white longsword, pointing it straight at Mai Cheng and his group. "Are you Star Rulers who crossed over illegally?"
Mai Cheng was a little startled. He didn't expect for them to be so unlucky and be discovered as soon as they reached the World of Gods.
Someone behind him tugged on his sleeve and quickly whispered, "Quentina is the Holy Goddess, Tier 9…"
Before coming to the World of Gods, Mai Cheng had naturally done his homework and instantly realized who Quentina was, feeling his heart sink even further.
A Tier 9 god just came up to them directly. This…
Mai Cheng, who felt like he was caught red-handed, was unable to speak for a moment, so Geng Chengyun behind him hurriedly responded, "Lord Quentina, we are from the Myriad Heavens, but we just came over to collect resources. We didn't commit any evil deeds!"
Only after Geng Chengyun's reminder did Mai Cheng come to his senses: 'That's right! We haven't even done anything yet. Even if the other party is a Tier 9 god, she still can't just attack like this, can she?'historical
But in the end, they were still in a foreign land, so Mai Cheng wasn't stupid enough to butt heads with Quentina. He quickly showed a respectful expression and said, "He's right. My Lord, we—"
"No need to say more," Quentina interrupted Mai Cheng, and with a flash of the silver longsword in her hand, a silver colored holy light shone on the five people.
The five of them felt that they were unable to keep any secrets under this holy light, as if they were stripped bare and placed there.
In the next moment, Quentina spoke once again, "No Godhead here. All of you, get lost immediately and run back to that side."
"My Lord, this…" Mai Cheng froze, still wanting to object slightly.
Quentina coldly turned her head to him. "If I still see you loitering around the edge of the world half an hour later, you won't get a second chance."
After saying that, this Holy Goddess had no intention of sparing them a second glance as her figure instantly disappeared.
Mai Cheng took a deep breath and said indignantly, "These gods are really… so overbearing!"
Geng Chengyun, however, looked as if he had just survived a calamity. "Brother Mai, we'd better hurry up and leave… I have a premonition that this is because of the God Hunt."
The rest of the team also nodded. Quentina's words "No Godhead here" was in itself enough to illustrate the problem.
There really was going to be a major change soon.
Geng Chengyun glanced at the place where Quentina had vanished and suddenly felt like he was witnessing history with his very own eyes.
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Geng Chengyun and his party were actually very lucky.
They ran into the Holy Goddess Quentina, a Tier 9 god from the Light Faction and a typical clean freak who'd always detested any contact with blood.
Otherwise, a team of five Star Rulers traveling together like them probably would've been captured immediately, even if they didn't have any Godhead on them.
And once the "God Hunting Manual" was found to be in their possession, then nothing more would need to be said.
Moreover, if they ran into some of the more brutal people in the Dark Faction, killing them on the spot wouldn't be out of the question.
Although Geng Chengyun and his team left in a hurry, a large number of other Star Rulers still lingered in the World of Gods. Their goal naturally didn't need much elaboration—they all came here for Godheads.
The godly hierarchy also reacted with extreme speed as soon as the thirteen greater gods made their decision, with a group of powerful gods being quickly dispatched to specifically look for Star Rulers who crossed over illegally.
The matter of illegal crossings had previously received little attention from either side.
Star Rulers benefited from this and could easily come to the World of Gods, but on the flip side, they were also easily caught by the gods because they didn't do enough to hide their traces.
Thus, this wave of God Hunts started by Gu Nan was quickly suppressed through overwhelming force.
But as stated earlier, Pandora's box was already open, and everything had just started.
……
Myriad Heavens.
If it was the gods next door who were on edge earlier, then now, it was the Star Rulers' turn to voice their grievances.
The greater gods had responded too decisively. A majority of the Star Rulers who sneaked over were killed outright, while half of the remaining ones were searched, and the manuals they carried were discovered. Naturally, those people also suffered the same fate.
Only a very small portion of the luckier ones—or innocents who truly weren't involved in the God Hunt—were repatriated back.
But even then, accidental killings couldn't be avoided, and even some innocent Star Rulers who had gone to the World of Gods a long time ago and didn't even know about the God Hunt were affected by this purge.
More importantly, be it Star Rulers or gods, they weren't alone and had a huge network of relationships behind them.
This was how enmity was formed.
In a rare moment, Song Fei was feeling a headache as he stared at the disciple standing in front of him inside Academic Heaven.
Song Fei had many direct disciples, but only a handful actually succeeded and became truly powerful Star Rulers.
Graceful Heaven's Fang Chaoyun naturally counted as one, but Old Fang had always been hot-tempered, even if he cultivated the supposedly calm and composed Dao of Confucianism.
So the disciple Song Fei had the highest hopes for wasn't Fang Chaoyun, but the person before him.
Phoenix Feather Heaven's Shi Yeyan. His Tier 9 cultivation was slightly lower than Fang Chaoyun's, but his mentality and temperament were way better.
Fang Chaoyun ran to Academic Heaven practically everyday, yet besides the routine respects Shi Yeyan came to pay, he had never gone to Academic Heaven for his own matters in almost a hundred years.
Which was why the one time he did come for personal matters, Song Fei had to give him justice, as well as give himself justice.
"Master, you know it too." Shi Yeyan said calmly, "Youngest Martial Brother traveled to the World of Gods six hundred years ago to study the difference between the power of faith and the Shinto path's incense prayers, so how could he be related to the God Hunt?"
"Just two days ago, Youngest Martial Brother even sent a letter back, saying that he finally had a breakthrough in his research and that he hoped to return within a few decades. He also said he misses the meals in his hometown…"
A trace of anger finally entered Shi Yeyan's voice as he continued, "Master, Youngest Martial Brother doesn't even know what's happening on this side, so how can he be related to the God Hunt?"
Hearing this, Song Fei already understood what Shi Yeyan wanted to say and sighed softly.
The "Youngest Martial Brother" Shi Yeyan mentioned was none other than Song Fei's closed door disciple, Lu Yang, who'd been interested in all sorts of obscure and esoteric paths ever since he started cultivating.
Six hundred years ago, Lu Yang suddenly became enamored with the Dao of incense prayers, and after studying the relevant spells, he ran to the World of Gods and never returned even now.
Song Fei knew better than anyone else that it was impossible for Lu Yang to be interested in the God Hunt—plenty of Void Cutters in Academic Heaven would be willing to help Song Fei's direct disciple if he wanted assistance, so why would he need to do such a thing?
But Song Fei also knew that one must remain calm at times like this. If even they—the Unified Dao powerhouses—let emotions affect their decisions, then war between the two sides would be inevitable.
So Song Fei said in a low voice, "I will give him justice, but not now."
Shi Yeyan was silent for a while before he slowly nodded.
……
Song Fei summoned all the Unified Dao cultivators as soon as he sent Shi Yeyan away.historical
In fact, as a latecomer among the Unified Dao group, not everyone would give him face, but this time was an exception.
Apart from Zi Luo Elder—whose whereabouts were unknown—even the ever-elusive Jiu Po showed up. Every single one of the original Thirteen Heavens was present, with not a single person missing.
"How rare it is to see you!" Weapon Martial Heaven's Zou Jiming looked to the side and revealed an amused expression.
Beside him stood a bearded man with an average face, wearing plain black clothes. From appearance alone, no one would believe that he ruled over the most mysterious of the Thirteen Heavens, Jiu Po Heaven.
Jiu Po didn't mind the jab at all and also smiled. "If you want to see me so much, how about I pay your Weapon Martial Heaven a visit every day from now on?"
"No way!" Zou Jiming hastily waved his hand. "I can't afford to provide for a great god like you."
It was true that there weren't many opportunities for the Unified Dao powerhouses to meet, but now was clearly not the time for casual greetings. Song Fei coughed lightly and said, "Everyone, let's get down to business."
Zou Jiming turned to Song Fei again. "Old Song, I heard your disciple was also killed? Don't be polite to those gods; let them see what it means to be the most overprotective person in the Myriad Heavens."
In terms of pulling aggro with his words, Classmate Zou Jiming was definitely on a completely different level. The No.1 Aggro Puller in the Myriad Heavens was none other than him.
Song Fei already knew his personality and ignored this person altogether. He redirected the topic back to the official subject, "It's very likely that this God Hunt movement will lead to the beginning of a war. What is everyone's opinion?"
Lu Wen was the first to speak up, "We need to first catch the person who planned all this, or else who knows what kinds of schemes the mastermind is still hiding?"
"The mastermind should certainly be investigated, but now that things are already like this, finding out won't affect the big picture." Yu Lian said, "Godheads can create Void Cutters—now that this is common knowledge, who can guarantee that the Star Rulers down below won't be swayed?"
Lu Wen didn't say anything else, because he knew what Yu Lian said was true.
Don't be fooled by how the gods were able to hunt down Star Rulers en masse in the World of Gods right now. That was because many people were blinded by greed and weren't careful enough when smuggling themselves in.
After this wave of purging passes, Star Rulers have countless ways to sneak around secretly. They could even ask others to do it for them.
Everyone was a Star Ruler. Who among them was truly dumb?
Faced with such a situation, the thirteen Unified Dao cultivators were truly in a dilemma.
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Star Rulers hunting gods had become an act that concerned the core interests of the weaker Star Rulers, so it was never something that could be stopped as long as a ban was issued.
The thirteen Unified Dao existences were well aware of this.
But then again, judging from the fact that Lu Wen was still in the mood to look for the mastermind, it was clear that they weren't as anxious as the greater gods next door.
This time, certain gods were hunted down, and some of the Star Rulers were also killed by powerful gods from the World of Gods, so both sides suffered considerable losses.
But the dead couldn't be brought back to life. Instead, they needed to concern themselves with the future.
Those in the World of Gods had to curb the God Hunt at all costs, or else the gods would be killed off sooner or later, while the Myriad Heavens had no such worries—the weak Star Rulers would get scared as soon as their death count increased. It wasn't like they would continue to foolishly throw their lives away.
What really gave the Thirteen Heavens a headache was the fact that the greater gods of the Worlds of Gods had such an uncompromising stance on this matter, making them at a loss on how to respond.
Song Fei's youngest disciple dying in the World of Gods was no longer a secret among the Unified Dao figures; they naturally had their own intelligence sources.
They even knew that such situations were by no means few and far between. Perhaps they might even encounter the same situation as Song Fei in the future. So other than someone with a big heart like Zou Jiming, no one would make light of this.
Or rather, by the time more and more Star Rulers were affected, the web of connections would sooner or later implicate them as well.
So by tacit agreement, nobody present brought this up first. They were all waiting for Song Fei to speak up and make a decision. As long as he made a decision, everyone else could just follow suit, and any curses from below would only be directed at Song Fei first.
Song Fei looked around and saw that each and every one of these Unified Dao figures either made it clear that it was none of their business or were filled with righteous indignation but never had any intention of speaking up, so he could only sigh in secret.
"A war cannot be started lightly," after a moment of silence, Song Fei finally provided a response that satisfied the crowd, and the crowd also seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief.
The Unified Dao existences were waiting for precisely this statement!
If the Light Faction in the World of Gods could be described as incomparably united and the Dark Faction slightly less united, then the Myriad Heavens' leaders were basically scattered sand.
The Thirteen Heavens were all fighting their own battles. At most, two people might have a slightly better relationship, forming an offensive and defensive alliance or something similar, but there had never been any united factions to speak of.
If they truly went to war with the World of Gods, it would definitely be the Myriad Heavens' side that would have more problems.
What's more, the greater gods over there actually wanted to go to war. On one hand, they wanted to vent some anger, and on the other hand, they also wanted to strike fear into the Star Rulers on this side, turning the "ban" on the God Hunt into a real ban.
For them, stopping a loss was the same as gaining a victory.
But what would the Thirteen Heavens gain by starting a war? Nothing!
The ones who would get the Godheads were the weak Star Rulers just starting out, but the ones who would have to fight the war were the Unified Dao figures. Their victory wouldn't bring any benefits, and their defeat would just be laughed at, so who would be willing to do such a thing?
But although it would be nice to admit defeat against the gods, they would get a cowardly reputation if word spread, so everyone was waiting for Song Fei to take the lead.
After Song Fei glanced at everyone's expressions, his face suddenly showed some amusement as he changed the subject, "Indeed, the matter of the God Hunt benefits others at our own detriment, so it shouldn't be done. But this humble one's youngest disciple, Lu Yang, was residing in the World of Gods 600 years ago. How could he be related to this matter?"
The Unified Dao cultivators didn't expect him to suddenly change the subject, and while they were still taken aback, Song Fei continued, "This humble one is willing to go to the World of Gods alone to seek justice for my youngest disciple. I would like to ask that all of you please stay at the headquarters to avoid any misunderstandings from that side."
The crowd finally understood Song Fei's intentions this time. He wanted to be the only hero and make everyone else endorse him!
A silver-haired man who'd been silent so far smiled lightly and replied, "Since Daoist Friend Song's disciple was wrongly accused, is there any reason to ignore this injustice? This humble one is willing to go with Daoist Friend."
This was Milky Way Heaven's Star Ruler Si Yun, the same person who was hiding a Nine Abyss Heavenly Demon in his astral world, the only starry sea-type astral world in the Thirteen Heavens.
Song Fei put on a troubled smile and dissuaded, "That's why this humble one said that a war should not be started lightly—"
"Say no more! How can we let outsiders bully people from our Myriad Heavens? We're going together!"
"That's right. Didn't just a few gods get hunted down? That was due to their lack of ability, but now they're retaliating by killing innocent people. Do they really think my Myriad Heavens has no one?"
The crowd was so excited that no trace of the previous silence could be seen.
Those not in the know might mistake this for Song Fei's ability to rally supporters. It might even make for a riveting story to pass on to future generations, but only the parties involved knew what was going on.
Song Fei had always urged everyone to focus on the big picture. It was enough for him alone to go; the others shouldn't casually take action.
How could he be willing to be the first to cause war? Although being the leader would improve his reputation in the eyes of weaker Star Rulers, it might not necessarily be the case in the powerful Star Rulers' circles.
After all, they also didn't lack Void Cutters. If they were unable to benefit from the God Hunt but still had to contribute to the war because Song Fei was leading the way, then wouldn't all the blame fall onto him, Song Fei?
But Song Fei's words had already left his mouth, so the rest of the Unified Dao existences couldn't possibly let him take them back. Regardless of his intentions, the "pro-war faction" label had already been forced onto Song Fei's head.
……
"Many thanks, Master!"
Shi Yeyan had remained inside Academic Heaven, and when Song Fei returned, he was already greeting him with a deep salute.
Song Fei wasn't really surprised. He knew that as soon as the words left his mouth, the others would spread them far and wide, cementing his stance as the leader of the pro-war faction.
"You and I are master and disciple, so there's no need to say this." Song Fei was prepared for this and said with a faint smile, "You are coming along with me this time. But remember, we're only there to seek justice for your Youngest Martial Brother."
"Your disciple understands." Shi Yeyan was meticulous and was well aware of what kind of predicament Song Fei was facing. He responded solemnly, "We travel the world with reason and must not rush indiscriminately into war."historical
Song Fei nodded. "Let's go."
……
After the meeting of the Thirteen Heavens, Song Fei returned to Academic Heaven alone, but he knew that someone would come over very soon.
"I didn't expect the first visitor to be you." Song Fei looked at the person in front of him with an I knew it smile on his face.
Only two figures stood across from each other in the empty hall. After all, Song Fei naturally wouldn't let his disciples watch his meetings with Unified Dao powerhouses.
The visitor was Weapon Martial Heaven's Zou Jiming.
This Unified Dao cultivator who was very good at pulling aggro had mocked Song Fei to his face mere hours ago, but now he changed his tune and ran over to see him in private without the slightest hint of embarrassment.
"Our thoughts are the same," Zou Jiming cut straight to the chase, starting with this sentence.
"Oh?" Song Fei was noncommittal.
"You don't want a war." Zou Jiming continued, "As long as a war starts, you'll be criticized no matter whether you win or lose, and I also don't want a war."
Face didn't really matter for people at the level of the Thirteen Heavens, but when no concrete benefits were involved, sometimes the fight really was about reputation.
The better their reputation, the easier it was to attract other talents, which was no different from a normal Star Ruler.
"Why?"
Zou Jiming met Song Fei's gaze and said seriously, "Because of the Heaven-God Alliance."
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Yes, because of the Heaven-God Alliance.
One had to admit that the existence of the Heaven-God Alliance significantly influenced the overall situation of the Myriad Heavens.
Song Fei would inevitably pay attention to the Heaven-God Alliance because it contained his old rival, Zi Luo Elder. And Zou Jiming would also pay attention to the Heaven-God Alliance because it contained his potential rival, Xue Ren.
In a way, both Song Fei and Zou Jiming were threatened by certain members in the Heaven-God Alliance, but the two were different.
Song Fei could directly attack Zi Luo Elder without much scruple since the two of them had a personal vendetta.
But it would be a big problem for Zou Jiming to openly attack Xue Ren—there were too many people who could threaten Zou Jiming, and killing a single Xue Ren would make him the target of criticism in the blink of an eye.
That was why Zou Jiming was relieved when the Heaven-God Alliance appeared.
If Xue Ren could run to the World of Gods to ascend to Unified Dao, then the conflict between him and Zou Jiming would disappear. Instead, there would be one more weapon path Unified Dao cultivator to help Zou Jiming share the pressure. It was a total win-win situation.
Therefore, he didn't want the two sides to go to war. If they did, it would be much more difficult for Xue Ren to break through to Unified Dao on that side.
These two—one a supporter of the Heaven-God Alliance and the other a mortal enemy of the Heaven-God Alliance—shared a common goal regarding whether or not to go to war.
Song Fei stared at him for a long time before finally speaking, "In that case, I'll have to ask Brother Zou for help."
……
Gu Nan was sitting inside his Divine Kingdom, not in the slightest hurry. He was leisurely sipping tea and reading a light novel.
Ever since the Weak Gods Hunting Manual was published, he'd stayed inside his Divine Kingdom and never stepped foot outside again. At the same time, he also rejected all visits from Star Rulers, acting as if he was in closed-door cultivation until death.
On one hand, it was to avoid suspicion, and on the other hand, it was also because he didn't want to communicate with anyone—at times like these, the more he said, the more he might let something slip.historical
After all, anyone with a discerning eye could see that the person who wrote the Weak Gods Hunting Manual was bound to be someone who had an extremely thorough understanding of the World of Gods and the gods.
To be precise, when it came to god-slaying techniques, not even the gods themselves were any match for Gu Nan.
It was only until the content from the meeting of the Thirteen Heavens came in that Gu Nan finally put down the light novel in his hands.
"Song Fei is leading?" Gu Nan rubbed his chin, seemingly pondering something.
Gu Nan was already aware of the fact that Song Fei's youngest disciple had been framed and murdered. This wasn't out of his expectations.
It wasn't that he was great at predicting the future. Rather, he knew that this kind of event would happen sooner or later as time went on—if not with Song Fei, then with someone else.
It's just that the Thirteen Heavens' determination to go to war was a bit out of his expectations. He'd thought that this group of people wouldn't do such a strenuous and thankless task.
"It's even better if they start fighting; it'll save me a lot of trouble. But I'm afraid they still have some ulterior motives…" Gu Nan didn't believe figures at the level of the Thirteen Heavens would have such simple plans.
Gu Nan thought for a moment, then said to Red Tail, who'd come over, "Investigate what other information can be used. We can't count on this group of Unified Dao cultivators."
Red Tail seemed already prepared for this and handed over a piece of intelligence.
"Lu Yang still has a wife and son in the World of Gods. His wife used to be a well-known beauty in the Nightmare Continent, and his son just turned fourteen."
Here, Red Tail couldn't help chuckling as she added, "We found out that there's a God of Lust in the Dark Faction—"
"It's true that Houston is the God of Lust, but that doesn't mean he's a pervert himself," Gu Nan interrupted Red Tail with a wave of his hand.
God of Lust Houston, one of the Tier 8 gods, had a divine authority precisely related to passion and lust.
But just because that was his law didn't necessarily mean the god himself was lustful; in fact, Houston was an ascetic fellow who usually didn't even touch women.
Red Tail stared blankly, as if she hadn't expected this outcome.
"But your thought process is still very good!" Gu Nan patted Red Tail's shoulder and said with narrowed eyes, "Give me the information on Lu Yang's wife and son. I'll make a personal trip there."
"Yes."
……
Lu Yang's wife and son were a breakthrough—Gu Nan was well aware of that.
Everyone was extremely tense right now. Though the higher-ups on both sides maintained a certain degree of restraint, it was much harder for the Star Rulers and gods under them to have such sensible judgment.
In the end, this was because it concerned their direct interests, while the higher-ups were looking more towards the future.
But in a situation like this, all it takes is one more gentle push, and everything can become irreconcilable.
What? You're saying one push might not be enough? Then just keep pushing!
Gu Nan, who never harbored expectations of succeeding on the first try, once again came to the World of Gods.
In fact, the residents of the World of Gods already tightened control considerably over visitors from the Myriad Heavens. Every visitor had to be inspected, especially those at Void Cutter Realm or above.
However, these measures obviously couldn't stump Gu Nan, who was all too familiar with the gods' abilities and had too many ways to deal with them.
'Song Fei and the others should be coming over soon, so I need to hurry,' Gu Nan thought, having already memorized the information Red Tail provided.
Nightmare Continent.
One of the main planes under the control of the Dark Faction. Although the name sounded very sinister, it was essentially a pretty normal main plane.
The reason this place was called Nightmare Continent was simply because the god who first conquered this continent was none other than the original God of Nightmares, now the Ruler of Nightmares.
Of course, because it was under the control of the Ruler of Nightmares for many years, there were still many related traces left on this continent.
For example, Gu Nan was currently standing in front of an inverted garden, a typical Nightmare grotto-heaven.
"This is the 391st Nightmare Land, My Lord," a man in a black suit stood in front of Gu Nan and respectfully explained.
The garden in front of the two hung upside down in the air in a strange state, and all the birds and beasts within it were likewise upside down.
There were many bizarre Nightmare Lands like this on Nightmare Continent, but these types of places often had a strange distribution of laws, making them an excellent place for adventurers to further their training.
Lu Yang's only son on this side, Lu Jialiang, was studying in this particular Nightmare Land.
"I heard those who can study here are all students from well-off families?" Gu Nan asked casually as he looked at this inverted garden.
He knew a little about Nightmare Continent, but it wasn't considered comprehensive, at least not to the extent of knowing it like the back of his hand.
"Yes." The man in a suit nodded with a smile. "The 391st Nightmare Land is a famous aristocratic academy. Ordinary people can't afford the tuition here."
"Has anything strange happened here recently?"
"I don't think so… Everything is normal—oh right, two days ago, there was a boy who got in a fight and seemed to suffer a head wound, but we haven't been able to contact his family."
Gu Nan revealed an odd smile and nodded.
And at this moment, within the 391st Nightmare Land, the boy named Lu Jialiang was hiding alone in a corner, bloodstains still lingering on his forehead.
His gaze held a trace of anger. He clenched his fists, then gripped a pendant on his chest.
"Damn you, Brook, you'll pay for this!"
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Lu Jialiang just celebrated his fourteenth birthday half a month ago.
But this fourteen year old was way too mature for his age. It wasn't because Lu Jialiang matured early, but because reality forced him to grow up.
On his fourteenth birthday, the boy didn't get to meet his father, whom he could only see once a year. His mother came alone, bringing bad news.
Lu Jialiang subconsciously tightened his grip on the pendant.
'Something has happened to Father… I know it!' Lu Jialiang thought.
Even though it wasn't explicitly stated, the look on his mother's face at the time clearly told Lu Jialiang this. And the fact that his mother didn't take him away meant an even more terrifying truth.
Even his mother couldn't guarantee her own safety and didn't dare bring him with her, preferring to place him in a safer place like the Nightmare Land.
"Brook must know something…" The teen's gaze was slightly cold, his mind crystal clear.
Brook's uncle was the personal attendant of a powerful god, and even though he wasn't particularly powerful himself, he was definitely well-informed.
If not, Brook wouldn't have dared to deliberately find trouble for Lu Jialiang.
As he thought of this, Lu Jialiang curled in further on himself, trying to keep himself completely hidden in the shadows, his eyes firmly locked on the space in front of him.
This was the path Brook must take to return to the dormitory!
"He's coming."
Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, Brook's staggering figure appeared in his sight. Brook, who was already over twenty-five years old, was at the age where he couldn't go without alcohol, and even in Nightmare Land, he still maintained the habit of heavy drinking.
Lu Jialiang stepped forward. The hand gripping his pendant shot out as the pendant instantly transformed into a longsword, pointing directly at Brook.
Brook was still inebriated, so how could he react to this kind of surprise attack? His shoulder was instantly impaled by the sword, which was actually the result of Lu Jialiang avoiding his vitals.
Perhaps not even Lu Jialiang himself expected his attack to land so easily. He, who'd never seen bloodshed before, was also startled.
But the teenager quickly calmed down, putting on a cold expression as he looked at Brook and asked icily, "Brook, do you want to live or die? Tell me exactly what happened!"
The sharp pain coming from his shoulder sobered up Brook, and at the same time, he also saw the face of his attacker.
"Lu! You… You dare to ambush me!" Brook didn't feel any panic, instead getting angry. Because he knew the other party would never dare kill him, or else it would be impossible for him to leave this place alive.
"Do you believe there are still people who can save you? How ridiculous!" Brook was so furious that he laughed. "It won't be long before you're arrested by those powerful people, you foreigner bastard!"
Lu Jialiang's unique name was a bright beacon that highlighted his origins, and this was his biggest conflict with the natives.
Fire raged in Lu Jialiang's heart. He really wanted to kill this hateful fellow, but in the end, he didn't completely lose his sanity.
There was still hope for escape if he left Nightmare Land now, but killing Brook would immediately trigger the alarm, and he wouldn't be able to leave once that happened!
Having already confirmed his suspicions, was giving up his own life in exchange for this idiot's life worth it?
Lu Jialiang didn't need to think much and made a decision right away.
He pulled out his longsword, then slapped Brook fiercely and added a few more kicks to vent some anger before he quickly turned around and fled.
Brook was dizzy from the beating. It was a while before he came back to his senses and hastily pressed a hand to the wound on his shoulder.
"Damned bastard… W-Who are you?!" He struggled to get up, but then he finally noticed the white-robed youth standing before him.
This person completely ignored him and just lowered his head, studying the wound on Brook's shoulder.
The next second, a jet black longsword appeared. The sword's length, width, and sharpness were actually identical to Lu Jialiang's longsword.
Thunk!
The sword instantly pierced Brook's heart, and the latter's eyes widened in disbelief as he slowly collapsed.
……
Lu Jialiang was startled by the blaring of an alarm that resounded throughout the night sky before he even had a chance to leave Nightmare Land.
By the time he wanted to hurry up and leave, it was already too late. The relevant personnel had sealed the entrances and exits of Nightmare Land as soon as the alarm went off, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving.
"Damn it… Just who the hell triggered the alarm at a time like this?" Lu Jialiang naturally didn't think he caused this, because he hadn't killed Brook.
As for that tiny sword wound, it was just a superficial injury. Nightmare Land wouldn't even care about this kind of thing.
Lu Jialiang had no choice but to return to his dormitory and wait for the alarm to be lifted before trying to sneak out of Nightmare Land.
It wasn't until a slightly imposing middle-aged man with a stiff expression appeared in front of Lu Jialiang with a group of people that the teen realized the turn of events was a little worrying.
"Lord Andy, he is Lu Jialiang," the person in charge of this Nightmare Land respectfully stood to the side and said to the middle-aged man.
Lu Jialiang recognized the other party. He had once seen this person appear together with Brook… He was Brook's uncle!
Legend had it that he was a god's trusted aide, and his own strength had also reached the peak of Legend Rank…
'It's okay! Your father is a legendary Star Ruler!' Lu Jialiang secretly encouraged himself. Even if something might have happened to his father, he still must not disgrace him!
However, the first sentence from the other party froze Lu Jialiang on the spot.historical
"Were you the one who killed Brook?" Brook's uncle asked flatly, his expression not even changing for a second.
"No! I didn't!" Lu Jialiang instantly roared. He couldn't stand the fact that someone else was framing him for a crime he didn't commit. "I just stabbed him once. He—"
The teen's voice came to an abrupt halt as he saw Brook's corpse being slowly carried up.
Brook's uncle didn't say anything. He just leveled a cold gaze at Lu Jialiang, then suddenly reached out and grabbed the pendant in front of Lu Jialiang's chest. With a forceful jerk, the silver longsword was once again pulled out.
This middle-aged man named Andy calmly examined the longsword for a couple of moments, then said, "It matches perfectly with those two sword wounds. This sword can be brought back as physical evidence."
"W-What do you mean…?" Lu Jialiang's heart sank slightly. The bad feeling grew stronger, and he gradually started to retreat.
Andy grabbed his shoulder and replied coldly, "It means that you will return with us to the Divine Kingdom to be judged as a murder suspect."
"I didn't kill anyone!" Lu Jialiang's roar became even louder as he bared his teeth, seeing all this as a plot by the other party to frame him.
Andy, however, just said calmly, "Brook became an apostle of our Lord two years ago. Even though he sometimes isn't pious enough, he cannot be murdered for no reason."
"Now then, please allow me to take him away," he said to the person in charge of this Nightmare Land.
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Shi Yeyan and his teacher quickly arrived at the World of Gods.
Their arrival wasn't hidden from anyone; everything was under the watchful eye of gods from the World of Gods. There was also no need to hide it, as they had come to seek justice for Lu Yang.
The only Unified Dao cultivator who ended up accompanying them was Zou Jiming. The others didn't actually come along.
It was enough to force Song Fei to carry the mantle of pro-war leader. It wasn't like they truly wanted to start a war between the two sides.
"Teacher, I'll go retrieve Youngest Martial Brother's family first," Shi Yeyan said as soon as they reached this side.
"Okay." Song Fei nodded. "I'll meet with Kenneth. Make sure to ensure the safety of your Youngest Martial Brother's wife and son."
Kenneth was precisely the real name of the Ruler of Nightmares. Lu Yang usually resided in Nightmare Continent, and it was also here that he was falsely accused of murder, so of course this blame should be shouldered by Kenneth.
"Yes," Shi Yeyan agreed, then gave a respectful bow to the Zou Jiming beside them before he quickly left.
"What a good upbringing!" Zou Jiming remarked with emotion. Even under such circumstances, Shi Yeyan still remembered to pay him respect. If it was his subordinates instead, they would've disappeared without a trace already.
Song Fei replied with a smile, "If you're willing to send a few people to Academic Heaven, I promise to help you discipline them well."
"Forget it." Zou Jiming waved his hand. If he really sent people to Academic Heaven, they might not even be his people anymore after all the brainwashing was done.
……
Shi Yeyan quickly found Lu Yang's wife in the World of Gods. In fact, all this information was semi-public and wasn't hard to find.
Lu Yang's wife was called Sophia. She wasn't some amazing bigshot, just a woman native to Nightmare Continent.
Decades ago, Lu Yang's soul was damaged due to an accident during his experiments and even his residence was blown to smithereens, but he also befriended Sophia as a result.
Lu Yang, who was depressed at the time, was only able to overcome his depression with Sophia's advice and encouragement, and at the same time, he also fell in love with this mortal woman, ultimately taking her as his wife.
Later on, he found a way to prolong Sophia's life and also had a son with her, which brought them to the present situation.
"I am Lu Yang's Senior Martial Brother," Shi Yeyan calmly looked at the woman before him and spoke.
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The woman standing in front of him looked to only be in her twenties, with an indescribable charm to her features, but her expression was somewhat haggard.
"G-Greetings," Sophia said cautiously, "My Lord, is Lu Yang… really not coming back? "
Sophia, a mortal who wasn't even Legend Rank, only saw Lu Yang being taken away by those high and mighty gods and still hoped there was a chance her husband could return.
Shi Yeyan couldn't help falling silent for a long time before he answered, "Youngest Martial Brother has already been murdered. Master and I came here precisely to seek justice for him."
Sophia's face paled further, as if a condemned prisoner had finally been notified that she was going to the execution ground.
Seeing this, Shi Yeyan could only let out a secret sigh, then asked, "I heard Youngest Martial Brother still has a child here. Where is he?"
"Little Jialiang is in the 391st Nightmare Land. I was afraid that someone would harm him, so I didn't dare take him with me…" Sophia responded.historical
With her experience and ability, this wasn't a wrong decision. Nightmare Land was at least an official organization with a certain level of protection afforded to its students.
However, Shi Yeyan knew better. This was no small matter. An insignificant mortal organization on Nightmare Continent wouldn't be taken seriously by the culprits at all.
"Please take me there immediately."
Sophia looked more and more alarmed. "Could it be… that someone might harm Jialiang?"
"We can't rule out such a possibility," Shi Yeyan was as blunt as ever.
……
"What? You're saying Jialiang was taken away?" Sophia stood in the Nightmare Land's hall, feeling a wave of dizziness as grief and indignation washed over her. "How could you guys do this?!"
The only reason she left her son here was because she believed in Nightmare Land, thinking that since they were subordinates of the great Ruler of Nightmares, they certainly wouldn't be swayed by the powerful, but who knew…
How could she have known that the relationship between Nightmare Land and its greater god namesake was so far removed that they were nothing more than subordinates in name only?
The person in charge of Nightmare Land had long since lost interest in humoring her. Instead, he secretly sized up Shi Yeyan several times, considering whether or not this person was some kind of bigshot.
However, he answered quite fast as he assumed an innocent expression. "Lu Jialiang killed Brook, and we couldn't stop Lord Andy from taking him away as a murder suspect!"
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The two understood what happened after the head of Nightmare Land finished speaking. Sophia became even more anxious and hurriedly asked Shi Yeyan for help.
From what she knew about her son, killing Brook in a fit of rage really was possible!
"Where was he taken?" Shi Yeyan asked coldly.
"Lord Andy is His Majesty Freidman's attendant…" The head of Nightmare Land didn't dare hide it and immediately revealed Andy's background, which wasn't much of a secret in the first place.
God of Gluttony Freidman, a Tier 9 god of the Dark Faction and one of the gods who existed since ancient times.
Shi Yeyan nodded and calmly thanked him, then left with Sophia.
"Where are we going?" Sophia was uncertain.
"To find Freid—"
Shi Yeyan was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly stopped, staring at the silver light illuminating the sky.
The terrifying sword energy that descended from the sky caused Shi Yeyan to react instantly and launch a palm strike at the sky.
Next to him, Sophia and the head of Nightmare Land—who weren't able to react at all—only felt a strong gale sweep past their faces, and then nothing happened.
Shi Yeyan withdrew his palm and looked at the sky consideringly. "It doesn't contain any sword intent and is driven by pure strength… It should be a native powerhouse. Definitely a god. Who could it be?"
Many gods in the World of Gods used swords, and since the other party only made a cursory strike and retreated after a single blow, Shi Yeyan couldn't guess the attacker's identity for the moment.
"S-Senior Martial Brother Shi, what's wrong?" Sophia had a hard time pronouncing the tongue-twisting title.
"Nothing." Shi Yeyan shook his head. "It's probably someone who noticed me and launched an attack to test me."
Sophia nodded blankly, but the head of Nightmare Land beside them secretly sighed in relief. Since the fellow who came out to test him seemed very weak, the person standing in front of him probably shouldn't be too strong either, right?
Shi Yeyan quickly left with Sophia, and as the head of Nightmare Land ordered his subordinates to return, he turned around to see a scene that stunned him.
Behind him, the 391st Nightmare Land had been cut in half, and what split them up was a sword gash several meters deep.
……
Above the distant horizon, Gu Nan's figure slowly emerged while muttering under his breath, "A giant palm driven by laws? I'll name it Vigorous Vajra Palm for now."
He glanced at the direction the two disappeared in again. "Quite fast, but… to find Freidman, you guys first have to know the way!"
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One aspect of the World of Gods differed significantly from the Myriad Heavens, and that was how the gods' Divine Kingdoms were not naturally-existing planes. Many of them were built from scratch.
Some of these gods placed great importance on concealing their own Divine Kingdoms. Even though their locations could be determined through spatial coordinates, it was difficult to find them directly because of the extreme complexity of their Divine Kingdoms' positions in the void.
Freidman, the God of Gluttony, was one such existence.
He built his Divine Kingdom in the depths of the void, and even entering or leaving it required several spatial jumps.
Legend had it that this god didn't value faith all that much. Instead, his favorite hobby was to hide in his Divine Kingdom every day and find a bunch of gourmet food to gorge on.
Therefore, it would take Shi Yeyan considerable effort to find the location of the Gluttony Divine Kingdom.
……
"It's already been three jumps. We'll be able to arrive at the Divine Kingdom after two more spatial jumps," Andy calmly announced as he looked at his group, who were all busy throwing up on the ground.
"Lord Andy, how come we still need to do this two more times… Urgh…" One of the youths said bitterly, "Doesn't it normally only take four jumps?"
The spatial laws of the World of Gods were quite stable, so spatial jumping was a very unpleasant experience for the weak.
Andy calmly explained, "We still have to bring him back for judgment; we can't just let him die, so we took some long detours to weaken the impact of the spatial shocks."
Andy was naturally referring to Lu Jialiang. The teen was currently lying on the ground with a pale face, having already collapsed from vomiting too much. He no longer had the strength to budge even a little.
Lu Jialiang was the weakest and was therefore affected the most.
"My Lord, why don't we… find a place to rest first?" The one who spoke earlier suggested with a troubled expression, "I think he's really going to die during transport if we keep going like this."
He patted Lu Jialiang's shoulder. The latter's breathing had already become shallow and weak.
Andy was silent for a moment before he finally nodded. "Might as well."
Although they were in a hurry to bring back the apostle's murderer, it was fine to rest a little as well—not even they themselves ever experienced five spatial jumps in a row when returning to the Divine Kingdom.
When the person beside him saw Andy agree, he broke into a smile and got up to kick Lu Jialiang. "Get up, you murderer!"
Lu Jialiang rolled over from the kick, having no strength left in his body, but when he heard the other person's words, he still used all his power to roar, "I'm not…"
The man laughed nastily and was about to give this youth a little lesson, but then he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
Lu Jialiang fell sideways on the ground, but the shadow under him was expanding little by little, growing to the width of several people in the blink of an eye, as if it was a hideous giant maw.
"What is this…"
Before Andy and his party could react, Lu Jialiang's entire body fell into the shadow, as if falling into a bottomless abyss. His miserable shrieks seemed to echo endlessly in the crowd's ears.
This scene made everyone's blood run cold. The group felt like their hairs were standing on end. Only the Legend Rank Andy was able to maintain his composure slightly.
"Which Excellency is here?" He pushed down the fear in his heart and shouted at his surroundings.
After all, he and the others were apostles of a Tier 9 god. Even if the other party might be a great existence, they still wouldn't attack unprovoked…
Bang!
A huge palm suddenly fell from the air, crushing the entire group.
……
After dealing with Andy's group using the attack Shi Yeyan subconsciously displayed, Gu Nan turned and left this small plane, heading for Freidman's Divine Kingdom.
It's just that not even he expected to run into someone the very moment he stepped out of this plane.
"Counting that time with Goro, you've already used the blame-shifting trick three times." Daoist Lingyang looked at Gu Nan helplessly with that middle-aged uncle's face.
Gu Nan's cold gaze landed on him as he shrugged. "You even know about that?"
"It's not that clever a trick." Daoist Lingyang shook his head.
If Diana and her group of gods were still fooled the first time Gu Nan used this trick, then Daoist Lingyang, who was already aware of this, wasn't so easy to fool.
After observing Gu Nan's every move this time around, he naturally realized what Gu Nan was trying to do.
"Scheming doesn't suit you. It's not your style." Daoist Lingyang returned the gaze with the same indifference. "The God Hunting Manual is a good move… I also didn't expect that you'd actually want to start a war between the two sides."
Gu Nan's style had always been straightforward, and the God Hunting Manual was even more of an overt scheme. Compared to that, Daoist Lingyang didn't think much of this subsequent trick to shift the blame onto someone else.
"This plan has too many holes." Daoist Lingyang shook his head slightly. "Even if an apostle died, it still wouldn't be enough to make both sides lose their cool. Instead, you'd only expose yourself."
Gu Nan was in no hurry at this moment. He crossed his arms and asked, "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Daoist Lingyang stared into his eyes and replied, "The fact it's riddled with holes means that Zhuangxuan and Xue Ren aren't involved. This is your own operation?"
"So what if it is?"
"Stop now." Daoist Lingyang sighed. "Return to the Heaven-God Alliance with me; I'll find a way to deal with the aftermath on this side… Countless living beings will suffer if the two sides go to war. Why do so?"
Gu Nan almost laughed. "How come I didn't know you were so compassionate? Forget it, I can't chat with you anymore. The person I'm waiting for is here."
Daoist Lingyang froze, then saw Shi Yeyan's figure appear in a small plane nearby.
Of course Gu Nan didn't waste so much time chatting with Daoist Lingyang because he had nothing else to do. Rather, he'd long since anticipated that his target would come here, so he was just waiting at the destination.
Gu Nan was far more familiar with the path leading to the Gluttony Divine Kingdom than these visitors from the Myriad Heavens. As long as Shi Yeyan intended to travel there, he would definitely have to pass through this region.
Daoist Lingyang's expression changed slightly as he hurriedly looked up, while Gu Nan's figure instantly vanished, leaving behind only a trace of imperceptible laws.
Daoist Lingyang, who knew him well, was slightly stunned and exclaimed incredulously, "Realm Level?!"historical
……
Above the endless void of the World of Gods, Song Fei and Zou Jiming stood side by side, and standing in front of them was the Ruler of War Eugene and the Ruler of Nightmares.
Two came from the Myriad Heavens, so this side naturally also sent two greater gods to receive them. The number worked out perfectly, with each godly faction sending one person.
Eugene had volunteered, while the Ruler of Nightmares was here because Song Fei's youngest apprentice, Lu Yang, had died precisely on his territory, so he couldn't shirk his responsibilities even if he wanted.
"Your Excellency Song Fei." The Ruler of Nightmares said with little emotion, "I apologize regarding that Star Ruler's death, but it was indeed an accident."
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"Accident?" Song Fei raised a brow and looked at Kenneth, the Ruler of Nightmares, with a cold smile.
Kenneth appeared as a somewhat thin old man with slightly gray skin and a few wrinkles on his face. He didn't seem very energetic.
"That's right." Kenneth said slowly, "The god who dealt with him only found out after the fact that he'd settled here as early as six hundred years ago. The reason he was immediately disposed of was due to suspicion that he was involved in a God Hunt."
Song Fei's brows furrowed slightly. Only after Kenneth explained further did he realize what happened.
It wasn't really that complicated. While the gods were hunting down a God Hunter, they found out that he had contact with Lu Yang and suspected him of being involved in this matter as well.
In reality, that God Hunter was indeed a close friend of Lu Yang's, and he came to the World of Gods on the pretext of visiting Lu Yang while secretly participating in the God Hunt.
There was indeed no lack of cool-headed people amongst the Star Rulers, and such a cover was definitely much smarter than what people like Mai Cheng did.
By the time the gods came to his door to investigate, Lu Yang, despite not being all that strong and not having even chosen his own astral world yet, had an unyielding temper.
At the very least, he was the direct disciple of a Unified Dao powerhouse. How could he endure having his house searched and inspected? Conflict erupted between the two sides, and Lu Yang was killed on the spot.
Perhaps not even Lu Yang himself expected the situation this time to be so serious, but there was no room for regret.
Song Fei listened to the other party with a dark expression and was about to speak, but then his expression changed violently.
……
By the time Daoist Lingyang hurriedly arrived near the Gluttony Divine Kingdom, Shi Yeyan had already been completely dismembered by Gu Nan.
The head of Song Fei's favored disciple was tossed aside lonesomely, a look of disbelief frozen on his face.
Let alone him, even Daoist Lingyang never imagined that such a Star Ruler on par with a Tier 9 god couldn't even last a single exchange at Gu Nan's hands.
Didn't he just advance to Realm Level?
If he was already this strong now, then wouldn't he be able to easily kill anyone under Unified Dao once he reached Heaven Level?
But Gu Nan wasn't surprised in the slightest. Indeed, Shi Yeyan wasn't even able to put up any resistance to his sneak attack and had his heart directly blasted apart.
After all, the current Gu Nan could already fight Tier 10 enemies head on, and he also used a sneak attack this time, so a Star Ruler was no different from a mortal in his hands.
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Reality wasn't a novel. The stronger person wasn't determined by simply displaying the greatest combat power.
The characteristics of one's abilities, the fighters' conditions, who attacked first, etc., will all affect the final outcome.
Gu Nan ignored Daoist Lingyang's arrival. He was using a longsword to cut up Shi Yeyan's corpse, slicing him into neat pieces.
After the corpse was completely cut up, he burned it with fire.
Daoist Lingyang watched all this in silence. Being somewhat familiar with the God of Gluttony, he knew exactly what Gu Nan was doing.
Cutting up the victim's soul along with their corpse was exactly what Freidman always did before eating his "food".
He was still playing the same trick of pinning the blame on someone else!
But this time, Daoist Lingyang no longer felt that such a tactic was clumsy. The reason was simple: Shi Yeyan was the one who died.
The death of a few apostles was an insignificant matter that wouldn't cloud either side's judgment, but what if the one who died was Shi Yeyan?
Two of Song Fei's disciples died in the World of Gods. One of them even followed him over and was killed right under his nose… If he could still concede in this situation, then he might as well wait for the total collapse of Academic Heaven once he returns.
This was also an overt scheme…
Daoist Lingyang looked at Gu Nan in silence, only now fully understanding the goal behind all his actions.
His plan was crude because he simply didn't care. When Shi Yeyan died, all the holes in the plan would no longer be holes.
"What would you gain from inciting a war between the two sides?" Daoist Lingyang slowly collected his thoughts and asked with a serious gaze.
Gu Nan, who was disposing of Shi Yeyan's corpse at this moment, shook his head with a smile. "Didn't I already tell you?"historical
Gu Nan's words stunned Daoist Lingyang slightly, and before he could even think about what exactly he'd been told already, Gu Nan had already swung a fist at his head.
A punch to the head without any mercy!
Since he'd seen through Gu Nan's secret, it was only natural that he be silenced. Gu Nan was never the type to have misgivings because of past friendship.
However, the expected scene of a head exploding didn't happen. Blue light emerged in front of Daoist Lingyang. A Daoist talisman appeared between the two, emitting a faint light.
Gu Nan recognized this talisman. It was the very same talisman Daoist Lingyang used to restrain Lewis and eventually kill the other party.
"A Tier 11 item?" Only when he was personally confronted with this talisman did Gu Nan truly realize how powerful it was.
Daoist Lingyang seemed to expect the attack and calmly spoke without any surprise on his face, "That's right. This is a treasure a senior left behind, which I obtained by chance when I was young."
Daoist Lingyang himself was probably between Tier 8 and Tier 9, and it was with this talisman that he was able to kill the Tier 10 God of Tenebrosity in the first place.
Now, he was also relying on this talisman to block Gu Nan's attack. If he didn't have this trump card, who was he to dare come and persuade Gu Nan to turn back?
"Too bad you're too late." Gu Nan shook his head. "I can't kill you, but I can keep an eye on you."
As he spoke, he leisurely waved his hand, and pitch-black shadows wrapped around the blue curtain of light, sending Daoist Lingyang directly out of this plane.
……
Above the endless void, Song Fei's sudden dark expression turned the atmosphere a little tense.
It was Zou Jiming's first time seeing Song Fei so emotional, so he couldn't help wondering, "What happened?"
"Something happened to Yeyan as well," Song Fei cast a cold glance at the two greater gods and answered without hiding anything.
He retained a fragment of Shi Yeyan's soul, so he was able to sense the latter's state.
However, the soul fragment suddenly shattered just now, and the last message that was transmitted over was Shi Yeyan's soul being cut into countless pieces, with no possibility of resurrection.
The two greater gods also heard Song Fei, and the Ruler of Nightmares immediately turned to look at Eugene, the God of War beside him.
"Why are you looking at me? I didn't do it!" Eugene instantly roared.
Indeed, two people popped into Kenneth's head as soon as he heard the news—one was the Beast God from his faction, and the other was Eugene.
Both of them were warlike beings who wished the world was in chaos!
"Your Excellency Song Fei, we will give you an explanation for this matter," Kenneth hurriedly said, but secretly, he wasn't so sure.
Even he couldn't be sure that this wasn't done by one of his own people.
Or rather, he could basically confirm that one of his people had killed Shi Yeyan—it wasn't like Song Fei's disciple ran to the World of Gods just to commit suicide. The only difference was whether or not there was still a way to reconcile the situation.
Song Fei remained silent for a while and finally replied coldly, "Fine. I'll wait for this explanation."
After saying that, he stormed off, no longer planning to stay here.
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After Song Fei stormed off, the two greater gods from the World of Gods quickly entered a state of "self-investigation" and invited Song Fei to supervise and check their progress to show they weren't hiding anything.
But what surprised them was that Song Fei declined such an invitation and instead asked Zou Jiming to come out and supervise.
"Perhaps he's too sad to face reality?" Zou Jiming found an excuse so bad that it couldn't possibly be any worse, glossing everything over with the other party.
He was all too eager to lead the negotiations—anyhow, the blame was already pinned on Song Fei, so no matter what was promised down the line, when the time came, he would just shrug it all off as promises Song Fei made.
It wasn't that hard to find out the cause of Shi Yeyan's death.
After all, all of his tracks after arriving at the World of Gods were clearly visible, and the greater gods didn't have to make much effort to trace the clues all the way to the end.
Finding Sophia, learning Lu Jialiang was taken away for killing Brook, and disappearing in the process of chasing Andy and his group.
And the location where Shi Yeyan died was also found. It was in the depths of the void, where the Gluttony Divine Kingdom was located…
"Did Freidman do it?" Eugene asked in a heavy voice as his gaze landed on the depths of the void. Even though it was a question, there was a bit of certainty in his tone.
After all, Shi Yeyan's soul was chopped up—this trait was just too obvious.
Furthermore, Shi Yeyan himself was equivalent to a Tier 9 god, so besides Freidman—whose Divine Kingdom was nearby—who else would be able to kill him?
"It's possible." The Ruler of Nightmares didn't hide anything in Zou Jiming's presence and nodded. "But if it's not Freidman, then… this matter will be much more complicated."
All the parties involved were already dead. There simply wasn't enough information to determine whether the truth was as it appeared, or whether there was another mastermind behind the scenes.
Speaking of a mastermind… there was indeed such a possibility. After all, the whole matter looked way too coincidental, but there was also no evidence to prove this.
Without any evidence, could they really just give a mere conjecture as their "explanation" to Song Fei?
The existing evidence all pointed to Freidman, but in the end, that wasn't conclusive evidence either, so capturing one of their own Tier 9 gods based on this was also not justifiable.
Both Eugene and Kenneth felt this was a thorny problem.
"Let's find Freidman first and see what he has to say for himself." Kenneth rubbed his temples, nursing a headache, while Eugene also expressed agreement.
Instead, it was Zou Jiming who waited confidently with crossed arms for the two greater gods to state their position. Even though his ultimate stance was also to not go to war, basic negotiation skills were still required.historical
But none of the three expected for someone to have already made the choice for them.
Just as the three stepped into the Gluttony Divine Kingdom, this plane suddenly started to collapse without warning. The originally azure sky was quickly dyed red, the stars began to fall, and the earth cracked.
"Could this be…?" Zou Jiming's knowledge of Divine Kingdoms wasn't exactly deep, but such extremely obvious signs still allowed him to understand something.
"Freidman is dead!" The Ruler of Nightmares said heavily, taking a step into the deepest part of the Gluttony Divine Kingdom, and sure enough, he saw Freidman's corpse silently laying there.
The next second, his expression suddenly changed, and he abruptly turned to look at Zou Jiming.
Zou Jiming was a step behind him. He still didn't understand what happened yet—not until he saw a ruler embedded in the heart of the corpse on the ground.
That was Song Fei's ruler.
The corners of Zou Jiming's mouth twitched slightly while he immediately tried to retreat, but his will fell into a trance for a split second, and the power of the dream realm had already descended upon him.
Before he was swept inside the dream realm, Zou Jiming's last thought was:
'Song Fei screwed me over!'
……
Three days later, news spread throughout the two worlds.
Song Fei, who had gone to the World of Gods to negotiate, found his favored disciple Shi Yeyan killed by the God of Gluttony, and in a fit of rage, he personally took action and killed Freidman to vent his anger and purposely left behind his own ruler as proof of his identity.
This was also in line with Song Fei's style. He'd always acted openly and never covered anything up. If he was the murderer, he would never deny it.
But from that day onwards, negotiations between the two sides officially broke down, and war between the two worlds was imminent.
"Song Fei got to vent, but Zou Jiming probably got screwed over miserably," Daoist Lingyang couldn't help laughing involuntarily after hearing this and said to Gu Nan.
Daoist Lingyang was in charge of Clear Profundity Realm for many years and had been the Heaven-God Alliance's head manager for so long, so he naturally knew the Thirteen Heavens quite well.
Song Fei clearly wanted Zou Jiming to distract the greater gods while he himself decisively chose to go to war, which was tantamount to selling Zou Jiming out.
Facing the greater gods who were all hostile to him… Weapon Martial Heaven's Star Ruler might not necessarily die, but the severity of injuries he'd suffer would depend on how many greater gods appeared to fight him.
"If war breaks out, Zou Jiming will be dissatisfied no matter what, so it's better to have him nurse his injuries for a few thousand years instead." Daoist Lingyang seemed to have a unique understanding of the relationships among the Thirteen Heavens.
Gu Nan was standing next to him, staring at him with a faint smile. "Why don't you stop talking about the Thirteen Heavens and talk about how much longer you can last?"
The two of them were now in an obscure small plane. It was deserted and had no native civilizations, it was a completely remote and desolate area.
The blue light that surrounded Daoist Lingyang's body was already far dimmer than it had been initially and even wavered slightly.
Ever since Gu Nan took him away from the depths of the void, Daoist Lingyang hadn't been given the slightest opportunity to escape, always being watched by Gu Nan until the talisman's power was about to run out.
If Daoist Lingyang was given enough time to prepare, he could even kill a Tier 10 powerhouse with this talisman, but unfortunately, Gu Nan didn't give him any time, and he had to use all of the talisman's power for defense.
"What would you gain from killing me?" Daoist Lingyang stared at Gu Nan calmly, as if the conversation wasn't about killing him.
Gu Nan didn't answer but just looked at the talisman in his hand.
Daoist Lingyang seemed to understand something and shook his head with a faint smile before violently slapping his palm on his forehead.
With this strike, the blue light suddenly disappeared, while Daoist Lingyang's body simultaneously froze, then turned into fine powder and scattered with a gust of wind.
Gu Nan frowned slightly and slowly stepped forward, only to find that all of Daoist Lingyang's clothing and belongings—along with the talisman—had all disappeared without a trace. They seemed to have similarly dissipated, scattering into dust.
"Golden cicada shedding its shell to escape?" Gu Nan revealed a thoughtful expression. Daoist Lingyang wasn't a simple person—this was something he'd always known. He just didn't expect this person to have so many trump cards.
However, he also wasn't worried.
He wanted to kill Daoist Lingyang only because he wanted to take a look at that talisman. Now that war between the two sides was inevitable, whether Daoist Lingyang escaped or not had long become irrelevant.
He also didn't think Daoist Lingyang would try to expose him. To put it bluntly, there was no evidence for this, and it was also too late to talk about this now.
"Gotta hurry back," Gu Nan muttered.
Once the war started, it wouldn't be so easy for him to travel through the dimensional barrier again. After all, the ideal situation was naturally taking advantage of the war to harvest a wave of gods before turning his blade on friendly forces.
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Myriad Heavens.
Gu Nan heard some breaking news when he returned to this side.
"Academic Heaven raised the banner of war against the World of Gods, which gained popular support from a group of weak Star Lords, while Weapon Martial Heaven unilaterally withdrew from this war and is more popular among Star Rulers above Realm Level."
Red Tail truthfully reported this side's situation to Gu Nan. It wasn't really a secret; it was the biggest discussion topic in the Myriad Heavens these days.
Academic Heaven declared that the World of Gods harbored ambitious designs and had wanted war for a long time, so they must deliver a frontal assault. Weapon Martial Heaven, on the other hand, accused Academic Heaven of going to war over a personal vendetta, sweeping innocent people into their feud.
There was even news that Lord Zou Jiming, one of the Thirteen Heavens, personally went to Academic Heaven to argue with Song Fei as soon as he returned, and the two ended up parting on bad terms.
"If they weren't in Academic Heaven, I'm afraid a big fight would've broken out." Gu Nan shook his head, laughing in spite of himself.
Song Fei screwed over Zou Jiming, causing him to fall into an ambush by the greater gods. These two now had a serious grudge against each other. Unless there was a situation where their interests were highly aligned next time, there was no possibility of joining forces again.
Song Fei himself probably also knew this, so he decisively hid inside his own astral world as soon as he came back.
Even though the astral world's influence on Star Rulers was no longer as great after reaching Unified Dao, they would still be strengthened slightly when inside their own astral world.
On the contrary, Zou Jiming's injuries in the World of Gods were certainly not shallow, and it was still a toss-up as to what the outcome of a real fight would be.
Of course, the Star Rulers below them would never learn the truth about what actually happened in the World of Gods.
Red Tail also didn't intend to ask further questions and directly said, "Then My Lord, we…"
"Of course we're on Academic Heaven's side," Gu Nan answered without hesitation. "We may have a grudge between us, but in front of the greater good concerning the survival of the Myriad Heavens, personal grudges can be put aside!"
These words were spoken so righteously that the corners of Red Tail's mouth twitched a couple of times before she nodded. "Understood, I'll go make arrangements…"
……
With the great war on the horizon, the entire Myriad Heavens entered a state of war preparation, of which the most active group was naturally forces allied with Academic Heaven.
Academic Heaven also had every reason to be furious. After all, two of Song Fei's disciples died at the hands of despicable gods, so they had to return the favor—a tooth for a tooth.
Moreover, after Shi Yeyan's death, even the ones unwilling to go to war didn't have a reason to blame Song Fei anymore.
Academic Heaven decisively became the vanguard of the attack on the World of Gods, not only sending out a large number of powerful cultivators to lead the way, but also sending out a call to the entire Myriad Heavens.
They hoped to consolidate the powerful and unify their dispatch in order to utilize the maximum power of the entire Myriad Heavens.historical
Lu Wen had actually done something similar back when he fought the God of Time, Valen.
Back then, Lu Wen motivated people with benefits, and now Song Fei was doing the same.
For some of the weaker Star Rulers who wanted to obtain Godheads but were struggling to make it on their own due to lack of connections, this was the perfect opportunity!
With Academic Heaven as a guarantor, the possibility of infighting was avoided to the greatest possible extent, and there was even less need to worry about the distribution of loot.
A large number of Star Rulers began to converge on Academic Heaven, and some people even referred to the order issued by Academic Heaven as the "God Hunt Order", implying that these people were all here for the God Hunt.
Of course, Academic Heaven wouldn't officially acknowledge this, but the name "God Hunt Order" still became widespread.
"What did you say? Gu Nan also accepted the God Hunt Order?" Fang Chaoyun was dealing with the matters at hand when he heard a disciple's hurried report and immediately looked up.
Upon hearing the grievous news that his own Second Martial Brother had also perished, the evil-hating Mr. Fang voluntarily ran to Academic Heaven to assist his master with affairs.
Currently, he was responsible for none other than vetting and assigning outside Star Rulers.
Most of the outside Star Rulers actually didn't need to be vetted, since there was no reason to stop those willing to contribute to the Myriad Heavens. What was more important was assigning and registering them to prevent them from betraying their own people.
"Yes." That disciple was Fang Chaoyun's direct disciple, equivalent to Song Fei's grand-disciple. He was currently wiping the cold sweat from his face. "Our subordinates received his information and didn't dare neglect this, so they sent it directly to me."
Fang Chaoyun silently nodded. After thinking about it, he said, "Gu Nan has a grudge against me and is himself a member of the Heaven-God Alliance…"
"Then should we reject his request?" That disciple hastily interjected. He couldn't wait to draw a clear line with a scourge like Gu Nan.
However, Fang Chaoyun glared at him. "On what grounds? Personal grudges can't jeopardize the greater good. Since Gu Nan is willing to contribute to the Myriad Heavens, how can we refuse?"
That disciple nodded resentfully while thinking, 'Master, isn't it because you get angry every time he's mentioned?'
Fang Chaoyun added, "There's no need for special treatment. Just treat him as a normal Realm Level Star Ruler… How many Star Rulers at Realm Level or above are willing to participate in the war right now?"
Academic Heaven had no shortage of weak Star Rulers, so their most important task was to rope in those Realm Level and Heaven Level bigshots to join the war.
The disciple answered without any hesitation, "Excluding Gu Nan, there are now six Realm Level Star Rulers and two Heaven Level ones."
This figure only included people who weren't part of Academic Heaven's forces in the first place. They were originally neutral and were roped into the war by Academic Heaven.
However, Fang Chaoyun still frowned heavily. "That's far from enough… The other side is gathering the power of their entire world. We have too few people in comparison!"
His disciple didn't dare respond and could only remain silent.
A few moments later, Fang Chaoyun spoke again on his own, "Now that the gods have already assembled at the frontlines, we are at a numerical disadvantage. That's why it's even more important for us to strike first!"
……
Gu Nan calmly sat in the lobby without a hint of awkwardness, waiting for the earlier disciple to return.
On the contrary, the few disciples of Academic Heaven keeping him company were very much on pins and needles.
Fortunately, the disciple who'd gone to report to their superiors soon returned and came before Gu Nan, respectfully saying, "Lord Gu Nan, Master has approved your request to join the combat squad. Please follow me to register."
Gu Nan didn't mind and followed the young disciple to register his name before another person showed up.
This was none other than the direct disciple from Graceful Heaven named Lin Huan who had reported directly to Fang Chaoyun earlier.
Lin Huan guided Gu Nan to a seat, then smiled again. "Your Excellency Gu Nan's willingness to come to Academic Heaven is indeed out of Master's expectations. However, Master has said that personal grudges must not jeopardize the greater good—"
"What do you want me to do?" Gu Nan interrupted bluntly, having no intention of wasting words on him.
The corners of Lin Huan's lips twitched slightly. After considering that the other party was a powerhouse who could fight against his master, he forced himself to suppress his ire again.
"For Star Rulers willing to participate in the war, we will always provide two options." Lin Huan explained, "Participate in a frontal battle and accept our dispatch, or form your own squad, directly invading the World of Gods and hunting down targets in fixed locations."
"I'll choose the second one," Gu Nan decided without much hesitation.
Lin Huan slowly nodded. This wasn't out of his expectations. On the contrary, if Gu Nan was actually willing to accept Academic Heaven's dispatch orders, then he would have to go back and ask his master how to respond.
However, he then got up again. "That is certainly not a problem, but we still have a presumptuous request…"
"What?" Gu Nan gave him a puzzled look.
"Please make sure you hide your identity."
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Academic Heaven's request that he hide his identity was something Gu Nan initially didn't understand the significance of but then realized with some amusement.
To put it bluntly, this was a case of not intending to refuse his participation in the war but also not wanting his participation to be publicized and cause further controversy at this juncture.
Gu Nan didn't intend to argue over such trivial matters and quickly agreed. He wasn't a contrarian and didn't like to be confrontational on every matter.
And in fact, Gu Nan did need to join Academic Heaven's camp in order to disguise his goal of hunting gods.
After all, with Gu Nan's current fame, his every move would receive a great deal of attention, and it would be easy for people to connect the dots if he suddenly ran to the frontlines to hunt gods.
On the contrary, if he joined Academic Heaven's camp first, he would have a justifiable excuse for hunting gods.
Even if others were still suspicious of him, they would first suspect whether he had designs on Academic Heaven or Fang Chaoyun—his enemy—and wouldn't directly think of the God Hunt aspect.
After all, recruiting Void Cutters was no longer a difficult task for a Realm Level Star Ruler like him, so it would look really suspicious if he went to all this effort just for some Godheads.
……
"Your Excellency Gu Nan, you have accepted a hunting mission."
A crisp female voice rang out in front of Gu Nan as a bunch of mission information was revealed, including the target, the best hunting spot, the danger and difficulty, and so on.
This was a temporary law construct created by Academic Heaven specifically for this war's strategic coordination.
For a major event such as the great war between the two worlds, it was only natural for Academic Heaven to step in and produce a comprehensive mission assignment system.
Gu Nan's mission target this time was merely a Tier 7 god.
His inputted personal information was calculated based on a normal Realm Level Star Ruler's stats, so the target assigned to him would naturally be one level lower. Otherwise, the hunters might become the hunted.
However, a mere Tier 7 was clearly unable to satisfy Gu Nan's appetite. Hadn't he gone through so much trouble for the sole purpose of being able to openly slaughter gods?
"Raise the target level."
After inputting the command, the blue light in front of Gu Nan flickered slightly for a moment before mission details were outputted again, this time to a Tier 8 god.
"Raise the target level," Gu Nan didn't even look at the results before commanding again.
The blue light flickered even more, only this time it didn't make Gu Nan wait too long, directly giving out a bunch of information.
Gu Nan glanced down and finally revealed a satisfied smile.
Tier 9 god, Snow God Claudia.
……historical
A man and a woman were sitting silently in a small hall near the place where Gu Nan accepted his mission. They were the two external Heaven Level Star Rulers that Academic Heaven was able to rope into the war.
The man was leisurely sipping a cup of tea, while the woman's expression was clearly one of irritation and extreme impatience.
The woman's behavior was quite rare for powerhouses on their level.
Of the two, one was Yang Yan of Northern Underworld Heaven, and the other was Yu Yeifei of Hundred Specters Heaven. Both were genuine Heaven Level Star Rulers, so by all accounts, they should've been able to control their emotions long ago.
However, Yu Yeifei was a special case because she was originally a Void Cutter who inherited Hundred Specters Heaven from its previous Star Ruler.
Such an experience could definitely be called "ascending to heaven in one fell swoop", but no matter how amazingly talented Yu Yeifei was, jumping from Tier 4 to right underneath Unified Dao was still a bit too big of a leap.
Just stabilizing her cultivation base and settling the revolts in the astral world had taken her thousands of years. Even now, she still hadn't fully digested her predecessor's legacy.
Hundred Specters Heaven was originally a great plane approaching Tier 10, but now it could only be considered Tier 9, so the damage was quite substantial.
However, this was also normal for astral worlds that were inherited. At least it didn't directly fall out of the ranks of Heaven Level planes, so Yu Yeifei was already considered a good successor.
"Didn't they say they found a third person? Could that Fang geezer be brushing us off?" Seeing Yang Yan's tranquil demeanor, Yu Yeifei could only forcefully suppress the annoyance in her heart and ask in a low voice.
In the information Academic Heaven gathered, Snow God Claudia was the most suitable Tier 9 target for the God Hunt. But she was nevertheless Tier 9, so it was impossible to just send a single Star Ruler of the same rank to hunt her.
To ensure safety, it had to be at least a three-on-one fight, so it wasn't until Academic Heaven found a third person that the two were summoned here.
"Perhaps some matter delayed them." Yang Yan had a calm and unperturbed look on his face and laughed lightly. "Yu, you really need to change this temper of yours, or else you'll suffer a loss sooner or later because of this."
Yu Yeifei's irritable nature was also well-known in the Star Ruler circles.
As for Yang Yan, despite his young appearance, his actual age was already several times older than Yu Yeifei's, so no one could say anything about lecturing her like this.
Yu Yeifei took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.
She also knew about the flaws in her character. She actually wasn't like this when she was young; it was entirely due to the fact that she was in a hurry to catch up with the explosive growth in her cultivation after ascending to heaven in one fell swoop that she suffered Qi deviation.
Perhaps only when she reaches Tier 10 would this influence be completely removed. But just as Yu Yeifei wanted to speak again, a figure appeared behind the two.
"I'm the third person, let's go," a calm voice came from behind them, causing the two to turn their heads at the first opportunity.
The newcomer was wrapped entirely in black robes, not revealing any aura, so there was no way to determine the stranger's identity.
But the fact that the other party was able to silently appear beside the two without being detected until he spoke up was a testament in itself.
Yang Yan and Yu Yefei glanced at each other, somewhat puzzled by the other party's move to hide his identity.
Characters at their level were already pitifully scarce in number—there were only so many, so hiding one's identity was simply pointless.
As soon as he attacked, all his earlier hiding would be for nothing.
Yang Yan didn't mind it and nodded in response, but Yu Yeifei couldn't help spitting out a sentence because she was already in a foul mood, "Just tell us who you are. What's the point of hiding yourself?"
If not for the fact that Academic Heaven played a big role in helping her inherit Hundred Specters Heaven back then, she wouldn't have bothered to get involved in this war.
"None of your business."
A flat reply came, causing Yu Yeifei's eyelids to twitch slightly. She couldn't help sneering, "Fine. If you won't say it, I'll find out myself!"
As soon as her words fell, her right hand had already struck out, flashing with a tranquil, ghostly blue light, which seemed to all be contained inside her right palm, swiftly landing on the opponent's body.
As long as the other party blocked it, it wouldn't be hard to see what laws he wielded, which would allow her to narrow down the suspects of his identity to the single digits.
However, what she didn't expect was that the stranger not only didn't dodge, but he didn't even try to block, simply allowing her palm to hit his body.
In Yu Yeifei's senses, it was as if this palm had struck a wall, a pebble sinking into the sea with no ripples.
Instead, she suddenly felt a coldness on her face as a gaze so icy it felt real struck her face.
"Then why don't you try?"
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Before Yu Yefei could register these words, she felt a sharp pain in her stomach as all her protective laws were instantly blasted through, and her body was struck without hindrance.
Her entire body flew backwards. Yang Yan frowned slightly, already appearing behind Yu Yefei in a flash as he caught her.
Yu Yefei was too close to see what happened, but he saw everything.
That person took Yu Yefei's palm strike head-on before instantly throwing a kick that broke through all of Yu Yefei's defensive laws and hit her body.
"Pure strength? Who could this be?" Yang Yan put Yu Yefei down, his mind already going through a list of possible identities.
In his impression, there didn't seem to be any body tempering cultivators at their level, or rather, even those experts would have recognizable characteristics when attacking, unlike this person…
"Could he be a god?"
Because of the recent war between the two worlds, this was the first thought that popped into Yang Yan's mind. He once again glanced at Yu Yefei, who seemed to have similar thoughts.
Though Yu Yefei was sent flying by the black-robed person's kick, she wasn't injured since it wasn't a strike at full power.
The two of them went through the entire list of possible identities for the stranger, but they never found a match.
Gu Nan's figure might have appeared in their minds for a second, but he was ruled out in the blink of an eye.
This wasn't their fault. After all, the outside world's impression of Gu Nan was still that of a junior with somewhat mysterious abilities who just ascended to Realm Level.
He caused too much commotion with his advancement to Realm Level, and although he then fought Fang Chaoyun, he was just on the defensive and didn't display many abilities, so there was no way for onlookers to judge his strength.
Speaking of special methods to temporarily fight against Tier 10 powerhouses, these two could also do the same; they'd just need some time to prepare.
Even Fang Chaoyun himself only viewed Gu Nan as a normal Realm Level Star Ruler.
In most people's minds, the rank of one's astral world was the best measure of comprehensive strength, and if someone was strong in a certain aspect, then they were bound to be deficient in another aspect.
"Any other questions?" The black-robed man's calm and indifferent voice rang out.
Yu Yefei's gaze was slightly cold, and she was about to speak again when Yang Yan stopped her.
"Let's depart," Northern Underworld Heaven's Star Ruler said with a sunny smile.
……
Their current target was Snow God Claudia, an old god in the truest sense of the word. She was even older than many greater gods.
That was why there was no such thing as generations of Snow Gods; she was the only one since ancient times.
"An old fart of a god," Yang Yan gave quite a rude evaluation. "These types of existences usually fear death more. To think she's actually part of the vanguard this time."
Yu Yefei had obviously done her homework, "Her daughter and son-in-law—both gods—all died at the hands of God Hunters."
"So she's seeking revenge? We can use this in our plan," Yang Yan said with a nod.
Once they knew the target's goal, they could undoubtedly create a targeted ambush, getting the greatest gain at the smallest cost.
At the very least, the other party was a Tier 9 god. Older didn't mean weaker, so they must not underestimate her.
Yang Yan and Yu Yefei discussed countermeasures and tactics for the actual ambush. Only the black-robed stranger never said a word.
The three had already reached the edge of the Myriad Heavens and were now in the frontlines. Yang Yan glanced at the stranger and asked, "Does Your Excellency have any advice?"
He originally thought this person would either give an opinion or continue to remain silent and pretend to be mysterious, but he didn't expect the other party to open his mouth…
"No."
The corners of Yang Yan's lips twitched slightly, finally understanding Yu Yefei's feelings. This kind of tone really was asking for a beating…
"Then how are you planning to deal with the Snow God?" Yu Yefei couldn't help sneering.
The black-robed man paused slightly and turned his head to look at Yu Yefei. "Find her, then kill her."
……
Finding the Snow God wasn't too hard. Academic Heaven's people had never let Claudia out of their sight ever since they discovered her trail.
Or rather, there weren't many places to hide in the first place when it came to the frontlines where the two worlds met.
The Snow God was precisely one of the few high-ranking gods who traveled to the frontlines at this stage of the war. She was responsible for the preparations taking place in several frontline planes.
At the same time, she was also responsible for guarding the frontlines to prevent a surprise attack. And if she herself was the one to be ambushed, one can well imagine that the nearby gods would also step in.
"Claudia is down there." Yang Yan stood above the void and gazed at a small plane below them. "According to the information given by Academic Heaven, she's not hiding herself and usually… Hey!"
Before Yang Yan could finish, he saw the black-robed figure next to him leap out, with absolutely no intention of discussing anything.
"Damn it!"historical
Yang Yan subconsciously made to follow him. If this fellow startled their target and she escaped, it would be much harder for them to succeed in their God Hunt the next time.
However, now it was Yu Yefei's turn to pull him back. This young Star Ruler said with a serious face, "Let him test the waters first… It won't be too late for us to attack after we confirm there's no danger."
Yang Yan immediately understood. The war between the two worlds had too wide a reach. The enemy greater gods could strike at any time, so it would be better to let the black-robed man be the vanguard.
They weren't subordinates of Academic Heaven, so failing a hunt was no big deal. At worst, they would simply change a target next time, so there was no need to take risks.
Yang Yan stopped in his tracks, but then he felt a bit puzzled. "But that guy doesn't seem to care about this at all. Could he be from Academic Heaven's direct branch?"
"Like hell a direct branch would be sent out to die!" Yu Yefei refuted with a cold smile.
Ever since taking charge of Hundred Specters Heaven, her relationship with Academic Heaven had progressively deteriorated, which was inevitable.
As they watched, the black-robed stranger fell directly into the plane from the sky, and a pitch-black giant sword suddenly coalesced in his hand, chopping downwards with great force.
"He's not a pure body tempering cultivator!" Yu Yefei was a little startled. She didn't expect that although the other party's physical body was so powerful already, his laws weren't actually related to physical strength.
Yang Yan's thoughts churned, and his range of speculations regarding the stranger's identity suddenly expanded a bit more.
Regardless of the two's guesses, the black-robed figure on the ground didn't hesitate in the slightest, chopping straight into the crowd.
This strike alone cost the World of Gods at least ten Legend Ranks and even injured some gods.
But after this strike, the black-robed man simply turned and left without saying a word, as if he only came to unleash this one attack.
Just as he turned to leave, a chill instantly descended on the small plane, and snowflakes began to drift in the sky.
Claudia finally made her move in an attempt to stop the enemy from fleeing, but something unexpected happened.
That black-robed person actually turned around in an instant and headed straight for the center of the snowstorm!
His entire body disappeared into the shadows, which hid all traces of his aura, as he arrived in front of Claudia in the blink of an eye.
A fist swung down, and Claudia instantly transformed into a sky full of snowflakes, escaping without a word as well.
"Can you really escape?" The black-robed figure let out a cold laugh, and he shouted at the two people outside the plane again.
"Are you two here to watch a play?!"
Yang Yan and Yu Yefei looked at each other in dismay and really did feel like they were watching a play… After seeing the black-robed stranger's full power, they'd be blind if they still couldn't recognize him.
'It was actually him! He's already able to fight a Tier 9 god… How can this not be a play?'
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The black-robed person was Gu Nan.
After seeing the giant sword of shadows, discerning their black-robed teammate's laws was no longer difficult. The characteristics of a Star Ruler who possessed both the law of shadows and a powerful physical body were just too distinctive!
"To think it's actually him… I can't believe he's helping Academic Heaven…" Yu Yefei muttered to herself incredulously.
Her mind instantly filled in a bunch of drama, such as Gu Nan actually being Academic Heaven's pawn or Academic Heaven originally sending someone else as their third teammate, only for Gu Nan to intercept and kill that person…
Yang Yan's eyes flickered, clearly also quite unsettled after recognizing Gu Nan.
Regardless of what Yu Yefei and Yang Yan were speculating, they didn't forget the purpose of their trip and descended to the small plane at the first opportunity, completely surrounding the sky full of snow.
The fact that Gu Nan's attack didn't attract a greater god's descent meant their enemies weren't paying attention to this place, at least for the time being.
They had to finish this as quickly as possible. Plus, their mission would be complete after killing Claudia!historical
Unlike Gu Nan, who was genuinely interested in hunting gods, these two were invited by Academic Heaven solely because of their past relations and might not have been willing to get involved in this matter otherwise.
Who knows when the enemy greater gods would descend and whether Song Fei would be able to save them?
It wouldn't be strange at all for something to go wrong during battles of that level.
As soon as the two landed in the small plane, they unleashed their own laws at full power, and purple and cyan light radiated from their bodies respectively, quickly destroying all the snowflakes in their surroundings.
Transforming into snowflakes was one of the Snow God's abilities. As long as a single snowflake could escape, she would revive herself.
Snowflakes were much harder to deal with than blood or energy. The essence of snow was water, and even if heat made it melt, it would at worst turn into water vapor and float into the air.
Water molecules were extremely stable structures, so one could well imagine the difficulty of destroying all the water in a certain area.
That's why it required three powerhouses of the same level to ensure Claudia wouldn't escape.
Gu Nan stabbed his shadow longsword into the ground, and the shadows rapidly expanded like a black hole, sucking in anything they engulfed and completely pulverizing the land without leaving an inch of grass behind.
The sky was completely swallowed up by Yang Yan's law domain, and cyan-colored lightning wantonly swept through it, even churning up space itself.
Yu Yefei landed on the ground and pressed one hand to the land. The power from the abyss began to wreak havoc and churn underground.
Under the three's joint efforts, a perfectly fine plane became riddled with holes. Since even the plane itself couldn't be spared, Claudia was naturally affected as well.
At the other end of the small plane, the Snow God's human form materialized as she quickly opened a crack in space with lingering fear, trying to hide in one of the other planes. She didn't even dare spare any time to sneak a quick glance behind her.
However, Gu Nan's party was already prepared for this, so how could they let her escape?
The ground under Claudia's feet suddenly cracked, as if a terrifying force from the nine abyss had struck, instantly swallowing up her entire being.
A loud cry cut through the cyan sky, and a monster that resembled both a roc and a fish descended from above. The monster's tremendous weight bore down on Claudia, as if trying to crush her completely.
Yang Yan and Yu Yefei's seamless cooperation instantly sealed off all of Claudia's escape routes, cornering her in the truest sense of the word.
And just as this Snow God was doing her best to escape from the two's overlapping attacks, a shadow appeared behind her.
Claudia never imagined that an enemy would actually dare sneak up on her amidst bombardment from two sides… Even if the other party managed to hit her, wouldn't he still have to worry about escaping unscathed himself?
Reality wasn't a game; there was no such thing as immunity to friendly fire. The onslaught from the sky and the ground was something that everyone had to endure.
So only when a shadow sword suddenly stabbed Claudia in the back and shot out of her chest did the Snow God turn her head in surprise.
"You—"
But Gu Nan's fist had already landed before Claudia could utter a single word, blasting her entire head apart.
Gold blood splashed out in all directions but was instantly vaporized again by the raging powers between heaven and earth.
After losing the support of her own laws, even Claudia's corpse was completely engulfed in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace behind.
On the contrary, the two outside—Yang Yan and Yu Yefei—were slightly stunned upon seeing this and hastily stopped their bombardment.
Even they never expected Gu Nan to be this resolute, determined to kill Claudia on the spot even if it meant tanking both of their attacks.
A moment later, they saw Gu Nan's figure slowly emerge from the ruins of a wrecked plane, calmly walking up to them.
The simultaneous attacks of two Tier 9 cultivators—especially imbued with laws charged up in advance—caused Gu Nan considerable damage.
His body was enveloped by the power of the nine abyss, and his entire body looked as if it had been scrubbed with sandpaper. Not a single piece of skin on his body remained intact.
His head was suppressed by the crushing weight of the Kunpeng[1] Dharma. The massive force created by the law snapped his neck completely, twisting it over 360 degrees and causing him to look at the two from a tilted angle.
"Let's go," Gu Nan didn't care about such a small injury and casually called out to the two.
There was no doubt that Claudia was dead, as Gu Nan's Evil Value had already arrived.
This ancient Tier 9 god provided Gu Nan with nearly 10,000 Evil Value, allowing his current Evil Value to exceed 25,000, which wasn't far from the Tier 9 threshold.
However, Gu Nan's goal this time wasn't to reach Tier 9, but to farm enough Evil Value to directly reach Tier 10, which was still a bit far away.
In terms of enemies, he would need the Evil Value from killing three Tier 10 gods to reach the Tier 10 requirement. Translated to Tier 9 gods, he would probably need to kill nine to ten of them.
Gu Nan's tone was calm, but it gave Yang Yan and Yu Yefei a very strange feeling. They knew better than anyone else what kind of injuries Gu Nan had suffered, which was why they felt even more horrified.
Even after receiving injuries like these, he could still act as if nothing had happened?
They even noticed that the parts of Gu Nan's body scraped raw by the power of the nine abyss were recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye, with brand-new flesh and skin rapidly regenerating, as if he'd never been injured in the first place.
Even his head, which was twisted at a strange angle, was wrenched right back by Gu Nan's hands as he spoke.
However, the broken vertebrae had obviously yet to regrow, so his head could only hang limply from his neck, unnaturally crooked.
It was Yang Yan who finally replied with a light cough, "Since we've already killed the target, let's leave quickly before any greater gods target us."
Yu Yefei also nodded. Such a large commotion would undoubtedly attract attention soon.
Gu Nan, on the other hand, waved his hand dismissively. "Claudia's death doesn't really matter. No greater god will come over… But it's true that we should leave soon."
He still wanted to rush back to find another target to hunt.
T/N:
[1] Kunpeng: An enormous mythological beast that can transform into both a roc (Peng) and a fish (Kun)
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After saying that, Gu Nan left first without further explanation.
Yang Yan and Yu Yefei exchanged a glance, knowing that Gu Nan was bound to have some inside information. However, they wouldn't ask if he was unwilling to divulge it, and they also didn't have the obligation to share information in the first place.
Moreover, the two tacitly agreed to keep silent about Gu Nan's involvement in this and even made up their minds to pretend they didn't know about it once they returned.
Gu Nan had hidden his identity to come and help Academic Heaven, and regardless of the actual reason, it was obvious that he didn't want outsiders to know.
If they leaked this, they would undoubtedly bring Gu Nan or even Academic Heaven's retaliation down on their heads, so it was better to not do anything at all and keep it to themselves.
Gu Nan also ignored these two teammates of his. He knew that after this battle, the two would most likely not be participating in the war anymore.
There weren't many high-ranking powerhouses willing to join the war to begin with, or else Academic Heaven wouldn't have chosen this kind of hunting operation.
……
In Academic Heaven, news of Claudia's death quickly reached Fang Chaoyun's ears by way of Lin Huan's report.
"The two seniors, Yang Yan and Yu Yefei, have each returned to their astral worlds." Lin Huan reported as such, "On the contrary, Gu Nan is inquiring if there are any new targets."
"Two shortsighted people!" Fang Chaoyun scoffed disdainfully, then added, "The motive behind Gu Nan's actions is hard to fathom… But if he wants to help us kill gods, we don't have to stop him. Just give him a target."
Lin Huan, however, said with an awkward smile, "Master, the problem is that we currently don't have any targets for him to hunt."
"How?" Fang Chaoyun's eyebrows shot up. "We have the whereabouts of at least 200 gods. Don't tell me not a single one is a suitable target?"
Lin Huan stammered, "Gu Nan, he… he plans to hunt Tier 9 gods alone."
……
When Gu Nan returned to the Myriad Heavens, he received a message from Academic Heaven saying there was no suitable target for the time being and asking him to wait patiently.
Gu Nan couldn't help shaking his head slightly, but he knew this was the norm.
High-ranked gods weren't fools. How could they run to the frontlines with a target on their backs before the war officially started? Even for the Myriad Heavens, most of the people currently assembled on the frontlines were normal armies.
Claudia was just a special case. The information Academic Heaven dug up on her daughter and son-in-law was actually nothing more than a front.
Gu Nan knew exactly why the Snow God had gone to the frontlines—she and Rolensia were mortal enemies, the kind with a rather deep grudge.
Claudia had been hiding her tracks ever since Rolensia ascended to a greater god, fearing that the Ruler of Luxuriant Blossoms would try to settle the score once the time was right.
And while Rolensia might not have been able to free up time to deal with Claudia initially, she clearly wouldn't let go of the opportunity this time. Claudia was almost certainly forced out here by Rolensia.
If Gu Nan wants to hunt another high-ranking god, he would probably have to wait until the war officially starts and look for an opportunity amidst the chaos.
The Evil Value each god gave was related to their level first and foremost, with a roughly 1:3 ratio difference between each level. But the lower the level, the more this ratio would increase.
Once the chaotic war truly started, Gu Nan planned to prioritize hunting the lower-ranked gods to push his Evil Value to a higher level before attacking and killing the higher-ranked gods to reach the threshold in one fell swoop.
This was mainly due to the fact that he would attract the greater gods' attention if he went on a hunting spree to kill high-ranked gods as soon as the war started.
If the greater gods noticed him right from the start, then Gu Nan's identity might be seen through as his Evil Value accumulated.historical
After all, the distinct characteristics of an Evil God would begin to appear once his Evil Value reaches Tier 9 or Tier 10.
"My Lord, the new target has been selected," Red Tail walked inside the Evil God Temple and reported to Gu Nan. By new target, she naturally meant an astral world.
Evil Value had to be earned from hunts, but points couldn't just be ignored either. Both had to be farmed, and both had to be planned for.
Even though the actual start of the Divine Kingdom War would be after Gu Nan finished collecting enough Evil Value at the earliest, preparations for the war had to begin now to ensure it could be waged at any time.
Using Daoist Sect Realm as a unit of measurement, only 1.5 Daoist Sect Realms were needed for Gu Nan to advance to Tier 10, but the so-called "1.5" was actually a bit awkward.
Daoist Sect Realm was already considered one of the more powerful astral worlds among the Realm Level planes.
Even other first-tier Realm Level planes like White Bones Realm could hardly reach the level of 1.5 Daoist Sect Realms.
But things would spiral out of control if he organized two Divine Kingdom Wars. After all, the big picture now was the Great War between the two worlds. Academic Heaven would not sit back and allow any infighting in the Myriad Heavens.
At that time, let alone Fang Chaoyun, it was even possible for Song Fei to personally take action.
So the best method was to simply find a Heaven Level plane from the start—the Divine Kingdom War playstyle was nearing its end, and as long as he could farm enough points, it didn't matter if he lost all the divine servants or even apostles.
When such a tactical intent was set forth, the Cabinet quickly selected a target.
"Imperial Glory Heaven?" Gu Nan raised his brow slightly, a little surprised.
The Star Ruler of Imperial Glory Heaven was Immortal Empress Taisheng. It was one of the more bottom-of-the-barrel planes among the Heaven Level astral worlds, with the Star Ruler position similarly coming from inheritance. Perhaps Immortal Empress Taisheng's strength couldn't even compare to Yu Yefei's.
No matter how many competitors she defeated and how shrewd and calculating this woman was, power could never be gained out of thin air.
What surprised Gu Nan slightly was the fact that Imperial Glory Heaven was the target… Immortal Empress Taisheng was a member of the Heaven-God Alliance, and a core member at that.
Invading Imperial Glory Heaven was tantamount to falling out with the Heaven-God Alliance.
"That's right." Red Tail nodded. "The reasoning given by the Cabinet is that Imperial Glory Heaven experienced a dragon Qi leakage not long ago that led to various independent regimes seceding from imperial rule."
"Immortal Empress Taisheng spent considerable effort to quell the strife within her astral world. Now, the concentration of dragon Qi inside Imperial Glory Heaven has dropped greatly, so it's a good opportunity to invade."
Gu Nan continued looking through the dossier and realized that Imperial Glory Heaven was indeed a special astral world.
The unique existence known as dragon Qi was exclusive to Imperial Glory Heaven, and how much power the Star Ruler could get from her astral world also depended on the amount of dragon Qi her dynasty possessed, which made it slightly different from other astral worlds.
What's more, the Star Ruler herself couldn't attack internal rebels, and the plundering of dragon Qi must follow the rule of "kings can't fight other kings", so the tactic of taking out the rebel leaders couldn't be used.
"A good place indeed." Gu Nan couldn't help smiling when he finished reading the dossier.
Imperial Glory Heaven was indeed a suitable target. With such a suitable target in front of him, Gu Nan no longer cared about falling out with the Heaven-God Alliance.
To be precise, he didn't fear falling out with anyone.
In addition, the Cabinet also provided a reason that might not necessarily get used but wasn't without merit: attacking Imperial Glory Heaven could be disguised as the Heaven-God Alliance's internal conflict, lowering the probability of Song Fei interfering.
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The Great War started.
Once both sides deemed their preparations to be sufficient, war inevitably broke out regardless of anyone's will.
Both sides' objective was also very clear—not for territory or resources, but solely to kill the enemy.
The Star Rulers went to war for the Godheads inside gods' bodies, while the gods also went to war for the Godheads, only they wanted to protect them. Only by giving those Star Rulers a painful beating could the God Hunt be curbed.historical
Of course, mortal armies were also essential. Be it gods or Star Rulers, both were elusive existences who would never obediently wait for death by staying in one location.
Only by using mortal armies to invade the corresponding planes was it possible to truly determine these people's locations.
That was why the mortals already started fighting in this war a while ago. For example, information on the various gods that Academic Heaven previously gave Gu Nan was obtained through the sacrifice of countless mortal lives.
When the Star Rulers and gods started participating in the war on a large scale, the military campaign's rhythm began to shift as well.
The mortal armies on both sides no longer patrolled and restrained each other, instead continuously invading target planes to wantonly wreak havoc and plunder, forcing out the other side's powerful figures.
After all, wars at this level were already vastly different from mortal wars.
It was impossible for mortals to pose a threat to Star Rulers, so they could only assist from the sidelines, aiming to weaken the enemy plane.
Therefore, the war eventually developed into a situation where hundreds of Star Rulers either acted alone or in groups to launch surprise attacks. Though their ambushes seemed uncoordinated, like scattered sand, Academic Heaven was commanding all dispatches from the center based on a larger strategy.
Those in the World of Gods also had something similar, but overall, they were on the defensive.
The reason was simple: the main force for the Myriad Heavens was the low-ranked Star Rulers, as well as the forces under their command—the very group of people who had the greatest demand for Godheads.
As long as they obtained a single Godhead, they could turn around and mass-produce over a dozen Void Cutters who were then capable of swiftly joining the war.
In contrast, the World of Gods had no time flow difference to speak of, so the efficiency of cultivating Legend Ranks was so low that they had to rely entirely on the gods' own apostles to defend.
……
Frontlines, Fairhaven.
Fairhaven was one of the largest planes belonging to the World of Gods at the junction of the two worlds, with a large number of gods and mortal armies assembled there.
In a sense, Fairhaven was the frontline command center for the World of Gods. It coordinated most of the frontline battles and personnel dispatchment.
However, the gods meeting in Fairhaven all looked gloomy today.
"Four more gods fell yesterday, which means our enemies have at least forty more Legend Ranks." A middle-aged man with blond hair pounded the tabletop with great force. "Everyone, things can't go on like this!"
This was God of Knights Wayne, a recently-ascended Tier 8 god, yet he was already one of the higher-ranked people in the frontline command center.
"What else can we do? Let's ask for help from above. The enemies' personnel can be constantly replenished, but we'll only lose more people as we fight…" A young man beside him complained with a grimace.
"If we keep fighting like this, it'll be too late once all our apostles die, weakening our own powers."
"That's right. We should've requested their assistance a long time ago…"
The gods in attendance discussed amongst themselves, but the consensus was basically the same—to invite high-ranking gods to help out by ambushing enemy Star Rulers.
After all, if they used their apostles to fight enemy Void Cutters, they might be able to handle it for a short while, but losing too many apostles would inevitably weaken their own powers.
Apostles themselves were the most devout believers and would receive a small portion of the god's divine power, so every apostle's death was a major loss.
Wayne listened to the crowd's arguments in silence, at a loss on what to say for a while.
Even the people here had lost their confidence and were only thinking of asking the high-ranking gods to intervene, so one could see just how bad the situation had gotten.
But Wayne knew perfectly well what caused this. There were two reasons—one was Claudia's death not long ago, making the higher-level gods fearful of stepping foot onto the frontlines.
The other reason was even simpler. Wayne glanced down at the intelligence report on the table. Of the four gods that fell yesterday, three had once again died at the hands of "Ghost".
"That damned 'Ghost'…"
……
In the gap between the two worlds, the sixteenth spatial jump point.
A tidal wave of armies from the Myriad Heavens continuously surged in, attempting to capture this place in one fell swoop.
Spatial jump points were the best places to enter larger worlds. Crossing the dimensional barrier from here can minimize risk of injuries, so it was a location the two sides would inevitably fight over.
After all, there wasn't much need to worry about spatial jump points when only a few people were sneaking through, but they couldn't just pick a random location when trying to move a large army.
The strengths of individual members of the mortal army were insufficient, so if they didn't go through the jump point, the casualties incurred during the trip alone would be astronomical.
"Shameless invaders! In the name of His Majesty Tarak, I will drive out all evil!"
A blond girl in full armor floated in the air. The towering shield in her hands glowed with golden light, shielding the gods' side from hundreds of enemy troops at once while attacks from her forces were able to travel through the golden light freely, inflicting a large number of kills.
Julie was an apostle of Shield God Tarak and had been dispatched to the sixteenth spatial jump point to defend against the evil invaders' attacks.
As a genius who managed to step into the threshold of Legend Rank at the young age of nineteen, Julie had every right to be proud of herself, and she was confident that any evil would be destroyed under the holy light.
However, only after she came to the frontlines did Julie realize that the world was a harsh place.
The enemy was not only evil and cunning, but also far more powerful than she imagined! One by one, powerful Legend Rank enemies as strong as herself—or even stronger—rushed at her, as if they didn't care about their lives at all.
How could she know that these "mass-produced" Void Cutters were originally a part of the Star Rulers' direct branch to begin with, so they naturally didn't care about their lives?
Or perhaps they already entered an agreement to risk their lives fighting for the Star Ruler with all their might for a certain length of time in exchange for the opportunity to become a Void Cutter. Otherwise, why would they be chosen to become Void Cutters?
Outside the golden shield, she saw the mortals being swiftly killed off one by one while the Legend Rank opponents temporarily dodged their attacks. In the end, they didn't manage to injure a single Legend Rank enemy.
Julie couldn't help hating herself for not learning divine arts that dealt wide-area damage so that she could exterminate these despicable invaders in one fell swoop.
When the divine power that Julie invoked was exhausted, the radiance from her shield gradually dimmed, as if endless enemies were once again surrounding her.
Julie gazed ahead in slight despair. The empty feeling from her depleted power caused her to stagger a little.
"My Lord… is this the end?"
With the last of her strength, the young girl silently mouthed the name of her god while slowly closing her eyes, waiting for death to arrive.
A faint sigh seemed to travel over from beyond the horizon, followed by endless golden light falling down, blocking and even annihilating all the invaders from the Myriad Heavens.
This time, not even the Legend Rank enemies escaped.
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"It's a god!"
"Run!"
"Our mission is complete, everyone… Ah!"
The Void Cutters from the Myriad Heavens tried to flee at practically the same time the golden light appeared, each person running faster than the next.
They knew all too well that their strategic intent was simply to force out the enemy gods, who would naturally be dealt with by Star Rulers, so what happened afterwards was no longer part of their mission.
It was also due to this kind of thinking that the number of Void Cutters who actually died from this attack wasn't as high as one would have imagined.
In fact, the powerful Legend Rank enemies who appeared to be numerous in Julie's eyes actually strictly adhered to the principle of "no more than 10 gathered at once" to ensure the God Hunt returned a "profit".
So in reality, only two Void Cutters were killed instantly by Shield God Tarak, while the rest had already fled.
The blond girl opened her eyes in shock and realized she was surrounded by boundless golden light, and the enemies around her had long since dissipated without a trace…historical
"Miracle! This is the miracle that father and the others talked about!"
Julie burst into tears. She couldn't help kneeling down on one knee and paying her respect with the most perfect salute.
However, at this very moment, the golden light filling the whole sky seemed to be stopped by something, instantly freezing and then quickly vanishing as if it had never appeared in the first place.
"This is…" Julie looked up incredulously, only to see all the golden light collapsing towards a single point.
The golden light seemed to have been devoured entirely in the blink of an eye, and that one black spot also disappeared right as the golden light dissipated.
Julie's heart suddenly felt empty, as if something had disappeared, almost as if her faith suddenly had no place to go…
This young believer hadn't experienced a collapse of faith yet, or else she would've immediately realized that she could no longer mobilize her divine power.
Only after this did a few figures quickly arrive, two men and one woman.
"Seriously, what awful luck! Someone stole our target again! Who the hell is this rude? I only managed to lure this god out after losing a Void Cutter!" An old man with a gloomy aura wrapped entirely in a black robe cursed.
According to the unspoken rules in the Myriad Heavens, the Godhead naturally belonged to the person whose subordinates lured out that god.
No matter the circumstances, "kill stealing" was always despised.
"Old Yin, stop complaining." The woman next to him also said angrily, "I also lost a Void Cutter, and three more got injured. Who can I ask to compensate me for this loss?"
The other man beside them didn't lose any Void Cutters, so his mood was slightly better in comparison, and he couldn't help chuckling. "You two… In the past, the loss of a Void Cutter would've been enough to make you heartbroken for twenty years, right?"
The other two glared at him, though neither ultimately responded.
Because the man wasn't wrong. In the past, if weak Star Rulers like them who just entered this realm could recruit even a single Void Cutter, they would be raising the Void Cutter like a precious treasure. How would they dare send Void Cutters to the battlefield?
It was only after they got the Godhead Cultivation Method that they dared to be so extravagant.
"Forget it!" The ghostly old man waved his hand. "Let's hurry up and withdraw, lest we lure the high-ranked gods over."
The other two naturally had no objections, but it was the woman who spoke again after some thought, "Wait, check if the Godhead is still there. I heard from a friend that a 'Ghost' has been frequenting the battlefield recently and only hunts gods without taking their Godheads…"
Old Yin couldn't help snorting disdainfully. "Such a person actually exists? To just hunt gods without taking their Godheads—is this Ghost some sort of altruist?"
But he didn't move at all, clearly utterly unconvinced. The man next to him didn't really believe it either, but since his companion had spoken, it didn't hurt to take a look.
He cut open Tarak's corpse with a wave of his hand, then revealed an incredulous expression.
"The Godhead really exists!"
Old Yin turned his head violently, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets as he stared blankly at the Godhead that shimmered with golden light on the Shield God's corpse.
The woman on the side was equally incredulous, muttering under her breath, "Ghost really exists…"
……
Gu Nan's figure reformed near the vicinity of the sixteenth spatial jump point, a slightly unfathomable smile on his face.
Shield God Tarak was only a Tier 7 god and was taken by surprise, so of course Tarak died on contact with Gu Nan, unable to resist in any way.
"That's the third one today. Time to call it a day," Gu Nan looked at his Evil Value and leisurely said to himself.
After days of nonstop hunting, his Evil Value already reached 39,000. The results were even more lucrative than hunting a Tier 9 god.
And the number of gods who died at his hands during this period already exceeded ten, all of whom were low-ranked gods.
In order to ensure he didn't draw attention to himself, Gu Nan set a rule for himself—he would not strike more than three times a day. As long as his kills weren't too frequent, they wouldn't be noticed for the time being.
As for leaving behind the Godhead, that was also a deliberate decision on Gu Nan's part.
Compared to a "kill steal", it was always easier for a "pleasant surprise" to remain hidden and not spread too quickly.
Star Rulers weren't stupid. Who knows whether "Ghost" will still strike again once everyone knows about him? Even if they bet on that luck, they still wouldn't wantonly publicize the existence of "Ghost".
……
After killing the Shield God, Gu Nan returned to Heavenly Province World.
If Fairhaven was the frontline command center for the World of Gods, then Heavenly Province World would undoubtedly hold a similar position for the Myriad Heavens.
Although Heavenly Province World wasn't too large, a considerable number of powerful people were already gathered here from the start, and its location was also quite crucial, so this plane was undoubtedly favored by Star Rulers.
So much so that Star Rulers had created places of mutual information and item exchange in Heavenly Province World.
Gu Nan's figure slowly appeared, walking into a dimly lit underground bar. He didn't show his face and was wrapped in a pitch-black cloak, making his identity impossible to discern.
A bartender came forward and was about to greet Gu Nan and ask for an order, but after seeing this attire, his expression suddenly changed, and he respectfully said, "Lord Black Robe, are you going 'downstairs' this time as well?"
"Yeah, open the door," Gu Nan nodded and replied indifferently.
The bartender turned around in response and led Gu Nan to a wall. He reached out and gave it a gentle push, and the wall actually flipped over violently along with the ground, sending him and Gu Nan to the other side.
On this side, there happened to be a woman already in front of them. When she saw the visitor behind her, she couldn't help greeting with a smile, "Black Robe? It's been a long time since you've been here."
Gu Nan glanced at her. This person was a weak Star Ruler he met previously, so he smiled and replied, "Just taking a look."
There were several similar Star Ruler gathering places in this plane, and Gu Nan was rotating through them.
Gu Nan's attitude was very cold, but the woman didn't mind and continued, "Someone's auctioning off a Tier 7 Godhead today, are you interested?"
"Selling even a Tier 7 Godhead? They must be very rich already!" Gu Nan didn't answer her directly and casually remarked.
"Eh, he just picked it up. It's not like he can use it anytime soon." The woman shrugged. "What a lucky fellow! The legend of the Ghost of the battlefield is actually true… Even the God of Giantwood lost his life at Ghost's hands."
Gu Nan's footsteps stilled, his gaze turning serious.
He didn't kill the God of Giantwood.
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The female Star Ruler in front of Gu Nan was Hua Zhenxiu, a person who entered this realm some time ago but never found a suitable astral world yet.historical
Such Star Rulers weren't uncommon at all—or rather, people at Hua Zhenxiu's stage made up the largest portion of Star Rulers.
Finding an astral world required luck. Even if they had enough resources and power, finding a suitable astral world still wasn't a simple matter.
The lucky bastard from Hua Zhenxiu's story who picked up a Tier 7 Godhead on the battlefield from Ghost was another Star Ruler called Ren Fu.
Ren Fu and Hua Zhenxiu were of the same generation. The two did have contact before, but they didn't have friendly relations and even had a slight rivalry.
However, Ren Fu later found a suitable astral world for himself before she did and named it "Grand Mission World", a reference to the phrase "a grand mission will descend upon the skilled", and now he was already the ruler of a plane.
"Ren Fu?" Gu Nan stroked his chin and nodded to indicate that he knew.
Hua Zhenxiu smiled in satisfaction and said, "Then I'll go in first."
Frankly, this woman deliberately mentioned Ren Fu to Gu Nan as both a probe to sound out more information and a casual move to see if she could find some trouble for Ren Fu.
If something later happened to Ren Fu, then she would get to vent some anger while also learning more about the mysterious Black Robe, so it wasn't a loss by any stretch of the imagination.
When Hua Zhenxiu's figure disappeared, Gu Nan followed suit and walked into the room behind the bar.
This place could definitely be called a pocket dimension. Even if Heavenly Province World was a plane with advanced technology, it was still hard to imagine someone being able to create such a vast area in a chamber hidden underground.
In fact, this wasn't a product of technology and was a pocket dimension a Star Ruler constructed with their own laws. In essence, this space didn't belong to Heavenly Province World.
Such a pocket dimension could only exist temporarily, and if the need arose, any random Star Ruler could destroy it without being trapped here.
This safety guarantee was also the reason Star Rulers were willing to gather here.
This one gathering spot was called Dark Pavilion by Star Rulers. The origin of the name was simple—the bar outside was called the Dark Night Bar, that's all.
Just as Hua Zhenxiu said, Dark Pavilion was currently holding a small auction.
This kind of auction didn't have a host to speak of. Any Star Ruler who had a nice item they wanted to sell would walk onto the stage and wait for bids from the crowd below.
Of course, this was also because the value of the auction items weren't at the point of making people go crazy. Otherwise, the Star Rulers here wouldn't mind rising up as a group to attack the seller.
As for the case with the Godhead Ren Fu planned to sell, that was because several Tier 7 gods had already fallen in the past few days, or else he wouldn't have dared to put it up for auction.
Gu Nan watched this auction with a dispassionate gaze. For one thing, he wasn't interested in what these Star Rulers were auctioning off, and for another, he also didn't have any money.
Even if something really did catch his interest, he could just memorize the buyer's identity and snatch it later. There was no need to attract other people's attention here.
Ren Fu looked like a young man, but his calm and steady demeanor made people feel that he was very reliable. At this time, he was putting the God of Giantwood's Godhead on the stage to start the auction.
Quite a few people already knew about the fact that he'd picked up a Tier 7 Godhead, and it was Ren Fu himself who had spread that. This was one of the main reasons so many Star Rulers gathered at the Dark Pavilion today.
"Gentlemen, the Tier 7 God of Giantwood's Godhead." Ren Fu placed the Godhead on the stage and said to the audience with a faint smile, "Everyone, please bid first. The buyer can come up and inspect the goods. We'll trade here; this transaction is only valid on this stage."
Which meant he would no longer acknowledge the trade after leaving the stage.
There were bound to be people who doubted the authenticity of the Godhead. Rather than arguing, it was better to make things clear— "I, Ren Fu, have nothing to prove. It's up to you guys to believe me or not. Just don't buy it if you don't believe me."
However, though he refused to argue with people, the Star Rulers below still had their own verification methods.
"Dare I ask Daoist Friend Ren where he picked up this Godhead?" A Star Ruler dressed as an old man opened his mouth to inquire about its origin.
The fall of a Tier 7 god couldn't possibly be a silent affair. There would always be someone who knew about it.
Ren Fu didn't hide anything and reported the name of a frontline plane. It was a small plane that belonged to the World of Gods, but it was obvious that not many people present knew about it. After all, it was just a relatively obscure plane.
Some people began to secretly contact their subordinates to urgently check the situation in this plane to see if any gods had fallen today.
There were also people who started bidding without another word. Perhaps they happened to be in that plane today, so they no longer had any doubts about Ren Fu's words.
But even so, the others didn't dare make a bid—who knew if the people who already started bidding were in cahoots with Ren Fu?
There was only one person who reacted in a way that surprised those who noticed him.
After Gu Nan heard the Godhead's origin, he actually turned to leave without any intention of bidding. Many Star Rulers wondered if this person had visited that plane today and knew that Ren Fu was lying.
The ones who cooperated by bidding might be in cahoots, but the one who turned and left wouldn't be an act, right?
……
In a small frontline plane in the World of Gods, Gu Nan's figure slowly appeared in a certain corner.
"Ren Fu is telling the truth." Gu Nan sensed the aura around him and quickly determined that this was indeed the place where the God of Giantwood had fallen.
The energy given off by a god's death wouldn't dissipate so easily. Though Star Rulers might not be able to utilize this, it was a beacon in Gu Nan's eyes.
It was already nighttime, yet battles were still raging in this plane. Evidently, that Great Wars didn't have any ceasefires to speak of.
"Who could it be?" Gu Nan walked through the flames of war without the slightest hint of being affected and soon arrived in a forest.
This was the place with the densest Giantwood divine power. The god had clearly fallen here. His laws—which hadn't completely dissipated even after his death—caused a forest of giant trees to grow.
Gu Nan walked through the forest of giant trees, carefully scrutinizing each and every trace of laws, trying to find a wisp of law that didn't belong to the God of Giantwood.
'Killing a god without anyone's notice means it was basically an instant kill. Not taking away the Godhead after killing him means the killer's aim isn't to cultivate Void Cutters…'
Gu Nan pondered as he walked.
It had to be said that this person's imitation of "Ghost" was very accurate, successfully imitating every distinct feature without revealing any of their own.
What was even stranger was that no trace of the killer's law was exposed—even that aspect was exactly the same as Gu Nan.
'Either the killer is also like me and killed the god directly with pure strength, or… it's a law that acts directly on the gods themselves!' Gu Nan didn't ponder for too long and directly concluded.
When comparing the two possibilities, it was clear that the latter was more likely.
"Is it a law that acts upon the psyche?" Gu Nan's gaze fell in the distance, where he saw a figure slowly approaching.
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"Black Robe?" The other party quickly revealed a look of shock when she saw Gu Nan, then exclaimed with an odd expression.
Due to his frequent trips to the major Star Ruler gathering places in Heavenly Province World, Gu Nan's identity as "Black Robe" was quite well known nowadays.
Long Jiayu, a Star Ruler who was quite famous in the weaker Star Rulers' circles, had gotten her fame from her special law, the law of true knowledge.
At its essence, the law of true knowledge was a branch of knowledge, and when it came to Long Jiayu, it could be described by another phrase: "There is always only one truth!"
To put it simply, Long Jiayu was a detective Star Ruler, and her daily activities consisted of exploring and researching certain special events to find the truth behind them.
"Are you also here to search for the Ghost of the battlefield?" Long Jiayu asked with a very friendly smile, looking at Gu Nan.
This Star Ruler was a harmless-looking young girl with short coffee-colored hair and a casual outfit, but a Star Ruler's actual age and true nature could never be discerned from their appearance.
"Mm." Gu Nan nodded. He was already here, so there was no point hiding it.
"I received a message from a friend and ran here to take a look." Long Jiayu continued, "From the looks of it, the God of Giantwood really did die here."
"It could also be Ren Fu's act." Gu Nan spoke casually, "If he was working with the God of Giantwood, they might be able to create this scene."
Long Jiayu froze for a moment before nodding. "You have a point…"
She didn't have Gu Nan's ability to tell if the God of Giantwood was dead from the aura here alone. Only looking at this forest of giant trees, it might have been the result of the god's death, but it was also true that it could've been created by the god himself.
After leading the young detective into blind guesses with a casual remark, Gu Nan didn't remain and quickly disappeared.
After he left, Long Jiayu stared at the forest of giant trees, then turned her head to glance at the spot where Gu Nan just disappeared, her lips curling into a faint smile.
……
After confirming that the God of Giantwood was dead and that it was a mystery person's handiwork, Gu Nan stopped his investigation and continued his hunt.
Of course, it could also be said that because there were too few clues, Gu Nan hadn't found a direction to investigate and could only wait for the other party to make a mistake and reveal more information.
As long as the other party planned to continue killing gods, their information would be exposed sooner or later.
If possible, Gu Nan didn't mind killing this competitor of his. After all, the other killer's existence had already seriously damaged the "hunting ecology" and would attract more attention to Ghost.
The Godhead in Ren Fu's hands was eventually bought by another Star Ruler at an enormous price. The buyer then disappeared without a trace, clearly rushing to raise as many Void Cutters as possible.
Because of Ren Fu's previous publicity, the number of people who knew about Ghost gradually increased.
Possibly due to this, Gu Nan wasn't able to find traces of the other Ghost's appearance in the following days.
He himself simply sped up his pace, slightly increasing the number of gods he harvested each day.
A little over half a month later, Gu Nan's Evil Value was approaching the 60,000 mark, and the large number of gods and Star Rulers killed left both sides a little overwhelmed. The war was beginning to enter the next stage.
The next stage naturally involved battles between higher-ranked powerhouses, and usually the winners and losers of the previous stage determined which side was on the offensive.
In terms of overall numbers, with the faster time flow and the large number of small planes, the Myriad Heavens undoubtedly had a great advantage.
However, after entering the next stage, the Myriad Heavens' high-level Star Rulers had no motivation to help in the war, so their side started to pale in comparison.
Often, a Realm Level Star Ruler finally managed to find an opening after much difficulty, only to realize there were several gods of the same level waiting on the opposite side, and in the end, they could only turn and flee.
On the contrary, Gu Nan increasingly felt like a fish back in water. No matter what level the godly ambushers were at, as long as they were taken by surprise, very few of them could dodge this bullet.
It's just that the other Ghost showed up less and less during this period, not giving Gu Nan any opportunity to catch the other party.
All the way until the war escalated to Realm Level, that other Ghost rarely showed up again and soon vanished completely.
Gu Nan didn't really care. As long as no one was "stealing business" from him, he didn't really care who was impersonating him, and it was none of his business anyway.
However, there was one thing that even Gu Nan didn't expect—the other Ghost wasn't a single person, but a group.
……
In one of the small frontline planes in the Myriad Heavens, several black-clothed people were talking.
"Those gods are also getting smarter. They're becoming harder to deal with. We almost failed this time," one of them grumbled. His face was a bit pale, evidently still injured.
Another voice picked up, "The gods showing up now are at least Tier 7. They're indeed not easy to deal with… We were only able to smoothly kill the God of Giantwood last time because it just so happened that we could counter his powers."
The injured man in black couldn't help saying, "Really makes you wonder who that real Ghost is… I heard he's still hunting gods?"
"Yes." Their leader nodded slightly. No emotion could be seen on his face.
"Tsk tsk, he's probably some bigshot. He should at least be a Heaven Level existence."
The several black-robed figures couldn't help speculating about the true identity of "Ghost", but in the end, it was their leader who interrupted them.
"Let's drop this." He gave a light cough. "The war between the two worlds is our chance. Collect as much power of faith as possible from that side so that our Cult Master can return as soon as possible!"
"We understand!" The crowd of black-robed figures responded in unison.
……
The Great War had been unfolding for nearly two and a half months. The levels of the participating gods were getting higher and higher, but the pace of the war was gradually slowing down.
Often, there would be as long as half a month of peace and quiet, then suddenly a major battle would occur, with even high-level gods and Star Rulers showing up.
Such a situation gave Gu Nan a bit of a headache, as it was less convenient for him to fish in troubled waters.
Just two days ago, he witnessed the fall of a Tier 7 god, yet even until the very end, he never made a move.
There was no other reason—it was because there were too many Star Rulers around, and it wasn't quite worth it for a mere Tier 7 god.
Well, if it had been a Tier 8 god, perhaps Gu Nan would've stolen that kill.historical
However, such an experience also made Gu Nan realize that the good old days of taking advantage of the chaos to wantonly harvest Evil Value was almost at an end.
Next, he had to gradually increase the level of his target, and instead of "killing many low-level gods for a small amount of experience", he had to start preparing for the "kill a target with enough experience to last him three years" path.
But at this very moment, a message from the Divine Kingdom appeared in front of Gu Nan.
Academic Heaven, which had been silent for a long time, finally couldn't help contacting Gu Nan once the war gradually escalated into a high-level exchange.
"It came at just the right time." Gu Nan's lips curled into a faint smile as he read the details of the target given in the message.
This target was both a stranger and an acquaintance.
Demon Lord Alfred, the flame archmage from Hell. They never met each other before, yet both had heard of each other.
Alfred was likewise one of the key members of the Heaven-God Alliance. He joined the Alliance very early on, so his name had naturally been reported to Gu Nan long ago.
The fact that Academic Heaven made him the target was undoubtedly a further test for Gu Nan.
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If Demon Lord Alfred was a god, his equivalent rank would probably be somewhere between Tiers 9 and 10, and he was also an existence that similarly possessed a Godhead.
In fact, Demon Lords had an inherent advantage over normal gods. They naturally owned large territories in Hell, and all the demons inside could be developed into their followers.
Compared to ordinary gods who had to work hard to find believers after lighting their divine fire, Demon Lords simply had it easy.
Of course, these types of Demon Lords were also Gu Nan's hunting targets. However, he would not target Demon Lords under normal circumstances.
The reason for this was simple: most Demon Lords were the type with a lot of enemies, so the locations of their hiding places were very closely guarded secrets, making it hard for even Gu Nan to easily find them.
However, he didn't mind accepting this time, as the most difficult part of the process had already been done by Academic Heaven on his behalf.
……
Inside Academic Heaven, Fang Chaoyun and his eldest disciple—Lin Huan—were also discussing Gu Nan's current mission.
"Master, do you think Gu Nan will accept this mission?" Lin Huan asked without much confidence.
This time, it was precisely after he happened to learn of Alfred's identity as a member of the Heaven-God Alliance that he purposely found this Demon Lord's hiding place and then sent the mission to Gu Nan.
Of course, this was only because Alfred really was participating in the war. Otherwise, if they did something like this, their intentions would seem too blatant and wouldn't be in line with Academic Heaven's open and straightforward style.
But if someone questioned them about this, they could just shrug it off by saying they didn't know Alfred's identity.
Fang Chaoyun put down the brush in his hand and answered after some thought, "It's hard to say. I actually hope he'll refuse."
"Alfred is an important member of the Heaven-God Alliance. If Gu Nan really goes after him, the conflict between the two sides will escalate," Lin Huan said excitedly.
Fang Chaoyun stayed silent, so Lin Huan continued, "Even if Gu Nan acts secretly and hides this matter, we'll still have a secret we can threaten him with!"
"Enough!" Fang Chaoyun rebuked with a heavy voice, "These tactics are already close to despicable. I'll let it go this time, but you must not use them again in the future!"
Lin Huan was frightened and quickly bowed to admit his mistake. Fortunately, Fang Chaoyun didn't intend to investigate further and quickly dismissed this disciple of his.
Only after leaving Fang Chaoyun's study did Lin Huan let out a sigh of relief, but he actually became more determined.
His master was a righteous man, which was why that villain Gu Nan could scheme him repeatedly. However, Lin Huan's background wasn't purely in Confucianism, so he didn't have so many scruples!
Lin Huan's thoughts were very clear. He knew that Academic Heaven's greatest enemy was the Heaven-God Alliance, especially Zi Luo Elder.
Gu Nan and the Heaven-God Alliance might not necessarily be united, so it may not be impossible to find a way to divide and conquer… It would be a delight to watch two dogs bite each other to death!
With such a thought, even Lin Huan's footsteps seemed lighter, feeling some joy from being able to plan victory from a thousand miles away.
……
Gu Nan had already returned to his Divine Kingdom by now.
His two identities of "Ghost" and "Black Robe" mainly frequented the frontlines of the war between the two worlds, so it wasn't hard for him to return to the Myriad Heavens.
The mission to hunt Demon Lord Alfred had been handed to him, but it was impossible to communicate all the details in that message, so it was necessary for Gu Nan to return to the Divine Kingdom.
Besides, Gu Nan hadn't said that he would accept this mission…
"Tell Fang Chaoyun I'll consider this matter," Gu Nan expressionlessly said to the emissary from Academic Heaven.
When he entered the Evil God Temple, Red Tail was the first to come up to Gu Nan. "My Lord, will you accept the Demon Lord mission?"
Although it was a question, there wasn't much surprise in her tone, as if she was already certain of his answer.
After all, she had long known that Gu Nan intended to invade Imperial Glory Heaven, so it didn't matter if he fell out with the Heaven-God Alliance.
"Of course I'm going to accept." Gu Nan said with a smile, "But if the order of events is different, it'll be a completely different matter…"
Red Tail stared blankly, not understanding what he meant.
"Prepare to start the Divine Kingdom War," Gu Nan calmly ordered, having no intention of elaborating further.
So Red Tail didn't ask anything else and left with a nod. The greatest strength of this old subordinate of Gu Nan's is that she knows what to ask and what not to ask.
Gu Nan glanced at his panel. After two and a half months of frenzied hunting, his Evil Value was already close to 80,000, which was getting closer and closer to the Tier 10 requirement.
One of the more interesting features in the game was that the Evil Value requirement during the Second Round wasn't a fixed value but was instead related to the player's earlier gaming history.
In other words, if a player wanted to advance to Tier 10, the system would sum up all their previous experiences, ultimately giving a specific Evil Value requirement.
Due to his constant pursuit of maximum efficiency, Gu Nan's Evil Value requirement for Tier 10 this time was around 130,000, so he roughly still needed… one and a half Tier 10 gods.
"Since Hell comes with a large swath of faith, the Evil Value from Demon Lords like Alfred should be about the same as a Tier 10 god." It wasn't like Gu Nan had never killed a Demon Lord before, so he had some experience with this.
If their locations were known, Demon Lords were indeed easy targets; the difficulty was much lower than directly looking for Tier 10 kills.
Assuming that one Alfred would give 30,000 Evil Value at most, there was still a gap of about 20,000 that needed to be filled by two Tier 9 gods…
"Two Tier 9 gods, might as well get them in one fell swoop this time!"
……
Lin Huan finally received Gu Nan's reply, and the latter's answer was undoubtedly affirmative.
"Good, good." Lin Huan couldn't help secretly sneering. He had already set the stage. As long as Gu Nan participated in Alfred's ambush, it would be hard for him to disassociate himself from this matter any longer.
And with such a weakness in hand, this information could always be used against Gu Nan. Perhaps in the future, at a critical time, this would be an extremely important chess piece!
Lin Huan didn't delay, immediately writing something down and sending it to the frontline command center.
This was an order to command four high-ranking Star Rulers to join forces to ambush a Demon Lord. Despite his own lack of strength, being able to command high-ranked Star Rulers like this gave Lin Huan the illusion of having power.
……
Zhang Xuyan of Lyrical Heaven, Ye Xing of Literature Heaven, and an old acquaintance of Gu Nan's, White Bones Realm's Daoist White Bones—these three were Gu Nan's teammates this time.
The first two were both from Academic Heaven, martial brothers in the truest sense of the word, while Daoist White Bones was a powerful Star Ruler invited by Academic Heaven at great cost to help deal with high-ranked gods.
Of course, now that the Great War between the two sides had developed to this extent, there was no longer anyone who could truly stay out of it. After all, they also had family and friends who were affected, and Daoist White Bones was no exception.
It could be said that Academic Heaven had used most of its trump cards this time in order to deal with the Demon Lord.
Putting aside these two Heaven Level Star Rulers, the next time Academic Heaven's powerhouses struck, it would probably be Fang Chaoyun himself.historical
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"Daoist Friend Gu Nan has arrived," Zhang Xuyan said with a faint smile when he saw Gu Nan's arrival.
Zhang Xuyan was a middle-aged man with a refined air, and even though his astral world was called "Lyrical", he called Gu Nan "Daoist Friend", which was a bit strange.
His junior martial brother, Ye Xing, had an aloof and detached demeanor. Let alone Gu Nan, he didn't even glance at Daoist White Bones and had been resting with his eyes closed.
When Daoist White Bones heard this, he glanced at Gu Nan with slight astonishment, obviously not expecting him to be able to participate in a hunt of this level.
Seeing that Zhang Xuyan had called out his identity, Gu Nan simply stopped hiding it and directly showed his true appearance.
However, he was already grumbling in his heart, 'Academic Heaven's people really are troublesome. I wouldn't have hidden my identity if you'd just told me earlier. Was there any need to specifically have Zhang Xuyan do this?'
After everyone greeted each other, Daoist White Bones spoke first, "The Demon Lord may change position at any time. Let's hurry up."
The remaining three naturally had no objections and immediately rushed towards the World of Gods.
It had to be said that in order to not give Gu Nan any chance to back out, Lin Huan had also put in substantial capital this time, mobilizing all the power in his hands.historical
The two Academic Heaven brothers were both Tier 9 Heaven Level Star Rulers, while the combat power of Daoist White Bones far exceeded Realm Level, and he certainly didn't fear fighting Heaven Level opponents. With the addition of Gu Nan, this lineup was indeed more than enough for one Demon Lord.
……
The frontlines were still filled with nonstop battles, only it seemed more desperate and miserable compared to two months ago.
Nowadays, with the gods intervening less and less, all too many pious believers shed their last drop of blood as they died on the battlefield, unable to receive even a tiny blessing from the gods.
This was because even their gods might lose their lives as soon as they showed themselves.
Of course, this had nothing to do with Gu Nan and the others, who swept past at top speed, heading directly for the interior of the World of Gods.
Demon Lord Alfred was a powerful figure who never personally stepped onto the battlefield yet held an astonishing influence over the war.
The Myriad Heavens replenished Void Cutters by hunting gods to obtain a constant stream of combat power. This tactic of gaining more resources through war made the gods miserable.
But it wasn't like there weren't capable people among the gods. Alfred had come up with an idea to utilize the undead resurrection technique unique to the World of Gods to transform enemies on the battlefield into undead.
To do this, a huge number of necromancers was needed, and it was obviously too late to cultivate them among humans, so demons—who were naturally born with the darkness attribute—became the best substitute.
Allowing demons to master simple necromancy spells and then running to the battlefield to become undead conversion machines—this method was extremely efficient and had already been put into use.
"Almost half of the demon necromancers on the battlefield right now came directly from Alfred's territory, and most of the others were also recommended by him," Zhang Xuyan told the three people beside him.
"Now that the technique of undead conversion has matured, killing him won't help…" Zhang Xuyan sighed again. "But at least we can vent a little!"
Only Star Rulers fully committed to the war like him knew just how much trouble the undead conversion secret technique had caused them.
This amiable-looking middle-aged Confucian scholar seemed to be far from calm inside.
Gu Nan wasn't interested in the frontal battlefield, and his gaze fell on a place behind the group. "That's Fairhaven over there, right? Is it still the frontline command center?"
Zhang Xuyan nodded. "Right now as well."
Fairhaven was still the biggest frontline plane, and it was also the largest gathering place for the highest-ranked gods nowadays.
Gu Nan suggested with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, "Do you guys want to stop there for a stroll once we kill Alfred?"
The three present were all high-ranking Star Rulers and immediately understood what he meant. All of them stared at Gu Nan like they'd seen a ghost.
Only after a long time did Zhang Xuyan force a smile onto his face. "Daoist Friend Gu must be joking. There are at least three Tier 9 and one Tier 10 god in Fairhaven… After we complete our mission, it's better to retreat as soon as possible."
Now that the war was escalating, Fairhaven was naturally heavily guarded as well, truly becoming the gates of hell.
Gu Nan, however, only nodded slightly without saying anything else, so the group didn't know what exactly he was thinking.
……
On the 89th Floor of Hell, Alfred shook hands amicably with the Demon Lord of this floor as they signed a demon supply treaty.
Nowadays, he had become the spokesperson of the entire Hell, recommending demons from Hell to the frontlines and exchanging them for other resources from the gods.
For the Demon Lords, sending away some arrogant, disobedient demons in exchange for precious resources to develop their territories was definitely a great bargain that would normally be unimaginable.
In any case, those fellows would be executed if they weren't sent away, and now that they were given to the gods, how they were managed was none of these Demon Lords' business anymore.
"300 kilograms of Parasitic Inferno Stones, it's a deal!" The Demon Lord of the 89th Floor, a strange-looking female demon, said to Alfred with a dainty smile.
Alfred replied with a light smile, "As long as the demons under your command reach the intended location, the resources won't be a problem. Ma'am, this is the gods' trustworthy guarantee, not mine."
The female demon nodded in satisfaction and sent Alfred away. She knew the other party was bound to take a cut in this, but someone had to be the middleman, right?
Alfred was equally satisfied. With his silver tongue, he managed to keep the price very low this time, which meant…
Before his elation could truly end, a flash of warning violently appeared in his heart.
A high-ranked god's ability to sense danger caused Alfred to instantly activate his laws, attempting to pull himself into the void to avoid any incoming attacks.
But what he didn't anticipate was that what came immediately after was not an attack, but a method to isolate him from the world.
Two large characters—"suppress" and "seal"—appeared out of thin air, dragging Alfred into a strange space where several figures were already waiting for him.
"We must kill him quickly. Our isolation barrier won't last long in Hell," Zhang Xuyan wasn't worried about being overheard by the enemy and spoke bluntly.
But there was no need for his reminder. The group had already made their move at the first opportunity.
Ye Xing raised the brush in his hand, but he didn't bother to write anything. Instead, he directly used the brush like a sword and thrust forward.
Daoist White Bones' law enveloped the Demon Lord, as if he was instantly surrounded by boundless white bones. Countless bone spikes stabbed him from all directions.
But Alfred wasn't incompetent. He was incomparably decisive in this life-and-death crisis, actually allowing the white bones to freely stab his body while his raging demonic flames single-mindedly surged towards Ye Xing's pen.
He wanted to force open a path to survival at the cost of some injuries!
However, just as the demonic flames swept in, a shadow inexplicably appeared behind the Demon Lord, causing his entire being to fall into an icy abyss.
'How can anyone completely hide their presence in a place like this?'
'This is the power of shadows, could it be Sylvia… No! It's Gu Nan!'
The sword of shadows ran through Alfred's chest, and this Demon Lord turned around with a fierce expression, glaring coldly at Gu Nan.
"You… traitor!"
